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.
How it works: Like buttah. Ruby, the language that powers RoR, has actually been built-in to OS X for a while (don't believe me? type "irb" in your terminal right now to access interactive Ruby), but Ruby on Rails has been mostly a pain to install around OS X. Packages need to be downloaded, settings need to be tweaked, and servers need to be config'd. No more. Ruby on Rails, free and installed on every new Mac. Developers, start your developing.
Who will use it: Mostly people who develop applications for the web. But even though I personally don't code much, if you've ever done any coding, once you dive into Ruby and RoR, you'll probably have the same reaction that I do: wow this thing is neat! For a start in Ruby, check out the classic Why's Poignant Guide, and for a tutorial on RoR, hit up Curt Hibbs (he's from St. Louis, so you know he's a good guy).
You can check out all our 24 Hours of Leopard posts here.
TUAW readers may recall that when the new look of the desktop in Mac OS X Leopard was unveiled, the side-placement of the Dock didn't exactly set the world on fire. In fact, almost everyone decried it as horrific, with John Gruber (of Daring Fireball fame) writing "The lighting and "fake 3D sitting on a tray" visual effect look like crap with the Dock on the side." He (and others) couldn't have summed up the Mac community's sentiment better - or suggestions better.
Thankfully, Apple seems to be in a listening mood - are we seeing a return of 'the Apple we know and love' that our very own Mike Schramm talked of last week? - for MacRumors has revealed that the side-located Dock we loathed has been replaced with a 2D, black background Dock with a white border and it looks rather good (at least to me). I'm no fan of the 3D Leopard Dock in general so whilst I'm pleased that Apple has backtracked on one of the most talked-about design points in Leopard, I'm more interested in being able to apply the new look to a bottom-positioned dock. Some of us are never satisfied I guess.
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!
Battlefield 2142 is already on the Apple Store, along with all the other games EA has released on the Mac, but we haven't heard anything official about Battlefield 3 yet, for any platform. That's why DigitalBattles was so surprised to find a list of Battlefield 3 features in a document meant for investors. And the most interesting "feature" on the list was this: "Windows Vista and OS X." That's right, if the leaked document is true, it appears EA wants to release Battlefield 3 simultaneously on OS X and Vista. And not on XP. That's what I'm talking about!
Of course, EA wasn't real happy with all the speculation, but they didn't actually deny anything. And as DB points out, the investor document didn't say that XP wouldn't be supported, it only specified Vista and OS X.
But still, if you told me earlier this year that Battlefield 3 would be released on OS X and not XP, I would have laughed in your face. If EA really is planning to bring out a top tier, anticipated title like this simultaneously on OS X, they might be able to redeem themselves to Mac gamers yet. Sure, I'm still angry at them for buying out BioWare, but brand new games on the Mac is good for everyone.
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 
Feature: The most awesome, easy, groovy, 
TUAW readers may recall that when the new look of the desktop in Mac OS X Leopard was unveiled, the side-placement of the Dock didn't exactly set the world on fire. In fact, almost everyone decried it as horrific, with John Gruber (of 
If you're reading TUAW (which you're doing right now!) then I suspect there are one or two things amongst the 
Battlefield 2142 is already on the Apple Store, along with 
