Back in the day when Apple and Microsoft were bitter rivals where the desktop operating system was concerned, it was deemed sacrilegious to see Windows running on a Mac machine. In fact, at one point in time, when Windows could boot up officially on Apple machines, many people were still not used to the idea nor sight of it. Having said that, we are now well into the 21st century, and both companies have synergized rather well over the past few years. This time around, we have a Microsoft Surface Pro tablet that instead of running on Windows 8, it will have OS X as the operating system of choice.
After all, the hardware parts and components within the Surface Pro are compatible with some of the Apple devices out there, so it makes perfect sense for an enthusiast with too much time on his/her hands to come up with an OS X port that is accompanied by a bunch of minor tweaks. WiFi connectivity, however, does not seem to be working fine, and of course, this video could very well be an elaborate hoax – so we will just wait it out. What do you think?
Today an announcement has been made that the cider and apple-related food and goods store “The Apple Shop”, located in Norwich, England, will be changing its name after several years of calls by Apple computers users looking for technical support. And yes, today is indeed a slow news day, if you were wondering. The owner of this institution Geoff Fisher has spoken with the BBC saying that he’s making the name change after 20 years with the same name of his own accord – and he’s not mad about it. On the contrary, he’s actually been quite amused, for the most part.
The Apple Shop has had the same name and been in the same location for the past 20 years, but after an Apple computer store opened in Norfolk in 2009, calls began to flow in to the wrong location – the juice store. According to Fisher, he’d been receiving an average of 24 calls a week since the Apple computer store moved in nearby. While most of the situation has been entertaining, he said, some callers have been rude as well.
Fisher notes The Apple Shop was opened by his brother Stephen back a couple of decades ago soon after he’d first started up the Norfolk Cider Company in 1987. As his telephone “has a Norwich prefix”, as he explains, “people unawares ring up the Apple Shop.” He’s made it clear his fair share of times with a kind “I’m very sorry, I can’t help you, but please do come along and get com proper Norfolk cider to get over your sorrows.” This comment is met with either an understanding chortle or a bit of an angry hang-up.
With too many hang-ups on the line and a bit of time lost due to too many mistaken calls each and every week, Fisher has decided to change the name of the shop. The new name of the shop will be The Norfolk Cider Shop from Easter. Fisher has made it clear that Apple has not forced him to make the change – so no worries!
This week we’ve gotten our hands on the Microsoft Surface Pro for an extended review, and one of the first things to strike us was the idea that this device might be another competitor for the MacBook Air. With the Surface Pro running Windows 8 and the MacBook Air (the newest model, that is), running OS X, there’s some things that simply cannot be compared – some people simply prefer one over the other. When it comes down to the experience and one-on-one comparisons between these two devices, on the other hand, winning features shine through on both devices.
With the MacBook Air you’ve got an 11.6-inch display while the Surface Pro works with a 10.6-inch display – you could also get a 13-inch MacBook Air, mind you, but here we’ll compare the display that’s nearest the Surface Pro. The display on the Surface Pro works with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution while the MacBook Air’s native resolution is 1366 x 768 pixels. It’s also worth making the distinction between these two displays in the fact that the MacBook Air does not work touch.
Windows 8 is an operating system that makes full use of the 10-finger touchscreen display on the Surface Pro while the MacBook Air is a machine that relies on its touchpad to mouse around, select items, and make gestures. The Surface Pro works with a cover that doubles as a keyboard, too. And in that point is the biggest differentiation point between these two machines – one is a tablet, the other a notebook.
While the Macbook Air is a notebook computer that made and continues to make a point of its ultra-thin nature and how it can work as a full-function notebook computer with as tiny an amount of bulk as possible. You’ll see from the images above and below as well as the hands-on video we’ve got prepared that the MacBook Pro is a significant amount thinner than the Surface Pro – or so it might seem at first.
MacBook Air (11-inch) Thickness: 0.11-0.68 inches Width: 11.8 inches Height (front to back, while closed) : 7.56 inches Weight: 2.38 pounds
Both devices have the ability to store a massive amount of data, with the Surface Pro having two iterations, 64GB and 128GB. Those are the amount of internal storage the Surface Pro has in its two different iterations, each of them with their own cash cost – that’s also one of the only things that differentiates the different versions of the Surface Pro at this very moment. The MacBook Air comes int two different iterations (with several different modifications available therein), one of them 64GB, the other 128GB.
The power you’ll be able to work with in a MacBook Air is either an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processor. The Microsoft Surface Pro works with one configuration at the moment for processing power, that being an Intel Core i5 – and all of the processors here are 3rd gen Ivy Bridge, mind you, regardless of Apple or Microsoft surroundings.
The MacBook Pro has a lovely collection of ports and connections including: 720p “FaceTime” HD camera 2x USB 3 ports Thunderbolt port MagSafe 2 power port Microphone Headphone port Wifi Bluetooth Stereo Speakers
With the Surface Pro you’ll also be connecting with ports and wirelessly like mad: 2x 720p HD “LifeCam” cameras (front and rear-facing) USB 3 port microSDXC card slot power port Microphone Headphone port Wifi Bluetooth Stereo Speakers
You’ll notice that the 11-inch MacBook Pro doesn’t have an SD card slot – the 13-inch version of this device does, but the 11-inch version does not. The Surface Pro also benefits from its form factor in that it can make use of such sensors as an Accelerometer, a Gyroscope, and a Compass. With these you’ll be about to, for example, steer a car in a racing game, while the MacBook Air is meant to stay stationary while you’re using it.
The MacBook Air also benefits from the fact that it’s a notebook computer, able to stand up on its own with its keyboard attached, while the Surface Pro works in an entirely different way for stationary standing. The Surface Pro uses a kickstand on its back that’ll keep it upright while you tap away and also has a keyboard cover that, like a notebook computer, folds up and protects the device’s display or down for everyday typing use.
The Surface Pro also works with its own pen that sticks to the side of the tablet when not in use, utilizing an active digitizer in the display to make more than just standard capacitive moves galore. The pen creates a rather unique experience for you with the Surface Pro while the MacBook Air really isn’t the same universe – the only other place you’re going to get a digital pen experience in a mobile sense like this right now is in the Samsung Galaxy Note series – have a peek at our Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 review for more on that environment.
And this is only part of the story – for more information on both machines, you’ll want to check our full reviews of both devices. Have a peek at our MacBook Air (mid-2012) review as well as our Microsoft Surface Pro review for everything you could ever want to know!
Also be sure to let us know which of these two devices seem like they’d suit your needs given what you know today. Is there one that strikes your fancy more than the other?
This week Gartner has released a report in which they predict Apple to be as accepted by Enterprise IT by the year 2014 as Microsoft is here in 2013. That’s may appear to be a mighty large feat for those unaware of the inroads Apple’s taken over the past few years into this space that’s traditionally be dominated by Microsoft, but the truth of the matter is as Gartner says – it’s certainly looking like Apple’s presence in the business world is about to get much more visible if (and perhaps when) it reaches past Microsoft.
The report follows Gartner’s assertion that mobile apps will be of a much more hybrid nature in a very big way over the next few years. This idea and Apple’s growth in the Enterprise IT environment create vision for the future where businesses work with devices based on their hardware quality rather than the operating system they run. It’s important to note here that Gartner is affirming Apple mobile devices as already accepted in a large way by enterprise IT, while Apple’s desktop hardware and software is on the rise.
David Mitchell Smith, vice president and Gartner Fellow says that “Going forward, Apple will continue to benefit from consumerization and will continue to evolve Macs to take on more iOS characteristics.” It’s because of this cross-pollination that Macs will grow in their use by businesses across the market. Smith continues, saying that because the iOS universe is being pushed to desktop feature by feature and because Apple’s mobile lineup continues to be massively popular, Mac desktop systems will inevitably continue to be accepted by enterprise as consumer demand grows.
The Gartner team also spoke on Microsoft’s mobile systems in Windows Phone and Windows 8 (and Windows RT for tablets too, we must assume). They say that enterprise acceptance of these mobile systems are due in a large way to the relationship the companies have with Microsoft rather than the features the smartphones and tablets work with. Because Microsoft has “not benefited from consumerization”, as Gartner says, Apple will continue to grow in this rather healthy way.
Consumerization here is, as Gartner says, “driven first by consumer demand, and then by the demand of those consumers to bring that technology into the workplace.” How simple is that? Sounds like a winning strategy if there ever was one to be had!
Back in November when we heard that OS X 10.9 was being secretly tested by a select number of users (most likely various Apple employees), we remained curious to see what kind of progress the new rumored version would make after a few months. Apple has been releasing updates to OS X every year or so, which means that 10.9 will most likely release sometime this summer based on the operating system’s updating cycle.
Back in November, a select number of websites were reporting that they were getting a few visitors that were running OS X 10.9, and now it seems that number has jumped quite significantly since then. AppleInsider has reported that the number of users running OS X 10.9 spiked in January, according to their traffic logs, claiming that they’ve gotten “thousands” of hits from OS X 10.9 machines.
Of course, last year Apple announced OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 during the month of February, so it’s very possible that we could officially hear about version 10.9 sometime soon, although we’re keeping the salt by our side as always. While it seems that 10.9 is really close to an unveiling, we won’t officially believe in it until we see it, of course.
However, it’s obvious that Apple will release a major update to OS X at some point in the future, and they’ve been on a yearly release schedule for the past few releases, so it could be as far ahead as this summer before we see 10.9 show up for download. The biggest question remains, however: What cat will Apple give its next major OS X update this time around?
Here’s a weird little OS X quirk: the eight-character code above seems to cause pretty much any app on a Mac running Mountain Lion to crash, instantly. More »
The iOS 6.x jailbreak – dubbed evasi0n – has been announced, and according to a tweet from @planetbeing, one of the hackers working on it, is tentatively scheduled for release next week. The tweet advises that the jailbreak could come out earlier than that, or it could come out later. According to the official website that is now live, the jailbreak’s GUI is being finalized.
Per the official website, a Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux version of the jailbreak will be available. Mac OS X must be at least version 10.5, while Windows need to be at least XP. It will be compatible with all iPad/iPad mini, iPod Touch, and iPhone models that are running iOS 6.0 to iOS 6.1. The entire jailbreaking process is said to take about 5 minutes, and the only requirement – aside from the OS – is a USB data cable.
Once the GUI is completed, the next step will be moving the jailbreaking software into a private beta, where it will be tested for issues. This is the result of the collective evad3rs, which is composed of hackers known by the handles pod2g, pimskeks, planetbeing, and musclenerd. They have a Twitter account up now under @evad3rs.
Others who have worked on the project or otherwise have had involvement includes @chronicdevteam and @iphone_dev, which are thanked on the website for providing support, @Surenix who created designs for both evasi0n and evad3rs, and @phoenixdev for providing research. Little else is known at the moment. We’ll be keeping an eye on this and will let you know when it goes live.
SimCity is just about a month away, arriving on PC March 5 in the US, with a Europe release on March 8. However, this is Windows only, but developer Maxis announced that the release date for Mac is planned for sometime this spring. The company also notes that both Mac and Windows players will be able play co-op together on the same maps.
The reason for the delay, according to Maxis, is that the Mac port isn’t a port at all, but a “full native version” specifically for OS X. This means that the team will be making sure that Mac players get the same experience as Windows players. However, one of the key differences is that the Mac version will be a digital download only.
As far as minimum spec requirements are concerned, Maxis didn’t give any concrete details on how much power is required out of your Mac, but the company says that they “are aiming to make the game as accessible as possible,” so any user with Snow Leopard and a Core 2 processor should be able to play the game without any problems.
SimCity will be a complete overhaul from past installments. Just from the nine-minute gameplay video that we saw a few months, the new game will include much more detail and better graphics this time around, making the city-building experience more realistic for the players. We definitely can’t wait to get our hands on it.
OS X Mountain Lion, or version 10.8 as it’s known according to Apple’s numbering system, accounted for 32 percent of all web traffic measured by Net Applications, a firm that charts OS share and other web metrics. This marks the first time Mountain Lion has accounted for a majority share of web traffic from Apple computers, with Lion dropping down to 28 percent.
In November, Mountain Lion only just trailed Lion, with 29 percent of web traffic, vs. 30 percent for Lion. Snow Leopard use actually remained relatively steady between November and December, losing less than a percentage point and suggesting that most of the Mountain Lion upgraders are coming from Lion, and not jumping up two versions. Mountain Lion requires that Lion be installed in order to upgrade (unless you have a USB stick version of 10.8), so it makes sense that the pool of upgraders is coming from Lion, where there are relatively few barriers to upgrading (it’s handled directly through the Mac App Store).
Snow Leopard continues to be very tenacious, with a 29 percent share of Mac web traffic, which makes it the second-most frequently used version of OS X over even Lion. But Mountain Lion’s growth is still impressive, and it seems to be attracting users faster than Lion was ever able to. Lion took until May 2012 to overcome Snow Leopard in terms of share of web traffic as measured by Net Applications, meaning it required nearly 10 months to unseat Snow Leopard as the dominant Mac OS. By contrast, Mountain Lion took around five months to reach the top spot, or about half the time.
Speedy adoption of new OS X versions is key to keeping a solid software ecosystem in place, and lessening headaches for developers both internal and external. That makes this particular development promising news for Apple, especially now that they’re on an annual update cycle for OS X, which makes getting people on the newest version as quickly as possible even more crucial.
If you can judge a technology’s wow-factor by how much it’s accused of being vaporware, Leap Motion‘s gesture-tracking was a hit from the off; companies jumped on the idea, though it’s perhaps a surprise that the first should be ASUS, not Apple. The matchbox-sized gadget – which can track the movement of ten fingers individually, and 200x more accurately than kit like Microsoft’s Kinect – will soon be integrated into Windows 8 PCs from ASUS, according to a new deal announced today. Microsoft’s OS certainly loves fingers, but Apple’s moves to blend the best of OS X and iOS arguably make it and Leap Motion more obvious bedfellows.
If you missed it first time around, Leap Motion’s eponymous gizmo is a tiny, $70 box that hooks up via USB and creates a four cubic foot area above itself within which individual finger movements can be tracked. That’s at an accuracy of within 1/100th of a millimeter, and the system can differentiate between fingers and, say, a stylus being held for mid-air handwriting, as well as recognize when finger movements are intended to be linked, such as for pinch-zooming.
Leap Motion walkthrough:
So why would Apple be interested in Leap Motion’s tracking technology? It’s all down to the Cupertino firm’s dual stance on touchscreens. On the iPhone and iPad, Apple hasn’t been slow to adopt touch, driving the adoption of capacitive technology, but its Mac desktop and notebook ranges have stubbornly avoided finger-friendly displays.
“The ergonomics of touch aren’t suited to a notebook or desktop”
Apple’s argument has always been that the ergonomics of touch simply aren’t suited to a notebook or desktop form-factor. Reaching out across to a display – whether to your MacBook screen or to stab at an all-in-one – isn’t comfortable, so their argument goes, when compared with a large trackpad such as the company’s own Magic Trackpad.
It’s a strategy entirely at odds with where Microsoft has pushed Windows 8, with the new Metro-style interface of the latest OS expressly designed for touchscreen computing. ASUS’ deal with Leap Motion, however, means its future laptops and all-in-ones will also support gestural interaction, waving and grabbing at the air in front of the display so as to manipulate what’s on-screen.
That’s actually an area of research that Apple isn’t unfamiliar with: the company has previously filed patents for Kinect-like navigation, including around a 3D display, or by using infrared light bouncing off your hands above a keyboard. None of that research has actually ended up in shipping hardware, however.
OS X has borrowed an increasing number of features and usage concepts from iOS in its latest iterations; that’s only expected to increase with the launch of OS X 10.9 later this year. With iOS so finger-focused, however, the limitations of a trackpad or Magic Mouse will continue to keep the reach-out-and-tweak-it immediacy iPhone and iPad users are familiar with from the desktop experience. Leap Motion’s approach would’ve fit that paradigm perfectly, though I’d be surprised if Apple wasn’t cooking up its own approach as the gap between mobile and traditional computing narrows.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
