I was wondering why this time Apple decided to “officialize” the release of an OS X version a year before…
Snow Leopard… The official page is here.
As you can read: “Core Innovation”, the word “innovation” would make you think of new features, but it’s core innovation, so, Apple (most innovative company for many years) used in a very smart way the word innovation to tell us the OS will be the same (”Taking a break from adding new features, Snow Leopard”), but it will receive a lot of improvements (”Mac OS X, enhance its performance, and set new standards for quality”).
Then Apple reminds us of the innovation the company bring since 2001 and then “Mac OS X changes more than its spots, it changes focus”, it makes me think that Apple will now focus on Intel processors only.
Another sentence that makes it more than probable that Snow Leopard will only work for Intel based computers: “Snow Leopard dramatically reduces the footprint of Mac OS X, making it even more efficient for users, and giving them back valuable hard drive space for their music and photos.”
How will OS X give you back valuable hard drive space? By taking of the Universal applications for the system, and replacing them by Intel (only) ones.

So the aim of that page is to officialize the fact there will be a New Operating System; no more PPC support; no new features; optimized system.

“Snow Leopard” is the code name of this upcoming version of OS X (according to many non official sources).
It seems Apple wants to get rid of the 32 bits processors to switch to a 64 bits kernel for OS X.
As a result, there will be no more supported PPC processors if this version of OS X gets released on 2009 (according to rumors).
Total support for 64 bits is also the best thing for the latest generations of Intel Processors that feels better when running 64 bits applications in a 64 bits environment.

To me, everything is possible, and I won’t be surprised if another scenario happens: a 64 bits version of Leopard to run on PC computers!
But I also do think, the fact Apple will release this OS for 64 bits processors only is not possible since the iPhone’s processors are 32 bits…

Who knows?

This week Apple purchased of the chip design firm P. A. Semi and speculation has been rampant about what it all means.
Well the Journal is reporting that Jobs spoke recently about Apple’s relationship with Intel saying:

We have a great partnership with Intel. We expect that to continue forever.

He further suggested that the acquisition was mainly to improve chips to go in portable devices and dismissed speculation about a return to the Power PC platform (the technology on which P. A. Semi’s designs are based).

Since Intel released this pdf related to Core 2 Duo’s bugs, many questions are asked on these processors security. Some people even advise people not to purchase computers with Core 2 Duo inside.
It seems that these processors are able to run specific codes that are able to take over the machines in a very low security level (very hard to protect).

Intel of course deny these affirmations and consider that some bugs won’t be corrected will others will be via firmware updates of the machines.

To be continued…

While everybody’s looking for a serial number for Xtorrent, Transmission is still very popular and often updated.
Transmission is a free, easy to use and very fast BitTorrent client. Very reliable on Mac Intel and PPC, the soft is very very simple to use, here’s a screenshot:

Here’s the Direct Download Link (1.4 mb).

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc.’s Apple TV home media hub carries a much lower gross margin than the company’s iPod digital media players, market research firm iSuppli said on Wednesday.

Apple TV sells for $299 while the cost of components including an Intel Corp. Pentium M processor and 40 gigabyte hard drive from Fujitsu Ltd., came to $237, iSuppli said.

That leaves a gross margin of 20.7 percent, compared to margins of 40 to 50 percent for iPods, iSuppli said.
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While Apple switched to Intel processors, IBM just launched the fast processor ever…

IBM broke another chip record Monday and played to its strength in high-performance servers, launching the dual-core Power6 processor. Running at 4.7 GHz, the Power6 is twice as fast as the previous generation of Power5 processors, and is being called the fastest microprocessor ever made.

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