“As expected, Apple has released Mac OS X 10.6.5, the fifth update to its Snow Leopard operating system. The update brings a number of fixes for a wide variety of issues, including printing problems, Exchange compatibility, and improved graphics drivers that ‘address stability and performance of graphics applications and games’.” For the first time in a long time, I get to install a new Mac OS X update. My new MacBook Air 11.6″ arrived two days ago!
I have noticed while testing the dev builds that QuickTime seems to be able to play a lot of movies that 10.6.4 couldn’t. I used to get a lot of movies that couldn’t handle the sound or just wouldn’t play (I have Perian installed). VLC would always come to the rescue.
With 10.6.5, I don’t “need” to use VLC at all (I am sure I’ll find an exception at some point), but having said that, I still use VLC, force of habit?
I think the new version of QuickTime X is getting there.
What formats did they add?
Apple’s changelog doesn’t mention anything about QuickTime.
I don’t think they added any new formats, but formats that I had problems with before (no sound for instance) now seem to play nicely now. Usually they were AVI’s, but I didn’t check to see how they were encoded, sorry…
I have Perian (latest) installed, but this was before testing 10.6.5, so it wasn’t that.
They have done quite a bit of dev with QuickTime in this release, each time we got a build that was one of the items to check.
I think people with newer Macs (unlike me) will get the most benefit from this release.
Damn, so still no native support for VP8 then? How slack…
enough said.
No, it’s not “enough said”. Your post as-is, is flamebait. Please elaborate on why you think Apple sucks, otherwise why bother even posting?
Please also understand that I somewhat share your opinion; I don’t care for Apple as a company though I love their OS and like a lot of their hardware.
See how easy that is?
I’m ok with my post being a flame-bait.
Also Apple fan-boys never agrees with my reasons why and I don’t see what good can come from ever discussing them. It’s my opinion, you’re free to have another.
I hate their hardware and their software is over-rated, but ok.
1) I don’t care for their network and music player gear, overpriced and eventually with less features.
2) iPhone may be good but it’s locked in by default so it’s nothing I would buy. You get what you pay for but it’s a pricy dish.
3) Macs straight out suck. The premium is smaller in the US and prices has gone down here, but I wonder if the margins haven’t gone up considering how much cheaper regular laptops has become. Close to 100% markup over other brands? Atleast 50+%.
Too little specs to choose from, crippled by default specs on the low-end gear to make you pay for even higher margin high-end gear. Not specific to Apple but quality always suck at branded (non-workstation/-server) gear, especially laptops.
4) Apples own software titles may have their advantages in simplicity, and the pro-software even in performance, but you get locked in no matter what you choose. Nothing weird with that but it suck in general. Especially since the both the software and hardware cost money, with open-source software and generic hardware you may still get locked in into a software title but it cost less to stay with it.
5) The OS seems somewhat forgotten, but I agree that it’s most likely the best (haven’t tried Vista or Windows… 7? So I can’t really speak for them) OS product in advantages and disadvantages blended together. I could survive with FreeBSD and KDE to though. What I like about Apples OS is the availability of commercial applications, not really an Apple feature but still non-the-less.
6) Support, service and shopping experience is worse in other parts of the world than the US. It may have improved but it’s not the same anyway. I would had wanted Dell quality support ..
Best way to get out of all the suckiness is to run a hack and do the “pro” work in applications available on multiple platforms. And buy regular hardware and network gear, a different phone, so on so on. You still get the OS, more OS X knowledge, can switch platform if you need to, lower cost, the machine you want, …
I haven’t run any hack with the newer methods though, so I don’t know how hard the patching stuff is. I had the impression things had gotten easier on Intel before but now I don’t know. On the other hand maybe it’s plenty automatic and if nothing else you actually learn how to do it yourself so you can probably take yourself out of an issue yourself as well.
Edited 2010-11-11 11:11 UTC
Compared to what? Without a reference it’s all conjecture. Cisco routers cost more than D-Link.
My iPhone isn’t. My iPhones (as I actually own two) are both sim free. My network provider supports this for free, Apple unlock devices at the request of the network operator – aka: blame ATT or whoever you subscribe with.
As a developer, Netbooks straight out suck too. I don’t see your point. My Black Macbook is a 2007 model and still runs as fast as it ever did. My Win XP work Laptop (similar age, similar spec) runs like a dog. *shrugs*
{delete the “Apple product mark-up” rant..}
Apple makes products. You’re free to buy them. You’re also free to buy something else. No one is making you buy anything you don’t want to – something many haters seem to miss.
Riiight. Well, you’re obviously free to use whatever software you like. My MacBook dual triple boots (10.5 (for a few legacy audio apps), 10.6 and Win 7.) I wonder why owning a Mac supposedly then restricts me… hmmm. I expect I could install Linux too, should I want to.
Um.. well.. Windows 7 is okay. It’s n OS X though. It still has clunky aspects.
Isn’t all this the same as point 3 and 4 really? I don’t really see that you’re making any additional valid points here.
And, just because Apple doesn’t direct sell to a specific country at the moment it’s Apple’s fault that the local suppliers are useless?? Apple in the UK has only ever been completely helpful for me. I’ve had two Applecare experiences, one my cracked iPhone was replaced free and 2 months out of waranty, and the second, the guy fixed the digitizer on my 3GS whilst I was waiting (15 mins, tops), for free and courteously.
I guess what I’m saying is – it’s as easy to love as it is to hate, but being objective in our assessments, that’s hard. I used to be fanboyish, these days I shrug and smile. If you don’t like what you see here, move on
As for your Hackintosh rant, I’m fine with you running OS X on generic hardware – done it myself. But I really hope you bought a copy of all the software you are using. Piracy as a heinous crime is not diminished because you are using a Hackintosh.
Edited 2010-11-11 13:13 UTC
tl;dr
Already said it wasn’t worth discussing, just my opinion.
// My MacBook dual triple boots (10.5 (for a few legacy audio apps), 10.6 and Win 7.) ///
Oh, so Mac OS X doesn’t serve your needs. You still need to boot Windows 7.
Let me run out and by that OS that almost does what I need.
I’m a Windows developer. A necessary evil. I don’t want to use virtualization – though I could have. Running an OS on real hardware is a more pleasant experience for me. Again – every tool has a use. If all you do is hate, it’s hard to see the benefits.
Don’t worry, I’m not about to try and sell you a Mac, but I just want to make a point.
I used to think VM’s for dev was not a good thing (or VM’s in general), but Parallels running on a newish Mac isn’t bad at all, esp. for dev (probably not the latest games). Well, I should say, esp. for dev in Visual Studio, Delphi (latest) and various other IDE’s I have tried.
I was developing Windows FileSys drivers, and found it no hassle at all to use a VM. Also lots of Delphi application coding too. I currently just use Windows to check compatibility between browsers so don’t use Windows all that much anymore.
Actually, I could backup the VM at various points, so that is a bonus, as well as have it on an external USB drive and running it on my Mac at home or at work.
I just had Windows 7 running on a mates new MacBook Pro (i5) maybe 3 hours ago. I gave Windows 7 2Gb of mem and access to 2 of the 4 cores, and it ran like a bought one. WEI scored 4.9 which isn’t mind blowing, but not bad either.
Anyway, just a comment…
Nice … the update changed my default browser from Chrome to Safari
Microsoft used to do that all the time until things “changed” with regards to corporate preferences and huge droves of consumers bitched like crazy about IE becoming the default…
Of course of of those Sherman Act Violations they got convicted of… might have had something to do with the perceived “fix”.
So … Apple’s OS changed his default browser … and you bring up something Windows did 10 years ago.
I do so wish to be a Mac-using douche.
Well you have the douche bit down pat anyway…
I had something even more odd happen after the update, my default web browser was automatically changed to Firefox (not been my default in a very long time).
Just installed it then, things are going very well, love the exFAT support that was added, OpenGL performance is really good according to the GLView benchmarks I ran recently, the wireless drivers seems to have been updated and they’re running really reliably especially on my iMac and Safari seems a little more snappy – I wonder because of the OpenGL changes it has filtered their way up to Core Animation which is used in Safari and Flash plugin.
“I get to install a new Mac OS X update. My new MacBook Air 11.6″ arrived two days ago!”
NO NO NO! Thom just went over to the dark side;-)
I believe you mean he went back to the darkside.
I didn’t went back or forth to anything.
I just bought a damn computer.
You mean you don’t feel the urge to go terminate a room full of small children learning to use PC’s?
More so than usual?
No.
Edited 2010-11-11 23:22 UTC
It was a reference to your self admitted love-loathe relationship with Apple, nothing more.
though I do not have a Mac, competition is good for OSes. My only reservation is that I wish Aple marketed a low cost Darwin alternative (no Apple bundled software and no Quartz) with X11 ,with OSX drivers and and hackintosh friendly (to run on generic HW via Hackintosh methods). I could use it to install MacPorts or pkgsrc software at an affordable price. I could do the same with NetBSD or Ubuntu but I would like to have choice and the ability to judge for myself.
No one would use it. All the darwin projects are dead. I even tried them out myself well they were still around. It just wasn’t worth it.
Glad to see exFAT support in there, that was a huge issue for me as it is one of the file systems I use daily.