Applelinks Tech Web Reader - Thursday, March 20, 2008
All's Well That Ends (Mostly) Well - Safari 3.1 brings improvements. Really.
Optimizing MacBook Pro
How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong
SSD Disks Are Not Reliable?
Dell denies 20 - 30% return rates for SSD-laptops
Dell gets in a state over SSD claims
So What's The Easiest Box To Hack - Vista, Ubuntu Or OS X?
Apple Unleashes Monster Patch Batch On Mac Faithful
Apple 'Mulls All-you-can-eat Music Plan'
Apple In Talks With Music Companies
Leopard: Not Quite Right
Does Your Mac Need Anti-Virus Software?
How To Swap The MacBook or MacBook Pro Battery Without Using A Power Adapter
About LCD Display Pixel Anomalies
MacBook Pro: Display Issue Related To "Hot-plugging" Symptoms
The Mac Night Owl: Forget the Recession: Mac Sales Soar!
Gene Steinberg meets Bob "Dr. Mac" Levitus, commentator Daniel Eran Dilger, HostICan's Denis Motova and Pocket Mac's Tim Goggin this week on The Tech Night Owl LIVE
All's Well That Ends (Mostly) Well - Safari 3.1 brings improvements. Really.
Rixstep says:
Safari 3.1 is now available. Someone's been listening. Someone's seen something. They have more work to do - a lot more work - but progress is progress. This is a quick look at some of the more embarrassing errors up to now in Safari and what version 3.1 does about them.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://rixstep.com/2/4/20080319,00.shtml
Optimizing MacBook Pro
Macworld's James Galbraith reports:
We've seen what Intel's next-generation of Penryn chips can do to the performance of both MacBook Pros and MacBooks. But that testing focused on the standard configurations of Apple's revamped laptop offerings - there are also build-to-order configurations. And now we've gotten our hands on such a system, a customized MacBook Pro, to see how optimizing the hardware translates to performance gains.
Specifically, we received a 15-inch MacBook Pro with a speedier processor, faster (though smaller) hard drive, and more memory. Our build-to-order laptop sports a 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo processor; the standard MacBook Pro tops out at 2.5GHz. We've also swapped out the standard 250GB, 5,400-rpm hard drive for a 200GB model that runs at 7,200 rpm. And our customized MacBook Pro has been maxed out to 4GB of memory, up from the 2GB that ship with the standard version.
This souped-up MacBook Pro costs $3,199 - $700 more than the 15-inch MacBook Pro with a 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo chip. But that extra money gets you the fastest portable Mac we've ever tested.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.macworld.com/article/132600/2008/03/mbpro_bto.html
How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong
Wired's Leander Kahney says:
One Infinite Loop, Apple's street address, is a programming in-joke — it refers to a routine that never ends. But it is also an apt description of the travails of parking at the Cupertino, California, campus. Like most things in Silicon Valley, Apple's lots are egalitarian; there are no reserved spots for managers or higher-ups.....
But there is one Mercedes that doesn't need to search for very long, and it belongs to Steve Jobs. If there's no easy-to-find spot and he's in a hurry, Jobs has been known to pull up to Apple's front entrance and park in a handicapped space. (Sometimes he takes up two spaces.)....
Jobs' fabled attitude toward parking reflects his approach to business: For him, the regular rules do not apply. Everybody is familiar with Google's famous catchphrase, "Don't be evil." It has become a shorthand mission statement for Silicon Valley, encompassing a variety of ideals that - proponents say - are good for business and good for the world: Embrace open platforms. Trust decisions to the wisdom of crowds. Treat your employees like gods.
It's ironic, then, that one of the Valley's most successful companies ignored all of these tenets. Google and Apple may have a friendly relationship - Google CEO Eric Schmidt sits on Apple's board, after all - but by Google's definition, Apple is irredeemably evil, behaving more like an old-fashioned industrial titan than a different-thinking business of the future......
To read more, click here:
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-04/bz_apple
SSD Disks Are Not Reliable?
HardMac's Lionel says: :
The news spread like wildfire on the Web. The first generations of SSD drives suffer from a serious problem of reliability. A failure rate of 10 to 20% is very high, or 10 to 20 times more than a conventional hard drive.
It would be nice to find reasons for these problems, they remain unacceptable given the prices. It remains the case whether or not this figure is verified, which is not (yet) the case. But you know, the Internet is a huge sounding board for any problems.....
Of course, sales of these drives are still confidential, but not zero and, for example, no Mac site, to our knowledge has reported a failure of a MacBook Air SSD disk - something that would cause some noise without a doubt......
For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.hardmac.com/news/2008-03-19/#7968
Dell denies 20 - 30% return rates for SSD-laptops
Engadget's Paul Miller reports:
Alright Avian Securities, looks like you might have some explaining to do. Dell claims that the 20 to 30% failure and return rates for SSD laptops cited by Avian's report "don't even vaguely resemble what's happening in our business." Dell says it wasn't contacted in the study, and that "global reliability data shows that SSD drives are equal to or better than traditional hard disk drives we've shipped."
For the full report visit here:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/dell-denies-20-30-return-rates-for-ssd-laptops/
Dell gets in a state over SSD claims
The Register's Kelly Fiveash reports:
Dell has slammed an analyst's claim that a large number of disgruntled customers are returning the vendor's flash drive-based notebooks due to high failure rates.
Avian Securities managing partner Avi Cohen said in a report earlier this week that the rate of return on Dell notebooks using solid-state drives ranged from 20-30 per cent.
He claimed buyers couldn't justify the additional cash splurge on Dell's expensive Samsung SATA II Drive-based mobile PCs because they failed to live up to performance expectations.
The computer giant said today that Cohen's claims were "unfounded and wholly inaccurate, by orders of magnitude".
For the full report visit here:
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/03/19/dell_solid_state_drives/
So What's The Easiest Box To Hack - Vista, Ubuntu Or OS X?
The Register's Dan Goodin reports:
Tired of all the knee-jerk banter from fanboys about whose operating system is the most secure? So are the organizers of the CanSecWest security conference, which will be held in Vancouver later this month. And with a contest awarding as much as $25,000 worth of prizes, they're likely to breathe fresh life into a stale debate.
This year's Pwn2Own competition will place three brand-new, fully patched laptops side by side: a Fujitsu U810 running Vista Ultimate, a Vaio VGN-TZ37Cn running Ubuntu 7.10 and a MacBook Air running Leopard. The first person to remotely run code on each one gets to take the machine home, and is automatically entered into the running for a $25,000 award from TippingPoint, whose Zero Day Initiative pays bounties to researchers for responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/19/pwn2own_contest_returns/
Apple Unleashes Monster Patch Batch On Mac Faithful
The Register's Dan Goodin reports:
Apple released a massive security update on Tuesday that patched at least 80 vulnerabilities in its Tiger and Leopard operating systems, many of which were critical.
The massive patch batch amounts to a download of more than 105MB, and that doesn't include a separate 25MB file that installs version 3.1 of Apple's Safari browser. Mac users who haven't already been prompted to install the updates should apply them manually by opening the OS X system preferences and choosing Software Update.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/19/monster_apple_patch_batch/
Apple 'Mulls All-you-can-eat Music Plan'
The Register's Andrew Orlowski reports:
So now we can guess why Apple has clung so tightly to DRM, which has all but disappeared from major label digital music retail in recent months. It remains a powerful bargaining chip.
The tech giant is negotiating with the music business to offer unlimited downloads from its iTunes store, the FT reports today. Money would be levied either on Apple's music players, giving the punter access to iTunes downloads for the lifetime of the device, or for a monthly or annual subscription fee, as with Rhapsody, Napster or eMusic.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/19/apple_itunes_unlimited/
Apple In Talks With Music Companies
FT's Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson reports:
Apple is in discussions with the big music companies about a radical new business model that would give customers free access to its entire iTunes music library in exchange for paying a premium for its iPod and iPhone devices.
The "all you can eat" model, a replica of Nokia's "comes with music" deal with Universal Music last December, could provide the struggling recorded music industry with a much-needed fillip, and drive demand for a new generation of Apple's hardware.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e35a7404-f557-11dc-a21b-000077b07658.html
Leopard: Not Quite Right
AppleMatters' Chris Howard says:
Apple's Leopard is several months and a few upgrades old now, but some things still aren't meeting expectations. Although my experience with it is has been very good (and I know some folks have had serious problems), an accumulation of troubling problems have, well, troubled me.
Apple has made some fixes to Parental Controls, but in our house we're still having trouble with it being too strict. It is not domain related, rather it is page related. Thus every page you visit on Wikipedia, for instance, has to be authorized! Ouch.
Thought I'd give the new whizz-bang DVD sharing a go recently. Ha! I tried to copy 1GB of files from one Mac to another but I gave up after 3 hours as it had only copied 900MB and still had an hour to go....
Safari hangs daily. Anyone else got this problem?....
Occasionally my iMac doesn't wake properly from sleep. And I never trust the locking screen saver because it is even less reliable at waking from sleep......
For the full report visit here:
http://www.applematters.com/index.php/section/comments/leopard-not-quite-right/
Does Your Mac Need Anti-Virus Software?
Wired's Scott Gilbertson says:
Mac fans have long touted the platform's relative lack of viruses as a good reason to switch from a Windows PC. No one will dispute that there are far fewer Mac viruses out there, but there are some threats, which leaves many people wondering - do I need to run anti-virus software on my Mac?
While anti-virus software is a must have for Windows users, in the Mac community the subject doesn't come up as often. Tidbits, a long time Mac user resource, recently published an insightful article on whether or not you need anti-virus software on your Mac.
Their conclusion? Probably not. That doesn't mean you should be cocky about it though.....
For the full report visit here:
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/03/does-your-mac-n.html
How To Swap The MacBook or MacBook Pro Battery Without Using A Power Adapter
A new Apple Knowledge Base article says:
In order to swap the battery on your MacBook or MacBook Pro when a MagSafe adapter is not connected, power down or put the computer into sleep mode.
As the computer goes to sleep, it will save the contents of the RAM (Random Access Memory) to the computer's hard drive. When you remove the battery, the sleep light will go out and the computer will power off.
After you've inserted the new battery, open the lid and press the power button. The computer will start up and, using safe sleep, your system will resume where it left off when you put it to sleep.
You can check it out at:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303329
About LCD Display Pixel Anomalies
A new Apple Knowledge Base article says:
This document defines the term "pixel anomaly", explains why such anomalies occur, and describes what to do if you feel your active matrix LCD panel has more than an acceptable number of pixel anomalies.....
There are typically millions of these subpixels on an LCD display. For example, the LCD panel used in the Apple Cinema HD display is made up of 2.3 million pixels and 6.9 million red, green, and blue subpixels. Occasionally, a transistor does not work perfectly, which may result in the affected subpixel being turned on (bright) or turned off (dark). With the millions of subpixels on a display, it is quite possible to have a low number of faulty transistors on an LCD. Therefore, a certain number of subpixel anomalies is considered acceptable. Rejecting all but perfect LCD panels would significantly increase the retail price for products using LCD displays. These factors apply to all manufacturers using LCD technology - not just Apple products.
For more information, visit:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=22194
MacBook Pro: Display Issue Related To "Hot-plugging" Symptoms
A new Apple Knowledge Base article says:
When hot-plugging an external display into your MacBook Pro, you may notice the external display occasionally stays dark, or the internal display of the MacBook Pro appears to flash or turn black.
Sometimes, when switching from an S-Video to a DVI connection, the internal display may appear black or display only the mouse cursor.
For more information, visit:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303329
The Mac Night Owl: Forget the Recession: Mac Sales Soar!
As Apple's stock remained down in the dumps, more over the general state of the economy than any particular problem with the company, the latest survey from NPD Group shows that sales of new Macs are on a roll. According to published reports, Apple has garnered a 14% share of the U.S. retail market, up from a mere 9% last year.
Here's the link to the story:
http://macnightowl.com/2008/03/19/forget-the-recession-mac-sales-soar/
Notes: You can also access our RSS feed, available at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/rss
Or our Atom feed at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/atom
Gene Steinberg meets Bob "Dr. Mac" Levitus, commentator Daniel Eran Dilger, HostICan's Denis Motova and Pocket Mac's Tim Goggin this week on The Tech Night Owl LIVE
During this week's all-star episode, the Night Owl is joined by cutting-edge commentator Daniel Eran Dilger, of Roughly Drafted Magazine, to correct the ongoing misstatements about Apple's iPhone SDK and to answer the question of whether Adobe Flash is needed on a mobile device.
Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus returns to talk about the state of the Mac, Apple's Wi-Fi mobile platform and other hot topics.
You'll also hear Gene and HostICan's Denis Motova debate the merits of new search technology and whether anything will come from Microsoft's plan to acquire Yahoo!
And Tim Goggin, of Pocket Mac, will describe the company's cross-platform integration and mobile device sync applications.
You can tune into the broadcast Thursday night from 6:00 to 8:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 to 11:00 PM Eastern, at:
http://www.techbroadcasting.com/
Our new chat room will also be open for listener participation. An archive of the show will be available for downloading and listening at your convenience within four hours after the original broadcast.
You can also access our show's Podcast feed, now available at:
http://www.techbroadcasting.com/nightowl.xml
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