Snow Leopard

From 9to5Toys.com:

The Spring 2012 Mac SuperBundle is one of the better Mac Software bundles we’ve seen.  If you want to burn DVDs or even Blu-rays on your Mac, you are getting Toast Titanium 11 for half its $99 list price and get 9 other solid apps to boot.

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The Spring 2012 Mac SuperBundle includes:
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VMware, the maker of a popular virtualization software Fusion, seems to be backpedalling on the last week’s release of VMware Fusion 4.1 for the Mac. As originally noted by Macworld, Fusion 4.1 was released with support for virtualization of Lion, Snow Leopard and Leopard clients. A dialog box pops up when installing an operating system client in Fusion 4.1, asking user to “verify” that they are in compliance with their software’s licensing terms.

In essence, this removes VMware from the position of having to evaluate and enforce Apple’s operating-system license, and instead leaves the decision in the hands of users.

In a new blog post today, VMware hinted an upcoming update will “fix” their “mistake”.

When the license verification step was added in VMware Fusion 4.1 the server edition check was omitted. We are preparing an update. […] Users should always ensure they remain in compliance with any applicable software license agreements.

Of course, per Apple’s EULA only server software is supposed to be virtualized and the above wording pretty much spells doom for Snow Leopard or Leopard client virtualization in the next Fusion release. At the end of the day, VMware is fixing Fusion the same way people fix their dogs. What is Apple’s official stance on this issue?

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If, for some reason, you don’t want to run Lion on your new Mac Mini, it appears that using a clone of a recent MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard will boot and operate the Mac Mini.  MacBidoulle cautions the Ethernet hasn’t been properly tested and the new Radeon Video cards in the high end model may need some hacking to get 3D working.
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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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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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[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8DTFdw7Q7Qe”]

Lifehacker has conducted a series of tests to see which is faster: Lion or Snow Leopard. As you can see in the video above, the two operating systems do about the same in almost every category tested, but Snow Leopard weasels out the win almost every time. To be fair, most categories were won by a very small margin. Lifehacker summarizes:

Boot	1:32	1:25
Compress a ~900MB File	0:51	0:59
Decompress a ~900MB File	0:10	0:09
Duplicate a ~900MB File	0:09	0:09
Encoder a Movie for iPhone in Quicktime X	0:56	0:53
Launch 9 Applications	0:59	0:37
Open 10 Tabs in Safari	0:15	0:17
Total Time	4:43+	4:29

Snow Leopard was built for speed and Lion was built to add functionality. It’s great to see Lion isn’t exactly slipping away on the speed end of things. How’s the speed on your end?

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We’ve heard from a few overseas sources that Apple Retail stores are planning ‘overnights’ on July 13th.  Overnights are generally where Apple refreshes store displays and trains up management on new products.  Sometimes it is big stuff and sometimes it is insignificant (at least to us).

July 13th, however, lines up with our Lion release date pretty nicely.  We’re expecting the Lion release obviously, and also some new MacBook Airs which may or may not have faster storage (but not this fast), a Sandy Bridge CPU, HD Facetime cam and Thunderbolts coming out the side.

We’ve heard some stories of backlit keyboards, 3Gs, a black option and the mythical 15-inch MacBook Air HD but they seem unlikely at this point.

Along with the Airs, there have been shortages of the White MacBooks, Mac Minis and (perhaps redesigned) Pros  — everything that doesn’t currently have Thunderbolt — so those could also see updates.  If not on the 14th, then perhaps shortly after.

In fact, MacBook Pros and iMacs with Snow Leopard pre-installed have also seen some hiccups in inventory globally so we’re thinking Apple is going to re-package those items for Lion at some point in the next few months.  Probably sooner rather than later.

Just one question?  Anyone camping out?

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We’re getting tips from our retail friends in the South Pacific that Snow Leopard boxes are running short and the channel inventory is drying up.  Apple resellers are literally unable to ge their hands on stock of Snow Leopard boxes.

Even Apple’s website is showing a week’s wait in both Australia and New Zealand.  These types of sporadic delays, which are frequently temporary, are usually an indication that the supply channel is changing and the boxes are no longer being made.

Obviously, this could point to an upcoming Lion release as early as next month at Apple’s WWDC, if not sooner.  The latest build, Lion Preview 3,  has been largely stable and there have been signs that Apple could even demonstrate Lion in Apple Stores next week as part of their Apple Store 2.0 initiative.

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