Section: Features , Peep-Show , Operating Systems , Leopard , OS-X , Originals Slick.  Speedy.  Sexy.  Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.  You could easily replace the word “snow” in “Snow Leopard” with any other “s” adjective and still describe it accurately.  Snow Leopard, by Apple’s own admission, is “The worlds most advanced operating system [Leopard].  Finely tuned.”  It is, however, a truly unique experience for Mac users.  This is the first time that an OS upgrade has not introduced major changes to the look, feel, and features of an OS, so there is virtually no learning curve.  What there is, and love it we must, is simply a faster, easier, better…everything!  And for 29 bucks, it can not be denied that this is easily the best OS upgrade the Mac has ever seen. What’s left out? First off, change is always hard, because you either cut something out or you end up with backwards compatible bloat a la Vista.  Several big things have been lost in this revision, including PowerPC support (time to ditch the old Power- or i- computers, folks), Quicktime Pro, and Rosetta.  Okay, those last two are sort of false positives: you can still run Quicktime 7 Pro – in fact if it is installed, the Snow Leopard installer will keep it, along with your license, and install Quicktime X side-by-side.  And Rosetta is now an optional install, so you can get your PowerPC applications running if needed.  In addition, Apple has dropped support for its original HFS file system, supporting only the more modern HFS+.  HFS was introduced in 1985, and HFS+ in 1998 with OS 8.1, so this is not really a surprising move (24 years for a file format is pretty good).  Undoubtedly a third party compatibility tool will arise for those few whose needs include archival disks, but for the majority of us, this isn’t a huge loss. What’s New? More intelligent everything. No, seriously.  Apple has somehow managed to raise the functionality bar.  The new Exposé features, better Stacks, and ability to minimize windows into an app’s Dock icon raise the Dock from an app launcher to a full-on computer interface.  Most people seem to miss this in favor of the whiz-bang graphics, but if Apple is going for a Tablet computer, they’ve just built the only interface that computer would need in the Dock.  Start paying attention Microsoft: the Start menu serves waaaaay too many functions, and doesn’t meet any of the needs fully.  All Apple has to do is add a link to the hard drive any any attached/inserted storage media, and there’s suddenly no need for a desktop. Exposé now shows all windows, including those that have been minimized: Exposé is also activated for a particular app, when you hold the mouse button down on an app’s icon (notice the subtle highlighting): Stacks are now mini Finder windows—the iPod style of left-and-right moving, scrollable sheets has been been implemented (this is the Applications/Utilities folder): General slickness. Inertia.  Animation.  Seriously; when you scroll, FInder windows feel like iPhone lists, in that they scroll and then come go a gradual stop.  Renamed files/folders zoom to their new positions in the Finder window, while the items displaced gracefully slide to their new positions.  Everything about the system, including app launches and visual effects, feels faster, snappier, and somehow cooler.  Size matters. One of Apple’s claims with Snow Leopard is that it will slim down the footprint of the OS on your hard drive; the published number is somewhere around six gigabytes.  But many users are reporting heftier gains. How is this possible?  Well, not only does Snow Leopard take up less space (it is literally half the OS, since all PowerPC libraries have been cut), but the OS also reports drive space in a different way now.  For many years, there has been a dichotomy between geeks, who measure one gigabyte as 1,024 megabytes, and marketers, who rounded down to 1,000 (that’s why your 16 gig iPhone shows only 14.64 gigs in iTunes).  Snow Leopard has done away with the double math, favoring the marketing number.  So the free space reported on a disk post-Snow Leopard is not directly comparable to the pre-SL size

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Filed under: Retail , Odds and ends , Apple , Flickr Find Ahhhh, Milano! The name makes me think about the Milan Cathedral , La Scala , fashion models , and the aggressive drivers in that city. And now, when I think of Milan, I can also fondly think of the new Apple Store Carosello . TUAW reader Filippo sent us a link to his Flickr gallery of the opening earlier today, which appears to have attracted a huge crowd of Apple fans. PhilApple, as he is known on Flickr, also captured the traditional “running of the geeks” in a short video upload. This is the well-known phenomenon in which the first customers are greeted by the applause, cheers, and general silliness of the Apple Store employees and other customers. While I wish Apple had chosen to place the store in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in the Piazza Duomo, reputed to be the world’s oldest shopping mall, I’m happy for the Milanese to now have their very own Apple Store. Grazie, Filippo, for this set of photos! Flickr Find: Apple Store Carosello opening in Milan, Italy originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Flickr Find: Apple Store Carosello opening in Milan, Italy originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Section: iPod + iTunes , iPod touch , iTunes , iPhone , iPhone , iPhone SDK & Apps , Originals Another week, another sad attempt to keep your iPhone or iPod touch’s home screens in order. I’ve given up. Until Apple adds an organization utility to either the iPhone or iTunes it’s beyond me to keep anything in order. Oh well. So here are some more free apps to add to the problem! Enjoy. NFL Mobile – Are you a diehard football fan? Then you probably have a subscription to NFL SuperFan and watch NFL Sunday Ticket religiously, or at least you’d like to. This app allows you to be a fully functional part of society again by streaming NFL Sunday Ticket live to your iPhone connected on WiFi

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Did Snow Leopard leave your old AppleTalk printer out in the cold? Grab a hot cup of cocoa and warm your printer up with some of these handy tips to continue to use your classic AppleTalk printer with your state of the art operating system. Print Via USB Of course! Get a longer USB cable if possible, but what if your printer doesn’t have a USB port? It may have an old-style parallel port probably marked “LPT.” For those people who have not seen them, here is a picture of one of these ports. Support for laser printers with these can be spotty, so use at your own risk. Not all the USB to Parallel Port adapters work well with the Macs, so do some research beforehand or buy from a place with a generous return policy. Print Over IP Some printers that support AppleTalk support other protocols such as IP. Many old LaserWriter workhorses such as the 16/600 fall into this category. If you are in a large office, ask your IT staff for help, but for those in a small office environment who are their own IT person, follow along! The hardest part is figuring out how to configure the IP address of the printer. Step one is to find an open IP. Don’t try to use DHCP settings because if the IP address changes for some reason, it will be invisible on the network.

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It has been one week since Snow Leopard’s worldwide launch and, predictably, it appears Apple is already testing its first OS software update. According to a report by AppleInsider, the update has not yet made its way to Apple’s large community of paying developers — the Apple Developer Connection member base — but instead is confined to a small and very select invitation-only group. Exactly what the update includes is, at this point, entirely speculation. Since Snow Leopard hit the shelves, most of the incompatibility reports we’ve seen crop-up on the ‘net are mired in the muddy waters of third-party software and not Apple’s responsibility. Apple’s official list of problematic apps remains concise . A far more exhaustive compatibility list is provided by the community-edited snowleopard.wikidot.com . AppleInsider’s Kasper Jade mentions reports of problems with Snow Leopard’s built-in Cicso VPN technology and various complaints of system “bricking” and the spinning wheel of death. Of course, every major operating system upgrade on every major platform introduces new problems while it resolves old ones. Despite exhaustive testing during development, it’s impossible to emulate every possible permutation of hardware and software configurations in the world. Therefore it’s something of a testament to the quality and craftsmanship of Snow Leopard that we’re not hearing of any (officially confirmed and reproducible) show-stoppers ‘in the wild.’ Sure, it’s early days yet, so anything can happen. But if the only updates we can expect from 10.6.1 include an upgrade for the Flash player plugin and some tweaks to Cisco’s VPN technology, Apple can pat itself on the back for a very big job very well done. Feel free to add a comment below to tell me I’m completely wrong and explain in detail why Snow Leopard is a disaster because your ancient HP Laser Printer no longer works.

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Section: Apple News , Software + Apps , Mac + Computers , Software , Operating Systems , OS-X In general, the upgrade to Snow Leopard has been quite a smooth one. There have been the usual annoyances of wiped data and lost settings, but most upgrades appear to have been successful. One thing you may have noticed, however, is that some software may no longer operate correctly or is seemingly missing altogether. Despite developers having access to the Snow Leopard beta for a few months before the public release, it is apparent that some software is still incompatible with the recent Mac OS X upgrade. Apple has released a convenient list of software that is known to be incompatible with Snow Leopard at this time. Software you use on a daily basis is largely unaffected, with the big names in the list being anti-virus software from McAfee and Norton, Parallels (v3.0) and also Elgato’s EyeTV (v3.0 – 3.1). During the upgrade to Snow Leopard, known incompatible software is found and placed into a folder named “Incompatible Software.” The folder should be at the root level of your hard drive if you have any of the affected programs installed. If this is the case, or if you find an error while attempting to open a piece of affected software, visit the developer’s website to verify you have the latest version available. The companies are aware of the incompatibility issues and are working on updates.

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Filed under: Retail , Odds and ends , Apple While the past few days have seen a spy saga of a stolen laptop and a few rapidly recovered stolen iPhones , the story at the Sagemore Apple Store in Marlton, New Jersey is more of your basic “five guys vs. a plate-glass door.” A well-organized 2 am robbery at the store netted the team a substantial haul of 23 MacBook Pro laptops, 14 iPhones and nine iPod touch handhelds. Even though the store was staffed with a security guard, the thieves were able to time their run right after his rounds, and clear the merchandise from the store in 31 seconds flat. Security video of the theft is in the 2nd half of this post. Anyone with tips on the identity of the masked bandits is being asked to call police at 856-983-1118 or the confidential tip line at 856-988-4699. Thanks to Justin for sending this in. Continue reading More from the police blotter: Sagemore Apple Store hit by burglars More from the police blotter: Sagemore Apple Store hit by burglars originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . More from the police blotter: Sagemore Apple Store hit by burglars originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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    Today Apple started giving away evaluation copies of Mac OS X Snow Leopard server to select people interested. There are a few limitations of this offer, however; " This Mac OS X Server evaluation offer is valid only in the United States. This offer is limited to corporations, small businesses, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and educational institutions located in the United States. Resellers do not qualify and are not eligible to participate in this offer. Students do not qualify and are not eligible to participate in this offer. Persons under the age of 13 and all other persons under the age of majority are not eligible and do not qualify for this offer ," Apple says on their site. To get in on this offer, you must complete a form on Apple’s website . This is similar to the Leopard Server offer Apple offered last year

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We talk about the highs and lows of installing Snow Leopard on our machines. Apple announces its annual iPod event, and we debate the chance of a tablet and/or Steve Jobs sighting at the iPod event. Got a question, but you’re afraid to leave a voice message because of Witness Relocation Dept. rules? Drop us a question via Twitter twitter.com/maclife .   This week’s Battlestar Applactica picks: SkyGazer – $2.99 TextExpander – $1.99 Chipotle Ordering – Free   Don’t forget, the Mac | Life staff would love to hear your thoughts, comments and ideas for the new podcast. Just leave a message on the Mac | Live question/comment line: (877) 404-1337, extension 622. Please limit the length of your messages to 1 minute max. We’ll review these calls each week and feature our favorites, along with responses, on that week’s podcast. To subscribe to the Mac | Live podcast series through an RSS feed, click here ; if you want to subscribe through the iTunes Store, click here .  

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OMG!  School as you once knew it has thrown you a curve. School Boards everywhere have decided to be conscious of the environment and make books part of history.  Instead, of building up landfills with outdated books each year along with tons of paper from homework and exams, they have decided to utilize today’s technology and provide educational materials in digital format.  That’s right, those 20-30 pound backpacks that end up straining your back are no longer needed.  Instead, you will be assigned a netbook and iPhone for your daily school activities.  Could this be the best move yet? Your regularly scheduled classes and books has been replaced by this great list of iPhone apps.    click app summary card to enlarge Read below for the full review English Throughout the first semester, your coursework in English will come from three different sources to be used by your iPhone: Scrabble  by Electronic Arts for $4.99 App Store Link Play Scrabble by yourself or with a classmate.  Shake your iPhone or iPod touch to shuffle the tiles and you are ready to go.  A new feature also allows you to connect with your friends on Facebook.  Things in this app move in real time so your stats and chats appear instantly.   Textropolix  by NimbleBit for $0.99 App Store Link We will stumble across new words as we play through 30 different cities.  A built-in dictionary is included for words used in these exercises.    Watch each city grow as you discover its words and add to your total Textropolis population! Shake your phone or iPod to get a helpful hint when you are stuck, and you can even send postcards from your best cities to a friend via email to show off your vocabulary. Free Hangman  by MobilityWare  Free App Store Link The colorful art and graphics with Free Hangman give you challenging, but solvable words in an old traditional game.  Letters are picked one at a time and a wrong guess results in part of the stickman figure being drawn.  Free Hangman is compatible with your iPhone or iPod touch. US Government Civilization Revolution Lite  by 2K Games, Free App Store Link Lead your people to greatness.  Inspire your nation with promise to build into the most powerful empire known to mankind. There is a way to win from 16 different historical civilizations whether the path chosen is via cultural, economic, military or even scientific.  A new interface has been included and multiple difficulty levels added so even the inexperienced can succeed without crashing the nation. ***Break Time*** Fast Food Calorie Counter  by Concrete Software, Inc.  $2.99 App Store Link You have just enough time to grab a decaf latte and check out the lunch menu calories at the nearby fast food joint.  Search over 7,800 menu items for their nutritional values from 66 of the top fast food restaurants.    Create unique and custom food and keep track of what you eat for the entire school year.  Feedback is welcome and updates are free. Music Rockstars Live  by Storm 8,  Free App Store Link Rockstars Live is an online multiplayer game with over 1.3 million players!  Compete against others in live in battle of the bands.  Collaborate with your friends and buy your way into stardom by purchasing promotions that will attract fans and merchandise sales.  Show off your talent while enjoying the cool rock sounds and great graphics.  Physical Education Pocket Mini Golf 2  by Chillingo Ltd. for  $2.99 App Store Link This multi-language app provides a fun and addictive app for up to six people.  Select one of three skill levels and an amazing location to golf which includes jungles, deserts, beaches, castles and mountains.  Between the graphics, options and ease of play, your PE class is guaranteed to be most entertaining.  Pocket Mini Golf 2 is compatible with your OS 3.0 or later. Baseball Slugger: Home Run Race 3D  by Com2uS Corp.

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