iTunes 9’s requirements are a little steeper than its predecessor’s were:
Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5 or G4 processor
It also require OS X 10.4.11 or higher, leaving Panther and G3 owners behind.
Category: General Tech
iPods, Cameras and No Common Sense
Nano Gets Video Camera.
But — contrary to rumors, my own sources, and common sense — the iPod Touch does not.
Interesting to note how the Touch is now billed: “a great iPod, a great pocket computer, a great portable game player”.
The new FM tuner in the Nano has a TiVo-esque live pause feature, and lets you “tag” songs you hear for identification in iTunes when you’re back at your computer.
Threadless Celebrates 09/09/09
Threadless, the awesome t-shirt company, has marked down everything in their catalog to $9 today. Amazing.
Apple TV?
Macworld:
What many have clamored for is the device that has the capabilities of a Mac mini media center, but without the accompanying complications. An Apple TV that plays and digitizes DVDs (and plays Blu-Ray discs), plays and records high-definition TV, streams Web content including Hulu, NetFlix, Rhapsody, Napster, Pandora, and Last.fm; provides access to iTunes libraries local and remote; and allows for rental and purchase from the iTunes Store as well as outlets such as Amazon.com. In short, the one-stop media box.
Need a Commodore 64? There’s An App For That
Manomio’s Commodore 64 emulator [$4.99] has finally been approved by Apple. We first reported on the project back in June, after Manomio had received their first rejection from Apple. The rejection was particularly disappointing considering the efforts that Manomio had made in making sure their emulator fully licensed and legal.
[…]
The $4.99 C64 emulator costs $4.99 and includes 5 games: Dragons Den, Le Mans, Jupiter Lander, Arctic Shipwreck, and Jack Attack. Additional separately sold game packs will be coming soon. With the C64 emulator approved, Manomio is also clear to pursue further licensing deals and they have said they are actively working on adding new titles.
Reporting on a Non-Issue
A developer Friday told AppleInsider the drive on his Mac mini was only used a handful of times before the attempted install of Snow Leopard. After he inserted the installation disc for Mac OS X 10.6, the drive would not mount any other optical discs. Now, he said, the drive will not read or write any CD or DVD.
“Unfortunately, I have not been able to get Apple’s cooperation on resolving this,” the developer said. “For now, I am advising all my Mac clients not to upgrade and I am not guaranteeing that any solution I build will run on Snow Leopard.”
iPhones Overloading AT&T’s Network
“It’s been a challenging year for us,” said John Donovan, the chief technology officer of AT&T. “Overnight we’re seeing a radical shift in how people are using their phones,” he said. “There’s just no parallel for the demand.”
No kidding.
10.6 Using Older Version of Flash
So, lets explain what’s going on here. Imagine you have a Mac. Imagine you have been really diligent about keeping your copy of Adobe Flash up-to-date (Adobe is commonly targeted by the bad guys, and so Adobe has been releasing regular security updates for Flash and PDF Reader)
Now, imagine (like me) you got your copy of Snow Leopard on Friday, and have now updated your computers.
Unfortunately during the course of that update (and unknown to you) Apple downgraded your installation of Flash to an earlier version (version 10.0.23.1), which is known not to be secure and is not patched against various security vulnerabilities.
MacFixIt Absorbed into C|Net
We’re moving! We’re currently migrating all MacFixIt articles to our new home in CNET. We’ll be redirecting all traffic to the new site this afternoon, but if you want to get a sneak peak you can visit the site now at http://reviews.cnet.com/macfixit.
It’s kinda sad to see it go.
WTF, Cisco?
Gizmodo linked to this Cisco ad that blew my mind. Watch, but be warned, there’s partial nudity. And lots of sweet Cisco gear.
Creation from Re:Birth Films on Vimeo.
Backblaze Talks Hardware
Backblaze, the online backup company, has posted a lengthy blog entry about the custom hardware they’ve designed to store customer data:
A Backblaze Storage Pod is a self-contained unit that puts storage online. It’s made up of a custom metal case with commodity hardware inside. Specifically, one pod contains one Intel Motherboard with four SATA cards plugged into it. The nine SATA cables run from the cards to nine port multiplier backplanes that each have five hard drives plugged directly into them (45 hard drives in total).
The 10.6 Review We’ve Been Waiting For
John Siracusa of Ars Technica has written incredible reviews of each OS X release for years — 10.5 Leopard, 10.4 Tiger, 10.3 Panther, 10.2 Jaguar, 10.1 Puma, the original release of OS X, and even the public beta.
His take on Snow Leopard is no different. All 23 pages of it are great. He covers the installation process, the 32- vs. 64-bit debate, QuickTime X, new development tools, various tweaks throughout the OS, performance increases and more.