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Why I’ll Wait on Snow Leopard, and Why Maybe You Should Too

Written on August 26, 2009 by Dave Greenbaum and 81 people have commented

A new cat is upon us, but that doesn’t mean I’ll pounce on the latest upgrade, pardon the pun. Dare I admit in public I’m not an early adopter? Hey, if you like living on the edge, go for it. Go ahead and cook your poultry below 165 degrees or eat raw eggs.
Me, [...]

Apple Shipping Snow Leopard on Friday August 28

Written on August 24, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 25 people have commented

Looks like the rumor mill was spot on this time, as speculation that Mac OS X Snow Leopard would ship earlier than its anticipated September street date have proven true. Apple announced this morning via a press release that 10.6 will go on sale Friday, August 28th (yes, that’s the end of this week, you’re [...]

Rumor Has It: Snow Leopard Getting Early Release

Written on August 13, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 17 people have commented

The seeding yesterday by Apple of version 10A433 of Snow Leopard, which is presumed the Golden Master edition of the upcoming OS iteration, has led many to believe that Cupertino will be pushing the official launch date of the software up. The official line was, and always has been, that Apple would ship 10.6 on [...]

Safari 4.0.3 Released

Written on August 11, 2009 by Charles Jade and 13 people have commented

Just over a month since Safari 4.0.2 made its way into Software Update, Safari 4.0.3 has arrived for Mac and Windows. The update weighs in at 40.5MB and will require a restart.
In addition to the boiler plate “improvements to stability, compatibility and security,” Safari 4.0.3 purports to address:

Stability improvements for webpages that use the HTML [...]

Apple Releases OS X 10.5.8 Update

Written on August 05, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 13 people have commented

I was just installing the Garage Band update on my Mac mini, when lo and behold, upon checking again at completion for updates, the 10.5.8 cumulative update appeared.
I’ve yet to update my mini to 10.5.7, because of reported issues with outputting to 720p resolution, which is the resolution of the TV I have it connected [...]

A Closer Look At Apple’s Icons: Secret Messages & Easter Eggs

Written on July 27, 2009 by Chris Ryan and 18 people have commented

Last week, we discussed the evolution, rhyme and reason behind some of Apple’s icons since the public release of OS X in 2001. This week, we’re going to take a closer look at some of the “Easter eggs” that are hidden in these icons.
Hidden Detail
An easy way to one up the competition when you release [...]

Tips & Tricks: What’s Your Alias?

Written on July 13, 2009 by Chris Ryan and 10 people have commented

Aliases in Mac OS X are essentially equivalent to shortcuts in the Windows world. They work by creating a link to an original file located somewhere on your Mac or network and maintain the link even if the original is moved or renamed.
How to Create Aliases
Creating aliases is pretty easy. You can right-click on a [...]

Safari 4.0.2 Addresses Security, Stability

Written on July 09, 2009 by Charles Jade and 4 people have commented

Apple has released version 4.0.2 of Safari for both OS X 10.4 and 10.5 (but not Snow Leopard), as well as Windows XP, Vista and 7 beta. The 40MB update is available through Software Update and download via Apple’s web site.
The release notes, cryptic as usual, state the update improved “the stability of the Nitro [...]

Google OS Announced: How Will it Affect Apple?

Written on July 08, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 22 people have commented

Late yesterday evening, the folks at Google made official what many have suspected for months, or even years: They’re working on an operating system. The new OS, dubbed Chrome OS after Google’s recent entry into the ongoing browser wars, will have speed and Internet connectivity as its two top priorities, and be based on a [...]

What Will Apple Borrow Next?

Written on June 23, 2009 by James Dempsey and 39 people have commented

Apple has a history of either buying apps or boldly copying features from developers and including them in OSX. So what borrowed features could we see in OSX next?

Why Snow Leopard Matters

Written on June 18, 2009 by Jon Buys and 47 people have commented

Just about as far back as I can remember, every new release of an operating system has brought new features, additional functionality, and, unfortunately, more bloat. This applies equally for OS X and Windows, and in recent years has become even more prominent.
Windows XP was bigger than both NT or 98, Vista was far bigger [...]

Windows a Battery Hog Compared With OS X, At Least on Apple Computers

Written on June 16, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 10 people have commented

One of the best reasons to get a new MacBook Pro, aside from the dazzling new screen on the 13-inch, and in spite of the SATA capping that’s apparently in place, is the extended battery life courtesy of the new built-in lithium polymer batteries. And by all accounts, even if you won’t necessarily reach Apple’s [...]

Dig Into Unix

Written on June 10, 2009 by Jon Buys and 12 people have commented

When Apple revamped its operating system and adopted Nextstep as the base of OS X, they brought along with it an extremely powerful version of Unix based on the open-source project FreeBSD, now known as Darwin.
Unix has a long history, one that started in the basements of Bell Labs by a group of AT&T engineers [...]

Get to the Point: OS X’s Summarize Service

Written on June 09, 2009 by James Dempsey and 6 people have commented

There are a few really handy features in OS X that get very little attention – perhaps because they don’t have a snazzy GUI, or maybe it’s because they only appeal to certain users. Whatever the case, Summarize (found in the menubar under the Application menu) is one of those handy features that gets little attention, but delivers big by helping you get to the point.

Snow Leopard: An Even Better Leopard

Written on June 08, 2009 by Weldon Dodd and 42 people have commented

In between new notebooks and fawning over the iPhone, Bertrand Serlet got up on stage to talk about Snow Leopard, the next release of Mac OS X. Apple took a few digs at Microsoft for stumbling with Windows Vista and trying to play catch-up with Windows 7. The picture that our friends in Cupertino are [...]

It’s the Little Things: Command Line Improvements to Mac OS X

Written on May 21, 2009 by Tom Reestman and 7 people have commented

Recently, two articles appeared on TechRadar documenting various command line tweaks for various apps and functions of Mac OS X. While I didn’t find anything new there, it’s nice to have two articles that summarize a bunch instead of tracking them down one by one across countless bookmarks.
To be honest, most command line tweaks don’t [...]

Snow Leopard Video Leaked, Screenshots Show New Features in Action

Written on May 19, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 12 people have commented

If you were getting antsy about Apple’s upcoming Snow Leopard OS X update, you’re not alone. One user was so eager to share that he uploaded video of the latest developer preview beta of the software to YouTube. It was promptly removed after Apple bared its legal teeth, but screenshots remain, and they provide a [...]

Hackintosh Dell Mini 9 OS X: Is it Worth it?

Written on May 19, 2009 by David Klein and 61 people have commented

With the help of a friend who already successfully completed the process, I managed to install OS X on my new Dell Mini 9. This was my first and, hopefully, my last Dell purchase. Sorry, Apple. I became too curious. Everyone appeared to love their hackintosh netbooks, so I decided to [...]

How to Avoid or Minimize Apple Update Woes

Written on May 18, 2009 by Charles Moore and 16 people have commented

Quite a few folks are reporting problems in getting the Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update installed and working properly on their officially supported Macs, while “hackintosh” netbook users are finding they’re getting dramatically improved battery runtime with 10.5.7 — one of those ironies.
I’m still waiting to see how the dust settles, and also looking [...]

Former OLPC Security Guru Headed to Apple

Written on May 14, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 1 person has commented

It may not have the charitable underpinnings of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative, but Ivan Kristic couldn’t have asked for a better follow-up job than at Apple. Cupertino just snatched up Kristic following his time at OLPC, where he was the architect behind the Bitfrost security specification. He wrote about his new job [...]