An increasing problem for users of older Power PC Macs that don’t support OS 10.5 Leopard is diminishing Web browser support. Happily, Version 5 of TenFour Fox—FloodGap’s port of Firefox 5 for Power PC Macs that supports both Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5—has been released. TenFourFox uses almost all the same code as Firefox 5 and has nearly all the same features, but with the code needed to keep your Power Mac functional and fast.

Apple has been touting the universal “logo” for years, and promised to support both Intel and PowerPC during the (quite long) transition to Intel. However, the end of this transition may be near, as evidence of Apple moving to Intel-only software is clearly appearing. Within iLife ’09, and more specifically GarageBand ’09, the Artist Lessons/Learn to Play feature seems to require an “Intel-based Mac with a dual-core processor or better.”

We all know by now that Mark Papermaster (that is just a cool name, so I am going to use it as much as possible) was an Apple employee for all of 5 days before IBM sued him and asked for an injunction for him to just stop it. IBM threw a temper tantrum of Biblical proportions, saying he signed a “Non competition agreement.”

First off, most of us can agree that since Apple decided to switch to Intel processors, IBM and Apple are now competitors in the microprocessing space. IBM is a manufacturer of small chips that do various functions in small, medium and large PCBs or printed circuit boards. Apple also makes and uses these chips. From my skewed and prejudice position, this makes them competitors. I think Apple does a better job, but that is neither here nor there.

This makes it a great fit for Papermaster to join Apple.

OpenOffice has released version 3 of its open-source alternative to the Microsoft Office suite of applications, which now includes a native version for Mac OS X.

The new OpenOffice 3 includes the following new features:

• ODF 1.2 Support
• Microsoft Office 2007 Import Filters
• Solver component which allows solving optimization problems
• Support for displaying custom error bars and regression equations
• Improved Crop Feature in Draw and Impress

Orchard Spy has released a few screenshots of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and while they look the same as Leopard, (Leopard looked like Tiger once, too) they do tell us some preliminary things about the new OS, and we’ll tell you after the break.

Mac OS X 10.6 is Snow Leopard. While only mentioned once at the WWDC keynote, it was enough to let us make some very safe assumptions. Snow Leopard, as evidenced by its name, is a bigger than usual incremental update. Here’s what I’m expecting. Snow Leopard will have some visual tweaks. The only way this more »

Contrary to the recent rumors that Apple would drop PowerPC architecture support with its newest update to OS X, a tipster (and possible Apple insider) was able to acquire the latest build of the soon to be released update of Mac OS X 10.6, and found some evidence that Apple might actually be keeping the chip alive.

The tipster, who wished to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, found a WWDC seed release labeled 10.6. Learn what information he found after the break:

There’s been talk lately about what Apple’s operating system will be like in the future, and some evidence that Apple is already working on it. Will it be entirely multi-touch? What will it be called? If this next rumor is to be true, we might be seeing a sample of what’s to come sooner than more »

Late Tuesday night, in an interview with Forbes.com, an Apple spokesman shed some light on their recent acquisition of PA Semi, a small PowerPC computer chip manufacturer. This buy out is a very interesting one indeed, as Apple ditched PA Semi’s PWRficient processors for Intel’s x86 design back in 2005. Steve Jobs’ reasoning behind the move was although PWRficient was, you guessed it, very energy efficient, it had no where near the processing power Apple was looking for. This purchase is also a huge blow to Intel, as Apple was one of their biggest customers. With the recent acquisition, Intel’s recently released Atom chip, which was targeted at the iPhone, may take a back seat to the versatile PWRficient chips. The adapted PWRficient chips could be used in every from a MacBook Pro to an iPod Nano, and Apple prefers to get everything from the inside- no third parties are best.

The decision to center the iPhone design around a chip that Apple could own marks a significant strategic choice by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs, and is aimed at ensuring Apple can continue to differentiate its flagship phone as a raft of competitors flood the market. According to a source affiliated with the chip company, Jobs and Senior Vice President Tony Fadell led the tiny group of executives who spearheaded the acquisition, which included negotiations that took place in Jobs’ home.

iPhone developers are signing up, in the masses at a rapid rate. The number simply keeps on growing. Though, how many potential iPhone developers are running on a PowerPC system? A lot, apparently, and Mike Rundle is one of those people. Still on his PowerPC G4, Mike was desperate to get the newly released SDK. more »