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Written by Chris Tangora
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Tuesday, 22 July 2008 |
So according to MacRumor's product guide the Mac Mini has gone for 350 days without an update. The average length of time between updates for the Mac Mini is about 188 days. The Mini isn't the only product that appears to be somewhat forgotten in Cupertino, the displays haven't been update for 476 days now (their average is 230 days between updates). The iPod touch and the classic iPod are both also reaching end of life cycles, with product dates far outside their average update cycles.
AppleInsider claimed insider info back in March about updates to the Mac Mini, and some "product transition" before September. To me this seems like it would be a good time frame for the Mac Mini updates. If prototyping started in March, they should have a working model now, with production starting in the near future. This would give them the September ship date option. What would a new Mac Mini look like and why has it taken so long?
To answer those two questions, lets take a quick look at the last three NEW products released from Apple recently, the Apple TV, iPhone/iPod Touch and the MacBook
Air. It is easy to think that some of the resources for Mac Mini
development has been pushed to other departments (MacBook Air). But
now that those products are off the ground, that technology and
resources will be available for the desktop side. So if you are
wondering what a new Mac Mini will look like i think you should be
looking at a hybrid between the MacBook Air and the Apple TV. Expect
to see a Mini without an optical drive (like the MacBook Air) and in a
small form factor (Apple TV).
Will that new design work? I think so. It will be an annoyance and
cause multiple outrages at first with people who want to have the Mini
be a HTMC, but then it will start to catch on that the DVD on the computer isn't as needed as it used to be. Apple already has the mold
made up for the Apple TV form so it would keep cost down in production
if they stayed with that form factor.
While I know this article started out about the Mac Mini, there is
always one more option to consider. A new consumer level desktop and
the transition of the MacMini and AppleTV into one product. If the
AppleTV and MacMini were to combine into one product you would get the
best of both worlds. A low profile form factor with a computer you
could actually use as your HTMC and an introductory Mac. Hopefully this would open the doors for a new Mac desktop. One that isn't as expensive as the Mac Pro, but is more expandable than the iMac. Something the Macintosh community has been calling for since, well, as long as I can remember.
I guess we'll know more when
September comes around.
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Apple releases legal team against Psystar |
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Wednesday, 16 July 2008 |
 Well it's about time. Apple has filed a lawsuit against Psystar. The one year old Psystar will now have to deal with the Apple legal team. Speculation as to what took Apple so long runs wild on the web, from finding solid legal evidence to wanting to make sure Psystar had money to pay up. The real reason, nobody knows. Psystar is claiming that Apple is violating Monopoly laws (no passing go without collecting $200, haha), and they have the right to make the Psystar clones.
The law suit does put Apple into a tight spot with some *nix and Windows users. Apple's use of the legal team may go against their alternative company image they have created. If the lawsuit is successful in stopping Psystar, how far will Apple go after that? Will they go after the EFiX USB device or similar devices that allow a user to install OS X onto any machine, or are they going after Psystar as something specific to their business model? Will this decrease conversion rate of the more techie/modders from Windows to Apple?
As more develops we'll let you know.
From the Gray Blog via Slashdot
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Thursday, 10 July 2008 |
 The first official take apart of the 3G iPhone happened in New Zealand due to the time differences. So, the guys over at iFixit flew over to be the first to get their hands on the iPhone, and take it apart. If you want a sneak peak at what we Americans can get in only a few hours, surf over to fixit.com to see the insides of the new iPhone.
iPhone 3G take apart at ifixit.com
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Written by Jacob Thomason
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Monday, 30 June 2008 |
 Well, there isn't much special in this update. About what you would expect from a minor release. However, one thing that will be very good news for some of you is the fix for CS3 files that are saved and accessed on a remote server. This has been a huge issue for a large number of graphic artists. When saving files to a remote location it breaks the file and its irreversable. It is a good thing Apple stepped up to the plate with a fix for this! Aside from that, expect to see some security updates, and a couple fixes for your fav apps. Read on for the full list.
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Snow Leopard is Leopard, just faster. |
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Friday, 27 June 2008 |
It seems like Snow Leopard is just going to be another version of Leopard, but a lot faster. The big idea is
that the systems is being optimized for it's current environment, much
like a Snow Leopard is specialized for it's environment. Some interesting snippets have been picked up by the media, but there have been a few that might have slipped by the cracks.
We all know about the ability for the Mac to use multiple processors and the GPU if the programs are written correctly. That will help speed up the applications, but one thing that hasn't been mentioned is memory management. According to a reliable source the memory management in Snow Leopard is drastically improved on multiple fronts. Apple has revamped their memory management and added a new feature to release unused memory before it has to write to a disc. This should keep your system running faster, even when running multiple applications.
Image capture is supposed to get a good re-working as well. We already saw more RAW support in Leopard, and 10.6 is going to bring even more RAW support and improved scanning features. The Image Capture functionality is also going to be pulling heavily on the GPU for improved performance.
There are going to be a lot more apps that are coming across as 64 bit as well. This is something that Apple is doing to trim down the OS. Since the dynamic libraries for 32bit and 64bit applications are different, you have to load the libraries for your respective application. If Apple moves their apps to 64 bit compatibility then you have to load less dynamic libraries. Less loading means more space in the RAM which means a faster Mac.
I hope at least some of this is new to you. The 64 bit applications make sense as to why the beta was released as an Intel only OS, but it should support 64bit PPC in the near future. But my money is that in 10.7 you will see an Intel only operating system. That is when we will see the cool applications, since they can truly be built for a specific environment.
Apple's Snow Leopard Page
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The most painful 3:48 of your life. |
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Tuesday, 17 June 2008 |
 Okay. If you haven't seen/heard this yet you must go see it. If you can still say you are a fan of Apple afterwards, then you truly are a fanatic. Seriously though, this is a rough 3 minutes and 48 seconds. The flashdance themed advertisement for Apple from the 80's reported by AppleInsider is hard to describe, the only words I can think of is "totally 80's".
Go ahead and watch it. Then come back and post a three word description of your experience. Mine ... "oh the pain".
Guilty Pleasure at AppleInsider
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Snow Leopard to support ZFS |
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Friday, 13 June 2008 |
 Doing a little bit more digging into what is new in Snow Leopard I found something I'm actually excited about, ZFS. When the OS was in the Tiger days there were rumors and meetings with Sun about licensing the ZFS format for the Mac. The developer and I believe a few beta releases had ZFS support in it. Now with Snow Leopard they are changing that, the Snow Leopard will have full ZFS read/write support.
From the Apple Snow Leopard Server site :
For business-critical server deployments, Snow Leopard Server adds read
and write support for the high-performance, 128-bit ZFS file system,
which includes advanced features such as storage pooling, data
redundancy, automatic error correction, dynamic volume expansion, and
snapshots. Read on for more details.
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What's new in 10.6 "Snow Leopard" |
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Wednesday, 11 June 2008 |
 I personally am feeling ripped off still from the WWDC 2008 Keynote. I hold a grudge for a long time, so maybe it's just me. I really wanted Steve to WOW me with something besides another iPhone. So when i heard about the first screen shots of "Snow Leopard" I got excited. Turns out there wasn't much to get excited about. A couple of pictures of the applications folder and the utilities folder along with the system preferences. Not much going on there. Until you look closer.
While Apple did say they are going to be updating the OS over adding new features, how much they are updating was unknown until this first release. I took a look at what applications are being updated in 10.6 and which ones aren't. The list is surprising long in the udpate side. Granted some are maintenance updates, but there are still a good number of full version or 1/2 version updates. Read on to see a full list of changes so far.
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