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news of 2004-12-31
Depending on where you live, ...
the new year has either started already some hours ago or you'll still live in 2004 for a while. For me, 2004 has a bit less than five hours left. Whatever: I wish you a happy new year! And may MWSF start soon and Steve Jobs present us some stuff we really, really want. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-31 at 19:15 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-30
Making sense of that headless Mac rumour
Ever since Apple killed the clones (1997) and restructured their product matrix, many people asked themselves why Apple left out a really basic desktop Mac, like the PowerMacintosh 4400 once was (which was based on a cheaper motherboard design Apple licensed to clone makers). The iMac came but didn't leave people entering the Mac market with a choice without screen. We've discussed a 'headless Mac' a few times here on macnews.net.tc (cMac as in consumer Mac or 'cheap' Mac) ourselves, but Apple obviously was afraid it would eat into iMac and eMac as well as lower-level PowerMac sales, where Apple can get bigger margins.
The past few days now have shown a renewal of this "rumour that just doesn't want to die". So for a moment, let's assume that rumour is right and we'll see it at MWSF in January 2005. (And let's not think much about MOSR's claim of it being a "compact design reminiscent of Xserve meets iPod, with a hint of G4 Cube", since that would be what, a slim design in white colour with, erh, no success? I don't quite get that Cube part...) ;)
ThinkSecret first broke this story in this article, shortly after sources of our own indicated it "could be". We didn't at the time post the rumour, because as we've said at the beginning of this article, people often mused about such a Mac, and it just didn't seem as if Apple was "in" to such an idea. Now, assuming that those sources are right we could see what we've discussed here in March 2004 and here in November 2003. (Given the age of these articles, the specs are of course out of date by now...)
There's one thought that we think is important here: Apple probably always has wanted to do this. Ever since killing the clones. But the time just wasn't right. (Bear with me...) Back then, the image Apple and the Mac had in the press around the world was that it was going to die sooner or later. And if a doomed company releases a very cheap product, its image is basically doomed. But the iPod changed all that. Because when you're successful and you bring out a cheaper product, it's going to attract the 'second round' of adopters. And while Apple's try to sell the new iMac with a bit of iPod-halo effect seemed more like an afterthought without much success potential, this machine could simply make it. Just think about it... The iPod was probably the success story this holiday season. Apple was ready to sell a lot of them, and reports are in that they did sell a lot of them. And now Apple brings you the real thing in form of this 'cMac' (although it probably wouldn't call it that, would they? ;)) - and it's affordable, too! And it can re-use a PC-owner's TFT or CRT display and probably the USB printer as well! Yes, let's conquer the world. Virus-free and in Aqua style, baby.
Then again, this all is assuming that those sources are right. It's assuming that Apple feels ready for such a move. Let's just say: It would make sense and I'd finally buy another desktop computer again.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-30 at 21:16 CET ]
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Review: Nokia Communicator 9500
It's not usually a very bright idea to get a new smartphone from Nokia before there's at least one firmware upgrade and before Apple gets its act together to support the phone in iSync. That's a little bit different with the new Communicator, although I still want iSync capability as soon as possible - and a firmware upgrade will eventually fix some bugs and speed things up. But don't misunderstand me here: The bugs are rare and the communicator feels finished, so if you want one: Get one.
The reasons why I intended to buy this communicator (and now bought it) actually make iSync somewhat useless. Because once you've started organising your life on the 9500, you're stopping to use iCal or any other PIM-device you might have. The reason why mobile phones need synching to your Mac is that they themselves are very restricted, usually. Sure, you can enter information on a (reasonably) smart phone like a SonyEricsson T610, S700 or the likes. You can enter them even better with a palmOne Tréo or some variant of those PocketPCs with GSM features. But you'll still want the same info on your computer, because the device just isn't enough PDA (personal digital assistant) and just isn't enough on its own. At least if you're like me.
I'll need iSync probably once every three months, as soon as it connects to the Nokia Communicator 9500, because I'll do everything on the device itself - and with an MMC of 512 MB (sold separately and they're quite cheap nowadays, a smaller or bigger one will do, too), I can back up the communicator's 80 MB easily, so I don't have to fear to lose all my information, should the device ever crash so hard that it can't read its data and needs a total reset.
The Nokia Communicator 9500 doesn't come cheap, but it's complete and will serve you well for more time than 'just' another smart phone. It has an integrated keyboard that easily lets you handle your office and PIM needs. Yes, you can get your E-Mail (through GPRS, HSCSD and WiFi!) with attachments, and if the attachment is, say, a Word file, you can even edit it and send it back without damaging it too badly. So for short weekend trips away from home, the weight of the 9500 (222g) actually lightenes my package, since I don't have to lug my PowerBook around, unless I need to do some serious graphical work.
Now to the middle part of this review: The desillusional part (the really bad stuff comes last, after this paragraph). The Nokia Communicator 9500 is a business tool. It won't surprise you with many bells and whistles. It will not become your gameboy and although it does feature an MP3 player, it probably won't replace your iPod, either. You can install some games, too, but basically: This tool's reduced to its primary focus, and that's an office away from the office. You can SMS, MMS, fax and E-Mail - whether you're at a WiFi hotspot or out in the field on a GPRS (or EDGE, but we don't have that here yet) network or a good old GSM data connection. You can browse the web using the integrated Opera browser, but the screen's small and the browser a bit slow with complex sites, so you'll probably use that for googling information and download a new eBook or two to use with the free MobiPocket Reader or Adobe Reader. MemoWare has the free books for it. Reading eBooks, btw., is very good in the two column mode! But if it's serious gaming you want for leisure, I suggest to either stick with a gameboy, an N-Gage or simply stay at home instead of going out. ;)
Now for the bad stuff.
Yes, I still miss iSync. I have many contacts and had to enter them by hand. Sure, this process allows me to clean things up (i.e. get rid of all the contacts I've assembled over the years that don't serve any purpose any longer, like for example the hotline for Sony Clié problemsolving), but the initial setup of the device this way takes much longer than needed. PC people can use the dreaded PC-Suite from Nokia, which I hear is better now than a few years ago, but we want iSync, don't we.
Then there's a certain slowness for application starting. Once the apps are open, switching between them is okay, but if for example Opera (or Adobe Reader, or MobiPocket Reader) isn't started yet, it takes a few seconds to get it running. I can adapt to that by keeping the important apps open, but the fact that I have to adapt tells me something's wrong with Nokia here. ;) But as usually with their phones, the second or third firmware version will be a lot better in this aspect. So we'll have to wait for those.
And the third bad point is nit-picking on my part. There'll soon be the smaller sister of the 9500, the 9300. It's smaller and lighter. Almost like a normal mobile phone in closed state. Does the WiFi part really take up so much space? Or is it the camera that I don't need? I wish the 9500 were as small as the 9300 (but still with WiFi) and that Apple would get its act together for synching this wonderful PDA to my Mac.
But to sum things up: The Nokia Communicator is still (ever since the original Nokia Communicator 9000, actually) the best connected PDA around. This newest version builds on the older ones and brings important changes (Bluetooth, WiFi, GPRS, finally enough memory) that make it a "must-have" upgrade for users of older versions.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-30 at 14:46 CET ]
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Will Apple support my new smartphone?
A while ago, I talked about how Apple needs to be faster in supporting new phones through iSync. (Here and here...) Well... I have a Nokia Communicator 9500 now. While I intend to keep it as my only device for calendar information, it would still be nice to synch contact information. Sadly, Apple still doesn't support new phones
very fast... Why? Is it really that difficult? The last time I talked about this, someone informed me that actually, Apple does not use SyncML as transport language. But after digging a little bit, I guess it just depends on which mobile phones we're talking and actually, iSync acts as a SyncML server - yet it doesn't automatically understand any SyncML client. Hopefully, newer versions of iSync will come out soon with support for quite a few newer smartphones that are currently not supported. And not just that 9500 I just bought. Also some Series 60 devices (which should be the same to support like the already supported Nokia 6600, 7650 etc.). If you want to help me out here: Go to www.apple.com/feedback/isync.html and suggest support for Series 80 (Nokia 9500, 9300) and newer Series 60 phones (Nokia 7610, 6630, 6260), too.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-30 at 11:07 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-29
ThinkSecret says iLife '05, Keynote 2, too
Read our early MWSF report here. ThinkSecret now confirms most of our report come end of year. However, ThinkSecret also posted about a sub-500 dollar Mac today. If ThinkSecret's right, I'll buy one of those for my home cinema. Give it a bigger drive, VLC and it's ready to go. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-29 at 10:34 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-28
MacRumors falls for Innocent Saints' Day
If you've read this article on MacRumors' front page and believed any of it, you're the victim of a victim. Spanish people celebrate December 28th like many other people do April 1st. So: No, Apple's not probably going to be a mobile carrier anytime soon. ;)
The article linked at MacRumors.com, among other things, says: "On the other hand", says Slope, "the sucess achieved by the iTunes Music Store has shown us the way to go: by selling songs to consumers at $0.99 apiece, we have accumulated a valuable expertise that will be most useful for billing them talking minutes".
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-28 at 22:17 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-24
NeoOffice/J much better now...
Right before Christmas, neooffice.org has released a beta version of its OpenOffice.org port. It now uses native Aqua menus and has scrollwheel support for mice that sport those. Give it a download...
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-24 at 11:16 CET ]
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Challenge for Apple?
MacRumors posts these patent applications. One is shock protection for the iPod, the other, they say, is about a mouse with a scroll wheel. Can Apple do it? Will they do it? A mouse with ONE button and a scroll wheel? ;) Merry X-Mas, folks!
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-24 at 10:33 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-23
Now: Sunbird
After Firefox and Thunderbird, the Mozilla project now releases their first usable Sunbird downloads. This latest effort is a calendar/scheduling application, and it's currently in the version 0.2 area. You can get the latest Mac OS X build here and look at it yourself (actually, the build available now, for me, crashes on first startup...). What's next: Mozilla Desktop Search named Moonbird? Or an office application called Rainbird? Who knows, but they sure try to opensource the desktop apps, be it on Mac OS X, Linux or Windows. Maybe someday all of those applications will have a button called 'upgrade your system to the newest version' which automagically installs the right version of linux for your hardware? ;) (That'd sure give MS the creeps, eh?)
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-23 at 14:26 CET ]
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Seed Night
Apple seeds Tiger Server 8A325 as well as a new .Mac SDK (v1.0.3), a Kernel Debug Kit for Tiger 8A323 and others.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-23 at 12:11 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-21
Tiger 64bit? Okay.
Just to clear things up a bit: Tiger never was advertised to be 64bit 'clean' throughout the system. Developer documentation always said the same thing. The problem I see - and that's why I brought it up at all - is that consumers out there usually think quite 'simply', naturally. They buy G5 computers because they're '64bit'. And they'll upgrade to Tiger, because - as is simplified for them - it 'brings 64bit support'. If you look at www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/64bit.html, it certainly doesn't look like Apple tells consumers quite directly, that Tiger is not in fact 'a 64bit operating system'. However: For the consumer it won't make a difference either way. If you're interested in the details, look at the linked pages in this and the last article.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-21 at 23:26 CET ]
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64bit in Tiger only for server processes
At least, so it seems on this article at ADC. This sounds quite different from what Apple promised at WWDC, when they boldly claimed Tiger to be a 64bit operating system. The article now says that "the use of a 64-bit address space is limited to non-GUI application". The kernel, we read, is compiled in 32bit mode for all machines, whether they're using a G5 or an older processor.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-21 at 16:32 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-17
That iPhone rumour
Sadly, it's not gonna be the long-rumoured iPhone from Apple. It's gonna be a 'good old' (debatable) Motorola phone with some iTunes like software add-on and probably iSync support. Sure, the phone's gonna make synching some 'tunes to the phone simple enough, but it won't be the smartphone from Apple that once was rumoured to surprise the heck out of Nokia, Motorola, SonyEricsson and the likes. So: Take it as it is. It's sure going to be a nice phone and all. But not 'the iPhone'.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-17 at 22:43 CET ]
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The Days of Panther
While we don't know for now, whether there'll still be a 10.3.8 update in the coming months until Tiger's released, it's about time we take a look at Panther's history. Sure, the big cats only live for 1 year (or 1.5 now), but they all have their ups and downs. And we, sadly, must admit, that the Panther era (so far) wasn't all good. In fact: It started with probably the biggest hickup in OS X history.
That hickup, of course, was the original FireWire bug that killed thousands (we don't have exact numbers, of course - could be millions, but we doubt that...) of external harddrives. This happened just by installing Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther, released 2003-10-10) and rebooting without taking off the FW drives. Okay, only some FW drives were affected (one particular chipset, IIRC) and mostly FW800 drives. Although those of course are used mostly in professional environments, so this was really bad, bad, bad for a start. Strangely, it seems that no developer from ADC with access to Panther seeds had tried Panther with such a drive. Or at least the makers of the FW chipset (or external harddrive makers) had not tested Panther. At all. Or the bug simply only turned up in the very last stage of Final Candidating. Either way: Apple said that the cause for the bug was in the chipset, which was using stuff which was not intended to be used in FireWire devices in the first place. However, the public of course pointed the finger at Apple (probably the middle finger quite often, too), and Apple soon released 10.3.1 (2003-11-10), which solved the problem, but the user still had to install new firmware onto their drives. From within Jaguar, of course.
On 2003-12-17, Apple already issued 10.3.2, which again fixed FW 800 drives. *Cough* --- On 2004-03-15, Apple released 10.3.3. And Apple did not take that much time because of 10.3.2's stability, but rather to release a really, really good build this time. On 2004-05-25, 10.3.4 came along, and with this release, Apple 'did' it. This was the first Panther build that most people could simply live with. It also was the last version that did not have sound troubles on Apple's MDD G4s. So sound pros today are either updating their Macs to G5s or they're living with 10.3.4. Come 2004-08-09, Apple brought us 10.3.5 and made things worse. Not only did that update bring the mentioned sound bug, but it also brought video glitches to some people's machines, some CDs suddenly didn't show up on the desktop anymore and others reported deep problems with disk images (they simply didn't work any more). Basically, it was 'back to 10.3.4' for many people. The same happend, when Apple released 10.3.6 on 2004-11-05. Many troubled people went back to 10.3.4 immediately.
And then, Apple released Mac OS X 10.3.7 7S215 (the build number alone means there went a lot of work into this) on 2004-12-15, just two days ago. So 2004 wasn't all bad. And Panther wasn't (and isn't) all bad. Sure, we're all looking forward to Tiger for one or the other reason (or many reasons), but with 10.3.7, Apple has released a Panther build that works. (Unless you're using an MDD tower and want to work with audio, that is. That problem still isn't solved, so it's back to 10.3.4 for those poor guys.) So let's just say that Panther had a lot of trouble right from the beginning. Sure: There are many people (like myself), who were quite lucky. Never had any problems, every update went without a hitch. But compared to Jaguar's update history, Panther was bad. I guess the initial FW800 bug just wasn't a good omen for Panther's era. But on the bright side, there's 10.3.7 now, which fixes many, many of the bugs earlier versions had - and Tiger is only a few months away now. We'll make sure to update this story, should problems arise with 10.3.7 or should there be 10.3.8 before Tiger. And when Tiger's here, we'll take another look at the days of Panther. Yep, that was a bit long, but it's that time of the year, isn't it. Looking back and everything... ;) Btw.: If we forgot something BIG or you have a correction to make, please use the contact link below...
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-17 at 13:36 CET ]
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Samba: Again a vulnerability...
We've covered Samba (and Apple's inability to update to later versions...) quite a few times lately (here, here and here). Now, there's another vulnerability - and only a patched 3.0.9 version or the fixed 3.0.10 are safe. Apple, as of now, uses 3.0.5 in Mac OS X, so it seems they did in fact update to later versions over the past few months. But unbelievably, almost, not to a 'safe' version, but to one which in October still was affected (and of course is affected by this new vulnerability).
This leads us to believe that, basically, keeping Windows FileSharing (which is Samba) accessible on Mac OS X just isn't very safe. Both because of Samba's vulnerabilities, but even more because Mac OS X' Samba isn't kept up to date by Apple.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-17 at 01:12 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-16
iTMS tops 200 million downloads
According to this MacCentral article, Apple has sold the 200 millionth track on iTMS now.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-16 at 15:22 CET ]
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What we so far know about MWSF
We're pulling our strings, of course, and hope to get as much information before MWSF '05 actually happens, but so far, the following is all we can safely say...
MWSF will - for the coming years - be the greatest Mac show for the public, and as such a place for new product releases. As Apple certainly doesn't want to spend the whole rest of the year waiting for next January, other products appear "when they're ready". If they're ready near WWDC or AppleExpo Paris, those spots will be chosen for an introduction, but usually, Apple either creates a special press event or just releases the news to the press 'the usual way'.
MWSF '05 has quite some stuff in it, however. Apple will definitely announce a release date for Tiger. Whether that will be March, April, May or June, we can't yet say, sadly. Apple will introduce at least one updated Macintosh product: PowerBook G5 or PowerMac G5 or both. If only one is ready to be announced, the other will be brought upon us about a month later, we're told. But it sure seems that Steve Jobs would like to introduce both products directly at MWSF. Details about the products will emerge in the coming weeks. Also, we'll see the iPod mini updated to 5 GB, and the flash-based iPod (the "mini" mini, same form but even smaller than the mini) with 1 GB of space will be released, probably for 199 USD.
iLife '05 will be released. That is set in stone. However: The feature set has not yet seen the light of our day. About this time last year, Garage Band rumours were out, but this year our sources have stayed mum about any new application. (Though there still are people at Apple developing the successor to AppleWorks.) Keynote, however, will be released in version 2, but will stay a separate package, although it'll get better iLife integration.
The eMac G5 will appear, according to the same sources that brought us the original eMac G5 info, sometime early next year, but probably not at MWSF.
For now, that's it. We'll cover the rumours about MWSF '05 in the coming weeks, of course.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-16 at 15:13 CET ]
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Mac OS X 10.3.7 Combined Updater available
You can get the 97 MB file here for future reference, if you've already installed it. My suggestion: Always keep your Combined Updater up to date, so in a case of reinstallation (or if you're installing a new machine), you have it readily available. (If your machine, like mine, came with a Panther installer earlier than 10.3.6, you'd have to download the full 97 MB everytime you reinstall, so the whole process is much faster, if you already have the Combined Updater for the latest OS version somehwere on an external drive or CD.)
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-16 at 14:12 CET ]
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Mac OS X 10.3.7 7S215 released
As predicted by our site, Mac OS X 10.3.7 made it to Software Update sooner than initially expected (end of year, then Christmas...). Thanks for reading our site regularly. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-16 at 00:53 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-14
ADC down, back up
Apparently, ADC Connect is down at the moment. The last time we've seen that happen, it didn't mean any big news, the site just came back normally afterwards. But we're watching this, of course.
And it's back up again. As expected without any visible big changes.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-14 at 23:45 CET ]
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Apple kills Harmony
As c|net reports, one of the latest iPod updates has killed support for Real's Harmony based AAC files. It's clear that Apple hasn't informed its users of the move. However, while some voices say this could affect quite a few users and many, many song-files, I just don't think so. It was a November update, and the fact that we haven't heard any of it so far tells me what I thought before, anyway: iPod people do _not_ want Real's music. And they sure didn't want to use a service that Apple said themselves could one day be affected by a firmware upgrade. Apple back then said Real was using 'hacker tactics'. Guess the 'security issue' is now solved. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-14 at 21:58 CET ]
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80 GB iPod drive
Toshiba releases, according to this TheRegister article, an iPod-sized (1.8") 80 GB drive later in 2005 that could lead the next iPod revision.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-14 at 11:58 CET ]
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Mac OS X 10.3.7 7S215
Another new build of 10.3.7 - so fast after the last one - suggests that the release is imminent. So the question "before or after christmas?" will probably be answered soon. The update weighs in at 25 MB and will focus on Graphics and OpenGL, Audio, Printing and FireWire devices, as we've mentioned before.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-14 at 10:06 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-13
iCal 1.5.5 released
Through Software Update, Apple today has released iCal 1.5.5, which primarily brings the changes from 1.5.4 plus better synching to iSync devices if using Mac OS X 10.2.x. So: Panther users don't really need the update, but are still prompted to download and install it.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-13 at 20:43 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-12
Swiss paper 'SonntagsZeitung': iTMS Switzerland coming
According to an article in today's SonntagsZeitung, Apple will tell us at MWSF '05, when to expect the opening of iTMS Switzerland. There had been much speculation in the past month about the Swiss iTMS. First someone said it would come together with the 'rest of Europe', then the music industry said they were ready (after Apple had said otherwise before) but Swiss copyright laws were lacking and now Apple is reportedly saying they're in definite communication with the music industry, although they wouldn't go into any detail. Here's to the hope that Switzerland won't have to wait another year...
SonntagsZeitung also mentioned that harddrive-based digital music players' market share would go down to 50% this year in Switzerland, and that thereof, Apple would take 'only' 80% this time, not 90% as in 2003. And they linked that - partially - to the fact that iPod users in Switzerland cannot buy tracks online. (There are three big online music stores, but they sell WMA.)
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-12 at 15:08 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-11
Tiger 8A323A seeded
... through Software Update. The 680K update "... delivers enhanced functionality and improved reliability for Mac OS X v10.4 'Tiger' 8A323 and is recommended for all users. For the changes to take effect, a restart is required."
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-11 at 01:09 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-10
BBEdit doesn't like Unsanity?
After a kernel panic in Tiger (maybe shouldn't have tried to bluetooth-synch my Sony Clie through Mark Space's Missing Link software just yet?) and starting BBEdit 8.0.3 again, BBEdit said that it sadly had crashed, and then goes on to say: "You appear to be using one or more system additions or preference panels which employ Application Enhancer. APE works by running its own code inside of BBEdit and other applications. This can lead to crashes, unpredictable application behaviour and other symptoms of incompatibility. If you continue to experience problems after removing all third-party system additions and preference panels, please contact barebones.com support for assistance."
I must say, I like Barebones' attitude here. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-10 at 03:44 CET ]
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Tiger Mail.app: The good things
You're going to love Mail.app in Tiger. Or at least I will. Sure, some will say they don't like the new look (then again some always do...), but I like even that. I actually like it a lot! But more importantly: Spotlight is going to rock your world of E-Mailing, if you use E-Mail professionally (but probably also if only privately).
Never has searching a lot of messages been so easy and fast. And while I'm a BIG fan of automatically archiving new messages through an extensive rules-system, I still love that new automatic mailbox in Mail.app that shows me the unread messages, whether they're in my private box, my first or second most important customer's mailbox etc. Handling mail just gets easier and better with Tiger's Mail.app (version 2.0).
I hope Apple puts Spotlight to good use in many other applications, and I'm sure they will. I don't need it so much in Address Book where they have, but I'm sure Apple will find other places where this groundbreaking technology will fit perfectly.
Mail, which can become a BIG issue quite fast if you keep three or four (or more) years of E-Mail, and intend to search for something specific you remember you've once written or read, is a perfect candidate. And Apple is doing well there.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-10 at 01:54 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-09
New seeds: Dashboard Widgets (QT) and Mac OS X 10.3.7 7S214
Tonight, Apple has seeded a 55 MB Quicktime movie about developing dashboard widgets. Apple also seeded a 25.4 MB sized new build of 10.3.7, build number 7S214. Mac OS X 10.3.7 is still expected to be released before the end of this year.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-09 at 23:59 CET ]
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Apple's new startpage now live
A while ago, we reported about Apple's new startpage on apple.com/startpage (which you can already take a look at...). livepage.apple.com (Mac OS X' default start page) now links to apple.com/startpage as expected back then.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-09 at 14:01 CET ]
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New eMac: Flat screen
While the iMac has gotten its G5 processor and a great, clean new look, the eMac has gotten less attention lately. Sources now claim that the next eMac will finally get rid of the last CRT display in Apple's line-up. TFTs are now cheap enough for this entry-level Mac.
Both in order not to compete with the iMac G5 and to keep pricing down, the eMac will sport a 15" TFT, though. The 1024*768 resolution is 'good enough' for its use (and schools who want bigger displays can still get reduced pricing on iMacs) and certainly makes the new eMac an attractive buy for home-users, too.
Overall, the new eMac will be a 'small iMac' in some sense. According to our sources, the new eMac will indeed have a G5 processor (1.6 GHz PowerPC 970), but will only appear when (or after) the PowerBook G5 is introduced.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-09 at 13:22 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-07
iPod mini to go 5 GB in January
Although the maker of the 5 GB 1 inch harddisk of Apple's next revision of the iPod mini is yet unknown, Apple is expected to up the mini from 4 to 5 GB in January, in order to better compete with the competition. This would also make 'more room' for the rumoured flash-based iPod.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-07 at 12:32 CET ]
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Thunderbird 1.0
Only shortly after Firefox 1.0, mozilla-based E-Mail client Thunderbird reaches version 1.0. And the project certainly intends to replace IE and Outlook Express on the PC. How does it look on the Mac?
While Firefox still doesn't feel like an application that's 'home' on the Mac, Thunderbird - albeit with some graphical glitches in some dialogue boxes - does feel like it belongs on Mac OS X. And it will certainly lure some people away from their usual E-Mail clients - mostly those who already use Firefox as their main browser, probably, but maybe also some old Eudora Light (or ad-based) and Netscape users who think it's time to try something new.
After initial big problems, the mozilla open source project has managed to create rather small-footprint applications out of the codebase. And with every year of development, the projects (change their names, yes, but also) become more viable solutions that can take from Microsoft what once was stolen. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-07 at 10:38 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-06
Speculation on IBM, Apple
TheRegister publishes this article which reads a bit like a conspiracy theory. Read it to create your own opinion. However, I think Apple's stock price has gone up because of expectations on iPod sales this quarter and not because IBM would buy Apple or create a joint venture. (The speculation article bases on IBM's sale of its PC division.)
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-06 at 13:24 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-02
Mac OS X 10.3.7 7S210 seeded
Again a new seed of 10.3.7. As we've mentioned in our first report on 10.3.7 (7S202), the update is expected to be released to consumers still in this year.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-02 at 10:36 CET ]
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MacRumors now delaying rumours on a daily basis...
While until yesterday, MacRumors.com said that iTMS Canada would obviously be live on Nov. 30th, the site suggests today as the day. If, however, iTMS Canada doesn't go live today, they'll probably 'update' the rumour accordingly. Let's hope (for Canadians) that 'inside sources' doesn't mean the users in Canada who frantically click on iTunes' built-in store functionality, noticing that it still isn't live and regard any message iTunes gives as a sign that it's coming now really, really very soon. ;)
(Of course, it's now online...) ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-02 at 10:32 CET ]
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news of 2004-12-01
Those 'entertainment server' rumours
Now even Merrill Lynch sees such a device in Apple's future. Maybe our concern about Steve not liking TV was published a few weeks too early - and Apple will surprise us with such a device as early as January?
The concept certainly makes sense to me. Right now I have to connect my PowerBook to the video beamer and the home stereo in order to watch movies I have on the Mac. With a central media server, I could not only have all my video and music files 'over there', I could also free up some space on my external FW drives (or connect them to the media server?). If a company can get an entertainment system for the home right, it's Apple - as apparently both Sony (which we'd have put in number one spot before the arrival of the iPod and AirPort Express) and Microsoft (their Media Centers aren't exactly as simple to use and crash-proof as such a device should be) don't manage.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-12-01 at 14:51 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-29
Merrill Lynch: Apple will sell 4 mio. iPods this quarter
Steve Milunovich (of Merrill Lynch), today raised Apple's rating again. If you have Apple shares, don't sell them now. ;) If you don't have any, buy them the next time they're lower. But the most interesting part of the report: "iPods are being adopted faster than Sony Walkmans were [...]" -
(However: I'm not so sure that you can compare the numbers directly, impressive as they may be.)
Also, UBS analyst Ben Reitzes said: "Over the weekend we surveyed several retailers nationwide and visited Apple stores in the New York area, noticing solid retail momentum for Apple." - UBS has increased its price target Apple Computer Inc. from 66 USD to 77 USD a share.
While the hype around Apple and the iPod certainly helps Apple selling even more iPods, Apple surely would like analysts to emphasise their iMacs more, because Apple's probably going to be out of iPods before christmas, anyway. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-29 at 22:03 CET ]
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I think: Steve Jobs doesn't like TV
And you might think why I think that. Well: The Mac's all about media of any type right? Desktop Publishing made the Mac big, Desktop Video once was Steve's new killer-application when introducing FireWire and the SuperDrive, music is also big on the Mac. Yet: Apple seems not a tiny bit interested in adding TV features to the Mac. Or will they?
How happy would I be, were Apple to release iSomething, a small box that connects to the Mac via FireWire and to the TV cable (and other input methods, probably), bringing TV to the Mac. Apple could surely create great software to go with it and has the technology (MPEG-4, H.264) to make archiving TV shows a great experience. Sure, there are third party solutions, but for the Mac, they are quite expensive. AFAIK, Apple could sell a simple TV tuner box accompanied by great software for 29 USD. If only they wanted. But, probably, Steve just doesn't like TV and thinks we should get out more (with an iPod, of course).
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-29 at 19:51 CET ]
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Gartner: 3 of 10 largest PC sellers will die before 2007
Yet they of course don't say which ones. ;) ... Which kinda leaves me asking: Does that include Apple? Or: What good is a prophecy like that, anyway? What if only two will vanish from the face of Earth? Will that mean Gartner was right to 66 percent? Well, let me put it this way: I say only two will die, and if only two will, does that mean I'm gonna be richer than Gartner by 2007? Probably not. Sometimes, headlines like the one commented here just make me angry. Sure, Gartner has probably put a lot of work into this and has analyzed a lot of data, but it just seems to be a wildly inaccurate business to create such predictions.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-29 at 19:03 CET ]
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Planting Trees
Sounds like a title from the eighties or something. But this article on TheRegister about MS IE's security flaws is a new one, and it takes a look at how one would do more secure development, instead of how MS seems to be working. The article concludes: "The answer is simple: you follow basic best practices for security and never, ever divert from them." - Yet, Microsoft has been failing this principle for a long time. And now they're caught in a game that just doesn't seem to end, because of their past: It seems they'll always have inherently insecure code, which they'll try to keep up fixing.
Or to take another metaphor than the tree-planting one in the linked article: If you've spent more than a decade filling a house with - essentially - crap, what do you do? Sure, you could live in it and occasionally put some of the stuff to the trash when you need the space. But wouldn't you be better off cleaning the house and getting rid of everything you don't really need? In one version you continue to live in a very dirty and crap-filled house, in the other, you might have to move to a friend's house for a day or two but could live in a nice clean, comfortable house from then on. Sadly, Microsoft just won't do that, as far as I can see.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-29 at 17:37 CET ]
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IBM/Sony/Toshiba to unveil Cell chip in February
TheRegister mentions that IBM and Sony are now 'ready to announce' the Cell-based workstation (which will be a rackmount server dedicated to the development of software, i.e. games, for the Playstation 3). The Cell processor, according to TheRegister's article, is a POWER derivate with three cores (every core can run a separate operating system) and AltiVec. TheReg poses the question, whether this chip could be interesting for Apple, too. We'll know more in February 2005.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-29 at 12:25 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-26
Moore's Law, POWER 5, PowerPC et al.
You can read here on TheRegister about how IBM leaves competitors in the dust with their new pSeries servers. Some quotes: "The consequence is that IBM is currently able to deliver in line with the expectations of Moore's Law and will probably be able to do so for the next two generations of the PowerPC chip." (And others don't!) - "... IBM has now delivered almost a tripling of system performance (and a 37 per cent price performance improvement). That is what the benchmark indicates."
The article makes it certainly look as if IBM just did things right, while others blindly went down the old path, just to end up going: "Duh!" - Does this mean good things for future PowerPC processors, which are derived from IBM's advances with the POWER series of processors? Yes. Will we see the results of this in a Mac near us anytime soon? Probably next year. However: The truth never is a simple as TheRegister leads us to believe, and quite probably, other players in the field will not just keep on going "Duh!" but rather react to 'new circumstances' as well.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-26 at 15:30 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-25
Seed frenzy
Apple has seeded Mac OS X Server 10.3.7 7S206 now as well, as well as Xsan 7N155 (for which 10.3.7 builds are recommended).
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-25 at 00:57 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-24
Update 10.3.7 7S206
The reversioner is in the disk image file, apparently.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-24 at 16:00 CET ]
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Apple seeds Mac OS X 10.3.7 7S206
People who installed 7S202 should be aware that a reversioner is not currently available, i.e. you should _not_ upgrade to 7S206 now. Areas of testing in this build are Graphics and OpenGL, Audio (Firewire Audio), Printing. An issue where saving to a fileserver would end up with truncated file names is resolved and SMB printing should work from 10.3.7 to Windows Server 2003.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-24 at 00:52 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-23
ADC Select & Premier members get 8A294/8A297 on DVDs
Currently, Apple's shipping developers the two latest builds (Tiger 8A294 and Tiger Server 8A297) on DVDs, an ADC Select member reports. "The DVDs look like the ones you get with your Macs when you buy them, only they're black instead of gray. They look evilly good." ;) Our contact also had a little something else to share: "Apparently, Apple thinks the contents of the envelope are worth 1$, since that's what's the envelope's marked as."
Apple is expected to have started work on 8Bxx builds of Tiger by now. Developers are expected to receive another build of Tiger before christmas. While the current build is already 'quite stable', as our sources claim, 'quite' can mean anything from 'good' to 'barely usable', depending on the developer's needs. Reports are in that some Carbon applications have major problems with this build, for example Fetch 4.0.3's keyboard shortcuts are acting very weird. Of course both the application developer and Apple are working to keep compatibility up as much as possible. However the bigger changes of such an OS upgrade usually do make application updates necessary.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-23 at 13:26 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-22
Apple releases iCal 1.5.4 Update
It's a security update, not a feature update, though. Available through Software Update.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-22 at 22:45 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-20
Rather extensive look at Tiger
ThinkSecret has a new and rather extensive look at Tiger up along with a lot of screenshots.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-20 at 01:43 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-19
iTMS on Linux
Or so to speak. Cross Over Office, a plugin for Linux, enables users to run (some) Windows applications. Version 4 has been released with full support for the Windows version of iTunes. We've told you about their iTunes support quite a while ago in August, when preview version 3.1 brought this support. This is certainly an important step for iTMS, too. Sadly, Cross Over Office does not yet directly support the iPod in iTunes. There are, however, other projects for Linux that do.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-19 at 02:56 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-18
Apple seeds Dashboard SDK Tiger 8A294
Today, Apple released a 10.6 MB sized SDK for Tiger's Dashboard. Developers can use this to develop widgets for Dashboard in Tiger 8A294. Whether this is widgets' finalised SDK remains unknown, and probably it will take some tweaking on your widgets before they'll run on the final version in the first half of next year. On the other hand, this is the first time Apple's released the SDK for Dashboard, so it might also mean that its standard is in fact finalised.
Update: The documentation mentions that the Dashboard interfaces are preliminary and are likely to change prior to the release of Tiger.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-18 at 22:52 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-17
Mac OS X 10.3.7 7S202 Seed
Other than claimed by AppleInsider and other sites copying that rumour, the first seed of 10.3.7 weighs in at only 15 MB, not 50. Apple seeded the build late last night and included - among other things - the following information (other sites seem to be wrong here, too, for some reason): Core Foundation improves directional formatting codes, CoreGraphics fixes some printing issues and colour calibration issues with transparency. And: lookupd is improved for, well, domain name lookup (a problem mostly with Safari that showed up recently). Mac OS X 10.3.7 is expected to be released still this year.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-17 at 11:33 CET ]
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More Musings on why Mac OS X is...
the proof that Linux is not ready for the desktop. I've just read this column at osNews and - again - can't understand how these people think that Linux could be anything like ready for the desktop or, as in this piece, notebook. I mean, read this quote: "With suspend to disk, you can be up and running in a fraction of the normal boot time." - Listen up, linux users: If you wake up a Mac OS X notebook (an iBook or PowerBook) from sleep, it takes between 0.2 and 0.8 seconds to be ready for your input. Yes, that's sleepin' and not suspend to disk, but if you're willing to try it out, you'll notice you don't need suspend to disk on a Mac.
There's more. Read this: "There is one downside to this option. Proprietary video drivers from NviDIA and ATI do not work with software suspend. This means that if you want 3D acceleration, you have to sacrifice software suspend support and vice versa. Since gaming on my laptop is not considered a high priority, this is one trade off I am willing to make." - I mean: Are these people really willing to sacrifice basic things like video driver support for other basic things like suspend to harddrive? Get real. Get a Mac.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-17 at 02:36 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-16
osNews G6 rumour
The author of this article tries, in my opinion, to create a rumour out of speculation (based on previously known facts and developments). Basically, what he says is that the Power4 processor was used to develop the PowerPC 970 and that the Power5 processor will be used for the next generation PowerPC at IBM.
More 'conservative' speculation on various Mac rumour sites however suggest that the PowerPC 970MP will merely be a dual core version of the 970FX with some hints taken from IBM's advances in the Power5 development (so: rather think evolution than revolution).
Our sources within IBM point to two new processors arriving early next year: A dual core desktop/workstation processor that will eventually replace the (current) PowerPC 970FX and a lower power PowerPC 970 variant that is aimed at the embedded market as well as Apple's notebooks. IBM is not believed to put this processor into ThinkPads, the last ThinkPad ever to use a PowerPC being the rather unsuccessful ThinkPad 850 with a PPC 603.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-16 at 00:19 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-13
PowerPC rumours
Thinksecret updates us on recent PowerPC developments at IBM. According to their sources, we'll see both the 970MP and a single core version of it, which is probably going to be called 970GX (which would follow IBM's previous naming scheme with the 750 line of processors, although that didn't _actually_ reach a GX variant, the once rumoured 'Gobi' processor). Both of those lines would start at 3 GHz and contain 1 MB of Level 2 cache without any Level 3 cache.
The article also muses about January's PowerBook introduction, which could see a lower-power PowerPC 970 variant at speeds of 1.6-1.8 GHz, or the long-rumoured PPC 7448 based, last round, of PowerBook G4. Our own sources confirm that Apple has long been ready for that PowerBook, but that FreeScale, up until now, was not ready to ship that G4 family processor in quantities. More news as January comes near.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-13 at 14:59 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-12
So, now. Gmail grown up?
Today's news of Gmail offering POP3 access to its free (although still restricted to invitations) 1 GB E-Mail system makes Gmail a grown up E-Mail system that you can use both with your favourite E-Mail application as well as through their great webmail system (the best we've encountered anywhere on the web!).
Gmail is still in beta, however, and however gorgeous and wonderful its system is now, there are a few things Google might do in the future, when it opens the gates to anyone, that may turn the sweets sour.
For example, Gmail being free is mainly supported through the Google AdWords system. If you're reading a message on Gmail's webmail system, you'll see Google's ads just like you do when searching the web using Google or on the right side of this very page you're reading - if you're reading us on the web rather than via RSS. If you're, however, reading the message in your favourite mail client, say Mail.app for example, you won't see any Google Ads right now. That's beautiful. However it also means Google's giving you a free 1 GB E-Mail account without ever showing you any ads. That's free as in free beer, and that can't be, right? My guess is that we'll see some sort of Google Ad system directly inside the messages once Gmail comes out of beta. Or that POP3 access will be restricted in some ways, i.e. you have to log on to Gmail once a week or something through their website.
Another story is this: Gmail has a nice new way of looking at e-mail messages differently. You don't sort, you search. (Btw., even mail sent through their SMTP-server is saved on Gmail's webmail! Good!) That's a good approach, actually, but Mail 2.0 in Tiger is even better at it than Gmail on the web. So all in all, I'm looking forward to using Gmail accounts as my primary e-mail accounts. But will they be able to keep Gmail this good if many users will use it like I do, i.e. without ever looking at an ad? I don't think so. But we'll certainly see in the future.
Btw.: There have been hints that IMAP will find its way to Gmail in a while, too.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-12 at 01:41 CET ]
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Gmail POP3 works fine...
It was my fault entirely. Sorry. Didn't see that _both_ the POP3 and the SMTP connection had to use SSL. pop.gmail.com doesn't answer to port 110, simply because it listens to an SSL port instead. Works fine, works fine. :) Happy camper here.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-12 at 00:53 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-11
Gmail does POP3
According to Gmail users - and I've tested it myself - Gmail now offers POP3 access to its accounts. According to heise.de, this feature was not yet activated for all users when they were testing, but probably the rollout was just taking its time. Great news! Sadly, as of now, the POP-server just doesn't answer. But then again, this _is_ a beta phase after all, and we expect their POP-server to answer sometime during this day...
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-11 at 15:41 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-10
Amazon iPod store
Not to confuse that with iTMS, mind you! But apparently, Amazon has confirmed to AppleInsider that it'll have an 'Apple iPod Store' at amazon.com ready very soon. Whether Apple likes the leaked info or wanted to create some hype with a media event is currently unknown. However: This sure is good news for the holiday season, right?
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-10 at 00:02 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-09
Firefox 1.0 released
You can get it here. The browser is quite a bit faster than others on Mac OS X, and while its interface still shows its ugly end (cross-platform, anyone?) ;) - it's nice to have alternatives. Let's forget about IE - on any platform - and make Firefox the cross-platform standard. We can still enjoy better interface work in Safari and OmniWeb - and keep Firefox for compatibility.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-09 at 10:20 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-08
Apple, Jobs win Billboard awards
Apple has made 'Brand of the Year', Steve Jobs is 'Visionary of the Year' for his dual role as CEO of both Pixar and Apple. The sad thing: Real Networks' Rhapsody has won against iTMS. Then again, they couldn't possibly give Apple and Jobs all the four awards they were nominated for, could they.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-08 at 21:23 CET ]
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Apple seeds Safari 1.3 DP5
And answers a question we here at macnews.net.tc had for a while. Apparently, Safari 1.3 takes the WebKit development of Safari 2.0 and gives it back to Safari 1.x (without the other improvements of Safari 2.0). Be aware that installing this developer preview doesn't let you go back to the GM version of Safari 1.2.x you had previously installed. The only way to get back to it is to reinstall the system and update it to the previous state. Basically: Do not install this on a system you want to keep running over a longer period of time. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-08 at 21:19 CET ]
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Apple: Now's the time for the iPod Flash
Dear Apple, you're certainly aware that the holiday season is about to begin - and that your iPod sales will skyrocket. But there still are a lot of potential iPod buyers who, in lack of money, will go buy those cheap, MSN compatible flash based music players. If you have a 1 GB flash based iPod mini ready that you could sell for 149 or even 99 USD, we urge you to release it right about now. Make sure that every child has enough time to scribble down his or her note about this new iPod. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-08 at 19:47 CET ]
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Delicious Library
The new (ground up) version of Delicious Library, your 40 USD does-it-all DVD/book/etc. software library with a gorgeous Mac OS X interface, is now available. It has won O'Reilly's innovator price, as you can see on the linked site. The really new thing about this one is, of course, its bar-code reading capability. Use your QT-compatible webcam (iSight, for example) to read your items' barcodes. The software then looks it up for you.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-08 at 16:57 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-06
Mac OS X 10.3.6 Combo Updater available
You'll find it here at Apple's downloads (links to download page). Size is 92 MB for the combined updater. I like those, because when I have to reinstall a machine, I can simply use the combined one instead of letting the computer download everything through Software Update.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-06 at 12:09 CET ]
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Apple announces "Apple Dashboard Widget Contest"
Which means that they're definitely called 'widgets' now instead of gadgets. ;) Developers with access to the latest builds of Tiger should enter the competition until 30. November 2004. The best widget wins an iPod 40 GB. Sadly not of the 'photo' variant. Read more about it here.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-06 at 11:48 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-05
Apple releases Mac OS X 10.3.6
As predicted on this very site, Apple has released Mac OS X 10.3.6. You can read more about the changes here on our site or directly here at apple.com.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-05 at 22:55 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-04
Quite a bit on Spotlight...
You'll find here at developer.apple.com quite a bit of information what Spotlight really is, how it works and how you as a developer can make use of it. Certainly interesting for future Tiger users, too.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-04 at 12:45 CET ]
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Tiger Server 8A297
Apple has seeded Tiger Server, first time for ADC Select members, according to sources. The DVD disk image weighs in at 1653 MB.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-04 at 10:39 CET ]
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Mac OS X 10.3.6 7R28
Apple seeds this new build, also the Server version of the same build and J2SE 5.0, based on JDK 1.5.0-rc-b63, the latter one only for Tiger builds 8A294 and up. The Mac OS X 10.3.6 build 7R28 comes without reversioners and can only be installed on 10.3.5 GM. A release of 10.3.6 is expected in early to mid November. Key enhancements of this update are improved file sharing for AFP, NFS and SMB/CIFS, more reliable automounts, improved OpenGL with updated graphics card drivers, FW/USB compatibility (more devices), updated Calculator, DVD Player, Image Capture and Safari applications.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-04 at 10:38 CET ]
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Firefox: RC2 released
You'll find it here on their FTP server. Final release still expected on 9. November 2004.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-04 at 10:30 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-03
Ex-Apple, Ex-Be going to lead PalmSource
Jean-Louis Gassˇe, founder of Be Incorporated and once president of the Apple Products Division, is now CEO of PalmSource (which has bought parts of Be earlier). Whether this will significantly change the direction of PalmSource remains to be seen. Cobalt, or Palm OS 6, will bring quite a few bits from BeOS to Palm (however don't expect it to _look_ like BeOS) - most importantly true multitasking.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-03 at 11:49 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-02
Mac OS X "world's safest" operating system
As if we didn't know that already, there's more info now. Mac OS X (based on Darwin) and BSD outperform both Microsoft Windows and Linux in security. I'm sure we'll read about "only coz of market share" and the likes, but to evaluators: Does it really matter why it's the safest? (And I think there's more to it than just lack of market share...)
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-02 at 17:53 CET ]
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iPod Download
Been using that nice plugin which allows to get songs from an iPod from within iTunes? Stopped working in iTunes 4.7, eh? Well: You can use HexEdit to change that. Open "/Applications/iTunes/Content/MacOS/iTunes" and look for 'iPod Download'. Then change that to read, for example, 'iPod Dawnload'. Make sure _not_ to remove or add a character, though, just replace one. After saving that 'work', iTunes and iPod Download will work again as expected.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-02 at 00:12 CET ]
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news of 2004-11-01
Tiger's Burnable Folders and Smart Folders
AppleInsider updates us on a few changes in smart folder management (along with screenshots of those). Basically, you can now create burnable folders through a new contextual menu item. Dragging stuff to them creates aliases. Inside the folder, you'll see a yellow 'burn bar' that allows you to burn the files associated with the aliases.
The second thing mentioned is that smart folders are getting smarter, and that smart folders' column view option has been replaced with a 'groups view' option, which shows the contents of the smart folder as Spotlight search results.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-01 at 18:17 CET ]
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Camera Mobile Phones burn Digital Camera Sales
Gartner Group and Infotrends note that currently, with mobile phones getting megapixel cameras and memory card slots, they start to hurt digital camera sales. Sounds reasonable, too, since the home user is probably fine with 1-2 MP cameras and doesn't want to carry a lot of gadgets.
Now will a similar effect happen to the iPod (and other MP3 players)? Some mobile phones already have MP3 playback. And for some users, a few songs are good enough.
One important difference between the markets is that while 'real' digital cameras are - for the home user - about as easy-to-use as a mobile phone, the iPod is more than just an extended version of what you can do with songs on your mobile phone. But: Mobile phone makers are going to learn. And Apple even helps them, bringing, for example, iTunes to Motorola phones next year.
I guess this will really hurt flash-based MP3 players, since basically an MP3 enabled mobile phone is just that: A flash-based MP3 player. Maybe Apple going into the flash-based MP3 player market is not so good an idea in the first place.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-11-01 at 14:16 CET ]
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news of 2004-10-31
So, Google wants on the Mac desktop...
And apparently, it'll take at least a few more weeks if not months, until Google will automatically index your harddrive for you and display local results in your browser of choice - or something like that. Having shortly looked at how Google Desktop on the PC does and how Spotlight works on Tiger, I have to admit, I don't really understand why Google wants to enter this market. Spotlight, which will be publicly available in the first half of 2005, will outbeat Google's approach by far. Their one advantage, as I see it, just really isn't one. They mix local results to internet results. Now if I'm writing a paper on a subject and go searching about it, I'll drop over my own feet all of the time? Super. ;)
However: If Google supports Mac OS X 10.2 and 10.3 with their desktop application, I guess there will be a market for those who won't initially upgrade to Tiger, when it'll be available. And on the PC side... Microsoft was the first to announce such technology. For Longhorn. (And even before the term 'Longhorn' was anywhere.) They then said Longhorn wouldn't have this feature, since they're late already. Now that Google's in the game, they're instead going to bring their own desktop search tool out before even a public beta of Longhorn appears. Guess Google will have a hard time on both platforms... Maybe they'll announce a linux approach now?
Remains to be seen how it all plays out, but I guess the game will play in Apple's favour in the end. Google pressed others to bring these features on as add-ons to the system. While Apple, as far as I can see, does it right. Spotlight will drive 'search' in every aspect of the operating system and gives third party developers the chance to make use of its engine (on Mac OS X, that is, via an API). Interesting times, once again...
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-10-31 at 21:00 CET ]
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A few notes on Tiger 8A294
According to some reports, Tiger build 8A294 takes a bit longer to install than some of the builds of late. Whether that's due to 'taming' the beast a bit remains a speculative thought, however. After installation, the build is as snappy as any 8A2xx build tested by our sources, they report. There are, however, instances of lag, and some Carbon applications will probably need updating (or Tiger needs fixes, time will tell...).
The new build incorporates yet a new look of the menu bar, which probably shows the direction in which Tiger development (at least regarding the look) is headed. 'Aqua Blue' shows graphite backgrounds for both the Apple and the Spotlight logos in the upper left and right corners - until you click on them, that is. Then they turn to a darker blue. The logos are nicely bevelled now.
In this shot you multiple things. First, there's the bevelled logos in the menubar, but you'll also notice that in 'current' applications like Adobe Photoshop CS the looks don't yet match. This will probably be fixed in newer builds soon. Apple currently notes some problems with Carbon based applications and their toolbars, and this design glitch might be only a small problem that will be addressed. The look in this screenshot is, of course, Graphite, not Aqua Blue (I find this more consistent right now).
The Finder, in column view, now has a 'more info' button that opens the usual get-info dialogue, as you can see in the next screenshot.
Working with an 'empty' system (i.e. a clean install without any actual work data) is not much fun - and certainly doesn't show off Spotlight's abilities. Similarly, Mail.app 2.0 really shines when you have a whole lot of E-Mail rather than an empty test mailbox active. Thus, I've tested the FW-migration tool when installing this build. The external FW drive took quite a while to transfer everything into the clean installation of Mac OS X 10.4 8A294, but after that, basically everything worked just fine. A few utilities that enter the system more deeply (for example antiviral tools, network extensions etc.) need to be reinstalled, but the transferring application informs you of those. Spotlight, btw., just works. It's fast and really does what Steve promised us at WWDC: It finds what you're looking for.
For now, Tiger is certainly not ready for 'average users' and, as Apple puts it, 'productive environments'. But the time nears when the new operating system is feature complete, and we'll then see optimisation and bug-fixing that will, over time, create the best Mac OS X version yet.
We'll report more on this new build, the first one for ADC Select members since they were shipped the WWDC build via snail-mail, in the coming week.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-10-31 at 16:30 CET ]
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news of 2004-10-30
Apple seeds Tiger 8A294 to ADC members
Apple has seeded the new build this weekend. There are quite a few noted issues in the build, so it's not recommended to use it in production systems, even if you usually ignore Apple's warning thereof. ;) (For example, activating SMB shares may corrupt login passwords and similarly fun stuff.) Yet: For ADC Select members, this is surely good news, since the last build they held in hands was the one released at WWDC.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-10-30 at 22:39 CET ]
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More Apple seeds...
Apple also seeded Mac OS X Server 7R27 as well as Xsan 7N154.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-10-30 at 00:47 CET ]
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news of 2004-10-29
Apple seeds Mac OS X 10.3.6 7R27
Apple also changed the download process for developers, according to sources. Apparently they don't choose the location from where they're downloading anymore. In the past few days, download for ADC members was on and off.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-10-29 at 14:03 CET ]
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news of 2004-10-28
Firefox 1.0rc1 released
Late last night, Firefox 1.0rc1 was released to the servers. Get the file here (from this directory).
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-10-28 at 06:16 CET ]
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news of 2004-10-27
Newer Tiger Info (and screenshots)
Thanks to a source with access to one of the newer Tiger builds, we can show you a few new screenshots.
This one shows the new battery menu bar item. It offers a bit more choice than Panther's.
Here we see the family control options in place.
A look at Mail.app's new interface.
You can get info on an e-mail account and get a window like this.
Here you see that Safari 2 offers a choice for your default RSS reader application.
Finally, we can encrypt Virtual Memory, too.
And the 'target disk mode' from Startup Disk system preference pane...
Another good look at the new style of interface, this time System Preferences. Currently, it seems that Tiger has three interface styles. NewAqua (like Panther), Brushed Metal (like Panther) and Aluminum. And then there's the new menubar style you can see in some of the screenshots.
TextEdit opens Word files with tables. Still with some issues, but basic support is here.
We hope to bring you more and new information on Tiger's process soon. Stay tuned...
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-10-27 at 22:31 CET ]
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The iPod Video done right...
We know that Apple in all probability won't release another iPod in the coming six months. My guess is that we'll see the white iPods go all colour screen in the next revision (5G). This might happen next Spring or Summer. Video, in my not-so-humble opinion, is the logical next step. Sure, there are issues (we'll come to those in a moment), but rather than dismissing an iPod Video, I hope that Apple will take these issues head-on, solve them and create the real next step in a future generation of the iPod.
The Issues
Apple has repeatedly said users wouldn't want to watch videos on such a small screen. At yesterday's press event, Steve Jobs looked at the first PMCs and said they were too big, too heavy and had too small a screen. That's two issues. The first one is a question: Would there be enough potential buyers? And the second issue is a task rather than a question. The task is to create a device small enough to be pocketable (iPod size) and a screen large enough for viewers to enjoy flicks. The third issue is missing content, also mentioned by Steve Jobs yesterday (and the reason they went with photos for the iPod Photo, where licensing is a non-issue and content is readily available on the user's part).
So, would there be enough potential users?
This question is both difficult and easy to answer. Surely, 'music' has more potential users than 'video' per se. But how many potential users are enough for Apple to produce an iPod Video? We don't know. What we do know is that people around the world are watching a lot of music video clips, a lot of TV in general and that they do buy a lot of movie DVDs. If you can simply hook the iPod Video to a TV set like you can with the iPod Photo, I don't really see the problem of the small screen. Video would also just be 'yet another' feature. You could still use the iPod for music or photos only. And I guess a lot of future iPod Photo owners will mainly use it for music playback rather than photo sessions.
Small enough device, big enough screen...
The current iPod's size is perfect. No need for it to grow, no need to shrink. Now if the whole front could be a screen, that'd make a good screen for watching short flicks like music videos in a train. It responding to touch would reduce the need for hardware buttons and scroll wheels. Problem solved? Well: I'd let Apple surprise me. If they have an even better way of doing it, please do so...
Missing content?
That's flat-out a lie, in my opinion. There's a lot of video content. Let's start small! Apple could use the iTMS to also sell music videos. Actually, they could use MPEG-4 (H.264, preferrably) with AAC sound which would result in files about 30 MB in size, and you could choose at play-time whether you want to see the video or just use music playback. I'm sure there could be said a lot more about music videos alone (and this is feasible and attractive, I think!), but let's move on. TV shows. Using H.264, a 45 minute TV show (which is 'normal' for many series) could be about 200 MB in size for a good quality video file. Sure, that's a lot of space, but I see people buying DVD boxes of old seasons, so why not buy the shows while they're still new? And to the creators: Why not sell the shows directly to the customer? And then there's movies. People love movies. (Apple loves movies, too, and I'm sure Steve Jobs is proud that that Nemo DVD was the best-selling DVD ever?) And I'm pretty sure that a mom would love to be able to give her kid the iPod to watch a movie or two instead of having to take care of all those DVDs and video cassettes and that the kid doesn't eat the packaging. Well, I hope the kid won't eat the iPod Video, but you see what I mean, probably.
Conclusion
My conclusion is simple. No, we won't see an iPod Video for some time now. Yet, if done right, the iPod Video could simply be the next iPod. In several senses. It could be the next success explosion for Apple. It could be the next step in content sales for Apple (iTunes Video Store etc.). And it could simply be the coolest music player that is already an icon more than the Walkman by Sony ever was! Additionally, it would also double as a video player you could hook up to your video beamer or TV set. Give it the right Java interpreter and suddenly there are also a lot of games available (those do sell well for mobile phones all over the world, maybe with the exception of the USA). May my critics be reminded, that we do already live in the 21st century. :)
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-10-27 at 13:22 CET ]
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Critical Mass Reader Mail Leading To An Answer. ;)
We do get a lot of e-mails by readers. Questions, comments and criticism. We don't usually react to them publicly, but the inbox has hit critical mass this time. ;)
You all know that I'm not just another Apple fan boy, and that while I enjoy Apple's technology and generally have a positive feeling about what Apple's doing, I also criticise them quite often. Today, however, is not that day. Yet: I've rarely encountered so many critical voices after Apple had released another product. People, it seems, think the iPod Photo is "too little, too expensive" (quoting one reader's message). The consensus of the critical messages is the following: Many people think the iPod Photo will not attract many people, as its colour screen is too small to view photos in good enough quality. I beg to differ...
As long as the iPod does not gain video capabilities, think of the iPod as a music player first - and everything else second. Yes you can use it as your newsreader on-the-go by feeding it textlets. Yes you can use the new iPod Photo to have your family photo slideshows with you when visiting relatives (and show them on their TV set, using the A/V cable, too!), but the most important thing about this new iPod - at least in my opinion - is that listening to music and selecting tracks becomes more beautiful.
A nicer graphical interface as unobstrusive as this one is a pleasure to behold - and can make all the difference.
I can imagine myself, holding my iPod 4G 40 GB model, sitting next to an iPod Photo user. If he's looking at his photo collection, I won't mind, really. But seeing him use the colourful interface will quite surely turn me green with envy. Would I have paid the 100 USD more to get the iPod Photo 40 GB instead? Doesn't 100 USD sound like a bit much for just the interface? Well, I guess I would have to go into that mode and tell everyone around me that it synchs with my iPhoto collection, too (which you know is not a big interest of mine), but I guess I would have paid those 100 USD, in fact, for the interface. But I'll probably stick with this one that I have for now, since it's still the best music player around. And it'll serve me well for another two years. I guess my next iPod will have video functionality.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-10-27 at 01:53 CET ]
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news of 2004-10-26
Looking good...
However: This is definitely a mockup (made by Apple, though) and not a screenshot. The resolution of the actual display is lower.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-10-26 at 23:30 CET ]
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Unsanity: ShapeShifter 2
This new release comes with a slew of new features.
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-10-26 at 22:10 CET ]
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Apple releases iTunes 4.7
You can get it here at apple.com/itunes/download. While the software doesn't seem to be necessary in order to access the iTMS in new countries, it's sure recommended to use the newest version possible. This version is also needed for the new iPod Photo. One new feature for other users, too, is the automatic finding of double songs. (Gotta try that now...)
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-10-26 at 20:27 CET ]
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New iPods!
There's a black U2 20 GB model now, and the iPod Photo for 25'000 pictures. iPod Photo 40 GB for 499, iPod Photo 60 GB for 599 USD. iTunes 4.7 is used to transport fotos to the iPod Photo (downscaled?).
[ written by fryke™ on 2004-10-26 at 20:16 CET ]
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New iTMS Countries: No Switzerland
As expected, iTunes has gotten available in more countries today. The list shows Austria, Belgium, Deutschland, Finland, Fran | 
