Zit Seng's Superwall

When Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was launched last year, one of the things that caught my attention was its support for Exchange 2007. It would have meant better integration for Mac users with a corporate Microsoft Exchange-based calendar and directory service. But alas, when I finally got Snow Leopard installed and tried to get my Mail.app setup, I realized the nitty gritty details. It’s Exchange 2007, not any Exchange, and it turns out that the Microsoft Exchange I have at work isn’t 2007.

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One of the best things that Apple had introduced with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is Time Machine. It’s a no-brainer backup utility that “just works”, and furthermore, one that people will actually use. While Time Machine works great with a direct attached storage disk (internal or external firewire/USB) or Time Capsule, it wouldn’t readily work with other network attached storage. If you want to backup “over the network”, Apple wants you to buy their Time Capsule hardware. But there are fixes to get around that.

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I opened the lid of my MacBook, it resumed from the previous suspend, and I clicked something on Safari. Then, Mac OS X told me: You need to restart your computer. It explained how I could do that, and it did it in 5 languages. Yes, it is the Mac OS X kernel panic. It’s the first kernel panic I experienced on Snow Leopard. The last time I saw a kernel panic was on Leopard. It’s the same MacBook, before upgrading to Snow Leopard 2 months ago.

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For many Mac users, it is inevitable that Microsoft Windows will be needed at some point or other. There are a few solutions to running Windows on a Mac hardware. I much prefer the virtualization solution than running Bootcamp because I can still access the Mac OS X system at all times. The two main virtualization solutions are basically VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop. Then, the next inevitable question is, which is better? Which is faster? Which is more integrated? Which is more interoperable with various guest operating systems?

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There’re plenty of software updates this week. First up was for Snow Leopard which is updated to Mac OS X 10.6.2, which contains quite a number of fixes (58, apparently) including an important one that involves data loss. Then, the Safari web browser itself, whose updates are distributed separately from Mac OS X, was updated to version 4.0.4. It fixes some security vulnerabilities, and improves performance and stability. Finally, there is also the update to Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac with version 12.2.3, which fixes stability and security issues.

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I’ve just finished upgrading to Snow Leopard. Apple claims it is faster. With most things turned 64-bits, one would expect to see some improvements. But how good is better? Well, I timed a selected bunch of events, just before upgrading (i.e. still running Leopard), and then after the upgrade to Snow Leopard was done. Here’s the quantitative comparisons.

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Customers in Singapore are now receiving their Snow Leopard! Here’s the opened up Mac Box Set ordered by my colleague. The first thing that struck me? Oh, the box is so small. It is about the area of a standard CDROM. I somehow got the impression that it is a more sizable portion. The photos on their website make the box look big. This is my colleague’s order. Still waiting for mine to arrive at home.

Earlier this afternoon, I noticed that the order status in the Apple Online Store for my Snow Leopard had been updated to “Prepared for shipment”. Delivery will be by tomorrow, so the order tracking page says. I guess people in Singapore, along with those in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, etc, will be amongst the first in the world to get their copy of Snow Leopard. It is going to be goodbye to the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on this MacBook really soon now.

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Do you fancy Mac OS X on a Lenovo IdeaPad S10? The S10 is a nice cool-looking netbook, and Mac OS X is a nice cool operating system. The problem, of course, is that you could not legally buy Mac OS X to install in the Lenovo IdeaPad S10. That, however, has not stopped plenty of people all over the world from trying to install Mac OS X on their non-Apple hardware. See the photo? This netbook hackintosh is made “complete” with a genuine Apple sticker pasted on the cover!

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The cat is out of the bag. The latest version of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system, code named Snow Leopard, will be launched in September. Current Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) users can upgrade to Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) for just US$29. That seems like a very reasonable upgrade price to pay.

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