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Filed under: Business, Apple

Mac-clone company Psystar loses big in Apple lawsuit

You may have heard of Psystar, an infamous manufacturer of Mac clone "open computers." They're best known for frequently getting into legal hot water with Apple over everything from trademarks to copyrights to selling Apple's OS X operating on non-Apple computers. Apple just took Psystar to school on that last issue, winning summary judgment in a California court on copyright violations and Digital Millennium Copyright Act Violations.

Psystar's losing argument really splits some hairs, and the court wasn't buying it. Here's what happened: Psystar bought one copy of OS X and loaded it onto a Mac Mini. They then transferred it from the Mini to a non-Apple computer, where they modified the kernel so it would run on the computers they sell. Psystar argued that they were allowed to sell their (legally-purchased) copy of OS X, but the court recognized that the copies made from the Mini and the second, non-Apple machine weren't made legally. Advantage: Apple.

Judgment in Apple's favor means Psystar will likely have to pay damages at minimum. This could potentially sink their entire ship. The takeaway, according to an article on Groklaw? Don't mess around with licensing agreements, especially Apple's.

[via Slashdot]

Filed under: OS Updates, Security, Macintosh, Apple

OS X 10.6.2 offers tons of fixes, breaks Atom support again

This Atom Hackintosh story's been flip-flopping like a dolphin at SeaWorld, but here's the final answer: OS X 10.6.2 is out, and it apparently does not run on machines with Atom CPUs. That's the bad news. The good news is that 10.6.2 offers an absolute smorgasbord of tweaks and fixes. Apple's release notes with one of these OS updates usually include some vague message about improved security and stability, and that's it. This time, there's a laundry list of improvements.

The update, which is around 160MB if you're upgrading from 10.6.1, corrects a few nagging issues in the Finder: Exchange contacts not showing up in Spotlight, flaky menu extras, wonky VPN connections and - this one was a personal peeve of mine - not being able to add photos to Address Book. Also, the problem with opening multiple downloaded files at once (a problem Apple never actually acknowledged) is now fixed. Hooray! The whole list is pretty long, and there's also an extensive list of potential exploits addressed by 10.6.2's security update.

Filed under: Macintosh, Commercial

One Finger Discount takes on MacHeist with 20% off tons of Mac apps

While software giveaway sites like MacHeist allow indie developers to trade a bunch of free copies of their app for publicity and new customers, some developers aren't on board with that arrangement. Red Sweater Software's Daniel Jalkut believes in getting paid for his hard work, so he decided to offer a 20% discount instead of giving his apps away for free.

It turns out he's not alone. In fact, over 80 different Mac developers have joined Jalkut's "One Finger Discount" promotion. That means you have your choice of over 100 apps at 1/5 off (hence the "one finger").

Of course, the promotion includes Jalkut's own apps, the impressive MarsEdit blog editor and Black Ink crossword maker, but there are some other choice goodies there, too. Some of my personal favorites include Flying Meat's Acorn image editor and VoodooPad, and SmileOnMyMac's TextExpander. There are also tons of apps I haven't tried yet, or haven't even heard of. That's the whole point, though: giving you a chance to discover something new at a big discount. Indie developers for the win!

Filed under: Photo, Utilities, Productivity

FlickrImport adds your Flickr pics to iPhoto


If you're a Mac user who's considering giving iPhoto a try, and you're also a fan of sharing photos on Flickr, you might want to give FlickrImport a try. On its face, it's just a utility that imports your Flickr images into iPhoto, but there's more to this little gem than meets the eye. It preserves photo info, including EXIF and TIFF metadata.

Even better, FlickrImport works for more than just your own account. You can also use it to import photos from your contacts accounts, as long as those photos are visible to you. If you have more than one Flickr account, for some reason, you can add yourself as a contact and import from both accounts that way. One caveat: FlickrImport doesn't play nicely with Snow Leopard. To make it work, do a Get Info on the app and check the "Open with Rosetta" box.

Filed under: Utilities, Features, Macintosh, Web services

10 web apps you should be running on your Mac with Fluid


As web apps become more powerful, more popular, and more full-featured, they're starting to replace desktop apps for many people. A Mac app called Fluid can pull those web applications onto your desktop and turn them into OS X native site-specific browsers.

Fluid has a lot of advantages compared to running web apps in your browser: you get a Cocoa app with its own Dock icon, automatic unread badges for sites like Gmail and Google Reader, and built-in userscript support. Keeping your web apps in a separate browser also means that they can't be taken down when another site crashes in some other tab. You can even create menubar apps, so your favorite webapp will be close at hand, right at the top of your screen.

To find icons for your Fluid apps, I recommend checking out the Fluid Icons Flickr group. The users there have come up with attractive icons for most of the apps on my list. Chris Ivarson has also designed a handful of great icons for Fluid apps.

Now that you know a little bit about how and why you should use Fluid, give these 10 sites a spin as site-specific browsers!

Google Wave

Google's hot new communication tool is a perfect candidate for a site-specific browser. It's pretty resource-intensive, and it's still in the preview stage, so it's prone to crashes and lag. I haven't found any excellent Wave userscripts yet, and the site's favicon makes a nice enough Fluid icon. If you want an additional icon and a userscript that gives you a badge count for Wave, Devthought has posted them.

Google Reader

A lot of people are already using Google Reader as their main RSS app, so it makes sense to set it up in Fluid. You also get the benefit of an unread count badge on the Dock icon and a bunch of great userscripts. One of my favorites is Helvetireader. Try setting it up with Chris Ivarson's icon.

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Filed under: OS Updates, Hardware, Apple

Apple breaks Atom Hackintoshes with upcoming OS X 10.6.2 update

According to OSXDaily, Apple's next scheduled update to Snow Leopard, OS X 10.6.2, doesn't support Intel Atom processors. This is no problem for anyone on Apple hardware, because no Mac product runs an Atom. If you're on a hacked netbook, though, it looks like this is the end of the line for your OS X updates.

Although it's not confirmed, rumor has it that next update to Apple's previous Leopard OS (10.5.9) will also knock out Atom support. Until a workaround pops up from netbook hacker circles, Atom machines running 10.6.1 and 10.5.8 should probably avoid upgrading. Is Apple sending a message to users running its software on third-party machines? It seems likely, but it also doesn't seem like it will do much to stop determined netbook enthusiasts.

Filed under: OS Updates, Utilities, Apple

Windows 7 will (officially) work in Apple's Boot Camp before 2010

Intrepid Boot Camp users have found ways to run Windows 7 on their Macs, but Apple hasn't officially supported their efforts thus far. With the release of Windows 7 today, Apple has announced official Boot Camp support is on the way, and plans to release an update before the end of the year. The update may be Snow Leopard only, however, and won't work on some older Intel Macs.

As MacRumors notes, there are already alternative ways to run Windows 7 on a Mac. You can go the virtual machine route with Parallels which supports 32-bit Windows 7, or wait a week for the newest version of VMWare Fusion, which will support 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the OS.

[via Engadget]

Filed under: OS Updates, Utilities

Don't want Windows 7? Psystar makes it easy to install Mac OS X on any computer

If all the excitement about Windows 7 isn't floating your boat, you might be interested to see that notorious Mac cloners Psystar have released an app that makes it easy to run any OS - including Apple's OS X - on any machine.

Psystar's app, Rebel EFI, just needs to be burnt to a CD, and from there users can follow instructions to install the OS of their choice. No word yet on how this might play into Apple's lawsuit against Psystar for selling PC hardware with OS X preinstalled.

The full version is $49.99, but a working demo is available for free. The demo will apparently stick you with "limited hardware functionality," so it might be good to test it on a backup machine, and then buy the full version for your main PC.

Although Win7 was released today, Psystar says it's compatible with Rebel EFI. Not such a big deal for Mac users, who already have a few ways to run Windows operating systems on their Intel hardware.

[via Macrumors]

Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh, Web services, Yahoo!, Open Source, Social Software, web 2.0

Clarke lets you update FireEagle from within OS X

Yahoo's FireEagle project has long been a great (albeit under-used) service to let you share your location with other websites. Services such as Dopplr, Brightkite and many others can all update & read your location and use the service to display location-based data.

On the iPhone, there's plenty of free applications that update FireEagle such as yofe, but what if you're working on a desktop or laptop computer? That's where Clarke comes in handy -- a small, open-source utility for OS X that runs in your menu bar, it'll figure out where you are based on the Wi-Fi networks around you.

In earlier versions of Clarke, the updates were based on Skyhook Wireless' database -- the same used by the original iPhone to triangulate your location -- however the utility was recently updated for Mac OS X Snow Leopard and now uses the OS' built-in Core Location system to figure out where you are when run on the newest big-cat.

A free download, developers can also grab the source code over at Github, and the application also lets you easily view nearby data from Flickr, Google Maps, OpenStreetMap and Yahoo Maps.

Filed under: Macintosh, Apple, Commercial, Shareware, Freeware, Open Source, Lists

Tell DLS: What are your top 10 must-have apps? - OS X!

I'm willing to bet that while reading Download Squad, you've discovered some great applications that you now use on a regular basis.

Although we all use our machines in a slightly different way, I always find it fascinating to hear about which applications other people use and often when chatting to friends or colleagues I'll learn about an application that i've never used before - there's nothing like a personal recommendation.

That's where our new feature - 'Tell DLS: What are you top 10 must-have apps?' - comes in!

Each week, a Download Squad team member is going to share their top 10 applications are on their chosen platform and explain why! We'll be covering Mac OS X, Windows, Linux and the mobile operating systems, so hopefully you'll discover some gems that you hadn't used before too.

Of course, being a 'Tell DLS' feature, we want this to be all about sharing your experience too - so please post your chosen top 10 in the comments.

Read on after the jump for my top 10 (how many can you identify from the icons above?).

Read more →

Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh

Customize your Snow Leopard dock with Dock Library

When Apple introduced the new shelf-like dock in OS 10.5 Leopard, users were up in arms over how ugly it was, with some even switching their docks to the side of the screen to avoid seeing it. If you hate the shelf, or just wish you could make it look better, you should give Dock Library a try. It lets you replace your dock with a custom design, and works in both Leopard and Snow Leopard.

Sites like LeopardDocks.com and LeopardDocks.net have extensive libraries of designs you can download and add to Dock Library. Once you've got a few of them set up, it's just a couple of clicks to change to a new one, or go back to the default. To install a new dock, you don't need to expand the downloaded, just use Dock Library's "import" button and select the .zip file.

[via Sizlopedia]

Filed under: OS Updates, Utilities, Macintosh, Freeware

Keep your Mac software up to date with AppFresh


If there's one thing that's something of a chore on a computer it's the task of keeping your software up to date. Sure, operating system patches are handled by the OS itself and some applications implement their own update systems (particularly on the Mac where Sparkle is prolific), but wouldn't it be great if you could manage all of your application updates in one place? Well, if you are on a Mac then the free application AppFresh - which has just received a minor update - is the answer to your prayers!

As you can see from the screenshot above, AppFresh searches your machine for applications and lists the currently installed version, latest available version together and the release date. Simply select the applications you want to update, hit 'Install' and off it goes to work it's magic... and magical it is indeed!

There's a lot to like about AppFresh. It looks very slick and has a user interface that is in line with the best Mac applications, it's frequently updated and best of all it's free! AppFresh interfaces with the iusethis website for it's version information and can also save information on the applications you are using back to your iusethis profile. A benefit of this is that if you rebuild your Mac at any time, you can ask Appfresh to reinstall all your favourite applications from your iusethis profile. Neat!

As well as applications, AppFresh supports widgets, preference panes and application plugins (as well OS updates) ensuring you are always up to date.

The newly released version 0.8.5 of the application (yes, it is a pre-release version) adds improved Snow Leopard compatability (while retaining compatability with Tiger) as well as a host of minor fixes.

Filed under: Macintosh, Freeware, Social Software

Facebook brings notifications to your Mac desktop


Like many of us, I have a Facebook account. Like many of us, I often forget to actually go in and check it, read my notifications and keep up with what's happening in my social circle... arguably the whole point of the exercise! One of the biggest reasons for this is that - unlike Twitter - I don't keep Facebook 'in view' during my working day. You could argue that this is a positive benefit because it means less distraction, but it's primarily because despite playing with other desktop based Facebook apps (such as Tweetdeck), I haven't found a way to do so yet that works for me. Enter Facebook's desktop notifications app for Mac.

The new application, developed by Facebook themselves, adds an icon to your Mac's menu bar that provides quick access to your news feed, profile page and status update page (which is also accessible via a keyboard shortcut) as well as listing your outstanding notifications and inbox contents.

It's quick, easy to use and best of all light on resources! It sits there unintrusively in your menu bar, providing Growl (aka toaster) notifications as new events occur. For me it's a keeper... I might just start using Facebook regularly now...!

[via TechCrunch]

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Filed under: Security, Macintosh, Browsers

LastPass brings secure password management to Safari on Mac


LastPass, the secure password management and form filler that was first released for Firefox and Internet Explorer, has welcomed another browser into the fold.

Mac users running Safari for their browser can now run a full LastPass plugin rather than relying on the Javascript-powered bookmarklet. Just head over to the LastPass homepage and click 'get LastPass.' As you can see in the screenshot, the Safari plugin also adds a menu bar button (next to the back/forward buttons). It provides quick access to your preferences, vault, notes, form filler, and password generator.

Those of you running Snow Leopard, you'll need to run Safari in 32-bit mode - the LastPass installer will notify you when you launch it.

The LastPass plugin supports importing from 1Password, and their iPhone app is currently available on the App Store [iTunes link]. It's a great way to securely manage your passwords on Windows, Linux, and Mac - and in an ever-increasing number of browsers.

Google Chrome users, sit tight - a .crx extension can't be too far away now.

Filed under: OS Updates, Apple

Apple's naughty list: which apps aren't ready for Snow Leopard?

We've all heard - or seen for ourselves - how OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is basically a smaller, faster version of 10.5 Leopard. That doesn't mean much if your favorite apps still haven't been updated to be compatible with the new OS. I've had a good experience so far, with all of the major apps I run working quite well under Snow Leopard, but Apple's keeping a list of some that don't. Your incompatible software should be moved to the aptly-named Incompatible Software folder on your hard drive when you upgrade, but check out the list to be prepared in advance.

Parallels is one notable incompatibility, especially if you're using it to run key Windows apps on your Mac. The infamously troublesome Application Enhancer also doesn't work, which is good to know, considering that it crashed a ton of Macs during the last major OS X update. Some antivirus programs also make the list. Also, be aware that updated printer drivers might not be out for some printers and scanners.

[via Lifehacker]

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The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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