Cider Brings Windows Games to Intel Macs

www.gamerscan.com—faster.win.mac.game.ports

TransGaming today released the "Cider" portability engine for Intel-based Macs, offering game developers and publishers the ability to deploy Windows-based games on new Macs quickly and easily, without the need for traditional arduous porting. Cider is a sophisticated portability engine allowing Windows games to run on Intel-based Macs without any modifications to the original source code. The software works by directly loading a Windows program into memory on an Intel-based Mac and linking it to an optimized version of the Win32 APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). Games are wrapped up in the Cider engine to work on the Mac, requiring developers to only have one code base to maintain.

Apple Installs XP on Apple Store iMacs

According to numerous reader submissions, Apple has reportedly installed Windows XP running Boot Camp on at least one Mac in each of its retail stores. We have as of yet been unable to confirm this for ourselves in person. Typically,by default the iMac is running OS X, and only after a customers requests to see a Windows XP-on-Mac demonstration does an employee come over and reboot the system.

VM Ware Offers their PC on Mac Solution

vmware.rsc02.net—campaignrespondent

The new Mac product is based on VMware’s virtualization technology. Virtual machines created with any of VMware’s products will run on Intel-based Macs and, similarly, non-Mac OS X virtual machines created with the new product will run on the latest versions of other VMware platform products.The beta release of this product is expected to be available later this year.

Microsoft Officially Kills Virtual PC for Mac- No word on Office

www.macworld.com—index.php

“Mac BU has made the decision not to move forward with a Universal version of Virtual PC at this time; however, current Virtual PC customers will continue to receive product support,” said a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement. Microsoft recognizes the need for some Mac users to access Windows applications, and suggests that “alternative solutions offered by Apple and other vendors, combined with a fully packaged retail copy of Windows, will satisfy this need.”

“Tens of millions of lines of code have been 100 percent transitioned to Xcode on the road to a Universal version of Office for Mac. The Mac BU also will provide free, downloadable converters to allow users of current versions of Office for Mac to read the new Microsoft Office Open XML formats following the availability of Office for Windows,” wrote a Microsoft spokesperson.
Microsoft Messenger for Mac 6.0, is coming “later this year,”Microsoft is also developing a new version of its Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) client software, which enables Mac users to access Windows PCs on their network. “The next version of RDC will be released as a fully supported free product and details on this release will be shared closer to launch,” stated Microsoft.

Apple Says Steve in Good Health

www.informationweek.com—steve_jobs_live.html

There have been rumors and speculation around the web that perhaps Steve Jobs looked ill at his WWDC presentation. Two years ago, Jobs underwent a successful operation to treat a rare form of pancreatic cancer.
Katie Cotton, Apple's VP of worldwide corporate communications said "Steve's health is robust and we have no idea where these rumors are coming from."

Movie Transfers to DVD Becoming Easier -ITunes Video Store?

biz.yahoo.com—dvd_transfers.html

A film industry group is set to remove some of the procedural hurdles that prevented the legal recording of movies onto blank DVDs. Under rule changes expected to be finalized soon by the DVD Copy Control Association, retailers could create movie jukebox kiosks where a consumer could pick a title and burn it to a DVD on the spot. Online merchants, like the iTunes Music Store, could start to allow video downloads to be transferred onto DVDs. The group also is working with disc makers to produce CSS-compatible blank DVDs.

RUMOR: Proof of iTunes Video Store Coming:

media.seekingalpha.com—15317

Lions Gate's chief executive, Jon Feltheimer, said that the entertainment company had already reached digital delivery deals with CinemaNow, Movielink, and iTunes, and that terms were being ironed out with two other digital distributers, according to a transcript of the call. Steve Beeks, President of Lions Gate, stated:
"In terms of iTunes movie downloads, I think most likely some time before the end of the year. We know when they are planning on launching, but since they have not announced it publicly, I do not think it is our place to say anything more about that. Calendar year."

RUMOR: Steve talking up Apple Cell Phone?

www.appleinsider.com—article.php

Apple Computer chief executive Steve Jobs has been boasting about his company's much-rumored iPod cell phone amongst inner circles. Speaking on conditions of anonymity, a second informant has told AppleInsider of an incremental buzz surrounding the phone, which has heightened in recent weeks. The informant, who flourishes a nearly unblemished track record in predicting Apple's future music directions, has said the device is slated to turn up earlier than some people may be expecting, in the form of a "big bang" introduction that will catch even some insiders off-guard.

At the launch of the Apple Store Fifth Avenue in Manhattan this May, a CNBC reporter asked the Apple chief when consumers would be able to buy an Apple iPhone.
"You know, we never talk about unannounced products," said Jobs, "...but if we ever do announce something like that I'd love to talk to you about it then." during the company's quarterly conference call last month.

During the call, an analyst pressed members of Apple's leadership for their thoughts on the tremendous growth Sony has realized with its relatively new Walkman phone. Apple's chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer fielded the question by saying, "We don’t think [...] phones that are available today make the best music players. We think the iPod is, but over time that’s likely to change." He then added, "And we are not sitting around doing nothing."

Unsanity responds to Application Enhancer Issue Katie Reported:

Unfortunately this is a known bug that we plan to address in the next release of Application Enhancer. You can issue this command in the Terminal to temporarily fix it:

sudo killall translated

We're looking for the ways to fix the issue (rest assured, this is our priority #1). Apologies for the troubles!

Mitch-

I totally agree with you about the fact that Apple implements a lot of stuff into Leopard that other developers already made. But I also think that it contributes greatly to the total experience because their implementation is usually a lot smoother and requires no hacks or similar tricks (as Katie found out, those often make for a lot of difficult to solve problems!)...All in all I think Leopard will be a good continuation of the development of OS X and I suspect it will also follow the tradition of continually improving performance of existing parts of the OS, and having an ever-smoother running OS for us all :-)

Luis

In the finder when I click on Luis/Applications I don’t see anything, to access my apps I have to click on the Application icon to your left. Is that normal? Shouldn’t I be able to access the apps from both places?

Ulrich

What are your thourghts on a new MacBook? Do you expect a updatet version of the MacBook to come out before Christmas? I'm in the market for buying a MacBook but I don't wanna spend $1497 (I know. Allmost $400 more in Denmark than in the US. I don't get why.) on a MacBook if I can wait a coupple of months for the latest and greatest

Rumors of Merom Upgrades

www.macrumors.com—20060811095645.shtml

The MacBook Pro has been out a while and could see an update (talk about apple's general update cycles)

Check out MacRumor's Buyers Guide

buyersguide.macrumors.com

Play audio comment form Steve (Macbook Died)

Email from Steven (different guy)

I have recently participated in the MacBook Pro battery exchange plan and have been using my new battery for several weeks. Last evening, I noticed that my computer randomly shut down while running off of battery power. I thought that my problem was this "Random Shutdown" problem I have been hearing of regarding the MacBooks, but it turns out now that my computer won't run from battery power at all now. I called Apple and they thought it was my computer itself that is the problem but are sending me a new battery to try as per my request.

Reports of MacBook and Macbook Pro's Super Drives failing

www.macfixit.com—article.php

In most cases, the problem affects CDs, but issues with DVDs have also been reported. The problematic discs mount properly and can be read from other Macs, but fail the same processes when inserted into some MacBooks and MacBook Pros.

It appears that in some cases, the problems with SuperDrives may actually be caused, or at least related to, problems with MacBook Pro batteries.

As at least some instances of SuperDrive failure appear to be power-related, resetting the MacBook or MacBook Pro PMU (power management unit) can resurrect some otherwise defunct optical drives -- at least temporarily.
This can be accomplished via the following process:
• Turn the system off, disconnect the AC Adapter and remove the system's battery.
• Press and hold down the power button for 5 seconds and then release the button.
• Reconnect the battery and AC Adapter.
• Turn the system back on

Apple Quietly Updates MacBook Pro Logic Boards

www.macnn.com—mbp.logic.boards.updated

Apple is quietly replacing logic boards in MacBook Pros that have undergone repair by Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASP) and has told its providers that the new logic board require an upgradeded version of Mac OS X

Authorized service providers are being told to give customers a new Mac OS X 10.4.6 install DVD and that if the MacBook Pro's logic board is replaced by a AASP, the AASP should update the computer's version of Mac OS X from the DVD and pass the DVD along to the customer. Apple, however, did say that all not all MacBook Pro logic board repairs would require the updated version of Mac OS X

Despite all this: Apple has increased Customer Satisfaction

www.macnn.com—apple.satisfies.customers

The quarterly American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) released its 2006 second quarter report, saying that Apple continues to lead the PC industry in customer satisfaction with a score of 83, up 3 percent bringing it into the top 15 percent of all companies measured.

Apple Thursday released the SMC FIrmware Update for MacBooks

Apple says the SMC Firmware Update adjusts fan behavior in the MacBook. After this update has completed successfully, your SMC Version will be: 1.4f10.
The updater application will be installed in the /Applications/Utilities folder. Please follow the instructions in the updater application to complete the update process.
The update requires Mac OS X 10.4.7 or later.
MacBook (13") SMC Firmware update is available as a 420 KB standalone download.

Apple Updates

Boot Camp 1.1

www.versiontracker.com—29549

This release includes the following enhancements:
• Support for the latest Intel-based Macintosh computers
• Easier partitioning using preset buttons for popular sizes
• Ability to install Windows XP on any internal disk
• iSight camera support
• Built-in microphone support
• Right-click when pressing the right-hand Apple key on Apple keyboards
• Improved Apple keyboard support including Delete, PrintScreen, NumLock, and ScrollLock keys
The update is available as a 202 MB standalone download.
This release includes revised versions of the Windows XP Mac drivers, so you should burn a new drivers disk (using Boot Camp Assistant) after installing the Boot Camp update, then boot into Windows XP and re-install drivers.

Apple ExpressCard 1.0

www.versiontracker.com—30568

Resolves an issue that prevented the system from sleeping when some cards are inserted in the ExpressCard/34 slot.

Security Update 2006-004 for Mac Pro and mac OS X server v, 10.4.7

www.apple.com—securityupdate2006004formacproandmacosxserverv1047universal.html

Security Update 2006-004 is recommended for all Mac Pro systems running Mac OS X v10.4.7 (build 8K1079), and systems running Mac OS X Server v10.4.7 (Universal), and improves the security of the following components:
ImageIO
OpenSSH

Apple OS X Server Admin Tools 10.4.7

www.versiontracker.com—17727

XCode 2.4

www.versiontracker.com—21437

Provides overall stability and performance enhancements to the Xcode IDE, and is a recommended update for all Xcode users.

Apple Logic Pro - 7.2.2

Improves compatibility with the Mac Pro and delivers: Increased performance through full use of the Mac Pro Quad-core architecture Optimized support for the built-in audio ports

www.versiontracker.com—24742

Apple Logic Express 7.2.2

www.versiontracker.com—24968

Improves compatibility with the Mac Pro and delivers: Increased performance through full use of the Mac Pro Quad-core architecture Optimized support for the built-in audio ports

XSan 1.4

www.versiontracker.com—25519

The Xsan 1.4 update delivers overall improved reliability for remotely administering, configuring and maintaining Xsan deployments. It includes fixes for:
• labeling and initializing Fibre Channel LUNs larger than 2TB in size
• expanding storage pools and volumes
• working with multiple Xsan metadata controllers in a heterogeneous environment
• displaying progress messages while performing lengthy operations
• preventing custom configuration changes from being overwritten during a save
• accurately reporting Fibre Channel multipathing errors

MacBook SMC FIrmware Update (Talked about above)

www.versiontracker.com—30623

The SMC Firmware Update adjusts fan behavior in the MacBook. After this update has completed successfully, your SMC Version will be: 1.4f10. The updater application will be installed in the /Applications/Utilities folder. Please follow the instructions in the updater application to complete the update process.

Microsoft office 2004 11.2.6

www.versiontracker.com—14980

Fixes vulnerabilities in Office 2004 that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code.

Parallels Desktop 2.2.1862.0

www.parallels.com—mac

• USB improvement, including USB support for Windows Mobile 5, web cameras, and a much broader list of supported devices.
• The Mac hard disk cache can be now switched off for a virtual machine, which can substantially improve OS X performance while using Parallels Desktop.
• Improved graphic performance
• Complete keyboard support, including the "eject CD" button and right & left shift mapping for non-English layouts
• Unicode path support lets users name files and paths in any language Improved shared folders performance
• Minor bug fixes

Adobe Flash Player 9.0.20.0

Universal Binary

www.versiontracker.com—11622

Skype 1.5.0.61

www.versiontracker.com—24474

• CPU Usage in Video calls is reduced.
• a sound is played when a call is initiated
•Various Bug-fixes and improvments

Halo Universal

owners of the original Mac version of Halo have 2 options for acquiring the Universal Application. MacSoft will send out a new Halo disc to owners of the original version of Halo. To receive a new disc, you can send MacSoft your Halo registration code number, along with US$9.95 for shipping and handling. Further information is available from the MacSoft Web site. For users who would prefer to download the new version, it will be available from the MacGameStore. The download is quite large as it contains an entire CD worth of data. After downloading, users will need to burn the image to CD media in order to play. Again, owners of the original version will have to supply their registration number. Charge for the download is $5.00.

www.macminute.com—halo-universal-release

iSkin Back to School Savings Promotion

www.iskin.com—i2shop_b2s.tpl

Sale items include Keyboard protectors, and skins for iPod Nanos, Shuffles, Video iPods and previous generation iPods and PSPs Sale ends Friday, September 22nd. Requires the use of this special link.

OnSale.com offers the LaCie d2 Extreme 300GB FireWire 800/USB 2.0 External Hard Drive, model no. 300791U, for $176.99. With $8.49 for shipping, that's $22 off our last mention and the lowest total price we've seen. This 7200 rpm hard drive features an 8MB cache.

www.onsale.com—detail~dpno~605772.asp

The Nike + iPod Sport Kit, model no. MA365LL/A, costs $30 with free shipping at Amazon.com, as a reader found. That tops the best total price we've seen elsewhere by around $3. This kit includes a wireless sensor and receiver that helps monitor your workouts on an iPod nano; your data then can be uploaded to nikeplus.com to help keep track of your performance. The sensor works best with the Nike + line of shoes, which feature a built-in Nike + pocket under the sockliner.

www.amazon.com—103-9150484-2642231

The Altec Lansing inMotion iM7 Portable iPod Audio System fell to $139.99 at Amazon.com. With free shipping, that's $15 off our last mention and the lowest total price we've seen. Features include an integrated iPod cradle, two 3" midrange speakers, two 1" tweeters, side-firing 4" subwoofer, and wireless remote control.

www.amazon.com—103-9150484-2642231

Free iTunes Videos

free iTunes Video page

Apple has posted a free iTunes Video page that compiles their current free video episodes available for download.