Thursday, August 31, 2006

News: CrossOver Mac Beta Released!

CodeWeavers have just announced their CrossOver product for Mac.

CrossOver Mac will be the very best way to run your
Windows applications on your Intel Mac. It will let
you install and run Windows programs as though they were native,
all without having to buy or run a copy of Windows itself.

CrossOver has been available on Linux systems for a while now. It allows users to install Windows programs 'natively' without running an emulator or booting into Windows. CrossOver builds on the WINE project which seeks to implement the Windows API on Linux systems. Because it implements the Windows API on the host system rather than emulating a complete PC, programs should run close to their native speed.

Visit CodeWeavers to download the Public Beta.

Article Link posted by Jambo Consulting at 10:22 PM
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Wednesday, August 30, 2006

News: OpenOffice Mac OS X port

A Mac OS X native ( no X11 required ) port of OpenOffice is in the works. The Mac OS X Porting Team will as be at the next Paris Apple Expo.

I'm not sure how this is differnt than NeoOffice yet, but it definitely looks promising.

Article Link posted by Jambo Consulting at 6:41 PM
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News: Google CEO Dr. Eric Schmidt Joins Apple’s Board of Directors

Apple announced yesterday that Dr. Eric Schmidt is joining it's Board of Directors. Dr. Eric Schmidt is the current CEO of Google. Perhaps we'll see some closer ties between the two companies in the future.

I think this will help improve and influence the future of Apple's server line. Imagine Google switching all their servers to Xserves. It's not too far fetched as Genetech's CEO Arthur D. Levinson, Ph. D. sits on Apple's board and we know they do use the XServes. Even if Apple just sold the machines to Google at cost, it would help them lower the overall cost of the product.

Article Link posted by Jambo Consulting at 1:09 PM
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Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Articles: Are Macs more secure?

Many people know or have heard that Macs are more secure than Windows. Some people compare the number of virii / malware on Windows and Macs as evidence, others point to the fact that Windows has a vastly larger install base and thus provides more 'incentive' for people to attack. Tom Yager has written an article that lists some of the nuts and bolts of why exactly is Windows more vulnerable to virii and malware.

(via Slashdot)

Article Link posted by Jambo Consulting at 8:29 PM
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News: MacBooks selling out?

Apple Insider reports that Apple is having some issues meeting the demand for their new MacBooks. I've noticed a similar situation when ordering my MacBook last month. We ordered two MacBooks, one was a standard configuration the second was custom. It took an extra week for the custom configured MacBook to arrive even though it was ordered days ahead of the standard MacBook.

Is it time to load up on some Apple stock?

(via MacSlash )

Article Link posted by Jambo Consulting at 2:11 PM
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Friday, August 18, 2006

Apple address MacBook heat issue with new firmware

Apple has released a SMC firmware update for the MacBook to address heat issues. This firmware will reprogram the fan behavior of the MacBook. In other words, the fan will come on at a lower temperature and stay on longer to maintain a lower temperature. This, of course, translates to possibly more fan noise for the user.

I have applied this firmware update (easy process, just make sure the power is plugged in during the process), and so far it works good. The upper-left side of the keyboard/case is usually the "hot spot" and after the update it has cooled considerably. The fan noise isn't that noticeable to me, so I am a happy MacBook camper.

Article Link posted by Jambo Consulting at 11:40 AM
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Wednesday, August 16, 2006

News: Apple Boot Camp 1.1 Beta Released

Apple released a new version of Boot Camp. For those of you that haven't heard, Boot Camp allows users to install Windows on their Intel based Macs. Here's an excerpt of the changes to Boot Camp from the Apple site:

Support for the latest Intel-based Macintosh computers
Easier partitioning using presets for popular sizes
Ability to install Windows XP on any internal disk
iSight camera support
Support for built-in microphones
Right-click when pressing the right-hand Apple key on Apple keyboards
Improved Apple keyboard support including Delete, PrintScreen, NumLock, and ScrollLock keys

We'll, test it out and do a write of Boot Camp soon.

Article Link posted by Jambo Consulting at 2:47 PM
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Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Sites: Apple Defects

For those unlucky ones of you that got defective Apple products, you can go to Apple Defects and submit your complaints or just feel better that you're not the only one :) The site will be helpful as well if you're the paranoid type and want to make sure your next Apple product doesn't have problems.

Article Link posted by Jambo Consulting at 4:23 PM
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News: Dell laptop battery fiasco...

A couple months ago a video of a Dell laptop burting into flames at a conference in Japan spread through the net. Many other reports of exploding Dell laptops have also been reported since then. Today Dell finally issued a recall of 4.1 million batteries. Considering that reports of Dell laptops bursting into flames have been around for many months, Dell's recall is hardly "proactive".

I guess the Mac Book Pro's battery problems doesn't seem TOO bad after all...


Dell on Fire 6/22/2006
Dell on Fire 7/28/2006
Dell on Fire 7/31/2006
Dell on Fire 8/3/2006

Article Link posted by Jambo Consulting at 3:29 PM
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Hardware: Ars Technica reviews Mac Pro

Ars Technica has posted a detailed review of the new Mac Pro.

Article Link posted by Jambo Consulting at 12:32 AM
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Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Opinion: Who's the copycat? Apple or Microsoft?

There's been a lot of buzz ( as usual ) around Steve Job's last keynote address at WWDC 2006. Apple fans are no doubt excited about the completion of the Intel transition and the new Mac Pro and XServe introduced. New Mac OS X Leopard features have also drawn a lot of attention as well as criticism. Paul Thurrot has layed out the major concerns of these 'new' features:

It's funny. Apple calls Microsoft a copy-cat, and yet, I feel like I've seen some of these features somewhere before. Many of the features, however, are just sad. Is this really the best they had to show off right now?

I'd have to agree with Paul on his list of concerns. I don't think any of the features mentioned in the keynote are original ideas. Spaces is nothing new in computing, and I've definitly seen the annoying Mail 'stationary' in Outlook before. Time Machine and the new iChat features were the most impressive, but again after looking around you find that these features are nothing new.

What is new here is Apple's ability to 're-brand' these technologies into something appealing and easy to use for the average consumer. Apple is just as guilty of copying features as Mirosoft is, except Apple does it in style.

Article Link posted by Jambo Consulting at 12:57 PM
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News: Parallels Mac 3D support

MacRumors is reporting that Parallels is working on 3D acceleration support in it's future Mac products.

Article Link posted by Jambo Consulting at 12:51 PM
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Post-WWDC keynote thoughts

If you have come across this blog, I hope you have viewed Steve Jobs' WWDC keynote. (Don't miss out the presentation by the VP of Software Engineering.)

Apple has now completed its Intel transition by announcing the Intel-based Mac Pro and Xserve systems. It's a big step -- now Apple is truly a competitor to the likes of Dell and HP. The success of Apple's IT invasion hinges on its marketing. Will it spend as much money as it does in luring PC users to the Mac? Will CIOs and IT directors see Apple Xserve ads in publications like Computerworld and InformationWeek, WSJ and NYT?

The next generation of OS X, codenamed Leopard, continues to be an evolution of Tiger. New features like Time Machine and Core Animation are very cool, but the focus is on making existing apps even better: Mail, iCal, iChat, etc. get enhancements.

Personally, I'm eager to find out what the TOP SECRET features will be. If Time Machine wowed the crowd, imagine how impressive a top secret feature will be...?

posted by Jambo Consulting at 1:03 AM
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Tuesday, August 08, 2006

News: OpenDarwin & Mac OS Forge

Recently OpenDarwin has been shutdown. It was not able to garner enough community support to create a healthy ecosystem for the Darwin OS:

OpenDarwin was originally created with the goal of providing a development environment for building and developing Mac OS X sources as well as developing a standalone Darwin OS derivative. OpenDarwin was meant to be a development community and a proving ground for fixes and features for Mac OS X and Darwin, which could be picked up by Apple for inclusion in the canonical sources. OpenDarwin has failed to achieve its goals in 4 years of operation, and moves further from achieving these goals as time goes on. For this reason, OpenDarwin will be shutting down.

However, in it's place Mac OS Forge has been create. The new initiative will host the various open source components in Mac OS.

Article Link posted by Jambo Consulting at 12:02 AM
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Monday, August 07, 2006

News: Apple WWDC 2006 Coverage

Here's an RSS feed of live WWDC coverage of Apple's WWDC 2006 from Engadget. Mac Daily News also has live coverage of the event.

Quick Summary:

New Mac Pro's powered by new Intel Quad Xeon.
Intel transition complete in 210 days.
New Xeon XServes.

Leopard Preview:
Completely 64-bit; 32-bit and 64-bit appplications run side by side.
Time Machine automatic backup / restore ( kind of like Windows System Retore on steroids )
Boot Camp will be standard in Leopard
Spaces ( or Virtual Desktops )
Shipping Spring 2007

Article Link posted by Jambo Consulting at 12:22 PM
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Sunday, August 06, 2006

News: WWDC '06 Rumors

Think Secret is at it again reporting various rumors about what Jobs will announce at the next big Apple media event, WWDC. Several of the rumors reported are new Intel based Xserves/Mac Pro line of systems, new iPod nano, iTunes movie rentals, and perhaps new Intel Core 2 based systems. We'll see on Monday how these predictions pan out.

Article Link posted by Jambo Consulting at 2:14 AM
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