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news of 2004-02-29

Xbox 2 SDK on PowerMac G5...

The Inquirer reports that Microsoft delivers the SDK for the forthcoming Xbox 2 as a PowerMac G5 (dual 2 GHz) running a custom Windows NT Kernel.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-29 at 11:51 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-28

MacDevCenter raises a finger

... about WiFi, Bluetooth etc. - security is lacking, and maybe we shouldn't adopt WiFi where it's not necessary. However, if you're equipping an office, at some point some people will want WiFi. And adding one WAP (and some workers might bring their own...) can affect the whole network.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-28 at 13:37 CET ]
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Microsoft on every DVD?

news.com posts that the DVD forum has endorsed VC-9 (among other standards) for the HD-DVD video specification. This would/will bring part of MS Windows Media 9 to the standard. Means the standard needs to lose its proprietary status. Means Microsoft will have something like an official standard. Scary, eh? Well, it could also be good. In some way. I'm sure. Hmm... Now I gotta get out and have a drink.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-28 at 01:29 CET ]
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Mac OS X = No need for 3rd party disk utilities.

... but people only learn slowly. Here are my three survival tips for living with a modern Macintosh computer. ;-)

1.) Learn to backup and reinstall
You might not believe me, but this is the most important one. I do regular backups of my home folder [ "~/" ], system application support [ "/System/Library/Application Support" ] & [ "/Library/Application Support" ] and my applications folder [ "/Applications" ] to a firewire harddrive. If I want to "optimise" my harddrive, I erase it, reinstall Mac OS X, apply all the recent updates to Mac OS X (keepin' them on the FW drive), copy the backup onto the newly installed system and am ready to go in about 50 minutes. Yes, 50 minutes. Much less than any disk optimisation tool takes for optimising a drive! And even more important: Some disk optimisation tools actually kill your drive(s).

2.) Mac OS X comes with a Disk Utility.
Yep. The included one. It's quite good and is on the first installer CD of Mac OS X. Start up from that disk and look at the Apple menu. From there, repair your disk (checking is included and you'll want to repair it anyway if it finds something) and repair your permissions. Do both things twice while you're at it. Once a month is reasonable, once a week is quite certainly more than good enough. And you can also do them from the running system as long as everything's okay.

3.) There is no step three
... to quote Apple's iMac three-step internet connection ad.

I think it's really important to try out these things. A firewire drive (should of course be large enough to keep those backups and all of the other stuff you might want to keep on it) may look like an expensive investment to you, but it's certainly worth it and can double as a secondary "safe" system (yes, you can boot from external drives!). If you take the cost of a disk optimisation tool away from the drive's price, it looks even better. And if you think you need to defragment your drive(s): Read Apple's take on it.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-28 at 00:56 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-27

Nokytech.net: PC cases like G5s

Nokytech.net (French) posts some pictures of the Lian-Li beasts.

 

They look quite okay, as you can see.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-27 at 19:14 CET ]
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Quad PowerMacs?

MacDailyNews posts a rumour about quad-processor PowerMac G5s. Their nostalgic take on it doesn't make the rumour very believable, but it would sure kick some ass if we could buy quad processor 2.5 GHz PowerMac G5s anytime soon. The low power consumption of the PPC 970FX would allow Apple to do this in a reasonable computer case (such as the current one).

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-27 at 19:04 CET ]
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Good news about the iPod mini

MacWorld.co.uk has a story about the iPod mini overtaking the first generation iPod's sales of 125'000 units in the first quarter. (It's a short article.)

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-27 at 19:00 CET ]
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Why buy MS Office 2004 :mac?/Why buy office packages at all?

MS Office 98 was a finished product. So was Office 2001. And Office v.X. What do you need Office 2004 for?

Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac does not offer the XML-file formats and -options that Office 2003 for the PC offers. That's one biggie. I would update to 2004 for that, maybe. But as I'm not really working with Office (I only have to have it because of file compatibility with clients), I don't see much reason to upgrade. I'd rather see better stability in another update to Office v.X. That might still happen, but I guess MS will soon enough forget about v.X, because there's 2004 now.
Microsoft has a problem. The problem is: They won't innovate that much in the next five to ten years concerning Office. They haven't innovated much in Office in the past five years. So why buy an office package? The next five years, in my opinion, will show open source alternatives catching up. We'll see an OS X native version of OpenOffice.org in that time frame, I believe, and it will be just as good as MS Office. Or at least good enough if you consider its price.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-27 at 18:48 CET ]
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Some thoughts about notebooks

Early last year, Steve Jobs named the year 2003 the year of the notebook. While this was certainly true for the whole PC industry (the ratio notebook:desktop changed faster in 2003 than in the years before), Apple acted rather against their own words. The PowerMac G5, while certainly needed, took away a lot of the initial momentum Apple was building at MWSF 2003 with the introduction of the 12" and 17" PowerBooks. Apple only updated the PowerBooks once more in 2003 and added the 15" model to the aluminum list. (And the iBooks made the step into the G4 family of processors.)

It's 2004 now for almost two months and Apple's been mum about PowerBooks and iBooks. Well, they did say that a PowerBook G5 would take some time and that they wouldn't expect one before the very end of 2004. With the PowerPC 970FX, however, a 64bit PowerBook has become the focus of many discussions around the web. The question is not if Apple will make one, the question is when it will be released.

The new PPC 970FX consumes 12.3W at 1.4GHz. The new PPC 7447A consumes 20 Watts at a clock speed of 1.42 GHz. So, actually, the G5+ is the processor that's better suited for a professional notebook! We can safely assume that if you run the G5+ at 1.4 or 1.6 GHz, it makes quite a viable notebook processor. Apple can build the machine around it, I'm sure. Whether a 12" PowerBook with the current form factor can hold the beast: I just don't know the exact size of the G5+ compared to the G4 used in PowerBooks now. But I wouldn't mind if Apple replaced the 12" PB with a 13" widescreen one offering 1152*768 pixels.

Now to the when. After yesterday's notice about PB G5s I again contacted my previous sources in the know about future PowerBooks (although they missed the 12" and 17" models in early 2003), and they more or less said that it'd still take a month or two. My take? WWDC 2004. It seems to become the culmination point for Apple this year (Apple won't attend MWBO 2004, it seems...). We'll certainly cover the possibility of a PowerBook G5 in the near future, scrambling through all the information we've already got.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-27 at 17:04 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-26

croquer.free.fr says PowerBook G5 in about 8-12 weeks

and iBooks to use Motorola's PowerPC 7447A in a future upgrade. Our own sources could not confirm croquer.free.fr's rumour that the PowerBook G5 is near to ready. However: We've been surprised in the past (Aluminum PowerBooks early last year, for example). croquer.free.fr has not much of a track record so far and has been wrong in the past (for example about IBM's PowerPC 970FX running at 2.6 GHz instead of 2.5 GHz, however nobody but ourselves had that right back then).

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-26 at 17:00 CET ]
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Correction: It's quite stable. ;)

In my previous post I mention that Safari v125.1 appears 'crashy'. However after a restart I haven't had a single crash of Safari in 10.3.3 7F34. I've also received comments from a few developers: Some have also had that crash on first launch, others have not. It seems to be okay.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-26 at 16:04 CET ]
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Safari 1.2 v125.1 in Mac OS X 10.3.3 7F34

Apple has apparently updated Safari (and WebKit) for Mac OS X 10.3.3. However, this build (Safari) seems a bit crashy, sadly. (First launch: Crash. Second launch: It seems a bit better now. Haven't found any changes, really - not UI-wise, anyway.) The Mail.app build in this seed notes v614/613 as the build number.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-26 at 11:48 CET ]
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Apple seeds Mac OS X 10.3.3 7F34

Apple seems to be wrapping up the work on Mac OS X 10.3.3. The single 'known issue' in this build is, that "The Knowledge Base article referenced in the installer read me is a place holder. Article is not available online yet." This means the ReadMe note has now been written and the KB article is now being prepared. Whether or not 7F34 will be the build downloadable through Software Update remains to be seen, though.

The 10.3.3 Update delivers enhanced functionality and improved reliability for Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther" and is recommended for all users.
Key enhancements include:
- network volumes are now available in the Finder sidebar and Desktop for convenient access
- improved file sharing and directory services for Mac (AFP), UNIX (NFS) and PC (SMB/CIFS) networks
- improved PostScript and USB printing
- improved font management
- updated Disk Utility, DVD Player, Image Capture, Mail and Safari applications
- iPods connected via USB 2.0 are now recognized by iTunes and iSync
- additional support for FireWire and USB devices
- new ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers
- improved compatibility for third party applications
- FileVault, FireWire 800 and WebDAV improvements from Update 10.3.1
- previous standalone security updates and Bluetooth Update 1.5
For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n25713

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-26 at 11:06 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-25

Apple offers 'more memory for less'

In a new promotion. In a range from 25 to 700 USD (depending on how much you purchase and for what Mac) US customers can get rebates. However, you'll probably still be cheaper off buying RAM from a third party.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-25 at 17:59 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-24

A nice read (for Mac users)

David Coursey has written a column about a few of his latest XPeriences with Windows PCs. And he has titled it with the solution: "When Windows won't work, it's time for a Mac."

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-24 at 14:53 CET ]
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PowerBook G5 thoughts

Larry Angell writes at macminute.com that key components for a PowerBook G5 are ready. And indeed they are. We can also safely assume that Apple wants to release a PowerBook based on the PowerPC 970FX as soon as humanly possible. However, the chip would still have to run at a maximum of 1.6 GHz in order for the PowerBook to stay usable on the road. IBM's PowerTune technology will certainly help here, but with the constraints of a PowerBook form factor, higher clock rates can not be expected with the current chip. Whether Apple will skip this one and use the new PowerPC 7447A (updated G4 by Motorola at up to 1.5 GHz) instead is speculation. However: The question is not, whether Apple will release a PowerBook G5. The question is simply about the when. The 970FX is the first G5 processor that would be acceptable in a PowerBook, but Apple may want to wait for IBM to come up with a chip that can work at higher clock rates with similar power consumption than the 970FX now has at 1.6 GHz or lower.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-24 at 12:08 CET ]
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Apple releases security update

In your software update control panel. This one's about: "Security Update 2004-02-23 delivers a number of security enhancements and is recommended for all Macintosh users. This update includes the following components: DiskArbitration, IPSec, Point-to-Point-Protocol, tcpdump."

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-24 at 00:02 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-23

Nokia unveils Communicator 9500

 

... and infoSync.no has the story. Symbian 7.0 (Nokia's Series 80 platform) is used as the operating system, and the new device not only finally features GPRS/EDGE access, but WiFi, too! Here's the new sysadmin-tool. :) The official description from Nokia can be found here.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-23 at 18:48 CET ]
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Palm synching, Xgrid software, 10.4?

osNews has an article that talks about future options for Apple on how to handle PDAs, Xgrid etc. No news about Mac OS X 10.4 in this one as the title'd suggest, it's more about Apple's future OS strategy in general.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-23 at 11:42 CET ]
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Vertu's new mobile phone collection

I have no idea whether this one's supported by iSync, but if you're buying one, you probably have a personal human assistant that takes care of synching your address books, anyway. And I bet she looks good. ;-)

The Nokia-based handsets are made to be tactile and visual dreams come true. Using not only leather, high tech ceramics and sapphire glass but also liquidmetal alloys and stainless steel keys, the new Vertu Ascent costs a few thousand dollars/euros/pounds/francs, depending on where you live. And you won't buy it in your local electronics store - and probably comes without a contract. There's the rumour that it doesn't take prepaid cards at all. ;-) There's an article about it over at infoSync.no.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-23 at 11:31 CET ]
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iTrip works with iPod mini

It doesn't exactly fit the iPod mini, but can be attached and used. You can take a look at a picture here and read the article here at PowerPage.org.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-23 at 11:14 CET ]
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Feedback weekend about Mac OS X 10.4/10.5

The article about the next big OS X upgrade generated a lot of feedback. It seems that the fact that some ex Be engineers now work at Apple for some time gives the rumour much more credibility than I initially anticipated. However, the source has not as of yet doubled with another contact.
We are still reading all of those E-Mails that have reached us in the past two days. One of them, quite interestingly, talks about how the new Finder could work with metadata the way BeOS made use of it (mails being basically simple files the Finder could work with, for example). Wider use of metadata has been requested by many critics of Mac OS X in the past, and it certainly sounds reasonable to assume that Apple listens to them. The possibilities of making use of metadata seem infinite - and we'll see (sooner or later) how Apple thinks about it.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-23 at 10:59 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-22

Destra providing iPod playable AAC?

MacRumors notes that Destra is acquiring about 30'000 Sony songs. They will be available in WMA and AAC, copy protected and playable on iPods (the AACs, of course). For more, see here (Australian IT article).

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-22 at 09:42 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-20

First Mac OS X 10.4/10.5 info?

We must admit, we're doubting this one. We've received word that 10.4 is planned for 'end of 04'. So far, so good. The info goes on to inform us that Mac OS X 10.4 will go "further than anticipated", introducing not only a database-driven new Finder (although the file system itself will still be HFS+) but also a wide support for file metadata. According to the source, this will rather replace than extend current implementations of Creator/Type, Labels etc. According to the source, current (very early) builds of Mac OS X 10.4 are best described as 'radical'. Our source ends the (short) information with the addition that because of the 'radical' new features, Apple might call this one Mac OS X 10.5 instead of 10.4.
Our other sources near Apple weren't able to confirm or deny any of this - they haven't heard anything about the next OS X version yet. ADC Premier and Select members inform us that nothing about it has yet been said about it to the (ADC) public and that first information is still expected at WWDC, which will be even later this year than in 2003. While we doubt the source of this piece of information, we thought you might still be interested. We've asked for more (and more precise) information, and we'll post it as we get it.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-20 at 02:08 CET ]
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iSight 1.0.2 Firmware Update

Apple has posted a firmware update for iSight through Software Update. According to the release notes: "The iSight 1.0.2 update provides improved auto exposure and auto white balance functionality, enhanced IIDC compliance and better overall performance. The iSight 1.0.2 update is recommended for all iSight users."

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-20 at 01:55 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-19

Apple seeds Mac OS X 10.3.3 7F32

And, according to sources, notes a single known bug: "If you need to install Java 1.4.2, please do it before installing this build. There is a version issue if you install Java 1.4.2 after 10.3.3. This will be addressed in the next build." - It's not quite ready for release yet, but nearing.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-19 at 11:41 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-18

ADC up again: Nothing new...

... but a new home page with a nice graphic. No new build of 10.3.3, sadly, we're informed.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-18 at 06:57 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-17

ADC site down for the moment...

Right now, connect.apple.com does not let users in. Probably an update... ;-)

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-17 at 23:30 CET ]
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OmniWeb 5.0 Beta 2 released

A lot of bug fixes in this build. You'll find it here.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-17 at 22:57 CET ]
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Apple releases iSync 1.4, opens WWDC registration

Today, Apple's released iSync 1.4 through Software Update. Its main new features are compatibility with newer Series 60 phones as well as the iPod mini. There are also a few bugs fixed, according to Apple.
In other news, Apple is taking registrations now for WWDC 2004, which will be held from 2004-06-28 to 2004-07-02. Obviously, Apple has pushed WWDC's date further into Summer, because Apple won't be at MWBO 2004. Whether this also means that Mac OS X 10.4 will take longer than until end of 2004 (which was previously assumed) is not as of yet known.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-17 at 21:35 CET ]
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The "First REAL Office"

Chinese Evermore Software wants to create the MS Office alternative with EIOffice 2004. Sounds interesting. Mac OS X development is mentioned - but not ready yet. Java-based, apparently. Certainly one more development to watch, if you want to leave Microsoft behind. Pricing sounds interesting, too: You lease the software for 99 USD per year or 249 USD for three years.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-17 at 17:33 CET ]
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iPod mini on Apple's frontpage

It's coming.



In stores at 2004-02-20. At least in the United States.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-17 at 16:01 CET ]
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Follow-up article about that "smart PDA"

You can find it here.
The author is going great lengths to defend his first article. He also urges readers who don't believe him to take it as speculation. As such a reader, I'm going to both flame the author and build some speculation on my own.

The flame part
So you came up with an idea when you looked at your Clié. You like your Clié, but it has some flaws. Like the thumbboard being a bit too small. Like its Mac OS X integration being too limited out of the box. Like PalmSource saying there won't be Mac OS X compatibility with Palm OS 6 out of the box. And then you frankensteined a Clié-sized, iPod harddrive wearing 'smart PDA' with probably an almost full-sized keyboard (Clié sized?!) that you now admit could very well be misinterpreted as that tablet rumour and be sold under any name, basically. Okay. Why not. ;-)

The speculation part
I've tried. I've tried to come up with something good. But whatever I think of, it either becomes too big to be a PDA (and being too big, it won't compete with PDAs and smartphones, because people like to wear those things in jackets instead of bags) or too small for using a version of Mac OS X. I'm okay with this rumour if it turns out true. I'd love to be surprised by Apple and Steve Jobs. But the way the author describes the device, it just doesn't work. Clié size doesn't go with 7" screen and/or good keyboard. Inkwell doesn't go with keyboard (why have a keyboard if Inkwell is actually good?
I hope Apple chooses to create a smartphone instead. Take a SE T610, increase it a bit so it can have a 176*240 pixel screen and larger keys, give it really good iSync integration (should be no problem at all!), give it an iPod mini harddrive (even 2 GB sounds good), give it iTunes/iPhoto integration added to the usual iSync candidates, give it iChat mobile (there already _are_ AIM clients for smartphones over GPRS, so that's doable) and an interface that doesn't suck. Nokia's Series 60 (Symbian) is quite good, actually. But I'd expect Apple to innovate here. Give it Bluetooth, Firewire and/or USB-2 (we're talking 2 or 4 GB here!), add iSync for Windows (let's say for 29.90 USD) and make the camera (640*480 is enough, 2 MegaPixels would be nicer, of course) tiltable so we can use it for iChat A/V sessions when we're at home (and connected to the Mac via USB-2/Firewire) as well as for digital photos. If it can have WiFi in that small size, do so.
Do I expect this from Apple? No. Would I buy one for ~500 USD? Yes, please.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-17 at 12:28 CET ]
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Microsoft offers not to comply to Europe's demands

In a move to calm down the jury, Microsoft has offered to add a CD with competitors' software in future Windows packages. According to Financial Times, the European Commission is shaking its head, though. Europe could, if they go to extremes, force Microsoft to exclude the Windows Media Player from their operating systems. Mr. Mario Monti already explained that he's willing to force Microsoft to lay open the communication interfaces between server and client. According to the council, the whole thing should be over come 1st of May.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-17 at 11:30 CET ]
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Apple seeds Dec 2003 gccLongBranch Tools

"This package contains a revised gcc3.3 enabling the -mlongbranch option. This option is only useful for executables/shared libraries with text addresses larger than 32Mbytes. Enabling this option causes a lower powerpc calling sequence." - Not sure what it really is, as I'm no software developer myself, but I guess it causes a lower powerpc calling sequence. ;-)

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-17 at 10:11 CET ]
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Matthew Thomas' list of UI glitches in OS X

Specifically, he's targetting Mac OS X 10.3.2 and applications shipped with it. His points are mostly true, although some could probably be argued out in a good old flame war. ;-) The sad part is that he seems to think he's attacking. He seems to want a flame war. At least I can't explain why else he'd be so defensive at the end of his article...
However, I still find his collection of UI glitches an interesting read. And although he thinks it's a waste of time, I still say: Submit those bugs to Apple, if they are indeed bugs.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-17 at 08:55 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-16

ThinkSecret: No new PowerMacs in February

Among other stuff, ThinkSecret notes today that sources told them not to expect the next PowerMac G5 earlier than March.
For all we know, the new PowerMacs are ready since January, waiting only for IBM's official announcement (and availability) of the PowerPC 970FX. However, February is over in less than two weeks, anyway. ;-)

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-16 at 14:39 CET ]
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Yet another Apple PDA rumour

macnet2.com has an article about such a device. However, it's more of a column about market share with a rumour-addon... We go with Steve here, though: Won't happen anytime soon. The PDA market is going down. Smart phones are replacing PDAs - and if you've got an iBook, an iPod and a SonyEricsson phone - all connected through iSync, there's not much need for a PDA any more. Putting an iPod sized harddrive (as suggested by the article) in a PDA makes it too heavy and too big (and you'd want the 40 GB drive instead of the iPod mini's 4 GB drive for sure!) for a PDA.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-16 at 12:28 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-14

Make Safari "Keyboard Kowboy" compatible :)

I've always been a fan of OmniWeb's shortcut system. As a 'keyboard kowboy' (I browse with minimal interface overhead, mostly using the keyboard only), I'm in love with "Cmd-L (focus in location bar) - 'mn' - Return" - which brings me directly to macnews.net.tc. Or "Cmd-L - 'g searchterm1 searchterm2' - Return" - which searches google.com for the two search terms. It's fantastic. And you can have that in Safari, too. Officially works with 10.2.6 (and up), 10.3 (and up), Safari 1.0 (v85), Safari 1.1 (v100) as well as Safari 1.2 (v125). The latter is not tested by the maker - but by myself. Works great. It's called "Sogudi" - and it's really a really good one. One thing, if you're going to try it out: You've sadly got to add a space-character after the shortcut. (You'll find a screenshot here.)

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-14 at 13:12 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-13

Macromedia releases beta version of Shockwave-Player 10

For media developed with Director MX 2004, you'll need a new shockwave plugin. The beta version is available as of today.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-13 at 14:34 CET ]
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GarageBand 1.0.1 - 21.5 MB of clarification.

Apple has released the first update to GarageBand. Reports range from better overall performance to nothing at all, but quite surely the 21.5 MB size of the download does kinda interfere with Apple's message: "This update clarifies specific alert dialogs regarding system performance." You can find the download here.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-13 at 11:58 CET ]
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Xcode v1.1.1 (7K233) seeded

The full update will be released soon, according to our sources. The build is delivered as a >600MB .dmg file, with changes in many areas according to the seed notes.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-13 at 10:19 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-12

More PowerPC 970FX (90nm) thoughts

... from TheRegister this time. The article can be found under this link. Looking good.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-12 at 18:23 CET ]
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When marketing people go too far...

"Install Spector on your Mac and it will record EVERYTHING anyone does on the Internet." - Last time I checked, there were quite some people on 'the internet'. But hey, haven't we all wanted super-powers sometimes? Can I sue them if their software doesn't show me the content of Steve Jobs' e-mails? ;-) (I wonder when they're going to change the description. Drop me a line...)

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-12 at 18:10 CET ]
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NYT about iPod and competition

(free registration required to read the whole article) - They've got kind words for our beloved digital music playing device: "The iPod is still smaller, more attractive and more thoughtfully designed than any of the upstarts."

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-12 at 10:58 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-11

Information on PowerPC 970FX

Confirming our long standing information that the 90nm PowerPC 970 has been running well at 2.5 GHz (the expected top speed of the next PowerMac G5 in all of our 'next G5' rumours, such as our oldest mention of it), this article talks about "The Microprocessor Report AnalystsÕ Choice Award for Best Desktop Processor of 2003", that goes to "IBMÕs PowerPC 970FX, which shipped to Apple late in the year for use in the Xserve G5 and possibly other still-unannounced systems."

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-11 at 22:07 CET ]
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iChat AV 2.1 (Beta) one-way video chat

The beta, if installed by both parties, allows people to do video-chats one way. Good one! Now you can test iSight before buying it by chatting up someone who has got one. -- Update: According to a reader, this was available in 2.0, too, via contextual menu.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-11 at 16:55 CET ]
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Electronic News about 90nm PowerPC 970FX

In this article, they say: "IBM is about to deliver its very first volume production of an SOC on 90nm, said Reeves. This will be a design for Apple." The term 'SOC', which means about 'system on a chip', has Mac-heads turn their heads, but probably is no real news, as IBM already delivers PPC 970 chips to Apple on a mini-board. We'll keep you updated.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-11 at 16:54 CET ]
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One good marketing article about Apple & Steve Jobs

There are many, many articles about Apple from a marketing perspective nowadays. They're mostly badly written and "don't get the first thing about Macintosh". Or Apple. Or Steve Jobs. This one is better in many ways. (David Yoffie interviewed.)

One example: "If Steve had really been thinking in terms of the breakout strategy [about the iTunes music store], he would have started out on Windows and come to Macintosh later like everybody else in the world. But that's not the way he thinks. Just to put yourself in the position of anybody else in the world devising the same product, the first thing you do is make it for the 400 million market and then you do it for the 25 million market. He does it the other way around. I think that Steve has blinders on that make it very hard for him to break out of this pattern."
I'm sure many Mac-lovers will find this quote harsh and faulty and bad, but he does have a point. And more points in the whole article. Good read!

Another quote, this time about the continuing fascination people have with Apple, despite its ever-shrinking market share: "Well, partly it's the brand. And what does the brand stand for? The brand stands for cool, hip, cutting-edge products that capture people's imagination. Jobs is a CEO who has a flair for the dramatic, and also captures people's imagination. He is the rebellious part of the computer world. Like Bill Gates, he's another college dropout who is a self-made man, but he does it with much more flare than Gates."

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-11 at 12:10 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-10

VPC 6.1.1 Update available

From Microsoft's site. Apparently paving the way for upcoming WinXP security updates or something. At least they say: "This update addresses security issues and bugs related to running upcoming Windows XP Professional service packs." ;-)

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-10 at 20:17 CET ]
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SonyEricsson: More phones in that video...

In the now pulled promotional video, there are other phones to be seen that have not - as of yet - been released. In the picture below you see the T650 on the left and a hinge-turnaround-kinda phone on the right.



Both look good to me at first sight.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-10 at 19:16 CET ]
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Safari 1.2 improvements laid out

Dave Hyatt has written up what's new in Safari 1.2 (v125).

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-10 at 12:26 CET ]
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SonyEricsson T650 spotted in promotional video

The video has since been pulled from the web (... and is likely to appear again somewhere), but the rumours are that the T650 will replace the T610 and T630 models, featuring an 1.3 MP camera and a Memory Stick Duo Pro slot. Both additions will be welcomed by previous T610 and T630 users. (The camera of those phones, well, sucks.)

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-10 at 12:17 CET ]
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Wireless USB-2 and Firewire

While 1394ta.org has announced "wireless firewire" (802.15.3) in December, Intel is said to be announcing wireless USB-2 soon. Both will provide only about 55-60 Mbps, which is rather low for harddisk and DV use (what firewire is mainly used for) but might just be okay for printers, scanners and CD-RWs etc. Our take: USB will have an advantage here.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-10 at 12:10 CET ]
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Update for Mac OS X 10.2.8

In Software Update, you can now download updated graphics drivers. Word is that DVD video playback should be better after the update.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-10 at 12:06 CET ]
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MacRumors: More iTMS Europe delays?

In a new tidbit, MacRumors hints at various problems that might put iTMS Europe introduction further and further away. Bad news for us Europeans, Apple and the music industry?

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-10 at 12:03 CET ]
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Hypertransport 2.0

The new specification has just been released, features almost double the throughput of HT 1.0 (22.4 GB/s to 12.8 GB/s) and will probably be used by PowerMacs in the second half of 2004. The next iteration of the PowerMac G5 is likely not using it just yet.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-10 at 11:58 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-07

Mac OS X 10.3.3 supports Pioneer's 107D drive

And natively so, MacBidouille reports (in French). This means that future hardware will probably make use of the drive. No other news about 10.3.3 so far. ADC members are still waiting for a new build after 7F24 was pulled from seed servers.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-07 at 15:14 CET ]
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Denial of non-rumours?

A recent MacRumors page 2 article says that any Apple-Nokia rumours are 'unfounded'. The thing is: There have been no Apple-Nokia rumours. Maybe I should add to this 'story' that also any Apple-AMD rumours are unfounded. As well as those recent Apple-LG rumours. ;-)

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-07 at 13:57 CET ]
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iTMS sells silent tracks for 99 cents apiece ;-)

According to this heise.de article (German), Apple's iTunes Music Store somehow automatically took in 'silent' tracks (including a silent 30s preview) like "Silence" from Slum Village.
The silent track may make sense on the whole album, however users might get pissed off if they don't really _wanted_ to download a silent track. ;-)

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-07 at 13:54 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-06

FileMaker 7 features revealed

ThinkSecret has the story. Release date: Probably first half of 2004.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-06 at 23:33 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-05

Apple releases iChat AV 2.1b & Bluetooth 1.5

BT 1.5 is only available via SU right now.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-05 at 21:46 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-03

ATi announces Mobility Radeon 9700

A chip that could well be used in future PowerBooks. From their press release: "The MOBILITY RADEON 9700 visual processing unit (VPU) delivers the highest standards of performance required by the most demanding notebook users. It has more processing power than ever before seen in a notebook graphic card. It redefines the mobile computing experience for the next generation of home and business users."

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-03 at 18:39 CET ]
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Ambrosia: Snapz Pro X 2.0

Ambrosia Software today released Snapz Pro X 2.0, their screenshot and screen-camera utility. Pity that it costs 69$ (upgrade from 1.0 is 20$).

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-03 at 14:47 CET ]
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OmniWeb 5 - First Impressions...

The verdict first: Great browser for big displays, almost unusable at 1024*768.

Really, if you've got the screen real estate, this is the browser for the hardcore web user. After testing it for a few hours, I've decided to use it full-time when I'm at home (a 17" TFT display connected to my iBook, giving me an extra 1280*1024 pixels) - but to use Safari when I'm reduced to the 12" screen of my iBook.

But let's get to the features that make this new browser such a revelation...

Shortcuts
It can't be said enough times: OmniWeb's shortcuts are a real timesaver. I open a new window or tab, enter 'mn' into the location field and hit enter. Boom, I'm here on macnews.net.tc. I do the same with 'movie ring' and find the results of the IMDB (internet movie database) for the keyword 'ring'. And 'trailer ring' gives me the results for 'ring' at Apple's movie trailer site. The shortcuts are just really, really good. And you can make them for your own sites.

Visual Tabs
The 'tabbed browsing' feature has been a hit since its invention (I wonder why that first one didn't get a patent for it, it was afaik some strange Windows based browser that used IE as its base in 2001...) - and finally OmniWeb gets its system, too. OmniWeb however, goes a different way with tabs and tab-bookmarks. OW shows tabs vertically in a drawer - as thumbnails you can adjust in size. You can also hide the thumbnails, so you can view more of them at the same time. However, while the graphical representation of the opened pages is really better than 'just tabs', it eats horizontal screen real estate. And that's why this feature sucks at 1024*768. Many modern pages are layed out for 1024 horizontal pixels - and OW's tabs use about 100 pixels to be at least useful. An option for a 'traditional' tab-bar (horizontal) would be nice for smaller screens.

Workspaces
OmniWeb has got no 'tab-bookmarks', OW has 'workspaces'. A workspace, however, is far more than 'just tab-bookmarks' à la Safari. You can open, say, two windows with 5 tabs each and save that as a workspace named 'work'. Then open a new workspace with one window and seven tabs and save that as 'leisure'. Type F1 to get to the first, F2 for the second workspace. Or use Ctrl-Cmd-RightArrow/LeftArrow to cycle through your workspaces. This feature is far faster than using tab-bookmarks in Safari, mostly because all your workspaces keep being loaded once they're loaded. (Sure uses some RAM, but we've got that covered, right?)

Bookmarks
OmniWeb 5 has the best bookmarks management of all available web browsers. Period.

If you're going to try the beta out, keep in mind that it is a beta version. It crashes quite often and quite unexpectedly so, but I'm sure that this browser will do you good service once it's finished, which will be soon. If you've got the screen for it.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-03 at 13:36 CET ]
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Java Dev. Release

Apple releases 50.6 MB Java 1.4.2 Developer Package to ADC members.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-03 at 09:18 CET ]
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10.3.3 7F24 removed from ADC

The beta version of the Mac OS X update has been pulled by Apple, according to our sources. We also need to clear up on the size of the update. As it's a combined updater, the 75 MB are only relatively big. (10.3.2 was 36.9 MB and is obviously included in the 10.3.3 update.)

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-03 at 02:11 CET ]
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news of 2004-02-02

Apple releases Java 1.4.2 through Software Update

Not much more to say. ;-)

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-02 at 23:02 CET ]
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Apple releases Safari 1.2

Apple has just released Safari 1.2.

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-02 at 22:54 CET ]
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OmniWeb 5 Beta 1

It's out. And it works quite well indeed. There are several usability features that I've been missing during the time I had abandoned OW for Safari (because of tabs, mostly) like keyboard shortcuts and 'open link behind' and stuff. And now OmniWeb comes back with a bang. It gives back all of these and adds even more. Most prominent feature for me right now: Site preferences. (Yep, I can set OmniWeb to _always_ open macrumors.com with the font size set to 80%.) I can also set pop-up blocking on a per-site basis, so that those bad sites which actually _need_ to pop up a window _can_ open up one. (Yes, you can also just stop looking at such sites, of course.) ;-)

[ written by fryke™ on 2004-02-02 at 20:26 CET ]
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