Firefox Working to be More Mac Native

For most Mac users out there who make a living on the Web, using Safari exclusively just isn't an option. Camino is nice and all (it's my daily browser, in fact), but Firefox is unparalleled in its plugins and installed userbase / community. One common complaint Mac users have about Firefox is that it just doesn't feel like a native OS X application. This is a valid critisism, mostly because... Firefox isn't a native application. Firefox abstracts away a lot of the OS-specific stuff like dialogs, context menus, and "widgets" like buttons and dropdowns in order to be more portable across platforms.

Infinite Loop: Cocoa widgets in Firefox, Thunderbird progressing nicely.

technorati tags: Macintosh, Firefox, Cocoa

Apple Planning a New Facility

Here's some rare footage of the "real" Steve Jobs meeting with the Cupertino, CA city council. Worth a look! -Tim

April 19 - 16:19 EDT Apple Computer is planning to build a new, 50-acre campus near its present headquarters in Cupertino, California, the company's CEO, Steve Jobs, said, reports Reuters. "What's happened at Apple is that our business has basically tripled in the last five or six years," Jobs said on Tuesday evening at a Cupertino city council meeting. "Apple has been rejuvenated since it introduced its market-leading iPod digital music player in 2001 and is in the process of moving its entire Macintosh computer line to Intel Corp. chips from those made by IBM," notes the report. The council meeting is also available via Webcast.

MacMinute | Mac News First.

Burst Sues Apple

Burst.com has counter-sued Apple in a San Francisco federal district court for patent-infringement, MacWorld reports.

Apple had sued Burst in January seeking a ruling that the latter company's patents were invalid and therefore were not infringed by the iTunes Music Store, Quicktime Streaming Server, iTunes and the iPod.

Microsoft, faced with similar pressure last year, paid Burst $60 million for a license to the patents. Robert X. Cringely has been writing about this for awhile, and his major contention was that Apple's preemptive lawsuit would legitimize Burst's claims.

The Cult of Mac Blog

Looks like Burst may have a very legitmate suit. What do you you think? -Tim

Apple Confirms Leopard Preview

Apple updated the Web page for this year's World Wide Developer Conference today, making explicit mention that OS X 10.5 Leopard will be shown off for the first time there.

The Cult of Mac Blog

Apple Updates Aperture - Lowers Price!

Aperture 1.1, a significant update to the revolutionary all-in-one post production tool for photographers, runs natively on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs. The update features dramatically improved RAW image rendering and a new set of advanced RAW adjustment controls. Likewise, it delivers impressive speed gains on any Mac. At a new lower price of $299, Aperture is within reach of anyone shooting with a digital SLR camera. [Apr 13, 2006]

Aperture

technorati tags: Photography, Apple, Aperture

Windows as THE Mac OS? Heaven Forbid!

This has gotten more than a little press lately. I thought this article was interesting. Tell me what you think Tim

Posted on Apr 10, 2006 at 1:15am by Dennis Sellers. Andrew Neff, an analyst with the Bear Sterns firm, thinks that Apple's eventual game plan is to have Windows as the main operating system on Macs. I can't imagine this happening, but if that day comes, then Apple will have, to use a religious paraphrase, lost its "soul." "Though the timing is uncertain, [Neff] thinks it may defy the conventional wisdom, and views Windows on Mac with full support as a natural extension of Apple's strategy"; reports Business Week Online. He's not the only one. I've heard others espouse the same theory.

Macsimum News - Windows as THE Mac OS? Heaven forbid

Apple Does Windows?

Apple Computer said on Wednesday that it has released a public beta version of Boot Camp, software that enables Microsoft Windows XP to run natively on Intel-based Macs.The software, which will be included in Mac OS X 10.5, called Leopard, is available for download on Apple's Web site. Apple will also preview Boot Camp in August at its Worldwide Developers Conference, the company said."Apple has no desire or plan to sell or support Windows, but many customers have expressed their interest to run Windows on Apple's superior hardware, now that we use Intel processors," Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said in a statement. "We think Boot Camp makes the Mac even more appealing to Windows users considering making the switch."Apple didn't specifically mention plans to support running Vista, the long-delayed update to the Windows operating system now expected early next year.Microsoft representatives were not immediately available for comment.

Apple: Windows on a Mac is here | Tech News on ZDNet

technorati tags: Apple, Macintosh, Windows, Macbook Pro