bugs
Latest
iClip 4 beta released to MacHeist customers
Customers of the MacHeist bundle should be receiving an email offering a download link for the new iClip 4 beta that was promised. This is a new version that John Casasanta is apparently just about ready to release next week at the Macworld expo, and users are encouraged to help track down bugs and submit them to a bug reporting link provided in the MacHeist email. I can't help but wonder if Kevin Finisterre and "LMH" are getting their hands on a copy so they can sensationalize any bugs they find.
Around Azeroth: One day, a wyvern quit his job...
I admit, I've seen more than one or two shots of bugged mounts in my time. Occasionally some sort of error will cause a bat, gryphon, or wyvern to not vanish upon landing -- instead the character will be shown mounted still, but with full control over their movement. However, this collection of shots, sent in by reader Skeez, is certainly the most amusing I've seen of such an event. First, we see Skeez's wyvern friend decide to take off from Hammerfall on adventures with him...
Former Apple engineer offers fixes for Month of Apple bugs silliness
Landon Fuller, programmer and former Apple BSD Technology Group engineer extraordinaire, has offered to try and provide fixes for the exploits that appear during this asinine Month of Apple Bugs. Landon has already posted workarounds for the QuickTime vulnerability, and he links a change the VLC team has already made to their codebase (which is likely to be rolled out soon). I join many others in thanking Landon for his work, but I still wish he didn't have to do it. Why should a former Apple engineer use his free time to chase after publicized exploits, when Apple themselves (and any 3rd parties) should be the ones to fix these problems at their core?Thanks Bill I
"The Month of Apple bugs" begins, rationality surrenders
Kevin Finisterre and someone we only know as "LMH" have launched the Month of Apple Bugs, a site they dub a 'project' with the supposed goal of publishing bugs, hacks and exploits they have found in Apple's software any and all Apple-related software. Already they have published a QuickTime exploit they've found which could allow remote code execution (for which Mr. Gruber's proposed solution might not cut it), and yesterday they posted a VLC exploit (and how is this an 'Apple bug?') which supposedly offers the same vulnerability.If you're the type who enjoys cliff notes, let me summarize my feelings about the decision Kevin and "LMH" have made with this site: I spent almost all of last night sketching and brainstorming ideas, but I honestly can't think of anything more pathetically ego-massaging or FUD-drudging one could do with this information outside of writing, directing and starring in a horror movie about code exploits. Thankfully, I wager such a movie wouldn't do so well at the box office.Let me be clear: if these guys have actually found enough problems with software (be it Apple's or otherwise) to fill a whole month of releases, I honestly and sincerely thank them - they can help whoever makes that software to make it better. What is so horrendously wrong with this 'project' is that they're stirring up hype and making news headlines with these exploits, instead of sticking with the traditional and ethical practices of reporting and discussing these bugs with the relevant parties.Who knows, maybe they already filled out the form (though after reading FAQ #4, I doubt it), but publishing this information and landing themselves all over digg and Yahoo! News isn't going to accomplish anything productive. They complain about slow processes and being annoyed at auto-responders to bug reports but they fail to offer any legitimate reason or positive justification for publishing code like this. Patience and civility are virtues, and while I can completely understand being annoyed at faceless bureaucratic processes that fail to tingle the 'hooray I did something good!' bone, publishing this code in this manner has absolutely no positive merit for anyone, and causes nothing but undue harm to the Mac community they so smugly feign an interest in.But I would hate to end on such a bad note. Instead, I'll promise to stomp my feet about this 'project' as little as possible, as we at TUAW would rather focus on the positive. Over the month, we'll offer context and solutions for the bugs Mr. Finisterre and "LMH" publish, in an effort to help the Mac web create something positive out of this questionable month-long bug report. Stay tuned.
Breakfast Topic: Bugs, bugs, glorious bugs!
Ah, yes, the exciting aftermath of a patch. Battlegrounds have been functioning intermittently at best, faction-specific loot is dropping for both factions, talent trees differ from the PTRs (and the patch notes), re-building my UI seems like an impossible challenge, and newly bugged raid encounters one-shot tanks in the game's best gear. (Though admittedly they've already hotfixed Patchwerk.) So how are you coping? Not having any problems? Taking a break from playing while all the kinks get worked out? Switching to a less problematic class? For my part, I'm hoping some of the worst of it is worked out by the weekend, when I'll have more time to play...!
TUAW Tip: How to submit a bug to Apple
Find something wrong with an Apple app? Know about a problem with the operating system? Want to know what to do about it? Consider submitting a bug report at Apple's bug reporter website. It's the best way to get Apple's attention and generate a trouble ticket for the problem you've discovered. The site is open to any registered Apple developer and it's free to become a registered Apple developer--you don't actually have to be, you know, a real actual coding or programming developer. Just sign up for an account here. Apple has a handy best practices page to help you submit the best bug report possible. (Hat tip to our own Laurie for this great link!) And here are a few more helpful contact points: AppleCare Extended Service and Support (800) 275-2273 AppleCare Support - 90 Day Warranty (800) 275-2273 AppleCare Support - Legacy (800) 767-2775 AppleCare Support - Education (800) 800-2775 Apple Store (Consumer) (800) MY-APPLE (800-692-7753) Apple Store (Education - Individuals) (800) 780-5009 Apple Store (Education - Schools) (800) 800-2775 Canada AppleCare Extended Service and Support (800) 263-3394 Canada AppleCare Support - Education (800) 800-2775 Canada Apple Store (Consumer) (800) MY-APPLE (800-692-7753) How to get a human faster? Press Zero three times. If a virtual rep answers, say "Operator". International Phone Support Main US support Page. Thanks, Chris.
The Latest Bugs: iPod Nano On-the-Go problems
TUAW reader Frix reports that some 8-Gigabyte 2nd gen iPod nanos are manifesting a bug with their "On-the-Go" playlists. Users cannot include artists, albums or genres in these lists. The latest firmware (1.1.1) and iTunes release don't seem to fix the problem. Some 2-Gigabyte 2nd gen owners are reporting the same problem. Got a fix or an insight? Let us know.
Any problems with your DirecTV HR20?
JJ over at PVR Wire has an interesting article up about the quirks and problems people seem to be having with their recently-released DirecTV HD PVR, the HR20. It's the satellite company's MPEG-4-based box which has enabled them to begin shifting customers to the lower-bandwidth codec and hopefully alleviate some of the problems they seem to have with getting enough space for all those HD channels -- without turning others off, of course. The product was launched nationwide just about two months ago -- beta test launches notwithstanding -- so customers have had a chance to mess around with their units and get familiar with its features. Or, perhaps they're doing too much messing around, as the article mentions all the problems and complaints about the device. As Ben will tell you, it's no TiVo, but it should do as well as any other cable or over-the-air box, right? Among the issues mentioned on blogs and forums are freezing and crashes, slowness, and general interface problems.Are our readers having the same problems? Is it just people who don't know one end of the remote from another? Or are we expecting too much from a new (to DirecTV anyway) product and technology launch? Let us know.
Atari customers getting testy
Atari's reputation for solid customer support (relative to say, 2KSports) is being put to the test in their community forums where fans are complaining about car trouble in Test Drive Unlimited, particularly: No sure-fire way to run into friends/clans members in free roam, plus The car trade feature has been disabled as a temp fix to a data loss problem, which effectively disabled an achievment. According to reader Aragom, Atari has acknowledged these issues and ultimately promised a patch in November, but the extended silence didn't relieve the road rage? These guys were the gold standard for customer service at the TLU release, when we praised their prompt response to complaints and feedback-friendly approach. Is this as good as it gets for the pissed and the patchless, or are people being just a little too testy with Atari?[Thanks Aragom]
Video Sandwich: October 1, 2006
Hope you didn't just eat. This edition of the Video Sandwich shows you what's really inside your PSP. The above video takes fears of finding bugs in your PC to a very literal level. Watch, be amazed, and then wonder... how did that happen?The bottom video was created by a user setting up "PSP TV," which I assume will allow you to watch/play PSP content on a TV. It's so easy! Clocking in at almost 10 minutes (with tons of looping music), it converts the PSP into a large monstrosity that will never fit in your pants ever again (unless you have parachute pants). If I want to play games and watch movies on my TV, I'll stick with the PlayStation 2, thanks.
Apple quietly releases iTunes 7.0.1
In typical Apple fashion, they've just updated their jukebox app with hardly a hint of the changes, other than that it "addresses stability and performance issues with Cover Flow, CD importing, iPod syncing, and more." We suppose there's only one way to find out if iTunes 7.0.1 actually manages to fix all those problems that cropped up in the initial release, but if it's any consolation, we managed to install our very own copy without frying our machine or experiencing any of those formerly reported problems of Cover Flow kicking puppies.[Thanks, Rob]
Hearthstone raid bug squashed
Just in case any of you folks missed it, the hearthstone raiding bug as been taken care of via a hotfix. Once your realm was restarted this morning, the bug should be gone. No more super-fun free hearthstones for you!Good thing, as my guild is planning on a little AQ40 tonight, and I don't want to end up at my hearthstone location, way back in Cenarion Hold. Boy wouldn't that be a pain in the...wait a minute. Nevermind. All kidding aside, this is good news for people looking to take advantage of freshly reset instances on a Wednesday night.
iTunes 7 turning out to have major glitches
When we were deep inside Maestro Jobs' reality distortion field on Tuesday, all these new additions to iTunes 7 seemed like significant improvements over its previous version. But not quite 48 hours later, all is not quiet on the iTunes front. Specifically, users on Apple's web forums and our own tipsters are reporting that some new nanos aren't being recognized in Windows iTunes 7, music being played through iTunes 7 sounds "scratchy" at times, CoverFlow doesn't always entirely download properly, and there are allegations that iTunes 7 has become, slow, bloated, and a resource hog. Some of us here at Engadget who have installed iTunes 7 haven't noticed any bad playback or other slowdowns, but have been dissappointed that very few of the albums on our machines have successfully downloaded album art. Furthermore, The Sydney Morning Herald called iTunes 7 a "lemon" yesterday and went on to report that: "Both Mac and PC users appear to be affected by the glitches being reported, and numerous different threads on the Apple discussion forum have described a range of technical issues." Oh, and did we mention that many professionally produced podcasts -- including CNET's Buzz Oud Loud, Popular Mechanics, and our own -- are reportedly not working. If Apple doesn't do something about this pretty soon, people might start calling it iCan't -- as in: "I can't play my music anymore."[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]Read - The Sydney Morning HeraldRead - Apple iTunes ForumsRead - Possible solution for nano issue in WindowsRead - Podcasts are brokenRead - Roku SoundBridge iTunes support broken (workaround here)
Madden has a bug in its shorts
Looks like Madden will be shipping with a few known bugs this year. First, gamers will be able to draft Hall of Fame players in Franchise Mode. EA claims that this is actually a feature, and not a bug at all. The other bug, especially disturbing since it should have been discovered in testing long ago, is that players aren't registering fatigue. That is to say, the players do fatigue, they just don't show it in the user interface. So far, EA has only said that a patch will be available "soon" after release.Admittedly, I'm not a football fan, but it seems like this should have been an easy thing to spot.[Via XboxAddict]
Enchantment Issues?
Logging on to WoW this afternoon (a US server, at least - the EU realms may not share this issue), I received the following in-game message: We are aware players are experiencing an issue with the display of recent enchantments to items. We are working to resolve the issue and recommend players refrain from placing enchantments on items.Now, I can't yet find anything about this on the forums or the website, but with such an vague yet ominous message (and as expensive as enchants can be), how can one help but listen?Update: Still not much detail on what the intial problem was, but this was hotfixed later in the evening.
Transmit 3.5.4 released
Transmit, Panic's FTP client that I firmly believe was coded by angels, has been updated to version 3.5.4. They offer detailed release notes, but the cliff notes include SFTP error improvements, upload/download error and Growl notification fixes, navigation tweaks and much more.Transmit 3.5.4 is a free update and available from Panic's site.
Skype w/video leaked, will destroy your Mac
According to a Skype developer, an old and unstable version of Skype for Mac has been leaked onto file sharing networks across the globe. If you spot this file, do not download it! "It is an internal unstable development version, and thus it is extremely buggy" and "it will destroy your contacts and other data". We wouldn't want that now would we?Since the Windows version of Skype gained video conferencing support in March, many Mac user have felt left behind and stuck with the non-video capable version of Skype. Fortunately, this warning also comes with some good news; Skype version 2.0 for the Mac is nearly ready for primetime. The screenshot of a video capable of Skype on the left of this post is the tantalizing proof.So, try and resist the temptation to go searching for a pre-release version that could potentially destroy your Mac, and wait a little longer for the official version. Remember what happened the last time someone bit the Apple?
Uno matchmaking fix on the way
UNO for Xbox Live Arcade (currently the game of choice for Xbox360Fanboy editorial meetings) is generally percieved as a successful take on the classic card game -- with one major flaw: gamers attempting to play a ranked match are thrown into their own lobby instead of being matched up, resulting in an annoying wait for competition. Fortunately Carbonated Games tells us a fix is near. UNO Program Manager Richard Thames Rowan posted the following response to complaints on K1lla's Xbox Domain:The UNO development team is aware of the problem that some people are having with matchmaking and has a fix going through certification right now. Hopefully, you'll see this roll out soon, so no need to email anyone.Finally, ranked matches without a 20 minute wait. There can be only one.
Spring Dashboard update bugs out
"It looks like consoles just turned into unreliable PCs." Chilling words for those naive souls who thought background downloading came without a Mephistophelian price. Xbox 360 owners across the web report various problems with the Spring Dashboard Update ranging from choppy, unwatchable video clips to negative effects on certain games. Here's a a list of complaints collected from the GamePlanet forums and comments on this site: Alright, I was playing burnout, no problems. This is after I downloaded the update, well in the middle of the game it crashed.NEVER had this happen before. got a error that said disc read error, clean disc. Well, ok fine i eject it, PERFECTLY CLEAN. reinsert it, and what is this? it says to play this disc insert it into an XBOX360. WTF do you think i just did? Now it wont play it at all. I will try to restart and go again. WTF did microsoft do to me?!? Well now I can't play Half Life 2. It loads almost all the way to the main menu, freezes and then the screen turns black. I can't even return to the dashboard! This sucks! I even tried downloading the backward compatible disc thing but now it won't reconize the file on the disk. WTF? This sucks M$! I don't know if it was just because of the latest update, but i just downloaded 'A scanner darkly' trailer.... And it is skippy as!!! I'm having real issues with Oblivion at the moment as well. Everything is taking 10x longer to load, even the main menu etc. I have also heard of problems with Half-Life 2. Is anyone else experiencing the same issues or different ones? Are bugs like this going to be a fact of life as consoles become more PC-like, or should we be going after Microsoft with a can of Raid?[Thanks Donutta]
Surprise - Thunderbird 1.5.0.4 released with Universal goodness
Right alongside Firefox's update today, Mozilla has also brought Thunderbird up to the 1.5.0.4 (.3.2.1.12) version with a big improvement for Intel Mac owners: Universal Binary super-powers. Also in this update are security and bug fixes. Let us all take a moment of silence in remembrance of the bugs who lost their lives in the making of this update.One thing I am not sure of, however, is if that GmailUI extension we blogged earlier will work after this update. Does anyone know?
