Geek Bench 64-bit OSX Benchmark

Benchmark your Mac OS X system in 32-bit, 64-bit and even using Rosetta, Geekbench can let you see how your Mac stacks up between different systems. The application provides all three versions for $19.95, although you can run the 32-bit version for free.

To compare your Mac, simply visit Primate Lab's Geekbench Result Browser. You will receive scores in integer, floating point, memory performance and memory stream.

Apple Aperture Still Trails Lightroom in 64-bit

Adobe Lightroom 2.0 is ready and set for OS X 10.5 and the upcoming Snow Leopard 10.6 with 64-bit support. Lightroom is the first 64-bit application to appear from Adobe on the Mac platform.

If you have large image archives, as many do in Lightroom's target audience, this is great news. At present Apple's competing product Aperture is not 64-bit. Apple released Final Cut Studio this July without support for 64-bit so one wonders if they will delay upgrades of Aperture to re-write the application in Cocoa as Adobe did for Lightroom.

1Password 3 beta 64-bit

The current beta release of Agile Web Solution's popular 1Password is currently under development for 64-bit Snow Leopard support. Version 3 is available to those running the developer preview now and can easily get access with 1Password 2.9.23 or later installed.

At this time, while the development version of 1Password runs in 64-bit, the browser plug-ins do not. So users must force Safari to run in 32-bit mode. This is easily accomplished in the same manor you would run an application in Rosetta from the "Get Info" dialog.

Adobe Drops Support for PowerPC

Adobe recently announced it would drop support for Apple PowerPC users in Creative Suite 5. This move is likely a signal Adobe is ready to make a 64-bit move on Mac OS X. While Adobe has not made any official announcement of support, their current release of Photoshop CS4 for Windows x64 does offer a 64-bit version.

AppleInsider's Road to Mac OS X Snow Leopard discusses some of the hurdles Adobe must overcome in order bring its Creative Suite to OS X.

OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard 64-bit Support

Apple's latest version of its popular OS X operating system includes significant improvements for 64-bit. This includes native 64-bit versions of the OS X Finder, Apple Mail, Safari, Quicktime, Preview, TextEdit, Calendar, Apache, and many more. The only major application that has not been ported to 64-bit is the popular Apple iTunes. While many of the updated 64-bit applications may not gain significant performance advancements, it places Apple in a great position for the future.