macOS Archive

ThinkSecret has put together an overview of the new features as found in the WWDC preview of Mac OS 10.5, including a screenshot gallery. "From an end-user's perspective, the build of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard that developers received at Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference nearly two weeks ago may seem lacking of new features. Beyond Spaces and Time Machine, like Spotlight and Dashboard in Tiger before it, or Expose and Fast User Switching in Panther, the span of noticeable new features are limited in present form." On a related note, Jobs will not hold a keynote speech at the Paris Apple Expo.

Apple announced that they are using the LLVM optimizer and JIT within their Mac OS 10.5 'Leopard' OpenGL stack. LLVM will help in delivering better performance of the GL stack.

Apple released version 1.1 beta of its Boot Camp software that allows Apple users to run MacOS X side by side with Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac. The 202 MB download adds support for newly released Intel-Macs, simplified partitioning, the ability to install Windows XP on any internal disk, support for the Isight camera and built-in microphones, as well as improved Apple keyboard support. Apple says that users should create a new Macintosh Drivers for Windows CD and install the updated software it contains on Windows XP. According to Apple, this will not require the user having to reinstall Windows XP or Mac OS X. Elsewhere, Apple is preparing for the new Xserver cluster node.

For Mac geeks of a certain persuasion, the first mention of a soon-to-be-revealed feature of Leopard during the WWDC keynote set off a mental chain-reaction. That feature was Time Machine, and the name alone was enough to cause one particular phrase to hammer in the mind of many people, including me: "New file system in Leopard!" It was even a bingo square. In fact, it was my personal favorite bingo square, and the one that I most looked forward to marking.

Here are few articles posted today about Mac OS X: " OS X Mobile and Automotive Editions: Is It Possible?", Leopard Core Animation", "64-bit Leopard knocks off Vista", "First boot with Leopard" and "Multi-Threaded OpenGL On The Way".

Here are just a couple of screenshots from Leopard and explanation of some of the new features.

The build released to attendees at the conference includes a huge number of ground-breaking changes to the underlying technology in Mac OS X and the APIs exposed to developers. Also, "the Time Machine 3-D interface for backup and data recovery coming in Mac OS X Leopard is amazing. What's more astounding is that a 3-D interface really works for users."

With Automator, users can graphically assemble Actions - self-contained modules that perform a single task - into a Workflow to create a collection of Actions that complete a larger task. This Automator functionality is also available to developers for automating workflow in software development projects. This article shows you how to streamline some of the tasks you face in development projects by writing custom Shell Actions and Workflows.

Mac OS Forge, a new community site hosted by Apple, is being created to support WebKit and other open source projects focused on Mac OS X, especially those looking to transition from OpenDarwin.org. New buildable kernel sources for Intel-based Macs are posted there as well, finally answering the complaints from the community. Other than this, Xcode 3 now includes Sun's Dtrace.

Apple's Boot Camp and Parallels Desktop for Mac enable you to run Windows on Intel Macs, which is great for home, business, and education use. But how do you automate and manage mass deployments of Windows on Macs? In part 2 of his series on using disk image deployment techniques for Intel Macs, Ryan Faas shows how to efficiently deploy Windows with Mac OS X.

NeoOffice has released a 2.0 beta version of its OpenOffice-based office suite for Mac OS X, now with aqua look and feel. You can join the beta program for 10 or 25 USD, depending on purchase date.

With the latest update to the ADC Reference Library, Apple has deprecated the entire Foundation and Application Kits for Java. Previously, it was stated that the Java-Cocoa bridge was still valid for learning purposes.

On Symantec's blog website, the company writes: "Researchers and engineers who are working in the security field must have strong constitutions - especially when it comes to weathering negative backlash and tired conspiracy theories whenever security and Mac OS X are mentioned in the same breath. With that in mind, in an effort to improve the quality of the dialogue, I would like to discuss some important issues regarding Mac OS X and security. Let's start with the hot-button issue of Mac OS X viruses. Simply put, at the time of writing this article, there are no file-infecting viruses that can infect Mac OS X."

"Static analysis refers to a method of examining software that allows developers to discover dangerous programming practices, poor use of language features, or potential errors in source code, without actually running the code. If you use Xcode with C or Objective-C, you can gain real quality improvements by understanding the basics of static analysis techniques and by integrating these techniques into your development process. In this article, we show you how to use GCC to help verify C and Objective-C programs."