Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Score one for the UMPC hacker community again, for just recently, a hacker named TFR revealed in OQO Talk that he successfully installed and ran Mac OS X Leopard on his little OQO e2 UMPC. Taking into account that his device came with Windows Vista pre-installed, it’s not that hard to imagine why he’d want to do something like that and run Leopard on the poor thing. As of this time’s writing, the hacker still hasn’t provided any details on how he performed the trick because he’s still not finished with the project and needs to take care of two final issues: video resolution and wwan. However, he promises that he will do so once he gets done. For now, you can take joy in viewing a photo of his Leopard-toting machine (log-in/register to view) and watching his YouTube video proof. Psystar should hire this guy.

Read [OQO Talk] Via [Tech Radar]

Well it seems we’ve come to the end of the line for OS 10.4 (Tiger) with Apple’s final security update for the operating system before the release of upcoming OS 10.5 Leopard. On Tuesday the update was announced from Apple. The update provides “general operating system fixes, as well as specific fixes or compatibility updates” for some software and peripherals. Nothing new or substantial.

“The Software Update utility will present the update that applies to your system configuration. Only one is needed, either Mac OS X v10.4.9 or Security Update 2007-003,” said Apple.

The Combo update for PPC is 163 MB and the Intel Combo update is 310 MB. Now that we’ve reached the end, the new OS can’t be too far off. It feels a little odd to come to the end of the Tiger era just because the OS still feels so new. To grab the update you can fire up Software Update.

Read [Apple KB]

As someone who’s not an Apple fanboy, I’m usually not a fan of the Get-a-Mac commercials.  The company has just launched their new Surgery campaign focusing on how big of a hassle it’s going to be upgrading to Windows Vista.  I agree it is going to be a pain for some - since you have to check if your computer is comaptible or not (not rocket science).  But wait… isn’t Apple releasing a new OS as well?

Wow if this doesn’t create excitement what does? Apple has changed their homepage image to the one seen above.

The first 30 years were just the beginning. Welcome to 2007.

As if there was not enough buzz around the company, they have certainly succeeded in reinvigorating the rumors and longing for shiny new gadgets and software in 2007. We already know that Apple will be upgrading their OS, from Tiger to Leopard around Q3 2007 as well as entering the living room space via the “iTV.” Other expectations are a HD Apple Cinema display with HDMI, Blu-ray support for the Mac Pro, the long awaited Apple phone, as well as the forever rumored video iPod.

Can we expect other new products/services from Apple? Be sure of it. How about some thinner, faster, sleeker MacBook Pros, maybe a MacBook tablet, doubling the memory of the nano and shuffle, HD iTunes downloads, more movie studios on iTunes, as well as other gadgets here and there.

Gadgetell Contest: We want to know what your Apple wishes are for 2007. Post them as a comment below and we’ll pick five winners at random. If you win, we will send one of the following items:

• Altec Lansing’s M602 iPod speaker dock ($199)


• Altec Lansing im500 iPod speaker dock ($129)


• Myvu personal media view for the iPod ($299)


• DLO Homedock ($99)

The rules…

The Rules:

• You may only enter this contest one time


• The winners will be sent a notice via email and has 72 hours to reply with their mailing address to claim their prize — make sure you use a valid email address


• You will be shipped your prize as soon as we get it into the mail, but don’t worry it’s coming


• Contest only valid in the continental 48 states


• Contest is open until 11:59pm PST on Friday, January 5, 2007


• Gadgetell has the right to use any and all submissions in any way, shape or form; but will never sell your submission nor your contact information.

Good luck!

Every year day the Apple rumor mill chugs along offering more and more bogus stories. This propaganda tends to especially heat up before each Apple conference, including MacWorld. This year, there’s been so much hype about Apple and its plans (iTV, Leopard, iPhone, iLife, MacPro, a tablet...) that we are probably setting ourselves up for a major disappointment. Nonetheless, Thomas Fitzgerald had decided to jump the gun early and list out his predictions in three areas: certainties, probable, and possible but unlikely—sounds like a crap-shoot to me.

Keep in mind that he claims, “These are not secret files I have received or inside information, just careful analysis of the current thoughts and public rumors.”

Certainties

• OS X Leopard - Apple will show and possibly announce a ship date (March/April) for Leopard at MacWorld. Which “top secret” features are shared is another thing.


• 2.iLife 07 - There is no new speculation as to what might be included in the new iLife suite, however I suspect iWeb will probably get the most work, it being the youngest of the Applications.


• 3.iTV - We’ll finally get an official name, maybe a release date, and more spec/feature info.

Probable

• MacPro revisions - Quad core Intel Xeon processors


• Revised Cinema Displays - Refresh needed


• MacMini Revision - Core 2 Duo refresh


• iPhone - Ah, the Apple branded cell phone. The one thing however that does suggest an iPhone’s imminent release is that Apple hasn’t denied it. If they don’t release one at this stage, their share price is going to tank.


• Full Screen iPod - Based on numerous patents and a rumor started on think secret well over a year ago, the full-screen iPod is the Apple rumor that just won’t die.

Possible but Unlikely

• Apple Tablet - They could have their own interesting take, possibly something similar to the UMPC’s


• MacBook Sub Notebook - AKA a Sony’s Viaos TX, cool but unlikely

There is a little taste to get you into the MacWorld cheer. For more, head over to Thomas’ site.

Read [Thomas
Fitzgerald]

Apple announced back at WWDC that they will be including a feature called Spaces in the next version of Mac OSX, Leopard.  Spaces allows you to have several virtual desktops running at once so you don’t get so cluttered you can’t think.  Apple’s going to allow you to use Expose inside of Spaces.  When the all of your virtual desktops are shown on the screen in a zoomed-out view, you will be able to drag windows from space to space.  Check out the video above showing those features.

Via [CrunchGear]

Steve Jobs just finished Apple’s keynote presentation at the WWDC. The second major announcement (first one is here) was the previously announced preview of Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard, the sixth major version of Mac OS X. Leopard is scheduled to ship in spring 2007.

The newest features are Time Machine, a program that will automatically back up and restore everything on your Mac, and Spaces, an new way to instantly switch between groups of applications required for various tasks. Leopard also includes advancements for Mail and iChat, including Stationery, Notes and To Dos in Mail; and Photo Booth-style effects, the ability to “place” yourself in any photo or video as the backdrop for your chat, and live presentations of iPhoto slideshows, Keynote presentations and videos in iChat.

“Breakthrough features like Time Machine and Spaces are good examples of how Mac OS X leads the industry in operating system innovation,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “While Microsoft tries to copy the version of OS X we shipped a few years ago, we’re leaping ahead again with Leopard.”

Time Machine automatically backs up everything on the Mac to an external hard drive or Mac OS X Server. In the event a file is lost, users can search back through time using an intuitive time-based visual display to find and then instantly restore the file. With one click, Time Machine can restore anything from a single file or photo to everything on a Mac.

Spaces is an new way to group applications required for a given task into a “space,” then instantly switch between different spaces to bring up the specific applications required for that given task. Users can get a bird’s eye view of all their Spaces and choose where they want to go next with just one keystroke or click of a mouse (as seen here).

Additional features in Leopard include:

• full native 64-bit support that allows applications to take complete advantage of 64-bit processing while maintaining full performance and compatibility for existing 32-bit Mac OS X applications and drivers


• enhancements to Boot Camp, making it possible to run Windows natively on Intel-based Macs


• Front Row now available with all new Macs to play back digital content, including video Podcasts using the Apple remote


• Photo Booth, Apple’s application that lets users take quick snapshots with an iSight video camera, add visual effects with the touch of a button, and share them via email


• iCal 3 with group calendaring capabilities, event drop box, and standards-based CalDAV support


• improved Spotlight searching that’s even faster, provides richer previews, and lets users search across network mounted folders on other machines


• a new Movies Dashboard widget for movie times and Web Clip for clipping any part of a web page as a live widget


• new parental controls including curfews, time limits and remote administration


• Core Animation, a new graphics technology that makes it easy to create stunning visual effects and animations


• major enhancements in Universal Access, including improvements in VoiceOver, Apple’s built-in screen reader


• security enhancements including anti-phishing protection in Mail and Safari, and an automatic firewall that limits network resources available to an application


• new development tools, including Xcode 3 with full 64-bit support, DashCode, an easy way to create new Dashboard widgets without writing a line of code, and Xray, for optimizing application performance.

It seems like Apple is ready to kick the sh!t out of Microsoft in about 45 min from now. We are set and ready to cover the 2006 Word Wide Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, CA. The man himself, Steve Jobs, will take the stage at 10:00 am PST and continue ripping on Microsoft (check out the pictures to see what we’re talking about). These past two weeks have been filled with rumors, honestly too many for us to even cover. They have included the new iPods, video iPods, metalic iPod nano’s, eliminating the shuffle, iTunes will add movies, the long awaited iPhone, Mac tablets, glossy MacBooks, a replacement for the G5 dubbed the Mac Pro, and the already confirmed Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. From the banners in the convention center we know Leopard will be the main discussion, but Jobness always has one more thing…

Click on for the live blog of the event as well as pictures from the convention center. As always you can hit Ctrl+R or F5 to reload this page.

Here is the first major assault on Windows Vista.

And here is the second...I must say, very clever.

9:35 PST - The Apple Store is now closed and everyone is walking into the main conference room. We should be rolling in about 30 min.

9:53 PST - Almost everyone is in by now, we have about another 15 min before it begins. Coldplay, The Postal Service, and U2 fill the speakers. I suggest that you Appleheads go get towels now to begin wiping up the drool that will follow.

9:59 PST - We are just about to go, give us a second while we add some more pictures.

10:00 AM PST - The crowd is getting louder as well is the music. The show hasn’t started yet but we just received this supposed leak of the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard disc...we will find out soon if it is real or not.

10:04 AM PST - And here we go, Jobs takes the stage and the crowd goes wild. Steve tells everyone to “take the day off,”—crowd laughs. There are over 4200 registered attendees from 48 countries, largest WWDC ever. There will be tons of Mac demos and tons of people to help you out. 1"4 ratio of Apple engineers to attendees.

10:05 AM PST - Now the issues at hand...the Mac. There have been over 1.3 million Mac shipped (tiny number compared to the number of PCs shipped, but this is a Mac event so I’ll be quiet). 75% have been Intel based Macs. Both the MacBook Pro and MacBook have had great success and as expect the MacBook has lead the lineup.

“Today for the presentation, I’ve asked three colleagues to help me out. Phil Schiller, Bertrand Serlet and Scott Forstall, VP of platform experience.”

10:09 AM PST - Schiller takes the stage: Mac Pro, same case as the old G5 but with 2 optical drives, Woodcrest processors (based on Core 2 duo processors), up to 3 Ghz, 4 MB shared L2 cache, 64 bit, etc. It is 3x faster than the Xeon processors. 1.6 to 2.1 times faster than the G5 quad. There is room for 4 hard drives (up to 2 TB). 4 PCI express slots, Firewire 800, USb 2.0,graphics slot at the bottom…

There will be one main configuration: Dual 2 2.66 dual core Xeons, 1 GB RAM, 667 MHz FB-DIMM. 250GB HD. Nvidia geforce 7300GT, 256 MB and 16x Superdrive for $2499. The previously fastest model was $800 more and Dell’s closest model cost $1000 more. Starts shipping today. They built this thing from scratch in 210 days, WOW!

10:20 AM PST - Xserve is a 1 rack unit server built by Xtech. The new Xserve will be up to 3 Ghz, built on Xeons - quad performance like the Mac Pro. 5x faster than its predicesor. $3293 for a Dell, $2999 for a Xserve.

10:26 AM PST - Job is back, now lets talk dirty—Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. 19 million users, 6 major releases with the last one being for Intel processors. Over 3000 applications run on PowerPC and Intel chips. Microsoft has been working on Vista for 5 whole years and each elements is just copying Mac OS.

10:28 AM PST - Bertrand: “Redmond start your photocopiers.” The jokes don’t stop, showing how Vista and Windows is just like OS X. MS has taken the same features and moved them around. Search boxes move from the top right to the bottom left. RSS has been in Safari and now hits IE7. iCal and Calendar all the same.

10:33 AM PST - Jobs is back on stage and tells us that some features will stay under wraps for now but here is a preview. “Money isn’t everything with R&D.” Major releases in Leopard:

1. Support for 64 bit applications - Can run 32 bit applications side-by-side with 64 bit applications


2. Time Machine - Only 26% of people backup files. Time Machine automatically backs up a music, folders, photos, everything. You change the file and it gets backed up. Of course you can restore it as well. You can backup a hard drive or just a file. If you ever rename the file or overwrite it you can now search via a time-line so you don’t have to loose it forever, hence the name Time Machine. This is great for finder and works with 3rd part apps as well. This looks really easy and a great life jacket for when you kills that important file. “Absolutely the best way to back up everything you have, store everything, and find what you need that you thought you didn’t”


3. Delivering a complete software package - Lots of new beta software will be finalized and ship with Leopard including Boot Camp (to load Windows on a Mac). Thus far 500,000 downloads. Also Front Row to access all of your media from your couch. There will be next generation versions of Front Row and Photo Booth.


4. Spaces / Virtual Desktop - It essentially creates a virtual space for clusters of apps to work together like Mail and Safari. You can drag information from one desktop to another.


5. Spotlight - One of the best features thus far in Tiger, you can search for files instantly. You will now be able to search other machines if you have permission. This includes other home computers as well as work servers.


6. Core animations - Core animation handles everything in between - color, size, opacity, etc. You can create whatever you want by zoom and flying a camera around. You can move items within their own layers.
7. Universal Access - “Mac OS X is so great that we want everyone to be able to use it. We’ve made major enhancements to Voice Over, Braille support, closed captioning support, faster, better navigation.” Text to speech sounds very good as well as the computer text. You can speed it up or slow it down.


8. Mail - New things including stationary (you can use photos to create HTML email), notes (will keep self emails out of your inbox and now in a notes box), to-do lists (set priority, alarms, any incoming message can be a To-do, any application can create these To-do’s...one system wide tracker)


9. Dashboard - Over 2,500 widgets available today.


• Developers will get Dashcode—an easy way to help the create the widgets you want and they have an itch to make. It has a CSS visual editor, RSS built in for updating content, Javascript, debugger...


• Users will now be able to turn any part of a webpage into a widget. With about 4 clicks from within Safari a user can create a Widget of a Dilbert Comic Strip, NYT best seller list, whatever you want.


10. iChat - Multiple logins, invisibility, animated icons, video recording, and tabbed chats. Photobooth effects in iChat. iChat Theatre, you can show iPhoto slideshows when talking. You can also change your background, like standing in the middle of Times Square or video background like being on a roller-coaster. Steve, “Life at apple is a roller-coaster.”

11:22 AM PST - These are the newest 10 core features of Mac OS X. They are all 64 bit. (iCal was not discussed but we hear it is moving to a multi-user platform like Google Calendar.) “We plan to get done with Leopard and ship it this coming spring. We think we’re going to get it out next spring.”

11:27 AM PST - Thats all, thanks for coming. There is no one more thing. In review we got the Mac Pro, the xServer server, and a preview of the top 10 apps in Leopard, due this spring. We are sure there will be lots more released in the near future.

No clear decision on if this is a fake or not, but this seems to be a video of Apple next operating system, OS X Leopard. One of the key new features displayed are tabs within finder. We will find out all the details during Apple’s WWDC (worldwide developer conference) in San Francisco, Aug 7-11 where Steve Jobs will showcase new Leopard features as well as maybe drop a new iPod mini, and one more thing…

I also chuckle when I read an article that is completely made up. Please don’t get me wrong, I do agree with the author of the following as well as regard their content, it is just funny to see someone write an article that is written based on conjuring up rumors (as opposed to reporting rumors).

Devanshu Mehta, over at Apple Matters, complied this list of the top 9, Apple OS X Leopard (Apple’s next generation operating system, the successor to Tiger), rumors. Here is the list:

1. Bit Torrent support and inclusion


2. Virtualization - the ability to parallel Mac OS and Windows


3. Support for a Windows API


4. Geographical Mapping to eliminate the need for Google Maps


5. Not Called Leopard


6. Living Elements - new visual cues within the software


7. A New Finder


8. Improved Dashboard


9. Collaborative Documents

It really is a good list of possibilities, but we will wait till WWDC to get the score cards out.

For the details read on [Apple Matters]