Monday June 11, 2007
- Leopard hidden gems - moose - 22:41:15
Steve showed us a lot during the keynote, but the new redesigned Apple website holds some hidden gems. We dug in the unified web deliciousness of apple.com and brought back these jewels:
Finder:
1) Screen sharing: remote control of another mac, right from the Finder.
"By clicking on a connected Mac, you can see and control that computer (if authorized, of course) as if you were sitting in front of it. "
2) Fine control over file and computer sharing: setting on a per user and per folder basis. Screen sharing, Remote login, Remote Management.
3) Advanced Search in Spotlight:
"From the Finder or the menu bar, Spotlight in Leopard lets you search for more specific sets of things. Use Boolean logic to narrow search results by entering “and,” “or,” or “not” into a search request. You can also search for exact phrases (using quotation marks), dates, ranges (using greater than [>] and less than [<] symbols), absolute dates, and simple calculations."
Time Machine : encryption.
"Encrypt backup data. Turn on encryption to store your backup securely."
Boot Camp: easier reboots.
"Leopard brings a quicker way to switch between Mac OS X and Windows: Just choose the new Apple menu item “Restart in Windows.” Your Mac goes into “safe sleep” so that when you return, you’ll be right where you were. It’s much faster than restarting the computer each time. Likewise, a “Restart in Mac OS X” menu item in the Boot Camp System Tray in Windows makes for a faster return to Mac OS X. With Windows hibernation enabled, you can pick up where you left off."
Security: application sandboxing.
"Sandboxing helps ensure that applications do only what they’re intended to by restricting which files they can access, whether they can talk to the network, and whether they can be used to launch other applications. Helper applications in Leopard — including the network time daemon and the Spotlight indexer — are sandboxed to guard against attackers."
.Mac: on top of a welcome overhaul in the perfs of .Mac, cf the "Back to my Mac" feature, .Mac offers dashboard widgets synching.
Safari: text field resizing
"Safari lets you resize text fields on any website, just by grabbing the corner of the field. Resize a field and the web page reflows to make room."
- Apple.com: A New Design - Valentin - 22:23:18
Apple has taken advantage of the WWDC and the in-depth presentation of Leopard to refresh the design of its website.
The aqua-style tab bar is gone and replaced by another tab bar featuring a Leopard-Style version. The US Apple Store has also been updated to this new presentation. Local Apple Stores worldwide will mostly be updated during the day/night.
You should have a look at the new Apple.com and of course the Leopard-dedicated section.
[translation by Linathael]
- Safari 3 Beta Public Available - Yoc - 22:16:26
Safari 3 beta is immediately available for download from Apple website. As announced, the Apple-branded web browser is available for mac and PC (XP and Vista).
Among new features:
- Significant increase of speed and performance: Apple claims to have the fastest web browser, twice faster than IE 7 on PC.
- tab browsing revisited: one can drag and drop the tab bar, and even drag the tab away from the window to open it independently in a new window.
- keyword search function revisited too: Apple started from the interface designed in Firefox to developed it further.
- Private browsing: a new function for browsing the website as an anonymous user, preventing the automatic recording of history (including google search and visited webpage).
With Safari 3, Apple seems to have taken up the best features from all available browsers to merge them in a new version of its browser. There is nothing really ground-breaking, it simply looks more intuitive, appealing, and user-friendly. The future will tell us if Windows users will adopt it too.
[translation by Linathael]
- Keynote Summary - Eric - 20:59:55
The keynote is now over, and before providing a more in depth analysis we would like to provide a brief summary of Steve's presentation (keynote coverage available here):
The main topic was of course Leopard and Steve presented 10 features:
- a new finder
- new presentation
- new menu bar
- new dock
- stacks, even in docks to clean up desktop
- homogenous display
- prominent active windows
- new side bar
- search other Macs and server
- back to my mac
- Cover Flow
To quickly scroll through documents or cycle through the pages of a PDF
- Quick Look
something similar to a feature already available in LotusNotes, but pushed to its limits. It let you instantly preview files without opening applications. It works with most popular filetypes (text, image, video, word, excel etc.). Plug-in modules are available for developers.
- 64-bit
Leopard is 64-bit from top to bottom, let's hope iApps will become also 64-bit too
- Core animation
Integrate core animation covering audio, image and video;
- Boot Camp
Boot Camp is built-in, but not "integrated", you still need a reboot, so virtualization solutions are still valuable. Apple is very happy with Parallels and VMWare and helping as much as they can. The new built-in Boot Camp will be updated via OSX update, so no needs to burn drivers on CD, or update independently.
- Spaces
Steve demoed multiple desktops using spaces, including core animation, and illustrating how to rearrange applications between spaces with drag and drop, easily defining a game space and a working bench space
- Dashboard
As demoed last year, one can create widget directly from safari, such widgets are dynamic too
- iChat
ichat is compatible with all new features, QuickLook let's you share image, video and documents with connected buddies. PhotoBooth add some special effects.
- Time Machine
Makes it simple to to backup your data.
Then Steve could not resist to talk about iPhone, and especially how third parties will be able to simply develop applications without compromising security; The SDK is simple: tit is based on Safari engine built on Web 2.0 and Ajax.
Then Steve announced Safari 3.0 on Mac.... and PC!! One can immediately speculate that it will allow PC users to use their iPhone and applications developed for it directly on the Safari on their PC.
News/Rumors not mentioned during the keynote:
- default ZDF file system: not a single word about it
- no hardware announcement
We will come back with a more in-depth analysis.
- WWDC 07 Keynote Coverage details - moose - 14:39:45
Not to tease our dear readers, but the Keynote time is approaching fast...
Here are some details of our coverage:
- follow it on this special whizz-bang self-refreshing page: http://events.hardmac.com
- the Keynote (and our coverage) will start at 10am Pacific time, 12pm central time, 1pm eastern time, 5pm GMT, 6pm UK time and 7pm in France... and 1am for our fearless readers in Easter Island.
- we will be gathering bits and pieces from various live coverages, since we do not have a Hardmac correspondant attending the Keynote (even if we do have someone in Frisco going to the WWDC itself).
We'll do our best to bring you the most up-to-date and comprehensive information...
Oh, one more thing...
may your wildest dreams be fulfilled today...
- Intel Improves Current Dual and Quad Core Xeons - Lionel - 13:49:29
In a dedicated tech note, Intel informed its customers of a "Product Change Notification" related to Dual Core (Woodcrest) and Quad Core (Clovertown).
The Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processors X5355, E5345, E5335, E5320, E5310, L5320, L5310 (Clovertown) will convert from B-3 to G-0. The Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® processors 5160, 5150, LV 5148, 5140, 5130, LV 5138, 5120, LV 5128, 5110 (Woodcrest) will convert from B-2 to G-0.The new stepping G0 will improve energy efficiency and enhance virtualization technology. First samples with such improvement will be available on August 17th, while production will already start next week. Such changes should not be noticeable by the end users.
[translation by Linathael]
- 802.11n Airport Card Available from Fastmac - Lionel - 09:51:32
Following our article describing how to upgrade a Mac mini or a MacBook from 802.11g to 802.11n, Apple sent information to Apple Centers to prevent them to deliver Airport 802.11n Airport card to consumers as a retail part.
Initiated by Quickertek, one can now purchase this card from Fastmac. The price is competitive: US$59.99.
Fastmac offers only the card for MacPro, MacBook Pro and iMac, all models having already at least 2 antenna installed. In USA, you can even have Fastmac installing the card in your computer. One will need to get a reliable source of antenna.
You can also order the Dell-branded 802.11n card, as we previously reported about it.
[translation by Linathael]
- Nokia Offers a New Synchronization Utility - Lionel - 09:50:29
A report from Richard:
I simply want to mention the release by Nokia of a beta version for its new synchronization utility. You can sync iTunes and iPhoto and also setup and manage your mobile phone on a Mac.Direct link to the webpage: http://europe.nokia.com/A4423134
After testing it on my MB Pro C2D, the software only supports Nokia NSeries mobile phones, no support for ESeries
The lack of support for ESeries models is probably directly linked to the version of SymbianOS used in those models. The application is currently only available in English. For additional information related to mobile phone and Mac, you can read previous news about this topic (here)
[translation by Linathael]
- Panasonic: Ultra Ultra Slim DVD Burner for SSD Notebook? - Lionel - 09:31:47
When designing a notebook model, manufacturers have to first optimize the size of the motherboard, power consumption, cooling system and of course the size of critical components such as HD and optical drive.
Apple used a Superdrive model of only 9.5mm thickness, instead of the standard 12.5mm, making the MB Pro 15" so thin. This ultra slim optical drive is only available from Panasonic. But, they decided to go even further by releasing a notebook-dedicated DVD burner featuring only 7mm thickness.
Despite its diet program, it can burn DVD at 8x and CD at 16x. The use of such mobile is currently not beneficial in notebook, as 2.5"HD are 9.5mm thick at the most. One can of course have thinner HD with 1.8" models, but then performances are strongly reduced. The only way to be able to maintain performance while having thin storage unit is by adopting SSD (capacity being directly linked to chips density for a define volume). So Panasonic might simply have released the first DVD burner for the SSD-based notebook era.
[translation by Linathael]
- Waiting for WWDC 2007... [UPADTED] - moose - 08:32:40
Dear readers,
today is that day again... where all hopes and expectations are confronted with reality, where joy abunds and disappointment rules.
It's WWDC keynote day!
So, stay tuned to Hardmac for some live coverage of The Steve's speech: we won't be in the room, but we'll try and get you the most up-to-date info as soon as we can.
You'll get your keynote fix on this special page: http://events.hardmac.com.
By the way, the page page will refresh automatically every 30 seconds, so please avoid hitting RELOAD like a maniac.
