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Apple Forges Onward With Mac OS X 10.7

J.R. Bookwalter — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:00:56 -0600

Proving yet again that there’s no rest for the (not really) wicked, reports have surfaced today with evidence that Apple is already hard at work on the next version of Mac OS X, not even three months after the successful launch of 10.6 Snow Leopard.

Presumably to bear the Mac OS X 10.7 moniker, the new information was found amongst a database of changes to the open source “launchd” framework, which is in charge of processes running on the system as well as booting Mac OS X. This particular entry contains an error message with the text string “11A47” as a reference to the OS X build number being used.

Comparing this text string to previous ones shows that 11A47 is likely an entirely new OS X rather than a simple “point” update. As MacRumors points out, Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 was termed Build 10A432, while the subsequent 10.6.1 update was Build 10B504 and the 10.6.2 update released last week was Build 10C540. For comparison, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard had a build number of 9A571.

Given Apple’s historical build number schemes, 11A47 would refer to an early version of Mac OS X 10.7, which they have probably been tinkering away on for at least a month or two (if not longer). Speculation is already running rampant that the next version of Mac OS X will bring on the new features, especially in light of Snow Leopard 10.6 being primarily a tune-up for the future.

Of course, when we’ll see such a 10.7 announcement (let alone release) is anyone’s guess… let the games begin!

Microsoft Publicly Slaps Employee’s Hand For “Mac Look & Feel” Comment

J.R. Bookwalter — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:07:42 -0600

When it comes to Microsoft, it pays to be careful what you say in public. That’s what Simon Aldous found out the hard way recently when he proclaimed that Windows 7 “borrowed” a little bit of the Mac mojo during a recent reseller’s conference.

Aldous infamously gave credit to Apple for having a desirable operating system (according to a Microsoft study), going so far as to claim that Windows 7 wanted to “create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics.”

Needless to say, tech blogs had a field day with that quote — that is, until PCR Online, the computer and software reseller publication who first printed it, was found to have presumably gotten the story a tad bit wrong with regards to Aldous’ stature within the company.

Aldous was painted as being a Microsoft executive in his role of marketing manager for the Worldwide Partner Group. It didn’t take long for Brandon LeBlanc, a chief Microsoft online evangelist, to set the record straight: “Unfortunately this came from a Microsoft employee who was not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7. I hate to say this about one of our own, but his comments were inaccurate and uninformed.”

BetaNews.com went so far as to cite Windows 7’s “revised taskbar” as proof of the Mac inspiration, which compares favorably to the Finder’s Dock. They make it clear, however, that no one at Microsoft felt the same way when the feature was introduced at last year, despite audience questions to the contrary.

Of course, it’s not the first time that Windows has been accused of emulating the Mac, but it may be the last coming from anyone up in Redmond, if Microsoft has anything to say about it.

Mac OS X 10.6.2 Now Prowling The Streets

Cory Bohon — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:53:22 -0600

Apple has finally released Mac OS X 10.6.2, the update that might be ill-fated for Hackintosh netbook users.

The 10.6.2 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system patches that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes for:

an issue that might cause your system to logout unexpectedly
a graphics distortion in Safari Top Sites
Spotlight search results not showing Exchange contacts
a problem that prevented authenticating as an administrative user
issues when using NTFS and WebDAV file servers
the reliability of menu extras
an issue with the 4-finger swipe gesture
an issue that causes Mail to quit unexpectedly when setting up an Exchange server
Address Book becoming unresponsive when editing
a problem adding images to contacts in Address Book
an issue that prevented opening files downloaded from the Internet
Safari plug-in reliability
general reliability improvements for iWork, iLife, Aperture, Final Cut Studio, MobileMe, and iDisk
an issue that caused data to be deleted when using a guest account

For more information about this update you can visit Apple's website. If you are a netbook owner, you might want to consider holding off on updating until we get confirmation that this update kills support for the Intel Atom processor, as previously reported.

Apple To Kill The Hackintosh Netbook Dream?

Cory Bohon — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:01:05 -0600

According to developer rumblings, the Hackintosh netbook could be a thing of the past if Apple has anything to do with it.

The Hackintosh netbook has flourished as OS X users fill the netbook gap left by Apple. Sure, they might have violated the DMCA, and ended up with cramped keyboards, but they brought a dream to life.

According to OS X Daily, Apple could be killing support for the Intel Atom processor (the small processor that makes many netbooks tick) with the next Mac OS X 10.6 update (10.6.2).

If you have a Intel Atom Hackintosh netbook, we'd advise that you not update to the next iteration of Snow Leopard until this information can be verified. Or you could just wait until the Hackintosh community comes up with a new way to boot your netbook with Snow Leopard.

OS X Daily via Engadget

Verizon Offers FiOS Media Manager for OS X

Cory Bohon — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:29:57 -0600

Last week Verizon offered up a Media Manager for OS X that will stream iTunes content to a FiOS DVR.

While the software has been around for Windows for some time, this is Verizon's first offering for Mac users.

According to the Media Manger page on Verizon's website, the application allows you to, "broadcast your iPhoto and iTunes media to your TV directly through your FiOS TV DVR."

The software allows you to stream playlists, share albums and slideshows, and view photo events directly on your TV. The requirements are pretty minimal, requiring you to have a FiOS set-top box, Mac OS X 10.4 or higher, iTunes 7 or higher, iPhoto 6 or higher, and QuickTime 7 or higher.

You can download the application for your Mac and view a video of it in action on the Verizon website.

Via Gizmodo

The Worst Idea Ever? Ad Supported OS.

J Keirn-Swanson — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:50:39 -0500

This latest Apple patent application isn't for anything cool or fun like touch screen gestures requiring both hands or anything tablet related. No, this is for an ad-supported OS that could make an operating system either entirely or partially funded by advertisements, meaning free to the end user.

While such a scheme might make business heads whir, the idea of a computer that features "visual or audible" advertisements that disable "one or more functions while the advertisement is being presented," sounds like user hell. We can just imagine writing really starting to come together, you're in the zone and the words are simply flying out of you, when all of a sudden the keyboard ceases working and up pops a cheesy Mentos commercial. And all your inspiration is gone.

Count us out, Steve-o.

An Apple Through Their Windows

J Keirn-Swanson — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:15:56 -0500

With the upcoming launch on October 22nd of the newest Windows OS, Apple's Senior VP of Marketing, Phil Schiller, sees a huge opportunity for Cupertino to snag a few more customers away from Redmond. "It presents a very good opportunity for us."

One such tactic is explained thus. "Any user that reads all [these] steps is probably going to freak out," Schiller explains. What steps? Well XP users who want to upgrade will have to save all their documents and data to an external hard drive, reformat their PC's hard drive, install Windows 7, then reload all their software and all their documents. And somewhere around 80% of Windows users are still on XP as opposed to Vista. Notes Schiller, "If you have to go through all that, why not just buy a Mac?"

The process does sound rather complicated and time-consuming, though Apple may have an uphill battle in a depressed economy. While users may be put off by the hassles in reinstalling software, the question remains whether or not they'll want to purchase the higher-end Mac as well as all new Mac versions of software they already own in a PC iteration.

Schiller didn't state whether or not Apple was planning any specific sales around Windows 7's launch date nor did he mention any price reductions, though such a short-term move might pay off with long-term dividends. Convincing users of Mac's better safety against virii and other malware and its greater operating stability are only of limited appeal, but paired with price cuts the effect could dampen Microsoft's sales numbers.

The one thing you can count on, though, will be all new pitches targeting Windows users with older, limping along XP machines wary of upgrading after the disaster of Vista. We expect to see returning characters of Mac (Justin Long) and PC (John Hodgman) get in on the action sooner rather than later.

Apple Offers Leopard/Snow Leopard Performance Updates

Cory Bohon — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:46:42 -0500

Today Apple offered up an update to fix hard drive problems that some Mac users were reporting. The Performance Updates for both Leopard and Snow Leopard are supposed to, "[Address] intermittent hard drive-related stalls reported by a small number of customers."

A few Mac users were experiencing these hard drive-related problems, and these problems have been reported for a while now.

You can download this update by visiting the Apple Support Downloads page for Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) or Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6), or you can open Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update). Apple has also created a page detailing the steps needed for installing this update.

Not all Macs need this update. The Macs affected are:

MacBook Air (Mid 2009), MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2009), MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009), MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2009), MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.53GHz, Mid 2009), iMac (20-inch, Mid 2009), MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009), MacBook (13-inch, Early 2009), MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2009), MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008), MacBook Air (Late 2008), MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008), iMac (24-inch, Early 2009), iMac (20-inch, Early 2009), Mac mini (Early 2009)