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You'll find the new pages here. You can still look at the archives here (we won't transfer all the old articles unless someone comes up with a really easy way for blosxom to blogger) and we'll keep the pages active. RSS is working again, too. This is the link for it, it's an Atom feed now. For everything else, head on to the new pages, please. The domain name macnews.net.tc should be changed to take you to the new pages already.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-06-01 at 03:36 CET ]
Apple seeds Mac OS X 10.4.2 8C21 The combo updater is about 43 MB in size, currently. It'll try and fix the remaining bugs from 10.4 and 10.4.1. Apart from "general" usability and reliability, the note for the seed mentions - among other things - changes/fixes in the .Mac Notification Client, Automator, AddressBook, AppleScript, CoreGraphics, Display Preferences, Finder Search files, iCal, iDisk Syncing, iWork, JavaScriptCore, Mail, AirPort networking, Printing, Safari, Spotlight. Sounds like an interesting and well-needed updated. It's expected to have a rather short development cycle and will probably arrive in Software Update in mid June at the very latest. We'll continue to inform you about it, as we get more information.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-28 at 13:16 CET ]
Okay. Spotlight has simple find-by-name search. Just add quotes to the searchterm. Apple: Shoot the people who're in charge of explaining how to work Spotlight, please. After torturing them. M'kay?
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-23 at 18:56 CET ]
- Bring back simple "find by name" in the Finder.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-23 at 13:06 CET ]
The Wall Street Journal talks about yet another rumour (or is it more?) of Apple being in talks with intel about the use of intel's chips in future Macs. While not completely impossible (Rhapsody DR1 and DR2 were running fine on intel/AMD processors at the time, and so does at least Darwin in current versions), a move to using intel processors would involve yet another transition. Cocoa applications would need a recompile (and then be either "P" for PowerPC code, "I" for intel code or "PI" for "fat" applications that run on both 'sides', just like Apple did with Rhapsody back then), but porting Carbon over could be a harder task. Still: Not completely unbelievable.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-23 at 12:46 CET ]
As we've correctly predicted, Apple has released Mac OS X 10.4.1 in mid-May. The updater is about 36 MB in size and fixes various issues people have been having with 10.4 so far. It also adds a layer of security to how Dashboard widgets are handled by Safari (we've also covered that before).
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-17 at 02:37 CET ]
So, we read today that there's more to the Dashboard security issue than we thought. Apple's still going to basically fix this in 10.4.1, though. I'd go as far as saying: Right now, Tiger users aren't very secure. This is certainly no good news for Apple. For now: Don't install any widgets, stay away from visiting strange places on the web and do _not_ open unwanted E-Mail attachments. They basically could contain a widget that installs itself as a widget that looks like one of Apple's and replaces one of Apple's but does different - and possibly very, very bad - things.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-13 at 12:06 CET ]
Apple releases DVD Player update (4.6) Apple has fixed some issues in its Tiger DVD Player software. You can read about it and download it here.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-12 at 13:44 CET ] Apple seeds Mac OS X 10.4.1 8B15 Among other fixes in this build stands out this one: "Fixed issue where user would not be prompted before downloading a widget." - So now you know how Apple's reacted on the buzz about malicious widgets already. There's a new known issue with the new build, too (Address Book to .Mac synching) - so this is not the final build just yet. We still expect Apple to release 10.4.1 early next week. The update will be around 36 MB in size and fix various things that were found in Tiger 8A428, the retail final version of Tiger.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-12 at 02:13 CET ]
I want a new preference in Spotlight's System Preference Pane. I want to be able to click on a radio button that says something like "Finder inline search by name instead of content". That would be really nice.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-11 at 10:22 CET ]
Apple, iTMS, video, iPods, slowly.
For quite a while, there's been the discussion whether Apple will ever create a video-capable iPod (or different name) player. Also, there's been the discussion whether Apple would ever sell video content similarly to how iTunes Music Store sells music.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-10 at 22:54 CET ] Ever wondered who's going to be the bad boy bringing the first real virus threat to Mac OS X? Symantec's at least trying hard, it seems. "In a statement, Symantec confirmed that there was a false alarm problem with recent anti-virus updates to its Apple Mac security software, adding that the problem has now been fixed." - Will enough false alarms weaken the Mac's position as the safe operating system? Well, whatever. Just make sure to a) deinstall any antivirus software you've installed on your Macs and b) not to install any in the future. Unless a real threat that cannot be solved _without_ antivirus software should ever pop up on the Mac, that is. And let's hope Symantec (and other "virus companies", as I call them) doesn't spend too much money to bring Mac OS X to its knees.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-10 at 15:58 CET ] Switzerland now has iTMS access. Better late than never, Apple. Thx.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-10 at 02:05 CET ] Apple seeds Mac OS X 10.4.1 8B13 Apple's just seeded build 8B13 of the first update to Tiger. The new build has _one_ known issue (printing to some Lexmark printers via USB). One of the next builds should become the final version. 10.4.1 is still expected to hit Software Update in mid-May.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-10 at 00:21 CET ] Apple has released iTunes 4.8. The update is required - according to sources - for the next wave of iTMS countries, which is expected tomorrow. The download page for iTunes 4.8 mentions (in the fine print at the bottom): "Purchases from the iTunes Music Store are available only in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States." Nice. Now if only it were tomorrow, and the list would be accurate, hopefully. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-10 at 00:11 CET ]
Malicious widgets? Don't be afraid. Be careful.
The web's abuzz with talk of how Dashboard widgets are a security risk. Worst case scenario: It's almost as bad as Windows without a firewall using an unpatched Internet Explorer. But let's get this straight, shall we...
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-09 at 13:22 CET ]
Quartz 2D Extreme in Tiger: Turn it on.
If you've read John Siracusa's extensive review on Tiger, you might have seen the part about Quartz 2D Extreme being turned off by default. It certainly helps taking a load off the CPU for the GUI, so you might want to turn it on to test it for a while. (I haven't experienced any glitches with it myself, so it stays "on" for the time being.) You can always turn it off again, should you want to.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-06 at 08:54 CET ] Apple greets Microsoft in French. No, what I mean is: Apple's released Bonjour for Windows (versions 2000 and up). This basically is a new (and renamed) version of Rendez-vous for Windows. The 14 MB download enables Windows machines to discover Bonjour (ex Rendez-vous) enabled printers (as well as printers shared by AirPort base stations or Macs running Tiger) and webservers published via Bonjour. Apple says: "Since Apple first launched Bonjour in 2002, every major maker of network printers has adopted Bonjour. With the Bonjour Printer Wizard, computers using Windows can also experience the benefits of effortlessly discovering and printing to these Bonjour printers." - What they mean, of course, is that Microsoft has somehow overslept and that Apple brings PC users easier network printing. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-06 at 01:29 CET ]
Apple seeds first build of 10.4.1
Apple has seeded a first build (8B9) of the first update to Tiger to ADC Select members, our source notes. There are several areas that improvements take place. Basically, 10.4.1 will be a "cleanup" job for Tiger 10.4, about 35 MB in size.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-05 at 14:05 CET ]
Tiger, iSync and the Nokia Communicators: Success.
Yep, it works. But ONLY in Tiger (iSync 2.0)! This tip is taken from the apps page at macosxhints.com. First, you have to remove any sign of ever pairing your Nokia Communicator 9300 or 9500 both on your Mac and your communicator. (Bluetooth preference pane on the Mac, Bluetooth settings in 'Connections' of System Settings on the communicator.) Any. All of them. Get rid of them. Cool. Close iSync. I mean it: Close iSync. Also get rid of the menubar item for iSync. For some reason it won't work with the communicator, anyway, you'll have to use the iSync.app. Also do reboot the communicator after removing the pairing(s). For some reason, it didn't work for some users (me included) if I didn't reboot the device.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-03 at 19:38 CET ] Apple today introduced the new iMac G5 with up to one 2.0 GHz G5 processor (1.8 GHz for the lower end models). Of course, Tiger is the default operating system now. The machines also sport 512 MB RAM as the default and an ATi Radeon 9600 with 128 MB VRAM. Quite certainly, the lowest-end PowerMac now looks rather weak.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-03 at 15:13 CET ]
Whenever Robbie-Boy writes an article about products by Apple, he seems to beg for flame-mail. I sure sent him one. This time, he's talking about Tiger, Windows XP 64, Longhorn and Linux. In the article he states: "Borrowing heavily from what we had seen in Longhorn (Microsoft's next version of Windows) last year, Tiger is an impressive piece of work." Ignoring, of course, the fact that Apple's been working on those features for at least 1.5 years, quite probably more.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-02 at 23:09 CET ] Apple has released the new version today. The update brings along H.264 streaming and requires at least Mac OS X 10.3.9 as well as QT7.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-02 at 18:09 CET ]
A little more than a month away, Steve Jobs will hold the keynote at WWDC 2005 on 6th of June. According to available material, the developers' conference will mostly be about developing for Tiger.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-02 at 16:15 CET ] PatchBurn 4 first alpha released If you've been waiting for a new version of PatchBurn (which installs device profiles for internal and external DVD-drives not directly supported by Apple's applications) for Tiger compatibility: A first alpha has been released. But make sure to check whether your burner isn't supported out of the box by Tiger, since it for example does support my external NEC 2500A suddenly. If you've upgraded from Panther, your old PatchBurn-generated profiles are still present and do work fine, btw. Might want to take them out in order to test Tiger with your drive directly.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-05-02 at 01:53 CET ]
Yesterday, Tiger Direct Inc. filed a lawsuit against Apple. As if they hadn't heard that Apple was going to call its new operating system "Tiger" before. MacCentral has more details about it. I guess they'll just take it back later, since this lawsuit now gives them their "nationwide" exposure they say they lack since Apple's taken over the search engines with _their_ "Tiger". Either way: Here's to the hope that Apple has to cease using the name "Tiger" and comes back to calling it Mac OS X 10.4 or even Mac OS 10.4, since the "X" moniker was always kinda confusing ("Mac O-S Ten Ten-four"? Pu-leheeze!). But my guess is that after this weekend or the next, Tiger Direct Inc. will go back to where it belongs and was before: Anonymity. Or had you heard of Tiger Direct Inc. before yesterday?
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-29 at 16:54 CET ] Downloads etc. on 10.4's day of glory
On the day of Mac OS X 10.4, Apple has released a few updates and a lot of gimmicks. You can find Java 2 SE 5.0 Release 1 here, for example, a roughly 50 MB download. Some people were expecting this in Tiger, but a download on Tiger's release day is just as good (it just wasn't finished in time). You'll also find some Dashboard widgets, Automator scripts and Spotlight plugins here on the Mac OS X downloads section at apple.com.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-29 at 13:33 CET ] Update on ArsTechnica's Tiger Review You must read it here. Even if much of John Siracusa's rather longish review is merely techno-developer-babble to you, it sheds some very interesting lights on the history of Mac OS X and more importantly on how developers and users can take profit out of some rather dramatic changes from Panther to Tiger that users only see right now as, say, "nicer search" or maybe "better support for drivers". Or not even that. Either way: Please do read it. The whole of it.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-29 at 02:00 CET ]
You can (and should) read it here. "Tiger includes updates that are at least twice as significant as any single past update."
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-28 at 23:52 CET ] Today's story about Apple being sued about the "Tiger" name reminded me of that, basically, I don't want code names to be official operating system names. What's wrong with calling 10.4 "Mac OS ten-four", anyway? And then I thought how in ye olde days, Apple jumped from 7.5 to 7.6 and then to 8, and from 8.1 to 8.5 etc. And that if Apple would've kept going with that scheme, 10.2 would've been 10.5 already, 10.3 would've been 10.6 and Tiger, erh, 10.4 would have been Mac OS 11.0. Either way: Is the name/number game really necessary? I believe it was Microsoft who started it, anyway. Windows 95, I believe. Should've been Windows 4 (bad number in China, I know...). But does Apple really need to call their OSs by their code names? I mean: We rumour-mongers always did that, even when Apple still thought of these code names as secret. We talked about Harmony (7.6), Copland (never-released System 8), Sonata (Mac OS 9), Rhapsody (Mac OS X Server pre 1.0 developer releases) and even about little updates with funny names like "buster" (Mac OS 7.5.3 Rev. 1) and "son of buster" (Mac OS 7.5.3, Rev. 2). But if Apple's doing it themselves, the fun's kinda lost. Also, since the code names now are suddenly a marketing instrument, they have to be cool - instead of being formed in the middle of the night by two extremely over-caffeined programmerboys (or -gals) who _think_ something's funny and later notice that it isn't. Either way: Here in Switzerland, the 29th of April starts in less than an hour. So let's just say: Mac OS X 10.4 is now, finally, here.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-28 at 23:04 CET ]
Yep. As widely anticipated, they just suck. *cough*. Really, I'm a bit angry with Apple. They have to know that people won't sell their 2.5 GHz machines now to get 2.7 GHz machines. If you have a PowerMac G5 now, there's just no real need to upgrade. You can get a dual layer SuperDrive at basically any PC store. I say: IBM's the new Motorola. Pity, though.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-27 at 15:46 CET ] Now's the time: Make 'em switch!
Remember my unofficial switcher's guide, where I wanted us (you and me) to go out and switch PC users to Mac users? Well: Now's the time. Let's call it a game. Tiger's out (well, 2 days to go...) and Longhorn is taking another 18 months or so. This is the window we've been looking for.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-27 at 13:01 CET ] Mac/Cowhand-A Update: Nothing to see here
As suspected, Sophos' claim of having found a new trojan for Mac OS X is a bit of hot air. Well: It's not like it doesn't exist, but according to MacBidouille, Intego (another maker of antiviral software for the Mac) knows about this "Cowfight Underhand Trojan Server" for about a year - and its VirusBarrier software can get rid of it since about that time, too. Nothing to worry about either: That trojan isn't really spreading or anything.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-27 at 03:10 CET ]
I was sceptic, I admit. But MacRumors has found the country specific images for the store on Apple's servers. Nice find.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-26 at 13:14 CET ] 2003: 2.0 GHz. 2004: 2.5 GHz. 2005: 2.7 GHz. 's that all? Ah, no, they also sport dual-layer SuperDrives. In 2006, they'll show us a 2.75 GHz PowerMac. And will say that putting a G5 into the PowerBook is "the mother of all thermal problems". But we're just kidding. The new PowerMacs (MacRumors has a few links to rumours) might incorporate a new model of the PowerPC G5. Either the 970MP - which would definitely be a wow!-factor - or the 970GX. Which would be a not-so-wow!-factor. According to the rumours, we'll know more very soon.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-26 at 09:35 CET ]
iTunes Music Store Switzerland (et al.)? It seems like a running gag to me. Everytime there's a rumoured new country for iTMS, someone claims that Switzerland will be among the countries to be included. This time, music.ch rumours a Swiss iTMS. I believe it when I've downloaded my first song from iTMS Switzerland. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-25 at 16:44 CET ] Sophos found first Trojan for Mac OS X? We're cautious sending out info on this, since previously, any kind of virus or trojan horse for Mac OS X has proven either being only a concept (not in the wild) or wrong altogether. For now: This looks like the real deal, though. Still: Mac Trojans don't auto-propagate through E-Mail like in Windows.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-25 at 15:46 CET ]
The public beta of Mac OS X invited us to "see the future of computing", Cheetah (10.0) was, well, a "cheater", really, since it brought us half of the functionality we wanted at about 25 percent of the speed we wanted. Puma (10.1) brought the features and some speed, Jaguar (10.2) was the first version of Mac OS X considered 'final' among critics, October 2003 brought Panther (10.3), which expanded on Jaguar's success and now, finally, we're at Tiger (10.4). What will Tiger bring its users? 200 new features, claims Apple. Well, they always say something like that (although it was 150 new features ever since System 7.5, I believe) - and we end up using/noticing maybe about five of the new features. The question rather is how basic (and important) said features are. Most of us could've gladly used Panther without a Brushed Metal Finder, for example. But Exposé certainly changed the way of handling windows. What's in Tiger, then?
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-25 at 12:05 CET ]
The RSS feed is currently dead for unknown reasons. Please use the website for now. :/
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-20 at 23:04 CET ] Slowly, the clouds get thinner: Mac OS X 10.3.9 update done right...
Simply put: If you're still on Mac OS X 10.3.8 because of some horrible things you've heard, you can now update. However, you have to be a bit careful. First, I'd download the combo updater. Now you've got to update any Safari hacks, should you have installed any. PitHelmet, Sogudi, AcidSearch and the like. Then, I'd reboot and login to your main administator account (if you just have one account, that's the one I'm talking about). Make sure you quit all applications that start automatically, because you've put them into your login items. Then do the update. Don't start any applications! And _right_ after Mac OS X restarts, head over to Software Update. Apple's released Security Update 2005-004 this very night. After that, you should have a fine System 10.3.9.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-20 at 03:06 CET ]
Sidenote: Great little utility Pierre Chatel's great (and free!) little 'Sidenote' displays notes (RTF formatting, of course) does a simple (and thus good) job. You can read more about it here. There are, of course, more than one solution for this kind of thing. Apple does two right now: Dashboard's stickies and Stickies.app. I like Sidenote better, though.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-18 at 16:37 CET ] Intel today released its Pentium Extreme dual core processor - and is thus claims "first desktop" dual core processor - before AMD and IBM, since Apple did not release their 970MP based PowerMac G5. ThinkSecret has "postponed" their rumour to Tiger's release now.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-18 at 15:51 CET ] If all goes well, it'll take place this Autumn. This merger will certainly create some waves. Is Adobe too strong? Will this have any effect on Adobe competing with Apple in the software market? Questions, questions. And what about FreeHand? (Yes, Adobe finally has _both_ of the old Aldus graphics packages: PageMaker AND FreeHand...) It's a direct competitor to Illustrator, so it won't make much sense to further update the application for Adobe... Read more here at geekzone and here at TheRegister. And the official announcement.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-18 at 12:29 CET ]
Apple Presentation at NAB (live coverage)
Apple demoes Tiger. H.264. iChat AV videochatting with multiple contacts.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-17 at 21:37 CET ] Mac OS X 10.3.9 Combo Updater released You can find it here at apple.com. If you had any trouble with the update through SU, I suggest you download this and update again. If you haven't updated yet but really, really want to, I also suggest using the combined updater. It seems to do a better job, although I couldn't scientifically tell you why. My real suggestion is, of course, to stay on 10.3.8 until you get your hands on a copy of Tiger.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-17 at 04:15 CET ]
The first reports are in, and it seems to be a disaster. Sure, there's the usual "no problemo" fraction, who have installed 10.3.9 through Software Update without any problems. (That's, of course, what Apple intended.) Then there's the usual "customize me" crew with their Safari plugins and haxies. Those are screaming for help right now, or if a bit more intelligent, they're turning off their plugins and haxies and run 10.3.9 just fine - albeit waiting for third party developers for updates to the system and software altering tools.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-16 at 19:41 CET ] And: Released. Mac OS X 10.3.9, final update to Panther Of course there'll still be some security updates and maybe one or two bug fixes in single applications, but Panther, as some say, is now 'final'. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-16 at 11:40 CET ] Yet another 10.3.9 build: 7W98 Apple has seeded build 7W98 to developers this Friday. One issue (some SMB clients couldn't connect to Samba, Windows file sharing) was solved from the previous seed. Apple really wants to make sure the final version of Panther is 'safe' to be released, since all development efforts will then be directed towards fixing what bugs are left in Tiger, so that 10.4.1 (expected at the end of May, early June) and 10.4.2 can be the only focus of the operating system people at Apple. 10.3.9 is expected to be released in the coming week.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-16 at 00:05 CET ]
Apple has released 3 updates through Software Update: iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD. After installing the updates on Tiger 8A425, iPhoto 5.0.2 has crashed three times on me. After that, it seemed fine. I suspect that the update was actually trying to update the catalogue in the background while I was browsing through the photo library. So: If it happens to you, too, just restart iPhoto a couple of times and it should be fine.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-15 at 02:27 CET ]
Ready for the desktop/notebook?
It's fun to read those "Linux is ready for the desktop" or "Linux is ready for the notebook" columns that occasionally (rather more often, sadly) pop up on technology news sites. I've read one just now. Terrible. (I'll come back to it in a moment.)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-12 at 20:07 CET ] Another side note to Tiger's announcement... Tiger Server will also be on the shelves on 29th of April - at the same 499/999 USD prices as with Panther. And for 10 USD, you can get a replacement CD set, if you don't like it as a DVD (or your Mac doesn't sport a DVD-ROM, Combo or SuperDrive.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-12 at 18:50 CET ]
So it's the 29th of April, when we'll see Tiger on store shelves. That'd basically mean Apple has some three days left to declare a Golden Master - should the previous rumours prove wrong and Apple hasn't done that already.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-12 at 16:00 CET ]
All widescreen 'book lineup in 2005?
Several bits of information - among those the always-good-for-some-notebook-info digitimes.com, then some Asustek info as well as another independent Asian contact - lead us to believe that Apple plans on going "all widescreen" (or at least 'more widescreen' with the PowerBook and iBook models this calendar year. The PowerBook 12" is believed to be replaced by a more comfortable 12" or 13" widescreen model, and the iBooks, sadly for some, will probably lose the small form factor of the 12" model altogether, by becoming a 14" widescreen model. There's still the chance that the current 12" model will keep its form factor as the last 4:3 model as an entrypoint.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-10 at 16:55 CET ]
Around April 1st, AppleInsider said that build 8A428 of Tiger had been declared Golden Master. While both ThinkSecret and macosxrumors.com (and a lot of others) repeat that the internal build has gone GM, this rumour can't be confirmed by our sources. AI and macosxrumors.com are also saying that Apple is continuing to internally release 8A4xx builds that might become a 10.4.1 release shortly after Tiger is released.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-08 at 12:20 CET ]
Apple seeds 8A420 Tiger Server, too And the seed notes don't make it seem like Tiger Server is as far as the client version. Some functionality is still missing, among those "Portable Home Directories".
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-06 at 20:41 CET ] Apple seeds Mac OS X 10.3.9 7W94 Again a new seed of the "now really almost final" 10.3.9, considered the final update to Panther.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-06 at 20:37 CET ]
If you're hanging on to an old, OS 9-savvy, PowerMac G4 (any model but the Cubes or the Yikes!), you can now get GigaDesign's 2.0 GHz processor upgrade card. It comes as a 1.6 GHz card but can be set to 2.0 GHz - and was tested at that speed. The Freescale 7447A processor runs its 512K level 2 cache at full processor speed. I guess you've never seen Mac OS 9 run so fast - and probably crash so fast. But with a G4 beast like that, you're good to make your switch to OS X, anyway. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-05 at 17:38 CET ] 7 things I'd want Nokia to do with the Communicator
First and foremost, I'd want Nokia to work more closely with Apple. I understand that they at some point stopped supporting the Mac themselves (although now they do a little, media-related), but it'd be both in Apple's and Nokia's interest to have iSync support with phones even before they appear on the shelves. And I really don't think it can be too hard to write a description file for a new mobile phone, as they usually use the same protocols more or less for synching.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-05 at 12:23 CET ] Why UN*X geeks do/don't switch to OS X Some interesting thoughts to be read over at daringfireball.net.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-05 at 09:49 CET ]
Adobe today (and in a previously leaked PDF a few days ago) announced their Creative Suite 2 with updated components. It will be available "by May" and you can order your upgrades (and full versions) starting now.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-04 at 13:57 CET ]
Apple seeds Mac OS X 10.3.9 7W90 It seems they _did_ find a bug in 7W87 after all. This probably means a little delay for the update to arrive in Software Update.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-01 at 12:51 CET ] Well. Usually, we'd just copy a story like "Sony wants to buy Apple" and comment it. Not today, folks. ;) ... It's a bit difficult today to scour the 'net for info on the edge. But there are newsworthy items, anyway. For example: Gmail's first birthday is today. And they're offering their users now 2 GB of E-Mail storage (although both my accounts actually show 1194 MB) plus E-Mail formatting via RTF (like Apple's Mail.app). Much better choice than HTML, I might say... AppleInsider notes that Tiger 8A428 has been chosen as the GM build last night. We can't yet confirm that, but it sounds believable enough. And then: GriffinTech has released 'AirClick', an RF-based remote control for iPods with Dock connectors. I guess I need one of those for my motorbike...
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-01 at 12:26 CET ]
Sony wants to create the iTMS for movies Sometime next year, Sony plans to bring their online movie stores to the 'net with a starting point of about 500 flix. They want to do for the movie industry "what Steve Jobs did for the music industry". Here's to the hope that Steve Jobs wants to do for the movies what Steve Jobs did for the 'tunes... Here's a link to the (German) story on heise.de.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-31 at 15:06 CET ]
Talking about iPod killers in his newest column at MacDevCenter, Kermadec points some things out very nicely. Good read. Nothing new though. There's no iPod killer. Yet. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-30 at 15:17 CET ]
Tiger FC1 has new desktop picture
8A425 sports new "Aqua Blue" and "Aqua Graphite" desktop pictures. While not a drastical change from Panther's or Jaguar's, this is yet another sign that Tiger has definitely moved into the Final Candidate phase.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-29 at 21:56 CET ] This new build is considered to be the final version of 10.3.9. With Tiger in its FC phase, 10.3.9 is also considered to be the final update to Panther. The release of 10.3.9 is imminent, although Apple could keep it under wraps until the week ends to make sure that no new bugs pop up (and should one pop up, 10.3.9's release would be postponed, of course).
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-29 at 21:44 CET ] BareBones has released version 8.1 of its successful text editing application. Among a slew of fixes and features is support for Subversion.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-29 at 21:17 CET ] Tiger 8A425: Final Candidate 1 Although still having two minor issues, 8A425 is apparently considered the first final candidate version of Tiger at Apple. Reports are in that several smaller glitches in 8A420 have been fixed by now, and the new build gets rid of the "Pre-release" badge in the "About this Mac" dialogue.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-29 at 12:36 CET ] Shortly after the last build, Apple has now seeded 8A425. More info to follow. The note to the build mentions two smaller problems, one about Japanese character search in Carbon applications and a glitch on nVidia GeForce cards.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-29 at 09:36 CET ]
When Mac OS X 10.0 arrived, I heard many OS 9 using folks say that handling OS X sucked. I told them to try and adapt, because mainly it was a matter of how 'specialised' their brains were coming from a long-years experience in classic Mac OS.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-28 at 12:29 CET ]
The combo updater is 113.3 MB in size. Sources tell us it might just be the final version.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-26 at 11:17 CET ]
PyMusique works again. For now. You'll read more about it here. But they don't seem to get the real problem. At all. Denial is their way, it seems. They claim they only want to enable linux users to buy songs from iTMS and put them on an iPod. "You still pay 0.99 USD per song...". Yeah, but does your friend if you have a track without any DRM and you can give it to him? And what if you "happen to" open your music directory to Gnutella or any other p2p network? Sure: Theoretically, a user could still oblige to Apple's and the industry's wishes by simply not sharing the tracks with anyone. The problem is: The makers of PyMusique _do_ leave the DRM out, thus enabling users of PyMusique to do more with the tracks than what the contract allows. I'm sure they'd still have answers to even that, but seriously: I'm not interested. PyMusique is a strange hack, and Apple should've never let the iTunes client write the complete DRM into the file, thus leaving the file that comes from iTMS basically DRM-less. But that doesn't make PyMusique in any way less of a threat to Apple, and I'm sure they won't simply shrug and move on now.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-25 at 14:47 CET ]
It's Mac OS X' birthday today. In 2001, Apple released Mac OS X 10.0 on March 24th. It's been quite a ride, and we've been following the development of this wonderful operating system closely. Some people expected Tiger to be released today for some time, but it's become clear that Apple wanted to finish the OS before releasing it, and "first half of 2005" still has some time.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-24 at 13:28 CET ]
Apple is getting into the Final Candidate phase.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-23 at 19:54 CET ] Apple has again seeded a build of Mac OS X 10.3.9, which is considered to be the final update to Panther. The update is now expected to be released within the next two weeks.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-23 at 16:52 CET ]
Camino has its own website now... And quite a friendly design, too. While we're not particularly fans of the mozilla-based browsers (since they're all using QuickDraw instead of Quartz for displaying text, which is simply ugly compared to what OmniWeb, Safari etc. do), we're aware that many of you prefer the speed of Firefox and/or Camino. So the site's certainly worth mentioning.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-22 at 20:24 CET ]
They claim you'll pay 10'000 USD to fill an iPod. And only 15 with Napster to go. But that's just marketing speak. And this article on cnet.com thinks so, too - although they do see the bright side. The real problem I see here is that Apple might be forced to add a subscription based model in addition to iTMS' pay-per-track model in order to stay competitive, but I feel that it's just not "very Apple".
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-22 at 01:43 CET ] PyMusique hack disabled by Apple Apple now only lets iTunes 4.7 customers use iTMS to buy songs.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-22 at 01:20 CET ]
Jon Lech Johansen, famous through his DeCSS code, and two fellow-programmers, have brought out PyMusiqe, a tool programmed in Python that, in Windows and Linux, acts like an iTunes client. Apparently, when you buy a song through iTunes, the song isn't actually DRM-restricted: It's your iTunes client that adds the protection (based on your computer/your account). PyMusique does everything iTunes does, but doesn't add the DRM code, so you end up with an unprotected AAC file on your computer. I'm sure we'll hear more about that soon. Plus Apple's reaction to it, of course. Johansen's homepage hasn't got the code or binaries yet. The source of this article is (in German) to be found here at heise.de.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-19 at 17:44 CET ]
According to several developers who have installed the recently seeded Tiger client build 8A414, Apple seems to have started 'cleaning up' the development. One source mentioned that the localisation of the installation process is now complete in at least two languages they tested (Italian and German), so we're assuming that this has been done lately in all language packs Mac OS X comes with. While Tiger still has a few big and some minor things to get rid of, it seems that Apple can finish Tiger earlier than WWDC 2005.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-19 at 17:38 CET ] Apple has seeded a new build of Mac OS X 10.3.9. This time it's the combo updater (usually, Apple only seeds updaters from the latest final OS version), weighing in at just over 106 MB. The final version is expected to be released in March or the first two weeks of April.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-19 at 01:13 CET ]
Morgan Stanley again has some nice things to say about Apple and updates the rating on Apple. Apparently, the iPod's halo effect is kicking in more quickly or simply more effectively than 'the industry' has anticipated.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-18 at 23:30 CET ]
Pages to 1.0.1 and Keynote to 2.0.1. According to the release notes, the updates fix bugs, so no features are added in this release. Both updates come in at more than 20 MB, because they're really replacements, not just patches. This probably doesn't mean that this much has changed, though.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-17 at 23:03 CET ] Tiger: Not in April (, please)... So TS and other rumour sites went ahead and posted something about Tiger in April. Early April. 1st they said. Or the 15th. Or whenever in April. But while we'd all _like_ Tiger to appear so early, the recent betas of Tiger just aren't ready for consumption yet. Sure, the UI feels polished in most places, but does not in others. Some features aren't finished yet, quite simply, and a PowerBook or iBook that wakes from sleep but hangs (a mentioned bug in 8A414) just ain't a Tiger PowerBook or iBook, is it. Development on Tiger does move forward, and 8A414 looks like a Final Candidate phase isn't very far any more, but there are too many little and big things to be fixed until a Golden Master can be declared. Too many to grant a release in April. And clearly: Where's the rush? In June 2004 at WWDC, Steve Jobs made it clear that Tiger would arrive in the "first half of 2005" rather than at the end of 2004 (as Jaguar and Panther's releases would have suggested before Apple announced a slower frequency of OS upgrades). And we all know that this could mean WWDC 2005 or even the 30th of June. And that only if Apple holds the promise of WWDC 2004. (We do remember WWDC 2003's promise of 3 GHz G5's in Summer 2004, right?) So: If Apple considers Tiger "about ready" in April, we recommend more testing. Panther fried FW drives (well, lost data on them) when it was considered final. We don't want anything bad like that happen with 10.4.0, so Apple: Take your time...
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-17 at 09:16 CET ] Apple has seeded build 8A414 of Tiger. More information later, when first installation reports drop in.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-17 at 00:30 CET ]
Google now invites 1 out of 20 visitors to google.com. Marissa Mayer, Google's director of consumer Web products, said that this is just one of more steps to the final stage of Gmail, when it'll just be "available" without the beta badge. An official launch date, however, hasn't yet been revealed, but it looks like its current beta users are more than pleased with the service, Gmail being the most "clean" webmail system offered unless you implement your own on a webserver. Gmail also allows you to use Mail.app (or another POP3 over SSL capable client).
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-16 at 15:09 CET ] With Google X, which sports a simple, Dock-like interface for the search engine. Nothing _really_ different or useful, but a nice nod in the right direction. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-16 at 14:11 CET ] IBM actually posted some information (not much, though) about "Antares", the long-rumoured processor that'll bring PowerMacs to the 3 GHz range, but more importantly will be a dual-core processor. There will also be a single core version of this (970GX, Antares SP) which will probably be used in iMacs as well as the PowerBook G5. It should be noted that IBM themselves make it clear that the 970MP will generally run hotter, and that special thermal diodes are used to continually check the temperatures. Apple is already using liquid cooling with the 2.5 GHz dual processor version of the PowerMac G5 now, but will probably have to incorporate it into all of the new PowerMac lineup come WWDC.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-16 at 13:19 CET ]
The 987th version of the two-button mouse rumour AppleInsider posts this rumour. It's about updated AirPort products, too, which we all expect in 2005. About the infamous two-button mouse rumour, though, they say that "It's unclear when the computer maker plans to introduce the mouse. Insiders warned that anticipation may continue to build for months as the company perfects the product." - And if Apple should ever (2006? 2007?) release a two-button mouse, AI will say they "told us so"? ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-15 at 23:48 CET ]
The 'real 2nd gen' PowerMac G5 is coming IBM is putting the finishing touches on the PowerPC 970GX according to sources, and Apple is preparing for a launch of the processor in both new PowerMacs and PowerBooks at WWDC 2005 in June. The chip's scalability enables Apple to deliver PowerBooks in the 1.5-2.0 GHz range and PowerMacs at up to 3.5 GHz, although Apple will probably clock the highend machine a little lower than that. According to the same sources, Apple will also put the 970GX used in the PowerBooks into a Rev. B iMac G5, which should be finalized "this Summer", too. More details should become available as WWDC nears.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-10 at 15:20 CET ] Apple has seeded build 7W77 of the next update to Panther. A few fixes have been made since 7W72. 10.3.9 is expected to be released sometime in March, although sources claim that Apple wants to spend more time on the final build since 10.3.9 is expected to be the final update to Panther. Security updates will still be released for 10.3.9 even after Tiger has been published, of course.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-03-10 at 15:15 CET ]
Apple seeds Mac OS X 10.3.9 7W72 Apple has seeded the build to ADC Select and Premier members. A lot of changes are mentioned in the seed note. Areas of testing for 10.3.9 are: Bluetooth, DVD Player, FireWire devices, Modems (internal and external), Networking, Printing, Safari, Terminal, USB devices as well as general system usability and reliability.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-26 at 11:51 CET ] Tiger 8A393 has 'Tiger' desktop picture
The Tiger fur desktop picture looks like it'd be used for marketing purposes, too, when Apple finally releases Tiger into the wild. The buglist is slowly getting smaller with each build, however there are still some important things left to do that aren't even mentioned in that list, so I guess we're still safe to say Apple won't release it "nowish". WWDC 2005 is looking like a good (and conservative) candidate, although the build quality of 8A369 may have suggested an earlier release date.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-26 at 11:31 CET ]
Apple has seeded the new build to developers. We'll have more for you soon.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-25 at 19:08 CET ]
According to sources, we'll see an all-colour overhaul to the iPod line as soon as tomorrow (although some say early next week). The new iPods and iPod minis will all sport colour screens (a feature that wasn't exactly a hit-seller with the iPod photo) and Bluetooth 2.0, although it's not quite clear yet what BT2 will be for. Synching wirelessly (and slowly)? Or transferring songs to your stereo? Or streaming songs to other iPod owners through 'Bonjour' (which obviously is the "new Rendez-vous")? We'll see soon enough.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-22 at 16:10 CET ]
For the first time in Tiger's development, Apple has added a few new desktop pictures with this build. The 'Black & White' folder contains some nice, blurry photographs, 'Plants' has some closeups of flowers etc.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-19 at 01:11 CET ]
Apple has provided ADC Select and Premier members with Tiger build 8A385 now. We'll report soon.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-18 at 21:26 CET ] The unofficial switcher's guide
And I mean for Mac people who switch (or rather convert) Windows people. It's rather simple. Goes like this.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-18 at 13:10 CET ] Walter Mossberg gets it, then doesn't, then gets it...
Over the years, Mr. Mossberg has been a little flip-floppy about whether the Mac is a viable solution for people who dislike Windows or not. He now states in a new column that it is - but not for everyone. That's okay. We can live with that. Mainly, because it's right. But he still misunderstands some of the myths out there. The first one he bloody mentions is that the Mac uses a one-button mouse. Ah! Shuddup, already. People usually have two or three USB mice with more than one button at home, already, when they're switching to the Mac. So tell them they can actually use them instead of pointing out that the new Mac will come with a one-button one (which isn't even true with the Mac mini, which most current switchers would buy, and it's also only half-true with notebooks, where you might want to connect a third party mouse, anyway). Then he goes on to tell that you probably need to buy MS Office. That's cool, because most Windows-switchers probably actually use Word and Excel. Some even do PowerPoint. But he totally forgets that you also get VPC with the Professional version (at 80 USD more than the standard version) and instead later does name VPC as a needed software and prices it at 240 USD. Hey! Stupid? I mean: Sure you can go out, buy a Mac, then Office standard and then VPC separately, but that really is stupid. Instead, advise people to get the professional package, even if they think they might not ever want to use VPC. 80 USD is quite cheap for professional emulation software WITH a license of Windows XP, isn't it?
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-18 at 12:46 CET ]
The main 'theme' of WWDC 2005 (June 6-10) will be on how developers can make use of Tiger's advanced possibilities. To me, that sounds like this will be the first WWDC in recent years that won't bring news about the next version of the operating system. Rather, it sounds like the 6th of June could actually be the release date for Tiger.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-16 at 16:48 CET ] Interesting things happening.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-16 at 12:46 CET ]
Nokia goes to bed with the enemy...
... and partners with Microsoft for mobile music. So Apple has Motorola as a partner. Apart from the fact that Motorola isn't exactly the leader in mobile phones (Nokia is at about 30 percent market share - and SonyEricsson, LG and Samsung look like better second choices than Motorola from a worldwide market view), it seems to me that Apple shouldn't have chosen one player in the first place. They should've offered access to the iTMS to any mobile phone maker out there. Or at least all the big ones. Nokia first, of course. Because after all: If online music on the mobile phone ever takes off big-time, neither Apple or Microsoft are going to be leader. Nokia is going to be. Simply because it provides the world with the most handsets.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-15 at 10:52 CET ]
MacRumors lists macosxrumors.com reporting the build. According to our own sources, connect.apple.com is currently down. Update: Site's back up and according to our sources, they don't see a new build - although other people with different seed access privileges could have access to the build. Oh and yeah: Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. :)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-14 at 18:14 CET ]
German speaking group aims to bring OOo to Cocoa Seeing how the download numbers for the latest version of OpenOffice.org on the Mac (using X11) has more than doubled from the last one, a German speaking interest group has decided to definitely bring OOo to Cocoa on Mac OS X. If and when a first version of the Cocoa-build will appear on the 'net remains to be seen, although the new initiative certainly gives some hope.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-11 at 17:06 CET ] Google takes over the world, part II A while ago, I mused over how Google - smiling all the time, waving at everyone - slowly creeps up to be the master of the universe, or at least planet Earth. Or the 'net, to be more specific. Now, Google offers Wikipedia its 'help' (link in German). Sure, they offer to do it without placing GoogleAds on Wikipedia (which has a bit of a problem since it's so successful and depends on about 30 servers which can't really take all the load), but Wikipedia, which has thought about putting ads on its pages, might just fall for GoogleAds, anyway, since not only does that generate some money (and the more if you're more successful, of course), GoogleAds are also much less obstrusive than other ad systems with ugly banners. It's all give and take, isn't it. But let's just sum things up here: Google is where people search for information, Google wants to sum up the news for you, Google wants you to handle all your E-Mails with their good (and it _is_ good, after all) system, Google watches TV for you, too - and now Google wants to be in the most successful online encyclopedia. "Don't be evil," they might say, but the path to hell is plated with Golden Retrievers, or something similar, rings in my head... ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-11 at 14:16 CET ]
TheRegister says that mobile phone users switch carriers rather than phone numbers to avoid mobile spam. (SMS and MMS.) How's that work? Sure, I'll switch providers if that's any use, but if a spammer has my number, how's switching providers and _keeping_ my number going to save me? Gladly, SMS and MMS still cost money, whereas E-Mails don't. So I guess we won't see mobile spam as much as a problem as E-Mail spam.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-10 at 18:41 CET ] Mac OS X 10.3.8 Combo Updater available You can get it from this page. The ~100 MB download will let you update any version from 10.3.0 on upwards directly to 10.3.8, including all security updates up until now. If you're ever going to reinstall your Mac, you'll be faster using this than updating your machine through Software Update to the current version.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-10 at 16:42 CET ] A bit earlier than anticipated, Apple has released Mac OS X 10.3.8. After 7U15, Apple has only changed some minor localisation issues, according to developers. The software download is variable in size, depending on the status of your machine. 27.7 MB for 10.3.7 systems with all the latest updates, bigger if you're still on 10.3.6 or earlier.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-10 at 02:27 CET ]
Just a short note to make you feel good about using a Mac during the day (as if you needed it...): Have you ever noticed how Windows XP tells the user that a network cable was disconnected? Funny thing (or rather annoying thing, actually) is: Half of the time you already know, because it was you who disconnected it in the first place, but the other half of the time, the cable wasn't actually disconnected, it just means that you're now about to troubleshoot Windows XP's networking (or let somebody else do it instead). Cheer up, chances are you're using a Mac. And that's a good thing.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-09 at 16:30 CET ]
First of all: Pages 1.0 is what AppleWorks wordprocessing users have wanted for years. A modern wordprocessing application that uses Mac OS X' editing capabilities and font rendering. It also has great linking to iLife '05 (and '04 for those who don't want to upgrade that, too). If you intend to create beautiful documents with pictures and artwork easily, Pages is for you (and Word is not). But Pages will only take you so far (just like AppleWorks did). You won't create the really good brochures with it, you'll want to check out Adobe InDesign for that. And you won't use it professionally as a word processor either, you'll go to Microsoft Office 2004 for that.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-09 at 12:51 CET ]
Okay, Steve. I hear the iPods (all of them except the photo) are doing insanely well, filling Apple's pockets. The Mac mini, I hear, is a success, too - and people are (as you hoped for) buying iBooks, iMacs and eMacs, too, although they first came to buy a mini. The plan of getting behind Microsoft's with iWork slowly is also working, it seems. Sure, Pages is not a word competitor per se, just like Keynote isn't a direct PowerPoint competitor, but this way Microsoft still provides for the 'real' Office package, while you can go about style etc. What the world domination plan needs now, though, is a PowerMac. Yep, a real one. Not those lackluster 2x2.5 type of machines you got there. Real powerhouses that make me scream "And what about the portables?" again. You know: They have to be so good, everybody wants them. Just like the G5 when it first came out.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-09 at 10:51 CET ]
IBM and Sony (and Toshiba) today officially announced the Cell processor, a dual-core processor somewhere inbetween the POWER5 and the G5 processor, roughly ten times as powerful as what's used in today's entertainment market according to IBM. It's made it up to 4.6 GHz in test labs but will be produced at up to 4 GHz. Whether this chip will at any point in time make it into Macintosh hardware is not currently known. However it seems clear that if IBM can make PowerPC dual core chips (and with intel announcing dual core chips for the desktop coming soon) for the entertainment market, Apple's gonna want one, too.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-07 at 23:07 CET ]
Developers around the world had quite a blast with the new Tiger build, it seems. 8A369 seems to be the first beta-quality build of Mac OS X 10.4, although there are still a lot of areas, where work is needed. Some mentioned non-working (or "not everytime working") clipboards, others mentioned StuffIt Deluxe causing the Finder to restart. Other third party applications not behaving well, too. But these will either be fixed by the third party developers or Apple - in the time until Tiger's release, which is still a few weeks (at least!) away.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-07 at 18:29 CET ] Tomorrow (Tuesday), the EU says it's the "safer internet day". Currently, users around the 'net wonder whether that means that no IP-packets of computers running an operating system made by Microsoft will be routed by 'the internet'. Others muse that "the safer internet" is also known as 127.0.0.1 if the computer is virus-free (or again, simply a Mac).
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-07 at 18:14 CET ]
The problem, it seems, is not bugs in the browser software. Rather it's the concept behind newer domain name schemes that allow international characters like ä or é in domain names.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-07 at 17:49 CET ] DNS spoofing issue in many browsers
According to this article at shmoo.com, you can trick almost any browser (except for IE on Windows, *cough*?!) into displaying false URLs etc. There's a proof of concept available (click on the first paypal link on that page to see) that doesn't do any harm (displays 'meow' as text, whereas the URL shown in the browser lets you think you're on paypal.com). This spoof works on Mac OS X on every newer browser. Older browsers can't find the server, since it involves newer naming schemes.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-07 at 16:48 CET ]
A few words on Tiger 8A369 and Tiger's development
Asking my "usual suspects" about the new Tiger build, they all say about the same thing: "First usable build." (Although at least one source has actually used 8A351 and 8A351B as main system build for a few days.) 8A369 feels better overall and more stable in details, too. It's also the first widely seeded build to not only include localisations, but also complete localisations. This is usually a sign that the feature set of the operating system is complete, i.e. we're now definitely in the beta phase of Tiger.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-05 at 03:34 CET ]
Apple seeds Tiger 8A369 (Server & client) Shortly after 10.3.8 7U15, the new Tiger builds also appeared on ADC's servers.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-04 at 23:03 CET ] Apple has seeded the 26.7 MB update seed to ADC Select and Premier developers and says it has again fixed some audio issues between builds. The update to 10.3.8 is expected to be released in February now.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-04 at 19:18 CET ]
'Synching' incompatible phones I've talked about Apple's iSync not supporting newer phones a while ago (and again and again). Apple's just slow in this aspect, you know. Quite unable to keep up with the pace of mobile phone makers, it seems. But there's a solution, although it's not quite as comfortable as iSync. Still: A good one. It's called mobical.net. Chances are, if you can't use iSync with your smartphone (or even just mobile phone), you can still use a SyncML server. The service at mobical.net does that. You get an account there and initialise the sync from the phone. You can then check your calendar and contact information on the web, too. You can even export and import from and to iCal and Address Book - but not automatically. But for people who want to use a Nokia Communicator 9500, it's a great, great service. Because instead of typing all those calendar items and contacts into your phone at first, you can simply import them this way. Cleanly. And you can still "synch" to iCal and Address Book at later times, although you'd probably only do so once a month or every two weeks, since it involves importing and exporting files on the web, on your computer and on your mobile phone. Great looking site, good service and right now it's still free. (Get an account before they go to version 3 from version 2, because the free version will be limited soon...)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-03 at 12:43 CET ]
There are a lot of people who don't grasp what irony means. But this is not about that problem. This is about this article on the Mac mini. Either the article is a fake to make fun of Windows users or the writer's really that dumb. And if so, he says as a conclusion about the mini: "So is the mini a maxi value? For me, clearly, no. When I consider that a good deal of my time is spent running applications like Disk Defragmenter, Scandisk, Norton AV, Windows Update and Ad-Aware - none of which are available for the Mac platform - it doesn't make sense for me to "switch" to a Mac at this time."
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-03 at 11:34 CET ] It's available through Software Update. The iPhoto 5.0.1 update corrects problems involving upgrading iPhoto 4 libraries, according to Apple, and also addresses issues dragging albums into folders, importing MPEG-4 movies and includes a number of other minor fixes.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-03 at 03:02 CET ]
Heretic question: Why's 17" the thinnest? Doesn't make much sense to me. In my opinion, hardware-stability wise the 12" should be the easiest to make thin. However: It's the other way round with Apple. The 17" is the thinnest PowerBook, the 15" is the middle one and the 12" is the thickest. In absolute numbers and even more so when compared to their widths. Couldn't they all be as thin as the 17"?
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-01 at 03:50 CET ]
New PowerBooks - as predicted. Apple has released the new PowerBooks now. Go to their website for details, but as anticipated by our article here, the new PowerBooks come from 1.5 to 1.67 GHz. Sadly, the graphics card rumours were apparently wrong and the PBs use the same old cards as in the last round of PowerBooks, although the 17" model comes with Dual-Link DVI (for the 30" display). This can be added BTO to the 15" model. The optional 100 GB drive is nice - as are Bluetooth 2.0 and the new TrackPad that you can use scroll-wheel like when dragging with two fingers. Also new: Sudden motion sensor, that secures your harddrive. A _slight_ change, btw.: The lower-spec 15" model (1.5 GHz) has the enlightened keyboard now, too. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-31 at 15:44 CET ] Just imagine. (I know, I know, not everybody wants a subnote, but I do...) A PowerBook called "PowerBook mini".
No optical drive, of course. In order to install software, you can either hook up a FW optical drive or attach the PowerBook mini to another Mac through "target mode" as an external harddrive. The whole thing should cost no more than an iBook 12", I think.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-31 at 12:38 CET ]
Looking for a Mac mini? Really?
Get an iBook instead. It's the same hardware, and for only about double the price, it gives you a) an integrated AirPort Extreme card, b) mobility and c) a nice TFT screen at 1024*768 as well as a keyboard and 'mouse' (well, a trackpad). Other than that, the hardware's really the same. And with the famous iBook monitor hack, you can even hook up a second display, although through a VGA connection only.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-30 at 16:03 CET ]
Apple sells the iPod Photo 60 GB for 899 Swiss Francs through their online store. Mediamarkt has them, too, in Switzerland. For 999. I don't get it. Does Mediamarkt want to let people think the iPod's more expensive than it is? Or does Mediamarkt want to make more money off the iPod hype? Either way, it's strange...
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-29 at 20:27 CET ]
TheRegister notes that some image link refers to a G5 PowerBook. However, it does look a lot like a typo - and adding such a link to an old page (when it'd be replaced with a whole new page, anyway, at a product change) wouldn't make much sense. Typo? Yes, we think so.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-29 at 10:42 CET ]
At least according to this WIRED article. Quote: "The iPod, for example, isn't just an MP3 player. It's an extension of the memory: storing the soundtrack of a lifetime, as well as names, addresses, calendars and notes." And even more importantly: "Giesler notes that users give their iPods names, and carry them close to their bodies - the vibrations of the hard drive makes the device feel alive."
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-28 at 13:29 CET ]
Apple's Security Update 2005-001 Guess they'll number it that way from now on. ;) You can read about it here, and get it - of course - through Software Update.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-26 at 03:21 CET ]
Anandtech's second Mac article... ... from a PC Power User's Perspective. Quite longish again, but well written and nicely pro PowerBooks. ;) Go read it here...
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-25 at 06:43 CET ] The 25.1 MB package has been seeded to ADC Select and Premier members. For this build, devs are asked to look after Graphics and OpenGL intensive apps especially games and general system reliability. This build has a kernel fix concerning audio.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-25 at 05:25 CET ] Lismore Systems announces that they're going to release Guest PC in February. Seeing how VirtualPC (now by Microsoft) does a 'good' job on Apple's hardware, I think they must have something better - or wouldn't bother to try and compete at all. We'll sure look into it as soon as more information on this piece of emulation software becomes available.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-25 at 04:40 CET ]
Apple: Leave Cmd-Space ALONE, already! Edit: Nevermind, you can disable the keyboard shortcuts for Spotlight in Tiger 8A351 in System Preferences. ;) (Apple devs: Put a sticky on your displays that tells you NEVER to steal Cmd-Space from Adobe's applications' zoom function again...)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-22 at 02:59 CET ]
Another build for Tiger, and Tiger Server as well (also 8A351). There are a few known issues with this build concerning, among other things, SMB copying. But overall, Apple seems to have put a lot of work into the builds since 323A. More to follow...
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-21 at 23:23 CET ] Sources suggest that Apple will release another PowerBook G4 round in the next two weeks. The notebooks will only up the tech specs to 1.67 GHz max and will incorporate the just announced ATi Mobility Radeon X700. Bigger harddrives are also mentioned. We'll probably see the 12" model at 1.5 GHz, the 15" at 1.5 and 1.67 and the 17" at 1.67 GHz until the PowerBook G5 takes over in Summer (or "late Summer").
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-21 at 14:43 CET ] Update on Mac mini: AppleWorks The Mac mini does indeed come with office software: AppleWorks 6.x is included. I guess they want users to buy iWork. And I also guess people will. :)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-21 at 03:34 CET ]
I've read this article and others that try and compare the Mac mini to cheapo PCs. Well, I think that I'm better suited to do this than a lot of those PC-heads. Because I'm a PC-head, too - but I also am a Mac user.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-19 at 20:02 CET ] PowerBooks and eMac (SuperDrive version) have been called end-of-life'd by MacBidouille. Both a new PowerBook and a G5 eMac have been rumoured to be announced at MWSF or the month after - here on our site.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-19 at 16:48 CET ]
You can read about a company's efforts to create voice controlled music players at TheRegister. However: I think different. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-19 at 15:00 CET ]
The official pages at Apple are online.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-18 at 21:07 CET ] Apple has seeded the second build of 10.3.8 to developers. According to our source, this build further improves graphics drivers and OpenGL performance, Active Directory and certain applications' launch speed. Also a focus of 10.3.8: Another performance issue with LDAP (DNS) lookups.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-18 at 11:42 CET ]
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-18 at 04:00 CET ] It'll start at the end of January 2005. MacRumors has a copy of a screenshot that shows Apple was preparing pages for the promotion.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-18 at 03:30 CET ]
Microsoft is good. (*cough...*) Yeah, I can hear you rumble. But think of it: MS has spent the past two or three years helping Apple. They've let viri and worms take over the desktops and notebooks running Windows XP. They've made it harder than ever to actually use their OS, since it now takes even activation to get to a working system. But they didn't stop there! They admitted there's a spyware problem (a big one) with Windows by putting out an anti-spyware software now. And they don't even stop there and have postponed Longhorn over and over again.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-17 at 13:04 CET ] WIRED has a story about an Austrian Mac user who leaves his PowerBook at home and uses it from cafés and other places via VNC over WiFi on his PocketPC, which has a 640*480 screen. While I'd rather see Apple do a real subnotebook once again (we've got the cheap Mac now, now we're pushing other stuff, right?), I think it's a nice story. Not that _I_ would consider working like that, really - although I sure hope there'll be a VNC client for my Nokia Communicator one day... ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-17 at 12:09 CET ]
Agile Messenger for Nokia 9500/9300
'Sometime in January 2005', they state on their downloads page for the great (and free!) multi-messenger application Agile Messenger, which I once dubbed 'iChat for your mobile phone'.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-16 at 11:59 CET ]
iBook & PowerBook G5 in Q2/2005? You can see here at digitimes.com that both an iBook and a PowerBook G5 are expected in quarter two of 2005.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-14 at 14:00 CET ]
In this article about MacWorld in general, iPod and Mac mini, WIRED's Leander Kahney says that while the iPod shuffle is clearly a success, there are voices about the Mac mini which put it down as 'another Cube', which was a 'huge mistake'. I think Leander (or the cited MacWorld visitor) is wrong here, since... Let's just think for a moment what was bad about the Cube, shall we?
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-13 at 12:25 CET ] You'll find it here. Shows you the new look of Tiger, which has obviously changed again. The menubar still has the new look, but the Apple logo and Spotlight logo are different.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-13 at 03:18 CET ]
Although the update doesn't bring anything new but iPod Shuffle support, it's probably still worth downloading. ;) Software Update has it at 8.6 MB size.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-12 at 02:22 CET ] Editorial: Next - the world...
Rumour sites around the world: We should all pat ourselves on the shoulders. We've asked Apple for a long time to create the Mac mini, although we'd have been pleased with an uglier box, even. ;) But Apple's got it right, and it wouldn't be Apple if the new Mac wasn't right on target but also incredibly sexy, so you'll just have to have one.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-12 at 01:40 CET ] "BBEdit Light II" - TextWrangler BareBones Software has released TextWrangler 2.0, and it's free. There's a nice article on MacDevCenter about it, and if you were ever keen on BBEdit but didn't have the money right then and there, give this new "BBEdit Light" a chance, although BB doesn't like it when you call it that. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-12 at 01:21 CET ]
Now to what was wrong...
All in all, we'd say this was one good keynote. Sure, the Mac mini probably had all the spotlight, but it's got all the rights to that, too, we think. The Mac mini will sell a lot to switchers - but also as 'secondary Macs' or 'home entertainment Macs' to previous Mac owners. Here's to the hope that it won't be sold out the day it hits the market (22nd January in the US, 29th January for the rest of the world).
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-11 at 21:41 CET ] MacWorld San Francisco Keynote (Live) Time to go...
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-11 at 20:02 CET ]
We're going to go into 'text-mode' for the time of the keynote and will, of course, keep you informed.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-11 at 11:00 CET ]
You'll find, among many other things, Longhorn on 3rd: "Obviously, Microsoft won't be able to finish the code until it's had a peek at Apple's forthcoming Tiger." Of course, Apple's 3 GHz G5 is also on the list - at 8th place.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-09 at 17:44 CET ]
Editorial: Should the industry pay more attention to BitTorrent?
And I don't mean whether they should shut down more networks, although that's probably what they're thinking about right now. What I mean is: The BitTorrent trackers around the world (and the recently deceased SuprNova.org especially) should give the creators of the illegally shared media quite a good idea of the potential of a commercial version of P2P. Here's how I mean that...
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-08 at 13:57 CET ]
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-07 at 16:14 CET ] At CES now, Motorola has officially announced their iTunes compatible phone, and it should be ready for your buying pleasure at MWSF. Sadly, I haven't found any previews or reviews with pictures yet. But I guess they'll pop up over at infoSync today.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-07 at 15:20 CET ] Apple seeds Mac OS X 10.3.8 7U3 Apple today seeded ADC members with a first build of 10.3.8. So we _will_ see Panther go up to .8, just like Jaguar (last version was 10.2.8). The update will bring users of Panther general system stability improvements along with graphics performance increases.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-07 at 01:50 CET ]
OmniGroup has released version 5.1 of OmniWeb, which should fix some issues with 5.0/5.0.1. The release notes are to be found here, although you'll have to read through the beta release notes, too, since the final version's only includes changes from beta 5.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-06 at 10:06 CET ]
Gmail accounts revisited again part 3 This time around we're going to do it differently. I have 10 Gmail accounts to give away. Feel free to donate a little money to me through my PayPal account - but it's not mandatory. The best reasons will get an account (really good reasons will get two...) But the first step is always: Contact me (mail link below) and tell me why I should give you one. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-05 at 13:06 CET ] You can get PCSX for Mac OS X here and reanimate those PSX games you've bought. The emulator does PlayStation 1 games, apparently. I'm sure many people who once have bought VGS from Connectix are glad they can now use the PS1 games on OS X.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-05 at 10:47 CET ]
The stores are open again, and there's now new Xserves (2.3 GHz) and the displays are at a new lower price (starting at 999 USD), just as we predicted before the stores came back up. Also, Apple has released Xsan at 999 USD per node, which we've written about several times in its development cycle.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-04 at 14:53 CET ] Apple to reduce Cinema Display prices ... and quite drastically so. The 20" one is down about 500 CHF according to our source (thanks, btw.). So is the 30" one. The 23" one is down about 300 CHF, it seems. (I compare pricing between a leaked screenshot of Apple's store and heinigerag.ch, where prices might already be lower than before at Apple's. So the difference could even be bigger...) Apple Online Store still down, btw.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-04 at 14:18 CET ] MacBidouille notes that Apple's online stores are closed as of now. New Xserve hardware's expected by AppleInsider and others. We'll see when the stores come back up. The American Apple Online Store is up, though, but it's the usual case that European stores go down first.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-04 at 10:51 CET ]
MacRumors sheds some light on the iWork name. Apparently, IGG has changed its app's name from iWork to iBiz, and an earlier patent application from IGG has changed to Apple's application back in August 2004.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-03 at 23:23 CET ]
The plot doesn't thicken... (MWSF Roundup 2) Or does it. Well, we're talking about the usual rumour-wave before MWSF. It's still about 10 days away, but as could be expected, there are now quite a few rumours floating around. What I mean by that the plot doesn't thicken is that right now, we're in the phase where the field actually widens. In our experience, this means that about 75 percent of the rumours will turn out to be false. So let's take a closer look at what MWSF has in store for us - along with a bit of commenting, shall we.
There have been other rumours floating around, too, but we don't give them any credibility. The following ten days will hopefully bring new information, and we'll update this list and post another roundup shortly before MWSF. Also, we'll of course be reporting live, so you can read the report if you don't have the chance to be there yourself or watch the stream.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-01-01 at 15:45 CET ] |
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