This Week's Apple and Desktop Mac News
PowerBook, iBook, MacBook, and other portable computing is covered
in The 'Book Review. iPod, iPhone,
and Apple TV news is covered in The iNews
Review.
All prices are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.
News & Opinion
Apple Updates
Products
Software
News & Opinion
Proof That Macs Are Cheaper than PCs
Salon's Farhad Manjoo
says:
"It's time to buy an Apple computer. Indeed, it's been that time for
the past five years, at least, but only now, slowly, are people waking
up to this fact....
"This simple truth is dawning: If we forget about computer-industry
network effects and monopolistic business practices, if we forget
Apple's various ancient missteps - if we're going just by what's better
- the ages-old Mac-vs.-PC debate is over. Long over. Yell it from the
rooftops: The Mac has won.
"And yet, you're not buying an Apple computer. Most of the world
isn't. There is probably a single overwhelming reason you're clinging
to Windows. Macs are expensive. This is what you've been told, and in
your research, it's seemed to check out.
"The present article is an attempt to prove to you that, on price
alone, the Mac is not the BMW of computers. It is the Ford of
computers. I am not arguing that the Mac is cheaper only if you
consider the psychic benefits conferred by its quality. Rather I'm
going to illustrate something more straightforward: Even though you may
pay a slight premium at the cash register for a Mac over a comparable
Windows PC (a premium that gets slighter all the time), it will cost
you less money - real, honest-to-goodness American dollars - to own
that Mac than to own that PC."
Link: Once
and for All, Proof That Macs Are Cheaper than PCs
Leopard Spanks Vista, Continues OS X's Reign of
Excellence
Computerworld's Scot Finnie says:
"This story caps off a truly comprehensive wave of Mac OS X 10.5
Leopard coverage from Computerworld. Our readers have asked for more
operating system coverage, and we're delivering.
"Our Week of Leopard package covers many aspects of what's new in
the latest Apple operating system...
"The questions that remain are these: Is Leopard a truly great OS?
How does it stack up against its predecessor, Tiger, and Windows Vista?
Should you get this thing for yourself? Should you recommend it for
your company?....
"Throughout the four years of the Vista development process, I
tested and evaluated at least 15 different alphas and betas of the
operating system, spending hundreds of hours evaluating the late
prereleases and the final editions. Likewise, I spent countless hours
testing Leopard, both in prerelease form and the final version now
available to the public. What I found after all that testing is that
despite their similarities on paper, Leopard and Vista are nothing
alike.
"Vista has a cover-Microsoft's-butt, designed-by-corporate-committee
feel, while Leopard tightly adheres to Apple's well-honed
user-interface design principles. In numerous small ways, Apple has
improved its OS, while Microsoft has, in a plethora of ways, changed
Windows - not always for the better...
"There's really no contest. Tiger is a better OS than Vista, and
there are no long-term downsides to Leopard. Vista doesn't measure
up...."
Link:
The Verdict: Leopard Spanks Vista, Continues OS X's Reign of
Excellence
Macintel vs. PowerPC: New Road to Recovery Worse
Than Old One
As a PowerPC holdout Luddite, I found this article very interesting.
cm
InfoWorld's
Tom Yager says:
"Now that an Intel-based Mac is a dead x86 PC, how do you bide your
time until the replacement comes in?I always do my best to turn
misfortune into opportunities for enlightenment, and oh, what
enlightenment the past couple of weeks has placed within my grasp. When
the MacBook Pro loaned to me by Apple slipped into a coma during a
full-volume image backup and subsequently died in my arms, I was forced
to deal head-on with the impact of Apple's switch in suppliers and with
an irrecoverable loss of data and productivity - a hardship I've never
faced in five years with Macs. I lost a full month's worth of work,
research, and creative projects, along with every application that
requires registration keys and online activation. I can barely conceal
my glee at having so grand an opportunity as this to learn a new
way.
"I'll be pilloried for this comment, but this wouldn't happen to a
PowerPC Mac. You see, there was no reference design for a PowerPC
notebook. Apple had to do all its own cooking, and that included the
creation of an independent system management controller. It took a
mummy's curse to put a PowerPC Mac in a fully unrecoverable state. A
Mac's firmware could boot into several recovery states, ranging from
Target Disk Mode to a firmware boot prompt, even when a Mac would not
boot. It was Apple's home-brewed system management controller that gave
Mac folk legitimate bragging rights with regard to reliability; you had
to do something truly nasty to kill a PowerPC Mac.
"In contrast, the only way that an x86 PC, Apple's or anyone else's,
can match the PowerPC Mac's resiliency is if it has a dedicated
Baseboard Management Controller, which only higher-end PC servers,
including Apple's Xserve, have. Otherwise, the only thing a PC does in
firmware is initialize buses and catalog devices. Then it hands control
to the CPU, which pulls a boot block from storage or the LAN. Intel's
Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) is tidier than the old PC BIOS, but
it steps out of the boot process at the same point that a PC BIOS does.
A PC that can't boot is dead. A PowerPC Mac that wouldn't boot was a
diagnostic challenge...."
Link:
MacIntel vs. PowerPC - The New Road to Recovery Is Worse Than the Old
One
Regular Mac Users: Wait for v10.5.1 to Upgrade
ZDnet blogger Robin Harris
says:
"I've used a lot of operating systems starting with the late, great
TOPS-20 on DEC's 36-bit DECsystems. Also VMS, RSTS, CP/M, MS-DOS,
Windows versions 3.1 to XP, Solaris and Mac OS versions 6 to 10.5
Leopard.
"My definition of a great OS is one that makes it easy to get work
done. It is consistent, intuitive and flexible. It gets out of your way
when you know what you want to do. And it is stable.
"That's why I prefer Mac OS X
"However, the upgrade from 10.4.10 to 10.5.0 hasn't been as clean as
I'd like. It has cost me hours of work time. I'm lucky because my work
has to do with computers, I have some very smart, Mac-savvy friends and
over 25 years of hard won experience figuring out workarounds.
"In short, I'm not a Mac user who just uses their Mac as a computing
appliance. I'm very interested in the how and what of my Mac. I like
playing with my computer. But I also know lots of busy people who don't
have time to mess around. And to those people I say 'Wait for 10.5.1 to
upgrade!'"
Link: Regular Mac
Users: Wait for v10.5.1 to Upgrade
First Builds of Mac OS X 10.5.1 Pack Over Two Dozen
Fixes
AppleInsider
Staff report:
"Moving quickly to address issues in the inaugural version of its
Leopard operating system, Apple on Wednesday tapped its developer
community to begin testing the first maintenance and bug fix update to
the software, labeled Mac OS X 10.5.1.
"The Cupertino-based Mac maker initiated the testing process by
offering software developers access to Mac OS X 10.5.1 build 9B13,
which weighed in at a hefty 267MB, according to people familiar with
the process.
"Among the fixes already baked into the first test build are
corrections to Leopard's application Firewall, Spotlight indexing, iCal
syncing, Keychain login and text drawing corruption."
Link:
First Builds of Mac OS X 10.5.1 Pack Over Two Dozen Fixes -
Report
Early 2005 Mac mini: No Leopard for You!
9 to 5 Mac's
Chauncey Dupree says:
"If you bought a new G4 Mac mini
before July 26, 2005 with the base configuration and you are looking to
upgrade to Leopard, we have some bad news for you. You can't. You see
these machines only came with 256MB of warranty-voiding non upgradable
RAM.
"That is unfortunate.
"Your Options:
- "Be content with Tiger
- "Get a putty knife and 3rd part memory upgrade (1Gb whynot?) then
upgrade.
- "Start the mini it in Firewire Target disk mode and upgrade it from
a newer Mac. It runs slow but ok."
Editor's note: "Warranty-voiding"? "Non upgradable"? What world is
Dupree living in? First off, the warranty on Apple computers is one
year. Further, replacing the RAM didn't void the warranty when the
computer was covered, so even if it's under AppleCare, it's okay.
dk
Link: 2
and 1/3 years old Mac mini. No Leopard for you!
Apple Updates
Apple Releases QuickTime 7.3 for Leopard, Tiger,
and Panther
Whether you are creating content for delivery on cell phones,
broadcast or the Internet, or a software developer looking to take your
application to the next level, QuickTime provides the most
comprehensive platform in the industry.
For detailed information on the security content of this update, see
Apple
security updates.
QuickTime 7.3 for Leopard
With a rock-solid foundation that you can trust and a host of
innovative features that create the most cutting-edge multimedia
experiences for your customers, QuickTime is the obvious choice for all
of your digital media needs.
QuickTime 7.3 addresses critical security issues and delivers:
- Support for iTunes 7.5<BR>
- Updated support for creating iPhone-compatible web content
- Updated JavaScript support in the QuickTime Web Plug-in
- Numerous bug fixes
This release is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users.
52.6MB
System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.5 or later
QuickTime 7.3 for Tiger
QuickTime 7.3 addresses critical security issues and delivers:
- Support for iTunes 7.5
- Updated support for creating iPhone-compatible web content
- Updated JavaScript support in the QuickTime Web Plug-in
- Numerous bug fixes
This release is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users.
49.3MB
System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4.9 or later
QuickTime 7.3 for Panther
QuickTime 7.3 addresses critical security issues and delivers:
- Support for iTunes 7.5
- Updated support for creating iPhone-compatible web content
- Updated JavaScript support in the QuickTime Web Plug-in
- Numerous bug fixes
This release is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users.
51.5MB
System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.3.9
Apple Releases iMac Software Update 1.2.1
(Tiger)
This update is for 20-inch and
24-inch aluminum iMac computers with 2.0, 2.4, or 2.8 GHz
processors running Mac OS X Tiger.
It improves the performance and reliability of graphics-intensive
games and applications and fixes an issue that some customers
encountered when installing Mac OS X Leopard after applying iMac
Software Update 1.2.
For further information on this Update, see About iMac Software Update
1.2.1 for Tiger.
13.3MB
System Requirements
- Mac OS X 10.4.10
- iMac (Late 2007)
Link:
Apple Releases iMac Software Update 1.2.1 (Tiger)
Apple Releases Hard Drive Update 1.0 for Core 2
iMacs, Mac Pro
The Hard Drive Update 1.0 includes bug fixes and important updates
for the following systems:
To complete the firmware update process, please follow the
instructions in the updater application (/Applications/Utilities/Hard
Drive Update 1.0.app). The updater will launch automatically when the
Installer closes.
File Size: 1.4MB
System Requirements:
- Mac OS X 10.4.7 or later
- iMac Core 2 Duo
- Mac Pro
Link: Apple
Releases Hard Drive Update 1.0
IMC Middle-East Releases Mac OS X 10.4.10 Tiger
Arabic as Free Download
Apple's Middle-East distributor has released a free download of the
Arabic localization of Mac OS X 10.4.10 Tiger.
Link: Mac OS X 10.4.10
Arabic
Products
Mac Pride Pin
PR:
Apple recently rolled out an amazing looking keyboard with the new
iMacs that is thin, thin, thin! Like, insane thin. It's almost
frightening....
It's time to
embrace the big bulky Apple keyboards of the 80's and 90's. Wear your
vintage Apple keyboard pin as an ode to the most bulky, detached
keyboards our friends at Apple ever produced.
Rescued from a life in the e-waste pile at our local landfill, these
mud-covered keys have been transformed into Mac-Pride pins for wearers
to show their religion wherever they deem fit.
Very limited quantities
$4.95 each
Link:
Mac Pride Pin
Peachpit Announces Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
Books
PR: Peachpit has announced the launch of new titles designed
to enable readers to get the most out of the powerful features of
Leopard, Apple's latest Mac operating system upgrade. The new books are
aimed at all levels of users and cover all that's new in the OS,
including Time Machine, Spaces, and Quick Look.
The first two books to be available are:
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: Visual QuickStart Guide by Maria
Langer (ISBN-10: 0-321-49600-0), the visual guide to Leopard's
groundbreaking capabilities. With hundreds of screenshots to clearly
illustrate step-by-step techniques, this guide is a great reference to
the essentials of Mac OS X Leopard, including new and revamped
applications.
Download Chapter 7 for free now at
http://www.peachpit.com/leopard.
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: Peachpit Learning Series by Robin
Williams (ISBN-10: 0-321-50263-9), an essential training book for
getting started with Leopard and capitalizing on all the new features.
This book allows readers to learn in their own way - whether it's
working through the lessons start to finish, jumping straight to
step-by-step exercises about new features, or looking up just what they
need to know at that moment.
The following books and ebooks will be available soon:
The Little Mac Book, Leopard Edition by Robin Williams
(ISBN-10: 0-321-50941-2) adopts a back-to-basics approach to introduce
users to Leopard. In a gentle, friendly style, this Mac community
classic shows readers how to dive in and start working with the Mac and
OS X Leopard.
Automator for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: Visual QuickStart Guide
by Ben Waldie (ISBN-10: 0-321-53935-4) uses a combination of task-based
instruction and strong visuals to teach intermediate Mac users how to
automate repetitive, time-consuming tasks with the Automator
application that is included with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.
For Leopard users who can't wait for the printed book, Automator for
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard will be available as a Rough Cut through Safari
Books Online beginning November 2, 2007. While the book is in progress,
users can choose to purchase electronic access with unlimited viewing
and PDF downloads of each revision, pre-purchase the print book, or get
the best of both worlds - electronic access immediately and the printbook later. Free trials of Safari Books Online are available now.
Visit peachpit.com/leopard for detailed
descriptions, pricing, availability, sample chapters, and articles,
including "How to Get the Most Out of Leopard's Spaces," by Ryan Faas,
"Top Ten Leopard Features That Will Change How You Use Your Mac," by
Maria Langer and "Robin Williams's Guide to the Most Overlooked New
Leopard Features," by Robin Williams.
Software
Dashboard KickStart Speeds Widget
Loading
PR: Eliminates long Dashboard startup sequence
Dashboard KickStart is not a widget. With Dashboard KickStart,
you'll always have the Dashboard ready to use the first time you want.
Without it you'll have to wait for a complete Dashboard start-up
sequence as soon as you are ready to use it for a first time, making
its quick accessibility rather useless.
This application runs in the background and reacts to the starting
or re-starting of the Dock. When that happens it initiates the starting
of the Dashboard. This prevents the delay you'll experience when
launching Dashboard the first time you want to use it.
This application can only fullfil its purpose when it opens at
login, it will ask you to allow it as a login item the first time you
start it up.
What does it do ?
Within moments after startup, Dock restart or awake from sleep, the
application will quickly open and dismiss the dashboard, allowing all
of your widgets to initiate their start-up sequence. When you are ready
to use them, only minimal initialisation time will remain.
New in version 2.3:
Changes since 2.2
- Added Leopard Compatibility, please note that the previous
'Dashboard effect' has been extended with a quick 'Exposé
effect' in order to make it work in OS X 10.5 Leopard.
- Graphics updated for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.
- Under Leopard the settings window will no longer display the number
of widgets currently active.
Changes since 2.0
- Fixed the delay after startup, the program now correctly responses
to 'Wait until activate'
- Added Korean localization, Thanks to Dong Sung Kim
- Interface updates
- Extended the 'Wait until activate' to a maximum of 90 seconds
- Extended the 'Wait after awake' to a maximum 10 seconds
- Added French localization, thanks to Thomas Didrel
- Added Japanese localization, thanks to Yuzuru Shiraiwa
System requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
System Support: PPC/Intel
Free
Link: Dashboard
KickStart
Desktop Mac
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