Reprinted from TidBITS#826/17-Apr-06 with permission.
Copyright (C) 2006, TidBITS. All rights reserved.
http://www.tidbits.com/
MailBITS/17-Apr-06
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**TidBITS 16th Anniversary Vacation** -- This week marks the 16th
anniversary of TidBITS, which we're celebrating with a West Coast
vacation that will also feature a dinner with the Seattle-based
members of the staff, along with a visit to our Xserve at
digital.forest to install Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Server. We can't
guarantee we'll have (or want to use!) Internet access for much
of the trip, so don't expect quick responses to email while
we're away. Nevertheless, we're packing a slew of technology
so hopefully I'll have plenty to write about once we're back.
With all that, we're taking next week off, so look for our next
issue on 01-May-06! [ACE]
**Aperture 1.1 Gains Intel Support, Improvements** -- Apple has
released Aperture 1.1, an update that enables the photo editing
and workflow tool to run on Intel-based Macs, fixes bugs, and
boosts performance. The new version improves its controls for
handling RAW-formatted images, and adds a Color Meter tool and
the capability to specify pixel resolution when exporting or
sending images to Photoshop. With this update, Apple also dropped
the price of Aperture from $500 to $300 in its continued vigorous
effort to attract professional photographers who are now tempted
by Adobe's Lightroom beta and the long-standing features found
in Photoshop. People who bought Aperture 1.0 before 13-Apr-06
can download a coupon worth $200; licensed users of Aperture 1.0
Academic can receive a $100 coupon. The Aperture 1.1 Update is
a 32 MB update via Software Update or as a stand-alone download.
[JLC]
**Apple Remote Desktop 3 Released** -- Apple released Apple Remote
Desktop 3 last week, the third major release of the company's
remote control and management software. With Apple Remote Desktop
3, Apple focused on adding features that take advantage of new
capabilities in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, including Dashboard,
Automator, and Spotlight.
A new Dashboard widget provides an observation view of remote
screens; over 30 Automator actions are available for automating
repetitive system administration tasks; and you can use Spotlight
to search across multiple client Macs running Tiger. Other new
features include much-requested items that help Apple Remote
Desktop compete better with Netopia's Timbuktu Pro remote control
software, including drag and drop of files and folders between
local and remote computers, copy and paste between local and
remote computers, significantly faster file copying, and AES
128-bit encryption for secure communication. In terms of desktop
management, Apple Remote Desktop 3 now offers system status
indicators that display the overall health of remote systems,
AutoInstall for staging software for installation on mobile
systems, Curtain Mode for hiding the actions of the remote
controller, a persistent Task History and Task Templates to save
and replicate frequently performed tasks, Application Usage and
User History reports to monitor software compliance policies,
and Smart Computer Lists for dynamically managing sets of systems
based on specified criteria. Unfortunately still missing is the
capability to change the ports the program uses; this feature
would make it easier to use Apple Remote Desktop to connect
to multiple computers behind a NAT gateway using port mapping.
Apple Remote Desktop 3 costs $300 for managing up to 10 systems
and $500 for an unlimited client license; educational prices are
$150 and $300 for the two licenses (there is no special upgrade
pricing). Apple says the program "is intended to run on" (although
the press release doesn't say "requires") any Mac running Mac OS X
10.3.9 or later; that implies to me that it may work on earlier
versions, but that Apple hasn't tested such systems. It's a
universal binary for those using Intel-based Macs. [ACE]
.