Back in October 2005, Apple filed a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office about "System and method for computing a desktop picture." Last Thursday, details of the said creation were published for the first time with credits going to employees Ralph Brunner, Imran Chaudhri, and Mark Zimmer.

Accordingly, the Mac OS X operating system will be enhanced with the addition of active desktop pictures, or desktop backgrounds that can include motion graphics. These, then, will alter themselves depending on user actions or the time of the day. The technique will reduce requirements for both VRAM and RAM because static picture files will no longer be used.

Apple went on to explain that since the pictures are being computed quickly by a GPU, they now can be made to move on demand. Part of its patent reads,

This includes movement, for example, when logging in, logging out, and transitioning to and from a screen saver, providing a seamless experience. It can also include slow movement, such as seen when a soft tree shadow is cast, with the gentle rustling of leaves in the breeze, or slow movement over time, or concerted movement to mark the passing of time (e.g., a noticeable change to pattern or color every hour).

The "active desktop" patent has many potential uses based on the way Apple described it. Some of the other features include computation of several gradations over time hence mimicking the changes in the color of the sky. As if all of these are not enough, Apple also hinted that users can further enhance the experience using an editing tool.

As will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, the foregoing examples are provided as just a few examples of the many types of events that may be used to trigger a change in the desktop picture, and are not intended to be an exhaustive list. It will be appreciated that various other types of events may be used to trigger a change in the desktop picture and are within the scope of the present invention.

The launch of the loudly-trumpeted Windows Vista and the relative market success that followed it did little, if any, damage to the sales performance of Apple computers, says a report by Apple Insider.

Apple sales are down by a mere tenth of a point, which is quite a feat considering that many analysts assumed a market storm by the new Microsoft operating system. The storm has passed and Apple still stands. The Mac's 30 percent annual growth was unaffected this year as it remained at a solid 30 percent.

Apple's computer hardware department is in the US top five of dealers, only slightly behind market leaders Dell and Hewlett-Packard. It faces some tough competition, though, as Southeast-Asian manufacturers Lenovo, Acer and Toshiba also posted strong shipment figures.

"Microsoft's official consumer launch of Vista in January, [sic] had very limited impact on overall worldwide shipment demand on a quarterly basis," says research firm Gartner.

Apple is set to release its own next-generation operating system called Mac OS X Leopard edition, which it claims is easily superior to the Windows Vista. The Leopard is slated to arrive late this year.

Here's something interesting. A while back, Macenstein posted about an unusual entry in the built-in Dictionary/Thesaurus app that ships with Mac OS X. According to the post, someone from rave.com noticed that if you type the word "democracy" into the Dictionary widget and then switch over to the thesaurus, you get the following example usage of the word:

It's an odd and slightly controversial example, so the guys from Macenstein checked with the people from Oxford University Press to get their side of the story. After three weeks of waiting, they finally got a response from the dictionaries editor of the Oxford University Press.

The editor said that he "checked the hardcopy of the New Oxford American Dictionary & Thesaurus and did not find in it any sample sentence attached to the definition of democracy." The editor also added that he suspects it was "added by the Apple programmers."

Did a border programmer add that little nugget of knowledge? We can't rightly say. Still, we're leaving you guys with another example from the same widget. Feel free to tell us what you think by leaving a comment below.

Here's some good news and bad news. The good news is that everyone who wants an iPhone will get one late in June. The bad news is that you won't get the Mac OS X Leopard until October unless you're a developer.

In a statement posted on there official site, the Apple corporation said that there had to be some trade-offs in the development of the two products to make sure that one of them would come out on time. Apple says that it had to "borrow resources" from the OS X project to have them work to complete the iPhone on time.

Apple said that beta copies of the OS X Leopard will be given to developers on its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. This will enable the Apple developer community to test the new system and detect whatever glitches there may still be.

We'll keep you posted as the iPod/ Leopard journey unravels in the next few months.

The poor guy who blew from boredom to stardom within minutes in Digg is now being hounded by Linux and Apple command line weavers for his apparent limited knowledge. In his opinion piece at the Apple Matters blog, he questioned the intuitiveness of Apple's Mac OS X when he committed a fatal mistake of deleting a directory vital to the Unix kernel.

While Matthew Bookspan could be excused for being in a rush to delete his /usr directory, the fact that he did use third party programs (NO-IP, to be specific) to provide above average user access otherwise unavailable, turns tables against him. But even then, we can't see the relation of his mistake to the the Mac OS X intuitiveness question.

Still, it should be apparent to anyone that there are things in your computer that just shouldn't be touched. Well, okay, that's not the entire truth: you can touch those sensitive folders, but only when you do have the technical knowledge or expertise to do so. In short, if you don't know what you're doing, don't do it.

But granted Bookspan learned his lesson, new computer users should also be vigilant on what they're doing, what effects it would lead to and who the action will affect. And because the Mac is slowly squeezing into the corporate world, new Apple users should heed our advice.

...right off the box! Kudos to curious Randy of Randy's Rants and Grant of Joystiq. After grabbing the newly-released game and controller bundle of Guitar Hero II, they simply plugged it into their Windows machines. And that's right: Windows recognized the controller perfectly.

It's really nothing new, but since Microsoft has been providing Xbox 360 controller ports to use your wireless Xbox 360 controllers on Windows, this controller just screams Plug n' Play.

Playing Frets on Fire, a free clone of Guitar Hero, Grant found that it even works great, after a little controller configuration. Window Vista may have a little bit of a frame rate problem with the game, but if you could step up to official Vista drivers, it should run fine.

Mac OS X is a slightly different story, as Grant claims the controller isn't recognized as an HID-compliant device, with GamePad Companion or the open source Xbox 360 driver.

Additionally, the OS X version of Frets on Fire couldn't be run successfully. So we could extend this post to the Apple blog hoping to catch the eyes of practicing porters and see if they could do anything about it.

Watch out though, butcher99 tried plugging his controller onto the USB port of his Windows Vista machine and Logitech devices, which could include ultra-sensitive G5 laser mice and G15 macro keyboards, to stop working. It's another compatibility problem that Microsoft doesn't have any solution for, except perhaps keeping the controller plugged into your Xbox 360.

Like Randy, we're anxious to know what the homebrew community can spruce up for this interesting little development. Photo courtesy of Randy.

We've seen one too many iPhone analysis articles now. What's with all the hype? It's all needed, though, for the fate of millions of Apple company investors and employees rely on the success of this spotlighted product.

The latest news on the iPhone hype has financial researchers assuring Apple investors that iPhone, iPod and Mac sales would continue pushing the company forward. iPod holds a 24 percent share on the world market for media players, a figure thought to rise by half a percentage point. Mac sales is seen to go up by the upcoming launch of the Mac OS X Leopard.

But all this hype on the iPhone could give rise to a dilemma for the giant electronics company - the iPhone could rival the iPod. It may seem silly knowing as how both products are by the same company, but iPhone could greatly affect iPod sales and thus, the financial health of Apple.

Other factors that would greatly affect Apple money health are negative issues on the iPhone - if they are to come. The analysts warn against negative news, delays, quality or usability issues - these can all easily damage Apple reputation and it's stock.

Truly, we sometimes cannot picture such so-so things as rumor and delays to affect something as tangible as money and stocks. But they are highly correlated. Such is the business of the finance world.

MacNN reports that Google Desktop is now available to Mac users the world over. Google Desktop is a new Universal app that indexes the contents of a Mac's hard drive. This includes everything from applications and files to Web histories from Safari, Firefox, and Camino, enabling users to keep a closer eye on their files, including results from previous Gmail searches when offline.

Google Desktop for Mac is currently in beta form and supports Spotlight plug-ins. It also uses Spotlight privacy features to prevent some documents from being searched. The app also includes a new Google app that lets users stay updated and download more Mac apps from Google. It also has an optional feature that integrates with Google's Web search, allowing users to search their PC's local desktop from Google.

Future iterations of Google Desktop are expected to include support for Gadget integration. Google Desktop will run on PowerPC-based and Intel-based Macs with Mac OS X 10.4 or later. Mac users can download Google Desktop by clicking on the link below.

Download: Google Desktop for Mac beta

  
  

In the spirit of bringing you more Apple TV-related modifications, we're now gonna show you how to run the full Mac OS X on the Apple TV. semthex from Hackint0sh.org hacked out a replacement to the Mac OS X kernel, side-stepping over certain hardware restrictions that previously made running the Mac OS X on an Apple TV improbable.

Here are the steps to install the full Mac OS X on the Apple TV. Install at your own risk.

1) Remove the drive from the Apple TV
2) Back up your drive! Make an image of it (see the harddrive upgrade tutorial for this)
3) Connect the drive to a regular Mac (use a Firewire or USB drive dock)
4) Install OS X (Intel version) to the drive (we suggest a slim install - no printer drivers etc.)
5) Boot from this drive, and set it up as you would like it. Make sure you do updates so it is at least 10.4.8.
6) Reboot to your normal OS X install.
7) Remove mach_kernel from root of the drive containg the ATV install.
8) Replace it with the customised mach_kernel that youÂ?ll find on Hackint0sh.org.
9) Replace /System/Libary/Coreservices/boot.efiwith the same file from your backup of the Apple TV OS drive (OSBoot partition).
10) Run bless:

bless --folder=/Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/CoreServices --file=/Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi --setBoot

11) Delete all the Nvidia kexts (all beginning with NVD, there should be 5) from the target drive (in /System/Library/Extensions).
12) Transfer the drive back to the Apple TV
13) Turn the Apple TV on and cross your fingers...

And you should boot up into Mac OS X. The Apple TV running Mac OS X can use the mouse and the keyboard normally. Use either Front Row or Back Row to watch content.

For a more detailed how-to, check the installation video by clicking on the full article link below.

The following statements under this heading are entirely speculative, though they would make any Mac fan more excited about the upcoming Mac OS X software to be released, version 10.5 or the Leopard.

Everybody's been wondering about the essential new feature that the Leopard will have. Recently the speculation has come to this; that the Leopard will feature resolution independence, an application that could render its windows irrespective of the physical resolution of the screen.

With the Leopard's Core Animation, resolution independence will allow building things like iTune's cover flow very easily. But the only thing missing is an easy way to manipulate objects in three dimensions. Our source mentions garbage collection: a new feature in Leopard that allows the system to determine whether the memory is still needed and to free it if it isn't.

Unfortunately, garbage collection doesn't apply as a way to manipulate objects in three dimensions. Garbage collection only looks at whether a program still points to a block of memory. If it does, the block is in use and it's not garbage collected.

There are more speculative details about what the Leopard essential new feature will be, but the fact of the matter? We'll all see about it in due time.