TidBITS#841/07-Aug-06
=====================
Apple is hosting its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) this week,
and kicked things off by previewing key features of Mac OS X 10.5
Leopard and completing its transition to Intel processors by retiring
its PowerPC-based Power Mac and Xserve lines in favor of faster
Intel-based Mac Pro and Xserve systems. Also this week, Adam announces
new "Take Control of Syncing in Tiger" and "iPhoto 6: Visual QuickStart
Guide" ebooks; Matt Neuburg keys into TypeIt4Me 3.0; Jeff Carlson looks
at Apple's latest security update; and Glenn Fleishman covers AOL's
conversion to a free Internet service, the announcement of VMWare for
Mac OS X, and a possible Wi-Fi exploit which could affect Apple's
Intel-based Macs.
Articles
First Issue Served by Our New System
Apple Releases Security Update 2006-004
More, Less, and No Information on Running Windows on a Mac
Wireless Driver Hack Could Target Macs and Windows
TypeIt4Me Returns Again, Again
AOL Drops Fees, Offers 5 GB Free Storage
Mac Pro, Xserve Round Out Macintosh High End
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Previewed at WWDC 2006
Take Control News/07-Aug-06
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/07-Aug-06
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First Issue Served by Our New System
------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
So we're suckers for punishment. We just had to schedule the first
real-world use of our new issue creation and generation system on the
same day that Apple released the new Mac Pro Intel-based desktops and
previewed Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard at WWDC. As a result, we spent much more
of the day writing up the news (keynote days like this are our primary
use of SubEthaEdit, since we can all write and edit simultaneously) than
doing the final testing we had planned on. I won't go into the details
of the new system, since you have enough to read this week, but suffice
to say that you'll be seeing some changes in the format of your issue,
and the transition to our new system makes certain things both possible
and desirable. We'll continue tweaking over time, so if you notice
particular things that strike you as a problem, let me know.
Apple Releases Security Update 2006-004
---------------------------------------
by Jeff Carlson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Apple last week posted Security Update 2006-004[1], which patches a
number of potential vulnerabilities. Some updated components include AFP
(Apple Filing Protocol) Server, Bluetooth Setup Assistant, Bom (which
handles archive files), fetchmail, and gunzip. A number of image-related
problems have been addressed as well that could enable malformed images
to crash the computer or execute code. Also, changes in LaunchServices,
OpenSSH, telnet, and WebKit deal with connecting to malicious servers or
Web pages. The update is available via Software Update, or as
stand-alone downloads for Mac OS X 10.3.9 Client[2] (29.5 MB), Mac OS X
10.3.9 Server[3] (42.7 MB), Mac OS X 10.4.7 Client (Intel)[4] (8.3 MB),
and Mac OS X 10.4.7 Client (PPC)[5] (5.4 MB).
[1]<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304063>
[2]<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/securityupdate20060041039client.html>
[3]<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/securityupdate20060041039server.html>
[4]<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/securityupdate2006004macosx1047clientintel.html>
[5]<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/securityupdate2006004macosx1047clientppc.html>
More, Less, and No Information on Running Windows on a Mac
----------------------------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
VMware, a leading developer of virtualization technology, will offer an
Intel-based Mac OS X version of their virtual machine software[6], while
Microsoft will not revise Virtual PC[7] for Intel-based Macs, the two
firms announced today during WWDC. Apple provided no new information in
public statements about Boot Camp's integration[8] with next spring's
release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. (Microsoft's FAQ on Intel support was
not updated at this writing; we received word via press release.)
[6]<http://www.vmware.com/news/releases/mac.html>
[7]<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/default.aspx?pid=macIntelQA>
[8]<http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/>
In general terms, virtualization software enables a computer to run one
operating system parallel with another; for instance, virtualization
software for Mac OS X might enable a user to run Mac OS X and Windows XP
(or a distribution of Linux) side by side without switching from one to
the other via rebooting. Robert Movin covered virtualization
technologies[9] in TidBITS-825, and reviewed Parallels Desktop[10] in
TidBITS-834.
[9]<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=8495>
[10]<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=8567>
VMware expects to release a beta version of their product "later this
year," and offers a signup page[11] to signal interest in being part of
that testing. More significant than VMware offering competition for
running Intel-based operating systems within Mac OS X is the firm's plan
to provide interchange support for disk images created on all platforms
with each other. This support means that a virtual machine running on
VMware's Windows XP client edition could be copied or mounted via a fast
network shared volume on a Mac and run without conversion. VMware claims
four million users.
[11]<http://vmware.rsc02.net/servlet/campaignrespondent?_ID_=vmwi.1756>
Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit ended months of speculation about
whether the division would update Virtual PC to work with Intel-based
Macs. The company said it would have to start from scratch rather than
revise current software, and stated that "alternative solutions" offered
by Apple and others would do the trick.
Parallels has already released[12] their Parallels Desktop for Mac
package for running Intel-based operating systems.
[12]<http://parallels.com/en/products/desktop/>
Wireless Driver Hack Could Target Macs and Windows
--------------------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
A potentially serious exploit of Mac OS X's wireless networking hardware
drivers has had a very limited demonstration[13]. The exploit, which
apparently relies on a flaw at the lowest level of the drivers'
interaction with Mac OS X's kernel, has not yet been independently
confirmed, nor has Apple released a statement on the matter. The flaw,
if proven, could allow an attacker to gain root access privileges via
Wi-Fi.
[13]<http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/08/hijacking_a_macbook_in_60_seco_1.html#comments>
Researchers Jon Ellch and David Maynor found the flaw in Apple's
Intel-based Macs running Mac OS X and in PCs running Windows XP using
certain Wi-Fi adapters, and presented their findings at the Black Hat
USA 2006 Briefings[14] last week. They declined to show the exploit live
to avoid giving out details that could be turned into a security threat
in the wild.
[14]<http://www.blackhat.com/html/bh-usa-06/bh-usa-06-speakers.html#Ellch>
The researchers maintain that the flaw can affect any Wi-Fi equipped
computer as noted above, regardless of whether the computer is actively
connected or connecting to a network, and the exploit does not involve a
rogue access point - one that attempts to fake an identity to get a
connection from a client.
The videotape[15] that the researchers showed didn't demonstrate that.
The researchers connected what appears to be a covered-up USB device to
a MacBook, which is then connected to a network running on a Linux
computer. They then show files being manipulated on the desktop but no
other attack being carried out.
[15]<http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/08/hijacking_a_macbook_in_60_seco.html>
There is lively discussion at the Washington Post's Security Fix
blog[16] about whether this is just a rigged demo or a real event,
although beware the personal abuse directed at the blog's writer, Brian
Krebs. (Many are taking this attack against a MacBook personally.
Surprise, surprise.)
[16]<http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix>
According to two experts TidBITS has heard from, the videotape is
inconclusive and could be either a staged stunt or a real exploit. Jim
Thompson, a veteran Wi-Fi engineer and security expert, is dubious, and
he explains why in great technical detail[17]. Security expert Rich
Mogull[18], research vice president at Gartner, said that the exploit is
credible and that it's possible that similar exploits on multiple
platforms developed independently are already in the wild. Mogull has
seen reports that a similar exploit may have been used at a recent
conference that he declined to identify for security reasons. The
researchers who presented at Black Hat are taking significant
precautions to prevent their particular research from getting out of
their grasp, he said.
[17]<http://www.smallworks.com/archives/00000455.htm>
[18]<http://www.gartner.com/AnalystBiography?authorId=18722>
Lending credence to this potential flaw was the release by Intel in July
of driver updates[19] for three of their Centrino wireless products.
Notes for the release label the patch for their oldest adapter (an
802.11b-only model) as having an exploit that could allow a "malformed
frame," a packet-like chunk, to allow a hacker to gain control of a
machine. Two newer adapters seem to have a severe, but less frightening
flaw. Mogull said that these Intel patches show that this kind of
exploit is not an unknown issue.
[19]<http://support.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-023065.htm>
As noted, there is no confirmation of this exploit from anyone who has
seen the actual attack carried out in person, no separate validation of
the attack from third parties using different equipment and the same
approach, and no public response from Apple, Intel, or Microsoft,
despite the firmware patches from Intel. There is also no identified
attack of this sort in the wild.
At the moment, our suggestion is not to worry. The likelihood of this
flaw being exposed, becoming widespread, and threatening your particular
machine over the period of time it might take Apple to issue a patch is
extremely remote. The exploit also appears to be limited to Intel-based
computers at the moment, making it even less of a concern for many Mac
users.
We'll update this story as details become available, but if Apple
releases a security update that describes a fix for a malformed frame
and you travel around with your MacBook or MacBook Pro, you should
consider installing it as soon as is practical.
TypeIt4Me Returns Again, Again
------------------------------
by Matt Neuburg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Riccardo Ettore's TypeIt4Me[20] has a long history; it's been around
since 1987, which is longer than I've been using a Mac. In case you've
forgotten, here's how it works. You supply TypeIt4Me with pairs of
abbreviations and expansions (such as "ty" and "TypeIt4Me"). Then
TypeIt4Me watches you type and substitutes expansions for abbreviations
in just about any application.
[20]<http://homepage.mac.com/rettore/ty2/>
As I explained back in January, 2003[21], you'd think that TypeIt4Me
would be impossible to reimplement under Mac OS X, given the latter's
deliberate resistance to system-level hackery. But not so. Earlier Mac
OS X versions[22] of TypeIt4Me were ingeniously implemented as an input
manager, a mechanism that evades this resistance. However, whether
because this implementation was proving somewhat limited and unreliable
or because input managers[23] have recently been tainted with ignominy
thanks to their proven potential as a security hole, TypeIt4Me 3.0,
which was released late last month, has been rewritten to use the
Accessibility API[24] instead (like its rivals, Typinator[25] and
CopyPaste + yType[26]).
[21]<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07046>
[22]<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07798>
[23]<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08430>
[24]<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07102>
[25]<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08151>
[26]<http://www.scriptsoftware.com/copypaste/>
So now, when you install TypeIt4Me, you see - or rather, you don't see -
a background-only application, controlled by a System Preferences pane
and optionally manifesting itself as a menu extra (an icon and menu at
the right side of the menubar). When you type an abbreviation followed
by whichever of three dozen delimiter characters you've specified (e.g.
"ty@", where "@" is the delimiter), TypeIt4Me observes this fact through
the Accessibility API and tells the application you're using to select
those characters and paste in their place the expanded version,
restoring the clipboard afterwards. A special expansion syntax enables
you to perform many useful additional tricks, such as specifying where
the insertion point should be after the paste, or inserting the original
contents of the clipboard at some point in the pasted material (good for
entering HTML opening and closing tags, for example).
Abbreviation/expansion pairs are stored in files that can live anywhere
you like, and an abbreviation file (or an individual abbreviation) can
be associated with a specific application. TypeIt4Me can also be
disabled for particular applications, and in a pinch you can even
temporarily turn off TypeIt4Me's automatic behavior entirely, by
choosing Pause from its menu. In that case, you can still enter an
expansion by choosing its abbreviation from the menu.
In my view, TypeIt4Me 3.0 represents a significant architectural
revision; it is elegant and simple, appears reliable, and truly makes
for a fine blend of flexibility and user confidence. TypeIt4Me 3.0
requires Mac OS X 10.3 Panther or higher, and is a Universal Binary. It
is a 4 MB download[27], and costs $27 ($9 to upgrade form any previous
version); you can try it free for 30 days.
[27]<http://homepage.mac.com/rettore/ty2/download.htm>
AOL Drops Fees, Offers 5 GB Free Storage
----------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
America Online[28] dropped a fee bomb last week: You can use their
antiquated, funky, irritating software with an AOL account at no cost,
as long as you don't want to use dial-up Internet access. Dial-up
accounts cost just $10 per month for unlimited usage and unlimited
customer support. (Some press reports stated that dial-up service would
remain nearly $26 per month for unlimited use and that the free accounts
wouldn't be available until September. Rather, $26 per month accounts
will drop in price to $10 per month for existing subscribers over what
appears to be a one-month transition. Current broadband-only users pay
about $15 per month, and that fee will disappear.)
[28]<http://www.aol.com/>
AOL has 18 million subscribers, but lost one million in the second
quarter. All dial-up service providers, including EarthLink, AOL, and
even a corporate reseller called iPass, are seeing significant
quarter-over-quarter declines as U.S. users switch to broadband Internet
service.
Having dealt with AOL in the past, I wanted to see this with my own
eyes. I went to AOL's Web site, clicked Sign Up Now in the upper right
corner, and was offered free (bring your own bandwidth) or $10 per month
for unlimited dial-up connectivity. My in-laws have been paying the $10
per month rate for unlimited use for some time, and I previously thought
it was a billing error. Now I think AOL has quietly been ratcheting the
cost down to customers who complain (as my in-laws did) during the
transition period. They're now broadband users and will keep AOL, since
they don't want to get new email addresses at the moment.
AOL says that they will make money through - volume! Underpants gnomes!
Spaghetti feeds! Advertising! Guess which one of those four is true. The
company also expects to save oodles of money by dropping thousands of
employees who deal with issues of billing, payment, and associated
matters, and the elimination of four million billion tons of AOL CD-ROM
inserts and mailings. The company also believes that selling ads to what
they expect will be a new, larger audience will produce better returns.
(About 1,300 customer service job cuts were announced in May, and 5,000
on 03-Aug-06[29]. AOL currently employs about 19,000 employees
worldwide.)
[29]<http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/08/03/ap2926093.html>
What can AOL offer you? If you like their form of newsgroups and chat,
walled-garden news sites, and horrible, horrible email, then it's for
you. I have a hard time seeing how AOL offers anything unique within its
package. Its Web-based interface for email is not bad at all, by
contrast, and a number of Web-only services are just fine. And AOL
Instant Messenger forms the basis for Apple's iChat services.
Oh, and AOL wants to give you 5 GB of free online storage, too[30]. AOL
acquired online storage firm Xdrive almost precisely a year ago[31]. The
company currently charges $10 per month for single-user access to 5 GB.
(Larger amounts of storage and workgroups cost extra, and they work hard
to hide the pricing link[32].)
[30]<http://xdrive.com/>
[31]<http://xdrive.com/aboutus/pr_08_04_2005.jsp>
[32]<http://xdrive.com/support/online_help/intro/fees.htm>
Xdrive will start offering 5 GB of online storage for personal use to
all comers in early September. These accounts offer ways to create
public folders to let others retrieve files. Offering this amount of
storage for free raises the bar on Internet-based storage in the same
way that Google's Gmail[33] - now in its second year as a public beta! -
did for free and cheap email storage, transfers, and attachments.
What all this means for AOL is hard to say. AOL's software still stinks.
AOL's email filtering is highly erratic. Any of us who run mailing lists
are familiar with suddenly having all of our double opt-in, fully
approved AOL users bounce our email for some obscure reason that's
impossible to address directly with AOL.
And, well, AOL has betrayed users' general trust over and over again,
primarily in terms of its unpleasant, legally proven behavior in making
it almost impossible to stop being charged for their service. This will
all change when AOL becomes uninterested in collecting user revenue, and
the marketing machine is replaced by an advertising machine.
On the other hand, the apparently purposeful but
unauthorized-from-the-top release 10 days ago of some 20 million search
queries entered by over 650,000 AOL Search users[34] during a recent
three-month period shows that AOL may still not have the right internal
controls and sensibility that benefits our interest. The data were
intended for academic research, but the keyword searches were organized
by user, and were not "anonymized" by having identifiable queries and
private data removed. AOL pulled the data today and apologized, but it's
far too late to put that downloaded-genie back in the bottle.
[33]<http://news.com.com/AOL+apologizes+for+release+of+user+search+data/2100-1030_3-6102793.html>
Do we need and trust AOL in a world of a billion other Web sites, many
of them offering better features and run with better oversight? They'll
have to show us why.
Mac Pro, Xserve Round Out Macintosh High End
--------------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Apple completed its transition to Intel-based computers today with the
release of the new Mac Pro desktop and Xserve server machines, throwing
significant weight at the top end of the Mac line and replacing the old
Power Mac G5 and Xserve G5.
**Goodbye Power, Hello Pro** -- The Mac Pro[35] shares the same aluminum
enclosure as the Power Mac G5, but inside, it's no mere speed bump. The
Mac Pro is powered by two 64-bit, dual-core Intel Xeon 5100 series
processors[36] running at up to 3 GHz, with 4 MB of shared L2 cache per
processor. Replacing the PowerPC G5's AltiVec graphics processor is a
128-bit SSE3 vector engine that Apple claims is faster than its
predecessor. Not surprisingly, Apple claims everything is faster on this
machine, from performance per watt (3 times better than the Power Mac G5
Quad) to general usage (1.6 to 2.1 times faster).
[35]<http://www.apple.com/macpro/>
[36]<http://www.apple.com/macpro/intelxeon.html>
The Mac Pro can accommodate up to 2 TB (terabytes) of hard drive storage
in four internal Serial ATA hard drive bays, which are easily swappable
in slide-in carriers (similar to the bays in the Xserve). Four PCI
Express slots are available for further expansion, one of which is
double-wide to accommodate today's high-end graphics cards. There are
also two bays for optical drives: a 16x SuperDrive comes standard, and
the other bay can be configured with a second SuperDrive. Although Apple
is emphasizing how convenient it can be to burn two discs at once, we
suspect that the real reason for dual optical drives is preparation for
including an internal Blu-ray or HD-DVD burner in the future. (Roxio
recently announced Blu-ray burning support in the next version of
Toast[37], and DVD Studio Pro[38] already supports encoding HD-DVD
discs.)
[37]<http://www.roxio.com/enu/company/press/06_07_25_pr.html>
[38]<http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/dvdstudiopro/>
The Mac Pro is available now in a single configuration for a base price
of $2,500, which includes dual 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors,
1 GB of 667 MHz DDR2 memory, an Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT graphics card
with 256 MB of memory, a 16x SuperDrive, and a 250 GB SATA hard drive.
Other options are available as build-to-order options, such as 2 GHz or
3 GHz processors, more memory (up to 16 GB), a second SuperDrive, more
hard drives, and beefier graphics cards from Nvidia or ATI.
Surprisingly, the base configuration does not include Bluetooth or
AirPort Extreme wireless hardware (or a modem, but that's been the case
for several revisions of Apple's desktop Macs).
**New Xserve Goes Intel** -- Along with the new Mac Pro, Apple today
announced an update to the Xserve[39] that replaces the PowerPC G5 with
a pair of dual-core Intel Xeon processors running at 2.66 or 3.0 GHz.
Other basic specs include a 1.33 GHz frontside bus per processor, 4 MB
of L2 cache per processor, 1 GB of RAM (expandable to 32 GB), a built-in
ATI Radeon X1300 PCI Express graphics card, and two open eight-lane PCI
Express slots. In terms of storage, the Xserve comes with a 24x Combo
drive (an 8x double-layer SuperDrive is available as an option), and
three drive bays with one 80 GB SATA drive installed. You can install up
to 2.25 TB of storage via SATA (Serial ATA[40]) or higher performance
SAS (Serial Attached SCSI[41]) drives. Standard ports include a pair of
FireWire 800 ports, one FireWire 400 port, two USB 2.0 ports, and a DB-9
serial port. As always, an unlimited client copy of Mac OS X Server
10.4[42] - which is reportedly a universal binary as of today - comes
with the Xserve. Pricing remains the same, with the base configuration
coming in at $3,000. Apple claims the new Xserve will ship in October
2006.
[39]<http://www.apple.com/xserve/>
[40]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA>
[41]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Attached_SCSI>
[42]<http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/>
All those specs are nice enough, but not unexpected in a new Intel-based
Mac. What is new, and highly welcome, is that the Xserve now features an
optional second power supply, finally providing the redundant,
hot-swappable power supplies that network administrators have been
wanting for so long. Also welcome, according to Chuck Goolsbee of the
hosting company digital.forest[43], is the return of a video card, which
was lacking in the Xserve G5, much to the consternation of support staff
who needed to reboot and manage hosted Xserves in certain crash
situations. Those folks would also prefer the USB and video ports to be
on the front of the Xserve, since some management tasks require access
to the power button and optical drive, and speaking from experience with
our Xserve at digital.forest, it's a pain to walk back and forth around
the racks to swap CDs or toggle power, and in an entire rack of Xserves,
it's a little tricky to keep track of which is which in the stack.
[43]<http://www.forest.net/>
On the downside, Chuck was unhappy about the fact that the new Xserve is
about 2 inches (5 cm) deeper than the previous Xserve models, which were
already deep at 28 inches (71 cm). The extra depth means that the new
Xserve won't fit inside many existing server cabinets, something that's
also true of Dell servers (there the rationale seems to be to sell Dell
server cabinets; it's not clear why Apple felt the need to extend the
depth of the Xserve. digital.forest has already had to remove the doors
on some of their cabinets, thus negating much of the point of a cabinet.
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Previewed at WWDC 2006
--------------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
At Apple's 2006 Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) today, Steve Jobs
teased the assembled developers with details of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard,
the next major release of the Mac operating system that is due to ship
sometime in "spring" (which we in the United States consider to be
roughly the March to May 2007 time period). Jobs offered overviews of
ten new or improved features to be found in Leopard, and coyly referred
to other "top secret" features that weren't going to be shown so as to
not encourage copying by Microsoft's Windows Vista developers (who
received a fair bit of competitive ribbing at WWDC). Developer preview
versions of Leopard were given to registered attendees of WWDC; we're
concentrating here on the promised new features that end users will see,
so those interested in Xcode 3.0[44], Leopard's 64-bit application
support[45], and new CoreAnimation[46] framework will want to look
elsewhere for immediate details.
[44]<http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/xcode.html>
[45]<http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/64bit.html>
[46]<http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/coreanimation.html>
**Time Travelers Meet at this File** -- Perhaps the most interesting
development in Leopard as previewed by Steve Jobs is Time Machine[47],
which promises a sort of file journaling - automatic incremental backups
of an entire file system of any changed files at whatever time you pick.
In Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, Apple added hard disk journaling, in which
changes to directory structures were noted in a special file that could
be retrieved on a crash, dramatically reducing the chance of directory
corruption and reducing repair time. With Time Machine, Apple is
extending this concept to individual files and more. Jobs claimed that a
complete Time Machine backup could be used to restore an entire machine,
system and all. Neat as it is, the concept isn't new; Time Machine
sounds similar to Rewind[48], an application offered for Mac OS 8 and 9
by Power On Software.)
[47]<http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/timemachine.html>
[48]<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06460>
Time Machine can back up specific folders or files, too, and it can
write data to a hard disk or a server, although Jobs didn't define
whether that meant a network-mounted drive or a client-server software
pair. In his demonstration, a series of receding screens represent
restore points for files that you're looking at, with a star field to
indicate motion over time. Jobs located a file he had previously deleted
by zooming back through time (either by clicking arrows or a timeline
along the edge of the screen), and then clicked Restore to retrieve the
file. A QuickTime movie on the Leopard preview site shows a similar
example. A black hole or a wormhole appears behind all the zoomed files:
watch out for that deletion event horizon when all files become
infinitely long.
It's unclear from details released to this point whether you can force
Time Machine to keep a certain number of backups (and no more) of
particular files or folders, or whether you can, for security or privacy
reasons, delete all backups for a particular file. Time Machine can be
tied into individual programs, and it's already part of the next version
of iPhoto (which was used in the demo). Individual photos could be
restored or reverted within the application using Time Machine's
interface, without rooting around in iPhoto's Trash or having to sort
out where a particular file is located. The example of Address Book in
the QuickTime video is even more compelling: you see where an entry was
deleted and can restore that. Many programs that have internal
representations of data within a database would benefit from Time
Machine integration, too, by backing up objects rather than an entire
database.
Although Time Machine may introduce a host of related effects, including
system slowdowns, and massive backup files when you modify, say, 2 GB
MySQL tables (now we understand why the new Mac Pro offers up to 2 TB of
storage), for users that simply want the state of their system
constantly recorded for easy retrieval after a catastrophe, there's
nothing like this on the Mac.
Time Machine doesn't appear to mimic a much-loved Windows XP feature (if
any feature in Windows XP could be so described) in which you can set a
system restore point or in which Windows XP automatically creates one.
With that feature, you can roll back to a previous working configuration
when inevitable hardware driver conflicts occur. Deep Freeze[49] from
Faronics provides those features for Mac users.
[49]<http://www.faronics.com/>
Does Time Machine threaten EMC Insignia's (formerly Dantz's) Retrospect?
It would seem not, given Retrospect's client-server architecture and
scheduling tools that probably won't be found in Time Machine. Rather,
Time Machine makes moot Apple's own Backup software, which has always
been a kludgy and difficult package, even with its recent improvements.
Better still, Time Machine will be an integral part of Leopard and won't
be in any way tied to .Mac, although one could back up to a .Mac iDisk
or to other online storage that offers appropriate network volume
mounting that Time Machine will recognize.
**Spaces Offers Virtual Desktops** -- Working on a single monitor and
wishing you had more screen space for all of your open applications and
documents? Although we've been promoting the virtues of multiple monitor
Macs since 1991, not everyone can afford more than one monitor, or the
necessary desk space to accommodate it. To help users avoid the clutter
that Steve Jobs so famously hates, Leopard will introduce Spaces, a
virtual desktop feature that will enable you to group applications while
working on tasks, so you'll only have to look at the windows that apply
to what you're working on at any given moment. With typical Apple flair,
your screen view rotates horizontally, vertically, or even diagonally to
show the "hidden" monitor you'd like to work on next.
Like many features Apple has introduced for Mac OS X over the years,
Spaces isn't a new concept; Unix windowing systems have long offered
multiple virtual desktops so you could focus on one thing at a time, and
third-party software such as VirtueDesktops[50] already lets Mac users
switch among multiple virtual monitors.
[50]<http://www.virtuedesktops.info/>
We'll be able to switch Spaces by clicking an application's icon in the
Dock (which will switch to the Space that application is living in),
bring up an Expose-like thumbnail browser for selecting a Space or for
dragging applications from one to another, or use keystrokes to rotate
among the Spaces.
**Spotlight Gets Brighter** -- Not everyone is a fan of Spotlight,
particularly those of us who mostly want to search for filenames and who
find that Spotlight usually produces far too many results to be useful.
Although relatively few details were available, it appears that
Spotlight in Leopard[51] may prove a bit more helpful, thanks to the
addition of Boolean search terms (AND, OR, and NOT) and the capability
to search on metadata like author, type, or filename extension. A
feature called QuickLook will provide a way to preview items in the
results list without opening an application, and if you regularly work
on multiple Macs on your network, you'll appreciate the capability to
search across multiple machines simultaneously.
[51]<http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/spotlight.html>
**The Universe of Access Expands** -- A few years ago Steve Jobs mentioned
in a keynote address that Apple was "in the market" for new
text-to-speech options to replace the aging voices such as Victoria and
Fred that have been essentially unchanged since the Mac OS 9 days.
Apparently he got what he wanted, because Leopard will feature a new
synthesized voice called Alex that's dramatically better than both the
current Apple voices and the current Windows voices. Among other subtle
cues, this voice uses periodic "inhaling" sounds that add to its
realism. It will also be available in several different languages,
including Japanese and Chinese. The Alex voice, which even sounds clear
when sped up dramatically, is one of the key features in Leopard's
improved accessibility[52] offerings. VoiceOver in Leopard, which makes
use of the Alex voice, will also feature improved navigation, positional
cues delivered through stereo speakers or headphones, and greater
customizability.
[52]<http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/accessibility.html>
For the first time, Leopard will also offer direct support of Braille,
using third-party Braille displays[53]. Rounding out the accessibility
improvements, QuickTime in Leopard will feature closed captioning
support for a synchronized text track alongside audio and video.
[53]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braille_display>
**Mail Call** -- The Leopard version of Mail[54] will add several new
features designed to enhance productivity and visual appeal. First is a
template-based system that looks and acts remarkably like the interface
for iWeb, Pages, and iDVD. Working from a predefined stationery file,
you'll be able to drag in images from your iPhoto library, type or paste
in text, and get a nicely formatted newsletter, announcement,
invitation, or greeting. Mail will send your message as HTML, readable
in most modern email clients. (Enhancements to the plain text messages
that make up the vast majority of email communications, if any, were not
mentioned.) In addition to starting with a template, you can apply a
template after the fact to a message you've already composed. The new
version of Mail will also provide a facility for you to create your own
templates.
[54]<http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/mail.html>
Mail will also offer Notes, which enable you to write notes to yourself
that appear in your Inbox (as well as in a separate Notes mailbox)
without having to email them. Notes support full formatting, and can
contain images, PDF files, and other media content.
In addition, in the Leopard version of Mail, any email message - or any
selected text within a message or note - can be turned into a To Do item
with a single click. These To Dos can have due dates, priorities, and
alarms, and the capability to create them will be available as a
system-wide service. For example, iCal and Mail will share the same To
Do list, and third-party developers will also be able to contribute or
access these To Do items.
Mentioned on Apple's Web site but not demonstrated at the keynote was
RSS support in Mail. You'll be able to subscribe to RSS feeds and have
the articles appear in your Inbox; using Smart Mailboxes, you can also
sort, group, or filter news articles. Presumably this is in addition to,
rather than a replacement of, the RSS support in Safari.
**A More Dashing Dashboard** -- No Tiger feature was as polarizing as
Dashboard[55]: many people love it (as evidenced by the more than 2,500
widgets now shipping), and many people hate it (or just ignore it). The
keynote crowd's initial reaction on hearing that Dashboard was one of
the top 10 new features in Leopard was muted at best, but by the end of
the demonstration, there was hearty cheering. What got everyone excited
was a new feature called Web Clip, which will enable anyone to create a
custom Dashboard widget from a portion of any Web page in seconds, with
no coding at all. After navigating to the desired page in Safari, you'll
click a toolbar button, which opens Dashboard and brings up your page in
a new widget. Resize and reposition this widget to show just the portion
of the page you're interested in, click Close, and you've got a new,
dynamically updating widget that can display auction progress, a webcam,
news headlines, or any other Web content (as long as the X-Y coordinates
of the Web content don't change). You'll also be able to choose any of
several themes to adjust your widget's border. Advertisers won't be
happy about this feature, which will likely be used to extract content
from ad-laden Web pages.
[55]<http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/dashboard.html>
For developers, Leopard will also include Dashcode, a tool to assist in
designing, developing, and debugging widgets. Continuing the Leopard
theme of templates everywhere, Dashcode will include templates for
common widget content such as RSS, podcasts, and images, which can be
modified or expanded as needed. Dashcode will also feature a parts
library for common controls such as search fields and buttons. Finally,
Dashcode will provide visual editing of HTML and CSS, as well as a
JavaScript editor and debugger. Looking for something to ease widget
development now? Check out Widgetarium[56], from Gandreas Software.
[56]<http://projects.gandreas.com/widgetarium/>
**iChat to Add Screen Sharing and Effects** -- Apple's iChat[57] instant
messaging client, which provided audio and video chats in Mac OS X 10.3
and added multi-user audio and video chats in Mac OS X 10.4, promises to
leap further ahead with several new capabilities, some reflecting
most-requested features (or features already found in other chat
clients) and others reflecting new technologies not found in anything
but high-end collaboration software.
[57]<http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/ichat.html>
Multiple logins - the capability to sign on to more than one AIM or
Jabber account at the same time - leads the list of most-requested
features, along with invisibility (being able to hide from any but
certain buddies), the capability to auto-rejoin chats if you're
disconnected, and tabbed chatting, similar to the tabbed browsing
feature in Safari. The latter will be a boon to anyone who regularly
chats (separately) with more than one person at a time, and it matches
similar features in such third-party chat clients as Fire[58] and
Adium[59]. Other promised features that may or may not float your boat
include animated buddy icons and enhanced parental controls.
[58]<http://fire.sourceforge.net/>
[59]<http://www.adiumx.com/>
More impressively, iChat in Leopard will also add the capability to
share what's on your screen with chat buddies, such as slide shows from
iPhoto or Keynote presentations in a virtual presentation room, or even
full screen sharing. Apple says you'll be able to "browse the Web with a
friend, or pick the perfect plane seats with your spouse," all while
using iChat's audio chat feature to compare notes. We're more intrigued
with the possibility of using full screen sharing to simplify remote
tech support tasks.
Photo Booth's capability to squash your face and apply other effects to
your image has proven so popular among younger iSight users that Apple
has added real-time Photo Booth effects to iChat. Although we imagine
this will hold limited amusement value for most of us, we know some
five-year-olds who'll never get tired of turning on the funhouse mirror
effect while chatting with aunts and uncles.
Perhaps something the rest of us will use more often is iChat's
backgrounds feature, which magically replaces whatever's behind you in
the frame with any still image, or even moving video, so you can appear
to be on the beach or in Times Square while chatting with friends, or
seem to be in your own office while playing hooky! (If these features
sound intriguing to you, you don't have to wait until next year for
Leopard, since many of them are available today in Script Software's $20
ChatFX[60] utility. Happily, as he posted on the Script Software
blog[61], Julian Miller and the folks at Script Software aren't bitter
about having a future version of iChat that copies their original ideas.
No doubt by then they'll have a new version of ChatFX to do still
niftier stuff, and we've heard that they're working on support for Skype
and Yahoo Messenger.)
[60]<http://www.scriptsoftware.com/chatfx/>
[61]<http://www.scriptsoftware.com/blog/?p=55>
**iCal Goes Multiuser** -- Apple's iCal[62] is popular with individuals,
but it's seldom used by workgroups that need to maintain shared
calendars - for instance, we use Now Software's Now Up-to-Date & Contact
for that. iCal's single-user focus will change with Leopard, thanks to
support for the CalDAV standard[63]. Apple claims that iCal in Leopard
will enable multiple people to share a single group calendar, complete
with access controls, and it will be possible to view the availability
of group members before sending meeting invitations, although a new
AutoSchedule feature attempts to find the best time for everyone to
meet. Meetings can also be organized around resources such as particular
conference rooms or projectors, and if you want people attending the
meeting to preview a particular document, you can share it with them by
simply dropping it on the event.
[62]<http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/ical.html>
[63]<http://www.calconnect.org/>
Take Control News/07-Aug-06
---------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
**New Ebook Helps Mac Users "Sync Different"** -- Maybe you've figured out
how to sync songs to your iPod or Safari bookmarks via .Mac. But there's
a whole universe of syncing options available to Mac users, and our
latest ebook, "Take Control of Syncing in Tiger,"[64] brings that
universe to your Macintosh, helping you with everything from iSync to
the kitchen sync. Topics covered include syncing phone numbers to a
mobile phone or PDA; syncing files between desktop and laptop Macs; and
how to connect devices via Bluetooth, USB, FireWire, and Ethernet.
[64]<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/tiger-syncing.html?14@@!pt=TRK-0040-TB841-TCNEWS>
Written by long-time Mac expert Michael E. Cohen, this 135-page ebook
provides an interesting and detailed look at how syncing works under the
hood in Mac OS X, lays out what software and hardware you need to sync
in your particular situation, and offers the best strategies for
successful syncing. Finally, a troubleshooting section offers
reassurance and practical advice for anyone who has experienced a
syncing feeling upon realizing that the wrong data was overwritten.
**Master iPhoto 6 with New Ebook** -- Earlier this year, I was hard at
work on a recurring project that has become a fixture in my life over
the last five years: an update to my iPhoto Visual QuickStart Guide.[65]
This year's edition took a little longer than usual because it was one
of the first Visual QuickStart Guides to be published in full color, but
the print book recently hit the bookstore shelves. More to the point
here, I've just finished turning it into an ebook that I feel is good
enough to sell alongside our Take Control ebooks. Anyone can print to
PDF, but a true ebook has bookmarks and links (colored, so you can see
them) for both internal and external references (special thanks to Sid
Steward for the PDF magic that linked up every page number in the index
and colorized every link).
[65]<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/iphoto6-vqs.html?14@@!pt=TRK-0041-TB841-TCNEWS>
So if you've been pining for help with iPhoto 6, check out my "iPhoto 6:
Visual QuickStart Guide." In it, I use concise, step-by-step
instructions supported by numerous full-color screenshots to explain
each task, one per page. (Those who have followed our exploits over the
years might enjoy the behind-the-scenes look at our lives, since Tonya
and Tristan feature heavily in the photos.) The book covers everything
you can do in iPhoto 6, from importing and organizing to printing and
presenting. It also includes a troubleshooting chapter with suggestions
for dealing with problems, and an appendix offers numerous tips for
taking better photos. The ebook version costs $15 (or less, if you buy
it bundled with our other digital photography ebooks), and if you prefer
to read on paper, there's a link on the page above to add it to your
Amazon shopping cart (for $16, currently).
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/07-Aug-06
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
**Getting Things Done with your Macintosh** -- Following Jeff Porten's
articles on the Getting Things Done organizational system, a reader
endorses the approach while another points out an iCal-based workaround
to Web-based tracking solutions. 2 messages[66]
[66]<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/897/>
**Merging iPhoto libraries** -- Apple assumes that each Mac user has just
one iPhoto library on one computer, but reality is quite different. What
options are available for merging several libraries together? 5
messages[67]
[67]<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/901/>
**Wireless Mighty Mouse** -- Apple's now-standard multi-button mouse
gained a Bluetooth sibling recently, and readers squeak in with their
opinions. 12 messages[68]
[68]<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/903/>
**Talking Points Memo Goes Mac (and has questions)** -- The author of
several high-traffic political weblogs made a public switch to the Mac
and shared his impressions and questions, chief among them how to
migrate Eudora mailboxes from Windows to the Mac. 3 messages[69]
[69]<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/904/>
**Just an off-the-cuff rant** -- A new issue of Consumer Reports tackles
viruses, spam, spyware, and laptops, with nary a mention of the Mac. Can
you say, "ARGH!"? Yes, yes you can. 2 messages[70]
[70]<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/905/>
$$
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