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  • kevin_4e
    If you’re not familiar with Paparazzi, you might want to check it out. It's an easy-to-use application that lets you take complete screenshots of any webpage you want... If you’re looking for an easy way to get your photos into your Gmail messages (get an account invitation here), then give iPhoto2Gmail a spin. It’s an incredibly easy-to-use plug-in compatible with iPhoto 5 and 6... With all of the current rumors about the latest and greatest Apple might release, the historical context provided by 5 Apple prototypes might help make a little more sense of the chatter... One feature I'd been looking for was the ability to burn multiple sessions on one CD. Check out the ‘Apple Tip of the Week’ in case you've pondered the question as well... With all that the Apple Geniuses go through, it’s no surprise that they’ve came up with a few of their own opinions. Check out one Genius’s story (TUAW's Version) to learn a thing or two on what not to do the next time you’re face-to-face with a Genius...
     
    Now that the Vista RTM has gotten some mileage over the past few weeks, what are your thoughts? Share all of your experiences over at the “Vista RTM Experience” thread... In case you haven’t seen KanadaKid’s two latest Colloquy scripts, then head on over to his blog, lilKanada. We love customizations... And finally, here’s another Apple mod that you too can recreate. Check out iSpazz for more information...

  • Colonel

    Leopard Build 9A326 Seeded

    By Colonel, in OSx86,

    Yesterday, Apple seeded a new build of Leopard (9A326). The build contains fixes for Quicktime crashes, .Mac printing, and iDisk syncing. The new Leopard build also sports some new features such as Boot Camp 1.2, Office 2007 document support in TextEdit, Spotlight searches on other networks Macs, and quicker boot-up times. Also, iSync is no longer present in this build, but has been replaced by a new application named Sync Manager. A few instances of a new user interface have been spotted, including a new black gloss look. Reports have noted that this build seems very stable on the Core 2 MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
     
    Thanks dago in this thread for pointing this out to us.
     
    Update: We've just recieve word that this new Leopard build's number is 9A321, not 9A326 like we originally thought.

  • REVENGE
    It is now widely known that Microsoft Office 2007 will introduce a new XML based file format (.docx/.xlsx/.pptx/.etcx) designed with a variety of improvements over the current file format in mind. In fact, it seems that Microsoft has even gone out of their way to ensure file format compatibility with folks who don't want to pay up to upgrade to Office 2007 by providing them with free "Microsoft Office Compatibility Packs" for users running at least Office 2000 SP3 on Windows 2000 SP4.
     
    But wait a minute... how come I don't see any Office:Mac editions on the "System Requirements" list? Actually, I've been searching for a compatibility pack for Office:Mac for weeks now with null results, until recently when I've finally discovered some negative news. Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (or MacBU) had announced at WWDC that "free downloadable converters would be available" sometime after Office 2007 is released in January. Well as it turns out, that "sometime" means "6-8 weeks" at best for a beta compatibility pack and "6-8 months" for a final release due after the new Office:Mac is released. And according to Office for Mac team, this is "(Fairly) Fast".
     
    As a temporary solution, Office 2007 users will be forced to save their work in the old .doc/.xls/.ppt formats in order to maintain compatibility with Macs. Unfortunately, this could entail the loss of formatting fidelity or the ability to edit some document elements made in the new Office.
     
    Of course, not that I'm suggesting Office:Mac users are "screwed" or that a "lock-out" has begun (well, at least not permanently anyways); I'm simply irritated that Microsoft's Office team would leave compatibility with their Mac counterparts on the backburner while pushing out a file converter for older "Office:Win" editions before Office 2007 had even left the beta stage. Apparently, I'm supposed to be thankful that a converter is coming at all, and even free at that...

  • kevin_4e
    The movie library application Drive-in, from the creators of Flip4Mac, is available for a free test-drive until January 7 (bad speakers and backseat make-out sessions not included)... For those wanting to keep their apps from "phoning home," check out Little Snitch, which is able to prevent the E.T.-like phone behavior and give you information on the guilty apps... A productivity tip from TUAW is one more reason to use a Mac. While holding ctrl-cmd-D over any text in Cocoa applications (no Firefox) a live definition will appear instantly. Go ahead, test it out on our superfluous and sesquipedalian words here... Last week we all saw the Japanese "Get a Mac" ads, and now there’s a set of translations to go along with it, along with some other interesting stuff... If you were in a class with no clue with what to do with 50 G3 iMacs, what would you do? Take a “look” for yourself...
     
    Now with two choices, check out rollcage’s and vizual.menace’s InsanelyMac toolbar. Thanks, guys!... If you haven’t experienced the possibilities of eBay, then check out what DiaboliK has been able to pick up at a reasonable price... Equipped with a PowerBook and a motion-sensor, this nerd with too much free time intrepid young science student was able to bring life to the first digital marionette...

  • Colonel
    Parallels has released a new beta, build 3036, that sports a heap of long awaited features that have been highly requested. Some of these features include booting from, reading, and writing to Boot Camp partitions as well something called Coherency. Coherency is an awesome new feature that allows you to run your Windows applications from Parallels, right on top of Mac OS X. Tim Sugent from the Parallels Forum provides us with more details on the update:
    New Look and Feel and Improved Usability. Completely redesigned windows and dialogues to make them even easier and smooth. Too many changes to describe – just check them out yourselves Virtual Machines Catalogue. A very useful feature for those having more than one VM – now all of them are available through centralized VM catalogue which appears on each Parallels Desktop for Mac instance start in case you have more than one VM One-click Virtual Machine Aliases: Automatically created by OS installation assistant or by drag-and-drop from title bar pressing Command-Option keys combination Clicking on Alias automatically starts the Virtual Machine Shutting down the VM automatically closes Parallels Desktop for Mac application Resizeable Main Window. Resize Parallels Desktop for Mac main window as you do with any other Mac application Auto-Adjusting Screen Resolution. Your Windows auto-adjusts the screen resolution to the actual Main Window size. Drag and Drop files and folders between Windows and Mac. A long awaited feature that lets you seamlessly drag and drop files and folders from Windows to Mac OS X and vice versa. Read/Write BootCamp partition. Since this build, an Apple Boot Camp partition with Windows XP installed could be used as a virtual HDD for Parallels Desktop for Mac. Boot from BootCamp partition. Another long awaited feature that lets you boot your 32-bit Windows XP residing on Boot Camp partition directly in Parallels Desktop for Mac. IMPORTANT! You need to boot in your Windows XP natively through Boot Camp and install Parallels Tools for Boot Camp package in it before your first boot in Parallels Desktop for Mac.
    NOTE! It is not possible to suspend Virtual Machine connected to Boot Camp for integrity reasons.
    Parallels Transporter Beta bundled. Migrate your Windows PC, VMware or Virtual PC VMs to Parallels virtual machines. Coherency. Shows Windows applications as if they were Mac ones. Try it and enjoy best of both worlds truly at the same time. No more switching between Windows to Mac OS. Improved graphic performance. Up to 50% on different applications. Connect/disconnect USB devices schema improved. No more "wait 5-10 seconds" message on USB device connecting to Parallels Desktop for Mac. Up to 5 Virtual NICs. Now Virtual Machine can have up to five virtual network interfaces. Enhanced Shared Networking Mode. Run Cisco VPN and many other complicated networking applications in conjunction with Connection Sharing Mode. Switch between networking modes on-the-fly. Switch networking modes while the virtual machine is running. Transparent mapping of Command-AZXCV key combinations. Now you can also use Mac copy/paste key combinations in Windows. Power On/Power Off/Suspend/Resume/Pause animation. Just try and see. We're very interested in your feedback about the feature. Shared folders configuration on-the-fly. Add/remove/configure shared folders on-the-fly via menu or Status Bar icon without the need to stop your Virtual Machine. Drag and Drop CD/FDD images and folders to the Parallels Desktop status bar. Just drag and drop CD or floppy image you want to connect or Mac folder you want to share onto a respective statusbar icon. And dozens of other not that evident enhancements. The new beta is available from this direct download from parallels. 
    Parallels has made what was once thought impossible, possible.

  • REVENGE
    Microsoft's volume license customers thought they were (finally) able to get their hands on the final version of Windows Vista... until they encountered some very unexpected problems when attempting to install and run Vista.
     
    As it turns out, there are issues with the file they were given, up through those handed out by November 22. The solution? As stated by Microsoft: "Reinstall Required: If you downloaded Windows Vista Business 32 Bit in English before November 22, 2006, please download and reinstall the updated version. We apologize for any inconvenience.."
     
    Expect more apologies to come before Vista arrives for us "normal" customers...

  • Colonel
    Today, Apple released a new security update with the following description:


    Security Update 2006-007 is recommended for all users and improves the security of the following components: AirPort, ATS, CFNetwork, Finder, Font Book, Font Importer, Installer, OpenSSL, PHP, PPP, Samba, Security Framework, VPN, WebKit, gnuzip, perl
    The update is for Mac OS X 10.4.8 and 10.3.9 and is available via Software Update and Apple's security update info page.

  • kevin_4e
    Looking to free up a little RAM? With DashQuit 2.0, you’re able to tell the current amount of ram used by your widgets, as well as "quit" the dashboard... On the other hand, if you're looking for one more way to save or store some of your files, upload them to your GMail account (get one here) using gDisk... As a citizen of Australia, you might think twice of where you take your iPod. With a newly proposed law, anyone in Australia owning an iPod, camera phone or a DVD recorder with questionable proof of ownership, may face up to a $65,000 fine or five years in jail, possibly both... In exchange for an etching on the back of her future laptop, one creative person found a way to get a free MacBook Pro. With nearly 40 different companies etched on the back of her laptop, she now has one of the most unique laptops at no charge... For any of you iPod owners, did it ever cross your mind that your purchase would save your life? In this guy's case it did...
     
    This week's featured blog is definitely one that will keep you busy. With six entries in two days, you can find an assortment of artwork and reviews all at Pyrat's Blog... If you haven't seen the recently added sticky, "The State of the Art," it's one way to stay up-to-date with all the OSx86 related news (thanks Rammjet)... I swear I've seen something like this commercial before – I just can’t place it. So that's what “PC” looks like in Japan…

  • kevin_4e
    If you’re looking for one more beta to test out, then give Skype 2.5B a spin. Now featuring SMS, it’s worth a try... If you’ve ever wanted to know a little more about your Mac, or anyone else’s, then check out Mactracker, which gives you detailed information about Apple hardware than you'd need... For all of you folks wrapped up in the Class Action Suit regarding defective Apple Studio Displays, you’ve finally gotten what you’ve asked for. Apple has agreed to refund affected customers (only in US) anywhere from US$75 - $400 depending on what repairs were made... Over at the Washington Post, The Woz himself can be heard live, November 21, discussing his book, iWoz. You can also submit questions that may be featured... By mid-2007 iPod integration will be even more ubiquitous, now being featured in airplanes. So far they’ve teamed up with airlines such as Continental, United, and four others...
     
    If you haven’t managed to take a look at sandwer’s Cube Upgrade, then head over to his blog, SWITCH! He was able to place a Mac Mini into a cube enclosure and it turned out great... With almost every beautiful product that Apple makes, there's usually a discussion about whether function has been sacrificed on the altar of looks. Is that so? Let us know in the latest of the Great Debates - Form vs. Function... And finally, with the holiday season coming around,
    to switch to a Mac?

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