512 Pixels

Mac Rumors, on the most recent developer build of the next update to Leopard:

As with numerous previous developer builds, the inability to install Safari 4 Beta remains the only documented issue. Development on OS X 10.5.7 has been presumed to be wrapping up for several weeks now, but Apple appears to still be finding a few bugs that require their continued attention. The last developer release, Build 9J56, was seeded in the middle of last week.

The current release of Mac OS X (10.5.6) was released in December - over 5 months ago. With such a long wait, I’m starting to think that 10.5.7 may be the last major update to 10.5 we’ll see before 10.6 comes out.

Gizmodo has some info on how Windows 7 ought to be faster in ways that are, well, noticeable:

Microsoft obviously focused a lot on the user experience in Windows 7, so a lot of work went into improving desktop responsiveness—smoothing out the little snags or hangs up that made people feel like Vista was too slow. Which is apparently a hard thing to do, since a million different things can cause slowdown. But the most frequent cause of hangups is a bottleneck caused by one graphics device interface application—an app that taps your graphics card—waiting on another GDI app that’s being all slow and crappy.

In Vista, this could happen because the way the GDI was designed, a single app could hold a system-wide global lock, so apps running simultaneously constantly jockey for the lock in order to render on the screen, and if one asshole app doesn’t let go, it screws every other app waiting in line. So Microsoft re-designed the way this stuff is orchestrated, so multiple apps can “reliably” render at the same time, meaning less bottlenecks. Besides improving reliability, the redesign actually improved performance with multiple GDI apps running simultaneously on multi-core processors, so you’ll see real benefits from going multi-core, which no doubt makes Intel’s Craig Barrett happy.

This isn’t unlike Apple’s upcoming “Grand Central” software, at least in theory:

Grand Central takes full advantage by making all of Mac OS X multicore aware and optimizing it for allocating tasks across multiple cores and processors. Grand Central also makes it much easier for developers to create programs that squeeze every last drop of power from multicore systems.

The gist of all this programming is that software - for the first time, really - will be able to use all the hardware available in a system efficiently and smoothly, meaning current hardware should run better under Windows 7 and Snow Leopard when they arrive.

As Windows 7 moves closer to release, Microsoft seems ready for people to forget about Vista - and rightfully so. In an effort to swing the spotlight to Windows 7, Microsoft employees have been spending some time with the press. Here’s a bit from John Curran, Microsoft UK’s director, Windows Client Group, talking to the BBC:

We were able to shave 400 milliseconds off the shutdown time by slightly trimming the WAV file shutdown music. It’s indicative of really the level and detail and scrutiny on Windows 7.

I hope they spent time on like, you know, system stability and compatibility.

Kidding aside, Windows 7’s betas have looked promising. I guess we’ll all find out soon.

The Wall Street Journal:

The Silicon Valley trend-setter has been hiring people from many different segments of the semiconductor industry, including engineers to create multifunction chips that are used in cellphones to run software and carry out other chores.

Apple could use the internally developed chips to sharply reduce the power consumption of its hit iPhone and iPod touch devices, and possibly add graphics circuitry to help its hardware play realistic game software and high-definition videos, people familiar with its plans say.

This makes a lot of sense with a platform like the iPhone.

PC World has taken a look back over the last 20 years of AOL:

As the 1990s progressed, the company lived up to the promise of its new moniker, doing more than any other to introduce the country to the online world. As the Internet took off, it served as the most important on-ramp to what was often called the Information Highway. And although today’s AOL is no longer the country’s dominant ISP, its services and sites add up to the fourth most popular property on the Web, from instant-messaging kingpin AIM to muckraker TMZ.com to video engine Truveo.

Outside of poor business decisions, my biggest problem with AOL has always been the fact that they offered a limited view of the Internet. In other words, the Internet service providers were also playing the role of content providers.

And rightfully so. Up until 1998’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act, ISPs could be held responsible for anything their subscribers did while on their network - including criminal activity like fraud or child pornography. Thus, by limiting what their users could do, ISPs like AOL and others could protect themselves.

Sadly, AOL didn’t really become more transparent - like many ISPs did - after the DMCA. And I add would add that to PC World’s List. ISPs should not be in the business of shaping what their users see and use on the Internet.

The Closet Entrepreneur:

Whether you’re embracing your decluttering OCD, or simply looking for a way to prevent electrical shock hazards under your desk, the setups shown in this post provide several useful examples for tackling the mess that lies under your desk.

Hit the link for some crazy photos. The one with the Mac Pro and Mac minis strapped under the desk is a stunning work of engineering.

[via @zacattac.]

Urban Dictionary:

1. A joke used to refer to persons claiming to be experts in the field of social media. The punch-line being that those with enough expertise in the field know it’s an impossible field to be an expert of.

2. A self proclaimed title by carpetbaggers and snakeoil salesman to mesmerize unsuspecting people with their recipes of easy “1,2,3” success in Social Media.

And some examples:

1. That guy with hardly any social media experience will call himself an expert.

2. “Follow my EASY stepwise formula to Social Media dominance and SUCCESS!” shouts the Social Media Expert.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

[via Dave Barger, a social media guy here in Memphis]

Wired’s Brian Chen:

Given all these issues, I became pretty jaded about my netbook — hence my lack of mentioning it here at Wired.com in recent months. I ended up selling my MacBook Pro and buying the latest unibody model refurbished, and now I rarely use my netbook. So unfortunately, I have to agree with Dave “MacSparky” Sparks and The Unofficial Apple Weblog’s Steven Sande, who both grew frustrated with their Dell Mini 9 Hackintoshes. It’s a fun hacking project, but it’s like the fixed-gear bicycle you built but left sitting in the garage, because over time you realized it was too impractical.

A few of the issues he listed were due to the machine simply being a netbook; some of them were about hacked OS X not being as nice as full-blown OS X.

As someone who has put OS X on two netbooks - a HP Mini 1000 and a Dell Mini 9, I feel pretty comfortable with the ramifications (and frustrations) of taking Apple’s software (and EULA) into my own hands.

As I discussed in the posts those links point to, the HP Mini 1000 is just about the perfect netbook, but Dell Mini 9 is just about the perfect netbook for OS X. That said, both units (and the other dozens and dozens of netbooks on the market) all suffer the same issues: cramped keyboards, little screens, and oddball hardware. Of course, those issues define machines as netbooks, so I’ll keep from calling these characteristics problems.

It seems that Steven Sande over at TUAW doesn’t agree that the compromises made on a netbook are necessary:

To begin with, I’m accustomed to using the trackpad on my MacBook Air with multi-touch gestures. After reading how some other hackb00k users had been able to get multi-touch gestures working, I applied the appropriate patches and gave it a try. Sure, it worked for a little bit, and then began to irritate me when the gestures would fail. I decided to use a cheap micro-mouse instead, which meant that two of the USB ports were now filled – one with the cable for the mouse, and the other for the Sprint wireless broadband dongle that I use when I’m on the road. I suppose I could have used the Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse instead, but it just didn’t seem right spending $79 for a mouse for a $499 computer.

Next, I found the keyboard almost unusable. I have relatively small hands, and even my little mitts had difficulty typing on the cramped keyboard of the mini 9*. One problem I kept having over and over was trying to type an apostrophe (single quote). Every keyboard I’ve ever used to touch-type has the apostrophe in the same place – just to the left of the return key in the home row (ASDF…) of the keyboard. On the mini 9, it was located down two rows near the space bar. Since I have been touch-typing for about 40 years, my finger kept hitting the Dell’s enter key every time I wanted to type an apostrophe.

I agree that the placement of the apostrophe key on the Dell Mini 9 was a mistake on Dell’s part, but Steven is comparing a machine that costs $1799 to a machine that costs $499. That’s like saying my Honda Element isn’t a real car because my boss’s Corvette will smoke it off the line. Indeed it will (without a doubt), but I can get to work and haul my bikes and my family around with no problems - because the Element is just as much a car as the Corvette is. If you want to go fast, buy a Corvette - it’s that simple.

Steven also complains about OS X on the Mini 9:

When I ordered the Dell mini 9, I debated whether or not I wanted to get the solid-state disk option. I finally decided to give it a try for a few reasons. First, it allegedly provided even more battery life than a mini 9 with a standard hard disk. Second, it was supposed to boot faster, and third, I thought it was kind of a cool thing to try! Well, the only option available from Dell was a 16GB SSD (they now offer a 32GB model).

[…]

Next, the limited screen resolution (1024 x 600) of the mini 9 made it virtually impossible to use some Mac apps that have default minimized screen sizes that are larger than that. Those apps simply had to be removed from the device, and I was stuck with a somewhat crippled hackb00k that didn’t have the software tools I normally use.

16 GB is simply too small for Leopard. A little bit of research could have told him that on the front end. (In fact, I opted for the 32 GB SSD) The complaint about the display can be lumped in with the complaints about the keyboard - small computers have small screens. Granted, OS X wasn’t designed for screens this small, so some frustrations is to be expected, but I find it usable for what I do on my netbook.

This whole thing comes down to this: a netbook isn’t designed to be used as a primary machine. Steven Sande being mad about that just comes across as silly. And yes, the Dell Mini 9 makes a freaking awesome Hackintosh, but as with all hacked systems, it isn’t always a walk in the park. Problems come up - another reason not to rely on the Dell Mini 9 as a daily machine. But for taking to a coffee shop or using laying on the couch, it’s great.

———-

* I’m not sure why TUAW doesn’t capitalize the m in “mini 9.”

Dell refers to the machine as the “Dell Inspiron Mini 9” with

a capital M.

Since the introduction of the Apple TV, users have wondered if the extra price of a Mac mini would be justified when used as a media server. Macworld:

Easy-to-use as the Apple TV may be, it’s designed almost entirely as an adjunct to iTunes and the iTunes Store—bringing the contents of each to your television.

And that’s fine, but it’s also limiting. Unless you hack your Apple TV to allow Boxee and XBMC to run on it, you get only the content Apple wants you to have—no Netflix, no Hulu, no Comedy Central, no PBS, no Pandora, no Radio Time… you get the idea. In a time when people are increasingly interested in streaming Web-based media, the Apple TV is deaf to this desire. And, in a way, that reflects Apple’s approach to the iTunes Store: “People want to own their media.”

Except in an era when so much content is available on the Web (and much of it not worth owning), that sentiment seems increasingly outdated. For those who find it so, the Mac mini media server is a flexible and capable alternative.

I’m inclined to agree with Macworld. The Apple TV is a fine product (and easy as heck to setup and manage), but Apple’s limitations keep it from being the obvious solution for everyone.

Macworld:

Apple’s 10-Q form filed with the SEC noted that the company had 14,000 full-time retail employees as of the end of the past quarter. That number stands in sharp contrast to the 15,600 employees the company reported in the same document filed at the end of the December 2008 quarter.

Most full-time employees at Apple Stores are Trainers or Geniuses - the core services of the retail stores. Cutting back in these departments will not be good for Apple’s growing number of customers.