Apple Archive

Installing iPodLinux on the iPod Nano

Apple 17 Comments
"I recently received an iPod Nano as a gift. My Nano is amazingly small, contains a gigabyte of storage, and sounds very good through its ear buds. It didn't take long for me to learn that folks have been putting Linux on iPods for a couple of years now, courtesy of the iPodLinux Project. Granted, the software for the Nano and most fourth- and fifth-generation versions of the iPod is experimental. Linux on my desktop, workstation, laptop, Tivo, and router. I had to have it on the Nano, too. Here's my report how I converted my stock iPod Nano into a dual-booting, sweet MP3-singing, iDoom-playing monster."
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Apple’s Boot Camp: Roundup; BIOS Support Added to EFI?

Apple 89 Comments
Apple's Boot Camp has stirred things up quite a bit around the net. eWeek states: "CIOs have a lot invested in Windows and aren't going to junk the OS for Apple. However, if a CIO can get a twofer - Windows XP and Mac OS on one machine - a flyer may make some sense." In an analysis, eWeek concludes: "Boot Camp might give businesses and consumers another reason to look at the Mac, analysts and IT managers say." Cnet wonders if all this is good news for MS, while Ars looks at the limitations. Apple also released firmware updates for Intel Macs, which supposedly add BIOS support to EFI so you can just boot an XP (or Linux!) CD without using Boot Camp.
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Apple Quietly Pushing Revised MacBook Pros to Market

Apple 14 Comments
Although it has done so subtly, Apple Computer has slowly been addressing issues with its new MacBook Pro notebooks and now appears to be shipping a fourth minor revision of the Intel-based computers. While the MacBook Pro has been receiving praise and stellar reviews from mainstream media outlets, its earliest adopters have had some quibbles. On a related note, Newsforge has a review of Camino 1.0, the Gecko-based Mac browser from the Mozilla Foundation.
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iPhone Unlikely; History of Apple Coverage; Universal Final Cut

  Submitted by DigitalDame Apple 8 Comments
Contrary to published reports, two independent sources speaking on condition of anonymity recently disclosed to Think Secret that Apple's cell phone ambitions have been put on hold as the company has encountered 'significant technological hurdles' in developing the product. Elsewhere, PC Mag looks back at the past 24 years of their Apple coverage, all because of Apple's 30th birthday coming Saturday. Furthermore, Apple announced Thursday that it had begun shipping Final Cut Studio 5.1, the first version of its video production suite to ship as a Universal Binary.
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Benchmarks: WinXP, OSX on MacBook Pro

  Submitted by mcsimpson Apple 28 Comments
GeekPatrol uses their GeekBench tool to compare Windows XP and OSX, both running on MacBook Pros. "Overall, there are areas where the Windows XP MacBook Pro was faster, areas where the Mac OS X MacBook Pro was faster, and areas where they were both roughly the same. Looking at these results, it’s hard to say which configuration comes out on top, although I think you could make a convincing argument for Windows XP (with Visual C++) being a bit faster overall than Mac OS X (with GCC)."
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Evolution of the Mac Interface

Apple 16 Comments
Bill Atkinson was Apple Computer's main developer of the user interface that first appeared on the Lisa and later on the Mac. A passionate photographer, Atkinson had the foresight in the late '70s and early '80s to document his UI work for Apple in a series of Polaroids. The photos were published by another Mac pioneer, Andy Hertzfeld, in his book 'Revolution in the Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made'. Through Hertzfeld, Atkinson permitted CNET News.com to reprint the photos. Similar shots here.
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Apple Joins Windows Benchmarking Consortium

Apple 4 Comments
In a stunning move, BAPCo, the industry-standard Windows benchmarking consortium, announced that Apple Computer has joined up as a member. BAPCo is responsible for the SYSmark 2004SE and MobileMark benchmark suites we use at PC Magazine Labs for testing PCs. BAPCo also produces the webserver test WEBmark. BAPCo members include AMD, Intel, Transmeta, ATI, nVidia, Microsoft, Ziff Davis Media, CNET, Dell, HP, Toshiba, Seagate, VNU, Atheros, and ARCintuition.
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Avie Tevanian Leaving Apple

Apple 24 Comments
Avadis "Avie" Tevanian, Apple Computer's Chief Technology Officer, is leaving the firm to "pursue other interests," the company confirmed Monday. Tevanian, who came to Apple in 1997 from his previous post working for Steve Jobs at NeXT, played a key role in developing Mac OS X, the company's widely adored operating system. Although Apple wouldn't say what Tevanian's plans are, Vice President of Worldwide Corporate Communications Katie Cotton wrote in an e-mail that, "He plans to take some time off in the interim. He hasn't left yet, though. His last official day is March 31."
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Why Adobe Has No Universal Binaries

  Submitted by mono Apple 42 Comments
"By now you have probably figured out that we aren't releasing Universal Binaries of our current application versions. If you haven't, all you need to know is pretty explicitly spelled out here . 'But, c'mon', I hear people saying, 'Steve said it was just a recompile!' Or, 'Back during the PowerPC transition, you guys released a patch!' Well, this time is different. And I really wish it weren't."
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Apple MacBook Pro ‘Fastest Windows XP Notebook’

Apple 19 Comments
Want the fastest Windows XP Core Duo notebook? Then buy a Mac. According to benchmarks carried out by website GearLog, Apple's MacBook Pro running Windows XP is a better Adobe Photoshop rig than any other Core Duo laptop on the market. The site used a recently detailed technique that shoehorns the Microsoft operating system onto Intel-based Macs - a trick that last week won its formulators $13000 in prize money.
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If Switching, Timing Is Everything

  Submitted by Nicholas Blachford Apple 13 Comments
"Apple have shown some absolutely stellar benchmarks with the Core solo and Core Duo processors outperforming their G4 based predecessors by quite a considerable margin in most areas, heavily vectorised applications are seemingly the only exception. The story is not quite so clear with the G5 based iMac but there is a difference even there. These benchmarks can be considered no doubt as justification for the decision to switch to x86 processors. However, in typical Apple style there is some slight of hand, in particular as regards timing of the switch. Making the transition 6 months early is no mistake, it was absolutely critical to get those benchmarks."
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Installing Windows XP on Intel iMac

  Submitted by dhaneshr Apple 53 Comments
A very detailed how to for installing and running Windows XP on an Intel iMac have been posted on the contest website. And on a related note, someone who almost won the contest posted his findings too: "While I’m disappointed not to have won, I’m encouraged to see that our approaches were remarkably similar. We both wrote custom EFI CSM drivers to emulate the BIOS functions Windows requires to boot. I’m very curious how they managed to get VGA working, and I won’t be surprised if it doesn’t work in either the Mini or the Macbook Pro, as it looks like they did all their development on an iMac."
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The Macintosh Through Linux Eyes

Apple 71 Comments
"In twenty odd years of working with computers, I never owned an Apple computer. Frankly, until OSX, I was never interested. But the BSD underpinnings of OSX got my attention. The Mac finally got a "real" operating system. It was interesting enough that several years after it debuted, I purchased my first Apple computer on eBay, a Mac Mini, to dig a little deeper into the OS. Not only did Apple do something right with OSX, but it was smart marketing to introduce a cheap Mac that worked with PC hardware. It is squarely aimed at Windows switchers and the mildly curious like myself. I would never have considered springing for a full-blown iMac or iBook as a learning exercise, but a used Mini fit the budget."
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Windows XP on Intel Mac Contest Over?

  Submitted by mono Apple 32 Comments
The web was abuzz the last few days because of a set of photos on Flickr that allegedly showed the progress of Windows XP being installed on an Intel iMac. Many questioned the photos' authenticity, but it now appears they might have been real after all. A person by the name of 'narf2006' has been hacking away for weeks, and the organizer of the WinXP on Mac contest has taken down the forum on which one had to post the proof and instructions.
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BAMBIOS: Legacy (BIOS-Based) Booting on the Intel-Based Macintosh

  Submitted by my friend Billy Apple 38 Comments
IBM researchers Singh, Smith & Reed are developing in their free time legacy BIOS support for Intel Macs. "BAMBIOS" is using Boch's BIOS emulation code and has also adapted its graphical BIOSes for the current ATi and Intel graphics chipsets used on the Intel Macs today. The BIOS itself loads as a small EFI-capable OS that then chainloads to a second stage boot manager to then boot non-EFI OSes (editor's note: In the past some unsupported VESA 1.2 PC users used a small DOS partition to load a special DOS-based "VESA 2.0 graphics bios" code that was preparing the way for what BeOS was expecting and then it was chainloading the BeOS from DOS). BAMBIOS is a very promising project to bring Windows and non-EFI Unices to the Mac platform, although the downside is that you most likely need updated versions for it for each new Mac released - if the Mac hardware has changed from its previous models that is. And if the trick used is indeed chainloading, then some quirky re-partitioning of the drive will be required by the user too. Update: Additional info from Amit Singh below.
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Apple Drops 20″ iMac G5

Apple 9 Comments
"Bid farewell to the PowerPC-based iMac G5, ladies and gentlemen. Apple has dropped the 20" model from its online stores in the UK, Europe and Japan, though the machine remains on sale in the US. Not for long though, we'd guess. Apple pulled the 17" iMac G5 early in February, almost a month after introducing the Intel-based models in January. By the end of February, the 15" PowerBook G4 was gone from the retail site, and early this month the PowerPC G4-based Mac Mini was dropped too." That leaves us only with the iBook and PowerMac machines still being PPC (ignoring the Xserve). Reports suggest that the Intel iBook will arrive early April, and that the PowerMac might get the Intel treatmentent as soon as Intel pushes out its Conroe line.
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No Reasons Not to Be Dual Booting Linux and OSX

Apple 53 Comments
Today, I decided to give Linux a try on my iBook. I've been wanting Linux on my iBook for a long time, but I've simply never had the time to do it. I ran the occasional PowerPC live CD, but live CD's are far cries from the real, installed thing. A second showstopper was that suspend never really worked-- and I cannot use my iBook without suspend. After trying out a new live CD yesterday, I found out that suspend on lid closure now worked mighty fine on Linux/PPC; hence, it was time to do the real thing. And oh how I was left surprised. Note: This is this week's Sunday Eve Column.
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