MacBklyn

TechCrunch guides Apple's purchase price of Lala down to $17 million

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:26:00 +0000

Since the purchase of Lala late last week by Apple, the topic of discussion is how much Apple paid for it and what they plan to do with the music streaming company. We heard yesterday from Peter Kafka at Media Memo that the price was $80 million and that Warner music alone got $10 million of their investment back.

Today, TechCrunch is saying that Apple only paid $17 million for Lala and since they had $14 million in cash, the "rest" of the company was only valued at $3 million. If this information is accurate, it would lend to the idea that Apple is purchasing companies like this for the engineering talent and experience.
Apple purchased a similar-size organization called PlaceBase earlier this year. There is some speculation that this purchase was a talent-based purchase as well, as the company had some financial issues.

Hands on with Mac Chrome beta: incomplete but looking good

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:24:00 +0000

Google has finally released Chrome, the company's own Web browser, into beta on the Mac and Linux. The software has been in development for some time—at least since the Windows version was first released in late 2008—and is now available as a tidy package for the Mac-using masses who weren't previously interested in digging around in build trees. Though it's important to remember that this is still a beta (with all that entails), we came away impressed with the Mac version of Chrome.

Here comes Mac OS X 10.6.3

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:21:00 +0000

Apple preparing first betas of Mac OS X 10.6.3: "The first external builds of Mac OS X 10.6.3, the next incremental update to Apple's Snow Leopard operating system, should arrive this week.

Microsoft: Do not mention/use Apple products at our events

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:18:00 +0000

Probably still reeling from all publicity around these shots, Microsoft reportedly told journalists gathered for a company press event in Germany not to use or mention Apple products. Our German is a bit rusty and Google is even worse, but according to Handelsblatt and our bad translation:

'While at a Windows Mobile 6.5 demonstration in Munich, Germany a journalist was warned by a Microsoft spokesman not to mention or use Apple products...since it was a Microsoft event the journalist had previously told everyone that he had never owned an easier to use cell phone than the iPhone.'

Now, you can say what you like about Microsoft's huge market share - not just in terms of PC sales but also in virus and Trojan horse production - but even in Apple's darkest days we don't think Cupertino ever insisted on no mention or use of Microsoft-powered products. Looks like a fin de siecle to us...

Anyway, returning to the story, here's Google Translate's laughable translation of part of it - perhaps some of our German-speaking readers can, erm, actually translate this.

'The offense: The journalist had dared to talk during dinner to mention that he had never seen a possessed so easy to use phone like its iPhone. Und das auf der Vorstellung des Windows Betriebssystems Mobile 6.5. And on the idea of the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system. 'The emotion surprised me,' says a PR consultant was present at that time. 'It shows that the nerves are raw.'

'We've messed with Mobile 6.5,' quoted Paul Jozefak, members of the Microsoft Venture Capital Summit, the Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer. 'I wish we had Windows Mobile 7 in the market.' This should come 2010th.'

So there you have it - the world's biggest software company, sticking its head in the sand.

Apple tablet set to hit March/April 2010 - Oppenheimer

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:15:00 +0000

Apple’s tablet plans are accelerating toward a March/April launch, according to reports crossing the wire this morning.

Citing checks, Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner this morning informed clients that Apple is going to begin production of the not-yet announced device in February, which implies launch in late March or April.

Marketwatch has the following snippets from Reiner’s report:

10.1-inch display
Multi-touch LCD screen
Not OLED screen, contrary to some reports.

Apple is also alleged to be offering book publishers favourable terms for distribution of their titles through the device, essentially offering them 70 percent of the take, while Apple seizes 30 percent. (That’s the iTunes App Store equation).

The analyst estimates 1-1.5 million sales of the device, but adds an “average sale price of $1,000 and a 22% margin”.

Policing a big event? There’s a Mac for that...

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:45:00 +0000

Danish police have turned to Macs for use in managing this week’s Environmental Conference in Copenhagen.

This UN-backed event will see the world’s biggest political and business leaders and protestors from across the gamut of groups involved in the climate change debate descend on Copenhagen.

With so much action, no great surprise local police have put together a central command infrastructure that’s run entirely by Mac Pros and Mac Minis - there’s not a Windows box in sight.

That police prefer Macs isn’t new, at least, not locally. Danish cops have been using Macs since 1996 - well - not Macs precisely, they ran Steve Job’s NextStep OS. The decision to move to Mac followed extensive research into what other systems were available. It didn’t like what it found...

“We were looking at the leading [systems] on the European Market to see what they were able to do for us… we didn't like it and went back empty handed,” explained the Police Inspector who made the Mac decision in a chat with IT Pro.

So they created a system based on 25 Mac Pros and 73 Mac minis. And the system is more efficient than those used by other European police forces.

“Shifts of six to eight people using 14 workstations are all the city of 1.2 million needs to take 800 to 1,200 emergency policing calls,” the report explains.

Police forces in the UK typically field up to 50 people to manage central command for similar sized populations. And they use (erm) Windows systems, if the report is correct, which are slow to process data and require operators keep a paper and pen by their PC (so they can jot down notes while the computer shudders into action.).

More here.

Apple's Macintosh takes reliability prize according to Rescuecom

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:26:00 +0000

Reliability rankings are fairly subjective and there is always a wide variance on results in these studies. That being said, Apple's products (not necessarily their wireless network provider) usually end up on top. That's why it was a bit strange to find netbook manufacturer ASUS on top of Syracuse, N.Y.-based Rescuecom's study earlier this year.

According to Computerworld, however, the stars are back in alignment and Apple is back on top.

Apple's Macs, which led all rivals in Rescuecom's rankings during 2007 and 2008, ceded first place to PCs sold by Asustek Computer (better known as Asus) in the first half of 2009, falling as low as third in the first quarter, behind both Asus and Lenovo. But Apple recaptured the top ranking for the third quarter with a reliability score of 374. Behind Apple were Lenovo and Asus with 320 and 166, respectively, followed by Toshiba and Hewlett-Packard in fourth and fifth place.

ASUS plummeted from a first-quarter high of 972 to 166 in the third quarter.

SquareTrade last month also put Lenovo and Toshiba ahead of Apple's laptops, which perennially are at the top of most reliability lists, illustrating the wide variance in these studies.

Apple Takes out 3,000 word ad on the front page of the Sunday NY Times Biz section

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:27:00 +0000

Two things we love: The New York Times and Apple. However, today's gushing front page Business Section App Store article reads more like a PR piece than actual information. Let's keep it real here. Apple granted interviews with Phil Schiller and Eddie Cue to get some positive spin on the App Store which has been getting some significant negative press lately. The news that the App Store is a "game changer" is not new, people were calling it such in 2008.

Somewhere, buried in the 3,000 words, is the downside of the App Store which is the actual news:

“We’re facing 396 days with no contact from Apple,” says Eric Thomas, chief executive of FreedomVoice. “The app has been ‘pending’ in the App Store for a year.”

Mr. Thomas says he understands that it is Apple’s decision whether to accept his app. “But the idea they wouldn’t tell us it was a no — or even why — so we could try to do something about it,” he said, “is a very strange and unneighborly approach.”

Yes, very "unneighborly". Mr. Rogers would be very upset.

Apple hasn't been too kind to phone apps in general. Remember AT&T all of those (3) months ago saying they would allow VoIP over their network on the iPhone? Not one voice app has been allowed to do that and Apple is the only one stopping them. Apple has even allowed a video app to use AT&T's network, but without sound. Skype isn't allowed to work over 3G, neither is Fring.

Why?

One reason might be that that Apple is working on their own VoIP app. This is really a forgone conclusion however, because at some point Apple will be building an LTE iPhone. LTE is a All IP Network (AIPN). No voice. So the only way to use LTE Networks as phones is over VoIP. Obviously there will be some dual-radio overlap while LTE is deployed so we are talking a few years out.

So how long can Apple hold out before its customers start to demand services like Google's Voice, or a real version of Skype? We're pretty sure that if Apple allowed it, Fring would have had it by now. Their apps for other platforms (and their jailbroken App) worked over 3G.

Apple buys Lala for a song

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:37:00 +0000

So the New York Times' Brad Stone seems to have the inside scoop on the Lala purchase reported earlier by Bloomberg and just after by CNET. It looks like Apple has bought Lala, not to bring their platform to iTunes, but more as a piecemeal purchase to bring their engineers and experitise with cloud computing into the iTunes music (Movies? TV?) group.

Here are some reasons for that: Lala's business has to get shut down. Apple won't be able to use any of the current licensing schemes that Lala's customers have signed up for.

Lala’s licenses for streaming music with the major music labels are not transferable to any acquirer, and its service has not been a hit with mainstream consumers.

Also, Lala wasn't in good financial shape. They needed help to survive. Warner music recently divested their stake and they sought help from Apple's Eddie Cue.

One person with knowledge of the deal, but who was not authorized to discuss it, said that the negotiations originated when Lala executives concluded that their prospects for turning a profit in the short term were dim and initiated discussions with Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president in charge of iTunes.

This person said Apple would primarily be buying Lala’s engineers, including its energetic co-founder Bill Nguyen, and their experience with cloud-based music services.

According to the Times piece, Apple will be using Lala's engineers to help build out their own music streaming service, perhaps with all of that server space in North Carolina.

Ironically, Lala had submitted an iPhone app just over a month ago to the App Store, which (if it had been accepted) might have been enough to keep Lala going. Instead, Peter Kavka is saying that investers will only get 50 cents on the dollar on Apple's low ball bid.

It looks like Apple might have picked up Lala ...wait for it...for a song.

Apple Quietly Adds 3.33 GHz Quad-Core Option to Mac Pro [Updated: Xserve]

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:36:00 +0000

Apple has quietly upgraded its Mac Pro offerings, adding the option of a 3.33 GHz quad-core processor and adding the ability to configure both the quad-core and 8-core models with 2 TB hard drives, doubling the machine's total build-to-order hard drive capacity to 8 TB.

The upgraded processor carries a hefty price tag as a $1,200 option over the base quad-core 2.66 GHz model, or $800 over the upgraded 2.93 GHz processor. Pricing, however, remains well below the company's top-of-the-line 8-core models running at 2 x 2.66 GHz or 2 x 2.93 GHz.

The additional option of configuring the Mac Pro with 2 TB hard drives, an increase from 1 TB drives available previously, expands the official total hard drive capacity of the Mac Pro, which carries four hard drive bays, to 8 TB. The 2 TB hard drives are priced at $550 each.

The current generation of Mac Pros were introduced in March 2009, receiving early access to Intel's latest Nehalem processors before they had even been officially announced.

Update: Apple has also upgraded its configurable options for its Xserve rackmountable servers, now offering 2 TB hard drives for a total hard drive capacity of 6 TB. The company has also begun offering 4 GB RAM modules, doubling the official total memory capacity of the quad-core Xserve to 24 GB and the 8-core Xserve to 48 GB.

Mac sales growing, PC market slowing - Apple benefits from the 'iPhone effect' - analysis

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:52:00 +0000

iPhone sales, like the iPod before them, are driving renewed interest in the Mac, attracting new consumers and stimulating Apple’s sales, says Needham analyst, Charles Wolf.

In an extensive report carried by Fortune this morning, Wolf’s analysis is given account of. Among other tidbits, it reveals the iPhone halo to be stronger than that of the iPod. Wolf also applauds Apple’s management for sticking to its premium pricing arrangements despite common low price wisdom.

Apple is now taking one out of every ten dollars spent on a home computer worldwide, Wolf writes, and in the US it is grabbing over one dollar in every five spent on a home computer.

Mac sales are growing faster than those in the PC market in all regions, in Western Europe Mac sales growth outgrew the market by 38.7 percent.

“Shipments in the worldwide home market increased 18.1% compared to an 11.5% decline in all other PC segments, while Mac shipments in the home market increased 28.8%. In the Western European home market, shipments rose an impressive 58.9%,” Wolf writes.

His analysis follows Apple’s recent revelation of a 16.4 per cent increase in Mac sales, which reached 3.05 million units in Q4 - even while the PC market generally stayed flat.

Apple set to release Point of Sale(PoS) iPod add-on as a commercial product?

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:49:00 +0000

We reported on Twtter founder Jack Dorsey who is building an iPhone PoS system earlier today. It turns out he might have some competition from Apple itself.

iFoApple Store reports that Apple may release the POS-iPod system it developed for its Apple Stores as a product aimed at retailers.

Since the debut of the iPod POS , inquires have been coming from all directions, including from end-user small businesses, larger chains and system integrators. Until now, Apple’s response has been that the iPod POS is a proprietary product, unavailable for sale. But now, tipsters say, Apple retail executives have asked the retail store business specialists to collect contact information from anyone who inquires about the iPod touch system, apparently to create a database of potential customers if Apple decides to commercialize the product.

It isn't hard to see why. With the economics of scale Apple has brought the cost of an iPod touch - which is really a high quality handheld computer- down below $200 (Currently $181 at Amazon for you Xmas shoppers). Meanwhile, proprietary POS sale systems that commonly use the Windows CE/Mobile platform cost much more and are much bulkier and harder to use (because of the CE OS). Just ask any Apple employee.

Apple has been deluged with inquiries about the POS system, which is comprised of a sleek, custom-designed and manufactured shell that surrounds the iPod touch, and also incorporates a barcode scanner and magnetic stripe reader. The hardware links to custom-programmed software that streamlines the process of taking cash, credit or debit card payments for merchandise.

We still haven't seen what these devices look like (that is a mock-up above) or how well they work, but Apple might just have found another business for its iPod touch product.

Latest Chrome Mac alpha hits devs as beta release looms

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:47:00 +0000

Google has introduced the latest development build of the Mac (and other platforms) version of its Chrome browser.

Last week, Mike Pinkerton, leading the team handling Chrome for Mac promised a beta version of the browser would reach the wider public this month, writing in a Twitter post.

The new dev build ships as Chrome approaches its first official Beta release on the Mac. It isn’t a release for general use, as it is an alpha release intended for developers.

Anthony Laforge, Google Chrome program manager said, “The Dev channel has been updated to 4.0.249.22 for Linux, Mac, and Windows.”

Notes accompanying the release reveal a few issues with the Mac version, alongside some script and HTML5 matters.

Dev release highlights:
Omnibox no longer becomes too long for window after installing a few themes Display a warning dialog if there was a problem reading the profile
Switch 'Save' and 'Discard' buttons on dangerous download warning to match platform standard.
Show feedback while dragging bookmarks
Implement non-admin autoupdate

One known issue in this release: “If a user clicks 'Set Up Automatic Updates for All Users' and later clicks 'Update Now' from the About Box, an error 12 will be displayed. The product is updated successfully; restarting the browser will apply the update.”

Steve Jobs allows video streaming app to enter App Store with undocumented API use

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:19:00 +0000

Update: Wow, this is a buggy app. We got it to work..just barely. More below...

Knocking Live Video (app store link) hit the App Store today. Its journey there was an unusual one however. The application is simply a peer to peer video streaming app. IT allows people to connect via social media application Facebook.

The major roadblock was that Knocking Live Video uses undocumented (and therefore unusable APIs) to stream video from iPhone to iPhone. Naturally, with the automated API checking tool, the app was rejected for this reason initially.

According to Ars, however, the developer sent an impassioned email to sjobs@apple.com....

But Meehan was convinced that his app was worth fighting for. 'When it was rejected, I decided not to give up and reach out directly to Steve Jobs via e-mail,' he told Ars. 'I reached out to Apple to reconsider our application due to its potential to culturally change how people share live moments phone-to-phone.'

He made his case 'in a way that was not about me or our app, rather about being a life-long user of all Apple products, about how I believed in Apple and that I believed Jobs would respond,' Meehan said.

Meehan ended up composing a passionate plea to Apple's CEO, explaining he has been frustrated and disheartened with the app approval process, which often leaves developers wondering and waiting with little or no response from Apple about any potential problems. He pointed out that there are other apps that had been approved using the same private API call—though it was prior to Apple's suspected use of automated analysis software that can comb through code and spot references to unapproved APIs. Meehan even 'humbly' requested that Jobs himself review a demo of the app and reconsider it for approval. He then fired off the e-mail to Jobs at 11pm on Saturday, November 21.

An Apple executive, who wishes to remain anonymous, contacted Meehan at 8:30am the following Monday morning to discuss the app and its rejection. He revealed that the order to reverse the app's rejection came 'directly from the top.' Within three hours of the phone call, Knocking Live Video was approved for sale via the App Store. The app is available for free starting today.

This is interesting for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is the first time that El Jobso has pushed an app through the App Store rejection process. It is also a kick in the ... to developers like Qik who have had streaming applications for other platforms (and jailbroken iPhones) for awhile but never got permission to do this at the App Store. Does this mean that the the Undocumented API is now documented?

Also, it is the first time any legit application (*ahem Cycorder) has allowed the 3G iPhone's camera to do video. Maybe Apple will allow other apps to turn the original and3G iPhones into camcorders. We know they can do the job from the success of jailbroken app cycorder.

It also isn't going to help AT&T's last place network now that people are streaming video between iPhones.

In fact, we're not so sure that this one is going to last. It might be wise to get it while you can.

Google Chrome for Mac mere weeks away from launch

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:16:00 +0000

We've known for awhile that Google's Chrome browser is getting set to go into GoogleBeta™ on the Mac platform in the coming weeks. According to Techcrunch:

...today brings more confirmation that it may be even closer than that. Mike Pinkerton, the guy leading the Chrome for Mac team, has just tweeted out that there are only “8 remaining M4 Mac beta blockers! Go team! #chrome”. These are the 8 bugs.

It looks like it is on schedule for completion in the next few weeks and reports have been coming in that it is plenty stable. It will be interesting to see how many Mac users start using the new browser. Chrome adoption has been outpacing even Safari and may even pass Apple's browser overall in the next few months.

Early 2010 Mac Pros to have Intel Core i9 processors with 24 logical cores?

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:05:00 +0000

If things progress as expected, the next Mac Pro won't have any problem competing with high end iMacs for the speed crown amongst Apple machines. HardMac (via MacRumors) profiles the next generation Intel "Gulftown" Core i9 processors which they expect to see in high end Mac Pros in early 2010. The processor's benchmarks were "released early" by PCLAB.pl.

The skinny is this: The smaller 32nm process die and 50% more transistors allows the processors to operate 50% faster while using 10-50% less power:

First figures indicate that this CPU is very promising. At equivalent clock speed, it is 50% faster than the corresponding quad core Xeon for parallel tasks. Despite having 50% more transistors, the CPU strongly benefits from 32-nm engraving as it drains 50% less power in idle mode and 10% less in full loading mode.

How do you arrive at 24 processors from six cores? With a dual-chip configuration (12 real cores) and threading available on these chips which enables each core (24) to function as two, you get two dozen logical cores to work with.

Current Mac Pros top out at dual 2.93Ghz quad core Intel Xeon processors. Snow Leopard's OpenCL technology should allow the Mac OS to take full advantage of many cores (both real and virtual via threading) offered by the new Core i9 line of processors.

South Korea is iPhone-crazy

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:51:00 +0000

Apple’s iPhone launch in South Korea’s attracting much attention - not least because local carrier, KT Corp, has already confirmed 60,000 pre-orders for the device in the last week.

Queues of enthusiastic soon-to-be iPhone owners are reported to have met the Saturday morning launch of the device, with reporters trawling the queues for vox pops along the lines of “I’m so happy” to get my iPhone. In classic Apple tradition when the buzz really bounces in a territory, some customers waited in line for up to 26 hours.

It is also a big deal for the carrier. 'We're hoping that this iPhone will be a trigger point for the smartphone market in Korea,' said Yang Hyun-mi, KT's chief strategy officer, as reported by AP.

The iPhone only finally won approval for sale in South Korea last month. In Japan, iPhone is estimated to have acquired 20 percent market share, meanwhile sales are understood to be slow in China at present.

Mac mini is the most energy efficient desktop PC, new data claims

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:49:00 +0000

Apple’s Mac mini is perhaps the most energy-efficient computer available from any PC manufacturer, new energy efficiency data has confirmed - meaning you can run one far more cheaply than many other computers. UK based firm sust-it today announced its energy efficiency roundup, citing Apple as among the most energy efficient computers.

Apple’s Mac mini has shot to the top of sust-it energy efficiency charts for computers.

The company observes: “There’s a staggering difference between the energy consumption of computers in the marketplace; you could save nearly £150 per year on electricity in choosing the most efficient models. We’ve been highlighting these savings through our unique ranking system and it’s great news that Apple has responded to the environmental issues, I hope other manufacturers will follow their lead.”

The energy consumption site ranks over 5,000 electrical products by their energy efficiency, meaning consumers can identify which machines are the most energy-efficient, and also get to figure out which computers are the cheapest to run.

Beyond the Mac, the service also lists white goods and A/V kit, from televisions to freezers.

HandBrake goes 64-bit, adds many improvements

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:48:00 +0000

After a year without any updates, the developers responsible for the popular video transcoder Handbrake have released version 0.9.4 of the open-source software. With such a small change in the version number, it would be easy to assume that there isn't much new in this version, but that assumption couldn't be further from the truth. In total, there have been over 1,000 changes since 0.9.3 and, while they might not all be life-changing, many of them make for a better user experience.

First, and perhaps most importantly, the new version incorporates improved code from the x264 project that, according to the release notes, makes for speedier encoding, smaller files sizes, and better picture quality. Additionally, 0.9.4 brings 64-bit support, which also provides 10 percent faster encodes. Ten percent may not seem like much, but when you are ripping a huge DVD library, it adds up in a hurry. Users can now include subtitles in their rips, which can be turned on and off (prior to this version, it was all or nothing). Live preview is also a very welcome addition to the software, as it allows a user to find out what their video will look like given specific compression settings.

iMac claims the prize - Apple desktop sales take half of US PC retail revenue

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:33:00 +0000

Apple's iMac line is now selling at a pretty serious clip.

Don’t believe us? Well, we’re not the only ones saying it - NPD analyst, Stephen Baker (vice president of industry analysis) came up with this gem in a chat with journalist, Joe Wilcox, as bought to our attention by Dalrymple and his beard).

So - some stats to back-up these claims:

Apple’s US retail desktop revenue share for October was 47.71 percent, up from same time last year when it hit 33.44 percent.

Sure, we know PC sales kinda declined as everyone waited on new purchases in order to ensure they got a free Win7 upgrade (Mac users do the same thing when they see an OS upgrade coming), but as Dalrymple observes: “Baker also pointed out that the numbers compare a month where a new iMac was released to a month last year when people stopped buying.”

There’s a little caveat to this goodness. As we await the ceremonial unveiling of what the Mac world and its brother currently call the “Apple tablet”, those netbook sales are getting under market share analysis skin - seems Mac laptop sales, “fell from 38 percent to 34 percent, while PC laptops rose from 61 percent to 66 percent.”

That last stat, incidentally, still means Apple laptops account for a good one-third share of actual cold hard cash laid down in retail outlets on new laptop purchases. Which begs the further question, given analysis of the PC market tends to favour a 90 percent Windows equation, just how cheap are they pushing out those Windows-based PCs the world’s meant to be using?

Apple updates: iPhoto, Final Cut Server

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:29:00 +0000

Apple has introduced updates to iPhoto (improving the face recognition feature), Final Cut Server and its Xsan server software.

The iPhoto update (v 8.1.1) addresses issues affecting face recognition performance and accuracy. It also resolves minor issues with book ordering and iPod touch support. This update is recommended for all users of iPhoto '09. It is available through Software Update or as a standalone installer here.

Final Cut Server 1.5.1 includes a range of improvements, as described in the tech support note these include:

Fixes possible slowdown in the check in and check out process.
Fixes status display in the Downloads & Uploads window.
Corrects aspect ratio on thumbnails for anamorphic clips.
Locked assets are now skipped in the archive process.
Fixes archiving and restore for bundle assets.
Improves reliability of adding and removing archive devices.
The release also contains a significant number of smaller stability fixes.

Updated: Removed erroneous Xsan info, feed error.

Apple updates Boot Camp, no Windows 7 support just yet

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:45:00 +0000

Apple has updated its Boot Camp drivers, software which enables Intel Macs to boot up into Windows XP and Vista.

Boot Camp users must source their own copy of Microsoft Windows to employ within Boot Camp.

The 23.87MB update doesn’t introduce support for Windows 7, which Apple has promised will be made available to users in a future release. Instead, according to tech notes accompanying the release:

“This update addresses issues with the Apple trackpad and turns off the red digital audio port LED on laptop computers when it is not being used. It also includes support for the Apple Magic mouse and wireless keyboard. It is intended only for use with Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Vista running on a Mac computer using Boot Camp.”

Requirements

Boot Camp 2.1 must be installed prior to running this update.

For Windows Vista, Windows Vista Service Pack 2 must be installed before running this update.

In related news, Apple has also introduced updated Server Admin Tools (10.6.2). This update is recommended for the remote administration of Snow Leopard Server. It includes the latest versions of iCal Server Utility, Podcast Composer, Server Admin, Server Monitor, Server Preferences, System Image Utility, Workgroup Manager, and Xgrid Admin.

Macworld: Core i7 iMacs beat even octo-core Mac Pros

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:41:00 +0000

Whoops. It looks like Apple might have made those new iMacs a little too fast!
According to Macworld's tests, the Core i7 iMac beat the Octo-core Mac Pro 2.2GHz in a number of Speedmark 6 tests and overall it was 1.5% faster than the fastest base model computer Apple sells. Sure, you can update that Mac Pro Beast to 2.93GHz Octo, but that is $2600 more, $500 more than the entire Core i7 iMac! Even the Core i5 iMac did pretty well. Oh, and that iMac has the best display Apple has ever produced.

Our tests of the built-to-order Core i7 iMac (which, other than the processor, has identical specifications as the stock Core i5 iMac) showed even greater performance prowess. With a Speedmark 6 score of 225, the $2199 Core i7 iMac was nearly 8 percent faster than the Core i5 iMac. The Core i7 was nearly 11 percent faster than the $2499 2.66GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro and 9 percent faster than the 2.26GHz 8-Core Mac Pro, which sells for $1100 more. In our tests, there were a few tasks where having eight physical processing cores was beneficial, like our MathematicaMark and Cinebench CPU tests.

Sure, these are just a few specific tests and users real-world milage will vary. But it does show that the fastest iMac can hang around with the Mac Pros. In fact, unless you need to add internal RAID hard drives and/or extra PCI cards (or hate the hi-shine™ display), it is hard to imagine many cases where the Mac Pro workstation makes more sense than the cheaper, faster iMac Core i7 that also includes the best display that Apple produces.

Apple begins Mac OS X 10.7 development, MR claims

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:53:00 +0000

Apple has quietly begun development of Mac OS X 10.7, the next iteration of its OS and an as-yet completely unknown animal, MacRumors informs.

That Apple’s engineers are already hard at work figuring out what to do next with the lean, Intel-only software at the heart of the current Mac OS X ‘Snow Leopard’ OS is no great surprise. Work has to begin sometime, and Apple is a company known for a five or ten-year planning cycle.

MacRumors reports a post in a database of changes to the open source “launchd” framework, which “oversees booting of Mac OS X and administers processes running on the system”.

The post included a new build number - 11A47 - which MR explains is likely to indicate an initial version of Mac OS X 10.7.

So it looks like they’ve managed to create a software mechanism to boot the system - we’re curious what the new OS will offer.

We could speculate on this based on some of the emerging trends across the technology industry.

- We’d anticipate more Cloud features. These could include a far more discrete means by which to access, edit and use MobileMe content. These could also include applications - perhaps some of the iLife apps - hosted in the cloud. Iterations could also include access anywhere computing, which could equate to your Mac desktop and files accessed from anywhere on any platform using a Web browser.

- Processors: We know the current OS is Intel-only. Now Apple has stripped-down the code, working in performance and other enhancements, what next for the OS? New support for new processors and graphics units from the likes of ARM and Nvidia, all spiced up with a little PA Semi magic. After all, OpenCL and Grand Central Dispatch are strong foundations for an inherently faster and more stable 64-bit architecture.

What else can you imagine Apple’s R&D teams are exploring for deployment in the future of the Mac OS? Will we see first gleams of this at WWDC 2010? (We’d like the lost Tiger feature, the ability to send an SMS from your Address Book via a Bluetooth-connected mobile phone reintroduced, for example).

Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 released, Camino 2 goes Final

noreply@blogger.com (The Mac Support Store) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:52:00 +0000

Mozilla just released Firefox 3.6 Beta3. This one features Component Directory Lockdown which will disable support for incompatible add-ons, theoretically making Firefox more stable. Make sure your important Add-ons are Kosher before installing. Other fun new stuff in this version.

Download here

Update: In other Mozilla/Apple News, Camino 2.0 has gone final.