This Week's Sponsor:

Direct Mail

Professional Email Marketing Built Just for Mac Users

Posts tagged with "os x"

Apple and Oracle Announce OpenJDK for OS X, Java Developers Rejoice

When developers noticed Apple was deprecating Java on OS X, there was quite a mess on the internet. Today, Apple announced that is joining Oracle to bring the OpenJDK project on the Mac in order to maintain Java.

Apple will contribute most of the key components, “including a 32-bit and 64-bit HotSpot-based Java virtual machine, class libraries and a networking stack”.

With OpenJDK, Apple’s Java technology will be available open source for developers to contribute to. Press release embedded below. Read more

Return AirPrint Sharing To Mac OS X 10.6.5→

Return AirPrint Sharing To Mac OS X 10.6.5

Steven Troughton-Smith found a way to make printer sharing work on 10.6.5, but you’ll need an old developer version of the OS to enable it:

The files you need are:

/usr/libexec/cups/filter/urftopdf
/usr/share/cups/mime/apple.convs
/usr/share/cups/mime/apple.types

The final key thing is you have to remove and re-add your printer in the Print & Fax preferences pane.

Permalink

Mac OS X 10.6.5 and AirPrint: Not Found

Just like we previously reported, it looks like Apple removed AirPrint support from 10.6.5. Available to developers in previous beta versions, the feature allowed iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch users on iOS 4.2 to print documents to printers shared via Mac OS X or Windows.

It turns out AirPrint now only works with supported HP printers, as noted by Macworld and Ars Technica. We’re also getting reports from readers who have already installed 10.6.5 (which came out a few minutes ago) confirming that, indeed, AirPrint to shared printers from iOS 4.2 GM isn’t working. Read more

How to Read Comics Like a Pro on the Mac & iPad

We here at the MacStories institute of app reviews have a feeling that your stack of Dōjinshi, Green Latern, and The Walking Dead comics have been dwindling at an alarming pace. Surely you could fulfill all your Hentai Manga needs online, but what fun is downloading RAR files just to peep JPEGs when you could get with the times and scoop some CBZ or CBR files from your favorite digital vendors? And no doubt you’ve been pulling shenanigans like scanning Super Man covers into PDFs for easy reading in iBooks instead of faxing ass photos to your boss in Italy. While there’s nothing like tearing the plastic off Wonder Woman, flipping pages is best left for the DC fanatics who have a thing for glossy covers and tongue inspired paper crinkling. It’s time to give comics a quick swift kick in the rear and bring the treasure trove of paneled heroism into the 21st century. That’s what Danger Duck would have wanted right?

Read more

Apple Considering Scrollable Menus and Toolbars For Lion and iOS 5?

A new European patent filing discovered by Patently Apple details how Apple might implement different interaction methods for menus and toolbars in the next version of OS X, Lion, and in the future iteration of their mobile operating system, iOS. The patent, filed in Q2 1010 and published last week, shows two specific models: scrollable menus and toolbars.

The main concept behind the patent is that menus and toolbars take too much space on screen, and the large majority of users don’t need to look at these elements all the time. To save space and implement multitouch gesture-based navigation in menus, there could be a way to scroll through toolbar icons and dropdown menus both on the desktop and iPhone / iPad. Read more

Interface Artist Builds A Real OS X Home Icon

Some things in life are so cool, geeky – let me just say it, awesome – that you’ve got to see them with your own eyes to believe. I’ve always been attracted by the “digital becomes real” experiments (there’s this video on Vimeo about Facebook, Twitter and OS X created with cardboard I can’t find anymore), and what “interface artist” Johannes P Osterhoff has come up with is just too cool to not end up here in the late night geek coverage of MacStories.

He basically took the standard OS X home icon, created a wooden version and carried it around on his shoulders. I know, insane. He’s the same guy that painted images using Aqua graphical elements and created actual shields out of the UI of Windows Vista.

Please, go check out his post about the “project” here.

John Gruber On The Idea of iPad Apps Running on Mac OS X→

John Gruber On The Idea of iPad Apps Running on Mac OS X

I can prove it, practically, that iPad apps aren’t going to run on the Mac as a standard feature. iOS apps do run on Mac OS X, today, in the iPhone/iPad emulator that ships with the iOS developer kit. Ends up they’re just not that pleasant to use on a Mac. Gestures that are natural and fun with direct touch are awkward and clumsy using a mouse or touchpad.

And we thought this idea of iOS apps running as “widgets” on the desktop had been buried in the darkest corners of the blogosphere. Turns out some people are still claiming it’d be a “great addition to OS X”. Too bad Apple is not Adobe, and they don’t care about “cross-platform interoperability” as much as they care about “single-platform excellence”.

Permalink

Mac OS X Dock Built Using CSS3

We featured cool CSS experiments before: iOS icons in CSS, a Kinetic type video, a 3D rotating molecules demo that works great on the iPad earlier today.

Web developer and interface designer Michael Hüneburg, rebuilt the standard OS X dock using CSS3 animation and including reflections, bounce effects, labels. He also used some additional icons inspired to the popular iTunes 10 one. Check out the experiment here.

This is a quick CSS3 experiment trying to replicate the Dock of OS X, complete with labels, animations, reflections and indicators. It uses CSS transitions for the magnification effect and the :target pseudo-class and CSS animations for the bouncing effect.

The CSS-based dock works great on Webkit desktop browsers, but you won’t able to get the magnification effect on iOS due to the obvious lack of mouseover events.