March 2010 Archives

As part of today's Snow Leopard Leopard 10.6.3 maintenance update, Apple rolled out a new feature called 'Data Collection' that can automatically collect diagnostic and usage information from your Mac and send it to Apple for analysis.  Here's what Apple states in the 10.6.3 Knowledge Base article:

Apple today released Mac OS X 10.6.3, the third maintenance update to the Snow Leopard operating system for Intel-based Macs.  The update included numerous fixes since the November 2009 10.6.2 update and it also includes the January 2010 security update.  The update is recommended for all Snow Leopard users (client and server) and can be obtained via Mac OS X Software Update or downloaded directly from Apple. 

Today marks Mac OS X's 9th birthday as Apple first unveiled Mac OS X nine years ago on March 24, 2001 as a replacement to the Mac OS 9 operating system.  Mac OS X (pronounced Mac O-S-Ten) has come a long way over the past nine years including a major rewrite that transitioned the OS to run on Intel processors..

The United States Army recently announced that its research and development command is evaluating the use Apple products including the iMac, MacBook, iPad, and iPhone.  Leaders from the Army's technology command visited Apple's headquarters earlier this month as part of their evaluation program.

A March 22, 2010 posting at Fortune's brainstormtech blog highlights a Morgan Stanley report that Apple's 285 Apple retail stores are positively correlated with Mac market share growth.

Autodesk has announced that Autodesk Maya 2011 will add 64-Bit support for Apple's Mac OS X operating system.  Autodesk Maya is a 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and visual effects software.  Autodesk Maya has been used on Oscar-winning for Best Visual Effects since 2001 as well as on numerous games.

In an article posted to CIO.com, Tom Kaneshige highlights a newly released survey from Enterprise Desktop Alliance that 'Macs were cheaper in six of seven computer management categories.'

In a March 8, 2010 press release, Valve Software announced that it will be bringing its Steam game distribution platform, including its library of games to Apple's Mac OS X next in April.  Games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available on the Mac next month.

In a March 7, 2010 article titled, 'Final Cut Pro the Apple of Oscar's eye', Jim Dalrymple reported that ninety percent of this year's Oscar documentary nominees used Apple's Final Cut Studio.