MacRumors

MacUser provides an in-depth look at one useful new feature in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: Wake On Demand.

[Wake On Demand] is Apple's name for a new networking feature that lets a Snow Leopard Mac go to sleep while a networked base station continues to broadcast Bonjour messages about the services the sleeping computer offers. The base station essentially acts as a proxy for the slumbering Mac. Advertised Bonjour services includes file sharing, screen sharing, iTunes library sharing, and printer sharing among others.

Prior to Snow Leopard, you would have to make your Mac never go to sleep if you wanted it to provide file or print sharing services at any time. This new feature will wake your Mac over Ethernet or even Wi-Fi networks.

There is a specific combination of hardware that is required to accomplish these tasks, however. Apple says you need an AirPort Extreme Base Station (2007 or more recent) or Time Capsule (2008 or more recent) with the latest firmware. MacUser found that in order to wake your Mac by Wi-Fi alone, you would need a 2009 Mac. To see if your Mac supports this 'Wake on Wireless' option, you can look at your System Profiler.

Apple details how this could be used to offer full-time support for iTunes Sharing, Printer Sharing, Back to My Mac, and more. Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was officially launched today.

Update: Readers are finding the requirements are less strict than thought. There has been success with older Macs for the Wireless Wake feature and the use of an Airport Express.

Update 2: To clear up some confusion surrounding the Wake on Demand feature, readers should note that computers running earlier Mac OS X versions and connected via Ethernet can be awakened remotely using such third-party utilities as WakeOnLan, but Snow Leopard builds that functionality into the operating system and extends that ability to computers connected via Wi-Fi.

While the simple "Wake on Wireless" functionality appears to be available with any wireless router for compatible machines running Snow Leopard and can be triggered using utilities such as WakeOnLan, the Bonjour Sleep Proxy feature needed for the advanced functionalities of broadcasting information about the sleeping machine requires the use of an Apple AirPort or Time Capsule base station running firmware 7.4.2 or later.

Ars Technica reports that Apple resellers are currently reporting low stocks of most iPod models, and no additional shipments of the existing models are reported to be available. Additionally, resellers report that the stock-keeping units (SKUs) for all existing models have been classified as discontinued.

The current line of iPods is on its last legs, lending more evidence that an iPod refresh is just around the corner. Sources from Apple Authorized Resellers have confirmed to Ars that current stock is dwindling (if not completely gone in some cases) and that no more of the current models are coming in. Additionally, all current SKUs are being discontinued, with no word on when new models may arrive.

Apple has been rumored to be holding a music-focused media event on Wednesday, September 9th, at which many Apple followers expect the company to introduce new iPod models as it has done at similar September events in previous years.

A number of rumors have pointed to the inclusion of digital cameras in the iPod touch, iPod nano, and even the iPod classic lines, but there have been no claims of changes to Apple's diminutive iPod shuffle, which saw a complete design overhaul in March of this year.

In a blog post today, Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit senior product manager Mike Tedesco announces that Office 2008 has been tested with Mac OS X Snow Leopard and declared ready for use. Importantly, Tedesco also notes that most of the issues related to Office 2008's interaction with Apple's "Spaces" feature have been fixed in Snow Leopard through the combined efforts of Apple and Microsoft.

Q. Are there any differences with Office 2008 for Mac running on Snow Leopard vs. Leopard?
A. Office 2008 for Mac is Snow Leopard tested and ready! Best of all, with the launch of Snow Leopard, the bulk of the Word 2008 Spaces issues have been fixed after our collaborative efforts to address the problem.

The Spaces bugs present with Office 2008 and Leopard have been viewed as a significant usability issue for many users, but Microsoft has repeatedly placed responsibility for fixing the problems on Apple, citing Apple's implementation of Spaces as the root cause. Based on today's posting, it appears that the two companies have finally worked through the majority of the issues related to Spaces and Office 2008, although Tedesco's wording suggests that there may still be a lingering bug or two.

Apple's Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 officially launched today, though to much shorter lines than previous launches. Snow Leopard reviews started appearing a couple of days ago and most found it to be a worthy upgrade especially for the $30 upgrade price.

Apple has posted a number of support documents detailing changes and tips for the new Mac OS X operating system:

- Bootcamp 3.0 FAQ
- 10.6 Wake on Demand
- New Gamma Settings
- Incompatible Software
- Battery menu changes
- Printer and Scanner compatibility

Apple also provides a detailed list of changes found in Snow Leopard. More discussion and support can be found in our forums.

Snow Leopard is available online through our affiliate partner Amazon.

Last week, reports surfaced that Apple was investigating reports of "exploding" iPhones, spurred by publicity surrounding the case of a French teenager who had reportedly received an eye injury when the screen of his iPhone shattered. French news agency AFP reported earlier this week that additional claims of exploding iPhones had surfaced and that France's official consumer affairs agency had launched an investigation into the reports.

Despite claims to the contrary from those affected by the device failures, Apple claims that the incidents are not the result of any battery issues, but have instead been caused by excessive pressure on the iPhones' screens.

"To date, there are no confirmed battery overheating incidents for iPhone 3GS and the number of reports we are investigating is in the single digits," the firm said in a statement to AFP.

"The iPhones with broken glass that we have analysed to date show that in all cases the glass cracked due to an external force that was applied to the iPhone," the company added.

Apple's sales director in France, Michel Coulomb, met with French consumer affairs minister Herve Novelli today to discuss the issue, and Novelli concurred with Apple's assessment regarding the cause of the failures.

"The first results show, according to Apple management, that the iPhones weren't damaged by a battery defect leading to an explosion, but that there had been a prior shock that cracked the screens," the minister said.

Novelli noted, however, that it remains to be seen whether blame for the cracked screens should be pinned on unreasonable force applied by users or a design flaw on the part of Apple.

Gizmodo reports that in addition to Apple's much-rumored 10-inch tablet computer, the company is also developing larger tablets in 13-inch and 15-inch sizes. The source, which the report claims has been "100% reliable" in the past, also notes that one of those models would run full Mac OS X.

This source claims that the two touchscreen prototypes -- made of aluminum, but on the shape of big iPhones -- were in a factory in Shenzuen, China. One of them "was running Mac OS X 10.5." When I asked, the source didn't know if these were built for demonstration purposes, or if they were preproduction units. The company has a tight relation with Apple but "it's not FoxConn."

Recent rumors have pointed to a tablet introduction later this year or early next year, but most reports have claimed that the device would carry an approximately 10-inch screen. Rumors of other possible sizes have surfaced, however, with one report asserting that Apple had at least investigated screens ranging from 4 to 12 inches and another claiming that Apple will be releasing two tablets, one with a 6-inch screen.

Engadget points out a China Unicom press release which officially announces that the company has come to an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in China:

On 28 August, the Company and Apple reached a three-year agreement for the Company to sell iPhone in China. The initial launch is expected to be in the fourth calendar quarter of 2009. This will provide users with brand new communication and information experience.

The announcement ends months of rumors and speculation about Apple's entry into the Chinese mobile phone market. Few details were provided in the announcement. Previous rumors had suggested the Chinese iPhone would be customized for that particular market even excluding Wi-Fi capabilities.

Many users have been wondering whether their current applications will be compatible with Mac OS X Snow Leopard, and both Apple and users with access to the final version of Snow Leopard have been working to compile this information for reference purposes.

Apple today posted a support document outlining which applications Snow Leopard will consider incompatible and either sequester or prevent from opening in order to prevent instabilities from being introduced. Several notable applications, including Parallels 2.5 and antivirus software from both McAfee (VirusScan 8.6) and Norton (NAV 11.0), are removed during the Snow Leopard upgrade, which sequesters the affected applications in an "Incompatible Software" folder on the user's system. Other applications, including Parallels 3.0 and older versions of Apple's Aperture, Keynote and AirPort Admin Utility for Graphite and Snow, will simply not be allowed to launch on Snow Leopard.

Users upgrading to Snow Leopard will also see a number of printer drivers upgraded to Snow Leopard-compatible versions, and Apple has posted a second support document outlining the list of printers with compatible drivers available either on the Snow Leopard install disc or via Software Update. Apple plans to update the document as additional compatible drivers are released.

A number of users have also taken compatibility assessment into their own hands, developing the publicly-editable Snow Leopard Compatibility List at Wikidot, which offers an extensive list of software tested by users. The site has been extremely popular with users over the past few days, so much so that the entire Wikidot site was brought down by traffic to the page, forcing Wikidot to disable Ajax on the Snow Leopard site in order to help reduce the load on its systems.

Mashable reports on a discovery that the latest update to the iPhone application from popular business establishment review site Yelp [App Store, Free] contains an augmented reality easter egg called "Monocle" that allows users to view business ratings overlayed on a video stream from their iPhone's camera. The feature is only compatible with the iPhone 3GS, which contains the necessary digital compass for properly assessing the device's orientation.

Download the new Yelp app (came out yesterday). So you shake your iPhone 3 times. That activates a feature called Monocle. A message should come up if you activated it. A blue box will come up saying "the Monocle has been activated." It will create a button in the top right corner. Now you should be able to look at the bars, restaurants, etc. Only works on iPhone 3GS.

Augmented reality applications have been under development for some time, but Apple is waiting for the release of iPhone OS 3.1 to officially enable the feature, which explains why the augmented reality feature in the Yelp application was included as a hidden easter egg to avoid detection by Apple's reviewers.

Mashable has also provided screenshots and put together a brief video demonstration of how the feature works.