
I just wanted to follow up on my early post about my joy with my iMac Duo with some things I have encountered over the past few days.
Lack of Universal binaries can be a bit limiting
For instance my preferred iPhoto export utility doesn't work under iPhoto6 on the iMac Duo. This is (I assume) an issue with PowerPC plugins and universal binaries. I am going to further guess that any compiled plugin for any application would have to be recompiled to get things running. I will look into this a bit further.
Also, some applications (NeoOffice, Firefox, Skype, NetNewsWire) that I regularly use have not made an appearance as Universal binaries yet.
External USB 2.0 drive is funky
To put it nicely. The drive will not format when connected to the Duo. Works fine on my old iBook but hangs Disk Utility under 10.4.5 on the iMac side. Strange. Once formatted the drive works like a charm, but makes me worry as this is intended to be my backup drive.
100% CPU usage under Skype
Seems to be transient. Sometimes is spikes, other times it just uses more CPU as any Rosetta application does.
iPhoto6
When sharing pictures between users/computers the person being shared to can not drag and drop from the shared library. They must import to their local storage space and duplicate the image for their own use. Kind of annoying but I can see the issues that could arise from sharing photos that may be edited in the future. Still shows signs of not being quite figured out.
iSight
Works like a charm with PhotoBooth and Delicious Library but no one else I know can video chat with me. Kind of pointless / annoying.
Front Row
Has a few issues with responsiveness but I do like that I can full screen view movie trailers from Apple. Very cool. Also, the controls offered are less than what I would consider full featured. I think they need to look at putting some kind of lower level "circle menus" for each of the applications under Front Rows control and mirror the usability of the top level menu.
Spotlight
Works like a charm. I haven't noticed any speed hit but I wouldn't anyways given my current usage.
Shared Resources in General
There really isn't an obvious way to share between users data stored in Address Books. Any suggestions?
Speed in General
I ran XBench 1.2 and the total system score came up short of the DP 2.0 G5 PowerMacs. But really, I am super stoked about how quiet and fast this computer is; a few benchmark points is not going to make me regret this purchase.
CocoaMySQL that works with OS X 10.4.5 Intel Duo and MySQL 5.0.x
Thu 02/23/06 by Evancan be acquired here
This is a fantastic open source MySQL browser. Simple, lightweight, fast. I like it.
Eclipse 3.1.2 does not run on Intel Duo Machines
Wed 02/22/06 by EvanAvoid like the plague. Crashes on startup.
Instead see this page for new features and OS X x86/Intel support
What Google will get you
Tue 02/21/06 by EvanUnofficial Universal Mac Builds of Firefox
To make iPhoto 6 plugins work
Mon 02/27/06 by EvanHow to make PowerPC plugins work in Universal binaries
If the "Open With Rosetta" checkbox is not working
Wed 03/01/06 by EvanFollow these steps
Where I differed:
1) I followed all the steps up to deleting the key from the Info.plist and saving the changes (Step 6)
2) I then duplicated iPhoto and ran the resulting iPhoto Copy. This enabled the "Open With Rosetta" checkbox.
3) I deleted the iPhoto Copy. The checkbox was now enabled in the original!