Smashing Magazine does a good old-fashioned "why OS X is so much better" piece -- ok, well they're not that blatant (it's actually focused on the "top ten usability highs"), but with all of the iPhone/App Store news going around, it's kind of refreshing to see some nice, traditional Mac praise.
So why is OS X better than other (*cough*Windows*cough) operating systems? Metaphors play a huge part -- when you use a Mac, you're not just browsing through files or using plugins, you're flipping through what look like album covers, or pulling up a "Dashboard." And everything is extremely intuitive -- it's clear upon first look at the screen what does what or where to find certain features of the operating system.
Every system has problems, and OS X is no exception. But using it day to day, OS X definitely gives out all kinds of "wait, it was that easy?" and "just works" moments. And that's why we're such big fans of it in the first place.
Firefox 3 was a pretty historic release this week, but I'd say that Wine 1.0 might actually beat it -- the open source non-emulator (Wine, after all, Is Not an Emulator) for Windows finally reached their first stable release. And Darwine, the OS X-rated version of Wine, also got a shiny 1.0 designation as well. It still won't work exactly perfectly (you've got to have XQuartz installed, and as with all emulators, there are so many different systems trying to talk to each other that you're bound to run into problems when one of them wants to do something complicated), but for standard Windows apps (Solitare and Spider Solitaire, we're told, work beautifully), it'll do ya.
Of course, we have no idea why you'd want to run anything Windows (ahem), but we won't judge. It's your computer: do what you like.
File this stuff in the "didja know" column: snow leopards aren't actually leopards -- they're actually closer in family to cheetahs, which means that the new OS might be a little closer to Aqua than we're all comfortable with. Also, they're pretty timid -- not only can they not roar (so new audio features in the OS are out), they're known to hide behind their fuzzy tails. We'll put it this way: you wouldn't exactly want to call your football team The Snow Leopards, so we're not quite sure why Steve decided to use the moniker.
Finally, the weirdest tie here is that the snow leopard as a symbol is already taken -- by the Girl Scouts of Kyrgyzstan. Of course, Steve's naming capabilities haven't really been up to snuff lately, and maybe he just didn't want to go with Cougar -- even though Apple owns it, they may not have been ready to take on all the connotations associated with that particular nomenclature. Then again, maybe this will be good for the snow leopard's image -- after seeing all these pictures of cool cats, if you feel you'd like to help them out, we're sure the Snow Leopard Trust would be happy to hear from you.
Our friends at WoW Insider (disclaimer: I'm a lead blogger over there) have good news for Mac World of Warcraft players who want to support one of their favorite sites. Wowhead, which is one of the premium online databases of all the items, quests, and NPCs there are to find in the game, has released a Mac client for their info-gathering spiders. Basically, you start up their app while you play the game, and it automatically pulls info to populate the database.
To answer your question, no, you don't get anything from gathering information for them, save for the pleasure of knowing that you're helping to support and fill a popular database (that most WoW players have probably used for free before).
But if you're a Mac player who's used Wowhead in the past and wouldn't mind helping them out, here's your chance. The client is a quick free download from their site.
Call me a curmudgeon if you must, but I am wary of any app that replicates a physical object with its UI. Isn't a large part of the power of computing come from the fact that programmers can transcend the limitations of the real world and offer up better ways of doing things?
In this frame of mind I started looking at TapeDeck, a new $25 Leopard only recording app from SuperMegaUltraGroovy and Toastycode. As the name suggests it looks like a cassette recorder of old, but it does offer up some improvements. Each recording is saved on a new 'tape' automatically, so you never have to record over a previous file (TapeDeck records audio in the AAC format, so the files are small, but you can make them even smaller by lowering the recording quality). It also allows you to annotate your tapes and then search your recording library using that information, and you can send your audio to iTunes if you prefer to organize your files that way.
The real question is: does the UI help or hinder TapeDeck? I'll have to spend more time using TapeDeck to fairly answer that, but at first blush this app is great fun to use (especially if you remember using tape recorders like these).
My personal favorite desktop wallpaper app, the echo-named Desktoptopia, sent us a tip with a great announcement today: not only have they released version 1.5, and not only have they released a PC version (for your work computer to use, I guess), but Desktoptopia is now a completely free app.
Now, I don't know if this is new or not, but their FAQ page says that the reason they're now free is that some of the wallpapers that will show up on your desktop (the app periodically changes your wallpaper for you, as often as you'd like) are "beautiful desktops that reflect a brand." I haven't yet seen any obvious ones pop up in the old version, and I haven't started using the new version yet, but I guess there's a chance that you could have, say, a Wal-mart desktop show up. That would probably give me reason to uninstall the software right there, but of course that's up to you -- if you don't like it, you could always try Desktopia, or just do it yourself with Automator.
I haven't had that problem yet, though -- in my experience, Desktoptopia has provided some great wallpapers (with no brands I could notice) as regularly as I'd like with no fuss at all. If you want some change to come regularly to your desktop wallpaper, but don't want to go hunting around for the right pics, Desktoptopia is a great solution that is now completely free. Great to hear.
MacNewsWorld has a pretty good in-depth overview up about Mac gaming: where it's at and where it's headed. The basic story is that the three things that have historically held Mac gaming back behind PCs (the technology differences, the OS, and the smaller installed base) are slowly disappearing. With Apple's switch from PowerPC to Intel, the introduction of Boot Camp and increasingly easy development in OS X, and the growing popularity of the platform, gaming is actually bigger on the Mac than it's ever been.
But there is still a huge obstacle, and that is DirectX. Though there are ways around it (Freeverse actually mentions the Unity engine in the article), many developers are stuck developing in DirectX, and that leaves the Mac platform out of the loop. And there really isn't anything comparable to it in OS X, either. Graphics hardware remains a problem, but that just harkens back to the biggest problem of getting games on the Mac: support from Apple. Some developers say that there aren't games on the Mac because Steve doesn't want them there, and until Apple shows evidence to the contrary, PC will always be the gamers' platform of choice.
Apple has dropped a 10.5.2 update out on Software Update. The patch has a number of different bugfixes all across the OS, from Dashboard and Airport improvements all the way to a menubar option in Time Machine and the disabling of GrowlMail 1.1.2 or earlier "to avoid security issues fix 1.1.2 from crashing growlmail."
My Software Update is apparently taking its sweet time downloading the patch, but other TUAWers have already grabbed it and gotten rolling. Welcome to 10.5.2!
UPDATE: Chris Forsythe from Growl notified us that it wasn't a security issue with Growl.
It's still as shaky as these things come, but new to this version are fullscreen support, "bleeding edge" ffmpeg libraries, and a regular FPS in video playback. It's still not anything the average user should be running, but as I said, for those interested in following along with the development, it should be welcome news.
The download is available from the wiki, and we're told it's now super simple to install (though actually running stably may be a little tougher) -- just drag into your Applications folder and cross your fingers.
The long history of the Parallels Server release is moving ever closer to an end: SWsoft (which is changing their name to Parallels) has announced that the product has moved into beta. This thing is the holy grail for Mac server administrators, apparently-- it's supposed to not only be the first virtualization solution to run on Apple hardware, but will also allow admins to run multiple versions of Leopard on one box, and even on Windows or Linux servers. I'm pretty clueless at fine art of administering servers, but even I can see how that would have all the IT guys in a tizzy.
It's still a closed beta at this point, so you've got to sign up if you want to experience the magic for yourself. And apparently the Parallels folks work fast, so odds are we're headed for an open beta within a few weeks. Soon, Mac OS Server will be at the mercy of any IT overseers to bend and use at their will.
Newsflash: Microsoft messed up. Yes, I know, that doesn't come as news to most of you (that's why you're here), but Joe Wilcox over at eWeek was surprised by the fact that while Apple's Leopard Family Pack pricing lead to some nice sales numbers, Microsoft instead decided to discontinue their family pack prices. Basically, you could buy OS X 10.5 as a single copy for $129, or a "family pack" (installations for 5 Macs) for $199. And a whopping 33% of Leopard sales were of the family pack version, even though OS X doesn't require any validation at all-- users could just have bought the $129 version and installed it five times.
What's the difference? Wilcox says that Apple trusts their customers, and as a result, users who feel the family pack is worth it are willing to pay. Microsoft, on the other hand, demands validation from their users. Wilcox also quotes an analyst (which in this case is Latin for "he who states the obvious") saying that Leopard had a blowout launch, much better than Vista. But that's a big duh, so I won't even bother comparing OS X to Vista-- I'll leave that to the Mac commercials.
What else do you need to know? Clearly, Microsoft is just plain doing it wrong.
Good morning everyone! As our 24 Hours of Leopard marathon continues, our UK, Aussie and Kiwi readers are beginning to report in that their mail-order copies of Leopard have arrived (although it's hard to read the tips; apparently the drops of drool and little bits of torn shrinkwrap are clogging up their keyboards). TechCrunch's Duncan Riley had his copy by 9 pm Pacific time and has already upgraded two machines to mostly positive results. One warning from Riley that I can echo from experience with the dev seeds: if you turn on Time Machine right away, be prepared for a slow go until the initial full backup is completed. You may want to wait to activate TM until you sign off for the night; by the time you wake up that first pass should be all done.
Not everyone's install experience was so smooth -- Bryce's upgrade got wedged and he had to erase and install before everything got back to normal. Fortunately, he had backed up first; a wise warning for us all... remember, Carbon Copy Cloner and/or SuperDuper! are your buddies.
Are you blogging your Leopard installation experience? Let us know.
Feature: Stacks, which are what Apple is calling clickable icons on the Dock that fold out to show other clickable icons.
How it works: It's actually an updated implementation of the old "Piles" idea, in that you can have one icon that gives you access to lots of different things. But Apple's Stacks fill another role-- they get icons off of the Desktop for good, and down into the Dock without looking cluttered. For years and years, almost every Desktop on every computer ever has had icons all over it, from apps to various downloads to whatever ended up there. But Leopard is different-- all of its icons aren't spread on the Desktop, they're piled into the Dock. Click them, and they span across the Desktop (or line up in a grid, if you're boring), click them again and they disappear. That's the real innovation here-- now, finally, you can work your way down to a completely empty, icon-free desktop.
Oh, and I should also mention that Stacks aren't just static. Leopard comes with two stacks-- Documents and Downloads, and the Downloads stack will automatically fill out with anything you download from Safari, Mail, or iChat. No more downloading random files to the Desktop and using Expose to let you go find it. Now, just click open the Stack, and get access to everything you need without ever leaving the window you're working in.
Who will use it: Everybody! And Windows users in 2010, too, since it's almost guaranteed that Microsoft is already working on a way to get this into Windows 7.
Feature: The DVD Player is almost all new, with video improvements, an Autozoom feature, and a new interface.
How it works: Strangely, this big update has gone relatively unnoticed. But it will be noticed as soon as you put a DVD in-- the app has a whole new fullscreen interface, including a time slider, and what Apple is calling an "Image Bar" (those are artist's renditions, so hopefully it'll look a lot better than that), which will let you access your chapters while watching the movie. There's an AutoZoom feature to deal with letterboxing, and it will "float" above your other applications, making it easier to watch movies while you're supposed to be working. Finally, videophiles will be happy to know that Apple is promising better video quality with "Adaptive Video Analyzation technology." Sounds good to us.
Who will use it: Anyone who likes movies is the obvious answer here, but I'm going to go a little more subtle-- anyone who likes movies and working on their Mac. So, you know, Roger Ebert. And the folks at Pixar.
Oh my. There's nothing we blog monkeys like more than casting our minds forward to the next greatest thing. Now that Leopard is about here and soon to be common place, what's next? What's Apple's codename for Mac OS X 10.6? You know it's already in development. So what do you TUAW readers think the next great codename will be? Let us know in this unspun poll.
Smashing Magazine does a good old-fashioned "why OS X is so much better" piece -- ok, well they're not that blatant (it's actually focused on the "top ten usability highs"), but with all of the iPhone/App Store news going around, it's kind of refreshing to see some nice, traditional Mac praise.
Firefox 3
The great Mental Floss blog 
Our friends at 
My personal favorite desktop wallpaper app, the echo-named 
MacNewsWorld has a pretty good in-depth overview up 
Apple has 
Those following the XBMC (a.k.a. 
The long history of 
Newsflash: Microsoft messed up. Yes, I know, that doesn't come as news to most of you (that's why you're here), but 
Good morning everyone! As our 
Feature: Stacks, which are what Apple is calling clickable icons on the Dock that fold out to show other clickable icons.
Oh my. There's nothing we blog monkeys like more than casting our minds forward to the next greatest thing. Now that Leopard is about here and soon to be common place, what's next? What's 
