John Siracusa's review of Snow Leopard is an instant classic, as James Fallows sez: "an impressive piece of technical writing." Altho, "apparently OS X doesn't support huge pages." Apple's example, btw, may have wider industry implications/applications.
posted by kliuless on Sep 5, 2009 - 207 comments

DrumChuk: "A customizable Ruby-based MIDI drum controller for the Wii remote and nunchuk on OS X." The code, and more about the project, can be found at github.
posted by ocherdraco on Jun 17, 2009 - 8 comments

Grabarz & Partner's website looks oddly familiar... A German ad agency, apparently they couldn't be bothered of thinking of something original so they ripped off an existing concept.
posted by GuyZero on May 20, 2009 - 62 comments

Mitch Haile's office requires some explanation.
posted by odinsdream on Feb 25, 2009 - 29 comments

Software startup 280 North today announced Atlas: a rich, web-based environment for developing Mac-like web applications. [more inside]
posted by Mr. Anthropomorphism on Feb 24, 2009 - 34 comments

Plainview is a free full-screen web browser for your mac. Until now, you had two options for showing Internet work: capture it all to Quicktime and throw it into Powerpoint or Keynote (looks nice but no interactivity as everything has to be canned) or show it in your browser (interactive but with ugly chrome distracting people from your beautiful sites). So here's a third option. Fire up your full-screen browser and let your audience focus on the work. [more inside]
posted by krautland on Oct 27, 2008 - 52 comments

OS X as music video. (SLYT) Dennis Liu's interpretation of "Again and Again" by the Bird and the Bee, using a particular operating system as inspiration. It does feel kind of like an Apple ad, but it's quite creative.
posted by fungible on May 13, 2008 - 33 comments

Extensible applications such as Firefox appear to be banned by Apple's iPhone SDK license agreement: No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and builtin interpreter(s)… An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. An Application may write data on a device only to the Application's designated container area, except as otherwise specified by Apple. Applications may only use Published APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any unpublished or private APIs.
posted by finite on Mar 7, 2008 - 142 comments

I'm not a computer programmer, but I love the thought and artistry that go into [computer] application design. [more inside]
posted by lonemantis on Jan 24, 2008 - 54 comments

[Patent Lawsuit Filter] On Wednesday Sun Microsystems announced a counter suit against Network Appliance, wherein they will draw on their "defensive portfolio" which is "one of the largest patent arsenals on the internet". They are going to be requesting a permanent injunction to remove all of NetApp's filer products from the marketplace, and also seeking monetary damages (half of which they've pledged to donate to the Software Freedom Law Center and Peer to Patent Project). Last month, NetApp sued Sun for patent infringements in ZFS. Earlier this month in Texas, the first ever patent infringement lawsuit against Linux distributors was filed. [more inside]
posted by finite on Oct 26, 2007 - 36 comments

The How-To Geek provides hints and tips for a variety of operating systems and popular pieces of software. The how-tos cover a pleasing range of head-slapping I-should-have-known-thats to relatively advanced techniques. Follow the latest page to read the site in blog form.
posted by nthdegx on Jul 8, 2007 - 12 comments

iLike "provides a buddy-list for your iTunes - it helps you discover new artists based on what you're already listening to, and it helps you browse your friends' music libraries and share music suggestions with each other." Basically, there's an iTunes plugin (OSX only) that automatically sends your iTunes metadata to the iLike site to be shared with the community.
posted by Kwine on Feb 21, 2007 - 19 comments

Software Pop Idol If you're a software developer, what happens when you run out of ideas? You ask the community of course! Then you sort, rate and have the ideas voted on. Make it a contest and give away prizes. And that's exactly what the Mac Programmers behind My Dream App have done. Entries are due by Sept 1st. Rules here. Idea Submission form here.
posted by filmgeek on Aug 28, 2006 - 19 comments

Remember Oxyd? You can find this shareware game on abandonware sites, but you probably won't have much luck playing it on your new PC. Even if you run it under DOSBox, it's hard to get it looking and sounding right. Fret no more! There's Oxyd extra for Windows and Enigma for lots of platforms. Time to dust off my Oxyd Book...
posted by rxrfrx on Jul 8, 2006 - 9 comments

Visor: Brought to you by the wonderful folks who made the incredible Quicksilver, Visor is a drop down terminal for your mac, similar to the quake terminal. Plus, you can use quartz composer movies as backgrounds!
posted by Freen on Jun 16, 2006 - 28 comments

Peanut Gallery: DIY MST3K for OS X. OMFG! Via DF.
posted by mcwetboy on Jun 14, 2006 - 12 comments

MacSaber! Turn Your Mac Into a Jedi Weapon. I cannot explain how much fun I had slashing co-workers with a laptop today. Be careful not too get too excited. You don't want to lose your grasp on the MacBook or shake so hard you damage the hard drive. Great to try once. Or in my case, 20 minutes straight.
posted by jragon on May 20, 2006 - 30 comments

Windows XP booting on Apple hardware: confirmed. The $14000 contest to get Windows XP to boot on the new Intel hardware from Apple is over as of today. While considerable work in the realm of device drivers needs to be done, (and the rumored method may violate the Windows EULA) much of the hardware is straight Wintel. Considering that the MacBook Pro and Intel-based iMac (not currently working) both pack ATI Radeon X1600s, serious PC gaming on Apple hardware via dual-booting may finally be in the realm of possibility. [Via: slashdot, engadget]
posted by Ryvar on Mar 16, 2006 - 87 comments

OSX has a security bug that can be triggered simply by visiting a web page in safari There is an example of the exploit here, to see if your machine is affected. You should probably use firefox until a patch is released.
posted by delmoi on Feb 21, 2006 - 67 comments

Tickr scrolls flickr photos across your (mac) screen.
posted by Tlogmer on Jan 24, 2006 - 19 comments

Live coverage of the 2006 Apple Keynote is not available in video form. Since the stop of live broadcasts on the web, we now rely on folks actually there to give us up to date news, and here it is (in text form). It will be available later (as always, in QuickTime) from apple.com.
posted by gren on Jan 10, 2006 - 291 comments

Re-Introducing the Real Windows Vista Bill Gates' demo of Vista from the CES show dubbed over footage of OS X. Apple told Microsoft to start their photocopiers and it looks like they did. [via]
posted by kirkaracha on Jan 9, 2006 - 81 comments

The iTunes 5 Announcement From the Perspective of an Anthropomorphized Brushed Metal User Interface Theme.
posted by Tlogmer on Sep 9, 2005 - 55 comments

Is Mac OS X Becoming Crufty? I definitely think so.
posted by nthdegx on Aug 2, 2005 - 55 comments

Well, it's an old rumor, but many sources (including the NYT, WSJ, Wired, and many rumor sites) are reporting that Steve Jobs will be announcing a switch to Intel at the WWDC tomorrow. The WSJ claims Apple will be switching to x86 processors, while others speculate Intel will simply be manufacturing PPC chips, or only processors for a tablet PC. If the rumors are true, and it seems like they are, what of the Intel DRM recently announced? Are we destined to have DRM hardwired into our computers no matter where we turn? Curiously, the major rumor site has remained mum on the matter. Your best bet to follow the drama will probably be MacRumors, who will be providing live updates from Steve-o's keynote tomorrow.
posted by keswick on Jun 5, 2005 - 111 comments

Will Xbox 360 games run on Mac OS X w/ a G5? (via Slashdot) Looks like Xbox 360 games run natively on the G5. Macs, for a long time, have not been considered a platform that companies have been anxious to develop their games for. Looks like this is gonna change.
posted by Livewire Confusion on May 21, 2005 - 46 comments

Plasq, a software collective who have been responsible for a great number of free and inexpensive audio tools for OSX (the musolomo realtime software looper being very worthy of note) have created Comic Life, a really smooth application that allows anyone with a camera or some drawing skill to create very high quality comics (I am creating one featuring my kid right now.) This is one of those programs that has to be used to be believed. Humbly submitted as software and developers that are best of the web. (via macintouch.)
posted by n9 on Apr 14, 2005 - 18 comments

Putting his money where his mouth is regarding the recent Symantec (Norton Utilities, Anti-Virus etc.) Mac OS X virus claims...? Seems not to be, but the fellow who was sponsoring the $25,000 reward has a, shall we say, checkered past. Mac users are still waiting for the first real attack. I could live without it, but this particular religious war (however insane and inane it can get) does liven up our computing experience. If the pop-unders at MacDailyNews get around your browser's pop-up blocker, go here.
posted by indices on Mar 26, 2005 - 14 comments

The clueless reviews the Mac Mini His chief gripes are "The Mini boots up into a stripped-down operating system which Apple calls OS X, similar to the stripped-down WindowsCE OS found on many handhelds." and "No serial ports, no way to connect a printer, no PS/2 ports, no floppy drive, no 5.25" bays." Let the hate mail campaign begin!
posted by StormBear on Feb 2, 2005 - 47 comments

Best damn vaporware since the fabled OSX is going soft — yup: real live software, folks! I just can't wait to scan my entire book and music library into this beast. *drools*
posted by silusGROK on Oct 26, 2004 - 70 comments

A thousand pictures is worth a word.

MacOSaix is a Mac OSX program that lets you make those wacky photomosaics, using either images on disk, or Google image searches.

Not sure how these folks feel about it, but I think it's way cool.
posted by jpburns on Oct 21, 2004 - 8 comments

Holding Pattern is a screensaver for Mac OS X that generates photo-realistic simulations of the view from a flying airplane window.
posted by Mwongozi on Apr 25, 2004 - 17 comments

Unlike Microsoft, which supports their OS releases for 5 years, Apple is forcing users to purchase new OSX 10.3 to fix security issues. No support is provided for any other OSs in the OSX family.

Sounds like an open door for intentional software bugs and issues.
posted by omidius on Oct 30, 2003 - 30 comments

Konfabulator For Mac users (OSX), desktop widgets of a cute and useful nature. Create your own if you're so inclined; they'll add it to the gallery. Keep track of weather, the latest Homeland Security Department alert level, sports scores, your iTunes status--all in a tiny little application.
posted by padraigin on Feb 20, 2003 - 16 comments

Codename Marklar: Marklar is maintaining a feature-complete marklar of Marklar running on Marklar as a fall-back marklar in case the Marklar is no longer viable. Maintained since the early days of Marklar, Marklar gains greater relevance in the context of Marklar's inability to deliver higher-frequency Marklars, but is seen as less likely given Marklar's forthcoming 64-bit Marklar-based Marklar. (via Marklar)
posted by mcwetboy on Aug 31, 2002 - 23 comments

Would the Mac platform collapse without Microsoft? BusinessWeek questions the conventional wisdom.
posted by kirkaracha on Aug 7, 2002 - 42 comments

MacOS X for $82,402.02 CompUSA feels MacOS X is just that good.
posted by Brilliantcrank on Aug 5, 2002 - 18 comments

Mac takes control of Windows! A very useful addition to the Mac desktop for those who administer Windows-based servers. This handy utility allows you to start a Terminal Services session on a Windows machine.

This and a nice X Windows client lets my little 'ol iBook show the big iron who's the boss!
posted by Chief Typist on Jul 18, 2002 - 13 comments

Chimera 0.2.0 for Mac OS X is now available for download. If you prefer using Mozilla to IE5.x/Mac but dislike the lack of an Aqua GUI, then this is the browser for you. Chimera now supports Quartz rendering and is based on the Gecko engine which means it has great standards compliance. There are still many features missing, but this browser is showing great potential.
posted by crayfish on Apr 7, 2002 - 21 comments

Photoshop 7.0 for OS X finally released!
posted by dilok on Feb 24, 2002 - 34 comments

Photoshop X Don't know if this has been posted yet, but for all you OS X users, looks like Photoshop 6.5 is close to going native! Check out the screenshot!
posted by dilokiam on Dec 8, 2001 - 21 comments

iTunes installer débâcle Backups are insufficiently sexy: “This time Apple deserves the lion’s share of the blame for creating an operating system that can’t be backed up and restored reliably many months after the initial release. For this reason alone, Mac OS X cannot be considered acceptable for serious use in many situations”
posted by joeclark on Nov 13, 2001 - 10 comments

iTunes 2 was released recently. Some poor OS X users lost all their data after installing this seemingly innocuous software. (about a third of the way down)
Is being on the bleeding edge worth it? What responsibility does a software manufacturer have to prevent from damaging your data? Any other horror stories from installing just released software? Not bashing Apple, as I'm using a Mac myself.
posted by the biscuit man on Nov 5, 2001 - 25 comments

Is OS X really going to work? I've been a Mac tech for almost 6 years now and I feel that OSX is a very risky endeavor for Apple. It's weird and users don't like it - I'm talking about companies who rely on Mac, not developers or the "power users" who always adopt early. Not one single client of mine is interested in learning a new OS or buying all new software (and hardware) for the privilege of learning that new OS. It seems to me that production departments and agencies have too many deadlines to meet to futz with learning curves, slow apps in OS9, and myriad other issues. Does anyone else get this feedback from clients? Wouldn't it be just as easy to give in and switch to PeeCee, like many of the departments I support are being pushed to anyway? What do you guys think about OSX and Apple's future?
posted by misangela on Oct 10, 2001 - 61 comments

Yes, the nation's in mourning, but does that mean Apple's going to postpone its OSX Update? I mean they said September, and that was like two months ago. I wannnnnnnnnnnnt it.
posted by adrober on Sep 17, 2001 - 10 comments

Apple to NUblog: Drop Dead When Joe Clark went looking for information about OS X's out-of-the-box inclusion of multiple languages, Apple's PR agency decided he wasn't worth talking to because he wasn't "credentialed."

As Deborah Branscum writes: Weblogs and webloggers may not get respect at Edelman or, perhaps, at Apple. But they should. Time to wake up, folks, and get a clue. [found via NetworkWorldFusion]
posted by idiolect on May 4, 2001 - 55 comments

Bill Gates created MacOS X? I came across this memo written by Bill Gates on July 29, 1985 to John Sculley, then president of Apple Computer. In the memo, Gates writes about the possibility of licensing the Macintosh operating system to third party companies. Here's where it get wierd, Bill suggests that Apple talk to AT&T about migrating the MacOS as a GUI layer on top of their UNIX. Makes me wonder who had the idea first, Steve Jobs or Bill Gates?
posted by Brilliantcrank on Apr 10, 2001 - 7 comments

Ars Technica chews Mac OS X up and spits it out. The verdict? Shows a lot of promise, but needs work.
posted by darukaru on Apr 2, 2001 - 19 comments

MacOS X comes of age. Microsoft has just announced that Microsoft Office will be released for the new Apple OS in the fall. "Analysts had warned that without a version of Office, or similar productivity suite, running natively under Mac OS X, Apple would face problems getting businesses to switch to the new operating system. "
posted by Brilliantcrank on Jan 10, 2001 - 0 comments

Introducing Mac OSX. Due for release on Sat., March 24, 2001, at $129 a pop, mac users of the world, let the hoopla begin!!!
posted by leo on Jan 10, 2001 - 21 comments