Safari version 4.0.4 is now available, the 30MB update promising improvements to “performance, stability, and security.”

Regarding security, the update addresses several potential “maliciously crafted” attacks–are there such things as benevolently crafted attacks? One uses a color profile, which is inventive, if evil. Others use XML, shortcut menus, or the user’s desire to visit web pages or FTP sites of questionable virtue.

Sadly, as the Mac gains greater popularity, the mantra of “security through obscurity” becomes less and less reassuring. This is one area where Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer may end up having an actual advantage over OS X and Safari, Windows having been forced to exist in a state of siege for so long.

As for improvements to stability and performance, it’s not just the usual boilerplate text included with the update this time. Besides supposed stability improvements for third-party plug-ins, the search field, and Yahoo! Mail, Safari 4.0.4  has “improved full history search performance for users with a large number of history items.” I’m one of those users, and I would cringe when going to “Show All History” and using the realtime search box. The first few letters would stall Safari every time, not so much now.

Safari 4.0.4 also improves JavaScript performance. Running the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark, Safari 4.0.4 is 1.08 times as fast version 4.0.3 overall, with “significant” increases in many tests.

Finally and most importantly, Safari 4.0.4 does not break ClickToFlash. Upgrade (and restart) away.

Microsoft issued updates for Office 2004 and 2008 covering security issues for both versions, as well as an XML conversion tool. The Office 2008 update also includes a number of minor fixes to enhance stability.

Regarding security, both updates address vulnerabilities “that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code.” Opening a “specially crafted” Word or Excel file could grant the attacker the same user rights as the local user, including administrative rights if applicable. The XML Conversion Tool was also updated to address this issue.

The 12.2.3 update for Mac Office 2008 update also focuses on stability. In Word, general crashing issues have been addressed. The update also fixes the annoying text-spacing bug when opening some Windows Office documents. For Excel, crashing issues when using PivotTables has been addressed. PowerPoint also addresses stability. Apparently, Entourage is stable enough, though there is a new junk mail definition file. Finally, Microsoft Document Connection for the Mac gets several minor upgrades and fixes.

While this minor update is welcome, many Mac Office users are waiting for information about, if not an actual release of, Outlook for the Mac. In August, we learned Mac Outlook will be out by Christmas 2010, will be built from the ground up using Cocoa, and will have many features we desire, but since then nothing. How about an update on that?

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.

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.

In a letter to unlucky Apple TV users, the Apple TV team (at least those that still have jobs) gave instructions for updating.

1. Reboot your Apple TV (unplug the power cord and plug it back in)
2. Select Settings > General from the main menu
3. Select Update Software
4. Select Download and Install

After a restart, the problem of disappearing content should be solved. That’s the good news. The bad news is there are still a number of problems with the 3.x software.

Philip Elmer-DeWitt at Apple 2.0 beat me to the Apple Support Forum and found 10,000 page views for the missing content discussion, as well as continuing complaints after updating to the latest version. Reported problems include the Apple TV no longer syncing with iTunes, surround sound problems, new purchases not showing up, as well as performance issues.

It appears Apple’s “hobby,” as the Apple TV has been described by company executives, could use a little more developer attention, not to mention a purpose besides being an iTunes Store kiosk.

Apple has released what it calls “Performance Update 1.0,” an update to its Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard) operating systems for selected iMacs and MacBooks.

As Apple describes it — in typically brief fashion — in its Support pages, ”This update addresses intermittent hard drive related pauses reported by a small number of customers.”

Gotta love those detailed descriptions!

The update may be related to an EFI Firmware Update in June that some MacBook owners suspect was the cause of intermittent crashes and system freezes. This latest update may well put these problems to rest once and for all, except there’s something interesting about the name…that 1.0 suffix hints at the possibility of further revisions to come. A “Performance Update, Update” perhaps?

The update isn’t for everyone, however. It applies only to the following Mac models.

MacBook
MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008)
MacBook (13-inch, Early 2009)
MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2009)

MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2009)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2009)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.53GHz, Mid 2009)

MacBook Air
MacBook Air (Late 2008)
MacBook Air (Mid 2009)

Mac Mini
Mac Mini (Early 2009)

iMac
iMac (24-inch, Early 2009)
iMac (20-inch, Early 2009)
iMac (20-inch, Mid 2009)

A month after Apple made iPhone OS 3.1 available, version 3.1.2 for the iPhone and iPod touch can now be downloaded via iTunes.

Besides achieving version synchronicity (3.1.1 came with the 3G iPod touch), the update addresses issues with waking from sleep, cellular network disruption, and crashes while streaming video.

The most notable problem, the “iPhone coma” issue, resulted in some iPhones becoming unresponsive, touch controls not working, and phone not ringing when called. This required a hard reboot, but that was only a workaround. It’s still too early to tell whether 3.1.2 is a true fix for that pernicious issue.

Unfortunately, what was not addressed in the terse update log at all was battery life. That’s a little irritating because the problem has been acknowledged by Apple as “under investigation.” While fixes for issues relating to loss of network connection or random crashing/freezing are always welcome, those issues seem to affect a relatively small number of users. The battery life problem likely impacts most iPhones, if not most iPhone owners, the latter being dependent on how the individual uses the iPhone. Still, one hopes there is an iPhone OS update coming that will address the power management issue, and sooner rather than later.

In addition to the iPhone OS update, there is also a carrier update, version 5.6, but no info on what it does.

Two weeks after introducing iTunes 9 at the “It’s Only Rock and Roll” music event, Apple has released the first update to the software.

Version 9.0.1 of iTunes cryptically addresses performance and stability, as well as resolving unnamed issues when browsing the iTunes Store. Syncing issues related to applications and Podcast playlists have been addressed. The Genius now automatically updates to show Genius Mixes, and the issue of sorting albums with multiple discs has been fixed — finally. Lastly, there is the matter of the zoom button behavior.

Through iTunes 8, clicking the zoom — green — button brought up the mini-player. This contradicted Apple Human Interface Guidelines, which states that the zoom button “toggles a window between its standard state and its user state.” With iTunes 9, the decision was made to make the behavior of the zoom button consistent with other applications. Accessing the mini-player window was done by holding the Option key while clicking zoom.

Were Ralph Waldo Emerson alive today, he might have said something about foolish consistency and iTunes 9, and it’s highly likely a lot of people did because Apple has restored the previous behavior. Clicking the zoom button toggles between a normal window and the mini-player window. Holding down the Option key and clicking zoom toggles between normal window states.

Available for both the Mac and Windows, including a 64-bit version for Vista, iTunes 9 can be had through Software Update or downloaded directly.

Better. Faster. Easier. That marketing speak from Apple about Snow Leopard can now add: Updated.

Two weeks after “the world’s most advanced OS” debuted, the world’s most advanced update is out. At a slim 75MB, 10.6.1 offers the usual stability and compatibility improvements, as well as correcting an embarrassing mistake on Apple’s part. The bullet points include:

• Sierra Wireless 3G modem compatibility
• Improves printer compatibility
• DVD playback fix
• Issue removing Dock items resolved
• Issue accessing the special characters menu resolved
• Fixes problems with auto account setup in Mail
• Issues sending mail with some SMTP servers resolved
• Motion 4 stability fix
• Updates Adobe Flash Player plug-in version to 10.0.32.18

Regarding the Flash plug-in, Snow Leopard included an out-of-date version on the disc, one that could have led to “arbitrary code execution when viewing a maliciously crafted web site.” 10.6.1 includes the most recent version of the plug-in.

Apple also released security updates for plain, old Leopard, as well as Tiger, but Snow Leopard is the new cat in town. Mac OS X 10.6.1 is recommend for regular users as well as compulsive upgraders via Software Update and direct download.

I was just installing the Garage Band update on my Mac mini, when lo and behold, upon checking again at completion for updates, the 10.5.8 cumulative update appeared.

I’ve yet to update my mini to 10.5.7, because of reported issues with outputting to 720p resolution, which is the resolution of the TV I have it connected to. 10.5.8 appears to fix display resolution issues, as stated in the update description itself.

It also claims to bring the usual bug fixes and security enhancements we’ve come to expect from incremental updates, in addition to solutions for AirPort connectivity and reliability issues, Bluetooth connectivity problems, and sluggish startup times. My iMac has had some AirPort hiccups from time to time, which I’ve actually just learned to live with, but hopefully 10.5.8 gets rid of even those minor annoyances.

It’s available now via Software Update, and you can read more about it at this Apple Support article.

Days after the SMS vulnerability was reported, in which a single character could be used to crash or even take over an iPhone, Apple has released a single-purpose update.

The Knowledgebase Article makes it sound as potentially bad as it is.

Impact: Receiving a maliciously crafted SMS message may lead to an unexpected service interruption or arbitrary code execution

Description: A memory corruption issue exists in the decoding of SMS messages. Receiving a maliciously crafted SMS message may lead to an unexpected service interruption or arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue through improved error handling. Credit to Charlie Miller of Independent Security Evaluators, and Collin Mulliner of Fraunhofer SIT for reporting this issue.

All iPhones were vulnerable to attack, regardless of OS version. The only defense from having your personality rewritten or being possessed by a ghost was to shut the phone off, which was hardly practicable. While it’s always nice to see Apple give credit to the those who discover an exploit, it’s unfortunate it took the researchers going public to get the company to move on this issue.

Quite a few folks are reporting problems in getting the Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update installed and working properly on their officially supported Macs, while “hackintosh” netbook users are finding they’re getting dramatically improved battery runtime with 10.5.7 — one of those ironies.

I’m still waiting to see how the dust settles, and also looking for a time window to drive to my “local” (24 miles round-trip) library’s Wi-Fi hotspot and cool my heels for a couple of hours while the 729 MB OS 10.5.7 standalone Combo Updater downloads over their none-too-speedy wireless LAN. In the meantime, OS 10.5.6 is giving me nothing in particular to complain about on either my Intel unibody MacBook or my 17″ G4 PowerBook, so there’s no compelling reason to be in a tear about updating.

“Belt & Suspenders”

I have never allowed Software Update to upgrade an OS install on any of my computers. It’s a moot point anyway on my glacial-drift-slow home dial-up connection, but I wouldn’t be inclined to let something as crucial and potentially problematical as an OS update run in the background even over the fastest broadband connection. I keep Software Update turned off.

I know millions do take the SU route without experiencing difficulties. But there are also those who will encounter contretemps like stalled installers, blue screens, and a variety of post-upgrade issues of the sort that get reported on MacFixIt, MacInTouch and other forums, including Apple’s, after every OS upgrade or security patch release. MacFixIt has flatly stated that “Apple’s Software Update, as presently implemented, is inherently dangerous.” On the other hand, over the course of dozens of OS X installs, upgrades and updates since OS 10.1 on my machines, I’ve never experienced a serious problem, and I attribute that, at least in part, to my “belt & suspenders” approach to updating.

That said, I’m less obsessive than I used to be about preparation. I used to do disk optimizations, or even defragment using AlSoft’s highly regarded Disk Warrior utility before running major system upgrades, but I haven’t been doing that for the past couple of years, and so far so good. With today’s larger hard drive capacities, the time investment involved in that sort of disk maintenance has become more prohibitive.

Maintenance and Backup

Before updating the OS, I do at least bring my Time Machine backup up to date (easy, and something we should all keep current anyway) and run a suite of system cleaning and maintenance routines — Repair Permissions, cron scripts, dump various caches, and so forth with my favorite system maintenance app, OnyX. I don’t believe the world would necessarily come crashing down around my ears if I skipped these preparations, but I like to proceed with things in an orderly and unhurried fashion if possible.

Maybe I would have done just as well using Software Update, but the thing about precautionary principles is that you take pre-emptive action before there is a problem so you don’t have to spend more time fixing one later. If all goes well, as it has for me till now taking this tack, at least one has done no harm.

You could argue that most of the time, running system and disk maintenance software is an act of faith, with no tangible evidence to indicate that it’s doing anything at all. But sometimes it does fix obvious problems, which suggests that stuff can also go wrong “under the hood” without any notable symptoms. Whenever I do find the time to run Disk Warrior, it almost invariably finds directory damage and files that need repair.

Common Sense Prudence

I also prefer to use the Combo updater if I’m not absolutely pressed for time on the download, which is the mode MacFixIt and other experts recommend. The standalone installer is especially useful if you have multiple computers to update and only want to download the software once. The full Combo standalone update is a more fail-safe and superior alternative to the incremental version offered by SU.

I think it’s simply common sense prudence to at least minimize use of the computer during OS updates. If one has the time (I concede that I usually don’t do this) it’s a good idea to boot the Mac into Safe Boot Mode (hold down the Shift key during a reboot) before running the installer. Be aware that starting up in Safe Mode takes a long time because it runs a media scan during the boot process, so be prepared to wait about five minutes or so before the login screen appears, which it will even if you have automatic login configured.

Happy Medium?

Is there a happy medium to be struck between “What, me worry?” and obsessive compulsive take? Neither approach is necessarily “wrong.” It really depends on your comfort level with risk, and to some degree, on the amount of time you can invest in running upgrades. However, a failed upgrade will usually burn a lot more time than an ounce of preparation.

What’s your preferred OS upgrade/update approach? Do you rush right in, hang back and take it slow, or use multiple strategies for different machines?

There was a lot of buzz that it might come today, and it has. Apple just released Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.7 for download via Software Update. As one, let us install and restart our computers. Maybe the Internet will pause for a second in our absence.

Here are some highlights from the new release:

• Includes additional RAW image support for several third-party cameras.
• Improves performance of video playback and cursor movements for recent Macs with NVIDIA graphics.
• Improves the reliability and accuracy of Unit Converter, Stocks, Weather and Movies Dashboard widgets.
• Addresses a situation that may cause issues when logging into Gmail.
• Improves reliability when syncing contacts with Yahoo.
• Improves network performance when connected to certain Ethernet switches that have Flow Control enabled.
• Improves stability for network home directories hosted by Mac OS X Server v10.4.
• Improves Finder search results for network volumes that may not support Spotlight searching, such as Mac OS X Server v10.4, Time Capsule, and third-party AFP servers.
• Includes several improvements to Directory Service and Client Management, which are described in the About Mac OS X Server 10.5.7 Update article.

For a complete list of fixes and enhancements, check out Apple’s official support article detailing the release. As always, let us know if the update brings any unpleasant surprises.

Apple today released an update for iTunes, bringing the version number to 8.1.1.

The new version (currently available from Software Update) supposedly fixes syncing issues with the iPhone and iPod touch (which I’ve been lucky enough not to encounter) and with VoiceOver, the we-don’t-need-no-stinkin’-display substitute for the iPod Shuffle.

It’s also supposed to bring HD movie rental support to the media management software, though a cursory investigation by yours truly does not reveal any movies that are currently available for rent in said format, in either the Canadian or the U.S. iTunes stores. Maybe the standard $3.99 rental price now includes an HD resolution copy when available? I’m too scared to try it out, so let us know if you’re a braver soul than I.

A while back we reported about issues 17-inch MacBook Pro owners were having with vertical lines and other distortion appearing on their displays. Almost three weeks later, Apple has released a fix for the issue. Officially dubbed “MacBook Pro Graphics Firmware Update 1.0,” it’s downloadable immediately via Software Update.

Apple doesn’t point any fingers regarding the source of the problem, which seemed to be the NVIDIA GeForce 9600M card that handles dedicated graphics processing. Let’s hope this fix does finally resolve the issue once and for all, because otherwise Apple might have to move on to hardware replacement and even a general recall. Let us know whether or not the fix works if you were experiencing problems.

Get ready QuickTime junkies — Apple is taking care of you. If you check Software Update, you’ll notice a new flavor of QuickTime is available today.

From Apple’s support document, here is what we can expect in this update.

Video:

• Improves single-pass H.264 encoding quality
• Increases the playback reliability of Motion JPEG media

Audio:

• Improves AAC encoding fidelity
• Audio tracks from MPEG video files now export consistently

Application Support:

• Improves compatibility with iChat and Photo Booth

You can download the new version right now via Software Update. Just note that you’ll have to Restart upon completion of installation, as QuickTime is a system component.

Apple TV 2.3 was not enough. They could not stop at iPhone OS 2.2. Apple had to introduce the perfect storm of updates to impact users of all their systems and devices by unleashing Quicktime H.264 Compatibility Update (now at version 7.5.5) and iTunes 8.0.2 (plus the required download of the new iPhone SDK to match the 2.2 OS release).

While the former only “improves QuickTime compatibility with iChat,” the iTunes update “improves stability and performance” and:

• addresses a quality issue creating MP3s on some computers
• fixes a connectivity issue with the iTunes Store when using some Internet proxies with Mac OS X
• improves accessibility with VoiceOver

The H.264 update will require a restart and I strongly suggest performing all iPhone/iPod Touch updates before upgrading iTunes (always reduce the number of potential things that can go wrong). Both installation packages are available via Software Update and should be available in the download section of Apple’s support site later today. The iTunes installation package is available at the usual download location.

The most impressive part of all these updates is how well the Apple file servers have held up under the load and how much their QA processes have improved. The iPhone update downloaded very quickly and the entire backup/update procedures went very smoothly. iTunes did not clobber my libraries and I had no issues with the Apple TV 2.3 update (yes, I was willing to give up Boxee for a peek at the new “official” features). The SDK download went faster than any other one I have attempted to grab and install, and it successfully compiled and installed one of my in-development apps without incident.

Let’s hope Apple manages to make this the “new normal” for all their updates.

Today Apple released the iPhone 2.2 firmware update and it is available to download throught iTunes. Just click on “check for updates” to force iTunes to call home and start downloading the latest update.

While some iPhone pages have not been updated yet, you can download a new iPhone User Guide from Apple.com that outlines how to use these new features. Developers will also find an updated iPhone SDK in the iPhone Dev Center.

Browsing through the menus, it looks like the background push notification service that was promised (~56:35) for September is still missing. But what is there looks nice.

The new Street View in Maps is awesome. I’ve found that feature really useful at times when I want to get an idea of what a building looks like before I head out on the road. The other thing I’m really excited about? The new option to click the Home button to jump to the first Home screen. I have my icons arranged to put the most important items on the first page. I’ll definitely use this option so I can quickly jump back to my main apps instead of swiping, swiping, swiping, etc. to get back to the first page (why doesn’t Apple just let home screens wrap around so swiping to the right of the last page takes you back to the first page?).

Updated features and fixes

• Enhancements to Maps
  • Google Street View
  • public transit and walking directions
  • display address of dropped pins
  • share location via email
• Enhancements to Mail
  • resolved issues with scheduled fetching of email
  • improved formatting of wide HTML email
• Improved stability and performance of Safari
• Podcasts are now available for download in iTunes application (over Wi-Fi and cellular network)
• Decrease in call set-up features and call drops
• Improved sound quality of visual voicemail messages
• Pressing the Home button from any screen takes you to the first Home screen
• Preference to turn on/off the auto-correction in Keyboard Settings

Here’s a few screenshots of the new features in action…

The new Map View – when available, you’ll see a little orange person that lets you know there is a street view available.

Street View – When you click on the new icon, you’ll be presented with a landscape layout of the street view. You navigate in the street view by swiping to move the view around and clicking on the arrows to move up and down the street. Clicking on the circular map in the lower-right will return you to map view.

Share Location – you can share the current map location by clicking on “Share Location” on the details page. If you want to share your own location as determined by GPS, you just need to drop a pin on the map first and then click on the blue arrow to get to the details page for that location. Clicking on “Share Location” opens a new email message with a link to Google Maps.

Safari changes – The visible change to Safari is a redesign of the address bar. The magnifying glass and the stop/reload button are gone and integrated into the address field and Google search field. The stop and reload icons are in the address field itself.

Podcasts – you can now browse through podcasts through the iTunes Store application right on your iPhone. You have a choice of What’s Hot, Top Tens, and Categories.

Podcast details – the details page for an individual podcast shows you the latest episodes available to download. If you tap on the episode it will load immediately and start playing.

Podcast downloads – If you choose to download the podcast episode, just click on the “FREE” icon and then again to download. iTunes will add the episode to your downloads.

Keyboard auto-correction – you can turn off auto-correction (or turn it back on later) with a new option in Settings → General → Keyboard.

What do you like best about the new update? Any problems with updating or using the new features? Please let us know in the comments below.

Coverage elsewhere on the GigaOM network: jkOnTheRun.

While the highlight of my week was seeing the release of some new security software (albeit, one that needs work), there was a great deal happening in the rest of the OS X application world that is worth a mention.

• VLC media player – 0.9.5 – The de-facto, plays-anything, multi-platform media player get a small bump that plugs three security holes (CVE-2008-4686, CVE-2008-4654 & CVE-2008-3964), enhances closed caption parsing and fixes a few bugs. I’m still somewhat disappointed that VLC does not make it possible to make your built-in drive “region free” on newer Intel Macs, but it’s important to install the update, if only to keep your system defenses as sharp as possible. Details: Free! [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC]
• Audacity – 1.3.6 – This very handy audio-editing utility has a small version update which greatly reduced the footprint of saved projects and increases support for MIDI content. Audacity’s temporary/working directory is now more easily accessible by less technical OS X users (yay!) and FFmpeg has been updated to the latest release. Details: Free! [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC]
• 1Password – 2.9.3 – Agile has done a minor bump to their password management utility with some enhancements to 1Password’s desktop app’s ability to sync successfully with its iPhone counterpart along with other small changes and bug fixes. Details: $39.95 [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC]
• Bee Docs Timeline – 2.2.1 – While I am normally a pretty responsible netizen and do submit bug reports to software developers, I failed to do so for an item that was fixed in this update to Bee Docs Timeline. I really like the 3D timeline generator but noticed that you had to actually enable tick marks for timelines to render properly in 3D. This update fixes this bug and also lets the “era” date format map better to localization setting and date/time preferences. Details: $40.00/$65.00 [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC]
• Screenium 1.0.4 – While there are many options for screen recording in OS X, Synium’s Screenium has really been growing on me ever since the betas. There have been several updates since October 1st which have improved functionality and smashed a number of bugs. It’s a steal at $20.00 and I highly recommend checking it out if you have not done so already. Details: $20.00 [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC]
• Garmin WebUpdater – 2.0.4 – Most folks who have been waiting patiently for Garmin to really show some love for OS X will admit that the efforts to-date have been less than exemplary. To their credit, Garmin does seem committed to providing tools for Mac users and this minor revision to their WebUpdater fixes crashing issues when attempting to upgrade certain GPS models and also resolves an issue that caused downloads over slow links to fail. Details: Free! [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC]
• Today – 1.3.2 – Office users may have “My Day”, but you can realize the full task-management potential of Apple Mail, iCal and Address Book with secondgear’s highly useful little utility. You get an at-a-glance view of what you have “goin’ on” and can use the app to create events and tasks without having to deliberately jump-start iCal. Well worth the $15.00 investment if you rely heavily on Apple’s built-in toolset. Details: $15.00 [10.5-ONLY; Intel/PPC]
• Flow – 1.1 – While I am a die-hard user of ExpanDrive, Extendmac continues to impress me with the slick UI in Flow and I consider it a must-have utility if you do any work with Amazon S3. Version 1.1 removes the need to use the Finder when uploading/downloading, provides a mechanism to use external editors, enhances their nifty QuickLook functionality, interfaces with public iDisks, tosses some nods to better security, and makes use of multi-touch on Macs that support it. A very nice job by Brian and crew, with a ton of features added for just a dot-release. Details: $29.00 [10.5-ONLY; Intel/PPC]
• Microsoft Office 2008 – 12.1.4 – Since one can never have too many Microsoft Office updates, the MacBU folks have given us a “fix to the fix”, as it were. 12.1.4 fixes an issue that prevented Exchange accounts in Entourage from sending meeting invitations and responses, especially when an Entourage identity is configured with more than one mail account. It is a highly-recommended update by Microsoft. Details: Free! (well, the update is, but Office 2008 prices vary) [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC]

Remember, toss your alpha/beta or pre-release invites my way. If I test or am a regular user of your software, you’ll make it to the list as I only mention what I use or try.

Microsoft released three updates yesterday which fix bugs and address security concerns in their Office family of products and utilities.

The first is for the Open XML File Format Converter, which bumps the version to 1.0.1 and fixes a remote code execution (rated by Microsoft as “important”) associated with security bulleting MS08-057. The Open XML Converter allows you to convert Open XML files that were created in Office 2008 for Mac or Office 2007 for Windows so that you can open, edit, and save them in earlier versions of Office for Mac. The download is 44MB and should be installed by anyone running Office 2004 or Office v. X on OS X 10.4.9 or higher.

Next up is Office 2004 with a 13MB patch to version 11.5.2 which addresses vulnerabilities which could allow attackers to run code on your system.

Similarly, Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac kicks it up to version 12.1.3 which addresses similar vulnerabilities as the Office 2004 update in this 154MB download.

You can avoid all this work by letting Microsoft do the work for you with their auto-update.

In Good Company

Apple also posted Security Update 2008-007 on October 9th, which addressed nineteen (19) groups of vulnerabilities across a wide spectrum of OS X 10.4 and OS X 10.5 built-in software. Of particular interest are:

• fixes to QuickLook crashes for users of Microsoft Excel
• a patch to a local privilege escalation issue with the network stack
• a fairly gnarly problem with launchd (specific to OS X 10.5.5) that can result in improper sandoxing of some scheduled applications
• correction to a buffer overflow situation with ColorSync that can be taken advantage of with maliciously crafted images (those evil images again)

Apple also updated trusted root certificates (which are an important component of ensuring secure network communications).

You can check out the other vulnerabilities that were corrected and grab them via Software Update or Apple Downloads (between 31MB & 200MB depending on your system).

Firmware Updates Join The Frey

Apple also posted MacBook/MacBook Pro Software Update 1.2 which — true to form — nebulously “improves compatibility with external displays and includes a variety of software fixes” (would anyone let Microsoft get away with this?). The 45MB update is available now.

The updates caused no issues for me, but I’d be interested to hear if anyone else experienced any problems or post-install issues.

My Apple TV woes managed to eat away at some of the time I would have dedicated to scouring for updates and new toys, but I managed to find some interesting applications and utilities. I didn’t have time to put Stainless (a Google Chrome-like browser for OS X based on WebKit) through enough paces to really post, but wanted to give it a mention since it has some very interesting features and may be a glimpse into the future of Safari. I also wanted to take the opportunity to once-again thank Tyler Loch for his work on VisualHub (and other goodies) over the years. Your contributions to the OS X community will be sorely missed!

• AIM for Mac – Beta 1 – Much to the surprise of many, AOL decided to release a new beta of their instant messenger for OS X. The big question, as a result, is “Why?”. After testing it out, I can find no compelling reason to switch from iChat or Adium and no features that would make this a “must-have” application, but I welcome your thoughts in the comments. [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC] Free!
• Gimp.app – 2.6.0 – Hot on the heels of the official Gimp release comes the OS X native (non-X11) release, complete with enhanced toolbars/docks, full panning beyond the image border, much-improved free-select tool and snazzy improvements to brushes. Much of the enhancements were under-the-covers and provided a foundation for future crunchy-goodness by integrating GCEL (Generic Graphics Library), a powerful graph-based image processing framework (think “undo”) and support for a wider range of color models and pixel storage formats when reading or saving images. The developers also improved plug-in support.
  
  The interface is not exactly perfectly Mac-like and feels awkward and clunky at times, but it is definitely usable and has a good feature set. Would you use it over Photoshop or even some of the newer Flash-based online editors? Let me know your thoughts! [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC] Free!
• ReceiptWallet – 2.0.8 – This minor update will make folks in Switzerland happy (fixes an issue with that locale), but also fixes a couple of other annoyances (a “Cancel” button one that was – on occasion – catching me) and a few bugs. [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC] US$39.95
• Apple iTunes – 8.0.1 & Apple TV – 2.2 – As you saw on TAB, iTunes and Apple TV received updates this past week. The former improves music playback during Genius playlist creation (along with other improvements), and the latter provides support for HD TV shows and tosses a Genius into the tiny box for good measure. [10.3.9 (Apple TV update)/10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC] Free!
• Editra – 0.3.80 – Entering a candidate into the text editor fray on OS X takes guts. You are competing with the likes of BBEdit, TextMate, TextWrangler and many others, each of them having a loyal and vocal user-base. Editra is aimed squarely at the developers out there as it has most of the goodies you’ve come to expect (line numbering, commenting, indenting, syntax highlighting, etc.). The interface is straightforward enough, but it is obvious that the “0.x” version numbering is accurate since there is much room for many refinements. It already supports plug-ins (written in Python) and has the benefit of being cross-platform (it is written with the wxWidgets library), so you can use slide between platforms without losing your editing mojo. This application is definitely something to keep on your radar and in your RSS feeds. [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC] Free!
• Perian – 1.1.1 – The self-dubbed “Swiss-Army knife for QuickTime” releases a two-dot update that I would have missed since the “update” button in the PrefPane did not work (and I just happened to hit their site from the other button in the PrefPane). This minor update fixes a problem with H.264 in AVI files, corrects a frame skipping issue, adds some codecs and incorporates a few additional bug fixes and feature tweaks. [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC] Free!
• Schnippselchen Pro – 2.0.1 – I’ve been slowly getting back into software development (that may or may not be obvious from my posts) and came across this code-snippet saver which allows you to store, track and fully manage your bits of useful source with full support for syntax highlighting and drag-and-drop to Xcode or TextMate. The Mail-like interface should be quite accessible to everyone and the builtin search makes it pretty simple to find what you are looking for (especially if you’ve commented the snippets well). You can add a custom icon to each snippet and backup, export or share your library. The manual states that the app “will only store the data as long as [it] is running” but all my test snippets have been available across multiple launches. [10.5; Intel/PPC] Free?

Remember, drop me a note on Twitter (@hrbrmstr) or in the comments if there is something you’d like me to try!