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April 2006 News Archive

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Copyright 2006 by Bill Fox All rights reserved.
Last Updated: April 30, 2006


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[4/28] Apple Revised the Offerings from a Hot Deals Retailer

Ramjet has Hot Deals exclusive pricing on a wide variety of Mac compatible memory products including: 1GB DDR SDRAM Kit for PowerMac G4 MDD (Mirror Drive Door) for only $96.00!; 1GB PC-2700 DDR SO-DIMM module for G4 iBook for only $182.00; 2GB PC2-4200 DDR2-533 RAM Module for the G5 iMac/iSight for only $283.00!; 2GB PC2-5300 DDR2-667 RAM Kit (2/1GB modules) for the Intel-based Mac Mini for only $252.00!; 1GB DDR400 DIMM module for the original iMac G5 for only $97.00; and much more.

[Bill Fox]

[4/28] Brief Hands-On Report--Apple Keyboard Update 1.0 for Intel-based Macs

The Apple Keyboard Update 1.0 is available via the Software Update application for all Intel-based Macs and as a stand-alone updater from this Apple Web page. According to Apple,

About the Apple Keyboard Update 1.0

This update is recommended for the following computers:

-MacBook Pro
-iMac (Early 2006)
-Mac mini (Early 2006)

The Apple Keyboard Update 1.0 addresses reliability of keyboard and mouse functionality.

The installer guides you through the steps to install the Apple Keyboard Update.

System Requirements
Installation of the Apple Keyboard Update 1.0 requires Mac OS X version 10.4.6.

Being your unofficial early-adopters, we downloaded and installed Apple Keyboard Update 1.0 on an Intel-based iMac and MacBook Pro. It is a normal software update requiring a reboot and not a more complicated firmware update. All went well with our installations. We did not experience any problems with our keyboards or mice before installing the update and none since either. [Dana Baggett & Bill Fox]

[4/28] Divine Fiat Released Title Card theme for Keynote

Divine Fiat announced the immediate availability of Title Card, their latest theme for Apple's Keynote presentation software designed with film, TV and video professionals in mind. With photo cutouts in 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, Title Card is perfect for introducing your employer, clients or potential investors to your next project. It is also ideal for students or professors at film school. Title Card features a graphic design straight from the golden age of Hollywood and clear easy to read Arial Black text, Title Card is the perfect theme in which to package and present your concepts with power and style.

Title Card is a Keynote theme that's all about options. With fifty-six text and photo layout masters, the possibilities are endless. Because Keynote will only allow one title text box and one body text box per master slide we have included an extras file which provides a variety of text box layouts for each of our photo cutout masters. Simply drag them out of our extras file, drop them into your Keynote presentation and you're on your way to the perfect pitch.

Title Card is available in two version, Sepia or Noir. Each can be purchased individually for $19.95 or together as part of the Title Card collection for $34.90. [Bill Fox]

[4/28] ImageCaster Updated to v2.1 Universal Application

ImageCaster, the complete webcam solution for Mac OS X, was updated to version 2.1 by Econ Technologies. This version includes full Universal Binary support so that ImageCaster will run natively on both Power PC- and Intel-based Macs. With ImageCaster, a camera and a Mac, you have everything you need to set up your own personal webcam. Go to www.econtechnologies.com to find out all the details or try the demo. Purchase ImageCaster for only $30 and you are set for life--Econ updates often and it is always free. [Bill Fox]



[4/27]
Apple Announced Nominations Are Open for 2006 Apple Design Awards: Nominations are open for Apple's Design Awards for 2006. Make sure your outstanding Mac OS X product gets the attention it deserves. Enter the eleventh annual Apple Design Awards, recognizing technical excellence and outstanding achievement in software products and solutions for Mac OS X. Winning developers receive outstanding prizes, and their winning entries will be showcased at WWDC 2006 in August, Macworld 2007 in January, and on the Apple Web site.

With eight award categories to choose from and the latest Macintosh hardware as prizes, Apple Design Awards 2006 is a unique opportunity to receive recognition from Apple, from peers, and from Mac users around the world. [Bill Fox]



[4/27]
Brief Hands-On Report--Apple Pages 2.0.1 and Keynote 3.0.1 Updates: The updates are available via the Software Update application if iWork '06 is installed. They are also available as stand-alone files for download from this Apple Web page.

According to the ReadMe note,

Pages 2.0.1 addresses issues with charts and image adjust. It also addresses a number of other minor issues.

This update to Keynote 3.0 addresses issues with three-dimensional charts and textures. It also addresses a number of other minor issues. This update should be installed on all computers that share your Keynote 3.0 files, so that textures display properly.

We download and installed both with no apparent problems. We used both applications for several hours, revising presentations and documents, and found no problems. [Bill Fox]



[4/27]
Peachpit published Apple Boot Camp Public Beta First Look: Ben Long shows readers how to get up and running on Apple's Boot Camp quickly and effectively in his new book, Apple Boot Camp Public Beta First Look (Peachpit, ISBN: 0-321-47377-9,$6.99). Unlike emulation systems such as Microsoft's Virtual PC, Apple's new Boot Camp takes advantage of the fact that an Intel-equipped iMac, Mac mini or MacBook Pro uses the same type of Intel processor that normal Windows PCs use, allowing users to now run Windows XP on their Intel-equipped Mac at full speed.

While most of the information currently available on Boot Camp focuses mainly on installation, in Ben Long's Apple Boot Camp Public Beta First Look full-color downloadable PDF book, Mac authority Ben Long walks readers step by step through everything they need to know to get Boot Camp running effectively, including how to find their way around Windows, how to get Windows working with some of their other hardware, how to avoid Windows viruses and Malware, how to share data back and forth between Mac and Windows systems, how to back up their Windows system, how to restore their Windows system and finally, even how to virtualize Windows using Parallels. With this Apple Boot Camp Public Beta First Look, readers will get a solid grounding in how to get Windows XP up and running on their Mac quickly and effectively. [Bill Fox]



[4/27]
BeLight Software Introduced Image Tricks 2.0 Freeware: BeLight Software released freeware Image Tricks 2.0. This new version allows users to create unique images using the image generator feature and various Tiger Core Image visual effects. The results can be used as backgrounds, web-design illustrations, for print materials and more.

Image Tricks is also available in a Pro version (priced at $9.95), which contains 6 additional image generators.

"It is always a challenge to find a unique picture. With Image Tricks I can be sure that my image is one of a kind, no-one else in the world, even me wouldn't reproduce it:)" said Stanislav Sedashov, CEO for BeLight Software.

BeLight Software produces great software at value prices. [Bill Fox]



[4/26]
iTunes Music Store's Free Single of the Week Series Turns 2: Starting its third year, the iTunes Music Store's (iTMS) Single of the Week and Discovery Download series has released nearly 200 songs for download free--yes, that works out to more than one a week. The songs are from new and developing artists. As a tribute to the series, the iTMS has released an album of the best songs picked by iTMS staff from the series. [Bill Fox]



[4/26]
Macworld Magazine Wins Prestigious "Maggie" Publishing Award: Macworld was named the best computer magazine in the consumer category by the Western Publications Association at their 55th annual Maggie Awards banquet. The cover story of the winning June issue of Macworld was Time- Saving Tips. The prestigious award honoring excellence in print publishing was accepted by Macworld's Editorial Director, Jason Snell.

"It's tremendously gratifying to be recognized by the WPA's Maggie Awards," Snell said. "These awards, along with our recent Folio Award, show what a great job the Macworld editorial staff is doing these days, both in print and online."

In addition to the best computer consumer magazine, Macworld's "Total Tiger" special edition was presented with the best special theme issue in the consumer category. The widely popular issue provided Mac users with essential hints, tips and tricks for a smooth transition to Tiger, including a 24-page ultimate guide to its 200 new features.

"Our Total Tiger special issue gave our readers everything they needed to know about Apple's new operating system," Snell said. "It was created on a tight deadline by an incredibly small group of people, including Senior Editor Kelly Turner and Art Director Rob Schultz."

Macworld has been one of our favorite magazines since we got a subscription along with one of the very first 128K Macs. We still have a subscription despite the online edition. [Bill Fox]



[4/26]
The Fate of Maine's 30,000 iBooks: The initial contract with Apple is ending on the 30,000+ iBooks Maine has used for every seventh and eighth grader for the past 4 years. What will the state do with them? Remember the stampede for the Henrico County, VA, iBooks at the end of their program? Not in Maine. The 3-4 year old iBooks are being offered to school districts for $48 each and many are taking the state up on the deal. The ibooks will be used to expand the school's reach, used as backups, sold to students/parents or donated to lower income students. Apple successfully competed for a four-year extension of the highly successful program in Maine. More... [Dana Baggett]



[4/26]
Apple Revised the Offerings from Three Hot Deals Retailers:

J and R Computerworld has deals on a wide variety of Mac compatible products including: print directly to CD/DVD's with the Epson Stylus Photo R800 8-ink Photo Printer for only $379.99; the compact Edirol FA-101 FireWire audio capture interface supports ten channels in and out at 24-bit/96kHz resolution for only $499.00!; Wacom Graphire (white) 6X8 graphics tablet with pressure sensitive pen & cordless mouse. Includes Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 for only $169.99; see the big picture with the Viewsonic VA712B 17" LCD Color Display for only $209.99!; be sure you're getting the best color from your display with the Pantone Eye-One Display LT monitor profiling and calibration device for only $149.00; and much more.

MacZone has deals on a wide variety of Mac compatible products including: find out what's Inside Mac OS X Tiger training CD by Todd Howard. Bundle includes Tiger v10.4.3 for only $114.98; project a great image with the 6.4lbs. NEC VT48 SVGA projector for only $744.98; need a high performance black-and-white desktop laser printer? Get the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 1320N for only $498.98; backup everything with the LaCie Big Disk Extreme 500GB triple-interface (FW800/400/USB 2.0) external hard drive for only $349.99; get a free Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard with your purchase of Microsoft Office: Mac Standard Edition for only $347.96; and much more.

Publishing Perfection has deals on a wide variety of Mac compatible products including: the new Sony DSC-R1 10.3 megapixel digital camera for only $955.95!; or the 6.0 megapixel Nikon Coolpix S4 digital camera for only $399.95; make dimensional design in Illustrator easier with FoldUP!3D 1.5 from ComNet for only $379.95; speed up your productivity with the InDesign Idealbook from Logic Arts for only $59.95; get textures and much more with the Eye Candy 5 Bundle from AlienSkin. Includes Eye Candy 5: Textures, Eye Candy 5: Nature and Eye Candy 5: Impact for only $198.95; create, animate and render 3D scenes to popular vector and raster formats with Swift 3D v.3 from Electric Rain for only $165.95; get total photo and film restoration software with the Microtek ScanMaker i800 flatbed scanner for only $309.95 after $50 mail-in rebate!; and much more.

[Bill Fox]



[4/26]
SystemShootouts.com Updated for Intel-based Mac mini and 17" MacBookPro: Charles Gaba updated his SystemShootouts Web site with the following comparisons:

--New $600 Mac mini vs $600 Aopen MiniPC

--New $2,800 Laptop Shootout: 17" MacBook Pro vs 17" Dell Inspirion E1710

[Bill Fox]



[4/26]
Seiko to Ship New Fast SLP 450 Label Printer for the Mac: Seiko Instruments USA, the pioneer of the one-label-at-a-time "smart" printer, is shipping a new model in its flagship Smart Label Printer (SLP) line, offering higher resolution and a print speed of approximately one second per label. Seiko Instruments' new SLP 450 adds 2D barcode printing and improved network connectivity, pumping out high-quality, professional-looking labels that can include patient or customer information, bar codes for storing, shipping or inventory tracking, as well as text and graphics for labeling office files or cabinets. The printer also will generate name tags with the company logo for reception desk visitors or office events. In a home environment, the SLP 450 will label home office file folders, boxes or bins storing projects for the kids or fancy name tags for parties.

The Seiko Instruments SLP 450 is compatible with Mac OS X 10.2 and later. It will be available in May at an estimated street price of $189.



[4/25]
Apple Announced 17" MacBook Pro with Exceptional Value! Apple announced a new addition to its professional notebook series, the 17" 2.16GHz MacBook Pro. Priced at $2799 it is expected to ship in 7-10 business days according to the Apple Store.

Apple priced the new 17" MacBook Pro just $300 more that the top-end configured 15" 2.0GHz MacBook Pro at $2499. The 17" model is an incredible value since it comes with many additional features including: a 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo CPU (a $300 option on the 15" model); a larger or faster hard drive (a $100 option on the 15" model); a FireWire 800 port; 3 USB 2.0 ports (vs 2); 68 watt 5.5 hr battery (vs 60 watt 4.5 hr battery); and 8x Double Layer SuperDrive (vs 4x Single Layer SuperDrive). Of course, the 17" model gets a 17" screen with a higher resolution of 1680x1050 (vs 1440x900) but it is 1.3" wider and 0.8" deeper plus weighs some 1.2lbs more.

If one can accept the extra size and weight, the 17" model represents the best value. Having used 17" PowerBook G4's for the past several years, we certainly would have considered ordering a 17" model if they were available two weeks ago when we ordered our 15" model. It's actually too bad that Apple did not announce the entire lineup at the same time but that's life. As we noted yesterday, though, we are very happy with our 15" 2.16GHz MacBook Pro and, for now, we are pleased to carry a 'Book that has shed some size and weight in the change without losing any performance. [Bill Fox]



[4/25]
Brief Hands-On Report: Apple GarageBand 3.0.2 Update: It is available via the Software Update application if one has iLife '06 installed, or as a stand-alone file from this Apple Web page. According to the installer's Read Me note,

This update to GarageBand addresses issues with video handling, podcast exporting, and importing QuickTime markers. It also addresses a number of other minor issues.

We downloaded, installed and used the update with no apparent difficulties. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]



[4/25]
Apple Released Xsan Admin 1.3 and File System 1.3 Updates: The updates to Apple's enterprise-class storage area network (SAN) solution Xsan are available for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.3.9 from this Apple Web page. There is also an Xsan 1.3 Uninstaller for those who may run into unanticipated problems. [Bill Fox]



[4/25]
MacBook Pro ExpressCard 34 Devices Coming--Serial ATA Adapter from FirmTek: FirmTek, a maker of Serial ATA (SATA) storage solutions for the Macintosh platform, unveiled their new SeriTek/2SM2-E, a Serial ATA ExpressCard host adapter, at NAB 2006. With transfer rates up to 3 gigabits per second per port, this breakthrough solution sets a new standard for handling data in a remote setting. FirmTek's established hot-swap compatibility also makes it easy for users to move entire drives and arrays from the MacBook Pro to any FirmTek-equipped desktop system in seconds. FirmTek said the SeriTek/2SM2-E will be available July-September for $120. [Bill Fox]



[4/25]
Mozilla's Thunderbird 1.5.0.2 Out But Not Yet Universal: Thunderbird 1.5.0.2 was released with improved stability and security fixes. Unfortunately, Mozilla's stand-alone email client does not yet have a Universal binary to run native on Intel-based Macs. They expect that v1.5.0.3 will be a Universal app.

Mozilla also released Thunderbird 1.0.8, the last of the 1.0.x builds. [Dana Baggett]



[4/24]
Week One Update on our 2.16GHz MacBook Pro and our Power Mac G5 Quad is History: We've had our new 2.16GHz MacBook Pro for over a week now. We posted our initial impressions and some speed tests last Monday on this Web page. Since then we've mostly had it hooked up to our 30" Cinema Display, Apple Wireless Bluetooth keyboard and Microsoft Explorer 5-button mouse. Urged on by the great experience we've had with our 1.66GHz Mac mini Core Duo, we've used our MacBook Pro as our main computer here at MacsOnly.com's global headquarters.

We have learned that there is nothing that we do here that the MacBook Pro can't handle, including occasionally "testing" a 3-D game. Gaming is the department in which the Mac mini Core Duo falls a bit short but the 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 Quad excels. Our 1.67GHz 17" PowerBook G4 did not quite cut it as an omni-Mac, especially in the game department, so the MacBook Pro is a huge step up. The step will get even larger when some of our main applications like Adobe GoLive, Adobe Photoshop Elements and Call of Duty have Universal binaries to run natively on the MacBook Pro's Intel Core Duo processor. Until then, the MacBook Pro's performance is acceptable.

Of course, we don't process video or audio or apply numerous filters in Photoshop to many images. The most demanding thing we do is stay abreast of 3D games. We found that even at 32 frames per second (fps) versus 84 fps on the Quad, Call of Duty is just as playable, at least until it gets a Universal patch from Aspyr Media--we should see nearly 50 fps then. Doom 3 and Quake 4 are perfectly playable at 68 fps and 56 fps respectively because they already have Universal binaries. The only issue is the quality of the image. While all three games look perfectly fine on the MacBook Pro at medium quality settings, the Power Mac G5 Quad's Nvidia GeForce 6600 renders noticeably clearer than the ATI Mobility Radeon 1600X in the MacBook Pro. But we have always thought that images created by an Nvidia chip looked better than the images from a comparable ATI chip.

The MacBook Pro runs well closed and attached to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse. It's also much quieter than our Power Mac G5 Quad. Our MacBook Pro gets warm but not very warm in the closed position while doing "normal" work, i.e. word processing in Pages, creating Web pages on Adobe Golive CS2, checking finances with Excel and Quicken, creating presentations with Keynote, working on our photos with Adobe Lightroom Beta, iPhoto and Adobe Photoshop Elements, surfing with Safari or Camino, listening to music on iTunes and processing our e-mail with Apple Mail--virtually everything. It gets very warm on the bottom near the back edge but not hot while closed and playing 3D games or extensively transferring large numbers of files or watching HD videos. We have it sitting on a CoolPad on the support arm under our display.

Our use of the MacBook Pro as our primary computer this past week convinced us that we should give up our generally lightly used 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 Quad to someone who really can use its monstrous "horsepower." It sold on eBay in less than a day.

On our opinion, the MacBook Pro is the best ever Mac from Apple, certainly it is the best ever notebook. [Bill Fox]



[4/22]
100 New Macs for Kentucky School Districts and Cancer Center Grid: As the lead in a highly innovative partnership, Rep. Rick Nelson, announced Wednesday that Bell, Pineville Independent and Middlesboro Independent school districts will each receive as many as 100 state-of-the-art Apple computers over the next year through the Kentucky Dataseam Initiative.

"The computers will be used for more advanced computer design and math and science applications, and will be fueled by new software and high-speed Internet connections," said Nelson. "When the students aren't using the computers, they won't actually be idle. Their processing power will be harnessed through a network linking more than 4,000 computers to the University of Louisville Brown Cancer Center, where the excess capacity will be used to run new cancer drug experiments."

More... [Dana Baggett]



[4/22]
Flip4Mac for Intel-based Macs Due July-September: Telestream is a maker of Windows Media Player software for Apple's QuickTime player. On Friday, in a press release, Telestream said that it should have all of its products available for the Intel-based Macs in the July-September quarter. Telestream's Flip4Mac software allows Mac Web browsers to play video and audio files designed for Microsoft's Windows Media Player.

"Support for Apple’s new Intel-based products is a top priority for us," Dan Castles, CEO of the Nevada City, CA-based, Telestream.

[Dana Baggett]



[4/21]
Will Boot Camp Affect Mac Games? Not Those from Aspyr Media: In a recent note to us, Aspyr Media included its view.

Many have asked us here at Aspyr about the recent Boot Camp announcement and its impact on Mac gaming and our company. Our stance is pretty simple and comes from experience: The more hardware Apple sells, the more Mac games we will sell. Apple's recently announced OS feature, Boot Camp, is sure to sell more machines. After 10 years of developing games for the Macintosh we've learned that things change, industries evolve and that we must anticipate it and grow. We consider our ability to be quick and nimble a competitive advantage. These changes are the kinds of things we crave because it means things are getting better for the consumer. After all, when was the last time you heard people talk this much about Mac gaming?

Aspyr will continue to focus on 3 things:

  1. Ship native Mac games as quickly as possible.
  2. Deliver the best gaming experience and best support possible for our Mac customers.
  3. Offer even more choices to Mac gamers.

Aspyr's leadership in the Mac gaming market is important to us, as is our commitment to being a great publisher for all video game platforms. With titles such as Dreamfall, Spellforce 2 and Gothic 3, we're fulfilling our vision to deliver an incredible entertainment experience to the world. We do not fear change; we anticipate it and kiss it right on the lips. So pucker up Boot Camp.

That's nice to know since Aspyr publishes our favorite 3D game, Call of Duty. [Bill Fox]



[4/21]
Apple Revised the Offerings from a Hot Deals Retailer:

PowerMax has deals on a wide variety of Mac compatible products including: M-Audio's 02 25-Key ultra-thin mobile USB MIDI Controller for only $84.88; power up with Newer Tech's NuPower high capacity battery for 1st and 2nd generation iPods for only $24.99; get wireless with the Hawkings Hi-Gain Mini Wireless-G (802.11b/g) USB adapter for only $62.99; protect your new MacBook Pro with a Marware Protection Pack - keyboard cover and wrist rest for only $15.88; need back up? Get the Fantom Titanium 200GB 7200rpm FireWire external hard drive for only $129.88; Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 for only $344.88; and much more.

[Bill Fox]



[4/21]
Quake 4 Dual Core Patch Coming Soon from Aspyr and More Universal Patches Too: In a note to us, Aspyr Media wrote that they are very close to releasing an SMP patch for the just-released Quake 4 which will add dual core support to the game. We complained about the lack of that capability in the initial Mac release which we were first to review on Monday this week. Aspyr's benchmarks on an Intel-based iMac, showed 20-40% speed increases in frame rate with the extra processor.

Other updates to Aspyr's existing games include the Sims 2 Mac Universal patch, which is available now, and a patch for Civilization 3 Complete Mac to make it Universal as well. Hmmm...no news on the Call of Duty Universal patch.

Development has also continued progressing with Call of Duty 2 and Sid Meier's Civilization IV. Aspyr told us to look for both of these titles to be released for Mac in the next few weeks. Both will be Universal applications out of the box like Quake 4--and dual core as well, we hope. We are really looking forward to playing Call of Duty 2 on the Mac! [Bill Fox]



[4/21]
PowerPage's Jason O'Grady has Apple Suit Heard by CA Appeals Court: As most Mac users should know, last year Apple subpoenaed Jason O'Grady's email from his ISP in looking for the identity of the person who leaked information on Apple's "Asteroid" project to him and that he in turn posted the information on PowerPage. MacNN and AppleInsider are also parties to the case. Asteroid is alleged to be a breakout box for attaching instruments to a computer to record songs with Garageband or other audio applications.

The California District Court in a narrow ruling upheld Apple's subpoena because the leak was about a trade secret and not some nefarious activity by Apple that endangered the public in some way. We can see the benefits of this kind of interpretation. For example, if someone obtained our bank account number and PIN and some embecile published it on the internet as news causing us economic harm but serving no discernable public good, we would want to be able to find out the source. But, of course, every issue is different and there are questions as to the legitimacy of Apple's trade secret claim and any actual damages caused by publishing the information. Asteroid has never even seen the light of day in the public market.

The CA District Court decision skillfully avoided addressing the larger issue of whether an internet-based news site is real news site and, therefore, its news sources are protected by California law. Yesterday, the California Appeals Court heard O'Grady's appeal and heavily questioned Apple's attorneys. Several judges were more than snide in their questioning of Apple's attorneys according to some news reports.

We believe, of course, that O'Grady's PowerPage like Macs Only! is indeed a bonified news publisher and its sources for legitimate news are protected by California law. But we hope that the Appeals Court won't go there since the original decision did not. The case, we believe, truly turns on whether or not a leaked bonified trade secret falls under the source protection afforded by California law. At the federal level, we have seen in recent cases, like the Valerie Plame spy ID leak, that the source of some news leaks do not receive federal protection and reporters are subject to prosecution and punishment if they fail to reveal their sources. Of course, the spy name leak case was a criminal investigation and the Asteroid leak case is a civil case. What will California's Appeals Court decide? Stay tuned. More... [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]



[4/20]
Apple Released Q2 Financials--Beats Analysts' Estimate by 10 Percent: Apple announced its financial results for the second quarter ending April 1, 2006. Revenue topped $4.36 billion with a net quarterly profit of $410 million, or $.47 per diluted share. As we noted yesterday. the Thomson First Call consensus estimate of polled analysts was $0.43. Q2 of 2006 is the second best quarter in the history of Apple. This year's Q2 results compare to revenue of $3.24 billion and a net profit of $290 million, or $.34 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Apple's sales gross margin was 29.8 percent, equivalent to the year-ago quarter. Sales outside the U.S. accounted for 43 percent of the second quarter’s revenue.

Apple shipped 1,112,000 Macs and 8,526,000 iPods during the second quarter, representing 5 percent growth in Macs and 69 percent growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter. Desktop Macs (Power Macs, eMacs, iMacs, Mac minis and Xserves) increased 4 percent and portables (iBooks, PowerBooks and MacBook Pros) increased 7 percent. Apple does not provide a further breakdown of Mac or iPod sales.

"We've generated over $10 billion in revenue and almost $1 billion in earnings in the first half of fiscal 2006," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Our transition to Intel processors is going very well, and our music business just experienced another quarter of outstanding growth."

Revenue from the retail Apple Stores increased 11 percent. In a Q&A conference call, Apple executives stated that the retail Apple Stores and iTunes Music Store operated in the black during Q2. New-to-Apple sales increased to 50 percent. Apple expects to open 40 new stores in 2006 (6 already opened) with about 30 being in the US.

Apple paid the final $508 million installment on prepaid flash RAM from Samsung. It spent $120 million to acquire a new data center in a second campus being developed in Cupertino, CA, 10 minutes from the first.

Sales are seasonal, usually declining in Q2 from the holiday season of Q1. But the sales decline was also due to a shipping delay in the MacBook Pro, purchasing delays waiting for Intel-based Macs to come out and the loss of one week in the quarter to Q1 due to where the quarters break this year according to Apple executives.

Still Apple's gross margin was excellent. According to Apple's Tim Cook, Senior VP, and Peter Oppenheimer, CFO, it was buoyed by lower than expected costs of LCDs and flash RAM; software sales being better than expected, especially iLife '06; and expected price reductions to clear our Power PC Macs were not needed much. On the latter, Oppenheimer said "...we used very little of it."

In answer to a question about sales of Intel-based Macs, Cook stated that "Sales of Intel-based Macs accelerated across the quarter." But Apple apparently has no backlog of orders at present according to other statements made during the call.

Responding to question about the adoption rate of Boot Camp, Apple's tool to allow installation and booting of Windows XP on Intel-based Macs, the executives replied that Boot Camp is a beta product. It's not supported and they will not release the amount of downloads accordingly.

As for the immediate future, i.e. Q3 ending June 30, Oppenheimer said:

"Looking ahead to the third quarter of fiscal 2006, we expect revenue of about $4.2 to $4.4 billion."

[Bill Fox]



[4/20]
Game Developers Conference 2006--Final Report: The Game Developers Conference 2006 (GDC:06) was held March 20-24 in San Jose, California at the San Jose Convention Center. The sponsors have provided abstracts and presentations given at GD:06 on line from this GDC Web page. Also available are presentations given at the GDC Mobile and Serious Games Summit sessions.

If you want to see/collect the presentations as videos, they are available for a fee from this Web page. There are free samples to check out as well.

GDC:07 is coming to San Francisco March 5 - 9, 2007, in the Moscone Conference Center North & West. [Bill Fox]



[4/20]
Apple Revised the Offerings from Three Hot Deals Retailers:

CDW Mac Warehouse has deals on a wide variety of Mac compatible products including: a free Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 when you buy Adobe's Acrobat 7.0 Professional Upgrade from v.6.0 for only $149.00; Nikon Coolpix L1 6.2 mega-pixel digital camera for only $249.95 after $80 mail-in rebate! Hurry, offer ends 5/31; building a wireless network? Get the 3Com OfficeConnect 802.11a/b/g Access point. Cover all the bases for only $109.99 after $60 mail-in rebate. Offer ends 6/2; start creating great iMovies with the Sony HandyCam DCR-HC36 MiniDV Camcorder for only $399.99; Print, copy, scan and fax with the Epson Stylus CX5800F all-in-one for only $149.99 after $30.00 mail-in rebate; and much more.

Small Dog Electronics has deals on a wide variety of Mac compatible products including: Got backup? Get the LaCie Porsche Design 160GB P3 external FireWire hard drive for only $114.00; buy the LaCie 4GB Carte Orange USB 2.0 Key-Drive bundled with a .Mac Subscription for only $179.00!; get ready for summer vacation with a Canon camera/printer bundle: Canon Pixma iP1600 Color Photo Printer, Canon PowerShot A410 digital camera, Kingston 512MB SD card and Crumpler camera bag all for only $239.00!; CARTune FM Transmitter and iPod charger for dockable iPods for only $33.00; get an easy to use recording system for your Mac with the M-Audio Fast Track Studio bundle: USB Audio Interface; GT Player Express - guitar effects/practice software; and the SoundCheck dynamic vocal microphone all for only $139.00; and much more.

Sweetwater Sound has deals on a wide variety of Mac compatible products including: the M-Audio Podcast Factory which includes a USB Midi interface, microphone with desktop stand and recording/editing software all for only $149.97; Prophet V programmable analog synth w/vector synthesis textures from Arturia for only $199.97; lay down some great beats with the Korg padKONTROL Midi controller w/16-velocity sensitive pads for only $199.97; DJ mixers get the Native Instruments Traktor DJ Studio 3 for only $249.97; change your studio life with the Frontier Design TranzPort wireless remote digital audio workstation (DAW) with backlit LCD data display for only $199.97; recording on your Mac is a snap with the PreSonus Inspire 1394 FireWire audio interface w/two mic pre-amps, two hi-Z inputs and Cubase LE recording software for only $199.97!; and much more.

[Bill Fox]



[4/20]
Tonight on The Tech Night Owl LIVE--Dr. Mac, Macworld's Jason Snell and Analyst Joe Wilcox: Tonight host Gene Steinberg and his irreverent son and co-host Grayson will explore the state of the Mac and other fascinating things with Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus and Macworld's Jason Snell. In addition, Apple's quarterly financials and other issues will be examined by noted industry analyst Joe Wilcox of Jupiter Research. It should be a really good show. Tune in the internet radio broadcast tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 PM PT, 9:00 to 11:00 PM ET. [Bill Fox]



[4/19]
Apple will Release its Q2 Financials Today at Webcast Conference Call: Apple will release its second quarter financial statement today and discuss the results in a webcast telephone conference call at 2pm PT (5pm ET). The Thomson First Call consensus estimate by financial analysts of Apple's earnings is $0.43 per share, according to MarketWatch. However, Apple under Steve Jobs has nearly always, if not always, beaten the analysts consensus estimate. We'll post the results tonight. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]



[4/19]
Brief Hands-On Report--Apple Firmware Update 1.0.1 for Intel-Based Macs--Fixed Our AirPort Reconnect Problem: Apple released Firmware Update 1.0.1 for the Intel-based Mac mini, iMac and MacBook Pro. The firmware updates must be manually downloaded and installed. We could not find any information on this new firmware update which is hot on the heals of v1.0 released with Apple's Boot Camp.

Since our job is to be an early-adopter, i.e. to install the update and to let you know what happened, we downloaded the Firmware Update v1.0.1 and installed it on our MacBook Pro. It went without a hitch and it appears to have solved our problem reconnecting automatically to our AirPort network after a long sleep, reboot or shutdown. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]



[4/19]
Brief Hands-On Report--Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0 Release 4: Apple released Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0 Release 4 for Mac OS X 10.4.5 and later, client and server editions. It is available for download via the automatic Software Update application or as stand-alone updaters for PPC-based and Intel-based Macs. Our job is to be an early-adopter, i.e. to install the update and to let you know what happened.

According to Apple,

Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0 Release 4 delivers improved reliability and compatibility for Java 2 Platform Standard Edition 5.0 on Mac OS X v10.4.5 and later. This release includes J2SE version 1.5.0_06. With this update J2SE 5.0 becomes the preferred Java version, superseding Java 1.4.2. Java 1.4.2 is still installed on your machine, but applications will run with J2SE 5.0 unless they specifically request Java 1.4.2.

J2SE 5.0 Release 4 provides fixes for the following security issues:

CVE-ID: CVE-2006-0613
Impact: Untrusted Java applications may obtain elevated privileges.
Description: A security vulnerability in Java Web Start may allow an untrusted application to elevate its privileges. This update addresses the issue by providing J2SE version 1.5.0_06,
which is not susceptible to this vulnerability. For additional information on this issue see Sun Alert 102170.

CVE-ID: CVE-2006-0614, CVE-2006-0615, CVE-2006-0616, CVE-2006-0617
Impact: Untrusted Java applets may obtain elevated privileges.
Description: Security vulnerabilities related to the use of "reflection" APIs in the Java Runtime Environment may allow an untrusted applet to elevate its privileges. This update addresses these issues by providing J2SE version 1.5.0_06, which is not susceptible to these vulnerabilities. For additional information on these issues see Sun Alert 102171.

Additionally, a minor security-related fix for Java InputMethods is included in this update. Due to an issue handling input method events, it is possible that key events intended for a secure field such as a password field may be sent to a normal text field in the same window. This could result in accidental password disclosure to others physically present when the password is entered. This update addresses the problem by properly handling input method events.

We downloaded and installed Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0 Release 4 on Intel-based Mac mini, iMac and MacBook Pro and Power PC-based Mac mini, Power Mac G5, G4 Cube, iMac G5 and PowerBook G4. There were no installation problems and we've encountered no operational problems in several hours of use. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]



[4/19]
Pangea Software, Inc. Announced Free Mac Software for Public Schools: Pangea Software, Inc. announced that they are giving away free software and site licenses to any public school in the United States that wants one. For many years, Pangea Software has had a site license policy allowing a school to put any Pangea game onto all of the Macs at the school's location, so long as the school owned at least one legitimate copy of the game. But now the policy has been revised so that schools do not even need to purchase that single copy of a game to get the site license. All they need to do is request free serial numbers for the games from Pangea Software.

All of the games on Pangea's web site are eligible for this free offer: Bugdom, Nansosaur, Enigmo, Billy Frontier, Otto Matic, Firefall, Mighty Mike, Bugdom 2, Nanosaur 2, Enigmo 2, and Cro-Mag Rally. To request a free serial number for any/all of these games schools must do the following:

1. A written request on official school letterhead should be mailed to:

Scholastic Offer
Pangea Software, Inc.
12405 John Simpson Court.
Austin, TX 78732-2112

2. The letter must be signed by the principal of the school, and should include a list of games being requested along with the email address of the person at the school who should receive the serial numbers for those games. The email address MUST be a .k12 email address (addresses used by all public schools in the U.S.).

3. When the request is received, the free serial numbers will be emailed to the school. The games can be freely downloaded from the Pangea web site at www.pangeasoft.net/downloads.html, and then activated with the serial numbers.

Further information can be found on the Pangea Software Web site. [Bill Fox]



[4/19]
Washington Apple Pi MUG Tyson's Apple Store Mini Meeting Thursday, April 20: Washington Apple Pi (WAPi) is the Metro Washington DC Apple Macintosh User Group and one of the oldest in the US. WAPi's second mini meeting for April will be held at the Tysons Corner Apple Store on Thursday, April 20th from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

April's topic is "Backing Up." This Thursday's presenter will be John Barnes.

Please mark your monthly calendars for the First Tuesday at 7 p.m. and the Third Thursday at 10 a.m. These are the regularly schedule dates for mini-meetings at the Tysons Corner Apple Store.



[4/18]
Apple Reveals WWDC 2006 Tracks--Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" to be Introduced: At WWDC 2006 in San Francisco's Moscone Center West, August 7-11, Apple will provide a special sneak preview of Leopard, Apple's next major release of Mac OS X. In addition to being the first to try out Leopard, there are more than 120 sessions planned in five session tracks full of hands-on labs and in-depth technical presentations:

  1. Application Technologies--Build modern, platform-differentiated products with powerful new and existing frameworks.
  2. Graphics and Media--Leverage advanced audio, video, and graphics architectures to deliver awesome new capabilities.
  3. Development Tools--Reach new levels of productivity using groundbreaking development tools and systems.
  4. OS Foundations--Get in-depth guidance on integrating with industrial-strength, open-standard core technologies.
  5. Information Technologies--Learn to configure, control, optimize, integrate, and connect Mac computers with the world.

Apple also provides ready access to its engineers and lots of fun for the attendees. Who should attend?

  • Commercial software and hardware developers
  • In-house developers
  • Scientists and researchers
  • Scripters and web developers
  • System administrators

We have attended several WWDCs and greatly enjoyed each one. [Bill Fox]



[4/18]
Apple Counter-Sued by Burst.com Over iTunes, iTunes Music Store and iPod: According to a Burst.com press release issued late Monday, Burst.com has filed counterclaims accusing Apple Computer of infringing four of Burst’s U.S. patents. In the counterclaims, filed in Federal District Court in San Francisco on Monday, April 17th, Burst alleges that Apple's iTunes Music Store, iTunes software, the iPod devices, and Apple's QuickTime Streaming products infringe Burst's U.S. Patents 4,963,995; 5,995,705; 5,057,932 and 5,164,839.

Burst's filing responds to a suit that Apple filed against Burst in January of this year, seeking a declaration that Burst's patents are invalid and that Apple does not infringe them. Burst requests in its counterclaims that Apple pay a reasonable royalty for Apple's infringing products and services, and also seeks an injunction against further infringement.

So what's this all about? It's hard to tell exactly because Burst's complaint simply broadly alleges violations of four of Burst's patents without explicitly stating how. Burst is requesting a jury trial in its counterclaim. Burst produces Burstware, software for audio and video distribution that stems from its first patent applied for in 1988 and issued in 1990. The other three were issued in 1991, 1992 and 1999.

According to Burst's 2005 Annual Report, it is a Delaware corporation located in 450 sqft of office space in Santa Rosa, CA, with three employees. It has a market capitalization of about $40 million, apparently due at least in part to its recent net settlement of $38 million with Microsoft. The latter was paid out nearly entirely in a dividend of $0.90 per share to shareholders. Over 80% of the company's stock is owned by the four corporation executives and board members. Burst noted that it had no sales of products for 2005. [Bill Fox]



[4/17]
Hands-On Report--Our New 2.16 GHz MacBook Pro: We received our new MacBook Pro last Wednesday. We ordered it as a CTO from the Apple Store on April 7 and it arrived by FedEx from Shanghai Wednesday the 12th, faster than we expected. After having waited longer than usual to decide to order one, it was frustrating to be in the throes of tax time and not have the time to immerse our selves in setting it up and using it immediately.

We sold our 17" 1.67Ghz PowerBook G4 near the end of December on a hunch that Apple might release a new PowerBook at Macworld in early January. If not, we still had a 1st generation 12" 867MHz PowerBook G4 in inventory to use until Apple did so. To the surprise of many, Apple did announce the new MacBook Pro at Macworld. We spent a lot of time with it and provided a brief hands-on review from Macworld. The 1.83GHz MacBook Pros on display were very fast and the screens were very bright. We called it a "definite winner" but noted its heat issue and its lack of a PC card slot, i.e. a cutting-edge 34mm Express Card slot instead.

Our MacBook Pro was ordered with the optional 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo CPU and the optional 7200RPM 100GB hard drive in order for it to be as fast as possible. We are still looking for a 'Book that's fast-enough to replace our Power Mac G5. From all reports, the new MacBook Pro just might be the one. Of course, it will also drive our 30" Cinema Display.

The only other CTO items are an Apple USB modem and an extra AC adapter since none of our older ones will work with the MacBook Pro. We ordered a third-party 1GB RAM chip so that our new MacBook Pro would have 2GB of RAM and saved $100 off the Apple price. The RAM was here waiting on Monday.

Look & Feel

The MacBook Pro is 0.4" wider than a 15" PowerBook G4 and it looks hauntingly like a 17" PowerBook G4 and we have owned three (1GHz, 1.5GHz and 1.67GHz). It especially looks like a 17" Powerbook G4 when opened with the 15.4" low aspect ratio screen with 1440x900 pixels--the same as our last 17" PowerBook G4. But the MacBook Pro is 1.3lbs lighter at 5.6lbs.

There are other features of the MacBook Pro that appear to have a 17" PowerBook G4 heritage. The new lithium polymer battery looks like a 17" PowerBook G4 battery and the track pad is the same size. We feel right at home behind the keyboard.

The second thing we noticed, i.e. after the uncanny resemblance to our previous 17" PowerBook G4s, is that the trackpad clicker is butter-smooth, at least as compared with the ones on our previous 17" PowerBook G4s. The MacBook Pro's trackpad clicker is much easier to depress so we won't miss clicks or tire our thumb muscles like we occasionally did on our former 17" models. Two-finger scrolling works great. Of course, there are the built-in iSight camera and infrared port additions and the loss of the FireWire 800, modem and s-video ports. We won't have to carry around our iSight any longer but now we'll have to carry the gum pack sized modem instead, a good trade actually. We won't miss the 1.3lbs in weight. We will miss the lack of a PC card slot for our Verizon AirPrime card but our 12" PowerBook G4 didn't have a PC card slot either. And we expect that an Express Card replacement will come out sometime in the near future.

Fortunately, our MacBook Pro with a serial number starting 8614... does not have the screen whine or the CPU whine that some with earlier builds complained about, at least not that we can hear. Nor is there any problem with either speaker. Its screen is perfect, i.e. it has no dead or problematic pixels--our run of good luck with LCD screens is still intact. All of the keys are the same height an straight. The only cosmetic issue is a slight upward bend in the right hand side of the screen's top that is only visible when the screen is closed--with a tiny bit of careful flexing of that corner the screen, it now appears to be perfectly straight.

Our only use issue is that our MacBook Pro frequently does not automatically reconnect to our AirPort network after a long sleep or a restart. We have the same issue with our iMac Core Duo.

Speed

After downloading and installing Mac OS X 10.4.6 and a myriad of other software updates, we ran our suite of speed tests on our 2.16GHz MacBook Pro. The speed tests are composed of a series of "canned" benchmark applications and several so-called "real world" tests that anyone can repeat on their own Mac for comparison by following the steps that we perform. In the table below we also list the previous results from our 20" 2GHz iMac Core Duo with 2GB RAM and Power Mac G5 Quad with 2.5GB of RAM for comparison. Except for the RAM, both comparison computers are stock.

Here are the results:

2.16 GHz MacBook Pro Speed Tests (average* scores or secs).
Test Mac Running Mac OSX 10.4.6
MacBook Pro
2.16 GHz
iMac Core Duo
2.0 GHz
Power Mac G5 Quad
2.5 GHz
Benchmarks:
Altivec Fractal 1.3 (GFLOPS)
4.1
3.7
25.3
Cinebench R9.5 - Rendering (X)
622
579
1178
- OpenGL Hardware Lighting
2475
2542
3296
Let1kWindowsBloom 1.0 (sec)
15
11
6
Xbench 1.2+ - CPU
76
76
124
- Threading
211
199
243
- Memory
111
110
149
- Quartz Graphics
62
72
149
- OpenGL Graphics
142
136
136
- User Interface Graphics
nv
nv
236
"Real World" Tests:
Startup (sec)
22
64
41
Shutdown (sec)
8
6
12
Dup. 500 MB Folder of Files (sec)
34
32
34
Scroll 144p Adobe 7.0.7 Reader File (sec)
69
62
32
Export DV Movie in iMovie HD 6.0.2 (sec)
46
-
44
Quake III Arena 1.32 (frames/sec)
134
-
417
Halo 1.5.2 (frames/sec)
22
-
31
Call of Duty 1.4 (frames/sec)
32
-
84
Doom 3 1.3A (HQ/MQ)
41/68
51/65
53
Quake 4 1.0 (HQ/MQ)
37/56
-
-
*Average of 3 runs. +Universal binary version. nv=not valid. -=not recorded. Red is fastest.

The performance of the 2.16GHz MacBook Pro and 2GHz iMac Core Duo are pretty similar as might be expected. The iMac has a larger and faster hard drive but the graphics are the same ATI Radeon X1600 and the MacBook Pro has a slightly faster Intel Core Duo processor.

The Power Mac G5 Quad blows both Intel-based Macs away in all of the canned benchmarks with one exception, the OpenGL Graphics test in Xbench 1.2. There, the MacBook Pro wins by a nose. But what's important is that both Intel-based Macs do as well as the Power Mac G5 Quad portending good news in 3-D graphics game department.

In the "Real Word" tests, the Intel-based Macs do much better relative to the Power Mac G5 Quad, winning three of the five tests with Universal Binary applications and coming very close on the other two (iMovie export and Doom 3). Quake 4 runs very well on the MacBook Pro. As for the non-native applications, Adobe Reader will likely come out with a Universal Binary eventually. While we don't expect to see a Universal binary of Quake III Arena, Aspyr Media has Call of Duty on its list for conversion and we hope Halo will get a Universal Binary version, too. The MacBook Pro is the undisputed startup champion among these three Macs.

Heat

Many people have complained about the heat generated by the MacBook Pro as being excessive. In our Macworld report we noted that the MacBook Pros ran on the hot side. Apple employees at Macworld explained that the display units were pre-production units getting heavy use and that production units under normal use would be expected to run much cooler.

Our MacBook Pro does not get much warmer than our previous PowerBook G4s unless we are doing something that is graphics and CPU intensive--like benchmarking or playing a 3-D game--with the AC adapter connected. Then, it gets very warm on the bottom near the back center-left and just above the function keys, also center-left. But it's not too hot for us to touch or hold or rest on our clothed lap. With regard to heat, our MacBook Pro is very similar to our original 867 MHz Powerbook G4 but only when doing something graphics and CPU intensive and with the AC adapter connected. However, the MacBook Pro does not have obtrusive fans like the 12" PowerBook. In fact, the MacBook Pro's fans are among the quietest we've observed in notebooks.

Battery

We have not used our MacBook Pro long enough on the battery to get a really good handle on its battery life. We deep cycled our battery out of the box and the menu icon shows 4 hours 10 minutes when fully charged, setting the screen on the lowest setting and disconnecting the AC adapter. Our 17" PowerBook G4 used to show around 5 hours doing the same thing but typically yielded about 3 1/2 solid hours of word processing work. If the MacBook Pro's battery were the same kind as the Powerbook G4 battery (lithium ion), we'd expect to get a good 3 hours out of it while word processing with the screen dimmed. But the MacBook Pro's battery is a new lithium polymer battery, like those used in iPods, so more time with it on battery is needed to understand its performance characteristics.

Summary

We think our MacBook Pro is the best notebook we've ever used. Fortunately, the majority of applications that we use routinely are either Universal already or run very well in Rosetta emulation (e.g. Adobe GoLive CS2, SimpleFTP, NetNewsWire, and Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0). Even the latest 3-D games run well on the MacBook Pro, though non-Universal ones will need to be run at lower quality to get an acceptable frame rate. But Doom 3 is already Universal and so is Quake 4. With Call of Duty on Aspyr Media's to-do list and our MacBook Pro running our 30" Cinema Display just fine, our Power Mac G5 Quad may soon be on the market. [Bill Fox]



[4/17]
Hands-On Report--Quake 4--How fast is it? Since no demo sequence is included with Quake 4 and the Mac version for PowerPC Macs apparently does not recognize a "demos" folder in the "q4base" folder, benchmarking the speed of Quake 4 is not an easy task. Worse, one can not even record, play back or timedemo a segment of the game on a PPC Mac. At least we have not been able to do so on our Power Mac G5 Quad or iMac G5.

However, we can record, play back and timedemo segments of Quake 4 on our Intel-based MacBook Pro. While the recorded demo survives quitting and relaunching Quake 4, it is not exported to a demos folder in our q4base folder like with the Windows version of the game. Curiously, Quake 4 for Mac running on an Intel-based Mac does support running demos from a demos folder placed in the q4base folder even though it doesn't create one and export a demo you record to it.

Several console commands (tweaks) do work in the Mac version:

"seta com_allowconsole 1" allows one to lower the console by just pressing the "~" key.

"bind F10 toggle com_showFPS" shows the current frame rate (speed) in the upper right corner whenever you want it to by pressing the F10 key. Pressing the F10 key again removes the frame rate display.

Unfortunately, a very useful tweak to turn on dual core use ("r_useSMP 1") does not. Perhaps it is programmed to be on all the time. Also, there is no config file in the q4base folder that can be edited like in the Windows version of Quake 4.

If you own an Intel-based Mac, you can record your own demo sequence and use it to tweak the settings to get the balance between performance and visual quality that you want.

First, enable the two tweaks above by opening the console by pressing the control-option-"~" keys simultaneously and typing them in without the quotation marks and hitting return.

Second, choose the Quake 4 sequence that you want to record as a demo. We used a roughly 90-second sequence in the MCC Landing Site (5th) level--the action-packed sequence of charging out of the trenches and shooting our way through three doors to the air defense cannon control room and to the cannon's seat.

Third, record the sequence:

1. Press the "~" key to lower the console.

2. At the beginning of the sequence, type "recordDemo name", where name is the name you call the demo sequence, and press the "Return" key

3. At the end, press "~" and type "stopRecording" to stop.

Fourth, set the game's settings that you want to measure the speed of using the demo sequence. Then,

1. Press "~" to lower the console.

2. Type "timedemo name" and press the "Return" key

3. The demo sequence runs automatically and displays the average frame rate at the end.

We used this procedure on our Intel-based MacBook Pro to create a demo sequence called, naturally, macsonly.

Of all of the runs we made, the resolution and shadows settings had the greatest effect on average frame rate. The resolutions supported by Quake 4 go up to 1600x1200 but the MacBook Pro would only correctly run resolutions up to 1024x768. Here is a subset of our results that illustrate the effects:

2.16 GHz MacBook Pro Speed Tests (average frames per sec*).
Quake 4 1.0 Settings
Resolution
Video Quality
Shadows ON
Shadows OFF
.
1024x768
High
24
37
800x600
Medium
35
56
640x480
Low
43
61
.
*Average of 3 runs. Red is fastest.

With shadows off, the frame rate of Quake 4 provides acceptable play in the single player version at 1024x768 with high video quality on the MacBook Pro but better play at 800x600 and medium video quality. The single player version is fine at 1024x768 and high video quality on our Power Mac G5 Quad. Our 2.0 GHz iMac G5 requires 640x480, low quality video and turning off High quality special effects in addition to turning off shadows to get acceptable play.

We tried the multiplayer version of Quake 4 for awhile but it does not appeal to us. The maps we saw are quite small and the play is much too chaotic for us. We like the older Quake 3 Arena multiplayer version because the maps are larger and allow the use of many different skills. [Bill Fox]



[4/15]
Brief Hands-On Report--Quake 4 for the Mac has Arrived: On Wednesday, we received our copy of Aspyr Media's new 3-D first person shooter Quake 4 pre-ordered from Amazon.com but we have been too buried in the annual income tax filing ritual to do much with it. We have installed Quake 4 on our Power Mac G5 Quad and new 2.16GHz MacBook Pro (it also arrived Wednesday) and have played several levels on both.

Quake 4 runs very well on both machines at the default settings but using a higher resolution and enabling shadows take a heavy toll on Quake 4's speed just like in Doom 3, the engine that Quake 4 is based upon. Unfortunately, there is no benchmark demo with this release to measure Quake 4's speed. None of the benchmark demos we found on the Web, including the "hwspirit.demo" file, will run on either Mac. Apparently, we will have to record our own benchmark demo file, if that is even possible with the Mac version.

We are able to toggle on the speed counter in frames per second (FPS). During play while taking the energy cannon bunker on our Power Mac G5 Quad (Nvidia GeForce 6600 graphics card) with the resolution at 10245x768, graphics at high quality and shadows off, the FPS ranged from 60 down to the mid-30's in heavy action. It dipped to the high 20's when firing the energy cannon. We were unable to turn on the use of multiprocessors on the Quad ("unknown command" error).

During the same sequence of play on our 2.16GHz MacBook Pro with the same settings the FPS ranged from 60 down into the mid-20's and dipped to around 20 when firing the energy cannon. We were also unable to enable the use of multiple CPU cores. The MacBook Pro seemed only slightly slower than our Power Mac G5 Quad.

The graphics are equal to those of Doom 3, as might be expected. The play is very similar but with a different setting and models--kill the Strogg before they kill you as you, a marine called Matthew Kane, perform a large number of exploits with Rhino Squad in an attack on the Strogg stronghold on their planet Stroggos. We've fired the Strogg's energy cannon in one level but we have not yet used their 4-legged mechanical walkers nor their hover tanks.

Quake 4 also has internet and LAN multiplayer capability but we have not yet explored that option.

About the only thing we don't like about Quake 4 is having to always wait through three separate movie "commercials" (id Software, Raven and ActiVision) after launch. Stay tuned. [Bill Fox]



[4/14]
Mozilla Released Firefox 1.5.0.2 and 1.0.8 and Sea Monkey 1.0.1 for Mac OS X: The Mozilla Foundation released updates of its Firefox and Sea Monkey all-in-one suite Web browsers for the Mac:

Firefox 1.5.0.2 provides native support for Macintosh with Intel Core processors, and stability and security enhancements that are part of our ongoing program to provide a safer Internet experience for our users. We recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest version.

Here's what's new in Firefox 1.5.0.2:

  • Universal Binary support for Mac OS X which provides native support for Macintosh with Intel Core processors. Firefox supports the enhancements to performance introduced by the new MacIntel chipsets.
  • Improvements to product stability.
  • Several security fixes. [Spoofing with translucent windows, Security check of js_ValueToFunctionObject() can be circumvented, Privilege escalation through Print Preview, Privilege escalation using crypto.generateCRMFRequest, File stealing by changing input type, CSS Letter-Spacing Heap Overflow Vulnerability, Crashes with evidence of memory corruption (rv:1.8.0.2)]

Firefox 1.0.8 is a security and stability release. We strongly recommend that all users upgrade to this latest version. Firefox 1.0.8 is the last release in the 1.0.x series.

This version includes several security and stability fixes, including a fix for a reported buffer overflow vulnerability and a fix for a Linux shell command vulnerability.

Specific changes in Firefox 1.0.8:

  • Improvements to product stability.
  • Several security fixes [Many]

Sea Monkey 1.0.1 all-in-one internet application suite also now provides native support for Intel-based Macs plus stability and security fixes.

New Features and fixes:

  • Improved stability
  • Universal Binary support for Mac OS X which provides native support for Macintosh x86 Intel-based computers. SeaMonkey supports the enhancements to performance introduced by the new MacIntel chipsets
  • Several security fixes [Same as Firefox 1.5.0.2]

We have downloaded and used Firefox 1.5.0.2 and Sea Monkey 1.0.1 for several hours and have run into no problems with either update. They appear to work very well on our iMac Core Duo and MacBook Pro. [Dana Baggett & Bill Fox]



[4/14]
Apple Revised the Offerings from Two Hot Deals Retailers:

ClubMac has deals on a wide variety of Mac compatible products including: Adobe's Flash Pro 8 for only $694.00; The Sims 2 from Aspyr (now runs natively on Intel-based Macs w/downloadable patch!) for only $44.99; scan images and film with Canon's CanoScan LiDE Color 500F Image Scanner for only $129.00; Kensington Pico FM Transmitter for the iPod Nano (black) for only $44.99; Sony 23" PremierPro wide-screen LCD Display for only $1099.99; G-Technology's G-Raid 2/320GB FW800 Array for only $341.99; Fujitsu ScanSnap Fi-5110EOXM Duplex Color Sheet-fed scanner for only $395.00; Canon EOS 20D digital camera w/18-55mm lens for only $1239.99; and much more.

Ramjet has Hot Deals exclusive deals on a wide variety of Mac compatible memory including: 512MB DDR SDRAM DIMM for PowerMac G4 (Mirror Drive Door) for only $48; 512MB DDR SO-DIMM for iBook G4 for only $63; 1GB DDR2-533 DIMM for the iMac G5 w/built-in iSight for only $88; 1GB DDR400 DIMM for G4 Mac Mini for only $96; 2GB DDR 400 RAM Kit for the original iMac G5 for only $189; and much more.

[Bill Fox]



[4/14]
O'Reilly Published Running Boot Camp: Apple released Boot Camp last week to make installing Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac as easy as possible. While installing Boot Camp is relatively painless, there are pitfalls users need to avoid. Running Boot Camp by Chuck Toporek (O'Reilly, 32p, $7.99) is an easy-to-follow guide that steps the user through the installation and configuration process. It is a downloadable PDF file.

The Running Boot Camp PDF download walks users through each install step including:

- What You'll Need
- Updating the Firmware
- Running Boot Camp
- Partitioning the Hard Drive
- Installing Windows XP
- Installing the Macintosh Drivers
- Troubleshooting Boot Camp's Obstacles
- Switching Between Mac OS X and Windows XP

[Bill Fox]



[4/13]
Apple Released Aperture 1.1 with Universal Binary and Reduced Price at $299: Apple today released Aperture 1.1, a significant update to its all-in-one post production tool for photographers that runs natively on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs. According to Apple, Aperture 1.1 features dramatically improved RAW image rendering and a new set of advanced RAW adjustment controls. It also delivers impressive speed gains on any Mac including desktop performance on a MacBook Pro with image adjustments and searching up to 4x faster in Apple's tests.

At a new lower price of $299, Apple has made Aperture much more affordable for many other photographers. Those who bought Aperture 1.0 at the original $499 price can get a $200 coupon that is redeemable at the Apple Online Store by visiting this Web page. [Bill Fox]



[4/13]
Dr. Bott Announced Marware Protection Pack for MacBook Pro: The Marware Protection Pack for MacBook Pro consists of a wrist rest and a keyboard cover made from PVC leather to prevent scratches and provide a smooth, padded work surface. The non-permanent special adhesive allows for effortless complete and clean removal. The dual-purpose keyboard cover is made of microfiber, the same material used for lens cloths. Perfect for protection against impurities and for use as a screen cleaner, the Marware Protection Pack is the ideal product for any MacBook Pro user.

The Marware Protection Pack is available in four models, the newest being for MacBook Pro as well as 12", 15", and 17" PowerBooks. All four models of the Marware Protection Pack are available today exclusively through Dr. Bott authorized resellers for $19.95. [Bill Fox]



[4/13]
1,000 FREE SendStation PocketDock iPod Adapters from the Easter Bunny--Get One Now: SendStation Systems and the Easter bunny are giving away 1,000 free PocketDocks FW, the legendary thumb-sized iPod FireWire adapter. Offer available while supplies last or until April 16, 2006, limited to one PocketDock per person. Get yours now at SendStation's Web site. [Bill Fox]



[4/13]
Tonight on The Tech Night Owl LIVE--Apple's Boot Camp, Parallels' Workstation and Symantec's pcAnywhere: This week host Gene Steinberg and his irreverent son and co-host Grayson will continue their coverage of Apple's Boot Camp, beta software that enables you to install Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac. You'll hear from John Rizzo, of MacWindows.com and Macworld's Rob Griffiths. A new application that promises to run Windows and the Mac OS side-by-side with top performance will be discussed by Benjamin H. Rudolph of Parallels. In addition, we'll be joined by Mike Baldwin, Senior Product Manager, Symantec, who will be talking about the new Mac version of pcAnywhere. Tune in the audio webcast Thursday night from 6:00 to 8:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 to 11:00 PM Eastern. [Bill Fox]



[4/13]
From the Dark Side--Ensure a New PC Will Run Windows Vista, Get a Mac: Walter Mossberg offers a Annual Buying Guide in today's Wall Street Journal for folks who want to buy a PC now that can use Windows Vista later. It's quite complex because Microsoft has not yet issued final specs for running Vista, there will be low-powered and high-powered versions of Vista and Microsoft usually understates the requirements.

But why doesn't he offer a buying guide for Macs? That's simple according to Mossberg,

"I believe every mainstream consumer doing typical tasks should consider the Mac. Its operating system already contains most of the key features promised for Vista. However, the Mac doesn't really need a buyer's guide. It has only two consumer desktop models -- the gorgeous iMac and the low-end Mac Mini."

And if you want to be sure to be able to run Vista, get an Intel-based Mac. [Dana Baggett]



[4/12]
Hands-On Report: Mac OS X 10.4.6 (Intel)--How Fast Is It? Last Tuesday, Apple released Mac OS X 10.4.6 Update to Tiger for the Power PC CPU, Intel CPU and server editions (see this Apple Web page).As frequent readers know, we have benchmarked virtually every release of Mac OS X from the original 10.0 release through 10.4.5 to keep track of the improvements in its speed, a major complaint initially about Mac OS X. On Monday, we posted the results of our speed comparo of Mac OS X 10.4.6 (PPC) with Mac OS X 10.4.5 (PPC). Today, we have the results for Mac OS X 10.4.6 (Intel).

How fast is it? Did 10.4.6 speed anything up or slow anything down on Intel-based Macs? To determine this we ran a reduced set of our usual suite of speed tests on our two Intel-based test Macs. The speed tests are composed of a series of "canned" benchmark applications and several so-called "real world" tests that anyone can repeat on their own Mac for comparison by following the steps that we perform. In these tests, we used a 20" 2GHz iMac Core Duo with 2GB RAM and a 1.66GHz Mac mini Core Duo with 1GB of RAM.

Here are the results for the 20" 2 GHz iMac Core Duo comparing 10.4.6 with 10.4.5:

2.0GHz iMac Core Duo Speed Tests (average* scores or secs).
Test+ Mac OS X
10.4.5
10.4.6
Chg. %
Benchmarks:
Altivec Fractal (GFLOPS)
3.8
3.7
-3
Cinebench 2003 (9.5)+ - Rendering
566
567
+0
- OpenGL Hardware Lighting
1681
1679
-0
Let1kWindowsBloom 1.0 (sec)
12
11
-8
Xbench 1.2+ - CPU
77
76
-1
- Threading
199
199
0
- Memory
108
110
+2
- Quartz Graphics
72
72
0
- OpenGL Graphics
132
136
+3
- User Interface Graphics
nv
nv
-
- Hard Disk
92
90
-2
"Real World" Tests:
Startup (sec)
29
64
+221
Shutdown (sec)
7
6
-14
Dup. 500 MB Folder of Files (sec)
32
32
0
Scroll 144p Adobe 7.0.7 Reader File (sec)
38
38
0
Doom 3 1.3A+ MQ (frames/sec)
65
55
-15
*Average of 3 runs. +Universal binary version. nv=not valid. Red is much faster. Blue is much slower.

The results for the 20" 2GHz iMac Core Duo show, with two exceptions, no appreciable differences between 10.4.6 and 10.4.5. First, the startup time increased substantially. We can not explain this huge change and wonder if anybody else has seen this change--let us know using the "News tips" link above. And second, the frame rate for Doom 3 v1.3A dropped significantly. This also happened on our iMac G5 which we reported on Monday. This Doom 3 result is a re-run using a new user created to explore why the startup time increased so dramatically and it's less of a difference than we showed Tuesday, more in line with the same decline in Doom 3 performance that we saw in the iMac G5.

Here are the results for the 1.66GHz Mac mini Core Duo comparing 10.4.6 with 10.4.5:

1.66GHz Mac mini Core Duo Speed Tests (average* scores or secs).
Test Mac OS X
10.4.5
10.4.6
Chg. %
Benchmarks:
Altivec Fractal (GFLOPS)
3.3
3.3
0
Cinebench 2003 (9.5)+ - Rendering (2X)
464
474
+2
- OpenGL Hardware Lighting
546
545
-0
Let1kWindowsBloom 1.0 (sec)
19
19
0
Xbench 1.2+ - CPU
64
64
0
- Threading
166
166
0
- Memory
97
108
+11
- Quartz Graphics
60
68
+13
- OpenGL Graphics
183
183
0
- User Interface Graphics
nv
nv
-
- Hard Disk
30
27
-10
"Real World" Tests:
Startup (sec)
25
28
+12
Shutdown (sec)
8
9
+12
Dup. 500 MB Folder of Files (sec)
48
49
+2
Scroll 144p Adobe 7.0.7 Reader File (sec)
78
76
-3
Export QT FQDV Movie in iMovie HD 6.0.2 (sec)
nr
49
-
Quake III Arena 1.32 (frames/sec)
44
44
0
Call of Duty 1.4 (frames/sec)
18
18
0
*Average of 3 runs. +Universal binary version. nv=not valid. nr=not recorded. Red is much faster. Blue is much slower.

For the 1.66GHz Mac mini Core Duo, there are generally no appreciable differences between Mac OS X 10.4.6 and 10.4.5. The Quartz Graphics score in 10.4.6 is statistically higher, however. Somewhat surprisingly, the Mac mini Core Duo's Quartz and OpenGL graphics scores are similar to those of the iMac Core Duo, maybe even better in OpenGL. Also surprisingly, we got the same QuickTime DV compression performance from iMovie HD 6.0.1 as we did with the Power Mac G5 Quad. The Intel GMA945 integrated graphics chip in the Mac mini is proving to be very good except at fast 3D games.

Like the iMac Core Duo, the startup time for the Mac mini Core Duo also increased but nowhere near as much.

Mac OS X 10.4.6 (Intel) has mainly security, compatibility and stability improvements and no general speed improvements. To the contrary, the only speed effects are that startup time has increased and the performance in Doom 3 for at least some Macs with ATI Radeon cards has been reduced. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]



[4/12]
Apple Revised the Offerings from Two Hot Deals Retailers:

macgamestore.com has great deals, and a Hot Deals exclusive 5% discount at checkout, on a variety of Mac games including: Quake 4 (now Universal for Intel-based Macs!) from Aspyr for only $49.95; The Sims 2 Nightlife for only $34.95; Agon from Viva Media for only $29.95; Flip or Flop Home Edition (digital download) from Toybox Games for only $19.99; Aloha TriPeaks from GameHouse (digital download) for only $19.99; Gem Shop from Red Marble Games (digital download) for only $19.95; and much more.

Publishing Perfection has deals on a wide variety of Mac compatible products including: the Image Library REAL Collection stock photography images from Ingram Publishing for only $249.00; StockLayouts for Adobe InDesign Vol. 4, agency-quality templates for marketing materials for only $485.95; get the power of Hollywood-style blue/green screen compositing on your desktop with Cinematte for Photoshop from Nova Design for only $189.95; affordable and accurate digital camera and scanner profiling software, inCamera 3.1 Plug-in for Photoshop, from Pictographics for only $159.95; get the Stamina Collection Gold Photoshop plugins (includes Textissimo special effects; Squizz distortion effects plugins; and PhotoSpray textures) from Human Software for only $269.95; and much more.

[Bill Fox]



[4/12]
Apple Released Remote Desktop 3--Manage a Network of Macs: Apple announced Apple Remote Desktop 3, the third generation of it's desktop management software. Building on Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" innovations such as Spotlight, Dashboard and Automator, Apple Remote Desktop 3 is a Universal application optimized to take advantage of the power of Intel-based Macs with more than 50 new features that deliver improvements in software distribution, asset management and remote assistance.

"With Apple Remote Desktop 3, we've delivered powerful innovations that make it even easier and more affordable to manage Macs," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Great new features such as remote Spotlight searching and customized Automator actions take advantage of innovations in Tiger and make Apple Remote Desktop 3 a valuable tool for anyone managing more than one Mac."

Apple Remote Desktop 3 offers a wide range of high performance desktop management features including lightning-fast Spotlight searches across multiple Tiger systems; over 30 Automator actions for easily automating repetitive system administration tasks; a Dashboard Widget that provides quick and convenient observation of remote systems; and AutoInstall for installing software automatically on mobile systems when they return online.

Other new features in Apple Remote Desktop 3 include:

  • System Status Indicators that let administrators quickly check the overall health of multiple systems at a glance;
  • Power Copy files up to 11 times faster than with Apple Remote Desktop 2;
  • Remote Drag and Drop files and folders between local and remote computers;
  • Remote Copy and Paste for simple transfer of text and images between local and remote computers;
  • Persistent Task History and Task Templates to make it easy to save and replicate repetitive tasks;
  • Curtain Mode to hide the desktop of a system while it is being controlled remotely;
    Application Usage and User History Reports to track software compliance and monitor the use of unauthorized applications;
  • Smart Computer Lists for dynamically managing systems based on specified criteria; and
  • AES 128-bit encryption for secure communications between Apple Remote Desktop 3 and clients.

Apple Remote Desktop 3 is available immediately for a suggested retail price of $299 for managing up to 10 systems and $499 for managing an unlimited number of systems. Special education pricing can be found on Apple's Education Store. Unfortunately, there is no upgrade pricing.

We have used Apple Remote 1.x and 2.x to manage the Macs on our networks and have found it to be an excellent application. The person with an average home network of a few Macs may want to look into the oddly-named but open source (free) Chicken of the VNC to accomplish many similar tasks. [Bill Fox]



[4/11]
Hands-On Report--Mac OS X 10.4.6 Update Significantly Reduces Doom 3 Performance at Lower Resolutions on ATI Graphics: If you own a 2GHz or better iMac G5, the very demanding Doom 3 game plays surprisingly well at the default medium quality (MQ) settings (640x480) selected by the application. Doom 3 was first released for the Mac as v1.1 but when it was updated last July to v1.3 some performance was lost as we noted at that time in our speed tests. Fortunately, the release of the Universal Binary version 1.3A of Doom 3 restored the performance lost (and then some) for lower resolutions on ATI graphics as we noted in our speed tests of the 1.3A patch when it was released in February and reconfirmed several days later.

Here are our previously posted results using Mac OS X 10.4.5 and the results using Mac OS X 10.4.6 for our 2GHz iMac G5:

Speed of Doom 3 on 2 GHz iMac G5 (frames/sec)*
Doom 3 (Mac OS X) Versions
10.4.5-10.4.6 Change (%)
Run Number
1.1 (10.4.5)
1.3 (10.4.5)
1.3A (10.4.5)
1.3A (10.4.6)
.
1
31
29
35
30
-14
2
33
31
38
32
-16
3
33
31
38
32
-16
4
33
31
38
32
-16
*Default settings=MQ with 640x480 resolution.

The 10.4.6 update resulted in a performance loss of 16 per cent in Doom 3 v1.3A to a level right between that of v1.1 and v1.3.

The Doom 3 performance loss is not limited to the iMac G5 with ATI 9600 graphics. A more dramatic performance loss occurred on our Intel-based 2GHz iMac Core Duo with ATI X1600 graphics:

Speed of Doom 3 on 2 GHz iMac Core Duo (frames/sec)*
Doom 3 (Mac OS X) Versions
10.4.5-10.4.6 Change (%)
Run Number
1.3A (10.4.5)
1.3A (10.4.6)
.
1
63
nr
-
2
65
51
-22
3
65
51
-22
4
65
51
-22
*Default settings=MQ with 640x480 resolution. nr=not recorded.

Mac OS X 10.4.6 update dropped the Doom 3 at MQ scores on our Intel-based 2GHz iMac Core Duo by a whopping 22 per cent.

What could have caused this? We do not believe any of the ATI graphics drivers were updated in 10.4.6 since they all carry a creation/modification date of 3/26/05. None of the Apple articles on 10.4.6 mention anything about general graphics updates--just a few updates for specific games, none of which are Doom 3. And, we do not see a similar Doom 3 v1.3A performance reduction on our Nvidia GeForce 6600 graphics card. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]



[4/11]
O'Reilly Released iPhoto 6: The Missing Manual--A Manual and Complete Digital Photography Course: "Don't let the rumors fool you. iPhoto may be simple, but it isn't simplistic," say David Pogue and Derrick Story, authors of iPhoto 6: The Missing Manual (O'Reilly, ISBN: 0-596-52725-X, 408 pages, $29.99). "It offers a wide range of tools, shortcuts, and database-like features; a complete arsenal of photo-presentation features; and sophisticated multimedia and Internet hooks. Unfortunately, many of the best techniques aren't covered in the only 'manual' you get with iPhoto--its slow, sparse electronic help screens." That's where their new book comes in: it's the iPhoto manual that should have been in the box and a complete course in digital photography as well. [Bill Fox]



[4/11]
BeLight Software Announced Their "Let's get switched" Contest Winners: Near the end of March, BeLight Software ran a special contest to celebrate Apple's 30th anniversary. All visitors to the BeLight contest Web page were asked to contribute their advice on how to convert a "die-hard" PC user to the Mac. More than 300 ideas were received. The contest winners and many of the ideas submitted are listed on this BeLight Software Web page. [Bill Fox]



[4/10]
Hands-On Report: Mac OS X 10.4.6 (PPC)--How Fast Is It? Last Tuesday, Apple released Mac OS X 10.4.6 Update to Tiger for the Power PC CPU, Intel CPU and server editions (see this Apple Web page). As frequent readers know, we have benchmarked virtually every release of Mac OS X from the original 10.0 release through 10.4.5 to keep track of the improvements in its speed, a major complaint initially about Mac OS X. Fortunately, Mac OS X runs very well these days. Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger brought significant increases in speed to the Finder and OpenGL graphics. Subsequent updates through 10.4.5 brought stability and security improvements but no real speed changes of note that we could detect with our test bed Macs.

Now we have Mac OS X 10.4.6 (PPC), how fast is it? Did 10.4.6 speed anything up or slow anything down? To determine this we ran our usual suite of speed tests on two of our test-bed Macs. The speed tests are composed of a series of "canned" benchmark applications and several so-called "real world" tests that anyone can repeat on their own Mac for comparison by following the steps that we perform. For 10.4.6, however, we have begun using Universal Binary versions of some test applications that were not available for our tests prior to Mac OS X 10.4.5.

Our long-term test Mac (since Mac OS X 10.0) has been a mostly-stock, year-2000 vintage 450 MHz Power Mac G4 Cube with 704MB RAM. But time marches on so we have retired it for the rest of the "Tiger" updates. Doing so allows us to spend our time on the newer Intel-based Macs. We will use the G4 Cube again when Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" is released in order to gauge its effects on the performance of non-upgraded legacy G4 Macs.

In these tests, we used Apple's top-of-the-line Power Mac G5 Quad that is stock except for an additional of 2GB RAM to 2.5GB. Our second test Mac is a 20" 2 GHz iMac G5 (Rev. B), stock in every way, to represent a relatively recent mid-range PPC Mac. We will post the results from our Intel-based Macs at a later date.

Here are the results for the 20" 2 GHz iMac G5 comparing 10.4.6 with 10.4.5:

2.0GHz iMac G5 (Rev. B) Speed Tests (average* scores or secs).
Test+ Mac OS X
10.4.5
10.4.6
Chg. %
Benchmarks:
Altivec Fractal (GFLOPS)
4.8
5.1
+6
Cinebench 2003 (9.5)+ - Rendering
275
272
-0
- OpenGL Hardware Lighting
1226
1197
-2
Let1kWindowsBloom 1.0 (sec)
9
9
0
Xbench 1.2+ - CPU
84
88
+5
- Threading
55
60
+9
- Memory
64
64
0
- Quartz Graphics
88
88
0
- OpenGL Graphics
121
119
-0
- User Interface Graphics
69
65
-6
- Hard Disk
92
90
-2
"Real World" Tests:
Startup (sec)
40
42
+5
Shutdown (sec)
7
8
+14
Launch Classic Mode (sec)
13
13
0
Dup. 500 MB Folder of Files (sec)
62
61
-2
Scroll 144p Adobe 7.0.7 Reader File (sec)
39
39
0
Export QT FQDV Movie in iMovie HD 5.0.2 (sec)
21
22
+5
Quake III Arena 1.32 (frames/sec)
142
141
-0
Halo 1.5.2 (frames/sec)
19
20
+5
Call of Duty 1.4 (frames/sec)
56
56
0
Doom 3 1.3A+ MQ (frames/sec)
38
32
-16
*Average of 3 runs. +Universal binary version. Red is much faster. Blue is much slower.

The results for the 20" 2 GHz iMac G5 show, with one exception, no appreciable differences between 10.4.6 and 10.4.5. The frame rate for Doom 3 v1.3A dropped significantly to the rate for Doom 3 v1.3, i.e. before the Universal Binary patch. This also happened on our iMac Core Duo which we will be reporting on later.

Here are the Power Mac G5 Quad's results comparing 10.4.6 with 10.4.5:

Quad 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 Speed Tests (average* scores or secs).
Test Mac OS X
10.4.5
10.4.6
Chg. %
Benchmarks:
Altivec Fractal (GFLOPS)
24.6
25.3
+3
Cinebench 2003 (9.5)+ - Rendering
1194
1194
0
- OpenGL Hardware Lighting
2182
2219
+2
Let1kWindowsBloom 1.0 (sec)
6
6
0
Xbench 1.2+ - CPU
126
124
-2
- Threading
247
243
-2
- Memory
129
132
+2
- Quartz Graphics
147
149
+1
- OpenGL Graphics
137
136
-0
- User Interface Graphics
236
236
0
- Hard Disk
41
42
+2
"Real World" Tests:
Startup (sec)
44
41
-7
Shutdown (sec)
12
12
0
Launch Classic Mode (sec)
10
11
+10
Dup. 500 MB Folder of Files (sec)
35
34
-3
Scroll 144p Adobe 7.0.7 Reader File (sec)
32
32
0
Export QT FQDV Movie in iMovie HD 6.0.2 (sec)
44
44
0
Quake III Arena 1.32 (frames/sec)
414
417
+1
Halo 1.5.2 (frames/sec)
31
31
0
Call of Duty 1.4 (frames/sec)
85
84
-1
Doom 3 1.3A+ (frames/sec)
52
53
+2
*Average of 3 runs. +Universal binary version. Red is much faster. Blue is much slower.

For the current top-end Power Mac G5, the Quad 2.5 GHz, there are no appreciable differences between Mac OS X 10.4.6 and 10.4.5. We still get terrible QuickTime DV compression performance from iMovie HD 6.0.1. As we noted previously, it takes over twice as long for the new iLife '06 application to export a full quality DV movie from the test clips than does iMovie HD 5.0.2.

Mac OS X 10.4.6, like all the other 10.4.x updates, has mainly security, compatibility and stability improvements and no real speed improvements. The only speed effect seems to be that the performance increase in Doom 3 for at least some Macs with ATI Radeon cards brought by the v1.3A update, as we previously noted, has been eliminated for some reason.

The only problem that we've encountered with Mac OS X 10.4.6 was updating Mac OS X Server v10.4.5 on an external FireWire drive--after the second reboot it froze at the Mac OS X splash screen. After a restart it would mount but would not boot our G4 Cube. We had to reformat the drive after backing up the data and reinstall 10.4 Server. Then, we used the 10.4.6 Server combo updater and it worked fine. Otherwise, we have used Mac OS X 10.4.6 for a week on a number of Macs and PowerBooks without running into any new or significant problems. [Bill Fox]



[4/10]
Hands-On Review Classic--MacDrive 98 v2.0.2: If one uses Apple's Boot Camp to create a partition on an Intel-based Mac and loads Windows XP on it, one can mount the Mac partition while using Windows and read and write to it with a Windows utility called MacDrive by Mediafour. MacDrive has bee around for some time. In 1998 we reviewed MacDrive 98 v2.0.2. Back then, it was a great utility to carry around to use meetings so that people could read from and write to one's Mac floppy drives on their Wintel laptops and desktops. Here is our original highly favorable review. Today, the latest version is MacDrive 6 and it is still doing the same excellent job. [Bill Fox]



[4/7]
Intel-Based Mac Firmware Updates Do More Than Allow Windows Install? Yesterday, we noted that Apple released a new firmware update along with Boot Camp, an assistant for installing Windows XP on a MacIntel (Mac mini, MacBook Pro and iMac). Apple's information was (and still is) sparse on the firmware upgrade and Apple also released a tool for reverting to the previous firmware version. Based on this we surmised that the update only provided for an easy Windows XP installation.

However, several web sites have reader reports that claim that the firmware update on a MacBook Pro, at least, provided other benefits such as fixing a processor noise and reducing the heat output. In addition, a Macs Only! reader Maarten Hazewinkel noted:

From what I understand, the firmware update that accompanies Boot Camp mostly adds a BIOS emulation layer to the firmware. This is a key part in getting windows to run. Additionally, beyond windows, it will also make it much easier to get Linux and other open source operating systems to run on the Mac Intels.

So there may be other benefits to the firmware upgrade that those who are considering installing it may wish to think about. If you find an additional benefit to the firmware upgrades, let us know using the "News tips" link above. [Bill Fox]



[4/6]
Tonight on the Tech Night Owl LIVE!--Boot Camp, Christopher Breen and eBay Scams: Tonight host Gene Steinberg and his irreverent son and co-host Grayson will explore Apple's Boot Camp, beta software that enables you to install Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac, with their Special Correspondent, David Biedny. They'll also welcome Macworld's Christopher Breen and Shauna Wright, author of "Don't Get Burned on EBay: How to Avoid Scams and Escape Bad Deals." Tune in the internet webcast tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 to 11:00 PM Eastern. [Bill Fox]



[4/6]
Apple's Pro Tip of the Week--Spell-Checking in Stickies: While working on a sticky note, the spelling of a word may be easily checked. Just control-click on the word and the contextual menu that pops up will have a suggested spelling of it. More... [Dana Baggett]



[4/5]
Intel Noses Ahead of Samsung with 65nm-process Flash RAM: Yesterday, we noted that Samsung's 70nm (smaller is better) 1GB flash RAM has tested much faster at sustained read than its 90nm flash RAM. Well, Intel just anounced that is has produced samples of 1GB flash RAM modules built in a 65nm process. Intel's flash RAM is used in devices such as cell phones to manage critical phone operations, handle Personal Information Management data and to store photos, music and videos, a much narrower market than Samsung's. However, Intel's announcement shows that the development of flash RAM technology continues at a rapid pace. It's only a matter of time until flash RAM technology is used in computers to replace hard drive functions. More... [Bill Fox]



[4/5]
Keyspan Announced New RF Remote for Front Row: The Keyspan RF Remote was designed specifically for use with Apple's Front Row multimedia software.

Keyspan's new RF Remote:

  • Uses a radio frequency (RF) signal that works through walls and furniture, better than the line of sight requirement of infrared remotes.
  • Delivers a range of 60 feet or more (twice the distance of infrared remotes).
  • Features a set of 9 buttons which allow a user to control Front Row software, eject a CD or DVD, put the Mac to sleep and wake it up.

Shipping this week with a suggested price of $39, Keyspan's RF Remote for Front Row is available to consumers from MacConnection, MacWarehouse, Apple Specialist resellers, and other leading resellers of Macintosh accessories. [Bill Fox]



[4/4]
Brief Hands-On Report--Mac OS X 10.4.6: Apple released Mac OS X 10.4.6 Update for Client and Server editions and for Power PC and Intel-based Macs. They are available for download via Software Update or as stand-alone updaters from this Apple Web page. We recommend using a combo updater where available even though the combo files have become very large--140-191MB.

New things:

There are several important things to know before rushing into applying the new update:

  • If you use iSync, you should perform a full sync with your devices before installing this update. Mac OS X 10.4.6 Update includes a later version of iSync with several improvements. For more information and before-you-install steps, see iSync 2.2: Read before updating to Mac OS X 10.4.6 or later, or before first sync.
  • With the Mac OS X 10.4.6 system software update, PowerPC-based Macs will restart twice, instead of once, after the initial installation.
  • You may experience unexpected results if you have third-party system software modifications installed, or if you've modified the operating system through other means. (This does not apply to normal application software installation.)
  • The installation process should not be interrupted. If a power outage or other interruption occurs during installation, use the standalone installer (see below) from Apple Downloads to update.
  • If issues occur during installation--for example, Software Update quits unexpectedly, please see this article.

We also recommend that permissions be repaired and Disk Utility be run to repair the hard disk before installing an update.

What's It Do?

According to the Read Me file,

The 10.4.6 Update is recommended for all users and includes general operating system fixes, as well as specific fixes for the following applications and technologies:

  • login and authentication in a variety of network environments
  • file access and byte range locking with AFP file sharing
  • network access when using proxy server automatic configuration files
  • connecting to Cisco VPN servers using IP/Sec
  • using Bluetooth wireless devices
  • searching iWork '06 and Microsoft Office documents with Spotlight
  • saving Word documents automatically when using a network home directory
  • creating Automator workflows for iPhoto 6
  • synchronizing contacts and calendars to .Mac and mobile phones
  • mounting and unmounting iDisk volumes
  • compatibility with third party applications and devices
  • previous standalone security updates

Detailed information on this Update is contained on this Apple Web page.

The update also contains a fix for the following security issue:

Firmware--Intel-based Macintosh computers support the firmware password feature. Prior to this update, a person with physical access to the computer could bypass the firmware password and access the "Single User Mode". This update addresses the issue by enhancing the security provided by the firmware password. Credit to David Pugh of the University of Michigan for reporting this issue.

Our Early Experience:

We downloaded and installed Mac OS X 10.4.6 via Software Update on an Intel-based iMac, a 12" 867MHz PowerBook G4 and their external FireWire hard drives. This is fewer systems than normal because we are currently away from our global HQ. We had no problems with any of the four installations. As noted above, the PowerBook G4 and its external FireWire drive restarted twice after installing the Mac OS X 10.4.6 update. We repaired permissions again and several repairs were made to the PowerBook G4. No problems cropped up during hours of use.[Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]



[4/4]
Apple Posted a New iPod Ad: The new ad features "dancing" music CD jewel cases building structures and cities. [Bill Fox]



[4/4]
Samsung Debuts New Faster 1GB Flash RAM for iPods and 'Books? The new flash RAM is based on a 70nm process, smaller than the currently most advanced flash RAM using a 90nm process. The sustained read speed is 108GB/sec as opposed to 68GB/sec for the 90nm process. Both processes yield chips that have a sustained write speed of 9.3GB/sec. Samsung says the new flash RAM chips are for "...handsets, hybrid hard disks, memory cards and other consumer electronics products." Hopefully, we'll soon see flash RAM replace the hard drive for many memory tasks, allowing faster booting and application launching. More... [Bill Fox]



[4/3]
Free Apple Online Seminars--1 Added for April: One new Apple online seminar has been added and none have been deleted in the lineup for April.

The new one is:

Aperture: Streamline your workflow after the shoot--Joe Schorr and Joseph Linaschke demonstrate the extensive range of groundbreaking features and the benefits Aperture delivers throughout your digital workflow.

Here is February's complete list and the three additions and three deletions in March.

Apple's online seminars are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from any computer with internet access. They are designed to be no more than 30 minutes in length and offer a wide variety of resources and information. Topics cover solutions using Apple and partner products and technologies. [Bill Fox]



[4/3]
Apple Posted Building a Sample Core Data Application--First of a New Tutorial Series: The Apple Developer Connection (ADC) posted the tutorial Building a Sample Core Data Application. It is the first in a new series of tutorials that combine text with QuickTime video clips to demonstrate exactly how to work with key Mac OS X Tiger technologies. This new kind of technical resource enables one to experience firsthand the powerful capabilities of development technologies such as Xcode 2, Core Data, and Cocoa bindings.

Core Data is well documented in the ADC Reference Library. It is a powerful data-management framework introduced with Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger. Taking advantage of Core Data slashes the amount of custom code needed to be written in order to manage application data. Opening, saving and undo management can all be handled by Core Data, so one can concentrate on creating unique application features. [Bill Fox]



[4/1]
Happy 30th Anniversary, Apple!

[Go to the March Archive]

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