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Mac Net Journal
Take an in-depth look at Mac OS X and its impact for this Mac professional |
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As you probably know, the news is full of warnings that the Net may slow to a crawl tonight as the Code Red worm hits Windows-based servers across the Net. Being a Mac user, I figured I was safe from being affected here, but as it turns out, the Cisco router that connects me to Qwest's DSL service can be compromised by the worm. I had to do a simple reprogramming fix to make the router safe this morning. So, don't be surprised that even if you use Macs, you could be affected if this worm hits very hard today. It may be worthwhile to check on your router vulnerability or even cable modem vulnerability...[posted at 9:24 a.m. PDT] A new version of Omniweb arrived on the Net yesterday, bumping the OS X Web browser to version 4.0.3. Among the enhancements in this release are multiple language support and a number of bug fixes. Among the things still not working, foremost, Java is still not working...[posted at 9:15 a.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- CE QuicKeys 1.0b2 - Update to the beta of QuicKeys for OS X
Filemaker Server 5.5 is now available for OS X, Windows 2000 and Red Hat Linux...[posted at 9:30 a.m. PDT] Macworld UK mentions a study that finds OS X the best system for audio manipulation, based mainly on the low latency time in dealing with audio information under OS X...[posted at 9:24 a.m. PDT] According to an article in MacCentral today, it appears that the makers of QuarkXPress has shifted their schedule for bringing the publishing and layout program to OS X. Quark says its commitment to OS X is firm and that Xpress will ship sooner rather than later. No ship date for the Carbon version dubbed QuarkXPress 5.X has been set...[posted at 9:07 a.m. PDT] Gene Steinberg offers a tip for how to search for a file with Sherlock without searching your entire hard drive...[posted at 9:01 a.m. PDT] Mac OS Planet has a short review of Snapz Pro for OS X and Macworld UK makes mention of the release of the screen capture software as well today...[posted at 9:00 a.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- piDock 1.0 - Hierachical file navigation and launcher. Shareware.
I am back in business. My 20 gig hard drive from Other World Computing arrived yesterday afternoon and now I am back to running OS X with Classic, although I am not turning on Classic all that much. I am still torn about having Classic on this machine at all, but since 90 percent plus of the other users trying to work and play with OS X have Classic on their machines, I should too. Now I will see how long my uptimes are with this normal OS X install...
MacEdition takes an in-depth look at the Web browsers currently available for OS X. The author's conclusion, he has Omniweb on top, barely edging Internet Explorer. I am impressed with Omniweb too, but I am still using IE a lot. Why? Well, in a couple of months when OS X 10.1 ships, IE promises full Java support, something that the Mac hasn't had at any decent level ever when compared to Windows and Linux. If you rely on something other than run-of-the-mill Java in the sites you use, you know what I mean. I hope that Omniweb won't be far behind with full Java support, but they have yet to announce any details about their next release...[posted at 4:54 p.m. PDT] OS X for the Masses from MacDirectory argues that while the future of Apple is definitely all OS X, most people would benefit most by waiting to switch to OS X in September, when OS X 10.1 promises to bring the system into the mainstream...[posted at 4:31 p.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- Snapz Pro X 1.0.0 - Shareware screen capture tool
I realized this morning that there are a few things I take for granted now using my PowerBook with OS X. It dawned on me when I checked to see how long I had been running this Pismo PowerBook non-stop by checking my uptime in the Terminal and I was surprised to see it has been up for six days. A month or so ago I was amazed that my PowerBook would stay up for days, weeks, and that it looks like it could run for a month or more without a restart. I have seen this with servers, such as my Web server, running Mac OS 9.x, but I've never had a full-time use Mac that I do graphics work, Internet work, etc., stay up for more than a day or two at a time. I am still waiting for my replacement hard drive from OWC. Once I get it, I will return to a more standard install of OS X, one that includes Classic on the same partition. I have decided that I need my PowerBook to be the Swiss Army Knife of computers that it is capable of being, so I will add OS 9.1 back to the mix, but I have no intention of using Classic any more than absolutely necessary. It will be turned off 99 percent of the time. Speaking of OWC, while I am glad that they appear to be finally resolving my hard disk problem, they won't get any more of my business. My hard drive died more than 6 weeks ago and due to various mistakes on their end of the customer support system, I still don't have a replacement...
MacFixIt takes a second look at troubleshooting OS X and the state of the system at version 10.0.4...[posted at 10:33 a.m. PDT] The founder of Omni, creators of Omniweb and other OS X native software, is featured in an exclusive interview on Macworld UK. Not a lot new here, since others have interviewd Will Shipley before, but it is great to see some positive words about OS X...One interesting thing to note is mention at the end of the article of a forthcoming update of Omniweb...[posted at 10:09 a.m. PDT] CNet.com offers a preview of OS X 10.1...[posted at 10:04 a.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- Unsupported UtilityX 1.0b9 - Update to the tool for installing OS X on unsupported Macs
OsOpinion asks a good question about What makes an OS X application?. The point of the article: It is short sighted to not consider some Unix applications that can run under OS X as OS X applications. Speaking from my own standpoint, I agree. I don't spend much time in the Terminal under OS X, unless I am doing something specific, but I was geeky enough last week to load a port of the Unix e-mail and newsgroup reader Pine on my OS X 10.0.4 machine...[posted at 8:18 p.m. PDT] GraphicConverter has been bumped to version 4.0.9, bringing a host of updates to the Swiss Army Knife of graphics manipulation programs. It includes a number of improvements under OS X...[posted at 9:46 a.m. PDT] Mac Night Owl asks, Would you really want to download a 650 megabyte OS X upgrade file?...[posted at 9:32 a.m. PDT] Developers steamed at Apple over OS X is an article from Macinstein taking a look at the common complaints that Apple isn't being forthcoming with developers about new versions of OS X, thereby slowing software development for the new OS. This story and another from Insanely Great Mac comes on the heels of a story from MacUser UK about developer unrest...[posted at 9:23 a.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- URL Manager Pro X 3.0b16 - An update to the bookmark manager for Explorer, OmniWeb, iCab and Opera
MacEdition has an interesting article about the various docklings and dock modifications that can bring more life to the much-maligned Dock in Rock with your Dock out...[posted at 10:43 p.m. PDT] Macintouch has some pretty definitive information today about whether the update to OS X 10.1 will be available as a free download. The answer from an Apple exec...No...[posted at 3:58 p.m. PDT] eVision has started a contest with cash prizes for programmers who code for OS X...[posted at 3:55 p.m. PDT] Eudora's namesake, Eudora Welty, passed away Monday at age 92 [MacObserver]...[posted at 3:53 p.m. PDT]
Go2Mac has a few notes about the limitations of Toast Titanium 5 preview for OS X. Among the limitations, it doesn't support burning CDs via USB or support the 2001 iBook...[posted at 2:48 p.m. PDT]
Aladin releases Stuffit Express for OS X, a tool for businesses that want to do foolproof file transfers...[posted at 3:51 p.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- VueScan 7.1.7 - An update to the alternative scanner driver for Nikon, Minolta, HP and others
If, like me, you have a Palm computer and eagerly await a version of Palm Desktop and hotsyncing capabilities to be available for use under OS X, you may want to keep track of the news on PalmOnMac.com...[posted at 6:09 p.m. PDT] A new version of the VIREX command line virus scanner for OS X has been released. There is also a new version with a graphical user interface available for the first time today...[posted at 5:55 p.m. PDT] If you don't want to pay $30 for the shipping version of MacGIMP, the open source image manipulation program, then you can check the MacGIMP.org Web site for links to the FTP sites set up for downloading the program over the Internet. The download doesn't include the X Windows software that needs to be running under OS X in order to run the GIMP...[posted at 5:35 p.m. PDT] If you use Web Sharing or run the Apache Web server under OS X, you should go into the System Preferences program under OS X 10.0.4 and load the update that has been released today by Apple. It is supposed to boost security for Apache under OS X and update the version of SSH...[posted at 5:12 p.m. PDT] The Scientific American site has an interesting article about the momentum that the wireless broadband networking standard known as 802.11b, which is favored by Apple and other companies, may be the eventual dark horse winner in the race for widespread broadband Net connections...[posted at 2:05 p.m. PDT] Macintouch has an in-depth report about Macworld Expo, including reader reaction to the announcements and roll out of the revised Mac hardware lineup...[posted at 8:28 a.m. PDT] The folks at MacCentral are taking this week off, which may be a wise move since this could be a very slow week for Mac news in the wake of last week's Macworld Expo...[posted at 8:24 a.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- OS X Web Sharing Update - an update with security enhancements for Web sharing through Apache. Available through the OS X Software Update panel
Writing in today's Seattle Times, Glenn Fleishman takes a look back at how the absence of a showstopper took the shine of the Apple show in New York...[posted at 4:27 p.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- Synk X 3.1rc5 - An update to the file sychronization and backup tool for OS X
- Limewire 1.6b - OS X client for the Gnutella peer-to-peer file sharing system
This week's Macworld Expo was a disappointment for many because it became clear that it will be two months before we see major improvements to OS X. But there is a silver lining to the announcement of features in OS X 10.1, due to be released sometime in September. A number of features and interface tweaks planned for 10.1 can be implimented right now using shareware programs available on the Net. Let's take a look at how you can preview OS X 10.1 on your machine right now: The Dock - Many enhancements in OS X 10.1 will offer ways to customize the Dock. But all of these enhancements - the ability to change the ways that windows minimize, the ability to place the Dock in a particular place on your screen, etc. - can be done right now with TinkerTool 1.4. Fonts - Font smoothing is something else that the useful freeware TinkerTool program can adjust right now by setting the threshold at which font smoothing takes place. Granted, these interface tweaks do little to help with the performance of OS X 10.0.4 right now, but they can at least give some minor preview of the new look and customization that will be available to everyone in a couple of months. On a more substantial note, there are now at least a couple of major shortcomings of OS X that can be addressed by third-party applications, such as CD burning thanks to Roxio's first beta of Toast Titanium 5 for OS X and the ability to run Windows flavors under OS X using the new beta of Virtual PC. So there is progress being made, just not fast enough for many of us who are using OS X full time right now...
Worried about home computer security? If you have a Mac connected to the Net full time with a DSL or cable connection, you should be concerned. And there are additional issues with running OS X as the operating system on a full-time connected Mac. While not specific to Mac security, the CERT Coordination Center offers a great primer called Home network security about making home computer connections secure and why it is important...
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- NetSmith X 1.5 - An upgrade to the shareware HTML editor
Key Xing 1.0 is a keystroke application launcher that allows users to program key combinations to start up their favorite OS X applications and files. I used to use OneClick under OS 9.x to do this, and since OneClick has made no announcements about what they are doing in regards to OS X, falling behind QuicKeys (released in beta form earlier this week), then this $10 shareware program may take care of one task that the multi-talented OneClick used to handle for me...[posted at 9:23 a.m. PDT] MacNN has an in-depth report on the new features and the benefits of Office 10...[posted at 9:18 a.m. PDT] Office to be a Mac OS X only application from MacCentral takes a look at all the features of Office 10 from Microsoft that is due to arrive this fall...[posted at 9:07 a.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- Netscape Communicator 4.7.8 (Classic only) - An update to Communicator for OS 9.x
Updates to Mac Net Journal are running a bit slow today due to serious connectivity problems with Qwest, my local DSL provider and telephone monopoly. I am keeping my fingers crossed that things stay up long enough from time to time to keep the site online and to allow me to update...
Windows Media Player for OS X preview [MacCentral]...[posted at 3:27 p.m. PDT] An Apple exec also spoke with MacCentral about the upcoming release of OS X 10.1, slated for sometime in September...[posted at 11:24 a.m. PDT] MacCentral has news about a pre-release version of Palm Desktop for OS X, but there is no news of a solid release date for the software...[posted at 11:20 a.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- MP3 Rage 3.6 - Update to the MP3 player and client for Gnutella and Napster networks
Right off the top I have to say that the news I have found this morning from Macworld Expo in New York is rather...how should I put this...anticlimactic. Since I am not in the market right now to buy one of the new G4 servers or desktop machines, and I don't anticipate the need for a speed-bumped iMac, I was really hoping to hear that OS X was going to take a major leap forward today. Instead, OS X is going to make a major leap forward sometime in September, when the new and improved OS X 10.1 will be unveiled, free for current OS X users, on CD that we will all have to wait patiently for to arrive at our front doors. I am still boiling down the news and will be posting updates below, but my initial gut reaction is...ho hum... I admit that I am a bit confused about whether OS X 10.1 will indeed be a free update for those of us already using OS X 10.0.4. The Apple Web site says: Mac OS X v10.1 will be available for current Mac OS X users as an upgrade package through AppleĀs Mac OS Up-to-Date program for $19.95 (US)And I don't know about anyone else, but that makes it sound to me that I need to spend $19.95 to join the Mac OS Up-to-Date program in order to get my "free" update to OS X 10.1. Maybe I am misreading something. Other sites haven't brought up the same concern just yet, but a user on at least one e-mail list I read has expressed the same concern...[posted at 10:31 a.m. PDT] Macintouch pipes in now with the same interpretation of the Apple update to OS X 10.1 as I have read. It looks like we all need to fork out $19.95 to join the Mac OS Up-to-Date program in order to move up to 10.1...[posted at 11:54 a.m. PDT]
A number of sites have details about the updated Apple hardware announced at the expo, including the new "Quicksilver" line of G4 desktops and the speed-bumped but same old form factor iMacs. MacCentral also offers info about iDVD 2, which, like just about everything announced today, will not be available for a couple of months. Still, it looks like a nice improvement to the DVD creation program...[posted at 10:20 a.m. PDT] It isn't ready to be released for OS X until next month, but Corel previewed Painter 7 at its expo event last night. Painter will be part of the new Procreate line of software from Corel, along with upcoming versions of KPT Bryce and KnockOut...[posted at 10:03 a.m. PDT] MacCentral has news from the expo that Fujitsu MO drives now support OS X...[posted at 9:55 a.m. PDT] Quicken 2002 Deluxe will come to OS X in August as a Carbon application. Intuit is offering pre-buying of the software on its Web site for $59.95 for the CD-ROM...[posted at 9:35 a.m. PDT] Also on the productive news front for OS X from the expo, Connectix has unveiled Virtual PC for Mac OS X Test Drive, a beta version of the software that lets users run Windows on their Macs. The software is available free to currently registered users of Virtual PC 4.0. The Test Drive version of Virtual PC will time out on Jan. 31, 2002. It should be noted that there are some steep memory requirements for this beta version of Virtual PC for OS X...if you want to simply run DOS it will cost a minimum RAM requirement of 160 megs, while Windows 98 requires 192 MB RAM and Windows 2000 requires 256 MB RAM...[posted at 9:26 a.m. PDT] For those of us using OS X who simply need a way to burn data CDs to back up our work, digital photos and other data, Roxio has unveiled Toast 5 Titanium which brings CD burning to OS X right now at a cost of $89.95 (price includes a limited time $10 off special). Roxio is accepting order for the software now in its Web store. The version available now is a preview version, and it supports a limited number of CD drives, so be sure to check the compatibility list to ensure that your drive is supported in this version...[posted at 9:20 a.m. PDT] As a major teaser for what lies ahead in OS X 10.1, Apple has posted a page about the update. Here are the highlights being promised in a couple of months:
On the issue of making backups of OS X, Dantz announced Retrospect 5 today at Macworld, but like most OS X applications, it won't actually ship until later this fall after the arrival of OS X 10.1...[posted at 8:19 a.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- Connectix Virtual PC 4.0b - The first beta of Virtual PC for OS X
CE Software has released a public beta version of QuicKeys for OS X today. The first version of the shortcut program for OS X allows users to create shortcuts to execute Unix commands, it includes a QuicKeys Dockling for controlling the playback of shortcuts and it brings many of the features from the OS 9.x version of QuicKeys to the new Apple OS...[posted at 12:35 p.m. PDT] BusinessMac offers an editorial that I completely agree with: Where is an OS X Web browser that supports Java? That is the point of Is the Web leaving OS X behind...[posted at 12:28 p.m. PDT] Maya for OS X will be available for pre-order [MacCentral]...[posted at 12:11 p.m. PDT] War of the Macworlds [Wired News]...[posted at 10:19 a.m. PDT] Micromat's Drive 10 is officially available today. The new disk utility for OS X is the first native disk repair tool, meaning that it won't be necessary to reboot into OS 9.x in order to fix your OS X volume any longer. Drive 10 sells for $69.95, and users with a license for TechTool Pro 3 can upgrade for $52.95...[posted at 10:10 a.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- Super Get Info 1.0.1 - Update to the shareware Get Info replacement from Bare Bones Software
If you are at all interested in scripting and making some use of AppleScript, you should check out the site Macscripter.net. I wandered upon the site a couple of days ago, when I used an AppleScript tool to make the background of my Dock transparent...[posted at 4:41 p.m. PDT] Brent Simmons offers an interesting history of a Web server he retired on Saturday in his Weblog inessential.com...[posted at 4:31 p.m. PDT] I spent some time digging around on Stepwise.com this afternoon and came across the Vermont Recipes - A Cocoa cookbook for OS X by Bill Cheeseman. It looks like a good resource for anyone interested in digging into programming for the Cocoa environment under OS X...[posted at 4:01 p.m. PDT] Not much OS X or fresh Mac news today, so I am digging around a bit. I found an interesting discussion on another Weblog about the chances that OS X will remain a viable operating system, in light of companies like Adobe dragging their heels in releasing native versions of major software for OS X...[posted at 12:08 p.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- RBrowser 2.88.8 - An update to the freeware FTP and SSH program
The developers of Mozilla for OS X, commonly refered to as Fizzila, are offering nearly daily updates to the program at the following URL: ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/nightly/latest-0.9.2/...[posted at 7:01 p.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- Thumbnailer 1.2.4 - Update to the shareware tool for creating easy Web pages with thumbnails
Have you ever been plagued by the common problem where you quit an application but it still shows as being active in your Dock? The only way to fix this is to quit the Dock, which will automatically restart itself. Here is a little tip:
The easiest way of quitting and restarting the Dock is to use a simple Applescript. Open Script Editor (in your Applications folder under AppleScript) and type in:
It appears that a native version of Snapz Pro for OS X will be unveiled next week at Macworld Expo...[posted at 9:17 a.m. PDT] MacWrite looks at the Simplicity of OS X in an article that argues that while OS X is much more complex under the hood than previous Mac OSes, actually using the system as an end user can be easier with OS X than in the past...[posted at 9:13 a.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- txt2pdf 5.1 - A shareware PERL5 tool for converting from text to PDF
Quark talks XPress 5.0 and OS X [MacCentral] - Quark is in the same boat as many large software companies...Xpress 5 will run under Classic, but any OS X integration will wait for the next version. Like in many other software areas, smaller developers are much more nimble dealing with the emergence of OS X...[posted at 11:20 p.m.] Macintouch mentions in today's edition that it appears Dantz will unveil a standalone version of Retrospect at MacWorld Expo next week. This is great news that is likely to clear up one of the biggest shortcomings of OS X...a bombproof, simple way to back up an OS X volume...[posted at 4:36 p.m.] Progress slow on OpenOffice for OS X [MacCentral]...[posted at 11:28 a.m.] MacNightOwl takes a look at the Print Center under OS X that combines the old Chooser and Print Monitor in one application...[posted at 11:23 a.m.] A new version of AIM for OS X has hit the Net today, bringing Buddy Icons to the OS X version for the first time...[posted at 11:09 a.m.]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- Corel Bryce 5.0 - The OS X version of the commercial 3D landscape graphics program
Two cheers for Mac OS X [SmartMoney]...[posted at 8:54 p.m.] Chris Coleman from O'Reilly Network offers his take on running X on X, as in XFree86 running on the same machine as OS X thanks to the work of open source developers working on the project...[posted at 11:18 a.m.] MacCentral also offers news today about MacLinkPlus Deluxe optimized for Mac OS X. MacLinkPlus Deluxe 13 offers the ability to open files created by the latest versions of Microsoft Word and Excel, and it sells for $99.95. Those who have older versions of MacLinkPlus can upgrade to the new version for $39.95...[posted at 11:11 a.m.] One note about the story on MacCentral about using XMorph to change the appearance of your OS X desktop is that the makers of the software unveiled XMorph 1.5 yesterday, then did a quick doubletake and released a patch to bring the version number to 1.5.1. If you have a copy of XMorph 1.5, you are strongly advised not to use it without upgrading to 1.5.1. The version released yesterday had a serious bug that could disable your OS X system...[posted at 8:49 a.m.] In Mac OS X performance: The lessons of history, the MacNightOwl site draws parallels between the move from 68k to PowerPC-based Macs and the current move from OS 9.x to OS X...[posted at 8:42 a.m.] The topic of music and OS X seems to be reaching some kind of critical mass this week. Yesterday Go2Mac had a long article on doing high-end audio on Mac OS X, and today MacCentral revisits music and OS X...[posted at 8:28 a.m.]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- WhereDidAllMyMoneyGo 2.3 - Shareware finance tool for managing property, income and expenses
Uptime update: 17 days, 3 minutes...and counting. With this kind of stability on my OS X-only installation, I must be crazy to even think of adding Classic if and when I receive a replacement hard drive for my Hitachi 20 gig drive that died in June. I still don't have the replacement from Other World Computing, which is starting to frustrate me once again...At least now I have an experience with OWC that I can pass on to others.
Agfa unveils new scanner drivers for OS X [MacObserver]...[posted at 3:04 p.m.] A new version of Fire.app 0.27.b, the multi-protocol chat program, is available today. It is supposed to fix more problems with accessing MSN. Be sure to check the Epicware site for the latest download. The current link on Versiontracker points to an older version...[posted at 12:32 p.m.] MacFixIt has a note this afternoon about many users reporting problems accessing iTools and their mac.com e-mail. I didn't note it yesterday, but I was unable to get to my iDisk to store a couple of files at that time. This offers a valuable lesson...if you need to rely on an e-mail account or Internet-based data storage, you may want to think twice about it. I for one don't use my mac.com account for important e-mail. It is a great service that Apple offers, but it is not foolproof enough to rely on it...[posted at 12:21 p.m.] MacAddict is back online with an all Mac hosted Web site, running on OS X...Cool!...[posted at 12:15 p.m.] Getting started guide for OS X is a free resource originally developed as a possible book about OS X...[posted at 9:09 a.m.] HP posts PhotoSmart X driver [MacWorld UK]...[posted at 8:53 a.m.] The network monitoring application Intermapper has been bumped to version 3.5, bringing more support for OS X...[posted at 8:46 a.m.] OS X and Audio: When will it be ready to rock? is a wrap up of the current state of audio recording applications under OS X from the folks at Go2Mac.com. The verdict: It is too early to guage when OS X will be up to heavy-duty audio work...[posted at 8:42 a.m.] Watch the Steve Jobs Keynote speech live via QuickTime on the Apple Web site. The keynote from the MacWorld Expo in New York will be broadcast live at 9 a.m. Eastern (6 a.m. Pacific) on July 18...[posted at 8:37 a.m.]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- NotePod 1.0.1 - An update to the shareware hierarchical note taking utility
InDesign and Ilustrator to be the first Adobe apps ported to OS X [MacCentral] - And the article goes on to explain that the Mac platform is still very important to Adobe and they are comitted to it...[posted at 8:57 p.m.] WebObjects 5 update 1 includes a number of bug fixes for the Web development platform from Apple...[posted at 10:02 a.m.] Opinion: Apple recalls wrong AC adapter...'yo-yo' adapter much more dangerous than 'black brick' from PowerBook Zone has a pretty good point. My 'yo-yo' style adapter has some symptoms of problems, and this weekend a friend of mine who is a professional photographer had a serious short in his 'yo-yo' adapter that forced him to replace it...[posted at 9:33 a.m.] A reader of PowerBookCentral offers a tip for avoiding the Sleep induced coma problems some iBook users are experiencing with OS X...[posted at 9:26 a.m.] On the Mac OS X disk utility front, MicroMat's new Drive 10 tool for completely OS X native disk repair is due to be released on July 18...[posted at 9:22 a.m.] How much RAM is enough for OS X? MacsOnly takes a look at the question and finds that on a PowerMac 7300 upgraded with a 400 MHz G3 CPU that 256 MB of RAM is the sweet spot. The article includes a table of launch times with various RAM configurations from 64 MB up to 448 MB...[posted at 9:19 a.m.] Alan Lu at MacToolbox continues his multi-part look at OS X today with the fourth installment, covering game playing under OS X, the limited multimedia features of CD burning and DVD playing, and a brief look at the stability and hackability of the system...[posted at 9:13 a.m.] Unix Tutorial #1: How OS X saved my butt [WebmasterMac]...[posted at 9:09 a.m.]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- Analog 5.0.3 - An update to the freeware Web server statistics analysis program
On this week before the MacWorld Expo in New York there isn't much news about OS X. I get the sense that everyone is holding their breath in anticipation of announcements from the expo. I am not going to guess what lies ahead, but I do have hopes and wants. Among them, my latest big pet peeve with OS X. Why in the heck is shutting down OS X such a long, drawn out process? Although I haven't shut down my PowerBook running OS X in more than two weeks (Uptime update: 14 days, 7 hours and counting...), every time I log out and watch impatiently as OS X slowly spins, churns my hard disk and shuts down one application after another, I wonder why I can do the same process on my Power Computing Mac clone in the office in a matter of seconds while OS X takes minutes? OS X also frequently chokes on logging out, with one application or another timing out before the logout command can be completed. This leaves me to manually quit the slow-to-shut-down application and then issue another logout command, and quite often the process is repeated a time or two more before the machine actually logs out or shuts down. I recognize this behavior...it reminds me a lot of when I run Linux on my older PowerBook and it takes forever to shut down. Maybe the length of the shutdown process is dictated by the Unix underpinnings of OS X? I am not sure. But I do know that in those rare cases where I want to shut down my machine, and I want to do it NOW...OS X is not the system to be using. One instance where this could be critical is if you live in an area frequented by thunderstorms. With a PowerBook, it is no big deal...just sleep the machine and unplug all power and networking cables. But on a desktop machine, I would want to shut down and do it quickly. It just seems too much to ask of OS X at this time...
MSN outage enters a fifth day [News.com]...I will note however that I am able to log onto MSN using Fire.app at this time. Thank goodness I don't rely on MSN to communicate with anyone...[posted at 4:37 p.m.] A quick survey of low-cost Web development and server tools for the Mac is offered on Dori Smith's Macintosh Web Software on a Budget page...[posted at 4:35 p.m.]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- MailLight 1.0 - A menu bar alert for when Eudora receives mail
MacObserver also has an interesting discussion in its forums today about how the release of Windows XP this fall may affect OS X and its adoption by business users and home users...[posted at 6:47 p.m.]
Using Mac OS X To Share Files With Windows Machines is a step-by-step look at how to get Samba up and running on OS X 10.0.4 from Kyle D'Addario and Wincent Colaiuta of MacObserver...[posted at 6:31 p.m.] Bare Bones Software, the makers of BBEdit, have unveiled a new utility for OS X called Super Get Info 1.0. It offers more information than the standard Get Info window available with OS X 10.0.4. It also allows you to have more than one information window open at a time, and it lets you edit type and creator codes as well as permission settings. You can download a 14-day demo of the $20 program from Bare Bones...[posted at 5:57 p.m.] Owners of PowerBook G3 computers and other select machines will want to check out the follow page about a PowerBook G3 AC Adapter exchange program. The adapters in question have the model number M4402 and they are the rectangular black adapters, not the silver disc adapters used on newer PowerBooks, iBooks and Titanium G4 PowerBooks. The adapters are being voluntarily recalled by Apple since they have been found to overheat and can pose a fire danger...[posted at 1:32 p.m.] MacPopUp2.5, a LAN instant messaging tool, offers OS X support in its new release, available with a demo today...[posted at 10:57 a.m. PDT] Enabling virtual hosts in OS X is a step-by-step tutorial for adding the ability to host multiple Web sites on OS X 10.0.4 from evolt.org...[posted at 10:51 a.m. PDT] OS X nidump security issues [SecureMac]...[posted at 10:28 a.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- Prowler 2.2.1 - A shareware image browser
MacsOnly offers more speed test results comparing Web browsers for OS X and those that can be run under Classic. As usual, there is no clear winner...[posted at 5:45 p.m. PDT] Quickie Photos to web 1.0 is a shareware program that will take a folder of images and quickly create a Web photo album, with thumbnails and different formatting options. The $18 program is available for OS X as well as for OS 9.x and a variety of Windows versions...[posted at 11:25 a.m. PDT] MacNN has a discussion underway about the just-released OS X driver for Lucent WaveLan wireless networking cards. The drivers are the first to allow users of non-Apple wireless cards to work reliably under OS X...[posted at 11:19 a.m. PDT] BrickHouse 1.1b5 is an update to the $25 shareware tool for configuring the firewall in OS X...[posted at 11:13 a.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- Pepper 3.6.6a - An update to the shareware text editor
Happy Independence Day for those in the U.S.
Macuarium offers an question and answer interview with the senior product manager of NetBeans from Sun in Meet NetBeans...[posted at 1:03 p.m. PDT] MacTipsCafe has a quick article introducing just how easy it is to write and run a Java program on OS X, with step-by-step instructions for creating a simple "Hello World" program...[posted at 12:55 p.m. PDT] Apple releases update to Mac OS X Server 10.0.4 [MacObserver]...[posted at 12:43 p.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- AOL 10a - The latest version of the America Online client for OS X
I am a bit sad to see that Apple has officially stopped production of the Cube. I really leaned toward buying a Cube of my own last fall, but I opted for this Pismo PowerBook instead. If I had the money, I would still buy a Cube...they are cool little pieces of high powered computer equipment. I just think that Apple overestimated the popularity of the cool design, just as they did with the 20th Century Mac a few years before the Cube. And I think that the initial price of the Cube turned the excited audience away...
OS X shows security holes [News.com]...[posted at 6:37 p.m. PDT] Apple officially kills the Cube [Apple]...[posted at 2:49 p.m. PDT] Open source programmers have succeeded in making GIMP, the free image editing program, run on OS X with little fuss. MacGIMP is available now on a $25 CD that allows even novice users to get the program up and running without a bunch of bumbling around in the Terminal...[posted at 9:47 a.m. PDT] A review of Learning Carbon [All OS X]...[posted at 9:19 a.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- Mozilla 0.9.2 - The Carbon update of the open source Web browser project
I have a minor confession to make...over the last couple of weeks, I have gone back and forth between using Eudora 5.1b16 for OS X and Mail.app, but each time I think I am ready to compromise and go with Mail then something comes up to convince me to switch back to the tried-and-true Eudora mail program. Eudora is ugly, but it works nearly as well today under OS X as it did when I started using it under OS 7.3 or maybe even earlier, way back in the infancy of the Internet. The quest for an e-mail client that offers good looks, solid features and no compromises continues for me. Today I downloaded and spent a small amount of time looking at SweetMail for OS X. It has pretty good filtering capabilities and offers the ability to label messages just as I can do in Eudora, but I haven't spent enough time with the program to see how it would work in the long run. Like PowerMail, SweetMail doesn't either have an integrated spell checker feature under OS X nor does it use the OS X-based spell checker engine, since it is a Carbon application rather than a Cocoa application. I am checking out SweetMail at the suggestion of a Mac Net Journal reader...maybe I will give it a full day's look here... For those who are curious why I switched back to using Eudora after flirting with using Mail, the clincher came last night when my wife and business partner Natalie sent a Word document to her mother through e-mail and it showed up encoded oddly on the receiving end. Natalie has had Mail encode attached files oddly in the past, so I had her mail it to me, then sent it along with Eudora to her mother and it arrived ready for use. This may or may not be the fault of Mail, but when these sorts of things come up and I simply KNOW that Eudora will do the job, I fall back on what I know. So far, despite an aging interface and the new licensing scheme that is going to cost $50 per year to keep Eudora ad-free and up to date, the old mail workhorse still fits the bill when I need to know that files and mail will get to their destination...
Multi-lingual HTML editor for OS X released [MacObserver] - Muwse 1.09 runs natively under OS X, giving Webmasters and content creators an easy way to create pages in a number of languages...[posted at 6:40 p.m. PDT] Xerox unveils network laser printer for OS X [MacCentral] - Xerox today announced the Phaser 860 color laser printer, a workgroup printer with support out of the box for OS X. The printer lists for $1,999...[posted at 6:36 p.m. PDT] Oracle bringing a client to OS X [MacCentral]...[posted at 6:30 p.m. PDT] Mac OS X 10.1 not ready until September [The Register] - Rumors are starting to fly about the first major update to OS X and whether it will make the grade for MacWorld Expo in New York in a couple of weeks...[posted at 12:02 p.m. PDT] Videoplug gets Carbonized [MacCentral] - Users can now integrate QuickTime video into their REALBasic programming work with this updated plug in...[posted at 9:18 a.m. PDT] Apple: Developers are supporting OS X [MacCentral] - Notes from an Apple survey taken during the WWDC last month...[posted at 9:15 a.m. PDT] Mac OS X and music: It's about time - and timing [MacCentral]...[posted at 9:13 a.m. PDT] MacSoldiers.com offers a review of PowerMail X, the $49 e-mail application from CTM Development. I am reading the review with some interest this morning, because I am growing tired of the ancient user interface of Eudora and I am not all that satisfied with using Mail.app as my OS X mail client. I used PowerMail a few years ago under OS 8.6 and liked the program. The review does point out though that PowerMail doesn't have an integrated spell checker, and there are currently no third-party spell checkers that work with the program under OS X...[posted at 9:06 a.m. PDT]
SSH Admin allows you to easily configure and use the Secure Shell Daemon [SecureMac]...[posted at 9:03 a.m. PDT] Independent DVD-on-Mac OS X project yeilds workable software [Bite.org] - Details about a developer effort in France that has concocted a working, although not so pretty, way to enable DVD playback on OS X...[posted at 8:56 a.m. PDT] Apple has released an update to AppleWorks, bringing the program to version 6.2. Billed in its press release as the first productivity suite for OS X, AppleWorks 6.2 sells for $79, and users of AppleWorks 6.0 can upgrade to 6.2 for free by making a quick trip to www.apple.com/appleworks. The update to AppleWorks 6.2 was not available when I just checked the Apple site though, so it may take a short while before it appears on the Apple Store and elsewhere...[posted at 8:52 a.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- Button Builder 2.5 - A shareware tool for building Web graphics
I note it below, but I want to mention here as well that a new freeware tool called DockLock 1.0 was unveiled yesterday and it helps restore your Dock orientation settings between restarts. This should be a big help for many folks, who are tired of having to change their settings every time they restart OS X...[posted at 10:05 p.m. PDT]
Noted from Versiontracker.com...
- hfspax 1.0a2 - A freeware command line tool for backing up OS X
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