Apple forgot to copyright OSX, outfit claims

CHEEKY MAC CLONER and thorn in Apple's side, Psystar has claimed that Apple has no right to restrict how the OSX operating system is used... because it doesn't legally own it.

The Miami-based chancers have filed court papers which claim that the Cupertino company "is prohibited from bringing action against Psystar for the alleged infringement of one or more of the plaintiff's copyrights" because of a "failure to register said copyrights with the copyright office as required".

We don't know where Psystar hired its lawyers, but we reckon any law-talking-guy worth his salt should have access to the Interwibble, where a quick search at the US Copyright Office's web site would have unearthed this.

That coupled with the fact that the very act of creating a piece of software means that is protected under US copyright laws leads us to believe that Psystar may well have realised that it is fighting a losing battle and is delaying its inevitable demise under the weight of Apple's legal might.

In a long-running legal battle which has involved suits and counter-suits flying back and forth between the computing Goliath and the nit-picking David (has anyone else noticed that Psytsar rhymes with shyster and is very nearly an anagram of Parasyte?) the Miami company's latest filing also accuses Apple of including undocumented code in its operating system which prevents it from being used on a non Apple computer.

Psystar claims that this is a violation of anti-trust laws and that it should be allowed to do whatever it wants with Apple's operating system.

Source : theinquirer.net

Technorati Tags: Apple,Copyright,OSX

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Free (as in beer) CodeWeavers CrossOver Linux and Mac

Try as you might to get away from Windows, you might think that you're stuck with using it because there's this one program that you have to use and you can't find anything on Linux or Mac OS that works for you. Well, you're in luck. CodeWeavers the company behind CrossOver Linux Pro and CrossOver Mac Pro is offering for today, October 28th, free downloads and registrations for these programs that will enable you to run many popular Windows programs, such as Quicken, Microsoft Office, and Photoshop CS2 on your favorite operating system.

This offer started as a pointed joke at George W. Bush's expense: the Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge. In the Challenge, which CodeWeavers launched in July, the company said it would provide its software for free in the unlikely event that under Bush's administration any of the following things happened: Return the stock market to it's 2008 high; Reduce the average price of a gallon of milk to $3.50; Create at least one net job in the U.S. this calendar year; Return the median home price to its Jan. 1, 2008 level; Bring Osama Bin-Laden to justice; or, and this one that actually happened, bring the average gasoline prices in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) to $2.79 a gallon.

As Jeremy White, president and CEO of CodeWeavers, explains, "I was filling my tank at Big Steve's Gas Palace in St. Paul, I had just finished my morning corn dog and 64-ounce Dr. Pepper when I looked at the pump and noticed gas was at $2.79. I screamed 'Woohoo,' then I yelled 'Oh, crap!' as I realized every American can now have my software for free. Kind of upsets my fourth quarter revenue projections..."

White admits this is not how he foresaw the Challenge unfolding. "I launched the campaign to inspire President Bush to make the most of his final days in office. Who knew that our Challenge would have this kind of impact on the country?" White said. "On the other hand, who knew that the economy would implode, causing oil demand to drop into the abyss and gas prices to plummet as well. Clearly, investigating Bear Stearns, AIG and those guys is misplaced -- CodeWeavers is responsible for this mess. So it's free software for all!"

Somehow, I don't think it really worked quite that way, but hey, free software is free software. To get a copy of CrossOver Mac Pro, Crossover Linux Pro, CrossOver Mac Games or CrossOver Linux Games, visit the company's Web site and download the software. You will, eventually, get a deal code that fully enables the software and gets you six-months of support as well.

I say 'eventually,' because right now the site is swamped. White says though that the company will send the registration code to users by e-mail over the next few days.

What you're getting for this is a program that makes the open-source project Wine an implementation of the Windows API (application program interface) on top of the Unix/Linux operating system family easy to use. Wine has more than 15 years of development behind it. In addition, CrossOver supports ActiveX, a Microsoft COM (component object mode) that's used on such Web pages and DirectX, a Microsoft multimedia API that's usually used in games.

What Wine isn't however, is easy to implement on your own. That's where CrossOver comes in. CrossOver makes it simple to install both the Wine framework and Windows programs on both Linux and Mac OS X.

Once installed, you can run many popular Windows applications and games. This isn't just what CrossOver claims, I've used CrossOver Linux for years and it works extremely well. In my own case, I often use Windows applications running on Linux thanks to CrossOver to work on Word 2003 documents, Excel 2003 spreadsheets, Internet Explorer 6-specific Web pages, and fairly complicated Quicken 2006 financial statements.

I also use it to play WoW (World of Warcraft) and, my own favorite game, Guild Wars. I'm a fairly serious player vs. player Guild Wars player and I can assure you that if Guild Wars, a 3D MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) didn't work well on Linux, I'd be running it on Windows.

How much do I like CrossOver? I pay my own money for it. How was I to know that gas would drop below $3 a gallon!?

CrossOver doesn't run everything, and it does have some quirks. That said, it does run most of the important Windows applications and, hey, today, you get the full version for free so you can try it out for yourself. Go for it! You've nothing to lose, and you might just find yourself able to give up your nasty Windows habit for good.

Source : blogs.computerworld.com

Technorati Tags: linux,mac,crossover,codeweavers,free

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Apple Slashes Prices For 64GB SSD MacBook Air By $500…Trouble In Paradise?

Maybe because of 4th of July, maybe just out of generosity, or maybe because of the 3G iPhone release, Apple decided to make a delightful surprise to its customers by making an overnight cut of $500 for its most expensive laptop.

AppleInsider noticed that the ultrathin 64GB Solid State Drive MacBook Air now costs $2,598 instead of the $3098 price tag available last week. It’s all been done very quietly, as a result of price cuts in two components, the 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo upgrade, now $100 less, and the Flash memory-based 64GB SSD upgrade, $400 less. However, the price tag didn’t change for the classic hard-disk drive MacBook Air, which continues to cost $1,799.

But there could be other reason behind the new price as well: the MacBook Air was not only expensive, but the price cut also reflects an increased competition on the notebook market, as well as a not so great performance in terms of sales.

MacBook Air features a full-size keyboard design in a sleek and durable aluminum enclosure. The backlit keyboard makes it ideal for dimly lit environments such as airplanes, studios or conference halls, and a built-in ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the brightness of the keys as well as the display brightness for optimal visibility.

Apple delivered the world’s thinnest notebook, and added a price to match that performance. We can’t really say about the MacBook Air that it’s the ideal notebook. It has potential, but the basic configuration was pretty disappointing for many, which may justify slashing the price of the more expensive version just 6 months after its debut.

As much as Apple tried to make a sensation out of its MacBook Air, it turned out that the less you pay, the less satisfied the customer is, and the $3,000 version that everyone wanted was a bit much.

Anyway, some customers will be happy to know that their orders have also been affected by the price cuts, and as MacRumors noted, Apple has automatically adjusted their order to the new price tag.

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Source: efluxmedia.com
Posted By: IndoSourceCode

Technorati Tags: apple,mac

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Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.5.4

Apple has released Mac OS X 10.5.4 via the Mac OS X Software Update:

The 10.5.4 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac.

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1994.
For detailed information on security updates, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

This represents a rapid turnaround for Mac OS X version updates, with the last point upgrade having been released just one month ago (May 28th). The new update, however, is a requirement for some of the features of Apple's upcoming MobileMe service.

Update: Alongside OS X 10.5.4, Apple also released Security Update 2008-004 for users running OS X 10.4.11 and 10.5 - 10.5.3. This security update appears to be included in the OS X 10.5.4 update but has also been made available as a standalone update.

Finally, Apple released Safari 3.1.2 for Mac OS X 10.4.11. This update addresses a WebKit vulnerability that was fixed for Windows XP and Vista users in Safari 3.1.2 for Windows (released June 19th) and for Leopard users with the 10.5.4 update.

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Source: macrumors.com
Posted By: IndoSourceCode

Technorati Tags: apple,os x,mac

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24 Free Mac Design Programs

Last year the most successful post on this blog was 45 Best Freeware Design Programs on PC - a hand picked list of free design programs for the PC. Now the time has come for MAC fans. The funny thing is, before starting I thought “well maybe It won’t be as prolific as the PC list since Mac has a smaller piece of the share market cake”. But as a pleasant surprise the scene for free design applications in mac is as interesting as the PC’s - maybe not as big, but as varied and of good quality.

Indeed you will find at least one excellent option in many designs fields. Like Maya for 3D animation, Archicad for Building modeling, or GIMP and Inkspace for bitmap and vector editing. Definitely worth checking out. Sure it is not going to be the Adobe Creative Suit Killer but I am quite sure you will find some pearls out there.

Animation

Lego Digital Designer

With the free Digital Designer software you can build absolutely anything with virtual Lego bricks right on your computer. Then you can buy the real bricks to build your creation online in Lego Factory, or you can print out an inventory of bricks and take it to any Legoland theme park or LEGO Store. The latest version of LDD is 1.5 This version has increased stability and fixes a number of small bugs from version 1.4.

New in Version 2: Improved building experience, quicker brick selection, easier to connect bricks when building, new brick palette tool, more bricks, partly built models for easy start, new backgrounds, new UI, and more.

Overview | Download

Autodesk Maya Personal Learning Edition (OS X) 8.5

Maya Personal Learning Edition (PLE) is a special version of Autodesk® Maya® software, which provides free access to Maya for non-commercial use. It gives 3D graphics and animation students, industry professionals, and those interested in breaking into the world of computer graphics an opportunity to explore most aspects of the award-winning Autodesk® Maya® Complete software in a non-commercial capacity. The Maya Personal Learning Edition software is available for 32-bit Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional and Apple® Mac OS® X (for Macintosh Power PC or Intel-based Macintosh computers) operating systems.

Autodesk Maya PLE is based on Autodesk Maya 8.5.

Overview | Download

Graphisoft ArchiCAD 11

The ArchiCAD educational version is a fully-functional copy of the commercial version, with the only exception that it prints a watermark-style logo onto all ArchiCAD project files created or opened with the ArchiCAD student version. You, as a student, will have at your fingertips the very same modeling solution - ArchiCAD - that you will encounter after graduation on the job, out there in the real, competitive market among great architects who have built their reputation on it. So, take a moment to read detailed description of ArchiCAD 11, to be clear just how this design tool can transform your approach to building modeling for a fun, satisfying and successful architectural career.

Overview | Download

Authoring Tools

Simple CSS 2

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a way to specify the styles of fonts and other page elements on your sites. It makes it easier for you to update styles too, because when done right, you only need to make a single change to update the styles on multiple pages and elements. Another bonus is that your visitor’s browser needs to load less data per page, helping you reduce your data transfer usage while serving the same information. That means you’ll be able to accommodate more site visitors without having to spend more on data transfer. Your pages will also load faster. To help you work with CSS, we’ve created a tool called Simple CSS, which runs on Macs, Windows and Linux. Simple CSS allows you to create cascading style sheets from scratch, and/or modify existing ones, using a familiar point-and-click interface.

Version 2.0 includes faster WYSIWYG previews. Version 2.0 includes faster WYSIWYG preview

Overview | Download

Blender (PowerPC) 2.46

Blender is the open-source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. It is available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License. Version 2.44 offers numerous bug fixes. Version 2.46 includes cloth and fur simulation, physics caching and baking, shading, glossy reflection and refraction, raytraced soft shadows, improved rendering features, and more.

Overview | Download

Scribus v1.3.3.11

Scribus is an open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2 and Windows desktops with a combination of “press-ready” output and new approaches to page layout. Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.

Overview | Download

Colorate 1.1

Colorate is a utility for creation of harmonized color palettes and color schemes, aimed from hobbyist to professional designers.

Colorate fully automatizes the palette generation from a particular color swatch, selected from the standard Color Panel, dragged from other application or obtained from an image through the integrated Image Analyze feature

Overview | Download

Front End Digital Media WorkShop 2.0

Front End Digital Media Workshop harnesses the power of QuickTime to bring you powerful batch based conversion of sound, video, and image files. Resize, resample, join, split, trim, basic edits, selective conversions via marked I/O points are some of the tools. All in an environment that provides powerful play back features including variable speed, slow motion, full screen playback and video to image frame capture. Batch lists can be saved and also used as play lists. Some of the dozens of supported formats include: MP4, MOV, AIFF, 3GP, 3GP2, WAV, AU, AVI (basic codecs), JPEG, PICT, PNG, PSD, BMP, and TIFF. QuickTime video filters and effects are also available.

Overview | Download

HyperEngine-AV 1.5

Multimedia authoring software for capturing, editing, organizing, processing, and exporting video, audio, and text to create DVD quality movies and slide shows. Features a groundbreaking “trackless” workspace that allows the free manipulation of an unlimited number of video, audio, stills, and text tracks. Editable transitions are created automatically when video clips are dragged on top of each other. The full palette of QuickTime effects is available. HyperEngine-AV comes with twelve studio-quality effects from Arboretum’s Hyperprism suite of audio processors. More can be added by purchasing a license, including Ray Gun for cleaning up scratchy vinyl, tape hiss, and hum.

HyperEngine-AV also offers text features to display credits, section titles, or karaoke lyrics with fully editable font, size, type, color, style, alignment, and scroll direction. HyperEngine-AV is for both novice digital moviemakers and professionals alike.

Overview & Download

Illustration

DAZ Studio 2.2.2.15

DAZ Studio is a feature rich 3D figure posing and animation tool that enables users of any skill level to easily create stunning digital imagery. Whether you’re a 3D newbie or an avid 3D artist, you’ll find DAZ Studio is the perfect tool for designing unique digital art and animation with virtual people, animals, props, vehicles, backgrounds and more. Experience total creative freedom with DAZ Studio and express yourself in 3D like never before.

Overview | Download

Bryce 5.5

Create breathtaking realistic 3D landscapes and animations with DAZ 3D Bryce 5.5. The easy user interface simplifies the design process for a novice or the seasoned professional. Start out building or importing a landscape as impressive as the Grand Canyon. Populate it with buildings, people or any other object you create or from the extensive DAZ 3D library. The Light Lab provides you robust control over your sunsets, moonlight nights or high-noon ambiance. Tree Lab allows you to plant your landscape like the gardens of Versailles. You’ll have to register your copy of Bryce 5.5 on the publishers web-site to gain access to your free Bryce serial number.

Overview & Download

Google SketchUp 6

Google SketchUp is software that you can use to create, export and present 3D models. Whether you want to design a new deck for your house, build models for Google Earth, or teach geometry to your fifth-graders, you can use SketchUp to see your ideas in 3D. And when you’re done, you can export an image, make a movie or print out a view of what you made.

Overview | Download

POV-Ray

POV-Ray is a three-dimensional ray tracing engine. It takes information you supply and simulates the way light interacts with the objects you’ve defined, creating stunning 3D pictures.
Overview | Download

Gnuplot 4

Gnuplot is a portable command-line driven interactive data and function plotting utility for UNIX, IBM OS/2, MS Windows, DOS, Macintosh, VMS, Atari and many other platforms. It was originally intended as to allow scientists and students to visualize mathematical functions and data. It does this job pretty well, but has grown to support many non-interactive uses, including web scripting and integration as a plotting engine for third-party applications like Octave. Gnuplot supports many different types of terminals: interactive screen terminals (with mouse and hotkey functionality), pen plotters (like hpgl), printers (including postscript and many color devices), and printings to output file as vectorial pseudo-devices like LaTeX, metafont, pdf, svg, or bitmap png. Gnuplot is easily extensible to include new devices.

Overview | Download

Comipro Plus 4.0.2

Comipro Plus is a cartoon production software. You can produce the cartoon work with the kind of feeling which compiles the document with the word processor as the material using the picture and the photograph. Version 4.0.20 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.

Overview & Download

Scratch

Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art — and share your creations on the web.

Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design.

Overview | Download

iPhoto 4.0.3

Whether you have twenty or twenty thousand digital photos, iPhoto 4 keeps track of them all, automatically organizing them so you can find them fast. Lightning fast. Easy to use, iPhoto puts you in charge of your photographs–helping you import them, organize them into albums, enhance their appearance, as well as, share them in print, via email, over the web and in stunning coffee-table books.

This update addresses several issues with using multiple text rules in Smart Albums and it also eliminates some problems with creating iPhoto books in the German and Dutch languages. Additionally, 4.0.3 keeps users informed about new version of iPhoto that have become available.

Overview & Download

NIH Image 1.62

NIH Image can acquire, display, edit, enhance, analyze, and animate images. It reads and writes TIFF, PICT, PICS, and MacPaint files, providing compatibility with many applications, including programs for scanning, processing, editing, publishing, and analyzing images. NIH Image supports many standard image-processing functions, such as contrast enhancement, density profiling, smoothing, sharpening, edge detection, median filtering, and spatial convolution with user-defined kernels. NIH Image can be used to measure area, mean, centroid, and perimeter. It also performs automated particle analysis and provides tools for measuring path lengths and angles. Spatial calibration is supported to provide real-world area and length measurements. Version 1.62 fixes bugs and improves compatibility with PowerPC machines.

Overview | Download

Goldberg 2.3.2

Goldberg is a freeware image and movie viewer with image-editing capabilities and support for applying QuickTime and other effects. It offers rotation capabilities, free zooming, and undo support. Version 2.3.2 fixes a problem with reading multilayer image files as Photoshop documents. It also fixes a problem with corrupted Preferences files, and the PDF item in the pop-up format in the export dialog box has been removed.

Overview & Download

Image Tricks 2.3.3

Image Tricks is an image editing application that allows you to easily edit and apply various effects and filters to your photos and images. This program allows modification of around 50 core image effects and filters, import over 20 image formats (TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PDF, EPS among them), export to TIFF, JPEG, PNG, and GIF formats, resize images, and iPhoto integration.

Overview | Download

Inkscape 0.45

Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports Creative Commons meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, direct XML editing, and more. It imports formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats. Inkscape’s main goal is to create a powerful and convenient drawing tool fully compliant with XML, SVG, and CSS standards. We also aim to maintain a thriving user and developer community by using open, community-oriented development process, and by making sure Inkcape is easy to learn, to use, and to extend.

Overview | Download

GIMP 2.4

GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.

It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.

GIMP is written and developed under X11 on UNIX platforms. But basically the same code also runs on MS Windows and Mac OS X.

Overview

Downloads

There are various ways to obtain and install GIMP for your Macintosh. In addition to the source code distribution here on www.gimp.org, there are various alternative sources for packaged and even commercially distributed CDs, which aim to make installation and setup an easier task. These include:

• MacGimp
• Wilber loves Apple

iFastViewer

iFastViewer is an easy and fast viewer for your pictures with optimized interface. It allows to select photos “on-the-fly” and locate them in the Finder (with move, copy, and delete options). The program code is also available under General Public Licence.

Overview & Download

Media Management

JAlbum 8.0

JAlbum allows you to create nice-looking photo galleries for the Web. You simply select or drag and drop folders containing images or movie files onto JAlbum, and it creates thumbnails and HTML pages to publish your images as a gallery or as a picture slide show. The galleries are based on various templates, and their appearance can be further customized by advanced users. The application’s additional features include support for IPTC/EXIF data, style sheets, lossless image manipulation, pluggable image filters, and a built-in FTP/SFTP client.

Version 8 adds full drag and drop support, image-editing tools, faster image scaling, and many other new features and fixes.

Overview | Download

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Source: snap2objects.com
Posted By: IndoSourceCode

Technorati Tags: software,free,mac

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Apple previews Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard"

Apple surprised many today when it announced it would be previewing the next version of the operating system that runs on its Mac line of desktops and notebooks, Mac OS X 10.6, aka "Snow Leopard".

Despite questionable name choice, in its early stages it shows a lot of potential as an even more stable operating system, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, featuring better 64-bit computing (a theoretical 16 TB, yes terabyte, of RAM is to be supported), full Microsoft Exchange support in its Address Book and Mail applications, improved multicore support through what Apple calls "Grand Central", and a technology called OpenCL that puts more processing to the graphics processing unit. Apple also promises an improved media experience through QuickTime X.

“We have delivered more than a thousand new features to OS X in just seven years and Snow Leopard lays the foundation for thousands more,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “In our continued effort to deliver the best user experience, we hit the pause button on new features to focus on perfecting the world’s most advanced operating system.”

We don't really know a whole lot about Snow Leopard yet, however it is also in its very early stages. Many are expecting a kind of "super service pack" that will improve stability, performance, and security drastically, while others are still hoping for a full consumer release with a plethora of features like Mac OS X Leopard. In addition, while Apple has not set an official price, many feel that it will not be as expensive. Completely on speculation, we believe that it will be in the $60 range.

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Source: neowin.net
Posted By: IndoSourceCode

Technorati Tags: system,osx,apple

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Neverwinter Nights 2 for Mac: Role-Play Fantasy World

Neverwinter Nights 2 for Mac (ESRB: Teen) is a game with interesting and in-depth story line, and dynamic characters and interaction. Anyone who likes role-playing games should love this game.

Sure to please everyone, this Macintosh game lets you design the character you like - good or evil, chaotic or lawful - as well as to role-play the way you want, and choose your alignment, allies, companions, and how you want your character to develop.

There is a pool of 12 non-player characters who can join the player’s party. In addition, the player can gain or lose influence with party members, which dictates outcomes to certain quests or causes strife in the party. Gameplay is not a continuation of the original Neverwinter Nights campaign, but makes references to the “Wailing Death” plague and the war with the rival city of Luskan from the original NWN.

Neverwinter Nights 2 is set in the fantasy world of the Forgotten Realms, one of the popular campaign settings of Dungeons and Dragons. The game centers around a powerful force of evil named the “King of Shadows” and an artifact that can ultimately defeat this arch-enemy. The game itself is divided into three Acts.

Throughout Act I, the Player’s Character witnesses and later endures an attack by a deadly warlock who is responsible for the Blacklake murders. The PC is initially led to believe that the warlock’s identity is the King of Shadows.

Act II is more role-play oriented than Act I, whereas a Luskan ambassador to Neverwinter, Torio Claven, frames the Player’s Character for the massacre of a Luskan town. The Player’s Character becomes a squire of a Neverwinter knight to protect him/her from the draconian Luskan justice system and must gather evidence to prove their innocence in several locales. Act II concludes with the search for a hidden stronghold, the magical Haven of Shandra’s ancestor Ammon Jerro where answers could be found regarding the silver shards, and Ammon’s subsequent surrender.

The main antagonists of Act III are the Shadow Reavers, powerful undead mages that include a revived Garius, intent on allowing the King of Shadows to reemerge. The player must prepare Crossroad Keep for imminent battle by fortifying its troops, lands and by finding allies from other lands. Once Garius is defeated, the surviving non-player character’s on a Good-aligned player character’s side must battle the King of Shadows and his avatars. Evil characters may choose to side with the King of Shadows and, as a result, must defeat every remaining non-player character party member to complete the game. The game ends once you either kill the king of shadows or your remaining companions.

As with the original Neverwinter Nights, the Mac version does not include the toolkit for users to create their own adventure “modules.” This toolset, called Electron, is included with the Windows version of the game. The Mac version can use player-created modules, however. Neverwinter Nights 2 is available through Aspyr’s web site, for $49.99.

System requirements:
Mac OS X v10.4.11 or 10.5.1 or later, Intel-based Mac running at 2.0GHz or faster, 1GB RAM, 6.5GB hard disk space, ATI Radeon X1600 or Nvidia GeForce 7600 or better with at least 128MB VRAM and DVD drive.

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Source: palluxo.com
Posted By: IndoSourceCode

Technorati Tags: mac,rpg,games

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Psystar's Mac Clone Suddenly Not Attractive Anymore

Apple high-ups must be dancing in their offices reading this. Well, not that they were afraid Psystar was going to steal away their
customers but no one needs more competition. A MacFixIt reader has revealed that Psystar "doesn't support customers attempting to install the Leopard operating system on [their] Open Computer themselves." So what if you were to experience a system crash?

The MacFixIt reader received an email from Psystar’s support team. If, of course, this isn't a joke, the email clearly states that the Miami-based Mac clone maker doesn’t support Mac OS X 10.5 - Leopard reinstallation on its Open Computer.

Although Psystar advertised its OpenMac, now dubbed the Open Computer, telling interested parties that they can either get the system free of any OS and do whatever they want with it afterwards, or have Psystar installing Leopard on it for free but pay an extra $150 (if not more) for Apple's OS, the company now seems to be actually forcing people into going for the OS-included package.

"We absolutely do not support customers attempting to install the Leopard operating system on our Open Computer themselves," says the note from Psystar support. "This is due to a difficult process that we go through to get Leopard to function on our computers. We encourage you to purchase an open computer, and select the option to have Leopard Pre-installed."

The reader, of course, asked what options he had should he experience a major system failure requiring the reinstallation of Leopard MacFixIt says Psystar suggested he returned the computer to the company. Say wha'?! Some practically reinstall their OS on a monthly basis just lack of knowledge using Apple's Mac OS.

Still, Psystar claims that Currently, shipping the computer back to them is the only option available. Also, "If the HDD dies, you can ship it to us for $50 plus shipping, so we can replace it for you," Psystar support is quoted as telling the above mentioned reader.

more : news.softpedia.com

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Leo4Allv3 - Running Mac OS X Leopard on both Intel and AMD

Want to try running Mac OS X Leopard on Intel or AMD machine?

After a lot of hard work eddie11c is proud to present his latest and third release candidate of the Leo4All Series - Leo4Allv3.

This release has a totally rebuilt filesystem, which includes all of the updates. The DVD now supports AHCI mode with more than only two drives, thanks to updated kexts contributed by Cyclonefr. X11 is included and properly working for both Intel and AMD. If you experience a 100% cpu usage error when launching X11 for the first time, open a terminal, type xeyes & and reboot to fix the problem. PPC Emulation for AMD Computers has been fixed!

The ./RemoveVideo script has been improved, and is now called
./options.
If one boots in single user mode at the Darwin prompt and mounts the drive with

/sbin/fsck -fy
/sbin/mount -uw /
./options

- options to remove video drivers, account loop fix, and extensions repair are now available. These are the most common issues that eddie11c has automated.

Currently there are no known issues to address, so hopefully the release should be available very soon.

Here’s a list of the improvements

ACPIPlatform

It’s now possible to switch between different versions of ACPIPlatforms - Version 1.1.0 is used as default, but there’s 1.0.3 from Tiger available for older systems as well. Alternatively the stock version 1.2.1 can be used. Version 1.1.0 and 1.2.1 come installed with the proper version of ACPIPS2Nub for PS2 Support. This fixes the PS2 Issues

AppleSMBIOS

Eddie11c has included lots of different version choices of AppleSMBIOS kext. The default is Netkas Version 27, however, if you want your hack to look like a real mac, there are many others to choose from. Options are:

DDR667
DDR800
DDR1066
DDR1333
iMac
MacBook
MacPro

Kernel

Netkas 9.2.0 Sleep- and 9.2.2 binpatched Kernel have been added. Be warned though, the binpatched one does not work on all AMD Machines! The default install is still Netkas 9.2.0 speedstep kernel. There are also vanilla stock kernels (9.2.0/9.2.2) available.

RemoveFireWire

For those of you who have issues with FireWire, or those who just want to speed their boot time a little. This moves all of the IOFireWire kext’s to /FireWire folder in the root of your install drive.

About This Mac

The new release also includes eddie11c’s own little installer to customize “About this Mac” with your processor info. No, it does not fix memory speed, you have to do that with AppleSMBIOS. It should work for all languages and should report overclocked CPU’s properly as well.

Power Management

The Laptop power management bundle has now been added to the install. You will still need to set it up in system preferences. This is known to have a few minor bugs, though. It may not report the proper time remaining or any time remaining for that matter, so use at your own risk.

Bootloader

This option is checked and greyed out by default. It is Dense’s script to install EFI and make the partition active. If you already have an existing bootloader (like from Vista) on the same logical drive, then it will not overwrite it. It will however flag the partition you installed to active, so you will have to manually set your Windows partition active again if needed.

Chipset Drivers

(NOTE- JMicron is the only driver that always installs so please choose at least 1 option, some will have to choose 2 [if you have Marvell IDE and Intel SATA for example] ) There are only 6 choices here.

Nforce chipsets - If you have a SATA DVD choose the NforceTest. If you have Nforce without, eddie recommends choosing the older version labeled Nforce 2/3/4/5. If you have more than 4Gigs of RAM be prepared to crash during install. Please remove 2Gigs of RAM and try again.

SiliconImage - Eddie has not found anyone to confirm if this works or not yet, it should if anyone out there actually uses it.

VIA, SiS, Marvell and SB - Please install this if you are using any of these chipsets. If you have a Marvell IDE drive please install this as they should be supported. Eddie has added many ID’s here so hopefully they all work! This chioce installs AppleVIAATA and AppleOnboardPCATA.

SAS - By request support was added for this, as of writing this its untested. Hopefully it works.

Intel ICHx - If you have ICH7/8/9 chipsets you should install this. This is the modified version by -Dune- to support more than 2 drives and fix the over 2Gigs of RAM panics.

Audio

These choices have not changed much, Eddie only added support for STAC9271 by request. If you aren’t sure what chipset you have, please choose AzaliaAudio or AC97Audio.
Chioces:

ALC850/882/883/888/889
AC97Audio
ADI1988
STAC9271
AzaliaAudio

Graphic Drivers

Many of these packages have been updated!
ATI:

3850
3870
2600XT(PCIE)
2600XT(AGP)
3870X2
2600PRO(PCIE)
2600PRO(AGP)
X1600(PCIE)
X1600(AGP)
X19X0
X1400 Mobility

Nvidia - The drivers are updated to the latest available from the Mac Pro’s and editied to include all Device ID’s. This should cover mostly all 6XXX/7XXX/8XXX series cards.
NVinject - By request options for different version of Nvinject (0.1.3/0.2.0/0.2.1) were added. If you aren’t sure choose version 0.2.1 with the proper amount of RAM for your video card.
GMA950 - QE/CI+resolution change with some artifacts
GMA3100 - supposed to give QE/CI (Unconfirmed)

Network Drivers

ForceDeth - This is compatible with most Nforce LAN.
ForceDeth-V - This is compatible with most Nforce LAN(recommended version)
Skge - Driver for most Marvell LAN cards.
RTL8187 - Just as it says for Realtek 8187
Zydas USB - For the USB Wireless LAN adapter
Tiger IO80211 - Some Atheros cards require this Tiger version to work. Default install is IO80211 from 10.5.2
Broadcom - WLAN driver for BCM4306/4309/4318/4320/4324
RT2500 - Suppose to support Dlink WMP54G v4.0, may support some others.
ViaRhine - Just as it says, for ViaRhine chipsets
Intel 100Pro VE - Just as it says, for the Intel 100Pro VE chipset
RT2860 - Driver for some chipsets like WL-181, may also work on some others.

Good Applications

One can choose to install or not, but Eddie recommends many of these useful programs. They include:

Adium
AppZapper
BBEdit
CandyBar
Colloquy
FireFox
Gumby 50c
Invisibles
KCNScrew
KextHelper
Marvin’s AMD Utility
MD5
Pacifist
PackageMaker version 2.1(old harder to find)
Stuffit Expander
Textmate
Transmission
TubeSock
Unison
VLC
Xbench

Support for the Leo4All Releases can be found at the dedicated Wiki.

source : infinitemac.com

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10 beautiful iMac setups worth a look (pics)

The Apple iMac is the stuff that dreams are made of. When it was released in 2000 (iMacs were released in 1998, but the current ’slim’ form was introduced in 2002), it was hailed as the best innovation seen in the recent past, and won many accolades for the design innovation.

The original Intel iMac (24″) received CNET’s “Must-have desktop” in their 2006 Top 10 Holiday Gift Picks list. Technology columnist Walt Mossberg described it as the “gold standard of desktop computing”, and Forbes hailed it as “industry-altering success”. No wonder iMacs turn eyeballs wherever it is spotted.

iMac is Apple’s range of home desktop computers. Priced at $1200-1800, iMac is an affordable, yet powerful workhorse. Sporting a single-unit design and sleek finishing that Apple is famous for, it is only natural that you would wish to have an iMac.

iMac, the design marvel

To increase the temptation, I have collected a list of some of the most exquisite iMac setups that I could find, on Flickr. I started out with some ~30 images, but pruned it down to the top 10 for the sake of readability, and also because many of them contained unwanted clutter.

Preference was given to neatness, lack of clutter and any other extras (exquisite lights, backgrounds etc.). The image credit link (on the titles) and short descriptions about the setup (after the image) are also provided. Instead of wasting time with the slow Flickr search, I searched for the images on CompFight, which loads the results via AJAX (meaning no extra pageloads). Enjoy!

Quattro Vageena

Wood-panel wall background, classy lighting and a clean desk

dziner

The strong lighting from behind makes for an interesting visual effect

Nathan

A (slightly) older iMac (which is a good thing, since it doesn’t have the ugly black rim around the screen that current iMacs have)

Matt Brett

iMac for work, Xbox360 for gaming and a large, spacious desk - minimalist and clean

anh guan

PC(left) vs iMac(right) - literally

Daines

iMac, the desk and lighting look exquisite

Crouching Donkey

Leopard overload! The black-coloured desk surface is in good contrast with the Apple machines, which creates a beautiful effect

QuattroVageena

iMac, Macbook, and iBook make picture-perfect

Falling Sky

Sideview with near-silhoutte look

bigbold

Not the cleanest of desks, but a iMac, Dell LCD (Ubuntu/iTunes) and PC(runs Ubuntu) won me over

I am an avid surfer of beautiful Apple machines on Flickr. These were my favourites. So, which are your favourite setups? Share it with us in the comments. Would you like to see lists of more beautiful Apple setups? Tell us in the comments.

If you liked this article, please Digg this post, share it on del.icio.us or StumbleUpon. I’d appreciate it :)

source : techzilo.com

Technorati Tags: apple,imac

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Gone in 2 minutes: Mac gets hacked first in contest

It may be the quickest $10,000 Charlie Miller ever earned.

He took the first of three laptop computers -- and a $10,000 cash prize -- Thursday after breaking into a MacBook Air at the CanSecWest security conference's PWN 2 OWN hacking contest.

Show organizers offered a Sony Vaio, Fujitsu U810, and the MacBook as prizes, saying that they could be won by anybody at the show who could find a way to hack into each of them and read the contents of a file on the system using a previously undisclosed "0day" attack.

Nobody was able to hack into the systems on the first day of the contest when contestants were only allowed to attack the computers over the network, but on Thursday, the rules were relaxed so that attackers could direct contest organizers using the computers to do things like visit Web sites or open e-mail messages.

Miller, best known as one of the researchers who first hacked Apple's iPhone last year, didn't take much time. Within 2 minutes, he directed the contest's organizers to visit a Web site that contained his exploit code, which then allowed him to seize control of the computer, as about 20 onlookers cheered him on.

He was the first contestant to attempt an attack on any of the systems.

Miller was quickly given a nondisclosure agreement to sign, and he's not allowed to discuss particulars of his bug until the contest's sponsor, TippingPoint, can notify the vendor.

Contest rules state that Miller could only take advantage of software that was preinstalled on the Mac, so the flaw he exploited must have been accessible by, or possibly inside, Apple's Safari browser.

Last year's contest winner, Dino Dai Zovi, exploited a vulnerability in QuickTime to take home the prize.

Dai Zovi, who congratulated Miller after his hack, didn't participate in this year's contest, saying it was time for someone else to win.

source : news.yahoo.com

Technorati Tags: mac,hacked,contest

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