Macs

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. … Read more

As I've already told you, managing hundreds of apps on your iPhone isn't easy. To date, I've acquired via evaluation license, beta testing, downloaded, or purchased a total of 292 iPhone apps, though only 207 currently reside on my iPhone.

The dilemma stems from the fact that new app icons typically go to the first available space on your home screens. You'll also find your existing icons rearranged after you install updates, delete apps, or perform a restore. Rearranging them again can be tedious.

Jeff Stieler, an intrepid iPhone developer, has come up with an application … Read more

Written by Ted LandauJune 2009

A personal farewell. This is my final mac.column.ted column. It also represents the end of my formal association with MacFixIt. As many of you know, I founded this site back in 1996 and sold it to TechTracker in 2000. Over the ensuing years, I maintained my relationship with MacFixit, initially as editor and later as the author of this monthly column. (If you're really curious, you can read a more detailed history here.) Now, with the transition of ownership to CNET/CBS, MacFixIt is heading in new directions. And so we are … Read more

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 … Read more

Today's stories:

Home appliances to get Cash for Clunkers-like rebate

Google adds translation to Docs

Italian antitrust group examining Google News

Is Pirate Bay sold? Don't believe it… Read more

An Adobe Systems executive is trying to calm Photoshop users who were alarmed to hear an earlier but still widely used version of Photoshop isn't supported on Snow Leopard, the new Apple operating system arriving Friday.

Photoshop Principal Product Manager John Nack on Tuesday published Adobe's FAQ about its Creative Suite support for Snow Leopard, aka Mac OS X 10.6, that said the current CS4 version from October 2008 is the only one that's supported. The comments quickly took on panicky and angry tones among people who thought their older CS3 version of the software wouldn'… Read more

Mac OS X Snow Leopard arrives Friday and will cost $29 for those who already use Mac OS X Leopard. However, there are some deals out there.

The best of the deals comes from Apple. With its Mac OS X Snow Leopard Up-to-Date Program, users can get the new operating system for $9.95. To qualify for that price, they must have purchased a qualifying Mac on or after June 8.

Apple is pretty open with the number of computers that qualify for this offer. Everything from iMacs to its MacBook notebooks is included. Specific model numbers are listed on … Read more

If you run your own Web site or design your own blog for a little more control, you need a good FTP client to keep your site updated and running smoothly. Fetch has been around for over a decade as the go-to FTP client for Mac and is a solid and tested option for all your file-transferring needs. This latest version makes Fetch ready for Snow Leopard.

Also this week, we have OpenOffice for Mac, the free full-featured office suite that offers all the programs included in Microsoft Office, without the price tag. Our game this week is Lux Deluxe, … Read more

It was summer 2005. Dino Dai Zovi walked into a Manhattan Starbucks, ordered a coffee, sat down, and opened up his laptop.

Before his coffee was cold he had found a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Mac OS X Tiger, which could allow people to elevate from normal user to full super user, and had written code that could exploit the hole.

"I just think that I got lucky, but that's what I always think when I find a bug that quickly," he said in an interview on Wednesday.

Dai Zovi has been exploiting Macs for a … Read more