- apple-list - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

FYI: iPhoto '09 and Aperture 2 seminar from Apple
by billing 21 Jul '09

21 Jul '09

Begin forwarded message: > Resent-From: Randy Kokesch - Prairies Region, Apple Canada > Subject: An invitation to a free photography solution seminar from > Apple. > > > > > > Attend this free session and discover how Apple photography > solutions can help you make your best shots even better. > > > Exploring Apple Photography Solutions > Wednesday, August 5, 1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. > Learn to do amazing things with your photos using the new iPhoto '09 > and Aperture 2. No matter what your level of expertise, Apple has a > photo editing and management solution for you. Attend this session > to discover how you can integrate both applications and make your > best shots even better. > Tell a friend > > > > > Dates, times, locations, speakers, and content may change without > notice. Apple and the seminar sponsors accept no responsibility in > connection with such changes. > Apple Canada Inc. 7495 Birchmount Road, Markham, ON L3R 5G2 > All Rights Reserved / Privacy Policy / My Info > Si vous ne recevez pas les courriels d'Apple dans la langue de votre > choix, cliquez ici. > If you prefer not to receive commercial email from Apple, or if > you've changed your email address, please click here. > TM and copyright © 2009 Apple Inc. > > > > > iPhoto '09 and Aperture 2 - exploring Apple's photography solutions > > August 5, 2009, 01:30 PM - 04:30 PM (Central Standard Time) > Event Number: 86329 > Event Type: Seminar > Event Language: English > > Description: > > iLife '09 introduces the new iPhoto '09 with Facial Recognition, > organizing by GPS location, great new slideshows, output, editing > and travel maps. See how you can take advantage of these new > features and discover how to integrate your photography with the > rest of your life. > > And for more advanced photo editing and management, Apple's ground- > breaking professional photo application, Aperture 2, can take your > photography to the next level. We'll also show you how to integrate > iPhoto '09 and Aperture together. > > Aperture 2 delivers over 100 dramatic new features, including > advanced image processing, > a streamlined interface, faster performance, and unprecedented Mac > integration. > > With its simplified user interface, Aperture 2 is easy enough for > any photographer to pick up and use. Intuitive and accessible, it > brings a variety of new interface features that members of Apple's > pro photo marketing team will demonstrate including: > > A new All-in-one Inspector > Viewer Only mode > Quick Preview mode > Project skimming in All Projects view > Apple experts will also demonstrate the expanded suite of adjustment > tools including Recovery, Vibrancy, Vignette and a soft-edged > Retouch brush, as well as how effectively Aperture integrates with > the rest of the Mac platform, showing you how easily you can: > > •Instantly publish photos to a .Mac Web Gallery > •Design and order beautiful custom books > •Use third-party plug-ins to export photos to service bureaus, photo- > sharing sites, and commercial sites > •Access your Aperture library from within iLife, iWork, and Leopard > Mail > •Sync photos to iPhone, iPod, and Apple TV > > Who should attend: > • Professional Photographers > • Advanced Amateur Photographers > • Photo Enthusiasts > • iPhoto users wanting to gain more control of their photography > • Windows users considering a switch to the Mac for photography > > > > Sponsors: > > Apple Canada, Inc. > > > Location: > > The Park Theatre and Movie Café > 698 Osborne Street > Winnipeg, Manitoba R3L 2B9 > Canada > Venue Directions > Map > Travel >

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INTEREST: Google announces open-source operating system (LINUX based)
by billing 08 Jul '09

08 Jul '09

...from: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html Introducing the Google Chrome OS 7/07/2009 09:37:00 PM It's been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be. Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open- source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve. Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work. Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform. Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google. We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet. We have a lot of work to do, and we're definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision. We're excited for what's to come and we hope you are too. Stay tuned for more updates in the fall and have a great summer. Posted by Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director

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Fwd: Apple hiring "Genius"es for new Polo Park Store
by billing 06 Jul '09

06 Jul '09

You may not have heard but Apple is gearing up to open an Apple store at Polo Park in Winnipeg. While no official opening date has been announced, there are postings on Apple's web site indicating they are beginning to hire "Genius"es (and other positions) for the store. To see a listing, follow the link below and click on the position of interest then click "Find Locations", select "Manitoba" and click "Find". You'll need to register to continue the submission process. Wayne Begin forwarded message: > From: ATWong <atwong(a)cc.umanitoba.ca> > Date: July 6, 2009 5:15:30 PM CDT (CA) > Subject: Apple hiring Genius for Polo Park Store > > Apple is hiring so if you know of any recent grads who are Mac > experts check out http://www.apple.com/jobs/ca/store/ or contact > > Tim Esse > Apple Inc. > Field Recruiter > 651-490-3229 > tesse(a)apple.com > > > Tony > > > =========================== > > As a Genius, they would: > > - Provide frontline customer support at the Genius Bar, including > hardware and software troubleshooting and diagnosis and basic > customer product training. > > - Repair Apple hardware and software products. > - Manage all aspects of repair workflow, including open repairs > prioritization, case management, and service part order management. > > > Are you ready to join the retail revolution? > > > This is a full-time position that includes a full benefits package > and paid training. > ( We welcome people with Windows / Intel backgrounds ) > > This position does require Hands-On Repair experience. > > I welcome the chance to speak with anyone that you know about Apple > and the opportunities available so please feel free to call or email > me. > >

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FYI: Macs in Science (E2-165) Friday June 26th, 2009 @ 9AM
by Doug Hamilton 19 Jun '09

19 Jun '09

Hello Everyone: Apple Canada and the BookStore are pleased to be providing a FREE seminar on campus entitled, "Macs in Science". Please see the end of this message for the details of this presentation. If you would be so kind as to forward this information to the researchers in your respective departments, it would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 (Ph.) 204-474-7556 (Fax) http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/ ### Macs in Science You're invited to a FREE seminar exploring Apple's solutions for scientific computing. The Macs ease of use, stability and superior performance help scientists achieve faster, more insightful results. Find out how the Mac integrates with other platforms, what other scientists have accomplished with their Macs and why the Mac is the ideal platform for scientific research and day-to-day activities. Presenter, Willi Powell is the Strategic Development Manager at Apple Canada specializing in science and high performance computing solutions. What you’ll learn about in this seminar: • One system for all your work • Running multiple operating systems (Mac OS X, Windows and Linux) • Publishing and presentation tools • Podcasting your science • Science and productivity applications on the Mac • Collaboration services • iPhone and iPod Touch for mobile science applications • Compute in any language: C/C++, Fortran, Java, Perl, Python • High Performance Computing and 64-bit multicore computing • General purpose Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) computing (OpenCL) Date & Times: • Date – Friday, June 26th, 2009 • Time – 9:00 a.m. -to- Noon • Location – Fort Garry Campus, Engineering 2, Lecture Theatre Rm165 (E2-165) Who Should Attend? Research and teaching faculty, undergraduate & graduate students, deans and department chairs, researchers, distance learning providers, lab managers, medical and scientific professionals, and prospective Mac users. Although not required, it would however be greatly appreciated if you could please RVSP to Doug Hamilton (doug_hamilton(a)umanitoba.ca). Some links of interest: http://www.apple.com/science/ http://www.apple.com/science/solutions/ http://www.apple.com/science/whitepaper/ ###

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INTEREST: EU - "Microsoft seems to have chosen to provide less [choice in Windows 7]"
by billing 14 Jun '09

14 Jun '09

...from: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/06/12/microsoft-windows.html No browsers in European version of Windows 7, Microsoft says Last Updated: Friday, June 12, 2009 | 5:07 PM ET The Associated Press European Union regulators said Microsoft Corp. was offering less choice, not more, by vowing to sell the next version of Windows without any web browsers at all. Microsoft said Thursday that it would remove its Internet Explorer browser — and not include any alternatives — in the Windows 7 software it will sell from Oct. 22 in Europe to soothe EU antitrust concerns. The company is trying to avoid new EU fines, on top of a previous €1.7 billion fine, after being earlier charged with unfairly using its operating system monopoly to squeeze into other software markets. But the European Commission said it preferred to see consumers offered a choice of browser, "not that Windows would be supplied without a browser at all." "Rather than more choice, Microsoft seems to have chosen to provide less," it said in a statement late Thursday. Several browsers better option, EU says The EU will soon decide whether Microsoft had violated EU antitrust law since 1996 by tying the browser to its ubiquitous Windows operating system that is installed on most of the world's desktop computers. A "must carry" option that would offer several browsers was a better option, the EU executive suggested, because "consumers should be provided with a genuine choice of browsers" on the software that manufacturers install on computers. It said Microsoft's solution would give no choice to the five per cent of consumers who buy Windows software in a stand-alone pack, as opposed to pre-installed on a computer. Microsoft claims the opposite, saying consumers would be free to choose whether or not to install Internet Explorer on Windows 7 and "will also be free, as they are today, to install other web browsers." It said it will give PC users who want the browser a way to obtain it. But regulators were more positive about the larger market — which sells software to computer makers — saying Microsoft's decision meant manufacturers such as Dell could choose to install Internet Explorer or one or more other browsers. The European Commission said it would have to weigh up whether this would actually create genuine consumer choice. It warned that it would still have to look at "the longstanding nature of Microsoft's conduct" and whether the removal of Internet Explorer "could be negated by other actions by Microsoft," such as prompts in the system urging users to install the browser. Microsoft accused of squeezing competitors The EU charged Microsoft with monopoly abuse in January, following a complaint from Norway's mobile internet browser maker Opera Software ASA, which said Microsoft was unfairly using its power as the dominant supplier of operating system software to squeeze out competitors. Opera lawyer Thomas Vinje said the decision to strip out Internet Explorer was "an acknowledgment from Microsoft that it has been breaking the law." He said Opera would keep asking the EU to press for a "ballot screen" for new users worldwide to choose one or several browsers when they install Windows because it was the only way to restore competition. Opera's chief technology officer, Hakon Wium Lie, also claimed Microsoft has held back other browsers and innovation on the internet by purposefully ignoring web standards since websites are often designed for the world's most used browser — Internet Explorer — and sometimes cannot be viewed on rival browsers. Microsoft says it is fully compliant with web standards. Mozilla Corp., which makes the Firefox browser, and Google Inc. have signed on as third parties against Microsoft in the case. Microsoft's browser is the most widely used worldwide, but Firefox is gaining in popularity and Google, the top web search provider, has released its own web browser, Chrome.

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FYI: HP battery recall
by billing 26 May '09

26 May '09

...from: http://bpr.hpordercenter.com/hbpr/ - HP http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09221.html - U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission NEWS from CPSC U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Office of Information and Public Affairs Washington, DC 20207 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 14, 2009 Release # 09-221 Firm’s Recall Hotline: (800) 889-2031 CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772 CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908 HP Recalls Notebook Computer Batteries Due to Fire Hazard WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. Name of Product: Lithium-Ion batteries used in Hewlett-Packard and Compaq notebook computers Units: About 70,000 Importer: Hewlett-Packard Co., of Palo Alto, Calif. Hazard: The recalled lithium-ion batteries can overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to consumers. Incidents/Injuries: The firm and CPSC are aware of two reports of batteries that overheated and ruptured, resulting in flames/fire that caused minor property damage. No injuries have been reported. Description: The recalled lithium-ion rechargeable batteries are used with various HP and Compaq notebook computers. Models that can contain a recalled battery include: HP Pavilion Compaq Presario HP HP Compaq dv2000 dv2500 dv2700 dv6000 dv6500 dv6700 dv9000 dv9500 dv9700 A900 C700 F700 V3000 V3500 V3700 V6000 V6500 V6700 G6000 G7000 6720s The notebook model is located at the top of the service label on the bottom of the notebook. Batteries that can be subject to the recall will have one of the following bar code labels (^ in the code can be any letter or number): 62940^^AXV^^^^ 65033^^B7U^^^^ 65033^^B7V^^^^ 65033^^BGU^^^^ 65035^^B7U^^^^ 65035^^B7V^^^^ 65035^^BGU^^^^ 65035^^BGV^^^^ 67059^^V8U^^^^ 67059^^V8V^^^^ Sold at: Computer and electronics stores nationwide, hp.com and hpshopping.com from August 2007 through March 2008 for between $500 and $3000. The battery packs were also sold separately for between $100 and $160. Manufactured in: China Remedy: Consumers should immediately remove the recalled battery from their notebook computer and contact HP to determine if their battery is included in the recall and to request a free replacement battery. After removing the recalled battery from their notebook computer, consumers may use the AC adapter to power the computer until a replacement battery arrives. Consumers should only use batteries obtained from HP or an authorized reseller. Consumer Contact: For additional information, visit the HP Battery Replacement Program Web site at http://www.hp.com/support/BatteryReplacement or call (800) 889-2031 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. CT Monday through Friday. Media Contact: Sheila Watson at (281) 514-6552 or sheila.watson(a)hp.com Photos of recalled batteries CPSC is still interested in receiving incident or injury reports that are either directly related to this product recall or involve a different hazard with the same product. Please tell us about it by visiting https://www.cpsc.gov/cgibin/incident.aspx --- Send the link for this page to a friend! The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard. The CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer products - such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals - contributed significantly to the decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years. To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury, call CPSC's Hotline at (800) 638-2772 or CPSC's teletypewriter at (800) 638-8270. To join a CPSC e-mail subscription list, please go to https://www.cpsc.gov/cpsclist.aspx . Consumers can obtain recall and general safety information by logging on to CPSC's Web site at www.cpsc.gov.

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FYI: doncha hate online stores which force you...
by billing 18 May '09

18 May '09

...to put an item into the "shopping cart" to get the price? Here's the coming wrinkle: they'll spam you until you purchase. [NOTE: the "track you" software is free to online retailers: http://www.seewhy.com/atfree ] ...from: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/business/17digi.html?th&emc=th Just Browsing? A Web Store May Follow You Out the Door By RANDALL STROSS Published: May 16, 2009 IF you try on a sweater in a department store dressing room, but choose not to buy it, a persistent sales clerk won’t pursue you into the street yelling, “Hey, are you sure?” Nor will you receive a call at your home the next day to check again if you want to complete the purchase. But in the online world, visitors to Web stores who touch the goods but leave without buying may be subjected instantaneously to “remarketing,” in the form of nagging e-mail messages or phone calls. A new Web service, called Abandonment Tracker Pro, is in beta testing and scheduled for formal release next month. Developed by SeeWhy in Andover, Mass., the service will alert a subscribing Web store when a visitor places an item in a shopping cart or begins an application and does not complete the final step. What distinguishes Abandonment Tracker Pro from other services is its enabling of remarketing “in real time,” SeeWhy says. The idea that a visitor isn’t entitled to leave an online store empty- handed without being pestered sounds distasteful enough. But having that contact start immediately seems a new form of marketing brazenness. Abandonment Tracker’s remarketing depends upon knowing the e-mail address of the wayward prospect; knowing the phone number will make follow-up phone calls possible, too. (And if you’ve signed in, a store would be able to find you with the e-mail address you provided when you registered.) Charles Nicholls, SeeWhy’s founder, says he advises Web sites to have visitors “put their e-mail address in at the first step,” to increase the likelihood that it will be captured. When asked about possibly alienating prospective customers with overzealous remarketing, Mr. Nicholls said: “Tone and manner are important. The message should be something like, ‘Oops, was there a problem? Can we help?,’ versus an out-and-out hard sell, which will just wind everyone up.” Technically, as soon as an address is typed into a box on a Web page, it can be dispatched to a store’s server without even waiting for the visitor to hit the “submit” button. Widely used Web scripting technology makes it easy to send to a remote server every letter pressed on the keyboard. Google, for example, uses this technology for a good purpose: when one begins typing in a search term, each letter is zipped to the server, which, without perceptible delay, returns suggestions that begin with the same sequence of letters. The same technology, set off with each press of a key, could be used for other purposes, however, like recording the e-mail address at a site one visits for the first time and then leaves without formally submitting the information. Asked whether Abandonment Tracker Pro uses that technique, Mr. Nicholls said the basic version did not. “We can write a script that will capture the e-mail address immediately,” he added, if the client paid a separate charge. I asked John Squire, chief strategy officer of Coremetrics, a Web analytics and marketing firm about the idea of capturing e-mail addresses while they were typed. Mr. Squire expressed revulsion at the suggestion that a Web site would collect a visitor’s information without the press of a “submit” button. He was not even comfortable with remarketing in real time. “There’s a Big Brother factor that retailers are going to have to look at,” he said. Better to wait one or two days, as his clients typically do, he added. Mr. Nicholls says online vendors make a mistake by waiting even a single day, as remarketing immediately produces a follow-up sale three times as often as remarketing a day later. Coremetrics’ clients report that their best remarketing results have been obtained not by sending annoying follow-up e-mail messages, but by using special ad networks to display to the customer on other Web sites ads that are related to whatever the customer left in the shopping cart, Mr. Squire said. “They’re seeing great returns on investment and they’re not seeing a backlash from the ads,” he reported. Abandonment Tracker Pro addresses a longstanding fear of lost business represented by the supposedly grave problem of “shopping cart abandonment.” “Up to 70 percent of shopping carts, registrations, quotes and online forms are abandoned before they’re complete,” SeeWhy said in a recent press release. SeeWhy relies on Coremetrics’s data to substantiate the problem, but Mr. Squire of Coremetrics dismisses shopping cart abandonment as a meaningless metric. He said there were many reasons that customers might not complete a purchase. And the rate of cart abandonment rose substantially from 2005 to 2008, he said, a reflection of intensified comparative shopping that visitors carry on with many sites simultaneously. KEVIN HILLSTROM, president of MineThatData, a consulting firm, also looks askance at worries about shopping cart abandonment. “Today, people are shopping at six sites at once, dropping items into carts at each one and reading reviews,” he said. Instantaneous e-mail remarketing might appear to produce an increase in sales, which are easily measured, he said, but “you can’t see the negative effects on customers who are irritated and will never come back again.” Online stores should emulate the self-restraint of retailers in physical stores. When a visitor leaves without buying, don’t give chase down the street. Randall Stross is an author based in Silicon Valley and a professor of business at San Jose State University. E-mail: stross(a)nytimes.com.

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INTEREST: "What Price Cool?" too cool toward facts
by billing 13 Apr '09

13 Apr '09

...from: http://www.macworld.com/article/139937/2009/04/what_price_cool.html?lsrc=mw… Microsoft's 'Apple tax' needs a refund Posted on Apr 9, 2009 3:29 pm by Dan Moren Category | Mac Some people look at numbers and think “Ah, thank goodness: cold hard facts.” Me, I’ve been a bit distrustful of numbers ever since that whole "7 ate 9" business. You see, numbers purport to be all objective and straightforward, but just like words, their meanings can be twisted and turned, interpreted to suit the agenda of whoever's holding their leash. Take, for example, this recent report (PDF link) by frequently-quoted analyst Roger L. Kay, the President of Endpoint Technologies Associates. “What Price Cool?” sets out to discover the “hidden costs” of owning Macs versus owning Windows PCs—but you don’t need to flip to the end of the 10-page report to tell how it’s going to end. Spoiler: Windows PCs are cheaper! It’s right there on page one, where it reads “Sponsor: Microsoft.” The Redmond-based software giant has recently gone to great lengths to point out Windows machines' inherent superiority, attempting to dispell the perceived "coolness" of Macs anddenigrate their performance. So it’s hardly shocking to find that this report retreads the same ground whilst applying a thin patina of carefully selected “facts.” The meat of the piece is the last three pages which feature the “realistic point of view” of a hypothetical family of four, including two charts that line up the prices of building what are supposedly comparable Windows PC and Mac systems. The hypothetical dad's spreadsheet examines the differences in cost over five years and— amazingly—concludes that buying Macs will be a mind-boggling $3,330 more expensive. There are a few flaws here—okay, there are several flaws here, and to pick them apart one-by-one would only be redundant, repetitive, and redundant, but let’s take a look at just a few of them to get the idea. For one thing, the report repeats the age-old fallacy that once you buy into a Mac you have to buy into the whole Apple ecosystem, despite the fact that we largely left that world behind around the time that people were wondering who precisely had let the dogs out. For example, Kay budgets $150 per year for Apple’s MobileMe service— that being the price of the MobileMe family pack, which supports up to five users. But you don’t need MobileMe—Kay says it’s for backup and file sync, both of which can be accomplished with free technologies provided by Apple and others. Heck, the Windows Live Mesh that Kay touts even runs on a Mac. But similar third-party syncing services like Dropbox work well too. And, for backup, every Mac comes with Time Machine built-in. Look, I just saved the hypothetical family a hypothetical $750—hypothetically, of course. Kay also insists, for some reason, that the family buy an AirPort Extreme router for $180 instead of the $150 Linksys Wireless N router that he budgeted for the PCs, despite the fact that the Mac and Linksys routers are interoperable. You could save another $30 (or—and I know this is going out on a limb—you could spend the extra $30 to buy the AirPort Extreme for the PC side because it's a better product. Hey, it's an option). Here’s another wacky choice: Kay suggests the family will want add Blu- ray capability (which, it’s true, is not currently supported by OS X) to the desktop system in year four. He budgets $95 for a Lite-On internal drive for the PC and $300 for an external Sony Blu-ray drive for the Mac. Never mind that, as they've chosen the extremely expandable Mac Pro, they could easily upgrade the computer with that same internal Blu-ray drive (presuming, of course, that four years from now, Apple’s added Blu-ray support to OS X—if not, that Sony player won't be much more useful anyway). Knock off another $205. But let’s look at this from the other side for a moment: what’s been left out of the costs of owning a PC? Well, how about security? Malware is a pretty common sight on Windows PCs and you won’t find any expert recommending you run your machine without virus protection. But most virus protection costs a certain amount per year: HP, for example, includes 15 months of Norton Internet Security for free, but that’ll leave the family out in the cold just over a year in—they’ll have to spend another $60 to $80 to cover them for the whole five year period. And that’s just for one of the two computers. Not much, but it adds up. The report also makes a big deal out of having to re-buy existing Windows software for OS X, but it barely touches upon the immense value of all the software included with every Mac. iLife is referred to only by the cost of upgrading it, and Kay doesn’t bother to enumerate what similar capabilities—music creation, video editing, DVD authoring—would cost on Windows. And then there’s Windows itself. Kay says in his report how great Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows 7 will be: “This gap [in user experience] will likely close up when Microsoft introduces Windows 7 late this year.” And yet, mysteriously, no mention is made anywhere of the price it’ll cost this family to upgrade to Windows 7, if it doesn’t ship by the time they want to buy their new computers. In truth, that’s because nobody knows, but Vista’s cheapest software costs $200 a pop, suggesting our hypothetical family will have to shell out around $400 if they want to get all the improvements to help close that "user experience gap." Apple’s forthcoming Snow Leopard update, by comparison, will run $200 for the whole family, if the company sticks to the pricing scheme it's been using for years. Add up all those tweaks and you’ll find the price difference has almost been halved—and that’s just with the no-brainer changes. But it’s like I said up top: despite looking all serious and factual, numbers can be massaged and carefully selected to tell any story. And as much as figures and charts might tell you about cost, they speak very little to the idea of what you get for that money—of value beyond specifications and technologies. What about the time saved not dealing with viruses and annoying security software? What about those hard-to- quantify benefits of what Kay admits is a superior user experience? Kay would have you believe that everything can be reduced to quantitative measurements, and that’s emblematic of the way Microsoft operates. But there are plenty of important qualitativedifferences as well. The report bandies about the term “cool” like a four-letter word, but it mistakes the trappings of "cool" for its substance. True coolness is never really about appearance and only those who just don't get it claim that it is. Apple’s computers are fantastically designed and aesthetically attractive, but that's not what makes them cool—what makes them cool is what they allow their users to do. And for many, that's worth a few extra bucks.

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INTEREST: Malicious Computer Virus Is Revised
by billing 12 Apr '09

12 Apr '09

...from: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/technology/10virus.html?th&emc=th Malicious Software Is Revised By JOHN MARKOFF Published: April 9, 2009 The riddle of a malicious software program that has spread throughout the Internet deepened Thursday as security researchers examined a new version of the software that they said made it more difficult to eradicate the program. The program, known as Conficker, targets versions of Microsoft’s Windows operating system and has now been distributed in four versions, computer security specialists said. Several of the groups monitoring the program said the most recent version, which began to appear Tuesday, appeared to be targeted at improving a peer-to-peer communications system between computers that are infected and hardening the system by making infected machines more resistant to anti-virus software. Several researchers also said there might be a connection between the authors of Conficker and of another program known as Waladec, a malware program that has been used to distribute fraudulent advertisements through e-mail spam. They also noted that the Conficker authors have switched strategies and are using the program’s peer-to- peer mechanism to update the system. Originally, they had appeared to plan to download instructions to Conficker by generating new Internet addresses that infected machines could download instructions from. An earlier version of the program had been set to begin contacting servers on April 1, raising widespread concern about the authors’ intent. Now, however, the system for programming Conficker uses a peer- to-peer mechanism that can be initiated from any one of millions of infected systems. The consensus within the computer security industry is that although there are now some indications that Conficker’s authors are intent on building a giant spam system, there is no hard evidence. “This is just Step 5 in a thousand-step chess match,” said Vincent Weafer, vice president of the security response division at Symantec.

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INTEREST: new MacPros: when slower is actually faster
by billing 30 Mar '09

30 Mar '09

...from: http://www.macworld.com/article/139507/2009/03/macpro2009.html?lsrc=mwweek Quad-Core and Eight-Core Mac Pros (2009 editions) New Mac tower boosts performance despite speed drop by James Galbraith, Macworld.com Though you wouldn’t know by looking at it, Apple’s new tower, the Mac Pro, has just received a major overhaul. The two tower models pack a brand-new processor and video system, and feature a reorganized internal design. However, they have lower clock speeds than their predecessors. PRODUCT: Mac Pro Quad-Core/2.66GHz RATING PROS New Nehalem microprocessor; easier to upgrade internal components; lower price. CONS None significant. COMPANY Apple PRICE AS RATED $2,499 BEST CURRENT PRICE $2,388.00 PRODUCT: Mac Pro Eight-Core/2.26GHz RATING PROS New Nehalem microprocessor; easier to upgrade internal components; lower price. CONS Most routine apps perform better with fewer, faster processors. COMPANY Apple PRICE AS RATED $3,299 PEOPLE WHO READ THIS ALSO READ: Avoiding Mac buyer's remorse Six things Apple needs to do right now Why even IT pros are demanding Macs Review: Wolfram Mathematica 7 Psystar rolls out new, compact Mac clone The five most underused Finder tools Last year’s standard Mac Pro () featured a 2.8GHz eight-core Intel Xeon processor based on the Harpertown/Penryn architecture. This year, there are two models: a quad-core system with a 2.66GHz Nehalem Xeon processor, and an eight-core model running two quad-core Xeon processors at 2.26GHz. Also new to the Mac Pros are Nvidia GeForce GT 120 graphics cards and a revamped interior designed to ease user access for upgrading internal components. Similar but different Aside from the second optical-drive slot on the front, the Mac Pro continues to use the same big-handled, aluminum case as the Power Mac G5, introduced nearly five years ago. There are some minor changes to the exterior, though—specifically in the type and number of connections. First, the two FireWire 400 connectors from previous generations have been replaced with backward-compatible FireWire 800 ports, bringing the number of FireWire ports to four—two on the front and two on the back. The five USB 2.0 ports, two on the front and three on the back, remain. On the graphics card, one of the two dual- link DVI connectors at the rear of the system has been replaced with a Mini DisplayPort connector, which lets you connect either to Apple’s 24-inch LED Cinema Display () or, with adapters (not included), to a second DVI display. The new Mac Pros have been remodeled on the inside to provide for easier access to components. Upon opening the case, you immediately notice major changes in the layout of the components. The memory modules are no longer installed on two sliding trays—instead, the memory and processor all rest on a sled at the bottom of the case, which you remove by releasing two latches. The quad-core Mac Pro has four memory slots that ship with 3GB, 6GB, or 8GB of 1,066MHz DDR3 SDRAM modules; the eight-core Mac Pro has eight DIMM slots for a maximum of 32GB of RAM. The memory design no longer requires the large heat sinks. The Mac Pro still has four internal cable-free hard-drive slots, using a sliding tray to attach the drives directly to the motherboard. Now, though, the large plastic piece holding the fan near the front of the Mac Pro is much smaller, giving your fingers more room to grip the hard-drive sleds. This is a small but welcome change. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve struggled over the years to remove that first drive. Another nice design change helps ease the removal of PCI cards from the four full-size PCI Express 2.0 card slots. In the past, to remove a card, you’d first need to turn two large thumbscrews that held a small plate keeping the cards in place. Then you had to feel around behind the card, searching for a little plastic tab mounted on the motherboard, which you needed to lift up in order to release the card. With the new Mac Pro, that second step is much easier. You now simply push a single thin bar that extends across all the PCI Express 2.0 slots to release any or all cards. Apple has also made installation of its add-on Apple RAID card much easier: you just put it into the clearly marked top slot, and you’re ready to go. Installed in the first PCI Express 2.0 slot is the new Nvidia GeForce GT 120 graphics card with 512MB of video RAM; the last generation of Mac Pros came standard with an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card with 256MB of memory. 2.66GHz Quad-Core/2.26GHz Eight-Core Mac Pro Speedmark Scores Longer bars are better. Blue bars in italics represent reference systems. Macworld Lab testing by James Galbraith, Chris Holt, and Helen Williamson. New processor The new Mac Pro uses Intel’s Xeon 3500 or 5500 quad-core processors, part of the new Nehalem family of microprocessors. Several major architectural innovations have the new processors featuring all four cores on a single die, making its 8MB of L3 cache available to any and all processing cores. The memory controller is now on-chip, giving the processor faster access to the main memory, and eliminating memory latency by up to 40 percent. Previously, the Mac Pro had 12MB of L2 cache per processor, with 6MB shared between pairs of processing cores. Each processor now has full access to 8MB of L3 as well as a small amount of dedicated L2 cache, whereas the previous Mac Pro had no L3 cache. A technology called Hyper-Threading creates two virtual cores per each physical core, allowing each physical core to run two processes at once, which helps use the available processing power more efficiently. Also new to the Nehalem processors is a technology Intel calls Turbo Boost. Turbo Boost helps speed up the majority of applications that haven’t been written to take full advantage of multicore processors by allowing the system to spin down idle processing cores while increasing the speed of the processors in use. This lets a 2.93GHz Xeon, for example, run at speeds as high as 3.33GHz, Apple says. Performance So do all of these innovations translate to better performance? The 2.66GHz quad-core Mac Pro posted faster speeds in Photoshop, Compressor, iMovie, iTunes, and 3-D game benchmarks than the previous standard eight-core Mac Pro. That’s pretty impressive considering that the new Mac Pro is using only half the number of processing cores as last year’s standard configuration—and at a slower speed. The new quad- core’s score in our overall system performance suite, Speedmark 5, was 16 percent faster than that of the previous 2.8GHz eight-core Mac Pro. It was also 27 percent faster in our Photoshop tests, and 20 percent faster at Compressor than the older system. 2.66GHz Quad-Core/2.26GHz Eight-Core Mac Pro benchmarks Speedmark 5 Adobe Photoshop CS3 Cinema 4D XL 10.5 Compressor iMovie HD iTunes 7.5 Quake 4 Finder OVERALL SCORE SUITE RENDER MPEG ENCODE AGED EFFECT MP3 ENCODE FRAME RATE ZIP ARCHIVE Mac Pro 2.66GHz Quad-Core (Nehalem) 348 0:35 0:18 0:47 0:29 0:46 81.2 3:27 Mac Pro 2.26GHz 8-Core (Nehalem) 343 0:36 0:13 0:57 0:34 0:47 70.8 3:55 Mac Pro 2.8GHz 8-Core (Harpertown, 3GB RAM) 301 0:48 0:16 0:59 0:34 0:49 74.5 3:49 Mac Pro 2.8GHz 8-Core (Harpertown, 6GB RAM) 319 0:39 0:16 0:59 0:33 0:49 75.0 3:47 Mac Pro 2.66GHz Quad-Core (Woodcrest) 262 0:44 0:28 1:19 0:40 0:54 54.7 4:01 24-inch iMac Core 2 Duo/3.06GHz (March 2009) 308 0:39 0:41 1:25 0:37 0:50 85.6 3:24 Power Macintosh 2.5GHz Quad-Core G5 226 1:10 0:32 1:30 0:39 0:48 41.6 4:40 >Better <Better <Better <Better <Better <Better >Better <Better Best results in bold. Reference systems in italics. Speedmark 5 scores are relative to those of a 1.5GHz Core Solo Mac mini, which is assigned a score of 100. Adobe Photoshop, Cinema 4D XL, iMovie, iTunes, and Finder scores are in minutes:seconds. All systems were running Mac OS X 10.5.6 with the Mac Pro 2.66GHz Quad Core outfitted with 3GB of RAM, and the Mac Pro 2.26GHz 8-Core with 6GB of RAM. The Photoshop Suite test is a set of 14 scripted tasks using a 50MB file. Photoshop’s memory was set to 70 percent and History was set to Minimum. We recorded how long it took to render a scene in Cinema 4D XL. We used Compressor to encode a 6minute:26second DV file using the DVD: Fastest Encode 120 minutes - 4:3 setting. In iMovie, we applied the Aged Film Effect from the Video FX menu to a one minute movie. We converted 45 minutes of AAC audio files to MP3 using iTunes’ High Quality setting. We used Quake's average-frames-per-second score; we tested at a resolution of 1,024x768 pixels at the Maximum setting with both audio and graphics enabled. We created a Zip archive in the Finder from two 1GB files.To compare Speedmark 5 scores for various Mac systems, visit our Mac Hardware Guide.—MACWORLD LAB TESTING BY JAMES GALBRAITH, CHRIS HOLT, AND HELEN WILLIAMSON. 2.66GHz Quad-Core/2.26GHz Eight-Core Mac Pro benchmarks Quake 4 Quake 4 Call of Duty 4 Call of Duty 4 Call of Duty 4 Mathematica Compressor 1,024x768 1,600x1,200 1,024x768 1,344x880 1,920x1,200 MathematicaMark 7 ProRez 422 to H.264 Mac Pro 2.66GHz Quad-Core (Nehalem) 81.2 41.6 68.1 39.6 24.3 10.1 9:38 Mac Pro 2.26GHz 8-Core (Nehalem) 74.5 41.1 77.7 38.1 24.1 16.8 8:14 Mac Pro 2.8GHz 8-Core (Harpertown, 3GB RAM) 75.0 21.5 77.8 28.7 16.9 9.7 9:02 Mac Pro 2.66GHz Quad-Core (Woodcrest) 54.7 19.8 26.1 10.5 6.1 6.9 12:52 24-inch iMac Core 2 Duo/3.06GHz (March 2009) 85.6 73.2 73.7 58.1 42.2 4.1 28:32 >Better >Better >Better >Better >Better >Better <Better Best results in bold. Reference systems in italics. We used Quake 4's timedemo run at 1,024x768 at high quality settings and antialialsing off, we then ran it again at 1,600x1,200 at Ultimate quality settings with 2X antialialsing enabled. For Call of Duty 4, we ran a self-recorded timedemo at 1,024x768 and antialiasing and shadows turned off, we then ran it again at both 1,344x880 and 1,920x1,200 with Shadows on and 4X antilaliasing enabled. We ran Mathematica 7's built-in benchmark, MathematicaMark. We used Compressor to encode a 6minute:26second ProRes file to the application's H.264 for iPod/ iPhone 640x480 preset with QMaster set to create a cluster comprised of the maximum number of instances per system.—MACWORLD LAB TESTING BY JAMES GALBRAITH, CHRIS HOLT AND HELEN WILLIAMSON. The new 2.26GHz eight-core Mac Pro has twice as many processing cores as the 2.66GHz quad-core model, but each core runs 15 percent slower than the cores in that 2.66GHz quad-core Mac Pro. Because many applications have a difficult time using even four processors efficiently, the advantage of having eight was not apparent in most of the application tests that make up our Speedmark benchmark test suite. In fact, the new eight-core system posted a lower Speedmark score than the quad-core system, and bested it in just one test—Cinema 4D, where it posted a 28 percent faster time. Pro app testing We run Speedmark on all Mac systems, so the suite is light on the few industrial-strength professional applications that take full advantage of multicore processors. Speedmark tests are also run one at a time, which can mask the advantage of increased RAM. For those reasons, we decided to add a couple of tests to the suite to better test the Mac Pro, namely Mathematica() and a ProRes Compressor test. In these tests, the applications recognized and used all 16 virtual cores of the new eight-core Mac Pro. In MathematicaMark 7, the new quad-core Mac Pro received a score of 10.1, nearly identical to the 9.7 score of last year’s eight-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro. The new 2.26GHz Mac Pro scored 16.8, or 73 percent higher than last year’s eight-core Mac Pro. In our ProRes encode test to Compressor’s H.264 iPod/iPhone 640 by 480 preset, the new 2.66GHz Mac Pro took 9 minutes and 38 seconds to convert our 6 minute and 41 second clip, about 6.6 percent longer than the older eight-core 2.8GHz system did. The new 2.26GHz Mac Pro was about 8.9 percent faster than last year’s model. The new Mac Pro’s graphics performance showed much improvement when running 3- D games at high resolution. With the Nvidia GeForce GT 120 graphics, the new Mac Pros were able to push through 44 percent more frames per second than last year’s standard 2.8GHz eight-core Mac Pro when running Call of Duty 4 at 1,920 by 1,200 pixels, and nearly twice as many frames per second when running Quake 4 at high resolution. The new 3.06GHz 24-inch iMac (), with its Nvidia GeForce 130 graphics chip, beat both Mac Pros in our most of our graphics tests. Macworld’s buying advice The new Mac Pros, with their cutting-edge Nehalem processor technology, are able to execute more tasks at a faster clip, despite lower processor speeds. And their new internal design makes adding hard drives, memory cards, and PCI Express 2.0 cards easier than ever. Apple’s most expandable Mac is the pro platform for power users. With its improved graphics, memory bandwidth, and reduced memory latency, the 2.66GHz quad-core Mac Pro was faster than the 2.8GHz eight-core Mac Pro, and at $2,499 costs $300 less. It would be a fine purchase for anyone replacing an older Mac or buying a new one for the first time. That is especially true for people who work with processorintensive apps such as video or graphics. It’s harder to recommend that people spend $800 more for the new $3,299 2.26GHz eight-core Mac Pro if they don’t run software written for the top-of-the-line Mac Pro’s eight processor cores. Though the 2.26GHz model was faster at most individual tasks than the previous eightcore 2.8GHz Mac Pro, and very fast in a few of our professional applications tests, it was slower than the new quad-core model at the majority of our application tests.

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