No Spring Leopard, blame iPhone

Unsurprisingly Apple Inc has announced that Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard will not ship until October!

Apple Statement
iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned. We can’t wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is. However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. While Leopard's features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October. We think it will be well worth the wait. Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones.

Personally, I'd rather Apple launched a robust retail release out of the gate and avoided many of the issues which plagued Mac OS X 10.3 Panther (my least favourite update). And Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger more than meets my needs despite my recent hardware transition from PowerPC to Intel.

Letterbox wonders

To my unabridged joy, both Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and Revenge of the Sith CD/DVD have arrived. Tiger's etched-foil "Panther" packaging is pure comic chic cool. This is 2005 and I applaud Apple's decision to bundle Mac OS 10.4 and Xcode 2 on a single DVD.

Various Mac-related sites are reporting that Quartz 2D Extreme is disabled in 10.4 to allow developers more time to migrate from QuickDraw's aged drawing model. Extreme can be enabled via developer tools at your own risk.

I'm off to watch Star Wars: A Musical Journey, which sports sumptuous menus.

Fisher-Price

Comparing screen shots of Panther and Tiger it is very noticeable that Tiger's GUI is brighter and evokes Windows XP! In a couple of weeks I'll be better placed to make an informed judgment.

My Revenge of the Sith CD has been on repeat play (almost) since Monday. Churlish critics will cite that Williams too blatantly quotes himself. Here, in descending order, are my favorite Star Wars soundtracks:

1). The Empire Strikes Back
2). Revenge of the Sith
3). A New Hope
4). The Phantom Menace
5). Return of the Jedi
6). Attack of the Clones

AOTC ranked lowest because unaltered orchestrations from TPM were inserted late in digital post production; George Lucas can make changes almost up to the minute of theatrical release, John Williams is ostensibly scoring an 'unlocked' print, which may explain the thicker textures to the prequel scores!

Hasbro's ROTS Darth Vader arrived today and is the best sculpture yet!

The Mercedes-Benz of fighting games

On Friday I installed Xcode 1.5 (Apple's developer suite bundled with Mac OS X 10.3 Panther) and compiled a test build of MacMAME in parity with the PC version. This was my inaugural Xcode project and, invariably, one is liable to make mistakes. In my case I set the Build Style to Development as opposed to Deployment (has to be set manually). Development culminated in myriad files, but no end user application! A total of 4 hours downtime, but educational nonetheless. Although the majority of developers currently utilize CodeWarrior, Xcode is an investment-free alternative for Mac-based hobbyists.

The ongoing improvements in Sega emulation are tangible and Dead or Alive++ is virtually playable. It was a joy to play as Kasumi (my favorite character) and best my opponents with stunning visual results.



The Dead or Alive franchise is not merely eye candy. However, the casual viewer would be forgiven for thinking so. I've ordered Dead or Alive Ultimate (for XBOX) and will post my review soon.

Mini size me

E4 will be showing the first of two The OC specials before the UK premiere of S2 tonight. And Warner Bros is set to release the show on Mini-DVD in Q1. Mini-DVD was originally developed for the US children's market and intended to compete with Hasbro's VideoNow. The idea has caught-on and mainstream electronics companies are releasing players for a wider customer base. The 3" discs (remember CD singles from Japan?) and Gameboy Advance SP scale hardware is the epitome of an always-on-the-move lifestyle! The format will also go head-to-head with Sony's proprietary PSP.



Today's Macworld Keynote from Steve Jobs may be considered historic in years to come. The feted 'headless' iMac emerged as Mac mini. A miniature marvel with a pedigree that matches the coveted Cube (2000) sans confusing marketing and prohibitive price! The SuperDrive option, coupled with Airport Express and Bluetooth, equates to a scalable A/V blockbuster beneath your TV (via Mini DVI to Video Adapter).

The zealous emulation community has dubbed the Mac mini a 'super console' when used in conjunction with MacMAME, SNES9x and PCSX (amongst others). From this Mac User's perspective the Mac mini evoked memories of the Apple/Bandai Pippin (1995) games console. The Pippin was essentially a stripped down computer (see Microsoft's XBOX) and predicted the popularity of online play (repeat income from subscription services).

The petite package includes iLife '05 (iDVD 5, iMovie HD, iPhoto 5, iTunes 4.7 and Garageband 2) and Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. I'd recommend considering iWorks if your budget precludes Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac (further upgrades are imminent and I'll post any significant changes).

In summary. It's easy to envisage these selling like hot cakes on Amazon UK and I'll most certainly purchase a Mac mini sometime this year.

And don't get me started on the ubiquitous iPod franchise. The iPod shuffle is the perfect impulse purchase and birthday gift (casual hint to family and friends). How long before both show up in hit television dramas and pop videos? Apple is the new Sony...

Although there was no official announcement regarding the release date of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. 10.3 Panther continues to reap the rewards of further development as Apple begins seeding 10.3.8. This has ignited speculation that existing hardware (PowerBook, iBook and iMac G5) will be refreshed later in the month or early February.

Joy To The World

Last evening I attended a private party at The Lord Haldon Hotel. Longtime business friends, of Dad's, kindly invited us. The genial atmosphere and high quality seasonal delicacies afforded a memorable holiday experience.

In the mid '80s when not playing scrolling shooters such as Konami's Nemesis, text-based adventures where a staple of my after-school activities. The Hobbit (1983) introduced me to the genre albeit in a bug-ridden fashion. However, Magnetic Scrolls cemented their referential status with the introduction of an Infocom-beating parser. Between 1985 and 1991 Magnetic Scrolls produced 7 titles for both 8 and 16-bit platforms. I vividly recall The Pawn's luxurious packaging, synonymous with Rainbird releases, and enviously eyeing the superlative Atari ST screenshots (by Geoff Quilley). Mac Users wishing to revisit or, indeed, become acquainted with gaming history should download and support magnetiX.



Apple released Mac OS X 10.3.7. The final Panther update for 2004 adds further polish, but Safari 1.3 has yet to materialize!

All you can eat (for free)

The advent of Peer-2-Peer (P2P) networks has fractured the stranglehold (and by extension the status quo) of vertically integrated companies. Napster became the poster child of generation net and has never shaken its subversive identity under the corporate umbrella. Why on Earth anyone wanted to buy it (ironic) is a thesis in itself!

Whilst I do not condone so-called 'free' networks trading in intellectual property, the wealth of material available online is mind-boggling! From the latest movie, music and software releases (may be deliberately leaked online in some instances) to classic computer games (no longer available). Commercial media industries now need to follow Apple Computer's lead and embrace internet technology by providing content at a compelling price point!

Owners (myself included) of Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac should download Office 2004 for Mac Service Pack 1 (11.1.0). Notice the adoption of Windows discourse with this release? Microsoft has also updated MSN Messenger, but their chat client continues to lack parity with the latest Windows release. This is unfortunate because Office 2004 is an impressive product.

Mac OS X 10.3.6 is expected in the next few weeks and promises more Panther polish until 10.4 Tiger is unleashed.

I, Robot

Appears that the former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is a fellow fan of iPods! In an interview with Wired, Will Smith told the magazine that the iPod is the gadget of the century. "I have every model. My CD collection from my entire life is on them. I probably have 52,000 songs." High praise indeed.

Found the following blog, concerning OS X 10.4 Tiger application Automator, an interesting read. Incidentally, OS X 10.3.5 is now seeding to developers and promises to be the most substantive update to Panther since its initial release last year! No idea what 'substantive' equates to, but here's hoping...

Back to Photoshop and downloading the latest patch for the World of Warcraft beta test.

Top Cat

Next week heralds Apple's WWDC 2004 (Worldwide Developers Conference). A preview edition of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger will be unveiled (alongside new hardware including a headless G5 iMac and 4G iPod if pundits are correct).

Where does that leave Mac OS X 10.3 Panther? I can only hope that Apple continues to support Panther (perhaps as far as .8) until Tiger is 'good and ready' to hit the streets. A 4G iPod would also be the perfect time to release the illusive "Home on iPod" update. iCal, iSync and Keynote are in dire need of updating too.

In the spirit of WWDC my Apple-owning history goes like this:

*1995 - Performa 5200 (bought by my parents whilst I was at University and donated to an Uncle)
*1999 - iMac DV SE (purchased whilst working at Dow Jones Reuters and sold to Tom)
*2002 - iMac LCD/JBL Creature speakers (when it hits the resell market Tom gets first refusal)
*2003 - iPod 3G

No doubt the next iteration of OS X will shepherd in an abundance of technological improvements alongside a new version of Safari et al. Tiger is rumoured for release to retail in Q1 2005. Here's to a successful WWDC that looks to the future, but not at the expense of the here and now. My credit card is primed and ready.

My Sennheiser PMX60 order arrived today. After breaking them in, over the weekend, I'll post my observations.