Computer security firm publication Heise criticizes Mac OS X Leopard for shipping without its firewall enabled by default like Windows Vista and advises users to turn it on. To do so, in System Preferences' Security area either block all incoming connections or set explicit exceptions for services that can communicate through the firewall, like file or screen sharing, as shown. (More on that in an upcoming post.)

DivX has started showing off their prototype "Apple TV killer"  - a low cost networked media player device with 720p output. The Ubergizmo blog got a look at the device and wrote it up:

"DivX made a technology choice that is completely opposite to Apple’s. The Apple TV is basically an entry-level computer without an OS. It has a CPU, a GPU, and a hard drive, these are generic components found in all recent computers. However, AppleTV still need to be connected to a bigger computer (to talk to iTunes).

By leveraging the fact that their device is connected to a computer, DivX shows that the same basic functionality can be built at a much cheaper price, because instead of using general-purpose hardware, it uses only stream-decoding hardware that is a lot cheaper to make."

DivX is claiming the device could retail at $US99 within a year - that's a third of the price of an Apple TV. Will be interesting to see if any hardware manufacturers decide to take a punt on it. Mind you - as Apple is no doubt finding in Australia with its Apple TV - without easy access to content, the media player itself is pretty redundant.

DivX’s Apple TV, but smarter [via PVRblog]

The notMac Challenge offered a prize to the best entrant who created an alternative to Apple's paid .Mac service, with the intention of offering a free, open source utility for using Apple's client-side .Mac services.

The challenge was won by Ben Spink, and the notMac software is now available for download. Danny Gorog reviewed it for APC magazine:

"Installation effectively replaces your .Mac preference pane with the new notMac preference pane which is where you configure your notMac settings. Once you've completed these steps you should be able to use your own notMac server for iDisk access."

He concludes that notMac's ease of use isn't up there with Apple and thus it's 'not ready for primetime' - you'll need your own server running OSX and a robust knowledge of networking and IP configuration to get it running.

"Sadly, it also doesn't duplicate a lot of useful .Mac functionality like webmail and contact syncing among others. It's also worth noting that .Mac users gets Backup, Apple's backup client that is still the easiest way to backup your Mac and one of the main selling points for .Mac."

notMac released, notReady for first-time Mac users [APC magazine]