HP MediaSmart Servers Get Mac Support

HP introduced updated versions of its Windows-based MediaSmart Servers on Monday with support for the Mac. The ex485 and ex487 both support Mac OS X 10.5 and let users back up their data and share an iTunes library over a local network. HP’s MediaSmart Server for the home. The ex485 and ex487 support Leopard’s Time…

Safari Books Online Rolls Out New Mac, Photoshop Titles

New Mac-related titles include the just announced AppleScript 1-2-3 by Sal Saghoian and Bill Cheeseman, along with Scott Kelby’s Mac OS X Leopard Killer Tips. Also announced, but not available until January 5, is Lesa Snider King’s Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual. Safari Books Online subscriptions start at US$22.99 a month.

Want to Experience Mac History? Check Out Mactracker!

Most people know that Apple helped start a computing revolution, with the introduction of the Mac in 1984. Part of the intrigue of these early machines was the decidedly nonstandard hardware, much of which offered features beyond the competition. If you’d like to take a walk down memory lane, there has been much written about…

Want Your Mac to Sleep Smart? Better Get SmartSleep!

With the increasing amount of RAM you can have in your Mac, this process can take a while. Fortunately, a handy little prefpane called SmartSleep can fine-tune this behavior to your liking. Smart Sleep Prefpane Smart Sleep allows you to choose one of four sleep modes. The Mac’s default behavior is sleep and hibernate, which…

Another Unauthorized Mac Cloner Appears: OpeniMac

OpeniMac, which was first spotted by Engadget, is promoting its computers under the tagline, “Prestaciones de Mac. Precio de PC,” which translates as “The Benefits of a Mac. The Price of a PC.” Accordingly, the company offers visitors to its site comparisons between its computers and Apple’s Mac mini and iMac. We should note, though,…

Apple Advocates Use of Multiple Antiviral Programs for Macs

Apple is now advising Mac owners to use “multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult.” The company specifically recommended Intego VirusBarrier X5 ($64.99 – Amazon), Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 11 for Macintosh ($31.99 – Amazon), and McAfee VirusScan for Mac.…

A MacBook Surprise: View-Protected Content

[Update: posted November 26, 2008] Apple released QuickTime 7.5.7 yesterday (currently available via Software Update for new MacBooks). It should now allow non-HD protected content to play on any external display. I guess I should have had a bit more faith in Apple.

Belkin Intros Switch-to-Mac USB Cable

Belkin announced the immediate availability of its new Switch-to-Mac Cable on Wednesday. The USB cable includes a built-in converter that handles the process of transferring PC settings and files from a Windows machine to a Mac. Belkin’s Switch-to-Mac Cable The Switch-to-Mac Cable supports Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, and Windows XP or Vista. It…

Sayonara to My TiBook

For the last, gasp, 90 months, my trusty PowerBook G4 Titanium has served me well. And it itis not done yet. In itis new life, itill be used by my church for presentations. That so-called “TiBook” has been an amazing computer. What was once a state of the art Apple Titanium notebook computer has survived…

Tom Bihn Announces 15.4" Checkpoint Flyer & Brain Cell Laptop Bags

The Checkpoint Flyer is a trifold laptop bag designed around recently released TSA guidelines for laptop bags. It, in theory, allows users to not have to unpack their laptops at airport security checks, unfolding in a way the TSA will (supposedly) approve (The company offers a third party video review of the bag that shows…

Developing Cocoa Apps with MacRuby

Appleis Developer Connection recently posted a tutorial on developing Mac apps with MacRuby. The advantage of MacRuby is that it bypasses the technology of the Ruby-Cocoa bridge and sits directly on top of core Mac OS X technologies such as Objective-C runtime, the generational garbage collector, and CoreFoundation. As the tutorial explains, “Creating a bridge…

Absoft Releases Xcode Plug-in for Pro Fortran 10.2

Absoft announced the immediate availability of its Xcode 3.1 plug-in for the Absoft Pro Fortran v10.2 product on Wednesday. The Intel Mac only plug-in allows Xcode development of 32- and 64-bit Fortran applications. It is included free of charge with the Fortran distribution. The plug-in is being released as an alternative to Absoftis own multi-platform…

Traveling with my iPhone (and MacBook Pro) in Japan

I’ve just returned from my 16-day trip to Japan. I travelled from Tokyo to Kyoto and further west all the way to Hiroshima. With me throughout these adventures were my iPhone and MacBook Pro. Originally, I had planned to take only my iPhone, leaving my MacBook Pro at home (not wanting to carry around its…

Intego Advises to be On Guard for MacGuard

Intego, as part of its routine security alerts, has sent out an advisory warning Apple customers to be wary of a rogue security program called MacGuard. The software itself may be dangerous, and also may simply be harvesting credit card numbers, Intego said. The advisory said, in part: “Intego has discovered a rogue program claiming…

AMEX Digital Announces External Blu-ray Drive for Macs

its USB external Portable Super Multi-Drive for Intel Macs. The slot loading Blu-ray drive has the following features: Latest Technology can supports the 12cm and 8cm disc BD-RE/-R (SL) 2X Speed Writing / Reading BD-RE/-R (DL) 1X Speed Writing / 1.6X Speed Reading BD-ROM (SL / DL) 2X Speed Reading Writes DVD+R DL and DVD-R…

Apple Upgrades MacBook Air with Larger Storage Options

On Tuesday, Apple announced new storage options for the MacBook Air: a 4,200 RPM, 120 GB hard disk or a 128 GB SSD. The graphics were also upgraded to the NVIDIA 9400M which should run a little cooler than the previous graphics, according to Steve Jobs. The other specifications for the MacBook Air remain unchanged…

Apple to Replace Defective MacBook Pro Video Chips

Apple has acknowledged that the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT video processor found in some MacBook Pro models is defective and the company is offering to replace those chips for free. The defective chips have caused problems that include distorted or scrambled video, or no video on built-in or external displays. MacBook Pro models that are…

CW: One More Thing for the New MacBooks - Wireless USB

Last week, Seth Weintraub at Computerworld made a list of likely technologies to appear in the new Apple MacBooks. On Tuesday, he spotted something that caused him to add one more thing to the possible list: Wireless USB. What caught his eye was a photo uploaded to flickr which, while it may not be authentic,…