Mac OS X

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghdTqnYnFyg]

Among other interesting tidbits on Steve Jobs, technology investment pioneer Ben Rosen reveals that the new Apple CEO invited the then Compaq Chairman and CEO to Silicon Valley in 1999 to inquire about licensing Mac OS X:

After we finished with the amenities and reminiscences, we got to the purpose of the meeting. Steve wanted Compaq to offer the Apple operating system on its PC line, adding to the Microsoft OS that had always been our sole OS. At the time, Compaq was the world’s largest manufacturer of PCs. Our adopting the Apple OS would be seen as a feather in Apple’s cap (and a pretty visible slap at Microsoft). The catching up with Steve was fun, the food was great, but the OS idea never gained traction. Upon further analysis, it didn’t make sense for either Compaq or Apple. Compaq wasn’t about to declare war on Microsoft, our partner from our birth in 1982, and Steve had second thoughts about licensing their crown jewels.

What’s interesting here is this is a year after the introduction of the iMac and more than a year after Jobs had terminated Mac Clone licensing deals with Power Computing, Motorola and others. This was something else entirely.

This is also around the time OS X was being tested (the server version which was a NeXT port was released that same year). From the Intel transition announcement (4:40 above) we know Apple always had an Intel version of the Mac OS X being built alongside the PowerPC version (codenamed Marklar) but it now appears that Apple was seriously considering licensing the Intel version alongside the PowerPC version when the Mac OS X client was released way back at the turn of the decade.

Imagine an alternative universe where Compaq Macs competed with Apple’s Macs through the last decade. Weird.

Also, Rosen has a warm email contact with Steve Jobs where he reveals that though he was a Compaq CEO and Chariman for 20 years, he’s back to using a Mac as of 2007, below:

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Since Apple and Intel’s joint announcement of the Thunderbolt high-speed I/O technology, one of the most anticipated products to make use of the technology has been the Thunderbolt-compatible Little Big Disk from LaCie. The drive – which comes in both HDD and SSD flavors – was announced all the way back in February for a “summer” launch, and is now finally arriving at Apple Stores in both the United States and internationally. LaCie’s description of Thunderbolt and why it is important for a product like the Little Big Disk:

This new high-speed cable technology connects computers and electronic devices together like never before. Thunderbolt technology supports two 10Gb/s bi-directional channels from a single port, the fastest data connection available on a personal computer. At 10Gb/s, a full-length HD movie can be transferred in less than 30 seconds.

Since the drive carries two ports, it can be daisy chained. The drives have already arrived at Apple Stores, which suggest immediate availability, and we are expecting an official announcement from LaCie in the coming days. The hard disk drive variant with 1TB of storage will reportedly cost $399.

Update: here they are.

Apple also announced Thunderbolt updates, another firmware update and a software update for Snow Leopard…

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Apple has just seeded Mac OS X 10.7.2 Build 11C57 for iCloud testers. The 790MB Combo Update comes less than a week after the previous Seed, 11C55.

There are no known issues and the focus areas include:

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VMware Fusion was upgraded to version 4 today with “over 90 new features” and low introductory $49.99 price. That follows the release two weeks ago of main competitor Parallels with many of the same Lion and speed improvements but heftier $79.99 price tag.

VMware touts three major areas of improvement:

Apple has seeded OS X Lion 10.7.2 build 11C55 to developers today, and it is the first OS X Lion 10.7.2 build to include iCloud for Mac built-in. Previously, developers had to download a separate iCloud for Mac package.

OS X Lion Software Update 10.7.2 is an update to OS X Lion 10.7 and includes support for iCloud beta. Please refer to the seed note for more details and installation instructions. (Mac Developer Program membership is required)

OS X Lion 10.7.2 includes the ability for users to easily enable iCloud Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Find my Mac on their computers. The software release will most likely ship alongside iCloud sometime this fall. Apple’s iCloud service is seemingly almost ready to launch with both Apple and carriers (for the iOS 5 integration) already being trained on the matter.

Let us know if you find anything; tips@9to5mac.com. Thanks Nicholas!

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We’ve received multiple complaints from readers that Apple isn’t honoring customers who purchased their Macs at Amazon as part of their Lion Up to Date program. Purchases were to have been made on or after July 21st 2011 and it stipulates that they include refurbished or new computers bought at an Apple Authorized Reseller. The above was sent to a customer who bought directly through Amazon on July 31th. Here’s another. We imagine this is a clerical error on Apple’s part.

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The update addresses a few issues including the Wifi issues we’ve been hearing much about.  It also appears to incorporate the recent Migration Assistant update.  It is available via Software Update and weighs in at a paltry 17.4MB on our rig.

The 10.7.1 update is recommended for all users running OS X Lion and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability and compatibility of your Mac, including fixes that:

– Address an issue that may cause the system to become unresponsive when playing a video in Safari
– Resolve an issue that may cause system audio to stop working when using HDMI or optical audio out
– Improve the reliability of Wi-Fi connections
– Resolve an issue that prevents transfer of your data, settings, and compatible applications to a new Mac running OS X Lion

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4764.

The Mac App store still lists Lion at 10.7 so it isn’t clear if new updaters will always have to do additional updates.  We’re also left wondering if this update fixes the “video performance after a sleep” that new Lion Mac users have been reporting.

Update: Interesting there is a direct link (here) for New Mac Mini and MacBook Air users (68MB) which updates a few more issues (below):

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghdTqnYnFyg&start=120]

(Substitute PowerPC for Intel and Intel for ARM)

There are a lot of people who think Apple is going to eventually move its “Mac” line to iOS. In fact we found it curious when Apple turned ‘MacOSX’ to ‘OSX’ as of Lion earlier this year.

Steve Jobs and Apple in general are very sensitive to CPU power issues with their push to make high end devices thinner.

As part of the WSJ article on Intel spending $300 million on developing MacBook Air alternatives (a hint in itself – why does Intel need to create competition for its own Air), it was revealed that Apple was threatening to leave Intel’s ‘low power’ processors if they didn’t drastically cut power.

Welch said Apple informed Intel that it better drastically slash its power consumption or would likely lose Apple’s business. “It was a real wake-up call to us,” he said.

What are the alternative processors for the MacBook Air? AMD? Not likely (though not impossible).

The big alternative is a platform switch to ARM which certainly schools the Atom Chip in terms of power consumption. It would also mess with a lot of non-App Store Apps built on legacy code.

But, you know Apple would love to create a cheaper, thinner, more power efficient iAir type of hybrid device that still operated like a laptop. In fact, Lion seems to already be heading in that direction.

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A little tip for you weekend Lion users:

Launchpad feeling a little cluttered? Launchpad Control is a free application on OS X that will assist you in cleaning out the unnecessary apps in your Launchpad. The app is pretty simple in that you just check off which apps you don’t want to see . via LifeHacker

Download here.
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This is kinda interesting.  Apple today released a seed of OSX 10.7.2 to developers.   It is part of the iCloud download area.

What happened to 10.7.1?  Probably a bugfix update due in the next week or so.

We’ll let you know what comes up in 10.7.2 but there’s a general feeling that this is where iCloud comes in.

via BGR

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In addition to Lion now being available at the App Store (had you heard?) and some new Mac Hardware, today you can also download OSX Lion Server from the App Store for an additional $49.99.  Full description below…

Interestingly, Xcode has disappeared and isn’t even available by search.  We’ll likely see an update to that in the semi-near future.

Update (Noon EST): Xcode is back (free).

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We’re big fans of BBEdit over here (and its free counterpart TextWrangler) so today’s update is exciting news. I built 9to5mac a few years ago using BBEdit (on Drupal!) and the software has just gotten better and better (though 9to5mac has since been ported to WordPress.com).

How much is updated today?  Just have a look at the release notes if you’ve got some time to kill.

It isn’t upgraded in the App Store just yet but Bare Bones says that any BBEdit purchase since the App Store opened will get a free upgrade.  Get it here until October 20, 2011 for $40.  Full info below:

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From 9to5toys:

Today only, MacUpdate offers downloads of Yellow Mug Software’s EasyBatchPhoto 3 for Mac for $12. That’s $12 off and the lowest price we could find for this batch photo compression, resizing, and conversion software. Click here for more information.
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For those wondering when Apple’s in-house apps will go 64-bit, we have some good news and some bad news. In Lion, the developer release of iTunes 10.5 is 64-Bit (finally). The developer version of iPhoto with Photostreaming to the iCloud however, is still 32-Bit, at least currently.

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Image credit: Engadget

Apple has kicked off its highly anticipated San Francisco developer conference with a Stevenote. As we’re  learning more about iOS 5, Lion and iCloud and fastening our seatbelt for a possible “one more thing”, other details emerge as Jobs & Co. provide us with some updates related to Apple’s business metrics. Here are your key takeaways…

• three quarters of all Macs shipped today are notebooks
• the Mac App Store has become the #1 place where users get their Mac apps over the past six motnhs
• Apple sold 200 million iOS devices to date, which includes iPhones, iPod touches, iPads and Apple TVs
• 14 billion app downloads so far2

As Steve Jobs and other Apple executives reveal more product news, we’ll report them in our complete WWDC 2011 coverage. You may also want to follow us @9to5mac for the latest from the keynote.

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Apple looks like it is tightening its grip on the “App” and “Mac” naming rights area.  Last month, it forced App4mac to change its name.  Sure Apple is now in the Mac Apps game but the company in question is six years old and named itself App4Mac two years before iOS turned Applications into apps.  Patrice Calligaris, CEO writes to tell us:

On May 6, we received this letter from Apple lawyers. On June 1st, our company become adnX.com.  Before we were app4mac.com during six years and it has never been a problem.

We complied only for the first case as other two cases are silly. We fixed the graphics that they did not like.

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Apple has announced in a new support document that an update to Mac OS X will be issued in “the coming days” to find and squash malware. This malware comes through supposed anti-virus software that is actually built to steal private information like credit card numbers.

In the coming days, Apple will deliver a Mac OS X software update that will automatically find and remove Mac Defender malware and its known variants.  The update will also help protect users by providing an explicit warning if they download this malware.

In the meantime, Apple is now offering a manual resolution for users who wish to remove and find malware as soon as possible. The solution is pasted after the break. This upcoming software update may be a simple security patch or may even be a part of Mac OS X 10.6.8, which Apple has already seeded twice to developers.

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An unknown portion of the latest MacBook Pros with Sandy Bridge processors and high-speed Thunderbolt connection appears to be affected by an issue where the computer has trouble maintaining connection with iOS devices, even with the latest iTunes 10.2.1 installed. And if more than 215 posts in a thread on Apple’s Discussion forums are an indication, numerous 2011 MacBook Pros are plagued with this issue.

From what we’ve hearing, it’s a software issue easily patched with an upcoming software update (10.6.7). Here’s what the affected owners are saying.

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CUPERTINO, California—January 7, 2011—Apple today announced that over one million apps have been downloaded from the Mac App Store in the first day. With more than 1,000 free and paid apps, the Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to the Mac, so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes account, download and install them in just one step.

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There’s been an unconscionable gap in time since the last time anyone mentioned the Mac App Store might build the market for Mac software, so here’s an early sighting — this Tweet from Evernote (fab app) which tells us, well, it suggests some (ahem) strong early interest in buying from the store.

On price, then ponder the words of respected Mac developer, Rich Siegel, founder and CEO of Bare Bones Software, Inc, (they make BBEdit, TextWrangler, and my essential friend, Yojimbo) who told me today:
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Apple has confounded industry watchers who expected the rumored noon launch time and the Mac App Store is available immediately, with over 1,000 apps available to download. Fire up Software Update and go grab it, people…(and read this while you wait). Update: No iWork 11, but you can get the individual apps and Aperture here. Press Release after the break.
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