Security Update 2007-009 and Apple MacBook/MacBook Pro Software Update 1.1

Apple has posted a few more updates that have set appropriate Dock icons a-bouncing. Yesterday, Security Update 2007-009 was posted in three flavors: 10.5.1, 10.4.11 Universal and 10.4.11... [read more at MacMerc.com]

Apple has posted a few more updates that have set appropriate Dock icons a-bouncing. Yesterday, Security Update 2007-009 was posted in three flavors: 10.5.1, 10.4.11 Universal and 10.4.11... [read more at MacMerc.com]

  • Maccast 2007.11.07

    A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 206. Apple tries to thaw freezing iMacs, Apple quietly updates MacBooks and MacBook Pros, AT&T adds flat rate international data plans, O2 loosens bandwidth limits and applies 'fair-use', 1.1.2 iPhone software on Euro iPhones, Quicktime and iTunes Updated, Serious "data loss" bug found in Leopard, Researchers and analysts question Leopard security. First Leopard patch on the way? Intel use passes PPC. Apple's tablet Mac confirmed? Airport issues after Leopard update. Time Machine and Aperture don't play well together. Fun with Leopard icons. Stacks kill nested folders in the dock. Question on running PC games on the Mac. Apple helps Tiger users keep their BootCamp. Hack the Leopard Dock. Leopard, missing Calendar widget. Use Spotlight to calculate. Time Machine stops at 10GB, a fix. New music, today will be better i swear by Stars [iTunes] Special thanks to our sponsors: The Digital Photography Connection - Video Tutorials and Podcasts for Photographers Audible.com - Get your free audiobook Such a pretty world. I can't wait until it's all mine. --Supergirl (1984) Shownotes in: HTML or OPML Subscribe to the Podcast Feed or Get the MP3

  • Ten Big New Features in Mac OS X Snow Leopard

    Daniel Eran Dilger Apple is marketing the idea of there being “no new features� for Snow Leopard and instead promising an overall improvement in how Mac OS X works under the hood, thanks to a diligent code optimization and refactoring cycle discussed in the previous article. At the same time, there are plenty of significant new features coming in Snow Leopard to look forward to. Here are ten big new features (plus a few minor ones) that you probably haven't heard much about from anywhere else, including my previous articles on the subject that already described QuickTime X, Grand Central, and OpenCL. WWDC 2008: New in Mac OS X Snow Leopard Snow Leopard Server Takes on Exchange, SharePoint Pulling Invisible New Features into Snow Leopard. Apple's increasing collaborations with the open source community have pulled back the veil of secrecy on several new but mostly invisible enhancements that will be showing up in Snow Leopard. One relates to LLVM, the Low Level Virtual Machine compiler architecture project originally founded at the University of Illinois. Apple began contributing to LLVM development in 2005, and started using it Leopard to expand support for OpenGL hardware features. Lower-end Macs that lack the silicon to interpret that specialize graphics code can now do it in software. LLVM is also working its way into Apple's Xcode IDE, initially as a highly efficient optimizer and code generator that works as a bolt-on upgrade to components of GCC, but eventually as a complete compiler replacement. That project, known as Clang, was opened up last year. LLVM compiler technology not only makes developers more productive, but also results in code that runs significantly faster on the same hardware. Apple's other open secret: the LLVM Complier The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure Project Another openly hidden secret in Mac OS X is CUPS, the Common Unix Printing System. Beginning with Jaguar in 2002, Apple adopted and licensed CUPS from its developer as Mac OS X's printing engine. It then purchased the project outright. CUPS is also the de facto printing system for Linux distros and is available for BSD and other commercial Unix systems. That means Apple owns the project that develops the printing architecture for Linux. That's not an issue because Apple has established a reputation in open source as a strong contributor and open sharer. According to a review of bug fixes and improvements in CUPS software, 24% of the enhancements came from Apple while 76% came from free and open source software contributors working with Linux, OpenSolaris, and other projects. Of course, 100% of both sides benefited from that sharing. CUPS collaboration has resulted in high quality code and the advancement of new features. CUPS 1.4, the version sources say Snow Leopard will use, adds performance enhancements and a variety of security improvements that use sandboxing to prevent malware attacks on the printing system from being able to read sensitive documents that may be in use by printers. Common UNIX Printing System A third significant new feature originating from an open source project in Snow Leopard is ZFS support, portions of which come from the OpenSolaris project (along with Sun's DTrace technology, which Apple uses in its Instruments performance profiling tool). Leopard debuted read-only ZFS features, but Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server will provide both read and write support for Sun's new 128-bit file system. ZFS was designed to provide “simple administration, transactional semantics, end-to-end data integrity, and immense scalability.� ZFS hype during the development of Leopard helped the new file system reach buzzword status as news of the three letter acronym swept through blogs and the tech media. It is frequently described as being the imminent replacement for the Mac's native HFS+. However, the benefits of ZFS including as storage pooling, data redundancy, automatic error correction, dynamic volume expansion, and snapshots all apply primarily to servers and higher-end workstation users who deal with multiple disk drives. ZFS isn't going to replace HFS+ outright in Snow Leopard, and has limited relevance today to desktop and laptop users, particularly those who never move beyond the single disk drive installed in their system. More Predictions for WWDC 2007: Solaris, Google, Surround Apple - Mac OS X Leopard - Developer Tools - Instruments Symbiotic: What Apple Does for Open Source Apple's Open Source Assault Pushing Visible New Features in Snow Leopard. Apple's extensive work in developing push support for Exchange Server on the iPhone will also be included in Snow Leopard's Mail, Address Book, and iCal. Push support in those client side apps are also being used to power MobileMe's push messaging subscription service and Snow Leopard Server's push messaging services. Apple will be offering both in parallel as alternatives to Exchange, thanks to smart planning on the part of Apple's engineers to develop an interoperable push architecture in Mac OS X and on the iPhone. There is also a fourth application of push that has developed alongside push messaging: Apple's new Push Notification Service. PNS allows iPhone and iPod touch users to set up server side notification alerts that don't require mobile applications to stay running in the background just to update users of the external events they track. Along with Bonjour discovery, PNS will keep iPhones wirelessly connected in all sorts of sophisticated ways that third party developers can imagine in their applications. Whether Apple will integrate a listener for the same PNS system into the desktop side of Mac OS X remains to be seen, but it would allow a single, unified interface for alerting client users of new events. I proposed a system wide, Growl-style notification system in the Leopard Wish List published back in 2005. Snow Leopard Server Takes on Exchange, SharePoint Apple’s Mobile Me Takes On Exchange, Mobile Mesh With the strong push into push messaging, Apple will make mobile devices even more tightly integrated with its desktop products. Leopard delivered Back To My Mac as a novel way to use Wide Area Bonjour's dynamic service registration as a mechanism for sharing resources served from home to any location without configuring static naming services for address lookups. Because any software can register itself with .Mac/MobileMe, this opens the door to third party developers with the vision to exploit the potential of these enabling technologies. A Global Upgrade for Bonjour: AirPort, iPhone, Leopard, .Mac Ten Big Predictions for Apple in 2008 Among the technologies profiled earlier in Myth 3 that have been trickling from the iPhone into Mac OS X, there's at least one idea I proposed for the iPhone that will be in Snow Leopard's Safari: self contained web apps. The new feature will allow users to run web applications as a local app in its own window, essentially making the web platform into a native-looking app that can run outside of Safari. I proposed a similar feature as a possibility for the iPhone prior to the announcement of the Cocoa Touch SDK: web apps packaged up into a set of files that could be run on the device as a Dashboard widget-like standalone app, even when off the network. Why Apple hasn't pursued such an obvious strategy is a little hard to figure out, but it seems they've got the ball rolling on the desktop. That ball will be rolling even faster thanks to SquirrelFish, a new JavaScript interpreter that will make Safari and any other WebKit-based browsers, standalone self contained apps, and Dashboard widgets all a lot faster. Apple's MobileMe, Yahoo's Flickr, and Google various web apps will all gain new speed thanks to faster JavaScript execution. SquirrelFish will also raise the bar in performance and efficiency in the Rich Internet Applications sector in general, giving Flash, Silverlight, and Java a faster, simpler, and more openly interoperable runtime to compete against. RoughlyDrafted: Leopard Wish List: 2005 How Open will the iPhone Get? Surfin’ Safari » Announcing SquirrelFish Microsoft's Application Features in Mac OS X, System Wide. Microsoft's business model of tacking on features hasn't been a total wash. The company's desperate efforts to invent novel marketing features for every new release of Windows and Office have pioneered a number of ideas that have later found their way into Mac OS X. One example is the idea of Fast User Switching, which Apple added to Panther. Windows XP pioneered the trick, but built it upon the kluge that is Terminal Services. Microsoft also helped originate the basis of Ajax web apps by inventing XMLHttpRequest in order to make its Outlook Web Access 2000 web app work decently within Internet Explorer. Today, standards-based web apps are eating a hole into Microsoft's monopoly on the proprietary desktop platform, and tools such as SproutCore and resulting products such as MobileMe are poised to tear down interoperability barriers and level the playing field. Microsoft may now regret having opened Pandora's Box in terms of standards-based web applications, but its efforts to seal the web back up with the proprietary Silverlight plugin, which turns web apps into .NET programs, will now be next to impossible. Another example of a Microsoft innovation are the fancy text features in Word, such as red underlining to highlight spelling mistakes and the green squiggle for grammar errors. Word also features a variety of word auto correction, smart dash insertion, and text replacement features (such as typing TM to get the ™ character). The former have already become system-wide features in Mac OS X, while sources indicate that the latter text processing features will find their way into Snow Leopard, and therefore every application that runs on it. RoughlyDrafted: Remote Display part 3: Terminal Server Cocoa for Windows + Flash Killer = SproutCore Super Size Me. On top of injecting Word features into its OS for the use of every application, Apple will also expand the use of its own Data Detectors, a technology it invented in the mid 90s for identifying useful bits of text and making it actionable. Leopard introduced Data Detectors in Mail as a way to extract contacts and events for use in Address Book and iCal, but Snow Leopard will expose Data Detectors everywhere it draws text. Sources also indicate Snow Leopard will expand upon Font Book to provide full Auto Activation of any fonts requested by any application, using Spotlight to track them down. Snow Leopard is also suggested to have a new set of frameworks specifically for working with multitouch trackpad gestures, patterned after those introduced with the MacBook Air. Speaking of the ultra-thin Air, sometimes less is more. However, the high cost and relatively low capacity of Solid State Drives like the $1000, 64 GB SSD option offered for the Air means that one Microsoft feature Snow Leopard could do without is bloat. As one reader noted, “Currently, Leopard requires 9 GB of available disk space for installation and iLife requires an additional 3 GB. This means that a product such as the [SSD] MacBook Air comes with the hard drive 20% full.� How the MacBook Air stacks up against other ultra-light notebooks Leopard Predictions for WWDC 2006 WWDC 2007: An Inside Perspective From the Halfway Point Think Small. Snow Leopard aims below the bloat to accommodate the coming wave of SSD-based systems. In the latest build, sources say Apple's own apps are losing weigh dramatically across the board. The apps in the Utilities folder all drop from 468 MB to 111.6 MB, for example. Other apps are similarly svelte, as the graph below indicates. Is this the product of just code optimization and shared resources? One factor likely relates to work on Resolution Independence, which substitutes bitmapped raster graphics (which define every pixel) with smaller vector graphics files (which draw GUI elements and controls by recipe). Vector graphics can be scaled to any size while retaining a high quality appearance, while bitmapped graphics can quickly look blocky when scaled up. Adding larger bitmapped versions can solve that problem, but at the cost of consuming more disk space. Apple earlier told developers it would be providing a library of shared, high quality vector graphics they could use instead of each packaging their own bitmapped art into every app. The dramatic size reductions in these apps must also involve more efficient Localization. For example, Mac OS X Leopard's Mail currently weighs in at over 285 MB, but the majority of its bulk comes from 18 language localizations inside the application bundle that consume 276 MB. The actual Universal Binary code is only a few megabytes and even its associated graphics and other resources only amount to 2.8 MB. Why does Apple default to dumping support for 18 or more languages in every app without providing any simple, centralized way to get rid of the unnecessary ones? Perhaps that question is answered in Snow Leopard, where Mail is reportedly just 91 MB. That's too big to simply to be an English-only, stripped down version for developers, but still far smaller than than Leopard's. Across the board, it appears Snow Leopard apps are about a third as large as their Leopard equivalents. And so while Snow Leopard paradoxically gains more useful features through code improvements and under-the-hood retooling rather than from a Microsoft-style new feature focus that aims to deliver “wow� with flashy marketing gimmicks, the system is also getting smaller and tighter. There must also be some other subtraction, right? Will Snow Leopard scrape away the old Carbon API? That's the next myth. WWDC 2008: New in Mac OS X Snow Leopard WWDC 2008: Is Mac OS X 10.6 the Death of Carbon? I really like to hear from readers. Comment in the Forum or email me with your ideas. Like reading RoughlyDrafted? Share articles with your friends, link from your blog, and subscribe to my podcast! Submit to Reddit or Slashdot, or consider making a small donation supporting this site. Thanks! Technorati Tags: Apple, Development, Mac, Software

  • Maccast 2007.04.23

    A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 184. Security Update 2007-004. iTunes contact negotiations will get pushy. Apple TV expanding "big box" presence. MacBook Pro successfully hacked in security contest. Please sign the Save Net Radio.org petition. BBC iPlayer will be coming to the Mac. Clearing up the 720x304 video on iPod confusion. Feedback on OS X Active Directory support. Buy your software, please.. Review of El Gato eyeTV Hybrid. Combo Updater can offer a magic fix. Tip for creating quick playlists from a selection in iTunes. Thoughts on Apple allowing re-downloading of purchased content from iTunes. Concerns over bulging MacBook Pro batteries. Apple sees significant market growth in a year. Teach Mac double rewards offer New music, The World Is Over by The New Addiction Yeah, and we're not going to fall for a banana in the tailpipe. -- Beverly Hills Cop (1984) Shownotes in: HTML or OPML Subscribe to the Podcast Feed or Get the MP3

  • Software Updates & New Release Highlights For Week Ending 2008-08-23

    Yet again, an Apple update steals the show with the release of iPhone OS 2.0.2. Strangely enough, you may have been a recipient of the following text message (ostensibly from Apple) even if you upgraded: For a release that just “fixed bugs,” I find it difficut to believe that the motivation behind the SMS (if it was from Apple) is not more related to a security issue than Apple's desire to ensure iPhone users are well-informed. Apple also released a MacBook Air update (full disclosure: this one I did not install as I do not own an Air) which fixes issues with video playback and processor core idling. Apple makes note that third-party software that modifies processor operating characteristics such as frequency and voltage is not supported and should be removed before installing this update. However, Apple is not the only one gettin' busy with the late-summer updates: Adium 1.3 - So, while this technically was released on Monday, August 25th, I could not let this slip away for a whole week. The Adium team did a phenomenal job in the betas and 1.3 sports Facebook chat support, enhanced MSN support (including personal messages), a much improved “contacts” interface with excellent Address Book support and significantly enhanced searching. A definite must-install. NewsLife - 1.2.1 - I gave NewsLife (yet another RSS reader) a try this week, since I'm a sucker for shiny, new toys. It did not import the OPML groups from NetNewsWire, but does support grouping of feeds. Mouse tracking in the article list window kept working even with the Preferences dialog having focus (bug? feature?). It's a clean, simple app that is charging ~$15.00USD for something you can get for free in many other ways, but it may have a visual & functional style that appeals to you. Requires OS X 10.4 or 10.5, PPC/Intel NetNewsWire - 3.1.7b4 - Speaking of RSS readers, NNW fixed an issue with a startup crash and some proxy compatibility problems and tweaked some UI color indicators for clippings and unread items counts. One of the more interesting updates, though, is the inclusion of an AppleScript command to evaluate the JavaScript for the current page. Most users will probably not find that useful, but it was a feature asked for and provided by NNW users. Gotta love the community! NNW is free and requires OS X 10.4 or 10.5; PPC/Intel AppleScript, Interface Builder & Xcode Project Spotlight Importers - Whether you like or loathe Apple's built-in filesystem search interface, you have to give a nod to the Google Toolbox folks for helping out budding Mac developers by creating some handy importers. The AppleScript Importer imports source and description from AppleScript .scpt and .scptd files, the Interface Builder Importer imports custom class names, bindings, outlets, actions and localizable strings from .xib and .nib files and the Xcode Project Importer imports file names and project comments from .xcodeproj files. (I'd appreciate comments from Apple developers who have real projects and sources they can toss at these as my tests worked, but I hardly have an extensive personal library). Free, but check the web page for compatibility. Transmission - 1.33 - This most excellent torrent client for the Mac (and other platforms) fixes a security issue as well as some other bugs. You probably missed this if you are an infrequent user, but as school season is upon us, you may want to ensure you keep this app as up-to-date as possible. Not that I'm suggesting you kids are sharing files as opposed to attending classes. It's all for Linux distributions. Gotta get those Linux distributions… Transmission is free (open source, actually), OS X 10.4/10.5 & Universal. Let me & other TAB readers know what you've been checkin' out by posting a note in the comments!

  • ★ Macworld Expo 2009 Predictions

    As required by the FCC, all Mac-related web sites must publish pre-Macworld Expo predictions regarding what Apple may announce at the show. Remember: these are predictions based on little more than my own speculation and tea-leaf reading, so hold your applause until the end, and, please, no wagering. New 17-Inch MacBook Pro — Seems like a sure thing. The lack of new 17-inch hardware was a glaring omission from October’s new MacBook line-up. Expect something that looks pretty much exactly like a bigger version of the new 15-inch MacBook Pro. Last-minute rumors claim that the new 17-inch MacBook Pro will have a sealed (non-user-replaceable) battery. Sounds odd, and if true, will surely generate complaints that it’s stupid move on Apple’s part, but given Apple’s recent penchant for sealed batteries, it wouldn’t surprise me. New Mac Mini — Yes. The current Mac Mini lineup is unchanged since August 2007, almost a year and a half ago. Overdue for an update, to say the least. I don’t think there’s any great enthusiasm for the Mac Mini at Apple, but it’s a strong seller. New 30-Inch Cinema Display — Yes. Much like with the 17-inch MacBook Pro, the existing 30-inch Cinema Display just looks old next to the new 24-inch model. As for a 20-inch model, I’m going to say no. 20-inch displays are the new 17-inch displays: too small. Speed Bump iMac Revisions — I’m not sure where the rumors started about there being significant changes to the iMac, but I expect what we’ll actually see will look the same as the current iMacs but offer slightly faster processors, slightly bigger hard drives, etc. Speed bump revisions don’t make for good demos, so while I expect updated iMacs this week, I don’t expect them to be announced during the keynote itself. iLife and iWork ’09 — Yes, nearly a sure thing. These suites are both profitable and popular, and the current ’08 suites were released in August 2007. They’re both due for updates, and they both make for good keynote demo material. At the top of my personal wish list: improvements to iMovie and Pages. I see the logic behind Apple’s decision to scrap the old iMovie and start over from the ground up with iMovie ’08. But I find iMovie ’08 downright confusing. The difference between “events” and “projects” seems muddled, and it’s a clumsy tool when it comes to actually editing clips together to make a movie. As for Pages, I would love to see it gain additional professional-caliber typographic controls (including better support for OpenType fonts). Snow Leopard — I expect a demo, and maybe a loose release date (like, say, “first half of 2009”). As Apple emphasized when Snow Leopard was announced at WWDC last year, Snow Leopard is mainly about low-level under-the-hood improvements and optimizations to Mac OS X, not about new user-visible features. But the new Exchange integration for Mail and iCal is certainly demo-able. What I expect is for Apple to make old features look new, by updating the system-wide appearance theme. I’ve made this prediction several times in the past and been wrong, but eventually I’ll be right: it’s time for the last vestiges of the original Mac OS X 10.0 “Aqua” theme to go. Scrollbars and push buttons, for example, remain largely unchanged since the Mac OS X public beta in 2000. My bet says iTunes-style scrollbars everywhere, darker window chrome, and a light-text-on-dark-background menu bar. (The name I’ve heard for the new theme: Marble. Make of that what you will.) Updated Apple TV — Yes. I expect new hardware, but probably nothing radically new other than increased storage space. But it’ll be in the keynote as a signal that Apple is serious about this market. There’s been a lot of supposedly expert speculation that Apple is going to abandon Apple TV because it’s not a hit. But while it’s not a hit, it’s not a failure, either, and, more importantly, there is no dominant player in this field, where by “this field” I mean that for consumer-level digital media management for the living room. I’m not going to say that Blu-ray is dead because it isn’t. But if DVD isn’t the last mainstream physical medium for home movie distribution, Blu-ray will be. The future, obviously and inevitably, is in downloads. I’m already there, and you, dear DF reader, probably are too, but for the mass market, downloadable movies for the living room remain in the future. The iPhone was an instant hit, but the iPod wasn’t. Apple grew the iPod from a Mac-only peripheral into a cultural sensation slowly but steadily over three or four years. I think they have a similar long-term plan for Apple TV. And in large part Apple — along with every other hardware maker — is hobbled by the limitations of what content the movie studios will allow them to distribute. The iTunes Store’s movie library has grown significantly over the past year, but it’s still far smaller than what your neighborhood video store has to offer. And while iTunes has high definition movies available to rent, the only movies you can buy are in standard definition. That’s a studio-imposed limitation, and it’s one that works in Blu-ray’s favor, and against Apple TV’s. (Wishful thinking on my part: I’d love for Apple to announce some Boxee-like features built-in as standard Apple TV features. The TV networks seem more willing to play ball with digital distribution than the movie studios, so, maybe.) There are rumors that Apple might release software that allows any Mac to serve as an Apple TV. I know nothing about such software, but if you think of it more as the unification of Front Row and Apple TV, it makes perfect sense. But I don’t expect Apple to abandon selling dedicated Apple TV hardware soon — even the cheapest Mac Mini costs a few hundred bucks more than an Apple TV. iPhone Nano — No. Frankly, I just don’t get these rumors. The only way this makes sense is if it’s a replacement for the iPhone 3G — i.e. a slightly smaller form factor for the existing iPhone 3G’s features. But why now, just six months after iPhone 3G debuted? The pattern seems to be for Apple to release new iPhone hardware every summer, much like who they’ve usually released new iPod hardware in the fall. (And why “nano” rather than “mini” for something that, according to the purported third-party case designs that the rumor is founded upon, is only a little bit smaller? With iPods, “nano” is used for models that are way smaller and thinner.) iPhone Tethering — No, but I would love to be wrong. The longer I use my iPhone, the more frustrating it feels that my MacBook doesn’t have the same sort of nearly-ubiquitous network access. I’m one of the lucky few to have scored a copy of NetShare during its brief availability on the App Store, and there are other solutions for jailbroken iPhones, but I want Apple-style integration. I can’t see any way that this could happen without having to pay an extra monthly fee to AT&T, but if the price is even just semi-reasonable, I’d pay it in a heartbeat. iPhone OS 3.0 Demo — My wildcard prediction, which, I will reiterate, is based on nothing more than my own speculation and wishful thinking. One thing I’m nearly certain of is that the next iPhone OS release will be 3.0, not 2.3, if for no other reason than that there have been no developer betas since the release of version 2.2. To my nose, that smells like a major release with significant new features is in the oven. I fully expect iPhone OS 3.0 to be announced and demoed at least a few months before it is released. Third-party developers need to time to adapt to any changes, add support for new features, and to bang away on beta releases to shake out the bugs. But assuming there will be significant new features, Apple will want to unveil them at a high-profile event. If I had to wager, I’d bet on a special event around March, much like last year’s event to unveil the iPhone SDK. But if it’s going to be ready for developer betas sooner than later, it’d be a nice surprise to see Phil Schiller call Scott Forstall on stage to demo it now. As for what might appear in iPhone OS 3.0, here’s my wish list. First, a new home screen app (a.k.a. SpringBoard), designed from the ground up for a system where users have a few dozen or more extra apps installed. Managing dozens of apps on the iPhone today is simply a pain in the ass. Second, maybe an answer to the question of where the background notification API is — you know, the one we were told at WWDC to expect a few months ago, but which we haven’t heard a word about since. And maybe — pretty please, Mr. Forstall, with sugar on top — copy and paste.

  • Maccast 2008.10.10

    A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 240. Royalty rate unchanged, iTunes saved. Replacement iPhone 3G adapters shipping. Apple invites press to notebook event on October 14th. LED displays for new Macbooks. More Macbook spec speculation. iTunes 8.0.1 Update. Apple TV 2.2 released. Steve Jobs has died, again. Apple's sales position. iPhone 2.2 software shaping up. iPhone eBooks burn the Kindle. EU rules might force removable iPod/iPhone batteries. Apple wins 5 British Technology Awards. The Dock is now patented. Apple Security Update 2008-007. 2.5" Drive sizes. Review: NewerTech USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter. The difference between 'new' and 'unplayed' in iTunes. Why don't we know Automator? Making iTunes purchases away from home. Buying a 2nd hand Mac. Webcams for non-iSight Macs. Managing preferred wi-fi networks. Backups vs archives. Special Thanks to our Sponsor: Faronics Power Save Mac - Faronics Power Save Mac uses intelligent power management to ensure workstations are saving energy and money when they are not being used. New music, Good Days by Joe Purdy EOL: Microsoft's "I'm a PC" Clone Behind the Scenes My philosophy: a hundred-dollar shine on a three-dollar pair of shoes. -- Stripes (1981) Shownotes in: HTML or OPML Subscribe to the Podcast Feed or Get the MP3

  • Software Updates & New Releases For Week Ending 2008-11-27

    Despite my MacBook Pro going into service yet again (getting a new one, btw), I managed to take a look at some of what the Internets had to offer before handing my venerable system to the Apple Store Geniuses. As always, only what I use makes it to the list so, drop a line to @hrbrmstr on Twitter if interested in having me scope out something. Also, any iPhone developers looking for an ad hoc tester should definitely drop me a note, as I'm a dev as well as a user and can run your app through its paces. Bible-Discovery - 2.2 - I'm always on the lookout for better Bible study tools and came across Bible-Discovery a little while ago. Intially, I was skeptical of a Java-based application (having written plenty of Swing-based apps in my time) but seeing that Miklos Zsido was up to a 2.x release series, I decided to give it a try. Despite the lack of more modern translations, I found the software to be pretty easy to navigate. Searching works well, window layout is pretty sane (if you've ever used complex Bible software, you know that this is a big problem in most programs) and it was easy to use without digesting a large user manual. For ~US$80.00, it's a bit steep given that you could do most of the work online for free. Users of commercial software such as Accordance (my offline tool of choice) will also find little reason to switch. Requires Java but runs on almost any platform. OmniPlan - 1.6.1 beta 1 - I manage a decent number of large-scale projects and could not do my job without OmniPlan. Microsoft Project is overkill for my needs and OmniPlan has a great Mac look-and-feel on top of being very functional. This beta release makes HTML exports and fixes two bugs. If you try it, please remember it is beta, so keep backups and provide feedback! Available for 10.4/10.5, Intel/PPC. US$150.00 Trek Trivia - 1.1 - Yes, I admit it. I'm a Star Trek geek. We own the series', collect the action figures and have all of the movies as well as the animated series (shudder). How, then, could I not have Trek Trivia? Esoteric facts that will mystify your friends are at your fingertips, and you can challenge you own personal databank as you learn new details. This version adds the now-expected auto-update functionality plus facts control by series. The best feature is the ability to copy the facts to the clipboard so you can spam all your IRC-mates with your l33t knowledge. Available for 10.4/10.5, Intel/PPC and free. MacSword - 1.4.3 - Taking a page from Apple, MacSword releases “bug fixes” to their staple Bible study tool. Available for 10.4/10.5, Intel/PPC & free. Camino - 1.6.4 - I keep a copy of most web browsers around most for testing of how they render pages. Camino has a great OS X look-and-feel while using the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine. Unfortunately, this means it must (or should) be ugraded each time security patches make it into the Mozilla codebase. This version updates Gecko (including security fixes), changes (restores, actually) behavior in certificate handling, modifies how it reads Keychain data and adds enhancements to how it blocks unwanted content. Available for 10.4/10.5, Intel/PPC and free. Java for Mac OS X 10.4, Release 7, Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 2 - Apple releases security, compatibility & bug fixes for Java 2 Platform Standard Edition 5.0 and Java 1.4 on Mac OS X 10.4.11 and later. This release updates J2SE 5.0 to version 1.5.0_16 and Java 1.4 to version 1.4.2_18 and Java SE 6, J2SE 5.0 and J2SE 1.4.2 on Mac OS X 10.5. Definitely need to upgrade once you finish your app-compatibility testing. OmniGraffle Pro - 5.1 beta 3 - One of my all-time favorite programs gets a beta update release which fixes a ton of bugs as well as improves the functionality of the sidebar. If you are still on Tiger, this app is worth the upgrade to Leopard alone. Again, it is beta, so all bets are off where your data is concerned and the Omni folks would appreciate your feedback. Pro version will set you back USD$200.00 and worth every penny. VLC media player - 0.9.3 - The Swiss Army tool of cross-platform audio/video receives an update which fixes many bugs, some specific to OS X. The full screen controller now has a new time label and remembers the position across media opens. Available for 10.4/10.5, Intel/PPC and free.

  • Update Tuesday continues with Firmware Restoration CD 1.6

    Filed under: Software UpdateWith three other software updates out the door today already, you could have forgiven Apple for not providing a third. However, Apple has also released an updated Firmware Restoration CD (version 1.6) for for a number of Mac models: Xserve (Early 2008) MacBook (13-inch Late 2007) iMac (20-inch Mid 2007) iMac (24-inch Mid 2007) The Firmware Restoration CD is used to bring the firmware on an Intel-based Macintosh back to factory condition in case of an emergency (such as an interrupted firmware install). Apple makes a note that you cannot use this CD to restore the firmware that has already been successfully applied to your system; this is used only for systems that did not successfully get a firmware update applied.You can download the Firmware Restoration CD from the Apple Support downloads website for your specific Mac. These CDs are great to keep around in case of firmware install issues (especially if you only have one Mac).Thanks to everyone who sent this in!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

  • Security Update 2007-009 for Leopard now available

    Filed under: OS, Software, Software Update, AppleIf you've been wondering when we'd see a security update for Mac OS X Leopard: you can stop holding your breath. Apple has just pushed out Security 2007-009 for Mac OS X 10.5.1. So what's been fixed? According to the release notes: Core Foundation Flash Player Plug-in Quick Look Safari Shockwave Plug-in and plenty more The update, which as ever is recommended for everyone running the latest big cat, weighs in at 35.6MB. If you're wanting to go ahead and install the update without waiting, you'll want to run over to the Apple Support site and grab the file, or simply run Software Update on your system. As with all OS X updates, we'd strongly suggest you have a working backup before installing on any mission-critical system.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

  • Software Update fixes possible journaling issue in some Macs

    Apple has released an update for some "mid-2007" MacBook and MacBook Pro machines that fixes a problem with the (lack of) journaling being enabled. The process isn't as simple as most of Apple's updates are, though.Read More...

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