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New MacBook Pros - New 1.3 MP Camera Sensor
Core 2 Duo: Intel's Insecurity Blanket
Apple's first handheld: the Newton MessagePad
Can Apple survive without Steve Jobs?
Must-Have Mac Maintenance Apps
Free Software's Anti-Steve
eWEEK: The Google Parasites
eWEEK: Is a Linux Civil War in the Making?
ExtremeTech: On Fairness and Fanboys
The Mac Night Owl: Another Look at Apple’s Stealth Fighters
This Week's Tech Night Owl Radio Update
And now, in other news.......
New MacBook Pros - New 1.3 MP Camera Sensor
macdaddyworld.com's Ken reports:
At WWDC, Glen had the unenviable task of hitting the compatibility lab and testing the upcoming release of iGlasses on as many computers as he could. Â When checking out the new 2.2 and 2.4 GHz MacBook Pros, he noticed something interesting about the built-in iSight:
It’s a whole new camera. - Really!
First, looking at System Profiler:
It has a new USB PID. What I’ll henceforth have to refer to as the original built-in iSight, had the USB Product ID: 0x8501 and reports its manufacturer as Micron. The new built-in iSight has the Product ID of 0x8502 and reports manufacturer of Apple Inc.
Now the cool part: - It’s a 1.3 megapixel sensor! I wrote a simple test application to capture a frame of video using an SGDataProc and save it to the Desktop. On my older 2.33 GHz MB Pro with the original built-in iSight, what I get is a VGA (640x480) image....
After fighting our way through the crowds of people asking if they can pre-order an iPhone, we commandeered some MB Pros. - The same test program produced a nice, big 1.3 MP (1280x1024) image....
For the full report visit here:
http://macdaddyworld.com/?p=9
Core 2 Duo: Intel's Insecurity Blanket
The Register's Dan Goodin reports:
A prominent software developer with a reputation for making waves in coding circles is doing it again - this time warning that Intel's celebrated Core 2 Duo is vulnerable to security attacks that target known bugs in the processor.
Discussion forums on Slashdot and elsewhere were ablaze with comments responding to the claims made by Theo de Raadt, who is the founder of OpenBSD. Intel strongly discounted the report, saying engineers have thoroughly scanned the processor for vulnerabilities.
In it he warns that errata contained in the Intel processor is susceptible to security exploits that put users and enterprises at serious risk of being compromised. The exposure can exist even in cases where Intel has issued a fix, de Raadt said, because patches in the microcode frequently don't get installed on systems purchased from smaller vendors or that run less popular operating systems.....
For the full report visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/28/core_2_duo_errata/
Apple's first handheld: the Newton MessagePad
The Register's James Sherwood
Forgotten Tech Some say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and when you consider the history of the PDA, that statement holds many truths.
While the iPhone looks set to take the market by storm, the HTC S620 and Samsung i600 were good takes on the Blackberry, and the Palm Treo range has long been tested and trusted. The Treo's roots lie in Palm's original Pilot, a product category HP's iPaq range later smartened up.
But all these gadgets have one thing in common: they base their capabilities and concept on the godfather of PDAs. Although sluggish and bulky by today's standards, the device helped set the tone for PDAs to come.
It was, of course, Apple's Newton MessagePad. Born in August 1993, the MessagePad was first unveiled at MacWorld Boston and was priced at around $699.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/06/29/ft_newton_messagepad/
Can Apple survive without Steve Jobs?
MarketWatch's Rex Crum reports:
In the world of technology, the words "Apple" and "innovation" have become practically synonymous. In one area, however, the maker of personal computers and consumer electronic devices has shown an inability to think different.
And that area is not an insignificant one: It's the composition of its top leadership.
Neil Sims of executive search firm Boyden offers a view on what Apple should look for when the time comes to replace Steve Jobs.
Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who co-founded Apple in Cupertino, Calif., more than three decades ago, has seen his identity grow so intertwined with that of the company that, to many, Jobs is Apple and vice-versa. Especially given the company's turbulence during his decade-long absence, Apple faces an extraordinarily difficult task in succession planning.
So far, the company has given few if any signs that it has even begun.
For the full report click here.
Must-Have Mac Maintenance Apps
Macinstruct's Matthew Cone says:
According to Murphy's law, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. This holds especially true for mechanical and electronic devices. If you don't change your car's motor oil, your engine will eventually seize up. And if you don't perform regularly scheduled maintenance on your Mac, your computer could be in a world of hurt.
Mac OS X is based on the Darwin operating system, which uses many FreeBSD components. In plain English, this means that your Mac has lot of UNIX-like stuff under the hood - stuff like system logs, cron jobs, system cache, and much more. If it sounds like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, that's because it is. In fact, most Mac users will never need to delve into the UNIX side of their Macs. But there is a very important UNIX aspect of Mac OS X that concerns every Mac user, and that is background maintenance tasks.
According to Apple, every Mac running Mac OS X is supposed to perform maintenance tasks in the background. But if you don't leave your Mac turned on at night, the maintenance tasks may never be performed....
You could just leave your Mac turned on every night. That's a sure-fire way to run the background maintenance tasks. But it's also a waste of electricity. A better solution is to reschedule the maintenance tasks to run while your computer is turned on.
We'll show you how to do that with a third-party application. It turns out that there are quite a few Mac maintenance apps you can use to get the job done, so we'll introduce you to some of our favorites.
For the full tutorial visit here:
http://www.macinstruct.com/node/166
Free Software's Anti-Steve
Forbes' Brian Caulfield says:
We now know what happens when big hairy software coders work with big hairy lawyers. The result, understandably, is anything but slick. Meet GPLv3, the free software movement's latest legal tool to keep their code from being fenced in.
At least its author, Richard Stallman, has pluck. The coder and richly bearded patron saint of free software is launching this wad of legal jargon Friday - with practically every geek on the planet fixated on the retail debut of the iPhone - looking to steal a bit of Apple Chief Steve Jobs' hype.
The angle: iPhone users won't be free to mess around with all the $500 phone's code, Stallman's Free Software Foundation asserts, while their latest bit of legal mumbo jumbo will give users the ability to tinker with their gadgets freely. Hey, if the circus is in town, you might as well catch a ride in the clown car.
But while it may sound arcane, the latest version of the General Public License (GPL) is important. And not just because it complicates the efforts of Microsoft to get its hooks into so-called open-source software, as some geeks call it.
For the full report click here.
eWEEK: The Google Parasites
Opinion: Many small and midsize e-tailers are finding it hard to rely on Google's goodwill in order to survive.
To read more, go to:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2152564,00.asp
eWEEK: Is a Linux Civil War in the Making?
Opinion: Is Microsoft just selling the ammo? Or, is Microsoft fighting the wrong war with the wrong weapons?
To read more, go to:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2152043,00.asp
ExtremeTech: On Fairness and Fanboys
"Earlier this week, I disclosed that I threw an HD 2900 XT into my own, personal computer. According to my email, this apparently makes me a "shill" for AMD products (apparently they didn't notice that I'm running it on an Nvidia-based motherboard). This comes only weeks after I did a roundup of midrange graphics cards from Nvidia, after which someone in the forums branded me a shill for Nvidia. Interesting stuff.
The fact is that I'm not a shill for either. The rabid Nvidia fan who wrote me his impassioned note declaring Nvidia "Superior for Life " (sic) over all things AMD and ATI might be called a fanboy. Fanboys exist in all walks of life: Passionate Chevy and Ford owners wouldn't dream of ever driving the other company's vehicles; some PC gamers wouldn't touch a game console, and vice-versa Digging deeper, certain Xbox 360 owners laugh at the Wii, while Nintendo freaks giggle at the failure of the PS3."
To read more, go to:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,2151657,00.asp
The Mac Night Owl: Another Look at Apple’s Stealth Fighters
In all the times I’ve commented about Apple’s lack of penetration into the core of the business market, I’ve remarked about the lack of a large, dedicated sales staff and specialty models that would fit certain niches. This would surely include that middle-of-the road expandable Mac with the guts of the iMac, a pair of internal expansion ports, and no display.
Here's the link to the story:
http://www.macnightowl.com/2007/06/28/another-look-at-apples-stealth-fighter s/
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
This Week's Tech Night Owl Radio Update
Well, I’ve already said that I’m not inclined to want to buy an iPhone, at least not yet, although I being urged by my wife, Barbara, to reconsider (and she’s probably right). But that doesn’t mean they’re not flying off the shelves. In fact, with AT&T reporting it’s nearly out of its initial stock, you can feel assured it’s on the road to a great success. So this week, on The Tech Night Owl LIVE, we brought you up to date on the iPhone and other up-to-date issues involving Apple Inc. with Macworld’s Jim Dalrymple.
Here's the URL for this week's update on the show:
http://www.macnightowl.com/newsletter/2007/07/01/newsletter-issue-396/#update
Notes: You can also access our new RSS newsletter feed, available at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/newsletter/rss
Or our Atom newsletter feed at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/newsletter/atom
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Charles W. Moore
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