PowerBook stuck on an endless loop

Yesterday I applied the latest updates available from Apple to my PowerBook, and for some reason or another something went awfully wrong..

Labels: Apple, Computer problems, Leopard, OSX, PowerBook G4, Troubleshooting

Remove that warning message within MSN Messenger on OSX

Never give out your password or credit card number in an instant message conversation. To help prevent infection by a computer virus or worm, never accept or open any file or link in an instant message until you verify its authenticity with the sender.

The first time I saw that warning message while trying to IM somebody, I thought to myself: "Awww how thoughtful of you Microsoft, looking out for me like that.." The second time it was more like "Yea man..I know". By the third time, I was looking desperately within the prefereences to turn that annoying message off.

Turns out you can't turn the message off by conventional means. I guess Microsoft believes that Messenger users have the memory span of a Goldfish, hence the ongoing warning message "feature". Fed-up of been treated like a Goldfish, I decided to finally get rid of that annoying warning message..

1. Make sure MSN Messenger isn't running.
2. Go to the MSN Messenger.app inside your Applications folder, and select it.
3. Right-click (Control-Click for some), then select Show Package Contents.
4. Navigate your way from folder to folder: Contents > Resources .
5. Double-click on the folder that corresponds to the language you currently use. For me: English.lproj
6. Find the file: InstantMessageWindow.strings
7. Right-click (Control-Click for some), then select Open With > Other..
8. Choose TextEdit and hit Open
9. Scroll-down till you reach the line that starts with IMWarning = "
10. Delete all the text inside the quotes. the end result should be IMWarning = "";
11. Save the file and relaunch Messenger.
12. Enjoy the lack of that pesky warning message.
    

Labels: Apple, Messenger, MSN Messenger, OSX

When will Apple say "Goodbye" to the Combodrive?

Today Apple released the long awaited updates to the MacBook Pro, and tagging along we also got an updated "non-Pro" MacBook.

Labels: Apple, Combodrive, Mac, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro

10.5.2 is Out! - Quick Impressions thus far

Going against my speculations of when it would be out ( I said a week ago), Apple finally released the long awaited 10.5.2 update to the masses of Mac users anxiously awaiting yesterday. Weighting in at a hefty 353 MBs (for the combo updater), it sure brought some fixing goodness for the Leopard. So how was it?

Labels: 10.5, Apple, Leopard, Mac, OSX

Unleashing Leopard on a 12 in. PowerBook

Earlier this week, after pondering about it for some time, I installed 10.5 on one of Macs. The victim? My trusty 12 in. PowerBook. How does Leopard behave on this old Mac notebook? Surprisingly well, I must admit.

My PowerBook has a 1.33 Ghz PowerPC G4 processor and just 768 of RAM. Far from what you may call a "great performer" when compared to the intel Macs these days. Despite my lacking hardware specs, 10.5 performs very nicely. Sure they are some very small hiccups here and there, but they don't take away anything from the great Leopard experience I am having on this hardware. All of the eye-candy is there, except for the non-transparent menu bar (which can be considered a good thing for some Leopard users). All the features that I could test work with no complain: -Screen sharing via iChat, Screen Sharing my other Mac from the network (pic), Spaces, the new iCal (now it shows the current date on the Dock!!), etc. Sadly, I couldn't test how well the Machine of Time makes a backup because I don't currently have an external HD.

I must say that so far everything is good with Leopard (even after the dreaded 10.5.1 update) on my 12 in. PowerBook. Stay tuned for a feature by feature break down of my trials and tribulations with Leopard.

Labels: Apple, Leopard, Mac, OSX

10.5.2 Will Make Everything Right

Labeling Apple's Leopard as the Vista for Mac users may sound a bit extreme to some. But for many Mac users, 10.5 feels like a bad joke coded by Microsoft inhabiting their Macs. Apple's own support forums, as well as other Mac forums, are filled with issues regarding Airport reception, keyboard freezes even after patch-fix, Spotlight indexing going crazy, etc. All these issues point to Leopard as the culprit. And it's not like Apple hasn't tried fixing these issues, 10.5 has already gotten a .1 update since its release in October of last year, but apparently there's still a whole lot to fix.

According to many Apple news sites 10.5.2 is coming soon ( as soon as today or next week, my take) and it will fix many of the troubling issues at hand. To many, this may be the update that fixes and once again makes their Leopard experience a good one. Weighting in at over 300MBs thus far, it sure packs lot of fixing goodness. So what's getting fixed (or added) this time around?

- Transparency in the menu bar is now optional and can be set in Desktop Preferences.
- DVD/CD sharing preferences, allowing you to share your optical drive with the MacBook Air (or another Mac).
- List view in Stacks

Fixes include:

- Border now draws correctly when 2-up printing
- Preview Image and scrolling horizontally with keys
- CFNetwork and Proxy error messages
- NTFS Volume and System UIServer fix
- DVDPlayback and second display hookup
- Preview PDF and Mail Document fix
- Resolved tabbing issue with PDFView
- Fixed issue with Time Machine Preferences
- Icon Services and file attachments
- Time Machine and resumed backups
- Images captured in tethered mode fixed
- CoreAudio Toolbox and EstAudioFileRead
- ImageCapture and file creation
- SharedFileLists and SMB guest issue resolved
- BackupCore and backup preparation
- Japanese localization and CUPS
- NSTextView and scroll bar thumb scrolling direction
- SMB File Server and name resolving order
- CFNetwork and Windows proxy ISA server fix
- Fixed deinterlacing issue with DVDPlayback
- CoreData Framework and NSFetchRequest
- AD DS Plug-in
- HLTB Menus
- Memory leak with Rosetta
- X11.app and customized menu commands
- AirPort shared printer fix
- Disk Utility and FAT32
- HFS and allocated space
- Fix to Process Manager and VISE
- NSNavigationServices and NavServices from a Cocoa application fix
- Reprinting Hold jobs and CUPS
- Fixed issue with Text Input Sources
- Mail Message Body Display issues with certain font types
- DAVKit and iCal redirects
- Calendar Store Framework and CalRecurrenceRule fix
- CoreText Font and PUA unicode characters now work correctly
- rsh jobs no longer waits for backgrounded processes to complete
- Fixed issue HLTB and Finder
- Fixed issue with AppleEvents
- ImageIO preiew issue in Finder fixed
- HIClock now accepts user entries
- smb now handles "%" in password field
- Fixed issue with CUPS and reverse page ordering
- NSTableView and special keys now works correctly
- AF_UNSPEC& null address Networking issue fixed
- Resolved issue with Xquartz and CPU cycles
- Fixed exception issue with KeyChainAccess
- Quartz Composer no longer brings up an error when saving a composition
- Fixed ScreenCapture issue
- Addressed issue with Web Content Filter and Parental Controls
- CUPS no longer prints a blank page when 2-up print setting is selected
- CoreData Framework fix to XML data creation
- Fixed Quick Look plug-in loading issue
- Mail to iCal Data Detectors now work correctly
- Fixed issue with Finder and column view
- Core Audio fix now allows empty m4a files to behave correctly
- Fixed horizontal scroll issue with Finder and Spotlight
- Fixed iChat audio issue with fast user switching
- Core Data apps now save correctly when no document changes have been made
- Fixed issue with Firewall customization settings
- Fixed Active Directory binding issue
- NSTable View -selectAll setting now works correctly
- HLTB Dyhmanic Menus now behave correctly
- Resolved issue with HIImageView
- Fixed issue with ATSCreateFontQueryRunLoopSource
- Mail now treats flags correctly
- Fixed day selection issue with NSDatePicker
- Invalid RR queries problem now resolved
- Input issue with NSTokenField fixed
- Archive & Install problem with Sync Services Translators resolved
- Fixed Spotlight issue with arithmetic expressions
- Fixed problem with Podcast Producer and Wiki running via SSL
- HLTB ApplyTHemeBackground memory leak fixed
- Fixed Numbers printing issue with CoreGraphics
- Fixed permissions problem with NFS
- NSManagedObject now implements dictionaryWithValuesForKeys correctly
- Fixed memory leak in CoreData Framework
- Bitmap-only fonts now work correctly in QuickDraw
- Issue with MusicSequenceSaveSMFData fixed
- SMB File Server reboot issue resolved
- Fixed issue where running a MAC application from a NTFS volume may not work correctly
- NSXMLNSNumberTransformerName now handles NSDecimalNumbers correctly
- Addressed issue with ToDo recurrences and iCal Synchronization
- Issue with NSNavigationServices and kNavCBTerminate resolved
- Fix to AppKit and popup menus
- CTFontCreateCopyWithFamily() now works correctly
- Fixed issue with Tamil IM
- Networking issue with records over sockets fixed
- HIShape symbols in HLTB fixed
- Fixed window flicker issue with PrintManager
- NSArrayController and Lazy Fetching issue resolved
- Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder now works correctly when there's a / in the title
- Fixed issue with "Find Next" and the spelling panel
- Issue with NSTreeController resolved
- Resolved issue with local SOCKS proxy and iChat
- Logged iChats now open quickly

Pretty packed list if you ask me. We can only hope Apple has gotten everything down and under control and we can finally say that 10.5.2 will make everything right.

Labels: 10.5, Apple, Leopard, Mac, OSX

Apple announces MacBook Air, HD movie rentals, Apple TV Take 2 at Macworld 2008

Steve Jobs took finally took the stage at Macworld San Francisco yesterday, and announced the rumored MacBook Air, the expected movie rental feature on the iTunes Store (in high-definition), and a new Apple TV labeled as "Take 2" The iPhone and iPod touch are also got some new features (but in the iPod touch's case for a price).

So after a slew of rumors, a suppose Keynote leak, Steve came gave his keynote and now it's over. Having said that the rumors were true (in part)...

MacBook Air
Steve unveiled Apple's latest portable, the $1,799 MacBook Air (pictured left), which he labeled as the "world's thinnest notebook." And man...it's thin alright..although a bit too expensive for my taste..

The tech specs:

1.6GHz or 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo

80GB 1.8" Hard Drive standard, optional 64GB solid-state drive

0.76" thick at thickest point, weighs 3lbs.

2GB RAM

5 hours of battery life

$1,799 for 1.6GHz, 80GB HD model; $3,099(!!) for 1.8GHz, 64GB SSD model

Full aluminum case

The iTunes Store Movie Rental Offerings
Apple is, as of this writing, offering high-definition movie rentals via the iTunes Store for your viewing pleasure. Content will be provided by the big Movie studios like: Miramax, Touchstone, MGM Lionsgate, New Line Cinema, Fox, Warner Bros, Paramount, Sony, and Universal. If you are keeping count, thats everybody that makes movies basically. The pricing is as follow: $2.99 for library titles and $3.99 for new releases in standard def. HD titles will set you back $1.00 more.

Apple TV Take 2
Once labeled as a just a "hobby side-thing" by Steve, the new Apple TV takes a more serious approach to serving up content to you TV (computer not required this time around). The new Apple TV sports a lower price tag of $229 and whole new UI. The new TV box supports buying content directly from the iTunes Store as well as renting flicks. Movies will be available in HD (and some) with full Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. Downloaded content will automatically sync with computers on the network. It is worth noting that the Apple TV Take 2 firmware will be available free of charge to all current Apple TV owners in 2 weeks time.

Other Stuff
Steve also took the time to announce a new software update for the iPhone (1.1.3) at no cost, as well as a new software update for the iPod touch for $20. The new features on the iPhone include: Multiple SMS messaging, Maps with location services using Google's cell tower system and Skyhook's WiFi system, webclips, and a new UI for Google Maps. The payed for iPod touch update brings five "new" apps to the touch: Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes, and Weather. In short, all of the apps that are available on the iPhone. As you can see a bit lame.

Lastly Apple announced a new Aiport Extreme that doubles as NAS storage for your Macs by the name of "Time Capsule". Designed especially for use with Time Machine in 10.5, it is capable of backing up all of the Macs in your home. a 500GB version will run $299 and the 1TB version is $499.

Labels: Apple, iPhone, iPod, iTunes, Keynote, Leopard, MacBook Air, MacWorld, Macworld 2008

Where to Follow the Stevenote 2008

With just mere hours to go and the anticipation building up, here's a list of all the places that will be giving live updates on Steve's keynote @ 9 AM PST. You know what to do, open tab all of them and keep your finger on the refresh button! Enjoy.

Labels: Apple, Keynote, MacWorld, Macworld 2008, Steve Jobs

Macworld 2008 Recap

With just mere hours prior to the big Steve-note, it's a good idea to recap the rumors that seem to running around the Internet. Everybody has a different take on what Steve will be finally showing off tomorrow. It's always that way, people love to speculate on Apple's next big thing. Shifting through all the rumors, here's my take on what we most likely will be seeing tomorrow:

• The Banner: "2008. There's something in the air". Cryptic message aside, most people are clinging on to the whole air, lightweight thing. A really thin Mac notebook (see below)? Perhaps it means wireless distribution of content through your iPhone, or a new Airport Express that does audio as well as video?

• MacBook Air: If the info posted on MacRumors is to be believe (they have been on the spot several times before). The MacBook Air will be:

- A slim notebook, but not a "sub notebook"
- 13.3" screen
- Not a "Pro" machine
- External Optical Drive
- It will be called the MacBook Air

• Further MacBook evidence: 9 to 5 Mac posted an interesting discovery dealing with a Google cache of Adium's usage log, where there's a clear mention of the MacBook Air. It's worth noting that the entry was made on Jan. 9th. way before the banners went up..

• iTunes 7.6: It will be the new version of iTunes that will bring Movie rental support, as well as the support to transfer iPod/iPhone ready movies from FOX's DVDs.

• iPhone SDK Demo: Seeing how the SDK will be landing on developer's hands in February, it's only right that Apple showcases the potential of the SDK to us. Just a quick demo on what can be done, probably given Phill Schiller. Mention of plenty of WWDC 2008 iPhone SDK Sessions in June.

So there you have it, to me those are the sure bets for tomorrow's Keynote. Sure I left some candidates out of the list (like the whole "Mac Mini + Apple TV in One Package" rumor), but again, the ones that made it to the least have the most "Pretty sure it can happen"- feel.

With just a few hours left, we can only sit around and wait. Hopefully I am not too off the mark with my predictions, but hey its Apple..you never know until they show it to you.

Labels: Apple, Mac, MacWorld, Macworld 2008

Macworld 2008 Keynote Leaked?

Gotta love the days prior to Macworld. It happens every year and the internet is buzzing with rumors and leaks. Today, as to continue with the tradition, we got a suppose leak of Steve's Keynote for Macworld. The source? Wikipedia(??). Odd, I know. In case the page gets taken out, I have mirrored the goodies here. Enjoy.

MacWorld January 2008 Keynote
Rough Outline; draft 5


Greetings! Welcome to Moscone Center

Quick Overview: iPod/iTunes
- iPod has been extremely profitable for us this holiday season
- Sales figures, market share
- Our new models are doing better than ever
- 3 iPod games released last month accidentally (supposed to be for today)
- Another new game today: Chess
- iTunes doing extremely well (sales figures/market share)
- Today: 30 indie labels releasing their entire catalogs in iTunes Plus
- Many more to follow in the next few months

iPhone
- Best iPod ever
- Sales figures, market share
- Sales beyond our wildest dreams
- Much more than the 1% market share we asked for in January
- Starting today: 8GB $399, 16GB $499
- Four times the memory as original iPhone for the same price
- iPhone is coming to Japan in March with NTT DoCoMo
- SDK is unveiled!

iPhone/iPod Touch SDK
- Apps and Widgets
- Using Cocoa with Objective-C
- Developers submit programs as source code, not executable
- Specify iPhone or both iPhone/Touch (certain features iPhone only)
- Set your own price: Apps $0-$6.99, Widgets $0-$2.99
- Users buy/download in iTunes Wi-Fi Store / iTunes Store (Mac/PC)
- Automatic updating wirelessly or docked

- Demonstration of exporting from XCode 3 to iTunes Store
- Submits source code to Apple for validation (make sure that people aren't abusing the system, prevent malware and viruses)
- If using microphone or GSM, iPhone only; otherwise, available for both iPhone and iPod Touch
- Apps can be free or up to $6.99; Widgets free or up to $2.99
- Developers recieve 70% of revenue for their products
- Licensed under Apple Mobile Software License
- Can download wirelessly from iTunes Wi-Fi Store or docked to computer from iTunes Store
- Demonstration of wirelessly downloading (and running) the app submitted earlier
- Apps and widgets can be rearranged on front screen; front screen scrolls to show all apps/widgets
- Resubmit updated versions of apps; when added to store, iPhone/Touch will ask you to update it next time you use it (or next time you dock the iPhone/Touch)
- Developers can get their hands on a beta version of the SDK tomorrow on ADC and start developing; final version due early February
- iTunes 7.6 and iPhone/iPod Touch Software update 1.3 allowing for Apps mid-February

Example apps/widgets
Apps:
- iChat (coming with 1.3 update) (AIM, Jabber/Google Talk)
-- Quick demonstration
- RSS Feed Reader (coming with 1.3 update) (read feeds online or off)
- One of our partners made something cool: Last.fm (scrobble tracks played on iPhone/touch wirelessly without syncing w/ computer)
Widgets:
- Dictionary (coming with 1.3 update) (quickly look up words, translate, use wikipedia)
-- Quick demonstration
- Yellow/White Book (coming with 1.3 update) (search for contacts, add them to your address book directly from the app, will sync back with address book on your Mac/PC)
- Sports Ticker (coming with 1.3 update) (choose your sports and teams, get updates on their progress)
- Another partner: Twitter (update your Twitter on the fly, see your friends tweets)

- Try these out on the show floor today

Mac
- Sales are getting better and better every day
- Hardware sales figures/market share
- Leopard released October; doing spectacularly
- Sales figures/market share
- Selling extremely well; estimated to overtake Tiger in terms of marketshare by June if you only count the new Macs that come with it preinstalled; even quicker if you include boxed copies
- 10.5.2 out today - many bug fixes, also addressing a lot of issues and complaints users had such as list view with stacks and certain HIG non-compliance issues

New MacBooks!
- What would MacWorld be without a new Mac? (sorry about last year)
- Completely redesigned MacBook
- Completely aluminum body like MacBook Pro
- 13" screen at 1440x900
- Two colors: Black and Silver
- Looks gorgeous at 0.8" thin
- A major feat of engineering - patents abound
- DVD drive pops open on side when eject button is pressed
- New on all notebooks and iMac: iSight HD (720p)
- New backlit keyboard based on recent Apple Keyboard revisions (keys slightly lighter than that of laptop casing, colorwise)
- New matching MagSafe cable (Aluminum ends, cord color matches that of keyboard)
- New matching Apple Remote (slightly smaller with larger overall buttons)
- Intel GMA X3100 graphics
- 3 models

- Completely phasing out the combo drive on all product lines today
- BTO models can upgrade all the way to 2.6GHz/4GB Memory/320GB hard drive
- 4.5 hours of battery life
- Starting at $1199

Product Refreshes
- Refreshing Mac Pro and Mac mini today
- Mac Pro now with Penryn!
- Base model 2x2.8GHz dual-core/1GB/NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB/250GB(1x250GB)/1x16x double-layer SuperDrive
- Upgradeable to 2x3.2GHz quad-core/16GB/NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB/4TB(4x1TB)/2x16x double-layer SuperDrives
- Starting at $2,499
- Mac mini gets slight speed bumps and double-layer SuperDrive in all models
- Base model 2.0GHz IC2D/1GB/100GB
- BTO Upgradeable to 2.4GHz IC2D/4GB/320GB
- Starting at $599

One More Thing
- Been brewing for a while
- YouTube's been in Apple TV and iPhone/iPod touch: now it's in iTunes
- Download YouTube videos straight to iTunes or from iPhone/iPod Touch for later offline viewing (sync back to computer)
- Coming in iTunes 7.6 and iPhone/iPod Touch 1.3 updates

Thanks for coming, and enjoy the expo!

Labels: Apple, Keynote, MacWorld, Macworld 2008, Steve Jobs

Useful Dashboard Widgets

The Dashboard was introduced with Tiger (10.4) more than a year ago. The whole premise of the Dashboard is to hold small html/java applications (widgets) that do one silly little thing. These silly things may prove useful to some, but truth be told the usability of the Dashboard is questionable.

On my PowerBook I currently have four widgets inhabiting the Dashboard. Rank from most useful to not so much it would go like this: iStat Nano, Weather, Stickies, Calender. That's it. So here I am asking you all, what are some useful Dashboard widgets you have on your Dashboard.

Sure having some Chuck Norris' random facts is of the outmost importance for some (Fact: Chuck Norris played Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun and won), by the same token, a widget that tells you how happy people are feeling today is not.

So let me know, what are some useful widgets to have to your Dashboard?

Labels: 10.4, 10.5, Apple, Dashboard, Leopard, OSX, Tiger, Widgets

OSX Reloaded

Now that I have my PC back in "operational status", I was able to accomplish the long overdue reinstall of OSX on my PowerMac G5.

Using my PC as a backup storage device basically , I backed up my 20-and-then-some Gigs iTunes library, iPhoto library, documents, random crap, etc. After two+ hours of a tedious backup procedure (I should get a firewire external HD next time..) I was ready to re-install OSX on my PowerMac.

One of the main reasons why I needed to do a reinstall was the crazy amount of kernel panics I was been submitted to on a regular basis. The culprit, and I'm pretty sure of this, was the evil piece of crap software called 'Virtual PC" by the fine folks at Redmond, WA. Worst piece of software. Ever.

Anyhow, I went ahead held-C while booting up, click here-there, customized the install, and off it went. A couple of minutes later, I was greeted by the familiar default OSX desktop with the gargantuan Dock. First thing I did was to minimize the Dock, and turn on the magnification effect. Secondly, I ran Software Update...and holy crap was there a whole lot to update. Given that my so-called "broadband" service is crap (avg. download speed 25-30 kb/s) this turned out to be a 3-4 hour affair to get all updates. *sighs*.

Long story short, I am now back with a freshly installed, and most importantly, stable system. So far I haven't gotten one panic *knocks on wood*. Sure it may have been one tedious, time-wasting event, but hey..not like you gonna do this every other week, right? Lets hope everything continues to be nice and calm with at least this Mac. Oh and before I forget, never install Virtual PC on your Mac, to quote Bobby Boucher's Mom..."IT'S THE DEVIL!!"

Labels: 10.4, Apple, Mac, OSX, Virtual Pc