TIGER
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Hyundai's TIGER 'ultimate mobility vehicle' concept is the size of a housecat
Hyundai has revealed the first concepts of its new TIGER program, the X-1 -- just don’t expect it to come to the rescue of anything bigger than a kitten.
Trippy Far Cry 3 trailer introduces Vaas, Buck, and a hungry tiger
The latest freaky trailer from Far Cry 3 asks you to meet Vaas and Buck, who are really just two misunderstood guys living in Ubisoft's virtual tropical island simulator. Vaas seems to have a thing for gas, as in pouring it all over you and some poor lady, all while pontificating on the quality of the common household cigarette lighter.And Buck... well, Buck might not be misunderstood. He might just be completely crazy. What are you doing with that knife, Buck? Don't bother coming any closer, please pal? How else are we going to stick around for the next trailer, which is going to show off a drugged-up group of native NPCs called the Tribe? How, Buck?%Gallery-166641%
Far Cry 3 welcomes you to Rook Island (please feed the kitties)
This trailer is supposed to introduce us to the Rook Islands, the setting for Far Cry 3's exotic mania, but we're more intrigued/terrified by the feline population.
How 'Marklar' OS X on Intel owes its start to a one-year-old boy
It's among the most famous skunkworks projects in personal computer history. Marklar was a secret Apple development program to put Mac OS X on the Intel x86 microprocessor -- or in some sense put it back on Intel, as the underlying NeXT OpenStep OS did work on x86 chips. Ten years ago this August, the first whispered rumors of Marklar emerged. Considered a fallback plan in case the PowerPC architecture couldn't keep up its performance curve, the Marklar team worked off campus to prevent further leaks while maintaining a feature-identical version of OS X on Intel for years -- all the way through Jaguar and Panther. Even though some of us didn't believe it possible, Apple eventually demoed the Intel version of the Mac's OS in 2005 and released it in 2006 as Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.4. The secret history of Marklar is the stuff of legend, but the story of the original idea for an Intel version of OS X hasn't ever been told, until now. In a Quora thread about how Apple is so effective at keeping products and projects under wraps, Kim Scheinberg explains how her husband John, a veteran Apple engineer, wanted to find a project that would allow him to telecommute from the East Coast -- the couple had a one-year-old son, and they wanted to be closer to family. John (or JK), who had actually risen to the rank of Director within Apple before "self-demoting" to Engineer so he could do more coding and less managing, sent an email to his boss in June of 2000 suggesting that he be given leeway to work on an Intel build of OS X. Permission in hand, he proceeded to work on the Intel build for eighteen months and had it running on a total of six PCs before his boss asked to check in on his labors. John showed his boss Joe the bootable, functional OS X on Intel -- that's where things got interesting. As Scheinberg writes: Joe pauses, silent for a moment, then says, "I'll be right back." He comes back a few minutes later with [former SVP of software] Bertrand Serlet. [Our son] and I were in the office when this happened because I was picking JK up from work. Bertrand walks in, watches the PC boot up, and says to JK, "How long would it take you to get this running on a (Sony) Vaio?" JK replies, "Not long" and Bertrand says, "Two weeks? Three?" JK said more like two *hours*. Three hours, tops. Serlet had them buy a Vaio, and sure enough it was running JK's build of Mac OS X within hours. That was the start of the skunkworks project; the development effort kicked off in earnest after that demo in December of 2001, and the team was moved off Apple's campus immediately for secrecy's sake. TUAW's Michael Grothaus, who was in Apple's sales group during the latter part of the Marklar development curve, notes that the project was spoken of in half-believed rumors and mystery even within Apple. When you read the full story, take a moment to consider what the Mac might be like today if not for John and Kim's family values. John's long retired from Apple, so Kim felt comfortable finally sharing the tale -- and for that, we thank her. If you're wondering how Marklar got named Marklar, Scheinberg has an answer for that too: she named it. When JK asked her for a name for his third PC, she grasped at random for Marklar, which became internal shorthand for the OS development project itself. By the time he left Apple, most of JK's machines had South Park names. [Corrected] Update: Red Sweater's Daniel Jalkut, who was responsible for Carbon API support in Apple's OS group during the late '90s and early 2000s, sent a note regarding the overall awareness of Intel capability on the engineering side: As unexpected as Marklar and i386 support was to the general public, many engineers at Apple were not surprised, per se, to have their code running on i386. Since Cocoa ran on i386, as a matter of good hygiene many folks left i386 as a compiler target at least. We weren't actively running or testing i386, but the discipline kept our code more flexible. This meant that when the choice to adopt i386 became clear, it was not as massive an undertaking as it would have been if no thought had been given to cross-platform compatibility over the preceding years. Thanks to Kim Scheinberg for her corrections to this post. [via Harry Marks/Curious Rat & Ian Betteridge, hat tip MacRumors]
Ed Hardy headphones hope to ink up your ears
Celebrity headphone endorsements are very à la mode right now, and we've seen Ed Hardy's trademark tattoo stylings defacing gadgetry before, so, if you were the one lamenting the glaring omission that was Hardy-branded cans, then he obviously got your letter. The new "Stereo" range evidently refers to the two designs available thus far: Skull and Bones for the over-ears ($66), while your in-ears get some Tiger power ($29). The in-ears also feature a microphone, presumably so you can call for help from the fashion police. Both are available now.
Snow Leopard to get iCloud support in 10.6.9 update?
Apparently those of you who aren't upgrading to Cupertino's latest and greatest desktop OS will be able to sling bits through iCloud with the upcoming 10.6.9 update. The screenshot above comes via an eagle-eyed developer, who's already upgraded his MobileMe account to the service and also happened to open its forebearer's preference pane on a machine running Tiger. No word on when it'll drop (we'd place our bets alongside iOS 5's launch this fall), but looks like those of you running Snow Leopard got some readin' to do.
Bungie vidoc drops hints, possible art from new project
"We wanna build a universe where any crazy shit can happen." That's one of the few vague/tantalizing statements Bungie staffers make in the latest vidoc from the company: "O Brave New World." Though mainly a rumination on Halo, the nearly hour-long feature makes some passing nods at the "new thing." Including: 1. It's referred to at one point as "Tiger", a codename that's been kicked around for months. 2. A couple of brief scenes are shown while Tiger is being discussed. There's also a scene where two actors have movement and facial animations captured. They're possibly lifted from the new project, but that's pure speculation on our part. 3. The video closes with a picture of this logo which was previously attached to Bungie and the name "Destiny," which may or may not be the working title of an MMOFPS. 4. Bungie co-founder Jason Jones says "One of the reasons that Tiger is so intriguing to people in the studio is it's reaching players in a way we haven't before." OK, so that's all we know. We'll now leave the speculation to you. Oh, and watch the video itself, of course. The Tiger stuff starts around 53:00, but the whole thing makes for a heck of a compelling story. %Gallery-129981%
iTunes, Tiger, and irrational ire: The difference between updates and upgrades
Update: After we posted this story, reader Nate emailed us to suggest that if you find yourself in Rupert Jones' shoes (with a new iOS device that requires Leopard/iTunes 10 for sync support, but still running Tiger on your Intel Mac), call AppleCare. He says that Apple's support team will ask you for your iPhone/iPad/iPod touch serial number... and then send you a copy of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, free of charge. No word on whether this is official policy or merely an ad-hoc accommodation, and it's possible that the upgrade deal is only available to US customers, but it's worth a shot. --- Rupert Jones of the Guardian recently discovered -- to his utter shock and dismay -- that his four-year-old MacBook running a nearly four-year-old OS can't run current software without being upgraded. His MacBook runs Tiger, which means he can't run iTunes 10, which further means he can't sync with any of Apple's latest portable gear. Anyone reading this probably knows the next step: pay to upgrade to Leopard, download iTunes 10, and get on with your day/week/life. In fact, I'm willing to bet that our readers knew about OS X Leopard when it first launched in late 2007, and chose an upgrade path long ago, whether it was buying Leopard on a disc or upgrading to a new Mac with the OS pre-installed. Most of you probably also moved up to Snow Leopard when it launched, or within a few months. Rupert Jones didn't do either of those things. In the three and a half years since OS X Leopard's release, he chose to stick with an older iteration of Mac OS X. And four years later, he's blaming Apple for his inability to run current software or sync with current hardware. According to Jones, Apple is "penalizing" him and "thousands of other loyal customers," and not enabling iTunes 10 to run on older versions of Mac OS X amounts to telling these customers their computers are obsolete. "It seems we have been left with gadgets we can't use, unless we pay more money for a software update," Jones opines. There's a basic problem underlying this argument: like many people, Jones apparently doesn't understand the difference between a software update and an upgrade. That difference is usually simple, and it boils down to dollars. Updates are (mostly) free. Upgrades are (mostly) not.
Report: 68% of Mac users running Snow Leopard
As GigaOm points out, a new report from Net Applications shows that 68% of Mac users are running OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Mac OS X 10.5 is a distant second at 24%, while Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger holds just 6% of the Mac market. The remaining 2% is made up of Macs running Mac OS X 10.3 or below. For those of you keeping track, the highest ever adoption of a Mac OS was 10.5 Leopard, which reached a 71% Mac market share in July 2009, a month before Snow Leopard shipped. Net Application's numbers are interesting, but I'd like to find out what OS a majority of our readers are running. Vote in the poll below -- and if anyone is still running OS 9, you're gonna have to let me know why in the comments. %Poll-63270%
TenFourFox brings Firefox 4 to PPC Macs
Firefox 4 received quite a bit of fanfare when it finally rolled out of beta. Unfortunately for some Mac users, Mozilla decided to drop support for PowerPC processors and therefore Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger from FF4, meaning that G3, G4 and G5 users were left out in the cold. If you're one of these users lovingly still using PPC Macs, the folks behind the Mac Classic browser, Classilla, have come to your rescue and brought Firefox 4, with nearly all the trimmings, to the now discarded Mac architecture. TenFourFox takes code from Firefox 4 and tunes it for OS X 10.4 (compatible with 10.5) and the PPC-architecture. In fact, TenFourFox is offered in hand-tuned builds for each PPC processor: the G3, the G4/7400 and /7450 and, of course, the G5. With the upgrade from Firefox 3.6, you get all the JavaScript speed improvements that Mozilla rolled into Firefox 4, making it by far the fastest browser available for the PPC-Mac. You'll also get WebM video support, access to most of the Firefox 4 add-ons and, of course, HTML5 and CSS3 support. If you're using a perfectly decent and still loved PPC Mac, now is the time to furnish it with a modern browser and extend its life on the Web for years to come. [via MacStories]
Nokia C7 rumored for T-Mobile launch under Astound moniker, to cost $80 on April 6th
If you've been listening to the Engadget Mobile podcast lately, you'll know that we don't much like this trend of using verbs as phone names, but T-Mobile clearly hasn't gotten the message, as one of its upcoming handsets is rumored to be called the Astound. What exactly this rebadged Nokia C7 is supposed to astound us with, we're not really sure. We've seen its Clear Black Display already, which is very nice, but we've also seen the dead OS walking that is its Symbian installation. Still, for $80 on contract, it doesn't necessarily have to compete with the crème de la Gingerbread to be an appealing option. Look out for it early next month, waving the Magenta flag with pride.
Nokia C7 with T-Mobile user's manual hits FCC: is this the Tiger?
Rumors have been circulating the past few days that Nokia would be teaming up with T-Mobile to release the Symbian^3-powered C7 -- right on the heels of the Nuron 2's possible cancellation -- as the Tiger. Well, here's some fuel for the fire: a version of the C7 with AWS 3G support and mentions of T-Mobile in the attached user's manual just showed up in the FCC. Interestingly, there's absolutely no sign of T-Mobile branding on the phone itself, but it's possible Nokia's prototype here simply didn't have the final silkscreens applied. Of course, plenty of devices get FCC approval without ever seeing the light of day -- but it's a sign. Who's buying?
Bungie denies claim of Activision-mandated layoffs, keeps mum on 'Destiny' MMOFPS talk
Bungie has issued a terse denial of reported contractor layoffs spurred by Activision, the studio's long-term publishing partner. One of the alleged contractors, who claimed to be "let go for no reason," detailed the supposed account to Kotaku Australia. "We were given no warning," the source said. "Bungie told our agencies that it was 'performance related,' but one of our fellow fired-employees was an IT contractor and showed us an email he received before his account was killed, citing 'project sensitivity' and 'budgetary concerns from our publisher.'" Bungie refuted the claim, saying in a statement that the studio "has never been asked to lay off any employees or contract employees by our publisher, Activision-Blizzard, for any reason." Last May, Activision did confirm that it was funding the development costs of Bungie's multiplatform mystery project, which the publisher said would employ nearly 200 staff. Perhaps sensitive to the assumption that Activision maintains close operational oversight of spending for the project, Bungie found it necessary to so explicitly discredit the reported layoffs. The post on Bungie.net was later updated, "To clarify, Bungie has not experienced layoffs or group firings of any kind." A link to the studio's current job openings was also included with the statement to emphasize that Bungie is actually still hiring. Of course, the developer made no mention of the alleged contractor's other supposed revelation: that the project in question combines FPS and MMO elements (an FPSMMO, if you will) in a sci-fi setting, according to Kotaku's source, and will be named "Destiny" -- but codenamed "Tiger," for now. Neither title matches up with any of the recently discovered Bungie trademarks, but the MMO component does echo the hypothetical musings of Bungie creative director Joe Staten. "Wouldn't it be great if we could make a world that was always there for you?" Staten wondered aloud during a GDC Online panel discussion last fall. "Wow. That would be great." [Image source: Bungie.net]
"WoW in space": Bungie's MMOFPS named Destiny
A couple of years ago, fans of the Halo franchise were crushed to find out that their favorite first-person shooter probably wasn't going to make the leap to MMO space. However, the company behind the Halo phenomenon has been diligently at work on another highly speculated-about project -- and it looks as though this project could go a long way to giving the fans what they want. According to Kotaku, Bungie has been developing a massively multiplayer first-person shooter named Destiny. Previously code-named "Tiger," Destiny is described by Kotaku's unnamed source as being "World of Warcraft in space" and will run on all-new technology developed by the studio, including unique online connectivity and matchmaking software. Bungie is currently in a 10-year publishing agreement with Activision Blizzard, so presumably Destiny will be published by the company. Last year, Blizzard's Rob Pardo applauded the idea of a Bungie MMO, although he refused to comment on a collaboration between the two studios.
Solved: The case of the missing .Mac widgets
Back in April of 2005, Apple released the much-awaited Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" OS. One of the big new features of Tiger was Dashboard. The overlay feature supported Widgets, mini-apps that were the descendants of Mac OS 9 Desk Accessories, and that some might consider the precursors to modern iOS apps. Dashboard widgets were (and still are) fairly useful tools, and some pretty cool eye candy to boot. But the number of widgets that shipped with Tiger were limited, and many hoped Apple would quickly release additional widgets. Apple eventually did add more widgets with the release of Mac OS X 10.4.4, but that release didn't happen until January 2006. Apple did, however, plan to release some additional widgets to select Mac users before 10.4.4 shipped... If you were a .Mac member (now known as MobileMe) in mid-2005, you may recall a certain call-out on the .Mac Member's Central page that stated "Members Exclusive Widgets - Coming Soon!" The promise of additional Apple-made widgets set Dashboard fanboys drooling. Months passed, however, as the message remained on the .Mac Members Central site, but the widgets had yet to appear. And they never would. In the end the member exclusive .Mac widgets failed to materialize without any explanation from Apple; eventually all mention of the member-exclusive widgets was removed from the .Mac page. Many wondered just what had happened to the elusive exclusive widgets, but no answers ever materialized...until now. I thought I'd finally take the time to close this small chapter of in the book of Apple mysteries.
The Daily Grind: What's the coolest mount you've ever owned?
It's a special day when a boy or girl dings 16 and the trainers take him or her out for ice cream and a beginner mount. With a license to ride tucked inside a cloak pocket, the rider hesitantly takes the reins, yells "GIDDYUP!" and proceeds to fly across the landscape faster than a really lazy eye can follow. However, the novelty of merely owning a mount isn't enough after a while. Instead, envious eyes glance at the latest showroom models, admiring the sleek curves and fancy new features (like front and side saddle airbags). Some of these higher-end units may be faster, while others sport a rare coat of fur. Envy morphs into slavering lust and unquenchable need for the best mount on the block, and before you know it, everyone's caught the fever. So what's the coolest mount you've ever owned? What horse or tiger or woolly mammoth made you drool in anticipation for the next time you'd need to whip it out of your backpack for a jaunt across a zone? What made it so special: the features, the speed, the look or the rarity? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
FaceTime becomes a desktop application
Facetime made its grand debut as part of iOS4 (specifically on the iPhone 4 hardware). It expanded to a nice user base once the fourth generation of the iPod touch was released. In today's event, it was announced that in the first four months of Facetime's existence, said user base grew to 19 million people. Now those 19 million people will be able to talk to all the customers of Apple Computer who actually purchased a computer! As of today, the beta for FaceTime will be available for computers as well. Steve did a quick demonstration of FaceTime with Phil Schiller who was on his iPhone 4, and it looked pretty smooth. So far the only notable piece of the announcement is what was missing: A Windows client, or at least integration with an existing messaging application. It is starting to look like iChat's days might be numbered, since we heard no mention of it and now the way forward appears to have a new icon.
Widgets: "iPhone apps, I am your father."
Don't get me wrong, I love the iPhone and its App Store juggernaut, it's just sometimes it seems that people have forgotten all about the iPhone app's father: the Dashboard widget. First introduced in Mac OS X Tiger in 2005, widgets changed the way people quickly accessed simple information on their Mac. And though Apple did not create the concept of a widget, it did present them in the best way. With the press of a button I had access to my portfolio, my Yahoo! news, my local weather, calculators for everything, translators, you name it. Widgets were small, simple, and beautiful. They performed one function and did it exceedingly well. Widget ports created half of the first apps ported to the iPhone (think the Weather app, Calculator app, Clock app, and Stocks app). So in honor of the widget being partially responsible for the origins of iPhone apps, I'd like to present you with my four favorite ones. I hope you'll list your favorite widgets in the comments section too.
Apple fixes security issues with Security Update 2009-005 for Leopard and Tiger
Appearing alongside the Mac OS X 10.6.1 update, Apple released another update today: Security Update 2009-004 is out for users of Leopard and Tiger. This update patches several vulnerabilities, including the security issue with Flash that was also part of Mac OS 10.6.1. It's available now through Software Update and is applicable for Mac OS X Leopard, Tiger (PPC and Intel) and Tiger Server (PPC and Universal).
The $29 Snow Leopard upgrade: usable for 10.4 Intel Macs as well?
Walt Mossberg has answered a Snow Leopard upgrade question that has been on just about everyone's mind. Do you need the full $169 box set if you are upgrading from Tiger? The answer is apparently no, not exactly, although that is what's required by Apple's EULA. You will be able to install the $29 individual upgrade or $49 family upgrade on any Intel Mac regardless of whether it's already running Leopard. According to Uncle Walt, as posted on the All Things Digital site: "Apple concedes that the $29 Snow Leopard upgrade will work properly on these Tiger-equipped Macs, so you can save the extra $140." What's not 100% clear from this report is whether the Snow Leopard install would work as an upgrade, or only as a clean install (on a newly formatted drive), as Lifehacker suggests. Since some experienced Mac users prefer to do a clean install with every major OS upgrade -- either reinstalling apps and files from backup, or using Migration Assistant to pull over from the old configuration -- this may not be a drawback for everyone. Wired's preview of Snow Leopard (based on a pre-release version of the OS) suggests that they were able to do an upgrade install from 10.4 straight to 10.6 using the conventional SL disc, but your mileage may vary. So there you have it. If you have Leopard running on your Intel machine, you will be fine with the $29 single or $49 family versions on sale Friday morning. If you're willing to wipe down your Tiger install and start fresh, the $29 installer will probably work for you too -- but you'll be in violation of Apple's licensing agreement, making you an OS pirate. Just so you know.
