Following Apple’s deprecation of their own Java distribution for Mac OS X, many developers were concerned the company would simply drop Java completely, leaving it up to Oracle or IBM or the open source community to develop, test and release an integrated Java distribution for Mac OS X. Many were also concerned that only Apple would be able to provide the necessary source code to correctly integrate a Java distribution into Mac OS X.
There are alternative Java distributions for Mac OS X, such as the SoyLatte project, however they do not integrate well with Mac OS X, leaving Java as a second class citizen on the platform.
But a new Apple press release just posted this morning announces that the company plans to participate in the OpenJDK project along with Oracle, to bring an officially supported, tightly integrated OpenJDK release to Mac OS X. Read more
Apple posts iTunes teaser front and center on Apple.com
Apple has replaced the front page of Apple.com with a teaser for something iTunes-related due to happen tomorrow morning, Tuesday, November 16th.
In large bolded text, the page reads “Tomorrow is just another day. That you’ll never forget”. Under that text is a curiously worded invitation to check back Tuesday for an “exciting announcement from iTunes”.
And under the text are 4 clocks each showing a different time from California, New York, London and Tokyo, which could be a clever way for Apple to announce that whatever is going to happen tomorrow, will happen at 10AM Eastern Time, but will be relevant for everyone around the world, at least in markets which currently have an iTunes Store.
Apple would not make such a big deal out of releasing iOS 4.2, however they would make a big deal out something like cloud based iTunes streaming or a subscription music service. Read more