Archive for the 'Apple' category

LifeHacker gives you details about how to install OS X on your Hackintosh PC (No Hacking Required).

This is the definitely interesting story from LifeHacker. It’s difficult and long but you can get Leopard running on a PC-made-a-Mac.

Source: Build a Hackintosh Mac for Under $800 [Hack Attack].

Do you remember my newsbit about LightZone for Linux? Unfortunately, you may also have noticed that some time later, LightCrafts had stopped distributing it.

However, after a petition on the forums, things changed again and version 3.3 beta of LightZone for Linux is again available for download.

It is still difficult to be sure if the final version 3.3 will be freely available, but I feel that it would still be a good way for LightCrafts to widen the paying distribution of this very good tool for digital photographers: LightZone.

Thanks to LifeHacker, and if you have the following, you will be able to use your iPhone to access Internet from your laptop.

• A computer with Wi-Fi capable of creating an ad-hoc computer-to-computer connection (yours is)
• A jailbroken iPhone (If you don’t know how to jailbreak your iPhone, the easiest way is to make sure you’re running 1.1.1 firmware and then start here.
• The OpenSSH iPhone application
• An SSH client on the computer you’re using. If you’re on a Mac or *nix machine, you should be fine. Windows users should check out how to install OpenSHH with Cygwin.

Source: LifeHacker “Use Your iPhone’s Internet Connection On Your Laptop [Feature]“.

All you readers that mix love for Apple and love for photography will be delighted to know that there is a good article by Henrik Paul about the use of the newest Apple MacOS 10.5 Operating System (codenamed Leopard) by the digital photographer.

A few days ago, it has been released publicly that a new Flash memory card format is arriving. I can see the John “Consumer” Doe thrilled in anticipation of yet another new card format: UFS. I can imagine that it will solve all existing issues with dozens of previously existing -and incompatible- memory cards.

This is going to offer a vastly improved speed for the users. To quote from the press release: “Today, users experience a three-minute access time for a 90-minute (4 Gigabyte) high-definition movie; with the new standard, this would be reduced to a few seconds.” Do we care? Will the movie run faster?

Of course, it is touted by its promoters as a giant leap in technology and the universal memory solution (do I hear “snake oil”?) I need a little more than a long list of supporters to jump and shout joyfully…

You don’t have such a need everyday of your life. However, when you need to translate a small Flash program, when you want to grab elements that the graphics design agency failed to deliver with the Flash program you got, it’s time to decompile a Flash application. And there’s a good solution: Trillix.

Really! Who would like to have Microsoft Office. It’s expensive. If you donwload it for free, it’s just illegal.

However, you can download the excellent Neo Office for OS/X (a Mac OS/X port of OpenOffice). It’s now available.

Some time ago, I had spoken here of SequoiaView, a Windows utility to visualize the space used by files on a hard disk drive (a great way to prepare for freeing space on a hard drive choking full of hundreds of GB of data).

Today, I found a free utility doing about the same task on a Mac: GrandPerspective. Recommended.

Source: LifeHacker.

Aquamacs is a software program in development for two years, but the ambition is quite interesting: Integrate Emacs, the prfered text editor of Roumazeilles.net, into the Aqua environment for Mac. This is an impressive feat because they are at the opposite ends of technology: Aqua is associated to graphics elegance, subtlety and grace allied to the most modern techniques of User Interfaces; Emacs is known for its roughness, performance and complexity.

Worth considering by all Mac lovers who checked on GNU-Emacs and were not satisfied by the lack of integration in the Mac GUI.

The bane of LCD displays: dead pixels. It is still very uncommon to find display manufacturers who accept to provide a garantee against dead o stuck pixels on their LCD screens. Honestly, this is bordering on abuse knowing that the main objective of the screen is to display several hundred thousands of pixels: Dead pixels (lit or black) only reduce significantly the main function of the display.

But, above the rightful teeth-grinding this produces, there was no technical solution in sight. However I found a tool that offers to correct this problem on your screen without paying a dime. The surprise comes from the fact that it is a software tool. Probably, like I did, you will exclaim: “What’s this story about a software program able to correct a hardware failure?!!” This should be either day dreaming or a scam. But since they ask for no money, I decided to give it a try anyway.

I happen to have a Hyundai LCD display with a stuck red pixel. Usually, this is not much of an issue (after all, it is only visible on a black scree; on white window backgrounds, I can’t see it and I forget about it). So, why not?

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They are great those Futurismo Zugaousaku screensavers. This Japanese artist uses Quartz Composer to create works of art on your screen.

For Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).

The #1 problm of WiFi networks (well before the speed of data transfers)? Merely, the network range. There is always a corner of the office or of the house that is not reachable (or nearly not reachable) with your WiFi-enabled laptop: in the master’s room upstairs when the router is installed in the office downstairs, for example.

Solution #1: buy a range extender or a repeater. But this is usually very expensive (several hundred dollars).

Solution #2: reconfigure a 60-80$ router to transform it into a nice cheap WiFi repeater (a device that takes the WiFi signal, amplifies it, and re-broadcast it at full power to extend the available range).

I was thinking about this when I found the two interesting explanations describing how to install a new “DD-WRT” firmware on a consumer wireless network router (like a Linksys WRT54GL) and to configure it as a repeater:

• Turn your $60 router into a $600 router (LifeHacker)
• Universal Wireless Repeater (DD-WRT)

And it works even with a WiFi network that was correctly configured for security.

OK, I know that I don’t have TV because I don’t want to be continuously force-fed with mindless junk. However, plenty of people would like to be able to have their TV on the Internet. Up to now, you were mostly depending on your ISP and possibly some subscription additional to your basic broadband Internet package.

Here come FreeTube, ChannelChooser, Hiveproductions, Tape it Off The Internet, Streamick, TV-links, PPStream, ABC, Sintonizate.tv, PeekVid, PPlive, TV-Video, TVU Player, allowing you to watch TV online for free without the need for any special software, hardware or subscription service. Better than cable televison.

You simply need the (quite usual) Apple QuickTime plugin on your web browser.

Even more freely available TV channels on:

• wwiTV
• BeelineTV

While browsing through LifeHacker, I found this week a series of apparently interesting posts for Mac buffs. Let’s share:

• Top 10 Mac OS X tweaks
• Speed up your Mac
• Take screen shots on your Mac

The recent news lead me to talk again about digital music and its cohabitation (or lack of) with network technology. As a matter of fact, we learn this week that our new French President is in favor of a strong action against pirated music and downloads. This is not very new, indeed, but the confirmation came from Nicolas Sarkozy quite early after his election. Nearly simultaneously (I see nothing more than a coincidence), Amazon just announced that they would start a new service of online digital music sales that would do completely without copy-protection system (DRM or Digital Rights Management) and would go 100% MP3-only. This is supported by EMI that decided to provide tens of thousands of music titles out of its international catalog.

I admit easily that I am not surprised to see a politician posturing as is expected from his image and adopt an attitude that is based on perceptions but ignoring technical and commercial realities. Nicolas Sarkozy is playing his part in the show as a right wing leader decided to fight all kinds of illegal activities. Nobody should be surprised here. But I contend that this is already an echo from the past and he is missing the light of the future.

Exactly on the opposite, Amazon recognized the commercial reality: Customers do not want those technical anti-copy measures. They go against the legal user (the illegal one does not even see this in the illegal but free MP3 files, of course); They do not stop industrial copy and intense distribution on the P2P networks for example, but they stop the buyer from playing the music title on a player that is nto pre-aprpoved or on the PC of the son’s bedroom, or on the CD-player of Mom’s car, etc.

Amazon, understanding this reality -and certainly also aware that online stores without DRM have better sales/user figures than the others- decided to go and fight directly the current leader of eMusic, Apple iTunes.

Wish them luck! If there will always be poor teenagers ready to sacrifice quality, ease of use, ease of purchase, elegance of the package, etc. (didn’t we copy LPs on dirt cheap tapes when we were young?), a good product will always be a hit.

And if some people insist on telling that the competition of a free product (illegal downloads) can only kill paying products (online music stores), I invite them to consider the tough/relentless competition between a product with a (very very high) price as bottled water and a product (nearly) free like tap water available in nearly all homes (at least in the developed countries). As far as I know, Perrier, Dasani, San Pellegrino, Vittel, Volvic et al. do not petition for a law prohibiting tap water. Those companies and brands offer a product with very notables advantages and make a nice profit out of it.