Software & Apps - Page 114

Yesterday Apple announced that they were opening up the Grand Central Dispatch code. So, of course today we see the first of the "third-party" applications developed for it.

Interestingly it is a video encoding application that makes use of the OpenCL libraries found in Snow Leopard. The name of the application is called movie gate. It was developed by Christophe Ducommun and shows roughly a 50% performance increase over non-OpenCL performance. When I read this news I started to have flash backs to when NVIDIA released their Cuda API. At the time they called it WhoopAss, a rather goofy name for a bundle of demo applications and a single Video encoding app that was not much faster than CPU encoding (back then).

Despite this flash back I was actually impressed when I read further down in the article. You see although I dislike Apple as a company the one thing that I will always give them for is their Video Editing/ Authoring Applications. I still use FinalCut and DVD Studio for my authoring and NLE Editing. So with this new development I am starting to wonder if it is time to build me a hackintosh complete with some third-party OpenCL plugins.

Since the new Zune HD is out Microsoft wanted to get the software that powers it ready and out for you as well. I took the chance to grab this software and take a quick 15 minute look at it.

The first issue I ran into was in getting it downloaded. As I have been using Windows 7 x64 exclusively for some time and Zune 4.0 is supposed to be optimized for this I opened up IE 8 and started the download process.

I have talked about Snow Leopard at length and about how I feel that Apple's newest OS is actually following MS and Linux this time around.

I have received more than my share of e-mail over this. Some have been reasoned, some have been rants and name calling. But all that aside I will say this; Apple is not being completely honest or upfront with its users and consumers

According to Adobe, Apple has shipped Snow Leopard with and older version of Flash. This version has known security issues. Adobe knows about them, Apple knows about them and you can be the hackers do.

Now all of this would be sort of ok, if it were not for the fact Apple may have known that a new version was ready and available before launch.
To me this is a very bad statement about Apple and their marketing campaign. In their ads they claim they are immune to viruses and that they are secure...But the OS ships with a version of an application that has known existing exploits.

If you have Snow Leopard I highly recommend you update your version of Flash as soon as possible.

Over the next month or two you will be reading (unless you choose not to) a lot of articles explaining why Snow Leopard is an amazing leap forward.

However what you won't be reading is the same thing that is mysteriously absent from many iPhone OS reviews. This omission is the truth about how far behind Apple really is in terms of technology.

While yes Snow Leopard represents a good step forward and does bring many new features and performance improvements to the Mac, it is still not up to par with your average Windows or Linux install for technology.

Let's take three of my favorites for starters;

64-Bit (x86-64) -

Apple is touting this like they brought it out for the world to see. Unfortunately, Linux had it first then Microsoft. For Linux 64-Bit Kernels and memory addressing was developed in conjunction with AMD's x86-64 initiative. This was in direct opposition to what Intel was working on at the time (the Itanium true 64-bit CPU) it was an x86 CPU that could also run 64 bit memory extensions. AMD was working with Both Linux and Microsoft but it was Linux that had a working product out first. Microsoft followed in 2004 with Windows XP Professional x64 based off of the Server 2003 Kernel. MS has offered a 64-bit version of every OS since that time. Since MS and Linux have had it for more than 5 years it seems rather silly for Apple to act like they are leading the way here. It is also important to note that not every Mac will get a full 64 bit kernel this means when executing 64 bit with a 32 bit kernel code you are using more CPU time to run your application.

Multi Core support-

Here is another one that gets me. Again MS and Linux were way ahead on multi-core and multi-thread support. Not sure why Apple feels this is something new, and from their verbiage, something you only get with OSX 10.6.

Built in Malware Detection -

Here we see an MS first. MS has had its Windows Defender since Vista and even had an earlier form that was part of the Microsoft Office install.

This was the Malware detection and removal service. If you had XP with Office installed you got this software free.

Of course Apple's flavor only detects two viruses so while it is there it is pretty limited in its scope and functionality.

So while you will hear a lot about Apple's latest, do not believe all of the hype surrounding it. You get some good features and it is much faster than 10.5 but it is not the end all, beat all of operating systems and in an increasing trend, it seems that Apple is chasing Microsoft and Linux with their new features.

Apple is pushing its new OS onto the faithful starting on the 28th of August. Keeping with the feline naming convention OSX 10.6 will be called Snow Leopard.

The new OS is supposed to be faster, more stable, and offers a ton of new features and improvements. There is one that is creating a lot of back and forth between the Mac Lovers and the Mac Haters.

This is the claim that Snow Leopard is a 64 bit OS. Now technically this is true but it is not true for all MACs. You see not all Intel CPUs can support EM64T (Intel's implementation of 64-Bit memory extensions) although that number is very small. Still even in some models that do support EM64T the installer will only install a 32-Bit Kernel. According to Apple even though the Kernel will be 32-bit you will still be able to run 64-bit applications.

Now this I am not sure about, previously Apple claimed that OSX 10.5 was 64 bit because a single portion of the OS was able to understand 64-bit memory extensions, however the OS as a whole did not. This would appear (on the surface at least) to look like a similar situation. I have a feeling you will find that those systems with a 32-bit Kernel will not be able to run 64-Applications. But those systems with a full 64-bit Kernel will be able to run both.

One way or the other we will know on the 29th what the real deal is with the 32-bit Vs 64-Bit Kernel on Apple systems with Snow Leopard.

Ah it is my daily head ache. I power on the work laptop and get ready to start browsing the internet in search of something to write about. I also crank up the usual instant messaging applications. First MSN, then Skype; however lately Skype has been more of an annoyance than a benefit.

Starting about a month ago I began receiving invitations to view people's web cams. These are so obviously spam that it would be funny if I was not getting 3-7 per day and often 2-3 each time I open Skype.

Despite having my privacy settings to not allow IMs from people not in my contact list, and not allowing people to see me as on line unless they are in my list I still get these. They are also happening more and more frequently. To make matters worse the only recourse is to block them and select the "report abuse from this person" checkbox.

My favorite ones are the ones that say "Hey we talked all night Saturday, here is the web cam link you wanted". Now, I have had a few nights when I was younger where I do not remember much of the previous evening, but I would have to be really dim to fall for that one.

Skype's FAQ page is not helpful at all stating that to prevent these you just need to setup the privacy filters...in exactly the same way that I have them setup. Unfortunately it has not helped at all.

Android can now join the ranks of the iPhone. Not in terms of style, quality or performance. For the most part Android is pretty much equal to the iPhone OS and in many ways better. No today I am talking about being jailbroken.

Of course you do not call it jailbreaking for the Android OS, You call it rooting. This has always been possible but it has also always been out of most people's hands. Doing it has required more work than most thought it was worth.

However all that has changed, there is now a quick and easy method to open up your Android based phones. The App called Recovery Flasher can be downloaded from the Android market and all you so is run it, make a backup and then flash it to Cyanogen Recovery 1.4.

Now you have access to Full SD Backups, Tethering, OS upgrades or even loading a completely new OS.

In what seems to be a "Twilight Zone" moment it has been uncovered that UK pricing for Windows 7 will be roughly half of what the cost will be in the US.

According to a CNET article Microsoft is pushing Windows 7 Home Premium full version for less than you can buy an upgrade in the US. The official pricing is 65 GBP, which converts to $107 USD. This is $13 less than the US upgrade price for the same product.

Of course the 65 GBP does not include the standard VAT (Very Annoying Tax) that is imposed in the UK. This 17.5% tax adds 11.37 GBP to the cost pushing it up to 76.37 GBP $126.11 plus shipping.

This still puts it under the $200 US price for Windows 7 Home Premium but makes other editions of Window 7 that only shave about $40 off as much less of a savings.

Still it is nice to finally see comparative pricing hitting the UK instead of the usual lopsided ones.

In the war of the PMPs the big deal now is developing third party applications for the device. This is even more important than base functionality (but is still behind proper marketing).

So what do you do if you are trying to enter or get back in the game in the PMP space? We know that Apple has a very large number of mobile developers. This is evidenced by the large number of Apps in the iTunes App store. How do you tip the scale to your favor?

The plain and simple answer is money.

The is trend is being displayed in a rumor running around that Microsoft has been offering iPone developers money to port their apps over to the Zune HD. The going rumor is that a single Developer for a twitter application was approached by MS and offered a "bucket of money" to port his app over.

We also hear that Sony is courting them as well although there is much less detail on that rumor.

Although these are both unsubstantiated rumors, we could see two larger players actively going after the current crop of iPhone devs to get their own app stores rolling. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out moving forward.

I really do love it when a new OS comes out. It is a time for experimentation. Finding the hidden tweaks to make the OS run faster, more secure and generally exactly the way you want it too.

As always there are numerous articles that give you ideas on how to get the most from your installs. But what about getting the most out of the features offered?

With the inclusion of Windows Media Center in Windows Vista many people (myself included) have used Microsoft's OS as a front end for a Home Theatre PC. The problem with Vista was that it was sort of clunky and slow. granted it was light years ahead of XP MCE but still not exactly what most were looking for.

In Windows 7 much of that has changed but there are still some areas that need to be addressed. This has been done by MissingRemote. They have taken a look at the way MCE launches and published a handy list of switches to add to the ehshell.exe (MCE's real name). These can do everything from remove the sounds and logo to preventing someone from shutting media center down.

Granted some of this can be done in the settings page but for the tweaker (computer tweaker) these are pretty cool.

With the release of the RTM to Technet you have to wonder how people are going to make the move from their existing OS to Windows 7. In the past (especially with Vista) Microsoft pushed for a full upgrade from one retail product to another.

However we were all told that Windows 7 upgrades would be much easier.

I am not sure if that is true but I am looking forward to checking out just how easy an upgrade is in the next few days. One issue for many people is going to be the move from any of the Beta or RC versions to the retail or even the RTM. According to existing information if you are running one of these you will have to backup your personal files and start from scratch with a clean install.

If you are using Windows XP or any of the basic versions of Vista you will be in the same boat. To lessen the blow MS is no longer calling it Format and Reload. It is now called a "Custom Install" how very nice of them. I know I feel better about the pain of a fresh install with that nicer sounding name.

Well the XP Mode for Windows 7 is still kicking around. In fact Microsoft has just released it to Release Candidate phase.

The Win 7 add-on is designed to allow legacy applications to operate in a virtual mode. This is intended to allow for an easier transition to the new OS from XP.

This development is designed to allow Microsoft to finally stop support for Windwos XP. There are some prerequisites that will hinder this app though. For one, older systems that do not have either AMD-V or Intel's Virtualization will not be able to use this.

You will also need a virtualization engine like Virtual PC. There is no word yet on if this will work with other virtualization engines though.

If you are interested you can grab this here

If you had any doubt that Windows 7 is being eagerly anticipated then the following information should set your mind at ease.

The great big world piracy community has found a hole in the activation routine that has allowed them to activate Windows 7 before it is even released. While there are sites reporting this today it actually started a about four days ago when the first pair of Windows 7 Activators, the Windows 7 Activation Tool Kit Beta 1.8 and Windows 7 Loader, hit the internet. Of course they spread rapidly so that people with the RTM image would be able to use it fully activated.

While all of this is noteworthy, it is not unexpected or surprising. After all; there has to be openings in the activation routine for MS to work with and around it for large OEMs and VARs. This was the same vector that the older Windows Vista Loader used. It fooled Vista into thinking the system was from one of a list of manufacturers that can activate by BIOS image.

Of course that hole was patched with the release of Vista SP2, but like jailbreaking the activation hacks are a game of cat and mouse.

If you have not heard there is a pretty serious patch out for Internet Explorer. This patch is coming out of the normal cycle so it must be important.

The patch relates to an issue found in the way that IE handles object in memory and tables. The issue affects people running with Admin rights more than it does a standard user.

The flaw exists in the Active Template Libraries in Visual Studio. So someone could craft a malicious website with these and setup a drive by site. Once a user visits the site they could become infected based on a few known vectors in the way IE handles these objects.

The patch is recommended for all versions of IE including IE 8.

You can read the MSB here

I often find the strangest things funny. For example I actually find it funny that Google is being stifled by Apple. I cannot really explain why; it is just funny.

Maybe it is because when using the iPhone I am stuck with Google Maps (unless I want to pay for another service). Or, that my only option for search is Google. Perhaps it is that Google and Apple have a shared director.

Still it is somewhat comical to see applications like Google Latitude and Google Voice get rejected by Apple. Apple's reasons for doing this? Well for Latitude Apple felt that people would confuse it with the current Map application. For Google voice it is that it duplicates existing iPhone functions.

Both are thin excuses at best, Latitude was probably not allowed because it competes (in a very small way) with a rumored Mobile Me product that Apple is working on for social networking and Google Voice is a direct threat to Apples single US Carrier AT&T. Google got around Latitude's rejection by turning it into a Web App, they will more than likely do something similar with Google Voice. So while this is an inconvenience to be sure, it is not a show stopper.

So fear not Google fans, you will see Google Voice on the iPhone; it will just be in another form.

In the end, I think what really makes me laugh is the slight chance that all of this App rejection is nothing more than a smoke screen for the Anti-Trust Investigation by the US DOJ into the shared directors between Apple and Google.

Food for thought...

As Windows 7 approaches retail release there have been more questions about what it is bringing to the table besides a re-worked UI. Well if you look beyond the new clothing that MS has wrapped the Vista Kernel in you will find a pretty impressive feature set.

In Windows Vista one of the problems was its heavy foot print. This was further exacerbated by Vista's dislike of releasing memory once an application was finished with it. But beyond having better memory usage Windows 7 brings DX11 to the table. DX11 is bringing a host of new features to gaming. These will be the inclusion of a Physics API, adding a tesselator, and a host of other improvements and added features.

But DX11 is not just for gaming; for the first time applications will be able to selectively choose the processor they run on. I am not just talking about the CPU cores, but being able to choose between GPU and GPU on the fly.

For example let's say the main UI of an application is not GPU accelerated (either graphically or by GPGPU) but what it does is DX11 will run the portions of the code that are best suited for the CPU on the CPU and the part that are best suited for the GPU there.

This means that there should be less overhead in transitioning between the two states. It also means that developers should have an easier time in writing applications to take advantage of the parallel power of the GPU.

Windows 7 also brings extra features for SSDs, there are optimizations for performance and also a function that allows you to clean the drive properly after deleting files.

With Jailbreaking and Unlocking there is a strange game of cat and mouse played between the jeailbreakers and Apple. It would appear that this game has also extended to the new Palm Pre.

Palm has released its new Web OS 1.1 and it fixes the issue that Apple just patched with the latest version of iTunes. So that means that you can still sync your Palm Pre with iTunes if you have the newest version of the Web OS.

Other improvements are emoticons and full exchange support, but between you and me the best part is Palm's back hand to Apple and their iron grip on iTunes.

Ok, I do not know about you but I am getting a little tired of all the whining going on over IE8.

After MSFT said they would remove the option to use IE in Windows 7 for the EU it looked like people would finally be happy. However that is not the case for Opera.

No they claim that not have IE available to the user (but leaving the rendering engine etc on the OS) is not enough. Apparently removing the IE option and allowing the buyer/OEM/VAR to put whatever browser they want is not going to "restore browser competition on the desktop". Gee since there will be no browser available to the user doesn't that mean the user is free to choose?

I suppose they will not be happy until MSFT is forced to do their job for them and not only bundle Opera into Windows but pay for it too.

Really quit complaining and just get over it. Honestly it just gets old.

Ok rant done.

We have another contender for the stupid comment of the day. This one was made by a member of the US government. It serves not only to entertain us but also to show a disconnect between the powers-that-be and reality.

It seems that a senior member for the US State Department feels the FireFox, the free Internet Explorer Alternative, is too expensive to implement and maintain.

Now the embarrassing comment came at a town hall meeting at which a staffer asked Hillary Clinton if the State Department could use the alternative browser.

The Staffer had formerly worked for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency where FireFox was allowed. He did not understand how the entire intelligence community could use it and not the State Department.

Hillary did not know the answer and so deferred to Pat Kennedy for the answer. Kennedy's answer "It's an expense question"

In Kennedy's defense he was answering based on an administration stand point and not a purchasing stand point. This does not excuse the lack of understanding of the browser which he called "multiple systems".

He also made the comment that they were looking at FireFox, but then went on to explain that patches had to be loaded. Last time I checked Firefox can handle that all by itself.

The statement gave me a nice laugh and then a sad shake of the head.

You know, one of my favorite things about announced products is the vast amount of fake pictures, screen shots, etc that hit the internet.

Now that Google has let Chrome OS out of the bag the number of supposed shots taken at developer's conventions, clandestine meetings, and in secret bunkers (ok I made those last two up) are growing at an alarming rate.

No one really knows what Chrome OS will look like except for a very small minority of developers. It is rumored that it will hit the market late this year or early 2010 but nothing is set in stone.

What we do know is that Chrome will be a cloud based OS for the most part. There will be some local applications to be sure but the majority will be web based. There is no word yet on if your files are stored locally, on the cloud, or if you get to chose which you want.

In the picture below you can see that someone forgot to smooth out some missing pixels. Not likely to be a mistake made in a real OS.