After 18 years, AutoCAD returns to the Mac

9to5 Staff

Autodesk today returned to the Mac with the release of industry-standard AutoCAD. There’s even a 30-day free trial of this most important of 3D CAD software for designers, and its return to the Mac really is a big deal — it has been absent from the platform for 18 years.  That’s a generation of Architects that haven’t used the software.

One of the most widely used applications for professional design and engineering, the Mac version brings all AutoCADs features and functionality to Mac-using designers. For PC users, the Mac version works in a similar enough way to the PC that it is easy to move between platforms. Read more

Good news for Apple: iOS doubles up Android in Enterprise

Seth Weintraub

Android may be catching up to iOS in terms of overall users, but according to Good, a maker of mobile enterprise messaging software, it is nowhere close to Apple in the enterprise.  Key findings of the report:

Among its many insights, the report shows that in less than two months from its late June launch, the Apple iPhone 4 became the most frequently activated device among Good’s enterprise customers. The Apple iPad leaped into the top five very quickly as well, showing that enterprise customers want to use these new tablet devices for business. Android continued to grow rapidly as more new devices come to market, with the Droid X by Motorola ranked as the most frequently activated Android device in September.

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Jailbroken AppleTV might shed light on future of Apple computers

Seth Weintraub


Original Mac Mini vs. new AppleTV

We’ve been able to verify that the Limera1n does work on AppleTVs (TUAW also) though no apps run on it and OpenSSH isn’t yet available. But soon, you’ll be able to punch though into your AppleTV box and have a pretty basic Unix machine with a command line interface and a significantly powerful GPU.

So what kind of computer do you get for $99 (and $64 for Apple’s N+1).

…or what fun toys does this have inside to exploit?  From the teardown we know it has Bluetooth and FM.   We also know from its specs that it has 10/100 Ethernet, Wifi N, USB and 720P HDMI video out (1280×720) which also carries digital audio.  Internally it has a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8, 256MB of RAM and 8GB of storage.

With some significant hacking, these could make fantastic little DNS servers or Firewall/VPN/Routers.  It shouldn’t be too hard to turn an Ethernet wired AppleTV into an Airport base station for instance.  It might be a bit harder (or not) to turn it into a fantastic little NAS with the USB port on the back.  At $99/ea these are going to be great hacking toys.

But why stop there?   Read more

Why the Mac still matters to Apple

9to5 Staff

COMPUTERWORLD: A note to all the folk out there complaining that Apple isn’t paying any attention to Mac sales– you’re wrong. Just look at the data. Cast your mind back to 2007, perhaps call it up by attempting to remember what your cellphone did for you then. Think back to January that year when Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, introduced the iPhone, then take a look at this data:

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Overstretched Apple delays Final Cut upgrade to 2011

9to5 Staff

It seems not all is well with the Final Cut Studio development team, with a report claiming release of the next version of the insanely widely-used professional video-editing solution has been set back until 2011.

We had originally been expecting Final Cut Studio would ship this year, but development has suffered “significant setbacks”, a French report explains. This has also led the Apple team to scale back the scope of the release. Read more