Moscone West, San Francisco, a few days before the WWDC on Monday (Tuesday morning here in Manila.)
Expect every detail to be scrutinized, analyzed and speculated about to death until then. (Already, I’m wondering why they’ve dropped the “Mac” from “Mac OS X Leopard“. And “OS X iPhone“? I’ve never heard it called like that. Hmmmm…)
Apple released this week a long and exhaustive Leopard Security Configuration Guide consisting of recommended practices and tips on keeping your Macs, well, secure.
Strictly hardcore, it’s meant for the upper echelon of Mac geeks who are comfortable with Terminal and can understand the arcana of things like sandboxing, library randomization and modules with two-factor authentication systems.
I don’t think I’d try to try anything in it by myself, but it’s nice to know I have a copy. It’s like a rare library book from Hogwarts, and would be perfect if Harry was a Mac fanboy as well. Needless to say, tinkering with these spells is not recommended for ordinary wizards, not unless you know what you’re doing.
It’s a 3.4mb PDF download and you can get it here if you want to take a peek.
A quick look at the Table Of Contents after the jump:
The new version of Mac OS X, 10.6, will be known as Snow Leopard. Snow. Leopard.
Or at least that’s what Ars Technica seems convinced of. They also say it’ll be launched at Macworld 2009 in January, and will be Intel-only.
Previous speculation says that 10.6 seeds’ll be released to developers next week at the WWDC, in preparation for its release next year. As for changes, apparently it’ll be basically the same, except that it’ll be faster and more stable, rather than have anything really new or innovative. The report says this is because speed and stability are bigger concerns now that Apple’s firmly entrenched in smaller and more mobile gadgets that need these elements more than anything.
PowerPC users are expectedly crushed by this news. Our sympathies.
[UPDATE: Typo! As a bunch of readers immediately noted, I wrote the version wrong (10.5.6). Dunno what got into me - maybe because i was sneaking in this post as I was in a sales meeting. Heh. Serves me right! Fixed it already. Thanks, eagle-eyed MacADoodlers! You know who you are!]
Non-Filipino readers might find this post’s title odd, but it’s just Taglish for “I’m mobile”, which for this blogger is a clumsy play on the rumored new name for Apple’s .Mac service (and for the purposes of this blog will be referred to as DotMac, to retain the sanity of my word processor’s autocorrect feature.) It’s also a play on the current and more-than-annoying marketing campaign of local telecom provider Smart Communications called “Me na Me” presently irritating us silly here in Manila for their Smart Buddy service.
Ok. So there I go ruining the whole structure of the post just so I could have my silly title. Let’s just have it out then: According to rumors, Apple seems to be set on renaming their DotMac service, that US$99 one-year thing where you get a paltry amount of online storage and a snotty email address that ends in “mac.com” (and some other stuff), to Mobile Me. Ugh.
Dunno about you, but the fact that you can get everything DotMac is offering for free elsewhere online seems to me a testament to the lengths fanboys will go to for their mothership. (Full disclosure: I used to be suckered into this thing too, and had a DotMac account for three years or so until I wised up and saved my money instead to buy more useful things like food. And beer.) But apparently it may be time to come back to the fold.
According to many archived reports, Apple trademarked the name Mobile Mac on Jan. 5, 2006, and while much was made of it at the time as Apple folk are wont to do, nothing happened and people forgot about it. Now though, people poking through the code of the recently released 10.5.3 update of Leopard have come across considerable evidence that Apple is finally going to use the two-year-old name, presumably after the relaunching announcement to be made at Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote on June 9.
A rose by any other name, blah blah. What’s more important is what new stuff it will offer for the hundred bucks (or however much they’ll be charging for it), and right now all we can do is make educated guesses. Obviously it will tie in with the new 3G iPhone and include stuff like push email, wireless syncing and things Blackberry fans have been enjoying for years. We’ll just have to add Mobile Me to our list of things to wait for during the keynote. If it had really useful features, I wouldn’t be averse to signing back up again and resurrecting my old DotMac address.
Which also means most of us renegade iPhone users will have to formally sign up with Globe Telecom when it finally releases the phone for my country (sometime in September, if rumors are to be believed). Obviously my non-3G first-gen kracked-and-jailbroken iPhone won’t do, so I’ll have to pony up for the new one. Life is hard. Ah, well.
(By the way, is it just me, or does Mobile Me really sound like an embarrasingly jejune name for an Apple service? It even sounds …Microsoftian, like something Gates and Ballmer might’ve thought up. Sheesh.)
[Box art mock-up via TUAW]
An uncovered patent made by Apple reveals plans to create an iPod powered by light.
MacRumors reports that it has found a patent by Apple to create an iPod (and presumably an iPhone) with a solar panel under the LCD screen by which it can generate additional power. The patent postulates a thin three-level sandwich of sorts that incorporates a touch sensitive layer, a display and a photovoltaic panel. The unique Apple twist is that by doing so it won’t have to create a separate charging panel; it’ll look the same, only you don’t have to charge it as often, or at all. With its giant screen, the iPhone’ll be especially energy-efficient.
The patent also mentions that the multiple solar cells would be coupled directly with specific components within the device, including the memory and the data-processing system.
Talk about hot gadgets. This is way cool, but don’t hold your breath just yet.
