fscklog

Deep inside mail.app

Details zu mail.app 1.3 aus Ken Bereskins Panther Weblog (bereits hier erwähnt):

Einmal die Möglichkeit endlich in der Inbox das kleine Reply Icon verwenden zu können, um dann wirklich seine entsprechende Antwortmail nochmals angezeigt zu bekommen.

Sowie der zusätzliche SPAM-Schutz durch die automatische Deaktivierung von html-mails im Junkmail-Folder:
"First of all, when we detect that an email message is spam, Mail refuses to load any external URLs to make sure that the originating site never gets any hint that the message was received."

Außerdem gab es bei macosxhints eine ebenso simplen wie genialen Hinweis, der die Threads in mail.app noch brauchbarer macht.
Einfach ein Postfach auswählen (z.B. die Inbox) und dann per Command+Klick noch ein (bzw. mehrere) weiteres auswählen (z.B. Sent) und schon hat man beide Ordner zusammen in einem Fenster gelistet und zusammengehörige mails sind dementsprechend in Threads sortiert.

Für Freunde der Tastatursteuerung übrigens: Selbige lassen sich per Rechtspfeil aufklappen und per Linkspfeil wieder zuklappen.
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Und es lassen sich zu verschickende mails nun auch signieren und verschlüsseln.

Eine ausführliche bebilderte Anleitung findet sich bei joar.com, die knappere dafür aber auf deutsch verfasste Variante bietet ix.

Bei dieser Verschlüsselung/Signatur handelt es sich um den S/MIME Standard. Es lässt sich alternativ natürlich auch PGP einsetzen, welches diese Funktionalität schon länger für mail.app bietet (Danke an Florian für den Hinweis!).

Wichtige Anmerkungen allerdings bei Quarter Life Crisis:
"The good news is: If the people you send messages to are using Mail as well, things are ultra-smooth. Things are very unintrusive and Mail ‘just works’ as you’d want it to without a single bit of hassle. Dave finds this impressive – I think that’s the way software ought to be and Dave’s enthusiasm is caused by the poor quality of most software.

Once you leave the realm of your intelligent, hip and good-looking friends, you’ll be dealing with people who won’t appreciate your signed messages. Some of them will even ask you what the attachment is that’s enclosed in your e-mails. That’s where the technical bits of the magic start to be visible and potentially ugly.

The signature Mail generates is sent with the message as an attachment. While X.3’s Mail will automatically interpret this attachment, people not enjoying that application may be confused (and disappointed possibly – seeing that simply double clicking it won’t even give you the joy of a virus). Hence, it’s probably advisable to not send signed messages to people who won’t appreciate them."

SamstagsMac0rama

Heute unter anderem:
• 'best operating system available'
• 10.3.1 schreitet voran
• mehr Panther Troubleshooting
• IBM lagert PowerPC Produktion aus
• 5 Gründe keinen iPod zu kaufen
• Photoshop mit 8GB RAM
• Outliner bis zum Abwinken
• WMP für X und Virtual PC 2004 (auch für OS X?)
Die Details gibt es wie immer beim Weiterlesen...

Business Week:
"With this latest revision, I think OS X is the best operating system available to consumers. It's easy to use and takes far more advantage of the power of today's computers than the eight-year-old design of Windows."
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Inzwischen scheint Build 7C107 die Runde zu machen:
"Mit dem 10.3.1 Update wird die Funktionalität und Zuverlässigkeit für folgende Programme, Dienste und Technologien verbessert: FileVault, Druckdienste, WebDav und FireWire 800 Laufwerke. Das Update enthält außerdem die aktuellen Security-Updates."
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Der Special Report zum Panther Troubleshooting bei MacFixIt, mit einer immensen Auflistung an Problemlösungsmöglichkeiten.
Nach wie vor empfehlenswert (bereits am 03.11. bei mir verlinkt) das Panther Troubleshooting bei den MacAttorneys.
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"IBM Microelectronics outsourced some PowerPC processor production to Samsung Electronics in the third quarter, according to a Taiwanese IC design source close with IBM." so berichtet die DigiTimes.

The Register beruhigt gleich wieder:
"Mac users need not worry in any case. With the exception of the Power Mac G5's 64-bit PowerPC 970 processor, every other Mac currently available uses Motorola-source G4-class chips. The 970 is fabbed at 130nm at IBM's 300mm wafer fab in East Fishkill, New York State."
Und fügt folgende interessante Spekulation hinzu:
"The source also suggests that Samsung is interested in IBM's intellectual property, which may mean it's looking at becoming a PowerPC licensee. That would add a third chip maker to the platform."
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CNET verwundert mit fünf Gründen keinen iPod zu kaufen.

Nett bei macdailynews kommentiert:
"Desperation to keep Apple from dominating the legit online music download market will take many forms.
Van Buskirk's solutions don't end up pointing to one particular device, rather his "solutions" point to at least five other devices. That's a lot of devices to carry and we're pretty sure if you add up the price of each, you could've bought the best device on the market, an Apple iPod, instead.
CNET is really losing its collective mind lately. This piece exclaims iPod as the best, but then tries to pick it apart and then concludes iPod is the best choice. What's the point? Is this article's purpose to have the majority of people just read the headline, "Five reasons not to buy an iPod," not the full article, and leave the impression that iPod shouldn't be considered? Or is it to help cheapskate joggers who run 20 hours uninterrupted while recording high-quality digital audio who wish to buy music from second-rate online music services?"

Vielleicht sollte man es auch einfach gleich wieder unter der Kategorie 'FUD' abhaken, die CNET mehr und mehr für sich in Anspruch zu nehmen scheint.
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Virtual PC 2004 soll angeblich noch vor Ende des Jahres verfügbar sein, ob sich das nun allerdings auch auf die Mac-Version bezieht ist laut MacRumors bis jetzt zumindest unklar.
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Bei xlr8yourmac wurden der 'iBook G4 Owner First Impressions'-Seite weitere Berichte hinzugefügt.

Auch dort zu lesen: 'Photoshop Performance Tests with 512MB to 8GB RAM in PowerMac G5'
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ATPM liefert Teil 2 seiner überausführlichen Outliner-Abhandlung (wer es verpasst hat:Teil 1).
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Seit vergangener Nacht lässt sich der Windows Media Player 9 auch für OS X herunterladen.
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Außerdem (Halb-)Wissenswertes aus dem Terminal - heute:
11/08 Her Majesty, the Queen's Birthday in Nepal
(So einfach ist das).

Iconfactory: 'ZIP Archives Considered Harmful'

Bei Iconfactory wird Kritik an der in X.3 enthaltenen 'Create Archive'-Funktionalität geübt:

"The ZIP archive is incompatible with older versions of Mac OS X. You can't use it on Jaguar, for example.

When another ZIP application, such as StuffIt or WinZIP, is used to expand the archive it will probably lose some data.

The problem is that resource forks are not supported in ZIP file format. Despite what some engineers at Apple may think, there's important information that is typically stored in resource forks:
Custom icons
Photoshop previews
Text file selections, markers, and metadata
Resources required by applications

There are a lot of great features in Panther, but because of the problems mention above, we feel that "Create Archive" is not one of them. Do yourself a favor and avoid it."

Über das Problem wird auch im macosxhints-Forum diskutiert.

IP over Firewire in 10.3 (Update)

Etwas versteckt, aber glücklicherweise nun direkt im System, nicht mehr nur als merkwürdige Developer Beta (obwohl diese auch schon halbwegs brauchbar war) und praktisch zum schnellen unkomplizierten Vernetzen zweier Macs.
Schritt für Schritt Anleitung findet sich schon seit einigen Tagen in der Knowledge Base:

"Connect a FireWire cable to the FireWire ports on the computers you want to connect.
Open System Preferences and click Network.
Choose Network Port Configurations from the Show pop-up menu.
Click New, and then choose FireWire from the Port pop-up menu. You can give the new port configuration a name, such as FireWire.
Drag the port configuration to the top of the Port Configuration list. This ensures the port is assigned an IP address using DHCP.
Click Apply Now."
Einfach.

(via MacServers)

Update:
Bei O'Reilly wird schön bebildert, wie sich per IP over Firewire z.B. eine einzelne Internetverbindung mit zwei Rechnern schön teilen lässt.

Macosxhints bietet eine Anleitung zur Nutzung zwischen 10.3 und Windows XP.

Nächster Halt: iPod

Bei eTaiwanNews.com könnte man sogar Lust aufs Busfahren bekommen:

"One of Apple's latest gimmicks is the iPod Music Bus. Four buses - they come in yellow, purple, blue, and green - are digital music stores on wheels. Each bus represents a consumer's taste in music - yellow for hip-hop, purple for dance music, green for inspirational and family tunes, and blue for R&B and jazz. Those iPod buses will be plying Taipei's 3C areas - Hsimenting, Kuanghwa, and Pateh Rd. to name a few - until the end of December.

And according to Tong, passengers get to ride those buses for free.

"Every iPod bus passenger will also get a raffle coupon from us," he said. "We will hold the raffle draw in InfoMonth, the biggest consumer electronics show in Taiwan. We will give away tons of products including Mac computers, digital cameras, digital printers, and of course, iPods. So, who says there's no such thing as a free ride?"

Der hip-hop-bus:

Jobs: Kein iPhone, aber Digital Lifestyle/Hub Applications (Update)

Zwei interessante Punkte zum/vom Apple Analyst Meeting fanden sich noch bei MacMinute:

Zu Software:
The Apple CEO talked a bit about the digital hub strategy and where it is going. "There are new categories of applications that people haven't even thought of yet that we are working on," Jobs said. "We have a lot of innovation up our sleeves when it comes to the digital lifestyle/digital hub class of applications -- a lot. You will be seeing some of it next year... very strong stuff."

Zum iPhone:
Jobs and Schiller also addressed a question regarding Apple's plans for the mobile phone market. Jobs made it clear that Apple still has no plans to enter the market, while Schiller went over Mac OS X's tight integration with Bluetooth phones. "We're way ahead of Microsoft in this area," Jobs said. "And since we're not trying to make our own phone, we're working with everybody and everybody wants to work with us. We have great relationships with handset manufacturers."

Weitere Zusammenfassungen finden sich auch bei MacNN und MacRumors.

Berichte vom Apple Analyst Meeting bereits bei mir verlinkt.

Update:
Inzwischen hat MacNN auch eine Zusammenfassung der Präsentation von Ron Johnson, die Apples Retail Geschäft (sprich in erster Linie die Apple Stores) beleuchtet.

iTunesMusicStore Marktanteil über 80%

Von den McDonald's Milliarden mal abgesehen, der iTMS hat laut Nielsen SoundScan mehr als 80% Marktanteil, mehr als 17 Millionen Songs wurden insgesamt heruntergeladen.
Während in der ersten Woche nach Napsters Start dort klägliche 300.000 Lieder gezogen wurden, verbuchte der iTMS 1,5 Millionen Downloads.
(siehe auch Pressemeldung)

FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt)

Nick dePlume von Think Secret schrieb heute weise Worte:

"There are times when Apple deserves criticism and then there are times when its appears to be piling on.
Last week, CNET News.com had out their shovels. Just days after releasing the final version of Panther, CNET wrote a series of stories that didn't just provide negative news -- much of it important for Mac users to know -- but delivered it with a certain tinge of attack that left readers by Friday wondering where the overall balance was.
The stories included (1) Panther glitches that erase external hard drives, (2) what drive makers were doing to fix the problem, (3) security flaws in new and old versions of OS X revealed by security firm @stake, and (4) complaints from PowerBook G4 owners about an apparent flaw in their LCD displays.

While interesting stories, none of the them were shocking revelations. In some cases, they had been known to the Mac community for weeks and months. When released all in less than two days by CNET, it looked somewhat curious. Forget CNET's inconsistent coverage of Apple and their reguritating of Mac news from other Web sites. (Example: A week late in reporting the firing of a Microsoft temp who had photos of G5 Macs on the company's doorstep).
Was the timing of all this bad news just coincidence, what with Microsoft announcing plans for its next OS and giving CNET an exclusive interview with Bill Gates, or was it something else? In this particular case, it looks suspicious even to other journalists."

Berichterstattung über die Sicherheitslücken auch bei mir verlinkt.

Erst Pepsi und jetzt auch noch McDonald's? (Update)

1 Milliarde (!) iTMS Tracks ab demnächst kostenlos bei McDonald's?

Das berichtet zumindest die New York Post:
"In a dramatic move that gives a thumbs up to the music industry's efforts at creating legal alternatives to file sharing, McDonald's plans to give away up to 1 billion songs in a marketing campaign, according to sources familiar with the matter."

Entscheidend auch hier:
"Both Pepsi and McDonald's are paying Apple's retail price of 99 cents per song, sources say. And McDonald's has arranged to buy up to a billion songs to meet customer demand."

Der Pepsi Deal wird übrigens hier bei mir verlinkt.

Update:
Vorerst dementiert McDonald's:
"There are no agreements to announce, so anything else is pure speculation."
McDonald's statement said it "continues to aggressively pursue bold new initiatives in the areas of music, sports, fashion and entertainment to connect with our customers in fresh and relevant ways...You can expect news from McDonald's on a variety of fronts in the coming weeks and months."

MacRumors legt allerdings nochmals nach:
"MacRumors has since received confirmation that McDonald's is, in fact, planning the iTunes giveaway, but no further details of the promotion have been obtained."

'Apple focused on melding the computer with a toaster'

Im Zusammenhang mit der Apple Analyst Konferenz (auch bei mir verlinkt) äußerte sich Jobs gegenüber CNET zur ewigen 'Apple steigt auf Intel-Prozessoren um' Gerüchteküche:
"It's perfectly technically feasible to port Panther to any processor," Jobs said at a meeting with financial analysts. But Jobs said the company is happy with IBM's PowerPC family of chips and feels the performance is "quite competitive."

Über die Windows XP Media Center Edition:
"Asked about Apple's interest in selling Macs that could serve up the video recording abilities Microsoft offers with its Windows XP Media Center Edition, Jobs joked that Apple was instead focused on melding the computer with a toaster."

Über iPod und iTMS:
"Jobs rebuffed the idea that the iTunes music store should work with MP3 players other than the iPod, or conversely, that Apple's iPod should work with other music download services."
"Why should we work with another music store when we are working with the Microsoft of music stores?" Jobs said. "I'd rather spend our engineering dollars on enhancing the iPod and the iTunes music store."

Über .mac (Backup 2 ist nun übrigens als final herunterladbar ist):
"Our renewal rate was 86 (percent) to 87 percent," Jobs said, adding that that is "unheard of, higher than almost anybody's. We've built ourselves the beginnings of a pretty good Internet services business."

Kleine Analyse dazu bei den MacGuardians