This Week's Apple and Desktop Mac News
The biggest Mac news, of course, is that Apple has announced that
Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" will be released on Friday, October 26.
People who have worked with the developer preview have high praise for
it, but as there are almost always a few bugs that slip through the
cracks and aren't discovered until regular users install it on their
older Macs, we suggest holding off for a few days before installing
Leopard - and be sure to have a backup of your current installation if
you need to revert to it. (We recommend an external FireWire hard drive
as your destination and either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner as
the tool to create a bootable backup.)
Also, just a reminder that there is no Classic Mode in Leopard,
another reason to stick with Tiger or at least keep a bootable Tiger
installation handy if you use any classic apps.
PowerBook, iBook, MacBook, and other portable computing is covered
in The 'Book Review. iPod, iPhone,
and Apple TV news is covered in The iNews
Review.
All prices are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.
News & Opinion
Apple Updates
Products
Software
News & Opinion
Mac OS X 10.5 'a Beautiful Upgrade'
InfoWorld's Tom Yager says:
"Apple's announcement of the impending delivery of OS X Leopard
(release 10.5 of Mac and Xserve operating systems) marks the public
debut of an engineering achievement that dwarfs iPhone, iPod, Windows,
and Linux. No other PC server vendor, with the notable exception of Sun
Microsystems, invests so much time and manpower in its system
software.
"In 10 days - 10 excruciating days - I and hundreds of Mac
developers and VIP users can finally speak out about that which we have
sworn to hold secret. Leopard is magnificent code architected from the
user in, rather than from core technology out.
"Windows and Linux are designed from the core out, which is to say
that they are all about layered kernels, system calls, and APIs, with
each layer's purpose being to abstract the layers below it. The layers
grow thicker; when a layer gets unmanageably thick, a pretty new
abstraction layer is created so that people don't have to deal with the
ugly one.....
"Everyone plugs into OS X through the frameworks, and below that
lies a stable, thin, simple, and well-documented system stack. It is
not the frameworks' job to abstract lower levels of software. From a
developer's point of view, the frameworks are OS X. When developers
write to Apple's frameworks, they inherit cross-application integration
and operational and interface consistency with no effort....
"Leopard is beautiful, not merely in appearance but in design, all
the way down to its certified Unix core. My own core is Unix certified,
and now that Apple has reworked OS X to jump the many hurdles
required to bear the Unix trademark, I feel like I've returned from a
lengthy self-imposed exile. Finally, there's a PC Unix that everyone
can love."
Link:
Apple OS X Leopard: A Beautiful Upgrade
Leopard 'an Amazing Operating System' without
Equal
MacTruth's John Manzione (who we haven't heard enough from recently)
says:
"Its [sic] been more than a week since installing the latest Leopard
beta, and I've been hearing, like you, that this build just might be
the build you drop $129 on in a couple of weeks. That being the case,
here's what you can expect.
"The latest build, 9A559, is, for the most part, as stable as Tiger
was when it was released. That's both a good thing and a bad thing,
since many people thought Tiger was released a bit too early and
contained a few too many bugs. If 9A559 is the shipping build there
will be a couple of things to bitch about but plenty to praise. The
problem most of us will face if this build is one we'll be offered by
Apple is whether to take the plunge now or wait for 10.5.1 or
10.5.2.
"Although I am having no real issues with this build other than a
wireless network bug with Safari and Mail sometimes not quitting when I
want to, I've heard some people are having a couple of substantial
issues. This article is by no means a comprehensive look at Leopard.
There are plenty of places on the net where you can read about every
feature that's coming, including Apple's site. Instead, I want to
relate a few ways that I have integrated Leopard into my own workflow,
and how I could never switch back to Tiger. (I've tried). If I could
get across a single sentiment about Leopard it would be this; Never
before has Apple taken an OS update as serious as this one. Leopard
could very well be the product that moves millions of Windows users to
the Mac platform. This is not hyperbole; Leopard is an amazing
operating system that has no equal."
Link: Living with the
Leopard - Life with 10.5 9A559
Speed Up Your Sluggish Mac
MacInstruct's Stephen Korecky says:
"Remember when you first bought your shiny new Mac a couple years
ago? It was snappy, speedy, and responsive - so responsive that at
times it actually seemed to know what you were thinking. These days,
however, it seems to be anything but speedy. Indeed, your aging Mac is
now the epitome of slow. And more and more you're finding that your Mac
is unbearably sluggish and difficult to use.
"But wait! Don't lose hope and give up on your 'beater pile' just
yet. There are plenty of ways to breathe new life into your aging Mac!
That is, if you're not fishing for an excuse to score a new MacBook
Pro. We'll show you how to do it."
Link: Speed Up Your
Sluggish Mac
Flower Power iMac One of the Ugliest Tech Products
Ever
Apple
Gazette's Michael says:
"PC
World recently wrote an article naming some of the ugliest Tech
products ever . . . and the
flower power iMac made the list.
"If you take a look at it, it's a hard point to argue. That thing is
hideous."
Editor's note: And well it might. The contemporaneous "Blue
Dalmatian" iMac should have been there along with it. cm
Link:
Flower Power iMac Named One of the Ugliest Tech Products Ever
10 Things That Should Be in the Next Mac Pro
Computerworld's Seth Weintraub says:
"The recent word from The Inquirer that Apple may be hoarding all of
Intel's new 45nm Penryn processors - and possibly paying for the
privilege - has prompted a lot of speculation about the future of
Apple's Mac Pro desktop lineup.
Apple's professional machines, which now use Intel Xeon Cloverton chips
topping out at 3 GHz, are called workstations by Apple and offer
quad- and eight-core configurations. They're fast, and they sport
professional prices to match, with top-of-the-line eight-core units
starting at $3,997.....
"Penryn is Intel's first chip under 45nm (compared with the 65nm
processors now used) and offers a faster front-side bus, larger Level 2
caches, better energy efficiency and a new instruction set (SSE4) aimed
at boosting media, gaming and graphics uses.
"As important for Mac fans, the new chip architecture allows some
new possibilities in case design - namely because the motherboard and
cooling system could take up less space. The new chips could also mean
the incorporation of new technologies such as Scan-Line Interleave
(used for linking two or more video cards) and a faster front-side
bus.
"With that in mind, let's go through some of the things Mac users -
especially this Mac user - would like to see in the next Mac
Pro...."
Link:
10 Things That Should Be in Apple's Next Mac Pro
Whither Mac mini?
Ars Technica's Charles Jade says:
"AppleInsider fearlessly put its reputation as the leading purveyors
of Apple rumors that don't appear to be just made up on the line,
making a bold prediction about the Mac
mini.
"Therefore, it comes as little surprise that sources,
for whom AppleInsider holds the utmost respect, are now pointing
towards the mini's impending demise.
"AI was, of course, wrong.
"Much to the delight of that small group of people who
still wanted updates to the Mac mini, Apple gave in and bumped the
little guy....
"While Apple has started to slow shipments of some of
its more popular Mac models ahead of this month's anticipated release
of Mac OS X Leopard, the company this week began telling some of its
channel partners not to expect any more shipments of its current Mac
mini configurations, period."
Link:
Whither Mac mini?
Apple Updates
ATI Radeon X1900 XT Firmware Update for Mac
Pro
"The ATI Radeon X1900 XT with 512 MB of dedicated GDDR3 memory
provides an ideal solution for motion graphics, animation, digital
photography, or 3D design and visualization. It offers two dual-link
DVI ports that can simultaneously support two 30-inch Apple Cinema HD
Displays for an incredibly large widescreen workspace.
"The ATI Radeon X1900 XT Firmware Update will update the firmware on
all of the ATI Radeon X1900 XT graphics cards in the Mac Pro. The
updater application will be installed in the /Applications/Utilities
folder.
"Follow the instructions in the updater application to complete the
process.
"File Size: 668 KB"
Link:
ATI Radeon X1900 XT Firmware Update
Products
Take Control of Upgrading to Leopard
PR: Cutting edge Mac users can avail themselves of expert
advice as they prepare for October 26th, the date that Apple has
announced for the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. In the $10
Take Control of Upgrading to Leopard: Early-Bird Edition, author
Joe Kissell walks readers through evaluating if their current Macs will
run Leopard well, how to make a useful backup in case of installation
problems, smart ways to clear disk clutter and unnecessary files, and
whether they should rethink their partitioning scheme. Also included is
a 5-page appendix loaded with direct links to backup programs,
maintenance utilities, and hardware drivers.
Readers will have immediate access to the full version of Take
Control of Upgrading to Leopard as soon as Apple begins selling
Leopard. The full version will walk readers through the Leopard
installation process, cover how to test a fresh Leopard installation,
and explain how to clean up loose ends and troubleshoot problems after
installation.
Reader Jackie Chappell said of a previous edition, "Whether you are
an experienced Mac geek or a newbie, this book will make the whole
installation process a lot less nail-biting." And reader Jon Rosen
concurred, saying "'Take Control of Upgrading to Tiger' truly was a
lifesaver."
Customers can save 25% by purchasing Take Control of Upgrading to
Leopard in a bundle with Matt Neuburg's Take Control of
Customizing Leopard, which provides step-by-step guidance for
setting up and getting started with Leopard, with a special look at new
features, such as Spaces and Time Machine. Take Control of
Customizing Leopard can be preordered now; the content will be
available when Leopard is released.
Take Control of Upgrading to Leopard is the latest edition of
the flagship ebook that launched the Take Control series in 2003 when
Mac OS X 10.3 Panther was released. Since then, the Take Control
series has continued to pioneer in the field of electronic publishing
with timely information about Macintosh-related topics.
The 60 page Early-Bird Edition comes in PDF format, to be followed
by the 100+ page full edition on October 26. A free 19 page sample is
available for download.
Link: Take
Control of Upgrading to Leopard
Software
DEVONtechnologies Releases Freeware EasyFind 4.0
and PhotoStickies 5.6
PR: DEVONtechnologies, LLC has released updates for the
super-fast, indexless find-file utility EasyFind as well as for the now
free photo viewer PhotoStickies.
Most importantly, PhotoStickies 5.6 is now freeware again and can be
downloaded and be used free of charge. In addition, the new version
features many detail enhancements such as combined tabs in the
Inspector panel, better 'TV' display style, and an optimized and more
reliable HTML parser. PhotoStickies 5.6 is more compatible to certain
websites and handles HTTP referrers automatically, too.
The find-file utility EasyFind 4.0 comes with a revised user
interface that presents all available options more clearly arranged,
remembers recent searches, and shows the file creation date in the
results list. The results list can be sorted by creation or
modification date, folders can be dropped into the EasyFind window to
search just the contents of this folder, and all windows can be
minimized at once now. Also, file types and HFS creator codes for
searching email files have been added and the underlying search methods
are more robust and handle words separated by spaces or nonwhite
separators more consistently.
Finally, both applications are faster now, more robust, and a number
of minor bugs and glitches have been fixed.
EasyFind is an alternative to or supplement of Sherlock, EasyFind
finds files, folders, or contents in any file without the need for
indexing. This is especially useful if you are tired of slow or
impossible indexing, outdated or corrupted indices, or if you are just
looking for missing features like case sensitive or insensitive search,
Boolean operators, wildcards, or searching for phrases. In addition,
EasyFind uses multithreading and is therefore very responsive, even
with multiple search processes running. The application provides
contextual menus and Mac OS X Services, and displays the location of
each item in a separate column for a better overview. EasyFind uses
little memory, supports drag-and-drop and the clipboard, and optionally
finds invisible items or items within packages.
PhotoStickies puts all your favorite pictures on your desktop, as
stickies, floating or even borderless. Sticky pictures may reside on
your computer, or on the Internet. PhotoStickies also displays live
webcams on your desktop, updates them automatically, and even records
them like a VCR.
Key Features:
- Displays all image formats supported by Mac OS X Displays local
images, pictures located on the Web or webcams Shows images as stickies
or as desktop wallpaper Many live effects, e.g. alpha channels,
transparency, color corrections Savable states
- Internet-based list of new webcams
- Can run as a menu extra
Availability and pricing
Both EasyFind and PhotoStickies require Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.
They can be downloaded and can be used for free.
Link: Freeware
from DEVONtechnologies
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