New Mac Pros waiting for Intel?

AppleInsider claims Apple is set yo update the line with new Intel Penryn family of 45-nanometer (nm) microprocessors when Intel can ship them

In the report Insider claims Apple will use the Hi-k Xeons, available in dual- and quad-core variants with front-side bus speeds of either 1333MHz or 1600MHz.

The top of the line would be an 8-core system using 2 4-core "Harpertown" chips running at up to 3.2GHz with a aster 1600MHz bus and 12MB of L2 cache.

The chips should start to become available in mid-November.

The piece does point out the similar launch timeline for the current MacPro "Clovertown". Chips and those systems didn't begin shipping until March.

French to sell legit unlocked iPhone

O2 has finally been blessed by Steve as the iPhone carrier in France and will launch the device on November 29th.

According to an International Herald Tribune article, due to French laws there will be a locked version for 399 Euros and an unlocked version for a "higher price".

Unlocked versions to be made available within six months of the iPhone launch.

According to a Gizmodo piece, Apple denies Orange will sell unlocked phones saying the Tribune piece was only pointing out French law. Strange, the article cites an Orange spokesperson stating they will sell an unlocked version.

iPhone will get an Apple blessed SDK

Jobs posted an open letter

3rd Pary iPhone Apps

Says the Apple approved SDK will be available to developers in February 2008

iPhone Dev Center launched for Web Apps.

iJailBreak brings AppTapp back to iPhone

ArsTechnica reports...

iJailbreak simplfies the 1.1.1 jailbreaking process

AppTapp 3.0 brings apps back.

The procedure is still a bit complex involving downgrading to 1.0.2, AppTapping and then bringing everything back up to 1.1.1

Who should upgrade? Why upgrade?

You make the call. Decided based on your experience and situation.

Apple Leopard guided tour video

Leopard Tour

Over 300 new features

300+ Features

Boot Camp, if you rely on it. You need Leopard.

More .Mac Syncing

Widgets, Dock, Preferences, etc.

Finder

New UI, 3D-dock

Terminal hack for getting 2-d Dock

No Glass Dock

In terminal type: "defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES; killall Dock"

Some don't like 3D dock if placed on side of screen.

Stacks

CoverFlow and Quick Look Previews

Share any folder

Screen Sharing, remote control.

Back to My Mac

Firewall issues may trouble some.

Wikipedia in Dictionary

iChat

Tabbed Chat

PhotoBooth effects, Backdrops, iChat Theater

Screen Sharing

Recording

Mail

Notes, to-dos, iPhoto Browser

Data Detectors

RSS

Stationary

Parental Controls

Time Limits and Bedtimes

Dynamic Web Filters with Overrides

Activity Logging, Remote Control, & Monitoring

Preview

More editing and Image Manipulation features

Reorder, combine, or remove PDF pages

Spaces

Spotlight

Boolean search

Search shared Macs

Web History Search

Spotlight indexes the names and content of recently visited web sites.

This may be a reason to NOT get Leopard

System

Live partition resizing in Disk Utility

Guest log-in accounts. Purges data between log-ins.

Time Machine

Universal Access

Alex, voice for VoiceOver

Braille Display Support Bulit-in

VoiceOver Utility, for customizing VoiceOver

Lot's more under the hood

UNIX, XCode, DashCode, Security, Printing, Networking, etc.

Core Animation, Core Image, etc.

Buying Leopard

Pre-order

$129.00 USD Single User, $199.00 USD Family Pack

Leopard Up-to-Date Program

Qualifying new Macs purchased after October 1st can get the upgrade can get an upgrade for $9.95

Leopard Up-to-date

Amazon.com

Leopard for $20.00 off, $109.00 USD

Leopard on Amazon.com

Apple Retail Stores

Close at 4:00 PM and reopen at 6:00 PM until 10:00PM

Live demos, test drives and first 500 people will get a limited edition Leopard T-Shirt.

Installing Leopard

Backup. backup. backup

What to Backup?

User folders

Music Library, Picture Library, Documents, Desktop

Save files to a second hard drive, DVDs or CDs, on-line backup

Amazon S3

Mozy.com

www.mozy.com

Programs

.Mac Backup

SuperDuper (Not Leopard compatible)

www.shirtpocket.com

Carbon Copy Cloner 3, not sure on Leopard compatibility.

www.bombich.com

Verify System Requirements and Compatibility

System requirements

Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor

512MB of memory. 1GB for Developer Tools

DVD drive for installation

9GB of available disk space. 3GB additional for Developer Tools

Some features require Apple's .Mac service; fees apply.

Time Machine requires an additional hard drive

Photo Booth

Video chats, iSight camera, USB video class (UVC) camera, or FireWire DV camcorder.

Backdrop effects when using a DV camcorder require fixed focus, exposure, and white balance.

Intel or G5.

Backdrop effects require an Intel Core Duo or faster processor

iChat

Video chats, iSight camera, USB video class (UVC) camera, or FireWire DV camcorder.

Backdrop effects when using a DV camcorder require fixed focus, exposure, and white balance.

Backdrop effects require an Intel Core Duo or faster processor.

Check Compatibility

Both hardware and software

Make sure software is up to date and that 3rd party hardware has the all the latest firmware.

Make sure you Mac's firmware is up to date.

Check the manufacturer's web site.

Leopard won't be final until it ships, so some developers won't "certify" their apps publicly until after it ships (Adobe CS3).

Many of the apps should still run fine, but if you are worried, hold off.

Prep for Install

Do Housecleaning.

Update all your current apps, if plan to leave in place.

AppFresh, public BETA

AppFreash

Archive and clear off old files.

Tools like Cocktail or Onyx can help

Boot from current OS X CD and use Disk Utility to perform maintenance

Check Disk and Repair Permissions

If doing a clean install, make sure all your installers and serial numbers are handy.

Backup, one last time to pickup "clean-ups".

Disconnect any non-Apple peripherals, including hard drives.

Choose Type of install

Upgrade

Archive and Install

Erase and Install

Upgrade

Insert the install DVD, run the installer and follow the instructions. When prompted choose Upgrade. And let it fly.

Archive and Install

Insert install DVD and run the installer. Follow the instructions and when prompted select Archive and Install.

Most users will just want the default installation, but advanced users may want to customize to leave out Languages they don't need.

This is where the old OS X system is moved to a folder in the root level of the hard drive called "Previous System" and the new System is installed. Most settings, etc. are copied over. Remember to check the "Copy over Users and Settings" checkbox (or something to that effect). That way your old data is in its place. If you don't, just remember: Don't Panic!. Your old data is in that Previous System folder. Delete it after a couple of weeks of not using it... that way you regain your hard drive space.

Erase and Install

Make sure you have a full backup.

Make sure all users have done this.

De-authorize iTunes.

If you use iSync do a final sync, prior to backup.

Make sure you have all your install disks, download copies and serial numbers for all your software handy as you will be reinstalling those as well.

Format the drive using Disk Utility. If you really want to erase you can zero all data, but that is not necessary. Don't need to do 8 way write. If you are just going to do a simple erase you can do this step during installation.

Insert install DVD and run the installer.

Choose Erase and Install.

Customize if wanted.

Follow the instructions.

Post Installation

Run software update, to get all latest system updates.

Run Disk Utility and do a repair permissions

Re-install apps, if doing an erase and install.

Run Disk Utility and do a repair permissions, again.

Spotlight will slow you down at first

Will be indexing in the background for an hour or more, so don't worry if system seems slow the first few hours.

Setting up TimeMachine will take time to clone your Mac.

Some details on Time Machine

How it works

Apple hasn't really said, but early indications are it will track changes and only backup differences.

Tries to keep hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for everything older than a month.

Backs-up EVERY mounted local drive. Need to tell it to leave out drives, like SuperDuper volumes, etc.

Starts with entire system, but you can control what and what not to backup

Uses a second, third, forth drive, etc. Internal, external, NAS, .Mac. HFS+ formatted drives. USB2 or Firewire

It seems unclear if "AirDisks" are supported.

Seem to not be, but was in earlier BETAs.

Apple has removed "AirDisk" references from TimeMachine pages.

Should support any HFS+ formatted network drives or NAS systems that support AFP, not sure about SMB NAS drives.

How big a drive?

At least 1:1, but I would think 2:1 is better

Bigger is better.

Can TimeMachine be my only back-up?

Time Machine will "pause" backup when disconnected from it's backup drive and then catch up when you return.

Not sure if you can have 2 different TM back-up drives.

Can't boot from it, but can restore once booted from Leopard DVD. Can use TM backups as Migration Assistant data source

Reviews are in...

Tend to like it

Mossberg

Not revolutionary, but evolutionary. Forgetting under the hood stuff?

Pogue

Doesn't like some of the new UI (See-through menus)

A few minor 1.0 "glitches"

Overall positive review.

Both critical of "300" new features.

Reports of early shipments

Smaller box and packaging

"X" floats over holographic like background.