Remember this old demo video?

Now, if the hype over the Apple Tablet wasn’t making you go crazy yet, think about this. Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 will be compatible with Mac OSX.

Ho. Lee. Shit.

While I would have to admit how pumped I am for Snow Leopard, at the same time I’m a little concerned. I use my Macbook Pro daily for work and I need it running in tip top order. I’ve already started doing some research concerning the compatibility of my favorite and most used Applications. It seems that Parallels should be in the clear but what about other programs? Apparently there are questions though regarding Photoshop CS3. Supposedly Adobe has tested it but there are some conflicting reports. Here’s hoping everything works but then of course that’s the problem with being an early adopter.

Source

A global Apple Store outage has heralded a brand new Snow Leopard order page with matching 28th August release date. For the bargain price of $29 Intel-based Mac owners can get their 10.6 on with all the preformance benefits this streamlined release has in store. Apart from anything else, MacBook owners will be pleased with the extra 6Gb of space they’ll gain after the install compared to leopard.

So what are you waiting for? Head to your local Apple Store and get your pre-order on!

Perian the Swiss army knife of QuickTime components has just been updated to 1.1.4. A relatively minor update with the stand out features being DTS passthrough and support for 10.6. Those looking forward to Snow Leopard like I am can now rest assured that Perian will follow us through the update. I’m not sure how many people still use QuickTime for playback these days with VLC having just hit the big 1.0 but I still find it better for playback of a few odd files.

To get the update just open up the Perian preference pane and run check for updates or jump on over to Perian.org for a direct download.

Bargain basement pricing for the next iteration of the Mac operating system.

Today Apple announced that Snow Leopard, the stripped down, consolidated update to OSX which builds apon the switch to Intel chips with new streamlined and optimised code and technology will be available for a credit-crunch busting $29.

Leveraging new accelerated technologies including a new version of QuickTime, full 64Bit integrated apps and the new Safari 4 browser along with some nice additions to the Dock and Expose. Snow Leopard looks to be a welcome upgrade to an already solid platform.

So it’s that time again, WWDC is later today, kicking off at 1700 hrs UTC (that’s 1800 BST, 1000 PT, 1200 CT and 1300 ET). The rumour mill has been churning out some fantabulous ‘features’ that the next iPhone will come packed with. These range from the pretty standard storage bump to the down right unlikely 5MP zooming camera.

So here’s where I put it on the line and make my predictions for the iPhone (more like playing bingo with Apple involved but predictions none the less):

Definitely:

• Storage bump – 16Gb and 32Gb replacing the 8Gb and 16Gb
• More RAM
• New processor (incremental speed bump most likely)
• 3.2Mp camera (no zoom or flash just a straight drop-in sensor replacement)
• Digital compass (magnetometer)
• Video recording
• All the trappings of the current 3.0 beta (MMS, Copy/Paste, Spotlight etc etc)
• 7.2Mbps HSPDA (rather than the limited to 3.6Mbps current chipset)
• Change of back plate to a matte finish (hopefully less scratch prone)

Possibly:

• 802.11 N (rather than b/g)
• Front facing camera for video calling
• Budget iPhone (I wouldn’t put it past Apple to keep the current iPhone 3G like they have done the White Macbook as a ‘budget’ offering)

Predictions for WWDC, because WWDC is much bigger than the iPhone.

• iPhone revision 3 announced for release in July
• iPhone 3.0 firmware made available for download from the keynote for original iPhone 3G owners
• iPhone Push notification servers go live for the main stream
• New API/SDK talk for the iPhone 3.0 firmware/hardware (after all it is a developers conference)
• Snow Leopard goes Gold
• Snow Leopard shown off to the Apple faithful to be released July/August/September
• Lots of talk about the new technology behind Snow Leopard  including perhaps a road map to a new file system to replace the ageing HFS
• MacBook and possibly MacBook Pro incremental refresh (processor, memory, HDD bumps)
• Talk or presence of Steve Jobs returning (might be in the panel of Apple Execs up on the stage for the keynote)

Many people have been speculating about an Apple Tablet. One might be in the works but I doubt we’ll see it at WWDC, if they’re going to announce something like that it’ll be at a special event on their terms in. Apple learnt a valuable lesson from the iPhone 2.0, iPhone 3G, App Store and Mobile Me launch: Don’t overload yourself with everything all at once. Will there be a ‘One more thing’? Will Steve Jobs be the ‘One more thing’? All will be revealed come 1500 UTC!

So that’s it from me, you’ll have to wait till this afternoon to find out the juicy details, but rest assured if there’s anything tasty you’ll see it here on PixelatedGeek.

Isn’t it time you’ve changed your login screen wallpaper? Yes, it was pretty when you first booted up Leopard but now it’s old.  You need some new hotness on your desktop before you login or when you logout.  Well, a new simple app for your Mac is now available from Omid Pajuhideh at Loginox. As long as the picture you select is 2560 x 1600 and has a ratio 8/5, you can enjoy a different Login screen look. Try it out!