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Monday, Nov 17
Download: TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 17-Nov-08
Firefox 3.0.4 from Mozilla is a relatively minor update to the popular Web browser with changes focusing on various security and stability issues. Other enhancements include support for the Icelandic and Thai languages, and beta support for the Bulgarian, Esperanto, Estonian, Latvian...
Thursday, Nov 13
Download: Safari 3.2 Fixes Security Flaws
Apple has released Safari 3.2, which addresses a host of vulnerabilities, mostly in the version for Windows XP and Vista. A full rundown of changes is found in the security note. Most of the flaws relate to image handling and parsing under Windows. Several fixed bugs are cross-platform, and,...
Friday, Nov 7
Download: TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 10-Nov-08
Nisus Writer Pro 1.2 from Nisus Software is a fairly major update to the increasingly powerful word processor. The most significant change is a new importer that Nisus Software claims greatly improves file translations, especially for Word's .doc files. Other new features include the cap...
Tuesday, Nov 4
Download: Confessions of an iPod touch Convert
Display -- The iPod touch screen is beautiful. I've been impressed with how small type can be and yet still be readable to my eyes. When I traveled with the iPod video, I used a portable DVD player with a built-in iPod dock to enlarge the image to a viewable size. I don't need to use that DVD player w...
Sunday, Oct 26
Download: Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/27-Oct-08
Mail Act-On 2 Supercharges Mail Rules -- It's becoming clear that some of the best innovation in Mail is coming from developers outside Apple. (2 messages) Autocorrect in Word 2008: where? The location of Word's autocorrect dictionary is discovered. 4 messages) Bizarre Mail icons behav...
Friday, Oct 24
Download: Take Control News: Make the Most of MobileMe
MobileMe has become a virtual Swiss Army knife of online services, offering not only a whizzy new "push" data syncing service for tracking calendar, contact, and bookmark info on a variety of devices, but also email services, online storage and file sharing, Web hosting, and much more. T...
Tuesday, Oct 21
Download: TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 27-Oct-08
AirPort Extreme Update 2008-003 from Apple "resolves some issues with AirPort connections when roaming in large Wi-Fi networks." It's only for Intel-based Macs. (Free, 2.2 MB)Aperture 2.1.2 from Apple is a minor update to the photo management utility that enhances the print quality of boo...
Thursday, Oct 16
Download: TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 20-Oct-08
Copyright © 2008 Doug McLean. TidBITS is copyright © 2008 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative C...
Download: Microsoft Office 2008 12.1.3 and 2004 11.5.2 Updates
The Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.5.2 Update requires Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later, and that you've previously installed the Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.5.1 Update. It's a 13.3 MB download, and is available either via the Office 2004 version of Microsoft AutoUpdate or as a standalone download.
Tuesday, Oct 14
Download: Redesigned 15-inch MacBook Pro Unleashed
Apple bumped the 17-inch MacBook Pro to 4 GB of RAM and a 320 GB hard disk, but it doesn't share the 15-inch model's design improvements. Apple is rumored to be updating the 17-inch MacBook Pro in the near future, possibly at Macworld Expo in January 2009.)
Download: Updated MacBook Design Gets Metal and Glass
Apple unveiled a redesigned MacBook last week, ending a more-than-two-year period with only minor updates to the company's most popular notebook (and indeed, the most popular Mac ever). The changes make the MacBook nearly identical in appearance to the new 15-inch MacBook Pro. The two s...
Tuesday, Oct 7
Download: TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 13-Oct-08
Security Update 2008-007 from Apple brings with it a variety of bug fixes and patches, largely to components of Mac OS X's Unix underpinnings. A full list of fixes can be found on Apple's Web site. The update is available via Software Update (the easiest way to get it) or as standalone downloa...
Download: Apple Changes App Store Customer Review Policy
Apple recently announced that in order to submit a product review of any app in the iPhone App Store, the reviewer must own the app in question, whether through free download or purchase. When you attempt to write a review for a particular product, iTunes searches your Mobile Applications...
Saturday, Oct 4
Download: TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 06-Oct-08
Apple TV 2.2 brings security updates to Apple's home media center - in theory, maliciously crafted movie files could result in crashes or arbitrary code execution. More interestingly, the update also brings the Genius feature to Apple TV - hold down the Play/Pause button while a song is pl...
Monday, Sep 22
Download: TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 22-Sep-08
Copyright © 2008 TidBITS Staff. TidBITS is copyright © 2008 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creativ...
Tuesday, Sep 16
Download: VMware Fusion 2.0 Released
Copyright © 2008 Joe Kissell. TidBITS is copyright © 2008 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative C...
Monday, Sep 15
Download: Mac OS X 10.5.5 Update Focuses on Bug Fixes
MobileMe and iCal -- Apple's release notes don't go into much detail on this front, but the words "Improves overall sync reliability" are sure to sound welcome to the small minority of MobileMe subscribers who continue to see syncing problems with the online service.
Friday, Sep 12
Download: iPhone 2.1 Provides Highly Anticipated Bug Fixes
Unlike me, some sensible people tend to wait for a .1 (or "dot-one") release of any software before committing to it, the idea being that major bugs that invariably ship with the first .0 version are worked out in the update. Looking at Apple's release notes for the iPhone 2.1 software released...
Thursday, Sep 11
Download: iTunes 8 Gains Per-Podcast Settings
Three years after adding podcast support to iTunes (with iTunes 4.9 in mid-2005), Apple has finally given us the ability to control podcast download and retention settings on a per-podcast basis. Until now, you could set what iTunes would do when new episodes of a podcast became available...
Tuesday, Sep 9
Download: Apple Reveals New iPod nano and Updated iPod touch
In comparing the new iPod touch with the iPhone 3G, the big differences (apart from cellular capabilities, of course) are the iPod touch's lack of a GPS chip and a camera, both of which would be awfully nice to have in an iPod touch. Apple is clearly trying to differentiate the iPhone and iPod...
Download: iTunes 8 Adds Genius; iTunes Store Adds HD TV and NBC
Do you have a friend who always seems plugged in to the latest music? With last week's release of iTunes 8, Apple wants to be that hip friend, in the form of the new Genius feature. The iTunes Genius automatically builds a playlist of songs in your library, matching artists and genres accordi...
Monday, Sep 8
Download: Amazon Launches Mac-Compatible Video on Demand
The range of what's available via Amazon Video on Demand is vastly greater than what Apple has in the iTunes Store. Amazon currently counts 14,500 movies for purchase or rental and 1,200 TV seasons (not episodes), including episodes that are just hours or days old. It's possible that Apple...
Tuesday, Aug 26
Download: TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 01-Sep-08
Copyright © 2008 Adam C. Engst. TidBITS is copyright © 2008 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative C...
Wednesday, Aug 20
Podcast: MobileMe Web Interface Insecure, But Other Apps Get It Right
AppleInsider, reporting on MobileMe on 15-Aug-08, attempted to assuage concerns that the MobileMe Web interface does not use SSL encryption to protect connections from malicious sniffing or hijacking. They stated SSL was unnecessary because:
Monday, Aug 18
Download: TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 18-Aug-08
iPhone 2.0.2 includes "bug fixes," or perhaps bugs that have been fixed to prevent them from mating and creating new little bugs. As usual, Apple is utterly unhelpful in its release notes. We hope the update resolves issues with 3G reception in some phones and magically fixes everything. (Fre...
Podcast: Why I Hate the Eye-Fi Share Wireless SD Card
After the photos arrive on the Mac, they're then uploaded to your favorite photo sharing service, as long as it's not MobileMe. (Eye-Fi has cut deals with each photo-sharing, print-making, and social-networking service for uploads, and Apple doesn't have any outside deals with anyone....
Friday, Aug 1
Download: Apple Finally Fixes DNS Flaw and ARDAgent Vulnerability
Tiger users will see Internet Security Consortium BIND (the DNS software Apple relies on) updated to 9.3.5-P1, and Leopard systems will move to 9.4.2-P1. The latest version of BIND software is 9.5.0-P1, but Apple hasn't incorporated this update into Leopard.
Thursday, Jul 31
Download: Five iTunes 7.7.1 Bug Fixes Detailed
Apple has released iTunes 7.7.1 with criminally terse release notes saying that it includes "fixes to improve stability and performance." As a result, it's nearly impossible to figure out what has changed, although some trawling through Apple's discussion forums yielded additional in...
Friday, Jul 25
Download: TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 28-Jul-08
Copyright © 2008 Adam C. Engst. TidBITS is copyright © 2008 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative C...
Thursday, Jul 17
Download: TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 21-Jul-08
HP Printer Driver 1.1 from Apple "includes the latest drivers for printers you have used on your system." Unfortunately, it's unclear from that description if it merely includes drivers for new HP printers, or if drivers for existing HP printers have been improved. (Free, 405.1 MB)iPod tou...
Wednesday, Jul 16
Download: MobileMea Culpa: Apple Apologizes and Explains Tiger Situation
Also, I received details from Apple on how Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger users will be able to use MobileMe services. Apple confirmed that Tiger will continue to show .Mac throughout; they plan no update to change the operating system's terminology to read MobileMe.
Friday, Jul 4
Download: TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 14-Jul-08
iPhone 2.0 and iPod touch 2.0 (direct link to iTunes Store) from Apple update first-generation iPhones and existing iPod touch devices to the latest version of the iPhone operating system. Among numerous improvements, the 2.0 updates enable third-party application software from Apple'...
Monday, Jun 30
Download: Mac OS X 10.5.4 and Security Update 2008-004 Fix Bugs
Apple released Mac OS X 10.5.4 today, a bug-fix update that touches on several areas. Recent security updates are included (though the recent ARDAgent vulnerability has not yet been addressed; see "How to Protect Yourself from the New Mac OS X Trojans," 2008-06-25). If you want to take advan...
Friday, Jun 27
Download: Discovering Sparse Bundle Disk Images
Although Disk Utility can also convert one format to another (using the Images > Convert command), I've had some trouble with this method, and I've generally found it more reliable to create a new image from scratch and copy the contents of the old image manually.
Monday, Jun 16
Download: TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 16-Jun-08
Iris 1.0 from Nolobe is a new image editing application for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Iris uses a single-window interface to provide tools for painting and drawing, plus compositing of text, images, and effects on multiple layers. Iris also offers powerful color correction tools and supports a...
Download: SlingPlayer Mobile Would Drive Slingbox Owners to iPhone
At a coffee shop near Moscone West, where Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference took place last week, representatives of Sling Media showed me a proof-of-concept version of their SlingPlayer Mobile video placeshifting software on an iPhone and an iPod touch. The software, already...
Tuesday, May 27
Podcast: Back in the Saddle with the TomTom Go 720 GPS
It has been about a year and a half since my last review of a car navigation GPS, a consumer electronics field of which I'm inordinately fond, because the little buggers are so darn useful when driving in unfamiliar environs. See our "Find Yourself with GPS" series for the full set of reviews...
Monday, May 5
Download: Apple TV Gains Movie Purchases and DVD Date Releases
The Apple TV, the company's "hobby" (according to Steve Jobs) media playback device, added to its appeal last week with a pair of movie-related announcements. First, it's now possible to purchase movies directly from the Apple TV; before, they could be bought only from the iTunes Store o...
Thursday, Jan 31
Podcast: Looking Video Chat Problems in the Eye
For your run-of-the-mill computer user, systems that use the teleprompter design have the distinct disadvantage of being outrageously bulky. My MacBook Pro, for example, has an iSight camera built into the case, which despite the limitations inherent in its placement makes for a plea...
Monday, Sep 10
Download: Apple to Offer $100 iPhone Rebate for Early Purchasers
Apple CEO Steve Jobs posted an open letter to the company's Web site last week acknowledging the dissatisfaction over the iPhone price drop shared by the hundreds of thousands of people who previously purchased iPhones. Although details are still being worked out, Apple plans to offer "...
Download: Apple Introduces iPod Touch, Wi-Fi iTunes Store, and New iPods
Just keeping up with Apple is taking some effort these days, as the company rolls out new hardware and software products every few months. At a special event on 05-Sep-07, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced new versions of all current iPods, a new version of iTunes with a custom ringtone maker f...
Download: iTunes Store Loses NBC TV Shows, Expands in UK
Apple has announced that the iTunes Store will not be selling NBC television shows for the upcoming season. According to Apple, NBC Universal decided not to renew its agreement with Apple after Apple declined to pay NBC more than double the wholesale price per episode. That would have had t...