Category Archives: Software – New, Upgrades, & Updates

What’s new and improved … or maybe just new …

Apple releases new Mac Mini line – With Thunderbolt, Without Optical Drive

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Apple Mac MiniThe first company to eliminate the floppy drive from their computers is continuing its quest to stamp out more physical media. Apple’s new Mac Mini line of compact computers, just like its MacBook Air notebooks, no longer include a built-in CD/DVD drive – a reflection of Apple’s drive to move all software purchases to digital downloads via its Mac App Store.

Other companies such as Adobe also offer a digital download option, plus Amazon has recently opened a Mac digital downloads store which includes products, such as Microsoft Office, Quickbooks Pro, and TurboTax. For situations requiring an actual CD/DVD access, users can use CD/DVD sharing (via another mac with a drive) or separately purchase Apple’s External SuperDrive for $79.00.

MacMini back

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What the new Mac Minis do have is the faster Thunderbolt port for high-speed disk drives as well as external monitors, plus a built-in HDMI port (making it a nice streaming media device), four USB 2.0 ports, one Firewire 800 port, a SDXC card slot, plus a gigabit ethernet port.

Under the hood the new line houses a 2.3 GHz i5 ($599.00), 2.5 GHz i5 ($799.00) or 2.7 GHz i7 ($899.00) Dual-Core Intel Core processors. 2 Gb RAM comes with the 2.3 GHz model with 4GHz standard on the latter two computers. Each can be expanded to 8Gb as a Build-to-order option. A 500 Gb 5400 pm hard drive is standard with a 750 Gb 7200 rpm option available for an additional $150.00.

802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 wireless features are also standard.

All models are available immediately .. shipped with the new Apple Mac OS X 10.7 Lion operating system.

Note: Apple Mac Mini computers are shipped without a keyboard, mouse, or other input devices.

Apple releases iLife ’11 Updates

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Today, Apple released incremental updates to its iLife ’11 suite of consumer media applications: iMovie 9.0.4, iPhoto 9.1.5, and GarageBand 6.0.4. All three apps incorporate the new full-screen capability made possible with the upcoming MacOS X 10.7 Lion and overall stability improvements in addition to the following individual software fixes/enhancements:

iMovie 9.0.4 (614 Mb Update):

  • Adds support for opening projects imported from iMovie for iOS.
  • Fixes an issue where some audio adjustments were not preserved.
  • Addresses a performance issue when using large quantities of video clips with keywords.
  • Resolves issue with slow application launch when working with large iPhoto libraries.

iPhoto 9.1.5 (106 Mb Update):

  • Addresses an issue that could cause the Photos view to scroll incorrectly when Event Titles are displayed.
  • Fixes a problem that could prevent Ken Burns animations from being applied correctly on photos in a saved Classic slideshow.
  • The date range of each event now updates correctly to reflect changes made to photos using the Adjust Time and Date command.
  • Deleting photos from a web album using the contextual menu now removes them from the album without deleting them from the library.
  • Addresses an issue that could prevent a crop adjustment from being removed from a photo when using the Revert to Original command.

GarageBand 6.0.4 (48 Mb Update):

  • Fixes an issue with the GarageBand Lesson Store not completing single or multiple lesson downloads.
  • Corrects issues with some tempo-based effects falling out of sync with main song tempo.
  • Resolves problems with Magic GarageBand project files not opening up correctly in the GarageBand tracks view.

Updates are available from the Apple App Store, via Software Update, and the Apple Support Download page.

SpamSieve updated to version 2.8.6

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SpamSieve, aka the best 30 bucks you’ll ever spend on your Mac, has just been updated to version 2.8.6.

SpamSieve is an eMail client plug-in/application that provides powerful Bayesian spam filtering – much more accurate than the Junk Mail filters provided by most mail apps. It’s dirt-simple to install and control – and can be customized on how it interacts with the rest of your mail sorting rules. Actually, after you break it in for a day or so, there’s very little to do. It just works.

The plug-in is compatible with most Mac OS X eMail clients, including Apple Mail, Entourage (v.X through 2011), Mozilla Thunderbird 2, Eudora 5.2 or later (Sponsored or Paid), GyazMail, Mailsmith, Emailer, Postbox, and PowerMail. SpamSieve requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

SpamSieve 2.8.6 includes the following improvements and fixes:

  • Improved compatibility with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.
  • Various changes to improve SpamSieve’s filtering accuracy.
  • Added support for Postbox 2.5.
  • Updated the Setting Up Outlook instructions for Microsoft Office 2011 Service Pack 1.
  • Worked around a rare OS/hardware condition that could prevent SpamSieve from launching.
  • Apple Mail plug-in is better at reporting errors when it’s unable to fully load itself.
  • Various clarifications to the manual.

A 30-day free trial is available.

Mac OS X 10.6.8 Released

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Apple has released the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update. The 1.09 Gb Snow Leopard combo patch is expected to be the final Mac OS X Snow Leopard update. Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is slated to ship some time in July.

10.6.8 addresses a number of issues, including:

  • Enhancements to the Mac App Store for a smoother transition OS X Lion.
  • Improved support for IPv6 protocols.
  • Identifies and remove known variants of the Mac Defender malware.
  • Resolves an issue that may cause Preview to unexpectedly quit.
  • Improves VPN reliability.

A corresponding update was also issued for Mac OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard Server which includes many server-specific improvements.

Free Advice: For Mac OS updates this large, you encounter a lot less problems if you DO NOT use Apple’s Software Update feature and instead manually download and install the stand-alone combo updater.

Abobe Flash Player 10.3 Updated

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Adobe Flash Player Plug-InAdobe has released an update to its Flash Player 10.3 browser plug-in for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux operating systems. Version 10.3.181.26 is primarily a security patch, plugging a number of potential vulnerabilities.

Version 10.3 was released last month an includes a number of backend developer-oriented improvements such as better hardware acceleration support, media measurement, and acoustic echo cancellation features.

Adobe Flash Plug-In 10.3

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For the end user, the most visible change is now you will see a “Flash Player” System Preference panel which will allow you to directly control privacy settings. This was possible before, but now it’s much more accessible.

The System Pref also includes automatically checking for updates (installation must still performed manually, however).

Note: If you are not sure which version of the Flash plug-in you are using, go to the Adobe Flash Player Version Check webpage.