Sometimes you are embarrassed to conntect Mac OS X Leopard with a Windows XP printserver. It should work the Mac plug-and-play way … but it isn’t. So here is the howto, so you don’t need to trouble your head about it.

Context:
In the first corner: A Mac OS X Leopard (10.5.3) machine
In the second corner: A Kyocera 2000D laser printer connected to a Windows XP printserver which is protected by password and username.

Problem:
Adding the printer via the standard Apple-way as a windows printer works - but printing does not work because it is not possible to authenticate against the printserver.

Solution:
You need to add the shared printer via the hidden “Advanced” printer feature in the Print & Fax preferences.

• Open “Print & Fax” in “System Preferences”
• Click “+” to add a new printer
• Control-click (or right-click) on the toolbar at the top of the window and select “Customize Toolbar…”
• Drag the “Advanced” icon to the toolbar and select “Done”
• Click on the “Advanced” icon … and be patient … after a moment or two, you can select “Windows” from the “Type” dropdown-menu
• Enter the SAMBA URL of the shared windows printer in the “URL” textfield:
  smb://USERNAME:PASSWORD@WINDOWSDOMAINNAME/PRINTSERVER/PRINTERSHARENAME or
  smb://USERNAME:PASSWORD@IPADDRESS/PRINTERSHARENAME
  If the shared printer does not need a password, you can use smb://USERNAME@…
• Fill out the other fields “Name” and “Location” as you prefer
• When printing the first time you will get prompted for your USERNAME and PASSWORD. Fill in your windows printserver username and password and enable the “Add this to your keychain” checkbox.

… it’s nearly plug-and-play

The huge system update to Mac OS X 10.5.3 with 200 to over 400 MB resolves a lot of bugs and adds up some additional features to Leopard. Example: More digital cameras with their specific RAW-formats are supported now. Or the possibility to sync the Apple Address Book application with Google Contacts.
Great to see that WIFI stability was increased by the Apple developers.
An annoying - but resolvable - problem appeared after updating when I tried to use the time logging software TimeLog 4: All log entries within TimeLog are saved in iCal - and after upgrading to 10.5.3 my work time entries just doubled. It’s easy to fix the problem by deleting every dublicate log entry - but you better checkt the timesheet in detail before you hand it out to your customer

The cooperation with Apple in terms of iPhone and iPod touch also effects the Mac now: Today, Skyhook Wireless released their Loki 2.0 Firefox toolbar for Mac OS X and Windows XP. Now it’s possible to check the own location with Loki - if there are enogh WiFi-hotspots in reach known by Skyhook Wireless.
Quite amazing technology with a JavaScript-SDK for Web developers, too.

Apple just put the Quicktime-Stream of the 2008 keynote online. So enjoy the show!

The hot news from the Macworld Keynote 2008 of Steve Jobs in brief:

• Intro: new Get-a-Mac commercial.
• Leopard Mac OS X 10.5: Steve presents the Leopard success story: until now over 5 Million Macs run on Mac os X 10.5, alias Leopard. No other OS version reached that fast market penetration rate before.
• TimeCapsule: Airport Extreme base station is extended with a server-scale hard drive to a new wireless NAS (Network Attached Storage) system. It’s now called TimeCapsule. It’s the missing piece for TimeMachine, the integrated Backupsolution of Mac OS Leopard. 500 GB USD 299.00. 1 TB USD 499.00.
• iPhone: Until today more than 4 Millionen iPhones have been sold worldwide. Smartphone market shares in the US: 1. RIM (39.0%), 2. Apple (19.5%), 3. Palm (9.8%) … Apple surpasses Palm from the beginning and is second biggest player in that market. The iPhone SDK (Software Development Kit) will be released in February. Softwareupdate for the iPhone with lots of new features … most of them have been posted on rumor sites in the last days. Available today for all existing iPhone users.
• iPod touch: iPod touch Update for USD 20.00 including 5 new apps: Maps, Mail, Stocks, Notes, and Weather
• iTunes Movie Rental: the rumored movie rental is introduced to iTunes. All major film studios joined. Basic rule: 30 days to start watching, 24 hours to finish. US Rental will start today, international rental will start later this year. 2.99$ / 3.99$ for new releases. Movies should be available 30 days after DVD release.
• Apple TV Version 2: The new generation works as a stand alone solution without a computer. The improved Apple TV solution can play DVD and HD quality (with Dolby 5.1 Sourround Sound) movies. In addition it’s possible to consume audio- and video-podcasts as well as Flickr & .Mac photos.
• MacBook Air: The Thinnovation of the day is the MacBook Air, Steve Jobs revealed at the end of the keynote. The thinnest notebook in the world with a 13.3 inch widescreen display, a backlit keyboard and a multitouch trackpad. But Apple cuts off some "od technologies": No optical drive anymore, no Firewire, no Ethernet. It’s a real wireless device - every CEO will get jelious. The 80 GB version with a state of the art hard drive costs USD 1,799.00 - the 64 GB SolidState harddrive is priced at exclusive USD 3,098.00 and is the dream of every CTO … and the nightmare of every CFO.