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  • Alex Oughton
    Two new firmwares were released on Tuesday for the Mac Pro, one for the EFI, and the other for the SMC. After waiting for the first reviews to trickle in, here's what we know.
     
    The EFI update reportedly brings many improvements for Boot Camp, including a fix for hard disk speed issues experienced by many Windows XP users on Mac Pro. The SMC update tweaks fan behavior.
     
    This news poster is currently unable to comment on the performance of the new firmware, as the installer is currently incompatible with RAID setups of any kind, a problem reported by many on Apple's official discussion forums.
  • Swad
    There's a new Parallels build in town, pilgrim. [/John Wayne] It boasts support for all the latest Macs along with a few other niceties.


    Just a few minutes ago our developers posted a new build (1898) for Desktop for Mac that substantially improves Mac Pro and 64-bit iMac performance and eliminates kernel panics and major bugs.
     
    For those users who have Mac Pros and 64-bit iMacs with more than 2GB of RAM, you've had to manually limit your RAM via the instructions I layed out in my "Q&A about the Update RC" post. In this build, we've included a tool that will help you take this action without any command line coding. With a single click you can limit your RAM and make your Mac Pro fully compatible with this build. You can easily revert your memory back at any time to the full configuration with the same tool.
     
    This build also adds support for Windows Vista RC1 as a guest OS, and adds an improved Parallels Tools package for all of the Vista builds that improves mouse movement, and video resolutions, and beefs up networking. I highly recommend you install it if you're running Vista!
     
    Originally, I told you that we'd have full PAE support by year's end. Now, I'm pleased to let you know that we are working on a new RC version that will be compatible with ANY Intel-Mac with ANY amount of RAM, and will have it much sooner than originally anticipated. The engineering team tells me that this build should be available in a week or two. Snatch your copy here.
  • Swad
    Our next iAnnoyance Challenge, which will begin next Monday morning at 12:01 a.m., is focused on the OS X desktop. This time around, we're improving the contest by giving developers a full week to come up with the winning formula and then selecting the winner based on the quality (ie breadth of innovation, interface, improvement) of his or her submission... not on who's first to submit something.
     
    But first we've got to know what annoys you about the desktop in OS X. Does it bug you that you can't show some drives and hide others? That you can't have icons aligned to your specific standards? Let your voice be heard.
     
    We'll take all of our annoyances, figure out which ones we can wrap into an iAnnoyance Challenge, and launch the contest next week! So go ahead and sound off - your issue might just get fixed next week!
  • Colonel

    Aqua GUI for iTunes 7

    By Colonel, in OSx86,

    If you're one of the many that wish Apple had included Aqua in iTunes 7, you're in luck. A new add-on for iTunes 7 called AquaT will bring back that olde tyme iTunes 6 look to your newly installed iTunes 7. If you're one of the iTunes 6 UI lovers, as I am, you'll likely enjoy this new add-on.
     

  • Swad
    As a student, if there was ever an application that needed to be universal, it's Microsoft Office for Mac. That's why I was fairly excited (gasp! - excited about Microsoft?) to read about all the goodies coming for the Mac version of Office 2007.


    Microsoft’s next-gen Office suite for the Mac is being given a top-to-toe refit in readiness for its debut in the third quarter of 2007.
     
    On the surface is a revised interface which borrows ideas from the Office 2007 for Windows ‘ribbon’ and has already been radically changed due to user feedback. The new versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint will all adopt the native XML file formats of their Windows siblings.
     
    And, the program is of course being rebuilt as an Intel-friendly Universal Binary application. That's the good news. The bad news is that we shouldn't be expecting to buy it at a booth at Macworld 2007 in January.


    “Typically we release about 6-8 months after Windows Office, and they’ve announced general availability in the January timeframe, so we would be 6-8 months after that.” If her timetable holds firm, the program that will likely be christened as ‘Office 2007? will touch down between July and September of 2007 — around three and a half years since the arrival of Office 2004 in March of that year.
     
    Microsoft’s 130-odd Mac developers have already reached the halfway mark in their marathon march, Last month, they completed the transition to Apple’s Xcode, which forms the basis for the Universal binaries that are compatible with new Intel-based Macs as well as older PowerPC machines. Oh, and what about "ribbons" you ask?


    “We will be doing a UI refresh” Starman confirms, “but it won’t be exactly like you see in Office 2007. It just wouldn’t make sense. Apple has got their own very specific set of user interface guidelines and we try to first and foremost to follow those guidelines. If we can innovate on top of that and do some interesting things to make sure that the interface is really discoverable for the Mac user, then we’ll look at doing that. We can get some ideas (from the ribbon) but it still has to fit within Apple’s UI guideline, that’s what a Mac user wants to see” Starman says.
     
    “There’s also a lot of speculation in the Apple developer community about the UI changes that will come in Leopard, too, and what are we all going to have do when we see those changes.”
     
    Design and usability testing on the Office 12 interface is already underway in the MacBU labs at Redmond and Cupertino, and the team has already made one trip back to the drawing board based on user feedback. Thank goodness. While I use Word out of compulsion rather than inspiration, the Windows version just seems much easier to use, if admittedly very un-Mac-like. The Mac buttons look cheesy, the little side "box-o-settings" is a usability disaster, and... well... I'm just not a huge fan.
     
    Will 2007 make switchers of many Pages fans? Maybe. We'll see what Macworld has to offer.
  • Alex Oughton
    It has been reported today that Google is in talks with Apple to supply video content for their upcoming iTV device.
     
    According to Newsweek, Google’s consumer product chief, Marissa Mayer, has been quoted as saying that Google and Apple are currently engaged in talks to provide content directly to users’ televisions, via the Internet.
     
    Apple hopes to capture some of the market currently held by Microsoft’s Media Center system, which already has similar streaming abilities. “Everyone who’s tried this before has failed,” said Apple boss Steve Jobs at the recent unveiling of the new device, resembling a smaller Mac Mini.
     
    Clearly Apple believes that the key to ensuring better success is content, and this deal with Google is the first of perhaps many to give iTV a strategic advantage over its rivals.
  • kevin_4e
    If you've ever searched (like I have) for a free WMA converter, take a look at Switch. Switch is the best app I've found to convert wav to mp3, mp3 to wav, wma to mp3 and a host of other types other types... Although certainly not new, Front Row Enabler simply lets you install Front Row on any Mac running 10.4.5 or above... Since it’s been awhile from the first launch of iTunes, take a look at this story looking at iTunes 1.0 through the latest release of 7.0... An up-and-coming iTunes related site that may be worth a bookmark is I Leak Things, which - admittedly - hasn’t actually “leaked” anything yet... Apple’s special event on the 25th is now confirmed. MacWorld has received their invite for the ‘special’ event, one day before Photokina. Based on the invitation, a new release of Aperture is likely... What’s highly unlikely to be announced is a hacked together 8 core Mac Pro.
     
    Only 221 more posts (for the moment that is) ‘til the 1000 post thread is complete... Check out InsanelyMac’s latest blog, The Quirky Mac which promises, well, quirkiness... Last week’s humor at Microsoft’s expense, but what about the Macintosh? Here’s a compilation of some of Apple’s Keynote bloopers. That reality distortion field only extends so far...
  • Swad

    Upgrade your Mac Mini to Core 2 Duo

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    We're all about the "unofficial" here at InsanelyMac and nothing meets that criterion better than CPU swapping.
     
    Dubbing his updated computer "Meromac Mini," Macaholic (it's ok man - help is out there) takes us through the steps to go from mini to mighty by upgrading his Mini's Core Duo processor to a Core 2 Duo. He's also got tons of pictures to help along the way, but if you're looking for instructional text, you're on your own.
     
    Anyone breaking out the toolset yet?
  • Colonel

    Boot Camp 1.1.1 Released

    By Colonel, in OSx86,

    Apple has just released an update to Boot Camp, version 1.1.1. The new update contains the following improvements,
    Support for the latest Intel-based Macintosh computers Easier partitioning using presets for popular sizes Ability to install Windows XP on any internal disk Support for built-in iSight cameras Support for built-in microphones Right-click when pressing the right-hand Apple key on Apple keyboards Improved Apple keyboard support including Delete, PrintScreen, NumLock, and ScrollLock key It appears that Apple has also added Core 2 Duo support. Keep up the good work Apple!
  • Swad

    Taking a look inside iPod Games

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    Curious about those new iPod Games of yours? Go forth and learn...
     
    Dissecting iPod Games
     
    - Modifying the games is difficult at best, if not impossible, because of the checksumming of every file in the bundle, and then the certificate against the manifest.
    - Game resource files, particularly audio, aren't obfuscated and can be extracted successfully.
    - Homebrew is probably an impossibility at this point because of the expectation of a signed cert from Apple.
    - The fact that there are platform identifiers in the plists makes me wonder what Apple's future plans entail. Maybe this would just be for later iPod revisions, or maybe they're just looking forward. Still, quite interesting.
     
    What's inside an iPod game?
     
    Manifest.plist seems to contain information used by the iPod itself, but possibly iTunes. It contains references to the Description.xml files used by iTunes. It also references the executable used by the iPod, and apparently the loading artwork. I’m sure it does a lot more, but I haven’t gotten too far into it.
     
    Mini Golf contains several non-DRM AAC files that are used for background sounds. Sound effects are in the various bank folders and are in WAV format.
     
    iTunes apparently generates a copy of the game just for you when downloading. It inserts your name and email address (iTunes store user name) into the archive.
     
    The .bin.sinf file in Resources contains your name, and iTunesMetaData contains your email address.
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