What's New - Jun 20, 2001

Introduction

What's new for the Mac in the previous month:

• General issues, workarounds and fixes
• New Software and hardware
• Software and hardware updates/patches

Mac OS X

Mac OS X now ships pre-installed on new Mac hardware. - More info

Apple will be the largest Unix supplier in the world by the end of the year.

Most people who maintain mac labs (those who are on mail lists) are not planning on putting OS X in a lab environment until Summer/Fall 2002. However, a few OS X labs already exist.

Apple iServices offers training in Mac OS X. - More info.

Mac OS X wins over Win 2K in CNET OS Faceoff

          Color us shocked, but our panel of seven judges delivered a solid victory to the revolutionary Mac OS," wrote CNET. The site recently compared Mac OS X to Microsoft's Windows 2000 operating system, and writers John Rizzo and Matt Lake said that the judges were bowled over by Mac OS X's installation ease and smooth hardware integration -- especially for FireWire-compatible digital camcorders. The results have been published a new feature entitled OS Death Match: Windows 2000 vs. OS X.

      View article.

Poll: How many of you are using Mac OS X?

New Software

BBEdit 6.1.2
BBEdit Lite 6.1.1
DVD Player 2.7
Code Warrior 6.2
Extension Overload 5.8.4
File Buddy 6.1
FileMaker 5.5
GraphicConverter 4.0.8
Mac OS X Server
MacSSH 2.1b8
Netscape 6.1p1
PowerBook G4 DVD-ROM firmware update
REALBasic 3.2.1
Resorcerer 2.4
Tex-Edit Plus 4.1.2
WebObjects 5

Full listing for 5-15 to 6-18 (840 K file):

Or see: versiontracker.com

Software Notes

Netscape admits it lost the browser war. Does anyone remember what the Microsoft lawsuit started over? Read this yahoo.com article.

As stated on Microsoft's web page for the new Word Security Update: "If you have modified any of the originally installed files in the Microsoft Office 2001 folder in any way (such as changing the icon, the splash screen, or renaming a file or application to anything other than its original name), the update will not complete properly. While the installer will report that it installed successfully, one or all of your Office applications will crash immediately after being launched indicating that the install failed. The only way to alleviate this issue is to remove and reinstall Office 2001 from the original CD, and then run the Service Release 1 Updater again."

More Microsoft security problems: RTF documents linked to a template can run macros without warning in Word. Both Word 98 and 2001 for the Mac are vulnerable. Patches that fix this security risk will be available soon.

There is an new email virus for the Mac. The virus is an AppleScript application that will open Outlook or Entourage and email a copy of itself to all the entries in your address book. Basically, harmless, but you shouldn't run applications that come as email attachments unless you were expecting it. See, if your friend emails you the application, you are very likely to run it because you trust your friend... The email is about Simpson cartoon episodes that are available on the internet. - More info.

Hardware News

Apple focuses on LCD displays, no more CRT's. LCD's available:
15-in $599 (retail)
17-in (NEW) $999 (retail)
22-in $2,499 (retail)
Apple now offers a 17-in LCD as well with 1280 by 1024 resolution at a retail price of $999. Apple lowered the prices for the other two LCD's: 15-in $599, 22-in Cinema Display $2,499. - More info 1 - More info 2

Wireless routers: Asante, MacSense

There seems to be problems with 512MB ram and PowerBooks/iBooks.- More info

New iMac coming out soon. - The new iMac?

Expect to see 550 and 600MHz Powerbooks by August. There are rumors of dual-processor Powerbooks.

Retail News

The new iBook is popular. Read these reviews from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Boston Globe.

Two cnet.com articles (one and two) cover recent financial woes afflicting Palm.

Retail stores popular: http://www.apple.com/retail/ - Cnet article.

Cool Stuff

Want Mac OS 1.0? Want a Commodore 64? Want software or hardware for all that old stuff? Check these pages out:

SUR-TECH, Surplus Computers, Parts, etc.,.
Home Page of Gamba
Junkyard Jeff's, Computer Wrecking Yard

Humor

Are you a Mac Genius and do you need a new job?

Under that line of thought, need a laugh?

• TI PB = chick-magnet
• Apple Dancers for the rest of us
• When Windows guy meets Mac Genuis girl (Genius Bar 1)
• Genius Bar 2
• Apple Store
• Genius Bar 3
• Genius Bar 4
• Bill's Brainiac Bar (Genius Bar 5)
• Genius Bar 6
• The new iMac
• "X"y.

WWDC 2001

Richard Glaser, James Reynolds, and Terry Simons attended the WWDC 2001 (World Wide Developer's Conference) from the ACLIS group. There were several others on campus that went as well. View our notes.

The conference was focused completely on Mac OS X. Out of the sessions I attended, I only saw one demo mac running Mac OS 9. - More info.

WWDC Session topics:
Aqua,
Quartz,
OpenGL,
QuickTime,
WebObjects,
Project Builder,
Interface Builder,
other Mac OS X
development tools,     Carbon,
Cocoa,
Java,
BSD UNIX,
AppleScript,
Darwin,
Hardware,
Internationalization/Localization,
Networking and Security.

Official WWDC 2001 page: http://www.apple.com/developer/wwdc2001.

To see sessions from last year: http://connect.apple.com/WWDC2000 (case sensitive URL).

More on last year's WWDC: http://www.apple.com/developer/wwdc2000.

Volume Purchase

733MHZ G4 Macs with Superdrive and with free 17-in flat panel display.
Total purchase: 20
Total saved: $18,380.

466MHZ G4 Macs at a discount of $530
Total purchase: 218
Total saved $115,976.
3 free OS X Server, saved $747.

Total saved: $135,103.