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Boot Camp, MacBook firmware updates appear in Software Update
After the excitement of the Safari 5.0.3 update this morning, Apple quietly slipped in a few more updates this afternoon. Boot Camp Software Update 3.2 for Windows 32 bit and Windows 64 bit both provide support for the ATI-Radeon HD 5870 graphics card, the Apple USB Ethernet adapter, and the MacBook Air SuperDrive, as well as "addressing critical bug fixes." Don't be fooled by the post date of "January 18, 2010" -- the previous update came out on January 19, 2010, so it appears that someone forgot to change the month while posting the Knowledge Base article. There are also a couple of firmware updates that have been delivered. The MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 2.0 "resolves an issue where an attached external display may occasionally incorrectly show a purple coloration" and is recommended for the 13-inch, Mid 2010 MacBook Pro. The Mid 2010 MacBook also had the same issue, and there's the MacBook EFI Firmware Update 2.0 to resolve that problem. [via The Mac Observer]
The extra special TUAW TV Live all-Mac episode, version 2.0
Welcome to another episode of TUAW TV Live, the weekly livestreaming video show where you can join in on the conversation. Today, I'll be presenting another all-Mac episode, where I try to avoid using the i-words (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) and showcase the venerable Apple computer line. Some of today's topics include: Upgrading older Macs to bring back some of that new-Mac speed Ideas for regular maintenance of your favorite Mac Backups Boot Camp How to prepare an old Mac for "repurposing" (i.e., sale or donation) Places to sell an old Mac I'll also give you a peek at a few Mac apps that I've been playing with lately. Now it's time to get on with the show! To join in from your Mac or PC, just go to the next page by clicking the link at the bottom of this post, and you'll find a live stream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to join in on the fun by asking questions or making comments. If you're driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you're stuck in traffic, please don't -- keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone by downloading the free Ustream Viewing Application. iPad users haven't been forgotten, either, as you can tune in to TUAW TV Live on your iPad! That link will send yo to a non-Flash page, although you won't have access to our chat tool.
Chinese addicts escape from Internet 'boot camp,' invade Farmville
Is the internet an addiction? Absolutely not, we can totally quit whenever we like, and so we honor the spunk and spirit of 14 dedicated World of Warcraft grinders, Starcraft APM masters, and social networking gurus who escaped from their "rehabilitation center" in China's Jiangsu province. These so-called boot camps have been described by various outlets as being a little too close to torture camps, and while shock therapy has been banned, this 14 had still had enough. They captured their supervisor, tied him to his bed, and then hopped a (presumably large) taxi to get out of Dodge. But, there was one problem: none had any money to cover the fare. The police were called, all were apprehended, and they're presumably back to the "monotonous work and intensive training" they came so close escaping. Don't give up, kids. Let Andy Williams be your inspiration.
Mac virtualization face-off: VMware Fusion 3 vs. Parallels Desktop 5 (video)
With Steam officially hitting Mac in just a few weeks many Apple gamers have suddenly lost their need to emulate. But, for those who are hoping to get busy in a little Command & Conquer 4 under Snow Leopard this week -- or any of the other myriad of PC-only gaming options -- virtualization is the only way to go -- short of rebooting into Boot Camp, of course. Parallels is the most commonly used solution, but how does VMware's Fusion 3 stack up for gaming? Not too well, as it turns out. MacTech sat the two down together on matching Mac hardware and ran them through a number of benchmarks, including 3DMark. The results of that test fall heavily in the favor of Parallels, offering better framerates and far more consistent visuals, which you can see for yourself in a video below. Most of the many, many other tests run favor that option as well, but we won't spoil all eight pages worth of results just waiting for you on the other end of that source link.
Ask TUAW: Key remapping in Boot Camp, iPad tethering, file-sharing with a media extender, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we deal with some technical issues on our production Mac before turning to questions about Windows key remapping in Boot Camp, sharing files with a LaCie media extender, downloading images in Safari, recovering from a hard drive failure, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify), or if it's an iPhone-related question, which iPhone version and OS version you have.
Ask TUAW: Power adapters, Windows 7, iWork refresh, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about MacBook power adapters, Windows 7 in Boot Camp and virtualization in general, resetting the Mac Setup Assistant, the next iWork refresh, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify), or if it's an iPhone-related question, which iPhone version and OS version you have.
Ask TUAW: Prepping a Mac for transfer, adding words to spell check, updating Boot Camp, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about preparing a Mac that you're transferring to a new owner, updating Boot Camp, adding words to the built-in spell check, dealing with flaky network disks, FTP clients, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify), or if it's an iPhone-related question, which iPhone version and OS version you have.
Boot Camp updated: now supports Windows 7
If you've been waiting with bated breath to dual-boot Windows 7 on your Mac, your time has come. File under "better late than never": Apple has now updated Boot Camp with support for Windows 7. With separate downloads for 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Windows 7, the download also requires an authentic copy of Windows 7 or Windows 7 upgrade, and is only supported on more recent Intel-based Macs; no Macs produced before 2007 will support Windows 7, as outlined in this Apple support page. If you're upgrading your Mac's other side from Windows Vista to Windows 7, you'll first want to download and install the Boot Camp Utility for Windows 7, which "safely unmounts the read-only Macintosh volume on Microsoft Vista." Let us know in the comments if you have any issues with the update. Note: If you are already running Windows 7 on your Mac in Boot Camp, you can simply run Apple Software Update while booted into Windows to get the updated Win7-friendly drivers. [Hat tip to MacRumors and the Apple Support RSS Twitter feed]
Apple finally brings official Windows 7 support to Boot Camp (update: 27-inch iMac fix)
Either Apple isn't operating on the Gregorian calender, or these updates are just straight-up late. Either way, we're pretty stoked to see the suits in Cupertino finally wise up and allow Microsoft's best OS ever to work on its machines, as it has today issued new Boot Camp software (v3.1) for both 32-bit and 64-bit users of Windows 7. The updates add native support for Win7 Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate, and in case that wasn't enough, they also fix "issues" with the Apple trackpad and add support for Apple's wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse. You'll also find model-specific drivers floating around to add even more support, and the Boot Camp Utility for Windows 7 Upgrade is said to "safely unmount the read-only Macintosh volume on Windows Vista" when upgrading from Vista to Windows 7. Hit those links below for all the bits and bytes that you've been so desperately waiting for. Update: we're hearing reports that the 27-inch iMac is responding to Windows 7 with the Black Screen of Death, so make sure you use this tool from Apple before installing Windows 7. Too late? Then you'll have to manually remove the offending default ATI drivers by starting from point 4 on this page (hold down Option key while booting up to select the Windows install disc, by the way), and then try the Boot Camp update again.
Two broken promises from AT&T and Apple as 2009 comes to a close
As I sit by the light of the Christmas tree in my mother's house with the vestiges of presents all around, it occurs to me that no matter how good Santa might have been to you, both Apple and AT&T left us lumps of coal for the end of 2009. You might remember this promise from Apple a few months ago: "Apple will support Microsoft Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate) with Boot Camp in Mac OS X Snow Leopard before the end of the year. This support will require a software update to Boot Camp." It is possible to run Windows 7 under Boot Camp, but given the number of months Windows 7 was available as a beta, and now the length of time it has been released officially, it's disappointing not to have it officially supported, especially given Apple's simple and unequivocal promise. Boot Camp runs a distant second, however, to the much larger missed deadline and broken promise from AT&T that tethering would be available for the iPhone in 2009. Despite being available all around the world, and on other smartphones on AT&T's network, tethering remains unavailable for iPhone users in the USA unless you have stayed behind on firmware or have taken the jailbreak route. Rogers / Fido customers in Canada have been enjoying free tethering until 2010, and their deal has been extended until May 3rd. Given the way that I expect most people will use tethering, for occasional connections when traveling or out and about, free is exactly the price that tethering ought to cost. Given AT&T's existing costs for Blackberry tethering, though, I would not be surprised if AT&T expects another $30/month on top of the current $30/month data charges. When will we see Windows 7 Boot Camp support and tethering? I have no idea, but I fully expect Apple to come through before AT&T does. Coal picture courtesy of Wikimedia.
Before there was Boot Camp, there were DOS Compatibility Cards
With our zippy Intel Macs able to eagerly boot up Windows 7 in Boot Camp, VMWare, Parallels, and VirtualBox, it's difficult to fathom that it was ever a problem to run Microsoft operating systems on our Apple boxes. The situation wasn't that good just a scant 15 or so years ago. Back in the bleak days before the triumphant return of Steve Jobs to 1 Infinite Loop, Apple had a broad and confusing product line. Since DOS and Windows 3.1 were already entrenched in business worldwide, Apple knew that they had to have a way for Macs to run Microsoft operating systems in order to gain any sort of traction in the corporate world. Edible Apple ran a wonderful retrospective yesterday that looked at Apple's DOS Compatibility Cards. These were basically PCs on a NuBus or PCI cards that were inserted into a slot in the Mac, using the Mac's power supply, floppy and hard drives, and keyboard and mouse. Sporting such amazing CPUs as the Intel 486SX running at a whopping 25 MHz clock speed, the original cards worked with the Centris 610 and Quadra 610 and were released in 1994. By the next year a second edition was released with an Intel 486DX/66, and was targeted at the PowerMac 6100 and Performa 6100. Further research shows that there were several subsequent cards that included even faster Pentium and Cyrix 6x86 processors, were called "PC Compatibility Cards," and were designed for use in other PowerMac models. I can recall acquiring one of the Pentium-based cards and using it to try to entice our one DOS holdout department to move to Macs (they didn't). Today's Windows compatibility is the best it has ever been on the Mac platform, and usually the only "hardware upgrade" required is to add some inexpensive RAM to the host Mac. Things might sometimes change slowly, but at least in the world of technology, the change is usually for the best.
Windows drivers for Apple's Magic Mouse conjured from the ether
Hey Windows users: what would you risk for a mouse of such mystical persuasions that it has the word "magic" right in the product name? How about $69 for the mouse followed by a few sleepless nights after installing a .exe found in the murky shallows of the internet? That's what it'll take to install some hacked drivers, said to enable Apple's Magic Mouse gestures, on your Windows rig. The drivers were extracted from the latest Bluetooth update targeting Mac owners running Windows under Boot Camp, but now there's nothing stopping you from trying them too. Let us know how this dark elixir works out in the comments below.
Boot Camp Drivers update 2.2 for Windows available
Earlier today, Apple released version 2.2 of Boot Camp drivers for Windows. Installation requires Boot Camp 2.1 to have been previously installed as well as Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista. Boot Camp is included with Leopard and Snow Leopard and lets you install Windows on an Intel-based Mac. Shops or individuals who want to go Mac despite an unavoidable Windows-only application should consider Boot Camp along with virtualization options like VMWare and Parallels. For full information on installing Boot Camp as well as upgrade instructions, manuals, troubleshooting tips and more, look here. Please note that Boot Camp Drivers Update 2.2 is for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard only.
Ask TUAW: Auto-tagging music, iPhone VoIP apps, replacing a hard drive and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about VOIP apps on the iPhone, auto-tagging music, Boot Camp, replacing a hard drive and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.
Ask TUAW: Arranging icons on the iPhone, installing Windows on a Mac, Airport networks and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we have questions about arranging icons on the iPhone, installing Windows via Boot Camp, AirPort networks, iMac rotation support, replacing the video card in an iMac, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions. Leah asks: Is there a better way to arrange icons on my iPhone than by trying to drag them around on the phone itself. I can't seem to get it to work very well and usually mess it up. Apple provided a better way of organizing iPhone icons in iTunes 9. In the past, I always tried to arrange my icons on the iPhone the same way you do, by dragging them around on the device itself. This isn't as easy as it sounds, especially if you have larger hands. Now, with iTunes 9 or higher installed and your iPhone connected to your Mac or PC, launch iTunes, click on the Applications tab, and you will not only see the apps you have installed on your iPhone, but the iPhone screens and the placement of the icons as well. Simply drag the icons around in iTunes and put them in the desired order. The next time you sync, the icons are arranged identically on your iPhone as well. It's so much easier.
An illustrated guide to Boot Camp and Windows 7
Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come for TUAW to introduce our illustrated guide to installing Windows 7 with Boot Camp. Windows? On a Mac? Blasphemy! Yes, yes... we hear you, but we could argue the pros and cons to having Windows on a Mac all day. So, let's just get to the installation process. Be warned, it's a lot of pictures and step-by-step information. It's not necessarily a "fun" read, unless you want to make fun of how I click a button...
Apple will officially support Windows 7 in Boot Camp before end of year
Of course plenty of folks have Windows 7 running in Boot Camp just fine, but if you're one of those crazies that goes in for Apple's seal of approval you'll have to wait a little bit. The official support is coming "before the end of the year" to Snow Leopard and will obviously require an update to the Boot Camp software. Unfortunately, Apple's excluded a lot of its 2006 Intel-based computers from this forthcoming update, and we're getting the vibe that this is a Snow Leopard-only affair. Basically, par for the Apple course. [Via Mac Rumors]
Windows 7 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard at no additional cost
Anil Dash has described how to run Windows 7 on a Mac running OS 10.6 -- as a virtual machine -- for free (after you buy Windows 7, of course). It's not very tricky and, according to Anil, works well. Start by installing Windows 7 in Boot Camp and wait while it grabs the necessary drivers (the duration of this process will vary). Next, eject the Boot Camp disk and enter a few simple Terminal commands. You'll also need VirtualBox, which is free and open source virtualization software. Once you're done in Terminal, launch VirtualBox and browse to the file you made with Terminal. Read Anil's article for the details. As today is Windows 7 launch day, we're interested in hearing from anyone who has installed it on their Mac, either via Boot Camp or virtualization. For more, read Christina's post on installing Windows 7 on a Mac (at Download Squad), or Steve's take here. You can get your absolute fill of Win7 coverage all day today at DLS.
Ask TUAW: Backing up photos, remove Boot Camp partitions, Snow Leopard and Windows 7 and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly Mac troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about backing up photos, removing a Boot Camp partition, Snow Leopard and Windows 7, Bluetooth menus, iPhone search results 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.Han asks:What is the best way to archive photos without using iPhoto? I have about 100 GB of original photos and I have been saving them on my NetGear ReadyNAS Duo. Sometimes I leave the photos in the folder and just copy it to the NAS or sometimes zip them before I put it in the NAS. What I am worried about is if I zip the folder and somehow the zip file itself gets corrupted, is it harder to recover them? Is it better to just not zip and leave it as a folder then copy it to the NAS?Because photos are pretty important and almost impossible to recreate I take my photo workflow and backup seriously. First, I never import photos directly into iPhoto and instead, using a card reader, copy the files to a folder I have labeled specifically for these photos which resides in my main "Photography" folder.
Ask TUAW: OpenCL support in Snow Leopard, Boot Camp, automatic importing into iPhoto, and more
Wednesday means it's time for another Ask TUAW! For this edition we've got questions about what Macs will support Snow Leopard's forthcoming OpenCL acceleration, using Boot Camp with multiple partitions, connecting a Mac mini to HDMI, automatically importing images into iPhoto, 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.
