It seems like Microsoft and Apple may soon be hand-in-hand once again as evidence of a new crossover utilizing both company's products has recently been sighted. During a recent demonstration at the Citrix Application Delivery Conference in Melbourne, presenters were able to use a client desktop software entitled "XenDesktop" to access Windows sessions over a Citrix server. More details regarding this can be found in our full article.

Those who plan to upgrade to Apple's new OS X Leopard may need this heads-up: quite a number of people who upgraded to Leopard last Friday experienced quite an alarming blue screen of death after successfully installing Leopard and rebooting their Macs. Almost all users who reported experiencing the problem said that they chose the default "Upgrade" option.

Some people tried reinstalling the OS via the "Archive and Install" option, and successfully got rid of the blue screen of death. Other users who opted to wait it out had to wait from more than one up to three hours before the blue screen disappeared.

Apple reportedly blamed the APE (Application Enhancer) by Unsanity LLC included in the OS as the culprit. Unsanity, on the other hand, blamed the spread of a bogus fix that prompted users to manually delete APE through Unix.

Certainly a rough launch for Apple's much awaited OS upgrade. Will this problem get fixed soon? Do stay tuned to find out.

Come September next year, the Apple scene may be seeing the appearance of an OpenOffice office suite that will work natively with Mac OS X. That is, this new build won't require you to install the Unix windowing software called X11, which has been the source of headaches among Mac users.

This information we're picking is based on a presentation by Eric Bachard, who also noted that September 2008 may see OpenOffice v3.0 getting released. As it stands, OpenOffice most recent build is version 2.3.0. Eric is among the the lead developers of the Mac "Aqua" (the name for the MAC OS X GUI) port of OpenOffice.

At the moment, the most hassle-free OpenOffice port we've picked up is Planamesa Software's NeoOffice. This particular build reportedly works more seamlessly with Aqua since it doesn't require the X11 environment , although at the cost of higher memory usage. The latest build for NeoOffice at this point is v2.2.1, and is based on OpenOffice v2.2.1.

  

If you've been keeping tabs on Apple's war against DRM, you probably already know that users can now download DRM-free tracks from the iTunes store. But what you probably didn't know is that while you're able to download all the high-quality music you want, sharing it with others might not be such a good idea, as you could probably end up sharing your account info along with your playlist.

And no, we're not kidding. Try these simple steps to see that we're dead serious about this.

1. Launch Terminal.
2. Go to one of your iTunes plus downloads. Try downloading a song (an iTunes plus single of the week would do).
3. Use the UNIX "strings" command to take a gander at the text in your data and grep to search for your own name. (strings 01 Ooh La.m4a | grep name)
4. Similarly, you can try to open all the strings in TextEdit. (strings 01 Ooh La.m4a | open -f.)

If you did it correctly, you'll be able to find your own name embedded in that music file you've just downloaded - which would pretty much leave a direct trail to you should you torrent the songs you've just downloaded. So think first before making any rash decisions about illegal file-sharing - you may be giving away more than just free music.

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.

For those of you who really love your classic Mac setup, you can run MacOS 9 on an Intel Mac thanks to a program called Sheep Shaver by Gwenole Beauchesne. This isn't that new (Sheep Shaver has been around for a while, and the Intel transition's been covered a lot), but for those of you who need a tutorial, you can read the steps here (just click on the Full Article link below).

Of course, performance may vary depending on your system.

And here's a bit more about Sheep Shaver from its documentation:

• SheepShaver runs Mac OS 7.5.2 thru MacOS 9.0.4
• PowerPC G4 emulation on non-PowerPC platforms, direct execution otherwise
• Basic but portable JIT engine (x86, x86_64, mips)
• Copy and paste of text between MacOS and the host OS
• File exchange with the host OS via a Unix icon on the Mac desktop
• Color video display with support for run-time resolution switching
• Run-time depth switching from 1 bpp to current host depth settings
• Native QuickDraw 2D acceleration for BitBlt and FillRect operations
• CD-quality stereo sound output
• Networking: SheepShaver supports Internet and LAN networking via Ethernet and PPP with all Open Transport compatible MacOS applications

Download: [Sheep Shaver]

A new version of the popular relational database application for Macs has been released for those of you running a Mac with an Intel core processor. The Firebird 1.5.3 SuperServer version for that platform was released just a couple of days ago, with those who own Intel Macs probably jumping up and down when they heard the news.

Firebird is a relational database offering many ANSI SQL standard features that runs on Linux, Windows, and a variety of Unix platforms. Firebird offers excellent concurrency, high performance, and powerful language support for stored procedures and triggers. It has been used in production systems, under a variety of names since 1981.

With the success of the Intel Macs it's hard to see why it has taken so long for Firebird to be Intel Mac compatible, but we cannot complain as the moment is now here.

Download: [Firebird v1.5.3 for Intel Macs]

As usual, this WWDC is generating a minor controversy (for Apple newbies, the WWDC is the World Wide Developers Conference where Apple shares some love with developers and the media).

Apple announced that it has opened its kernel source for the OS X Intel build to developers. For those not in the know, the kernel is the core of most operating systems like OS X, Windows, Linux, or Unix; the kernel "sits in the middle" and manages the back-and-forth between hardware (especially the CPU), software, and the system's resources; in short, the kernel is very, very important.

The source that Apple is opening up to developers is not the source of the entire OS X. The source is only for the kernel of Mac OS X 10.4.7, but this is still big news for developers. Why? Because looking at the kernel for the Intel version of the OS X will allow software developers to make more stable programs for the OS X Intel version. The kernel source for the OS X for the PowerPC was made available a while back, but the source for the Intel version wasn't made available (even though Apple started switching to Intel processors after the transition to Intel was announced last June, 2005).

What's the controversy? Well, it's only a minor one. We just notice that this news reopened the debate in various forums between those who like open source and those who fear that this will lead to a whole slew of crappy software that will just end up crashing the OS X. And since the "crash-proof-nessity" of the OS X is a major selling point against Windows, the anti-Windows faction fears that this will make the OS X into "another Windows." In my humble opinion, while this may be a valid concern, history has shown the opposite to be true: everyone ends up happy with the resulting software, software sales increase (or at least remain stable), and people become happier with all the alternatives and software that become available for the OS (of course, that's just my opinion of the general nature of things; please don't hunt me down if you disagree, ha ha, but feel free to flame me, ho ho).

There's more big news: Apple announced the next major OS X release: Leopard, scheduled for 2007. It looks like Apple is looking forward to how opening the open source will boost development. However, there's not much more we can say about the Leopard because Steve Jobs is keeping all the important details secret.

And a bit more open source news: Apple has launched Mac OS Forge, a website that should allow Apple developers to work more closely together. You can find the kernel sources there. In fact, Apple is so behind this idea that they even included the instructions on how to build from the kernel sources. And the really geeky Apple fans will be glad to know that Apple is releasing the sources for iCal Server, Bonjour, and Launchd.

Let's see how it all works out! Check back for us for more details!

WWDC is a conference for Apple developers that gives the company a chance to show them some love while disseminating important information about the next-gen hardware on Apple's launch horizon. There is no live stream coming from the event floor, so minute to minute coverage (complete with pictures) is all there is until Apple makes the footage available after the event.

Mannymix03, a member of our forums, has been kind enough to make up to the minute posts about the event to keep us all informed about the latest happenings at WWDC 2006. So far, so much information has come out of the event that it would be impossible to detail it all here. I will do my best to give you a brief rundown of the important finds that have been discovered thus far.
 
In his usual style, Steve Jobs kicks off the conference with his enthusiastic rundown of what Apple has in store for us in the near future. He began with his usual optimism by quoting record sales figures and mentioning the unprecedented level of penetration that the company is experiencing in the OS market.

After stroking the developers egos by detailing how much of their work Apple sold the previous year, Jobs goes on to discuss the move to utilize Intel chips and the upcoming move into the next generation of Intel chips known as Core 2 Duo. While all the information about new chips and the smart architecture of the new Mac Pro kept folks interested, the news that kept many on the edge of their seats was about Apple's upcoming OS.

After giving Microsoft some of the spotlight by highlighting the ways the Redmond-based giant has appropriated technology from Apple in the past, the details about the OS (Leopard) were released. Along with 64 bit compatibility at the UNIX layer, meaning you can run both 32 and 64 bit applications smoothly and without the aid of emulation, there was mention of a built in backup feature for the OS called Time machine that backs up "everything" in real time. This new feature is not as cut and dry as it seems however. Apparently, with Time machine you get a robust backup system that is capable of full system restores as well as an ala carte system that allows you to bring back just the files that you need.

When integrated with the Finder disk searcher, we are one step closer to having all of our information stored in a searchable database that is backed up in real time. So now you can search for, and find, a file even if you have already erased it! Wonderful! Even I couldn't lose data if I had a set up like this! One of the things that I found a bit surprising was the fact that every copy of the new OS will ship with Time Machine, Bootcamp, Photobooth and Front Row and Spaces. Each one of these modules provides functionality, like a virtual desktop (Spaces), photo editing and sharing (Photobooth), music, video and other media (Front Row), that is not included with other operating systems like Vista.

Spotlight, Core Animation and Universal Access are additional applications in the works at Apple. Spotlight allows you to search the drives of all of the Macs in your home from any one of them. Core Animation is a powerful program that allows you to deconstruct media into its various parts (video, music,ect) and manipulate it into a new creation. Universal Access is designed to allow all people, whether blind, or otherwise disabled, to use their new Mac with ease. With all the new software being developed and hardware changes galore happening at Apple, you'd think that they would be the ones with all the delays and shoddy releases instead of Microsoft!

Mail, Dashboard and iCal have also been updated and changed! Stationary, Notes and To Do's to mail have been integrated into the new email system that will come with the new OS. Dashboard has over 2500 widgets and with Dashcode users can easily create their own customized widgets. With Web Clip and Dashcode you can turn any part of a website into a widget that will update every day keeping you in the know with your favorites on the web. Then there's iChat and iPhoto, which are integrated and will offer multiple logins, invisibility, animated buddy icons, video recording and tabbed chats.

This is near information overload here so I suggest that you digest this as quickly as you can then can come back and get some more! The conference is more than three days long so you can be certain that Jobs and Co. will continue to hit us with surprises well into this week!

Finally, for those with short attention spans, here is a brief list of the key innovations that were revealed this morning:

• 64-bit
• Core animation
• Universal access
• Enhanced parental controls (who cares about that?)
• iCal
• The complete package
• mail
• Spotlight
• Dashboard
• Web Clip and Dashcode
• Announcing Xcode 3 at the afternoon session
• Spaces
• Time Machine
  

Keep an eye out for updates to follow. For those who got their appetites whet and are looking for ways to satisfy their "Apple" craving, check out the video of the conference's Keynote Address delivered by Apple top honcho, Steve Jobs.

Don't you find it frustrating sometimes that the files that you need are well hidden from you view? Most especially if you're using a GUI program to open a Unix file? Although these editors have a "Open Hidden" function included, I think most of us would prefer to have everything be drag and drop.

Don't despair. This little show-all-files trick could be a very big help to ease you of your burdens. All you have to do is whip out Terminal and type, defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES and press Enter. The command will take effect once you relaunch Finder.

The downside to this trick is that, you guessed it, you get to see ALL of your files. Just make sure to inspect what a folder is holding before you delete it. Otherwise, you might end up losing very important data. If you want to revert to your previous settings, just open Terminal once more, repeat the command, but this time instead of YES type in NO, then press Return and relaunch Finder.