In case you didn’t see it mentioned on other news sites, forums, etc, we announced free shipping on all orders over $150 today thru December 31st from our on-line catalog of over 2,500 products and a Top 10 Gift Giving Ideas list with “stocking stuffer” suggestions starting at $3.99 to help you make tech/gadget gift giving easier and more economical heading into the upcoming “Black Friday/Cyber Monday” holiday shopping kickoff dates.

We’ve been reading that value and frugality are the key objectives of shoppers this year and wanted to make sure we offered the right products and services to make us the easiest, one-stop choice for all your Mac, PC, iPod, and iPhone product purchases. And even bigger news perhaps is that we’ve extended our operation hours so qualifying orders can ship same day when placed as late as 10:30pm as well as permanently extending our Live Chat support to a full 24/7 service level.

OWC Top Gift & Stocking Stuffer ideas include:

• Kensington Pocket-Link 3-in-1 Cable $3.99

Provides retractable Ethernet/telephone and USB cords in a single, self-contained housing.

• Cellboost iRecharge $4.99

External battery pack for iPods/iPhones and other USB chargeable devices.

• OWC Memory Upgrade Kits from $15.99

More memory = faster Mac with easy to install OWC Memory upgrades.

• OWC Express USB 2.0 Enclosure $19.99

Pocket-sized, bus-powered 2.5″ SATA hard drive enclosure for the digital mobile lifestyle.

• NewerTech® NuPower® Charge & Sync+ $39.99

Portable charger, battery pack, and sync solution for iPods, iPhones, and other USB compatible devices.

• NewerTech Voyager Quad Interface Hard Drive Docking Solution $89.99

“Quad Interface” hard drive dock for 2.5″ and 3.5″ SATA hard drives up to 2.0TB.

• NewerTech Guardian MAXimus $319.99

Plug and Play RAID 1 with two 1.0TB hard drives for protecting precious holiday memories.

We’ve received four configurations of the 21.5″ and four configurations of the 27″ machines so far.  The quad core i5 and i7 machines aren’t due out till later this month.  Between the advancements in Snow Leopard and adding additional memory to these computers, they sure can go fast!

In fact – we found up to a 46% performance boost by installing the OWC 16GB Memory Upgrade Kit versus the factory installed 4GB.

We’ve run the machines through a rigorous battery of benchmark tests to test not only the pure processing speed of these machines, but also show what adding OWC memory to the setup can do.  Additionally, the different video card options have also been pitted against each other, so if you haven’t purchased your iMac yet, we now offer a definitive tool for making an informed decision on which graphics card to order.  Both of the Radeon HD options prove to generate twice the gaming frame rates than the Nvidia equipped model.  Not too shabby!

Unlike the prior generation of iMacs, these models have a total of four DDR3 memory slots. You can add an additional 4GB kit and have 8GB total or an 8GB kit and have 12GB total without removing  the standard factory 4GB.

Should you want to max the memory up to 16GB, you will need to take out those original modules. While Apple officially supports up to 16GB in all the new iMac models, they only offer up to 8GB in the 21.5″ model. Not only does OWC offer you the options for up to 16GB total, but even if you just need an additional 4GB, we’ll save you 50% compared to the same installed by Apple.

The results make our company mantra ring true.  ”More Memory = Faster Mac!”

As additional machines are run through the same tests, they will appear on the same page as our overall goal is to have every Snow Leopard compatible machine tested using the same process.

We often think of OWC as a giant resource…a collective of individual skills, knowledge, talents, and passion…that all come together to offer assistance to Mac users around the world. Whether it be our free lifetime US-based technical support, Live Chat even on the weekends, our free Installation Videos, and more, we’re pleased to help you get the most from your Mac and your technology budget.

We’re pleased to lend a helping hand because we’ve been there as customers too…looking for help and not getting it in a timely or courteous manner. And like all good deeds – or even Karma – what goes around comes around.

Case in point…check out how creating a world of help gets started:

I had problems with my Lexmark X4850 All in One printer/scanner after installing 10.6 and had to wait for Lexmark to issue a new driver. After that, with some fiddling around, I got to print wireless, least before that, only on the wire.

That was not it however!

The first time I tried to scan (and never could do this wireless for some reason, even though Lexmark said I should be able to) I was unable to and the program crashed. I tried and tried, and finally found out I had to use a “workaround” using the TWAIN method.   This is how:

Lexmark drivers bundled with Mac OS X 10.6 do not come with the usual All-in-One Center application that allows the user to scan using TWAIN backend. To scan using the bundled drivers, users can utilize the Image Capture application bundled with Mac OS X 10.6. Users may access this application by going to the Application folder and launching Image Capture or by going to System Preferences the Print & Fax, selecting the Print Queue and opening it and clicking on the Scanner button on the upper right corner. TWAIN scanning support will be provided in future releases of 10.6.

It works, but you have to remember it after using the usual method for a long time. I tell you this in case others have the same problem and ask you.  You helped me often, now it is my turn.

Regards,

Rick S., Winter Park, Florida
OWC customer for about 5-8 years, Mac user for about 18 years

Equally cool to his tip was some additional insight from Rick on how deep the OWC commitment to serving goes. It seems OWC Larry was personally helping Rick upgrade a MiniTower G3 years ago and must have given Rick his home phone number. Larry’s wife answered the phone, informed Rick that Larry wasn’t home, and then proceed to help Rick to the point of being complimented as being “quite knowledgeable too”.

We encourage you to turn things around too and send us your helpful tips so that we can share them!

In case you haven’t heard, Apple has acknowledged that there is a bug in Snow Leopard that can be rather devastating to your data. All the data in your Home folder has the potential of disappearing if:

1. you installed OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard over an existing installation of  OS X 10.5 Leopard.
2. you had a Guest account enabled in Leopard, which got brought over to Snow Leopard AND
3. you logged into your Guest account under Snow Leopard.

Damage Control

If all of those three pieces of the puzzle fit together, you may find yourself logging into your main account only to find all your data is gone.

Unfortunately, there’s no quick and simple way to get your data back—you’re going to have to restore from your backups.

By far, the easiest method is to do a full restore from the last time you had all your data. If you clone to an external, simply boot to that drive and clone back to your Mac.

If you use Time Machine, it will take a little longer. You will need to perform a fresh install of OS X on your machine, then choose to import information from your latest Time Machine backup with an intact System folder.

Don’t have a backup? Your data may be lost in the Snow.

Prevention

The first step to avoiding data loss—from this bug or from others—is to establish a backup strategy NOW. Seriously, I mean it…large external drives are dropping in price rather rapidly, so there’s no real reason for not having a complete solution.

The next thing to do: disable the Guest account. Unless you routinely have people temporarily logging onto your computer, leaving the Guest account active at this point is kind of like having a hand grenade sitting on the kitchen table—you’re not going to use it, but if it is accidentally activated, you could be in a whole world of hurt.

To disable the Guest account, go to the Accounts preference pane. You will need an Administrator password to unlock the pane. Once unlocked, select the “Guest Account” option and make sure the box to allow guests to log in is unchecked. Then, close the Preferences window.

Theoretically, if you go back in and re-check that box, you should be able to use the Guest Account normally. However, until an update is released that specifically deals with this issue, doing so is asking for trouble. If you absolutely need to have people logging into your machine, your best bet will be to create a managed (non-admin) account for them.

Simply unlock the Accounts preference pane as described above and click the “+” button on the left. Name the new account whatever you want and don’t give it a password. Make sure that you uncheck the box that allows that account to act as an administrator. Now you have an account that will behave similarly to the Guest account, except when the user logs out, it doesn’t erase their (or your) files.

Repetition

I’m going to say it again, simply because it’s so darn important: make sure you have (and use) a backup strategy. In the light of hardware failures, accidental deletion and now the OS itself threatening your irreplaceable data, failure to have one (or more) backups of your crucial data is an invitation to disaster.

We’re continuing  our diligent work here at the OWC testing lab benchmarking every machine compatible with Snow Leopard and should be ready to start posting some of the results soon.

In the meantime, however, we found some great nuggets of information that we’d like to share!

For our latest test, we took two machines in which the most memory that can be installed was 2GB, maxed out their memory, and checked the performance gains that installing a faster hard drive can provide.  The results were quite impressive!

The Contenders:

The original 2006 MacBook 13″
1.83GHz Core Duo running OS 10.6.1

The 2004 iMac G5 20″
PowerPC 1.8GHz running 10.5.8

Heres what we found:

• The Photoshop Action Test measures the time (in seconds) it takes to execute a custom action script comprising of 47 commonly-used, memory-intensive processes on a 21 megapixel image using Adobe Photoshop CS4. It is designed to represent an average photo editing session of a graphic artist. No other processes are running in the background besides those that keep the machine itself running. This is pure, linear computing where every available resource is on hand for the one test running.  Lower times are better.
• Our Stress Test is a variation on the Photoshop Action Test where the test is performed while iTunes is playing music with the visualizer running. This test adds one additional program to represent that additional light computing we do on the side in real life. With the Visualizer on, the resource draw on the machine is not limited to processor power and memory but to the video card and memory allocated for video as well. Lower times are better.
• The 16 Program Launch test simply measures the time (in seconds) it takes for 16 common programs* from OS X and iLife to open simultaneously.  Lower times are better.
• The Boot Time Test is exactly what it sounds like – the time it takes to boot the machine.  Again, lower times are better.

Considering the investment that a new Apple computer can cost, it makes sense to get all you can out of the machine you have before taking the plunge.  Installing a Solid State Drive can certainly extend the retirement date of your existing Mac for a fraction of the cost of a new computer.

A month ago today, Apple released OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Coincidentally, my MacBook Pro arrived right around that same time. I took advantage of having a “pristine” system and installed Snow Leopard on it immediately.

Looking back on the last month, things went surprisingly well. One by one, I added new apps and utilities to my system, making sure to check their compatibility as I went. Fortunately, most of the programs I use every day were already 10.6-compatible. My only major losses were iStat Menus and iSync compatibility with my Palm Centro. Luckily, iStat was updated soon after the 10.6 release, and I’ve got some good leads for Palm compatibility, so I’m 99% good to go.

Sure, even a month in, there are some mild annoyances – I lost the use of the full drivers for my home printer. Sure, the Gutenprint drivers work, but they just aren’t the same. I haven’t even tried scanning anything, but I’m relatively certain that it will be an exercise in futility. However, as both the printer and the scanner are 7-8 years old, I really can’t complain a whole lot – they have far outlasted my expectations for $20 at a garage sale.

As far as “whiz-bang” new features, there really weren’t any, though adjustments to things like Image Capture, Exposé, Time Machine, QuickTime, drive and file size reporting and a number of other things were welcome changes.  While, normally, simply tweaking the system for better performance/compatibility might be considered as a “service pack,” what the Snow Leopard naysayers seemed to have missed in calling it that is the whole shift in the system’s focus.

This is the first “Intel Only” version of OS X. It cut out a lot of the older, bloated PPC code, resulting in a much smaller installation. On top of that, they’ve added easier implementation of support for multi-processor apps as well making the system 64-bit capable on hardware that supports it. While this may not be all that useful at the present time it certainly opens the door for things becoming faster as applications are rewritten to take advantage of this technology.

So what is all this saying?

Effectively, what I’m saying here is that, despite a few hiccups at the beginning, Snow Leopard is certainly heading in the right direction. There are a few missing pieces here and there, but nothing that I found to be insurmountable. Further updates, both on Apple’s part and those of software developers, will continue to improve the experience.

A month into the process, I’d say that unless you either have a machine that won’t support it or you rely on one of the applications not yet supported, it is an upgrade well worth your time and money.

I’m a recent Mac convert and loving every minute of it. Do I feel ashamed for ignoring the Windows-based units that are now collecting dust at home? A little bit, but thankfully the guilt is short-term.

I’ve been having a great time reading comments from Mac users about their experiences with Snow Leopard. It’s even more interesting to hear all the chatter about Apple’s first OS update 10.6.1, made available less than two weeks after releasing Snow Leopard. Some users have called the OS release “pointless” due to the lack of new features. Others, wanting to keep their OS up-to-date, have willingly embraced the update.

What’s in the update?

Apple suggests that users update to 10.6.1 because it offers “general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac.” The update itself fixes a Mail issue, includes a more recent version of the Flash plug-in for Safari and provides device updates for modems, printers and DVD drives. For more details, see the full summary of 10.6.1 fixes from Apple.

Newbie says what?

I’m a glass-half-full guy and tend to focus more on positive benefits. Although some users have criticized this release as a knee-jerk reaction by Apple to offset product launch shortcomings, I personally think is sends a clear message that they take security seriously.

Generally speaking, it appears that a number of users are reporting improved performance and bug fixes after applying the update. The good news is that if you are running newer software it is unlikely that you will experience compatibility issues since most applications that work on Mac OS X 10.5 will also work in 10.6. It’s important to note that not every program has been tested and in some cases it’s up to the user to determine which applications still work. For example, Adobe decided to test Creative Suite 4 for compatibility on Snow Leopard without any mention of supporting CS3. What’s a CS3 user to do? Some are running CS3 on 10.6 without any issues; others are frustrated while teetering between waiting for a fix or upgrading to CS4.

When it comes to discussing hardware and software support under a new OS, I feel it’s all about shared liability – if the OS includes radical changes, some programs will not work or may require an update. If the developers do not test their software with the new platform or offer an alternative solution, they risk alienating loyal users.

It’s been at least a month since I’ve booted up a Windows machine at home and I am certain that there are countless updates, security patches, service packs and bug fixes are waiting for me. The decision to install the single point revision to SL seems easy compared to my previous life of daily Windows updates.

I’m also a marketing guy and understand Apple’s desire to release Snow Leopard early to meet customer demands. At some point you have to release what you have to the masses in order to address real-world application issues and improve the overall user experience.

The 10.6.1 update may not address every issue that has been logged, but it’s a quick step in the right direction. If you are having a problem and don’t find it resolved with this release, be sure to let Apple know via Apple’s feedback page for Mac OS X.

Since Snow Leopard’s release a couple of weeks ago, there have been several reports of various optical drives being unable to read the installation DVD. There have also been reports of these same drives being unable to read other DVDs, as well.

What the heck is going on here?

There have been reports of some “bad” copies of the Snow Leopard installer disc, which would explain some of the instances. A trip to your local Genius Bar or a call to Apple customer service can usually resolve that issue.

There are, however, a number of instances that were not resolved simply by using a different disc. In these cases, the optical drive stopped being able to read DVDs at all. In a large amount of the cases shown on the Apple Support discussion boards, it seems that many of these computers were infrequently used, so it is quite likely these were cases where the optical drive was bad or on the verge of failing, but infrequent use made diagnosis difficult. Interestingly, almost all of the drives having these problems were the stock drives that came with the computer.

So what can we do?

Usually, if your drive stops reading media, that’s a good clue that the drive needs to be replaced. If your Mac is still under AppleCare, then you should be covered. However, for those past the warranty and don’t have AppleCare, you’ve still got options.

1. Set up another Mac (running OS X 10.5 or later) to share its optical drive with the afflicted computer. While designed for the MacBook Air, this should work with any Mac. Though it is probably the least expensive method (as song as you have a second Mac) it is also frightfully slow, as it has to transfer all the data across your network.
2. Replace the optical drive with a new one. If you had AppleCare, the main resolution would be to replace the drive itself. So, why not do it yourself? Other than the SATA slot-loading drives found in the latest models (which would still be under warranty, anyway), OWC has replacement internal optical drives for a wide array of Macs. The drives aren’t the only thing, though. We also have instructional videos that walk you through the process of replacing the optical drive for many Mac models.
3. Use an external optical drive. This is a fairly good option for slot-loading machines – especially iMacs and Mac minis – since you can get optical drives with faster speeds and features that may not be available on a slot-loading drive, such as Blu-ray disc burning (sorry, still no BD movie playback, yet) and and Lightscribe labeling. OWC has a number of external optical drives available, all of which are bootable and will work with your Mac.

Don’t let a failing optical drive stop you from enjoying the benefits that upgrading to Snow Leopard provides. With our wide array of optical drive solutions and technical information, OWC can help get you on your way with a minimum of effort.

Quick tip - Use a mac running 10.5 or 10.4, select to share the Printer that is AppleTalk and volia - your AppleTalk printer is now useable to any Mac with 10.6

It is true that Apple has dropped the AppleTalk LAN protocols as part of the trimming done in 10.6 Snow Leopard.  It doesn’t necessarily mean its time to throw out that legacy LaserJet printer that had its printer queue setup through AppleTalk.  You could setup a print server.

If you have at least one Mac still running 10.5 or earlier on your network, you can setup your AppleTalk printer on that machine and share that printer with the other computers on your Network. Then use Printer Sharing to allow your Snow Leopard machines to still print to it. The Mac doing the Sharing would accept print jobs from the other computers as long as it was powered up and running when you wanted to print.

To use printer sharing go to “Sharing” under system preferences and enable the “Printer Sharing” service. Then, under “Print & Fax” click the box for Share this printer.  Now your legacy printer can still be used with Snow Leopard.

—- UPDATE 9/4/09 by OWC Grant—–

Our own OWC Jamie created a very well illustrated guide that walks you thru the above step by step. If you’re like me, a picture (or in this case several screen shots) is worth a thousand words…or at least three paragraphs!

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard came out on Friday, and there’s been quite a big hullabaloo about the fact that – by default – Apple’s new OS boots into 32-bit mode on almost all Macs, with the only exceptions being the 2008 and 2009 XServe.

Before we gather our pitchforks and torches to go surround One Infinite Loop, let’s take a step back and take a look at a few points that people seem to keep missing.

1. 32-bit mode enables compatibility. At this point, we’re still in transition. While most, if not all, of Apple’s kernel extensions (KEXTs) are all 64-bit, there are still many third-parties that have yet to catch up. If the kernel was set to 64-bit, then all the 32-bit KEXTs would not load, thus “breaking” many third party utilities and peripherals.
2. Snow Leopard can run 64-bit applications. Even though the kernel itself is running in 32-bit mode, most of that which we use every day are 64-bit apps. Apps like Safari, Mail, iCal, and – most importantly – the Finder itself, all run in 64-bit mode. About the only Apple apps not running in 64-bit are the iLife apps, which will likely see an update soon. 64-bit versions of third-party applications though, such as Photoshop, will also be released over time from their respective vendors.
3. 64-bit isn’t the only speed boost. While a lot of attention has been paid to the 64- vs. 32-bit difference, Snow Leopard has a number of new technologies that will also help speed things up. Two such examples are Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL. Grand Central Dispatch will make it easier for developers to utilize multiple processor cores – something the vast majority of Intel Macs have. OpenCL allows applications to use the power of the GPU in your computer. While only a few cards are currently supported, it is entirely possible that others will be added to this list in the future.
4. Snow Leopard is about the future, not the present. A more accurate way to describe Snow Leopard is as a transitional release. It provides a solid framework for developers to incorporate the above-mentioned technologies as they update their applications. Once they do, there should be an increase in efficiency. As more and more drivers are converted over to 64-bit, then the need for the 32-bit kernel will reduce. At that point, we may see an official utility to switch 64-bit mode on/off.

Until the point we have nothing but 64-bit compatible KEXTs, though, a 32-bit kernel with the capability of running 64-bit applications seems to be a reasonable compromise. Since the Finder and many of the other Applications we run are 64-bit, we will see a speed boost from that, even though the kernel is 32-bit. Once everything else is updated to 64-bit, I would not be surprised if an official option to more permanently enable the 64-bit kernel emerges.

While, personally, the potential compatibility headaches are enough to keep me with the default 32-bit kernel on my MacBook Pro, I realize there are still many out there that want to try and wring every last bit of performance out of their machines (I know, I’m usually one of them) who will insist on booting their systems to the 64-bit kernel. So, in case you haven’t already found out how to do it, I’ll give you a couple of options.

• The easiest way to do it is to hold down the 6 and 4 keys at startup and release them when you reach the login screen or desktop. However, this will revert to 32-bit on restart unless you hold down 6 and 4 again.
• For a little more control over which kernel you use (allowing you to make booting to 64-bit a little more “permanent”) you may want to check into Startup Mode Selector. It’s a free application (though donations are accepted) that lets you set which kernel you want to boot with. If you’re going to go this route and boot to 64-bit “permanently,” I highly recommend you read the accompanying information on the author’s Web site.

For a long time, there’s been an interesting discrepancy between the capacity listed on a hard drive’s label and the capacity reported by the computer. For example, attaching a 250GB hard drive would show up in the system as having 232.74GB available. Many would chalk it up to “formatting.” While the formatting information takes up some information, 17GB is a little excessive for formatting information. So where did this other space go?

The real culprit here is the discrepancy between base-10 mathematics (how most of us count) and binary (aka “base-2″) counting. To drive manufacturers, a kilobyte was 1000 bytes, a megabyte was 1000 kilobytes and a gigabyte was 1000 megabytes.

However, computers don’t natively use base-10; they use a base-2 system. To them, a kilobyte is defined as 1024 (which is 2¹⁰) bytes, a megabyte is 1024 kilobytes, and a gigabyte is 1024 megabytes.

This methodology worked fine for many years; after all, 1024 isn’t TOO far off from 1000. As drive capacities increased, however, this became more and more pronounced. Drive manufacturers were defining “gigabyte” as 1,000,000,000 bytes (1000 x 1000 x 1000), while computers recognized a gigabyte as 1,073,741,824 bytes (1024 x 1024 x 1024). Every gigabyte added to a drive exacerbated the problem, adding 73,741,824 bytes to the discrepancy.

Snow Leopard, though, changes this. Instead of simply reporting the base-2 number for a unit of drive space, it converts it to an easier-to-understand base-10 number – the same way it is measured by drive manufacturers. In easier terms: a 500GB drive shows up as 500GB in the Finder, rather than 463.13GB.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you magically get more drive space. You still have the same number of bytes (the base unit) to deal with. The number of bytes that make up larger increments has just changed. Of course, this change in measurement is applied across the board in the finder. All your files will seem “larger,” even though they all have the same number of bytes in them. For example, here’s a pair of screen shots of a folder in my music library.

These shots are of the same files, in the same folder, on the same drive. In 10.6, though, they’re reported as being “larger.” But are they? The main folder shows up as having 308,937,619 bytes in both systems. The only difference is the 10.5 uses base-2 for its measurement, and 10.6 uses base-10. In 10.5, a megabyte is 1,048,576 bytes. In 10.6, it’s an even 1,000,000. Divide 308,937,619 by both of those, and you can see how the Finder in each OS arrived at its figure.

This may be a bit confusing for a while – after all, we’ve kind of gotten used to things the way they were. There is a bright point, though: now you don’t have to ask where all that space went when you install or attach your new hard drive.

For more information, you can check out this Apple KnowledgeBase article.

About a year ago, OWC CEO Larry O’Connor had this to say in his Tips and Deals Newsletter:

“It’s fun to talk about the ‘latest and greatest’ – but certainly not practical to buy that new top of the line each time it comes out. Fortunately, since you’ve got a Mac – it happens to have far more longevity than the average Windows PC out there and with some simple upgrades, it can be made better than new. Even if you’re buying a new Mac, for what can be a very nominal investment, it’s still well worth the while to maximize the Mac or Macs you’re still going to keep running.”

It was a very good point then, and it is still valid today.

He also went into five different ways to upgrade your Mac that can extend its useful life. Like the above paragraph, these five upgrade options remain incredibly valid today. The only difference is that we’re looking at new technology and a new Operating System. So, let’s revisit these concepts and see how they’re relevant today. more…

Snow Leopard is coming and with it will be a major streamlining of the whole code base. This is a bit of a mixed blessing.

This streamlining (and the addition of a number of new technologies) will allow for a reduction in size of an OS installation, while still allowing for a decent jump in speed and/or efficiency.

The down side of this, though, is that Snow Leopard will only run on Intel-based Macs. This really isn’t something unexpected. Every iteration of Mac OS and OS X has had some sort of hardware cutoff, and this time around it’s “Intel processors only.”

This is understandable; by limiting to one type of processor, the redundant code can be eliminated, allowing for more efficient use of system resources and overall optimization. The OS is able to move forward by leaving behind that which holds it back.

However, this is also a bit of an annoyance to those who have PPC-based machines, many of which are still in operation. The new OS doesn’t support it, and as a result, many day-to-day applications may soon no longer work. That doesn’t mean they’re not useful, though. Heck, I still challenge any other Mac to beat my Mirror Drive Door in consistency and performance when benchmarking FireWire 800 hard drives.

While the newer versions of some software may eventually require Snow Leopard, anything currently shipping will work just fine under Leopard. There should be a number of Security Updates for 10.5, just as there were for 10.4, so you’re not being left high and dry in that regard. Finally, many third-party apps are coded so they’ll work just fine under any OS X version from 10.3 and up.

If, however, you require the latest and greatest in OS and applications, then you’ll be needing an Intel Mac soon. That, however, leaves you with the question of what to do with your PPC Mac.

Even though they may not be suited for your Snow-Leopard-Requiring day-to-day tasks, PPC machines are still capable of acting as single-task workhorses. Here’s just a couple of ideas:

File Server: OS X’s built-in file sharing allows for easy setup of a machine as a simple file server. For those with more advanced needs, OSX Server has a number of extras that should easily do the trick. All you need is an 867MHz G4 processor or faster. Those with G4 Towers that don’t quite make this speed requirement can still use Leopard by first installing a processor upgrade. You can then install up to 4 or 5 extra internal hard drives, either on the internal ATA bus, or add a SATA card and put in the largest, fastest drives you can. A couple of quick licks in the Sharing preferences, and your files are available anywhere on the network you want them to be. While you’re at it, you can also set up Printer Sharing on that machine, allowing all your networked computers to share the same printer, too.

Kids computer - Got kids that have homework to look up or games they want to play? While it may not play the latest and greatest games, your PPC Mac has enough life in it to cover many kids uses. A decent word processor for reports, basic email & Web apps and some older games all run well on these machines. Once you have what your kids need installed, simply set up their account(s) as needed, and then fire up the Parental Controls preference pane. There, you can limit time spent on the computer, bedtime, which sites can or can’t be visited, and the like. You can even limit which programs can be run.  Once it is set up, your kids have a terminal of their own, leaving your machine open for your own marathon sessions of World of Warcraft.

Guest Terminal - Many years ago, I was renting a house with three other people, and we all were frequently online. The main problem was that only three out of the four of us owned computers. The fourth would always need to “borrow” one of ours. Unfortunately, they also had a habit of downloading whatever caught their fancy, opening up possibilities to viruses or, at the very least, filling up the hard drive. As a Mac user, I had more resistance to viruses than my Windows-using roommates, so I set up a “spare” machine (in fact, my trusty Wallstreet PowerBook) with a “Guest” account, where they could check their Web-based email, read news, etc, but they couldn’t change anything or save any files. It worked great. An older ‘Book can easily be left in the guest room with a similar setup, allowing overnight guests a way to check their email while visiting without exposing you to their careless computing.

Music Repository/Jukebox - If your music collection is approaching the proportions of some of the people around the office here (myself included), it may be time to move a good portion of it to a central location, especially if you have multiple machines you listen to it on. Several years ago, I wrote a piece on turning a G3 iMac into a simple jukebox. Once you’ve set your computer up with all your music, simply turn on the option to share the library in the preferences, and you’ll be able to listen to music from that library on any computer running iTunes on your local network.

Dedicated BitTorrent Client - Though most people immediatly think “illegal file sharing” when they hear “BitTorrent,” it is also a very effective way to distribute large files legally. Examples of this include independent bands with MP3s that don’t have the server bandwidth and various distributions of Ubuntu Linux. By dedicating a single machine to this task, it frees up other machines (and their bandwidth) for more immediate use. I know several people who use a G3 iMac for this purpose.

Curing diseases - Truth be told, this could be added to any of the above suggestions, but I’ll put it down as a separate item anyway. Even if you’re not using your PPC Mac all the time, there’s no reason it can’t be working. Set up Folding@Home, and put those spare processor cycles to good use, folding proteins and helping to find cures to diseases.

There are many more dedicated uses out there – the possibilities are really only limited by your creativity.

Of course, to get the most out of these machines, you’re going to want to make sure they’re running at peak performance. Maxing out the memory gives you the most bang for your buck, but adding a faster hard drive and even upgrading the processor can add some significant “oomph” to your PPC’s performance to its new tasks.

Even if you don’t know what upgrades are appropriate for your machine, OWC’s got you covered there. Simply check out the easy-to-use “My OWC” upgrade finder, enter in your computer’s information, and you’ll be given a list of compatible upgrades.

Don’t worry about Snow Leopard leaving your PPC Mac behind. With a little creativity and OWC, your PPC Mac can get a new lease on life.

Well, the WWDC Keynote has now come and gone. While His Steveness wasn’t in attendance (at least not on camera), Uncle Phil managed to deliver a plate full of Apple goodness to us, no matter what you’re into.

Hardware

Time for an update across the MacBook & MacBook Pro families. Let’s start out with the one that caught my attention.

MacBook Pro 15″
Well, they got rid of the removable battery and have changed over to the same setup that’s in the 17″. This isn’t really all that surprising, as it keeps specs in line with the 17″ version. More surprising is the change in slots – we lose an Express Slot but gain an SD slot. This is great if you have a camera that uses SD cards, but it’s pretty darn crummy if you want to hook up drives via eSATA.

It seems they’ve improved the display a little bit and, as expected, there’s a little bit of a speed bump up to 3.06 GHz, but what’s that? A price drop!?!?! Starting at $1699… wow! Now I only have to sell one kidney to afford one.

MacBook Pro 17″
Less excitement here; No new features, but at least you get to keep your Express slot. Price drop here, too – looks like those recent Microsoft ads are having more effect than people would have you believe…

Unibody 13″
The biggest changes seem to have come for the 13″ Unibody MacBook. It’s got the same battery upgrade as the 15″, but it also gained the SD slot, where nothing existed before. The big news, however is that it gained back the one thing it was missing before – FireWire!!!

Yes, it seems Apple has heard our pleas and has added a FireWire 800 port. Though not eSATA speeds, at least FW800 is faster than USB 2.0.

Since the addition of FireWire 800 puts its features on par with the MacBook Pro line, the 13″ Unibody MacBooks have been reclassified – they are now the 13” MacBook Pros. Even with that “promotion” these guys have had a price drop as well, starting at $1199.

MacBook Air
Not much to report here, other than a $700 price drop! Prices now start around $1499. Still a bit much for a machine that has no upgradability, but at least its a huge step in the right direction.

Software

OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard is on its way. Apparently, we’re going to see a lot of speedups in the new version. It appears that they’ve rewritten the Finder from the bottom up, which should give us all sorts of speed boosts, and have also made improvements to the Dock, including integrating it with Exposé.

Those of you who are feeling the squeeze of Leopard’s rather copious install size will be happy to know that a standard installation Snow Leopard will be less than half the size of the standard install of Leopard! That should be a savings of around 6GB!

Snow Leopard, with Grand Central, Open CL, and other system enhancements, will finally be able to harness the full power of your computer’s resources. A fully 64-bit OS will allow you to more effectively utilize larger amounts of memory, and Grand Central will help distribute both memory and processor cycles to all your apps, allowing them to take advantage of all available resources.

The full version of Safari 4 will come installed (it is also available via Apple’s site and/or Software Update), featuring a slew of improvements, including a faster JavaScript engine and HTTP streaming for audio and video.

QuickTime has also gotten a boost, becoming “QuickTime X” (pronounced “Quick Time Ten”). Much of the improvements have been made under the hood, though the interface has also gotten a newer, slicker overhaul as well.

Finally, office workers everywhere that rely on Exchange compatibility for their day-to-day tasks can rejoice. Mail, iCal, and Address Book now have support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.

iPhone OS 3.0

Of course, most of the buzz around WWDC this year was centered around the iPhone.

Unfortunately, not too much more was revealed about iPhone OS 3.0 than has already been discussed.

The big one, of course is Cut/Copy/Paste functionality, which should be available system-wide. Landscape mode will be available for Mail and a couple other apps. Many of the same enhancements in the desktop version of Safari have also filtered down to the iPhone OS version as well.

Google Maps are now easily embeddable into iPhone apps, and have turn-by-turn support.

There are a couple of other things that really caught my attention – one that’s been discussed before and one that’s fairly new.

First, iPhone 3.0 will support tethering! In theory, this means you can use your iPhone’s data connection with your laptop, an invaluable feature if you’re on the road a lot. Unfortunately, support for this feature is not available everywhere.

Another interesting feature that I’m sure will be popular around here is the “Find My iPhone” option. Effectively, it uses triangulation and GPS features to locate the approximate location of your iPhone, and can even override the mute switch to play a tone so you can find. If you still can’t find it, then you can remotely send a “wipe” command, removing all the user data on the phone, so nobody else can make off with your precious data.

This last feature would have been a lifesaver two years ago when I put OWC Larry’s good humor and benevolence to the test by… *ahem*… accidentally losing his iPhone at Macworld. Yes, I was that guy… If we’d had the “Find My iPhone” feature, we might have been able to recover the phone and I would have one less embarrassing event to try and live down around here.

iPhone OS 3.0 will be available on June 17, so it’s a little more than a week before you can take advantage of all the new features… and before Larry lets me within 500 feet of his new iPhone.

iPhone 3G S

If you follow any of the rumor sites, there’s been some buzz about a new iPhone rearing its head around this time. Turns out the rumors were true, and we’ve been given the iPhone 3G S.

This new iPhone seems to be considerably faster than predecessor, with both software enhancements and upgraded network support, allowing up to 7.2 Megabit speeds via HSDPA.

Features also got a boost with the introduction of a three megapixel camera with autofocus and auto white balance support. You can also capture video at 30 frames per second at 640×480 resolutions, and even edit it down via touch. Both video and photos can be shard via MMS, email, and MobileMe.

Another new feature is Voice Control. Its an interesting concept, especially when using the phone or iPod features in the car. Unfortunately, you still have to hold down the button to activate it, so it’s not completely hands-free. It’s a start, though.

Business users also haven’t been left out. By popular request hardware encryption is now available. There’s also a new Compass application. Its integration with Maps opens up many nice options for helping you find your way around when visiting another town, be it for business or pleasure.

Last, but not least, battery life has been improved – up to 5 hours talk or 9 hours of WiFi internet.

When they’re available on June 19, expect to pay $199 for a 16GB or $299 for a 32GB model. If those prices are a little steep, Apple is continuing to sell the iPhone 3G, for only $99.

In summary

Clocking in at a little over 2 hours, the WWDC keynote had a lot to offer. We got updated MacBooks, iPhones, and previews of the OS that runs on them. This is just a quick rundown of what was discussed. Keep checking back as we go more in-depth on the new developments (no pun intended).