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- All is right with the world; iStat Menus 2.0 is here
Filed under: OS, Software, Odds and ends, Bad Apple, Developer, iPhone, App Store, Snow Leopard
The world was looking bleak and dreary after Snow Leopard arrived last week, for my little menu bar friend, iStat Menus for Mac, was incompatible with the new version of Mac OS X.
This morning, however, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, fluffy kittens are playing again (see image at right for proof), and all is right with the world! iStat Menus 2.0 has arrived, and now my CPU monitor, calendar, and clock are back in the menu bar where they're supposed to be. The new Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard compatible version is running just fine, and less than a week of darkness filled the hearts of all of those who love iStat Menus. You can download it for free, although a donation is requested.
While iStat's developer, iSlayer, has resolved this disturbance in The Force, there's still a dark and evil presence in the universe. Apple, taking on the role of Emperor Palpatine with gusto, recently forced all iPhone developers to remove or retool apps that use a Free Memory function to display memory usage and/or clear out wired or inactive memory. As a result, iStat for iPhone [App Store] version 1.1 was released with the Free Memory function removed. Bjango (the iPhone arm of iSlayer) has kindly posted instructions for how to use version 1.0 to keep the function intact, but we're all wondering why Apple decided to axe all apps that performed this useful function.
Since this latest kerfuffle has forced Bjango to release a feature-limited version of iStat for iPhone, the company has reduced the price to US$1.99. There's no word from Apple on why they chose to kill all of the Free Memory apps. When you're the Emperor, you don't have to give any reasons for stomping on kittens.TUAWAll is right with the world; iStat Menus 2.0 is here originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: iPhone - Snow Leopard - Apple - appstore - Operating systemПереслать - Mac 10.6 comes with license to kill
Filed under: Developer, Snow Leopard
The name's Leopard... Snow Leopard... and how I wish it was 10.7 instead of 10.6 so I could extend these hokey James Bond allusions further. That said, it is closer than the truth than you may think. Apple has given Snow Leopard a license to kill... but this doesn't have anything to do with espionage or even spyware (pardon the pun). Instead, it has everything to do with Apple's desire to make the shutdown process faster.
One of the systemwide refinements tells us that "Snow Leopard is up to 80 percent faster when shutting down." If you've ever waited impatiently for your Mac notebook to shut down while your flight was boarding or at the end of the day when you are anxious to get home, Apple is looking to reduce that frustration.
Towards that end, Snow Leopard allows developers to mark their applications as "clean" or "dirty" -- not that kind of dirty!
Here's an example of what "clean" vs "dirty" means in this context: imagine you have been working in Pages, but all of your documents are saved (or maybe you've closed all the documents but Pages is still running). Pages can mark itself "clean" which is similar to saying "I'm ready when you are!"
Now imagine that you are working in Pages, and you've saved your file, but after you saved it you made some additional changes. Perhaps you have several documents open and unsaved, or you've got a Preferences dialog open. If you look at the 3 circles in the top-left corner of the window, you'll see that the one of the far left has a hole in the middle which goes away when you save the file. If any of those situations are true, Pages is considered "dirty," the programmatic equivalent of "Just a moment please!"
When the user tells the operating system to shutdown (not just sleep), the operating system will look to see which applications are "ready to go" and applications are still looking for their metaphorical keys. The ones that are ready? They get killed, and killed hard.
It's like the difference between telling an app to "Quit" versus "Force Quit." If you ask it to Quit, it is going to check to see if it needs to do anything before it does. If you tell it to Force Quit, it's just going to go away.
If you are familiar with the Terminal, you may have used 'kill' to stop some process from running. Usually if you want to 'kill' an application nicely, you send 'kill -TERM' ("software termination signal") which says "OK, clean up your things and let's go!" However if you find that something refuses to stop, you might use 'kill -9' which is referred to as SIGKILL, described as "non-catchable" and "non-ignorable." This is like picking up your child and carrying him or her away because it is time to go now with no questions asked. Applications which mark themselves as "clean" are telling the operating system: "You can use 'kill -9'/Force Quit on me without worrying about losing anything."
How much longer does "Quit" take compared to "Force Quit"? Maybe only a second or two, maybe a fraction of a second. But if you have a lot of applications running and the majority of them can skip that time, it helps the overall speed of the shutdown. Think of it like this: imagine you had a bunch of family members over and you were trying to get everyone out of the house to go to a restaurant: young kids, a couple of older aunts and uncles, and maybe grampa. You've probably asked something like this: "Does everyone have everything they need? Kids, did you go to the bathroom? Uncle Joe, did you get your coat and hat? Grampa, do you have your sweater in case it's too cold?" Even if everyone says "yes" it took longer than if you said "Let's go" and everyone replied "We're all ready!"
Is this a "sexy" feature of our newest cat-themed operating system? Not at all, but it is one of those "little details" that makes life a little easier as a Mac user: a little faster, a little more attention to detail, and exactly the sort of thing Apple promised to pay attention to with Snow Leopard.
(Big tip o' the hat to John Siracusa's epic Snow Leopard review at Ars Technica for bringing my attention to this feature. I look forward to John's operating system reviews almost as much as the operating system themselves.)
photo via flickr creative commons: danzen
TUAWMac 10.6 comes with license to kill originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: Snow Leopard - Apple - Operating system - Unofficial Apple Weblog - Ars TechnicaПереслать - CrossOver Games 8.0 released
Filed under: Gaming, Software, UNIX / BSD, Snow Leopard
Codeweavers tells us that they've released version 8 of their Crossover Games software -- I tried it out a while ago, and found that while it was a pretty good way to play their recommended games, once you went off the reservation, things got a little hairy. Then again, that was a long time ago, and since then, they've updated the recommended games list quite a bit -- they're now saying that version 8 will allow you to play most of the Steam games, including the excellent Left 4 Dead, and the new Tales of Monkey Island episodic games.
Additionally (and perhaps we're burying the lead a little bit here), this version is completely compatible with Snow Leopard. So while you still may be banging your head against compatibility for some apps (I'm actually sort of glad now that SL was sold out at Best Buy when I went by to pick it up -- think I might just wait until the compatibility issues get ironed out), Crossover Games should work just fine.
And it of course works on both Mac and Linux, so if you have a spare 'nix box sitting around and want some Windows games running on it, there you go. Existing customers with a support entitlement can upgrade right away, the app can be bought for $40, or there's a free trial to try out as well if you'd rather do that.
TUAWCrossOver Games 8.0 released originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: Snow Leopard - Linux - Apple - Microsoft Windows - TUAWПереслать - Snow Leopard: In EULA we trust
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Snow Leopard
Just before the release of Snow Leopard, Uncle Walt Mossberg did the unthinkable by writing that the $29 Leopard upgrade:
"will work properly on ...Tiger equipped Macs, so you can save the extra $140."
We reported that as well but didn't have all the facts verified at the time. Gizmodo likened Walt to a pirate and guessed that he'll have to apologize or at least clarify his position.
Now, after buying the family edition, I have done every sort of installation known to man and have the facts. It seems that Walt was right, but he didn't tell you the whole story. You can take the $29 upgrade disc and install it over Leopard, over Tiger, or over a freshly formatted hard drive. The disc doesn't care. Regardless of whether you pay $29, $49 or $169, you get the same disc with the same capabilities.
But just because you have a disc, if you use it for a purpose not intended upon purchase, you are breaking your agreement with Apple. The contents of the disc are the property of Apple and how that intellectual property is to be used is determined by the EULA (End User License Agreement) that you agree to before installation.
For each method of purchase the EULA is different. For the $169 package which includes iLife '09 and iWork '09 this is what you agree to:
"A. Single Use License. Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, unless you have purchased a Family Pack or Upgrade license for the Apple Software, you are granted a limited non-exclusive license to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-branded computer at a time. You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-branded computer, or to enable others to do so. This License does not allow the Apple Software to exist on more than one computer at a time, and you may not make the Apple Software available over a network where it could be used by multiple computers at the same time."
Clear enough. You can use it on one computer. It doesn't say that you need any operating system to start with. I would assume that you can put it on as many hard disks as you want, as long as you only use those hard disks with one specified computer.Continue reading Snow Leopard: In EULA we trust
TUAWSnow Leopard: In EULA we trust originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: Apple - Snow Leopard - Operating system - IWork - Hard disk driveПереслать - Ask TUAW: Connecting to a System 7 Mac, video management software, Apple's Up-to-Date program and more
Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly Mac troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about Apple Up-to-Date program, non-black LCD monitors, video management software, connecting to an old PowerMac 7200 to salvage files, and more.
As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.TUAWAsk TUAW: Connecting to a System 7 Mac, video management software, Apple's Up-to-Date program and more originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: Mac OS X - Apple - TUAW - Unofficial Apple Weblog - Operating systemПереслать - Lost your favorite Safari plugin after upgrading to Snow Leopard? Try 32-bit mode
Filed under: Tips and tricks, Internet, Internet Tools, Snow Leopard
Snow Leopard has brought a host of improvements to OS X, but Safari has been changed in one way that could ruin your day if you're used to using third-party plugins. Support for Input Managers has been removed in 64-bit Safari, which means that popular Safari plugins like Saft won't work.
Getting these plugins to work again in Safari is easy, but there is one tradeoff to keep in mind.
Re-enabling plugin support for Safari is as simple as forcing Safari to start up in 32-bit mode. When you choose "Get Info" on Safari, you'll notice a checkbox in the window that says "Open in 32-bit mode." Check this box.
That's it. Safari will now open in 32-bit mode, and any Input Manager plugins you were using before upgrading to Snow Leopard, like Saft or PithHelmet, should work just fine. Additionally, running Safari in 32-bit mode allows Multiclutch's custom trackpad gestures to work; these weren't working for me when I ran Safari in 64-bit mode, probably because Multiclutch is a 32-bit prefpane.
There's one caveat to running Safari in 32-bit mode: there's a tradeoff in stability. One of the features you gain by running Safari in 64-bit mode is that Safari will "sandbox" plugins like Flash, so if (when) Flash Player crashes, it doesn't take all of Safari down with it. This is because when Safari runs in 64-bit mode, plugins actually run as their own separate processes rather than being bundled up with Safari. But when Safari is run in 32-bit mode, Flash and other plugins work the old way, which means if (when) Flash crashes, so will Safari.
Safari in 64-bit mode: Flash runs as its own process.
Result: far fewer four-letter words in your workflow
Safari in 32-bit mode: Plugins work, but Flash makes it crash
If you can't live without your plugins (and I can't - Safari without Multiclutch or PithHelmet is like a day without sunshine), then the small sacrifice in stability you'll suffer by running Safari in 32-bit mode is probably going to be worth it to you.
Note: if you're running anything that runs off the SIMBL input manager plugin like Saft or PithHelmet, you might have to take a few extra steps to get things running properly in Safari on Snow Leopard. This procedure is specifically tailored toward getting PithHelmet running, but the steps for Saft should be similar (Procedure courtesy of versiontracker.com user tech.bear).
- Edit the file "/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/PithHelmet.bundle/Contents/Info.plist" using either TextEdit or another editor (If you're dealing with Saft, substitute as needed); you can find this file by finding PithHelmet.bundle, right-clicking on it, and choosing "Show Contents" from the contextual menu.
- Look for "<key>MaxBundleVersion</key>" down towards the bottom of the .plist file; now look at the next line. It's the <string> line.
- Change the number to 9999.9
- Save the file
What happens is there's an identifier string that checks against the version number of Safari; by changing that value to 9999, you shouldn't have to deal with that incompatibility error ever again. Of course, this is at your own risk -- this version check is designed specifically to prevent SIMBL plugins from "breaking" Safari when Safari gets updated, but if you don't want to or can't wait for the developer to update the plugin, this procedure shouldn't really give you any problems. I've been doing something similar for four years of using PithHelmet, and I haven't run into any major issues.
TUAWLost your favorite Safari plugin after upgrading to Snow Leopard? Try 32-bit mode originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: Snow Leopard - Apple - Operating system - Safari - OS XПереслать - More from the police blotter: Sagemore Apple Store hit by burglars
Filed under: Retail, Odds and ends, Apple
While the past few days have seen a spy saga of a stolen laptop and a few rapidly recovered stolen iPhones, the story at the Sagemore Apple Store in Marlton, New Jersey is more of your basic "five guys vs. a plate-glass door." A well-organized 2 am robbery at the store netted the team a substantial haul of 23 MacBook Pro laptops, 14 iPhones and nine iPod touch handhelds.
Even though the store was staffed with a security guard, the thieves were able to time their run right after his rounds, and clear the merchandise from the store in 31 seconds flat. Security video of the theft is in the 2nd half of this post.
Anyone with tips on the identity of the masked bandits is being asked to call police at 856-983-1118 or the confidential tip line at 856-988-4699.
Thanks to Justin for sending this in. H/T to ifoAppleStore, which (unbeknownst to us) also reported the story yesterday afternoon.Continue reading More from the police blotter: Sagemore Apple Store hit by burglars
TUAWMore from the police blotter: Sagemore Apple Store hit by burglars originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: Apple - IPhone - TUAW - IpodTouch - TheftПереслать - Fourteen ways to enjoy TUAW
Filed under: Cool tools, TUAW Business
We're always trying new things around here, from apps to web services to hardware and all kinds of novel ways to do what we do. We also appreciate the fact that many of you read us via RSS or even the iPhone. To that end, here's a list of the many ways to enjoy TUAW in all its myriad forms. If you think we're missing something spectacular, let us know in the comments.
Heeeere's TUAW, in reverse order of no particular importance:
#14 - TUAW on Facebook
We can't really ignore one of the biggest social networks in the world, can we? For weeks I teased the iPhone app on Facebook, and a few of you caught it. We've also been posting deals, newsy tidbits and videos on there. It's a good way to share items, but so far we've kept our RSS out of it. It's entirely likely that we'll put more teasers on Facebook in the future. Let us know in the comments if you'd like to see more or less Facebook interaction overall.
#13 - TUAW on Tumblr
This has been fun. It's so easy to share stuff on Tumblr that a few of us have simply let the bookmarklet do the talking. We see something cool or useful or worth a mention; within seconds it is on our Tumblr page. If you're looking for something a little off-the-menu at times, this is a good place to look.
#12 - TUAW on Flickr
On the right we have a little widget that shows the last three items on Flickr tagged "TUAW" -- so try it! Sometimes we run a "Flickr Find" post showing a crazy Mac setup, so don't be bashful about your workspace. We weren't. You can check out our TUAW rig Flickr pool here.
#11 - TUAW on Video
There's no shortage of TUAW video to choose from. From Blip.tv to Viddler to YouTube and our aggregator VodPod, there's quite the buffet. You can also do a search on Truveo and find our videos across many video sites.
#10 - TUAW on your iPhone
Oh, you haven't heard? TUAW has an iPhone app. In fact, we broke into the top 100 free apps the weekend we launched. Thanks for that, TUAW fans!
#9 - TUAW on Twitter
Of course we're on Twitter, you silly Billy. We have our primary Twitter account, where we'll share cool posts and other fun things, and our Ask TUAW account where you get to ask us Mac, iPhone, iPod and mystery-of-life questions (and hopefully get an answer).
#7 - TUAW on Stitcher and TalkShoe
In case you've been hiding every Sunday, we do a regular live Talkcast on TalkShoe. It's a hoot, and you get to chime in via phone, live each week. Once that show is "in the can" and uploaded to iTunes, etc. we also appear on iTunes and in Stitcher. That's handy, given the awesome Stitcher app.
Want to know more? Keep reading...Continue reading Fourteen ways to enjoy TUAW
TUAWFourteen ways to enjoy TUAW originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: iPhone - Facebook - iTunes - Apple - TUAWПереслать - First Look: TIME Mobile, a slick magazine for your iPhone / iPod touch
Filed under: iPhone, App Store
Instead of sifting through the piles of TIME magazines at your doctor's office, where you don't know who's healthy or unhealthy hands have touched the pages, you now have another option to browse through TIME content on your iPhone.
The recently launched TIME Mobile [iTunes link] app provides a better browsing experience and more content than the mobile version of magazine's website. In addition, the app brings with it support for video, which is lacking on the mobile version of TIME's site and not supported for the iPhone on the full version of the site because the videos are encoded in Flash.
TIME Mobile also brings a new approach for browsing articles. Like Cover Flow view in the iPhone and iTunes, TIME Mobile's "Image Flow" provides some eye candy in front of the meat and potatoes of the article content.
One thing absent in the app is support for offline reading, a useful feature for situations where data connectivity is lacking, such as on an airplane. The USA Today app [iTunes link], which is in the same app genre as TIME Mobile, supports offline reading by tapping on the update button on each section. Perhaps such a feature could be added to TIME Mobile as a paid-for feature, or as for free to those who subscribe to the paper version of the magazine. Update: TIME's app team tells us that offline reading is built-in as part of the app, but for some reason I could not get it to work consistently; we're following up with them to figure out why it's wonky.
Powered by Polar, a mobile publishing provider that also powers BusinessWeek [iTunes link] and CNNMoney [iTunes link] iPhone apps as well as a host of other apps on a variety of mobile platforms, TIME Mobile is available as a free download in the App Store.
TUAWFirst Look: TIME Mobile, a slick magazine for your iPhone / iPod touch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: iPhone - App Store - Apple - IPod Touch - HandheldsПереслать - Benchmarking results: Is Snow Leopard really any faster than Leopard?
Filed under: OS, TUAW Labs, Snow Leopard
Be sure to check all of our ongoing Snow Leopard coverage right here.
One of the biggest features of Snow Leopard isn't something apparent to the naked eye: software tweaks and refinements intended to make OS X a leaner, meaner OS for your fighting Apple machine. But is Snow Leopard really any faster? Now that I've successfully upgraded two Macs to Snow Leopard I've got some benchmarking results to share.
My Early 2008 MacBook Pro shipped with OS X Leopard 10.5.2 installed. I ran Geekbench on the stock OS X installation after upgrading the RAM to 4 GB to get a baseline for comparison of future performance. 18 months later I ran the same test immediately after updating to 10.6. Both tests were performed with Geekbench testing in 32-bit mode immediately after a restart, with no other programs open except the Finder, nothing loaded in Dashboard, and no Time Machine backup running.
Machine specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.60 GHz w/ 4GB RAM
Average Overall Geekbench score for this model of MacBook Pro: 3304
Read on for the scores.Continue reading Benchmarking results: Is Snow Leopard really any faster than Leopard?
TUAWBenchmarking results: Is Snow Leopard really any faster than Leopard? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: Snow Leopard - Operating system - Apple - Time Machine - TUAWПереслать
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