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Leopard's Time Machine Should Have Been Better Tested, Drive Maker Says
10 Years Since the First G3 Macs
How Many Ways Can You Compress Files On Your Mac?
Leopardizing a G4 mini
Apple Broadens Appeal, Goes For Dumber Features
Running Leopard on a Mac that barely qualifies: I'm impressed
When will Apple sell OS X for PCs?
Living with Leopard: 6 Nice Surprises
Macs Cost Less Than PCs - If You Erase The Disks
Apple Goes RAM Raiding
Apple Hit With Another Class Action
Mac OS X Leopard - Time Machine
The Tech Night Owl Newsletter: Who Needs Leopard? What About Mac OS 10.6?
The Tech Night Owl: Google Decimates Hotmail and Yahoo
This Week's Tech Night Owl Radio Update
Leopard's Time Machine Should Have Been Better Tested, Drive Maker Says
Computerworld reports: Apple Inc. gets an "A" for effort on Time Machine but barely a passing grade in execution, an executive at a major disk drive maker said today after answering questions from users frustrated with the company's new backup and restore software.
Mike Mihalik, an ombudsman and former vice president of engineering at LaCie Ltd., criticized Apple's testing before the company launched its new Leopard operating system. "The two tech notes that it's released clarify what Apple should have done as part of the normal release," said Mihalik, referring to a pair of recent support documents that address problems users have reported with the backup tool. Instead, he said, it was as if Apple "Said 'oops, we forgot to check that.'"
To read more, click here.
10 Years Since the First G3 Macs
Low End Mac's Dan Knight reports:
Apple introduced the first G3-based Macintosh on November 10, 1997. The PowerBook G3, also called the 3500 or Kanga, took the proven Power Mac 3400 design and put it on overdrive.
Not only was Kanga the fastest PowerBook to date at 250 MHz, but the G3 CPU (a.k.a. PowerPC 750) itself was a huge performance leap compared to the PowerPC 603e used in earlier PowerBooks. Where the older chip had just one "simple integer unit", the G3 had two - and it added a "complex integer unit" as well. The CIU was so optimized that most of the integer instructions it processed were handled in a single CPU cycle.
More than that, the G3 was designed to handle real world software. It could fetch up to four instructions per CPU cycle and store six in its intruction queue. It could handle two non-branching instructions per cycle, one more than the 603e or 604e. The PowerPC 750 also has 6 general purpose and 6 floating point registers, compared with 5 and 4 respetively in the 603e....
How much faster was it? Well, the 240 MHz PowerBook 3400 scored 334 on MacBench 4, and the 250 MHz PowerBook G3 Series (a.k.a. WallStreet) scored 881. Taking into account the 4% difference in clock speed, the G3 comes in an a shocking 150% faster than (that is, 2.5x the speed of) the 603e...
The PowerBook G3 was hands down the most powerful notebook computer in the world.
To read more, click here:
http://lowendmac.com/musings/mm07/1110.html
How Many Ways Can You Compress Files On Your Mac?
Mac360's Wil Gomez says:
Things change. I remember when Mac hard drives were small and file compression tools all the rage, helping us to save precious disk space.
Whatever happened to Stuffit, that little utility that compressed files on the Mac? Mac OS X, Tiger or Leopard, doesn't care much about compressing files these days.
Both Tiger and Leopard have a built in archiving system called .zip, which both compresses and decompresses files. In Tiger, the term was Archive, but Leopard goes back to the more common term, Compress.
What compression utilities do is rather simple - they make file sizes smaller. The question these days, in the era of 500 gigabyte and one terabyte hard disks, is 'why bother?'
I have not received a Stuffit file in probably two years, though I keep a copy of Stuffit Expander on my new install of Leopard. Just in case I receive a file that needs something to decode that .sit extension. It hasn't happened in awhile.
To read more, click here.
Leopardizing a G4 mini
Insanely Great Mac's M. Sharp says:
My family's 1.42GHz G4 Mac mini has been rock solid since it came into our home in early '06. It's run all of the kids' games and displayed web pages without complaint day-after-day for nearly two years.
However, when the time to upgrade to Leopard - for Time Machine backup, faster browsing, smoother multitasking—it definitely began to show its "age."
Although Apple says that 512MB is enough to install and use Leopard, our mileage definitely varied. Occasional slowdowns that were annoying under Tiger, became unbearable with Leopard—burning a DVD, listening iTunes and surfing with Safari simultaneously, for example.
Also, a lack of physical memory wasn't helped by our mini's poky 4200rpm internal hard drive, which could be heard gurgling furtively every time RAM (disc swap) got low.
Clearly, Leopard would run much better with more RAM and a faster, larger drive could only help, as well....
In order to get our 1.42GHz Mac mini up to scratch to run Leopard, here's what I added.....:
You can check it out at:
http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=7921
Apple Broadens Appeal, Goes For Dumber Features
Mac360's Bambi Brannan says:
OS X on the Mac, iPod touch, and iPhone made one thing very clear. Apple is dumbing down products for mass appeal.
Depending on what you want from Apple's products, the dumber approach is both good and bad. One may argue both sides, but allow me to focus on the dumber approach.
Don't misunderstand my intent. This isn't a hit piece designed to rake Apple across the digital coals just to get a few extra hits on a lazy Friday afternoon.
The truth is obvious. Apple makes what is normally complex, much easier to use, and that design philosophy shows up in the Mac with OS X Leopard, the iPhone, the iPod, even within Apple's professional media software.
Apple should be applauded for bringing the complexities of high technology to levels that mere mortals can use and enjoy, even if we don't understand or care about what goes on behind the scenes.
It's hard to argue with that, right? Conversely, it's hard to argue with this: to broaden mass market appeal - for Macs, iPods, iPhones, iLife - Apple has begun a quiet dumbing down of some products and features.
To read more, click here.
Running Leopard on a Mac that barely qualifies: I'm impressed
The Baltimore Sun's David Zeiler says:
One month ago I wrote a post speculating on whether installing Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on an
older Power PC-based Mac - particularly one on the edge of the minimum system requirements - would result in a less responsive machine compared to that same Mac running its predecessors.
A few days ago I installed Leopard on my 2001 G4 Quicksilver tower with an 867 MHz Power PC processor - the oldest Mac model that Leopard officially supports.
And it rocks.
To read more, click here.
When will Apple sell OS X for PCs?
WordPress's Alan Keister says:
Any bets on when Apple will start shipping OS X for PCs to compete directly with Windows Vista for PCs? Microsoft sold 88 Million copies of Vista in three quarters this year. That is almost 30 Million per quarter. If Apple sold a third of that or 10 Million copies per quarter at $139 per copy, their potential market is an additional $4.1 Billion revenue per quarter. This doesn't include the inevitable increase in demand for their other products. It also doesn't include the potential negative of selling less hardware to people who just want OS X.
I bet they will do it.
[Editor's note: I bet they won't. For my expanded thoughts on this matter, click here.]
To read more, click here.
http://alankeister.wordpress.com/2007/11/09/when-will-apple-sell-os-x-for-pcs/
Living with Leopard: 6 Nice Surprises
MyFirstMac's Chris Kerins says:
If you are like me, you have read the previews on Apple's website and the reviews from around the web on Leopard, including Ars Technica's exhaustive tome. Is there anything left to be surprised by? Thankfully, yes.
My number one feature is one of the big ones, Quick Look. But the thing is, I didn't expect to get much use out of it. I mean, I normally cruise the Finder in Column View, which gives you a little preview in the rightmost column when you select a file. It's the same size as the icons in Icon View set to the maximum size.
But Quick Look is SO much better...
That brings me to Spotlight. It's now quick enough to use. I had given up on it in Tiger. Enough said.
Here's another speed related pleasant surprise: Screen Sharing actually works....
Sleep NOW.....
BTW, in the same way, shutting down or restarting seems SO much faster...
Last and perhaps least, but still appreciated: The left column in the new Mail app has an optional....
For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.myfirstmac.com/index.php/mac/articles/living-with-leopard-6-nice-surprises
Macs Cost Less Than PCs - If You Erase The Disks
ZNet's Robin Harris says:
From the why-didn't-I-think-of-that? department
Over on Salon, Farhad Manjoo connected the dots between purchase price and resale value of Macs and PCs. He compared a bunch of systems and here's what he found:
If you used your HP for a year and then sold it, you would have spent $449 to own it — that is, your purchase price of $699 minus your sale price of $250. The Mac Mini, for the same year, would have set you back far less: $799 minus $500, or just $299.
And that is not including the cost, in money and time, of anti-virus software.
Elegance is free!
For the full commentary visit here:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=235
Apple Goes RAM Raiding
The Guardian's Charles Arthur says:
How does Apple get away with charging a fortune for something you can buy cheaply elsewhere - extra Ram?
What do you call someone who charges Ł440 for five minutes' work? An Apple financial controller in charge of Ram upgrades. Let me explain.....
To read more, click here.
Apple Hit With Another Class Action
The Register's John Oates reports:
Apple is facing another class action suit, this one from a man in Florida who alleges Apple is trying to create a monopoly in digital music by illegally tying iPods to its iTunes music service.
The case is brought on behalf of all Florida residents who have bought an iPod or music from iTunes. The case will now be heard by a California court, which is already hearing a similar complaint.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/09/apple_another_class_action/
Mac OS X Leopard - Time Machine
The Register's Tony Smith
I was planning to leave my appraisal of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard's Time Machine feature until the end, but necessity has just forced me to look at it in depth straight away. Put simply, if it wasn't for Time Machine, you wouldn't be reading this article.
Earlier today, I experienced one of about three kernel panics I've encountered since I installed the first Mac OS X Public Beta release back in the later 1990s. I've owned three Macs in that period, and that's the number of kernel panics I've had. But today's did for my MacBook Pro.
I can only assume the need to forcibly shut the machine down screwed some important data on the hard drive, but after doing so, the Mac wasn't happy. After restarting, Spotlight immediately stopped responding, hogged the CPU and prevented even Finder doing what it should. Forced shutdown - hold the power key for at least five seconds - followed forced shutdown as I tried to get each fresh start-up to proceed as smoothly as it should.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/08/review_leopard_pt2/
The Tech Night Owl Newsletter: Who Needs Leopard? What About Mac OS 10.6?
If you believe some of the things written about Leopard in the past week or so, you may consider it the buggiest system upgrade ever! But, as with all things of this nature, that impression is a huge exaggeration.
To read more, click here.
Notes: You can also access our new RSS feed, available at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/rss
Or our new Atom feed at:
http://www.macnightowl.com//atom
The Tech Night Owl: Google Decimates Hotmail and Yahoo
There are some who firmly believe that Google, with its huge reserves and marketing savvy, may well be on its way to becoming more dangerous than Microsoft in the technology marketplace. It’s not that everything they’ve touched turns to gold, but by putting a lot of their key products in a perpetual beta cycle, they are constantly getting better and better. In some respects, they are even approaching world-class status.
Here's the link to the story:
http://macnightowl.com/newsletter/2007/11/11/newsletter-issue-415/#mail
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
[Editor's note: Other major reasons why Google's Gmail is putting the boots to Hitmail and Yahoo! Mail are free POP 3 support, SSL support (which means among other thingns that Google's SMTP service by-passes ISPs' Port 25 blocks on outgoing mail through third-party servers), and really great spam filters. CM]
This Week's Tech Night Owl Radio Update
With millions of Leopard users, and more coming along faster than many so-called analysts predicted, we devoted this week’s episode of The Tech Night Owl LIVE, in part, to that subject.
Here's the URL for this week's update on the show:
http://macnightowl.com/newsletter/2007/11/11/newsletter-issue-415/#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
Charles W. Moore
Tags: News ď Tech-Industry ď
