Google Earth for iPhone updated to 2.0 with map compatibility
Google announced Wednesday that Google Earth for iPhone has been updated to version 2.0. Though the major version number has incremented, the update is rather minor except for a new ability to connect to your saved Google Maps and view them overlaid on its virtual globe.
The main reason to grab this update is in integrated ability to view maps that you have saved to “My Maps” using Google Maps or the desktop version of Google Earth. Google offered the examples of checking maps for Lonely Planet co-founder Tony Wheeler likes to travel or where chef Ferran Adrià likes to eat. However, it could also be used for viewing things like tracking a recent road trip, hike, or even a bike ride. Just enter your Google account login credentials, and you can select from any of your saved maps to overlay on the Earth.
MacGraPhoto app bundle targets graphically oriented users
If you work with graphics and are looking for some new tools to add to your collection, you might want to check out the bundle of seven indie Mac apps in MacGraPhoto. The collection of graphics apps is available for a limited time for just $40—a savings of 84 percent off the normal price of buying them individually. Refer friends to buy the bundle, and you could even end up getting all seven apps for free.
We spoke to developer Jacob Gorban, of Israel-based Apparent Software, about the bundle. “We thought the idea of organizing a ‘theme’ bundle will make it appealing to users who usually only need one or two apps from a generic bundle, such as all the others out there,” Gorban told Ars. “We’ve participated in a couple smaller bundles ourselves, but most other bundles are made by marketers.”
Running Windows 7 under OS X: Ars reviews VMware Fusion 3
VMware Fusion 3 was released last week into the anxiously trembling hands of desktop virtualization junkies, and we’ve run the release through a gamut of heavy tests to see if it’s able to meet the hype.
At first glance, 3.0 doesn’t look to be teeming with new features, but the changes that are there are significant:
Respected developers begin fleeing from App Store platform
Apple’s control over the App Store—which seems arbitrary at times—still frustrates developers. That much isn’t a surprise, but some developers have become frustrated to the point that they have decided to simply halt iPhone development altogether. Facebook’s Joe Hewitt, Second Gear’s Justin Williams, and long-time Mac shareware developer Rogue Amoeba have all recently decided that enough is enough, and the loss of these developers and others could spell a troubling future for the App Store. True, it has over 100,000 applications, but how many of them are created with the kind of care and passion we take for granted in the Mac software world?
Hewitt, a respected Web developer who previously worked on Firefox and its highly regarded developer plug-in Firebug, recently handed off responsibility for Facebook’s successful iPhone app to another engineer at the company. Hewitt cited his frustration with Apple’s approval process for the move:
Microsoft buys Teamprise, gets cross-platform support for VS
Microsoft has announced plans to purchase Teamprise-related assets from SourceGear but refused to reveal details of the acquisition. The Teamprise division of SourceGear, a Microsoft partner and leading provider of solutions for software developers using Microsoft tools and platforms, has been creating add-on products for Microsoft’s Visual Studio line since it was founded in 1997. Teamprise has applications that enable developers who are using the Eclipse integrated development environments (IDEs), or that are running multiple operating systems (including Unix, Linux, and Mac OS X), to build applications with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server.
The Teamprise Client Suite, which SourceGear will continue to sell and provide support for until the Microsoft solution becomes available, currently includes three main components:
Mac OS X 10.6.2 out now along with Leopard security update
Apple released several updates Monday afternoon, including the second point release of Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Updates move the version of Snow Leopard client and server to 10.6.2, while the security fixes that are part of that update are packaged for Leopard (10.5.8) as Security Update 2009-006.
Mac OS X 10.6.2 includes over a hundred fixes in all, including a known issue with guest accounts and deleted home folders. The update brings tweaks to Spotlight indexing of Exchange accounts, reliability of menu extras, problems with using four-finger swipes, Front Row video performance, VoiceOver improvements, and video performance for the newest iMac models. There are also fixes and improvements for handling fonts, graphics—especially when using DVI to Mini DisplayPort adapters—Mail, MobileMe, AFP networking, printing, and improved plug-in reliability in Safari.
Apple’s Boot Camp users must wait for Windows 7 support
If your copy of Windows 7 has arrived and you are champing at the bit to get it installed on your Mac via Boot Camp, you may want to slow down. According to an Apple Knowledge Base posting (via MacUser), Apple has plans to eventually support Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate, but… not right now. An update for Boot Camp that supports Windows 7 will be coming before the end of the year, but will still have several caveats.
For starters, the update will require Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard—those of you stuck on Leopard won’t be upgrading to Windows 7 either. Secondly, Apple has dropped support for many of the machines it manufactured in 2006. If you run a 17″ or 20″ iMac, 15″ or 17″ MacBook Pro, or a Mac Pro from that year, you may be out of luck.
Indie Mac developers offer promotion with a funny name
Indie Mac developer Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software has been highly critical of the now-perennial MacHeist promotion in the past. MacHeist relies on deep discounts and giveaways to drum up a wider audience for software. The deals are so good for consumers, in fact, that it’s not too far from getting software with a “five-finger discount.” So Jalkut enlisted other like-minded developers to offer “One Finger Discount,” a 20 percent-off sale coinciding with MacHeist’s latest nanoBundle promotion.
MacHeist’s promotion is a selection of six Mac apps, including WriteRoom and Twitterrific, that have a combined retail value of $154. For one week only, these apps are available for free. While the promotion offers a lot of exposure for smaller, independent developers, developers end up with lots of customers and not much money. It also has a potential downside in that it could give users the notion that software should cost next to nothing.
October 2009 OS stats: Windows 7 passes Snow Leopard, Linux
Windows 7 arrived two weeks ago and so far it’s selling quite sell. With Mac OS X 10.6 becoming available less than three months ago, and Ubuntu 9.10 arriving last week, we feel it’s a good time to start watching the market share for operating systems, in addition to our monthly posts on browser market share. At this point in time, Windows continues to dominate with more than 90 percent of the market, Mac OS is above the five percent mark, and Linux is just under one percent. In October, Windows was the only operating system not to show positive growth.
Parallels Desktop 5 claims performance edge in Win-on-Mac
Parallels has announced that the fifth version of its x86 virtualization software, Parallels Desktop 5, is now shipping for Mac OS X. Like competitor VMware’s Fusion 3, it adds support for running on Snow Leopard and hosting Windows 7 on a virtual machine. However, independent benchmarks show that Desktop 5 still retains a performance lead, specially in 3D graphics performance.
The latest version of Parallels’ solution to run Windows on a Mac—hey, it runs Linux just fine, too—boasts 70 new features, most of which are related to OS integration and speed improvements. Users can now choose from several levels of running a VM, from full-screen all the way to a “Crystal Mode” enhanced Coherence, where Windows applications integrate with running Mac OS X applications, similar to the way Classic worked for Mac OS 9 applications. It also adds support for multi-touch gestures in Windows, format-retaining copy & paste (with images) between Mac and Windows, copy & paste support for Linux VMs, “true” multi-monitor support, and an always-on Windows application folder in the Dock for quick access.
