iStory Site Now Open

Great spot, fantastic idea;
the iStory site
Is where you can get your hands or publish a original iStory for your iPod.
One visit will convince you:
http://www.netcolony.com/istories_silver/

IOGEAR gets on the bandwagon with Mac mini-minded gadgets

In a new section on the IOGEAR website, the connectivity and peripheral manufacturer offers a few suggestions on which of its products marry best with Apple's new Mac mini. Thus far, the page includes KVM switches, USB hubs, hard drives and drive enclosures. In spite of the "Mac mini-minded" moniker on the page, none of these products seems to have been specifically manufactured with the Mac mini in mind nor are they any better suited for the Mac mini that they are any other Mac.

Get out the spray--Microsoft campus infested with iPods

According to a source for Leander Kahney's latest Wired News article, Hide Your IPod, Here Comes Bill, more than just a few employees on the Microsoft campus are rocking out like silhouettes in an Apple iPod commercial. Reads the article, "About 80 percent of Microsoft employees who have a portable music player have an iPod...This irks the management team no end." I don't see this as a vulnerability in Microsoft's corporate code, but it will be interesting to see if any measures are taken to ensure that "Softies" adopt a player with WMA support and drop the iPod.

Aspyr to release Zoo Tycoon Deluxe

Aspyr Media Inc. on Wednesday announced plans to publish Zoo Tycoon Deluxe for the Macintosh. This collection includes two previously-released games: Zoo Tycoon and the Marine Mania expansion pack, which also includes Dinosaur Digs. Zoo Tycoon Deluxe is anticipated for a March, 2005 release.

iPresent It 1.1 adds Keynote 2 support, more

ZappTek on Wednesday released iPresent It 1.1, an update to its software that converts PowerPoint, PDF and Keynote presentations into slideshows which can be played from an iPod photo. The new version adds compatibility with Keynote 2, which is part of the iWork suite that Apple introduced in January. Keynote 2 compatibility includes build support, which allows each slide's build steps to be converted into unique images.

Apple releases iPhoto 5.0.1

Apple on Wednesday released an update to iPhoto 5, the version of its digital photo management and editing utility included with the recently released iLife 05 suite. As MacCentral posted this article, the update was available for some users through Mac OS X's Software Update system preference pane, though it was not yet available for download through Apple's Downloads Web site.

mProjector converts Flash MX files to applications

Screentime Media on Thursday announced the release of mProjector for Macintosh, a utility that converts Macromedia Flash MX files into applications or standalone widgets. mProjector is available now and includes an unlimited distribution license for the apps created using mProjector.

Powerbook G5: This is where the rumours end

The possibilities surrounding an upcoming PowerBook G5 Roumours end here.
Obviously, users are interested in it, but with the release of the updated G4 PowerBooks on Monday
they will have to wait a little longer.

Most feel that Apple is simply unable to utilize the current G5 in today's PowerBook enclosure.
The same was said a few years ago about the release of the Powerbook G4 "Titanium".
It took Apple 2 years + to bring it to the market.

Will see it one day, but not this quarter.

Chill!

Apple Stores show zero availability of Mac mini, iPod shuffle

Mac enthousiast report that Apple retail stores are having a very hard time keeping up with demand for the new Mac mini and iPod shuffle. Of all U.S. Apple Stores, source said he found "virtually no supply" of the new products, with only three Mac mini units and zero iPod shuffles. "We believe initial demand for the Mac mini and the iPod shuffle has exceeded what Apple had been expecting," the analyst said in a research note to clients. Also reported that the average waiting list per store for the Mac mini was 18 people, while the average wait for the iPod shuffle per store was 120 customers. Situation is almost the same in Canada where most retail outfit reports stand by list of 50+ clients.

Prosoft Engineering Announces Drive Genius is now available through Ingram Micro Distribution.

Prosoft Engineering announces the availability of Drive Genius for Mac OS X through Ingram Micro Distribution.
The Ingram Micro part number for Drive Genius is F60153.

?Drive Genius is quickly becoming our hottest product,? states Gordon Bell, Sales Manager of Prosoft Engineering. ?Many Macintosh users have been waiting for a replacement for Norton Utilities and they?ve expressed great enthusiasm that Prosoft has developed such a product.?

Drive Genius is packed with powerful management tools such as repartitioning on the fly volume defragging S.M.A.R.T checking secure drive shredding permission fixing and other powerful features. Drive Genius also has several maintenance tools that allow you to analyze, repair, and quickly clone an entire volume.


Availability

? Drive Genius is available for purchase online at www.prosofteng.com and at Apple Stores, Fry?s Electronics, ClubMac, MacMall, Microcenter, J&R, Computerworld, MacConnection, and Amazon.com.

? Product upgrades from: Norton Utilities, Disk Warrior and TechToolPro are also available
visit the website at www.prosofteng.com.

APPLE'S MAC MINI: HALF THE SERVER AT A QUARTER THE PRICE!

Macminicolo.net & Tenon benchmark Apache on a Mac mini

Tenon and Macminicolo
tested a low-end Mac mini to validate their claim that the Mac mini was
a suitable web server platform for 80% of the web sites on the market.
A $500 1.25Ghz Mac mini was easily able to handle 1000 hits per second,
producing 20Mbs of data, more than half the performance of a $2000
dual-G5!

The tests measured the performance of a 1.25Ghz Mac mini compared to a
1.8Ghz dual-G5. Both servers were running Mac OS X 10.3.7 and the Apache
2.0.50 web server under iTools. The Mac mini had been outfitted with an
extra 256MB of memory, otherwise the system was a stock release from
Apple. The dual-G5 also had 512MB of memory and a 140GB disk - also a
readily available stock Apple configuration for about $2145.

Measurement Background

The measurement strategy was not to try to wring the last vestiges of
performance out of each machine, but rather to produce a benchmark that
everyone should be able to achieve. There were no special configurations
or system tuning. Although it would have improved measurement results,
no web page caching was employed. Instead the 100 Mbps network was
generally quiescent. The Ethernet interfaces were configured to
full-duplex. A modest amount of processor performance was still
available, even while the tests were ongoing, to support normal system
maintenance, ISP overhead, or other necessary activity common to an
operational web server.

Measurement Approach

The Apache Bench (ab) application was used to generate and measure a
synthetic HTTP traffic profile. The offered test client population was
increased by using 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and, finally, 32 simultaneous threads
to make one million requests for a 2K file. The one million requests
make up for any system anomalies. The increasing number of simultaneous
requests was able to fully measure the performance of each machine; as
16 and 32 simultaneous clients were measured, the results peaked and
then asymptotically declined.

Measurement Results

The results are composed of the number of measured hits per second, the
kilobytes per second of data transferred, and the number of simultaneous
client threads, making a combined total of one million requests.

Mac mini:

Clients Hits/Sec. Kbytes/Sec.
1 790 1598
2 900 1820
4 1065 2152
8 1239 2501
16 1132 2286
32 1038 2098

Dual-G5:

Clients Hits/Sec. Kbytes/Sec.
1 889 1796
2 1452 2935
4 1882 3802
8 2174 4387
16 2140 4321
32 2148 4337

The Mac mini topped out at 1239 hits per second, yielding 2502
Kbytes/sec of data served, while the dual-G5 held up 2174 hits per
second, yielding 4387 Kbytes/sec. It is probably that other testers
will be able to produce improved hits per second from both machines,
however most day-to-day installations will orbit around these
performance levels.

While these figures aren't at the top end of the generally available
ISP-class web server performance curve by any means, the economics of
the Mac mini are such that for the first time ever there is a
competitive Macintosh server able to handle more than 1000 hits per
second yielding 20Mbits of data at a price that meets or beats much of
the industry - and it all comes in an Apple package with their
traditional emphasis on quality, style and Mac OS X's UI. A great
little server for the rest of us!

About Macminicolo.net

Macminicolo.net, a subsidiary of Underwriter's Technologies, has been in
the business of maintaining collocated Macs since its inception.
Underwriter's Technologies is an Austin-based provider of internet
services. The company was the Austin Business Journal's third larges
web-hosting firm last year.

About Tenon

Founded in 1989, Tenon Intersystems is a leader in high-performance
networking. Tenon technology has provided the framework for world-class
networking on the Macintosh for over a decade. Tenon is continuing that
tradition on Mac OS X. Tenon Intersystems can be reached in the U.S. at
805-963-6983, by the internet at sales@tenon.com, or via the web at
http://www.tenon.com.