1. It will be called “Lion”

Don’t laugh. It might be just a name, but it tells us a lot about the product.
First, it’s a clear cut from the previous OS X versions. Unlike “Snow Leopard”, which was a stripped down, polished and accelerated version of “Leopard”, “Lion” is destined to be something completely new.
They could have chosen another cat. Frankly, even OSX “Simba” sounds better than “Lion”. What about Lynx, Cougar, or even Clouded Leopard? But the Lion is after all the king of the jungle, which indicates that Apple is aiming high.
Snow Leopard is an excellent system, but Apple was resting on their laurels lately. Now that Windows and Ubuntu are slowly catching up, it’s time for some real change.

2. It will feature a redesigned UI

OS X has seen some small but significant UI design improvements along the years. The main theme, Aqua, now features a sleek gradient instead of the brushed metal featured in the previous OS X versions, but even a gradient can get old.
Newer apps, like AppZapper, Transmit or the CS5 suite have demonstrated new kinds of UI designs, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple change the way OS X looks.
Of course, when it comes to Apple, I’m always open to surprises, but the new UI is probably going to look like the one Quicktime X is using: dark, elegant and sleek.

3. Performance, performance, performance

Performance is like iOS apps, you can never get enough. Newer technologies allow more efficient coding, newer processors allow better multi-threading and multitasking.
But to be honest, OS X 10.6 is already bloody fast. So what could be improved? 3D performance is the answer. As it turns out, one of the largest gaming companies has recently opened its doors to Mac, and this will probably play a major role in OS X 10.7′s handling of heavy 3D graphics, or at least we shall hope so. I want to play Crysis on my MacBook!

4. Multitouch

Multitouch is at the core of Apple’s mobile technology, and it has already found its way to the Macintosh line: the truly phenomenal glass trackpad on unibody MacBook Pros and the Magic Trackpad rely on multitouch gestures to make the OS X experience so smooth.
More, deeper, and better multitouch integration is bound to be integrated to OS X in some way or another, be it thanks to hybrid MacBooks (A MacBook Air made of an iPad with a keyboard?) or simply gigantic multitouch surfaces on Cinema Displays.
Regardless of the way multitouch is used in OS X, one can safely state that the UI will have  a major impact here.

5. The cloud

I’m not a huge fan of the cloud. I like having my media on my own hard drives. But regardless of personal preferences, the fact remains that cloud storage becomes cheaper faster than physical storage does. Cloud apps becomes increasingly popular, and with the slow adoption of HTML5, they will be able to match desktop apps.
Apple knows that, and I would not be surprised to see their MobileMe scam being transformed into something actually quite usable. iTunes will, eventually, work like Spotify.

… And surprises

I recently ranted on and about Apple’s increasingly boring predictability. OS X Lion is the perfect occasion for Steve Jobs to rise back to his own standards and surprise the world with something revolutionary, something that we, mere mortals, simply can’t imagine.
October 20th will also probably be the day that iLife ’10 get’s unveiled, and maybe, who knows, some new hardware.
Any specific feature you’d like to see in OS X 10.7? Let us know in the comments.

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For those of you who never had to cope with a Windows machine,  let me briefly explain what Steam actually is. Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer, communications platform and content delivery system. It is used to distribute a large number of games and related media entirely over the Internet, from small independent efforts to larger, more popular games. Steam is set apart from similar services primarily by its community features, completely automated game update process, and its use of in-game functionality. The platform allows users to purchase computer games entirely digitally. Instead of receiving a box, disc, or even CD key, purchased software is immediately and permanently attached to the user’s Steam account. Content can be downloaded from Steam servers an unlimited number of times to any number of Internet-connected computers that have the Steam client installed.
There is a drawback though: You can only have one active session per user per computer at the same time. This means that you won’t be able to share your account with someone else.

Steam on Mac

You start by downloading the Steam software here. The steam software is basically a glorified browser with game launching capabilities. So far so good, and a high quality game, Portal, is even free till May 24th. I eagerly hit the “install” button, which prompts Steam to add the game to my library and to download it.

Downloading

Here comes the first nasty surprise: download speeds of less that 100 kb/s. This could have been due to the launch on the Mac platform and the huge amount of data pumped through the lines, but Valve should have anticipated this and used a few extra servers. Two days later, the downloads are barely faster, but I found a workaround. Go to Steam > Preferences > Downloads and change your region. After a few tries, I found that the server called “Cambodia” is, ironically, the fastest, and I can now download using my line’s full speed.

The interface

If you’ve come this far into the settings, you must by now have cursed a few times at the extremely poor interface. Cosmetically, it’s OK. The large all caps fonts remind me of the Windows Phone 7 interface, and the green-grayish tone give it a sleek military look. But the shortcomings really reside in the usability of the software. The scrolling is choppier  than on a netbook with memory leaks, and the window management is just plain illogical. For instance, the main window remains active even if a subwindow (settings, for instance) is opened. Clicking “OK” in the preferences will just send the subwindow to the back, which means that you’ll have to navigate to the subwindow again to re-click “OK”. No idea why it’s only working the second time. Also, the minimize / maximize / close buttons on the top left are too far on the right, and they don’t respect the color scheme you’ve selected in the your OSX settings.

Finally, there’s the dock icon, which should win an award for the ugliest, worst designed, least thought-out dock icon ever. My guess? Someone at Valve downloaded a photoshop template for iPhone app icons, copy pasted the Steam logo in there and that’s it. The result? It looks oversized and out of place. But the good news is that you can create your own.

Gameplay

Even if Valve doesn’t produce the games but merely distributes them, it’s reasonable to assume that they at least supervised the production of the ports for Mac OSX. After all, success or failure of Steam depends on how well people will be able to play their games on Mac.
To test the game play, I decided to try two games: one that I had played before on a PC, and one that I had never touched before.

Portal was the first one installed, because it’s free. I had never played this one before and didn’t know what to expect. Turns out the installation and set up went smoothly, and once the game was launched, it was really really hard for me to come back to reality. The game is awesome, unlike anything I’ve tried before. It’s smart and will make you use your brain, which can’t be said of the majority of games out there. I won’t describe what the game is about, but I recommend you try it out. Performance-wise, I have nothing to complain about on my MacBook Pro 2.4 Core2Duo, 4GB Ram, Nvidia 8600M GT and 7200 rpm 500GB hard drive. I got a smooth 60 fps with the settings maxed out, with a few acceptable slow downs.

The second game, I know very well. It’s Sid Meyer’s Civilization IV, an award wining, turn-based strategy game that even got ported to the iPhone. I love this game and spent hours playing it on Windows. I really coulnd’t wait to try this out on my Mac, and I was pleasantly surprised. Performance is good, with a few minor render problems, which I found out were known for year. Way to prepare your software for a big release Valve!

The mess

I can live with a few bugs, and decided to install the various expansion-packs. This is where things started to go downhill. Not only couldn’t I start the expansion packs, but the base install of Civ broke too. Something went wrong during the installation, obviously. While investigating the issue, I discovered that Steam stores its files in user/documents/steam content. Now, if you’re using a Mac, you probably know that the documents folder is off limit and taboo for any application. Only user generated content belongs in this folder. This really needs to be fixed.
Anyway, it seems that an update killed my Civ installation, and from a look into Steam’s forums, every OSX Civ in the world is now unusable. It’s not like Civ is a hugely popular game and like Steam sold millions of copies of that game, right? And it’s not like Civ is one of the only interesting games available on Mac either. I opened a support ticket, and the only answer I got back were was a message with instructions about looking up a folder in C:/etc… I mean, do these people even read before answering?

Conclusion

Steam is a bitter sweet experience. Sweet because the idea is beautiful, and bitter, well, because apparently it’s too good to be true. The few hours I spent using Steam transported me into my dark Windows years. Strange errors, unexpected crashes, the incompetence of a large multinational… Deja-vu. Providing games on Mac is not just converting their code; it’s taking advantage of the unused superiority and potential of OSX. The good news is that most Mac games come with Steam Play, a feature allowing you to use your games on Windows as well. Oh irony, Mac software bad enough to make me use my bootcamp installation!

Maybe all hope isn’t lost. Let’s wait and see. Meanwhile, pirating is just easier.

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]]> http://techhaze.com/2010/05/steam/feed/ 6 http://techhaze.com/2010/04/boost-your-mac-in-5-simple-steps/ http://techhaze.com/2010/04/boost-your-mac-in-5-simple-steps/#comments Mon, 19 Apr 2010 22:26:43 +0000 Florian Wardell http://techhaze.com/?p=2640 Every now and then, I’m forced to work on a colleague’s computer, and it’s no fun. Sometimes it’s a Windows machine, and seeing the virus scanner expiration dates popup, the overcrowded task bar and random warning windows show up is almost funny, but using a badly configured Mac is like driving a Porsche with flat tires. The problem with Macs is that they are so easy to use that they don’t force their users to learn the basics, and that even if they are slow, old, badly configured and full of bugs, they’re incredibly hard to crash. And when they do, a simple restart usually hides the problem again, prompting the user to think that if “it ain’t broken, don’t fix it”. The good news is that they are equally easy to clean up than they are to mess up. Here are five simple tips to ensure that your Mac is always running bug-free and as fast as it can.

1. Upgrade

Ok, I now some people still use their Apple II computer, but don’t expect too much if your Mac is more than 5 years old. The battery will die sooner or later, and the hard drive like any mechanical part, isn’t designed to live forever which means that one day or another it will fail. Always make backups.
But there are other reasons than total failure for upgrading your hardware. The more recent software usually requires higher specs, for instance. An easy way to boost your Mac’s performance is to simply buy more RAM. Consider 2GB the bare minimal for an up-to-date system. More RAM will allow you to do more things at the same time and to load larger apps. You can also upgrade your hard drive. Not only will it live longer, but newer drives have a higher capacity, and you can even choose to get faster ones, boosting your Mac’s overall performance.

2. Update

What goes for hardware also goes for software. Apple and third party developers don’t spend time and money on updates because it’s fun, but because it’s necessary, so make sure that your system and apps are up to date.
The system and native apps (iLife, iWork, etc…) are extremely easy to update on Mac, there are no excuses not to do it. In the top menu, go  > Software update and just let it run. It’s always a good idea to restart after an update, even if you’re not prompted to do so.
Third party apps are a little trickier to update because they’re not all handled in one common place (this is the one thing I envy Linux users for), so you’ll have to start each app up and see if there are updates manually. This is usually done by clicking on the app’s name in the top menu and clicking on “Check for updates”. If there is no such option (a rare case), find the homepage of your app on Google and download the latests updates.
One quick tip though: Install Bodega, an app that acts like a storefront right in your computer, and use it to find and manage updates for the apps it has already indexed.

3. Organise

Once you know that your system is up-to-date, organize it. This is one of the most important aspects of daily computing, and it will make your workflow faster and more efficient.
First and foremost, clean up your desktop. A desktop is exactly what it sounds like: a place to store temporary projects. Once you’re done working on a project, store it in a folder. The folder system is really well done on OSX, just go to Macintosh HD > User > YourName and you’ll find 8 different folder categories, ranging from music to documents. Use these to store your files, and don’t hesitate to create subcategories. Keeping your desktop clean is really important because every icon, folder or alias on it is loaded into the RAM, slowing your system down. If there is a certain folder or file you need to access regularly, leave it where it should be and slide into the right side of the OSX dock; this will create a stack, a feature that is incredibly useful.
While you’re at it, why don’t you use the opportunity to rename you files and delete duplicates? I suggest you set up an organizing routine and go through at least once a week.
Another thing I noticed on a lot of macs is the tendency to not install apps correctly. I distinctly remember a Skype app being kept in its mounted disk on the desktop, instead of drag-and-dropping it into the app folder.

4. Clean

Now that your system is organized, up-to-date and organized, it’s time to clean all the residue from the previous mess. There are a couple of expensive apps that will do this for you, but Onyx is free and is probably the best out there. Once you’ve installed it, let it run through its automated workflow. Onyx will delete your various caches, check and repair your disk permissions, delete various invisible files, rebuild indexes and run and so on. You may notice the changes or not, but a regular housekeeping session of your computer will increase its stability and lifespan.
You can also do some  cleaning yourself: cleaning the cache of your browser and emptying your trash regularly is a good idea.
Oh, and one of the beautiful things about Macs are the incredible screens and wonderful design. Don’t let it become physically filthy, and if it does, clean it with a soft, damp cloth.

5. Be gentle

Even if your system is clean, up to date and well organized, go easy on it. Don’t run photoshop and watch a 1080p movie at the same time. Don’t load 1000 widgets in your dashboard. Also, a common beginner mistake, especially when switching from Windows, is to not close your apps. Remember, on Mac, closing the window does not quit the app. To completely quit the app, either press ⌘+Q or option click it in the dock and select “quit”. Do this every time you’re done using the app: this will free the RAM and allow you to move on to other tasks.

As you can see, all these tips are quite easy to follow, but like almost everything in life, they do require a minimum amount of self discipline. It’s quite easy to let your mac become a mess, but going through a weekly cleaning routine will make your computing experience easier. Do you have other Mac boosting tips? Share them in the comments section!

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