Mac notebook and other portable computing is covered in The 'Book Review. iPad, iPod, iPhone, and
Apple TV news is covered in iOS News
Review. All prices are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.
The Register's Tony Smith says that while the feline lion may be
king of the jungle, from where he sits, OS X 10.7 Lion is "the king of
bungles."
Case in point: Someone emails you a document, you open it in Apple's
Pages app for a look, read it through, and then being done with it, you
quit Pages. You no longer require the document, so you put it in the
Trash, and to be doubly sure you never want it to darken your desktop
again, you empty the Trash. Now you have another document you want to
look at, so you double-click on it, starting up Pages to load the file,
but what you get is a copy of the file you not only threw away but
thought you'd zapped for good.
Smith explains that Lion saves document changes in a hidden file
.DocumentRevisions-V100, albeit only on drives formatted with the HFS+
file system, the standard Mac format for hard drives and SSDs (although
flash drives are usually formatted for PCs for universal access),
retaining copies of files that have been deleted. Not a major problem
with small files like RTF text documents, but a potential one if you
traffick in big graphics files and the like.
And even RTFs may contain data you want to be sure you delete for
good, which unfortunately you haven't.
Smith observes that this behavior is part and parcel of a
philosophically-driven push on Apple's part to dispense with files
altogether, or at least the abstract metaphor of files as discrete
blocks of data on a hard drive - a paradigm-shift that a lot of serious
computer users (like me- cm) vigorously resist.
Smith notes that all apps don't currently support Lion's versioning
system, but he grimly predicts that most eventually will. He observes
that the fundamental issue in play here is Lion's default assumption
that you don't know what you're doing, so it's going to make sure
you're protected from data loss consequences of your presumed ignorance
come hell or high water. This may be fine for novice users, who really
can be clueless about such matters, but it confounds the needs and
offends the sensibilities of those of us who do know what we're doing,
resent being protected from ourselves, and are prepared to take
responsibility for and live with the consequences of mistakes that we
inevitably make from time to time.
Smith concludes with resignation that Lion is, alas, the future of
the Mac OS, so Mac users will either have to get used to the new
realities or change operating systems, and notes that staffers at The
Reg, who made the mistake of upgrading quickly, are wondering if Lion
could turn out to be the biggest booster Windows has ever had. And
while owners of most existing Intel Mac hardware can at least downgrade
to OS X 10.6 Snow
Leopard for now, although the practicality of that as a workaround
will diminish with time. And that's not an avenue open to folks who've
bought the latest MacBook Airs and Mac minis.
He issues an appeal to the Hackintosh community to figure out a way
to make Snow Leopard run on the latest Apple hardware. I'll second
that.
Publisher's note: This could be a real disaster for those who work
with confidential information and could be used as a strong argument to
keep Lion out of certain workplaces. Mac users would be well served by
Apple explaining if, when, and how document revisions are purged from
the revisions archive, and this creates a real opportunity for
programmers to develop a program that allows users to manually purge
the archive. dk
Rixstep says snide comparisons were inevitable, but now they seem to
stick, with unsettling reports of kernel panics - something that's
never supposed to happen on a system with MACH. Clearly something was
very wrong with OS X 10.7 Lion.
"You know when you used to have no choice but to use Windows XP,
either because you couldn't afford a Mac or you had to use a PC at
work? Well, you must remember, then, how annoying it was to have the
same bugs and weird glitches happen over and over again; those endless
days and nights trying to work on something important when, no matter
how many fingers you crossed and cracks in the pavement you avoided,
you knew once error message X appeared, crash Y and endless pop-up Z
would inevitably follow and there was nothing you or anyone else could
do to avoid the inevitable restart / reinstall / dance on one leg
chanting, I'm a little teapot short and stout....
"Gardner goes on to recount how hope spiked briefly when Windows
Vista was announced, but under the refreshed Aero interface veneer was
"the same pustulating tripe that had ruined your life for the past
millennia and, to make it worse, you knew for a fact no-one at
Microsoft lost any sleep over it. This wouldn't happen if I owned a
Mac, you said."
"So you bought a Mac, and now a new Mac Operating System, OS X Lion,
is out. But what's this?"
Gardner goes to to inventory a panoply of Lion aggravations,
frustrations, and alarmingly Vista-like angularities plaguing early
adopters of Apple's new OS.
"Well, how stupid do you feel now?" he says "You drank the
Kool-Aid™ and, for a while it refreshed the parts other sugar
water can't reach. But then, like realising in the middle of a stage
hypnotist's comedy act, that while you thought you were eating an
Apple, you were really munching an onion, this happened...."
MacWindows Beat's John Rizzo says that commentators who've been
referring to Lion as "Apple's Vista" may be engaging in wishful
thinking, but not how you might think. He notes that according to
August data on worldwide market share, more computer users still run
Windows Vista than use every version of Mac OS X combined.
Not that the news is great for Microsoft, with the reality that
despite the success of Windows 7, more than half of all computer users
in the world still run Windows 7's main competitor, Windows XP.
Here's how it breaks down for desktop operating systems based on
NetMarketShare's metrics for August:
Windows - 92.90%
Windows XP - 52.46%
Windows 7 - 30.60%
Windows Vista - 9.40%
Windows NT - 0.18%
Windows 2000 - 0.18%
Windows 98 - 0.05%
Macintosh - 6.03%
Mac OS X 10.6 - 3.46%
Mac OS X 10.5 - 1.17%
Mac OS X 10.7 - 1.03%
Mac OS X 10.4 - 0.31%
Mac OS X (no version reported) - 0.04%
Linux - 1.07% (0.91%)
John Rizzo also notes that 6.03% of computer users now run Mac OS X
worldwide (13.36% of US users), marking the first time the Mac has
broken the 6% threshold, thanks to Mac hardware sales being up 24%
while the PC industry languishes with anemic 3.8% growth. Nevertheless,
Windows much-maligned Vista still has a 9.40% worldwide market share,
meaning that for every 10 Mac users, there are 15 Vista users, and
Windows XP still blows everything away with a 52.46% worldwide market
share, Windows 7 lagging well behind at at 30.60%.
However, with OS X 10.7 Lion taking 1.03% of worldwide market share
in August, after shipping for just over a month, there are now almost
as many Lion users as there are Linux desktops of all types (1.07%
market share).
Google's Eric Schmidt: 'I Was on the Apple Board
Until I Couldn't Stand It Anymore'
BetaNews' Ed Oswald reports that former Google CEO and now Chairman
Eric Schmidt offered some insight into his time on Apple's board to
attendees of Salesforce.com's Dreamforce 2011 conference, saying that
while he was proud of his time with the company, "I was on the Apple
board until I couldn't stand it anymore."
However, Schmidt graciously praised Steve Jobs' achievements and
leadership of Apple, stating, "What Steve has done at Apple is
certainly the best performance of a CEO for over fifty years, maybe a
hundred years. But not only did he do it once, he did it twice. We've
all benefited from the tremendous innovation at Apple."
Newsweek Steve Jobs Cover Chosen as 'Cover
of the Day'
Newsweek has thanked SPD (the Society of Publication
Designers) for naming the magazine's Sept. 5 edition Steve Jobs cover their Cover of the Day,
congratulating Creative Director, Dirk Barnett, and Director of
Photography, Scott Hall, for their work.
BeatWeek's Bill Palmer says he's staring down two major product
upgrades before 2011 is over: replacing his current 15" MacBook Pro and
an aging Chrysler that he says he ended up with because it was in the
"good deal" category, professing to not care much about cars in general
anyway.
In assessing the remaining value of the two items, Palmer makes two
complementary observations:
By investing in what he considers a real computer, he's saved
money.
By grabbing a bargain car, he may have cost himself money come
trade-in time.
"In fact," he says, "both situations come together to explain why
owning a Mac computer can be (if you're smart about it) cheaper per
year than owning a Windows PC," and that's without factoring in the
cost of having to buy extra Windows-based software to compensate for
the the lack of bundled tools you would get with a Mac, or what you'll
need to spend on Tylenol to ease the pain of dealing with Windows.
He's just talking about hardware costs and contends that owning a
Mac is cheaper in the long run - provided you can afford to buy one in
the first place.
Apple Considering USB 3.0 in Addition to
Thunderbolt
VR-Zone's L.G. Nilsson observes that a lot of Mac fans have been
disappointed by Apple's apparent lack of interest in the USB 3.0
standard, but VR-Zone has been tipped by an unnamed insider that Apple
is looking at USB 3.0 as a potential feature to add on future products,
and they deduce that it's likely to happen before Intel integrates USB
3.0 support into its chipsets.
Nilsson notes that a USB 3.0 host controller sells for $2-3 in large
quantities compared with $10-15 for Intel's Thunderbolt chip, and the
latter also requires a device chip and additional chips on the device,
making Thunderbolt a very expensive solution for simple data storage
and so forth.
For that reason alone, it would make sense for Apple to implementing
USB 3.0 support into its products, especially at the lower end of their
Mac price range. While USB 3.0 can't match the raw performance
Thunderbolt, that level of performance would rarely (if ever) be
required by the typical consumer user that Apple leans toward catering
to. Backwards compatibility is another USB 3.0 bonus, with USB 2.0
devices supported.
Publisher's note: USB 3.0 has 10x the bandwidth of USB 2.0 and is
backward compatible with it. However, USB 3.0 has data separate
channels for send and receive, so it can read and write data
simultaneously, which makes things even faster. USB 3.0 also supports
higher power output - up to 900 mA vs. 500 mA for USB 2.0 - which would
be an additional drain on laptop batteries. Now that Thunderbolt is
established, it would make sense for Apple to replace USB 2.0 ports
with 3.0 ports in future Macs (and iDevices!). dk
Busman's Holiday's Steve Wood (formerly a Low End Mac contributor) notes
that if you live in an area where dial-up has been your only option for
Internet service, the commercials for satellite Internet may look
pretty attractive, promising quick online access to web pages, photos,
and videos at an affordable price.
Wood lives in a rural area of Indiana where dial-up and satellite
were the only options until recently, since they're also in a cell
phone dead zone, so accessing the Net via an iPhone, iPad, or other
similar device wasn't an option. Consequently, he's been a satellite
Internet customer since January 2008 and notes that while service is
usually considerably faster than dialup, it falls far short of true
broadband - even low-end DSL or other broadband packages - with choppy
videos, VoIP impossible, and horribly sluggish upload speeds.
That was in good weather, with snow and rain fade plaguing
connection reliability, not to mention deliberate throttling when close
to the account's bandwidth limit, with the only recourse being to
upgrade to a $99/month premium package. There were also unexplained
outages during bright, sunny weather, possibly due to demand
outstripping bandwidth.
Wood concludes that if you have no other options and are willing to
eat the exorbitant cost, satellite Internet service is better than a
dialup connection (other than for reliability), but be aware that
you'll be paying way too much for rather slow and unreliable service
that possibly still requires a dial-up backup.
TidBITS' Adam C. Engst, a longtime Eudora fan, says he's been
writing about how to convert email out of Eudora for several years now.
Throughout that time, he's been using Gmail, yet after 18 years of
using Eudora, he couldn't just quit cold turkey. Much as he likes
Gmail, there are certain things it can't do that Eudora could, and then
there were the hundreds of thousands of messages he had stored in his
local Eudora Folder, the need to send bulk messages (such as
notifications of DealBITS drawing winners) - Engst says he can't
imagine Gmail allowing a message with 900 recipients - and retrieving
the occasional old message from years in the past.
However, the loss of Rosetta PowerPC emulation in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
has forced the issue. Eudora is a literal nonstarter in Lion, so it was
time for permanent workarounds, the stickiest issue being that Engst's
Eudora Folder has somewhere approaching 1 million messages and
thousands of attachments stored in over 600 nested mailboxes, some
dating back 18 years, posing a significant challenge for import
tools.
Engst considers the pros and cons of Mail, Thunderbird/Eudora OSE,
MailForge, Gmail, MailSteward, Mail Archiver X, Eagle Filer, DEVONthink
Pro Office, Eudora Mailbox Cleaner, and several other programs to
replace Eudora and/or handle his huge archive.
ZDNet's Jason D. O'Grady reports that Apple appears to have begun
shipping its new $999 27" Thunderbolt Displays to stores this week,
giving hope to impatient customers who've been waiting almost two
months for the new monitor, although he says there haven't been any
reports of the new displays actually arriving in customers hands just
yet.
This model was released by Apple in 1997 and sold for $7,500.
Finding a brand new one in packaging that has never been opened is
exceedingly rare.
20th Anniversary Mac in original box.
As described by the seller, only the interior accessory box that
holds the remote control battery has been inspected in order to remove
those batteries in the interest of protecting the rest of the system
from battery deterioration damage. The rest of the computer and all
other components are claimed to be brand new and sealed as originally
shipped from the manufacturer. Also included are framed copies of the
original purchase receipts for the perspective new owner.
Heralded as a celebration of Apple's 20th anniversary, the TAM was
first announced at Macworld Expo San Francisco on January 7, 1997, with
a release date of late Spring 1997 and pegged at an original retail
price of $7,499 - expensive even then. The TAM's design radically
deviated from other personal computers in an era when personality-less
beige boxes dominated in the PC world, including most desktop Apple
models, with few exceptions to the conventional "box with monitor" form
factor configuration. By contrast, the TAM featured a metallic
green/gold paint, and was equipped with one of the first desktop based
LCD displays, in a 2.5" deep enclosure. Although its logic board was
one of the only unique internal components, the exterior was designed
to represent a state-of-the-art futuristic vision of where personal
computing could eventually take us, and arguably it does share some
analogical design nuances with today's Apple iMac desktop models.
Considered to be at the cutting edge of industrial design at its
time, the system was Apple's legendary product designer Jonathan Ive's
first major project for the company. It featured a separate Bose
subwoofer, keyboard with leather palm rest, a detachable mouse, and a
flat screen display, even though it was designed and released more than
14 years ago. Rumor has it that some of the original 20th Anniversary
Macs were delivered to their buyers via limousine service.
YouTube clip of Jonathan Ive discussing the Twentieth Century
Macintosh.
A TAM prototype appeared in Batman and Robin.
This forward thinking Ive design also made several appearances
during it's original release in 1997. It's sleek and futuristic shape
was even featured in the entertainment world and considered way ahead
of its time in making cameos on Seinfeld, Friends, The
Pretender, and Batman & Robin.
The auction closed Sept. 07, 2011 with a winning bid of $7,300.
System Folder's Riccardo Mori notes that there are people who like
to push their vintage Macs to their limits, but his approach is
slightly different, giving precedence to the user experience. Whatever
the vintage, Mori insists that any Mac he acquires must be smooth to
use.
His advice is to be conservative and refrain from installing the
last OS version your vintage Mac is theoretically able to run. He says
that the point, for him, is "what can be done today with a vintage
Mac's original processing power?" and that keeping things balanced
(e.g., refraining from installing a Mac OS version or other software
that is too memory- or resource-hungry) will ensure a pleasant user
experience overall with any vintage Mac.
Publisher's note: This is sound advice. For instance, any 8 MHz Mac
is going to feel sluggish running System 7, and pre-PowerPC Macs will
be more sluggish using ATM and/or TrueType fonts instead of bitmapped
ones. The list could go on, but the best experience usually comes from
trading some new features for smoother performance. dk
PR: Seagate is shipping a new 4 TB GoFlex
Desk external hard drive - the highest capacity hard drive in the
industry. This latest addition to Seagate's GoFlex Family of external
hard drives showcases a streamlined industrial design that delivers a
smaller footprint and is purported to better reflect the aesthetic of
today's office environments while still providing all of the benefits
of previous GoFlex drive generations.
The new 4 TB GoFlex Desk drive is available now from
seagate.com and will be available from select online retailers within
the month for a manufacturers suggested retail price of $249.99.
1 TB, 2 TB, and 3 TB units are also to be offered in the
same form factor starting at $109.99. The GoFlex Desk for Mac external
drive features both FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 and will be available in
Apple stores by the end of the month.
"Yet another industry first for Seagate, we have reached
a new high-capacity in the 3.5" hard drive form factor. At Seagate, we
are committed to pushing the limits for our customers and will continue
to adapt and innovate our products based on customer needs," says
Patrick Connolly, vice president and general manager of Retail products
for Seagate. "This latest GoFlex Desk drive offering, with its new
industry-leading capacity point, is a statement of our continued
commitment to meet consumer needs."
As more of our entertainment and personal data become digitized, the
significance of greater access to local storage becomes increasingly
more valued. The new GoFlex Desk 4 TB drive has the space to
contain over 2,000 HD movies, and comes at a time when people are
archiving more of their memories in the form of digital photo and
video.
"IDC foresees there being an increase in global demand for personal
storage capacity driven by the growing creation and acquisition of
digitized videos, photos and music," comments Liz Conner, senior
research analyst, Storage Systems, IDC.
Debuted in May of 2010, Seagate's award-winning GoFlex Family of
hard drives provide an alternative approach to external storage
solutions by allowing users to change interface adapters to stay
current with the latest in interface technology. With USB 3.0 still
undergoing adoption and the emergence of Thunderbolt technology in the
coming months, the GoFlex adapter concept has been proven as an idea
that works and Seagate plans to continue with this design for future
iterations of the company's external hard drives. The GoFlex drives are
also Windows and Mac OS X compatible and have the flexibility to go
between both operating systems. In addition to cross-platform
compatibility, the GoFlex Desk drive can also be utilized with the
GoFlex Home adapter if one chooses to use it as a network drive.
Whether you have a PC or a Mac computer, or if you go back and forth
between the two, you can access and save files on the same portable
hard drive anytime without reformatting (note however that reformatting
to HFS+ is required to use backup software for Mac or Time Machine
software).
With the preloaded back up software, the GoFlex Desk external drive
provides automatic, continuous back with encryption for all your files.
The included USB 3.0 adapter also works with USB 2.0 ports making it
easy to connect to your Windows or Mac computer. The adapter also
features an illuminated gauge to display available space on the
drive.
System requirements
Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP (32-bit & 64-bit)
operating system or Mac OS X operating system 10.4.9 or higher
USB 2.0 or 3.0 port
For the USB 3.0 interface: SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port (required for
USB 3.0 transfer speeds or backwards compatible with USB 2.0 ports at
USB 2.0 transfer speeds).
Compatibility may vary depending on user's hardware configuration
and operating system
Magma Announces 3-Slot PCI Express Expansion
Chassis for Thunderbolt
PR: Magma, a developer of PCI Express connectivity products,
introduces ExpressBox 3T, an expansion chassis with three PCIe slots
and a lightning fast connection through Thunderbolt.
Magma's
ExpressBox 3T, their first Thunderbolt to PCI Express expansion
chassis, will be revealed at Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco
(Sept 13-15). ExpressBox 3T provides an 'outside-the-box' solution for
using PCIe cards with Thunderbolt-equipped computers. High-performance
flows are possible by connecting a Thunderbolt equipped computer to a
Magma ExpressBox 3T containing PCIe cards such as video capture, media
transcoding, audio processing, and fast data storage. And because
Thunderbolt is also based on DisplayPort technology, you can daisy
chain a high-resolution display with your Magma ExpressBox 3T.
Magma's ExpressBox 3T provides an easy, rock solid migration path to
newer and faster computers while protecting the customers investment in
specialized PCI Express peripherals made for video capture and edit,
broadcast video, pro audio, communications, data acquisition and
more.
Developed by Intel with collaboration from Apple, Thunderbolt is a
high-speed I/O technology running at 10 Gbps per channel that brings
together high-speed data transfer and high-definition (HD) display on
to a single cable. High performance workflows are possible by
connecting a Thunderbolt equipped computer to a Magma ExpressBox 3T
containing PCIe cards for video capture, media transcoding, audio
processing, and fast data storage. And because Thunderbolt is also
based on DisplayPort technology, a high-resolution display can be daisy
chained with your Magma ExpressBox 3T.
"ExpressBox 3T is the first Magma expansion product specifically
made for Thunderbolt-equipped computers. Now, with Thunderbolt
technology, mobile, and all-in-one customers have easy access to the
fastest I/O technology available today," says Randy Jones, CEO and
President at Magma. "ExpressBox 3T is a must-have expansion solution
for media creators. Magma retains its leadership position by continuing
to introduce cutting edge technology for media production and other
computing professionals."
ExpressBox 3T is encased in an anodized silver chassis with three
PCIe 2.0 slots, a cooling fan, a 220W internal power supply, and travel
bag for easy transportation. ExpressBox 3T and up to six Thunderbolt
devices can be daisy-chained including Thunderbolt and DisplayPort
displays. Magma is actively working with development partners such as
Apple, Avid, AJA, Red, ATTO, Fusion-io and Promise Technology to
validate application performance with ExpressBox 3T in broadcast video
and pro audio environments.
For more information about Magma products, call (800) 285-8990 or
(858) 530-2511 or visit magma.com.
OWC's $249 Twice-as-Fast-as-Factory Solid State
Drive for Mid 2011 iMacs
PR: Other World
Computing (OWC) has announced a lower starting cost for installation of
a 6 Gb/s SSD via the OWC Turnkey Upgrade Installation Program for the
Mid 2011 Apple iMac. Starting from less than half the cost of factory
SSD options, the OWC program gives Mid 2011 iMac owners/buyers the
option of having OWC install up to three award winning, SandForce
Driven OWC Mercury 6G Solid State Drives up to 480 GB each and with
data rates over 2x faster than factory SSD options. Program options
also include a larger capacity hard drive up to 3.0 TB and certified
Memory Upgrades up to 32 GB. 27" iMac owners also have the option of
OWC installing the industry's only eSATA interface and experience data
transfer rates up to 600 MB/s. OWC's installation service program
offers multiple configuration options starting at $169 with a 48
business hours or less installation turnaround.
OWC Options Create a Better Than Factory Built 2011 iMac
Owners of a 2011 iMac can experience the following benefits from the
OWC Upgrade Program and enjoy a superior performing iMac than what is
available direct from the factory:
Over Twice As Fast & Double The Capacity Solid State Drive: OWC
Mercury 6G SSDs offer capacities up to 480 GB, up to nearly double the
capacity than the single factory 256 GB SSD option, and offer
read/write speeds in excess of 550 MB/s over twice the performance than
the factory 3G speed limited SSDs. Support for a RAID-0 configuration
allows data rates of up to 1 GB/s (1000 MB/s), nearly four times
the data performance vs. factory options in available multi-SSD
configurations. Depending on other options selected, up to three OWC
Mercury 6G SSDs can be installed for a total of up to 1.44 TB SSD
capacity.
More Main Bay Storage Configuration Options: iMac owners requiring
more storage capacity than the factory stock 500 GB - 1.0 TB hard drive
can have OWC replace it with up to a 3.0 TB drive for up to 6X greater
platter based storage. Or, instead of a traditional hard drive, OWC can
add an additional OWC Mercury 6G SSD with up to 480 GB capacity to the
3.5" drive bay.
Additional & Lower Cost Memory Options Than Factory: OWC can
add up to 4X the factory maximum installed RAM with the OWC RAM 32 GB
option. Or, select from other OWC Memory Upgrade options providing
8 GB total RAM starting from $80. For iMac owners only seeking a
memory upgrade, OWC Memory Kits for the 2011 iMac are also available
with savings up to 77% compared to factory upgrades and come backed by
OWC's free installation videos and lifetime support.
Only eSATA Interface Option Offered For iMac: With fast data
transfer rates up to 600 MB/s, OWC's external eSATA port option for the
2011 27" iMac lets users take advantage of plentiful and affordable
eSATA external drives for data backups and transfers at up to 6X faster
than the built in FireWire 800 interface.
"The goal of our Turnkey Upgrade Installation Program for iMacs is
to offer customers the most comprehensive choices and support available
for a better than new iMac ownership experience," says Larry O'Connor,
Founder and CEO, Other World Computing. "Lowering the cost to get into
a 6 Gb/s SSD increases the opportunity for more iMac owners to
unleash the full capability of these exceptional machines while
applying those savings to adding more RAM or a larger hard drive to
further maximize their iMac's potential."
The Turnkey Upgrade Installation Program for 2011 Apple iMac is
available for immediate ordering. For answers to frequently asked
questions regarding the program, OWC has created an easy to follow
FAQ.
QuickBooks for Mac 2012 Saves Small Businesses
Time with a Lion Experience
PR: Small businesses can find more ways to save time with a
Mac experience they expect in the latest release of QuickBooks
financial software from Intuit Inc.
QuickBooks for Mac 2012 offers more than 50 new features and
enhancements that give small businesses faster access to important
information and simplify critical business tasks. The product becomes
available on Sept. 26.
"As more and more small businesses adopt Macs, we see increased
adoption of QuickBooks for Mac," says Dan Wernikoff, senior vice
president and general manager of Intuits Financial Management Solutions
division. In response, we've recommitted ourselves to making the
product even better. With Apple's new Lion OS, we focused on a simple,
elegant and easy to use native experience, while continuing to add new
features that save small businesses time."
Faster Access to Important Information
For small businesses, having instant access to important data when
and where they need it can mean the difference in getting paid on time
or overlooking money owed by a customer. QuickBooks for Mac 2012 makes
it intuitive and fast to find needed information with features such
as:
Improved Search: Use keywords to find items such as customer or
vendor contacts, transactions, amounts and dates. Apply filters to
refine search results or save searches for future reference.
Customer and Vendor History Panels: Get an at-a-glance view of
customer details, such as open balances and notes, right next to open
invoices. Small businesses can now complete transactions and answer
customer questions quickly and easily.
Transaction List: Browse and sort forms by date, customer name or
other criteria while entering invoices, expenses and sales receipts.
With all the information at ones fingertips, it eliminates the need to
flip through past transactions one by one.
"The new search feature is powerful. It helps me instantly track
down specific transactions, customer contacts, reports you name it,"
says Christine Holzmann of CH Graphic Designs, LLC in Peachtree City,
Ga. "With the intuitive functionality of Spotlight or Google, search
will save me a lot of time finding what I'm looking for in
QuickBooks."
Simplified Multistep Tasks
Saving small businesses steps on common, repetitive tasks saves more
than time. It helps to reduce bookkeeping errors. New features in
QuickBooks for Mac 2012 simplify key multistep tasks, including:
Batch Online Banking Transactions: Import multiple transactions
from bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks at once. Automatically
create smart rules to match payees downloaded from online banking
accounts to QuickBooks names.
Progress Invoicing: Easily create multiple invoices from a single
estimate to bill for a project over time. Invoice by line item or by
percentage of job estimates and easily track invoice details.
"The batch entry feature for online banking transactions saves me
valuable time spent entering and renaming transactions one-by-one and
it saves me from making errors in the process," says George Qualley of
Qualley and Bleyhl, P.L.C. in Des Moines, Iowa. "By expediting
transaction entry in a foolproof way, QuickBooks gives me more time to
focus on running my law firm."
Get Up and Running Fast
In addition to adding timesaving features, the 2012 release makes
getting started easier than ever for small businesses new to
QuickBooks. With the introduction of the Get Started Right program,
QuickBooks for Mac 2012 users receive one hour of free technical phone
support with a QuickBooks expert.
QuickBooks for Mac 2012 is scheduled to be available for purchase
directly from Intuit or by calling 888-729-1996 beginning Sept. 26. It
is expected to be available at Apple retail stores, Apple.com, Amazon,
Best Buy, Costco.com, Fry's, MacZones, Office Depot, OfficeMax, and
Staples on Oct 9.
Suggested retail prices are:
1-User: $229.95
2-User: $439.95
3-User: $599.95
Additional seats can be purchased for $209.95 each.
PR: Celtx is described by its
developer as the world's first all-in-one media preproduction project
management system for media creators and writers, replacing 'paper
& binder' preproduction with a digital approach that's more
complete, simpler to work with, and easier to share.
Celtx helps you produce all types of media film, video, documentary,
theatre, novels, machinima, comics, advertising, video games, music
video, radio, podcasts, and however else you choose to tell your
story.
You can use Celtx for the entire production process write scripts,
storyboard scenes and sequences, sketch setups, develop characters,
breakdown & tag elements, schedule productions, and prepare and
circulate informative reports for cast and crew.
Fully Integrated
Celtx is designed to help your entire production team work together
on a single, easy to share project file eliminating the confusion of
multiple project files, and the need for 'paper and binder'.
The Complete Media Preproduction System
Celtx on your desktop delivers the most fluid writing experience you
can always keep your fingers moving as fast as your thoughts and your
creative flow is never interrupted. Celtx Studios makes it simple to
share projects, manage workflow, and securely store your work. And
Celtx Script for the iPhone/iPad lets you write on the move, and sync
scripts with your desktop and your Studio.
Nonlinear Project Development
Celtx puts a choice of fully integrated development tools right at
your fingertips, giving you total flexibility to determine how your
story takes shape.
More than 1,000,000 media creators in 170 countries create with
Celtx in 30 different languages. Celtx is used by independent
filmmakers and studio professionals, and by students in over 1,800
universities and film schools many that have adopted Celtx for teaching
and class work submission.
Writing Tools
Celtx includes five dedicated industry
standard editors for writing:
Screenplay
Stageplay - International and US standard
AV scripts - including documentaries, music videos and
advertising.
Audio Play - including radio plays and podcasts.
Comic Book
Novel
Celtx includes the essential features that writers need to keep
their fingers moving - like intuitive formatting, text autocomplete,
page breaks, dual column dialog, scene management, scratchpad, embedded
notes, title page generation, pagination, printing, spellchecker,
keyboard shortcuts, find and replace, script importing and exporting,
PDF and HTML script reports, and collaboration.
Text Lock - The Text Lock feature enables a writer to lock a script
from further text editing, while still allowing others with whom they
share the project to continue working. This can be used to protect a
script while it is being marked up and broken down for production. The
script can be locked and unlocked as many times as needed.
Revision Mode - Revision mode provides writers with the ability to
lock scenes when editing a script that is in production. The feature
supports the Hollywood standard A and B scene nesting, an innovative
numeric mode, plus the ability to create your own unique nesting style
template. A 'Fix' feature can be used to manually change any scene
nesting. Revision mode also enables edits to be colour coded to help
keep track of changes made between revisions or by different
writers.
Adapt To - With a single click Adapt To converts any fully
formatted script of one type into a fully formatted script of another -
for example, a Stageplay to a Screenplay - displaying in an instant the
multimedia potential of your work.
TypeSet/PDF - TypeSet/PDF provides precise automatic formatting of
your script to industry and international standards. The Celtx server
uses the very powerful LaTex typesetting tool to deliver perfectly
formatted scripts, which can be saved within the feature in PDF format.
Full support is provided for optional formatting features like Mores
and Continueds, scene numbering, dialog numbering and paper size.
Index Cards - Celtx includes reversible, colour coded Index Cards
that are intelligently tied to your script and auto populate with the
Scene Headers and first 40 words or so of the scene. You can flip the
cards to type notes on the back, colour code them to track plot lines,
and drag and drop them to reorder scenes.
Story Development Forms - Celtx helps you develop your story with
preloaded forms for key elements like locations, scenes, props,
characters, and 32 other production categories. You can use the forms
to organize your thoughts and kick-start a media rich storyline that
includes sound files, images and video clips. Celtx story development
forms are intelligently tied into your script, informing the story and
each scene with valuable production information.
Template Engine - If the default setting for a Celtx project
doesn't fit your needs, you can create your own new, blank state
Template that will only open the documents you want.
Pre-Visualization Tools
Storyboarding - Take your media project to the next level by adding
a storyboard based on your script and adding individual or batch images
in to the storyboard. Each storyboard image is accompanied with a shot
description to help you communicate your creative vision. Rearrange
images and sequences within the project to construct your visual
narrative. Then when you're ready, use the slideshow feature to play
the images to help pre-visualize your media project.
Sketch Tool - The Sketch tool can be used to add overhead camera and
lighting setups to your projects. The Sketch tool includes preloaded
icons for camera, lights and people that can be tagged with text, and
tools for drawing lines, arrows, shapes and adding text. Plus,
professional art packs of additional images (e.g. girl, boy, crowd,
car, furniture/fixtures, etc.) can be purchased from the Celtx web
site.
Media Rich Breakdowns
You can add sound files, video clips, digital photos and scanned
documents to your project to create a media intensive breakdown. You
can then associate the media with any one of the 36 production
categories, including wardrobe, props, and locations.
Productivity Tools
Catalogs - Catalogs provide a way for you to organize and view the
many production items and research details required in the
preproduction stage of any media project. Each Celtx project includes a
Master Catalog which auto-populates as you breakdown your script,
ultimately providing a searchable dashboard view of all your story's
elements and production items. Additional Sub-Catalogs can be created
for specific production categories - like props, characters, and
wardrobe.
External Documents - You can add any document from any application
to your project - PDFs, budget spreadsheets, images, and scripts
written in other applications - to help stay organized.
Scheduling, Call Sheets and Shooting Reports - Celtx includes a
'Just In Time' Scheduling feature that lets you manage your projects in
real time. Open a schedule based on your script and drag and drop
scenes to the calendar to build your shooting schedule. Generate
customizable Shooting Reports to keep track of the resources you'll
need during shooting, including lists of props, actors, and wardrobe
items. Create Call Sheets to ensure your crew knows where and when to
show up for the shoot.
Inter-Project Document Management - You can also drag and drop
documents between projects. Grab a document from one Project Library
and drop it in to another Project Library and you're done.
Add-Ons
You can customize Celtx with add-on tools.
Customization helps you increase productivity and be more
creative.
Celtx Studios offer a feature-rich toolset to simplify and improve
the collaboration and workflow process.
Share projects quickly and easily.
Store every project, every version, and every file.
Manage team workflow.
Sync scripts with your iPad/iPhone.
Access projects from any computer.
Privately preview projects on the web.
Chat online with other Studio members.
Personalize your studio with logos and backgrounds.
Standard Celtx is free desktop software. Celtx Plus, which includes
Pro Add-Ons, is $14.99.
PR:
TenFourFox 6.0.1 is now available and is equivalent to Firefox 6.0.1,
repairing the issue with fraudulent SSL certificates released by
DigiNotar. Users should note that all previous versions of TenFourFox
are vulnerable to these certificates, so you are strongly urged to
upgrade. There are no other changes to this version, and as such, there
is no new changeset pack for builders (the old 6.0 one continues to
apply to the current release repository).
Optimized versions of TenFourFox are available for PowerPC G3,
G4/7400, G4/7450, and G5.
System requirements:
TenFourFox (hereafter "10.4Fx") requires a G3 Power Macintosh, Mac
OS X 10.4.11, 100 MB of free disk space and 256 MB of RAM. 512 MB of
RAM and a G4 or G5 processor is recommended. Video playback is likely
to be poor on systems slower than 1.25 GHz; a G5 is recommended. Mac OS
X 10.5.8 is supported.
Intel Macintoshes are not supported, but the G3 build is known to
run under Rosetta in 10.5.8 and should run under Rosetta in Intel
10.4.11. It is not tested with Snow Leopard. 10.4Fx will not run under
10.7 Lion, as Lion does not support Rosetta and 10.4Fx is not a
Universal binary.
Make sure you select the appropriate build for your Mac from the
download page. The G3 version will run on any supported Macintosh, but
it will not take advantage of the additional features of G4 or G5
processors. The G4 and G5 versions will not run correctly on a G3, and
the G5 version will perform worse on non-G5 Macintoshes.
If you are using a G4, you should try to choose the correct version
for your processor generation (7400 or 7450 "G4e") as performance may
be impaired if you run the wrong one. If you don't know which G4
processor you have, the instructions posted in Which Version will tell
you how to find out.
TenFourFox uses modified Firefox source code, rewritten to remain
compatible with Mac OS X v10.4 and the Power Macintosh. It also
contains specific optimizations and special features for PowerPC
processors. For this reason, it is not exactly the same as Firefox.
However, it is intended to be as compatible with it as possible,
including most add-ons and most standard features. You can treat 10.4Fx
as equivalent with Firefox 6.0 in most circumstances, with specific
exceptions noted below.
Note that add-ons which require an Intel Macintosh will not work
with TenFourFox, even if they are otherwise compatible with Firefox 6,
and add-ons that require 10.5 Leopard may not be compatible with
TenFourFox running on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, even if they are compatible
with PowerPC.
TenFourFox no longer supports plugins or Flash
Plugins on PowerPC are of special concern because Mozilla is making
updates to their plugin architecture which may require the plugins
themselves to be updated, and there are certain difficult-to-correct
bugs with them already on Tiger. Most importantly, Adobe Flash for
PowerPC is no longer maintained and has known security risks that can
crash or leak data, and QuickTime for Leopard will lose its own support
with the release of OS X Lion. In addition, Flash 10.1 is rapidly
becoming unsupported by many applications.
For Internet video, the developers strongly recommend the use of
Perian and any of the available video download add-ons for Firefox.
For YouTube, they recommend MacTubes (see below).
If you have a high-end G4 or G5, you can also use WebM for selected
videos by visiting http://www.youtube.com/html5 and
enabling HTML5 video. This will set a temporary cookie enabling
browser-based video without Flash. You do not need a YouTube account
for this feature, but you may need to periodically renew the cookie
setting. Not all video is available in WebM.
Mac of the Day: PowerBook 500 Series, introduced 1994.05.16. 'Blackbird' includes a 25 to 33 MHz 68040 along with smart batteries and grayscale or color displays.
We believe in the long term value of Apple hardware. You should be able to use your Apple gear as long as it helps you remain productive and meets your needs, upgrading only as necessary. We want to help maximize the life of your Apple gear.
We believe in the long term value of Apple hardware. You should be able to use your Apple gear as long as it helps you remain productive and meets your needs, upgrading only as necessary. We want to help maximize the life of your Apple gear.
All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat
Media. For price quotes and advertising information,
please contact
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We believe in the long term value of Apple hardware. You should be able to use your Apple gear as long as it helps you remain productive and meets your needs, upgrading only as necessary. We want to help maximize the life of your Apple gear.
Windows - 92.90%
PR: Seagate is shipping a new 4 TB GoFlex
Desk external hard drive - the highest capacity hard drive in the
industry. This latest addition to Seagate's GoFlex Family of external
hard drives showcases a streamlined industrial design that delivers a
smaller footprint and is purported to better reflect the aesthetic of
today's office environments while still providing all of the benefits
of previous GoFlex drive generations.
"Yet another industry first for Seagate, we have reached
a new high-capacity in the 3.5" hard drive form factor. At Seagate, we
are committed to pushing the limits for our customers and will continue
to adapt and innovate our products based on customer needs," says
Patrick Connolly, vice president and general manager of Retail products
for Seagate. "This latest GoFlex Desk drive offering, with its new
industry-leading capacity point, is a statement of our continued
commitment to meet consumer needs."
Magma's
ExpressBox 3T, their first Thunderbolt to PCI Express expansion
chassis, will be revealed at Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco
(Sept 13-15). ExpressBox 3T provides an 'outside-the-box' solution for
using PCIe cards with Thunderbolt-equipped computers. High-performance
flows are possible by connecting a Thunderbolt equipped computer to a
Magma ExpressBox 3T containing PCIe cards such as video capture, media
transcoding, audio processing, and fast data storage. And because
Thunderbolt is also based on DisplayPort technology, you can daisy
chain a high-resolution display with your Magma ExpressBox 3T.
PR: Other World
Computing (OWC) has announced a lower starting cost for installation of
a 6 Gb/s SSD via the OWC Turnkey Upgrade Installation Program for the
Mid 2011 Apple iMac. Starting from less than half the cost of factory
SSD options, the OWC program gives Mid 2011 iMac owners/buyers the
option of having OWC install up to three award winning, SandForce
Driven OWC Mercury 6G Solid State Drives up to 480 GB each and with
data rates over 2x faster than factory SSD options. Program options
also include a larger capacity hard drive up to 3.0 TB and certified
Memory Upgrades up to 32 GB. 27" iMac owners also have the option of
OWC installing the industry's only eSATA interface and experience data
transfer rates up to 600 MB/s. OWC's installation service program
offers multiple configuration options starting at $169 with a 48
business hours or less installation turnaround.
PR: Celtx is described by its
developer as the world's first all-in-one media preproduction project
management system for media creators and writers, replacing 'paper
& binder' preproduction with a digital approach that's more
complete, simpler to work with, and easier to share.
Celtx includes five dedicated industry
standard editors for writing:
PR:
TenFourFox 6.0.1 is now available and is equivalent to Firefox 6.0.1,
repairing the issue with fraudulent SSL certificates released by
DigiNotar. Users should note that all previous versions of TenFourFox
are vulnerable to these certificates, so you are strongly urged to
upgrade. There are no other changes to this version, and as such, there
is no new changeset pack for builders (the old 6.0 one continues to
apply to the current release repository).
PR:
MacTubes is YouTube video player and downloader.
