The Swindon Branch of Game is selling OS X Panther 10.3 for £99. Found at the back of the store, not one but three battered boxes. Since OS X 10.7 Lion is due any day for about £20 this doesn’t seem to be flying off the shelves.
Panther arrived in 2003 and was replaced by OS X 10.4 Tiger in April 2005.
The Apple Macbook Pro Early 2011 with Bootcamp 3.2 or Bootcamp 4 will only support installations of Windows 7. Windows Vista, XP or earlier will not install on the laptop.
There is a PDF manual available for installing Windows 7 in Bootcamp on a Mac with OS X Lion.
The Remote HD third party add-on for a first generation Apple TV adds the Airplay functionality found the the second generation Apple TV. When Apple introduced the new Apple TV it decided not to bring any of the features over to the old Apple TV.
The first Apple TV is basically a cut down Mac with either a 40GB or 160GB hard drive. The key selling feature for me was the option of synchronising iTunes content from a computer and being able to display it on a TV without requiring the laptop to be connected up top to the TV. This is how we had been watching much of our digital content before.
However, there is a bit of setup time required getting the laptop plugged in each time and sorted to play. With the Gen 1 Apple TV music, photos, TV Shows and Films can be stored underneath the TV. If you have your computer playing out iTunes you could use the Apple TV Gen 1 to play out audio but not video content from your laptop.
With the Gen 2 Apple TV the plan shifted to creating a wireless media extender based around what is basically a screen-less iPhone with no storage. At the time it was suggested that consumers didn’t want to have to deal with storage, but this of course removes the ability to have the laptop switched off as was the case with the Gen 1 device.
The advantage with the Gen 2 device however is the ability to “AirPlay” audio and video from a laptop unto the Apple TV. You can therefore start watching a video on your iPhone or laptop and stream it to the Apple TV to display on the TV.
The Remote HD adds this functionality to the Apple TV Gen 1 so that you can stream from your iPhone with video.
Teamviewer is a remote desktop support and remote access system. Although providing similar functionality to Virtual Network Computing (VNC) products like RealVNC, I have been using Teamviewer as it is simple to configure and provide the “family-helpdesk” function if something like VNC isn’t already configured on the remote machine.
Performance on an average 2Mb ADSL link is suitable to have a Skype voice call and Teamviewer running concurrently. It runs on plenty of platforms, Windows XP, Vista, OS X, that are likely to need controlling and can also be controlled from an iPhone.
Best of all the application is free for personal use.
Apple have launched the iPad 2. The new model is available in the original black and a new white version. There is now a front and rear camera and the iPad 2 works with Facetime. The new Apple branded A5 chip replaces the A4 and is claimed to be twice as fast. The unit is slightly thinner than the previous model and very slightly lighter.
There is no increase in screen resolution. This is expected to come on the iPad 3 expected towards the end of the year. The iPad 2 will be in the shops from 25 March.
Elton John told BBC News (watch from 1:10) that he was getting his first technological device while being interviewed about his new film Gnomeo and Juilet. He doesn’t own a mobile phone or use a computer. However he will be getting an iPad in April that will allow him to Skype to see his new son. This implies a front facing camera for the new iPad and an April release for sale.
Some sources are saying the iPad 2 will be launched on the 13 February.
Apple launched the OS X Mac App Store on 6 Jan 2011. A standalone application that replicates the iTunes App Store (now featuring over 300,000 apps) used for buying Applications for the iPod Touch and the iPhone. The Mac App Store uses an iTunes account (Apple ID) but does not require iTunes to run. There are featured applications, Top Charts and Categories as well as Search to find applications you are looking for.
From a user perspective the applications seem to be reasonably priced and are a one-click install with no unzipping or mounting .dmg files as is usually the case on the Mac. Once apps are purchased from the store an icon appears in the dock at the bottom of the screen and you are ready to use. Upgrades are handled for the user also. For developers they get the same deal as wih the iOS focus app store. Apple take 30% with the developer getting 70%. For this Apple provide the hosting and the developer avoids having to focus on promotion and distribution as would be the case on their own site.
Since Apple provides a level of quality control to all the Apps submitted to the Mac App Store (in the same way as is applied to the iTunes App Store) there is some assurance that the Apps work okay. However, it also means that Apps written using non-standard or a custom API cannot get their App onto the store. Apple have also removed their old software catalogue section from their website which used to showcase applications available from Apple and 3rd parties.
Having initially thought that the idea would not transfer well to a “proper computer”, I have been pleasantly surprised by the Mac App Store. Although on a phone it is more or less essential to click your way round, rather than type URLs or command line instructions, I was not convinced that this reasoning would stand when a full size screen and keyboard were available. Clearly there will be some that will rule out the Mac App Store as stifling their freedom or not allowing a certain piece of software to run. Many will be on Linux already though. I think they will be in the low single percentage points of Mac users who won’t be able to use the Mac App Store for the fast majority of their application purchases. There is still a segment of the population that have yet to embrace computers at all and this kind of development is a step in the right direction to getting computers working more like consumer electronics.
If Apple could lower their prices slightly at the bottom end of their range and Windows doesn’t gain a near identical feature in Windows 8, Macs could see a growth in percentage share over the next year or two.
The Skype iPhone app has been updated for iPhone 4 to allow video calling. This fills the gap left by Apple’s Facetime which allows video calling iPhone-to-iPhone and now iPhone-to-Mac (Beta) but provides nothing for Windows users. Fring previously provided Skype video iPhone-to-iPhone until their fallout with Skype earlier in the year.
Apple have released iOS version 4.2 for iPhone and iPad at 1800 GMT today. The main advantage of the upgrade is for iPad users who now get many of the features that have been on the iPhone 4 since launch. The key ones being multi-tasking and the ability to organise apps into folders.
For iPhone 4 users who have these features already the next biggest features are AirPrint (the ability to print from the iOS devices to network enabled printers) and AirPlay (the ability to stream audio and video across the network) which replaces AirTunes (the ability to stream audio only). The best example is watching a movie on the iPad or iPhone and then streaming it onto an HD TV through the Apple TV. This feaure is only supported on the new Apple TV (not the old Apple TV) and the Airport Express. There will be support for 3rd party players in the future, a break from the Apple only situation with AirTunes.
For those without a MobileMe account there is now a free feature to locate missing iOS devices and remotely wipe or lock the device “Find My iPhone”. The final tweaks are minor, replying to invites in calendar, changing fonts in Notes, changing Message notification tone for different users and the ability to rent TV Shows in HD (previously just for HD Movies).
The 624MB download is installed via iTunes and available for free.
1Password for Mac is a password management tool. It is also available for PC and iPhone and iPad. There is a trial version that works for 7 days and the full version costs $40. There are free alternatives but the having tried a couple the thing I like best about this product is the option for one-click to open a website and enter the username and password details. I had previously been using Firefox to remember my passwords but the advantages of 1Password are the availability of an iPhone app that can synchronise login details and the ability to secure all the passwords with a strong “master password”.
Having used the product for a week I so far have had few problems with it. I initially imported my stored passwords from Firefox and started to sort through and delete the old passwords and sites that no longer existed! I was surprised to discover that Firefox was remembering 130 passwords for sites on the internet and this didn’t include some that I have stored in my head. 1Password allows auto-filling of passwords in both Safari and Firefox and to cross-browser functionality works well.
