Thursday, April 16, 2009

Apple Seeds OS X 10.5.7 Build 9J50 to Developers, Public Release Imminent?

Apple Seeds OS X 10.5.7 Build 9J50 to Developers, Public Release Imminent?
Just four days after the last developer seed, Apple has released yet another version of OS X 10.5.7 to developers. The new seed, designated Build 9J50, contains only a single documented fix related to Bluetooth networking. World of Apple republishe...

Ask TUAW: Online file syncing, CD ripping, Time Machine to NAS, and more

Filed under: , ,

This time around in Ask TUAW we've got questions about online file syncing services, installing a faster drive for CD ripping, using a FreeNAS box for Time Machine backup, Twitter clients and more.

As always, your suggestions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!

Continue reading Ask TUAW: Online file syncing, CD ripping, Time Machine to NAS, and more

TUAWAsk TUAW: Online file syncing, CD ripping, Time Machine to NAS, and more originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Microsoft Office rolls up to 12.1.7, trial edition downloadable

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There's an update in town, and it's all about locking it down: the 12.1.7 update to Microsoft Office 2008 (available within the suite via the software update tool, or downloadable from Microsoft) closes two security holes present in multiple versions of Microsoft Excel and first acknowledged by the company in February. These vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to create a specially-configured Excel file that, when opened, would allow full control of the target machine.

The update package also bundles up all the previous patches to Office 2008, which lends it heft (it weighs in at over 150 MB) but simplifies matters if you're a few revs behind. Note that there is no 12.1.6 update in the sequence; the previous patch level was 12.1.5.

If you haven't made the leap to Office 2008 yet (perhaps you're on a PPC Mac; perhaps you feel that you get better interoperability with Office 2003 users on Windows; perhaps you have to have Visual Basic support for macros), Microsoft is giving you the chance to consider moving up with a full-featured 30-day demo of Office 2008, now available for download in the USA. The package includes all the Office apps and can be upgraded to a paid license in the field without purchasing a boxed copy and reinstalling. Upgrades from previous editions of Office start at $240... of course, there are some less expensive alternatives out there.

[h/t Ars Technica]

TUAWMicrosoft Office rolls up to 12.1.7, trial edition downloadable originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Apple's share of U.S. PC market slips to 7.4% as sales decline
Apple's share of the U.S. computer market fell to 7.4 percent during the first calendar quarter of 2009 from 8.0 percent during the fourth quarter of 2008, market research firm Gartner said Wendesday.


Towards Greener Graphic Cards!?

While CPU manufacturers have already started defining power consumption and performance per watt as the new reference standards for comparing/developing new CPU models; so far, graphic cards manufacturers did not really feel concern about such parameters and every new GPUs were racing towards the same goal: be the fastest irrespective to the power consumption.
Things might change in a near future, if one considers the screen capture related to the future presentation of the forthcoming AMD/ATI Radeon HD4770.

AMD/ATI have used performance per watt as one of the marketing parameters. They compare the forthcoming entry level model Radeon HD 4770 with the aging NVidia GeForce 9800 GT. According to their figures, the Radeon is almost 3 fold faster per watt. AMD takes advantage of an exclusive 40 nm engraving process, even thinner than the one currently used by Intel. 
AMD most likely decided to apply this new engraving process to entry-level GPU as their architecture is usually not as complex as the high-end models. However, AMD will most likely transfer it to all other models, and the benefit of thin engraving could rather be used for high-end GPU to push core frequency higher, while controlling heat release. In other words, power consumption might not be the future marketing parameter of 40 nm engraved future flagship GPU from AMD. Especially, if one considers the growing importance of GPGPU, synonym of growing needs for raw power. This could be associated to greener behavior if the power management of the GPU is really improved to switch off unused cores as today in CPUs.



Apple Seeds OS X 10.5.7 Build 9J50 to Developers, Public Release Imminent?
Just four days after the last developer seed, Apple has released yet another version of OS X 10.5.7 to developers. The new seed, designated Build 9J50, contains only a single documented fix related to Bluetooth networking. World of Apple republishe...

Ask TUAW: Online file syncing, CD ripping, Time Machine to NAS, and more

Filed under: , ,

This time around in Ask TUAW we've got questions about online file syncing services, installing a faster drive for CD ripping, using a FreeNAS box for Time Machine backup, Twitter clients and more.

As always, your suggestions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!

Continue reading Ask TUAW: Online file syncing, CD ripping, Time Machine to NAS, and more

TUAWAsk TUAW: Online file syncing, CD ripping, Time Machine to NAS, and more originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Microsoft Office rolls up to 12.1.7, trial edition downloadable

Filed under:

There's an update in town, and it's all about locking it down: the 12.1.7 update to Microsoft Office 2008 (available within the suite via the software update tool, or downloadable from Microsoft) closes two security holes present in multiple versions of Microsoft Excel and first acknowledged by the company in February. These vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to create a specially-configured Excel file that, when opened, would allow full control of the target machine.

The update package also bundles up all the previous patches to Office 2008, which lends it heft (it weighs in at over 150 MB) but simplifies matters if you're a few revs behind. Note that there is no 12.1.6 update in the sequence; the previous patch level was 12.1.5.

If you haven't made the leap to Office 2008 yet (perhaps you're on a PPC Mac; perhaps you feel that you get better interoperability with Office 2003 users on Windows; perhaps you have to have Visual Basic support for macros), Microsoft is giving you the chance to consider moving up with a full-featured 30-day demo of Office 2008, now available for download in the USA. The package includes all the Office apps and can be upgraded to a paid license in the field without purchasing a boxed copy and reinstalling. Upgrades from previous editions of Office start at $240... of course, there are some less expensive alternatives out there.

[h/t Ars Technica]

TUAWMicrosoft Office rolls up to 12.1.7, trial edition downloadable originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Apple's share of U.S. PC market slips to 7.4% as sales decline
Apple's share of the U.S. computer market fell to 7.4 percent during the first calendar quarter of 2009 from 8.0 percent during the fourth quarter of 2008, market research firm Gartner said Wendesday.


Towards Greener Graphic Cards!?

While CPU manufacturers have already started defining power consumption and performance per watt as the new reference standards for comparing/developing new CPU models; so far, graphic cards manufacturers did not really feel concern about such parameters and every new GPUs were racing towards the same goal: be the fastest irrespective to the power consumption.
Things might change in a near future, if one considers the screen capture related to the future presentation of the forthcoming AMD/ATI Radeon HD4770.

AMD/ATI have used performance per watt as one of the marketing parameters. They compare the forthcoming entry level model Radeon HD 4770 with the aging NVidia GeForce 9800 GT. According to their figures, the Radeon is almost 3 fold faster per watt. AMD takes advantage of an exclusive 40 nm engraving process, even thinner than the one currently used by Intel. 
AMD most likely decided to apply this new engraving process to entry-level GPU as their architecture is usually not as complex as the high-end models. However, AMD will most likely transfer it to all other models, and the benefit of thin engraving could rather be used for high-end GPU to push core frequency higher, while controlling heat release. In other words, power consumption might not be the future marketing parameter of 40 nm engraved future flagship GPU from AMD. Especially, if one considers the growing importance of GPGPU, synonym of growing needs for raw power. This could be associated to greener behavior if the power management of the GPU is really improved to switch off unused cores as today in CPUs.


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