Apple

Psystar, the clone company Apple is suing for selling generic hardware with the Mac OS pre-installed, is expanding its business to include selling software that will allow anyone to install Apple's operating system.

(Credit: Psystar)

Psystar said on Thursday that its Rebel EFI suite is available for download from its Web site. The software will allow anyone to install any modern operating system on their computer, including Apple's Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

According to the company, the software is compatible with the Intel Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, i7 or machines running the Xeon Nehalem CPU.

A demo version of the software is available for download so users can "test-drive" it before they buy. Psystar says the demo would allow users to install Mac OS X, but with "limited hardware functionality as compared with the full version."

Psystar said after downloading the software, users just need to burn it to a CD and follow the onscreen instructions. The full version of the Rebel EFI suite, removing any hardware limitations, costs $49.99.

Microsoft's Windows 7, released today, is also compatible with the Rebel EFI suite, according to Psystar.

Psystar is best known for selling clone computers and being sued by Apple for copyright infringement. A trial date has been set for January 11, 2010.

For the past month, some Mac OS X users have been reporting their personal data missing after logging into their guest accounts, and Apple now says it's working on finding a fix.

"We are aware of the issue, which occurs only in extremely rare cases, and we are working on a fix," an Apple representative said in a prepared statement Monday.

(Credit: Apple)

It's the first time Apple has said it is looking into the issue. In early September, a handful of Mac users reported the issue on Apple's discussion boards. The problem, when it occurs, goes like this, according to CNET's MacFixit: when logging into the guest account on their Mac first and then logging into their regular account, some users are finding all their data to be missing and their accounts completely reset.

It doesn't appear to be a widespread problem--there are fewer than 100 posts on several current discussion threads on the issue--but it's certainly topical. Microsoft is currently dealing with a massive data loss at its Danger subsidiary, the company it acquired that makes the Sidekick mobile phone.

Apple's data loss issue is also yet another problem related to its most recent operating-system release. Snow Leopard has been plagued with bugs since its release, including problems with the Finder hanging or crashing, incompatibility with certain apps, and the AirPort connection dropping.

Although Apple doesn't yet have an answer for why this is occurring, you can check here for some suggested fixes, if you're experiencing the problem.

Apple's desktop market share has been inching up for some time and, if analyst stats are right, now hovers around the 8 percent mark.

A screenshot from Snow Leopard.

(Credit: Jason Parker/CNET)

But the business world remains largely immune to the pull of Apple's hardware, with few--if any--workers in most companies using anything other than the classic Wintel combination, in spite of demand for alternative desktop options from staff.

It's a situation that looks unlikely to change, despite the launch of a new Mac OS: a recent poll of the Silicon.com CIO Jury found that none of the IT chiefs surveyed said the release of Snow Leopard will prompt their businesses to adopt Apple desktops.

For many members of the CIO Jury, it's not a judgment on the performance of the operating system itself but rather a recognition of the prohibitive costs involved in such a change....

Read more of "Why CIOs are saying no to Macs" at Silicon.com.

Apple on Thursday released a relatively minor update for Mac OS X Snow Leopard that fixes an issue users had with the operating system that downgraded them to an older version of Adobe Systems' Flash Player.

(Credit: Apple)

When Apple released Snow Leopard on August 28, it included an older version of Adobe's Flash plug-in that was known to have security issues. Sophos security expert Graham Cluley warned users of the downgrade and urged anyone who installed the operating system to upgrade immediately.

Snow Leopard 10.6.1 addresses this issue by updating the Flash Player plug-in to version 10.0.32.18, the most current, stable release from Adobe.

While that is the big news for Apple's first Snow Leopard update, the company did include some minor fixes as well. The new version includes improved compatibility with Sierra Wireless 3G modems and addresses an issue that caused some DVDs to stop playback.

Printer compatibility has been improved, and so has the automatic account setup in Apple's Mail application. An issue that affected Motion 4 becoming unresponsive has also been fixed.

Mac OS X 10.6.1 can be downloaded from Apple's support Web site or via the software update mechanism in Mac OS X.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard has been available for one week, and for the most part, users are reporting very few problems upgrading.

While not everyone is thrilled with the way Apple handled the release, it turns out that Snow Leopard is Apple's most compatible operating system release ever. According to sources familiar with Snow Leopard's internal testing process, Apple kept an enormous amount of statistics on third-party application compatibility.

They said that Apple not only tracked many of the most widely-used apps, they tracked many of the shareware apps, as well. If an application exhibited problems, the developers were notified of the incompatibility and were offered help to make it Snow Leopard-compliant.

It's true that Apple did not offer a public beta of Snow Leopard, but it did expand the seed program with this release. Some large and small businesses, as well as individuals were included in the beta program for Snow Leopard. Of course, developers have access to the code through Apple's Developer Program, to test their apps through the entire process.

Apple began working with developers in June 2008, according to my source. This gave developers the maximum amount of time to check their apps against the new operating system.

While complete data was not available for this story, anecdotal evidence suggests that upgrade problems with Snow Leopard are not widespread.

That's not to say there aren't problems. CNET's Rafe Needleman found several apps that didn't work with the new operating system. Apple also posted a list of incompatible software on its support Web site.

BusinessWeek's Stephen Wildstrom feels that the compatibility problems with Snow Leopard are "widespread but not pervasive."

Wildstrom says that Apple should have done three things differently: it should have released a public beta; it should have provided a pre-upgrade compatibility checker; and he feels developers weren't given enough time with the finished code.

Apple has built a potentially dangerous downgrade into Mac OS X Snow Leopard, according to a security expert.

When Apple's updated operating system is installed, it downgrades Adobe Systems' Flash to an earlier, less secure version. Sophos security expert Graham Cluley said Wednesday in a company blog post that Apple installs version 10.0.23.1, which has not been upgraded to protect users against the latest threats.

"Mac users who have been diligent enough to keep their security up-to-date do not deserve to be silently downgraded," Cluley said in the blog. "We know that hackers keep finding security holes in Adobe's code--and that's deeply concerning because it is so widely used by many internet users, whether on Mac or PC."

Cluley said users need to upgrade Flash Player for Mac immediately to the most current version, 10.0.32.18. Failing to do so could open up users to vulnerabilities that have targeted Flash over the past several months.

"This should be done as a matter of priority," Cluley said. "Adobe is the 'new Microsoft' when it comes to security vulnerabilities, with hackers targeting their software looking for vulnerabilities to exploit."

Adobe has been in the spotlight since last month's release of Snow Leopard, as it works with users on compatability questions regarding its Creative Suite products.

(Via AppleInsider)

(Credit: Apple)

Apple's $29 operating-system upgrade, Snow Leopard, is for most users a straightforward and worthwhile upgrade. But some are regretting their haste in upgrading to Mac OS X 10.6. Little incompatibilities with existing apps are causing headaches and slowing down work flow.

It's not the current versions of the big apps that don't work, of course. The latest version of Photoshop still runs. Even the current versions of the close-to-the-metal virtualization applications Parallels and VMware Fusion work in Snow Leopard. Apple's own apps--Mail, Calendar, and iTunes--all work great. And Firefox runs fine, even though Apple has its own competing browser, Safari.

But many little things don't work, and the niggles are frustrating. Dealing with them makes the Mac experience very un-Mac-like. For some users who have spent time tweaking their Mac setup, the operating-system upgrade means a step backward in the pleasure and smoothness of using the platform. They feel a hit in productivity. For people like me, it's the little hacks that make the Mac experience uniquely personal and help me paper over some of the Jobsian UI dictums of which I'd rather not be reminded.

Necessary disclaimer: Apple and third-party developers deserve much credit for ensuring that so many major apps work well in Snow Leopard, since it is such a major under-the-hood upgrade.

Most incompatibilities will be fixed, of course. Apple released Snow Leopard earlier than expected, and developers are scrambling to update their apps. But even some of the big developers have fallen behind the cycle here -- Microsoft's Live Mesh sync and backup product doesn't yet work, for example.

You can see a big list of Snow Leopard compatibility issues at the famous Snow Leopard Wikidot page. For the record, here are some of the small incompatibilities that are driving people where I work up a tree:

iStat Menus, a Mac system monitor, does not work. Developer Marc Edwards said he's been working on the 2.0 version of the product, but that Apple's timing derailed his plans. "We expected that version 2 would have been ready before 10.6 was out," he wrote to me, "but the early release meant that wasn't possible."

The preferences pane for Growl, the universal-app pop-up notifier, doesn't work. The developers say they will update the app as soon as they can.

Apple's early release of Snow Leopard caught developers off guard.

(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)

... Read more

Google released an update for Chrome to fix compatibility problems with Snow Leopard on Monday, which along with other fixes shows the gradually maturing state of the Mac OS X version of the browser.

Chrome 4.0.203.4 for the Mac is only a couple notches up the version ladder than the version 4.0.203.2 it replaces, but there are some significant changes in the developer-preview software. For Snow Leopard compatibility, programmers fixed a garbled text bug, said Jonathan Conradt, a Chrome engineering program manager, in a blog post Monday.

Google began Chrome on Windows but has been gradually moving it to Linux and Mac OS X. Those versions so far are still only developer-preview incarnations not ready for prime time yet, though I find myself gradually slipping over to Chrome on my Mac system now that it's getting mature enough for me. I suspect a beta version isn't far off.

Google is fleshing out some basic features, though. One user-interface tweak enables support for command- and shift-clicking.

Another feature coming to the Mac is support for the tab-to-search feature in the omnibox. That lets you perform a site search directly from the address bar by typing a URL, for example news.cnet.com, then the tab key, then search terms.

Tab-to-search also works with Amazon, Google, Google News, and Yahoo, The New York Times, but not Bing yet. I search a lot, and this saves me one step and waiting for a page to load just so I can click in its search bar.

The tab-to-search feature has arrived on Chrome for Mac OS X, too.

(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

The most annoying issue I've found--and let me know if I'm missing something obvious here--is that I lose the file-upload dialog box while using Gmail with Chrome on Mac OS X if I switch away from the application while halfway through. If I don't attach a file immediately, that tab's instance of Gmail becomes useless because I can't get back to it.

Performance still is an issue with the Mac version, though. I was pleased to see some work on new-tab creation speed, with programmer Mark Mentovai using various changes to work the time from 1-3 seconds down to a fifth of a second.

Google is working hard to spread Chrome, though it has small market share at present. It's now installed as the default browser on some Sony laptops, as Endgadget noticed in July with the Vaio NW, and I heard about earlier in August.

Google has been advertising the browser as well and is at work making it the foundation of its Chrome OS.

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.

Overall, personally, I found that while the new Mac OS doesn't warrant a "wow," it's still definitely worth the $29 upgrade price. Snow Leopard offers an even more streamlined Mac experience than Leopard and noticeably faster interface responsiveness. The application performance, however, is slightly slower than it is with Leopard, at least on the MacBook Pro we used as our test machine. As the OS is now a pure 64-bit operating system, expect the application performance to improve over Leopard as you add RAM or use it with a high-end desktop.

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.

Boot Camp 3.0 enables Windows to read files from OS X's partition.

(Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET)

I recently blogged about running Windows 7 on a 15-inch Unibody Macbook Pro, which required some tweaking with Boot Camp 2.1. Snow Leopard comes with Boot Camp 3.0, which makes installing and running Windows on a laptop a much more pleasant experience.

First of all, the new Boot Camp includes all the drivers necessary to run both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 smoothly on the Mac hardware.

(Note that you only need to run the Boot Camp Assistant, BCA, if you want to dual-boot OS X and Windows on the same machine. The utility will then create a new partition for the installation of Windows. In this case, make sure you run the BCA first when the computer boots up to avoid file errors. If you want to run just Windows and skip OS X altogether, you can boot from the Windows 7 install DVD and start the installation the way you would install the OS on any PC from scratch.)

After the installation is done, Boot Camp 3.0 can be installed from the Snow Leopard DVD. Then, without further ado, you got yourself a great Windows computer.