The big news this week is that Apple will ship Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard this coming Friday, August 28th – before the promised September release. Apple also made news by responding to the FCC’s request for information regarding the Google Voice iPhone app – we have thoughts about that situation. Also this week, Glenn Fleishman covers the transition of independent mail client Mailsmith to becoming freeware at a new company; and Adam muses at length about technological literacy, if it’s important, and what the lack of it might mean for the future. Notable software releases this week include Remote Desktop Connection for Mac 2.0.1, BusySync 2.2.1, TextExpander 2.7, Hazel 2.3.2, Apple Remote Desktop Admin 3.3, Apple Remote Desktop Client 3.3.1, OmniOutliner 3.9, Hard Drive Firmware Update 2.0, Bluetooth Firmware Update 2.0.1, and iPhoto 8.1.
Apple has announced that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard will become available on 28-Aug-09. And yes, we plan to have two Take Control ebooks about it available by then as well.
Apple has responded to the FCC's questions surrounding Google Voice and the App Store. Most of the answers are as we'd expect, but a few offer an interesting glimpse behind the App Store curtain.
Rich Siegel likes working on the Mailsmith email client so much, he's giving it away. The head of Bare Bones has turned the 2.2 release into freeware and spawned a new firm to support his labor of love.
After watching a Google video in which people in Times Square prove almost entirely incapable of answering the question, "What is a browser?", Adam muses about where this lack of technological literacy came from and what it means for the future.
Notable software releases this week include Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection for Mac 2.0.1, BusySync 2.2.1, TextExpander 2.7, Hazel 2.3.2, Apple Remote Desktop Admin 3.3, Apple Remote Desktop Client 3.3.1, OmniOutliner 3.9, Hard Drive Firmware Update 2.0, Bluetooth Firmware Update 2.0.1, and iPhoto 8.1.
Read on for a collection of links to the most interesting articles and resources that the TidBITS staff discovered on the Web this week.
The number of topics this week is low, but the amount of discussion isn't: Adam's article, "Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age?" dominates TidBITS Talk this week, with some side discussion about pre-paid iPhone data plans.