Fast Forward: TomTom and Navigon Get Lost on the iPhone

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Fast Forward: TomTom and Navigon Get Lost on the iPhone
Did the developers get lost along the way? You might want to ask that after spending time with new turn-by-by-turn iPhone navigation programs from TomTom and Navigon.
MacChat: Microsoft plays nicer with Apple

THE outlook for Microsoft Exchange users on the Mac is bright, but will Mac users opt for Microsoft or Apple’s solution?

Mac users have historically been second-class citizens when it comes to Microsoft’s corporate email and collaboration standard, Exchange. While Windows users have enjoyed the full features and support of Outlook, Mac users have been stuck with Entourage which, while Mac-like, has had less than satisfactory Exchange compatibility.

But from next year they’ll be spoiled for choice. Not only will Mac OS X Snow Leopard (due next month or even next week) have system-level Exchange support, so Apple’s own Mail, iCal and Address Book apps, or any third-party app, can integrate with an Exchange server but Microsoft will release a full Mac version of Outlook as part of Office 2010 for Mac.

This will mean dumping the Carbon-based Entourage in favour of a ground-up rewrite of Outlook in OS X’s native Cocoa language.

The new Outlook for Mac promises full Exchange interoperability for Mac users, along with a high-speed file-based database compatible with Time Machine and Spotlight and information rights management to keep data secure.

In the meantime, existing Entourage users can download the free Entourage 2008 for Mac Web Services Edition, which makes performance and reliability improvements and enables users to sync tasks, notes and categories.

Microsoft also is simplifying its Office for Mac range, with just two editions: Business, and Home and Student. Office 2008 will be re-released in these two editions next month, including the new Entourage.

While Apple’s email, contact and calendaring apps have nicer interfaces, some users prefer the all-in-one approach of Entourage or Outlook.

Although Outlook for Mac has been a long time coming, it ironically comes at a time when Microsoft is less important to Mac users than ever. Now users have the choice of Google Apps for online collaboration, Apple’s iWork suite for productivity and FileMaker’s Bento for rolling Mail, Address Book and iCal together. Snow Leopard’s Exchange support will further negate the need for Mac users to have Microsoft software installed on their machines.

Adobe goes Intel-only

MEANWHILE, another major Mac software developer, Adobe Systems, has reaffirmed that the next version of its Creative Suite will jettison support for PowerPC Macs.

Adobe CS 5 will only run on Intel-based Macs, which the company says now account for 80 per cent of the installed base. Not bad, considering this Intel switch happened in 2006.

Apple’s own Mac OS X Snow Leopard, likewise, will only run on Intel Macs.

The Intel switch is the third major change to the Mac platform with which Adobe has had to contend, following the move to PowerPC in the mid-’90s and the transition to Mac OS X in 2001.

This time round some of its applications, such as SoundBooth and the new Premiere Pro, have been Intel-only from the start.