Microsoft today posted Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 (12.1.0) and Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.4.2 Update Both have similar wording "This update contains several improvements to enhance security, stability, and performance, including fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code..." Here are links to docs with more details - Description of Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 (12.1.0) and Description of the Office 2004 for Mac 11.4.2 Update. (I don't use either of these but thanks to Richard for the heads-up.)

I've updated the page of MacBook Pro owner reports on Express34 Cards with an Apiotek SATA II Expresscard owner timed tests of SuperDuper! smartbackup performance using eSATA card vs onboard FW800 (using Quad Interface EliteAL Drive) and notes from a Silicon Memory eSATA ExpressCard/34 owner (used w/Lacie D2 SATA II HD).

See post for models, pricing and details.

HBO and Apple today announced that customers can now purchase and download critically acclaimed HBO shows - including such Emmy Award-winning programs as The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Deadwood, and Rome- from iTunes.

There's a new patch available for Aspyr's Mac Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The v1.3 Update (296MB) changes noted are a new "Front Row Cam" option allows better performance on low end configurations, with smoother gameplay, Laptop specific optimizations for better performance and a battery meter icon will display remaining battery charge on supported laptops.

Oliver sent an article w/photos of Installing a SSD (Solid State Drive) in a Mac Pro.

Oliver also sent performance test comparisons of his (very expensive) 32GB MemoRight GT SSD vs Three 1TB SATA Hard drives - (32GB MemoRight GT SSD vs 1TB Hitachi 7K1000, Samsung F1, WD Caviar GP).

From a reader mail - see post for link to downloads, reviews, etc.

Several readers sent links to articles on how Leopard's "Back to my Mac" feature helped locate a stolen Mac. See Stolen Mac helps nab burglary suspects (cnet) and Girl Gets Stolen Mac Back With 'Back To My Mac' (informationweek). (NYTimes also has an article but it requires an acct/registration to view it.)

Running late today after a series of bad storms here last night but have posted a page of replies to yesterday's post with Feedback on CPU Upgraded Macs with OS X Leopard. (As of this morning there were 18 replies, most positive.)

Phil wrote with a link to an Hitachi Press release on a new 320GB/7200rpm Travelstar 7K320 notebook drive (9.5mm high) they say has 12% higher performance and 22% lower power consumption than the previous model. According to a Register article yesterday the drive will sell for appx $220.

See post for info, list of new features and bug fixes.

See post for details/models/pricing and software bundle. Also available as a 0GB Enclosure kit for adding your own hard drive.

After seeing an article today from Computerworld titled Leopard at six months: Does it live up to the early hype? and getting this mail from a CPU Upgraded G4 tower owner (happily running OS X Tiger) considering upgrading to Leopard I thought I'd ask for feedback from readers running Leopard for awhile on their CPU Upgraded Macs to see what their current experiences were (was it worth it, recap on any issues, etc.) - If you're running OS X Leopard on a CPU Upgraded Mac, let me know what your experience has been (satisfied with the decision to upgrade? Performance OK? Any issues seen with your hardware or software?, etc.) Please include the following info in your report - Mac system details (model, etc.), CPU Upgrade details (brand/model/speed), Any 3rd party hardware installed or attached (PCI cards, Graphics card, FW or USB devices, etc.), Info on Software apps, addons, startup/login items, etc. (especially if you saw a compat. issue), How satisfied are you with OS X Leopard?

See posts for models/pricing (up to 500GB) and software bundles. Enclosure kits (add your own drive) also available from $29.95.

See page for first user feedback, links to driver and M-Audio's release notes with known issues.

Infoworld has a multi-page review of the Harpertown CPU based Xserve titled Apple's little big iron, rating it 8.4 out of ten overall and saying "The eight-core Harpertown Xserve breaks the PC server mold with big iron-class reliability, availability, and serviceability features, but with neither the big iron price tag nor management complexity..."

See post for details on Elite AL pro models, pricing and software bundle. Also price cuts today on 4GB (2x2GB modules) kits for 2008 Mac Pros and 4GB (2x2GB) kits for the new 2008 Penryn iMacs.

Updated with link to a Mirror of IXmicro's drivers for their video cards, game rocket and IXTV.

(from site sponsor OWC) "Updated OWC Garage Sale/Clearance page including OEM Apple RAM including 1GB PC5300 DDR2 SO-DIMM 667MHz modules for $16.85, 1GB/2GB Mac Pro FB-DIMM Kits for $52.50 / $92.75, FireWire+USB2 Combo Cards from $35.75, IDE/ATA and SATA Hard Drive Controllers for Macs from $46.75, 2.5" Notebook Hard Drives 80GB to 200GB from $29.85, 120GBs for $39.75, ATI Video Cards AGP, PCI, and PCI-Express for Macs from $89.99 - including some X800s, PowerMac G4 Processor Upgrade cards - single & dual processor from $58.75, G4 PCI Upgrade for $49.99. And lots more...."

See post for info/models/pricing on up to 1TB models w/software bundles an enclosure kits.

NiN's website has a free download of The Slip album...

from a reader mail yesterday - I don't own a MBP but asked some Santa Rosa model owners that said they didn't use it but the keyboard included the 'embedded' numeric keypad. This Penryn MBP owner said it's no longer there and unlike most I suspect, said it's an important feature for him. Updated with note they've also reorganized what the function keys do.

Apple losing money in new movie deal (cnet), VisualHub v1.33, Lawyers, money needed for Psystar's legal battle (cnet), Microsoft Simplifies Game Development With Popfly Game Creator, Mozy launches online backup tool for Apple Macs (computerworld), Amazon.com sues N.Y. over new online sales tax (cnet), myOSx11-GL (Live CD system with focus on OpenGL and Game development), Max 0.8.1 (freeware app for creating HQ audio files in various formats, from compact discs or files), Sweet Home 3D 1.3 (free software designed to layout the furniture on a house plan, with a 3D preview), Machines at War 1.2 (game demo), Deep Blue Sea 1.1.5 (game demo), LinkLines 1.4.1 (remake of the classic Lines arcade game), PulpMotion 1.5.1, Net Monitor 4.4.5, FrameByFrame Leopard 1.1 (make Stop motion movies. Freeware), Sony Ericsson Themes Creator 3.27 (Create graphical themes for Sony mobile phones), GTA IV's iPhone Parody Cuts to the Heart of Apple's Mystique, GTA IV multiplayer tips (PDF) from Rockstar

Cnet has posted a review of the new ("Early 2008") iMac 24-inch, 2.8GHz model with ATI 2600 graphics (not the higher end Nvidia 8800 GS option). They gave it an 8.5 out of 10 rating. Includes benchmarks vs the previous 2007 iMac 2.8GHz model and others (20in iMac 2.4GHz and some PCs). PCMag also has a review of the same model, giving it 4 out of 5 rating; page 2 has a (javascript popup) table of benchmarks vs several PC models.

Cnet has posted their Review of Psystar's Open Computer (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz, 4GB DDR II (667MHz) RAM, 512MB Nvidia 8600 GTS, 250 GB HD - $740) giving it a rating of 6.9 out of 10, although noting (as expected) the issue of compatibility with Apple software updates and more. Includes some benchmarks vs. a Mac Mini, Acer Aspire m5100 and Dell Inspiron 530 PCs. Although I wouldn't personally buy one of these, I wish this would spur Apple to offer a Core2 based Tower as many of us would like an affordable, expandable/upgradeable Tower (PCIe slots, easy HD upgrades, etc.).

From Apple's news page today - see post for press release/details. (Apple's not the only one - NYtimes has a related story noting others are also doing this.)

CNN money has a comparison review of these 3 ultralight notebooks.

Another buyer gets their 'Open computer' that runs OS X Leopard (although Apple software update doesn't recognize it)

From sponsor OWC - "We are discontinuing our 16MB Cache model 750GB MiniStack v3 FireWire 800/400+USB2+ eSATA solution (w/powered USB and FW hubs) and have slashed $40 off its last price to $199.99. (Includes Cables, Prosoft Data Backup for OS X, NovaBACKUP for Windows, Intech HD Speedtools, and 2 Year warranty.) I use a 1TB MiniStack V3 as my Time Machine drive with this AL iMac. (Partitioned into 3 volumes - CCC clone of boot drive, TM volume and a volume for EyeTV recordings). The FW/USB hubs are a nice plus.

Just a FYI that Apple revised the iMac ATI Radeon HD Graphics Firmware Update 1.0.1 web page to note it's for "iMac Early 2008 (late April 2008)" models only. I've updated Monday's news page archive to note that. (Originally the page didn't list that requirement and many of us with 2007 iMacs that had older ATI firmware could not apply it.)

I'm not sure if this is real but saw several stories on the web about a possible $200 rebate from AT&T on the next-gen iPhone. Here's some links...

Available via software update or this download page. Per Apple D/L doc "This Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 1 adds Java SE 6 version 1.6.0_05 to your Mac. This update does not replace the existing installation of J2SE 5.0 or change the default version of Java Learn more about this update at: About Java for Mac OS X 10.5 System requirements: Mac OS X 10.5.2 or later." (Note the linked doc notes "This release is for 64-bit Intel-based Macs only and cannot run on PowerPC-based or 32-bit Intel-based Macs") If you find this fixes or breaks anything, let me know the details.

I normally don't comment on rumors and nothing official from ATI yet, but I've gotten word there's a Mac/PC (dual boot) Radeon HD 3870 PCIe card in the works, hopefully available at retail channels by the end of May. The card will be PCIe 2.0 but backward compatible with PCIe 1.0 slots. Here's a summary of the info I have on it... (see post for details)

Last month I posted comments from M-Audio support that they were working on OS X Leopard drivers for the Revolution 5.1 PCI audio card, hoping to have a release by the end of the month which didn't happen. A reader w/5.1 card (thanks Eugenio) sent a recent reply from M-audio support on the current status - saying they're in final testing but no release date. (I also wrote to ask about driver updates for the Revolution 7.1 audio card)

See post for details/download page link. BTW - The firmware update installer says it's not needed on my 2007 AL iMac 24in with ATI 2600 ROM version 113-B2250F-219 even though the update firmware is a later version 113-B2250L-259. Another reader with similar system said the same thing - not sure what the deal is on this update unless it's for the new 2008 iMacs w/ATI graphics perhaps - or not for 2007 iMacs that had the previous Graphics firmware update 1.0.

The Apple store was down this morning but is back up now with listings for the new iMac models announced today. (See post) - Faster CPUs (up to 3GHz) and an option for the Nvidia 8800GS w/512MB Vram instead of the ATI 2600HD. The new iMac Features page has links to Application performance (pre-production 2.8GHz model vs previous 2.4GHz model) and Graphics performance charts (Quake 4 performance at 1920-by-1200 High Quality - comparing 2.8GHz model w/8800GS option vs ATI 2600 - no FPS numbers but notes 2.2x faster w/8800GS). (They also have a press release on the new iMacs.) The base high-end 24in/3GHz model (2GB ram/500GB HD/8800GS w/512MB vram) lists for $2,199 US... The 2.8GHz/24in model (320GB HD/2GB ram, with ATI 2600 as before) is now $1799. The GeForce 8800 GS w/512MB GDDR3 costs $150 (which I'd personally select...) The 4GB RAM upgrade option (from 2GB standard) is now $200.

See post for details. Recent mail from a reader that got his new 2008 Mac Pro last week - noted some issues seen in the past...

Normally Nvidia doesn't sell these themselves but Doug sent a note/link that Nvidia's website is selling the 8800GT card for 1st gen Mac Pros. Same price as the Apple Store $279 but not sure if Nvidia charges sales tax. (Nvidia site not selling the 8800GT for early 2008 Mac Pros - link for that goes to the Apple store.)

See post for reader reports (updated again). A 1st gen mac pro owner w/8800GT card said the update did not include compatible drivers and he had to reinstall the beta/dev Nvidia drivers again. Several people are reporting problems installing the update at least from the download updaters - I assumed they had used Bootcamp 2.0 originally from Leopard DVD (see later update). I'm not using Bootcamp/Windows but welcome feedback on Bootcamp 2.1 from readers. Let me know what you've seen (problems, pros or cons) and if you used the download installer or not. (Per Apple the Bootcamp 2.1 update is required for XP SP3.)

See post for details, drive models and pricing.

Per download pages "This update addresses issues and improves compatibility with Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Vista running on a Mac computer using Boot Camp. It is highly recommended for all Boot Camp users. Important: Installation of Boot Camp 2.1 is required before installing Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3)" Post here includes download pages for XP, Vista 32bit and Vista 64bit. If you see any other pros or cons from this update, let me know the details.

See post for details, models/prices and software bundle. Also available as an enclosure kit for adding your own hard drive.

Another report from a 1st gen Mac Pro owner on the $279 Apple store 8800GT graphics card. (Includes notes on previous cards used including ATI 2600, ATI X1900 and Nvidia 7300GT...)

See post for details/link - includes photos, XP driver notes and xbench results vs the X1900XT (I asked if he had anything more stressful as a test as Xbench's graphics tests are very simple.)

Just a FYI OWC cut some drive prices on the site specials page including lowering the fast Samsung F1 1TB to $209.50 and the Samsung F1 750GB to $125. (Oliver showed impressive performance from the 3 platter F1 1TB drive in his Review of 1TB hard drives in his Mac Pro.)

(For users of OS 9.x which hasn't had any burn support updates for many many years and likely never will) I don't have a DVR-115D drive/OS 9 boot system to test this personally but Dave sent a Modified PioneerCDR file (.zipped) edited for the Pioneer DVR-115D drive. Note: The downloaded (and unzipped of course) PioneerCDR file replaces the existing one in the (OS 9) System Folder/Extensions/Authoring Support Files folder. f you have Toast 5.xx (the last OS 9.x compatible version - v5.23 I think was the last update) that's a more flexible/better choice however and supports most drives regardless of Apple burn support. For OS X 10.2.x or 10.3.x burn support for unsupported drives try the appropriate version of Patchburn (link here) - OS X 10.4 and later (including OS X 10.5/Leopard) has basic iApps burn support for most drives without it although there is a Patchburn4 for OS X 10.4/Tiger.

There's several stories today on the web about Apple buying low-power chip designer P.A. Semi.

See post for info and links

See post for details...