The Vancouver Apple store in the Pacific Centre Mall opened for business this past weekend. I was in Toronto, attending the MESH conference (thanks to commandN) and couldn't make the opening day, but I was there Sunday morning.

Take a look at Anxiety, a nifty little to-do tracker for OS X. It uses the new Calendar Store in Leopard so that it keeps your to-dos in sync with iCal and Mail (and therefore also any devices you may sync with iSync). Best of all, it's free!
 

Soulver is a funky little calculator application (Mac only) that allows you to type in plain-english statements, and Soulver will figure out the necessary equations and calculate them.
 
An example from the Soulver website:
book = $12
If I sell 100 copies of my book, how much will I make?
$1200
 
Personally, I think that everyone needs basic math skills. But I can see a market for this sort of application.

This is great - Jim Benson goes to a restaurant in Beijing and finds a rather unusual item on the menu. Apparently web 2.0 culture has permeated everything and everywhere ... including the menus at chinese restaurants. That's some good branding!
 
 

Small business owners don't have much choice in the marketplace when it comes to accounting software. Here in Canada, our choices are basically Quicken QuickBooks and Simply Accounting. If only there were a free, cross-platform alternative accounting program that actually worked... well keep reading, because there is!
 

I was browsing Craigslist today and came across this post. It indicates that Apple is hiring staff for their new Apple Store in the Pacific Centre mall, downtown Vancouver. Woohoo! It's about time (assuming it's not a fake post) I live only 3 blocks away, which is both a good and a bad thing (mostly bad for my wallet).

Google Maps just got a big update and now offers traffic and terrain views. Hybrid view is gone - the Satellite view now shows roads & names by default.
 
Traffic view displays green, yellow or red segmented overlays on top of roads, indicating traffic volume. Not surprisingly, it looks like traffic updates are only available for US cities - according to Google, traffic outside my downtown Vancouver, BC apartment is non-existant.
 

One of the things that struck Natasha and I after moving to Vancouver is how little we actually drive these days. Living downtown, we can walk or take public transportation to most of our destinations. We only drive on weekends, and even then, only occasionally. Our car insurance payments have actually decreased from what we used to pay in Kamloops, and we only fill up the car once a month or so. Even better, walking is healthy and good for the environment.

OmniFocus is a great app for tracking and improving your productivity. It's currently in beta, and you can download a free copy to test/play with here. The Omnigroup is offering a special discount to beta-testers - if you pre-order before January 8, 2008 you can get OmniFocus for $39.95 as opposed to the release price of $79.95.
 

We picked up an Apple Bluetooth wireless keyboard on the weekend and I wanted to share my first impressions with you.