ComputerWorld's Preston Gralla posted a blog entry titled, Five reasons why Vista beats Mac OS X. Clearly, this was link-bait, but you know what, I'll bite.
And although I vehemently disagree with the post's title and assertion, I want to make it clear that I'm not coming at this from the typical rabid Mac-fangirl stance. Until August of last year, I still used a PC as my primary computer (I used Macs at school and for creative work); I used to work as a PC technician. In our TUAW backchannel chat, I'm usually the first person to take the "don't knee-jerkingly attack the PC" stance.
Still, it was impossible to read the post and NOT respond. Let's take a look at Mr. Gralla's arguments and dissect them one-by-one.
So I finally had a chance to watch that Leopard guided tour that everybody has seen already this week, and one thing struck me like a bricked iPhone thrown directly at my head: boy, Apple really does love iTunes, don't they? It's everywhere in Leopard, from the unified toolbars to the Finder with its CoverFlow interface and drop-down sidebars. Leopard might as well be called the iTunes OS.
But in the future, a few months from now, we can only hope that some of Leopard functionality comes back around, and beefs up our iPhones and iPod touches. Until then, we've got this awesome hack-- someone has put Leopard's stack functionality onto the iPhone's little dock. Very cool-- if you made all four of the icons on the dock into four little stacks, you could have all of the application access, and none of the clutter.
Especially when the SDK comes out (and already, those with jailbroken iPhones are feeling the icon squeeze), we're going to need expansion slots like this. Apple clearly borrowed lots of ideas from iTunes and the iPhone in their new OS, and with this idea, it's time to start borrowing them back.
If you're reading TUAW (which you're doing right now!) then I suspect there are one or two things amongst the 300+ new features in Leopard that have whetted your appetite. Don't pre-order just yet though, because you have to make sure that your Mac can handle all that Leopardy goodness.
Here are the minimum specs your Mac will need to run Leopard, according to Apple:
Intel, G5, or 867MHz+ G4 processor
512 megs of RAM (though if you only have 512 megs of RAM you should get some more. Trust me, I'm a pundit)
DVD drive (Leopard is shipping on a DVD, and your Mac needs to read it to be able to install it)
9GB of free disk space (though I bet if you customize the install and leave out all those printer drivers and extra languages you can save lots of space)
In addition some features have further requirements:
Time Machine requires a hard drive in addition to your boot disk (external or internal is fine, I would imagine)
Photo Booth requires a camera of some kind (shocking!) and a processor better than a G4. If you want to do those wacky backdrop effects you'll need an Intel Core Duo or faster
Screensharing requires a speeding net connection (300 Kbps is Apple's recommendation)
DVD player requires a 1.6GHz or better proc for super cool de-interlacing (I hate interlacing!)
As you might expect, Leopard will work better on newer Macs, but older Macs aren't left out in the cold. A shiny nickel to the first person who gets Leopard to boot on a G3 iMac!
Our Weblogs, Inc. buddies at Download Squad bring us this news: OpenOffice is going to be able to run natively on the Mac in 2008.
The OpenOffice suite is getting pretty impressive-- while Writer, Impress, and Calc might not be necessary when you have Pages, Keynote, and Numbers around, OpenOffice's Math, Draw, and Base will probably be welcome additions to a few Macs out there. And don't underestimate compatibility-- back when I had to use a PC at work, OpenOffice was a constant tool, and using the same program at work and home has its advantages for people who are forced to co-OS.
If you can't wait another year, there is still an alpha version available of the native port, and you might be waiting even longer than 2008 anyway-- we were promised a native port a year ago that apparently never showed up in full form. And don't forget about NeoOffice, either-- it's a very nice branch of the OpenOffice code that already natively runs on the Mac. Why wait for OpenOffice to get in gear when those folks have been punching out a native app for a long time now?
I've watched as much anime as the next guy, but even I need a Japanese dictionary to figure out what those crazy robots are saying sometimes. Enter Jisho, a Japanese/English dictionary for Mac OS X 10.4 and higher. You can search in the Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana forms of Japanese, and also in English, German, Russian, and French, and it will translate not only the Japanese characters out for you (in a bright, clean interface), but the Romanization as well.
And the latest version features a completely rewritten Romanization engine, as well as Kanji "zooming" and more OS X integration. If you ever need to regularly go from English to Japanese (or back again), Jisho's got what you need-- it's just $15 from Sugoisoft. And maybe you'll pick up enough to actually learn the language.
Panic's Cabel Sasser has updated his blog (finally! His Miis were cute and all, but I was tired of seeing them every day) with a really interesting post about how he designed the toolbar for the everything-web-development tool that apparently is the bee's knees, Coda.
Instead of using the standard rounded bevel of OS X's unified toolbar, Sasser decided he wanted to do something a little different, and created a tab-ish vertical indent. Unfortunately, the way OS X's toolbars work didn't vibe with his idea (there were just three pixels at the bottom that couldn't be edited the way he wanted), so the Panic team ended up developing their own entire toolbar. That, he says, is why you can't rearrange the icons in Coda-- because the app isn't using the system toolbar.
But the best part is saved for last. All the hard work paid off, because even though Sasser had to drive his team nuts just to figure out a way to get around those three pixels, Apple eventually agreed with him. And the new toolbar in Leopard looks strangely familiar. Great story, and a real shot in the arm to developers who might not otherwise be pushed to bother with all the coding required to get the look they want exactly right.
The Mac and PC networking challenge is legendary. If you have both on a home or work network, it can be an adventure to get these two machines to see each other, share files or printers. Fortunately, Pure Networks has an app for both Mac and PC called Network Magic which hopes to change all that, as it allows you to easily set up file and printer sharing, diagnose slow networks and more. It offers what looks like a simple interface for managing all this, though I should note that printer sharing only works with the list of printers that Apple officially supports and provides drivers for right in Mac OS X (i.e. - if you can plug a printer in and it works without having to install extra software). While the Windows version is a bit more powerful than the Mac component, folks who need to maintain a mixed network and are after the primary features mentioned here will likely be happy with Network Magic, though licenses are sold at a slight disadvantage for Mac users: packages of licenses begin at $29.99 for 3 PCs (5 PCs for $39.99, etc.), but it's $19.99 for each Mac you want to add to the package. Still, Network Magic looks like one of the easiest networking tools I've seen in a while, and perhaps if its popularity among Mac users grows over time, licensing can become more fair for both operating systems.
If you're on your way back to school this year, or you know someone who is, a new MacToSchool software bundle could save you some cash. Featuring twelve apps ranging in appeal and actual usefulness, this bundle offers $300 worth of software for $49.95. Included in the MacToSchool package are apps like Clockwork, a simple desktop timer, WriteRoom, the popular full-screen text editor that helps you focus on your writing, a family history app, a calendar-based financial planner and more. Pencils Down - a test building app for teachers - is even included, making this package appealing to the other side of the education fence that, as the husband of a high school English teacher can attest to, often doesn't get the attention and discounts it deserves.
The typical price you would have to pay for even a few of these apps could easily add up to $50, so this could certainly be a valuable package. Each app at the MacToSchool.org site has a simple description page and a demo download so you can try everything before you buy, and there are also links to the orignal app developers' sites in case you need more info. Interestingly, this bundle was organized by the developers themselves in an effort to help spread the word about the utility of 3rd party software and to do something good for the education community.
The press release we received says 'limited time only' but makes no mention of when the deal will end, so my advice would be to act sooner rather than later if you're interested.
The latest rumor to hit the iPod trail, besides the obviously faked nanos, is that the iPod is headed for an OS X-based system, and that Apple is planning to unify all of their products. This one's actually be floating around for a bit, and at this point, it's almost more of an educated inference than a rumor at all-- Apple has already shown that they're looking to start making connections across product lines. CoverFlow moved from iTunes to the iPhone, and we've already seen evidence that the iPhone interface may find a place in OS X proper.
So it's only natural that the iPod would join the crowd. What will that entail? More CoverFlow, more album art, a better iPhoto '08 interface. So far, the same old click wheel seems to be involved (so no phone-less iPhone yet), but in general, a flashier interface than the old scrolling text screens we're used to.
While we've heard (and speculated) on all of this before, this is the first time we've heard a solid date: AppleInsider is saying that by the end of September (before the holiday season), we'll be looking at an iPod with OS X on it. I don't disagree-- if Apple is planning to update the iPod in this way, they'd want to do it before the holidays. If we don't see anything by October, my guess is we'll have to wait until early 2008 to see any updates at all. Of course, by that point, we'll be too ga-ga over Leopard to worry about it.
EA hasn't quite held up on their end of the Mac gaming bargain, but id has moved a step closer. At QuakeCon over the weekend, they announced that the first game to use their id Tech 5 engine (shown off at WWDC) will be called "Rage," featuring driving in expansive, outdoor environments. id's John Carmack apparently told QuakeCon that he wanted to break with the claustrophobic hallways of Doom and Quake 4, and so Rage will feature lots of "...bright, sunny outdoors."
No date yet, of course (isn't that the way it always works?), but Rage is scheduled for a simultaneous release on all platforms, including our favorite, the Mac.
If you're at all like me, you didn't wait for too long after the last Stevenote to scour the Internet for that "blades of grass" Leopard wallpaper, just so you too could pretend it was October already and you were using 10.5.
Those of you out there (I have no idea how many of you there are-- we're all Mac nerds, right? ...right?) will have to join me in applauding reader Sebastiaan, who noticed that there was a new System Preferences icon in the latest Leopard build, and put it up for download. Spreading the actual icon (and the actual wallpaper, actually) is a no-no, but Sebastiaan's icon is only based on the same design, and not a copy of the icon itself.
And even if you aren't into deluding yourself about your version of OS X, it's still a good looking icon. Changing the icon yourself is possible, but using CandyBar is infinitely easier. You too can pretend, at least for a few months until Leopard actually releases, that you're a Leopard-using rockstar.
I'm not sure if you've been following the story of "Infosec Sellout" (it's a tough one to follow), but apparently the anonymous Mac hacker has given up blogging about OS X security-- his blog has been deleted and renamed on Blogspot. Just recently, he made headlines by claiming that he'd developed a worm for OS X called "Rape.osx," that hit a known vulnerability in the OS X mDNSResponder, an open source Internet protocol used by Apple. But apparently Infosec Sellout didn't think Apple responded appropriately to his warning (and/or his site was hacked itself), and he's gone quiet.
Robert McMillian of the IDG news service has has contact with Infosec Sellout in the past, and heard from the hacker in an email that "it was a great experiment to see how the industry could handle some honesty, which they can't. They are quick to attack the credibility of others in order to hide their own flaws." From that comment, it sounds like Infosec thinks Apple is somehow claiming to be impenetrable, but as other security analysts say, that's far from true. Still another story is that Infosec's identity was close to being found out, and he quit because of that. Apparently Infosec says that the identity discovery was a factor, but not because he didn't want to be found out, just because he didn't want his employer to be approached by "crybabies."
Strange story indeed. Unfortunately Infosec still hasn't revealed the hack, and says he won't reveal it to Apple until testing is completed.
Also note that Audio Update 2007-001 fixes the audio "popping" issue that's been occurring for people that already applied 10.4.10 to their Intel Macs. Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Did you know that Apple, maker of the iPhone, also makes computers? It is true! You might even own one yourself! This tip is for those of you looking to sell your Mac to get an iPhone (or if you're selling it for any other reason in fact). Our friends at Small Dog Electronics have posted some tips on securely erasing your Mac's hard drive BEFORE you sell it to some random dude.
Sure, you can just nuke and pave (aka reinstall OS X), but if you're using OS X 10.4 the Disk Utility can make sure none of your data will be readable from that drive (or least not without extreme effort). Head on over to Barkings and check it out.
Hazel is one of those truly clever, useful apps that I think could make the Mac computing world a better place if everyone bought a license (and used it, of course). If you haven't seen our previous coverage, Hazel is - in a nutshell - your "personal housecleaner," allowing you to specify rules for moving and organizing your files just like you would with Mail messages. For a basic example, you could create a rule that watches your Desktop for downloaded files types like .ZIP, .DMG, .SIT, etc., and automatically move them to a Software folder once they're a day old. Hazel's abilities don't stop there, however; not by a long shot. Hazel can automatically import image files into iPhoto, music into iTunes, add Spotlight comments, organize files into folders and even subfolders, add Finder color labels to files, run AppleScripts and so much more. Hazel can even manage your Trash for you by setting a specific time frame after which older (but not all) files should be deleted, or even a size limit that the Trash should be kept under (say, 2 GB). All this is done completely and transparently in the background, allowing you to get things done while Hazel works its magic.
Have I piqued your interest? Good, because Paul Kim at Noodlesoft has just released a much-anticipated Hazel 2.0 update in beta with some significant new features. At the top of my personal list is full-blown support for uninstalling an application and the ability to preview rule matches so you can polish your criteria before flipping the switch. Read on for details on these killer new features and more.
ComputerWorld's Preston Gralla posted a blog entry titled, Five reasons why Vista beats Mac OS X. Clearly, this was link-bait, but you know what, I'll bite. 
If you're reading TUAW (which you're doing right now!) then I suspect there are one or two things amongst the 300+ new features in Leopard that have whetted your appetite. Don't pre-order just yet though, because you have to make sure that your Mac can handle all that Leopardy goodness.
Our Weblogs, Inc. buddies at Download Squad bring us this news: OpenOffice is going to be able to run natively on the Mac in 2008.
I've watched as much anime as the next guy, but even I need a Japanese dictionary to figure out what those crazy robots are saying sometimes. Enter Jisho, a Japanese/English dictionary for Mac OS X 10.4 and higher. You can search in the Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana forms of Japanese, and also in English, German, Russian, and French, and it will translate not only the Japanese characters out for you (in a bright, clean interface), but the Romanization as well.
Panic's Cabel Sasser has updated his blog (finally! His Miis were cute and all, but I was tired of seeing them every day) with a really interesting post about how he designed the toolbar for the everything-web-development tool that apparently is the bee's knees, Coda.
If you're on your way back to school this year, or you know someone who is, a new MacToSchool software bundle could save you some cash. Featuring twelve apps ranging in appeal and actual usefulness, this bundle offers $300 worth of software for $49.95. Included in the MacToSchool package are apps like Clockwork, a simple desktop timer, WriteRoom, the popular full-screen text editor that helps you focus on your writing, a family history app, a calendar-based financial planner and more. Pencils Down - a test building app for teachers - is even included, making this package appealing to the other side of the education fence that, as the husband of a high school English teacher can attest to, often doesn't get the attention and discounts it deserves. 
The latest rumor to hit the iPod trail, besides the obviously faked nanos, is that the iPod is headed for an OS X-based system, and that Apple is planning to unify all of their products. This one's actually be floating around for a bit, and at this point, it's almost more of an educated inference than a rumor at all-- Apple has already shown that they're looking to start making connections across product lines. CoverFlow moved from iTunes to the iPhone, and we've already seen evidence that the iPhone interface may find a place in OS X proper.
If you're at all like me, you didn't wait for too long after the last Stevenote to scour the Internet for that "blades of grass" Leopard wallpaper, just so you too could pretend it was October already and you were using 10.5.
I'm not sure if you've been following the story of "Infosec Sellout" (it's a tough one to follow), but apparently the anonymous Mac hacker has given up blogging about OS X security-- his blog has been deleted and renamed on Blogspot. Just recently, he made headlines by claiming that he'd developed a worm for OS X called "Rape.osx," that hit a known vulnerability in the OS X mDNSResponder, an open source Internet protocol used by Apple. But apparently Infosec Sellout didn't think Apple responded appropriately to his warning (and/or his site was hacked itself), and he's gone quiet.
Apple has released Mac OS X 10.4.10 Update v1.1 which, according to Apple:
Did you know that Apple, maker of the iPhone, also makes computers? It is true! You might even own one yourself! This tip is for those of you looking to sell your Mac to get an iPhone (or if you're selling it for any other reason in fact). Our friends at Small Dog Electronics have posted some tips on securely erasing your Mac's hard drive BEFORE you sell it to some random dude.
