MacBook, PowerBook, iBook, and other portable computing is covered
in The 'Book Review. iPad, iPod,
iPhone, and Apple TV news is covered in The
iNews Review.
All prices are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.
Software Update is quick and easy, but doing some system maintenance
and running a Combo standalone update installer is probably the best
policy for avoiding problems with system updates
Apple recommends that you do a global backup your system using Time
Machine or other backup utilitiy before updating your system.
Apple released the Mac OS X Version 10.6.5 Update late Wednesday.
It's been a fairly long stretch since the 10.6.4 update was released in
mid-June.
You can either update the easy way, using Software Update, or (my
personal preference) download and run a standalone installer. I use the
Combo installer even if I'm only going up one fractional version
increment. For good measure, I also try to squeeze in running a slate
of system maintenance routines with an application, such as OnyX. The standalone
installers are available from Apple Support Downloads (see links
below).
General fixes and improvements
Improves reliability with Microsoft Exchange servers.
Addresses performance of some image-processing operations in iPhoto
and Aperture.
Addresses stability and performance of graphics applications and
games.
Resolves a delay between print jobs.
Addresses a printing issue for some HP printers connected to an
AirPort Extreme.
Resolves an issue when dragging contacts from Address Book to
iCal.
Addresses an issue in which dragging an item from a stack causes
the Dock to not automatically hide.
Resolves an issue in which Wikipedia information may not display
correctly in Dictionary.
Improves performance of MainStage on certain Macs.
Resolves spacing issues with OpenType fonts.
Improves reliability with some Bluetooth braille displays.
Resolves a VoiceOver issue when browsing some websites with Safari
5.
Improves Bluetooth pairing with Magic Trackpad.
Resolves performance issues with third-party displays that use
InstaPort technology.
Add SSL support for transferring files with iDisk.
Resolves an issue when opening 4-up Photo Booth pictures in
Preview.
Addresses keyboard responsiveness issues in the Dock when Spaces is
turned on.
Resolves an issue syncing Address Book with Google.
Fixes an issue when replying to a Mail message sent by a person
whose name contains certain characters such as é or ü.
Improves performance for users bound to an Active Directory
domain.
Improves reliability of Ethernet connections.
Systems with a Mac Pro RAID Card (Early 2009) installed can now be
put to sleep. For more information, see Mac Pro RAID Card (Early 2009):
Enabling system sleep.
Improves reliability of fibre channel connections, resolving a
potential Xsan volume availability issue.
Adds RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras.
Security improvements; for information about the security content
of this update, please visit this article: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222
Several standalone update installer versions are available. A basic
update ("Delta") lets you update from Mac OS X 10.6.4 to 10.6.5 only,
while the Combo update lets you update from any prior version of Mac OS
X 10.6 to 10.6.5. One downside of the standalone updaters is that they
are huge - even bigger than the Software Update downloads, which run at
about 500 MB to 700 MB, depending on the configuration of the system
being updated. The incremental Delta updater is 607.21 MB, and the
Combo version 977.21 MB.
The 10.6.4 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow
Leopard. It includes Safari 5 and general operating system fixes.
OS X 10.6.5 Troubleshooting: What to Do if You Have
Major Problem After Updating
AppleToolBox has posted some suggestions on what to do if you
experience a show-stopping problem right after updating to Mac OS X
10.6.5, noting that one routine that will eliminate 99% of potential
issues after any incremental Mac OS X update is to download the
standalone Combo updater for that version (which in this instance is a
whopping 977.21 MB), quit all open applications, and run the
installer.
OS X 10.6.5 Troubleshooting: AirPort/WiFi
Connection Drops Repeatedly
AppleToolBox reports:
"Some users have reported an issue in which AirPort/WiFi connections
repeatedly drop after the update to Mac OS X 10.6.5, or cannot
connect to previously functional AirPort base stations and other
wireless routers. In most cases, users can temporarily resolve the
issue by turning AirPort off then back on."
If that doesn't do the trick, several other potential fixes are
suggested.
OS X 10.6.5 Won't Boot from Drive with PGP Whole
Disk Encryption
AppleToolBox says:
"Users with PGP Whole Disk Encryption may encounter an issue in
which their Macs will not boot after updating to Mac OS X 10.6.5. This
is caused by the fact that Mac OS X 10.6.5 overwrites a boot file
created by the PGP software (which the tool uses to force
authentication during booting) with one that does not allow booting
when PGP Whole Disk is present."
Apple also released Mac OS X Security Update 2010-007 for Mac OS X
10.5 Leopard (Client and Server) on Wednesday, including a variety of
security fixes.
Apple has announced that future development of its Xserve server hardware has been terminated.
The company and will stop selling existing Xserve units as of January 31,
2011.
Subsequently, Mac OS X server hardware customers will be directed to
purchase server versions of the Mac mini and Apple's Mac Pro tower, the latter which Apple
points out in its high-end 12-core Intel Xeon processor configuration
handily outperforms the dedicated Xserve line, while users for whom
purchase price and/or power consumption are key issues should consider
Mac mini servers, currently powered by 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs
and drawing a netbook-like 11 watts when idle.
Rackmount server fans will probably dispute the adequacy of those
substitutions. For example, it reportedly will take between 3 and 30
Mac mini servers to replace just one Xserve unit.
Apple will continue honoring all Xserve warranties and extended
support programs.
Apple quietly added a specific Server model of the Mac Pro tower
with the basic $2,999 configuration being a 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel
Xeon "Nehalem" processor, 8 GB of memory, two 1 TB hard drives,
Mac OS X 10.6.5 Server unlimited-client license, and an ATI Radeon HD
5770 GPU with 1 GB of video memory.
Build-to-order options include two 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
Westmere (12 cores) ($3,475!), 32 GB of RAM ($3,400), and a Mac
Pro RAID Card ($700).
LaCie Releases Free USB 3.0 Driver for OS X 10.4
and Later
Recognizing, as Steve Jobs evidently does not, the importance of
bringing USB 3.0 performance and plug & play capability to the Mac
world, LaCie has developed a USB 3.0 driver exclusively for Macs.
Total bandwidth: USB, FireWire, and eSATA*
By downloading the driver and using it in conjunction with LaCie's
USB 3.0 cards, it's simple to get USB 3.0 speed and performance on any
Mac that supports either PCI Express or ExpressCard 34 (i.e.: the Mac
Pro, the 17" MacBook Pro, and pre-2009 15" MacBook Pros).
With USB 3.0, you get:
State of the art in data throughput*
Up to 130MB/s1 for single hard drives
Up to 220MB/s2 for dual hard drives
Real plug & play capability
Bus-powered capability
Optimized power efficiency
USB 2.0 compatibility
LaCie d2 USB 3.0 burst transfer rate measured with Blackmagic Disk
Speed Test on a Mac Pro, Mac OS X 10.6, a LaCie USB 3.0 PCI Express
Card and LaCie USB 3.0 driver for Mac
LaCie 2big USB 3.0 burst transfer rate in RAID 0 measured with
Blackmagic Disk Speed Test on a Mac Pro, Mac OS X 10.6, a LaCie USB 3.0
PCI Express Card and LaCie USB 3.0 driver for Mac.
System Requirements
Mac OS X 10.4 or later
MacBook Pro with ExpressCard/34 or Mac Pro**
Is your Mac ready for USB 3.0?
Mac Pro with available PCI Express slot 10.5 or later: LaCie USB
3.0 PCI Express Card
Mac Pro with available PCI Express slot 10.4 or older: Upgrade to
Mac OS X 10.5 or greater
MacBook Pro with available ExpressCard/34 slot 10.5 or later: LaCie
USB 3.0 ExpressCard/34
MacBook Pro with available ExpressCard/34 slot 10.4 or older:
Upgrade to Mac OS X 10.5 or greater
LaCie USB 3.0 PCI Express Card (1x) - $49.99
Add two USB 3.0 ports to your computer.
The fastest technology available on the market (up to 5Gb/s).
NEC component for the highest level of performance and
compatibility.
Backward compatible with USB 2.0 devices.
LaCie USB 3.0 ExpressCard/34 - $59.99
Add two USB 3.0 ports to your computer.
The fastest technology available on the market (up to 5Gb/s).
NEC component for the highest level of performance and
compatibility.
Backward compatible with USB 2.0 devices.
* Editor's note: This chart illustrates total
bandwidth for each protocol, not maximum throughput. This is
somewhat misleading, although it is typical. The maximum theoretical
throughput for a single USB 2.0 device is 320 Mbps, and everythingusb.com
states that "USB 3.0 connections will never achieve 4.8 Gbps",
while Wikipedia
notes that "the specification considers it reasonable to achieve
3.2 Gbit/s (0.4 Gbyte/s or 400 MByte/s), or more, after protocol
overhead." FireWire and SATA allow full bandwidth, so it would be more
correct to show USB 2.0 at 320 Mbps and 3.0 at 3.2 Gbps, although USB
may perform better with RAID. dk
** LaCie does not mention support for the
last-generation Power Mac G5 models, which use the same PCI Express
technology as the Mac Pro. We suspect there is no PowerPC support.
There is also no mention of the Xserve; we suspect that Intel-based
Xserve models are compatible.
Mac360's Ron McElfresh says his routine for configuring new versions
of Mac OS X is time honored and faithful. When a new version arrived,
he would back up everything on his Mac, wipe the hard drive clean, and
install the latest and greatest version of OS X.
McElfresh says that worked for many years until Mac OS X Snow
Leopard, and two weeks ago he wiped his Mac (he doesn't mention which
model or its age) clean, started over, and went pure Mac. No add on
utilities. No extra tools. No tricks. Just Ron and his Mac. The Finder
and the Dock. The default Menubar and all default settings. No extra
preference panes. Only the basic of basic Mac apps: Safari, Mail,
TextEdit, iLife, iCal.
Could he survive a week as a 21st century user by going pure Mac
cold-turkey?.
McElfresh says he tried - really tried - and that his Mac ran
better, faster, snappier, and was uncluttered, but he simply could not
be as productive on a clean, unadulterated Mac as on his custom jalopy
hot rod Mac, and on top of that life with basic OS X is boring, so he
reopened the floodgate of tweaks, tricks, apps, tools and utilities,
and within a few hours his Mac felt like home again. A pure Mac was but
a passing fancy, and in his opinion, it can't be done. The most he
could tolerate was two full days of pure Mac the way Apple had
intended.
Editor's note: After 18 years of developing my own custom Mac
OS-based ecosystem, I feel lost on a stock Mac and would guess that my
productivity would be cut by at least half trying to use one for
production. In fact, this reality would probably be my biggest
inhibition to ever making a switch to Windows or Linux. At this stage
of the game, to start over in a different environment with the
inevitable steep learning curve and productivity slowdown is daunting
to contemplate, and I suppose the reciprocal applies to many Windows
users who've honed their work habits and techniques on that platform
for many years in considering a switch to the Mac OS, although Apple
Mac hardware's ability to dual-boot the Mac OS with Windows would be a
mitigating factor in that instance. cm
Other editor's note: I first used a Mac in late 1986, began working
with one regularly in 1989, and got my first Mac, an end-of-life
Mac Plus, in early 1991.
While Macs have always included enough software to get you started,
Apple has not provided a comprehensive productivity suite except in the
era when
ClarisWorks (later renamed AppleWorks) was bundled. Over 20-plus
years as a Mac user, I've used a lot of apps and utilities (such as
QuickKeys, Default Folder, and "smart copy" programs) to enhance my
productivity. Like McElfresh and Moore, I would not be comfortable or
nearly as productive with a Mac running only that apps that come with
it. dk
Mac SE/30 Brought Back to Life as ARM-based Linux
Server
SlashGear's Chris Burns reports that using a Seagate Dockstar, some
USB 2.0 ports, 128 MB of RAM, and a small Linux server running a 1.2
GHz ARM processor, YouTube user Spritetm brought a Mac SE/30 back to wonderful,
wonderful life, running a Mac emulator and tasked as a server. The
floppy drive also works, reading SD cards mounted on floppy-shaped
protoboard enclosures instead of the original 3.5" disks.
Mac Array: Internal SSD RAID Array Boosts Speed
and Performance of Mac Pro
PR:
Apricorn has announced its new Mac Array, an easy-to-install, turnkey
solution for instantly increasing your Mac Pro's processing power.
Designed specifically for Mac Pro systems, the Apricorn Mac Array
internal SSD RAID bridges the gap between your computer's high capacity
(yet slow) hard drive and your system's RAM, acting as virtual memory,
for a performance increase of up to 10 times. Aimed at the ever growing
creative market, the Mac Array is the ideal tool for high performance
applications such as video editing, animation, and image processing,
providing a measurable performance increase that can slash render times
to a mere fraction of the usual time.
Built around four high performance 128GB solid state drives on
Apricorn's specially designed SATA PCIe Host Card, the Mac Array's
unique form factor adds a total of 512GB of virtual memory to your
system, yet uses only one internal full length PCIe X4 slot, keeping
the other slots and drive bays free for expansion. Fully configurable,
the Mac Array can be used singularly or for the ultimate boost - in
tandem with a second or even third Mac Array for even greater
performance.
Increase your Mac Pro's performance by 10x with a single Mac Array
or combine multiple boards for a performance boost of over 18x
When tested with Disktester, the Mac Array increased read rates by
10x and write speeds by 6.8x over a traditional 7200 RPM SATA hard
drive. When used in tandem with a second Mac Array, the speeds
increased yet again to 18x read speed and 13.5x write speeds.
80% Reduction in Video Render Times: Perfect for high
definition video rendering, Apricorn's Mac Array has been shown to
slash rendering times by 80% in real world tests when used with Final
Cut Pro.
360% Increase in Image Processing Performance: Great for
graphic artists and photo editing, when used as a scratch disk with
Adobe Photoshop the Mac Array showed performance increases of up to
360%, making it the ideal tool for fast image editing.
"Designed specifically for those in the creative industry, the Mac
Array provides an affordable, turnkey solution for those looking to
boost their Mac Pro's processing power," says Mike McCandless, VP of
Sales & Marketing at Apricorn. "By greatly decreasing rendering and
processing times, the Mac Array quickly pays for itself in recouped
hours and increased throughput. With the ability to add additional Mac
Arrays to the same system, users are able to configure their system to
meet their processing needs."
The Mac Array takes just minutes to install and comes pre-configured
with the Mac BIOS and RAID 0 (striping) for maximum performance. Simply
remove your Mac Pro's side panel, slide the Mac Array into an available
PCIe X4 slot, replace the side panel and install the included driver.
Your system will instantly recognize the newly installed drives - with
the drives already formatted, you'll hit the ground running.
System Requirements
Fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and OS X 10.6 Snow
Leopard 32-bit systems.
Works with Apple Final Cut Pro, iMovie, iPhoto, ProTools, Adobe
Premiere, Aperture, Photoshop, Lightroom, Sony Vegas, Avid Liquid,
etc.
Mac Array fitted with four MLC 128GB SSDs (total capacity 512GB) -
$1,499
Apricorn's Mac Array is available from Apricorn's website.
Adobe Releases Flash Player 10.1, Still Supports
OS X 10.4 and G3 Macs
PR: Adobe Flash Player is a cross-platform browser-based
application runtime that delivers uncompromised viewing of expressive
applications, content, and videos across screens and browsers. Flash
Player 10.1 is optimized for high performance on mobile screens and
designed to take advantage of native device capabilities, enabling
richer and more immersive user experiences.
Features
Support for mobile devices: Extend the reach of your content
to users wherever they are. Flash Player delivers expressive content to
personal computers, smartphones, tablets, smartbooks, and
netbooks.
Mobile-ready features for unprecedented creative control:
Take advantage of native device capabilities, including support for
multitouch, gestures, mobile input models, and accelerometer
input.
Hardware acceleration: Deliver smooth, high-quality video
with minimal overhead across mobile devices and personal computers
using H.264 video decoding.
Expanded options for high-quality media delivery: Discover
new ways to deliver rich media experiences with the Flash Media Server
Family of products using HTTP Dynamic Streaming; content protection;
and improved support for live events, buffer control, and peer-assisted
networking.:
Mac System Requirements
Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
Intel Core Duo 1.33GHz or faster processor PowerPC G3 500MHz or
faster processor
Your editor's favorite backup and drive cloning application has been
updated to version 3.3.5. Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) has gotten so good
that I've stopped using Time Machine for routine backups.
CCC's developer, Mike Bombich, observes that the key to a successful
backup plan is to actually do the backups regularly, and when left to a
human, its human nature to procrastinate, with the backup task often
getting tacked on to the end of a very long list of other things to do.
When you eventually have a catastrophe, if it's been a while since your
last backup, and your data is simply gone. The answer to this is
consistent and regular backups, placed on a schedule and handled
automatically by your computer.
CCC 3 features an improved and streamlined user interface designed
to make the cloning and backup procedure very intuitive. In addition to
general backup, CCC can clone one volume to another, copying every
single block or file to create an exact replica of your source volume.
Bombich claims CCC's block-level copy offers the absolute fastest
performance and highest fidelity in the industry.
A Better Bootable Backup
Your data, the operating system's data, are all preserved impeccably
on a bootable volume, ready for production at a moment's notice.
CCC is also a convenient method for migrating to a new, larger hard
drive, especially if you have misplaced your original Mac OS X
Installation disc.
Support for Block-level Disk-to-disk Clones for Super-fast
Upgrades
Fast, incremental backups copy only the items that have changed
since the last backup
Archive past versions of your files and items that have been
deleted
Back up to hard drives or to disk images
Schedule Backup Tasks on an Hourly, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly
Basis
Configure a backup task to run when the backup device is
(re)attached to your Mac
Working late? Convenient "Defer or Skip" features allow you to
dynamically reschedule or skip a backup that occurs at an inopportune
time
You don't even need to be logged in for your backups to occur.
Back up to another Macintosh on your home network or across the
Internet
Back up to a disk image on a mounted sharepoint
Simple interface for indicating exactly what you want to back
up
Restore using the same process used for backup
Backups are non-proprietary, so you can browse them or use them
with Migration Assistant
Built-in software update feature notifies you when updates are
available
Bombich Software's philosophy is that you should try the
full-featured product until you trust it, then consider a donation to
support the development of Carbon Copy Cloner. Consequently, you can
tryh all its features features for free, let the software establish
your trust, then donate.
New in Carbon Copy Cloner 3.3.5
Significant improvements to the handling of media read errors. CCC
will spend less time trying to read files from damaged media, so
recovery of intact files from damaged volumes will be faster. CCC will
present an error dialog as soon as read errors are detected and give
advice on how to proceed.
Added an option to the "When target is reconnected" task scheduling
setting that prompts the user to proceed with the backup task rather
than starting automatically.
Made a minor configuration change to prevent a hang on logout when
a task was scheduled (affected only Leopard users, and only when other
background applications caused logout delays).
CCC now prompts for confirmation when the user attempts to stop a
block-level copy that is in the verification stage. The consequences of
the action are presented so the user can decide to continue with the
verification if their intention was not to discard the cloned contents
of the target volume.
Improved error messages presented when CCC has difficulty reaching
a remote Macintosh. These error messages now link directly to
step-by-step instructions in the documentation that should resolve the
connectivity problems.
Resolved an issue in which the scheduled task progress panel of a
completed task would appear hung for 20 seconds after waking from
sleep.
Resolved an issue in which CCC would target a deleted disk image if
a disk image from a previously canceled task was not unmounted.
CCC will now refuse to mount a sparsebundle disk image if the disk
image resides on a volume that does not support the F_FULLFSYNC file
control. Volumes that do not support this file control put the contents
of a sparsebundle disk image at risk of data loss.
Resolved an issue in which CCC would check for updates on startup
despite being configured to not check for updates.
CCC no longer affects the creation date of the root folder of the
target volume. In certain edge cases, modifying the creation date of
the root folder of the target volume can cause the filesystem to report
incorrect information about hard linked files.
Fixed an issue in which CCC was unable to copy Access Control Lists
due to memory constraints when copying more than ~100K files that had
Access Control Lists.
CCC now properly handles the illegal Access Control Entries found
on iDisk mirrors.
Minor changes to the presentation of the documentation.
The "Restore from disk image..." functionality in CCC's source menu
now properly handles the mounting of encrypted disk images
Several dozen minor tweaks that deserve no individual mention, but
collectively improve usability and performance, and reduce CCC's memory
footprint, especially when idle.
To update CCC, choose "Update CCC..." from the "Carbon Copy Cloner"
menu and click on the "Check for updates now" button. If you would like
to verify whether an issue you reported is resolved in a beta release,
check the "Inform me of beta releases" checkbox before checking for
updates.
System requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 and up (Universal Binary)
including Snow Leopard
PR: Stairways Software Pty Ltd. has announced Switcher
Maestro 1.0, a great new way to launch applications on the Mac.
Switcher Maestro takes the window and application switching features
of Stairways' Keyboard Maestro and adds a new application launcher.
At the recent Apple Special Event, Steve Jobs gave a glimpse of
Launchpad, which will eventually bring the iPhone/iPad home screens to
the Mac so people "don't have to go hunting around for their apps". The
Stairways developers say that its rare that they don't agree with
Apple, but organising applications on the iPhone has never seemed like
much fun, so they've got their own solution - just press a hot key,
type a few characters of the application name, press return and your
application launches.
See just how easy it is. No organising, no folders, no navigating
multiple screens.
System requirements: Switcher Maestro 1.x requires Mac OS X 10.5 or
greater, including 10.6, and is native PowerPC, Intel, and Intel
64-bit.
Switcher Maestro is licensed on a per workstation basis (individuals
can choose to license it on a per user basis).
New customers can purchase Switcher Maestro from purchase.switchermaestro.com
for $9.99. A volume discount of 50% is available for purchases of 5 or
more copies.
A fully-functional unlicensed trial version of Switcher Maestro can
be downloaded.
We believe in the long term value of Apple hardware. You should be able to use your Apple gear as long as it helps you remain productive and meets your needs, upgrading only as necessary. We want to help maximize the life of your Apple gear.
We believe in the long term value of Apple hardware. You should be able to use your Apple gear as long as it helps you remain productive and meets your needs, upgrading only as necessary. We want to help maximize the life of your Apple gear.
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We believe in the long term value of Apple hardware. You should be able to use your Apple gear as long as it helps you remain productive and meets your needs, upgrading only as necessary. We want to help maximize the life of your Apple gear.
PR:
Apricorn has announced its new Mac Array, an easy-to-install, turnkey
solution for instantly increasing your Mac Pro's processing power.
Designed specifically for Mac Pro systems, the Apricorn Mac Array
internal SSD RAID bridges the gap between your computer's high capacity
(yet slow) hard drive and your system's RAM, acting as virtual memory,
for a performance increase of up to 10 times. Aimed at the ever growing
creative market, the Mac Array is the ideal tool for high performance
applications such as video editing, animation, and image processing,
providing a measurable performance increase that can slash render times
to a mere fraction of the usual time.
Built around four high performance 128GB solid state drives on
Apricorn's specially designed SATA PCIe Host Card, the Mac Array's
unique form factor adds a total of 512GB of virtual memory to your
system, yet uses only one internal full length PCIe X4 slot, keeping
the other slots and drive bays free for expansion. Fully configurable,
the Mac Array can be used singularly or for the ultimate boost - in
tandem with a second or even third Mac Array for even greater
performance.
