Two new features that have found their way in the first Lion developer preview but might seem too complicated or “hidden” as only Apple applications support them right now are Versions and Auto Save. With auto-saving capabilities for documents and a proper versioning system in place, Apple is aiming at…
Among the new features of Mac OS X Lion and the ones Apple will implement in future beta version, two interesting tidbits have caught our attention this morning.First off, the Finder (which is going under a major redesign) can now merge files belonging to two different folders sharing the same…
via OS X Lion: Finder Can Now Merge Files, QuickTime Can Record A Part of the Screen.
The newest beta of the iOS 4.3 contains details that suggest that Apple is planning to incorporate the next generation of SGX Graphics Processors.
Currently Apple is using the PowerVR SGX535, but the iOS 4.3 indicates that the SGX543 maybe incorporated into the next generation of iOS devices.
The SGX543 is suppose to deliver:
- 35 Million Polygons per second (vs 28 Million Polygons per second)
- A Fill rate of 1 Billion pixels per second @ 200 Mhz (vs 500 Million pixels @ 200 Mhz)
- Support for OpenCL
- Multi-core configurations
It is not unexpected that Apple would consider backing a GPU that supports OpenCL. If anything it would be foolish for them not to, since Mac OS X 10.5/6 supports OpenCL.
(See the Rest of the Story at iOS 4.3 Beta Hints at OpenCL-Capable SGX543 GPU in Future Devices – Mac Rumors.)
Jan 062011
Good news, everybody—you don’t have to wait for Apple to approve Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processors before you can run Mac OS X on the new CPUs. Intel’s Sandy Bridge CPUs and chipsets are barely out of the gate, but that hasn’t stopped some users from installing Mac OS X Snow Leopard on the new Sandy Bridge LGA Socket-1155.
MacMan and tonymacx86 of the tonymac86x blog have not only installed Mac OS X on the new chipset, but they’ve also uploaded instructions so you can hackintosh away.
The process involves using a “patched non-standard Darwin kernel” to boot the system, and the tonymac86x blog warns that this is not a long-term solution. In other words, it’s not a quick or painless hack. However, for early adopters who want to try it out, the blog has opened a special forum section specifically for Sandy Bridge.
Read More about this here… Mac OS X installed on Intel’s Sandy Bridge
TUAW’s Erica Sadun has put together an alpha version of a Mac OS X application known as “AirPlayer” that does exactly that.
What AirPlayer does is create and advertise a custom Bonjour AirPlay service that pretends to be an Apple TV. Bonjour is Apple’s zero configuration networking solution for allowing devices and applications to communicate with each other over local area networks. When Apple created AirPlay, it basically set up a new way for Apple TV to interact with iOS using Bonjour communications.
The functionality could in theory also be supported on Windows PCs as Apple offers Bonjour for Windows, although Sadun notes that she is not likely to attempt to build a Windows version anytime soon.
Interested users can download the ad-supported alpha version for Mac OS X from Sadun’s website to test out the functionality. Users’ iOS devices do not need to be jailbroken for the functionality to work, although some tools such as AirVideoEnabler that can extend AirPlay functionality to more iOS apps do require jailbreaking.
via AirPlay Reverse Engineered to Send Video From iOS Devices to Macs – Mac Rumors.
The hidden history of Mac OS X. The inheritance from NextStep…
Before & After comparisons of NextStep vs. Mac OS X. The video takes footage from Mac OS X 10.0.x or 10.1.x. Why is this important? Things have dramatically changed in the later versions of Mac OS X…
This feature allows other users to start your computer and use the account that you establish to automatically log on. Enabling auto logon makes your computer more convenient to use, but can pose a security risk since anyone can just turn the machine on and access your files.
Mac OS X
This may vary slightly depending on the Version of Mac OS X you are running on. The steps should be the same, but the positioning of the buttons / prompts can be different…
- Open System Preferences
- Choose Accounts
- Click on Login Options
- Unlock System Preferences (if Necessary)
- Click on Automatic Login, and choose from the pop up the account you wish to use. Verify the password.
Windows XP
You can configure Windows XP to automate the logon process if your computer is not part of a domain. Computers configured in a business environment generally have a domain and for those machines the option “Users must enter a username” is not necessary since password has to be used when accessing the local area network or domain.
- Click Start, click Run, and type control userpasswords2. This is a shortcut instead of having to click on Start -> Control Panel -> User Accounts.
- Uncheck the “Users must enter a username and password to use this computer” check box.
- Click Apply.
- Enter the user name and password you wish to automatically log on with, and then click OK.
- Click OK again and you’re all done.
Mac OS X 10.6.5 out. The releases notes mention:
- General fixes and improvements
- improve reliability with Microsoft Exchange servers
- address performance of some image-processing operations in iPhoto and Aperture
- address stability and performance of graphics applications and games
- resolve a delay between print jobs
- address a printing issue for some HP printers connected to an AirPort Extreme
- resolve an issue when dragging contacts from Address Book to iCal
- address an issue where dragging an item from a stack causes the Dock to not automatically hide
- resolve an issue with Wikipedia information not displaying correctly in Dictionary
- improve performance of MainStage on certain Mac systems
- resolve spacing issues with OpenType fonts
- improve reliability with some Bluetooth braille displays
- resolve a VoiceOver issue when browsing some web sites with Safari 5
More Information on the Mac OS X 10.6.5 update, can be found here.