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MacBook Pro Core i7 caught GeekBenching itself

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If you were excited about the prospect of Core i5 MacBook Pros, which Intel briefly offered up in a contest last month, you are going to be pretty stoked about today’s news from MacRumors.

Their forum members found a GeekBench scoring done yesterday by a Core-i7  M620 MacBook Pro which is running an unreleased version of Mac OS 10.6.2 (Build 10C3067) and Bios MBP61.88Z.004C.B00.1001251657.

Current generation MacBook Pros score in the 3700-4000 range on the GeekBench score meaning that this particular laptop is a screamer. 

We’re hoping we don’t have to remind anyone here to hold off on buying a new MacBook Pro for the foreseeable future as it seems an update is imminent, with Macrumors even saying that International supplies of MacBook Pros have been dwindling.

We should note that it isn’t impossible to fake the specs of a MacBook to Geekbench.

Skype talks iPad and VoIP over 3G

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Interesting. Skype today posted a video regarding updating the application to enable it to work over 3G.  This, shall we say, “flies in the face” of what they said a few weeks back when they blamed Apple for not allowing them to do VoIP over 3G.  Here’s Skype’s Peter Parkas:

Many of you have also been asking when we’ll release a version which allows you to make calls over 3G – the holy grail of Skype on the mobile, if you like. We’ve had a 3G-capable version ready for some time now, but Apple’s current restrictions mean that they won’t allow us to make it available on the App Store for the moment

Apple enabled VoIP over 3G over a week ago and VoIP application providers like Fring had Skype’s service working over 3G almost immediately.  Skype is still delaying their service and says it will be available “soon”.  But there is some good news: For the latest iPod touch and iPhone users (with faster ARM processors) Skype is enabling the SILK audio codec which allows CD-quality sound to be used on Skype-to-Skype calls.  We’ve made some SILK calls and the quality is night and day from normal calls.  This will work from iPhone3GS to iPhone3GS over 3G

Nehalem Mac Pros take 20% performance hit when playing audio?

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You hardcore Mac workstation users might want to cut the music when it’s time to start rendering your big projects if the latest Ars tale is to be believed.   According to the story, Mac Pros exhibit a strange behavior when using iTunes, Quicktime or keeping USB audio interfaces plugged in:

The problem manifests as what has been described as excessive increases in power use and processor core heat when playing songs in iTunes, watching videos via Quicktime, or even when keeping USB or FireWire-based audio interfaces plugged in and active. While hardware monitors only report a small percentage of processor use, it can still cause performance decreases of up to 20 percent for other tasks.

The problem only affects all 2009 Nehalem-based Mac Pros. Strangely, booting affected Mac Pros into Windows 7 also eliminates the problems, leading one user to suspect the issue is related to power management kernel extensions.

A young hacker involved in the hackintosh scene believes the problem is related to the driver that controls newer features of the Nehalem Xeons, including SpeedStep and Turbo Boost. He generated a hacked power management kernel extension that disabled these features, which eliminated the high heat and power draw issues while playing audio. With SpeedStep disabled, however, the CPU drew more power at idle.

It might be best to wait for Apple to release a software update patch for this one, however.  In the meantime, listen to your iPod.

Audio archeology for Apple users

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A quiet weekend on the Apple news front saw an unusual report explaining where iPod and iPhone users can find rich sources of historically interesting music online.

The report offers a whistle stop tour of some of the websites which make digitised versions of 78rpm and cylinder recordings available to download – and these are free and legal as the recordings are out of copyright.

Of course, you may be on the hunt for more modern music, and for that why not take a look at Amazon

Hate Flash on YouTube? Google now lets you see video in HTML 5

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Google/Toutube last night released an opt-in option of the Youtube.com site that plays videos by default in HTML5 instead of Flash.  The opt-in only works at Youtube.com, not on embedded Youtube videos.  Also, Chrome and Safari are the only browsers supported at this time (no Firefox or IE). 

If you want to stay Flash free on embedded Youtubes, you can use ClicktoFlash.  

Adobe can’t be pleased with this.  via DF

Update: Unsurprisingly, commenters report seeing significant CPU usage drops when using HTML5 vs. Flash.

 

Bumptop 3D Desktop organizer demoed

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcbymyM3dWo&w=600&h=385]

Today, Bumptop released its popular and intuitive 3D desktop organizer for Mac. Bumptop allows users to have more customization over their desktop by allowing file thumbnails to be stacked and individual altered in size or location. Bumptop displays the files on your desktop in a cool-looking 3D fashion, while maintaining the speed, and desktop features such as expose intact. Bumptop for Mac is free but a Pro version with support for multi-touch trackpads, and support for quick file searching from the desktop is available for $29.

Tip: Make your iPhone speaker louder with that empty pint glass on your desk

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This isn’t rocket science, but surprisingly, it does work.  Need your iPhone’s speaker to be a little louder?  Drop it into a nice big funnel-top pint glass.  The echo chamber effect will pump a few more decibels out of the iPhone speaker and you can still read what’s on your display as well.  Great for conference calls or sharing music at a quiet pub.

 

via Unplgged via TUAW

TUAW adds the tip of putting your iPhone in a ziplock bag when in messy cooking situations but that felt a bit on the obvious side.

Cool: Your Trackpad becomes your graphic tablet

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KVFmE8la6w&w=560&h=340]

Tenone Design has introduced Inklet, $24.95 software which tranforms your trackpad into a graphic tablet.

Inklet allows your trackpad to emulate a pen tablet. When you’re using a Pogo Sketch, the trackpad even becomes pressure sensitive. It works with the handwriting recognition built into OS X.

It also includes an advanced algorithm to detect unwanted trackpad touches.

We think it seems pretty cool.

Google delivers extensions support for Mac version of Chrome (developer channel)

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3AsjP-UzMA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

Google has introduced support for extensions within the Google Chrome for Mac dev channel edition.

Google Chrome already supports extensions on Windows, while the currently circulating public beta version of Chrome for Mac does not yet support the Chrome extensions. Now, as support has reached developers we speculate it

Apple seeds Mac OS X 10.6.3 Build 10D522 to testers

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Apple has reportedly begun seeding Build 10D522 of Mac OS X 10.6.3 to a limited set of developers, marking the first official beta version of the third maintenance release for Mac OS X Snow Leopard, MacRumors informs.

Apple has addressed approximately 225 issues in the update, which reportedly weighs in at roughly 666 MB. The company is asking developers to focus their efforts on around 90 system components.

Somewhere on the Internet we picked up the seed note which warns of four unresolved known issues:

– Applications may not be updated if they had been moved from the default location.
– Displays Preferences may show duplicate profile entries.
– iTunes may hang when playing a web stream.
– The ColorSync Utility Filters tab may cause unexpected results.

Focus Areas (Changes in 10D522):

Account Preferences
– Fixes an Accounts Preferences issue when there is more than one account.

Address Book
– Fixes an issue with Review Duplicates when updating cards.
– Resolves importing issues with vCards.
– Resolves an issue when resizing cards.
– Resolves finding people with birthdays via an automator action.

Address Book Framework
– Resolves crashes in Mail when using the Address Book Framework.
– Resolves a Mail issue where the wrong name is displayed.

AppKit
– Resolves a copy and paste issue.
– Resolves an NSFileWrapper issue.
– Fixes some AppKit crashes.
– Resolves an autocorrect spelling issue.
– Improvements to spellchecking.
– Resolves some graphics corruption issues when converting a PICT to a TIFF.

AppleWWANSupport
– Resolves some crashes in WWANd.
– Resolves some issues when establishing connections with a WWAN device.

Applescript
– Resolves a crash in Applescript when running in 32-bit mode.
– Resolves an issue with BBEdit recording of scripts.

Apple Software Restore
– Resolves an Apple Software Restore crash.

ATS
– Resolves Font issues after log-out or reboot.

CarbonCore
– Resolves an issue with applications with # or & symbols in its filename.
– Resolves coreservicesd crashes.
– Resolves TextEdit permissions issues.
– Performance improvements with save panels.

CFNetwork
– Addresses compatibility issues with Wiki Server.
– Resolves crashes related to canceling a request in progress.
– Cookie fixes to broken websites.
– Resolves Exchange account authentication issues.

ColorSync
– Resolves a crash when a PDF document uses DeviceRGB.
– Resolves an issue where Displays Pref with Color selected unexpectedly crashes.

configd
– Improvements to USB Ethernet adaptor behavior.

CoreAudio
– Resolves issues with AudioUnit metering.
– Resolves some CoreAudio crashes when opening AUNetSend in 64-bit mode.
– Resolves some crashes in SpectralBandReplication when playing HTTP live stream.

CoreData
– Resolves CoreData model-store mismatch issues.
– Resolves crashes in GarageBand.
– Fixes an issue in MPEG surround handler.

Core Foundation

– Resolves some Photo Booth, iChat, and Safari crashes.

CoreMedia
– Resolves issues with audio streaming.
– Resolves a number of crashes in CoreMedia.
– Resolves some playability issues of movies in Safari.
– Addresses compatibility issues with MTS formatted files.
– Addresses compatibility issues with MPEG4 files with AC3 tracks.
– Resolve export issues to .m4v movies.
– Resolve screen recording issues.
– Fix subtitle rendering issues with figplayL.
– Fixes an H264 decoder issue with video_range bit.
– Resolves an iMove image through built-in iSight stuttering/tearing issue.
– Improvements to CoreMedioIO graph topology.
– Resolves some display resolution and screen recording issues.

CorePDF
– Performance improvements when opening large PDF files in Preview.

CoreText
– Resolves some crashes with iMovie in CoreText.
– Resolves some crashes with PhotoBooth in CoreText.
– Addresses issues with variation font support.

CoreServices, CFNetwork
– Resolves a crash in CoreServicesUIAgent.
– Resolves a Safari issue with SSL certificates.

CoreVideo
– Resolves a crash when creating pixel buffers simultaneously.
– Resolves some crashes in CVPixelBuffer.

CUPS
– Resolves some cupsd crashes.
– Fixes an issue with the “Resume” button when printing.
– Resolves some supply levels crashes.
– Resolves some side-channel request issues.

Date & Time Pref
– Resolves an issue with clock ticking after daylight savings.
DataDetectors
– Resolves some crashes in DataDetectors.

Desktop Services
– Resolves hangs with NSOpenPanel in Desktop Services.
– Resolves a Flash CS4 hang when clicking the “browse” button.
– Resolves some hangs and crashes in Finder and Folder Actions Setup.
– Resolves home folder issues in the Go To window of the open/save panel.
– Resolves last opened folder issues.
– Resolves Spotlight query issues.
– Resolves Time Machine search issues.
– Resolves a copy file issue with error -36.
– Resolves an error -47 issue when user is doing a move replace of a bundle.
– Resolves UI layout issues for language specific settings.

Dictionary Application
– Resolves some crashes when using Dictionary.
– Resolves some Dictionary Panel issues.

Directory Service
– Resolves deadlock issues.

Disk Management
– Resolves some diskutil errors.
– Resolve diskutil unmount issues.

Disk Utility
– Resolves restoring disk image issue with checksum.
– Resolves a crash in Disk Utility with a missing external drive.

Dock
– Resolves momentum scrolling issues.
– Resolves some dock crashes.
– Resolves some Expos

Magic Mouse plays battery power munching tricks – claims

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Bluetooth drivers are munching Apple keyboard batteries when used in conjunction with a Magic Mouse – but a fix is on its way, reports claim. At issue: Mac users employing a Magic Mouse have begun reporting that use of the device has an unexpected side effect, that of drastically reducing the battery life of their accompanying wireless Apple keyboards.

As noted by TUAW, a series of Apple Discussions confirm the problem.

New Year's Resolution? MacSpeech voice recognition for Mac – last day at $149

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MacSpeech - Speech Recognition for the MacJust a reminder:  Today is the last day that you can get MacSpeech software for $149 through our affiliate link.

As MacSpeech affiliates, we can offer MacSpeech applications 25% off of the list price using this link and the coupon code: “9TO5MAC” at checkout.  That puts the regular application at $149 (including free headset), which is the lowest price we could find.

Why not make speech recognition a New Years resolution?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ1N5el819k&w=600&h=385]

Latest Chrome Mac alpha hits devs as beta release looms

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Google has introduced the latest development build of the Mac (and other platforms) version of its Chrome browser.

Last week, Mike Pinkerton, leading the team handling Chrome for Mac promised a beta version of the browser would reach the wider public this month, writing in a Twitter post.

The new dev build ships as Chrome approaches its first official Beta release on the Mac. It isn