Newsletter to Members
September 2006
In this issue:
- SEPTEMBER MEETING this Monday
- AGM Election Results
- Saturday Workshop
- News from Apple:
- Battery Exchange Programme for iBook G4 and PowerBook G4
- WWDC 2006 San Francisco
- Preview of Mac OS X Leopard and Leopard Server
- Fastest pro desktop Mac ever
- Apple’s $100m legal settlement
- Coca-Cola teams up with iTunes in Europe
- Report on iPod Manufacturing
- Google CEO joins Apple Board
- Older Software Downloads
- News from the Net
- Opt Out
Next Meeting Monday 4 September
6:30 – 9:00 pm. Our usual venue – Room 327 Theatrette, Level 3, Webster Building, UNSW Kensington.
Raffle prizes include USB thumb drives, blank DVDs and CDs, books and more!
Hot off the press, 'Macs on the Go!' is a 228pp reference book for anyone using, or considering buying, an Apple iBook or PowerBook – courtesy of Peachpit Press.
AGM Results
Our August Monday meeting was also our Annual General Meeting. The outgoing committee was re-elected for another year, with one additional member coming on board – welcome, Serge Tauber!
AMUG COMMITTEE for 2006/2007:
| President: | Warwick Harty |
| Vice-President: | Ken Driver |
| Secretary: | Greg Sclanders |
| Treasurer: | John Helby |
| Webmaster/Publisher: | Ken Driver |
| Equipment Officer: | Brian Cooper |
| Other Committee | Robin Workman |
| Members: | Barbara Watson |
| Serge Tauber |
Saturday Workshop
One-on-one help with Mac OS X basics in a friendly, informative environment. Presented by AMUG Sydney.
Saturday 9 September 10am-2pm.
Room 136C (Computer Lab), Ground Floor, Webster Building, UNSW Kensington.
- One Mac per person
- No questions too silly
- Use one of the Uni's eMacs or bring your own Notebook
- Get Apple's latest Software Updates on CD, without the big downloads
- Free for AMUG members
To book, phone Rob on 9387 2069 or email sydamug@mac.com
News from Apple
- Battery Exchange Programme for iBook G4 and PowerBook G4
- WWDC 2006 San Francisco
- Preview of Mac OS X Leopard and Leopard Server
- Fastest pro desktop Mac ever
- Apple’s $100m legal settlement
- Coca-Cola teams up with iTunes in Europe
- Report on iPod Manufacturing
- Google CEO joins Apple Board
- Older Software Downloads
News from Apple
Battery Exchange Programme for iBook G4 and PowerBook G4
Apple recently initiated a voluntary recall of certain lithium-ion rechargeable batteries that contain cells manufactured by Sony Corporation of Japan, deemed to pose a safety risk that may result in overheating under rare circumstances.
The affected batteries are used with 12-inch iBook G4 and 12-inch PowerBook and 15-inch PowerBook G4 computers. Apple will exchange the recalled batteries with a replacement battery, free of charge.
A list of affected battery serial numbers is published on Apple’s web site here:
www.apple.com/au/support/batteryexchange/2006/faq/
To view the model and serial numbers located on the bottom of the battery, you must remove the battery from the computer. The battery serial number is printed in black or dark grey lettering beneath a barcode.
WWDC 2006 San Francisco
Apple hosted the annual WorldWide Developers’ Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco from 7-11 August, with over 4,000 delegates from 48 countries in attendance – representing the vast community of third party software and hardware developers worldwide.
Steve Jobs kicked off the high-level 5-day Conference as usual with his much-anticipated Keynote Address, when he announced, among other things, a preview of Mac OS X ‘Leopard’ and the new top-drawer Mac Pro.
These images and more can be viewed at the WWDC 2006 Gallery www.apple.com/hotnews/articles/2006/08/wwdc/
Preview of Mac OS X Leopard
The sixth major upgrade of Mac OS X – version 10.5 "Leopard" – is scheduled to ship worldwide early in 2007. Apple gives us a taste of what to expect here:
www.apple.com/au/macosx/leopard/
New features in Leopard will include:
- Time Machine – a revolutionary new way to automatically back up and restore everything on your Mac
- Spaces – an entirely new way to instantly switch between groups of applications required for various tasks
- advancements in Mail and iChat, including Stationery Templates, Notes and To Dos in Mail
- full native support for 64-bit processing while maintaining compatibility for existing 32-bit Mac OS X applications and drivers
- enhancements to Boot Camp, Apple’s innovative technology that was previewed as a public beta in April 2006, making it possible to run Windows natively on Intel-based Macs
- Front Row™, now available with all new Macs to play back digital content, including video Podcasts using the simple Apple remote
- Photo Booth, Apple’s fun-to-use application that lets users take quick snapshots with an iSight™ video camera, add entertaining visual effects with the touch of a button, and share them via email
- iCal 3 with group calendaring capabilities, event drop box, and standards-based CalDAV support
- improved Spotlight™ searching that’s even faster, provides richer previews, and lets users search across network mounted folders on other machines
- Web Clip for clipping any part of a web page as a live widget
- new parental controls including curfews, time limits and remote administration
- Core Animation, a new graphics technology that makes it easy to create stunning visual effects and animations
- major enhancements in Universal Access, including improvements in VoiceOver, Apple’s built-in screen reader
- security enhancements including anti-phishing protection in Mail and Safari™, and an automatic firewall that limits network resources available to an application
- new development tools, including Xcode® 3 with full 64-bit support, DashCode™, an easy way to create new Dashboard widgets without writing a line of code, and Xray, for optimising application performance.
Leopard Server
Due for release simultaneously with Mac OS X Leopard is Mac OS X Leopard Server for corporate and educational networked environments, with new Server Assistant and Server Preference features that make it easy for even non-technical users to set up and manage a server with just a few clicks of a mouse.
New features in Leopard Server will include:
- Native 64-bit server applications
- iCal® Server to share calendars, schedule meetings and plan events
- Wiki server that makes it simple for teams to share and communicate
- Spotlight™ Server, the fastest way to find content on servers
- Podcast Producer, the ideal way to automate Podcast production.
- iChat Server 2 with instant message federation that lets users communicate with GoogleTalk and other XMPP instant messaging systems
- QuickTime Streaming Server 6 with support for smooth streaming delivery of content to mobile phones regardless of network congestion
- new Adaptive Firewall technology to actively monitor for attacks.
Fastest pro desktop Mac ever
For the pro market, the new Mac Pro replaces the Power Mac® G5 desktop models. This beast is seriously fast – and configurable in more ways than you can count!
The introduction of the Mac Pro marks the completion of a rapid and seamless transition for Apple, with the entire Mac family now using Intel’s latest processors.
This quad Xeon, 64-bit desktop workstation features two new Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors running up to 3.0 GHz and a new system architecture that delivers up to twice the performance of the Power Mac G5 Quad.
Mac Pro supports optional installation of up to four internal hard drives, two x 30” Apple Cinema Displays and two SuperDrive bays. With advanced performance, greater expansion, higher performance graphics options and unprecedented customisation, the newly designed Mac Pro is the top-of-the-range system for the most demanding user.
Mac Pro standard configuration – RRP $3,999 inc GST – includes:
- two 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors;
- 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 fully-buffered ECC memory expandable up to 16GB;
- NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT video card with 256MB of GDDR2 SDRAM;
- 250GB Serial ATA (3Gb/s) hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
- One 16x SuperDrive™ with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
- four PCI Express slots: one double-wide graphics slot and three full-length expansion slots;
- front panel has one FireWire® 800 port, one FireWire 400 port and two USB 2.0 ports; with additional FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and three USB 2.0 ports on back panel;
- dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, optical digital input and output, analog audio input and output, and optional built-in support for AirPort® Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
- ships with Mighty Mouse and Apple Keyboard (monitor not included).
More info: www.apple.com/au/macpro/
New Xserve Xeon Server
The new Xserve Quad Xeon 64-bit model, suitable for rack mounting in a cluster configuration, is scheduled to be available in October. Xserve base configuration – RRP $4,995 inc GST – includes two 2.0 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors with 1GB RAM, 80GB Apple Drive Module, dual Gigabit Ethernet, internal graphics, three FireWire® 800 and two USB 2.0 ports, and an unlimited client license of Mac OS X Server version 10.4 Tiger. Other configurations with up to 2.25TB storage will be available.
More info: www.apple.com/au/xserve/
Apple’s $100m legal settlement
Apple and Creative Technology Ltd have announced a broad settlement ending all legal disputes between the two companies. Apple will pay Creative US$100 million for a paid-up license to use Creative's recently awarded patent in all Apple products. Apple can recoup a portion of its payment if Creative is successful in licensing this patent to others. In addition, the companies announced that Creative has joined Apple's "Made for iPod" program and will be announcing their own iPod® accessory products later this year.
Coca-Cola teams up with iTunes in Europe
LONDON—Soft drink giant Coca-Cola and Apple have announced a music partnership that includes major promotions in the UK and Germany and the launch of a new Coke branded music website across Europe, including the UK, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. As part of the promotion, Coke and Apple will be giving away 70 million free songs from the iTunes® Music Store in the UK and thousands of iPods in Germany.
Report on iPod Manufacturing
Concerned by reports in the press alleging poor working and living conditions at a manufacturing facility in China where iPods are assembled, Apple immediately dispatched an audit team comprised of members from its human resources, legal and operations groups to carry out a thorough investigation of the conditions at the manufacturing site. The audit covered the areas of labor standards, working and living environment, compensation, overtime and worker treatment.
Apple’s Supplier Code of Conduct mandates that suppliers of Apple products follow specific rules designed to safeguard human rights, worker health and safety, and the environment.
The full report can be read here:
www.apple.com/hotnews/ipodreport/
Google CEO joins Apple Board
CUPERTINO, California—August 29, 2006 —Apple announced that Dr. Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google, was elected to Apple’s board of directors at their meeting today. Eric also sits on Google’s board of directors and Princeton University’s board of trustees.
“Like Apple, Google is very focused on innovation and we think Eric’s insights and experience will be very valuable in helping to guide Apple in the years ahead,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.
Older Software Downloads
If you’re looking for obsolete Apple software, this page has a comprehensive list of Software Downloads for Macintosh, Apple II and Newton released prior to Mac OS 8.1 in January 1998:
www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html
All software released since January, 1998 is available in the AppleCare Knowledge Base (needs Apple ID), although there may be some duplicates listed at the above URL.
News from the Net
NextByte iPod & Accessories Sale Sat 2 Sept
NextByte Apple Stores in the Sydney CBD (Clarence Street) and at Broadway have a clearance sale on this Saturday 2 September, for iPods and a big range of iPod Accessories. Some iPod Accessories are reduced by from 30% up to 80% off RRP.
TidBITS Take Control eBooks
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Thanks to a generous offer from TidBITS publisher Adam Engst, all titles in the growing Take Control eBooks catalogue are available to User Group members at a 10% discount off the listed price. Just quote this user group coupon code when buying Take Control eBooks online:
Catalogue: www.takecontrolbooks.com/
User Group Coupon Code: CPN31208MUG
(Coupon code for information of AMUG Sydney members only).
Soon, we will have one copy each of a selection of Take Control titles available as raffle prizes at our monthly meetings. We would also like some volunteers to accept one free Take Control eBook in return for a one-page written review that can be posted on our web site.
There are currently over 30 titles, in three broad subject categories:
- Mac OS X Tiger (10 titles)
- Macintosh Applications (11 titles)
- Hardware & Technologies (12 titles).
Opt out
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