According to a press release issued today by Apple and Oracle, the OpenJDK project will see the two companies work together to ensure continued support of Java on OS X, which is great news for developers working in the programming language. The role of the two partners is described as follows:

Apple will contribute most of the key components, tools and technology required for a Java SE 7 implementation on Mac OS X, including a 32-bit and 64-bit HotSpot-based Java virtual machine, class libraries, a networking stack and the foundation for a new graphical client. OpenJDK will make Apple’s Java technology available to open source developers so they can access and contribute to the effort.

Apple went on to confirm that Java SE 6 will indeed continue to be available from Apple for Snow Leopard and the upcoming OS X Lion 10.7, but Java SE 7 and beyond for OS X will instead be available direct from Oracle. Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior VP of software engineering, claims that’s “[t]he best way for our users to always have the most up to date and secure version of Java.”

Steve Jobs hinted at a switch to this kind of distribution method in an email response to a concerned Java developer back in October of this year. He noted that since Apple’s release schedule is always a version behind Oracle’s, a new method might be a better option. The new partnership introduces that new method, with Oracle stepping in to provide the most current version to Mac users.

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In addition to all that existing gaming goodness, it looks like you might very soon be able to play a whole host of your favorite PC games on the platform, too. Not natively, of course (though ports of classics seems to be the thing to do these days), but via game streaming service Gaikai, which, much like OnLive before it, aims to remove the steep hardware barriers associated with many advanced video games.

Gaikai was shown running on an iPad (on Touch Arcade), and playing World of Warcraft on the device. Whether it’s a good thing to put WoW in the hands of addicts wherever they happen to go is another question entirely, but the promise of PC games running untethered on a device in your lap is intriguing indeed. I’m not a WoW player myself, but Starcraft II is landing late this July, and I somehow doubt it’ll be accompanied by a native iPhone port at the same time.

But will the gatekeepers at Apple allow Gaikai to invade its playground? The move could potentially have serious consequences on the App Store’s economics, since conceivably, Gaikai could stream any game to the iPad and other Apple devices, not just ones sanctioned by the Mac maker. Gaikai’s Dave Perry says Apple basically can’t block the service.

The reason being, Gaikai is HTML5-based technology. That means that its browser-based player will work fine on mobile Safari out of the box, unless Apple goes out of its way to shut down access to Gaikai specifically, which would fly in the face of certain recent correspondence by Steve Jobs himself regarding the closed nature of Flash versus the open nature of HTML5.

Gaikai shows the way to sidestepping iCensorship altogether, at least in terms of streamable web content. At this stage in the game, Apple has basically painted itself into a corner wherein it has to condone anything done using the HTML5 standard, versus rich media that uses browser-based plugins like Flash and Silverlight. It won’t work for all apps (like the one that allows you to sync wirelessly, for instance), but it should allow content providers to publish whatever kind of iPad and iPhone-targeted material they want without blocking fears.

We’ll see the Gaikai North American beta launch in the comings weeks, and then we’ll find out just how much openness Apple can tolerate. Hopefully it’s just enough to see me playing Civilization 5 on my iPad this fall.

As a responsible Mac user, I usually feel immune from most Internet threats…except for one. Using my Mac exactly as Apple intends it to be used sometimes renders my Internet connection virtually unusable for up to a month, and costs money to fix.

Could this happen to you? It depends on whether your Internet provider has a bandwidth “metering” policy (or “cap”). These caps are one of the most controversial topics for Internet users in 2009, and can put a significant crimp in your Internet use. Recently, Congressman Eric Massa (D-NY), who represents the Rochester area, introduced the “Broadband Internet Fairness Act” (H.R. 2902) (PDF). Massa got involved soon after Time Warner Cable unsuccessfully used Rochester as a test market for metering. Under this bill, the FTC would have veto power over such caps and thus allow them only under certain agreed-upon scenarios.

In my hometown of Lawrence, Kansas, the standard level of cable Internet service has a limit of 3GB of bandwidth per month. Overage is charged $2 per GB. Downloading a single movie from the iTunes store will blow through an entire monthly limit, and even the cable company’s most expensive “premium” service only allows 50GB of bandwidth. In 2009, that’s not really much bandwidth at all.

Once you’ve hit your limit, you have to severely restrict usage until the next month, or face a large bill. Your Apple TV remains stale without its new content, your iMac stops downloading podcasts, and your iPod weeps because it’s sick of the same old music you had last month.

Apple is the leader in multimedia content creation; new Mac users are always pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to buy from the iTunes store, or create their own content. A common question we get in our local user group is “I’m not sure what I did wrong, but all of a sudden I have a substantial overage bill from my cable company.” Of course, the user did nothing wrong, other than subscribe to a few podcasts, and perhaps download a new Apple software update and buy some shows with iTunes! The Mac is also blessed with great online backup services like MobileMe, yet when our user group did a presentation on backup strategy, I had to warn novice users to be careful lest their backups end up costing them an arm and a leg in bandwidth overage fees!

While on the surface this appears to be an isolated issue with a few providers, it is not. Bandwidth metering is a growing threat to cable Internet users in many cities. The American Cable Association (ACA) has come out in support of bandwidth caps, and the former chair of the ACA, Patrick Knorr, who implemented bandwidth caps in Lawrence, stated in multiple interviews that flat-rate Internet pricing is an “unsustainable” business model.

Unfortunately, using the Internet normally with bandwidth metering is also unsustainable. When Mac owners are worried about downloading movies, doing backups or performing system updates, that hurts the Apple brand. Apple is continually innovating new ways to make the Mac OS the best Internet operating system, creating a whole ecosystem with iTunes, MobileMe and iLife. All of these great products rely on the ubiquity of the Internet. When Internet providers start making normal Internet use an expensive proposition, Mac users lose.

Apple should lead the way and come out against bandwidth caps. Given that many of the offerings on the iTunes store actually compete with cable TV, Apple should be vigilant that cable companies do not use bandwidth metering as a way to stifle alternative ways of viewing content. Additionally, Apple should add a bandwidth meter to the Airport routers; that way the bandwidth use of entire households can be tracked. If bandwidth caps are inevitable, Apple can arm the consumer with data to monitor their usage and dispute discrepancies with their ISP.

Apple could be an ally for consumers (even the “PC guy” in the commercials would be helped!), while at the same time standing up for its own brand and vision of consumer Internet use. If you disagree with the idea of bandwidth metering, make sure your voice is heard by giving customer feedback to your own Internet provider and writing your member of Congress. I had better end this article now…bytes and bits equal dollars and cents for me, unfortunately!

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Apple has finally issued a patch for a security flaw related to Java that was first reported in August 2008. Java for Mac OS X update “delivers improved reliability, security, and compatibility for Java” in both 10.5 and 10.4.

The update also addresses a critical vulnerability in which a malware applet might gain access to the user’s system, deleting files or running other evil code. Worse, because Java is cross-platform, users visiting any tainted web site could infect their computer via the web browser.

The flaw was first reported to Sun last August, and the company issued a patch in December. In May, former Apple engineer and security researcher Landon Fuller created a proof-of-concept exploit. Bad press from that may have spurred Apple to finally address the issue.

While OS X is still arguably safer than Windows, safety and security are not necessarily the same thing. A more aggressive attitude towards security by Apple now might help protect Mac users in the future.

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Ideally, we’ll answer two different questions here. The first would address the best arguments for using the Mac platform as our main development machines. What makes them a better, more flexible — even more cost-efficient — solution to our large, beefy, Dell machines that we’re currently using (in between blue screens). The second bit of feedback I’m hoping for, is what you’ve found to be your streamlined software configuration for such tasks. So let’s get to it.

I must confess, it’s been awhile since I could call myself something reminiscent of a code monkey. To be more accurate, it was before I was using a Mac full time (as an adult, that is). So while I’ve got a lot of experience with Macs, I’m not well-versed in the code development side of things in their current incarnation. Obviously, XCode rocks for the likes of app development for OS X and iPhone, but that’s not what I need. We’ll be working mostly in Java and SQL. Having tight access to the command line, databases, and code repositories will be important. Multiple environments (probably via virtual machine) will be pretty helpful, too. So these are the general parameters to form our Mac argument around. Go!

The other part I’d like to address is best software setups to achieve the above. NetBeans looks like a no-brainer for the IDE. (I am, of course, open to suggestions, hence this post!) But more specifically, how are you using the other tools like databases and virtual machines and such? Do you like to use the OS X in-built MySQL database and Apache web servers? Or have you found that installing them standalone or using the likes of MAMP results in a better set of options? Which OS X tools are useful, and which third-party tools are ideal? Basically, any firsthand experience as to what works best for developing on your Mac — even if it’s using some parts of Windows or Linux in a virtual machine — is what I’m looking for here. Should we win this little war of ours, I’d love to hit the ground running rather than reinventing the wheel.

As you may be able to tell, I’ve got my own ideas for some arguments. Perhaps some of the requirements I’ve listed are leading, but I’m truly looking for your experience and input. This really isn’t meant to spark another Windows vs. OS X flame war, so let’s please stick to fact and experience and leave the emotion at home. To that end, even if your feedback is that Windows has been better in your experience, let’s hear it! I’d love to use a Mac at the office, but if it’s not going to be the best tool for our needs, then I want to know that, too.

With Apple’s hardware slowly fighting the good fight in the workplace, I’ll wager that there are others out there looking for similar ammunition to take to their tech departments to get Macs in their own shop. If you’re looking for specific areas to strengthen your pro-Mac arguments, let me know those in the comments as well. If we get enough, we can do a follow-up article and try to get feedback for your needs, too.

A big thank you in advance for the valuable input that our reader base undoubtedly has to share.

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Not a Straight Path

The road to Java on OS X has been rocky at best. Eric Burke has created a definitive timeline comparing Sun’s Java releases with Apple’s Java releases and does an admirable job justifying Apple’s release strategy to-date, but the fact remains that Java on OS X has lagged behind its Windows, Linux and Solaris counterparts. It may be prettier and better integrated with the desktop experience, but it has suffered — at times — from performance issues and lack of features that have fostered many heated threads in the Java community.

It’s About the Developers

Even with these issues, you can find hundreds of well-maintained Java apps that take advantage of OS X on Apple’s download site, Version Tracker and MacUpdate (as well as other aggregate listing sites). Why? — because Java has a huge developer following, is used as the primary teaching language in a large percentage of schools and (anticipates much feedback in the comments as I write this) is much easier to develop programs in than other languages.

It’s no secret that Apple has touted Objective-C as the language de rigueur for OS X, and I suspect that part of the reason for the lack of Java 6 support in Leopard is due to the focus on enhancements in Objective-C (including some that make it more Java-like), Xcode and the inclusion of new debugging and performance analysis tools. However, Java 6 has some enhancements of its own, including major performance improvements, GUI toolkit updates and the ability to interface with the same debugging/performance back-end Apple is utilizing. In fact, Java 6 seemed like a no-brainer to be included in Leopard, or at least shortly thereafter. Developers who have been focusing on taking advantage of these latest improvements in the Java platform are more likely to keep focusing their efforts there since they then have the ability to deploy the results of those efforts on multiple platforms (except, of course, Apple’s).

It’s About the Enterprise

Lack of Apple-backed support for Java 6 will also slow or halt the adoption of OS X in the enterprise. While PHP and Ruby are all the rage with the Web 2.0 intelligentsia, Java remains the backbone of corporate web application development. If Apple wants to ensure continued adoption of OS X server (and desktop) at businesses they must show a commitment to the full Java roadmap and keep current with platform releases. Any sign of wavering support will kill current adoption and prevent further investment — at least in the short term — in Apple technologies for Java applications.

It’s About the Community

The education/research community has been adopting OS X since the early releases and Apple itself showcased scientific development on OS X at the 2007 WWDC. It’s extremely important to ensure that OS X meets the needs of this group of users and yet Apple has not made one of the core components available to them.

Thankfully, rather than abandon the platform completely, the community — led by Landon Fuller — has done what Apple has failed to and is set to release an open source, independently built version, based on the BSD port of Java 6, in the near future (preview releases are available now). The GUI won’t be as integrated as Apple’s official releases have been and there will be some rough spots as they work out all the kinks, but it’s great to see developers take the initiative and do what Apple will not.

This work is only possible due to the open source underpinnings of OS X and the hard work of a number of very smart people dedicated to running their applications on Apple technologies. Apple should take heed from this community effort and finalize their Java 6 release as soon as possible, then get to work on adding Java support for the iPhone (one of the easiest ways to enable secure/sandboxed application development/deployment).

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Has anyone else stumbled across any other hidden Christmas gems?

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