Moore’s Tech Web Reader - Thursday, November 8, 2007
The verdict: Leopard spanks Vista, continues OS X's reign of excellence
Mac OS X Leopard: Beautiful
Once And For All, Proof That Macs Are Cheaper Than PCs
MacIn tel vs. PowerPC - The New Road To Recovery Is Worse Than The Old One
Most Opt Not To Pay For Radiohead's Download Album
First Builds Of Mac OS X 10.5.1 Pack Over Two Dozen Fixes - Report
No Linux or Mac drivers for Skype phones? What are they thinking?
Leopard: How to Change the Login Desktop Background
MSN Messenger For Mac Is Dead! Long Live, Uh, Its "Really Cool" Replacement
Mozilla closing in on Firefox 3.0 beta
Eisner Tries To Sic Writers On Jobs
Apple - A Customer Support Nightmare!
Samsung Reveals High-performance 64GByte SATA II SSDs - Will we see these in the next-gen. MacBook Pro?
The Incredible Transforming PowerBook 1400
Gene Steinberg meets columnists Ted Landau and Daniel Eran Dilger, security expert Rich Mugull, HostICan's Denis Motova and Benjamin Rudolph of Parallels this week on The Tech Night Owl LIVE
The verdict: Leopard spanks Vista, continues OS X's reign of excellence
Computerworld's Scot Finnie says:
This story caps off a truly comprehensive wave of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard coverage from Computerworld. Our readers have asked for more operating system coverage, and we're delivering.
Our Week of Leopard package covers many aspects of what's new in the latest Apple operating system... We've also compiled a comprehensive image gallery of Leopard's new look and features, as well as a rundown of its highs and lows. The stories in our Leopard package have been researched and written by at least half a dozen Mac experts.
The questions that remain are these: Is Leopard a truly great OS? How does it stack up against its predecessor, Tiger, and Windows Vista? Should you get this thing for yourself? Should you recommend it for your company?....
Throughout the four years of the Vista development process, I tested and evaluated at least 15 different alphas and betas of the operating system, spending hundreds of hours evaluating the late prereleases and the final editions. Likewise, I spent countless hours testing Leopard, both in prerelease form and the final version now available to the public. What I found after all that testing is that despite their similarities on paper, Leopard and Vista are nothing alike.
Vista has a cover-Microsoft's-butt, designed-by-corporate-committee feel, while Leopard tightly adheres to Apple's well-honed user-interface design principles. In numerous small ways, Apple has improved its OS, while Microsoft has, in a plethora of ways, changed Windows - not always for the better...
There's really no contest. Tiger is a better OS than Vista, and there are no long-term downsides to Leopard. Vista doesn't measure up.....
To read more, click here.
Mac OS X Leopard: Beautiful
AppleMatters' Chris Howard says:
Unable to resist being left in the dark ages any longer, I made the plunge and installed Leopard, and found it to be a beautiful product with nothing significant to complain about and well worth the money.
So you read my piece a couple of weeks ago where I thought I'd probably wait until 10.5.1 before getting Leopard. Well, it didn't happen. With no bugs of any concern except the one affecting the Unsanity Application Enhancer versions prior to 2.0.3 released in March 2007, I scratched the funds together and plunged in.
Okay, I plunged slowly.....
For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.applematters.com/index.php/section/comments/mac-os-x-leopard-beautiful/
Once And For All, Proof That Macs Are Cheaper Than PCs
Salon's Farhad Manjoo says:
It's time to buy an Apple computer. Indeed, it's been that time for the past five years, at least, but only now, slowly, are people waking up to this fact....
This simple truth is dawning: If we forget about computer-industry network effects and monopolistic business practices, if we forget Apple's various ancient missteps - if we're going just by what's better - the ages-old Mac-vs.-PC debate is over. Long over. Yell it from the rooftops: The Mac has won.
And yet, you're not buying an Apple computer. Most of the world isn't. There is probably a single overwhelming reason you're clinging to Windows. Macs are expensive. This is what you've been told, and in your research, it's seemed to check out.
The present article is an attempt to prove to you that, on price alone, the Mac is not the BMW of computers. It is the Ford of computers. I am not arguing that the Mac is cheaper only if you consider the psychic benefits conferred by its quality. Rather I'm going to illustrate something more straightforward: Even though you may pay a slight premium at the cash register for a Mac over a comparable Windows PC (a premium that gets slighter all the time), it will cost you less money - real, honest-to-goodness American dollars - to own that Mac than to own that PC.
For the full report visit here:
http://machinist.salon.com/feature/2007/11/07/mac_price/index.html
MacIn tel vs. PowerPC - The New Road To Recovery Is Worse Than The Old One
As a PowerPC holdout Luddite, I found this article very interesting.... CM
InfoWorld's Tom Yager says:
Now that an Intel-based Mac is a dead x86 PC, how do you bide your time until the replacement comes in?I always do my best to turn misfortune into opportunities for enlightenment, and oh, what enlightenment the past couple of weeks has placed within my grasp. When the MacBook Pro loaned to me by Apple slipped into a coma during a full-volume image backup and subsequently died in my arms, I was forced to deal head-on with the impact of Apple's switch in suppliers and with an irrecoverable loss of data and productivity - a hardship I've never faced in five years with Macs. I lost a full month's worth of work, research, and creative projects, along with every application that requires registration keys and online activation. I can barely conceal my glee at having so grand an opportunity as this to learn a new way.
I'll be pilloried for this comment, but this wouldn't happen to a PowerPC Mac. You see, there was no reference design for a PowerPC notebook. Apple had to do all its own cooking, and that included the creation of an independent system management controller. It took a mummy's curse to put a PowerPC Mac in a fully unrecoverable state. A Mac's firmware could boot into several recovery states, ranging from Target Disk Mode to a firmware boot prompt, even when a Mac would not boot. It was Apple's home-brewed system management controller that gave Mac folk legitimate bragging rights with regard to reliability; you had to do something truly nasty to kill a PowerPC Mac.
In contrast, the only way that an x86 PC, Apple's or anyone else's, can match the PowerPC Mac's resiliency is if it has a dedicated Baseboard Management Controller, which only higher-end PC servers, including Apple's Xserve, have. Otherwise, the only thing a PC does in firmware is initialize buses and catalog devices. Then it hands control to the CPU, which pulls a boot block from storage or the LAN. Intel's Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) is tidier than the old PC BIOS, but it steps out of the boot process at the same point that a PC BIOS does. A PC that can't boot is dead. A PowerPC Mac that wouldn't boot was a diagnostic challenge.....
For the full report visit here:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/yager/archives/2007/11/intel_based_mac.html
Most Opt Not To Pay For Radiohead's Download Album
The Associated Press reports:
Radiohead let its fans decide how much to pay for a digital copy of the band's latest release, "In Rainbows,'' and more than half of those who downloaded the album chose to pay nothing, according to a study by a consumer research firm.
Some 62 per cent of the people who downloaded "In Rainbows'' in a four-week period last month opted not to pay the British alt-rockers a cent. But the remaining 38 per cent voluntarily paid an average of US$6, according to the study by comScore Inc.
For the full report click here.
First Builds Of Mac OS X 10.5.1 Pack Over Two Dozen Fixes - Report
AppleInsider Staff report:
Moving quickly to address issues in the inaugural version of its Leopard operating system, Apple on Wednesday tapped its developer community to begin testing the first maintenance and bug fix update to the software, labeled Mac OS X 10.5.1.
The Cupertino-based Mac maker initiated the testing process by offering software developers access to Mac OS X 10.5.1 build 9B13, which weighed in at a hefty 267MB, according to people familiar with the process.
Among the fixes already baked into the first test build are corrections to Leopard's application Firewall, Spotlight indexing, iCal syncing, Keychain login and text drawing corruption.
To read more, click here.
No Linux or Mac drivers for Skype phones? What are they thinking?
ITWire's Stan Beer says:
As a committed Ubuntu Linux newbie, I've been feeling pretty pleased with my new distribution over the past couple of days. However, I've hit a telecommunications snag and, judging by the free flow of angst pervading all of the Linux forums I've visited, I'm not alone in my disgust.
In a nutshell, Linux users simply can't find a dual-mode cordless USB handset that supports both Skype and the ordinary telephone network. This is in spite of the fact that such handsets have been available for Microsoft Windows users for two and a half years. The fault clearly lies with the dual phone handset makers for their contemptuous treatment of Linux users by not developing the drivers but Skype itself is not entirely blameless.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/15233/1023/
Leopard: How to Change the Login Desktop Background
HardMac's dulrich reports:
If you do not enjoy the login desktop background, you can change it. It is saved in /System/Library/CoreServices as DefaultDesktop.jpg. If you have root account permissions, you can rename any .jpg file as DefaultDesktop.jpg.
For instructions, visit:
http://www.hardmac.com/news/2007-11-07/#7423
MSN Messenger For Mac Is Dead! Long Live, Uh, Its "Really Cool" Replacement
Ars Technica's David Chartier reports:
Unless Infinite Loop is the only part of Ars that you furiously refresh in your RSS reader (thanks, by the way), you may have heard about Microsoft's latest efforts to boost its online services like Live.com and Messenger products. Live.com and its associated Windows desktop products, for example, have just come out of beta and users can now sign up for @live.com e-mail addresses. The company is also bringing some significant changes to its Messenger product, one of which includes discontinuing MSN Messenger for Mac.
As a sign of respect, we'll give the sobbing masses a few moments of silence to mourn this loss.
Moving right along, the sacrifice of MSN Messenger for the Mac will not be for nothing, as Microsoft is already working on a new replacement Mac client. According to Microsoft's Andrew Jenks, this will be "really, really cool and awesome."
To read more, click here.
Mozilla closing in on Firefox 3.0 beta
Digital Arts' Gregg Keizer says:
Mozilla is nearing a release of the first beta of Firefox 3.0, which is several months behind schedule, making a final version of the open-source browser this year unlikely.
According to notes posted on Mozilla's Web site, Beta 1 is close at hand. "With Firefox 3 Beta 1 just around the corner (release candidates coming soon), it's time to start focusing on what it will take to ship a final product that we're all excited about," said Mike Beltzner, Mozilla's user interface designer in a posting Tuesday on his blog.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=9020
Eisner Tries To Sic Writers On Jobs
MacUser's Dan Moren says:
It was only a matter of time before the writers' strike crossed over into the realm of Apple relevance, but it was the unlikely figure of former Disney CEO Michael Eisner who acted as the bridge.
A bridge of jackassery.
In a conversation with everybody's favorite Fox Business News pundit Neil Cavuto, Eisner said that the writers' strike (which he termed "stupid") ought to be aimed not at the studios, but at the real culprit: Steve Jobs.
The studios "make deals with Steve Jobs, who takes them to the cleaners. They make all these kinds of things, and who's making money? Apple! They should get a piece of Apple. If I was a union, I'd be striking up wherever he is."Smooth, Mikey, real smooth.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.macuser.com/business/eisner_tries_to_sic_writers_on.php?lsrc=murss
Apple - A Customer Support Nightmare!
A disgruntled blogger says:
A few years ago I decided to change over to Apple computers from Windows based computers and up until now it seemed the right decision. There had always been certain incomprehensible "rules" by Apple, but I could live with them.
A few weeks ago I ordered my new MacBook Pro and I wanted a German keyboard, of cause I could not order a German keyboard, you can order a French keyboard? All these computers are made in the same factory - in my case to order - so why do I have to get a friend in Germany to order the computer for me. This time a friendly guy in my Apple Store told me I could pay $200/£100 extra and they would change the keyboard in store for me. I asked again why I could not get the German keyboard in the UK, apparently more Germans then French people live in the UK?
I was promised an answer, but never got one.
So I went ahead and did that, I ordered my new laptop with the new Mac OS 10.5 installed, and agreed to pay the extra for the keyboard.
When the order arrived last Friday all hell broke loose...
You can check it out at:
http://www.sme-blog.com/office-it/apple-a-customer-support-nightmare
Samsung Reveals High-performance 64GByte SATA II SSDs - Will we see these in the next-gen. MacBook Pro?
[Press Release]
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has become the first in the industry to sample 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch 64Gigabyte (GB) solid state drives (SSD) with a super-fast SATA (Serial ATA) II/native SATA interface. With a sequential write speed of 100Megabyte per second (MBps) and sequential read speed of 120MBps, the SATA II SSD is poised to expand the market for solid state drives from notebook PCs to corporate servers and other high-performance storage applications.
"The 64GB SATA II SSD is based on Samsung's cutting-edge NAND technology with dramatically improved performance specs that are taking system performance to a whole new level of efficiency," said Jim Elliott, director, NAND flash marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.
Samsung's SATA II SSD combines a 50 nm-class, single-level-cell (SLC) 8Gb flash chip with a Samsung proprietary, high-speed SATA controller and supporting software.
The new SATA II SSD has a 3.0 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) interface speed which is twice as fast as its SATA I predecessor. Moreover, the SATA II SSD requires only half as much power as the 1.9 watts consumed by hard drives now used in notebook PCs and only one-tenth the power consumed by enterprise-class 15,000rpm hard drives in servers.
Market research firm Web-Feet Research estimates that the NAND flash–based SSD market is expected to show 74 percent compounded annual growth from 2007 through 2012 to reach US$10billion in 2012.
Samsung remains the leader in the production of higher-density solid state drives, developing a 32GB PATA SSD in March 2006, followed by a 64GB version using the SATA I interface in March of this year. The market has been moving rapidly toward SATA, which operates faster than its PATA counterpart, with competition intensifying over the development of new SATA-interface devices.
The Incredible Transforming PowerBook 1400
Low End Mac says:
These machines introduced a number of features to the PowerBook line when they were released in October 1996. For starters, the 1400 was the first PowerBook with an internal optical drive, a CD-ROM to be exact. It is not built-in, but instead sits in a "sleep swappable" expansion bay - another first for PowerBooks, because with all earlier ones you had to shut the machine off before you could change out a drive in the expansion bay, which most people didn't do, using the floppy drive module most of the time. But there were some that used hard drive, Zip drive, and other modules in the bay.
Another innovation - or should I say oddity, since these are the only machines that use it - is "stackable" RAM. What this means is that if you got more RAM for the 1400, which shipped with either a 12 MB or 16 MB module in a factory slot, you could get a module with a pass through port on it for another module (or not). Using two 24 MB modules plus the 16 MB factory one, you get the maximum 64 MB. Unfortunately, 64 MB is as high as it goes, an artificial limit that is hard coded into the ROM.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/ed/lebron/ll07/1107.html
Gene Steinberg meets columnists Ted Landau and Daniel Eran Dilger, security expert Rich Mugull, HostICan's Denis Motova and Benjamin Rudolph of Parallels this week on The Tech Night Owl LIVE
In this week's all-star episode, noted Mac author Ted Landau gives you a detailed tour of Leopard's "Share Screen" feature. Cutting-edge columnist Daniel Eran Dilger, of <http://roughlydrafted.com/>Roughly Drafted Magazine, will cover the myths and realities of Leopard and the press coverage of Apple Inc.
Now that Apple has permitted you to install Mac OS X Server in a "virtual machine," Benjamin Rudolph of <http://parallels.com/>Parallels explains it means for the business marketplace. You'll also hear an update on the promise and reality of Leopard security with former industry analyst Rich Mogull.
And HostICan's Denis Motova joins Gene to explain the plusses and minuses of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
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/
An archive of the show will be available as a Podcast for downloading and listening at your convenience within four hours after the original broadcast.
You can also access the show's Podcast feed at:
>http://www.techbroadcasting.com/nightowl.xml
Charles W. Moore
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