Fighting a war on a different front, two factions have always been at each other's necks. On one side, we have the superpower called Microsoft, and across the border we have the alliance called Apple. Whichever side you root for doesn't change the fact that they've been delivering top quality games and gadgets for everyone throughout the years.

The Wire has had a chance to talk to Glenda Adams, director of development for Aspyr Games, a company responsible for bringing PC games such as The Sims 2 and Star Wars: Empire at War to the Mac. She talks about the perks and quirks of porting games from one system to another.

While the most difficult thing for making games for the Mac has always been the smaller market, her love and background with the Mac has always prompted her to go for this line compared to any alternatives.

Adams states that the difficulty in converting a PC game to the Mac isn't as hard as people think. The bulk of the work really relies on optimizing, debugging and finishing all the small details to make it compatible for the Mac is what takes up the most time. Especially now that the integration of Intel chips for the Mac has resolved more compatibility issues when converting games.

When asked about the pros of the Mac over the PC gaming-wise, she had this to say:

Installing games on the Mac is always easier than Windows, I think. And because Apple has tighter control over hardware, we have a much better chance to test and optimize our Mac games for all the hardware we support than on the PC. There are so many combinations of motherboards, sound cards, video cards, and peripherals on the PC that it can be a mess for a developer to make sure their game works on most configs.

Well, PC or Mac, it doesn't really matter in the end just as long as they deliver to us more goods to keep the gamer in us happy.

The Mac Mini is by far the smallest desktop computer from Apple. It's been said that it's being targetted at those interested in a low budget personal computer.

While news regarding the product has died down a bit, Steve Jobs has assured the public that it is still very much alive and will be released with a faster processor.

There are two models currently available at the Apple store, the 1.83 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo (US$ 599) and the 2 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo (US$ 799). The lower priced Mac is packaged with 1 GB of ram and an 80GB hard drive, while the higher end unit will also ship with 1GB of RAM and a significantly larger 120GB hard drive. All the units are not pre-packaged with a monitor, keyboard, or mouse but you can order these in addition to your system.

All in all, both packages look like very attractive alternatives to low cost systems. After looking over the specs, this blogger finds himself wishing that Steve Jobs would create a high-end system designed for gaming while retaining the form factor of the Mac Mini. That would just be sublime.

A few months ago, there was a video in circulation of what appeared to be a successful hack for Apple TV. The video in question detailed what appeared to be Apple TV booting up from an external hard drive.

We'll be following up on that hack with this similarly reported attempt done by AppleTVHacks.net and FatWallet. This newly released patch will enable Apple TV to boot up from its internal hard drive, while using an external USB (hard) drive as its main storage unit.

We imagine owners trying to get more space out of their Apple TV will find this patch most useful. For the guys wondering how to pull this off, here's what you'll need:

• An ssh-enabled Apple TV.
• An Intel-Mac or Intel-based *nix.
• An installed version of Mac OS X 10.4 Intel. Or a full copy of the contents of the Â?/System/Library/ExtensionsÂ? folder from one.
• An original, unmodified copy of the Â?mach_kernel.prelinkÂ? file from the Apple TV.
• An external USB drive formatted using Â?Journaled HFS+Â?.
  

Full installation details are available at the read link. As a further backgrounder for this patch, the original creator was actually Patrick Walton of the University of Chicago. Patrick wrote the original patch, while AppleTVHacks further fine-tuned it after they encountered a syncing problem. Just be reminded that thus patch has been designed to work on Apple TV software v1.0 - it might not work on v1.1.

 

The Apple community is buzzing with the announcement of the new MacBook Pro Software Update 1.0 which, strangely enough, doesn't carry a lot of details from Apple except for the description that it fixes bugs and optimizes processes. It's recommended for 2.2/2.4Ghz models which have OS X 10.4.9 or higher installed.

The MacBook Pro Software Update 1.0 is driven by the Intel Core Duo chip which runs at 2.2/2.4Ghz tops. It packs 4GB of DDR-2 clocked at 667Mhz. The Frontside bus is at 800Mhz to round up the uber hardware chops.

That means, in a nutshell, that you can pretty much do everything you want with this baby. Whether you love 3D games, video editing or sound encoding, the MacBook Pro with Software Update 1.0 should deliver sweeter goods than ever.

Apple has finally released a new update that brings Mac OS X version 10.4.9 up to version 10.4.10. This delta update is for both PowerPC-based and Intel-based Macs. The update includes the following fixes and features:

• Bluetooth
• Addresses an issue in which a Bluetooth headset may show up as an available device for sound output in the Sound preference pane after it had been removed from Bluetooth preferences.
• Third-party
• Adds RAW image decoding support for the following cameras: Panasonic DMC-LX1, Panasonic DMC-LX2, Leica M8, Leica D-LUX 2, Leica D-LUX 3, Fuji S5 Pro, Nikon D40x, and Canon EOS 1D Mk III.
• Resolves an issue in which some DNG images may appear tinted or distorted.
• Improves compatibility of Mathematica 6 with 64-bit Macs.
• USB
• Improves reliability when using the IR remote control after waking from sleep.
• Improves reliability when mounting external USB hard drives.
• Resolves an issue in which a TomTom GO 910 may not be recognized when connected via USB to an Intel-based Mac.
• Other
• Improves responsiveness when using the Control-Eject key combination to display a shutdown dialog.
• Addresses a specific issue in which users importing video from a DV camera may experience dropped frames.
• Includes recent Apple security updates.
• Addresses issues with calendar calculations in certain applications.
• Addresses issues when rounding decimal numbers for display in certain applications.
• For Motion, addresses an issue in which some texture corruption could appear in Motion if VRAM is full.

You can get the update via Software Update or by clicking on the "Read" link below and downloading the standalone installer. Installation instructions as well as more information can also be accessed via the "Read" link.

As most Apple fans know, the Apple WWDC is going pretty strong. A lot of people have their own thoughts about the iPhone and Mac OS X Leopard, but no amount of speculating beat first hand information.

Mac Rumors was lucky enough to get some details from those who attended the WWDC and were able to get some details about the Leopard. In addition, they also gave some of their impressions on the product which were quite insightful. Consistently, the people who saw it have been raving about the new mail system that Apple implemented.

Another thing that was pointed out by one of the attendees is the fact that Spotlight has been tweaked so that it has become "much more responsive." Another thing that was pointed out was that "Safari seems faster and now has that styled text editor as in Firefox." For those who are worried about the requirements of the said OS, don't fret, the readme on the copies handed out clarified everything (it's no Vista in terms of memory requirements).

System Requirements:

• an Intel processor or a PowerPC G4 or G5 processor
• a DVD drive
• built-in FireWire
• at least 256 MB of RAM for a Power-PC based Mac and 512 MB for an Intel-based Mac (additional RAM is recommended for development purposes)
• a built-in display or a display connected to an Apple-supplied video card supported by your computer
• at least 6 GB of disk space available, or 8 GB if you install the developer tools

That said, it looks like the Mac OS X Leopard is primed and ready to hit the ground running. Hopefully it will be everything and more Mac users wish it to be. Keep checking back here for more updates on the WWDC and the products featured there.

After fifteen months, the Camino Project has finally unveiled Camino 1.5. This is the latest and most substantial update to their Camino 1.0 web browser.

Some of the new features in Camino 1.5 include a built-in Mac OS X Spellchecker that works on every text field and added support for session saving. With the latter, Camino can now automatically load whatever websites you were visiting when you quit or when you suffer a crash.

RSS feed detection has also been added to the Camino browser. In Camino 1.5, an icon will appear on the location bar when a feed is found. Clicking on that icon and selecting a feed will send the selected feed straight to the user's default feed reader. Tabbed browsing has also been improved with new tooltips and navigation features.

Camino 1.5 runs on Mozilla's popular Gecko 1.8.1 rendering engine, the same engine used by Firefox 2. The browser is available as is a universal binary and runs natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs.

Online site Gizmodo recently scored an interview with an Apple representative who gave insights about the updated line of MacBook Pro that comes with LED-backlit displays. Take note that only the 15-inch models will come with the said display while the 17-inch one comes with 1900-1200 high resolution display.

When asked why the LED displays are not available for both versions, the representative refused to comment. Intriguingly, it has been speculated by some sources before that Blu-ray might be coming to Apple's newest baby. Another concern is that whether the fonts for the Intel Centrino Pro-equipped MacBook Pro will be too small.

The representative commented that "the Custom to Order option for the higher-res screen is geared toward the pro users who need it in the field." Despite these, Apple clarified that the brightness and color range for the new displays will be similar to the previous generation.

Other important details include:

• Battery Life save by the LED Backlighting: 30 minutes to an hour vs. the older models (Including savings from Santa Rosa, so there's no way to distinguish the improvements individually)
• Full brightness warmup: instantly at full brightness, unlike traditional LCDs
• Glossy and Matte finish in all screen sizes and variants
• Hard Drive configs: TK on the perpendicular configs. 200GB at 4200 RPM for the 15-inch, and 250GB at 4200RPM at the 17-inch [I'd rather have the faster drives that are slightly smaller, regardless of impact on battery and storage
• Speakers on the 17-inch have been improved low frequency response

Apple has updated its line of MacBook Pro notebooks with faster models. These new MacBook Pros come equipped with the latest Core 2 Duo processors from Intel, increased memory of up to 4GB, and some nifty high-speed graphics courtesy of the Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT.

The new models come encased in a one-inch thin lightweight aluminum enclosures and are available in 15- and 17-inch models. The 15-inch models now sport mercury-free LED-backlit displays. The 17-inch model, on the other hand, features an optional 1920-1200 high-resolution display.

The 15-Inch MacBook pros come in two models: a 2.2 GHz model that retails for a suggested price of US$ 1,999 and a 2.4 GHz model that retails for a suggested price of US$ 2,499. The 17-inch 2.4GHz model has a suggested price tag of US$ 2,799. All of these models are now available.

Apple is gearing up to unleash a wild bunch of new iMacs with the "brushed Metal" look popularized by the company. It'll come up big - literally - with a display planned to be larger than current 24 inch models.

The early word is that it'll ship shortly after the company's Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC). Pricing is set to be the same or very close to the current iMac roster on retail shelves. In addition, Apple will also get rid of the 17 inch version and will instead go to the more cost-efficient 20 inch model.

The Santa Rosa chipset will be utilized to power the new iMacs, and this means the thing should probably be as reliable as any of its predecessors ever were.