Oracle is still struggling to secure Java 7 left wide open to hackers since last October…. Apple and Mozilla have both decided to mark Java as MalWare on their respective systems.
Et Tu, Mountain Lion?
So I thought today would be a great day to install Mountain Lion, but cruel Fate! The Macmini2,1 is no longer supported. Time for an upgrade!
the following Macs which are supported under OS X Lion will not be able to run Mountain Lion (model identifiers in parentheses):
Late 2006 iMacs (iMac5,1, iMac5,2, iMac6,1)
All plastic MacBooks that pre-date the aluminum unibody redesign (MacBook2,1, MacBook3,1, MacBook4,1)
MacBook Pros released prior to June 2007 (MacBookPro2,1, MacBookPro2,2)
The original MacBook Air (MacBookAir1,1)
The Mid-2007 Mac mini (Macmini2,1)
The original Mac Pro and its 8-core 2007 refresh (MacPro1,1, MacPro2,1)
Late 2006 and Early 2008 Xserves (Xserve1,1, Xserve2,1)
YouTube Store
Google tosses its hat into the ring along with Hulu. iTunes, and most importantly NetFlix with a new video rental service.
Google Challenges Apple, Netflix, Hulu with Video Rentals Service
The new YouTube movie rental service might start as soon as next week according to reports. It apparently will offer films from several of the major Hollywood studios and a number of independent distributors. Paramount, Fox and Disney are reportedly not part of the deal at this point.
The Future of Mac OS X at WWDC
In more vague terms, this could be another step towards merging the platforms. How would it be if you had to root your Mac to install software from outside the app store?
Apple To Reveal Future of iOS & Mac OS at WWDC
In less vague terms, this probably means that Apple will unveil a new version of iOS (recent rumors claim it will be a total overhaul of the platform) and Mac OS X Lion, which is due for a Q2 release.
MagicDriver Bites the Dust.
The guys over at SteerMouse make one of the few software packages that I think is worth the money. So I was surprised to find this announcement about my free Beta version of the Apple Magic Mouse Driver. I’ve used this software since the Beta 1 version and its been flawless for years – you’d think they’d just release it and make a little return on their investment.
And worse, it looks like they plan to enforce an uninstall of the latest free version. That leaves yours truely without a three-fingered swipe to switch between spaces.
Ah well. I’ve already tried BetterTouchTool and MagicPrefs looks like it might be a good replacement, too. Both are available for the same price as the MagicDriver’s free beta 🙂
We have been working on a version of MagicDriver scheduled for release in April 2011, but we have now decided to stop further development of MagicDriver, since we will not be able to give it enough functionalities and support appropriate to its license fee, which does not fully cover the cost of programming and support staff. We deeply apologize to all users who were waiting for the product version.
The current beta version will expire at the end of March 2011. You will need to uninstall MagicDriver after the trial period because we are no longer able to build a new beta version. Please see the instructions below for uninstalling.
H.264 dropped from Chrome
The other interesting point is that Flash may also drop H.264 in favor of open codecs.
The Gloves Are Off: Google Chrome Browser Will Drop Support For H.264 Video Codec
In the world of online video, there is a battle brewing over the next dominant standard for online video, especially on HTML5 Web pages. Today, Google took the gloves off and declared that it will soon stop supporting the H.264 video codec in its Chrome browser. Instead, it will only support open-source technologies such as its own WebM initiative (with its VP8 codec) and the open-source Theora video codec, which is used by Firefox.
Patent Trolls
Who sucked up the Novell patents? All the usual suspects.
Microsoft Forms a Patent Bloc With Apple, EMC, and Oracle | BNET
When Novell (NOVL) finally structured an acquisition deal for itself, part included the sale of 882 patents to a consortium backed by Microsoft MSFT). Thanks to a tip received by free and open source software (FOSS) expert Florian Mueller, we learn that Microsoft’s partners are Apple (AAPL), Oracle (ORCL), and EMC (EMC).
Apple punts Mac OS X Java over to Oracle
Apple will give Oracle a bunch of tools needed to implement Java SE 7 for Mac including (pointedly enough) “the foundation for a new graphical client”. This can’t be good news for the guys in Oracle’s cross-hairs.
Oracle and Apple Announce OpenJDK Project for Mac OS X | Business Wire
Apple also confirmed that Java SE 6 will continue to be available from Apple for Mac OS X Snow Leopard® and the upcoming release of Mac OS X Lion. Java SE 7 and future versions of Java for Mac OS X will be available from Oracle.
Update: The new graphics plan
the first drop will be effectively a “SoyLatte”-level implementation, but is packaged as a Universal Mac OS X .jdk bundle that can be dropped directly into /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines. Over the coming weeks and months, we will be adding pieces and parts of our Java SE 6 implementation to the public project, and will cut over from using an X11-based AWT to a Cocoa NSEvent-based one with a new OpenGL-backed graphics layer.
No Xserve for you!
What will you do now for a HPC Mac cluster? The article suggests a rack of Mac Mini’s might be forthcoming, but that only makes sense if the Mac Mini is going to get a serious CPU bump.
Apple Announces Mac Pro Server, Kills Xserve
Apple made a number of announcements Friday pertaining to its server market strategy, the most significant of which is that Xserve, its rack-mountable server solution, will be phased out beginning January 31, 2011.
Free anti-virus for Macs from Sophos
Get it while its free
Free anti-virus for your Mac – And why you need it! | ZDNet
Security form Sophos has introduced the world’s first business-strength anti-virus program for Mac users – and it’s completely free for home consumers!
Scotsman on a Horse 