Newton’s Lore

Sun’s open source virtualization package xVM VirtualBox is out of beta for Mac OS X and available for download. Note that it can’t currently host Mac OS X (aside from the licensing issues that only allow you to virtualize Mac OS X Server). According to ZDNet Sun sells a commercial version with USB support and an RDP server.
If you download it and can’t open the archive you may need to remove the ‘.bz2′ from the end of the filename.

Incorporating some iPhone categories this year (because hey, they’re cooler than those boring old Macs), we have

• Best iPhone Web Application - Remember The Milk for iPhone and iPod touch 1.0 You’ll never forget the milk again! (runner up was AP Mobile News Network 1.0)
• Best Mac OS X Leopard Application - ScreenFlow 1.1.1 from Vara Software Limited for capturing and producing screencasts. (Runner up was the cool Bee Docs Timeline 3D Edition 2.1 for producing 3D timelines, strangely enough)
• Best New Mac OS X Leopard Game - Guitar Hero: III Legends of Rock 1.1 (Runner up Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars 1.09)
• Best Mac OS X Leopard User Experience Macnification from Orbicule BVBA (Runner up, Checkout 2.1 point of sale system from Werck BV)
• Best Mac OS X Leopard Graphics and Media Application - Screenflow 1.1.1 (Runner Up FotoMagico 2.2 from Boinx Software Ltd.
• Best Mac OS X Leopard Student Product - Squirrel (alpha), a financial management application from Axel Péju (runner up Flow 1.0.1, an FTP client with editor and QuickLook from Brian Amerige)

Mikey Sklar lists some software tools available via the fink packaging system for hardware developers using Macs .

If you want to use your Nintendo Wii remote (Wiimote) with your Mac (via Bluetooth) (perhaps because you liked Tony Stark’s movie UI and a Wii is a cheaper way to get accelerometer gear check out

• DarwiinRemote
• The Wiinstrument for use with MIDI and/or Garageband.
• Remote Buddy

For the more programmatically inclined there’s

• WiiremoteJ
• Wiimote Simple (an open source Java library)
• WiiJuce

 Don’t use periods in your iMovie ‘08 project names otherwise they may not display anything after the period, or may display as a folder. I thought the reason we used Macs was to get away from this sort of thing?

Apple has released (via Software Update) “Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 1″, which installs Java 1.6.0_05 (although it does not make it the default version of Java for the machine.

bash-3.2$ /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Commands/java -version
java version "1.6.0_05"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_05-b13-120)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 1.6.0_05-b13-52, mixed mode)


The software update is installed only on 64-bit capable Macs. To switch it to the default Java install you need to use the /Applications/Utilities/Java Preferences application (which states when you select it that “Java SE 6 is only available for Java applets in 64-bit capable browsers. J2SE 5.0 will be used in 32-bit-only browsers, including Safari”)

Discussions indicate that compiled JNI libraries don’t look like they currently work, and neither do QuickTime for Java applications:
/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Commands/java quicktime.QTSession
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
at java.awt.EventQueue.invokeAndWait(EventQueue.java:997)
at quicktime.QTSession.(QTSession.java:92)
Caused by: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: /System/Library/Java/Extensions/libQTJNative.jnilib:
at java.lang.ClassLoader$NativeLibrary.load(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary0(ClassLoader.java:1822)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(ClassLoader.java:1715)
at java.lang.Runtime.loadLibrary0(Runtime.java:823)
at java.lang.System.loadLibrary(System.java:1030)
at quicktime.QTSession$1.run(QTSession.java:94)
at java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.dispatch(InvocationEvent.java:199)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:597)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:300)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:210)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:200)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:195)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:187)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:121)
Exception in thread “main” java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: main

This is not surprising given that QuickTime for Java is based on 32-bit Carbon libraries, and has been effectively in “maintenance mode” for a while. Unfortunately someone manages to get the JNI (or JNA?) code working it’s going to be difficult to work around the problem using QTKit.

In the meantime, QuickTime for Java still muddles along in Java 5. Eclipse Ganymede also seems to launch ok, but I haven’t done anything extensive with it.

Over at the MacinTalk forums there are somCocoa Coding Calisthenics by chrome for you to try your hand at. Chrome is using 10.5, which is good as things were a bit different in 10.4.

Nominations for the 2008 Apple Design Awards are now open. Categories include:

• iPhone Developer Showcase
• Best iPhone Web Application
• Best Mac OS X Leopard Application
• Best New Mac OS X Leopard Game
• Best Mac OS X Leopard User Experience
• Best Mac OS X Leopard Graphics and Media Application
• Best Mac OS X Leopard Student Product

Entries close 5pm PDT May 12th 2008.

Apple has released a third iPhone SDK. Probably because the previous one had just expired after only some 11 days.

From the mac-dev-jobs list on 27th March:

Looking for an experienced OSX developer to build a native OSX versionof the ZoomFoot application (www.zoomfoot.com). ZoomFoot is a sharedphotograph screen saver and the project is sponsored by a verysuccessful Internet entrepreneur. We’re looking for more than simply acontract developer; we’re looking for a new team member to bringeverything we do in the years to come to world of Apple. This is anopportunity to embark on an entrepreneurial adventure, not just writea new OSX client. 

Mail zoomfootguy a t gmail.com if you’re interested