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TheAppleBlog, published by and for the day-to-day Apple user, is a prominent source for news, reviews, walkthroughs, and real life application of all Apple products.
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Name That Cat: What Breed Should OS 10.7 Be?

OS X Liger?

Now that Snow Leopard is on the prowl, thoughts turn to what Mac OS 10.7 might be called.

When it was announced that Mac OS 10.6 would be christened “Snow Leopard,” there was some speculation that Apple was running out of big cat names for its OS X versions. OS X 10.1 was Puma, 10.2 Jaguar, 10.3 Panther, 10.4 Tiger, 10.5 Leopard, and 10.6 is Snow Leopard.

More likely is that Apple wanted to emphasize that 10.6 would not be a major new features upgrade (hence the relatively modest price of $29.95), but rather pretty much a code-slimming and streamlining revision of OS 10.5 Leopard, with Power PC support excised. That would make a name somewhat similar to OS 10.5 logical (although the Snow Leopard is actually a completely different species from Leopard).

There’s no danger of Apple running out of cat names anytime soon. According to one wild cat species resource site, there are 36 distinct species of non-domestic cats, although some are concededly so obscure that they wouldn’t be suitable for an operating system moniker (Jaguarundi, anyone?).

One cat name I like is Cougar, although an objection might be that it’s a synonym for Puma, which has already been used for OS 10.1, but then so is Panther in its North American context. The largest wild cat species on this continent is variously known as Cougar, Puma, Mountain Lion, Panther, Painter, and Catamount plus reportedly several dozen other less-widely used names that have been recorded across North and South America.

If Apple wanted a particularly exotic variant, they might consider Eastern Cougar, referencing cats some contend still range in small numbers east of the Mississippi River in the U.S., and Canada — an assertion that remains to be scientifically verified.

Perhaps the most likely not-yet-used for an OS X version would be Cheetah, with the positive association of being the fastest animal on the planet. Running flat out, the fastest horses might hit about 43 miles per hour, while a cheetah can touch 70 MPH in short bursts. Earlier this month a cheetah named Sarah, whose home is the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, broke the world cheetah speed record in the 100-meter dash , covering the distance in 6.16 seconds — .06 seconds off the previous record set in 2001 by a cheetah living in South Africa.

Other Mac OS name candidates would be Ocelot, a primarily South and Central American cat that also ranges into Mexico and as far north as Texas, and the medium-sized North American Lynx and Bobcat. There’s Wildcat too, a name used by Grumman for a World War II vintage naval fighter aircraft, and of course “the king of beasts” — Lion, which for some reason hasn’t been used on an OS X version yet.

Still plenty of cat names to chose from. What’s your preference for OS 10.7?

Photo courtesy of allwest44.

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Retro Gaming Roundup: 40 iPhone Games to Take You Back in Time

There are few iPhone games that I will immediately buy. Most of the ones I do, however, are the classic games I played as a teenager.

The iPhone/iPod touch is more than powerful enough to handle these games and it seems that there are many people like me who are keen to experience these classics again. So, here’s a roundup of modern ports of classic games. Only official ports of classic games are detailed here — clones and the like do exist but I had to draw a line in the sand. I’ve also included links to Wikipedia for those interested in the history of the games.

Classic Arcaders

The Video Arcade is where mainstream gaming began, and there are plenty of original ports from this era to re-live your youth shoving coins into cabinets. I’d still like to see BubbleBobble make an appearance here to completely satisfy my urges.

Space Invaders

Release Year: 1978
Original Platform: Arcade
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Super Breakout

Release Year: 1978
Original Platform: Arcade
Price: $1.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Centipede

Release Year: 1980
Original Platform: Arcade
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Missile Command

Release Year: 1980
Original Platform: Arcade
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

PAC-MAN

Release Year: 1980
Original Platform: Arcade
Price: $5.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Ms. PAC-MAN

Release Year: 1981
Original Platform: Arcade
Price: $5.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Galaga

Release Year: 1981
Original Platform: Arcade
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Frogger

Release Year: 1981
Original Platform: Arcade
Price: $1.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Dig Dug

Release Year: 1982
Original Platform: Arcade
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Pole Position

Release Year: 1982
Original Platform: Arcade
Price: $2.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Q*Bert

Release Year: 1982
Original Platform: Arcade
Price: $1.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Space Ace

Release Year: 1984
Original Platform: Arcade
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Time Crisis

Release Year: 1995
Original Platform: Arcade
Price: $5.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Alpine Racer

Release Year: 1995
Original Platform: Arcade
Price: $1.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Adventures

The classic point and click adventure games let you guide your character around a scene, interacting with computer characters and objects by either entering text or clicking on action words. Sierra and Lucas Arts were the kings of this genre until the 3D graphics revolution when they seemed to die out. Myst took a different take on the genre while InfoGames was one of the original companies where text adventures all started (Frotz is an open source interpretor of text adventure games and includes the M.I.T version of Zork).

Zork (available in Frotz)

Release Year: 1977
Original Platform: DEC PDP-10
Price: Free
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Mystery House

Release Year: 1980
Original Platform: Apple II
Price: $5.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Secret of Monkey Island

Release Year: 1990
Original Platform: Atari ST, Macintosh and PC
Price: $7.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Simon The Sorcerer

Release Year: 1993
Original Platform: PC
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Myst

Release Year: 1993
Original Platform: Mac
Price: $5.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Flight of the Amazon Queen

Release Year: 1995
Original Platform: Amiga, PC
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Shooters

The memories of borrowing my school’s greyscale brief-case sized 386 for the weekend to play the shareware version of Wolfenstein 3D are still with me. It started a new era of gaming can now be fondly relived on the iPhone. Duke Nukem 3D is another old favorite, athough ID was clearly the leader.

Wolf 3D

Release Year: 1992
Original Platform: PC
Price: $1.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Duke Nukem 3D

Release Year: 1996
Original Platform: PC
Price: $2.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Platformers

While the original jump’n'run platformer Super Mario Bros isn’t available (yet?), Sega’s main competition Sonic The Hedgehog is, as well as other classic variations of platform games (including hack’n’slash platformers like Golden Axe).

Golden Axe

Release Year: 1989
Original Platform: Arcade Consoles (Sega System 16)
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Rick Dangerous

Release Year: 1989
Original Platforms: Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, DOS
Price: $1.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Sonic the Hedgehog

Release Year: 1991
Original Platform: Sega Mega Drive / Genesis
Price: $5.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Streets of Rage

Release Year: 1991
Original Platform: Sega MegaDrive / Genesis
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Flashback

Release Year: 1992
Original Platform: Amiga
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Super Methane Bros

Release Year: 1993
Original Platform: Amiga
Price: $0.99
Links: Webpage, iTunes

Strategy / Simulation

Sim City and Civilisation are two of the most well known and loved strategy simulation games and of course they make a showing in this list. Personally I’d love to see the old Bullfrog Amiga classics PowerMonger and Populous appear on the App Store too.

Archon

Release Year: 1983
Original Platform: Atari
Price: $2.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Sim City

Release Year: 1988
Original Platforms: Amiga, Mac
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Civilization

Release Year: 1991
Original Platform: PC
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Puzzlers and Others

From the original puzzle game Tetris, to early classics like Bomberman.

Rogue

Release Year: Early 1980s
Original Platform: UNIX
Price: Free
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Bomberman

Release Year: 1983
Original Platform: MSX, NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-6001, Sharp MZ-700, FM-7, ZX Spectrum
Price: $7.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Tetris

Release Year: 1984
Original Platform: PC
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Boulderdash

Release Year: 1984
Original Platform: Atari 400/800, Apple II, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, ColecoVision
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Crystal Quest

Release Year: 1987
Original Platform: Apple Mac
Price: $0.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Pinball Dreams

Release Year: 1992
Original Platform: Amiga
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Pinball Fantasies

Release Year: 1992
Original Platform: Amiga
Price: $6.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Worms

Release Year: 1994
Original Platform: Amiga
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

Vay

Release Year: 1994
Original Platform: Sega CD
Price: $4.99
Links: Wikipedia, Webpage, iTunes

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Rumor Has It: New iMacs and MacBooks Coming Just in Time for Windows 7

Apple beat Microsoft to market in terms of new operating systems (although “new” doesn’t really apply in the case of either 10.6 or Windows 7), but that means Microsoft will have the spotlight uncontested when it launches Windows 7 on Oct. 22. That’s why one research firm, Wedge Partners, is predicting new MacBook and iMac hardware in the coming weeks.

A significant hardware upgrade on Apple’s core lineup of iMac desktops and the lone MacBook notebook would indeed go a long way towards stealing the wind from Microsoft’s sails. Especially if it prices the new models lower, as the same research firm suggests it may.

Normally, I don’t have much patience for the ramblings of those soothsayers in the so-called “analyst” line of work, but this report struck a chord with something I heard earlier in the month, which alone wasn’t substantial enough to write up. A source who works for Apple told me at the beginning of September that new iMacs were definitely on the horizon, and that retail management was being prepared for a major launch of the updated computers.

No mention was made of the MacBook, but it, like the iMacs, are definitely due for a refresh, and, as Wedge Partners predicts, a visual design change as well. The aluminum and glass iMac design has been in play since August of 2007, and the white plastic MacBook case goes back to May 2006. The specific design predictions made by Wedge partners stand little chance of being accurate, but a new look would definitely be in order. Expect Apple to leverage its unibody construction method for both, since it represents significant investment on its part.

The iMac is also well behind its PC counterparts in terms of internal specs, so the prediction that it could see the introduction of Core i5 or i7 processors is probably not too far off base. We may also see Apple’s first move away from NVIDIA’s GeForce 9400M as the fallout from GPU-gate continues. Expect any internal hardware changes to specifically compliment user experience with the new Snow Leopard operating system.

While some point to the significance of the recent iPod event as evidence that Apple would not make another major announcement so closely on its heels, it was only last year that Apple’s “Let’s Rock” iPod and music special event in September was followed immediately in October with its major notebook event, at which it introduced the new unibody MacBook and MacBook Pro design. Clearly, it’s historically possible, and Apple has seen the financial sense it makes in the sales numbers it recorded last holiday season.

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iTunes UI: Deconstructing 8 to 9

The one thing many people did not expect with a new version of iTunes was that Apple would use the opportunity to cause dissent among its fanbase by introducing another new user interface. Some classify the new styling as “needed” and “elegant and refined” while others have resorted to a variety of hacks to return to the UI of yesteryear.

We’ve gone through every corner of iTunes we could find and dug up all of the major changes in the interface. Here’s what we found.

Welcome to iTunes 9

The first thing many noticed is that iTunes 9 now launches with a Welcome to iTunes screen, offering quick links to videos showcasing some of iTunes features. Similar to apps like iPhoto and iWeb, users can disable this by ticking a checkbox.

iTunes Preferences

iTunes Preferences also featured a few notable changes, specifically adding support for grouping iTunes U content.

iTunes 9 General Preferences

iTunes 8 General Preferences

Parental Control also received a new icon (matching the icon in Snow Leopard) as well as some slight rewording.

iTunes 9 Parental Controls

iTunes 8 Parental Controls

Removed from iTunes 9 are references in the Store section to “adding to shopping cart” versus buying with Amazon’s licensed 1-Click technology. Added is an option to use the full window when browsing the iTunes Store.

iTunes 9 Store Preferences

iTunes 8 Store Preferences

Browsing Content

Browsing content within iTunes has also received a refresh. While browsing music in List Mode, the artists have been grouped along the left, making it easier to narrow down your selection rather quickly.

iTunes 9 Music List Mode

When browsing in Grid View, the first thing you will notice is that the dark black background is gone and now albums are scattered amongst an off white background. Badged content, such as Podcasts, TV Shows, iTunes U and Movies feature blue badges instead of the original red. Gone from this view are the tabs to sort content within an area (such as Music) by Albums, Artists, Genres and Composers. This can be re-enabled via the View menu.

ITunes 9 Podcasts

Cover Flow view is pretty much the same, with the refining of the “full screen” icon.

iTunes 9 CoverFlow

The iTunes 9 Equalizer also received a refresh, styling the control knobs with blue accents.

iTunes 9 Equalizer

iTunes 8 Equalizer

Icons & Buttons

Buttons and displays in iTunes 9 have been overhauled to give them a more glossy, shiny three dimensional look. The toolbar has also been realigned, removing the ‘View’ label and moving the ‘Search’ label instead the Search field. The information area has also been updated, providing more useful information during syncing and downloading of content from the iTunes Store (such as time remaining).

iTunes 9 also brings about many refreshed icons, including many of the icons in the sidebar. Specifically, playlist icons have gotten the most attention, while TVs, Movies, Audiobooks, and Applications have seen slight refreshes as well.

Syncing

Syncing is by far the area that received the most attention in this revision. Specifically, users now have the ability to sync content more selectively. When choosing a TV show, for instance, they can sync specific seasons or specific episodes. When syncing a podcast, they can choose to sync specific episodes. When syncing photos, users can take advantage of the iPhoto ‘09 Faces and Places aspect to sync photos of particular people or a particular place. Many of these areas also provide a search field, making it easier to quickly narrow down and select the specific content you’re looking for.

Syncing TV Shows

Syncing Ringtones

Syncing iTunes U

Syncing Music

Syncing Photos

The biggest feature in the redesigned sync options is the ability to organize your iPhone and iPod touch apps directly within iTunes. Check the ones you wish to add, highlight to select them and drag them to whichever home screen you desire. Selecting multiple apps is a cinch and moving them between home screens is equally easy.

Syncing Apps

Everything Else

Upon a user’s first visit to a section, such as creating a new Playlist, or visiting the Podcast area, they are greeted with a new UI that discusses how that particular concept works.

iTunes 9 New Playlist

While this overview is fairly exhaustive, there are likely many other features that users will continue to discover. If there’s one we’ve missed, please use the comments to let us know!

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