I know developer previews have at least one specific goal at giving third party devs early access so they can get a sense of new APIs and start updating/creating apps, but they also serve for bug reporting. Do you think Apple should open up OS X beta testing to a larger community of users?
View 16 RepliesApple this week is reported to be testing the first internal builds of Mac OS X 10.5.8, one of the final updates, if not the last, slated for its current Leopard operating system software.News of this particular maintenance update is significant for owners of PowerPC-based Macs, given that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard requires a Mac with an Intel processor. That means Mac OS X 10.5.8 or 10.5.9 will likely represent Apple's final push towards solidify and stabilize Leopard before shifting the majority of its resources towards the first point release of Snow Leopard, which will arrive this fall.
View 28 Replies View RelatedLong the domain of Linux and Windows users, Google's Picasa photo management tool is currently being tested for Macs, AppleInsider has learned.
View 39 Replies View RelatedDuring last six months Paragon (www.paragon-software.com) has been working on our first software for Mac OS X - Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X. This product allows Mac users to use Microsoft NTFS file system as Mac OS X native. Now the product is almost ready and we want to offer you its Public Beta version. It's the first time when we do public beta testing. There is one big reason for that: we do want to make Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X a useful tool for every Mac user. That's why we need your opinion about it.
What we expect from you:
1. Bug reports (though we hope that there won't be many). If you find a bug, describe in details the way it can be reproduced. We need every detail, every step. Write your OS version and CPU architecture.
2. Usability issues. We want to make the product as easy to use as possible. Write us what is to be improved or changed. Make your suggestions detailed and reasonable. This will help us to understand them and implement in a right way.
3. New feature suggestions. In fact we don't have much time before the release date to implement new features. Though if a suggested feature is easy to implement or requested by many people, then we will do it.
To download the public beta version, please fill out a short web form and download it - http://ntfs-mac.com/
Meantime you can look at our short Product Description. There is not much text
http://ftp.paragon.eu.com/Mac/Produc...ta_Testing.pdf
We will read your feedback in this thread very carefully. We also excuse in advance about lack of replies. We won't be able to reply all your posts, but we will do "summary" replies once or twice a day in this thread. We appreciate this forum community very much. That's why we selected this forum for our Public beta testing. In exchange to your help we will be glad to provide the most active beta testers with free versions of this software. The rest will have 30% discount.
Before leopard was released I installed windows on my mbp using the BootCamp Assistant. I have since reformatted the computer and while the windows partition remains, bootcamp assistant is gone. A few questions:
1. Is there any way I can make the windows partition larger? I want to install a few new games on it
2. If not, how can I delete the windows partition straight up?
3. Once the windows partition is deleted, how can I reinstall windows without upgrading to leopard? Is there any where I can get boot camp assitant still? I still have a burned CD with the Windows Drivers along with my copy of XP w/ SP2.
Every time I open Safari a little box opens and says:Â
Community ToolbarÂ
We’re sorry, but the Safari browser version you are currently using does not support the community toolbar. How can I make this box stop coming up since I don't even know what it is. Can it be deleted?
Info:
MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2010), iOS 5.1.1
I get community toolbar error messages every time I open Safari. How can I get this to stop?
Info:iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
Apple on Wednesday issued a broad beta distribution of Mac OS X 10.6.4, the fourth planned maintenance and security update for its Snow Leopard operating system that has been under development internally for several weeks.The pre-release software, labeled Mac OS X 10.6.4 build 10F37, made its way to Apple Developer Connection (ADC) members just one day after a more elite set of testers belonging to Apple's Apple Seed program got first licks at the beta.
View 28 Replies View RelatedAdobe's chief executive revealed this week that his company is currently testing an optimized version of Flash built specifically for Apple's newly released MacBook Air.
In an interview at the Web 2.0 Summit this week, Shantanu Narayen said that Adobe is looking to improve battery life on the MacBook Air with a new custom build of Adobe Flash, currently in beta testing in the company's labs. According to Engadget, he noted that battery life performance depends on hardware acceleration.
"When we have access to hardware acceleration, we've proven that Flash has equal or better performance on every platform," he said.
His comments come after testing of the new MacBook Air found that ditching Flash improved battery life by two hours. The new notebook gets six hours of uptime loading pages in the Safari browser, but that dips to four hours once Adobe Flash is installed.
Apple caused a stir in October, when it released its newly redesigned MacBook Air models, but shipped them without the Flash plugin preinstalled. Apple portrayed the change as an advantage to consumers, as leaving the user to install Flash ensures they have the latest version.
Apple and Adobe have been at odds in 2010, in a feud that gained considerable steam after Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs published an open letter criticizing Flash as old technology that is unfit for the modern era of mobile computers. Apple does not allow Flash onto its iOS-powered devices, including the iPhone and iPad.
Jobs also revealed that Flash is the number one reason for crashes on the Mac platform. For its part, Adobe fired back and said that any crashes of Flash in Mac OS X are not related to its software, but are instead the fault of Apple's operating system.
Within the past week, Photos (beta) in iCloud no longer opens. I receive the same error message every time.Â
I eliminated the possible error of network by testing at home and work, but I'm not sure what the missing resources could be. I've tested it on a MacPro and MBP using Yosemite (10.10.1) and the latest Safari but Photos beta will not open online. Encountered this problem of Photos in iCloud not opening?
While the first two beta releases of Apple's Mac OS X 10.5.8 Leopard update signaled a focus on underlying service technologies, a third pre-release made available to developers overnight expands upon those areas to include several forward-facing apps and additional frameworks. People familiar with the beta, labeled Mac OS X 10.5.8 build 9L16, say the Mac maker has for the time being tabled its focus on components such as Bluetooth, Automator, graphics drivers, iDisk syncing, Spotlight and Sync services.
View 9 Replies View RelatedApple on Tuesday afternoon pushed out another private beta of Mac OS X 10.6.3, asking its developer community to test font compatibility and stability alongside a handful of other components that have been in need of evaluation for the past several weeks.
Those other components include iCal, QuickTime and graphics drivers, according to people familiar with the beta software. The last private beta, distributed March 5th and labeled build 10D567, also listed those components as focus areas, in addition to Rosetta and third party printer drivers.
When it's released later this month, Mac OS X 10.6.3 will bundle an update to QuickTime X that improves security and compatibility while also enhancing overall reliability of the media software.
The Snow Leopard update will also include tweaks that enhance the performance of Apple's 64-bit Logic pro audio suite and deliver better compatibility with third-party printers and OpenGL-grounded applications.
Other fixes baked into the release target issues with mail messages displaying the incorrect background color and problems copying files to a shared Windows volume.
The latest beta carries build number 10D571 and weighs in around 700MB.[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
Apple on Thursday evening delivered to developers a new build of its forthcoming Snow Leopard operating system that addresses a number of outstanding bugs but also delivers a couple of interface tweaks.
"This Snow Leopard Developer Preview Update is recommended for all users running the Snow Leopard Developer Preview Build 10A394 or later," Apple said. "This update includes general operating system fixes for stability, compatibility, and security."
The new build, labeled 10A402a, weighs in at roughly 1.3GB and was distributed via Snow Leopard's Software Update mechanism. It's the second such build to arrive in that manner in as many weeks, signaling ongoing tests to the new version of the system's automatic software updater.
In their brief experiences testing the new build, people familiar with the software claim it to be more responsive overall, as Apple focuses on optimization and stability ahead of a release planned for this fall.
Additionally, developers have noticed a couple of obvious interface tweaks, the first of which has seen the Dock's contextual pop-up menus re-skinned in a charcoal motif with white text. In previous builds, these menus were know to sport the same interface as traditional Finder contextual menus, which include black text on a platinum backdrop.
Snow Leopard's new Dock contextual menus | Source: The Quantum Byte
Apple may also be fiddling with the design of other Mac OS X interface elements, such as slide knobs, which now appear to feature a deeper, more vibrant shade of blue.
At its annual developers conference last month, Apple said it plans to release Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard in September as a $29 upgrade for all owners of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.
Apple has released a new beta of the Mac OS X 10.6.2 update with fixes for various performance issues dealing with AirPort, graphics drivers, and Apple TV, among others.
Those familiar with the build, titled 10C540 have said that it contains fixes for AirPort performance issues on the newly released iMacs and also resolves a problem which arose when plugging and unplugging a system to an Apple TV. A VMWare fix is also included, presumably for the newly released Fusion version 3.0.
The new build also fixes reported panic issues with USB, Apple Filing Protocol, and some video cards.
In the 10.6.2 update, Apple plans on fixing and tweaking nearly 150 OS X components.
Some components slated for fixes include: AppleBacklight, Battery Menu, Dictionary, Expose, FileSync, Family Controls, Fonts, Front Row, HFS, Inkwell, iPhoto, MobileMe, OpenCL, Parental Controls, QuickTime, Screen Sharing, Spell Checker, Spotlight, Time Machine, and USB.
Mac OS X 10.6.2 is expected to be released sometime in November and will reportedly be around 480 MB in size.[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
Apple has launched its new beta V2 update of the MobileMe web-based Calendar, sending users announcements that allows them to opt into the new program, which brings shared calendaring and an iPad-like appearance.
Opting into the new beta upgrades the calendar data in a way that makes any changes connected to the new format. Users who choose to leave the beta will lose updated changes, as Apple warns in the signup process.
The new Calendar requires users to upgrade to the latest iOS 4 for iPhone and iPod touch, the latest Mac OS X 10.6.4 or the most recent MobileMe Control Panel 1.6.1 for Windows, and demands a modern web browser, minimally Safari 4, Firefox 3.6, or Internet Explore 8.
Apple also notes that the new calendar beta does not support Microsoft Outlook behind a proxy server, and does not support push updates for Windows and iPad users. The iPad will fetch new data when its Calendar is opened, while Outlook running on Windows will fetch new event data every five minutes. Other iOS devices and Mac will continue to receive push updates normally.
Users with lots of calendar data may be warned that their older data will be incrementally upgraded over the next hour.
The new MobileMe Calendar features an iPad-like slider control at the bottom for rapidly navigating to future and previous months, and a calendar and notes view that appear to be tear off pads of paper. Also like the iPad Calendar, it presents a Day summary and List view of upcoming events.
MobileMe users can opt in to the new beta by logging in and requesting an invite. The new Calendar update is the latest in an overhaul series that began with Mail. The new updates use the latest SproutCore frameworks to create a very desktop-like experience.
Apple on Tuesday announced a public beta of Safari 4, a new version of its share-gaining web browser that packs a powerful new JavaScript engine and support for the latest web standards. Dubbed "Nitro," the engine in Safari 4 is said to run JavaScript 4.2 times faster than Safari 3. Other new features include Top Sites, for a visual preview of frequently visited pages; Full History Search, to search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages; Cover Flow, to easily flip through web history or bookmarks; and Tabs on Top, to make tabbed browsing easier and more intuitive. "Apple created Safari to bring innovation, speed and open standards back into web browsers, and today it takes another big step forward," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Safari 4 is the fastest and most efficient browser for Mac and Windows, with great integration of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards that enables the next generation of interactive web applications."
Performance
In terms of performance, Apple claims Safari 4's new Nitro JavaScript engine executes JavaScript up to 30 times faster than Microsoft's IE 7 and more than three times faster than Firefox 3. It's also said to load HTML web pages three times faster than IE 7 and almost three times faster than Firefox 3. Safari 4 also represents the latest chapter in Apple's efforts to maintain its leadership role in defining and implementing web standards, with built in support for HTML 5 and CSS 3 -- two technologies critical in supporting an entirely new class of web applications that feature rich media, graphics and fonts. Safari 4 Beta tracks the sites you browse and ranks your favorites, presenting up to 24 thumbnails on a single page.
Specifically, the Cupertino-based company said the new browser includes HTML 5 support for offline technologies so web-based applications can store information locally without an Internet connection. A recent technology demonstration by Google highlighted the advantages this technology when it showed off a version of Gmail running offline on the iPhone's mobile version of Safari, which already includes support for some HTML 5 standards. Apple also said that Safari 4 is the first browser to support advanced CSS Effects that enable highly polished web graphics using reflections, gradients and precision masks. Similarly, it's said to be the first browser to pass the Web Standards Project's Acid3 test, which examines how well a browser adheres to CSS, JavaScript, XML and SVG web standards that are specifically designed for dynamic web applications.
Cover Flow offers a highly visual way of reviewing your site history and bookmarked sites, presenting full-page previews. Safari for Mac, Windows, iPhone and iPod touch are all built on Apple's WebKit, which the company has billed the "world's fastest and most advanced browser engine." Apple developed WebKit as an open source project to create the world's best browser engine and to advance the adoption of modern web standards. Most recently, WebKit led the introduction of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards and is known for its fast, modern code-base. Some of the industry's newest browsers are based on WebKit including Google Chrome, the Google Android browser, the Nokia Series 60 browser and Palm webOS. Safari 4 relocates the tab bar to the top of the browser window to provide "more room for you to enjoy the sites you're reading".
New features
Safari 4 also includes a handful of new user interface features, including: Top Sites, a display of frequently visited pages in a wall of previews so users can jump to their favorite sites with a single click; Full History Search, where users search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages to easily return to sites they've seen before; Cover Flow, to make searching web history or bookmarks "as fun and easy as paging through album art in iTunes;" Tabs on Top, for better tabbed browsing with easy drag-and-drop tab management tools and an intuitive button for opening new ones; Smart Address Field, that automatically completes web addresses by displaying an easy-to-read list of suggestions from Top Sites, bookmarks and browsing history; Smart Search Field, where users fine-tune searches with recommendations from Google Suggest or a list of recent searches; Full Page Zoom, for a closer look at any website without degrading the quality of the site's layout and text; built-in web developer tools to debug, tweak and optimize a website for peak performance and compatibility; and a new Windows-native look in Safari for Windows, that uses standard Windows font rendering and native title bar, borders and toolbars so Safari fits the look and feel of other Windows XP and Windows Vista applications. In total, Apple claims over 150 features in Safari 4. The public beta is available for download here.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
My add-ons are all installed, and enabled, but most are not working. The plugins are all just gone, such as flash. I installed flash again, restarted, and it still doesn't have flash.
View 1 Replies View RelatedI don't know if this is the right place to ask this question, but today my Apple Account forced me to change my Apple ID. Just moments ago, with all my prior Apple ID info intact, I downloaded the Beta for Messages. Is that involved?
Info:
MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
Why can't pc users open rgb jpg from my mac?
View 1 Replies View RelatedI like Safari's U.I. very much, but, everytime I load around 5 pages at the same time it starts to freeze and give me the rainbow circle on the mouse pointer. If I open the same sites with Camino everything works great and even faster than Safari.
I do not want to quite switch to Camino, because its UI is ugly, but its really superior to Safari on speed terms and has the same compatibility as Firefox, because its Gecko engine (?).
I will miss Top Sites and Safari's UI so much
How your Safari works? Is it fast and freeze free?
I am trying to edit my login items as apparently from what I have been told that is the only way to get my Belkin n52te speed pad to work with OS X Mavericks, however when I click on Users&Groups in System Preferences I just keep getting "Preferences error: Could not load Users and Groups preference pane" I have tried rebooting, I have tried going into terminal and showing hidden files to see if there is a corrupted duplicate of the system preferences file.
None of the fixes I have found by Googling the issue to find posts about it have worked. As I said in the beginning I have a belkin n52te speed pad that I cannot change the keybindings for because Mavericks will not recognize the device as being plugged in. When I run the keybind editor program and from what I was able to find about that issue online it has to do with editing the login items to include a file from the installer and then rebooting and trying again. I could just hook into my windows PC since that actually works but its difficult to have to unplug the pad and hook it into my windows PC anytime I need to make any changes to the keymaps, so getting my mac to work.
I own 23 and 30" Cinema Displays. I like the 23 because everything is larger and easier to read than in the 30". I mostly work in Logic and love that I see lots of things on the 30" but the 23" is much easier on my eyes.Is there such a thing as a display with 2560x1600 (like the 30" Apple) but that is LARGER than a 30 inch so I can see everything bigger in Logic??? Maybe a 34 or 37"? Did a search but haven't come up with anything other than other 30" displays.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI cannot put my Apple ID in the users preferences. Full name is as a user is ok, user is administrator. Logging in with my ID works fine on itunes, Apple, iCloud by Safari,.. but I cannot log into iCloud in the preferences (so not synchronize my address book, calendar,..), and cannot fill in the Apple ID in the user preferences. On my other Mac, on my iphone and Ipad all works fine.. Behind the Apple ID: Set.. it gives: The operation could not be completed. Csidentityerrordomain -100.
Info:
MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4)
Problems started after uploading the Lion in March. Now at least Windows 7 users can´t open any pdfs or jpegs that I have included into sent e-mails. They can see that they are included but can´t open them. What can I do?
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
In an apparent bid to rapidly gain share of the online browser market dominated by rival Microsoft, Apple is leveraging its vast iTunes install base to recommend that Windows users also download and install the latest version of its Safari web browser.
To date, Apple has sold over 100 million iPods, the majority of which have gone to Windows users who subsequently must install the company's iTunes software for synching files between their PCs and the digital media players. As part of iTunes, Apple also installs its Software Update mechanism on the Windows-based machines to notify users of iTunes updates, in addition to updates to its QuickTime media software required for several iTunes functions.
It now appears that the Cupertino-based company aspires to use the advantage presented by the Software Update mechanism to muscle its way further up the browser charts at the expense Microsoft's Internet Explorer and other third-party Windows browsers.
"Earlier today, Apple released the Safari 3.1 Web browser for Mac OS and Windows XP/Vista. A couple hours later, Apple Software Update popped up on my daughter's Sony VAIO, offering Safari 3.1 for download," noted Microsoft Watch's Joe Wilcox. "I didn't recall seeing an earlier version installed on the laptop. And I made no mistake: The Apple updater offered installation of new software, not something that had been there before. Whoa."
Windows users receiving the notification are greeted with Apple's marketing pitch alongside the download option, which reads: "Safari for Windows is the fastest and easiest-to-use web browser for the PC. It displays web pages faster than any other browser and is filled with innovative features -- all delivered in an efficient and elegant user interface."
In a statement released Monday alongside the release of Safari 3.1, Apple said the browser loads web pages 1.9 times faster than the current version of Internet Explorer and 1.7 times faster than Firefox 2.0. But when it comes to install base, Safari is world's behind.
According to NetApplications, the Apple browser maintains an approximate 5.7 percent share of the market, a distant third to the well established presences of both FireFox and Internet Explorer, which hold a 17.2 percent and 74.8 percent share, respectively. But like FireFox, Safari is slowly eating away at Internet Explorer's commanding lead. Its share has risen nearly a full percentage point over the past twelve months, while the Microsoft browser has shed about 5 percent of its share.
Meanwhile, Apple is also contending on a second front in its charge towards supremacy in the browser market, to which it has witnessed more immediate success. Its iPhone and iPod touch -- both of which ship with a mobile version of Safari -- have served to springboard the company to the top of the US mobile browser rankings in a mere eight months, according a recent report from Ireland-based StatCounter.
But Wilcox, who credits Apple with wisely leveraging its resources to infiltrate Microsoft's territory, questions how well the fledging Safari browser will hold up amongst a PC world proliferated by trojans, viruses and other rogue tactics that threaten to disrupt the stability of Windows systems.
"Safari is fairly new to Windows and has yet to really show that it has can muster the security to withstand the associated attacks," he wrote. "Mac OS X is a quaint neighborhood where little Safari was safe. By comparison, Windows is a gang-ridden ghetto: life is survival, and it's tough going."
I'm bad at Photoshop. I really wish for the 3 user customizable keys, personally I would use the top two buttons for previous/next Space, and the bottom key to switch to my iTunes. And the trackpad to the right could be used for customizable multitouch gestures, so you can move around spaces easily, scroll with 2 fingers if you have a desktop and not a laptop, etc. I think it's very important that Apple includes multitouch for desktop users and not just laptop people.
View 14 Replies View RelatedApple has long had a business sales group ready to sell Macs to any interested companies, and with the release of iPhone 2.0, the Cupertino-based company made it very clear that it wanted the iPhone to fit the needs of corporate users.That has helped stoke a healthy interest in the iPhone platform among companies who develop custom mobile software. Apple hardened the iPhone's security profile, added Exchange support, and created mass configuration and deployment tools for the deviceFor the iPad, those same corporate-friendly iPhone features will all continue to work, thanks to the iPad being build on the same software foundation. However, the iPad adds a variety of new things that business users should find very attractive.
View 39 Replies View RelatedI resent that Appple forces us to pay for and download Lion in order to switch to iCloud, a system that has many users furious. After downloading Lion, my personal cd archives from iTunes vanished, and several of my friends, on switching to iCloud, lost their mail contacts. YES - they followed the complicated instructions from Apple as to how to save everything, but so much fell apart. I had a chat with an Apple person and even she was mystified. I was going to buy an iPad but now I won't as just having an iMac is enough with so much difficult stuff going on.
View 2 Replies View RelatedToday when we started trying to add users to our server (we use it only for afp access at this time), we noticed that new users belonging to a group "storage" were unable to login from client machines via afp (clients both 10.7.2 and 10.6.8). Â
When we tried editing the users accounts to change which groups they belonged to, it would appear in workgroup (and server preferences) that the changes would take but there was still no access.Â
As a test case, we modified an existing user who had no issues logging in to belong to a diffenent group and have different sharepoint access. The changes looked good in workgroup and server prefs, but when the user logged in, he was only able to acces his old sharepoint and not the new one (and since his permissions to the old were removed, he shouldn't have access to that sharepoint).Â
Also, for some reason users cannot be deleted within workgroup manager any more. The login used was the diradmin account.
Info:
Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
I am currently am MBA student and must create projects using power point/ keynote, very often. Many of the power points/ keynotes created by students are informative but lack the ability to hold an audience’s attention (boring). Since I have this wonderful Macbook pro, I would like to create a dynamic keynote presentation which would include clips of audio and video files (I already know about converting keynote to power point). The only problem is, the videos I want to use in the keynote presentation are not able to be manipulated in iMovie (due to their format), and if they where able to be manipulated in iMovie, I’m not sure that PC users would be able to properly view them.
What video format (including embedded audio) is able to be viewed and heard by both OSX Lion users and Windows users?  If this is possible, can anyone suggest a safe application that I can purchase from the apple app store that will allow me to convert video files (including embedded audio) so that it can be viewed by both Lion and PC users? Preferably one that does not need access to the internet in order to convert the files ( I’m on the go allot and use an air card for internet access), but I will take it if this is the best option. If the app store does not have this type of application, is there a place that I can download a safe one?Â
Info:
MacBook Pro
