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For all you MacIntel users who need to run Windows, Apple has updated is dual boot tool, Boot Camp. One of the most notable new features is the support for Windows Vista. This 138 MB download (version 1.2 beta) contains several updates.

The new features include:

• Support for Windows Vista (32-bit)
• Updated drivers
• Support for the Apple Remote (iTunes and WMP)
• Language improvements
• Improved driver installation experience
• Updated Documentation
• Apple Software Update (XP and Vista)

Of course to utilize Boot Camp you need a Mac with an Intel architecture. Since I am still stuck with my PPC, you’ll have to seek Paul for experience using the software. I’m sure he will have a posting of this soon.

Rumors flourish about Apple adding H.264 hardware to all Macs. This makes me think that Apple is planning on adding HD content to the iTunes store. Adding a chip designed specifically to do H.264 encoding and decoding will significantly reduce the load on your multiprocessor and keep your Mac running cooler and faster. A hardware-based H.264 decoder/encoder would add about $50 to each Mac, a small price for a significant gain. Imagine playing back your iTunes videos without slowing down Photoshop.

I ran across a similar design approach last year to increase the performance of computers. Most people are hypnotized thinking that clock rate equals performance. The truth is that a 100 MHz H.264 decoder can out perform a 3.0 GHz multi purpose processor at doing video decoding. Why?, well It only makes sense. A car designed for speed does best at speed but is worthless off-road. To design something multi purpose, there has to be trade-offs. I think an even better design would be to integrate an FPGA into a computer. The OS would have several processor designs for the FPGA, e.g. H.264 decoder/encoder, MP3 encoder, Various Video Encoders, etc. Then when a user is doing a specific task (rendering a video in FCP), the OS can implement the encoder on the FPGA and then use the resulting encoder to handle the FCP process. This would reduce the time required to encode the video and also let the user continue with normal processing power while waiting on the encoding.

Anyway, I hope it happens.

All of you Windows users will be happy to know that a sliver of OS X excellence is now available for your dull gray boxes. The application is called Launchy and it is an open source Windows only tool that mimics the “Application Launcher” functionality of OS X’s Spotlight search engine. Using only a few keystrokes, you can launch your Applications without searching through the Start menu. Read the rest of this entry »

Tuesday, Steve Jobs gave his annual MacWorld SF keynote satisfying our thirst for the latest and greatest Apple products (at least partially). Apple announced the release of two great products AppleTV and the iPhone. They also silently release the new AirPort Extreme, which uses the MIMO technology found in the 802.11n draft standard. Apple did not speak of iLife 07′, iWork 07′, Leopard Updates, or any new Mac/iPod products.

Steve started the keynote summarizing Apple’s 2006 results, minus the last quarter. He quickly covered iTunes Store updates including the acquisition of Paramount movies for sale. Did not say much about Macs and iPod’s other than they are great (which they are) and that updates will come later. He then started talking about the product code named iTV now AppleTV (Apple Symbol + TV). With AppleTV, Apple is hoping to jump into the market that utilizes everyones large HDTV’s. We have so much great content on our computers: music, movies, photos, websites; yet it all seems disconnected from our living rooms. Unaware of this problem until I was the owner of a 32″ HDTV earlier this year, I immediately realized how great it would be to have a Mac connected to my TV at all times. Unable to convince my wife into purchasing a low end MacMini for $500, I found out last December that Apple was already working on the product I needed.

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Flickr is a great way to share photos with family, friends, and the rest of the world. However, there are a few simple features that Flickr lacks the ability to do. The most annoying one is the ability to download an entire set of photos. Very often I upload a set of photos and want to share them with my friends (at original resolution) and the only way Flickr allows them to download the set is one image at a time. Any set containing more than a few photos will therefore never be downloaded. However, there are a few simple tools you can use to automate the process and allow you to share your high quality images with your family and friends.

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