OS X Factor is back!
We’re back after a short hiatus. The reason for the hiatus? Please join me in welcoming our second daughter to the world, Zoe Birdina Lee.
Category: News
Apple updates iTunes
Apple has updated iTunes to version 5.01. This release addresses stability issues and other glitches in the 5.0 release. The update is available now via Software Update, or from Apple’s website.
Category: News
Opera: Free for all
Opera has released their latest browser, free to the public without any banner advertising. Go get it.
Why did Opera make this change, after years of maintaining a commercial version of it’s browser? I’ll let them explain:
Opera has removed the banners, found within our browser, and the licensing fee. Opera’s growth, due to tremendous worldwide customer support, has made today’s milestone an achievable goal. Premium support is available.
It’s odd that Opera cited it’s growth as the reason for this decision, as the browser stats clearly show that Opera has been falling further behind the likes of Firefox and even Safari. Clearly, this decision was prompted due to the lack of growth, not an abundance of it.
Still, Opera is a nice browsing alternative, even on the Mac. It’s nice to have another browser in the bullpen, especially if you are a web developer and need to test on multiple rendering engines.
Category: News
Apple updates .Mac
As expected, Apple has updated it’s .Mac services. .Mac now features 1GB of storage, bringing it inline with other free services from Google and Snapfish. .Mac also features groups now, so you can collaborate with people designated to be in your group. Also released as part of .Mac was Backup 3.0, which claims easy backup of iLife files.
Category: News
Apple udpates Java for Mac OS X
Apple has released Java 1.3.1 and 1.4.2 Release 2.0 to users through the Software Update tool.
From the description:
Java 1.3.1 and 1.4.2 Release 2 delivers improved reliability and compatibility for Java on Mac OS X v10.4. This release includes Java 2 Platform Standard Edition versions 1.3.1_16 and 1.4.2_09.
The update weighs in at 45.3MB, and is available through Software Update or at Apple’s Support Downloads.
Category: News
eBay aquires Skype
The rumors were true. eBay has agreed to aquire Skype for $2.6 Billion (yes, Billion) in cash and stock.
“We’re great admirers of how eBay and PayPal have simplified global ecommerce and payments,� said Janus Friis, Skype co-founder and senior vice president, strategy. “Together we feel we can really change the way that people communicate, shop and do business online.�
Skype doesn’t really fit in with eBay’s overall strategy, but that doesn’t mean the two companies aren’t a good fit. eBay has become a powerhouse in the small business market, and Skype could very well fit within that idiom. Time will tell.
Category: News
NerdTV on the air
Robert Cringley has a new weekly online TV show, hosted by PBS.org. “NerdTV” bills itself as “Charlie Rose for Geeks”, a one hour interview show with a single guest from the world of technology. This week’s episode (episode I) features the first Macintosh programmer – ever – Andy Hertzfeld.
NerdTV is produced in MPEG-4 video, and is downloadable and playable in Quicktime.
Category: News
Jobs a no show at Expo
Steve Jobs will once again be passing on the Apple Expo. Last year the keynote was presented by Apple VP Phil Schiller. This year, however, the keynote has been canceled all together. Steve Jobs will still apparently be attending the Expo, but we are unable to confirm this. This is the second year that Steve Jobs has chosen not to keynote the Apple Expo. Last year, Steve Jobs missed the keynote due to his recovery from cancer surgery.
Category: News
MacDevCenter: Browsers that Aren’t Browsers
Giles Trumbull, writing for the MacDevCenter (a great technical resource devoted to the Mac, courtesy of the great guys over at O’Reilly.com), has written a great article
on the many apps available for OS X that are what I would call the “un” browser. Basically, they are browsers that go about the task of browsing in a different manner than the normal browser does.
Examined in Giles article are Webstractor, a browser that pulls all viewed content off-line for later maniupulation, WebDesktop, a small utility by Steve Frank (of Panic fame) that uses Webkit to put a browser on your desktop, iBrowser, a browser that works in kiosk mode, and a few other apps that have browser components built in.
Of course, you could always use the ultra simple MacDevCenter article on how to build your own browser (using Webkit).
We’ve used many of these programs, but are particularly fond of WebDesktop. It’s a great little app that gets used quite a bit on our systems when we want to browse unobtrusively.
Category: News
Apple takes a look at XServe Mach 5 cluster
Apple has posted a story on their website examining the COLSA Corporation’s Hypersonic Missile Technology (HMT) team. The HMT team built an XServe cluster, called Mach 5 (Multiple Advanced Computers for Hypersonics). This cluster has over 25 teraflops of processing power. Put another way, it offers more than 60 times the computational power of their previous production machine. What used to take
the team two months can now be done in a day. The entire story is available here.
Category: News
