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Will Australia get the first look at Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard?
Tim Gaden (of Hawk Wings fame) has written an interesting article for his 'day job' column at APC Magazine about the possibility of our friends down under getting a first peek at Apple's forthcoming update to Mac OS X, 10.5 Leopard. Apparently, Apple has sent emails stating that they will be previewing the August WWDC during special seminars in Australian capitals during the month of June - nearly two months before the real WWDC takes the stage.If this is true, it would be great to hear real details of what Leopard is going to bring, as opposed to mere rumors of a re-built and Spotlight-dependent Finder, Windows virtualization and resolution independence. Here's hoping our Australian neighbors can't keep secrets very well.
Yuji Naka confirmed to be leaving Sega to form Prope
Back in March, we heard rumblings that Sega stalwart Yuji Naka was planning to leave Sega to start his own studio. Today, that rumor's been confirmed. According to Next Generation, Naka's new company is called Prope, which means "'beside' and 'near' future." Prope's web site (not linked on Next Gen) apparently explains that the name was chosen "in the hopes of bringing game entertainment much closer to users, establishing closer ties between users and us, and creating near future entertainment." We're just happy that Naka is retaining some ties to his old corporate home thanks to a 10% contribution on Sega's part to prop up the emerging new independent studio (a concept which Sega seems to support with its developers). Unfortunately, as the firm "will commit to new IP," you shouldn't expect updates of Sega classic franchises from the old hand anytime soon. It will also be interesting to see who's guiding the new Sonic games as well. Prope will open for business on June 1st. [Thanks, Sense; via 8-bit Ninja] See also: Rumor: Yuji Naka set to leave Sega NiGHTS Into Dreams, onto Revolution? Next-gen Sonic to be "re-invented" for PS3 and Xbox 360
Have Questions for the WoW Developers?
Well, World of Warcraft Stratics has been given the chance to interview the game's developers and is taking questions from you. They will be selecting 15 of the best questions to forward on to the development team. So if you have questions, here's a chance to get some answers. The deadline for entry is May 7th, so you have a couple of weeks to consider.
Apple Design Awards 2006 now accepting entries
"Show off your latest feat of programming genius," says the Apple Developer Connection email announcing the call for entries to their 11th annual Design Awards. Recognizing "technical excellence and outstanding achievement in developing Mac OS X software," there are eight award categories into which developers can submit their apps: Best Mac OS X Developer Tool, Best Use of Mac OS X Graphics, Best Widget, Automator Workflow, User Experience, Game, Scientific Computing Solution and Student Product.As far as what winning developers receive for all their hard work, Apple's going all out this year. Each category winner receives two 15-inch MacBook Pros, two 23-inch Cinema Displays, an ADC Premiere Membership, a WWDC 2006 E-ticket, and an exhibitor space at Macworld 2007. The Student category winner will receive one 15-inch MacBook Pro, one 23-inch Cinema Display, one 60GB iPod, an ADC Student Membership, and a WWDC 2006 Student E-ticket. Does anyone else find it odd the non-student members don't receive an iPod? And how about the lack of PowerMac prizes?The entry deadline is June 16th, and the winners will be honored at WWDC in August.
QuickTime Components 101
Ever wondered what happens when you can't view a QuickTime movie, and Apple's QT player prompts you to "download the missing component?" Essentially a QuickTime component is QT's version of a plug-in. Similar to how Flash plug-in allows you to view Flash content, or Windows Media Player used to do play WMV's in your browsers on the Mac. Apple long-ago started using an API of sorts for 3rd party developers who wished to extend the functionality of QuickTime. Extend it? Isn't it pretty fully-featured, what with the support for QTVR (yeah, what happened to their authoring tool anyway?), and 3DMF (haha, that's an unfunny joke there)? Even with all the toys packed inside, QT needs room for growth. Send in the clowns of multimedia: your 3rd party component developers. For example: I live a stone's throw from where venerable Web 1.0 company iPIX used to exist. iPIX, for those who remember, pioneered a way to record and play back immersive video just like QTVR. Initially their tech was only available via RealPlayer, which, at the time, had the most open architecture. Eventually they made a QuickTime version, as did about a dozen others. Recently I tried to play a training video, and I needed the TechSmith codec. I had to download the component, and everything was viewable. Perhaps the best known and widely used component is the MPEG-2 codec, which is needed for DVD authoring.Components can be codecs, but they don't have to be. The categories of QT components can be found here, although it's a bit technical. The hard part, honestly, is figuring out which components to install. But since there are only 11 on Apple's QT components page, I suggest installing them all and enjoy yourself. And shame on you lazy devs out there who have yet to implement a Mac version! In some cases, the open source community has taken up the gauntlet. Witness XiphQT, an effort to bring Ogg support to QuickTime. A lot of the furor over components has been laid to rest, however, as we see more specialization. For instance, video via Flash is now a popular method of putting videos on the web. This obviates the need for 3 different format buttons (remember those, along with hi and lo bandwidth versions?). Also, specialized content is being embedded in everything from Adobe's PDF format to specialized readers anyway, making the discussion less relevant every day. One special note of caution: the Apple page lists PowerPC components. Unfortunately, you have to check each component on their home site to find Universal Binary editions. The PPC versions will NOT work on an Intel Mac.
Sneak preview of Leopard at WWDC
Are you dying for a sneak peek at Leopard, the next incarnation of OS X? If so, book a ticket for San Francisco in mid-August. Apple has announced, on its site and by email to customers, that it will offer a preview of OS X Leopard at WWDC 2006, scheduled for August 7-11.The Apple site briefly describes five WWDC session tracks -- Application Technologies, Development Tools, Graphics and Media, Information Technologies, and OS Foundations -- but doesn't provide details about specific sessions. If you're considering going, try to get your boss to pick up the registration fee, which is a stiff $1295-$3500 before June 23 and even more after that date. If you're a student, don't overlook Apple's Student Scholarship Program. We told you before -- but it's worth a reminder -- that applications for a free WWDC ticket through that program are due on April 28.
The Omni Group has a blog
The Omni Group has an Omni Mouth - their new blog, that is. Developers of such fantastic apps as OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle, The Omni Group is joining the ranks of software houses with blogs who want to offer up some insight into being developers, as well as thoughts on the more humorous side of their business. One post dated yesterday presents a statement from their CEO on the ground-breaking Boot Camp announcement and what it means to their app development, while another post transcribes some of the more unusual phrases heard from their support room such as: “Bananaphone," “OMG I’M IN UR BASE KILLING UR DOODZ” and, of course, “There’s a new Strong Bad email.”While it probably won't be the hottest place to find the latest Mac-related news and juicy tidbits (*ahem*), it should be a good blog to add to your newsreader if you're curious about the inner workings of one of Mac OS X's most prominent and well-known developers.
WWDC Student Scholarship Program now open
TUAW reader Nolan B noticed that ADC (Apple Developer Connection) student members can now apply for a scholarship to WWDC 2006, Apple's annual World Wide Developer Conference, being held August 7-11 this year in San Francisco. Scholarship winners receive a free ticket which includes total access to all technical sessions and special events - a $1595 USD value in all.Applications are due April 28th, so you'd better get crackin'. Check out the scholarship rules and WWDC FAQ sections for more information, and then wait patiently until June to find out if you'll be attending WWDC on Apple's dime.
Lair off-screen trailer looked good at GDC
Stills and screenshots can only do so much to convey how good a game looks. Here's an off-screen video presentation of Lair recorded from GDC, showing off the Factor 5 game in action (or, should we say, motion).You might recognize some of the animation from videos seen elsewhere, but it was nice to catch the newer footage of a dragon wireframe model meticulously rendered with layers of musculature and skin, too.If that's not enough for ya, you can always just listen in to the audio, which features a young lady from Washington asking questions of a developer with the hope of getting hired. Consider this a lesson in networking.[Via GameBrink]
Inside the Bioware-Pandemic super-developer
We reported last year on the merging of developers Pandemic and Bioware into one "super-developer", and Gamasutra has followed up the move by interviewing the heads of both companies, including Pandemic CEO Josh Resnick (right). The studios aren't merging directly, but share revenue and a common executive team, an interesting move for future companies which might plan to follow in their footsteps.It appears that the companies are working together closely, with only a little technology sharing as of yet--the simple move of giving feedback on each other's products is apparently working wonders. However, Bioware and Pandemic intend to stay fairly separate, each focusing on their genres of expertise. Unfortunately the interview reveals no tidbits of information on Bioware Austin's MMO plans, but the CEOs are confident that there is room to innovate and customers to be had in the MMO space still.
WoW dev chat transcript available
WarCry hosted a chat session with some of the WoW developers, and they've posted the logs online for all to see. The topics discussed include UI addons, spontaneous PvP, the Black Morass, Nefarion and -- of course -- the Burning Crusade expansion. If you didn't manage to make the session, check it out for an interesting read.
Google Couldn't Find a Mac Developer for the Blogger Word plug-in
Looks like my wrath at Google for releasing a Word to Blogger plugin that was Windows only wasn't entirely their fault. Jason Shellen notes on his blog: "As Ev mentioned in his post, the biggest tradeoff is that this is Windows-only. As a Mac-fan I tried to find a good developer to do a Mac version and came up short. If you have any recommendations, I'm all ears." It's nice to know that Mac-support was at least considered, but I'm holding on to my gripe. The "we couldn't find a Mac developer" translates into they didn't try hard enough. I mean, someone at Google couldn't find a Mac Developer. What's wrong with that picture? [via Technovia]
Hunting Safari Memory Leaks
On the Surfin' Safari blog, the development team behind Safari are going on safari for memory leaks and they could use your help. If you are interested in playing around with WebKit, all you have to do is install the Developer Tools and grab a fresh build of the WebKit, enter in a few Terminal commands, launch Safari, surf, and then run another Terminal command (these instructions in detail are here). Then, of course, you will need to produce the most detailed bug report that you can: "If you want to make an even better bug report, see if you can reproduce the leak by following some specific set of steps, and include that in the bug. You can also look at the backtraces in the leak report and see if you can match up ones that look the same. Its useful to file a separate bug report for each one that looks different, and to consolidate leaks on different sites that look like they have the same stack trace."
