Archive for the ‘Apple’ Category
Opera 10 browser is here
September 1st, 2009 | 
Author: The Opera 10 browser is now ready to download for Windows, Linux, and Mac three months after the beta first emerged (hands-on Opera 10 beta review).
If you’ve been keeping up with the beta updates, the final build of the cross-platform browser shouldn’t surprise you. Opera Turbo, the browser’s much-publicized compression engine for slow-poke connections, remains a feature highlight. Opera claims that Opera Turbo runs the browser up to eight times faster on suffering connections than do competing browsers.
The refreshed user interface is also noteworthy. Joining the new default skin (changed from version 9.6), are changes to tab bar behavior. The conventional tabs double as thumbnail images. Double-click the thin gray bar below the tabs (indicated by dots) or click and drag to expand open tabs into preview windows that you can navigate by clicking among them.
Other enhancements include an expanded Speed Dial (a feature that has later been adopted and adapted in Google’s Chrome browser) that shows more commonly visited Web pages than in previous Opera browsers. You’re also able to customize it with a background picture. You’ll see that spell check will be applicable to any text field (for 51 languages), and that Opera’s incorporated e-mail client takes a page from Google’s books by threading e-mail conversations.
Developers get access to a newer version of Opera Dragonfly, the publisher’s online development tools, but everyone can benefit from the speedier rendering engine that, according to Opera, makes version 10 up to 40 percent faster than version 9.6–before switching on Turbo’s compression.
Despite all the additions that Opera hopes will keep Opera 10 competitive, there are still two notable omissions for this final release. The first is Opera Unite, which uses your browser as a Web server for sharing your content with others. The second is the Carakan JavaScript engine that promises to process JavaScript about 2.5 times as fast as the engine used in Opera 10 alpha.
http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10320478-12.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Mac OS Snow Leopard: Great news for Windows 7, too
OS X 10.6 includes Boot Camp 3.0, a new collection of software drivers that make Windows run much better on Mac hardware.
(Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET)
Every time I see the “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” ads on TV, I can’t help but wonder, “Why not both?” And it has never been a better time for that.
It’s been a three weeks since I first got my hands on Apple’s new Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. (If anything, this means lots of hard work benchmark testing the product while trying to keep my mouth shut about it till now, which was even harder.)
Overall, personally, I found that while the new Mac OS doesn’t warrant a “wow,” it’s still definitely worth the $29 upgrade price.Mac users can read more about Snow Leopard in my colleague Jason Parker’s full review. On the other hand, for Windows users, especially Windows 7, the release of Snow Leopard is straight-on great news.
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http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10315168-1.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Apple’s new OS geared for multicore future
Apple began shipping Snow Leopard on Friday, but the true importance of the Mac OS X update likely will emerge well afterward.
That’s because Mac OS X 10.6 begins a longer-term Apple attempt to get ahead by cracking a problem facing the entire computer industry: squeezing useful work out of modern processors. Instead of stuffing Snow Leopard with immediately obvious new features, Apple is trying to adjust to the new reality in which processors can do many jobs simultaneously rather than one job fast.
“We’re trying to set a foundation for the future,” said Wiley Hodges, director of Mac OS X marketing.
Apple shed some light on its project, called Grand Central Dispatch at its Worldwide Developer Conference in June, but most real detail was shared only in with programmers sworn to secrecy. Now the company has begun talking more publicly about it and other deeper projects to take advantage of graphics chips and Intel’s 64-bit processors.
The moves align Apple better with changes in computing. For years, chipmakers such as Intel and Advanced Micro Devices had steadily increased the clock rate of their processors, and programmers got accustomed to a performance boost with each new generation. But earlier this decade, problems derailed the gigahertz train.
First, chips often ended up merely twiddling their thumbs more because slower memory couldn’t keep the chip fed with data. Worse, the chips required extraordinary amounts of power and produced corresponding amounts of hard-to-handle waste heat.
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http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-10319839-264.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Posted in Apple, Mac, OS X, Snow Leopard, software | 
Tags: Apple, Mac, OS X, Snow Leopard | 
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64-bit Snow Leopard defaults to 32-bit kernel
Apple’s Snow Leopard operating system, released Friday, by default loads with a 32-bit kernel, despite running 64-bit applications.
While Mac OS X version 10.6 ships with a number of 64-bit native applications, the kernel itself defaults to 32-bit, unless the user holds down the “6” and “4” keys during boot time, at which point the 64-bit kernel is loaded. Only Apple’s X-Serve products, using Snow Leopard Server, boot into a 64-bit kernel by default.
“For the most part, everything that they experience on the Mac, from the 64-bit point of view, the applications, the operating system, is all going to be 64-bit,” Stuart Harris, software product marketing manager at Apple Australia said.
Harris said that at this stage there were very few things, such as device drivers, that required 64-bit mode at the kernel level but the option is available.
“But we’re trying to make it as smooth as possible, so people don’t end up finding that ‘oh, that doesn’t work’ because it’s not available yet,” he said.
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http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10320314-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Rumor: Apple planning new iPods with cameras
Apple’s expected September event may see the introduction of new iPod models, according to a report on AppleInsider.
(Credit: Apple)The fact that Apple would use a September event to launch new iPods wouldn’t be a big surprise, but the new iPod Nano and iPod Touch will reportedly have cameras. AppleInsider didn’t cite sources for this detail but said it “has it on authority” and that it has been able to “independently confirm” the information.
The addition of cameras would increase the functionality of iPods, making them dual-purpose devices.
AppleInsider, Boy Genius Report, and other rumor sites have also speculated that iTunes 9 will debut in September and add social networking to the music organizer, among other changes.
A new digital album format will likely debut in September, as well. Code-named Cocktail, Apple’s new album format is said to include photos, lyric sheets, liner notes, and clips from music videos.
It also seems clear at this point is that an Apple tablet will not make its debut during the September event.
Apple hasn’t officially announced the event yet, though it is expected to take place after Labor Day weekend. For the past several years, the company has gathered in September to launch its newest iPod products for the holiday-shopping season.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10319162-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
