I’ve been using the recently released Parallels Workstation Virtual Machine emulator on my Macbook Pro, and I have to say that I am duly impressed. I downloaded the first beta last week, and immediately put it through it’s paces. Installation was a snap, and in less than 30 minutes I had Windows XP installed and running. Performance was very impressive. If you have ever used Virtual PC on a PowerPC Mac, you know how slow an experience it is. Windows on Parallels Workstation is a completely different experience. It’s fast, responsive, and very solid, especially for a beta release.
Beta 1 had some kernel panic issues. I experienced two panics myself, and sent the developers detailed notes on them. Within 24 hours I had a response from their development team asking for a log file to better help them diagnose the problem. 72 hours after it’s first release, Parallels released the second beta, which addressed the kernel panic problem. Very impressive. A mere week after it’s first release, Parallels has released their third beta fixing even more issues. Parallels obviously is working hard to deliver a quality product to market, and beat the likes of VMware and Apple, who are rumored to be developing virtualization tools of their own.
If you have an Intel Mac (and a copy of Windows or Linux lying around), I suggest you give Parallels Workstation a try. It’s a much more elegant solution than dual booting when the processing needs of Windows isn’t the main concern. Parallels will be $49 when it is released in 30 days. There is a current promotion for $10 off if you preorder.
Category: News
MacZot is running a promo where if they get 259 bloggers to link to their page, they will offer AppZapper for free. Basically, every blog post that mentions AppZapper and MacZot drops the price down by .05 cents.
So what are you waiting for? Link to MacZot and MacZapper and get the best uninstalled for OS X for free!
Category: News
The tech media’s assailment of Mac OS X’s status as a secure computing platform continued today with another report that Mac OS X was “hacked” in less than 30 minutes.
From c|net:
“The rm-my-mac challenge was set up similar to how you would have a Mac acting as a server–with various remote services running and local access to users…There are various Mac OS X-hardening guides out there that could have been used to harden the machine, however, it wouldn’t have stopped the vulnerability I used to gain access.”
What the article alludes to, but doesn’t specifically list, is that the Mac had SSH turned on, and had an account set up for the hacker to login with. While the hacker is correct in stating that the vulnerability is serious and does allow someone to gain root access to the machine, they first have to get through the front door. In this case, the front door was left wide open for the hacker to first gain entrance.
This is the equivalent to storing your gold in your sock drawer at home, and complaining that it was stolen after you gave someone your front door key (user account), and turned off the security system (turning on SSH access).
It is important to note that on the client version of Mac OS X, SSH is turned off by default (as are all other web services). Also, you don’t generally setup user accounts for hackers on your system.
While the server version of Mac OS X comes with SSH turned on by default, the hacker still needs to get past the password access. Like any good security system, the entry code needs to be complex enough to repel attacks. By giving the hacker a user account, you have effectively let them in through the front door, free to roam around the house.
Now the real reason to be bothered is that because Mac OS X is a multiuser Unix, just getting in through the front door shouldn’t be enough to do any real damage to the system. That’s where we should be concerned. This hacker logged in to a normal users account, and the proceeded to hack “root” access to the machine. The hacker claims he used an unpublished and unknown vulnerability to get root.
This is what bothers me about this article. It gives notoriety to a hacker who claims to be using an unknown exploit. If the hacker made the exploit known so it could be addressed I’d have less of a problem with this. But he doesn’t, and you are left to contemplate what his ulterior motives are. And you are also left to contemplate why the press is giving this person their 15 minutes of fame without making him (or her) verify how they gained access.
Something doesn’t smell right here.
Category: News
Yeah, that about sums up how I feel about today’s announcements from Apple. Apple has always been a company that charges a premium for it’s products, but this is getting ridiculous.
First up, the new Intel Mac mini. Available in two flavors – a $599 Core Solo 1.5ghz chip with a 60GB HD, and a $799 Core Duo 1.66ghz with an 80GB HD. Yes, Apple jacked the price up by $100 on both the low and high end model. What do you get with the new Mac mini? Well as expected, you get Front Row and the Apple Remote. You get Airport, Bluetooth and USB. You can expand these models up to 2GB of RAM. However, while Front Row has been beefed up with subnet sharing of files, it did not gain the widely anticipated (and highly requested) DVR capabilities.
Oh, and the kicker here is that these new minis feature Intel Integrated Graphics Chipsets (GMA950). Yes, that new 512MB mini you just bought is already running shy about 80MB to handle it’s graphics processing. Isn’t that special?
Clearly, someone in marketing (and Steve himself, for that matter) didn’t learn the painful lesson of the Cube.
Also introduced today was the iPod Hi-Fi, a large rectangular speaker that has an iPod dock/connector on top. It also features built in handles on the side so moving it from room to room should be a breeze. The problem? The price, of course. At $349, the iPod Hi-Fi is $50 more than the Bose Sounddock, which I consider to be the best iPod home audio solution available. Time will tell if Apple will be able to sell these things at such a high price.
The final laugher of the day is the new leather iPod case from Apple. Basically a leather pouch with no window to view your iPod’s screen, no click wheel access, and no common sense. I say no common sense because at $99 this has to be the most brazen attempt to cash in on the iPod craze. Will people buy them at this price? I’m sure some will. But I’m hopeful that most people will have the sense to see what a ripoff this product is.
Today’s announcements have obviously left me puzzled. Has Apple become intoxicated with it’s own success? Time will tell if these products will sell, but I’m betting they won’t be strong points in the product lineup.
Category: Apple,Hardware,News
MacShrine has posted what the report to be the “real” iPod video that is set to be released next Tuesday, February 28th. According to their webpage:
“The serial number appears to read “MB719Z/Aâ€? and the Chinese characters read “This Sideâ€?.
Category: News
Apple has invited the press to it’s campus’ for a media event to take place on February 28th. Although no specifics are given about the event, the invite does read “Come see some fun new products from Apple”.
If I were a betting man, I would place money on a new Intel Mac mini. The Power Mac shouldn’t be released until later this summer. The iBooks usually are released in mid spring. The iPod video was just released four months ago. This leaves the mini as the product most likely to be refreshed. Apart from it’s minor update in the fall, the product hasn’t been refreshed since it’s release last year.
Category: News
You can file this under “we told you so”. Adobe has released a .PDF file (what – did you think they would start issuing press releases in Flash Paper format?) that details their plans for creating Universal Binary versions of their popular applications. The short of it – no Universal Binaries until each applications next major release. While Adobe doesn’t give timelines on it’s release schedules, it does point out that their product upgrades usually follow a 18-24 month cycle.
The caveat here is Lightroom. Adobe states in it’s release that they will be releasing a Universal Binary of their Lightroom application during the beta cycle. They cite the nature of the beta release that allows them to go Universal.
You can read the entire document for yourself here.
Category: Software
Systems
The MacBook Pro looks like a great machine, even if the name takes a little getting used to. While CPU performance may very well be 4-5x that of the 1.67ghz G4 Powerbook, remember that many of the applications you will be using for the first year of it’s life will be running in emulation. It’s for this reason alone that I will be waiting about a year before I trade in my Powerbook G4 1.5ghz 17″. Right now in my applications folder I have two applications that are “Universal Binaries” – Quicktime 7.04 (just released) and Transmission 0.4. Now that the machines are out, you will see most of the smaller developers who have Cocoa apps release their Universal Binary versions. However, apps like Creative Suite 2 and Microsoft Office will not be native before the end of the year (if we are lucky). Macromedia Studio will be even longer, since it was just recently released.
Also note, the new Mac Book Pro does not come with a Modem. I suspect that no new Mac will ship with a modem anymore, as the Apple USB Modem for $29 allows them to cut the price of the machine and still offer it to people who want it. Personally, I never used the modem to dial up to the internet, but I did use it often to Fax pages to clients. Still, if it’s something that is important to you, it’s only a $29 option.
The iMac also looks like a home run, and a safer bet since most of the home apps you would use would probably be Universal Binaries quicker than the pro apps.
In a strange move, both the previous Powerbooks and iMacs using G4/G5 chips are still available – at the same prices! I guess Apple isn’t really too worried about clearing out the inventory.
It should also be noted that Developers who “rented” the Developer Transition Kits will be given a nice gift for their efforts – a new iMac. That’s right, upon turning their DTK in, Apple will provide them with a a new Intel iMac. However, Apple is exchanging the DTK kit for the 17″ model, not the 20″ (full specs: 17″ iMac 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo/160GB Serial ATA drive/SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD+RW/CD-RW)/ 512MB 667 DDR2 SDRAM. )
Software
iLife ’06 looks like a solid upgrade. Garageband is “reinvented” as a Podcast studio, iPhoto gets some very useful additions, and iMovie gets a little attention paid to it with the addition of “Themes”. iDVD didn’t look like it received much of an update apart from it’s new widescreen themes.
iWeb, the newest addition, looks interesting. It’s not what I was hoping for, but for those of you who want to publish blogs or webpages to .Mac with the template mentality that is iLife, it will fit the bill. I have a lot of unanswered questions regarding iWeb… How easy is it to create new themes, if you can at all? Can you modify the code of any of these pages within the application? Can I create a page “from scratch”, with a blank slate, or am I forced to pick a template? I’ll have an update on these when I receive my copy later this week.
You have to feel bad for Dan Wood at Karelia Software. iWeb does exactly what his Sandvox application does, and probably does it a bit better. Dan’s a smart guy, and with a bit of persistence, he’ll be able to add features that distinguish Sandvox from iWeb. Just remember to listen to your users Dan, and all will be well.
iWork got barely a mention, although the keynote was driven by Keynote 3. Both apps were upgraded with the same features: 3D charts, a table editor that allows for calculations, freeform shapes, curves and masks, and reviewer comments. Pages 2 also received mail merge capability with address book.
Missing from the announcement was the expected inclusion of a spreadsheet application, rumored to be called “Numbers”. Oddly, during the keynote, Microsoft announced a new 5 year commitment to provide Office for the Mac. Quid Pro Quo? You be the judge.
Apple also announced the iLife ’06 and iWork ’06 are shipping as Universal Binaries. Also, the system installed on the new Intel Macs is Mac OS X 10.4.4 which is billed as entirely native.
Apple also set a release date of March to have Final Cut Pro, Logic and Aperture available as a Universal Binary. For $49, Apple will ship you a CD with the Universal Binary for the application that you own. No specifics were given on whether “Final Cut” meant “Final Cut Studio”, and included DVD Studio Pro, Motion, and Soundtrack. Also no word was given on the “prosumer” apps – Final Cut Express and Logic Express.
The best statement that was made though was the proclamation from Jobs that all Macs would be transitioning to Intel chips this year, and by the end of the year, all of the lineup will have completed the transition. This will go a long way towards fostering Universal Binary conversions and hopefully prod Adobe and Microsoft along to get their Intel compatible applications out the door before years end.
Category: News
Every once in a while, every couple of Macworld’s, some web publisher at Apple or an affiliated partner accidentally leaks a bit of information regarding a product that is due to be released at the show. Remember the G5 specs that showed up on the Apple Store website the weekend before Jobs’ keynote? Or ATI bragging about the specs of their graphic card that was about to be released in a new Power Mac?
Well, it looks like someone at Apple has done it again. Earlier today on the Garageband website, a vague link/reference to “iWeb” appeared. The website was quickly updated and all references to iWeb were removed. However, the site was cached by Google and can be viewed here.
The announcement of iLife ’06 was about as sure a thing as you can get in an Apple keynote. Apple has used the San Francisco Macworld to announce iLife for the last two years, and before that, it was the launching pad for the individual applications themselves.
We’ll have to wait until Tuesday to find out more about iWeb, but seeing as it is part of the iLife suite, you can rest assured that it will be geared towards consumers and not serious, professional web developers. I had always thought that if Apple did a website building application, it would have been part of the iWork suite, not iLife. But it makes sense to have an application that will tie in to iPhoto, iMovie, and Garageband to publish those applications media on the web.
Category: Software
IGG Software has released their personal finance manager, iBank 2.0. iBank is designed to manage bank accounts, credit cards and investments, analyze income and expenses with live updating charts, and plan your financial future with budgeting and forecasting. Wrapped in a beautiful Aqua interface, iBank 2 is a robust financial application able to meet the needs of the casual spender to online day-trader.
iBank can import QIF, OFX and CSV files downloaded from your bank. Pre-bundled with Automator actions and fully AppleScriptable iBank can help customize your workflow.
I’ve been using iBank 2.0 during it’s lengthy beta phase, and it’s a great application. Much more Mac friendly than Quicken.
Download iBank 2
Category: Software
