Brand: MacTech

Macs, laptops Steaming up

Valve has released some figures in the Steam for OS X universe, showing a mass move to portable computers and strong steps for Mac gaming, notes “9to5 Mac” (http://macosg.me/2/sg). The latest figures show us that over two thirds of Mac users on Steam own a MacBook or MacBook Pro, another 23 percent use an iMac.

Overall 72% of processors at Valve are Intel, while the majority (59%)of graphics cards in Gamerland come from Nvidia. Also, 32.73% of users were still using Windows XP.

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Firefox support for PowerPC Macs coming to an end

Mozilla says it’s unlikely that the final version of Firefox 4 will run on older Macs with PowerPC processors, according to “Computerworld” (http://macosg.me/2/sf). Apparently, you’ll need a Mac with an Intel processor.

“We are not likely to be supporting PowerPC,” said Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox, in a message Tuesday on the Mozilla.dev.planning discussion group. “[But] no announcement has been made yet, as I’d like to have the data to back it up, and am having trouble getting it.”

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MPEG LA offers H.264 video license royalty free for life

MPEG LA says its AVC Patent Portfolio License will continue not to charge royalties for Internet Video that is free to end users (known as “Internet Broadcast AVC Video”) during the entire life of this license.

MPEG LA previously announced it would not charge royalties for such video through Dec. 31, 2015. The latest announcement makes it clear that royalties will continue not to be charged for such video beyond that time. Products and services other than Internet Broadcast AVC Video continue to be royalty-bearing.

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