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Panther, Tiger Leopard: Apple’s OS X on iMac, PowerBook, iBook, MacBook, PowerMac and more.

Things You Should Know Before Switching To Mac

By on May 14, 2006 in Apple Macintosh OS X, Technology

OSNews: Things You Should Know Before Switching to Mac. “Macs 'just work' so often, and so well, that I'd rather just use my computer than spend all my time maintaining it. There are already scores of religious fanboy zealots who are going to tell you how great the Mac is, and why you should switch. I'm not going to. I'll let them convince you. But beware. Just because the Mac is an excellent computer, that doesn't mean it's panacea. Here are some things you're going to want to pay attention to as you switch.”

Good article. I am a “user” on the Mac: mail, web browsing, blogging, and terminal into other machines where I work. I've made little effort to learn more than I needed to know to get my mail and make backups. The machine is elegantly easy for that

Parallels Virtual Machine for Mac OS X Intel

By on April 8, 2006 in Apple Macintosh OS X, Linux, Microsoft, Technology

The surprise earlier this week was the Boot Camp software to dual boot Intel Mac machines into Windows XP. I knew there were already hacks out there to do it, but didn’t expect official support. But Apple and Microsoft seem to be behind it. The problem with dual-boot (or treble-boot: my ThinkPad offers WinXP, Kubuntu {dapper drake rocks!} and CentOS) is that it seems you’re never in the OS you want to be. Need to switch to Kubuntu to print some labels in gLabels? Shut down Windows (3 minutes), boot Kubuntu (2 minutes), load the labels and print. The next thing you need to do? Probably in one of the other OSes. The right answer is to run all of the OSes as Virtual Machines – all running and idling, or able to start and stop as needed without losing the already booted OS. VMWare is one of several companies doing this.

Linux also has a real contender in Xen, a native virtualization engine.

At LinuxWorld Boston this week, I visited the very low-key Apple booth and heard that something similar is on its way for the Mac: Parallels for Mac OS X is in beta and will allow simultaneous VMs running Windows, Linux, BSD, Solaris or other OSes run on top of the host OS on the Intel Macs. That’s the ticket! Toggling between the OSes sounds like the right solution. Looking forward to seeing these products mature.

Apple offers Boot Camp to let IntelMacs run WinXP

By on April 5, 2006 in Apple Macintosh OS X, Microsoft, Technology

Apple announces “More and more people are buying and loving Macs. To make this choice simply irresistible, Apple will include technology in the next major release of Mac OS X, Leopard, that lets you install and run the Windows XP operating system on your Mac. Called Boot Camp (for now), you can download a public beta today.”

Stunning. I didn’t see this one coming at all.

Apple fixing MacBook Pro issues

By on April 4, 2006 in Apple Macintosh OS X

Slashdot post: Apple Begins Fixing MacBook Pro Issues. Hack Jandy writes “For those of you who bought one of the first generation Macbook Pros, a new replacement may be in your future. Flickering LCDs, overheating and intermittent WiFi connections are all common place for many of these first generation machines, but apparently Apple is fixing the problem. The article claims ‘According to Apple, it has begun replacing the mainboard inside its MacBook Pros with a new revision. It calls the updated product “revision D,” which is identifiable by product serial number.’ If you have a reservation at an Apple Store, they may even replace your MBP with a new one.”

Good for Apple! Shipping innovative hardware is risky business – hardware in the field will always show problems that don’t come up in testing. Apple (and Dell and Toshiba and everyone else) has had their fair share of leaking capacitors, overheating power supplies and faulty LCD panels. Good to see they are aggressively rewarding the early adoptors with support!

OS X 10.4.6 Released

By on April 4, 2006 in Apple Macintosh OS X

OSNews post: MacOS 10.4.6 Released. “The 10.4.6 Update is recommended for all users and includes general operating system fixes, as well as specific fixes for the following applications and technologies: login and authentication in a variety of network environments; file access and byte range locking with AFP file sharing; network access when using proxy server automatic configuration files; searching iWork ’06 and Microsoft Office documents with Spotlight; creating Automator workflows for iPhoto 6; synchronizing contacts and calendars to .Mac and mobile phones; and much more.” There’s a delta update for 10.4.5, and a combo update for 10.4.0-10.4.5. Easiest method is to just use Software Update.”

Patch those patches!

By on March 19, 2006 in Apple Macintosh OS X, Security

Apple Issues Updated Security Fix. Apple released another version of the security patch it distributed on March 13 to users of its OS X operating system software, in order to address a problem reported with the update. The company said it distributed the new patch, dubbed Update 2006-002 v1.1, in order to fix an issue with Apple’s Safari Web browser that some users observed after installing its 2006-002 security update. According to a post on the company’s Web site, the previous update had caused some Safari users to have problems launching the browser. [OSNews]

Apple attempts to patent RSS in a browser?

By on March 8, 2006 in Apple Macintosh OS X, Technology

Over at Scripting News, Dave Winer notes “Apple is patenting our inventions, again. Oy.”

Software patents are a horrible idea. A patent is a monopoly on an idea. If every original thinker can patent their ideas, no one can be allowed to think. This is nonsense. Apple should be able to copyright their expression of the idea (in this case, some very unoriginal and derivative ideas of displaying XML, in my opinion) so that their work cannot be directly copied, but they cannot be allowed to have exclusive ownership of the *idea* of displaying some variants of XML in a browser. I, for one, do not have the resources to engage in a patent dispute with Apple over my RSS reader. This creates a chilling effect in an industry where all vendors are demanding the Right to Innovate.

Apple ships new Mac Minis

By on March 1, 2006 in Apple Macintosh OS X

Computerworld News notes Apple unveils Intel-powered Mac minis. “Apple Computer’s Mac mini became the company’s latest offering to make the transition to Intel processors today, with one of the two new models featuring a dual-core chip.”

Quick summary: Intel single-core 1.5 MHz, 512 Mb, 60 Gb, read-only DVD for $600. Intel dual-core 1.67, 512, 80, DVD-write, $800. Great boxes with infrared interfaces for remote control, could be neat system to add to your home theater stack.

The Real Windows Vista

By on February 27, 2006 in Apple Macintosh OS X, Microsoft

Over on the ProFox mailing list, Ed Leafe links to a new video showing off the “Real Windows Vista.” Absolutely hysterical and dead on. I, for one, cannot wait to experience the power of Microsoft Windows Vista. Wait! I already have!

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This work by Ted Roche is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.