Software | Mac Sage

Mac OS X Leopard With 300 New Features

by patrick

Apple has officially announced their ship date for Leopard along with some 300 new features that will be included in the new operating system.

Apple also exposed the system requirements for Leopard:

General requirements

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

Minimum system requirements

512MB of memory
DVD drive for installation
9GB of available disk space
Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may apply.
Some features require Apple’s .Mac service; fees apply.

Apple has detailed these 300 features on their web page.

Leopard Due Last Week of October

by patrick

If Apple keeps with its pattern of new releases, Leopard should be released to the public on the last Friday of the month (Oct. 26). Tiger was released April 2005 on Friday, April 29.

After the initial 4-month delay in Leopard, what’s a few more weeks? As long as this

iTunes 7.4 Does Ringtones Well; 7.4.1 Does Not

by patrick

Apple has quickly closed the door on a very nice ringtone hack for iTunes and the iPhone. If you’ve upgraded to iTunes 7.4 to supply ringtones to your iPhone, think twice before upgrading again to Apple’s latest 7.4.1 upgrade for iTunes.

Apparently, simply changing the extension on any AAC file to .m4R, then dragging to iTunes library lets you use the file as a ringtone for your iPhone. The latest iTunes upgrade (7.4.1) kills this ability.

iPhone Software Hack

by patrick

Well, it appears that an iPhone software hack is imminent. CNN is reporting that a software developer group has announced a software-only hack for unlocking the iPhone and making it available for use on networks other than AT&T. It takes about two minutes, and there’s no cracking the iPhone case. While this probably doesn’t bother Apple at all, AT&T may not be so pleased. It appears that the legal issues surrounding this type of hack are still being debated.

The developer group has posted a website called iphonesimfree.com and are waiting only to set up their e-commerce infrastructure before selling the software online.

This will be an interesting development for iPhone sales around the world.

TubeTV To Download and Convert YouTube Video

by patrick

YouTube has become the place to go for video on the web. However, if you want to download and reuse video from YouTube, you usually run up against two issues: 1) How to download the file; and 2) How to get the file into a format that is usable.

There are several web-based ways to download and convert YouTube video, but this little application is the best I’ve found so far. TubeTV gives you a browser-like window to search YouTube (and other popular video sites), and then “grab” the video and convert it according to the settings you specify in the Preferences.