November 9th, Apple released an update to the current operating system Snow Leopard.  For most people, this is a good thing, bringing numerous system updates, and a security update.  However, for “Hackintosh” users, you may have a big problem on your hands.

“Hackintosh” is a “hacked” version of Mac OS X Snow Leopard.  It allows you to run the operating system on certain select Netbooks.  If you are running your computer on an Intel Atom Processor, then DO NOT UPDATE!  If you do, you will be unable to boot up into Mac.

Apple has realized that people have been doing this, and so with the latest update, they decided to break support for The “Atom” processors.  This means that when you try to boot, you will just receive a black screen, with multiple errors.  Unless you can reinstall an operating system without modifying the files, or you buy the right USB connector, you will lose all of your data.

I have been expecting Apple to do something like this eventually.  They have done everything to keep Mac OS X only on their computers.  A few months ago, they filed a lawsuit against the company Psystar.  Psystar builds computers than run all operating systems, including Mac OS X.  Apple is trying to file a lawsuit on Copyright in an ongoing legal battle.

This weekend, I was able to get my hands on Apple’s new “Magic Mouse”. The world’s first touch sensitive mouse hit the markets October 20th, 2009, at the price of US$69.00.

Apple first came across multi-touch interfaces with the Macbook, and Macbook Pro’s. However, it was only up to simple two finger gestures. The only thing that it was used for was to scroll up, down, left and right. It was then introduced to the iPhone, and iPod touch, and it was immediately the most advanced multi-touch device at that time. The iPhone’s and iPod Touch’s were able to also do two finger gestures, which made zooming in on web pages much easier, and also rotating photos. They then introduced it on the Unibody Macbook, and Macbook Pro lines. This was even more advanced, including two, three, and even four finger gestures, which made navigating the computer much easier.

With the Magic Mouse, it goes back to more simple gestures.

First things first, the whole front half of the mouse is a button.  This means that you can click anywhere, and it will be the same.  There is also a feature that can be enabled in the System Preferences, which makes the top right half of the mouse a right-click button.  (Or make the right side left-click, and the left side right-click, if you are left handed.)  They make this easy to switch for people that are left-handed because the mouse is symmetrical.

You can also scroll very easily, and in 360º.  This means that you can scroll anywhere on a web page, not just up and down, and just by touching anywhere on the mouse surface.

The next gesture, looks just like you are scrolling a web page.  The difference this time, is that you need to hold the “Control” button, and go up or down, which acts like a zoom button.  This allows you to see everything close up in any application.

The last gesture that it is capable of right now, uses two fingers, and is used for navigation.  It allows you to go to backward and forwards in supported web browsers, meaning that you don’t have to click the back or forward buttons in order to do that.

Overall, the mighty mouse is a great attempt at something new by Apple, but I don’t see it becoming something huge that everybody has to have.  If I were to rate this, I would give it a 3/5 stars, for a few reasons.  The first is that multi-touch on such a small space, is hard to do.  If you try to use the swipe feature, it is very easy to move the mouse in the process, which can get annoying at times.  The second reason being that it only has one button… Yes, I know Apple is famous for their “one mouse button”, but they should at least have another mouse on sale with two buttons.  The reason I think this, is because I like playing computer games, and just about all of them use the right mouse button.  This means that if I want to play a game, I will need to switch to my other Logitech mouse to do so.  The last reason, is that the mouse is too small.  Yes, in the world of technology, when things get smaller, they are generally considered more advanced.  In this case, for anybody with big hands, this mouse is even harder to use.

Mac OS X 10.6 does not automatically boot into the 64 bit Kernel. This means that if you don’t follow these instructions, you will not run it.

NOTE: Even if your Mac has two Cores, you may not be able to run this!

To make sure you can run this: Download this Application: Startup Mode Selector

If you can Run the 64 Bit mode, it should look like this: (With the exception of your mac+model)

Next, select: “Start in 64bit mode”, and enter your password/ Then Restart your mac!

Now When you start your Mac up, go to the Apple Menu, and choose “About this Mac”

Then click More Info:

Click on Software, and look for “64-bit kernel and extensions:

Make sure it says Yes

Congratulations!  You have now booted into 64-bit mode!

REMEMBER:  If you are having troubles booting an application, it is probably not 64-bit compatible!  They might have a 64-bit version on their website so check there!

We all know that any release by Apple is something huge, this on the other hand was overall a disappointing release.

So, first you buy the install disc, paying US$9.95, US$29.00, or US$49.00.  This is a great price to start off with, the $9.95 was a special promotion price for anyone that had bought a Mac after June 6th, 2009.  If you had purchased Snow Leopard within a 90 period of your laptop purchase, then you would be able to get the $9.95 price.  If you do not qualify, then the price is US$29.00 for a single user license, and $49.00 for a family 5 pack license.

The first major update was switching to 64-Bit.  They have made all core applications(applications that ship pre-installed) 64-bit.  What 64-bit processor does, is makes it read the binary digits much faster.  Example:  32-bit processors could only read up to 4.3 Billion numbers, whereas 64-bit can read about 18.5 quintillion numbers.  This allows it to read much more, and it also makes the smaller numbers more efficient, and faster to read.  On the other hand, this is not such a big deal because most 3rd party programs do not run in 64-bit mode yet, so OS X is not able to utilize it correctly.  Also, to even be able to notice a difference in speed, you need to have at least 4GB of RAM (Random Access Memory), and most computers have 1GB or less.

Another improvement is Grand Central Dispatch (GCD).  While GCD is not anything that you will likely pay attention to, it is useful.  What this does is utilizes the full amount of RAM that you have.  It will send parts of RAM to 32-Bit and 64-Bit processors.  This means that you can run applications in both 32, and 64-Bit processors at the same time.  To make this useful, you will need to have a Mac with an Intel Core 2 Duo or better processor.  If you do not know if you have it or not, follow these instructions:

Click the “Apple Menu”:

Click on “About This Mac”, Then Click “More Info”:

Look at the number of cores, and if it says “2″, then you are good!

The next big improvement, is to Finder.  Finder is the main user-management system for disks, files network drives, and applications.  This has now been utilized in order to work with the 64-bit processor.  It also has been modified to work with Apple’s new Grand Central Dispatch.  This makes loading times faster, like loading PDF Icons is now 1.8x faster, and with JPG icons is 1.4x faster.  These are big improvements, especially when loading many pictures in your finder window at once.

Expose is a great improvement, probably one of the best on here.  What it now let’s you do, is show all windows including the minimized ones!  The minimized ones show up under a bar about 2/3rds down the screen.  When Expose is active, ou can also click on an icon in the dock and it will show only the windows from that application.  This can also be done by clicking and holding the icon in the dock.  Everything is also organized a lot better, looks and looks neater because it is in rows.

The menu’s for when you secondary click something in the dock has been changed, so it is a lot easier to view, and navigate through the collapsing menu’s in it.  Also, in stacks, you can now navigate through different folders right in the menu!  This means that you won’t have to open up a new finder window to see what is in the folder!

The next big enhancement is QuickTime X.  Named “X” because it is version 10.  This brings big updates to QuickTime.  One enhancement is that it now has the capabilities to record audio and video straight from your iSight, of monitor!  This is great for anybody that is into Video Blogging, or just anyone that like to record random stuff to Youtube!  The next feature of it is that it can stream video from HTTP’s.  This means that you no longer have to have a special streaming server setup, and can instead just have it on your regular server.  Another big improvement of it is that it looks so much better!  They changed the playback menu, so now it looks much sleeker, and is more responsive than ever.  The next visual improvement is the way that the actual player GUI disappears, and all you see is the video.  This makes the look of it so much better, now it actually looks like a great video player, and not just a free one that you download off of the internet.

Overall, I don’t think that this should have been a whole new version of the Mac OS.  Most of this could have just been downloaded through their Software Update application.  They really should have included some more features to actually make this a good update.

Light Peak by Intel is going to be the future of computers. Today, most people know that we transfer data through a USB (Universal Serial Bus). This gives us the power to share documents with teacher, friends, or basically anyone you want because they come standard on just about any computer that you can buy, including Net books! The current version of the USB is 2.0. 2.0 is the newest version that is available and what has been used since about 2000. By it being released in 2000 it is obvious that it needs a serious refresh (as with anything that has been out for almost ten years. The current maximum speed of the USB 2.0 device is 480 Megabits per second. This used to be extremely fast, and it sounds like it too, but in reality, it is nowhere near what it sounds like. There is a defference in Magabyte and Megabit, which a lot of people do not know. In reality, the transfer speed for USB 2.0 will not exceed 60 Megabytes per second

Another thing that is common on all desktops, and some laptops is either VGA of DVI. These are two different ports that allow. The interesting thing about Light Peak is that it can be used for transferring the video to your desktop screen, as well as transferring data.

Light peak is made by Intel, and is currently not open to the public. How this is different from the USB is that it uses Fiber Optic cables to transfer the data. Probably the most common use that people know of Fiber Optic today would be through Verizon Fi-Os. This is an internet service that has blazing fast speeds, running through fiber optic cables. If you think about it, transferring the internet connection is basically the same thing because you need to transfer data from the servers to your home computer as well. So, it is strange that no one thought about doing this years ago!

Right now, the prototypes for Light Peak are maxing out at 10 Gigabytes per second of data transfer. This is a huge increase in data transfer. Going from USB’s 480 Megabits per second to 10 Gigabytes per secong is amazing! Even in the next five-10 years, they are thinking that the speeds will be in excess of 100 Gigabytes of data per second. This is even more amazing because this could take most peoples hard drives, and transfer the entire thing to another computer in less than a second. The way that you are able to reach these incredible speeds, is because it is not transferred through the wire like it used to. Now it is being transferred through light. Yes, that’s right, data is actually being transferred through light. This does not mean that you can look at the cord and see little lights with words on them, it is infrared light, so it is invisible to the naked eye. Also, don’t think that if you use a camera to see it, that you will be able to. The data is microscopic, and in such a form that you will see nothing if it were able to be looked at.

If you are thinking about buying this when it is released, DO NOT! I REPEAT DO NOT! When this first is released to the public, and starts shipping, it is not going to be compatible with anything! Not to mention that all of your computers components will need to be upgraded in order to do this. I would recommend waiting until 2012 to actually do anything with it.