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GreenPois0n RC6.1 Brings an Untethered Jailbreak to all iDevices (Doesn’t require 4.2b3 SHSH!) released! GUIDE AND PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS INCLUDED!

admin — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 09:56:35 +0000

A new day, A new jailbreak has just arrived! The Chronic Dev Team has just been released GreenPois0n RC5 to the public to bring an untethered jailbreak for all iDevices. Unlike RedSn0w 0.9.7, this does not require 4.2b3 SHSH files to be saved on Cydia. If you just got your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch for Christmas and want to jailbreak it now, then this is the jailbreak method for you Method below, and problems and solutions below:

**IMPORTANT** – THIS UPDATE WILL JAILBREAK THE VERIZON AND AT&T IPHONE 4/3GS, IPOD TOUCH 4G/3G/2G, IPAD, AND THE APPLE TV 2ND GEN!

**PLEASE READ** – IF YOUR IPHONE REQUIRES AN UNLOCK, STAY AWAY FROM THIS OR EVEN UPDATE YOUR IPHONE TO 4.2.1!

GUIDE:

STEP 1: DOWNLOAD GREENPOIS0N RC6.1 HERE MAC OSX!

DOWNLOAD GREENPOIS0N RC6.1 HERE WINDOWS!

STEP 2: CONNECT YOUR IDEVICE TO YOUR COMPUTER, AND LAUNCH GREENPOIS0N RC5

STEP 3: CLICK THE JAILBREAK BUTTON AS SEEN IN THE SCREENSHOT BELOW

STEP 4: FOLLOW THE ONSCREEN INSTRUCTIONS AND ENTER YOUR IDEVICE INTO DFU MODE

Press and hold the sleep button for 2 seconds
Continue holding sleep; press and hold home for 10 seconds.
Release sleep button; continue holding home for 15 seconds.

STEP 5: GREENPOIS0N WILL START JAILBREAKING YOUR IDEVICE

STEP 6: ONCE GREENPOIS0N SAYS “COMPLETE” , YOU CAN LET GO OF THE HOME BUTTON AND CLICK THE “COMPLETE” BUTTON AND QUIT GREENPOIS0N

STEP 7: YOUR IDEVICE SHOULD SHOW THE LOADER APP ON YOUR HOMEPAGE; TAP TO OPEN IT

STEP 8: USE THE LOADER APPLICATION TO INSTALL CYDIA. ONCE THE DOWNLOAD IS COMPLETE, YOUR IDEVICE WILL RESPRING, AND YOU WILL SEE THE CYDIA APPLICATION ON YOUR HOMEPAGE WHICH MEANS YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY JAILBROKEN AND UNTETHERED YOUR IDEVICE ON 4.2.1. **YOU MAY DELETE THE LOADER APP AFTER INSTALLING CYDIA**

ENJOY!

PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS WITH THE GREENPOIS0N RC5 UNTETHERED JAILBREAK:

Problem : I got stuck in “Greenpois0n initialized”, retried, re updated. It remains the same.
Solution : open “terminal”, type SUDO, open Greenpois0n as “Show package contents”, go MacOS folder & drag greenpois0n to terminal & hit enter. / Via iSurenix /
Problem : My iPhone / iPod is showing blank (black) screen after jailbreak, iPhone / iPod is still in DFU mode after applying jailbreak.
Solution : Leave your iDevice for two minutes, now press and hold both power and home button at the same time for 10-15 seconds until your iPhone / iPod boot as normal.
Problem : Greenpois0n loader is crashing when I install Cydia, I am unable to install cydia via greenpois0n loader.
Solution : For those having trouble getting Cydia via the GP Loader, just let redsn0w install it (don’t choose the Monte option) / Via MuscleNerd /

MORE PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS WILL BE ADDED HERE IF THERE WILL BE ANY MORE (HOPEFULLY NOT :\)

UPDATE 1: GREENPOIS0N RC5 2 JUST GOT RELEASED! LINK ADDED.

UPDATE 2: GREENPOIS0N RC5 3 JUST GOT RELEASED FOR MAC! LINK ADDED.

GREENPOISON RC5.2 FOR WINDOWS RELEASED! LINK ADDED.

UPRATE 3: GREENPOIS0N RC5 4 JUST GOT RELEASED FOR MAC AND WINDOWS! LINK ADDED.

UPDATE 4: GREENPOIS0N RC5 6 JUST GOT RELEASED TO JAILBREAK APPLE TV 2ND GEN FOR BOTH WINDOWS AND MAC. LINK ADDED.

UPDATE 5: GREENPOIS0N RC6.1 FOR WINDOWS AND MAC JUST GOT RELEASED. FIX FOR THE IBOOKS BUG INCLUDED! LINK ADDED.

Why I Canceled MobileMe After Four Years

admin — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 17:18:17 +0000

It’s January 2007 and Steve Jobs has just totally sold me on .Mac (pronounced dot-mac, for those who don’t remember). It had website building tools, OS integrated cloud storage in the form of iDisk, cool @mac email addresses and sex appeal.

The one thing that took some convincing was the cool $99 it cost annually. I easily overcame that obstacle and signed up, however. When left to myself, I loved it. I loved tossing things in iDisk and accessing them anywhere. I loved my contacts syncing over the air. I loved my email address. I loved it all.

A year and a half later .Mac became MobileMe and put what some saw as a neglected 90′s technology on modern crack. Everything was refreshed and they even won some awards while doing it. The year was 2008 and my vows were renewed. However, it had it’s critics.

When I told people of my in-love experience with MobileMe, I was rarely met with “Isn’t it wonderful?!” Rather, the response was something along the lines of, “You know you can get all those services for free, right?” But I never listened. The cards began falling in 2009 when a once fringe-ish practice of cloud storage began to hit the public en masse. Everyone around me was adopting cloud solutions and the solution was never MobileMe.

I had a frank discussion with my brother around this same time when I desperately tried to show him how everyone else was wrong and I was right. I showed him iCal on me.com and showed him how you can drag events around and how useful it was. I showed him contacts and how quickly everything could sync. I showed him the email client and showed him all the ways that it was better than other webmail sites. He likely wouldn’t know, but he wasn’t my intended audience… I was.

I wanted to believe so badly that Apple had nailed it. I wanted to know that my money had be well spent and that I was part of a winning platform.

But I can’t fight the truth any longer.

There really are amazing tools and solutions out there that execute every aspect of the MobileMe experience either equivalently or better. And I’ve begun the transition to these other solutions and come May when my MobileMe expires, I’ll not be renewing. Instead, these will be the tools that will be carrying me.

1) Dropbox > iDisk

Dropbox is a cloud storage solution which is free for light users, and cost effective for heavier users. It has both OS integration and a phenomenal web experience. This was the big shift in scales for me. Cloud storage is the only one of the services within the MobileMe family of tools that other companies are charging for. The $99 for MobileMe gets you 20GB, while for the same cost Dropbox will give you 50GB. This is big for me. I use cloud storage like crazy. I have many computers and a smartphone, and it is the easiest way to manage files across multiple pieces and types of hardware. That is one side of it. I also have had better success using Dropbox over MobileMe. The iDisk feature is kind of clunky. It had an extremely hard time understanding when a folder had been deleted. Anytime I would reorganize my files and rename a folder or remove a folder, I would basically have to learn to deal with duplicate folders and empty folders because iDisk would not let me delete a folder once it was created. Dropbox is much more elegant. The whole thing syncs much more quickly and accurately. Folders can be created and deleted at will and I’ve got 150% more storage for the same price. Easy decision.

2) Gmail.com > Me.com

This one is tougher. Email addresses are sacred. Particularly personal ones. I’ve given my me.com address to hundreds of contacts through the years. My college buddies use it, my non-company professional contacts use it. And there is no real way of contacting everyone who will ever email me there and tell them to use a new address. Tough. This was the last element keeping me at Apple’s MobileMe. The fact that they can hold your email address hostage for $100 bucks a year should be criminal. But, this is a bridge I’ve crossed. I’ve already gone through all my memberships and changed them all over to my gmail address. I’ve deleted the me.com outgoing mail server so that all replies are coming from my gmail address. Again, this has been the toughest part of the transition, but worth it to get a free and open email address. I’ll no longer be a slave to that annual fee to continue getting email.

3) Syncing contacts/calendars through Google > iCal

This was one of the things that I’ll just plead ignorance on. When everyone around me was saying that I could get all the MobileMe services from other providers for free, I thought they were being general, when in fact it is true literally. Apple likes to say that their services are “exchange for the rest of us.” Not true. Google uses Microsoft Exchange, literally, and Apple’s services are something that kind of look like exchange if you squint really hard and eat paint chips. As I went through the process of syncing my contacts with Google’s exchange account, I was shocked how easy it was and how fast it was. My calendars went seamlessly as well. No hiccups. No I-think-I’m-gonna-regret-this moment. Just a few minutes between my phone and computer following easy directions.

4) WordPress & Tumblr > iWeb

Software is dying. Particularly Consumer web publishing software. No matter what you need to accomplish, iWeb will cripple you and WordPress, Tumblr and the like will empower you. They are easy to set up, 100% customizable, and require absolutely no programming to use. My mom even has a few WordPress sites she uses and she fits exactly within the iWeb demographic, no offense Mom. I was a big iWeb guy for a long time and had more than a dozen sites setup, but as WordPress got better and better and with other publishing tools like Tumblr popping up, iWeb went from kind of useful to completely useless. I’ve moved on.

So there it is. I’m done! I got everything for free, sans the optional additional storage I purchased from Dropbox, and I couldn’t be happier. 2007 seems so long ago. MobileMe is a tired program and it feels liberating to no longer be tied to something so closed-up. So, 4 years and $400 later, I say peace out, MobileMe, I’ve got all you could offer and more, without you.

Why I won’t buy much from the Mac App Store

admin — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 06:04:32 +0000

Simply put, it’s because of PRICE. Ever since the introduction of the iOS App Store, people don’t want to pay much money for applications. When the iPad was introduced, developers started adding the “HD” tag to apps and started charging more for them. And by more, I mean 2-3x more for them. Now with the Mac App Store (I’ll be referring it as “MAS” for the rest of the post), developers are still charging even more. I’ll post a few examples below.

First up, Angry Birds. Android? Free. iPhone? $0.99. iPad? $4.99. Mac? Currently $4.99, but is half-off for a “limited time”, so it’ll be $10 eventually. That’s TWICE as much as the iPad version (well, it will be once their “sale” is over). While $10 doesn’t sound like much, it’s still a lot more than what I’ll ever be willing to pay. It’s essentially the same exact game. Same music, same graphics, same angry birds, and same retarded pigs. Why pay more?

Next up djay. iPad? $19.99. Mac? A whopping $49.99. Take a look at the screenshots of the iPad version and the Mac OS X version. It’s essentially the same exact app, so why pay more?

That’s all the comparisons that I’ll be doing. I can go on and on and on.

It looks as though the whole MAS piracy thing is going to become very popular in a very short amount of time. If developers keep overcharging for apps, then more people will pirate them. It’s that simple.

[How-To] Enable AirPrint on 10.6.5 in 1-click

admin — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 14:08:29 +0000

Apple, oddly enough, removed AirPrint from 10.6.5 at the last minute. Nobody knows why, but if you want it back, you can easily “hacktivate” AirPrint with this simple and free tool.

Homepage | Download

Just click on “hacktivate”, and the proper files for AirPrint will be transferred over.

Enjoy!

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Mac Screenshot Tips

admin — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 18:00:33 +0000

Ok, so most of you have figured out how to take a screenshot on your computer. On the Mac the shortcut is Command-Shift-3. Here are a few tips to take things further.

Besides the above-mentioned shortcut, there are other ones that do different things. For example, Command-Shift-4 will let you drag a box over what you want to take a picture of. Command-Shift-4 and then spacebar will bring up a bizzare little camera that will take pictures of specific windows.

Personally I find these all really handy. There are, however, some Terminal commands that can help you out. You may have tried entering some commands into the Terminal before to change different appearance aspects of your Mac. These are some similar and very simple commands that let you change things about your screenshots. After all of these, you will have to enter

killall SystemUIServer

which will restart your menubar and allow for the changes to take effect. Ok, here’s what you can type in:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture name [your preferred name]

This one will let you change the prefix of the screenshot’s file names. I personally got tired of my screenshots being called “Screen shot 2010-11-1 at 6.03.28 PM Benjamin Summers.” Unfortunately, you can’t change the date and time with this, but you can change the prefix to something shorter.

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /Users/[your username]/Documents/Screenshots/

This second one is used to change the output location of screenshots. You probably know they default to the desktop, which is annoying, especially if you try to keep your desktop really clean like me (I like to be able to see my wallpaper, thank you!)

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

This one will change the format screenshots are captured in to a JPEG. A neat little trick if you don’t like the default PNG. You can also try replacing “jpg” with other image formats, such as GIF, TIF, and PDF.

defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true

This last one is kind of obscure, but still useful. If you take a picture of a window using Command-Shift-4 and then the spacebar, you’ll grab the shadow as well. This command will remove the shadow from the image when you do this. This will help if you’re using a picture of a window in an article or something. Here’s an example.

Shadow on:

Shadow Off:

So those are some cool tips for screen captures. One more thing, if you want to take a picture of your dock, and don’t want to mess around with sizing it correctly, just press Command-Shift-4, then spacebar, then move your mouse over your dock. It’ll resize the area to fit. Same goes with the menubar. Also, don’t forget to enter “killall System UIServer” after these commands. Logging out or turning off your computer should have the same effect. Anyway, I hope you found these helpful! I certainly use them on a day to day basis.

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Flight Control HD coming to the Mac App Store

admin — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 03:50:17 +0000

Let’s just hope that it won’t cost that much more than the iPhone version… People look to iOS app store a cheap way of getting great apps. Once the Mac App Store is out, people are going to think the same way. Therefore, applications in the Mac App Store better be cheap.

No official press release from Firemint has been released yet.

Apple announces iLife ’11 – New iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand

admin — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 19:11:19 +0000

Apple has also announced iLife 2011 (’11). With it comes updated versions of iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand. These new versions bring a number of new and interesting features. iWeb and iDVD, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have been updated. More information, images, and the press release are all here in this post.

[spoiler show="Show press release" hide="Hide press release"]

Apple Introduces iLife ’11 With Major Upgrades to iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand

CUPERTINO, California—October 20, 2010—Apple today introduced iLife® ’11, a major upgrade that gives Mac® users even more great ways to create and share photos, movies and music. iPhoto® ’11 has a whole new look, with stunning full screen modes for Faces, Places and Events. iMovie® ’11 makes it easier than ever to edit videos and quickly transform them into fun theatrical trailers for easy posting online. GarageBand® ’11 introduces new ways to improve your playing and create great sounding songs with Flex Time and Groove Matching. Free with every new Mac, iLife ’11 is available as a $49 upgrade for existing users.

“iLife is widely regarded as the best suite of ‘Digital Life’ applications in the world, and iLife ’11 makes them even better,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iLife now makes it easier than ever to create books and letterpress cards, make amazing movie trailers from your personal videos and post them online, and make your band sound far better or teach yourself piano or guitar.”

iPhoto ’11 features stunning new full screen modes that take advantage of your Mac’s brilliant display for browsing, editing and showcasing your photos. Sharing your photos is easier than ever in iPhoto ’11, whether you send them by email using one of eight beautiful themes, post them to your Facebook wall with a single click, or play them in full screen with one of 12 professionally designed slideshows. iPhoto ’11 features a completely new approach to creating books and cards with a sleek carousel interface, intelligent book layout and a bookshelf that displays all your projects. New letterpress cards let you combine your photos and text with elegant imprinted designs to create unique wedding invitations, birth announcements, holiday greetings and more.

iMovie ’11 helps you turn your videos into captivating Hollywood-style trailers that are fun to watch and share. You can choose from 15 different genres including Adventure, Romantic Comedy and Epic Drama, each one complete with its own unique titles, graphics and cinematic soundtrack. Powerful new tools make it easy to selectively adjust audio levels and apply sophisticated visual effects like flash and hold, instant replay and jump cuts with a single click. People Finder analyzes your videos and marks sections containing faces, so you can quickly find the perfect clips for your trailer or movie. iMovie ’11 also adds exciting new themes that make your videos look like professional news or sports programs.

GarageBand ‘11 includes two new ways to fix or change the timing of your recordings. Flex Time lets you move, stretch or shorten individual notes by clicking on just the part of the audio waveform you want to change, without affecting the rest of the recording. With Groove Matching, you can select any track as the “Groove Track” and all other tracks will instantly match its rhythmic feel. GarageBand ’11 adds seven authentic-sounding new guitar amps, five fun new stompbox effects, and 22 new Basic Lessons for piano and guitar. The new “How did I Play?” feature listens while you play along with any lesson, highlights mistakes and tracks your progress to help you become a better musician.

Pricing & Availability
iLife ’11 is available immediately for a suggested retail price of $49 (US) through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The iLife ’11 Family Pack includes five licenses and is available for $79 (US) and the Mac Box Set which includes iLife ’11, iWork® and Mac OS® X v10.6 Snow Leopard® is available for $129 (US).

iLife ’11 requires Mac OS X version 10.6.3 or later, a Mac computer with an Intel processor, 1GB of RAM, a DVD drive for installation and 5GB of available disk space. iPhoto print products and GarageBand Artist Lessons are sold separately and are available in select countries. Full system requirements and more information on iLife ’11 can be found at www.apple.com/ilife.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

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iPhoto ’11

Stunning new full-screen views.

Completely immerse yourself in your photos onscreen and in print. Browse, edit, and share them with new full-screen views. Then take your best shots and turn them into gorgeous photo books.

iMovie ’11

Starring Hollywood-style movie trailers.

Turn your home videos into epic movie trailers. Create TV-like sports highlights and news segments. Add special effects. And edit sound, too. iMovie makes you an indie filmaker instantly.

GarageBand ’11

Suddenly, everyone can have rhythm.

Now you have everything you need to make great-sounding-songs — including perfect rhythm, a good groove, and guitar and piano lessons. Are you ready to rock?

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Apple announces Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” – App Store, Release for Summer 2011

admin — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:59:52 +0000

Today, Apple has announced their next iteration to Mac OS X: 10.7 “Lion”. Apple’s goal with Lion was to sort of combine some elements of the iOS into Mac OS X. They’ve also created a Mac App Store (will also be available for Snow Leopard within 90 days), which is a decent solution for a centralized application market. There’s also “Launchpad”, which gives you home screens and folders, similar to iOS. Finally, there’s “Mission Control”, which lets you manage all of your windows and more. Pricing is unknown at this time, but is scheduled for a Summer 2011 release. More information, pictures, and press release after the break-o-clicko.

[spoiler show="Show press release" hide="Hide press release"]

Apple Gives Sneak Peek of Mac OS X Lion

CUPERTINO, California—October 20, 2010—Apple® today gave a sneak peek of Mac OS® X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system. Shipping next summer, Lion is inspired by many of iPad’s software innovations. Today’s sneak peek highlighted just a few of Lion’s features, including the Mac® App Store℠, a new way to discover, install and automatically update desktop apps; Launchpad, a new home for all of your Mac apps; system-wide support for full screen apps; and Mission Control, which unifies Exposé®, Dashboard, Spaces® and full screen apps into an innovative new view of everything running on your Mac, and allows you to instantly navigate anywhere.

“Lion brings many of the best ideas from iPad back to the Mac, plus some fresh new ones like Mission Control that Mac users will really like,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Lion has a ton of new features, and we hope the few we had time to preview today will give users a good idea of where we are headed.”

The Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to OS X, making discovering, installing and updating Mac apps easier than ever. Like on iPad™, you purchase apps using your iTunes® account and they download and install in just one step. App updates are delivered directly through the Mac App Store, so it’s easy to keep all of your apps up to date. The Mac App Store will be available for Snow Leopard® within 90 days and will be included in Lion when it ships next summer.

Launchpad makes it easier than ever to find and launch any app. Similar to the Home screen on iPad, you can see all the apps on your Mac elegantly displayed just by clicking the Launchpad icon in the dock. Apps can be organized in any order or grouped into folders, and you can swipe through multiple pages of apps to find the one you want.

Lion includes system-wide support for full screen applications. With Lion, you can enter full screen mode with just one click, switch from one full screen app to another with just a swipe of the trackpad, and swipe back to the desktop to access your multi-window applications.

Mission Control presents you with a unified view of every app and window running on your Mac, so you can instantly navigate anywhere. Mission Control also incorporates the next generation of Exposé, presenting all the windows running on your Mac grouped by application, alongside thumbnails of full screen apps, Dashboard and other Spaces.

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Photo Gallery

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Apple announces FaceTime for the Mac – Beta available

admin — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:42:44 +0000

Apple today has announced that FaceTime will be available for all Mac owners. With it, you can video call other Mac users as well as iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4G owners. Apple has also put out a beta, which requires Mac OS X 10.6.4 (or later). More information and download links (and the press release!) after el break-o.

From Apple’s FaceTime for Mac page:

Now your smile goes even further.

FaceTime for Mac makes it possible to talk, smile, wave, and laugh with anyone on an iPhone 4, iPod touch, or Mac from your Mac over Wi-Fi. So you can catch up, hang out, joke around, and stay in touch with just a click. Sure, it’s great to hear a voice. But it’s even better to see the face that goes with it.

Apple has posted a link to download the Beta, but it seems to just download the iWork ’09 trial.

[spoiler show="Show press release" hide="Hide press release"]

Apple Brings FaceTime to the Mac

Macs Can Video Call Over 19 Million iPhone 4 & iPod touch Users

CUPERTINO, California—October 20, 2010—Apple® today announced the public beta of FaceTime® for Mac®, an entirely new application that allows Mac users to video call iPhone® 4 and iPod touch®* users as well as other Macs. Featuring an easy to use interface, FaceTime for Mac automatically uses your Address Book contacts so there’s no need to create special buddy lists, and it works seamlessly with the built-in camera and mic on Mac notebooks, iMac® and Apple LED Cinema Displays.

“FaceTime makes video calling to or from mobile devices easy for the first time,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve sold more than 19 million FaceTime-ready iPhone 4 and iPod touch devices in the past four months, and now those users can make FaceTime calls with tens of millions of Mac users.”

FaceTime for Mac requires Mac OS® X Snow Leopard® and is easy to set up with an Apple ID. The public beta is available immediately as a free download at www.apple.com/mac/facetime.

*iOS 4.1 required.

[/spoiler]

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New products by Apple accidentally leaked [Updated]

admin — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:47:42 +0000

With a few hours left, people are trying to figure out exactly what Apple will be announcing today. On Apple’s discussion forum, it was noted that there will be 5 new discussion categories (all of which will change/have changed):

Apple quickly fixed this by replacing those names with generic characters, such as “a” and “ac”.

There’s some speculation as to what “Reserved 10 20″ will be. Rumor has it that Apple will either be discontinuing iWeb ’11 in favor of building it into Mac OS X, so “Reserved 10 20″ could be Mac OS X 10.7.

The world will know what Apple has in store in roughly 2 hours. Also, Apple will be providing a live stream so that users around the world can watch the event live on their Mac OS X 10.6 machine or their iOS device.

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UPDATE: Apple has removed all of those discussion categories except for “Reserved 10 20″, which of course is now named “a”.

Apple’s “Back to the Mac” rumor round-up (sort of)

admin — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:52:53 +0000

With Apple’s “Back to the Mac” event being less than

[LCT-|-embed]

away, there’s a lot of speculation about the next MacBook Air, and more obviously, Mac OS X 10.7. Contained in this post is a list of all of the rumors that have been floating around over the past year or so.

New MacBook Air? Most likely…

New redesign with a USB port on both the right and left side of the device
Integrated “SSD-card” for super fast startup and application load times
Upgradable RAM and SSD (2GB of RAM to begin with)
2.1GHz (with 2GB of RAM) and a 2.4GHz (with 4GB of RAM) configuration – Not sure if it’ll be Core i3/i5 based, so a Core 2 Duo seems more likely
Price to start at $1100 for the base model, and up to $1400
Possibly a 11.6″ display
Black power key

Mac OS X 10.7? Absolutely…

A slightly altered interface that resembles more of the iOS (iOS-like scrollbars, rubber-band style inertial scrolling, Quick Look updates, etc)
Supposedly will be even faster and slightly more slim compared to Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard”
Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” could be the name, indicated by the invitation that Apple sent out
FaceTime should be added to iChat
Speaking of iChat, it might be headed to Windows
FaceTime might also be integrated into iTunes 10.1

Small hardware changes to current Macs? Possibly…

Apple has been known for slightly altering the hardware in Mac computers
Usually happens every 6-12 months

Tablet Mac? Hmm…

Rather unlikely, but it’s interesting to think about
Notice the invitation. Behind the Apple logo reveals a lion
The silver material is obviously the aluminum housing for some sort of computer
The fact that the Apple logo is sort of cut-out like that could indicate some sort of tablet-style Mac, where the screen portion can flip out and act as a multitouch monitor
There have been some rumors of a multitouch display, so maybe this will be it

iLife 2011? Sure!

iLife hasn’t seen an update since 2009
Not much to say about it…

Basically, the 2 stars of the show will be the new MacBook Air and Mac OS X 10.7.

What do you think Apple will talk about? Think our list is stupid? Let us know! Leave your comment down below.

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Apple ‘Back to the Mac’ Media Event

admin — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 17:07:44 +0000

This should be interesting. After putting a lot of emphasis towards iOS in the last few events, Apple is now hosting an event that seems to be putting it’s efforts towards showing what’s next for Mac OS X.

The event will be held October 20th, 10 A.M. Pacific Time on the Cupertino campus.

By the looks of the picture on the invitation it looks like it will be focusing on 10.7 which just may be named “Lion” which follows the Big Cat theme. It has also been a while for some notebook hardware refreshes such as the MacBook Air, and they may just make an announcement at the event.

HyperDock

admin — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:00:32 +0000

HyperDock is a really cool Mac application I just discovered recently. It brings some really cool features from Windows 7 to the Mac. For example, it will display a preview of the windows in an application if you mouse over its dock icon, much like Aero Peek in Windows 7. If you hold your cursor over the popup you’ll see a transparent preview of the window appear. There is also a button to close the window, and an indicator of what space it’s in. As well as the basic popup with the close button, there are application-specific popups. For example, there is one for iTunes that has controls for pausing and skipping tracks. The other app-specific popup is for iCal, and it shows your upcoming events. I don’t really use iCal, but I’m sure it works just as advertised.

Another feature HyperDock brings in from Windows 7 is the Aero Snap feature. If you’re familiar with Windows 7 you know that this is very useful for window management. In HyperDock it’s just called Window Snapping, and it works the same way as you think it would. Just drag a window to the sides of the screen and it will snap into place. Dragging to the top will make it fill the screen, dragging to the bottom will make it fill the lower half, and dragging to the right or left will make it fill half the screen vertically. The latter is very helpful for comparing windows, or dragging stuff between them. Also, if you hold a window on a side for a few seconds, it will move over a space. If you prefer moving windows between spaces with keyboard shortcuts, you can do that too.

When you download HyperDock what you actually get is a System Prefrences pane, which is where you have settings for all the things that the program does. There are some general settings, where you can change things such as the size of the window popups, whether to show the space number, and so on. After that you get shortcut settings, where you can add keyboard shortcuts to applications, which is another cool feature. Some of the options are listed in this picture:

As you can see, I have Command-Shift-Clicking on an app’s icon to quit that app. There are many other commands that work on any dock icon, most notably hide all other apps, expose, and execute AppleScript. As well as these, there are application-specific commands. For example, you can set a keystroke to opening a new tab or window in Safari, opening a new window in Finder, or triggering music controls in iTunes, such as, pause, stop, mute, volume, etc. I have mine set to scrolling up and down on the iTunes icon changes the volume, which is really fun to do. You can add as many apps or actions as you want. Also, if you don’t like the default keystrokes they have to choose from, you can make your own. You just hold down the keys you want and it will detect what you are pressing.

As I mentioned above, you can move apps between spaces with a shortcut. This can be configured in the window management section:I have mine set to Command-Option and then an arrow key or number will move the current window between spaces. It doesn’t always work though. I’m sure they’ll fix that. The final screen is just an about screen with some contact information, an uninstall button, and a checkbox that turns the whole thing on or off.

I was certainly impressed when this application and I bet you will be too. It has a very nice interface and is easy to use. If you are a Mac user that envies the latest features in Windows 7, this should cure you. You can get it now on OS 10.6.+ for free at http://hyperdock.bahoom.de/ I recommend getting it now, because they say on their website that once it goes out of beta it will probably cost a small fee. I’m happy to get it free, but I think it’ll be worth whatever small price tag it carries.

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iOS 4.2 Beta 2 (iPhone 4) – First Thoughts

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 02:21:06 +0000

Apple release iOS 4.2 beta 2 (to developers ) last night. I’ve just installed it onto my iPhone 4 (which, interestingly, doesn’t have its UDID activated with a developer). Now, this is a beta, so bugs and speed problems should be accounted for, but here are my first initial thoughts on it. Another note: A lot of these changes were present in beta 1, so there’s nothing really new in beta 2.

The first thing I noticed is that it seems a tad slower than 4.1 did. The animation when opening apps can sometimes be a bit sluggish/choppy.

The next thing I noticed is that the Voice Memos icon has changed (for the worse, see screenshot below).

The new Voice Memos icon

The next thing I noticed is that the baseband (of the iPhone 4 at least) has been updated (see screenshot below). I tried preserving my baseband when updating to 4.2b2, but it didn’t work, but the iPhone 4 has downgradable basebands when downgrading to signed firmwares, so should I ever need to unlock, I can downgrade my version of iOS and my baseband.

Damn crappy baseband!

Next up, find text within web pages in Safari. The way it’s implemented isn’t the greatest, and it may improve as more beta releases are released. Currently, you have to tap in the search box, start typing something you want to search, and Safari will give you “on this page (# matches)”.

Find text inside of web pages

Next up, printing. You can now print various documents from within apps (that support printing, of course), which currently require the Mac OS X 10.6.5 delta update.

The print button in Safari

Finally, Game Center badges in App Store. When browsing the App Store for games, you’ll get a badge under a game that is supported with Game Center. See the below screenshot.

The Game Center badge

That seems to be about it! Nothing big for iPhone users. The real updates come to iPad users, as the finally get iOS 4, which includes folders, multitasking, and more.

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Add me on Game Center: besweeet

Download iOS 4.2 beta 2 for all devices & iTunes 10.1 beta for Mac and Windows NOW!

admin — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 00:12:37 +0000

Apple this evening has released iOS 4.2 beta 2 for the iPad, iPhone 4, 3GS, 3G, iPod Touch 4G, 3G, 2G, as well as the beta of iTunes 10.1 for Mac OS X, Windows x86, and Windows x64. At the moment, actual details of what’s new in this release are unknown, but there are some changes to the way printing works as well as some Xcode related goodies. Release notes and download links for all are after the jump.

[spoiler show="Show release notes" hide="Hide release notes"]

iOS SDK Release Notes for iOS 4.2 beta 2

Introduction

iOS SDK 4.2 provides support for developing iOS applications and includes the complete set of Xcode tools, compilers, and frameworks for creating applications for iOS and Mac OS X. These tools include the Xcode IDE and the Instruments analysis tool among many others.

With this software you can develop applications that run on iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 4.2. You can also test your applications using the included iPhone Simulator, which supports iOS 4.2. Installing iOS SDK 4.2 requires a Macintosh computer running Mac OS X 10.6.4 (Snow Leopard) or later.

For more information and additional support resources, visit:

http://developer.apple.com/devcenter/ios/program/

Bug Reporting

Please report any bugs not mentioned in the “Notes and Known Issues” section using the Apple Bug Reporter on the Apple Developer website at: http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter/. Additionally, you may discuss these issues and iOS SDK 4.2 in the Apple Developer Forums:http://devforums.apple.com.

Notes and Known Issues

The following issues relate to using the 4.2 SDK to develop code.

Xcode

Xcode can sometimes appear to hang and unresponsive for a few seconds. If you run into this issue, you can disable the automatic documentation download, to prevent this from happening again.To disable the automatic documentation download, choose Xcode->Preferences->Documentation and uncheck the “Check for and install updates automatically” option.
In iOS Beta 2, there is a new option for specifying the Base SDK called “Latest SDK”. This is the Apple recommended (and best) choice for most iOS developers. It will cause your project to always use the newest available SDK.

Advertising

Using iAds for the first may throw some errors, often followed by a successful request. This should not block development and will eventually work.

Audio

The iPad screen rotation lock switch now functions as a sound/silent switch in iOS 4.2. This switch behaves as the ring/silent switch does on iPhone.Applications targeted for iPad will need to take this into account when implementing audio behaviors.For more information on audio behavior guidelines and how to implement them, see “Handling Common Tasks” in iPhone Human Interface Guidelines and the Audio Session Programming Guide.

Calendar

Calendar can now import .ics files directly as a way to add events. If your app has access to .ics files, you should test importing them with the UIDocumentInteractionController API.

GameKit

Apps can use the GKFriendRequestComposeViewController class to initiate friend requests.

Media Player Framework

Applications using MPMoviePlayerController and MPMoviePlayerViewController to play movies now automatically benefit from AirPlay for Videos, provided they use the standard transport controls. However, video streams that rely on cookies for credentials are not supported and should be passed in the URL.

Printing

iOS 4.2 devices can print wirelessly to printers that support AirPrint, including:
- HP Photosmart Premium Fax e-All-in-One Printer – C410
- HP Photosmart Premium e-All-in-One Printer series – C310
- HP Photosmart Plus e-All-in-One Printer series – B210
iOS 4.2 devices can print to printers shared through a Mac or a PC.
For iOS 4.2 beta 2, testing printing requires:
- A printer that supports AirPrint, running the latest available firmware
- A printer shared through a Mac running Mac OS X 10.6.5 beta, available on the iOS developer page
- A printer shared through a PC running iTunes 10.1 beta, available on the iOS developer page
Choosing the menu item “Open Printer Simulator” from iPhone simulator does nothing.Launching the PrinterSimulator directly from /Developer/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/Applications provides access to the PrinterSimulator.

Simulator

Building an app that weak links CoreVideo.framework against the 4.2 Simulator SDK and running against the 3.2 Simulator will result in a crash. The same configuration will work when building against the 4.2 device SDK and running on a 3.2 device.

[/spoiler]

Thumbnail image - Beta details.

Donations

Would you like to donate a little bit? You can do so via PayPal by sending the donation to contact@gumballtech.com.

iTunes 10.1 Beta, Mac OS X – 65.9MB

iTunes 10.1 Beta, Windows x86

iTunes 10.1 Beta, Windows x64

iPad iOS 4.2 beta 2 – 520.38MB

iPhone 4 iOS 4.2 beta 2 – 622.31MB

iPhone 3GS iOS 4.2 beta 2 – 403.45MB

iPhone 3G iOS 4.2 beta 2 – 322.6MB

iPod Touch 4G iOS 4.2 beta 2 – 620.49MB

iPod Touch 3G iOS 4.2 beta 2 – 391.32MB

iPod Touch 2G iOS 4.2 beta 2 – 349.18MB

[Mac] Jailbreak iOS 4 with PwnageTool 4.0

admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:26:03 +0000

The iPhone-Dev Team has just released PwnageTool 4.0 for Mac OS X (sn0wbreeze for 4.0, PwnageTool’s Windows equivalent, is available here). You can jailbreak the iPhone 3GS (old bootrom, not jailbroken with Spirit), iPhone 3G, and iPod Touch 2G (non-MC model). It creates a custom already jailbroken IPSW that you can restore to from within iTunes. Instructions and download links after the jump.

Basically, you give PwnageTool the OFFICIAL IPSW file for iOS 4 (NOT the GM), set some options, and let it create a custom, pre-jailbroken IPSW file for you. Then, you restore to that IPSW file in iTunes.

If you don’t know whether your iPhone 3GS is on the new bootrom or not, run f0recast. If you’re on an iPhone 3G or an iPod Touch 2G (without the MC at the beginning of your model number), then you’re good to go with PwnageTool or redsn0w.

Also, PwnageTool is Mac only (hence the .dmg and .app). PwnageTool’s equivalent, sn0wbreeze, is currently not compatible with iOS 4. It will be eventually. You can also use redsn0w (iPhone 3G, iPod Touch 2G) for Mac & Windows, and it doesn’t require a restore.

OFFICIAL IPHONE-DEV TEAM PRESS RELEASE

Download Links (14.6MB, PwnageTool_4.0.dmg)

Since you can’t permanently screw up your device, we recommend playing with PwnageTool by customizing its options to your liking.

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Download iTunes 9.2 (DIRECT) for Mac & Windows

admin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:04:46 +0000

Apple has just released iTunes 9.2 for both Mac and Windows. It contains several new features, including syncing for iOS 4, Folder management, and more. iTunes 9.2 also makes “scrolling much faster”. Read on for direct download links.

Mac OS X | Windows | Windows (x64)

One noticeable change is that the picture of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, now has a screenshot of the homescreen. It’s not your actual homescreen, but more of the default.

- Enjoy

iTunes 9.0.3 Released for Windows & Mac OS X

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:10:46 +0000

Apple has just released iTunes 9.0.3, which contains the following fixes:

iTunes 9.0.3 provides a number of important bug fixes, including:

• iTunes no longer ignores your “Remember password for purchases” setting.
• Addresses problems with syncing some Smart Playlists and Podcasts with iPod.
• Resolves a problem recognizing when iPod is connected.
• Addresses issues that affect stability and performance.

You can download it through Apple Software Update, or stand-alone here: http://bit.ly/2E3DCZ

Core i5 MacBook Pro Coming Soon?

admin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:08:07 +0000

Even if the above image was a huge mistake, the next series of MacBook Pro’s will most likely have the new Intel Core i5 quad-core CPU. That is all .

Mac OS X 10.6.3 Testing Begins

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:15:04 +0000

Yesterday, Apple pushed the first beta build of 10.6.3 for Snow Leopard. Weighing in at nearly 700MB, this update fixes hundreds of problems:

People familiar with the matter say the first external build of the software — labeled Mac OS X 10.6.3 build 10D522 and weighing in at 665.7MB in barebones delta form — includes a total of 221 code corrections to 92 distinct system components.

Among those components receiving the most attention are AppKit, CoreMedia, Desktop Services, FileSync, Fonts, HIToolbox, iCal, Mail, MobileMe, and QuickTime Player X, those same people say.

Other individual and welcomed enhancements include improvements to Snow Leopard’s automatic spell correction, and fixes for crashes while printing and using AppKit, the Dock, iCal, Mail, Photo Booth, Rosetta, Spotlight, Screen Sharing, and Software Updater.

In total, nearly 60 individual pieces of crash-prone code have reportedly been addressed as of build 10D522.

Apple also reportedly noted four known issues with Wednesday’s beta, including hangs in iTunes, and potential anomalies while updating applications, viewing Display preferences, and navigating the ColorSync Utility Filters tab.

Source: Apple Insider

Native NTFS Read/Write Support in Snow Leopard Leads to Unresponsive Machines

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:39:08 +0000

With a new operating system comes new features. With new features comes new bugs. With new bugs come new and angry users, like me. If you’ve been using Snow Leopard’s native NTFS read/write support feature, you may want to immediately stop what you’re doing, and switch over to using NTFS-3G.

This new feature may work fine for you for a while, but you may eventually notice your system becoming very unresponsive, or poor in performance. With the case with our MacBook Pro, we’ve been getting CONSTANT beach balling, total system freezes, and worst yet, kernel panics (here, here, here, here). Looking at the first image, you can see that the kernel panic was due to the NTFS file system drivers just spazzing out. We ran into so many problems. Once we disabled native NTFS read/write support, our system was running just like new! No beach balls (they still come out every now and then, but only for a few seconds), freezes, or kernel panics! Life is good! We were fixing to give our MacBook Pro away, but we came up with this idea, which ended up being the cause of all of the problems.

The bottom line is that, if you’re using Snow Leopard’s native NTFS read/write support feature, disable it now. Instead, use NTFS-3G if you need to write to your NTFS drives/partitions.

Apple Unveils new iMac, MacBook, Mac Mini, and all new Multi-Touch ‘Magic Mouse’

admin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:49:24 +0000

Apple today has unveiled new iMacs, MacBooks, Mac Minis, and a all new multi-touch Magic Mouse. Quick rundown:

New and faster iMac with a bigger display, starting at $1,199.
All new MacBook with slightly better specs and a all new design, starting at $999.
New and faster Mac Mini with a Mac Mini Server Edition, starting at $599.
World’s first multi-touch “Magic Mouse”, shipping with all new iMac’s or by itself for $69.

Full details below!

First, with the new iMac. It has been redesigned and features a new LED backlit display. It now comes in two sizes: 21.5″, and 27″. They both come with a new wireless Apple Keyboard and the new Multi-Touch Magic Mouse. The 21.5″ starts at $1,199. A rundown of all the new iMac features:

21.5″ (1920 x 1080) – 3.06GHz OR 3.33GHz Core 2 Duo.
27″ (2560 x 1440) – 3.06GHz OR 3.33GHz Core 2 Duo OR 2.66GHz Core i5 (up to 3.2GHz), OR 2.8GHz Core i7 (up to 3.46GHz) – Can also be attached to a wall with a VESA-compliant mount.
4GB DDR3 1066MHz SDRAM, up to 16GB.
21.5″ get either the 9400M with 256MB shared DDR3, OR the 4670 with 256MB GDDR3 dedicated.
27″ with a Core 2 Duo get either the 4670 with 256MB GDDR3 dedicated, OR 4850 with 512MB GDDR3 dedicated.
27″ with a Core i5 or Core i7 get either the 4850 512MB GDDR3 dedicated.
27″ has a DisplayPort INPUT, AND OUTPUT.
1 FireWire 800
4 USB 2.0
SD Card Slot
21.5″ get 500GB or 1TB HDD, and an optional 2TB HDD.
27″ get 1TB HDD, and an optional 2TB HDD.

Next, the new MacBook. The line of MacBook Pro’s are the same. The new MacBook starts at $999. It has a unibody enclosure, 7 hour battery, and a multi-touch trackpad. Rundown:

13.3″ – 1280 x 800
2.26GHz Core 2 Duo
2GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM, up to 4GB.
9400M 256MB DDR3 SDRAM GPU
2 USB 2.0
250GB HDD, optional 320GB or 500GB HDD
4.7 pounds.

The new Mac Mini starts at $599. There is also a special version with Snow Leopard Server. Rundown:

2.26GHz Core 2 Duo, OR 2.53GHz, OR 2.66GHz.
2GB DDR3 1066MHz SDRAM, up to 4GB.
1 FireWire 800
5 USB 2.0
160GB HDD, OR 320GB HDD, OR 500GB HDD.
New Mac Mini Server Edition.

Apple has unveiled the world’s first multi-touch mouse. This new Magic Mouse comes with all new iMac’s and is available by itself for $69. The whole surface is a big button, similar to the Mighty Mouse.

1 finger click – Click or double click anywhere on the surface.
2 finger right-click – Use 2 fingers to right-click.
360 degree scrolling – Scroll in any direction.
2 finger swiping – Forward/backward commands.

So there you have it! All new Apple products. We’re really looking forward to the Magic Mouse. The $69 price tag isn’t too bad, either.

VMware Fusion Beta 3 Preview (Gaming tests inside)

admin — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:41:18 +0000

VMware Fusion 3 will be released on October 27. Version 3 boasts lots of new features and performance enhancements, including full 64-bit support for Snow Leopard and Aero support for Windows Vista & 7. We were lucky enough to receive a copy of the version 3 beta (build 193526, the latest beta build).

This post will cover overall speed and gaming performance in this new version. We were quite surprised at how much better everything performed compared to VMware Fusion 2.0.6. We will not compare VMware Fusion with Parallels.

We are using Windows 7 Ultimate x64 edition via the Boot Camp (NTFS) partition. We gave the virtual machine 2 CPU cores and 2048MB of RAM. 3D was enabled. The host machine was a 15″ uMBP with a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo with 4GB DDR3 RAM & the 9600M GT (the 9600M GT was used, not the 9400).

The first thing we’re going to cover is the Windows Experience Index (WEI) scores. Below is what was obtained using native boot (via Boot Camp):

As you can see from that screenshot (taken with Windows 7′s Snipping Tool) that Aero is working. Note the scores for various components. Below is the WEI score after refreshing the score for VMware’s virtual hardware:

We were very surprised to see those scores. Gaming graphics dropped a lot, but everything else just dropped by a few points. Primary hard disk actually went up a little bit which really was a shock…

Performance wise, everything just seems a lot faster. Boot time was blazing fast compared to VMware Fusion 2 (we don’t have the numbers, we just know that it’s a lot faster). Programs open up faster, windows open faster, programs perform better, etc. Now onto gaming performance.

We tested 3 games, and used FRAPS to get its frame rate (FPS). You’ll see that in yellow text in the upper-left hand corner of the screenshots. The 3 games were Counter-Strike 1.6, Counter-Strike: Source, and FlatOut. We played all three at 1440×900 at various graphics settings. Again, we used the 9600M GT instead of the 9400 GPU. The VMware Fusion team posted on their blog that they were able to play Left 4 Dead in VMware Fusion 3. We’re guessing that they got fewer than 15FPS based on out tests below.

First, we’ll start with CS 1.6. Below are the screenshots:

The first image shows the settings that we used. we usually play this game in D3D, because OpenGL just gives me weird graphical glitches. We couldn’t run either in the VM for some odd reason. So, we ran it in Software mode because it was our only choice, and that it should get a better frame rate. We were shocked at the horrible frame rate that we were getting in the game. It varied between 10FPS and 80FPS. It got maybe 45FPS when just walking around the map, but when there was a gun fight, it got down below 15FPS. We were pretty disappointed…

Next up is FlatOut. Below are the screenshots:

We were quite horrified by the frame rate that this game was getting also. The more objects that were in view, the lower the frame rate. The first screenshot shows the settings this game was played at. We usually play this game at full anisotropy and full antialiasing with triple buffering enabled, and get a locked frame rate of 60FPS. The 3.5 gaming graphics WEI score must really have been true.

Now onto CS:S, the most graphically intense game that we tested:

It averaged out at 33.69FPS. Based off the performance of the other 2 games, we played this one at the lowest possible settings (except for the resolution of course). We used the Video Stress Test to test this game. The frame rate varied from 20FPS to 60FPS. That’s all that we can say about this one.

Gaming performance in a virtual machine will never be like it will when you’re running the OS natively, but VMware Fusion 3 offers better gaming and 3D performance over VMware Fusion 2 and Parallels. These 3 games will probably play better at a lower resolution (maybe 800×600).

One thing we did notice was that the audio was very crackly/choppy.

Instead of playing a game in VMware, you should play it in CrossOver. We tested CS:S and FlatOut (number 2) and received a MUCH MUCH better frame rate than in VMware. Below is a screenshot of CS:S at the same settings as in VMware:

We were shocked at the frame rate differences that we’ve seen. We get almost 4x the frame rate in CrossOver than we did in VMware. Both instances were ran at the same exact settings.

We couldn’t get FlatOut running in CrossOver (we have gotten it to work after writing this post), so we ran FlatOut 2, which is more graphically intense than FlatOut. With anisotropy to the max and AA off with triple buffering/post processing ENABLED, we easily reached 30FPS (texture settings were set to Very High in-game):

So, in conclusion, if you plan on gaming on your Mac, it’s still best (and always has been) to boot into Windows via Boot Camp to play your games. You can also give CrossOver a try, as you’ll be quite pleased with the results. Not only will you get a better frame rate at higher settings, you also won’t have to deal with the odd audio problems. This may be fixed in the final version of VMware Fusion 3, but we’ll have to see in a few weeks.

[How-To] Run Windows XP, Vista, or 7 Natively on your Mac

admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:55:52 +0000

Running Windows on your Mac may sound like a very scary thing to do, but it’s really simple. If you want to run Windows on your Mac without a virtualization program (like VMware Fusion or Parallels), this is for you! It’s actually very easy and doesn’t take very much time, at all.

This tutorial will tell you how to install Windows, specifically Windows 7, on your Mac, using Apple’s ‘Boot Camp’ tool, which easily lets you safely partition your hard drive, and install Windows on to that new partition. I will be using Snow Leopard. The entire process should take between 20 and 60 minutes.

Before we start, you need to have a few things:

A copy of a Snow Leopard installation DVD – this contains the drivers for Windows which we will be installing last.
A copy of Windows – Windows XP, Vista, or 7 should work just fine.
30GB of free space – I recommend having at least 30GB of free space on your hard drive to make a Windows (NTFS) partition.

If you’ve got those 3 things, then we can get started:

1. Open up “Boot Camp Assistant” in Applications>Utilities.

2. Go through the series of menus to create a Windows partition.

3. When done, put in your Windows CD or DVD, and go to “Start the Windows Installer”. This restart your Mac into the Windows installer, where you would install Windows on to your hard drive.

4. Make sure you format the proper partition to NTFS. Don’t choose the wrong partition! Make sure you remember how big you made your Windows partition, since it’ll make formatting the right one easier.

5. Install Windows.

6. Once you’re at your desktop, pop in your Snow Leopard installation DVD.

7. Install the Boot Camp software and drivers.

8. Reboot.

That is just a quick overview of how to install Windows XP, Vista, or 7 onto your Mac. If you’ve installed Windows on a PC before, this is almost exactly like it, except making a partition is slightly different.

Snow Leopard removing users’ data

admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:09:12 +0000

Many people who are using the Guest account on their machine running Snow Leopard are having odd data deletion and/or corruption. It happens when someone upgrades their Mac to Snow Leopard from Leopard, and logs in to the new account. When they switch to their normal account, their data is gone.

My personal advise/tip: never upgrade an operating system, no matter what it is. Clean installs are always the way to go. Also, only use the Guest account if absolutely necessary.