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Posts tagged with "lion"

Fair Warning: OS X Lion Will No Longer Support Rosetta Based Apps

If you’re still running Mac apps that leverage Rosetta, prepare to lose that functionality when you install Lion. A main concern that TidBits recently expressed, is that the loss of Rosetta (which helped switch users from PowerPC to Intel based machines) would eliminate still perhaps frequently used software.

“Now, two major versions of Mac OS X later, it appears that Rosetta is going away. And if it does, it will be accompanied by a number of applications that I use frequently. Quicken 2007. Photoshop CS1. FileMaker Pro 8. Microsoft Word 2004. Among many others.”

Rosetta is a subject that often evades us since it’s optionally installed on Snow Leopard by apps that really need it. If you’ve recently purchased a Mac or only have purchased apps on the Mac App Store, you’ll never have to install Rosetta to use the most up-to-date applications. But for those still utilizing PowerPC compatible applications, it might be required that you simply don’t upgrade to Lion, or install it on a separate partition so you can continue using Snow Leopard’s provided functionality. MacRumors reminds us of this change today via a forum post at Macworld, where a user expressed worry over retaining a soon to be outdated version of Quicken. Macworld responded:

Broadly, you have a couple of options. One is to create a dual-boot Mac – one that can boot from two volumes. One volume contains Lion and another runs an older version of the Mac OS. When you need to spend some quality Rosetta time, you boot into the older OS. And yes, this is a pain.

The other option is to simply not update to Lion. Your Mac will continue to work just as well as it does today. How acceptable this is to you depends on how desperate you are for Lion’s features and iCloud (some of iCloud’s features will require Lion).

The changes in Lion will even affect current universal applications. From Charles Moore of Low End Mac:

There is an interesting element to Lion, such as “autosave”, which will only work on new programs coded for Lion, but won’t work on earlier Intel/Universal coded programs. It indicates to me that Apple will eventually run only post-Lion programs on their computers.

Apple doesn’t hesitate to cut old features. With the system requirements for Lion requiring the latest hardware, those who have older Macs will not only lose out on software they use, but will have to upgrade to a new machine as well. In our audience, how many of you still run Rosetta-based apps? Leave a comment below letting us know what the Lion upgrade means to you.

[Sources: MacRumors, Macworld, Low End Mac, TidBits]

image via Low End Mac

The MacBook Air is Apple’s New Crown Jewel

Everywhere you look on Apple’s new Lion page, the MacBook Air is decisively front and center. From the gestures video to screenshots detailing the new features in Apple’s upcoming OS, Steve Jobs and company are decidedly proud of their thinnest Mac yet. AppleInsider reported that Apple would build 400k revitalized MacBook Airs this month (stuffed with Sandy-Bridge processors) after 1 million of them shipped in the first quarter; Phill Schiller at last Monday’s WWDC 2011 keynote went so far as to cite the MacBook Air for Apple’s continuing success. “It’s beautiful, it’s thin, it’s light, it’s fast… The whole PC industry wants to copy it.”

According to AppleInsider, Wall Street analyst Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank predicts that if 1.5 million MacBook Airs were shipped per quarter based on current estimates, that the MacBook Air would make up half of Apple’s notebook business. He predicts that many new customers are waiting for the latest technology such as Thunderbolt, Sandy-Bridge processors, and Lion to hit the laptops before consumers upgrade from their current setups.

Darrell Etherington from GigaOM wrote a piece on Lion’s hardware requirements, suggesting that the animation heavy interface would require the latest technology such as an SSD, core i-series processor, and lots of RAM to use comfortably. With Lion taking advantage of gestures on newer trackpads, and requiring the latest technology to use comfortably, he makes the case that the MacBook Air, boasting at an affordable price point, beautiful design, and fast tech, is the perfect candidate for consumers as they purchase new machines.

The MacBook represents Apple’s past; it’s a well-designed traditional notebook that provides users looking for an alternative to Windows laptops with a solid, high-quality, OS X-based alternative. But the MacBook Air represents Apple’s future. It’s a slim, lightweight device with a futuristic design aesthetic, but more importantly, it’s a perfect partner for OS X Lion and iCloud, and like Apple said at its WWDC keynote, iCloud is the new center of the Apple universe.

New MacBook Airs could be coming as soon as Wednesday as Apple’s back to school promotions kick off, but that rumor was later redacted as part numbers matched a series of unlocked iPhones instead of the new laptops. A June or July release is still predicted as MacBook Air supplies dwindle, and there even might be a Mac Mini and Mac Pro refresh to accompany the updated laptops.

Whitmore writes that Mac sales generally spike after a new OS update, and in combination with refreshed MacBook Airs, could fuel a very good summer for Apple. At its heart, however, Apple sees the MacBook Air as the driver of innovation - it is no longer the MacBook Pro or the iMac Apple wants you to think of, but their tapered and lightweight notebooks.

“In two years time, if not less, when you think ‘Mac,’ you’ll think about the MacBook Air first and foremost. And that’s by design, as Apple continues to have outsized influence in the changing definition of personal computing.” I tend to agree with Etherington. Today, the future of the MacBook starts with the MacBook Air.

[Sources: GigaOM, AppleInsider]

AirServer 2.2: AirPlay On OS X Already Working with Lion and iOS 5

AirServer is an OS X utility I first reviewed in May that allows you send music, photos and videos from iOS devices to a Mac’s display using AirPlay. Unlike similar apps that enabled such functionality before, AirServer stood out because the first release was stable, fast, and cheap at $3. Since then the price increased to $4.99, but the developers released a plethora of updates (seriously, I’m pretty sure I updated the app more than 10 times) to bring several other functionalities like dual display support, a different icon, a settings panel, audio controls, service rebroadcasting, and more.

With the latest 2.2 update, however, the developers have gone all out to implement early support for iOS 5 and OS X Lion. Both OSes aren’t out yet, but if you’re rocking the betas on your device or computer you’ll be able to use AirServer to beam music and videos – you’ll just have to disable dual-mode AirPlay on iOS 5 for now. The devs also said that they’re looking into implementing iOS 5’s AirPlay Mirroring on AirServer (iOS apps mirrored on a Mac, that would be nice), but that could be difficult as it uses Apple’s FairPlay encryption.

Alongside OS compatibility, recent AirServer updates also brought audio controls in video apps, support for Boxee, XBMC, FrontRow, Wake on Demand, as well as 24-bit audio support. I’ve tested AirServer with iOS 5 and Snow Leopard and it works very well, with songs and YouTube videos playing just fine on my MacBook Pro.

Go download Air Server here.

Lion Boots From SD Card, Has New OS X Utilities Screen

Following a report from earlier this week that suggested it could be possible to burn OS X Lion to a DVD and install it from a Mac’s disc drive, a new video surfaced on YouTube shows that, by grabbing the .DMG  file inside the OS X Lion Installer app from the Mac App Store, users could be able to boot OS X Lion off an SD Card and choose from a new set of options after the system restarts. The new Mac OS X Utilities window, which appears at the end of the video, contains options to fire up Disk Utility to repair and erase partitions, possibility to restore from a Time Machine backup (Time Machine has been improved in Lion) and a standard “Reinstall” action to perform a Lion installation. The window also shows a link to “get online support” by browsing Apple’s online documentation.

Nature’s Eye Studios writes in an email to us:

Enabling Lion on an SD card was actually verry easy, easier than I expect it to be…

After downloading Lion from the Apple Developer site, you get a 4 GB DMG file, so the next step was to open up Disk Utility and erase an 8GB SDCX card (XC for the speed) After which I just had click the repair option in Disk Utility. Now select the Lion DMG as source and drag the SD card as destination. After about 10 minutes, the SD card was the Lion ESD installer. Then it was even easier: you just have to start the installation, and follow the on screen instructions.

To erase the hard drive or restore from a Time Machine backup, you have to boot from the installer; to do so, you have to turn off your Mac and turn it back on while holding Option (alt). When it powers up, you can choose from what drive to boot, you have your Macintosh HD and a Lion specific partition of your hard drive and then you have a USB device, which is actually your SD card. Follow the on screen instructions, and you’re able to erase your hard drive, and put everything back from a Time Machine backup.

Assuming the author of the video has followed the same method detailed by TUAW, the process should be fairly easy and useful to keep a portable copy of Lion that doesn’t live in your file system. Apple has announced at the WWDC keynote that Lion will be distributed only on the Mac App Store at $29.99, as opposite to previous speculation that claimed the company would also offer DVDs and portable USB drives for Lion. It’s unlikely Apple will publish documents to explain to users how to keep a physical copy of Lion (which involves opening the Installer package and finding a DMG file in the Contents folder), still it’s interesting to know there will be the possibility to do everything from Disk Utility as Lion’s Installer is nothing but a wrapper. Check out the video below. Read more

Free Upgrade to Lion with a New Mac Purchase

If you’re in the market for a new Mac, you’ll be eligible for a free upgrade to Lion once it hits the Mac App Store in July, thanks to Apple’s Up-To-Date program which keeps new customers on top of the latest technology. From the OS X Lion press release:

The Mac OS X Lion Up-To-Date upgrade is available at no additional charge via the Mac App Store to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller on or after June 6, 2011. Users must request their Up-To-Date upgrade within 30 days of purchase of their Mac computer. Customers who purchase a qualifying Mac between June 6, 2011 and the date when Lion is available in the Mac App Store will have 30 days from Lions official release date to make a request.

As MacRumors points out, you originally had to pay $9.95 for the installation DVD. However, as Lion is a download from the Mac App Store, there’s no longer going to be a charge to make up for packaging and shipping. Once Lion hits in July, you’ll have thirty days to request your free download through the program.

With new MacBook Airs around the corner, however, you might just want to wait to buy a shiny new Mac with Lion already installed.

[via MacRumors, OS X Lion Press Release]

Find My Mac Gets Real on Lion, Lets You Remote Wipe & Lock

Initially discovered a few months back after the first developer previews of OS X Lion, “Find My Mac” was rumored to be a new service that, following the path of “Find My iPhone”, would allow users to geo-locate their computer, remotely lock and wipe it just like it’s already possible with an iOS device, and perhaps even control it using Lion’s multi-user access features. Following last night’s release of Lion Developer Preview 4 with iCloud integration as announced at WWDC, 9to5mac details some of the aspects of Find My Mac, which apparently will behave exactly like its iOS counterpart in the way it’ll let users lock and wipe lost & connected Macs.

Setting it up is pretty straightforward. Interestingly, Apple lets guest users use Safari if you have this set up. That is a trick to help the Mac figure out where it is (IP address) and let you connect to it.

Once you connect to your lost Mac, you can then “Play a Sound or message”, “Remote Lock” or “Remote Wipe” the Mac.

Safari integration sounds like a clever solution to force a Mac to connect to the Internet, though we’re curious to see how this feature will look like in practice. On the iOS side of things it appears everything will work from the standard Find My iPhone app with the usual “remote” and “play sound” functionalities, and assuming there will also be Mac and web-based counterparts to control Find My Mac, the new option is shaping up to be quite powerful and user-friendly at the same time. Taking in consideration Backblaze’s recently announced feature to locate stolen Macs and stories of success with tools like Hidden, it’ll be interesting to see how Apple will market the (free?) Find my Mac against the competition.

From the screenshot above it looks like Find my Mac will be an iCloud service, although Apple hasn’t officially announced anything in addition to old MobileMe sync & push functions, OTA purchases and iTunes in the Cloud. Find my Mac could come this July when Lion is released, or this Fall, when iCloud is expected to go live for everyone.

The Big WWDC 2011 Keynote Roundup

Apple unleashed a volley of updates this afternoon to iOS, OS X, and introduced the new iCloud that’s bound to make an Apple user blush with excitement. With notifications, over the air updates, AirDrop, and wireless file syncing, Apple is addressing nearly all of the complaints I can think of from users across the board.

We’ve covered a lot on MacStories this afternoon between our detailed posts where you can learn more about new and popular features, to our live blog where we consolidated all of the news into once place. Below, you’ll find a briefing on what’s new in all of these components, and how they fit together in Apple’s vision of the future.

Read more

Mac OS X Lion Developer Preview 4 Now Available

Following iOS 5 beta and iTunes 10.5 beta for Mac, Apple also flipped the switch on Mac OS X Lion Developer Preview 4 – available now for download in the Mac Dev Center. Build number is 11A480b, and it should contain all the new features demoed at the WWDC keynote today, including iCloud integration.

We’ll update this story with more details as they become available.

Apple Unveils iCloud

UPDATE: You get access to iCloud when you upgrade or buy a new phone. Everyone gets 5GB of iCloud storage for Mail, but don’t worry because Apps, Books and Photo Stream do not count. Developers can try out iCloud from today.

Steve Jobs has just unveiled iCloud and it is a service that frees all your devices from having to connect to your Mac to get updated media and data. The Mac is being demoted, and in its place is the iCloud which will become “the hub of your digital life”. iCloud will be free!

We’ve got a solution for this problem. We’re going to demote the PC and the mac to just be a device. We’re going to move your hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud.”

iCloud stores all your content, so that if you have something new on your iPhone it is sent to the cloud immediately, iCloud will then push it back to all your other devices.

And it’s completely integrated with your apps, and there’s nothing new to learn. It just all… works. It just works.

Whether it be new events on your calendar or a new message in your @me account (which will remain), all of it gets pushed to the cloud and then pushed back to all your devices. The App Store, which is integrated within iCloud will let you see all your purchased apps, even if they are from another device. The same will occur for iBooks

Now what about for devices you buy in the future. The cloud downloads it to all of your devices.

Backup too will be dealt with by iCloud, it will take daily backups of all your devices over WiFi including all the purchased music, apps and books, photos, videos and app data. If you ever lose your device or get a new one, it can all be restored from iCloud.