Applelinks Tech Web Reader - Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Mac OS X 10.5.2 Update To Bring Endless List Of Fixes
Explaining the Macintosh Surge
Can The Mac Attack Continue?
Apple And The War Against The User-replaceable Battery
MacBook Air - Will All The Cool Evaporate When Someone Asks You To Read/Rip/Burn A Disc?
MacBook Air: Top 10 Things To Love About It
MacBook Air One Of Apple's Most Controversial Products Ever
MacBook Air: The New Cube
MacBook Air's Real Design Innovation Is Under the Hood
Mac Pro 3.2GHz 'Harpertown' versus other Mac towers
If The Internet Goes Down, Will You Be Ready?
Why the Mac Doesn't Seem Viable for For-Profit Malware
Seagate Boosts Momentus Laptop Drive Capacity To 250GB
Microsoft Relents: Vista Consumer Virtualization Ban Lifted
Tiscali Hits 'Undo' After Bandwidth Throttling Chokes iTunes
RIAA Wiped Off The Net - Hacktivists At Work
The Mac Night Owl: The Leopard Report: Successful But!
Mac OS X 10.5.2 Update To Bring Endless List Of Fixes
MacScoop says:
During the MacWorld SF, Apple has quietly seeded to developers a new build of the Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.2 update numbered 9C16. The seed-note lists an endless list of enhancements in almost any part of the system.
According to the seed-note, the update "focuses" (if we may call this focusing) on, Active Directory/Directory Services, AirPort, AppKit, Application, Firewall, Audio, Automator, Back To My Mac, Chinese Input Methods, CoreData, CoreFoundation, Dashboard Widgets, Data Detectors, Directory Services, Dock, Finder, Foundation, Grammar Checking, Graphics Drivers, High Level Toolbox, iCal, iChat, iDisk, Keyboard Layouts, Mail, Networking, Parental Controls, Podcast Producer, Printing/CUPS, Quick Look, Rosetta, Safari, SMB, Spotlight, SQLite, Terminal, Time Machine, X11....
New issues fixed in this seed, as listed on the seed-note, are the following........ (*Very* long list Ed.)
This clearly represents by far the most significant revision update Apple has ever made on any of its operating systems with nearly 40 Applications involved and 100 bugs fixed. The only bad news is that the update weights as much as, hold your breathe... over 400MB, a record size which could even grow further in the final build..
For the full report click here.
Explaining the Macintosh Surge
The New York Times' David Pogue says:
.....Something is going on with the Macintosh.
At this week's Macworld Expo, there were 475 exhibitors. That's 100 more booths than last year.
There were 50,000 attendees. That's 10,000 more people than last year.
A book publisher told me that 2007 Macintosh book sales were up by double-digit leaps over the previous year.
Gartner's fourth-quarter 2007 research shows that Mac shipments grew 28 percent over the year before, giving it an 6.1 percent market share. (It was 3-point-something only a couple of years ago.)
According to Net Applications, use of the Mac's Web browser, Safari, climbed 32 percent in 2007.
Apple sold 2.16 million Macs in the last quarter–a new company record.....
What is going on?.....
To read more, click here.
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/explaining-the-macintosh-surge/
Can The Mac Attack Continue?
Forbes' Brian Caulfield says:
Now that the excitement of Apple's Macworld Expo is over, it's time for some hard numbers. The Cupertino, Calif., computer and gadget maker is expected to report strong results Tuesday afternoon, in the wake of a strong holiday quarter - but investors will be looking carefully for any hints of weakness to come.
According to analysts polled by Thomson Financial, Apple's earnings for the quarter ending in December are expected to surge 45.1% to $1.5 billion, or $1.62 per share from $1.0 billion, or $1.14 per share, during the year-ago period. Apple sales are forecast to hit $9.5 billion from $7.1 billion during the year-ago period, analysts predicted.
The news will cap a strong 2007 for Apple. Shares of Apple have risen nearly 80% over the past year, thanks to strong sales of Apple's notebook and desktop computers and Apple's new iPhone....
Yet investors were disappointed after last week's Macworld Expo....
To read more, click here.
Apple And The War Against The User-replaceable Battery
Hardware 2.0's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes says:
Apple has to be the most high-profile hardware manufacturer on the planet. Whatever it is that comes out of Cupertino is instantly put under intense scrutiny, and as a rule pundits are divided - some love Apple products, while others hate them. Me, I feel divided. Some Apple products fit in with my lifestyle perfectly, while others just don't light my fire. But one design aspect of Apple's latest product offerings bothers me greatly - and that's the gradual eradication of the user-replaceable battery.
[Editor's note: Me too CM]
For the full commentary visit here:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1169
MacBook Air - Will All The Cool Evaporate When Someone Asks You To Read/Rip/Burn A Disc?
Hardware 2.0's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes says:
Over the weekend I was discussing the pros and cons of the MacBook Air with a bunch of other tech geeks and we came to the conclusion that the lack of an optical drive is a brave move of Apple's part (a move that other notebook manufacturers are likely to copy over the coming months), but that this could be the feature that's either the deal-maker or deal-breaker.
Bottom line, whether the MacBook Air is the notebook for you really comes down to whether you use the optical drive on your current notebook much....
For the full commentary visit here:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1170
MacBook Air: Top 10 Things To Love About It
APCMag's Danny Gorog says:
While my colleague Dan Warne opined about ten things wrong with the new MacBook Air I've been occupying myself thinking about what's good about it, and why it's a new, positive direction for Apple.
From a positioning perspective the MBA isn't really designed as a replacement for your current Mac but rather as a partner to it. If your main machine is a desktop then the MBA makes perfect sense. I agree that it's harder to justify a MBA if your main machine is already a portable but with technologies like Back to my Mac and .Mac syncing, Apple make it easier than any other PC manufacturer to run two or more machines in tandem.
So with this point in mind let's go......
You can check it out at:
http://apcmag.com/7895/macbook_air_top_10_things_to_love_about_it
MacBook Air One Of Apple's Most Controversial Products Ever
Macsimum News's Dennis Sellers says:
The MacBook Air, introduced during last week's Macworld Conference & Expo, has turned out to be one of the most controversial products released by Apple in some time. It seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it device (although only a handful of folks have actually gotten their hands on one).
Macsimum News will be doing a hands-on review as soon as possible. Meanwhile, we thought we'd look at the reactions to the "world's thinnest notebook."
To read more, click here.
MacBook Air: The New Cube
The Mac Observer's Vern Seward says:
I have a feeling that the MacBook Air is this year's Cube. If you've read the blogs and forums leading up to Macworld you couldn't help but come away with a sense that people were looking forward to a small, lightweight device. The MacBook Air is small, but compared to devices like the Asus EeePC, the MacBook Air suddenly becomes not so small.
Well, I hate to say it, but this time I believe Apple missed the mark with the MacBook Air.
To read more, click here.
http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/MacBook-Air-The-New-Cube-61274.html
MacBook Air's Real Design Innovation Is Under the Hood
Wired's Dylan Tweney says:
There are a lot of reasons not to like the MacBook Air, but most of them are missing the point, because it's a luxury item aimed at executives, journalists, and perhaps people in the fashion and hospitality industries. It's also Apple's first volley in the ultraportable market, and others are sure to follow.
Let's start with a few solid reasons to diss the Air: Its relatively high price, its curious lack of an internal DVD drive, the maddening fact that it has just one measly USB port (and no FireWire, or Ethernet ports). You can add in a few softer reasons for disliking it, such as the likelihood that the first few months' worth of shipments may have some as-yet-undiscovered mechanical flaw, bug, or other failure of quality control, which seems all too common in new Apple products.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/01/macbook-airs-re.html
Mac Pro 3.2GHz 'Harpertown' versus other Mac towers
BareFeats' rob-ART morgan reports:
We just received our new 8-core Mac Pro 3.2GHz "Harpertown" on Monday, January 14th. We've compared it to other "pro" Mac towers....
Though the core frequency gain of the 3.2GHz "Harpertown" is only 6.7% compared to the 3.0GHz "Clovertown," the speed advantage in the tests ranged from 12% to 24%. That shows what a faster frontside bus and faster memory bus brings to the party.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.barefeats.com/harper.html
If The Internet Goes Down, Will You Be Ready?
Computerworld's Gary Anthes says:
It's likely that the Internet will soon experience a catastrophic failure, a multi-day outage that will cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars.
Or maybe it isn't likely.
In any case, companies are not prepared for such a possibility.
But then again, some are.
These mixed messages come from credible sources. The confusion stems in part from the fact that the Internet has never seen anything much worse than local outages and brief slowdowns. But could it? And if it did, how ready would your company be?
To read more, click here.
Why the Mac Doesn't Seem Viable for For-Profit Malware
Taking a stab at answering my question from last week regarding why for-profit malware developers seemingly have zero interest in Mac OS X, Ian Betteridge makes the epidemiological argument - that malware spreads virally, and thus only thrives with majority platforms like Windows. I think that's partly true, but doesn't fully explain the discrepancy as to why the Mac suffers so much less malware than Windows - the Mac has around five percent market share but almost no malware whatsoever.
To be clear, I don't think there's any single reason that explains it. I still believe a big part is tolerance on the part of users. Most new Windows machines come loaded from the factory with promotional software that most Mac users would consider adware. It's a slippery slope to malware adware (as opposed to the non-malware adware that ships with these machines) from there. The simple truth is that Windows users are more accustomed to being annoyed by their machines.
[Editor's note: So true.... ]
For the full commentary visit here:
http://daringfireball.net/2008/01/for_profit_malware
Seagate Boosts Momentus Laptop Drive Capacity To 250GB
Computerworld's Brian Fonseca reports:
Seagate Technology LLC today is set to unveil an updated Momentus laptop disk drive that boosts capacity from 160GB to 250GB.
The new 2.5-in. Momentus 5400.4 version includes two disk platters and 8MB of cache, and it can spin at speeds of 5,400 rpm, the company said. The new version of the storage device is currently shipping, Seagate said.
For the full report click here.
Microsoft Relents: Vista Consumer Virtualization Ban Lifted
Ars Technica's Ken Fisher reports:
It only took them a year longer than it should have, but Microsoft has finally relented and approved the use of Windows Vista Basic and Premium Edition in virtualized environments, for both "consumers" and business users. Among other things, the change means that Mac and Linux users can now run Windows Vista in a VM without having to pay for the more expensive Business or Ultimate editions. This is a boon to anyone who needs virtualized environments for testing and development.
For the full report click here.
Tiscali Hits 'Undo' After Bandwidth Throttling Chokes iTunes
The Register's Chris Williams says:
Tiscali has been forced to reverse a software installation on its bandwidth-throttling hardware, after it triggered complaints from customers who saw iTunes blocked during peak hours and other traffic slowed to a crawl.
Engineers have now rolled back the installation, so access should be returned to normal during this evening's "traffic management" period, a spokeswoman said.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/21/tiscali_itunes_blocked/
RIAA Wiped Off The Net - Hacktivists At Work
The Register's John Leyden
A lack of security controls allowed hackers to "wipe" the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) website on Sunday.
The existence of an SQL injection attack on the RIAA's site came to light via social network news site Reddit. Soon after hackers were making merry, turning the site into a blank slate, among other things.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/21/riaa_hacktivism/
The Mac Night Owl: The Leopard Report: Successful But!
Despite claims that Leopard may have been a disaster in the making, perhaps as tragic as Windows Vista, the early chatter about persistent bugs and massive dissatisfaction appears to be mostly wrong.
Here's the URL for today's commentary:
http://macnightowl.com/2008/01/21/the-leopard-report-successful-but/
Notes: You can also access our RSS feed, available at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/rss
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