News Blog

Monday could be the day that iPhone fans have been waiting for. According to News.com reporter Tom Krazit, who I interviewed for Thursday's Daily Debrief video, Apple CEO Steve Jobs will most likely announce big news on the second iteration of the phone at Monday's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Updates could possibly include, but are not limited to, the inclusion of GPS, a slimmer body, and the ability to connect to the 3G network.

Traditionally, Jobs has used the WWDC to discuss changes to the Mac and OS X. This year, Krazit expects less sexy news on the Mac OS front, perhaps surrounding security and privacy issues. Another source of speculation has been what big cat the OS X 10.6 will be named after. Snow Leopard seems unlikely since Leopard was used last time, but what's left? LOLCat? The Cougar?

A remote-desktop access feature found in some Macintoshes is being credited with leading police to two suspects in the burglary of an apartment in New York.

In addition to flat-screen TVs, iPods, and DVDs, the thieves made off with two laptops, one of which belonged to Kait Duplaga, an Apple store employee, according to a report in The New York Times on Saturday.

While police in White Plains, N.Y., were coming up empty with their investigation, Duplaga learned that her computer was being used on the Internet, and she turned on the Back to My Mac feature installed on her Mac from another Mac, according to the report.

The feature allowed Duplaga to see immediately how the computer was being used at the time, as well as operate it remotely. Recalling that she had a camera installed on the computer, the fast-thinking Duplaga snapped images of one of the burglary suspects before he realized what was happening, according to the Times. Duplaga showed the image to friends, who recognized the suspect as someone who attended a party at the apartment.

The photo led police to arrest two suspects on Wednesday and recover nearly all the stolen property.

"It doesn't get much better than their bringing us a picture of the guy actually using the stolen property," Daniel Jackson, the deputy commissioner of public safety in White Plains, told the newspaper. "It certainly made our job easier."

The Back to My Mac feature, which runs on Leopard-based Macintoshes, requires a $99 subscription to the .Mac online service.

I've been using an Apple MacBook Pro for a little over a year now, and I'm pretty happy with it.

Apple's new Mac OS X Leopard

(Credit: Courtesy of Apple)

I didn't immediately upgrade to Leopard, the new version of Mac OS X, when it shipped back in November for reasons I discussed here, but last weekend I decided to go for it.

There's a new update coming to version 10.5.2, which according to a release note available to Apple developers includes a raft of bug fixes, but I wanted to upgrade to Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 as soon as possible, so I figured I'd just go ahead and upgrade OS X at the same time. (I'll probably post a review of Office 2008 sometime soon.)

The OS upgrade process appeared to go well, but when I tried to log in, Leopard said it wasn't able to access my home folder. I use Apple's FileVault security technology, which stores my home folder in a virtual disk image that is encrypted using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). FileVault protects my data if the machine is stolen, and I regard it as an indispensable feature of Mac OS X.

Unfortunately, Leopard wasn't happy with the disk image for my home folder, and simply refused to open it.

I wasn't expecting this problem, but I was prepared for it. I made a backup of the machine just before starting the upgrade, and I also maintain a secondary user account without FileVault in case of problems with the primary account. I logged into that other account and discovered on the Web that other people have seen exactly the same problem.

Apple published a tech note suggesting that this problem is related to passwords of 8 or more characters-- my passwords are all a lot longer than that, and so should yours be!-- but the complex procedure described in the note for solving the problem didn't help me.

Ultimately I had to delete and recreate my primary account then copy my files from the disk image into the new home folder. It turns out I'd have wanted to do this anyway, since Leopard introduces a new approach to FileVault that works better with Time Machine, Apple's new backup program.

Everything worked properly when I was done, but this was a slow, awkward procedure that most ordinary users would never have been able to handle. I just wish the Leopard installer had checked for this condition and done all the necessary work directly.

With Leopard running at last, I was able to get Office 2008 installed, and I'm slowly working through a number of small issues-- learning how to work around a minor bug in the new version of Apple's Mail program, upgrading some third-party software I use, etc.-- but generally I'm happy with the upgrade. Leopard seems a little faster overall, and Time Machine is great. It gives me a lot of confidence that my data is better protected against software and hardware failures.

I'm also making periodic complete backups in case I get bitten by any major new bugs in Leopard or Time Machine, but I don't expect anything like that.

I may have additional comments, especially after the 10.5.2 update... stay tuned!

If what The Register writes is even remotely true, the writing is on the wall for Microsoft's desktop dominance. What does it say? "Game over."

The Register is reporting that Apple may be coding Leopard to run Windows applications natively (meaning, no need for Parallels, Boot Camp, etc.). It's a wild guess at this point, but the clues are there:

Leopard's PE (Portable Executable--a way of encoding executable files) support was uncovered by one Stephen Edwards, who'd been working with Wine, the open source version of the Windows application programming interface (API). He found that Leopard's Dynamic Linker (Dyld) will try to load a PE file. Soon after, Leopard's hunt for DLLs referenced by the PE file appeared as further evidence that the presence of PE support may not simply be a hang over from Apple's use of the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI).

I've been a bit of a Mac freak since 2002 when I got my first PowerBook. I've since converted many friends, nearly all family, and half my company to the Mac. I can tally up at least $300,000 in Apple hardware and software that I've personally paid for or purchases that I've influenced. I love the Mac.

As for Apple's newest operating system, I like it, too. Kind of how I like cereal. It's there. I eat it. I don't think much about it.

This is, of course, really what an operating system should do: not play at being the center of attention and just let me run the applications that I want. In this, Leopard is great for me. Unlike others (like this Slashdot rant or Dave Rosenberg's own complaint), I've never had Leopard crash. Not once. The upgrade from Mac OS X version 10.4 (Tiger) was completely pain-free. Everything just works.

Maybe this is the problem.

Let me preface this post with the fact that I have been a sworn Mac user since 1995. Let me add that a few weeks ago I tried to use Windows just for my trip to Japan, and I bailed out after one painful day. I even had our IT guy kill a perfectly good Thinkpad with Ubuntu I hated Vista so much.

When Leopard came out a few weeks ago (it was a Friday) I went to the Apple store in San Francisco to buy it immediately but got spiked until the 6 p.m. grand reveal. So, the next day I went downtown first thing and picked up both Leopard and the new iLife. Easy enough.

I expected a few bumps in the upgrade of the OS and the applications. Sure enough, that happened but it was nothing major.

It has only been after a few weeks of usage that I find myself experiencing both OS and application crashes reminiscent of the mid-'90s when you had to obsessively save your work since you knew your Mac was going to crash at some point. I was bred into a "save early, save often" Mac culture at my first job in NYC where people would occasionally lose hours worth of work.

That was then, this is now. Or so I thought.

As a computer nerd, I hold this truth to be self-evident:

All new software contains bugs and design flaws

Thus, from a defensive computing standpoint, the latest is never the greatest. Someone who depends on his or her computer, in a serious way, is always best served by avoiding software that has just been released. With that as a backdrop, here are some thoughts as to what this means to you, in terms of current software choices.

Mac OS X Leopard 10.5

For one thing, it means don't buy a Macintosh computer--at least not now. I have nothing against Apple or Macintosh computers. People whose opinion I trust who use both Macs and Windows all say Macs are better. Fine. But the newly released Leopard is too new to trust. If you can get a Mac with Tiger installed, fine.

With Leopard, Apple has shown it is a typical software company, meaning it can't be trusted to release reliable software. The initial version of Leopard seemed like a beta. Problems with two features in particular generated a lot of bad publicity--the firewall and the Time Machine backup program. Both are brand new and featured more than their share of bugs and design flaws. This is not to pick on Apple in particular, it is just the latest example of the self-evident truth about new software.

ZoneAlarm

I like the ZoneAlarm firewall and have been using it constantly for many years, despite griping about it. My gripes have decreased as the product has matured because the basic firewall has not been drastically overhauled.

ZoneAlarm (just the firewall, not the whole software suite) is now at version 7, specifically, the fourth release (7.0.408.000) of version 7. I mention the release number because ZoneLabs (the original company behind ZoneAlarm, which is now part of Check Point) also showed itself challenged at quality assurance. Every new version of ZoneAlarm was plagued with bugs to the point that my personal policy was not to upgrade from the prior to the new version until the third release of the new version. In the worst instance, a bug fix release came out a mere six days after a new version; in another case it was 10 days. I'm happy to miss out on some new features for a little while, so that other ZoneAlarm users can help the vendor debug the software.

Maturity

Apple was responsive with Leopard, issuing a slew of bug fixes only three weeks after its initial release. Microsoft never moves that fast.

And speaking of Microsoft, its latest operating system, Vista, is also too new. If you are buying a new Windows computer, you are better served with XP as opposed to Vista.

When is software sufficiently mature or debugged to be considered reasonably reliable (again from a Defensive Computing perspective)? Reasonable people can disagree; it's a matter of opinion.

Java version 1.5 may have looked mature and debugged after eight releases (version 1.5.0.8), but then came versions 1.5.0.9, 1.5.0.10, 1.5.0.11, 1.5.0.12, 1.5.0.13, and 1.5.0.14.

I don't have the experience with Macs to make an educated guess when Leopard might be ready for prime time. With Vista, I would wait either 2.5 years from its release date or until service pack 2, whichever comes last. And keep in mind that nothing is lost by waiting even longer, as many businesses will do.

My Vista opinion is more conservative than most. In part, it stems from the fact that Vista was a long time coming. Thus more is new about it, more new code and more design changes; both reasons to wait. Apple has unquestionably done a better job of managing its operating system development--shipping new versions of OS X often enough that the changes in each release are far less drastic than the changes between XP and Vista.

Office Software

When it comes to choosing Office software, I would again avoid the latest rendition from Microsoft, Office 2007.

The prior version, Office 2003, has four years of bug fixes applied to it, making it more stable. The prior version has a user interface that is an unofficial, grooved-in standard and uses a file format that is as mainstream as mainstream gets.

In contrast, the new Office 2007 has a new user interface that is very different from the one in Office 2003, 2002/XP, and previous versions. As with any interface change, some people will like the new interface and others won't. The design mistake that I see, is that Microsoft forces the new interface on you; there is no option to fall back to the tried and true and familiar. They tried this with Internet Explorer 7 and eventually backtracked a bit and restored the menu bar.

Office 2007 also introduced a new file format, meaning that users have to tell it to use the old file formats if they want to exchange files with 98 percent of the computing world. If files are saved in the new formats, then people using older versions of Office can't read the files without installing additional software from Microsoft. Users of very old versions of Office are totally out of luck when it comes to the new file formats. Mac users running the Mac version of Office were also unable to handle the new file formats for the longest time. A purposeful zing at Apple perhaps?

Unquestionably, Office 2003 is the better choice when compared with Office 2007. Of course, Microsoft has stopped selling Office 2003. Thanks for nothing.

This leads to OpenOffice.org, which is a reasonable choice for Office software. For one thing, it's a mature product, now at version 2.3. Plus, it can read/write the old format of Office documents and uses the classic user interface. Plus, it's free. It has its quirks though, and is not as fully functional as Office, but it makes sense to try it first and, if it doesn't meet your needs, move on to something else.

If you get a new computer this holiday season, it's possible that your old one(s) may be more dependable.

P.S. If you know of a retailer still offering Office 2003 (for less than $450), please leave a comment below. Thanks.

(Credit: Apple)

Adobe on Thursday issued three upgrades for users of its Photoshop Lightroom software.

The biggest news for some may be that Adobe Labs is offering a preview copy of Lightroom Export SDK, an application that will allow Lightroom users to export photos to Web sites, third-party software, and devices.

Meanwhile, the Lightroom 1.3 update should fix compatibility issues with Apple's Leopard Mac OS X 10.5. Previously, Adobe had warned that Leopard users could experience problems when trying to use Lightroom, though it was still safe to use most features. Adobe had previously announced that the fix would be released in mid-November.

Adobe also released a Photoshop Camera Raw 4.3 update which includes support for seven new cameras: the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III and PowerShot G9, the Nikon D3 and D300, the Olympus E-3 and SP-560 UZ, and the Panasonic DMC-L10.

Lightroom 1.3, which uses the same engine to process raw photos taken directly from camera image sensors, now also supports the new cameras.

Filemaker is betting that its new database software, Bento, will please Mac users seeking a multipurpose personal information manager. The application will ship in January 2008 for $49, or $99 for a family pack. A free test drive is available on the Web site of Filemaker, which is owned by Apple.

Bento can pool together personal and professional contacts, dates, and objects.

(Credit: Filemaker)

Like the Japanese lunch box for which it's named, Bento appears to be a tidy organizer. Sorting and searching options look elegant. The software could serve a variety of purposes, such as tracking freelance work gigs, sending party invitations, plotting an exercise regime, cataloging household items, creating libraries of possessions, and even rating stores where you shop or children you might teach.

When you open Bento for the first time, appointments from iCal and contacts from Address Book will flow automatically into the program while also streaming to connected iPhones and .Mac accounts. More than 20 templates and drag-and-drop data fields serve users who don't wish to grapple with the ins and outs of managing a relational database.

Data from Bento can be saved for export as either CSV text, or in the Microsoft Excel or iWork Numbers formats. Judging by a demo with Filemaker several weeks ago, Bento's minimal interface should look familiar to Mac fans.

Macs haven't quite been known as the computer of choice for those looking to wrangle data with spreadsheets and databases. Apple iWork '08 just added the Numbers spreadsheet application, and the package still does not include database software.

For Windows, by contrast, Microsoft Office offers the complex Access database tool. But unlike Access, a heavy-duty research tool, Bento is built to manage the components of your life the way you'd juggle an iTunes library.

Bento's ticket price is $20 less than Filemaker's original plan to charge $69, but I wonder how many users will bite. iLife and iWork, after all, each cost just $79 for three or more applications per bundle. Plus, Leopard is the only operating system friendly to Bento. Still, Bento looked neat to me, and I'll give it a spin to see how well it can organize my sloppy stockpiles of digital data.

Bento enables users to add scores to database items.

(Credit: Filemaker)