Surely, you can do better. [MetkuMods via Unplggd]

AppleInsider chalks the size decreases up to wider use of vector graphics and a centralized localization scheme, so as to prevent redundant language installations. More likely, however, is that the exclusion of PowerPC support has allowed for some serious pruning, allowing Apple to shed years of IBM residue from each app.

Additional reports confirm, as previously reported, that ZFS will be include in Snow Leopard Server, and claim that new text processing features (like autocorrect and text insertion) will be implemented system-wide, and that a multitouch programming tools will be supplied to developers for inclusion into their 3rd party apps. It looks like Apple is committing to the strategy of optimizing and improving upon an existing product instead of pushing for conspicuous new features, which is bold, to say the least

UPDATE: Macrumors has an interesting post that could explain the reduced sizes. Apparently if you remove extra languages as well as .nib bundles (essentially interface layout instructions, used during the compiling process for the application), you can reach sizes close to those advertised in the original post. [AppleInsider]

This is not going to be a super technical breakdown of parallel computing for the super nerdy, just a rough overview for my mom. Basically, parallel processing is what it sounds like: Multiple computations or processes or um, just "things," are carried out or done simultaneously, in parallel (at the same time!). Multi-core processors like Intel's ubiquitous Core 2 Duo have quickly become mainstream. They're really good are doing several things at once, since each processor core can crunch away on something—more cores, more simultaneous Captain Crunching, more faster. A brilliant consumer taste of this was actually Rosetta on OS X—on a dual-core system, one core would be "translating" the code from the PPC version, while the other ran the program (roughly speaking).

Sounds gravy right? Well, as Steve alluded in his explanation of Snow Leopard, parallel programs ain't easy to write—they're harder than sequential ones for sure, 'cause it requires the kind of math that can be broken up into little parts you can solve independently and then put back together again. Artificial intelligence, for instance, is not cakey for this. On the other hand, something like tomography—a technique for creating 3D images—totally is, because it's highly vectorizable. Or video stuff (cause you can easily divvy up the chores), videogame graphics and physics, generally.

No surprise that modern graphics cards are actually really good at parallel processing, 'cause of the way they're architected and because they usually have a buttload of cores—Nvidia's latest high-end GeForce card, the GTX 280, has 240. (It's why they're suitable for cheap supercomputers.) Nvidia, for instance, showed me some of the insane physics jujitsu the GTX 280 can pull off, it and ATI both have crazy new graphics cards (FireStream 9250 and Tesla 10P) built for "general purpose" supercomputing. Sony's Cell is sorta like this with multiple cores, but none of these are very good general processors the way stuff is designed now. (You don't see any computers running on an ATI Radeon CPU, or Cell handling the main workload on Toshiba's new laptops, do you?)

You'll note that part of Snow Leopard's feature list is OpenCL, an easy way for developers to tap the parallel processing power of graphics cards, in addition to being optimized for multiple cores courtesy of its "Grand Central" tech set. So Snow Leopard is pretty much all about parallel processing. (Microsoft hasn't been overly vocal about Windows and parallel computing.)

From what Apple has said—and the whole "Grand Central" deal (it "takes full advantage by making all of Mac OS X multicore aware and optimizing it for allocating tasks across multiple cores and processors")—it's clear that Apple is totally re-architecting Snow Leopard around parallel processing, with Grand Central acting much like the real one, organizing, assigning and scheduling a whole bunch of tasks/trains along a bunch of different paths/tracks. It's a major undertaking—Intel and Microsoft are throwing a ton of money at parallel computing themselves—and we're pretty curious about Apple is going to make parallel programming easier for programmers in a way supposedly no one's done before.

Something we missed, or you still wanna know? Send any questions about processors, prostates, Bananas or anything else to tips@gizmodo.com, with "Giz Explains" in the subject line.

1.

The way the processor industry is going is to add more and more cores, but nobody knows how to program those things. I mean, two, yeah; four, not really; eight, forget it.

Jobs claims that Apple's made a "breakthrough" in parallel-programming called Grand Central, which he alluded to in his keynote yesterday. He didn't, however, go into details about how it works and why it's going to revolutionize dividing up tasks into multiple processors in ways that other operating systems haven't yet.

What's also interesting is the ability to bring the GPU (your graphics card) into the processing role to help out your CPU. Apple's calling this newly proposed standard OpenCL (Open Compute Library).

2.

Basically it lets you use graphics processors to do computation. It’s way beyond what Nvidia or anyone else has, and it’s really simple.

It's vaguely similar to the way that Photoshop CS 4 will use your graphics card to help process image manipulation and help out in rendering 3D models as well.

Will there be more features like Time Machine? Not according to Jobs.
3.

“We’ve added over a thousand features to Mac OS X in the last five years,” he said Monday in an interview after his presentation. “We’re going to hit the pause button on new features.”

Seems to us that Snow Leopard won't be heavy on the features, but it will increase processing speeds for people who are heavy on the processing in their daily computing and have more than just a few cores—a place we're all heading to in the next few years. [NYT]

Yep, you heard right: Apple showed off the OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, due out in a year, to the attendees at WWDC, and let some details slip to the public, including:
• Optimization for multi-core processors
• GPU friendly (actually GPU utilization of highly parallel tasks generally done on a CPU)
• Supports "breakthrough" amounts of RAM—16TB to be precise
• New "modern" QuickTime X platform
• Safari with 53% faster JavaScript implementation
Yes, as we've heard, this is a lot less about cool user features and more about boots-on-the-ground stability—or in Apple SVP for Software Engineering's words, "perfecting the world's most advanced OS." There's no mention of continuing PowerPC support, but then again, there's no word about discontinuing it, either. Here's more from the horse's, I mean, predatory feline's mouth. Update: The official Snow Leopard site is live.

Apple Previews Mac OS X Snow Leopard to Developers

SAN FRANCISCO, June 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple(R) today previewed Mac OS(R) X Snow Leopard, which builds on the incredible success of OS X Leopard and is the next major version of the world's most advanced operating system. Rather than focusing primarily on new features, Snow Leopard will enhance the performance of OS X, set a new standard for quality and lay the foundation for future OS X innovation. Snow Leopard is optimized for multi-core processors, taps into the vast computing power of graphic processing units (GPUs), enables breakthrough amounts of RAM and features a new, modern media platform with QuickTime(R) X. Snow Leopard includes
out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 and is scheduled to ship in about a year.

"We have delivered more than a thousand new features to OS X in just seven years and Snow Leopard lays the foundation for thousands more," said Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. "In our continued effort to deliver the best user experience, we hit the pause button on new features to focus on perfecting the world's most advanced operating system."

Snow Leopard delivers unrivaled support for multi-core processors with a new technology code-named "Grand Central," making it easy for developers to create programs that take full advantage of the power of multi-core Macs. Snow Leopard further extends support for modern hardware with Open Computing Language (OpenCL), which lets any application tap into the vast gigaflops of GPU computing power previously available only to graphics applications. OpenCL is based on the C programming language and has been proposed as an open standard. Furthering OS X's lead in 64-bit technology, Snow Leopard raises the software limit on system memory up to a theoretical 16TB of RAM.

Using media technology pioneered in OS X iPhone(TM), Snow Leopard introduces QuickTime X, which optimizes support for modern audio and video formats resulting in extremely efficient media playback. Snow Leopard also includes Safari(R) with the fastest implementation of JavaScript ever, increasing performance by 53 percent, making Web 2.0 applications feel more responsive.*

For the first time, OS X includes native support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 in OS X applications Mail, iCal(R) and Address Book, making it even easier to integrate Macs into organizations of any size.

*Performance will vary based on system configuration, network connection and other factors. Benchmark based on the SunSpider JavaScript Performance test on an iMac(R) 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system running Mac OS X Snow Leopard, with 2GB of RAM.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its
award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

These mock-ups were designed by iLounge readers. iLounge held held a competition to find the best ideas for the new iPhone. Best? Worst? You tell me—there's more at Wired to bash, praise or drool over. [Wired]

Contrary to rumors that Apple would drop PowerPC architecture support with its newest OS, a tipster and possible Apple insider was able to get his hands on the most recent build of the yet-to-be released 10.6, and found some evidence that Cupertino might be keeping the chip alive.

The tipster, who asked to stay anonymous lest he incur the wrath of Jobs, found a WWDC seed release labeled 10.6. After poking around a bit, here's what he got:

• Work has definitely been done on PPC-native drivers, which means that PPC is unlikely to be dropped.
• A number of drivers didn't load on a Core 2 Duo MacBook, because it was using a 64-bit kernel and the drivers were only 32. The kernel was not only 64-bit though.
• "uname -a" reports: Darwin localhost 10.0.0d1 Darwin Kernel Version 10.0.0d1: Thu May XX XX:XX:XX XDT 2008; root:xnu-1286~1/RELEASE_I386 i386
• Googling that kernel reveals that there might actually be SnowLeopard releases out in the wild already, processing Rosetta@Home protein folding clients.

If the tipoff is true, then it looks like Apple's not quite ready to let go and hand over chip building to a third party. Perhaps we'll have to wait for a few more builds before we get to a completely Intel-only Mac OS X.

[Flickr via The Crunch - Thanks Mark and Mark's brother!]

If we had to guess one way or the other, this no-feature upgrade doesn't seem to be something Apple would do. They gave away 10.1 to 10.0 owners because 10.0 was lousy and needed a bugfix badly, but 10.5 Leopard works just fine. They probably wouldn't waste their goodwill on their point upgrades being $129-worthy by doing something like this. But you can't really tell what's going to happen at WWDC, really, and if there's a time to do OS news, it's at the dev conf. [Ars Technica]

Despite this Rolodex-wrecking flaw, Leopard’s update introduced plenty of other features that actually make the operating system better. Spaces now behaves like a proper virtual desktop system, and Time Machine is significantly more reliable, as well as playing nicer with Time Capsule. Mail, iChat, Airport and Automator also underwent minor refinements. Taking into consideration these enhancements as well as a number of critical security fixes, 10.5.3 is still a recommended download in spite of the Address Book goof. For those who just had to click every new radio button in 10.5.3, the same helpful reader who sent in the Gmail sync warning has posted a quick fix here.

[Brian King]

If you already purchased a machine, you can download an update to enable this. Second, they're shipping a newer case with a quieter fan. It doesn't seem like they've found a way to control fan speed yet, or they could have just seeded an update for that to people who are stuck with the louder, full speed one. Our recommendation is still a "don't buy" for these guys, partially for their lousy tech support, as well as for several other reasons.

Apple Executives to Showcase Mac OS X Leopard and OS X iPhone Development Platforms at WWDC 2008 Keynote

CUPERTINO, California—May 13, 2008—Apple® today announced that a team of Apple executives, led by CEO Steve Jobs, will kick off the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, June 9, 2008 at San Francisco's Moscone West. This year's WWDC will showcase two revolutionary development platforms, the ground-breaking innovations of OS X Leopard® and OS X iPhone™, the world's most advanced mobile operating system.

The five-day WWDC event, which runs from June 9 to June 13, will feature the first ever iPhone track for mobile developers with in-depth sessions and hands-on labs to fully explore the capabilities of the OS X iPhone 2.0 software, including the iPhone SDK and the App Store, a breakthrough way for developers to wirelessly deliver their applications to iPhone and iPod® touch users.

The iPhone track will also enable mobile developers to work side by side with Apple engineers to create amazing applications that leverage iPhone's revolutionary Multi-Touch™ user interface, animation technology, rich set of APIs, including programming interfaces for Core OS, Core Services, Media and Cocoa® Touch technologies, built-in three axis accelerometer and geographical location technology to deliver truly innovative mobile applications.

This year's Mac® track will give newcomers and seasoned veterans alike the technical foundation and techniques needed to develop world-class OS X Leopard applications with sessions that discuss every level of the system, including interface design and implementation, application frameworks, security, localization and networking.

WWDC 2008 will offer over 150 information-rich sessions and labs where Apple engineers will go in-depth on the innovative technologies that power OS X iPhone and OS X Leopard. Developers can bring code to the labs and work one-to-one with Apple engineers, applying development methods and best-practices gained from sessions to enhance their applications.

Other activities at Apple's WWDC 2008 include:

* presentation sessions led by engineers that provide an in-depth look at OS X iPhone, OS X Leopard and innovative tools and technologies such as the iPhone SDK, Cocoa Touch, Interface Builder, Xcode® and more;
* practical hands-on sessions where attendees can learn Apple's own coding strategies and techniques;
* technology labs where attendees can work one-to-one with Apple engineers; and
* special events, including the Welcome Reception, Apple Design Awards, Lunchtime Speakers and Stump the Experts.

Visit Apple's WWDC website for registration and complete session details at http://developer.apple.com/wwdc.

This plan first launched into action when a co-worker of the nameless woman at the Apple Store noticed her computer online and notified the woman. She was then able to log into her computer and the rest is history. So the moral of the story is this: If you steal a MacBook, please be sure to cover the iSight with some tape. Otherwise, you could also be charged with a second degree felony. [Iohud via TUAW]

Currently the video resolution is pinned at 800 x 480 and there're difficulties with wwan, but work is continuing to overcome this.

Is this the smallest Mac in the world? Very probably, and pretty amusing given that OQO was founded by some ex-Apple employees. [OQOTalk]

We absolutely do not support customers attempting to install the Leopard operating system on our Open Computer themselves. This is due to a difficult process that we go through to get Leopard to function on our computers. We encourage you to purchase an open computer, and select the option to have Leopard Pre-installed. Currently, (shipping the computer back to us) is the only option available. If the HDD dies, you can ship it to us for $50 plus shipping, so we can replace it for you.

If we look at the only viable way to install a Leopard on a vanilla OS X machine right now, which is using a hacked version of the OS, this decision makes sense. Psystar can't very well distribute hacked versions of Leopard with every computer. The most they can do is give out copies of the real Leopard, which is uninstallable as-is. But that's not what they said before.

Back when we first heard about them, they claimed this:

The highly extensible OpenMac is a configuration of PC hardware capable of running unmodified OS X Leopard kernels. If you purchase Leopard with your OpenMac we will not only include the actual Leopard retail package with genuine installation disc, but we also include a Psystar restore disc for your OpenMac and we will preinstall Leopard for free so you can begin to use your computer right out of the box.

What happened here? Are they still going to include a restore disc? If so, that might run afoul of Apple and/or the guys who came up with the hacking method in the first place. If you're going to have to mail your hard drive in every time there's a problem, this might be too much trouble for the money you save. [Macfixit]

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During the day I work with images, videos and other largish files, many of which get deleted and need no local backup. I let this slide earlier, thinking Steve J's keep-it-simple strategy made sense. But now I yearn for a backup program that at least lets me set blackout times (say, my usual working hours) where I don't have to deal with manually shutting down an in-progress backup. Or worse, having to reboot everything because the slow-down didn't go away. Before I try this Lifehacker freeware Time Machine tip that Chen has graciously bestowed upon me, I have to ask, am I the only one who feels this way? Or...

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But here's the problem. Printers don't get outdated nearly as fast as computers, and as long as it's still working, you expect it to still be supported within a reasonable time frame. Four years is reasonable. HP's updated this particular model number for Vista, which is actually also a problem since many users have cited printer driver compatibility as a reason why they don't want to update to Vista.

In Matt's case, there are some open source drivers and scanning suites available so he can get scanning to work under Leopard. It may require a bit of trial and error, since open source drivers/suites aren't exactly as install-and-forget as the official ones, but it beats having to buy a new printer. [Consumierst]

We've actually set up the Time Capsule several different ways already, as the only router in the network, and as an Ethernet-linked node on an existing wireless network. The start-up wizard in AirPort Utility asks you plainly what you want to do, in increasing steps like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book. I know some of you don't need that kind of child's play, but this kind of thing will even help you when you tell your mom to get one of these and realize you won't have to do tech support too.
Once you've got it set up, either as your router or a node on your network, you can just pop into Time Machine and see it listed as a drive. If that's all you want, select the drive and you're as good as done. That first dump can be a real doozy though, so keep some things in mind:
• Set aside an entire night to get it done.
• Consider connecting via Ethernet, especially if you have an 802.11b/g Mac. (Time Capsule has Gigabit 10/100/1000Base-T wired connectivity.)
• Try not to interrupt the first dump, as the subsequent file-integrity check will take a long time too.

But say you buy the 500GB Time Capsule, and want to use an external 1TB drive to do all your serious backing up. When you connect it via USB, it is automatically visible in both the AirPort Utility and the Time Machine on your Mac. What you can't do is merge the two to make one massive 1.5TB volume, though. You have to choose one or the other.In some cases, you may want to connect the USB drive you already use for Time Machine to the Time Capsule, to simply make the process wireless. Bear in mind that if you do that, you still have to make the massive initial dump: Time Capsule won't recognize that drive as your previous Time Machine drive, but just as new storage that you can use.

The internal drive and any external drives can be seen as standard network drives, too, across both Mac and PC platforms—checking the guest friendly option in AirPort Utility's disk settings is helpful there. Speaking of PC compatibility, Apple appears to be promoting Time Capsule, at least by word of mouth and in all the support literature, as a dual-platform product, even though its core Time Machine software is not available to Windows users. You can use third-party backup software and select Time Capsule as the target drive, though there are certainly many competing products that will let you do this for cheaper.

The only significant problem I've run into is the networked printer. I connected a printer to Time Capsule that I had set up for local use on my Mac. Time Capsule recognized it immediately, and the printer selection on the Mac itself showed it just fine, but when I went to actually send over a print job, I got an error that the printer was offline. (Eddie Izzard fans would've appreciated the ensuing angry outburst: "Not offline! No. Online. Control-P Print!!") I don't blame Time Capsule yet. I'm going to try it with some other printers soon, and will get to the root of it.

We will continue to test this and alert you to any issues, but in the meantime it's safe to say that this is a worthwhile product for people who have the money and want the convenience. How often do you refuse to connect the USB to your backup drive because it would hamper your style? How often are you afraid, after a long period of not backing up, of the time it may take you to perform a backup. Those issues go away with Time Capsule.

But there's a cost, particularly at the 1TB model, which is $200 more than the $300 500GB model. When we ask about this, all we get back is that these are "server grade" drives. Great, thanks, but we're gonna recommend the 500GB version. If you have 300GB of backup or less you're covered, and if you have 1TB of backup or more, you're better off scoring some massive drive or drive array at discount, and plugging it in via USB. Now go back the #&#;$% up!!! [Time Capsule on Giz]

• Airport connection reliability and stability (we've noticed some problems personally, and so have you)

• Back to my Mac for third-party routers
• Dashboard widget performance improvement
• Stacks fix! List view, Folder view, and updated background for Grid Vid View
• Menubar transparency disabling
• Less translucent menus
• Several iCal recurring meetings supports, bug fixes overall
• iChat Bugfixes
• iSync support added for Samsung D600E and D900i phones
• Finder bugfixes
• Mail bugfixes
• AFP network volume hanging fixed
• RAW support improved
• Preview bugfixes
• Time Machine bugfixes (some external drives not being recognized)

Plus lots of various other fixes (we tried to cover only the hot ones here). We'll have a full list shortly.

More info here [Apple]

There's also a Leopard Graphics Update 1.0 that comes after you install the 10.5.2 update, which according to Ars, it's just a set of updated graphics card drivers.

Now that you have a stylish set of geeky ass-cushions, you need to hook yourself up with these Prove shelves from Creosa. With a little work, you can make them look just like Leopard stacks.[Omni Mouth via Apartment Therapy and Creosa via Freshome]

After a few seconds of internet browsing, the browser hangs up and you get a problem loading page/lost connection message (both Firefox and Safari). The problem is, Airport is still connected to the network. If you click the airport icon at the top of the screen, airport status changes from "Airport Scanning" to "Airport on," then the internet works again. Only to go back into scan mode a few seconds later and repeat the cycle. There are MULTIPLE discussions on Apple's support forums, but no solutions.

A sample discussion thread can be found here. We wouldn't point this out if we haven't experienced it ourselves—both at home and at the luxurious hobo-stained Imperial Palace we stayed at during CES. Have you noticed this? We'd notice that one machine using Leopard would drop out while another one on Tiger sitting two feet away would stay up. You? Throw up a comment.

The Spin The most significant part of the spot is Hodgman's declaration of Vista's awfulness, a fact that millions of frustrated PC users can attest to. (Your humble narrator is among that throng, having opted for a clean reinstall of XP Pro after a Vista upgrade turned his Sony Vaio into a pricey doorstop.) Apple is right to see the Vista fiasco as a golden opportunity to convert a whole new class of consumers—users who've stuck with PCs chiefly out of habit, nothing more. That doesn't just cover light users who've had the same Dell desktop for five years, but also enterprise customers whose natural inclination is to fear IT change. Those suits are now reconsidering en masse, so painful has the Vista switchover been. And it makes sense that Mac is an increasingly sought-after option for the private sector, given all the plaudits that Leopard's received from Mossberg and his many acolytes.

Counterspin You can always quibble over whether an ad formula has jumped the shark—Lord only knows how much digital ink has been spilled in the name of deciding whether the Geico Caveman stuck around too long. But creative nitpicks aside, the main substantive beef that some critics have with the continued Mac-versus-PC series is that it does a poor job of educating consumers. Don't say it can't be done: Apple did an excellent job with its second batch of iPhone ads, in which man-on-the-street types clearly described the gadget's functions. True, that's a taller order with an operating system like Leopard, but I'm willing to bet the big brains at TBWA\Chiat\Day could cook up something. If not, then consumers are pretty much forced to check out an Apple store to learn the basics—a great experience that can convert the PC faithful, but one that's not available to millions of potential customers. (No Apple store in Montana? Really?)

Mission Accomplished? Divining Apple's long-term plans is a bit like forecasting Leonid Brezhnev's next move, circa 1979. There's lots of speculation—particularly here on Gizmodo—but few viable tea leaves from which to read. It is clear, however, that Apple is facing some tough decisions over the next twelve to eighteen months, beginning with whether it wants to mount a more formidable challenge to Microsoft in the laptop space, or focus its efforts even more on smartphones and digital audio players (where the company is currently the bee's knees). If it's going to be the former, Apple has its work cut out for it: Despite a successful 2007, the company's share of the operating-system market rose just 0.51 percent, to 7.31 percent. Meanwhile, for all of its technical failings, Vista has actually been a sales champ. Turning that around will require Apple to not only keep innovating with its products, but also with its enterprise sales tactics. That may not be a battle worth fighting, especially if Apple truly foresees next-gen iPhones, iPods and the like eventually replacing laptops for a huge swath of users.

Hype-O-Meter 6 (out of 10). Even if you're sick to death of this campaign, you have to hand it to Apple for pressing an advantage at exactly the right time. But there are pitfalls to obsessing over a competitor, too—more about what's specifically right with Apple's innovations, please, rather than gloating over Microsoft's woes.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

Read more Hype Sheet

Boot Camp won out for overall speed, where Parallels won for virtualization (running Windows at the same time as Macs) performance. VMWare Fusion, on the other hand, "wins" by keeping your OS X and Window environments separate, which isn't really a feature but more of a lack of a feature—Parallels does a much better and faster job cross-integrating applications and documents. But if you're into keeping up the wall between the two operating systems, there's an option for you. [MacTech]

Top of the list were fixes to Apple's Common UNIX printing system (CUPS), in both its network and AirPort implementations. Fixes are also in the offing for mail flags and fonts in the Mail application and also the way Mail interacts with iCal.

According to Apple Insider, the company also wants those developers to carefully test 37 of the components of OS X:

Among them were Data Detectors, the Mac OS X Dock, the Finder, grammar checking, iCal, iChat, Mail, Parental Controls, Quick Look, Rosetta, Safari, Time Machine, and Leopard's 802.11 AirPort implementation (which has troubled some MacBook users.)