Posts Tagged ‘Apple’

@Michael Jack. An iPod with the Regency TR-1 in red (1954-55) and TR-4 (black).

Recording engineer and music producer Michael Jack has amassed an amazing collection of 1,100 transistor radios.

@Michael Jack. Look familiar? An iPod with a Zenith RE-10

These models from the 1950s look like predecessors of the iPod, he notes on his flickr stream:

“When I fist saw the Zenith RE-10 I figured I had come upon the most obvious inspiration for the iPod… Although all these radios appear to have similar design elements to the iPod I would ALMOST bet that the RE-10 was studied (or at least observed) by the Mac design team.”

@Michael Black. Note: the size of the iPod’s click wheel about the same as radio’s tuning dial.

I love the still-modern look of these half-century old radios, whether Jonathan Ive used them for inspiration or not.

What do you think?

Source :

http://www.cultofmac.com/ipods-and-vintage-transistor-radios-separated-at-birth/15104

Friday’s release of the new version of the Mac OS, dubbed Snow Leopard, could include some security features that would make it secure, or at least push it closer to the level of security that Vista and Windows 7 have, experts said this week.

Contrary to popular Mac fanboy belief, Macintosh is not more secure from a software standpoint than modern Windows; it’s merely safer to use because malware writers prefer to target the platform with the biggest install base, according to Charlie Miller and Dino Dai Zovi, co-authors of The Mac Hacker’s Handbook, which came out this spring.

“Apple hasn’t implemented all the security features that Vista has,” Miller said. “They made some improvements in Leopard, but they are still behind.”

If there is any truth to rumors circulating about Snow Leopard, the operating system security playing field could become more level as of this weekend and Mac users will really have something to brag about.

Full story :

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10318943-245.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

The next version of Apple’s OS X, which is due out Friday, may bundle antivirus capabilities.

Mac security firm Intego said that the latest version of the operating system, Mac OS X Snow Leopard, could have an antimalware feature, according to reports, in a blog post Tuesday.

The company published a screenshot which it said was of the security feature detecting a Trojan in a download, made via Apple’s Safari Web browser.

Intego pointed out that the most recent Mac adverts compare Mac security favorably to PCs. However, security experts have historically been divided over the relative security of Microsoft and Apple code, while some point out that any comparison is further complicated by the differing market penetration of Macs and PCs.

Source :

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10318201-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Apple is getting ready to introduce a slimmer, lighter MacBook, according to an Apple blog citing unnamed sources.

Apple’s 13-inch notebook in currently undergoing an industrial redesign that will also feature new internal architecture, according to a report on AppleInsider. The redesign, which would be the entry-level machine’s first overhaul in three years, is expected to be unveiled in the coming months, the site reported.

At its annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference in June, Apple introduced new versions of its 13- and 15-inch notebooks that use the same battery technology found in the 17-inch models. The rebranding of the 13-inch unibody MacBook to the MacBook Pro line left the polycarbonate white plastic casing as the only true “MacBook.”

That move left many speculating on the lone remaining model’s chances of survival. But the MacBook remains very popular with consumers. AppleInsider notes that Apple’s online store says the white MacBook is the second best-selling model behind the iMac.

Indeed, Mac sales have been very impressive lately. Data provided by market research firm IDC showed the entire PC industry down more than 3 percent for April, May, and June, but Apple sold 4 percent more computers that quarter than it did during the same quarter in 2008. The company’s laptops were responsible for that surge: MacBook and MacBook Pro shipments were up 13 percent.

However, Apple typically unveils new or redesigned products at media events, but after the September 9 music event, Apple has no such events on the calendar for the rest of the year.

Source :

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10317810-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Apple will ship its newest operating system to customers a little earlier than expected. The company said Monday that Mac OS X Snow Leopard will be available this Friday, August 28.

(Credit: Apple)

Apple made it clear from the beginning that Snow Leopard was not as much about adding new features as it was about refining the code in the operating system.

For instance, according to Apple, 90 percent of the Mac OS X code has been worked on for the Snow Leopard release. This isn’t just application code, it also includes working on the Finder, making it more responsive.

Apple says that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is half the size of the previous operating system and frees up to 7GB of drive space once installed. No doubt this has to do with the refinements in the operating system, but Snow Leopard also only supports Macs with an Intel-based processors, not the older PowerPC processors.

As for speed increases in Snow Leopard, Apple said that its Mail application loads messages twice as fast, Time Machine does its initial backup 80 percent faster, and the included 64-bit version of Safari is up to 50 percent faster.

Snow Leopard also supports Exchange Server 2007. This means that you can use Mac OS X Mail, Address Book and iCal out of the box with Exchange.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard will cost $29 as an upgrade for Leopard users. For Mac OS X Tiger users, the Mac Box Set, which includes Mac OS X Snow Leopard, iLife ’09 and iWork ’09, will cost $169.

Apple had said at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June that Snow Leopard would go on sale in September, though more recently some tech blogs had been bandying about an August 28 date.

Source :

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10315866-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

On August 11, Randi Levin, the chief information officer of the city of Los Angeles, stood before City Council members at a hearing of the information technology committee and made her case for why the nation’s second-largest city should adopt Google Apps.

“The ability to get whatever information the city needs, whenever they need it, on whatever device they need it on will fundamentally change the way the city works and enhance productivity greatly,” she said. “In a fiscal crisis it is difficult to find technology solutions that will save money without requiring a significant capital outlay to achieve those objectives.”

Security concerns have kept many government agencies and large corporations away from Google Apps. That is starting to change. A number of small U.S. cities are using the suite and there are Google Apps pilots in more than a dozen federal agencies. If Los Angeles signs on, it would join the District of Columbia as one of the largest government adoptions.

Full Story…

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10313846-245.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Source :

CNETNews Los Angeles gets its Google Apps groove http://bit.ly/4ptPH3

When you want to listen to music from your computer or your friends’ collections on your iPhone, Simplify Music is one solution. On Wednesday, Simplify Media introduced a similar iPhone application called Simplify Photo, which provides the same service for pictures rather than songs.

After logging in, Simplify Photo for iPhone ($0.99) talks to the Simplify Media application on your desktop (download for Windows | Mac | Ubuntu). So long as you have the newest version installed (2.5), and the photo-sharing element selected (configure in the Options menu), you’ll be able to view the photos in your network. Networked images can include pictures from your multiple computers, and those that friend son your Simlify network have given permission to see.

The initial syncing will take a few minutes. After that, you’ll see a list of shared computers. Tap to see options and tap again to view photos by timeline, places (geotagged images show on a Google map), folders, events, albums, and faces, when available. You can also search for a specific photo in a search field.

Simplify Photo’s media is view-only for now; though ideally the app would also open up iPhone photos for computer viewing and friends. You can swipe through images in the viewer or can play a slideshow. As a perk, you can also save the picture locally to the iPhone. Unfortunately, and unlike the desktop viewer, Simplify Photo doesn’t yet rotate images by 90 degrees. The interface could also use some prettying up.

However, Simplify Photo is functional for existing Simplify Media users looking to view friends’ pictures, or their own, remotely.

Source :

http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10312526-12.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20