The second minor incremental update for OS X Snow Leopard was released today, and it contains the usual expected bug fixes. It is also is said to contain built-in support for Apple’s new Magic Mouse, and may or may not remove support for Intel Atom processors. If you happen to be using a hackintosh and can confirm or deny whether or not the latest update breaks your system, please comment below and let us know.
You can download the update via Software Update now, or get it directly from the Apple Support site. Here’s Apple’s rather lengthy description of the update, including major bug fixes:
The 10.6.2 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes for:
- an issue that might cause your system to logout unexpectedly
- a graphics distortion in Safari Top Sites
- Spotlight search results not showing Exchange contacts
- a problem that prevented authenticating as an administrative user
- issues when using NTFS and WebDAV file servers
- the reliability of menu extras
- an issue with the 4-finger swipe gesture
- an issue that causes Mail to quit unexpectedly when setting up an Exchange server
- Address Book becoming unresponsive when editing
- a problem adding images to contacts in Address Book
- an issue that prevented opening files downloaded from the Internet
- Safari plug-in reliability
- general reliability improvements for iWork, iLife, Aperture, Final Cut Studio, MobileMe, and iDisk
- an issue that caused data to be deleted when using a guest account
For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3874.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.
O2 just announced what seems like a fairly magnanimous gesture on its part today, in preparation for the launch of the iPhone on other UK carriers and the end of iPhone exclusivity in that country. That should mean that O2 customers who want to take their business elsewhere can have their phones unlocked as early as tomorrow, since Nov. 10 is the stated launch date for Orange UK’s iPhone offerings.
The news, which comes via The iPhone Blog, is a promising sign for all iPhone users. If Apple is at all a party to the decision to allow unlocking of its devices in countries where the iPhone is available on multiple networks, then hope exists for countries like Canada, too, where the iPhone recently became available on Bell and Telus, as well as Rogers, the original carrier. Read the rest of this article »
The first iPhone worm has been discovered. It comes to us via Australia, and appears to be limited to that country for now, although it has the potential to spread. It also stars Rick Astley, so to speak. The work changes the iPhone’s wallpaper to an image of the 1980s pop singer, who’s enjoyed a recent resurgence thanks to the Rick-rolling Internet phenomenon.
The worm has the ability to break into jailbroken iPhones only. Even if you’ve jailbroken, you still aren’t vulnerable unless you’ve also installed SSH, and not changed the default password after doing so. As a result, only a small fraction of the larger iPhone community is probably susceptible to the “ikee virus,” as it is called in its own source code. Read the rest of this article »
According to a report by the Silicon Alley Insider, if you’re looking to hire an iPhone dev, it’s probably best to make sure you do a thorough background check before you do. Some coders have been claiming credit for work they didn’t do, and are using the false accolades to try and wrestle more work from unsuspecting companies and individuals looking to cash in on the App Store phenomenon.
Some of the lies being perpetrated are coming from firms that look otherwise legit. Lots of offshore development companies are cashing in on the trend by providing low-cost alternatives to in-house or domestic U.S. solutions, and some of those are taking serious heat for what appear to be bald-faced lies. Read the rest of this article »
Recently, Elgato released EyeTV for the iPhone (AppStore Link). At a cost of $4.99, its marketing blurb offers the following functionality:
With the EyeTV app, you can watch, record, and enjoy live and recorded TV on your iPhone or iPod touch. At last, you don‘t have to leave all your great TV shows at home; the EyeTV app puts the power of award-winning EyeTV in the palm of your hand.
The EyeTV app accesses EyeTV running on your Mac at home to deliver these great features to your iPhone:
- Watch live TV and change channels anywhere (Wi-Fi connection required)
- Watch your EyeTV recordings
- Browse the comprehensive Program Guide
- Start recordings back home on your Mac immediately or schedule them for later
- View and edit your recording schedules
How Does it Measure Up?
Now that we know the promises, how does the functionality work in practise and does it live up to the hype? To set the picture accurately; my set up is a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo Mac mini with 2GB of RAM and two Elgato Digital USB Tuner sticks. This is hooked up to an Airport Express, which extends my existing wireless connection from another room. Between myself and my wife, we have an iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 2nd Gen, so I will be testing EyeTV on all three looking for differences. Read the rest of this article »
There’s no doubt that cloud computing is a growing trend. All you have to look at is the popularity of netbooks to see that many people nowadays will be quite happy with a computing device that gives them access to the web, and not much else.
I’m certainly part of this trend, as I write this story I have the following web-based applications open on my Mac:
What surprises me isn’t how many web apps I’m accessing, but how few native Mac applications I am using to access these services. I am using Tweetie to access Twitter, Evernote has it’s own native Mac application and I use BusyCal to access Google Calendar. Apart from that, all of these web services are being accessed either via Safari (Facebook and Lexulous), or via Site Specific Browsers (SSBs), which means I’m using the naked, if you will, web interface for the application.
Two years ago I never would have done this. I actually wrote a whole blog post, on a now defunct blog, about how I eschewed web-based applications in favor of native Mac apps because I wanted a Mac-like experience. As such I used Mail.app to get my email, NetNewsWire for RSS feeds, Omni Focus for tasks, etc. Nowadays I use web-based apps for all those functions. Read the rest of this article »
Even as Verizon continues attacking AT&T’s comparatively poor network with new ads, and by proxy the iPhone, the latest rumor has Apple developing a “worldmode” iPhone capable of running on any network.
The three holiday-themed ads, “Blue Christmas,” “Elves,” and “Misfit Toys,” each highlight the weakness of AT&T’s 3G wireless coverage, but the latter most directly and hilariously attacks the iPhone. Paying homage to the Rankin/Bass animated classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, a familiar-looking device shows up on the Island of Misfit Toys, the place where defective toys are exiled. When the misfits ask why such a great toy that can download apps and browse the web is there, the familiar lackluster coverage map pops up.
The message of each commercial is the same: bad networks ruin even a great phone. AppleInsider is now reporting that perhaps Apple feels the same way, and is preparing to do something about it. Read the rest of this article »
Ten days after updating the Apple TV’s software to version 3.0, Apple has released version 3.0.1 along with an alarming warning about users’ content “temporarily” disappearing.
From the uninformative and unintentionally hilarious support document, if you are running Apple TV 3.0 and “all of your movies, TV shows, and songs appear to be missing” or “all of your movies, TV shows, and songs appear to be present,” you should update to version 3.0.1 immediately. Read the rest of this article »
As we wrote yesterday, MacHeist is doing a new promotion, this time offering six Mac apps for free. MacHeist has long been controversial in the indie developer community, with many developers believing that the promotion, which offers a bundle of applications at either a steep discount (or in this case for free), reduces the value of the work that developers put into Mac applications. One of the sharpest critics of MacHeist has been Daniel Jalkut, developer of MarsEdit.
In response to the latest MacHeist, Jalkut has organized a counter promotion of indie Mac developers offering a 20 percent discount on their applications. Dubbed the One Finger Discount, in a not-so-subtle nod towards the five finger discount some people say you get from MacHeist, the promotion is being offered for this week only. There are now over 40 different developers participating and new ones are being added all the time.
If you’re interested on picking up a discount on some interesting Mac software, or if you want to participate check out the website here.
Seeking to better manage the holiday deluge of visitors to Apple retail outlets, the company is now offering customers the option of ordering online and picking up purchases at their local store.
According to the new webpage, you can reserve an item “online today and it will be waiting for you to pick up and purchase at an Apple Retail Store from December 15 to 24.”
Customers using the program are first asked to choose a retail store. The service is currently available in the U.S., Canada, UK, and Australia. Choosing from iPods, iPhones, Mac laptops and desktops, but curiously not the Apple TV, customers then sign in with their Apple ID to reserve their purchase.
Unfortunately, customers must still pay at the brick-and-mortar store, so you won’t be able to completely escape the wait this holiday season. However, that’s still arguably better than having to spend all day at home waiting for a delivery. That benefit, plus the guarantee of an item being reserved, are the big advantages of the program. Plus, for an extra $5, those buying iPods and laptops can have their purchases wrapped in a “signature gift box.” Nothing says Merry Christmas like an Apple logo.
It’s time to delve in to the App Store and take a look at a select few releases that could find a happy home on your iPhone. This week I’ve selected four games that I’ll be zoning out with this weekend.
Of course there are scores of games out for the iPhone, but we’ve been lucky enough to have a few really excellent titles released in the past week or so.
My top pick for this week is 8-bit rhythm-action game Ninja Honda Karate. Plus, I’ve also been looking at Eliminate Pro, Horror Racing and Minima.
Amongst the endless generic game clones constantly arriving at the App Store, Ninja Honda Karate is a true breath of fresh air. It takes 8-bit video-games, Japanese culture, chip music and rhythm action gameplay, mashing it all together into a multicolor milieu of awesome.
The game premise just barely makes sense. You play as Karate Alberto Honda, a very Mario-esque but nonetheless cute hero. The aim is to karate chop coins in time to the blippy bloppy beat. Occasionally you’ll tap a mushroom, triggering a psychedelic rocket launch across the screen. At the end of each level, before the scores are tallied, you’ll also deliver a giant mushroom to the princess.
While the premise is gloriously nonsensical and convoluted, the gameplay is plain simple. Coins come out of various tubes on the screen, as they emerge, you simply tap the coin in time with the music. In effect, you end up performing the soundtrack as you play the game. The game certainly isn’t innovative, but that’s the point: it’s a beatific mashup of everything else.
Read the rest of this article »
The new plastic unibody MacBook is arguably the second-best MacBook model Apple has produced yet (trumped only by the late 2008 aluminum unibody MacBook). So why am I finding myself unexpectedly underwhelmed and disappointed with it?
When rumors began circulating in late summer about an imminent new unibody MacBook in polycarbonate plastic. Being a consummate Apple laptop aficionado, I was excited. Speculation that it would sell in the $700 – $800 range further whetted my anticipation but I was also expecting something insanely great. After all, Apple could build on what it had learned making polycarbonate MacBooks for three and half years (the best-selling Mac model ever) combined with the unibody engineering of the MacBook Pros adapted to plastic materials. Read the rest of this article »
Once upon a time, iTunes did exactly what it sounded like it should do: play music. It was the digital jukebox for your mac, Rip, Mix, Burn, remember that?
Looking at the sidebar in iTunes now, I’ve got Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, iTunes U, Audiobooks, Applications, and Radio, and that’s just the main library. Next is the iTunes Store and a “Purchased” smart list, the Genius feature, iTunes DJ and (finally) my custom Smart Playlists. That’s a lot to pack into one application, especially considering that many of the features have nothing to do with each other. There are very few times when I’m wanting to watch a movie that I care to look through my music collection. Music and video are two different functions, and in my opinion, deserve two different apps.
Actually, I’d like to see Apple release an entire “iApps Suite,” separating out audio, video, and applications. Strip Movies and TV Shows out of iTunes and integrate them into a new “iVideo” app, or something similarly named. Hide the video content from the iTunes store in iTunes and create a link for an iVideo store inside the new video app.
Similarly, I’d like to see Apple break out the App Store into it’s own dedicated application. Leave the functionality exactly as it is now and simply move it into its own app. There are many times that I’ve got iTunes open, most of the time just to listen to music, and have no interest whatsoever in my collection of apps. Read the rest of this article »
What better way to end the week than with two fresh, shiny new iPhone rumors to chew on? According to various reports, the iPhone 3GS could get an 8GB model just in time for the holidays, and Apple is said to be testing iPhones that support radio-frequency identification (RFID), a tech that allows devices to sense nearby embedded chips without coming in actual contact with them.
While the timing of both rumors happens to be concurrent, please note that it is very unlikely that if Apple were to release an 8GB iPhone 3GS in time for the holiday season, it would use the new RFID tech. It’s more likely that the RFID integration will come to fruition in later models of the iPhone. Read the rest of this article »
MacHeist announced its newest Mac app bundle, the MacHeist Nano. The traditional MacHeist software bundle is usually severely discounted and there has always been a price. But, for this one, they’re giving the software bundle for free.
MacHeist is offering six apps instead of the usual dozen or so it usually does with its regular offering…hence the “nano” part.
ShoveBox
(Retail: $24.95)
ShoveBox catches all those little scraps of information that you can’t act on now but would rather not forget. It sits in your menubar, waiting for you to drag in text, images, URL’s and more.
Read the rest of this article »
Over the years, I’ve been forced to redefine my definition of “native” game clients for OS X. At first, I was a die-hard, nothing but true native code for me, thanks. Then, as the harsh reality of understanding that true native code is about as likely as Congress putting aside their differences and acting on what’s best for the common man, in a moment of true despair I opined that maybe running games in Crossover wasn’t such a bad idea.
Now, the trend seems to be to use TransGaming’s Cider, which in non-technical terms a wrapper game developers can use to bridge their Windows code over to OS X. It’s not a “true” native client, but, since it doesn’t require a virtual machine or the ritual sacrifices that seem to go along with getting games to run on Crossover, I can handle that. Warhammer Online, from EAMythic is the latest game to get ported. After a few months of beta, it was released October 26. Full disclosure: this isn’t a full review. I’ve only got about 15 hours or so of game play to base these observations on.
I’ve had decent luck with Cider ports, although my sample set of Sims 3 and Spore is a little small. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) is definitely the most resource-intensive of the ports I’ve tried. For the most part, it worked fairly well. I have a brand-new MacBook Pro, but with only 2GB of RAM. I had enough stutters and jerks to prove to me that jumping to 4GB would be optimal, but it wasn’t unplayable with 2GB, either. Read the rest of this article »
Security firm Symantec is warning computer users about a new Mac-specific Trojan that deletes files on the user’s hard drive, according to Techworld.com. It has dubbed the piece of malware “OSX.Loosemaque,” and uploaded a YouTube video of how it goes about its nefarious purpose.
Basically, it’s a Space Invader clone wherein when you kill an alien, a file in your home folder is deleted. It looks like it’s evil — and designed to perform such a task without the knowledge of the Mac owner on which the program resides. But it isn’t. It’s an art project that clearly advertises its purpose and nature to all who would wish to use it. Read the rest of this article »
Fortune magazine just published an article in which it names Steve Jobs, Apple CEO and co-founder, CEO of the decade. How does one merit such a grandiose title? Well, by doing the seemingly impossible, that’s how. Fortune recounts the Coles Notes version of Jobs’ life and times, and it sounds too fantastic to be true. Yet it is true, and it is at least partly responsible for the rabid devotion Apple commands.
The magazine describes the ousting of Steve in the 1980’s, his return in the 90’s, and the decade-long story that follows, which includes harrowing health problems, a securities-law scandal, and a product line badly in need of innovation and originality.
Despite having taken over the company when it was worth only $5 billion, and seemingly on the verge of failure and bankruptcy, Steve Jobs ushered in devices like the iPod which helped change the company’s fortunes dramatically (they now control 73 percent of the U.S. MP3 player market), eventually leading to the $170 billion net company worth that exists today. In August of this year, Apple reported that it had $31.1 billion in cash on hand, an amount that would allow it to buy its pre-Jobs self six times over. Read the rest of this article »
Hot on the heels of the release of VMWare Fusion 3, the folks at Parallels have released Parallels Desktop 5, matching the features of VMWare Fusion 3 and adding some new ones to boot. You can get a quick overview of the newest features in the Parallels press release.
Parallels Desktop 5 costs $79.99 for the full package, or $49.99 to upgrade from either Parallels Desktop 3 or 4. Parallels is also offering a free upgrade key for those who bought Parallels 4 after Oct. 1. This is also valid for Parallels 4 purchases up until Dec. 31. Customers must retrieve this before Jan. 15, 2010.
Besides the obvious two features, fully supporting Snow Leopard and Windows 7, some of the awesome new features are best shown in screenshots. Read the rest of this article »
It’s a game series that’s gotten much love over the years, despite, or perhaps because of, the cheesy live action cut scenes featuring actors like Tim Curry. Now, Command & Conquer comes to the iPhone with Command & Conquer: Red Alert ($9.99, iTunes link), named after its PC and console counterpart released in 1996.
How well does the beloved RTS translate to the iPhone platform? That depends on what you’re looking to get out of the game. EA Mobile has clearly tried to faithfully translate the experience, but as with any translation, no perfect one-to-one relationship can exist. What does come through, however, is definitely worth looking at. Read the rest of this article »
