Rumor: Snow Leopard to have "Marble" Interface?
Last year, Apple announced that they will be releasing the next major revision of Mac OS X (10.6 Snow Leopard) in 2009. The focus of Snow Leopard has been on performance and quality of the underlying codebase rather than introducing new end-user features.
Based on our sources, however, Apple will apparently use Snow Leopard’s release to tweak the overall user interface for Mac OS X and unify it across applications. Exact details of the theme changes have not been made public, as the current developer seeds for Snow Leopard still retain Apple’s existing Aqua theme. The new theme will likely involve tweaks to the existing design and perhaps a “flattening” of Aqua in-line with Apple’s iTunes and iPhoto interface elements.
The codename for the new interface is said to be “Marble” — though that seems likely to be an internal codename only. John Gruber had also hinted at such changes in a pre-Macworld prediction piece and had independently heard the codename “Marble”.
Apple’s Snow Leopard is rumored to be released as early as the first quarter of 2009.
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Leaked Snow Leopard image potentially indicates a 32 / 64-bit divide
Apple’s said it’s taking a break from adding flashy features to OS X to focus on the foundations and stability of the system with Snow Leopard, and this latest leaked screenshot might indicate that those foundations are moving to 64 bits — it shows System Preferences saying it needs to restart in 32-bit mode to open the Network panel. That’s certainly interesting, given the rumors that Apple’s dropping support for non-Intel machines and maybe even 32-bit Intel processors with this release, but it could also just mean that whoever took this screenshot doesn’t have a 64-bit-friendly version of that preference pane installed. (We’re guessing the latter, since there are a lot of 32-bit only Core Duo Intel Macs out there.) Restarting apps to change modes seems pretty clunky, though — shades of System 7 and the 32-bit Enabler, for the olds — so we’re hoping Apple’s got a more elegant solution in the works. Macworld’s just around the corner, we’re sure we’ll hear more from Steve Phil soon.
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boxee alpha opens up on Mac, Ubuntu January 8; Windows invites to follow
Six months and 150,000 signups later, boxee is preparing to move from alpha to beta status, ready to drop any unsent invites on all interested parties by the 25th ahead of the open alpha period starting January 8, 2009. While OS X / Apple TV / Ubuntu have been the required attire so far, Windows users won’t be out in the cold much longer, as CEO Avner Ronen revealed in comments on the boxee blog that the Windows alpha program will start “early 2009″ with thousands of invites sent out every week. That enough to pique your interest in this media streaming set-top box software? Read
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Mac OS X 10.5.6 now available via Software Update
Headline pretty much says it all, and it’s a big one. Tipping the scales at 377MB (or 190MB for some; see image after the break), the OS X 10.5.6 update is now available via Software Update. We’re sucking it down and will report back with any changes. We strongly encourage you to do the same (if you dare).
Update: Apple has posted the official changelog. Here are the highlights:
- Improves the reliability of AirPort connections, including improvements when roaming in large wireless networks with an Intel-based Mac.
- Improves reliability of Address Book syncing with iPhone and other devices and applications.
- Includes general improvements to gaming performance.
- Includes fixes for possible graphics distortion issues with certain ATI graphics cards.
- Contacts, calendars, and bookmarks on a Mac automatically sync within a minute of the change being made on the computer, another device, or the web at me.com.
- Improves Apple File Service performance, especially when using a home directory hosted on an AFP server.
- Improves reliability and performance for AT&T 3G cards.
- Improves printing for USB-based Brother and Canon printers.
- Fixes issues that could cause Time Machine to state the backup volume could not be found.
- Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.
- Adds a Trackpad System Preference pane for portable Macs.
- Personal Engadget favorite: Improves the performance and reliability of Chess.
- Nary a mention of Blu-ray. It’s still hurting, we guess.
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MSI releases Mac OS X Wi-Fi drivers for the Wind netbook
Seeing that the need for a warranty-voiding Wi-Fi module switch was the only thing keeping users from easily making convincing mini-MacBooks, MSI has semi-released OS X wireless drivers for the Wind.
After pelting MSI with unlikely requests for OS X driver support, a number of users on the MSIWind.net forums have received responses from the company, written in the “Dear Sir/Madam” parlance of a Nigerian scammer but nevertheless containing an early version of working Wi-Fi drivers for the Wind’s Realtek RTL8187SE Wi-Fi module. The driver doesn’t allow the card to be used like a regular Airport adapter, but according to users connects just fine through Realtek client software.
Forum-goers are floating copies on a couple of ephemeral hosting sites, so head over to the thread and give it a shot. [MSIWind Forums via GottaBeMobile]
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