How did it go for you guys?  We’re downloading now.  The list of fixes and updates look promising. 

Update: We luv it.  It is snappier™

More details below…

What’s included?

General

• Includes recent Apple security updates.
• Addresses stability issues with video playback, processor core idling, and remote disc sharing for MacBook Air.
• Addresses an issue in which some Macs could unexpectedly power on at the same time each day.
• Resolves a stability issue in TextEdit that could be found when accessing the color palette.
• Improves Spotlight indexing performance.
• Fixes an issue in which contacts might not sync properly with PalmOS-based devices.
• Improves iPhone sync reliability with iCal and Address Book.
• Includes improvements to Active Directory (see this article for more information).
• Improves Speech Dictionary.
• Fixes Kerberos authentication issues for Mac OS X 10.5 clients that connect to certain Samba servers, such as Mac OS X Server version 10.4.
• Includes extensive graphics enhancements.

Address Book

• Addresses stability issues that may occur when creating a Smart Group.
• Resolves a printing issue with address cards containing information that spans more than one page.

Disk Utility and Directory Utility

• Improves reliability when rebuilding a software mirror RAID volume in Disk Utility.
• Improves reliability of server status displayed in Directory Utility.

iCal

• Updates iCal to more accurately handle repeating events.
• Improves performance when choosing meeting attendees.
• Resolves an issue in which the "Refresh All" option may be dimmed ("grayed out") in the contextual menu for certain calendars.
• Fixes issues with read-only calendars.
• Addresses an issue that prevents an invitee from moving an event to a different calendar.
• Resolves an issue with syncing published calendars.

Mail

• Addresses performance issues related to displaying IMAP messages.
• Resolves an issue with SMTP settings for AIM, Compuserve, Hanmail, Yahoo!, and Time Warner Road Runner email accounts.
• Addresses stability issues that may occur when dragging a file to the Mail icon in the Dock.
• Addresses an issue with the "Organized by Thread" view in which the date does not appear when the thread is collapsed.
• Resolves an issue in which RSS feeds could temporarily disappear from the sidebar.
• Improves Mail robustness when sending messages.
• Improves reliability when saving drafts that have attachments.

MobileMe

• Improves overall sync reliability.
• Improves Back to My Mac reliability.

Time Machine

• Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.
• Addresses performance issues that may affect initial and in-progress backups.
• Fixes an issue in which an incorrect alert message could appear stating that a backup volume does not have enough free space.
• Time Machine can now back up iPhone backups that are on your Mac, as well as other items in (~/Library/Application Support).

Meanwhile over in Redmond, Microsoft has an all-new plan to wean a little extra cash out of people still afflicted with the world’s dominant OS – irritate people until they cough up.

What?

Well, plan is that the company is doing some more of its famed Office Paperclip magic, changing Windows Genuine Advantage (which no one likes because the only genuine advantage it offers is to MSFT)…anyway, so the new look to combating piracy of the OS the company spent years pushing at people in order to make it pervasive means those using pirated copies of Windows (why pirate it, when  you can simply not use it?) can expect their desktop wallpaper to be replaced with a black screen every 60 minutes.

Also, to remind you that executives at the world’s biggest and richest software company need a few extra treats for the table come the next shareholder’s meeting, "copies of Windows deemed to not be genuine will also have a translucent watermark above the system tray, which Microsoft calls a ‘persistent desktop notification.’ Don’t you just love double-speak? "Persistent Desktop Notification sounds so much more grown-up than the old traditional expression, "pester message".

Oh and the scheme will be focused on the product edition that is most often stolen, Microsoft says, which – c’mon everyone, you know which one it is – is Windows XP (the version people actually prefer using because it almost works a bit).  By the way, can you even get a legitimage copy of XP anymore?

Now, while home users and persistent pirates will probably be able to handle this low-level irritation, we over here at 9to5Mac can’t help but feel this to be just Microsoft’s gentle way to tell business users with pirated software that it just might be a good idea to pay for XP (which they can’t) or upgrade to Vista (which they don’t want to). Wonder how many Mac sales Microsoft’s all-new approach to protecting its (now defunct) OS investment will generate?

And what about those of us who don’t want Vista and can’t buy XP?

Just a thought, anyway…

Via: CustomPC

Ah, Microsoft, but let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach. And you can’t reach a whole lot higher than the International Space Station (ISS), which NASA this week revealed had a few extra astronauts on board last month – a Windows Virus known as Gammima.AG. 

This virus, which affects Windows 2000, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP machines, was first detected on Earth in August last year before heading off on its unexpected journey into space. Gammima AG is widely used to steal log-in data for online games in the Far East, the BBC reports. And the virus was carried to the station on laptops infected by the virus.

Gets better: "Nasa said it was not the first time computer viruses had travelled into space and it was investigating how the machines were infected."

Probably because the machines on the Space Station are running an insecure operating system, known as Windows, we reckon.

Space news website SpaceRef broke the story about the virus on the laptops that astronauts took to the ISS.

Oh –  and it’s possible that some of us Earth-dwellers could have been infected by a computer virus sent from space: "The laptops infected with the virus were used to run nutritional programs and let the astronauts periodically send e-mail back to Earth," says the BBC. And the laptops used by astronauts don’t have anti-virus software installed. 

Image illustrates an iPod on a space shuttle, by the way…

Do you think Nasa should switch to Mac?

Independent iPhone application developer, Noah Witherspoon, has been forced to remove his free Tetris-inspired iPhone application, Tris, on account of legal threats from the Tetris Company.

In a post last night the independent developer – a student – wrote: "Well – I’ve received notice from Apple that they’ve been contacted by The Tetris Company about Tris. That, I’m afraid, is essentially game over. Do they have a case? No. Not really. I am convinced that if it went to court, the "copyright" claim would get thrown out completely. The trademark, perhaps not – but if I changed the name, to eg. "Trys", that would be much harder for them to argue."

The developer argues that he lacks the time, energy or resources to fight the claim made by the Tetris Company, ending his message, "it’s with great sadness that I must announce that I’ll be pulling Tris from the App Store on Wednesday, August 27th, to remain in Apple’s systems but publicly unavailable until I work out a solution to this."

While the developer freely admits he understands the Tetris Company is acting in good faith in order to protect its brand, but accuses the larger firm of engaging in what the developer feels is "petty bullying".

"[They] are, presumably, relying on my being a small developer with insufficient resources to defend myself. And — hey ho — it appears to be working," he writes, before urging anyone who may want to have a play with his game to download the free title from the App Store before it is withdrawn from sale tomorrow

"To clarify: if Apple had not told me they’d “take action” of their own if I didn’t resolve the “dispute”, Tris would be staying up. I don’t think this will be permanent; when I have the time and can find a good copyright lawyer, I’ll be figuring out exactly what my position is and how I can make Tris available again," he adds.

It looks like Apple might be employing Sun’s Java Messaging Server (Grid?) for the behind the scenes heavy lifting that enables the new MobileMe functionality.   Performing a telnet to "smtp-mx1.mac.com" on port 25 MacTalk User MacTicks got the following response:

$ telnet smtp-mx1.mac.com 25
Trying 17.148.20.64…
Connected to smtp-mx1.mac.com.
Escape character is ‘^]’.
220 smtpin122.mac.com — Server ESMTP (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-6.03 (built Mar 14 2008; 32bit))
quit
221 2.3.0 Bye received. Goodbye.

We followed up today with the same request and got the following:

$ telnet smtp-mx1.mac.com 25
Trying 17.148.20.64…
Connected to smtp-mx1.mac.com.
Escape character is ‘^]’.
220 smtpin123.mac.com — Server ESMTP (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-6.03 (built Mar 14 2008; 32bit))

So it looks like Apple is using Sun for its MobileMe mail platform.  As a background, Sun and Apple have had a long and tumultuous cross-Valley relationship with many technology sharing arrangements. 
 

We’ve been talking about it for years.  Finally, Apple has some rock solid plans to introduce ZFS into the MacOSX operating system.  As of now, plans are for Snow Leopard server to allow read/write capabilities for ZFS.  No word yet if it will operate as a boot partition or not.  Snow Leopard Server is supposed to debut with it’s client counterpart in about 1 year according to Apple.  Developers are being shown a preview this week at Apple’s WWDC.

No word on whether this technology will be available to current Leopard Server users.

So we’ve heard from an AT&T rep….Also confirmed by Silicon Alley insider.

We knew this would happen – it makes sense.  Overall, the deal still represents a pretty big bargain.  It would be nice if Apple let you do bluetooth or WiFi tethering.  (Yes we are aware of the TinyProxy hack that allows this).  That would make the $10 3G surcharge easy to swallow.

Enterprise users for the iPhone seem pretty pleased. You have to admit, it is quite impressive. The Army dude is hardcore about getting shot at and destroying missing iPhones. Guess it goes with the territory.

Small businesses, more than their larger counterparts, have really been able to take advantage of Software as a Service (Saas) applications to handle large parts of their technology needs. Salesforce and Highrise handle CRM. Basecamp handles project management. Recently, Microsoft and, to a much large extent, Google Apps are handling enterprise style messaging and calendaring.

However, no one has been able to replace that big server in the closet that serves up files and backs up the desktop computers.

Until now…

Now a new startup is planning on putting that last bit of server hardware out into "the Cloud". Sunnyvale based Egnyte lets small businesses (read: 3-15 employees) operate their file server and backups outside of their local offices.

According to Egnyte’s CEO, Vineet Jain, more than half of their customers are Mac users. Of course, you’d expect to see small creative design shops using a tool like Egnyte, but he says he also sees a lot of people from the medical field that share, exchange and backup huge medical imaging files. He also sees video outfits who want to share large/HD videos with their clients in their original form, not compressed for YouTube or Revver streaming.

The company is small and nimble at this point but they have large ambitions. Just like the Basecamp and Google Apps crowd, they intend to service the millions of small businesses around the world that would like to offload some of their IT infrastructure to service providers.

How does it work? You sign up for a special URL on their webpage. The process is quick and you are ready to go in a minute. You can then upload files to the website like an FTP server. However, this is all web-based for those clients that can’t get their head around the FTP process. In a matter of minutes, I was able to upload a 350 megabyte video file from a web page using my hotel’s shotty Internet connection. I could then download the file quickly onto another computer. The Egnyte interface can also generate a public URL that you can pass along to your clients.

Although recent improvements to Egnyte’s web interface allow multiple file and folder uploads, most people want a more "Desktop-like Experience." Egnyte also has you covered in this area. You can download a 9mb application that creates a share in either Windows or Mac just like a server share using the secure WebDAV protocol. You can also set Egnyte to backup your desktop and servers this way.

The application asks you to put in your company URL name and your username and password. Once successfully authenticated, you can set up your machine to do a granular backup using the web interface. You will also see a mounted share that contains the same directories that the web interface shows. It is all really, really easy.

Testing from Europe the speed was blazingly fast. From my Paris apartment on 100mb fiber, I uploaded a 700mb video in under five minutes. From our firm’s New York Office, files were downloaded from the web even quicker. Egnyte compresses files using the web interface to speed uncompressed files.

The downside is that this service, like all web services, exists outside of your office and largely outside of your control. If the Internet goes down, you are separated from all of your files. Egnyte is working on offering an appliance to its larger customers that will be an rsynced duplicate of their cloud shares.

There is also the small, outside risk of this company going under. Egnyte hopes to quell these fear with a 30-day guarantee. If they are canceling your acount or going offline for any reason, they will give their customers 30 days to download their information off of the servers.

The performance of this service also depends largely on your company’s (and clients’) Internet speed. Normal DSL broadband will be a little clunky uploading and backing up files. You’ll want to be as high end as possible to get the best performance out of Egnyte.

Overall, this is a fantastic service for small organizations. If I had any requests, it’d be that Egnyte work with Basecamp and Google Apps APIs or my company’s LDAP server to authenticate users so two directories don’t need to be created and transparency to users could be implemented.

 Kick back and relax while you wait with this musical interlude, music provided by Coldplay in Apple’s latest TV ad. Enjoy…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIy9TV4F39g&hl=en]

It happened. We now officially feel bad for Ballmer. What? He’s worth 10 billion dollars? Nevermind.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crhxKNkZy-Y&hl=en]

Thanks the

FSJ

or..
How I learned love the enterprise beta-bug.

One problem with Beta-Testing is that you never know how deep you’re in, until its too late. You’ve invested countless man-hours setting up, what should be a simple server, only to find out that the bugs and glitches make it wholey un-TEST-able.

Yes, this is beta-testing which, by all accounts, should be called "Alpha-Testing" and whatever primordial ooze that companies like Apple and Microsoft conjure up in the privacy of their respective skunk-works should be called "procreative speculation".

    -316 smIntStatVErr The InitStatusV field was negative after primary or secondary init.

The point of diminishing returns comes all too late in the game as you strugggle to find purpose in what has turned out to be a frustratig excersize in futility.

You reflect, somewhat somberly, how that at 9:00am, you were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, almost giddy with anticipation about getting your hands dirty in the new pre-release server update. You cancelled your lunch plans, dentist appointment and forwarded your phone straight to voicemail.

    Error from server (debug enabled)

Perhaps you re-install, re-configure re-deploy, smiling all the while at the Execs to whom your career owes its precarious existance to. They don’t care about error strings, debugging or anything having to do with technology for that matter. Remember, these colloge educated Ivy-leagers can’t, won’t and don’t know how to set the time and date in system preferences.

In all fairness, they don’t get paid to give a damn about HOW technology gets implimented. They just want the s*** to work.

    Send bug report

So there you sit, all alone in some cold server room. Probably on your third re-install of the latest pre-release seed, murmering to yourself about how "At least its better than the last seed."

Sort of…

Its now the golden hour, rounding past tea time and you have yet to connect from a client. Your limbs are stiff, your brow is furrowed and you begin to understand just how Charlie Brown felt everytime Lucy took the ball away. If you were a cartoon character, you’d have one of those black, scratched out thought bubbbles over your head.

You reflect once more about how, until recently, Apple has been so conspicuously absent from the world of Enterprise computing. They jumped in to a crowded ring as a rookie and an underdog, with some pretty amazing offerings, some of which have replaced many of the more-expensive tried-and-true server solutions in your own company!

    Check console CrashReporter

So then you wonder, "How could Apple get it so right with Laptops, desktops, a kick-ass OS and a world-dominating MP3 player and a friggin’ phone, but miss the mark completely with its enterprise solutions?". Obviously the right hand is not on spekaing terms with the left.

A jack of all trades and master of a few? The execs who takes pleasure in holding your head under the corporate heat lamp only cares about the technology initiatives mandated by the holding company. They read their trade publications and pick up on stuff like "Web 2.0" and "Service-oriented architecture" to use during meetings and coctail parties without really knowing what they mean.

    Reinstall

We already know that they’re not paid to know this stuff. You are. And in the end (all together now): "They just want the s*** to work!"

Right now that’s exactly what you want. Nothing more, nothing less. You would trade all the fancy smoke and mirrors of "Web Collaboration", "Podcasting" and "Social Networking" for some good ol’ solid filesharing…

Yes, I hear you screaming "ITS PRE-RELEASE BETA SOFTWARE!!!" and I agree, we signed on for this. Not for girls, money, fame, power or drugs – and not even industry respect… We signed on because we get the Apple gestalt – lucid, elegant and yet powerful. A dichotomy of IKEA-like simplicity with the power of a stage-one booster rocket.

    Connection failure

Just like any successful NASA Space Shuttle launch, there are a myriad of aborted launches, red-light warnings and close-calls that preceded it, right? Your organic vegan rice-pasta, soy-cheese lasagna didn’t come out right the first time, did it?

This seems somewhere in the middle betweeen rocket science and kitchen alchemy – and what we want now, more than anything in the world, including world peace, the end of global warming and eternal life is for the s*** to just f****** work.

It looks like a new Mobile Safari browser is on the way. (thanks Bob)

Imitation = the most sincere form of flattery?   New specs are coming out on the Blackberry 9000 below..

BGR Says specs are:

• Everything we reported was true. 624MHz processor, 480×320 screen, GPS, Wi-Fi, 3G, etc.
• The web browser flies. "Loads web pages in 3-4 seconds."
• The BlackBerry 9000 in its current state runs OS 4.5
• Early launch date was slated for a consumer AT&T launch on June 18th (3G iPhone?!). Remember that we predicted the device was delayed. See below.
• The battery lasts around 4 hours with straight phone calling. "Battery sucks, to be honest. With Wi-Fi on, I only got a little less than two hours browsing the web," and all testers are reporting huge battery issues which could be why we’re all hearing it is delayed.
• We’re not sure of the next part, but he said that the device either has 256MB of internal memory or 128MB. Don’t ask why we couldn’t tell the difference.

Sony is probably the biggest perpetrator of loading up their brand new laptops with crapware (stuff like 30-day trials of services that almost no one would ever want – like AOL).  Most Sony laptop owners we know just install a fresh OS on their machines the first time they use them rather than try to uninstall the litany of the crapware individually.  Well, if you are in the market for a Sony laptop, your initial experience with your great Sony hardware could be getting slightly better.

Engadget is reporting that Sony is offering to ship you a machine without putting crapware on it for $50.  So Sony is acknowledging their users might want a better experience out of the box…but then charging for the option.  Sony isn’t really putting a shine on their brand with this new ‘Fresh Start’ initiative are they?

As Mac users who are used to pristine machines out of the box, we can appreciate the "fresh start" but being charged for it leaves the bad taste in our mouths.  Is it really worth the $50 Sony?  To give your customers a nice clean computer that isn’t polluted with applications that give your users a three hour of uninstalations tax?

Update: According to C|Net, Sony caved into our pressure and removed the $50 fee to rmove the crapwarz.  Rest of the industry?  Are you listening?

As an IT Administrator that is happily "exchanging" my headache of Active Directory/ Exchange server knowledge in for a company that wants to move to Google Apps, I am surprised that Apple has forgot its best buddy, Google – at least for the time being. 

The SDK announcement yesterday included no reference to Google Apps working on the iPhone.  While I’ve been using IMAP to check my Google Apps Email for awhile now (at push-like 1 minute intervals), it is a bit of a pain to connect to the Calendar and Addressbook through the EDGE web interface.  I would much prefer to use the native apps like Exchange now can.  I also know that I can sync my desktop Calendar and Addressbook.app to Google Apps and sync it periodically with the iPhone…but this isn’t really how I’d like to work (well since 1998) – and the point of the iPhone’s Internet connectivity is to be able to receive updates in real time. 

The iPhone doesn’t even support Leopard Server’s iCalendar or LDAP Addressbook.  This has to change – post haste.  It would be really surprising if Apple neglected the standards-compliant Google Apps in favor of Exchange.  Will we see an update soon?  I hope so!  Right?

Today’s iPhone software development kit (SDK) announcement by Apple Inc. — long anticipated and long overdue — is big news for iPhone (and iPod Touch) users. Sure, there’s a hitch: Just like last year, when Apple unveiled the iPhone in January then made would-be buyers wait six months to get their hands on it, everyone will have to wait until June for all the promised applications and advances to arrive.

But it will be well worth the wait.

When the one-year anniversary of iPhone 1.0 rolls around this summer, iPhone fans will get what is essentially version 2.0 of their favorite smartphone. The added features and apps expected then — some of which were showcased by Apple today — will transform the iPhone far beyond what it has been so far.

Hey – Computerworld nicked this (ha) continue reading from there.

Changewave’s latest report gives some very interesting numbers for the iPhone in the business market:

1. Apple is the number two manufacturer in the planned purchases category (ahead of Nokia (this must be US-centric), Palm, Samsung and Motorola) and already has 5% of the business market. 
2. Apple leads (59%) the very satisfied category in their survey by double digit numbers and kills Palm and Windows Mobile devices (10-30% very satisfied).
3. While RIM currently is the market leader by huge numbers, its recent outages and declining satisfaction ratings are leaving a big question mark in the business landscape – one that Apple is hoping to exploit.

All of this makes the March 6th event, which promises some enterprise announcements, all that more exciting for Apple and its (future?) customers.

AnandTech has taken a close look at the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros both inside and outside.  Their conclusion?  Not much to talk about.  The internals are almost exactly the same.  Same motherboards, same hardware save for new video chips and trackpad on the MacBook Pros and Penryns and RAM/HD configurations on both.

Alltogether kind of a small update from Apple.  In fact, the MacBook Pros haven’t been touched much over the past two years.  We expect much more from Apple at the WWDC 2008.  Perhaps even a *gasp* redesign. 

Table recreated below…

Apple today released information on the SDK event which was originally scheduled for February 26th. As predicted, the event will largely cover enterprise topics like Exchange and Lotus Notes synching.

We’ll also see some 3rd party goodness.  Our wishlist:

• Skype/SIP VoIP (fring?)
• Sling Client
• Some games durnit
• iChat (wtf)
• Emulators?  Apple II whynot?
• Official VNC Client
• etc etc etc

Finally!

Along with today’s server hardware announcement, Apple today also released XSAN 2, a totally revamped version of its high-performance shared disk file system for Mac OS X.

Xsan is an Apple branded version of Quantum’s StorNext File System software with minor enhancements designed for Apple’s Mac OS X operating system. Xsan enables the sharing of one or more Xserve RAID devices with multiple Xserve or Macintosh systems. Xsan will also work with third party fibre channel storage devices with limited support from Apple. With the Xsan file system installed, these computers can read and write to the same storage volume at the same time. Xsan is a complete storage area network (SAN) solution which includes the metadata controller software, the file system client software, and integrated setup, management and monitoring tools.

Apple’s press release..

Apple Introduces Xsan 2

CUPERTINO, California—February 19, 2008—Apple® today introduced Xsan® 2, the first major upgrade to its easy to use, high performance, enterprise class Storage Area Network (SAN) file system for Mac OS® X. Combining enhanced performance with Apple’s legendary ease of use, Xsan 2 makes it easier for first time users to set up and quickly deploy a SAN; introduces MultiSAN, allowing users on a single workstation to access multiple SANs at the same time; is fully integrated with Mac OS X Leopard™ and Mac OS X Server Leopard and is now qualified to work with third-party RAID storage.

Administration tools have been completely redesigned in Xsan 2, making it easier than ever to set up and manage a SAN file system. Xsan 2 intelligently handles different data types, file sizes and usage scenarios for ideal performance. For example, administrators have the ability to pre-set volume workload settings for optimal streaming of all file types, from very large files, such as uncompressed HD video to small data center files. Xsan 2 includes a new feature, MultiSAN, for users who need to access multiple Xsan volumes from the same workstation or server, such as in newsrooms with separate SAN volumes for production and broadcast.

Xsan 2 is fully integrated with Mac OS X Leopard and takes complete advantage of core Mac OS X features, such as Spotlight™ to search across multiple SAN volumes. Xsan 2 also works seamlessly with Server Assistant in Leopard Server for easy setup and configuration of SAN volumes. Leopard Server features, such as iCal® Server, Mail Server and Podcast Producer, can now integrate with Xsan 2 to support clustered file systems, improving performance and scalability and reducing the impact of a service outage from the loss of any one server.

For the first time, Xsan 2 has been qualified with third-party RAID storage hardware. Along with Apple’s Xserve® RAID, Xsan 2 supports third-party RAID solutions from Promise Technology in configurations tuned and optimized for Xsan, Mac OS X Server and Apple’s professional applications.

Pricing & Availability
Xsan 2 is available immediately through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com) and through Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $999 (US) per node.

Apple has qualified Xsan 2 with Xserve, Mac® Pro and Apple Fibre Channel PCI-X cards. Xsan 2 requires Mac OS X version 10.5 or Mac OS X Server version 10.5 software installed and will support qualified Fibre Channel switches from vendors such as Brocade, QLogic and Cisco, and RAID storage hardware including Xserve RAID and Promise VTrak E-Class RAID subsystems.