WWDC 2009 finally announced!
by Justin Horn on Mar 26th, 2009 @ 5:35 pmJune 8–12
So Apple finally announced the dates just when people were starting to wonder what was going on with it. The two hot topics they are likely to discuss are iPhone 3.0 (duh) and Snow Leopard. Hopefully they will have a working version of Snow Leopard and announce a release date, but who knows.
The iPhone stuff will be the most interesting though. We know for sure they will discuss the 3.0 software, but the big question is will they bring up features not discussed at the 3.0 event? Maybe some features that only run on a new 3rd gen iPhone?
I recenlty started to waiver on whether or not I even believe we will see a 3rd gen iPhone this year, but as of now I’m leaning towards yes! Mainly because I just want to get a new 3rd gen with cool new features…background apps? 
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Apple’s rumored March 24th event for Snow Leopard?
by Justin Horn on Mar 3rd, 2009 @ 1:30 pmThe rumors over the weekend discussing a March 24th Apple event for new iMacs, Minis, and Pros are now obviously not true with the release of these new Macs today. I’m not surprised that the new Macs came out with little fanfare from Apple as they are just hardware bumps. Lately it looks like Apple only throws events for major product updates, like the move to a full aluminum unibody MacBook line, which makes a lot of sense.
So even though this rumored March 24th event won’t be for the new Macs, I haven’t totally thrown out the rumor. I now believe if this event does happen it will cover the release Snow Leopard. This fits with Apple’s recent event history as Snow Leopard is going to be a big deal for Apple just as Windows 7 will be for Microsoft. There have been numerous reports of Apple putting the final touches on Snow Leopard the last few months. Also, the latest rumors still point to a first half of 2009 release…late March seems to fit perfect with those rumors.
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Macs, OSX, Speculation
New snow leopard build released to devs
by Justin Horn on Feb 4th, 2009 @ 10:32 amMacrumors is reporting (via Macitynet.it) that the latest update to snow leopard is now in developers hands:
According to Macity’s sources, the latest version does not appear to contain any noticable changes but does seem more stable (translated):
The interface has not been revised and currently there are only small changes in System Preferences, have been resolved a few bugs in the Finder and little else. According to the sources of Macity the impression is that this release is more reliable than those previously distributed.
So looks like Apple is preparing for a final release by just fixing bugs and not making any more big changes. So maybe the rumored March time frame will hold true? When do you think snow leopard will be out? Place your vote now in the poll to the left.
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Windows 7 not a threat to OSX? [Updated]
by Justin Horn on Jan 15th, 2009 @ 7:12 pmNow that Windows 7 beta is out to the public the benchmarks are starting to come out. So does Windows 7 make an improvement over Vista…the short answer from an Overclockers.com article is no. Yes, Windows 7 is still in beta, but as it is mainly just an update to Vista (as the article points out) these numbers might be pretty close to the final results with the final product.
I’ve tried Windows 7 beta myself and it seems very similar to Vista, with the biggest obvious difference being the new “Start Dock”. It’s basically a Frankenstein between the classic windows start bar and the OSX dock. So while Snow Leopard is tightening up and improving its speed and functionality Windows 7 seems to be Microsoft as usual.
This could be an interesting turning point for Apple as people might start to add more value to the OS included with a new Mac. This could make the the price difference between a PC and a Mac seem more resonable to computer purchasers frustrated with Vista. Should also be cool since both operating system should be released in 2009, although Snow Leopard should be out before Windows 7.
UPDATE
To keep this fair and balanced, here is a pretty positive review of the new Windows 7 beta on Engadget. In particular they talk about the speed:
Speed improvements
This seems to be the thing people most wanted out of Windows 7, and it certainly seems to deliver. We’d say the benefits are most drastic in seriously underpowered hardware, like netbooks — which is, of course, exactly where it’s most needed. Our Vaio P, for instance, booted in two thirds the time it took with Vista. Naturally, the OS is by no means delay free. We bump into slowdowns all the time, with all sorts of apps, but they seem to happen less often, and Microsoft has done the work of mitigating the traditional “hurry up and wait” aspect of booting up the computer — if you can see the desktop, you aren’t far from making something happen, instead of waiting for 100,000 start-up items to do their thing.
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product review: Apple In-Ear Headphones… are 2 drivers better than 1?
by Chiyin on Dec 18th, 2008 @ 4:05 pmApple started shipping the new In-Ear Headphones a couple of weeks ago and I finally received mine on Monday… So, after a few days with them what am I to do? Write a review of course. I know there are a few of them out there, but none of them go into details about the sound quality nor how they compare with similarly priced headphones. This is my attempt to fill that void. Let’s begin, after the jump…
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snow leopard to be shown at macworld 2009?
by Justin Horn on Dec 18th, 2008 @ 2:41 pmThe Guardian is hinting that Apple’s senior vice president Phil Schiller is going to present Snow Leopard at Macworld 2009.
Apple and its partners have been privately dropping hints to developers that its upcoming release of its Mac OS X operating system, dubbed Snow Leopard, will ship earlier than expected – and it will debut two new technologies that promise to speed up software without demanding any changes to the hardware.
The first technology, Grand Central, is designed to make better use of the Intel processors that sit inside the current range of Macs. The other, OpenCL, could have a more dramatic effect on performance for some programs as it will tap into the power of graphics processors (GPUs) that now goes to waste.
So these latest rumors say it is shipping ahead of schedule, but since there was never really a public schedule I don’t get it. The only thing we’ve heard thus far is that it would be shipping in the 1st quarter of 2009, which seems very likely to hold true. If they are truly “ahead of schedule” then I would assume a late January / early February release. If not then probably won’t happen until March.
Let us know when you think it will be coming out by voting in our in our Snow Leopard Release Poll. Registered voters are also eligible to win a copy of Snow Leopard when released!
[via Macrumors]
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