Mac News & Rumours from Singapore

iPhone 3.0 Features

support — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:15:33 +0000

It seems that good old’ China Unicom has let the cat out of the bag on their website, of some upcoming iPhone 3.0 features.

Whilst most probably wont be able to take advantage of “Wave To Pay” technology, iPhone tethering and 3G Video calls are some (standard?) features we’ve been waiting for. Let the rumours begin about a front facing camera on the next iPhone hardware.

This (in our humble opinion) now declares the iPhone as a “sensible” buy, bringing it feature set up to what Nokia / Sony Ericsson have been offering for the last few years!

Tags: Mac Gossip, Mac Rumours

OS X Trojan in iWorks ‘09 Torrent

support — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:02:13 +0000

OS X Trojan

Security Vendor Intego, which just so happens to also make Virus Removal software for the Mac, has posted a Security Alert today regarding a new Trojan for OS X injected into the installer of iWorks ‘09 floating around on Torrent Sites.

Recent discoveries have been “proof of concept” attempts, without any seeable malicious intent - but this bad boy is different.

It connects to a remote server over the Internet, and is able to remotely download additional “payloads” to your machine. Currently infected machines have downloaded new code, and are being used to carry out DOS (denial of service) attacks on websites.

To see if you are infected, run the following code in Terminal:

(open Terminal.app)
sudo su (enter password)
rm -r /System/Library/StartupItems/iWorkServices
rm /private/tmp/.iWorkServices
rm /usr/bin/iWorkServices
rm -r /Library/Receipts/iWorkServices.pkg
killall -9 iWorkServices

Think about this before you install Mac software from Torrent sites. You’ll NEVER know what’s being installed when you enter your Admin Password. If you stick to Legal software (and probably star away from various *cough* *cough* dubious movie sites) you should be fairly safe.

Tags: Mac Announcements, Mac News

iPhone 3G Singapore S$299 ..?

support — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 09:31:16 +0000

Apple has opened up operator discounts on the iPhone, and stated that it should be no more than US$199 for the 8GB model, and US$299 for the 16GB model.

So these are the MAXIMUM prices we should be paying. Of course the operators are welcome to try and “seduce us” with a more tempting price by locking us in to a contract until our unborn child reaches the age of 21 etc.

The iPhone will launch in an additional 22 Countries on July 11th - unfortunately Singapore is *NOT* one of them. It’s expected as earlier stated that it won’t get to Singapore (officially) until September.

So, … who’s gonna wait till then..?? ….. Not us!!

Tags: Mac Announcements, Mac News

iPhone to write in Chinese..?

support — Tue, 06 May 2008 08:06:16 +0000

A recent hiring by Apple for “Handwriting Recognition Engineers” seems to have paid dividends in the latest iPhone SDK, which shows some sort of handwriting recognition software running.

According to the post on the Chinese website, this is how Apple plans to integrate Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) input on the iPhone.

As you “write” with your finger, you are offered a selection of possible characters on the right hand side of the input pane.

Hopefully they’ll be working on this for us English users also, …. surely it has to be a lot quicker than tapping on the glass once you get the hang of it!

Tags: Mac Gossip, Mac Rumours

Is this the new iPhone..?

support — Tue, 06 May 2008 07:58:36 +0000

A Chinese website is showing off these pics. Not sure if these are real, or just mock-ups built using the latest information Apple has sent out to case manufacturers etc.

Still, they look a damn site nicer than the last lot of supposed iPhone pics…

Tags: Mac Gossip, Mac Rumours

3G iPhones on order..? 10 Million of them!

support — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:07:09 +0000

Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney claims to have heard “from sources in Asia” that Apple has placed a 10 million unit order for 3G iPhones, according to an interview by the iPod Observer.

This order for 10 million 3G iPhones would reportedly be above and beyond the original 10 million Apple had planned to sell of the initial version of the iPhone in 2008.
The analyst goes on to speculate that the 3G version could incorporate an OLED display which could improve battery life. Apple’s use of OLED technology has long been rumoured but has yet to come true.

Kevin Rose (of Digg) stabbed at another 5 minutes of fame with his wildly speculative comments that the new 3G iPhone would also come with a camera on the front, …. think mobile iChat Video Conferencing! Of course, he doesn’t exactly have a stellar track record when it comes to his iPhone “predictions” (read: none have come true so far) - still it will get many people drooling if it does come true.

Tags: Mac Gossip, Mac News, Mac Rumours

iPhone Singapore Release Date Leaked..?

support — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 06:15:17 +0000

An Industry source has let slip that Apple’s iPhone will be coming to Singapore in September, under a deal with SingTel.

Its widely expected that by the time it gets out here, the iPhone will be a revised version, presumably utilising the new 3G chipset to keep up with the competition and local network speeds here in Asia.

Its estimated that approx. 10,000 iPhone have been imported into Singapore and unlocked to run on local networks - so this news (although not confirmed - or declined - by SinTel) should help ease the pain of those who have been waiting for an official iPhone Singapore release date to be revealed.

Hopefully, the revised iPhone will have its features seriously upgraded before it comes out here. Despite all the hype, and our love affair with Macs, … the N95 (feature wise) is a far better phone.

(Just not water proof, …. we accidentally jumped into Cafe Del Mar pool with it in our pocket… *sob*)

Tags: Mac Gossip, Mac Rumours

iPhone SDK Town Hall

support — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:50:33 +0000

Next time, we’ll organise a proper Twitter feed… Much easier

It’s on like Donkey Kong! We’ll update tomorrow with the facts…

Tags: Mac Announcements, Mac News

Happy 24th Birthday, Apple!

support — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 05:23:10 +0000

24 years ago, you could have gotten your hands on this sexy little number for a measly $2,500. If you (or you Dad?) have on of these ‘bad boys’ in your basement, … now might be a good time to dust it off, and slap in on eBay!

Tags: Mac Announcements, Mac News

MWSF 2008 - Get Ready….

support — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 07:56:47 +0000

In case you’ve been in a coma for the last few weeks, 1am local time kicks of the infamous Steve Jobs keynote speech. One of the most interesting rumors doing the rounds is of a tiny Mac portable, called the Macbook Air.Other things of interest should hopefully include:

OS X 10.5.2 Client / Server update

iPhone V1.1.3 Firmware update

iTunes update

Movie Rentals Announcement

AppleTV new version

iPhone OTA Syncing

Want to know more..? Take 12 cups of coffee and stay awake with us till it ends around 2am local time. Or alternatively you can check back here tomorrow morning for all the updates!

Tags: Mac Gossip, Mac Rumours

MacHeist - Great Software Bundle @ Insane Price

support — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 07:45:17 +0000

MacHeist is a package of 10 11 fantastic Apps bundled together at an insane price. For every bundle sold, a portion of the proceeds goes to charity.

Today they hit their target, and all the Apps in the bundle are unlocked, meaning if you purchase now, you get all the Apps straight away! Yey!

Included in the bundle are some power players like CSSedit, Snapz Pro, and Pixelmator! So, run along and pick up some of the best Mac software around, and help support a good cause all at the same time.

Tags: Mac Gossip, Mac News

MacSweeper - Bullshit Mac Software

support — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 07:30:48 +0000

This is a scammy operator, the first we know of in the Mac software field!Visit this site on your Mac (or even on a PC!), and it will “warn” you that it has found:

Privacy Invasion

Personal Security Risks

Vulnerable Data Theft

Insecure Internet Activities

It points to certain folders and files that ONLY exist on a Mac, even if you visit the site on a PC! Of course, to understand how to “remove” these files, you have to purchase the program for US$40 for a lifetime subscription.

Perhaps during this “lifetime” they might actually fix their software so it works properly, and isn’t a scam! Pass this along

Tags: Mac Gossip, Mac Rumours, Mac Tips

Our Top 10 Mac Apps

support — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:36:04 +0000

As devoted maniacs of all things Apple, we’d like to share what we consider are the Top 10 most useful Mac Apps. This list doesn’t include Microsoft Ofﬁce, Adobe apps or any of theApps bundled with your Mac. Instead it’s focus is on freeware and shareware apps leveraging the genius of various indie Mac developers.

Nvu. Nvu is an open source web authoring app, that rivals Microsoft Frontpage andAdobe Dreamweaver. Nvu is aimed at the beginner web master, and is regarded as one of the most practical solutions for amateur web designers. Switching between WYSIWYGand code views is just a mouse click away, as is managing your content, which is displayed with a nice tabbed interface. When your site is ready, Nvu features an integrated FTP program. This also means that you can directly alter the ﬁles on your webserver, without having to download them ﬁrst, edit them, then re-upload them.

NewsFire. My favourite RSS news reader. It has a very minimalistic style, and slick user interface, making reading your favourite feeds a pleasure. You can even create custom feeds based on keywords, and it will go out to various services online, and collate items for your feed based on your keyword selection. It can be set to automatically download data inside the feed (e.g. MP3’s of Video ﬁles), in the background, so when you come to read it, your media ﬁle is there ready and waiting. A great app, one that I couldn’t live without.

SOHO Notes. As the label says: “The premier digital note-taking application for Macintosh”. The app used to be called StickyBrain. I use this App daily to store snippets of information (or entire web pages) that are going to come in handy again. It can store rich text, PDF’s, images, ﬁles, movies, audio, bookmarks and web archives. You can even create your own custom forms for storing speciﬁc information like credit cards, passwords etc. The latter being what I use it for most, and thus refer to it multiple times a day. The program automatically backs up your data, and with a .Mac account enables syncing your data across multiple Macs. It even allows you to encrypt (AES-256) particularly sensitive things (that perhaps you wouldn’t want your signiﬁcant other to see!). A no brainer.

Flickr Export. Works seamlessly with iPhoto, enabling you to easily share your photos via Flickr. If you want to just “show someone” a set of photo’s, what could be easier than sending them directly to Flickr from iPhoto, with you hardly having to lift a ﬁnger..? Brilliant.

Transmit. The “weapon of choice” for FTP applications. Seriously. This is the only App that I recommend to our clients that are new to the Mac and need to transfer ﬁles to our servers. It has a great interface, and an easy learning curve. It also has some advanced features hidden under the hood, like “droplets”, enabling you to drag ﬁles onto these to have them magically uploaded in the background. It support FTP, SFTP (secure FTP) and Webdav servers, meaning you never need to use another FTP app, ever.

Growl. A lot of people ask why they actually need growl. Short answer is you don’t, but it just looks so damn cool. Of all the things that show off how good your Mac is over your PC friends, this little (free) app stands out above the rest. In a nutshell, growl is a global notiﬁcation system for Os X. Most “trendy” applications auto-register with growl when you install them, for example NewsFire, Transmit, iTunes, Mail etc. Growl will then “announce” to you for example, when a FTP download/upload is complete, when new mail arrives, the next track name in iTunes, a new RSS news item etc. Just trust us on this one. You need it, badly…

Firefox. Whilst in comparison to IE, safari is a great speedy browser pre-installed on the Mac, it still chokes on a few sites. Firefox however always seems to breeze through without any issues. Add to this it’s massive arsenal of extensions, themes and toolbars and you really are looking at the browser of choice (both on PC and Mac).

Textmate. The missing editor for OS X. Think of it as a text editor for geeks! They key to this app is that every little aspect of it can be tweaked to your way of working. So if you spend your time handwriting html, or writing code, then the sheer power and ﬂexibility of Texmate could be shaving hours off your time with enhanced productivity.

Skype. Whilst iChat on the Mac is damn cool (4 way video chat anyone..?), it’s not very useful if most of your buddies or work colleagues are on a PC. So, enter Skype, who have put in quite a lot of work recently in giving the whole app a more Mac feel to it. Recent upgrades have seen improvements in the video codec, as well as improved noise canceling enhancements. So if you need to keep in touch with overseas buddies without burning your phone bill, Skype is probably your best bet.

Style Master. If words like XHTML and CSS bring you out in a cold sweat, then maybe this app could be your salvation. It’s a complete tool not only for creating styles, but also for learning the complexities of CSS.

Tags: Mac Gossip, Mac Tips

New Mac Pros

support — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:07:11 +0000

Sure you create some major buzz in the middle of CES 2008, the Apple store went down for a while (well it’s a Tuesday!) coming back up to reveal a newly revised Mac Pro. These bad boys now run 8-cores standard, up to 3.2 Ghz each. From the press release the basic config includes:

two 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors with dual-independent 1600 MHz front side buses;

2GB of 800 MHz DDR2 ECC fully-buffered DIMM memory, expandable up to 32GB;

ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256MB of GDDR3 memory;

320GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;

16x SuperDrive[TM] with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);

two PCI Express 2.0 slots and two PCI Express slots;

Bluetooth 2.0+EDR; and

ships with Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse.

All for US$2799

Tags: Mac Announcements, Mac News

DVD’s to come with iTunes Mini Movies

support — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:58:24 +0000

An interesting find on a Family Guy (Blue Harvest) DVD - which is supposed to be released on Jan 15th (read: Keynote date), was and iPod compatible version of the movie, branded as a “Fox Digital Copy” file.

Apparently it needs iTunes version 7.6 to run, so no doubt Steve will announce that during his keynote.

Tags: Mac Gossip, Mac News, Mac Rumours

Our New XServes Arrived Today!!!

support — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 09:34:29 +0000

These new bad boys kick some serious Xeon Quad Core ass, … running up to 5x’s faster than our old G5 XServes. They’re being installed into Equinix Data Centre on Monday, so we’ll have two DC’s on the go, and be able to fall over to the Equinix DC should the need arise.I don’t think there are many web hosts in Singapore that even have two servers, let along clusters in two separate DC’s.Our new XServes are running OS X 10.5 Leopard Server, and we’re pretty ecstatic about the new features, especially PodCast Producer, and iCal Server - meaning we can now offer “Exchange” like email/calendar hosting to customers. I say “like” because our version will work! :)

Tags: 10.5 Leopard, Mac Hosting

Its Offical! Book Your Sick Day Now!

support — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 13:15:46 +0000

Add a new Mac to your Mac. Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard is packed with over 300 new features, installs easily, and works with the software and accessories you already have.

Choose a single-user license for home or office (SGD $238). Or if you have more than one Mac at home, choose the five-user Family Pack (SGD $369).

You can pre-order now directly from the Apple Store.

Alternatively, if you’re not in a rush, you can order it from us, and save some $$$’s!

Tags: 10.5 Leopard, Mac Announcements, Mac News

Leopard Declared GM. Announcement Today..?

support — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:32:40 +0000

Sources close to the development of Leopard are saying the code for the upcoming OS is now frozen, and a Gold Master (GM) has been built and delivered to manufacturing.

The build is said to be mac OS X Leopard 9A581 - the previously hinted GM build released internally at Apple over the weekend.

Meanwhile, as I type this Apple’s online stores are offline, presumable ahead of the official announcement of the release date: Friday Oct 26th at 6pm.

In the US, Apple’s retail stores are expected to close serveral hours ahead of the launch on the 26th, and then re-open at 6pm ready to dish our Leopard to the masses!

Am just guessing, but don’t expect that to happen in Singapore!

Tags: 10.5 Leopard, Mac Announcements, Mac Gossip, Mac News, Mac Rumours

Did we get the last iPod Touch in Singapore..?

support — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:37:04 +0000

Apparently so. We called around everywhere, and NO ONE had stock apart from Harvey Norman @ Hougang! Skip fwd to 1.5hrs later, and we had our moment of lust during the unpacking pr0n!

Skip fwd another 30 mins, and we had this bad-boy fully hacked six ways to Sunday, and running all the 3rd party Apps you can imagine.

Opps! Forgot to mention, as of Week 38 stock, no visible signs of the display issue anymore! Well done Apple.

Now the rest of you will have to wait 2+ weeks to get stock…. seems like we made it just in time!

Tags: Mac Gossip

iPod Touch Display Issues surfacing…?

support — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 05:56:32 +0000

Seems the new iPod Touch has a display issue which is causing a “negative black” effect. This wouldn’t be the first time that Apple has had Quality Control issues.

We’ve had an Airport Express which died a few days past its 1 year birthday, a 23″ Apple Cinema Display which is now tinged RED around the edges of the lcd screen. There have been reports of the 20″ iMacs using inferior screens than previous versions etc.

Not sure if this is Apple cutting corners, or their suppliers being forced to use cheaper parts in order to meet Apples aggressive margins. Either way, there is a LOT of bad press going around at the moment on Apple products.

Tags: Mac News