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Dear Aunt TUAW: Will my brand new refurb Mac come with Mountain Lion?
Dear Favourite Aunt TUAW, I'm using British spelling in honor of the Olympics. I know that I haven't called lately but I've been very busy waiting for my new Refurb Mac mini. It's going to replace my trusty but aging 2007 edition. I've fetched my Firewire cord and have the step by step method of transferring data, etc... and then it struck me - will the new Mini come already equipped with Mountain Lion? How will that affect the migration? I can't sleep as I fret about this, so please offer your expert advice. Thanks... Your 16th favorite nephew, Mark Dear Mark, Auntie's pretty sure that "Aunt" is spelled identically on both sides of the Atlantic, although she should point out that you (and all of her nieces and nephews) have always been her favourite. (See what she did there?) Auntie gave Apple a call and confirmed that refurb minis qualify for the Up to Date program. You'll be able to upgrade for free. What's more an Apple rep confirmed that the migration assistant will work between OS versions, so you'll be able to move your data from the original Lion install to your new mini -- whether you've already upgraded it or not. Cheers, pip pip, and Tally-Ho (two can play at that game), Auntie T. P.S. Uncle Rich is now squirming. Not just because of Auntie's take on the entire British Empire, but also because he's not a huge fan of Migration Assistant's reliability. He writes, "Migration Assistant [redacted] impressively on my iMac. I extracted my MBP HDD and put it in a USB caddy. Told Migration Assistant to use it as the source and let it do its thing. Rebooted; system seemed good. Disconnected the USB drive... and it stopped booting. Something I had on the old OS X install was cross-connected to the USB HDD, and wouldn't start without it! Never did figure out what it was. In the end I did a clean install of Lion, then told Migration Assistant to move only my home directory and not any of the other settings or apps. I had carried my OS X install forward from Leopard onwards, so it was high time for a clean out anyway." #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Apple mistakenly issues OS X Server codes to users entitled to Mountain Lion
Apple may have had some trouble with its Mountain Lion redemption codes, which provide a free Mountain Lion upgrade to new Mac owners who purchased a system between June 11 through July 25 via the OS X Up To Date program. Instead of receiving a code for Mountain Lion, some customers are reporting that they received a code for OS X Server instead. OS X Server, normally $19.99 in the App Store, adds filesharing and web services to Mountain Lion, but it requires the base OS to be installed first. This redemption process has not been as smooth as Apple would have hoped. Some of the early codes did not work, some were for the server upgrade and according to reports on Twitter, some people are still waiting for their code to arrive. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Apple briefly releases Mountain Lion Up-to-Date program, pulls it back
For those folks who purchased Macs after June 11 (myself included), Apple said that OS X Mountain Lion would be available as a free download. Ahead of this week's expected launch, Apple briefly unveiled its Up-to-Date program, which gets those buyers ready for their Mountain Lion upgrade, then pulled it back minutes later. As shown on MacRumors, the form showed the information needed to redeem a license, including the user's Mac serial number. Apple gives the user a reference number, then sends a redemption code to be used to download Mountain Lion. The code comes in two emails: a password-encrypted PDF with the code and the password itself. Those who were quick enough to get the redemption code before Apple rolled back the site weren't able to use them in the Mac App Store to download Mountain Lion yet, MacRumors says. Those eligible for the Up-to-Date program will have 30 days from the day that Mountain Lion is available to make the request. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Buy a new Mac now, upgrade to Lion for free
Apple's Mac OS X Lion press release reveals that those who purchase a new Mac on or after June 6, 2011 will be able to receive a free copy of Mac OS X Lion. Apple's Up-To-Date program typically lets customers who buy new Macs within a certain time frame update to the latest OS at a reduced cost, typically US$9.95 for a disc. It appears Apple is eliminating the fee entirely with Lion. From the press release: "The Mac OS X Lion Up-To-Date upgrade is available at no additional charge via the Mac App Store to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller on or after June 6, 2011. Users must request their Up-To-Date upgrade within 30 days of purchase of their Mac computer. Customers who purchase a qualifying Mac between June 6, 2011 and the date when Lion is available in the Mac App Store will have 30 days from Lions official release date to make a request." That's good news for anyone who's in the market for a new Mac and either can't (or doesn't want to) wait until Lion is released to make a purchase. [Via MacRumors]
Ask TUAW: Connecting to a System 7 Mac, video management software, Apple's Up-to-Date program and more
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.
Snow Leopard shipping August 28th, says Apple's UK online store (update: US too)
We've heard whispers that Apple might be unleashing Snow Leopard to the unwashed masses a bit earlier than September, but this listing in the company's UK online store is the most concrete evidence we've seen to date. Still up as of this writing, the page clearly says Snow Leopard is shipping by next Friday, August 28th. No way to actually order it at this point and no clue whether or not this is just some glitch, but if the gang at Cupertino are really planning to launch in a week's time, we wouldn't be surprised to hear something official sooner rather than later.Update: A pair of tipsters have revealed the same August 28th ship date for the US Up-To-Date program. Screenshot of a shipping confirmation after the break. [Via TUAW, thanks Will G.]
Five tips to minimize raiding downtime
I'm a rather avid raider, putting in a solid 20 hours a week on my Warrior. One of the major things about the time spent raiding is that it can be very precious. There is only so much time that 24 other people, plus appropriate class substitutions, can be available each week. It's critical that the time spent raiding is used well.Unfortunately, using raiding time well is about as much of a challenge as is downing Illidan. In preparation for this article, I've spent the past three weeks keeping track of the down time in raids. We raid Sunday through Thursday nights, from 7:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. We experience a downtime of about 51 minutes for each raid, which is about 20% of the time. Down time is defined as the time that my character is standing still, not attacking, not moving, and not being MDed to.Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not really sure. Tip #1: Chain pullingPersonally, I do my best at the main tank to chain pull and push the trash through as fast as possible. This works out 99% of the time, however the 1% of the time it doesn't work out can grind the raid to a halt. Case and point: The trash to Supremus isn't too bad, and is a lot of packs where the MT, OT, and Pally tank each have some mobs to tank. There are also some ranged dragons that the Warlocks tank. These pulls can go very fast, and are very predictable. Pulling slowly we can do this in about 40 minutes, while chain pulling each group, we can push through in 15.Tip #2: Fully self buffed, all the timeIt doesn't take much to buff yourself. Every class has some buff they can apply to themselves, be it food buffs, spell buffs, or shouts. The key here is that you can find a minute or two to always buff at least yourself, if not others. Although, it might not always be possible to buff others as you're going along - and that's okay with most raid leaders for trash pulls.
Leopard... shipping 10/18?
What the? Reader Dean O. sent us this shipment notice from the Apple Store in Canada, and says that he ordered Leopard as part of Apple's up-to-date program (he bought an MBP last week), and yet was surprised to see that even though it doesn't come out until the 26th, his delivery date is October 18th-- tomorrow.Interesting. I was under the impression that even though Apple had announced a formal release next week, they still hadn't finished the OS-- they were working on the last bugs, or QA-ing the last beta copies, or even printing the gold masters, or whatever else you do when you're about to make a gigantic software release. But according to this (as long as it's not just a typo-- Dean says he lives by a Canadian warehouse, so it's probably a shipping mistake), Leopard is currently boxed up and ready to sell. Very interesting. I guess Dean will know by tomorrow whether he receives his package on time or not.
