macOS Archive

Snow Leopard To Get iPhone’s Location Tools

Submitted by Steve 2009-02-05 macOS 5 Comments

Between all the Windows 7 hubbub, you'd almost forget that that other operating system maker is also hard at work on the next release of its operating system. Even though Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was supposed to be a release that did not focus on end user features, it seems that Apple will still include a number of those in Snow Leopard. The new cat will follow in Windows 7's footsteps by including a location awareness framework, while also allowing programmers to make use of the multitouch trackpads in Apple's laptops.

Create High-Resolution Displays for OS X

Thom Holwerda 2009-01-12 macOS No Comments

"In essence, CoreUI is a low-level framework that - ultimately - will be responsible for drawing all the user interface widgets in OS X. Among other things, CoreUI will define the look and feel of the Aqua interface. I say 'will' and 'ultimately' because at the time of writing CoreUI is still something of a work in progress. Some folks have reported that CoreUI isn't used at all in Leopard, unless you change the scale factor from its default value of 1.0, but this is simplistic. By default, CoreUI is used for drawing a number of user interface elements in Leopard."

Where Is Snow Leopard?

Thom Holwerda 2009-01-07 macOS 31 Comments

At ladt night's MacWorld keynote, Apple's last, one product in particular shone in absense: Mac OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard. Many had expected Apple to give out more details regarding its new operating system, maybe even a release date or a developer preview. Instead, all they got was nothing. Some say it's a mistake not to show off Snow Leopard now that Windows 7 is stealing all the thunder. Or is it?

Submitted by jptros 2009-01-06 macOS 10 Comments

At the MacWorld Expo today in San Fransisco, Apple announced new versions of iWork and iLife, as well as an updated 17" MacBook Pro, which promises a battery life of 7-8 hours. More interesting, however, is the fact that yesterday was Mac OS X Server's 10th birthday.

Submitted by alcibiades 2009-01-05 macOS 6 Comments

MacInTouch reviews the EFI-X kit, a pre-assembled computer equipped with the EFI-X module which allows you to boot Mac OS X on a non-Apple machine without having to resort to hacks. They conclude: "The EFI-X kit offers the ability to run Mac OS X Leopard without hacks, to run Windows without special Boot Camp drivers, and to run nearly any other personal computer operating system from Linux to Solaris to OpenVMS! It's not quite the seamless experience of Apple's Mac computers, but it comes darn close. Its quad-core 3.82-GHz Core 2 Quad, combined with a fast Nvidia 8800 GT video card and 10,000-RPM Western Digital Velociraptor hard drive, leaves even today's quad-core Mac Pro in the dust. For anyone but scientific and engineering users, the EFI-X kit offers even more real-world performance than Apple's high-end, eight-core Mac Pro costing over twice as much."

AncientFS Brings Ancient File Systems to the Mac

Thom Holwerda 2008-12-17 macOS 11 Comments

MacFUSE 2.0 was recently released onto the world, and now, its author, Amit Singh, as given Mac users something they've been waiting for ever since they first laid eyes on Mac OS X: access to numerous old (and more recent) file systems, through something called AncientFS. Always wanted to mount v1tap DEC tapes as ordinary volumes in Mac OS X? Here's your chance.

Mac OS X 10.5.6 Released

Thom Holwerda 2008-12-15 macOS 19 Comments

Apple has released the latest update to Mac OS X Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5.6. It contains a whole list of fixes and improvements, so have fun checking out if your favourite bug has been squashed. As always, it's in Software Update. Feel free to report success or epic fail in the comments.

Submitted by PowerMacX 2008-11-20 macOS 4 Comments

From MacRumors: "Apple's Director of Engineering of Unix Technologies Jordan Hubbard spoke at LISA '08 last week. This year's conference invited Apple's Jordan Hubbard to speak about the evolution of Mac OS X from large servers to embedded platforms". The presentation slides (PDF), besides generally interesting info on Mac OS X, feature a table that shows a release date of Q1 2009 for OS X 10.6 Leopard.

Submitted by RavinRay 2008-11-12 macOS 21 Comments

Yesterday, Parallels unveiled Parallels Desktop 4.0. The virtualisation tool for the Mac. Parallels allows you to run several operating systems 'on top' of Mac OS X, similar to VMware, Qemu, and other similar tools. Version 4.0 comes packed with new features and improvements.

Snow Leopard Gets Cocoa Finder, ImageBoot?

Submitted by Joe 2008-10-17 macOS 29 Comments

Even though Snow Leopard is supposed to be all about tweaking and performance, AppleInsider claims to have some information regarding new features coming in Snow Leopard. They claim Apple is working on bringing Exchange support to iCal, Address Book, and Mail, a feature called ImageBoot, and - insert drum roll - a new Finder written in Cocoa. Testers also claim that other bundled applications are written in Cocoa. This isn't all that weird seeing Carbon doesn't come in a 64bit flavour.

Review: ‘EFI-X Dongle Perfectly Transforms PC to Mac’

Submitted by Andrew Youll 2008-09-17 macOS 76 Comments

If you want to run Mac OS X on a standard, non-Apple-labelled x86 box, you have various options. You can go all creative and build and install one yourself, and then be weary when installing updates from Apple. You can also buy a Mac clone from PsyStar, and then be weary of Apple's crack team of lawyers. A third option has just become available: EFI-X.

Mac OS X 10.5.5 Released

Thom Holwerda 2008-09-15 macOS 19 Comments

Apple has released the latest update to its Leopard operating system, Mac OS X 10.5.5, with tons and tons of fixes. As always, the release is a recommended update fr all Leopard users, so fire up Software Update, and let's hope it doesn't cause any troubles. Read one for a quick rundown of the most important changes.

Submitted by pickmeupscotty 2008-09-09 macOS 5 Comments

The Enterprise Desktop Alliance (EDA) eases integration woes for combined Windows and Mac environment.

Discover OS X’ Hidden Artistic Side

Thom Holwerda 2008-09-02 macOS 10 Comments

"One of the most frequently used Cocoa classes is NSImage which, as the name suggests, is all about displaying and manipulating image data. The imageNamed: method of this class retrieves an image reference for you - provided that you know the name of the image you're after. Many of the images that can be retrieved via the imageNamed: method have well documented names, but there's a lot of stuff in there that's not well-known. It's those images - including some for Windows - that I'll be digging into here. I shall also give you source code to a little utility that uses an entirely different mechanism to retrieve images used by OS X."

Submitted by estherschindler 2008-08-26 macOS 19 Comments

Think you know the truth about Mac OS X Server? Find out as Ryan Faas counts down the top ten commonly held myths about Apple's server platform. Warning: while it's a decent article, it will make you click through 10 pages to get the 10 reasons.

“Top 10 Usability Highs Of Mac OS”

Thom Holwerda 2008-08-13 macOS 102 Comments

An interesting article has been making its way around the internet the past few days, titled "Top 10 Usability Highs Of Mac OS". Mac OS X indeed does some things very, very right, just like many other operating systems and graphical environments do some things very, very right. The issue with the list of the article in question is that many of the items on the list are not exactly examples of "Usability Highs" at all.

VirtualBox for Mac OS X

amjith 2008-07-14 macOS 16 Comments

VirtualBox is an open-source virtualization alternative to Parallels and VMWare in the MacOS X arena. Here is a step-by-step screenshot tutorial to installing Windows XP using VirtualBox in MacOS X.

Why OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Should Leave PowerPC in the Cold

Submitted by Dan Warne 2008-07-04 macOS 44 Comments

An opinion article at APCMag: "The focus of Snow Leopard is on core upgrades, not shiny new features. A bedrock focused update that delivers a streamlined, enhanced OS X. Stability. Efficiency. A "new generation of core technologies." All this is about raising the floor on the entire system. Multi-core optimization, support for 16TB RAM (yes, Terabytes), and a language to allow developers to tap the power of the graphics processor are just a few of the key upgrades. But you can't lift the floor and let people walk around where the floor used to be all at the same time. Not without leaving holes for a potential rising damp problem further down the track."

Mac OS X 10.5.4 Released

Thom Holwerda 2008-06-30 macOS 8 Comments

Apple keeps on improving is Leopard operating system at a serious pace. The company released Mac OS X 10.5.4 today, with the standard blurb attached to it: "The Mac OS X 10.5.4 Update is recommended for Mac OS X 10.5, 10.5.1, 10.5.2, and 10.5.3 Leopard. It includes general operating system improvements that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac. " The update includes fixes concerning AirPort, iCal, Safari, Spaces, and Expose. Software Update will bug you with the new release, or you can just start the updater yourself.

Snow Leopard’s Weight Loss Tips for a Tight Leopard Install

Thom Holwerda 2008-06-27 macOS 38 Comments

Apple has already announced the successor to Leopard, called Snow Leopard, during the WWDC not too long ago. They explained that Snow Leopard would not focus on user-visible features, but instead would deliver performance improvements and resource footprint reductions. One of the measures Apple has taken is the size reduction of application bundles, which has resulted in dramatic weight loss for a lot of applications. AppleInsider has found out what exactly Apple has been doing to lose that much weight.