Major Upgrade Features Improved Interface, Faster Browsing & Enhanced Image Processing

Press Release: CUPERTINO, California—February 12, 2008—Apple® today introduced Aperture™ 2, the next major release of its groundbreaking photo editing and management software with over 100 new features that make it faster, easier to use and more powerful. With a streamlined user interface and entirely new image processing engine, Aperture 2 also introduces new imaging tools for highlight recovery, color vibrancy, local contrast definition, soft-edged retouching, vignetting and RAW fine-tuning, and lets users directly post their portfolios on the .Mac Web Gallery* for viewing on the web, iPhone™, iPod® touch and Apple TV®. At a new low price of $199, anyone can easily organize, edit and publish photos like a pro.

Apple has released the OS X 10.5.2 update (available in Software Update or the Combo Update).

From the web site:

About Mac OS X 10.5.2 Update
Add a new Mac to your Mac. Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard is packed with over 300 new features, installs easily, and works with the software and accessories you already have.

What’s New in this Version
The 10.5.2 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://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307109

Early indications are that the update addresses certain text field issues with Photoshop CS3 (10.0.1)

Mac OS X is safer today — but not necessarily more secure for the long term — than Windows

Source: InfoWorld
Written by Matt Hines

As Apple continues to grow its worldwide market share and the company’s products find their way into more business environments, attackers are certain to follow and create greater volumes of exploits aimed at vulnerabilities in the company’s software, security experts contend.

Source: ZDNet
Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Data released by Net Applications for December 2007 tells us something that most of us already knew - that Mac is on a roll and gaining momentum every month.

Source: CNET
Written by Tom Krazit

The first update to Mac OS X Leopard has arrived, with fixes for bugs in Time Machine and Finder, among other things.

Version 10.5.1 is now available through Software Update or on Apple’s Web site. It’s a 110MB update that smooths out some of the more notable bugs reported in the first three weeks of Leopard’s life on the planet, and it arrives just one day after Apple shipped what will probably be the last update for Tiger, Mac OS X 10.4.11.

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Apple has posted a TechNote for users of OS X 10.5 Leopard with Time Machine and Aperture. By extension, it also applies to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom users as well.

Source: Macworld
Written by Rick LePage

As Leopard gets out into both the developer and user communities, we’re seeing a few cautionary notes from developers regarding compatibility and performance. Recently, Apple and Adobe issued advisories regarding their respective image management and catalog applications, Aperture and Photoshop Lightroom…

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Source: CNET
Written by Tom Krazit
Progress is measured in steps both big and small. The smaller ones may get less attention, but they are much easier to take.

It’s been a year of big steps for Apple. The company dropped the “Computer” from its name in January as a way of showing Apple was no longer just about the Mac, and the clear priority for 2007 in Cupertino was to get the iPhone out the door and selling briskly. Then, perhaps for kicks, it decided to overhaul its entire lineup of iPods.

Later today, Apple will take a smaller step, with the launch of Mac OS X 10.5, code-named Leopard. Leopard’s coming on scene later than expected, almost 30 months after Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4) launched in April 2005, in part due to the push to get the iPhone out in time. CNET’S review is in, and my colleagues Elsa Wenzel and Robert Vamosi are positive.

As Apple gears up to release its OS X 10.5, nicknamed ‘Leopard,’ it is reminding Boot Camp users that the utility will expire when Leopard is shipped

Source: InfoWorld
Written by Gregg Keizer, Computerworld

Apple kicked off the month in which it plans to launch its new Mac OS X 10.5, “Leopard,” OS by reminding users that the beta license for Boot Camp — the utility that runs Windows XP or Vista on an Intel Mac — will expire as soon as the new operating system ships.

PC World has posted two articles; one titled 10 Things We Love About Apple and the other titled 10 Things We Hate About Apple. They are both written by Narasu Rebbapragada and Alan Stafford, PC World. I guess they are of a split mind (is that the same as a split personality?).

“Today, we–that’s us, Narasu and Alan, veteran Mac users both–are going to get some stuff off our chests. We’ve enumerated ten things we hate about Apple (or its followers, or simply about the experience of using its products). But in the interest of fair play (not to be confused with FairPlay, Apple’s DRM technology) we’re also publishing another list–Ten Things We Love About Apple.”

Source: MACNN

Apple today confirmed that the much-anticipated iPhone is on-track to ship in “late June,” but said that the development of the consumer device has delayed Mac OS X Leopard until October because the company has devoted more of its resources toward iPhone development.

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The release of Adobe CS3 will add momentum to pro Mac sales, an analyst claims

[editor’s note: file this one under well, DUH]

Source: Macwolrd UK

Sales of Apple’s professional Macs will take a significant upturn on the release of Adobe CS3, claimed Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster this week.

Source: Macworld
Written by Rob Griffiths

Last month, in the first part of my three-part report (parts two and three) on the new Mac Pro, I reported on Photoshop’s performance in Rosetta—both subjectively and objectively (on page three) via a test of the Liquify filter.

Source: CNET
Written by Joris Evers

Apple Computer on Tuesday released a security update for Mac OS X to repair 31 vulnerabilities, including a zero-day Wi-Fi hijack flaw.

Photoshop product manager John Nack posted a note on his Adobe blog that quotes Macworld’s benchmarks on Rosetta performance improvements with Mac OS X 10.4.8. John indicated an approximate 35% improvement running Photoshop CS2 on an Intel-based Mac system with the 10.4.8 update.

About this update
Mac OS X Tiger provides support for a variety of popular digital camera and image file formats. Applications such as Aperture, iPhoto and Preview utilize this support to work with digital camera RAW files.

Source: Appleinsider

The release of Adobe’s Creative Suite 3.0 professional software package next year will be a catalyst for new sales of Apple Computer’s Intel-based Macintosh computers, according to one Wall Street analyst.

Apple has release a Mac OS X Tiger update specifically designed to address certain issues with RAW file support. The Digital Camera RAW Support Update 1.0 is available for both PPC and Universal (MacIntel).

The 10.4.8 Update is recommended for all users and includes general operating system fixes, as well as specific fixes for the following applications and technologies:

The latest model sets a new speed mark

Source: Macworld
Written By James Galbraith

Macworld Lab’s 3GHz Mac Pro arrived at our (Macworld’s) offices, and, as expected, the desktop equipped with the fastest Xeon currently available to Mac users outpaced the 2.66GHz Mac Pro.

Source: ars technica
Written by Eric Bangeman

I thought I was getting a new Macintosh PC. Instead, the box said “Quad Xeon 64-bit workstation.” It was then that it really hit me—the Big Switch was over and my once shiny Power Macintosh G5 was yesterday’s news.

The New Mac Pro: 64-bit Quad Xeon. Up to 3GHz.

Source: CNET
Written by Tom Krazit and Ina Fried

When Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs takes the stage Monday for his Worldwide Developer’s Conference keynote, it’ll be hard for him to top last year’s performance.

Source: ZDNet
Written by Tom Krazit

With a wider range of systems available, consumers have been snapping Macs up, giving them a growth boost that outpaced the rest of the market.

Apple has released Mac OS X version 10.4.7 and included fixes are a fix for the Mac printing issue from Photoshop 9.0.1 as well as issues relating to saving files to AFP mounted volumes.