MacShrine

So, wow. Bit of an event that WWDC this year, eh? An event in so much as it was resolutely a non-event. No new hardware. No real new software. In fact, nothing of note to speak of at all. Let’s take a closer look at what did(n’t) happen.

First off, the new features in Leopard. We’ve got a re-designed Desktop and Finder, with an essentially unchanged Dock, the addition of Stacks and an integrated Coverflow view in the Finder. We’ve got a tarted up way of previewing files (what was so wrong with Preview.app anyway?), iChat has been made into a child’s play toy who’s new features probably hold all of ten minute’s worth of novelty value and will never be used again, a built-in backup application, and a virtual desktop implementation that solves a problem Exposé much more neatly solved a good few release or so ago. Meh. Big deal, huh?

I’m kidding (of course). Continue reading »

I don’t know why I do it… but I do. Every August I find myself shunning the impoverished text-only ‘live’ updates web sites from someone in the WWDC hall sitting on their wireless laptop, in favour of hearing all that is latest, greatest and sure to continue the future of the Apple race for years to come, right from the proverbial himself’s mouth. Yes, I am one of those seeming millions who make Apple announcement dodging a sport (to rival only football fans’ avoidance of discovering the full-time score before being able to get home to watch the recorded match), and head straight to Apple’s Quicktime Event web site in the hope Apple will post a stream to their recorded keynote so I can bask in some RDF glory.

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Just a quick one this week, but it couldn’t go unmentioned: the new MacBook. This is actually causing a bit of a stir out there in the big wide world - more than probably would have been expected from the release of just another Apple consumer notebook. Traditionally the iBook line from Apple has been lacklustre to say the best - relatively cheap entry-level computers OK for light to moderate use and gaming by nothing too heavy. An update to an iBook may draw a few ‘woos’ simply because the audience for this model is so large (Apple are targeting the people at home here, instead of the people at work), but when the initial reaction to Something New™ is over, there’s rarely enough substance in an iBook update to keep interest levels really high. Sure, they sell well, but that’s because they quite cheap and quite well designed - not because they’re going to win any innovation or speed awards. Continue reading »

Phwoor. Go off on a bit of sabbatical for a few weeks, and look what happens: some of the most important announcements to come out of Apple or Apple-related organisations in a good few years. Let’s have a quick recap and I’ll suggest why I think they’re so important.

First off, we’ve got the news of Boot Camp for Intel-based Macs. Well, actually we should probably backtrack a little further and quickly talk about Intel Macs in general. For those not in the know, Apple are in the process of moving all their computers (desktop and portable) to use Intel’s CPU instead of Motorola’s or IBM’s (these were called PowerPCs - G3, G4 or G5). Intel’s processors speak an entirely different language to the PowerPCs, so all applications are going to have to be ‘ported’ to speak the new language.

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Right, its time for a bit of back-slapping. We need to rouse the troops, stand firm, and let them know we mean business. Who? You may ask… What? You may ask… The answer’s simple - Windows is seriously badly written and its ubiquitousness is having a seriously negative impact on the progression of humanity.

OK, so that should get the juices flowing in the lot of you: either you’re fired up and agree that something has to be done, or you’re fired up and reacting to that gross generalisation. So, what I need to do now is prove to you why this is the case - why Windows is so badly written, and why we need to remove it from ours and everyone else’s lives.

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I’ve been commenting on Apple and Mac OS X for a few years now. I switched to Apple back in… ah, well… a few years ago now. Back when Apple were putting out public betas of the first version of OS X (little aside: if you or anyone you know ever comments about the sluggishness of OS X, please go and check out the original public beta of OS X and compare it to the loveliness that is 10.4 Tiger. You won’t complain again). So I’ve written a fair amount covering Apple’s chequered past in the last four years and one thing that I seemed to have noticed more than anything else is the unnerving sense that- hold on a minute- Apple are actually doing quite well now, aren’t they? Disconcerting, I know, but it might actually be true. I can’t believe there might actually be a time when I don’t have to look at the system requirement for absolutely every piece of software or hardware I buy just in case someone decided to support OS X… but it might actually be starting to happen.

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Just over a year ago now, Apple changed tack in a pretty major way and released a low-end budget Mac without a display, keyboard or mouse. This move actually left a lot of computer-watches somewhat in the dark as to what Apple’s motives really were… They were making a reasonable amount of cash from the middle-range iMac G5, and anyone who really was strapped for cash went for a well spec’ed but quite big eMac or made a choice from the very active second-hand market for Apple kit (don’t forget, Apple’s hardware is put together by Apple usually from pretty high quality components that tend to last quite a while. Continue reading »

Well, its out. Mac OS X is no longer malware-proof. The two recent issues found in Apple’s latest operating system - the trojan found last week and the Safari exploit found today have come as quite a shock to the Mac community.

Of course, the forums and countless blogs around the world are alight with the ‘I told you so’ crowd taking their cheap-shot at the Mac fanatics who had been preaching of their Nirvana-like virus-free operating system. This will bring them down a peg or two, granted, but the real question that will come to light when the dust settles and the slur campaigns have run their course is whether or not Mac OS X is actually any more secure than Windows. Continue reading »