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- Snow Leopard Features Suggest It's a Touchscreen OS
If you’ve got one of Axiotron’s awesome Modbooks, and you’re running Snow Leopard, you may have already stumbled across a few features that make your Mac so much easier to use. It’s unlikely Apple had Axiotron in mind when it included these features, though, so what’s the real story here?
Cult of Mac believes the features confirm Apple’s intent to release an OS X-based tablet device sometime in the near future (or, near enough that Snow Leopard will still be relevant, at least). And when you consider the signs, its hard to believe that isn’t what the company is planning.
First, there’s Exposé in the Dock. The Dock itself is already built for fingertip usage, and to have it included in Exposé is just icing on the cake. Stacks Grid view, with its nice, large, oh-so-pressable icons, which now also includes scrolling and subfolder navigation, is a definite touchscreen plus. Also, being able to adjust icon size using a slider right at the bottom of every Finder window is a great accessibility option, but even more so if you consider the possibility of wanting to make those icons even more fingertip friendly.
Finally, Cult of Mac points out the feather in the cap of the touchscreen argument — a built-in, scalable on-screen virtual keyboard. As someone who uses a Wacom Cintiq 12WX regularly with my Mac, and sometimes without the aid of keyboard or mouse, I’ve long used OS X’s Keyboard Viewer (available as an option in the Input Menu) to hunt and peck type with my stylus. That feature gets a much needed upgrade in Snow Leopard, since it becomes fully resizable. In fact, Keyboard Viewer is now capable of displaying keys larger than the MacBook Pro’s hardware keyboard.
In Snow Leopard, Keyboard and Character Viewer have both been moved from the International preferences pane to the Keyboard menu, which makes a lot more sense in general, but especially if you consider the Keyboard Viewer an input tool and not just a keypress indicator for screencasts, as the old, less functional version seemed to be.
The lack of officially supported hardware will make it hard to dig much deeper into Snow Leopard’s touchscreen secrets. For all we know, it could support multitouch gestures similar to those usable with the trackpad right now, out of the box. People with Modbooks might be able to uncover some other touch-friendly refinements, and I know I’ll be poking around with my Wacom stylus to see what else I can find, but only Apple knows the true extent of Snow Leopard’s touchscreen prowess.
Переслать - Snow Leopard Malware Targets Apple Users
Not that any TheAppleBlog readers would ever try to acquire software in a less-than-legal manner, but just in case you know someone who would, tell them to watch out for web sites claiming to bear Snow Leopard gifts.
Like the Adobe Photoshop CS4 and iWork ‘09 before it, Snow Leopard now has a super-special malware edition floating around the web. It’s a classic software honeypot scheme: You find a site advertising a free Snow Leopard upgrade, download a disk image file (.DMG), and it unleashes its trojan payload.
Trend Micro is advising folks to avoid any and all sites advertising free Snow Leopard upgrades, since what you actually get is a new variant of the DNS charger trojan known as OSX_JAHLAV.K. The Apple-specific malware, once it makes itself at home on your computer, will redirect your Internet browser to phishing sites and malware-infected web sites. OSX_JAHLAV.K has a particularly nasty trick up its sleeve — it sends you to a site that advertises fake antivirus software that will notify you that you have an infection until you pay to register and have it removed.
Trend Micro’s advice is to pick up its Smart Surfing for Mac malicious URL-blocking software, which will cost you $50 a year in subscription fees. My advice is to think long and hard about how much you’re willing to pay down the road just to avoid spending $29 upfront for the 10.6 upgrade.
No doubt this will give antivirus companies cause to raise the red flags once more, and spout on about how the end is nigh for the days of OS X being the secure choice, but as before, smart browsing and downloading policies are still your best bet for a happy, safe Mac.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user Darcy McCarty.
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Переслать - Apple Confirms Press Event for September 9
September 9 is indeed the day for the next official Apple press event, according to Apple itself via press invitations that were sent out today. The event will take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, CA at 10AM Pacific. That’s 1PM Eastern for those of us over here on the other coast. Other time zones will have to do their own fancy math adjustment.
The tagline for the event is “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it,” and the image being circulated with the invitation features a traditional dancing silhouette with white iPod and headphones. All of which makes it seem very likely that people expecting a tablet announcement will be somewhat disappointed, but that those looking forward to new iPod models will probably have something to celebrate.
The title is a riff on British rockers The Rolling Stones’ track “It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It).” There has been speculation that fellow British rock sensation The Beatles would finally be coming to the iTunes Store at this event, since it’s the same day Beatles Rock Band ships, but so far that remains up in the air.
Another possible reason for the September 9 date, which falls on a Wednesday instead of following the traditional Apple-event Tuesday pattern, is iTunes 9. Recently, there have been many rumors surrounding the next major point upgrade of Apple’s music and media management software, so expect to see it arrive next Wednesday, complete with added social networking capabilities and possibly additional features that take advantage of new iPod hardware improvements.
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