What's New - Apr 20, 2005

By: Mike Yocom - Revised: 2006-07-03 devin

Download Slides – PDF-File, 2.5 MB

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


New Apple Software

Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" will be available on April 29.

Keynote 2.0.1

Pages 1.0.1

Security Update 2005-003 (Server 1.1 & client 1.0)

iPod Updater 2005-03-23

iMovie HD 5.0.2

iPhoto 5.0.2

iSight 1.3

iDVD 5.0.1

Mac OS X 10.3.9 (Server Combo & Delta, client Combo & Delta)

Shake 4

Final Cut Studio
  • Final Cut Pro 5
  • Soundtrack Pro
  • Motion 2
  • DVD Studio Pro 4
  • Garage Band Jam Pack 4 (1.0.1)
Security Update 2005-004

New Third Party Software

(Updates are assumed to be for Mac OS X, not much is being updated for Mac OS 9 nowadays…)

Software Notes

Following the recent Mac OS X 10.3.9 update, some Java sites quit working in Safari, even crashing the browser, and some stand-alone Java applications quit working. Apple has posted a Knowledge Base Article about the issue, the fix is to re-apply Security Update 2005-002, which only patches Java.

There are anecdotal reports that Acrobat Reader versions older than 7.0 don't work after applying Security Update 2005-003. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but if you still need older versions of Reader, it would be a good idea to specifically test compatibility with SU 2005-003 before deploying the security update.

Capping off a month of bad PR, Verizon has announced that they officially don't support Mac users wanting to use the Verizon 5220 wireless broadband card. Apple-supplied drivers for this card are built into Mac OS X 10.3.3 and later, but Mac users wanting technical support from Verizon are out of luck.

Hardware News

Surprisingly, there's no hardware news this month.

Retail News

Apple has reported a record-breaking March Quarter. Highlights include:
  • $290 million profit (The highest Q2 income in Apple's history)
  • $3.24 billion in revenue (up 70% from Q2 2004)
  • 1.07 million Macintosh units (up 43% from Q2 2004)
  • 5.3 million iPods (up 558% from Q2 2004)
  • A report in February showed that the iPod shuffle took Apple from 0% to 43% of the flash-based MP3 player market in one month
  • Despite the reports of the record-breaking quarter, Apple's stock dropped about $10 per share in the week following the report.
It has been announced that Adobe is purchasing Macromedia for $3.4 billion in stock. Publish magazine has an analysis of the merger.

Issues

There's widespread reports of faulty PowerBook memory slots, especially in the current (2005) PowerBooks. Usually the lower memory slot is the one that is defective, but testing both slots is a good idea. If you have a situation where "About this Mac" shows less memory than you know should be installed, it is recommended that you re-seat the memory module first, then run hardware diagnostics, then contact Apple. If the machine is still under warranty Apple will repair it (usually by replacing the logic board) for free.

MacFixIt has a roundup of every issue reported so far with the Mac mini. (Please note that a majority of minis are reported to work just fine, and all of the issues listed here — with the exception of the Radeon 9200 and Core Image, which affects all minis — only occur in a few machines.)
  • "Snowy" DVI video output — which may be fixed by upgrading the video card's (ATI Radeon 9200) firmware to version 124.
  • Loose DVI connections
  • Black lines on NTSC output
  • Some optical drives "stick" when ejecting CDs or DVDs
  • The ATI Radeon 9200 (used as the GPU in the Mac mini) will not support Tiger's Core Image, meaning the mini will fall back to the slower CPU-rendering mode for Core Image effects

Mac OS X in Brief

The latest, Xserve-based super computing cluster to be announced is the upgraded Turing Cluster at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which uses 640 dual-2 GHz G5 Xserves. The cluster can theoretically peak at 10 teraflops, which could put it somewhere in the 20s on the TOP500 list. The Macs in Chemistry site has a list of known, Macintosh supercomputer clusters.

ZDNet UK has an editorial about Symantec's self serving warnings. The article in response to a recent report published by Symantec that concluded that the Mac would be increasingly targeted by malware as a result of its rising popularity.

Just days before the Tiger launch, the Gold Master was supposedly leaked to P2P networks. Speculation is that someone in the CD pressing plant in China is responsible for the leak.

General News

Intel recently offered $10 000 USD for a copy of the April 19, 1965 issue of Electronics Magazine, in which the famous Moore's Law was published. The next day one of the University of Illinois's copies was stolen.

Researchers analyzing the methane content of Mars' atmosphere found higher than expected levels in certain locations. Solar energy causes methane on Mars to break down after 300 years, so this methane was released into the atmosphere very recently. The two possible causes for the extra methane are volcanism or life, both challenge long-held perceptions about Mars: the planet is believed to be both geologically and biologically dead.

Humor

Joy of Tech
  • Why Apple is Evil
  • Hook up With Some Rich Guy
  • Carpet Crop Circles
  • Homo portableaudio

Events

MacEnterprise Webcast: iPods in Education
  • Presenters: Debrah Suggs, System Administrator, Duke University, Jim Wolfgang, CIO, Georgia College & State University
  • Moderator: Fred Reynolds, Apple Computer
  • Date: April 26, 2005
EXPO 2005 Aichi, Japan
  • ("World Fair")
  • Location: Aichi Prefecture (between Tokyo City and Sedo City)
  • Dates: March 25—September 25, 2005
  • Registration Information
BEA
  • Location: Las Vegas, NV
  • Dates: April 21—23, 2005
  • Registration Information
  • Sessions
WWDC
  • Location: San Francisco, CA
  • Dates: June 6—10, 2005
  • Registration Information
  • Sessions
ISCB
  • Location: Detroit, MI
  • Dates: June 25—29, 2005
  • Registration Information
  • Sessions