More discoveries in Mac OS X Lion have shown Apple is cutting out two of its older implementations. The developer preview no longer has Front Row, Apple's early answer to Windows Media Center. It had originally launched in sync with the last Power PC iMac, the iSight-equipped G5 model, and was a staple feature of early Intel-based Macs.
MiRow, a new application that enables additional media formats, web surfing (including streaming sites such as Hulu), downloads cover art, adds Last.fm support and more for the Mac is on sale for half off its normal $25 price for the remainder of the day today at MUPromo.com.
Catering explicitly to home theater computers, GlideTV today produced an unusual controller known as the Navigator. The bowl-shaped peripheral has a trackpad for mouse pointing but is surrounded by AV controls and a directional pad that ease navigating through common apps. It can steer through Front Row and iTunes on Macs, Windows Media Center, and platform-independent apps like Boxee or SageTV.
A Google Code project, Understudy, now allows Hulu and Netflix streaming video to be played through Apple's Front Row software. Users can subscribe to multiple feeds and select individual videos to watch. The provided feeds for each service can be used, while the program also can automatically discover the user's profile or the feeds can be copied from the clipboard. To view the content, Understudy is accessible from within Front Row and the services and streams are available in the Manage Feeds section.
Popular Mechanics says that Macs run Windows Vista better than PCs designed to run the operating system. The magazine published an analysis based on user feedback and performance benchmarks for similarly equipped machines, using a number of 'real world' tests to evaluate the machines. Testers were asked to set up the computers right out of the box and "explore the machines through everyday tasks such as Web surfing, document creation, uploading photos, downloading Adobe Acrobat files and playing music and movies through Media Center and Front Row." The magazine said that in both the laptop and desktop showdowns, Apple's computers were the winners. Results found that both Apple computers ran Vista faster than the PCs did.
Apple today released updates to QuickTime 7.4.5, iTunes 7.6.2, and Front Row 2.1.3, offering several performance enhancements, as well as a patch for a security hole found in QuickTime. The patch fixes an issue related to the SHA-1 checksum, which is related to protecting files with 160-bit encryption. iTunes 7.6.2 doesn't list specifically which issues are fixed, but more than likely resolves compatibility with the new QuickTime version. Front Row's update similarly guarantees functionality with iTunes 7.6.2.
