Apple just released a Java update today, bring improvements to Java in Mac OS X. Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 1 for Snow Leopard updates Java SE 6, while Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 6 updates J2SE 5.0 and Java SE 6. Both of these updates improve reliability, security, and compatibility for Java.
The Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 6 update also disables J2SE 1.4.2, as it’s no longer being updated to fix issues.
One fun thing about being a tech research firm is that sometimes you can state the obvious and everybody still gets excited. That’s what will happen today when technology research company IDC releases their forecast for the next year, and in anticipation of the big news, the New York Times recently had a chat with Frank Gens, IDC’s chief analyst.
Among the predictions the company will announce today is the expectation of an Apple-branded touchscreen tablet computer. Wow, we’ve never heard that before! Gens thinks that it will be a general-purpose device instead of just an ebook reader, and “could deliver a real kick in Kindle’s butt.”
Macworld notes that my absolute favorite application, and one of the reasons I became a Mac user in the first place, is not quite as dead and gone as many people suspected. Quicksilver has released their first new stable version in two years, besides the developer leaving for greener pastures and setting the project completely open source. Unfortunately, there aren’t many new features, but as Macworld says, let’s be honest: you don’t understand everything that’s in there already. No seriously. No, seriously, you don’t.
What is new is compatibility with Snow Leopard (mostly — some plugins are still lagging behind), and a host of background changes. Clang is being used as the default compiler, which the change notes say should speed up runtime significantly. Localization has been tweaked, and lots of previously buggy actions (mouse tracking on triggers, for one) have supposedly been smoothed out and improved. Not necessarily a marquee release, but at this point, any Quicksilver release is a good one.
Believe it or not, we first heard of SDXC nearly a year ago. Aside from a highly guarded chip spotted at CeBIT, though, we’ve yet to see any of those cards in the flesh. Thankfully for the impatient among us, it seems as if the SD Specification 4.0 is well on its way to being hammered out, with the maximum data transfer rate scooting up from 104MB/sec to 300MB/sec. The actual scheme will also be changing from parallel to serial, with an unspecified amount of pins (more than 9, though) assisting in the speed increase. We’re also told that the external dimensions of the cards will remain the same, and that backwards compatibility is of the utmost importance. We’re guessing that newer cards will be able to rely on parallel transfers when used on older readers, while newer readers will accept data via the serial scheme; unfortunately, the nitty-gritty details have yet to be made public, but we’re hoping for a serious coming-out party at next year’s CES.
Once upon a time Universal was the hybrid disc king, with plans to release up to 90% of its 2007 HD DVD titles on the dual sided discs, but we know how that ended. Now the company is back to its old tricks, ready to ship the first BD-59 discs with a 50GB Blu-ray / 9GB DVD configuration promising movie and all available special features in whichever format is desired. The expensive answer to a question no one was asking or the perfect way to add future proofing and extended compatibility to new movie purchases? We’ll know more once a price is announced for the Jason Bourne trilogy of movies — seeing their first individual Blu-ray releases — due on January 19.
Not everyone has a 4GB USB key or SD card just lying around, which was required to run Hexxeh’s first build of Chromium OS, and we’d say that 8GB keys are exponentially more rare, which is what Dell requires with its build of the Chrome OS open source variant. Well, you can cancel that Fry’s run, because Hexxeh is back with a Chrome OS Diet flavor, which cuts the fat and gets the OS onto a 1GB drive. It supposedly doesn’t cut anything features-wise, and actually improves WiFi support since it’s based on a newer build — check out that compatibility list source link for the full story on that.
Since it’s not a phone and transgresses in all sorts of other Google-pleasing areas, the Archos 5 Internet Tablet hasn’t had a full shot at Android thus far, being relegated to merely the open source aspects of the OS. However, with phones like the Droid out and about and making high-resolution compatibility a must for Android developers, not to mention some diligent work from the hacking community, there are now downloadable versions of Android Market, Gmail, Maps and some other Google-specific Android goodies for the Archos 5. Use them at your own risk, of course, but it’s not like the Archos 5 is a testament to stability in its current incarnation anyway.
Creative sure seems to be taking the incremental approach to upgrades with its Vado HD pocket camcorders, but if you’ve found the previous two models just a tad lacking, you might want to consider the company’s newly announced 3rd gen model. From the looks of it, most of the core specs remain the same, but Creative is promising some improved low light video recording and manual exposure adjustment, along with a new motion detection mode, support for an external stereo mic, a headphone output, and even the ability to take some still photos. You’ll also now get out of the box Mac and PC compatibility, and five glossier than ever colors — though Creative has curiously dropped the 8GB model in favor of a single 4GB option, which will set you back $179.99.
[Thanks, Kingone]
Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing, is back on his one-man crusade to defend the App Store from the latest wave of criticism pointed in its direction.
This time, Apple is having to battle the news of Facebook’s all-star developer Joe Hewitt quitting the platform, more high profile app rejections, and the rise of Android as an increasingly viable alternative to the iPhone. Schiller has granted BusinessWeek’s Arik Hesseldahl what the publication says is his first “wide-ranging interview on the matter”. Unfortunately, Schiller doesn’t really say anything to quell the growing unrest in the developer community ?
The folks behind CrossOver Games sent us a note that version 8.1.0 of their software has come out, and it’s got some nice upgrades for Mac and Linux folks who prefer to run their games in Windows almost-emulators (it’s based on Wine, and as we all know, Wine Is Not an Emulator) rather than Boot Camping over to the real thing. We tried out CrossOver Games a while back, and found it lacking in almost everything but Steam games, but actually that’s OK, because lately Steam has a lot of games going on. Accordingly, this new version has support built-in for the brand new Left 4 Dead 2, as well as fixes for Steam’s voice chat, a few upgrades for WoW on Linux and Guild Wars, and a couple of changes to ensure compatibility with Snow Leopard. Sounds like a nice solid upgrade — owners of the software can grab it for free, or you can try out the app for yourself from their website.
In case you don’t have the app yet, CodeWeavers also let us know that they’re giving away a Linux rig that’s the “ultimate” in… wait for it… gaming. Yes, putting together a Linux rig for gaming is like putting a UFC fighter on a dance show, but we guess stranger things have happened. Anyway, CrossOver Games will definitely help you play at least a few games on the decked-out rig, if you want a shot at winning the thing, all you have to do is pick up the software before December 1st. They’ll pick a name out of a hat, and if it’s yours, there’ll be an awesome ‘nix box headed your way. Good luck with getting smooth fullscreen Flash video to work. We kid! You Linux guys make it so easy.