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Apple news
Monday, 29 September 2008
ITUNES PROBLEMS
Apple’s latest version of iTunes 8 caused widespread problems for Vista users within hours of release. Scores of users reported “blue screen of death” messages when trying to sync their iPods and iPhones with the updated media player. Apple have since released a fixed version instructing users to uninstall iTunes and device drivers before downloading and running the 75Mb installation package again.
(Source: Slashdot)
Epicentre Says:“Apple are fast gaining a bad reputation amongst Windows users with each subsequent release of iTunes. Crashes, sluggish speeds, complaints of excessive software bloat and RAM footprint, forced installs of Safari and Quicktime with no custom install option and increasing prominence of forced Apple store links are all complaints that are becoming increasingly more common amongst iTunes Windows users and causing them to move to third party alternatives.”
Thursday, 31 July 2008
APPLE INSIDE?
There’s a distinct possibility that Apple’s latest range of Macbooks will return to proprietary chipsets designed by Apple themselves. Since 2006 Apple have been using Intel’s Centrino chips to power their laptops, but it seems that at the heart of the next range of Macbooks a different beat will be heard. This harks back to the range of PowerPC products they released in partnership with IBM, in which many of the hardware components were bespoke Apple designs. With the recent news that Apple has acquired some hardware specialists from P.A. Semi, apparently to work on their handheld devices, it doesn’t seem too great a stretch of the imagination that these newbies may also be working on their laptop hardware.
This comes in the wake of reports that Microsoft have been dissatisfied with Vista’s performance with Intel’s chipsets, alongside a few worries regarding integration across the board, so things may not be looking great for Intel. Other chip manufacturers are reported to have been in conference with Apple over the sourcing of hardware, which may yet feature in their notebook flagships.
The new Macbooks are rumoured to also feature glass touchpads, showing Apple’s eagerness to adopt new ways of controlling their machines.
(Source: Cnet News)
Epicentre Says:
“With a spate of chipset problems for two of the largest companies, Intel and NVidia, it may be the case that AMD or Via get a look in, further pushing open the market. However, with some of Apple’s greatest, or at least most successful, products featuring Intel chipsets, this turn to new providers may cause them further problems and a support headache - with a greater variety of chipsets comes a greater variety of possible hitches. At this time, there is nothing solid to suggest they’re leaning one way or another, but whichever way Apple decide to go, they must be sure that they’ll be able to keep their legion of faithful fans satisfied, whilst convincing others to adopt their products.”
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
LEOPARD’S NEW SPOTS FIX SECURITY HOLES
Apple’s latest version of Mac OS X.5, Leopard, has been released, bringing with it 25 critical patches including a number of security fixes. This update, 10.5.4, addresses a rather worrying “memory corruption” issue which could have led to applications unexpectedly terminating or, worse still, arbitrary code execution, leaving a gaping hole in the Apple flagship’s security measures. In addition to this vital fix, there is also an update that increases reliability for Apple’s wireless AirPort features, as well as the L2TP VPN client. Good news all round, it seems.
Amongst the other fixes in this release, there’s a patch resolving stability issues with Safari, greater synching power for iCal and a few fixes for the calendar. There are also a number of fixes for the previous OS X, 10.4.11, available.
(Source: The Register)
Epicentre Says
“With so many fixes and patches in this latest update Apple are ironing out a lot of kinks and laying the groundwork for OS X.6, to be released next year. Hopefully these loose ends will be tied up before their next release, ensuring a smooth transition when faithful users come to upgrade next.”
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
SNOW LEOPARD SNUBS POWERPC USERS
Apple’s latest incarnation of the OS X operating system, Snow Leopard, has been confirmed to only run on their newer Intel processor-based machines. What does this mean for PowerPC users? Well, they’re being left out in the cold, progressing no further than Leopard, the last release.
As with the previous release, Snow Leopard offers greater support for 64-bit technology (allowing users to--theoretically--throw up to 16 terabytes of RAM at their machines) and support for multi-core processing, as well as “OpenCL “ (Open Computing Language) which allows users to tap into the power of the graphical processors as well as a machine’s main CPU. However, the most notable feature of this new release is the lack of any real new features. That’s right: a brand new operating system, that actually offers nothing new. Apple’s intention is to streamline, rather than pad, their OS.
However, with the Intel chipset requirement, a lot of Apple’s faithful users could be forced to trade in their old machines for a newer model in order to update. With entry level iMacs costing around £800, many Apple fans may turn their noses up at this latest system update.
(Source AppleInsider)
Epicentre Says:
“Many may see this failure to include old-timers as a cynical marketing ploy, relying on user’s brand loyalty to sell new hardware. However, this seems like a sensible move for Apple, allowing them to focus on one program core, rather than splitting their OS between the two types of users. Exploiting the greater power afforded to them by Intel’s chips should make subsequent releases even more powerful. This should also allow them to chop out a lot of the legacy code that has cluttered the previous releases, Tiger and Leopard, ensuring a more streamlined and efficient experience for Mac users.”
Monday, 16 June 2008
SNOW LEOPARD CUTS THE BLOAT FROM OS X
Apple have confirmed that their next OS release, Snow Leopard, will dramatically reduce the amount of storage space required for the operating system, thereby greatly streamlining and enhancing the speed of the OS. Apple are keen to point out they’re not planning on adding new features but focusing on streamlining what’s already there.
Other features include a streamlined version of Apple’s multimedia platform, QuickTime X and OpenCL (Open Compute Library), a non-proprietary programming system for running complex code on a machine's graphic chip(s).
(Source: Apple)
Epicentre Says:
“This suggests that Apple may be providing separate versions of their OS for Intel and PowerPC based Macs as the processor-specific code that could be removed from each would be considerable. It will probably also allow users to trim out unused language packs and similar unwanted functions thereby bringing required space down further.”
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