It's always a wonder why gaming is not so big in Macintosh as much as it is in Windows operating systems, and its just a shame why there's so many games that don't make it to Apples and Macintoshes. Case in point: the Half-Life franchise. Kikizo talked with Valve's big boss Gabe Newell about the issue, and things aren't looking so cool with the future of gaming in Apple's operating systems.

Newell said that he tried to talk with Apple about how to improve gaming on the Macintosh, and while they gave a positive response, he said that Apple didn't follow up on what was agreed upon:

Well, we have this pattern with Apple, where we meet with them, people there go "wow, gaming is incredibly important, we should do something with gaming". And then we'll say, "OK, here are three things you could do to make that better", and then they say OK, and then we never see them again.

An even sadder fact is that whenever Newell meets with another group sent by Apple, they were most likely unaware on what was agreed upon in previous meetings. Because of this, Newell is now convinced that Apple is not serious on gaming at all. "None of the things developers ask them to do are done," he said. "And as a result, there's no gaming market there to speak of."

It truly is a sad outlook for Macintosh users hoping to get more games in the future. Hopefully Apple will listen this time: Newell does seem to know what he is talking about after all, with his valuable inputs about managing a company as well as dealing with customers.


Check out the Read link for the entire interview!

Apple's OS X Leopard appears to be in the release candidate stage, based on a recent rumor that's in circulation. In software-speak, the release candidate stage happens right after an app's Beta stage, and comes just before the application goes gold. This means that if there are no major bugs spotted on Leopard, we could be looking at a retail release coming out (or getting announced) soon.
 
As blogger Glen noted during our previous report, Leopard contained two issues: The first was an upgrade issue from Tiger to Leopard on Power PC system, while the second was an incompatibility issue with HP printers. These are all the details we've got for the moment - stick around in case we hear Apple's take on this bit of speculation.

It was initially reported that Apple recently seeded Leopard 9A528d. Now MacRumors reports that Leopard 9A559 is being made available to ADC members for further testing. So far, there are two known issues that the Cupertino-based company must address.

First is an upgrade issue from Tiger to Leopard on Power PC systems. Details were vague on what exactly goes on when such a process is attempted, but but we'll give you an update as soon as we find out.

The second concerns incompatibility issues with HP printers. Driver issues seem to be at the core of this one, and a fix is said to be coming in. Apple must now fast-track Leopard finalization to beat the October shipping deadlines to make good on its promise after the initial delay of the new OS last April.

One of the very first predictions to surface for the new iPod is that it would be an iPhone without the Phone and that seems to be the case - to the letter. Gizmodo got some unofficial word from inside Apple that the iPod Touch can run all the applications that the iPhone can (save for the ones that use the phone function of course, which would be useless).

The iPod Touch and the iPhone "use the same damn binaries," according to the source. Except for the interface, there's no real difference between the two devices. Although the iPod Touch will not have Mail or Weather and Stocks as part of its application collection (probably just to differentiate the functions of the device), they both run on the same Mac OS X core.

Logically the iPod Touch can run any application - even third party software - the iPhone can. So even if the iPod Touch doesn't initially have the same programs, all it should take is to allow a method of transfer of iPhone applications to the iPod Touch and voila! Once the iPod Touch comes out it won't be long before this is confirmed. Updates as we get them.

Apple's upcoming operating system Leopard wouldn't be available until October this year but even this early, we've been hearing a lot about its features and how it differs from the current OS Tiger. And just like in previous OS updates, some consumers are wondering how to emulate those features on Tiger.

Online site AppleTell has an interesting article about the above mentioned "problem" and divulged that there are a couple of existing third party applications that provide users some solution. For starters, here are some of the features that you can add to your Tiger and give it some "spots" so to speak to make it look like Leopard:

• Time Machine: Unfortunately, no current application truly lives up to Time Machine, but an app called SuperDuper seems to do the trick pretty well.
• Spaces: Although Virtual Desktops have been around for a while, Spaces brings them to a whole new level. Fortunately, we don't have to wait until October to use virtual desktops, as two current apps do the job already, VirtueDesktops and Desktop Manager
• Stacks: Even though LeopardÂ?s stacks cannot truly be emulated with an app, thereÂ?s a simple trick to getting a piece of stacks in Tiger.
• UI: You can modify Tiger's UI to look like Leopard's with a theme called Liger. Just install ShapeShifter and ClearDock from Unsanity, and download Liger.
• Finder: here are such things as "Finder replacements" that will give your current file browsing experience a boost. Some of these Finder replacements include Path Finder, Macintosh Explorer, and Forklift
• iChat: ChatFX brings many Photo Booth-like effects and the famed blue screen effect over to iChat on Tiger. Although a bit unstable at times, ChatFX gives you a taste of iChat on Leopard.
• Dashboard: With Leopard, you can now clip parts of web pages and put them in Dashboard, thanks to a new feature called Web Clip. Tiger users can clip web pages as well with a widget.

This might be a hit or miss for most of you, but for the Mac enthusiasts (StrmnNrmn and myself included), this leaked video is one geekgasm you wouldn't want to miss. The short clip we are about to see is the introductory video for the new Mac OS X Leopard. Introductory video? What's that, you ask? Basically it's what fires up (in full screen, mind you) once you finally install Leopard into your system.

As introductory videos go, this one has familiar elements from previous OS versions' introductions, but generally, it's way better. The video is simple. It runs for thirty seconds with the word "Welcome" flashing again and again in different languages. Velkommen. Welkom. Bienvenue. Willkommen... You have to see it for yourself to appreciate it:

What everyone's asking though is what song is used in the video. If you happen to know, give us a holler, why don't you?

As the next-generation Mac OS X Leopard prowls closer, Apple Inc. is making sure that all major bugs are killed and that general stability is at an optimum level.

To do this, Apple asked for the assistance of their development community through a survey that the developers must fill up based on the experience they've had with a near-final build of the software.

The near-complete Leopard was tested under six categories, specifically Mail & Web, Graphics & Media, Setup & Mobility, Desktop & Interface, Productivity & Communication, and Sharing & Devices.

Results have yet to be brought back in, but Apple is confident that there will be positive results after they issued a 505MB system update called the Mac OS X Leopard 9A500n build. The update is geared towards creating the most stable OS environment possible as well as a general bug fixer.

Apple made no announcement as to whether or not the results will be made public, but it said all is going according to plan, and the October release of the much-anticipated software should happen barring any more delays.

 

Since when did StrmnNrmn do Get a Mac ads? Well, his latest blog update is all about compiling Daedalus PSP on Mac OS X, and if there's one thing that you should know, it's that he's been able to speed up his process in coding everyone's favorite Nintendo 64 emulator. With a quick conclusion, StrmnNrmn has what it takes to boot out Justin Long from his role as the Mac guy:

Daedalus PSP compiles perfectly under OSX. On my 2.4 GHz Macbook Pro it takes just under 50 seconds. On my 2.4GHz Windows machine it takes over 2 minutes to compile, so I'm very impressed with the results.

Talk about free promotion for Mac. But moving on, StrmnNrmn's kept true to his word the other day about posting a very detailed - a very, very, very detailed - tutorial on how to compile Daedalus on Mac OS X. This will also help other homebrew developers in general since a large portion of the how-to revolves around setting up the PSPSDK on a Mac.

As we've stressed, the post is highly detailed since it tackles the many nuances and obstacles that you might/will encounter while trying to set up your homebrewing space on the Mac system. So, for those who are interested, the Read link is attached below. StrmnNrmn's also welcome to constructive discussions in the comments section on his blog, so drop a line, why don't you?

For StrmnNrmn's tutorial, dock into the Read link below!

With StrmnNrmn's most recent Nintendo 64 Daedalus R12 emulator released just a little over a month ago, everything's been pretty quite lately - well, excluding the whole misinformation and identity theft issue, at least. Wondering what's been up with the homebrew developer? QJ readers Tyler Dickinson and blackrave tipped us off (a million thanks, guys!), saying that StrmnNrmn's updated his blog.

Seems like StrmnNrmn's had a break since the release of R12, wanting to sit back a while and recharge his batteries. You can't blame him; R12 was quite a burden with all the dynarec bugs and fragment simulation going on. So, to summarize the things StrmnNrmn's been up to for the previous few weeks:

• a trip to Spain
• his Xbox 360 getting hit by the Red Ring of Death
• moving into a new flat in Guilford
• getting a 17" MacBook Pro

Interesting. For one, I wonder what he's been playing on his 360 for it to have gotten RROD'ed. But on a more Daedalus-related note, that MacBook Pro of his just might save everyone's lives. StrmnNrmn said that he's now compiling Daedalus with it, instead of his year old desktop PC. The switch to Mac OS X, he says, allows him to compile Daedalus much faster. Not a big surprise - that MacBook Pro's quite a beast with its tech specs.

This imposes a couple of good things for all parties concerned:

1. StrmnNrmn has an easier and faster time working on Daedalus,
2. We can hear more about his Daedalus progress via his blog, and
   
3. You could find Daedalus R13 on your lap as soon as tomorrow (a bit of a stretch, but hey!, we can dream too)

Well, StrmnNrmn did mention that he can now start working on Daedalus R13 - what with being able to recharge and level up to MacBook Pro status (for the Mac Junkies, StrmnNrmn will "have some details and tutorials about compiling Daedalus PSP under OS X in the near future"). He leaves us with what we can expect on R13 though. Here's what' he's looking at for the next couple of weeks:

I'd like to continue working on speeding up the emulator to try and improve the framerate for titles that are already working. [...] There are a number of different areas I can investigate to help improve performance. The two main possibilities I want to investigate are working on further dynarec improvements, and looking at making use the Media Engine.

He says that, based on your comments, these are what you guys are most interested in seeing for R13. So, to get the ball rolling, StrmnNrmn's going to investigate these areas to tweak and will soon have details to update us with soon enough.

More bug news about Apple, and this time it's about Mac OS X. It seems that a recent addition of an exploit to the infamous Metasploit hacking framework has upped the level of threat that an unpatched bug in Samba currently poses to the system it's installed on, as well as on its user. This warning came directly from Symantec Corp., the company expressing concern over what appears to be apathy on Apple's part.

Of course, the people behind Samba had already done their homework on the bug itself. In fact, the patch that resolved the vulnerability in the open-source file and print-sharing program was produced and distributed by the Samba community exactly the day it was announced. That fixes things for Samba, but not for the Mac OS X itself.

So what's the unpatched bug, really? When turning on the Mac OS X's Windows Sharing feature, it also activates Samba. Keep in mind, Samba is not just a Mac OS X exclusive file-sharing software, as it's also used by PC and Linux users. This in itself is already a very wide opening in terms of security for the Mac OS X, as users can easily take advantage of the exploit and gain root access. Of course, this "opening" is very easily closed, as users only need to disable Windows Sharing - but it's more of a temporary stopgap rather than an actual remedy.

Apple's products may have few bugs and exploits, but by no means is it an excuse to not stay on your toes when root access security is concerned. That aside, let's hope for some timely measures coming from Apple itself. Updates as we get them.