HKMacs

Just to let all my clients know that I recently completed the OS X Snow Leopard Server Essentials 10.6  course and passed the exam (9L0-403) and now will be offering setup of Snow Leopard Server. Records may be viewed at the Apple Certified Professional Registry (Please note – it may take a couple of weeks to be updated).

For OS X Server Setup enquiries please contact me, Vince Loden at: (852) 93486884 or by email on this page.

One of my favourite troubleshooting utilities has just been released for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

AppleJack 1.6 for Snow Leopard – Mac OS X Hints.

Several sites are reporting that Apple has issued a Knowledge Base article in the Support Forums that notes that some Time Capsules sold between February and June of 2008 are subject to a recall due to the problems described. Should you have a Time Capsule with a serial number in the range XX807XXXXXX – XX814XXXXXX that’s experiencing the dreaded “shutdown and never power up” problem, it’s time to either go to your local Apple Store with the device (after making an appointment at the Genius Bar, of course), visit a local Apple Authorized Service Provider, or to call the Apple Contact Center for your country to find out what to do.

Early users of the iPhone 4 are reporting that holding the new iPhone 4 in their left hand results in significant signal drop on WiFi and cellular calls. One user sent an email to Steve Jobs about this issue and reportedly received a reply from the man himself saying: “Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.”

Some reports are even going as far as to suggest this is discrimination against lefties. However this is where I disagree – it actually affects more right-handed people than one might realise. Although I’m right-handed I hold my phone in my left hand as I use my right hand for tapping, typing, gestures etc. More importantly I hold my phone in my left hand so as to be able to take notes with my right hand. Isn’t that what everyone does? Which hand do you hold your phone in? Let us know in the comments section.

There are rumours that there will be a software fix through an update coming soon.

I had the most unpleasant upgrade to iOS 4 on my iPhone 3G imaginable and I think I now know the reasons why. iTunes is incapable and wasn’t designed as a management tool for Apple’s portable devices and it’s time Apple’s engineers realised this and did something about it.

iTunes started life as SoundJam which was an MP3 player and recorder originally developed by Jeff Robbin and Bill Kincaid and released by Cassidy and Greene until Apple bought it in 2000. Apple added a new interface and the ability to burn CDs, removed some features and released it as iTunes in January 2001. Originally an OS 9 application it supported OS X when version 2.0 was released and support was added for the original iPod. Since then it has seen numerous updates and considerable additions well beyond it’s original purpose as an MP3 player. I think it has got out of control and tries to do too many things and ends up doing them all badly.

Upgrading to iOS 4 was a disaster mainly because the update managed to mangle the Applications and data files. It needs to be “sandboxed”. An OS  should not affect anything except the operating system and should be independent. When I upgrade a Mac OS X say from Leopard 10.5 to Snow Leopard 10.6 it doesn’t touch my applications or data. If I did there would be all hell to pay. Incompatibilities I can deal with. This shouldn’t happen on an iPhone or iPod Touch either. What Apple needs to do is have an iDevice Manager that deals with operating system and apps separately from user data. User data (music, purchases from iTunes Store, photo, videos, podcasts etc) should be handled in one or more different applications. As a result of this upgrade most of my applications were missing or in the changed  positions. Music, photos and videos disappeared. It took me ages to sort out the mess. Synchronization again is another tiresome process. Everything needs to be done as separate synchs. You cannot specify in each tab what needs to be synched and then synch everything at once. You must do each type of data separately. It should be simple drag and drop. Ideally I would like to see any iDevice (iPhone, iPod and iPad) mount as a device in the Finder. Then when I download or want to add anything new I would like to drag and drop and have the device recognize and file appropriately. Same for removal. This can be very time-consuming. The hassle to view a movie on an iPhone or iPod is ridiculous. First you might need to convert and then sync with the device. That’s why I love the ease of use in an application like Air Video Server. If I’m at home and want to watch a video on my iPhone I don’t need to convert or sync with iTunes. I just find what I want to watch over my network and that’s it.

iTunes is now becoming like the old OS 9. It’s like a nice old family home with many wings and extensions added on over the years, but unfortunately has become unlivable in and needs to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch, much as Mac OS X replaced OS 9.

But make no mistake. I love my iPhone 3G and I’ll probably go for the iPhone 4 too. I think it’s a marvelous device and I love the range and usefulness of all the apps available for it. To replace so many gadgets and devices with one hand-held device is truly remarkable and it will surely go down in history as one of the greatest technological advances of the 21st century but it’s become an untamable beast to manage, a dinosaur in fact!

iOS 4 now available for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. A complete walkthrough can be found here.

Apple has updated MobileMe with a new look Mail application and super-sized icons for other services. FindMyPhone is now available on the iPhone* and updated with a full-screen map.

“All-new Mail at me.com
MobileMe Mail on the web (now out of beta) has been completely redesigned with powerful new features such as widescreen view for reading email with less scrolling, rules to keep your email organized everywhere, and faster performance. For more details on these and other new Mail features, please read this news post.

Find My iPhone app and more
You can now download the free Find My iPhone app, enabling you to locate a misplaced device directly from iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch while on the go. After installing it from the App Store, just launch the app and sign in to quickly locate your devices on a map and access the other Find My iPhone features — Display a Message or Play a Sound, Remote Lock, and Remote Wipe.*

The Find My iPhone web application on me.com has also been updated with a full-screen map view. Clicking your missing device on the map lets you access all the Find My iPhone actions to help you recover your device and protect the information on it.

Learn more about improvements to Find My iPhone here.”

*Not available in the Hong Kong App store??

Yesterday I bought a Moshi MiniDisplay Port to HDMI adapter from Sunion in Wanchai, which as far as I know is the only MiniDisplay Port to HDMI adapter that supports audio passthrough from the new MacBook and MacBook Pros. The only problem I have now is that the “underscan” option in the Monitors Control Panel is disabled. I’m pretty sure it was there last week with OS X 10.6.3. Anyone else with the same problem?

Apple released Mac OS X 10.6.4 Tuesday. The OS update includes several bug fixes, including some sleep and sound issues with MacBook Pro (early 2010) models. The update also fixes some issues for Aperture 3, and it improves RAW image support for some devices.

As of this writing, Apple has not yet published the specific security patches in the update.

Apple’s release notes:

General fixes and improvements

• improves compatibility with some Braille displays
• resolves an issue that causes the keyboard or trackpad to become unresponsive
• resolves an issue that may prevent some Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications from opening
• addresses issues copying, renaming, or deleting files on SMB file servers
• improves reliability of VPN connections
• resolves a playback issue in DVD Player when using Good Quality deinterlacing
• resolves an issue editing photos with iPhoto or Aperture in full screen view
• resolves an issue with Parental Controls Time Limits for Open Directory or Active Directory users
• resolves a display sleep issue with MacBook Pro (Early 2010) computers
• resolves an issue with MacBook Pro (Early 2010) computers in which the right speaker may sound louder than the left speaker
• includes Safari 5.0; for more information about Safari 5.0, see this webpage
• Security improvements; for information about the security content of this update, please visit this article [does not yet include a link to information on this update]

Fixes and improvements for Aperture 3

• adds tethered shooting support for additional digital camera models
• addresses IPTC metadata compatibility issues
• Fixes and improvements for external devices

RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras

• resolves an issue with using third-party USB web cameras
• resolves an issue with noise when using some third-party FireWire audio devices
• resolves pairing issues with Apple remotes

- Mac OS X v10.6.4 Update (607.21 MB)
- Mac OS X v10.6.4 Update (Combo) (887.37 MB)
- Mac OS X Server v10.6.4 Update (615.60 MB)
- Mac OS X Server v10.6.4 Update (Combo) (1.05 GB)

Apple also released a pair of Mac OS X 10.6.4 updates specifically for the company’s new Mac mini released earlier today.

- Mac OS X v10.6.4 Update Mac mini (Mid 2010) (403.38 MB)
- Mac OS X Server v10.6.4 Update Mac mini (Mid 2010) (411.72 MB)

Finally, Apple released Security Update 2010-004 for users on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

- Security Update 2010-004 (Leopard-Client) (222 MB)
- Security Update 2010-004 (Leopard-Server) (380.29 MB)

Apple announced a surprise update to the Mac mini today and as usual it comes with two specifications:

2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

2 GB RAM

320 GB hard drive

HK$5,588

or the “server class” Mac Mini:

2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB RAM
Dual 500 GB hard drive
HK$7,988

Both models of Mac Mini have been updated with NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics, the same integrated GPU present in the MacBook and MacBook Pro.

The Mac Mini has received far more than a simple spec bump, however. The enclosure itself has been updated to a unibody aluminum construction similar to the MacBook Pro, and the “server” Mac Mini omits an optical drive entirely in favor of dual hard drives [as was the case for the previous server model]. Perhaps more important than that, the Mac Mini is now the first Mac ever to include built-in HDMI. You read that right: the Mac Mini has HDMI. The Mac Mini also has an SD card slot in the back.

Apple has also addressed the well-known difficulty of upgrading the Mac Mini’s RAM. There’s now a removable twist-off panel on the Mac Mini’s bottom that allows for easy access to the Mini’s RAM slots. I doubt if the hard drive will be as easy to upgrade, but at the very least, a RAM upgrade looks like it’ll take less than a minute with this new model.

Imagine that – a server that virtually fits in your back pocket – it looks very tempting!