Appletell

This is part two of a series. Read Part One here.

What I Hate About Windows

1) The Taskbar - Windows users will crow on and on about the taskbar’s superiority, but it is crap. It has no one purpose, rather it is a poorly implemented strip that serves as the main control point for the computer. The place where this becomes the biggest issue is if you hide it. You may just want more screen space, or to just hide the start menu, but you have no choice. Everything goes. Your list of programs, your minimized windows, system notifications, everything, is gone. Which brings me to my next gripe. Why would all my windows be displayed in huge buttons? I can understand it if my minimized windows were, but the maximized windows are already there. No need to have them in the taskbar. The argument is that its easy switching between windows, but I don’t find it easy to try to decipher between three Internet explorer windows, or three any windows. In the taskbar they all look the same and that doesn’t speed up the workflow at all.

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What I hate about Mac

1) USB Devices Always Wake the Computer - If my computer is sleeping, and I unplug my iPod to go out, why does my computer wake up? Why, why, why? Same if I’m unplugging my display/USB hub to use my computer as a laptop. The computer should NOT wake up.

2) USB Drives Can’t Simply Be Unplugged - In a similar vein to the first one, I should be able to yank out my USB drive and go. Why do I have to eject the drive first? I don’t on Windows…

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Apple today released Security Update 2008-002 for Mac OS X 10.4.11 and 10.5.2.

The update addresses more than 40 known bugs. AppKit, X11, CUPS, and Foundation are the most addressed in the update. Password problems that might show your passwords to other local users were addresses in the areas of Podcaster, Kerberos, Preview, and Printing.

There is also an issue that was addressed with the Image RAW framework. The bug made it possible for someone to send a maliciously crafted image that could cause application shutdowns: “A stack based buffer overflow exists in the handling of Adobe Digital Negative (DNG) image files. By enticing a user to open a maliciously crafted image file, an attacker may cause an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue through improved validation of DNG image files. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.5.”

The update is availabl via Software Update and for download for PowerPC [Regular | Server], Leopard [Regular | Server], and Intel [Regular | Server].

Read [About Security Update 2008-002]

The iPhone, iPod and the Mac are becoming better gaming platform every day with more games. The latest game, SpacePig is now available for Macs. SpacePig is a cartoon style in 3D. You control an animated Pig who travels around while you attempt to pick up as many gold coins and diamonds as possible. You’ll also be faced with flying meteorites and spikes, which can turn around your gameplay. Once you’ve completed a level you may post your score online and compare it to others around the world. The aspect of submitting your score online is a very nice features and lets gamers have some competition. SpacePig runs on Mac OS X Tiger or higher, and is priced for $19.95

Via [Inside Mac Games

Almost all of us have switched over to Leopard, and Tiger may be getting its last update, 10.4.12. MacEnstein reported that “[They] have it on good authority.” Tiger was released two years ago, and very few are on this OS any more. I doubt this means that Apple will be dropping support, and they shouldn’t. Tiger is still useful to many users who use special apps that aren’t Leopard compatible. We can expect them to support Tiger for several years, but move further away from it and closer to Leopard. MacEnstein also reports that they don’t have any specific details on what the update will be for besides, “numerous bug fixes and security updates”

We told you about the beta version of CheckUp last year, and today App4mac has announced the release of CheckUp 1.0. For those who didn’t catch what CheckUp is: It’s basically a diagnostic software tool for Mac OS X that is designed to be easy to use, whilst remaining a powerful and advanced tool. CheckUp 1.0 allows you to check the behaviour of your Mac locally, or even another Mac remotely over a network. It can check CPU, memory, hard drives, optical drives and network interfaces. Everything is displayed in an easily readable format and the information is very detailed.

CheckUp is a Mac shareware app and only costs $49, which is a great price for a piece of software that can help maintain your Mac. Licenses of CheckUp can be run on two computers. It requires Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later, and a G4 or better processor. The software is Universal Binary, so it will work great on both platforms. If you want to try before you buy, as with all shareware, a trial version is available for download.

Product Page [CheckUp]

The Mac BU at Microsoft has acknowledged a security issue, and has released a fix, and plans to release an update.

The problem is that the Microsoft Office Installer changes permissions for the Microsoft Office install and the Automator Library folder to user 502, or the second account created on a given Mac. It’s not a huge problem, because there is no threat if you only have one user, and if you have more than one user, all that they can do is mess with your Office install. They cannot really do anything malicious to your Mac.

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Microsoft employee Jeff Jones has released his findings from a comparison of Vista, XP, OS X Tiger, and RedHat Linux.

“Windows Vista One Year Vulnerability Report” by “Jeffrey R Jones, Security Guy (and Microsoft Director)” already has an inconclusive feel about it as soon as that title page is splashed up. But let’s give it a chance.

Before the report starts, we are met with an Executive Summary, telling me first that “This paper analyzes the vulnerability disclosures and security updates for the first year of Windows Vista and looks at it in the context of its predecessor, Windows XP, along with other modern workstation operating systems Red Hat, Ubuntu and Apple products.”

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TransGaming has just announced a new GameTap player for the Mac (the PC version has also been updated) that expands the GameTap experience for Macs and PCs. Launching games is now far faster than before, and searching and discovering new games is far easier than ever before. There are some new community features too, like the Buddy Hub, which lets you find, play games with and talk to friends online.

“The Mac is enjoying faster growth than any other computing system and the launch of the new GameTap player enriches the Mac experience even further for that large audience,” said Vikas Gupta, CEO and president of TransGaming. “TransGaming and GameTap are committed to bringing the greatest games to the Mac, which has already included Myst Online: Uru Live, and we are pleased to continue this partnership that enhances the Mac gaming landscape.”

There is one issue with the Mac player I can see right now. The fact that, at least under free games, only very few games are Mac-compatible. Most are Windows-only. But, at least this is a step in the right direction for the Mac - we are finally starting to see the major gaming companies give in to the ever-expanding platform.

Via [MacNN]

The Mac games are just rolling in this week. Freeverse, the company that brought you Big Bang Games, has just released a new game for the Mac platform: Hordes of Orcs.

“Hordes of Orcs is a “Tower Defense” game in which you must build walls and lethal towers to defend your village from the Orcs emerging from, what the village elders call, “The Glowing Portal of Really Bad Things That We Should Have Bricked-Up a Long Time Ago.” Sadly, the Portal is un-bricked and the Orcs are very, very hungry. If 20 Orcs make it to your village, you’re toast.”

The graphics aren’t bad for a strategy game like this. It’s obviously no Halo 3, but this is a completely different type of game. For the price, it looks pretty impressive. You can even download the game (no disc required) for just $24.95. Or you can download a full demo of the game from Freeverse’s website. The system requirements are 1.83GHz or faster Intel or PowerPC, Intel GMA950 or better video, 384MB RAM and 35MB disk space. It’s made in Universal binary - so both Intel and PowerPC users can play it smoothly. Freeverse have also said that a Windows version will be available soon. How odd - a Mac game before Windows.

Via [Macworld]