When picking code names for new software versions, generally you want to stay away from anything that implies mythological or "often mentioned, never seen" status -- users may get the wrong idea. That said, given the long wait that loyal Retrospect users have had for new developments on the Mac side from EMC Insignia (formerly Dantz), I'll forgive the unfortunate choice of "Unicorn" for the beta of the Retrospect client for Mac, and just get busy with the downloading (beta program signup required).
The new client beta, which also requires a patched Retrospect application, is a Universal Binary supporting Tiger and Leopard. In the run up to the Macworld-announced Retrospect X revision of the backup app (anticipated to offer both performance enhancements and feature parity with the Windows versions of Retrospect), EMC will be rolling out additional betas of both the client and application over the next few months.
Retrospect may have lost as many Mac installs as it's gained Windows adherents over the past few years, with frustration over the slow pace of innovation and compatibility on the Mac side leading users to seek alternative backup tools. Unfortunately, for cross-platform small to medium-business backup, Retro is still a leading option. With the forthcoming Retrospect X, at least the loyal Mac customers (and maybe a few new ones) may find a pot of data at the end of the rainbow.
Mozy is a secure online backup service from Berkeley Data Systems. Today, Mozy introduced a public beta for Mac users, offering a Universal binary that runs on both Power PC and Intel systems. Mac Mozy provides both full- and incremental-backups and allows you to schedule those backups for specific times or to wait for when your computer is idle. Berkeley offers two basic plans to choose from. You can store up to 2 GB of data for free or, if you need more space, $5/month provides unlimited backup space.
Most importantly, the data is stored securely. Mozy uses 448-bit blowfish encryption on your data and you select your private encryption key. No one at Berkeley has access to that key. If you'd like to give Mac Mozy a spin, stop by their free registration page, answer some personal questions and wait for an e-mail with a link to their download page.
I managed to swing by the Microsoft Office booth just in time for a demo of Office 2008, and I snapped a few screenshots. The presentation was made with Word since, as the demo folk pointed out, it is the app they have completed the most code on. As Scott mentioned, the words "page layout" were used quite often while emphasizing many of Word's new features, but of course the two big show-stoppers are Universal Binary status and a revamped UI that melds the Mac way of doing things with the impressive new 'Ribbon' UI in Office 2007 for Windows. My 425-px screen shot in this post doesn't really do it justice, but my pics in the gallery should offer a few more details for prying eyes. It sounds like we'll still have to wait for demos or a peek at any of the other Office components, however, as I couldn't squeeze anything else out of the booth attendants.
Everyone has their indispensable, go-to utilities for the Mac, but for my money (that is, no money at all) you can't find a better reference tool for vintage Mac support than Ian Page's obsessively complete Mactracker. As noted previously on TUAW, it's great for figuring out RAM requirements and OS compatibility for anything Apple has ever shipped out the warehouse door in Cupertino.
One thing it hasn't been, up until now, is a Universal Binary. Since the REALBasic environment Ian uses started gracefully popping out those two-faced apps in early October, Mactracker has now caught up and the 4.1 release has all the Intel goodness one could wish.
Read on for additional new features, courtesy of the Mactracker blog...
QTAmateur brings a lot of the handy QuickTime Pro features to the table without having to pay the $30 upgrade. Full screen video playback (with a more streamlined, iTunes 7-like video window) and batch exporting of any format QuickTime can read and write make for a handy little app.
QTAmateur is free, Universal and available from Mike Ash, a Rogue Amoeba programmer.
Well Adobe may not care enough to release Universal Binary updates, but Intuit seems to care, at least a little. Today they released Quickbook 2007 v9.0. Quickbooks, as you probably already know is a popular accounting app aimed at small businesses. Things of note in this upgrade include:
Track payments, sales tax and inventory IMPROVED
Create and print deposit slips NEW
Customize forms using the Layout Designer NEW
Customize toolbar IMPROVED
Universal binary version for Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs NEW
Share data between Mac and Windows IMPROVED
Comprehensive in-product help IMPROVED
Interactive Tutorial Center NEW
Although Quickbooks users themselves don't seem all that impressed with the program, every step toward native Intel support for Macs for all is a good thing.
Despite being a small business owner, I've never had any use for Quickbooks. Always seemed like overkill for my needs. But if it suits you and you've been wondering whether or not to upgrade, you might wait until the dust settles as there are already several nasty bug reports showing up on sites like MacFixit.
Fellow ecto users running on Intel Macs - rejoice! While Adriaan has been teasing us with snippets of ecto3 details, he recently posted on his blog that it's taking a bit longer than expected to develop, largely in part because it's a complete re-write from the ground up. With that said, he has announced an Intel build of ecto 2.4.1 (Finder says it's Intel, not Universal), though it is not fully tested, nor will it be supported (hey, he's just one guy).
If you've been using the previous PPC version on your Intel Mac, I am happy to report this Intel build starts up in the blink of an eye, or rather: the bounce of an app. One bounce in the dock on my Core 2 Duo iMac and this new ecto is ready for action.
This new ecto 2.4.1 Intel version can be had from this ecto blog entry, as the standard download link from the site still points to the PPC version.
Keyword Assistant is a stellar iPhoto plugin that dramatically simplifies the chore of adding keywords to images. In fact, one could go so far as to say Keyword Assistant brings tagging to iPhoto, but we'll let you judge for yourself. As you can see, it adds a menu item to iPhoto, as well as a simple, smart popup window that allows for comma-separated tags. We call this keyword entry utility 'smart' because it can auto-fill tags keywords from your existing set, (optionally) warn you when creating new keywords, and even auto-fill names from Address Book. It also brings a desperately needed option to iPhoto's preferences: alphabetizing the keyword list. All things considered, this is a utility we can easily refer to as a missing link from iPhoto's current abilities.
This can't-iPhoto-without-it plugin just went Universal, and it is still provided as freeware from Ken Ferry's .Mac homepage. KA requires 4.0.3 or 4.0.4 and Mac OS X 10.4.7, and is localized for English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish.
Hazel is one of those rare pieces of software (with a strange name) that feels like it's filling a gaping feature void I didn't even know Apple left in Mac OS X: it's a powerful, rule-based file and folder management app that brings a little bit of Automator, AppleScript and Folder Actions to the table in a way that none of those apps and features do well on their own. Hazel installs as a System Preferences Pane and, as you can see, allows you to build a list of folders on the left with a list of toggle-able rules on the right. The on/off switch on these rules is key, as they make it easy to switch between running certain kinds of rules on a folder for different workflows, jobs, times of the day or week.
Adobe has cranked out a Universal Binary of Flash Player 9 for Intel Mac consumption. Strangely, a PowerPC-only build is still available on the download page, though Insanely Mac is reporting that it's an earlier build.
If you're interested in what's actually new in this latest version, check out Adobe's page with the full details.
You want to figure out if an application is Universal, but you're not sure how to do it? There is a very simple easy way to find out. Simply select the icon of the application you're curious about and either right click and select 'Get Info' or hit Command + i. Either one will get you to the info window about the application you selected.
Look under 'General' and you'll see 'Kind: Application.' Next to that (assuming you're running OS X 10.4) you'll see either 'Universal,' 'Intel,' or 'PowerPC.' This lets you know on what Macs this application will run natively on:
Universal runs on either PowerPC or Intel Macs.
Intel only runs on Intel Macs (no matter what).
PowerPC runs natively on PowerPC Macs (odd, huh?) but the application will, most likely, run on Intel Macs in Rosetta, Tiger's emulation layer. Some applications, such as Microsoft's Virtual PC, will not run on Intel Macs at all.
Finally, another tip for all you folks out there that are using Universal apps on Intel Macs that use plugins which aren't Universal. Assuming you still have the Info window open you should see this 'Open using Rosetta' check box (pictured to the left). This forces a Universal apps to use its PowerPC native codebase (in Rosetta) thereby letting you use your older plugins. Note that this option is only available for Universal applications.
In this post about Roxio Toast, TUAW asked which applications you were still waiting for to be ported to universal binary. I thought I'd compile a list of universal binary applications that can fill the roles of those that people are still waiting for:
For Screen Capture Display Eater is still a work-in-progress and offers a much less refined user interface than Snapz Pro, but it's UB and it works. I've used it several times to capture my screen into a video file.
For Office Suites Again, the user interface isn't as refined as the mainstay, but you can't beat the price of NeoOffice. The NeoOffice Alpha 2 for Intel Macs is available right now by paying for an "Early Access" program. Or you can wait a few days, as an Intel beta of NeoOffice should be released very soon (next week, if I'm hearing correctly).
For Video Conversion I use ffmpegX for a lot of video conversion and the Intel version just screams on my Intel iMac. I haven't matched it up against the new Toast's DivX conversion yet, but I bet it's faster. The learning curve is a bit higher with ffmpegX, but it supports way more video formats.
And a few notes. Stuffit Expander is a universal binary beta. Filemaker is likely getting close to a release of version 8.5 which will be run natively on Intel Macs.
I'm also still waiting for Extensis to update Suitcase so it's UB. As much as I'd love to dump it for a different product, I don't know of any professional font managers that are updated for Intel. Both FontAgent Pro and MasterJuggler are still wallowing in PPC-land. Linotype FontExplorer X was just updated to UB, but I have zero experience with it, and Apple's own FontBook has on too many occasions eaten my font collections (always have backups!).
Roxio released an update to their flagship CD and DVD-burning software for Macintosh this morning. Version 7.1 is now a universal binary and provides fixes with issues related to Quicktime 7.1, AppleScript, the Toast Setup Assistant, and encoding Apple Lossless files.
There aren't too many more applications on my Intel iMac that are not universal binary. The Adobe CS2 suite and Microsoft Office, of course, are the two outstanding holdouts. Virtually everything else has been updated to work natively on an Intel iMac. What other applications are you waiting for?
When Adobe released only the PPC version of Flash Player 9 the other day, some people criticized Adobe for not simultaneously releasing an Intel-enabled version as well. Richard Brownell points us today to a post by Emmy Huang, the product manager for Adobe Flash Player telling us that the public beta release of Adobe Flash Player 9 for Intel Macs is ready. As always, be sure to read the readme and watch for bugs. This is still in beta.
I wish I had a more insightful or enlightening explanation for what the Lonesome Electric Chicken is, but I'm afraid there really isn't one. As its author, John Schilling, states on his site, it's a: "time and life wasting application that spews forth a gathering of quotations. That's it. Don't look any farther into it than that".
Killer app? Or scourge of cyberspace? Either way, John has made the source code available with this Universal Binary app, and he is accepting donations for his most interesting work.
When picking code names for new software versions, generally you want to stay away from anything that implies mythological or "often mentioned, never seen" status -- users may get the wrong idea. That said, given the long wait that loyal Retrospect users have had for new developments on the Mac side from EMC Insignia (formerly Dantz), I'll forgive the unfortunate choice of "Unicorn" for the beta of the Retrospect client for Mac, and just get busy with the downloading (beta program signup required).
Everyone has their 
QTAmateur brings a lot of the handy QuickTime Pro features to the table without having to pay the $30 upgrade. Full screen video playback (with a more streamlined, iTunes 7-like video window) and batch exporting of any format QuickTime can read and write make for a handy little app.
Well Adobe 
Fellow ecto users running on Intel Macs - rejoice! While Adriaan has been teasing us with snippets of 
Adobe has cranked out a 
You want to figure out if an application is Universal, but you're not sure how to do it? There is a very simple easy way to find out. Simply select the icon of the application you're curious about and either right click and select 'Get Info' or hit Command + i. Either one will get you to the info window about the application you selected.
Finally, another tip for all you folks out there that are using Universal apps on Intel Macs that use plugins which aren't Universal. Assuming you still have the Info window open you should see this 'Open using Rosetta' check box (pictured to the left). This forces a Universal apps to use its PowerPC native codebase (in Rosetta) thereby letting you use your older plugins. Note that this option is only available for Universal applications.
In 
Roxio released an 
When Adobe released only the 
