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

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

Photo Booth - The Turtle App from 10.5

With the release of Leopard, many of us that have old macs finally got access to features that the newer Macs are shipping with for quite some time now, namely Front Row and Photo Booth. One of the first things I did after I installed 10.5 was to test out these "new" apps and see how they performed on my PowerBook.

Front Row runs amazingly well. All the features from the current Apple TV software (not the one demo'ed at Macworld) are available for use. Although the lack of a remote to control it from a distance, kinda kills the whole point of the application. Don't get me wrong, I can navigate the Front Row menus no problem using keyboard arrows and the Escape key..but...it's not the same.

Then we have Photo Booth. The whole premise of Photo Booth is pretty cool, I must say It's basically the photo booth from the Mall brought home, meets the House of Mirrors from the fair, best of all: -Free!. Since my PowerBook does not ship with a built-in iSight, i had connect my Sony DV-Cam via the firewire port. The camera works great, sadly Photo Booth does not.

Blame it on the under-performing G4 processor within, but the real-time Core video filters proved too much for the little 12 in. PowerBook that could. And this is why, with this type of hardware, Photo Booth gets the Turtle App award. The machine struggles to keep up with the live camera feed and apply those nifty Core filters, it's a beach ball frenzy. Maybe Photo Booth performs admirably well on my PowerMac with dual G5 processors, but on this machine its just not going anywhere.

So there you have it, my first Leopard report: Photo Booth on a 12-inch PowerBook is a no-go.

Labels: 10.5, Leopard, OSX, Photo Booth, PowerBook G4

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

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