Time Machine isn't cleared for landing at the AirPort. (OK, that pun was bad.) If you've upgraded to Leopard, you may have been disappointed to discover that Time Machine can't back up to a hard drive attached to your AirPort Extreme Base Station, even though Apple had touted that feature during its Leopard previews at the last couple of WWDCs. AppleInsider reports today that an Apple...um, insider has said that the company considers this a bug and has engineering teams working on a solution. But when we asked Apple the same thing during our Leopard demo in Cupertino, they told us, "We didn't include this feature." Hmmm. We hope this signals a change of heart for Apple.
In other Leopard headlines: The OS has been cracked for use on x86 PCs. Apple Matters calls it "reminiscent of Vista." But there's a lot inside for developers. If you're a customization fan, here's how to make your Dock look like the sky, or make your icons walk the plank. And yesterday we posted a growing Leopard compatibility list, but today we've also found the flip side, a handy Leopard incompatibility list.
More software news. .Mac subscribers are irked that the Sync service is still under maintenance that started October 19. Here's a good explanation of why Mac OS X will never be as vulnerable to malware as Windows. And if you don't own Office 2004 and you're tired of waiting for Office 2008, you could go buy Office 2004 now and then get Office 2008 for just the cost of shipping when it finally ships. Interestingly, both licenses remain valid, so you could put Office 2004 on one Mac and Office 2008 on another.
Seagate pays up. Seagate has settled a lawsuit about the storage capacity of its drives being less than advertised. The company will offer rebates to anyone who bought a Seagate drive between March 2001 and December 2006. Make sure to check the drives inside your external enclosures, too.
Reaction to Time's iPhone love: As we mentioned yesterday, Time named the iPhone the Invention of the Year. But some are rolling their eyes. iPhone Matters explains why Time should be embarrassed by this choice considering some of the true inventions that came out this year, and a ZDNet blogger stresses that the iPhone is a product, "NOT an 'invention,'" and so far the reader poll agrees. What do you think? Hit up the comments.
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bigj6360
November 05, 2007 at 2:14pm
In reply to the mine, no mine, no mine, no mine scenario, I believe apple could simply require that any airport connected disk be partitioned for each computer based on machine ID, or name provided by the user. It could ask at the onset, how many machines are anticipated to be used by time machine, the size of their hard drives, and whether or not there is to be a spare partition set aside for file storage.
Of course the files on the drive will need to be saved somewhere else before the partitioning, unless they could scan the drive for free space and present that as an option as well, along side another option to erase the drive.
I don't know, but I think it can be done fairly simply for the user, and prevent overwriting by time machining computers.
just 2 cents.
Warren Rempel
November 05, 2007 at 12:30pm
I've heard, on the Sketchucation web site
http://www.sketchucation.com/scf/index.php
that there are some compatibility problems with Google SketchUp Pro software.
Anonymous
November 03, 2007 at 10:48pm
its an invation!!! If not some one else would had sold it first. But insted they are trying to copy!
Patrick
November 03, 2007 at 8:41pm
I believe the Air Port drive capability was initially created to act as a shared server for a LAN. If this drive is used for Time Machine, it would be linked to a single computer. All the other Macs on the network would, however, be able to access the drive and maybe set it up as their Time Machine. I can only start to imagine the mess this would create: Mine.. No... Mine ... No .. No... Mine!!!
Patrick
November 03, 2007 at 8:32pm
I have to admit I agreed with the idea of calling the iPhone "Product of the year" instead of an invention. But after I read the complete Time article, I changed my mind. Actually, Time did not award the product itself, but rather, the concept of it and what it represents for the future of, not only cell phones, but the entire mobile computing industry.
The Major
November 03, 2007 at 10:09am
I don't really understand why there are so many people making a huge stink over gizmos gagets and what have you. It's like the entire ripping on Leopard for bugs. As I read in an article previously here on MacLife. It's a .0 release. There are bound to be bugs. People should just be thankful for what they got.
The iPhone in a way is an invention. Never before has a cell phone been created and designed in such an original way. I don't believe I've ever seen a cell phone with only one real button on it. One that is all touch interface and thus allows it to be a very very flexible platform. Even with Apples tight leash on the iPhone it's got a lot of flexiblity and potential.
Roland
November 02, 2007 at 11:38pm
The more appropriate title should have been "innovation of the year". Apple did not invent the cell phone. Rather, it made possible the evolution of an otherwise dead technology.
Cell phone companies as well as providers had become lazy - pushing out only what was needed to keep the customer from throwing a brick through store window.
The iPhone isn't perfect but certainly does exert market force upon phone makers and service providers to give us something
better than the mediocre products and service to date.
The Doctor
November 02, 2007 at 3:38pm
Let's face it, Steve Jobs is not from Gallifrey.
Ben
November 02, 2007 at 1:01pm
I personally can't see Apple leaving Airport Disk out of the equation as this would be a really good and easy solution for owners of laptops. The only problem I think this would propose would probably be the initial backup. I can't imagine shooting several gigabytes over WiFi, even if you have draft N built into your Mac. Yikes!
Anonymous
November 02, 2007 at 12:28pm
I agree, that Time goofed by choosing the iPhone as the invention of the year. "Most Hyped Product" maybe, but not "Invention of the year." There are too many short comings with it and too many other true inventions out there that we probably don't even know about, that would be better pics. This is coming from someone who can't wait to get their nappy hands on one, too!
