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  • Colonel

    iPhone rumors and clues

    By Colonel, in OSx86,

    For years now we've been hearing rumors of Apple developing a cell phone and jumping into the wireless market... and we've seen plenty of fake pictures to go along with those rumors. According to a few reports, Apple just might have proved these rumors true with the recent iPod update. AppleInsider has the scoop:


    While Apple has been relatively mum on any plans for iPod-branded cell phone, the latest iPod software includes references to an "t_feature_app_PHONE_APP" application and variables such as "kPhoneSignalStrength," "clPhoneCallHistoryModel," prPhoneSettingsMenu," "prPhoneSettingsMenuView," prPhoneEnableSetting" and "prPhoneMenuItem."
     
    The phone references within the iPod software are unlikely in relation to Motorola's iTunes Music phones because those phones do not run the iPod operating system, the member pointed out in his analysis. The references also appear to be unrelated Apple's address book synching. It remains to be seen if this means Apple will be releasing an “iPhone” soon or simply an update to the Motorola iTunes phone. Who knows, some sort of iTelecommunicationDevice might even be revealed at WWDC. The real question - would you buy one?
  • Swad

    MacBook Pro Batteries Recalled

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    In case you missed it yesterday (we almost did in moving the site to InsanelyMac), Apple has initiated a recall… no, wait… a “worldwide battery exchange program” for the 15" MacBook Pro model.
     
    According to their website,


    Apple has initiated a worldwide battery exchange program for certain rechargeable batteries that were sold for use with 15-inch MacBook Pro computer systems from February 2006 through May 2006.
     
    We recently discovered that some 15-inch MacBook Pro batteries supplied to Apple do not meet our high standards for battery performance. To give our users the best experience possible, we will replace these batteries for customers free of charge. Apple states that all the affected batteries have a model number of A1175 and have serial numbers that end in U7SA, U7SB or U7SC. They estimate that it’ll take around 3 to 5 business days for you to get your – are you ready for it – Apple juice back.
     
    As far as we know this is unrelated to the "silent" recall a few months ago. Hey, at least it's not catching on fire.
     
    Thanks to Big Kahuna for posting this in Reader News!
  • Swad
    Post your predictions for WWDC here. Mine include:
     
    1. Leopard preview.
     
    2. New Mac Pro.
     
    3. Promise of Merom Macbook Pros (and maybe Macbooks) by the end of the month.
     
    4. Introduction of some big universal app - Office, etc.
     
    That's about it - I'm not expecting anything too crazy. How about you?
  • Swad

    InsanelyMac is live!

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    Welcome to the all new InsanelyMac, the evolution of everything you loved about The OSx86 Project. A few months ago, after careful thought, we decided that for our site to better adapt to the future, OSx86Project.org should become solely dedicated to running OSx86. In order to accomplish this, we’ve moved our (much improved) news and forum to their new home here, InsanelyMac.com.
     
    What’s new and what can you expect in the coming months?

    OSx86 Project
     
    We’re committed to remaining the most valuable OSx86 resource on them thar interwebs. To do so, we’re spending the month of August revamping our wiki, rolling out new features, along with a great new look. To let us know what you think should be improved, check out this forum thread.
     
    InsanelyMac
     
    After establishing a dedicated News Team to scour the Mac Web, setting up blogging capabilities for everyone on the forum, and rolling out a shiny new theme… we’ve been busy, to say the least. Nevertheless, we’ve got some great ideas for the upcoming months, including an integrated RSS reader and photo gallery. We hope you like the forum’s new home – frankly, we’re crazy about it.

    Likemind
     
    The current portal to InsanelyMac (or iMac for short) is a temporary one. To make a long story short, we tried a bunch of the portal systems out there and found out that they were all lacking. So, we decided to make our own. It’s called Likemind and it’s an open source project we’re starting here at iMac. The goal is to create an extensible news-driven content management system that’ll be free for any community to use and adapt. If you’re a PHP guru and would like to help our site help others, check out our development forum in the X Labs for more information.
     
    Enjoy the new site!
  • Swad

    Apple gives up on discussion?

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    As the administrator of a growing online community, I found this to be one of those "I can't believe that the heads of Apple, who have MBA's and private Learjets, are getting paid to make these decisions" things. From The Mac Observer,


    Apple Computer has terminated its Apple Discussions Hosts, the forum moderators that monitor and moderate the company's user discussion boards. A source involved with Apple Discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Mac Observer that management at Apple has questioned the value of the discussion boards. The end result, however, has been a marked decrease in the quality of discussions, and an increase in everything from rudeness to instructions on pirating music and software.
     
    Apple Discussions are used by Mac, iPod, and other Apple software users to discuss issues they have with their Apple products. The boards have heretofore been moderated by Apple staff members, called Hosts, who answer questions and otherwise moderate the discussion (for instance, deleting rude and unruly posts reported by highly ranked volunteers).
     
    Apple Discussions have long been a source for its customers to find solutions to their problems, and the vast majority of posts are how-tos and problem/solution threads. According to TMO's source, some within the company fear that losing its staff of mods will result in Apple having less of a direct interface with its customers.
     
    "We know that Apple will have far fewer eyes to spot real problems," said our source, "or to moderate the actions of those who have unproductive agendas." Any ideas why they'd do this? This was a great resource that I think most of us have used from time to time when considering buying a Mac. It's a shame they don't care about it anymore, and I guess it means that communities like ours will be all the more important in the years ahead.
     
    P.S. We have a great Mod staff here - they really are the best I've seen.
  • Colonel
    Since Apple switched to using PowerPC processors they've been using ATI graphics cards. Even after Apple started the Intel transition, they still continue to make Macs with ATI cards, but that may change because of AMD's recent purchase of ATI. Because of the AMD's purchase, Intel will slowly stop supporting ATI.
     
    Here's the article from ZDNet:
    AMD yesterday announced that they plan to acquire Canadian video chip maker ATI for US$5.4 billion. The deal needs to be approved by stockholders and regulatory agencies. Arch-rival Intel announced that they won't be renewing ATI's chipset bus license as a result of the deal.
     
    The move leaves Apple in a bit of a quandary because ATI video subsystems currently power two of Apple's Intel-based Macs: the MacBook Pro and the iMac both ship with ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 GPUs. The Mac mini and MacBook use Intel GMA950 graphics.
     
    ATI chips shipped in most Macs prior to the PowerMac G4 announced in 2001. Apple's move to chips from Santa Clara-based NVIDIA was believed by some to be punishment for an ATI leak in July 2000 that pre-announced new iMacs and Power Macs.
     
    Apple's aging PowerMac G5 ships with NVIDIA graphics (GeForce 6600, 7800 GT or Quadro FX 4500) but the graphics chip supplier for the new "Mac Pro" desktop is rumored to switch to back ATI. The Mac Pro, which could be announced as soon as 06 August at WWDC, is rumored to ship with ATI Radeon X1600 Pro and X1800 Pro graphics.
     
    Will Intel allow Apple to continue to working with ATI on graphics after the company becomes wholly owned by rival AMD? I think that we'll probably see Intel gently "suggest" that Apple switch to another vendor for graphics technology in 2007. Once the dust settles I bet that all Macs from here on out will ship with graphics from either Intel or NVIDIA.
     
    So what does this mean for Apple? Will they be forced to go with nVidia cards and if they are, how will this affect the Macvidia project?
     
     
    *************************************************************************
    This is my first article for InsanelyMac. Please let me know what you think. Thanks
  • Swad

    Do you Guru?

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    We're looking for the few, the proud... the Gurus among us.
     
    This week we're launching a brand new (and as far as I'm aware, unique) idea for creating discussion and assistance within our community. It's called the "Guru Project." Here's what it entails:
     
    Nominations will be taken for outstanding members of our community. These are folks that you love to see posts from - the ones that are kind, helpful, and just fun to be around in general.
     
    What sets these people apart is that they're passionate about something. Maybe it's Photography. Web Design. OSx86. If we've got an area of this forum dedicated to it, we want to help them channel that passion for the community.
     
    If the nomination for a guru is accepted, their responsibility is to post as much good info as they can in order to help keep the community up-to-date with what's happening in their corner of the tech world. They'll also be available (along with the rest of the forum) to offer some help if someone needs assistance. If they love video creation, they'll post any great video creation tools, articles, or links that they come across. If they're an expert in one of the busier forums, like OSx86, their job will be to help sort information, make an FAQ, etc.
     
    This will easily be the most prestigious position on our forum and one that will help the community a great deal (it also comes with some nice forum perks, like an unlimited PM box, etc). It's an honor that we won't give lightly. We'd like you to nominate those InsanelyMac-ers who have helped you along the way and who help keep things interesting.
     
    As an example, let me introduce our first guru, lambsporriegetta. Since the beginning of March, lambsporriegetta has been updating a list in the Audio forum of the latest Universal audio plugins. He's also been quite helpful in other forums and has continued posting new and interesting material for months. He's one of those guys that I know by name and has earned my respect (the audio forum was his idea!). It's because he's shown a real interest in making InsanelyMac the best it can be that we confer our first title to him.
     
    But there are many more out there who are just as deserving. We want to know who they are. PM me with your nominations and the staff will review them. If they're accepted, you'll know you've chosen wisely.
     
    Thanks for joining us as we work to make InsanelyMac the greatest forum of its kind.
  • Swad
    So earlier this year we decided that it simply wasn't acceptable for Apple to be releasing all these new (bitchin') portables with so many technical issues. Anecdotally, almost everyone I've met in real life and on this site (which, of course, is real life too) has had some issue with their new MB or MBP, whether it be whining, mooing, excessive heat, discoloration, etc.
     
    So when we had our "End the Whine" day, we said all we wanted to do was raise awareness of the issue. We'd call Apple to let them know we thought it was poor taste... but more importantly we wanted the Mac community to know that this was a big deal. And we were successful - folks from all over the Mac web rallied to our cause.
     
    Today those efforts proved successful with a one-sentence notice on their website. I present to you Apple Knowledge Base Article 303365:


    If your 15-inch MacBook Pro emits a high-pitched buzzing sound, please contact AppleCare for service. There are a few very interesting points about this KB article.
     
    First, notice that it just covers the 15-inch model, despite the fact that other models exhibit the same problems.
     
    Second, check out the date at the bottom of the page. It seems the problem was noticed as early as February 24, 2006 but wasn't made public until July 21, 2006. That means that Apple was aware of the issue as the first units were being shipped back in February... but didn't take the time to either 1) let the public know about it by making the KB article live or 2) working to fix the problem!
     
    We held our "End the Whine" day at the end of May, almost 3 months after this KB article was "created." Yet the vast majority of our calls to Apple were answered with a "that's within spec" response, essentially telling us that there wasn't a problem. A few people had their units replaced.
     
    So what does all this mean? It means that if I ever believed that Apple produced higher quality hardware than other companies in the past, that belief if quickly fading. I've heard many stories about the abuse the old iBooks would take and still work. These days, a worn-in iBook is probably in better shape than an MBP out of the box.
     
    That's a shame, Apple. Fix these problems so that OS X fans actually want to buy your hardware... not force themselves to.
     
    [Digg it!]
  • Swad

    Merom MacBook Pro in August

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    This might just be wishful thinking, but Jason O'Grady seems to think that Merom will find its way into a MacBook Pro by the end of August. The rest of the article doesn't seem that far fetched, but what do you think?


    Merom is "a mobility-optimized, dual-core processor based on the new, state of the art, Intel Core microarchitecture" according to the company.
     
    Merom comes with a 667 MHz frontside bus and 4 MB of L2 cache, double the 2 MB found in current MacBook Pros. Intel is offering Merom in 2.0, 2.16 and 2.33GHz clock speeds, a perfect fit to drop into the MacBook Pro lineup.
     
    A source I spoke with mentioned that Apple already has Merom chips in hand and has been testing them for a while. They're probably waiting for inventory of existing MacBook Pros to sell down and/or for the official announcement to come from Intel.
     
    Apple will most likely announce new Intel-based Mac Pro desktops at WWDC on 07 August. There is even a possibility that Apple will announce refreshed Xserves based on Intel's new server chip (code named Woodcrest) at WWDC, but that is unconfirmed. Apple will probably roll out the new Merom MacBook Pros some time in late August.
    One of the big questions, in my mind, is whether Apple will offer Merom in both the MacBook and Pro models, or just for Pro. I'm really getting impatient waiting to order mine...
  • Swad

    Merom, Conroe Shipping

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    In the wake of a gloomy earnings forecast, Intel Corp. this week said it has commenced shipments of both Conroe and Merom, its new Core 2 Duo dual-core microprocessors for desktop and notebook systems.
     
    During its earnings report on Wednesday, the world's largest chip maker said it quietly pushed the first shipments of its Core 2 Duo desktop processor out the door last quarter, ahead of its formal launch on July 27.
     
    "The mobile PC version of the Intel Core 2 Duo processor is also shipping now, one month ahead of schedule," the company wrote in a set of presentation slides.
     
    Indeed, a report from overseas this week had suggested that Intel would advance the releases of Merom to coincide with Conroe in late July. Intel has scheduled the official launch for both chips for next Thursday.
     
    Intel hopes the new lines of dual- and quad-core chips will help stem market share gains by AMD and aid its bleeding shares, which have lost about a third of their value in the last 12 months.
     
    Apple Computer, which recently switched its Mac line to Intel chips, is likely to adopt Conroe and Merom Core 2 Duo processors in future revisions of its desktop and notebook computers.
     
    Apple's MacBook Pro notebooks currently employ Intel's Yonah Core Duo processors. Since Merom was designed to be backwards compatible with Yonah platforms, Apple's first move could come in the form of an abrupt boost to its professional laptop line.
    AppleInsider
     
    What are your bets for the ETNM (Estimated Time to New Mac)?
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