Fresh Apple: The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (10 сообщений)

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The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
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Aperture 2.1 adds Plugin architecture
Filed under: Software, Apple
Today Apple has released an update to their photo workflow app, Aperture. Aperture 2.1, a free update for all Aperture 2.0 users, adds a new, and open, plugin architecture to Aperture. This means it will now be much easier for developers to extend Aperture's builtin capabilities by writing little bits of codes that plug into the Aperture frameworks (hence the name).

Apple is already working with some developers, and is including a dodge and burn plugin of their own with Aperture 2.1. Aperture 2.1 is available now, and if you don't already have Aperture it will cost you $199 (or $99 to upgrade from Aperture 1.0).
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Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me buy a Mac Pro
Filed under: Education, Mac Pro

It's not often that we get to do an advice column here, but let's see how this goes. An email arrived at the office just the other day...

Dear Aunt TUAW,
I work in the engineering college of a large private university, where I manage 6 Mac-based labs. I just tried to order myself a brand new Mac Pro to replacing my aging PowerMac G5 and was told by my dean that the college would no longer be buying Macs because they had absolutely no place in the engineering industry. He said that from this point forward, the college "would only be buying Windows computers, period!"

I know that he is wrong and that there are engineers that use Macs professionally and I can give a few examples to support that. If I am going to win this argument I'm going to need a lot of proof.
Signed,

Mac-lorn Admin

Dear Mac-lorn Admin,

Darling, didn't you realize the Mac Pro is a Windows machine, and a darned speedy one? Last time I checked, Boot Camp + Mac Pro = a Windows dream! The adult in us loves the reliability and UNIX backbone, but the kid in us loves the GUI and tasty frosting! Having a single machine that can do double or triple duty with Mac apps, BSD/Linux engineering power and Windows compatibility would be the envy of any right-minded academician.

Still, we know that logic isn't going to sway that mean ole dean of yours. TUAW readers, can you help Mac-lorn? Leave us your testimonials about using Macs in your professional lives -- particularly in engineering or in higher ed -- in the comments.

Love,

Auntie T.
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MacBook Air knocked out quickly in CanSecWest contest
Filed under: Security
Once the second-day rules went into effect for the PWN2OWN competition, allowing browser or email exploits to be used, it didn't take more than a few minutes for Charlie Miller, Jake Honoroff and Mark Daniel from ISE to get their 0day vulnerability to work on the target MacBook Air; they walk away with the laptop and the $10,000 prize.

Since the rules of the contest ensure that the vulnerabilities are immediately turned over to the Zero Day Initiative and the vendors are notified, this hole (presumably in Safari, although possibly in QuickTime or Java as last year's was) should be patched in due course, and users are no more or less secure today than they were yesterday. It is a little troubling, however, that the other two laptops (Vista and Ubuntu) are still standing.

[via Engadget]
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TUAW visit forces Freeverse to pack up, move to Brooklyn
No one escapes the TUAW visitation. Our methods are fear, surprise, and a fanatical devotion to the Apple! Under the best of circumstances, management can use our Reaper-like presence to convince everyone they need to get the hell out of Manhattan. In the case of Freeverse Software, the Exodus moment arrived. The entire crew has packed up their East Side offices and headed over to Brooklyn's fashionable DUMBO district.

We wish the Freeverse crew well in the new office -- with luck, those line extensions (like Airburst and Marathon:Durandal for XBox 360), iPhone games, new apps built on legendary engines, and killer vector graphics tools will keep on pumping out of the shop once the river has been crossed. We are particularly eager for an iPhone version of Jared.

A couple of months back, president Ian Lynch Smith and marketing director Brian Akaka were kind enough to show us around the old shop and let us take a few pictures for posterity before the move (gallery below). If you have questions about any of the mystery objects in the pictures, let us know and Brian can clear up any confusion. As for other independent Mac software developers? If you're in NYC, Denver, Philadephia, Chicago, Atlanta, LA, Knoxville or the UK, let us know when we can visit. We promise not to poke you with a soft cushion.

Gallery: Farewell old Freeverse offices
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New Jersey Apple Store ready to open
Filed under: Retail
Doesn't "Cherry Hill" sound lovely? It will sound even sweeter for Cherry Hill, New Jersey-based Apple fans this weekend when a new Apple Store opens on Route 38, next to A|X Armani Exchange and Mo.Ao.C Cosmetics (that's right, a Mac store next to a MAC store). The doors will open at 10:00 AM on Saturday, March 29th. You can get full travel directions here. This will be The Garden State's 10th Apple Store.

Residents of Philadelphia will also benefit, as this store is about 5 miles away from town (for some reason, Philly itself still lacks an Apple Store).

As usual, we ask any TUAW readers who visit the store to share their stories and/or pictures.

Thanks, Rico!
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Plan for financial success: 1. Steal iPhones, 2. ???, 3. Profit!
Filed under: Retail, iPhone

What do you get when you combine 332 iPhones and 2 crooked Apple employees? Felony theft charges, apparently, after a luckless pair of underhanded but enterprising Apple Store workers decided to set up their own iPhone shop using purloined stock from Uncle Steve. Now one is in the slammer, and the other is facing extradition to New Hampshire (from Massachussetts, not from the French Riviera -- too bad for him). This all goes to show, crime does not pay -- especially when you get caught with $132,000 of hot iPhones.

There is no official word as to what color t-shirts the thieves wore in their day-to-day work, or whether either of them could be reasonably classified as Apple Geniuses.

[Via Ars]
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Leopard smites Vista in corporate satisfaction
Filed under: Enterprise, Leopard
ComputerWorld posts that ChangeWave Research has studied satisfaction levels for corporate users of Leopard and Windows Vista. As you might expect, the Leopard users are altogether more satisfied than Vista users -- up to 5 times more likely to report that they're "very satisfied" with their operating system -- but you might not have known the following:
- Leopard reinforces tooth enamel and ensures brighter, happier smiles.
- Leopard users are more likely to find attractive mates.
- Vista users are subject to early hair loss.
- Leopard helps eliminate embarrassing halitosis.
- Vista users are five times likelier to be audited by the IRS.
- Leopard washes your windows and leaves lemon-scented stacks of pre-folded laundry around your house.
Okay, well maybe not. Consult the ComputerWorld article for the (far less amusing) statistical results. One worthwhile number to note: while 7% of respondents said they'd be buying Apple laptops in the next 90 days, a hold-steady from the previous survey, the likelihood of most other laptop purchases went down since the last time they asked. A MacBook Air effect?
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iPhone SDK beta 2 now hitting the streets
Filed under: Developer, iPhone
After a brief false alarm earlier today, it looks like beta 2 of Xcode 3.1 (including the iPhone-ready version of Interface Builder) is actually released. A word of warning: Apple's servers are getting hammered right now, and it may pay to wait a while before downloading the 2.1 GB package.

While you wait, you can peruse the release notes for Xcode and for Interface Builder. Never hurts to read the documentation. Have a good weekend, all you iPhone coders!

P.S. One of our loyal tipsters, PJ, noted that he sent us an email about 36 hours ago with his surmise (based on a link he saw, behind the Apple developer site login wall, to a Beta 1 -> Beta 2 diffs manifest) that the revised iPhone SDK might be imminent. PJ, for the record, you guessed right.

Thanks Nik + PJ
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CanSecWest offers another Mac hacking challenge
Filed under: Security
If you fondly remember last year's CanSecWest hacking challenge -- won by researcher Dino Dai Zovi with a Java/QuickTime exploit that allowed him to take over the target MacBook Pro, thereby claiming it as his own -- you'll want to keep your ears open for results of the current challenge, now underway for the 2nd day in Vancouver. This year's PWN2OWN competition extends the target space to three road warrior laptops: a MacBook Air, a Sony VAIO running Ubuntu and a Fujitsu machine running Vista.

No winners were declared on the first day; that's no surprise to contest organizers, as the initial set of rules were the most restrictive. Today the ruleset allows for browser and other built-in application exploits by visiting a malicious URL, so it could get more exciting in a hurry.

Update: The MacBook Air has been claimed, per Macworld.

[via Macworld]
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Webkit gets a perfect 100 on Acid3
Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, Open Source

In the rather rarefied atmosphere of web standards compliance, the Acid3 suite of browser tests is like a pro wrestler's chair to the back of the head: if you can take it and keep standing, that's very impressive. The Acid3 suite, first released at the beginning of this month, pushes browsers to the very edges of their rendering, SVG, CSS and DOM scripting capabilities -- all necessary for a consistent and interoperable Web 2.0 experience.

As with the earlier Acid2 test, there's been a bit of a horserace among browser development teams to be the first to the finish line with Acid3, including the WebKit squad responsible for Safari's underlying engine; Acid3 dev Ian Hickson gives major props to Apple and the WebKit devs on his blog, including efforts to clear bugs in the test suite itself (he had to work quite hard to find standards compliance issues in WebKit). On Wednesday evening, both the Opera and WebKit teams declared a 100% score -- not a full pass, as there are minor issues to clean up, but nevertheless the test looks like it should. With the Mac nightly build of WebKit available for download, you too can feel the power of this fully operational web standards battle station.

[A quick clarification: While both Opera and WebKit have claimed 100% on Acid3, only one of the browsers -- WebKit -- has a publicly downloadable version right now that can make that score. Opera's build won't be released for another week or so.]

Thanks Adam
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