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Dear Aunt TUAW: Disappointed over AirPlay Mirroring hardware cutoff
Dear Aunt TUAW, With the new launch of Mountain Lion and its new features, I have somehow started looking at my old mid-2009 MacBook Pro with disdain. One of the features I looked forward to was AirPlay Mirroring which unfortunately my older model can't support due to hardware limitations. [This is causing no small amount of consternation among Mountain Lion upgraders, many of whom expected the feature to work universally. –Ed.] So my question now is, do I really need a new laptop? My hands are itching to get one. Maybe my question should be, what should be the cycle for upgrading laptops (but this is probably more personal). Would appreciate your help and guidance. Thanks. Your loving nephew, Dare Dear Dare, It's never the wrong time for a nice new Mac, if you can afford it. If not, AirParrot is just ten bucks and gives you the same kind of AirPlay mirroring, albeit with more burden on the Mac's CPU and some quality tradeoffs. In return for your $10, AirParrot offers two killer features that Mountain Lion does not. First, you can limit mirroring to a single window. Second, you can use it with an HDTV/Apple TV combo to extend your desktop! Why just mirror to your HDTV when you can use it as an extra monitor? As for Auntie's laptop upgrade cycle, it goes like this: she only buys hardware when she absolutely utterly cannot avoid doing so. It looks like a new Mac mini is in her future, although she hopes to hold off for a 2012 refresh. If not, she's buying a refurb 2011 mini and upgrading it to within an inch of its life. It will fit in perfectly with Auntie's lace doilies and Precious Moments figurines. Hugs, Auntie T. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Distro Issue 51 arrives with an in-depth look at Apple's Mountain Lion
In case you hadn't heard, Apple released the latest version of OS X recently. As expected, the newfangled Mountain Lion operating system touts a number of added features -- some of which bring it even closer in sync with iOS. In this week's issue of our e-magazine, the beast steps out into the spotlight and we offer a word or two (a few thousand, to be exact) in our full-length review of the software. If the work of the folks in Cupertino isn't exactly your cup of tea, we also give the new Outlook.com and T-Mo's version of the Galaxy Note a close examination with the Engadget fine-toothed comb. HTC's Eric Lin takes a shot at the Q&A, "This is the Modem World" discusses gadget smells, "Reaction Time" chats about blockbuster releases and "IRL" exposes more of the devices that we use on the regular. Trust us, you'll want to get comfortable this time around. Kick your shoes off and head to your download link of choice to get started. Distro Issue 51 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro APK (for sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me find Mountain Lion posts
Dear Aunt TUAW, Hello, can you provide me with a link to access all the Mountain Lion 101 articles instead of having to bookmark each individually? Your loving nephew, Graig Dear Graig, This is probably something that should be in TUAW's site operations manual. (We don't actually have an operations manual, but we do have a guide to the site's current design.) Every story on TUAW has tags. You can find them and click them in the Tags section at the bottom of each post. Any story tag can become a link, just like this: http://tuaw.com/tag/mountainlion101 Some of the tags you'll be interested in include Our excellent "getting started" 101 series; General coverage and how-to tips; Preparing your computer for the upgrade; and News reporting Auntie hopes you'll have lots of fun reading these posts. We've all put in lots of hours writing them up, and she's sure you'll find something there to engage, inspire, and amuse. Hugs, Auntie T. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Mountain Lion's AirPlay Mirroring + Reflector = infinite regress fun
In case you were wondering what would happen if you took Mountain Lion's new AirPlay Mirroring capability and mixed it with the third-party AirPlay utility Reflector... well, it's pretty much exactly what you would expect. Your screen turns into a live example of the barbershop effect, and the only way to get out of the infinite zoom is to quit the Reflector app. You can see the high-res version of the image on our Flickr page. Might make for an interesting desktop picture. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Why apps in Mountain Lion might need to see your address data
In OS X Mountain Lion, Apple has added extra protection around the address book and restricted apps from gaining access to the contents without a user's permission. This added security is beneficial for users, but it poses a communication problem for developers who need to access the address book for feedback or crash reports, says Daniel Jalkut in a post on his Red Sweater blog. Developers who generate a bug report or feedback request within their app must deal with the foreboding dialog shown above when they try to populate the fields of a contact form using data contained in the "Me" card. Not only does the dialog confuse the user, it also makes it appear that the app is doing something nefarious when it's actually not. Working off a tip from Panic founder Cabel Sasser, Jalkut has devised a way to add a friendly tone to the dialog that'll explain to users why the app needs to pull information from the address book. According to Jalkut, you can modify the Info.plist file and add a string for the NSContactsUsageDescription key. This key will tell the user why the app needs the contact information and will appear the first time the app tries to gain access to the address book. You can read more about this solution on Jalkut's Red Sweater blog and in the documentation on Apple's website. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Top 10 subtle Mountain Lion features (and a few more)
Lifehacker has put together a list of what they call the "top 10 secret features of Mountain Lion." That's not quite right -- these features aren't secret, because it would be pretty silly to release an OS update and not tell anyone about it. But they are subtle, and this is a nice list of features you may not have noticed yet. For example, the fact that you can tweet right from the top of Notification Center, or that you can share photos straight from QuickLook using the Share button. You can also rename files in TextEdit (or share them to iCloud) just by clicking on the document's name at the top of the window, and you can even insert pages into PDF files in Preview through the Edit menu. Helpful tips, for sure. We'll even add a few more features in that you may not have noticed yet: Over in Launchpad (which you can access from your dock or pressing F4 on a new Mountain Lion install, or set up a hot corner for), just typing will start you on a search for any app you've installed through the Mac App Store. And you may not have noticed, but Apple's added some brand new Screen Saver and slideshow options for when your Mac goes to sleep. Just like Apple's other OS releases lately, there's a lot of new stuff to go find and play with in Mountain Lion. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
AppFresh update manager out of beta for Mountain Lion
Now that Mountain Lion is out, developers are starting to roll out updates that'll make their apps compatible with Apple's latest OS. Users can easily keep up with all these changes using AppFresh for Mac. This utility from Metaquark will keep all your applications, widgets, preference panes and plugins on their latest version with minimal effort on your part. AppFresh gets its update information from Apple's system updates, RSS-based Sparkle updates and the repository of app updates maintained at the "i use this" website. It integrates with Growl notifications and will alert you when an update is installed. AppFresh is available from the Metaquark store for US$9.99, and works on Snow Leopard and Lion in addition to Mountain Lion. This discounted price is in effect until August 15, at which point the price will go up to $14.99. You can find out more about AppFresh on Metaquark's website. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Apple releases SMC updates to enable Power Nap in Mountain Lion
If you have a Mountain Lion machine eligible for Power Nap, one of OS X's new marquee features, you should check Software Update (via the Mac App Store) to make sure you've got the latest firmware. The enablers for the 2011 MacBook Air machines and the 2012 models were released on July 25, and the SMC update for the Retina MacBook Pro arrived on Friday. Apple has posted all three enablers on a single page.
Network-related crashes in Mountain Lion pinned on proxy settings
Mountain Lion may have a bug that's affecting users who have the Auto Proxy Discovery and Automatic Proxy Configuration networking features turned on, says Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater. According to Jalkut, apps, like his own MarsEdit, throw an error involving the CoreSchedulingSet or EmptyCoreSchedulingSet C++ objects when trying to connect to some network resources. Working with the folks from Agile Bits, Jalkut traced the problem to the Auto Proxy Discovery and Automatic Proxy Configuration settings in the Network preference pane. Under most circumstances, these options would not be turned on; the exception is in large institutional or corporate networks where specifically required by the network configuration. If these options are selected in the Network settings, then you may experience this crashing problem with apps that rely on Apple's networking libraries. These apps include, but are not limited to, MarsEdit, Tweetbot and Safari. Jalkut recommends that Mountain Lion users turn off the Auto Proxy Discovery and Automatic Proxy Configuration features until Apple issues a fix. You can read more about the networking issue and instructions on how to fix the problem on Jalkut's Red Sweater blog.
Three million Mountain Lion downloads in four days, says Apple
Impressive. Most impressive. Apple today highlighted Mountain Lion sales in a press release, with three million downloads delivered via the Mac App Store in just four days. This represents "the most successful OS X release in Apple's history." Technically "downloads" don't directly equal sales, as some small number of customers may have downloaded OS X on more than one eligible Mac. You don't need to do that, though -- just cancel out of the initial install, then copy the Install OS X Mountain Lion multigigabyte application over to the other Mac by removable media or AirDrop. You can also build a bootable installer USB stick, if that's your bag. Contrast with the 2011 press release for Lion, which cited a million copies "bought and downloaded" in just one day. Still, the adoption curve for the latest big cat is steep. Show full PR text Mountain Lion Downloads Top Three Million CUPERTINO, California-July 30, 2012-Apple® today announced that downloads of OS X® Mountain Lion have exceeded three million in four days, making it the most successful OS X release in Apple's history. With more than 200 innovative new features, Mountain Lion is the ninth major release of the world's most advanced desktop operating system and is available through the Mac® App Store™ as an upgrade to Lion or Snow Leopard users for $19.99 (US). "Just a year after the incredibly successful introduction of Lion, customers have downloaded Mountain Lion over three million times in just four days, making it our most successful release ever," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. Mountain Lion features include the all new Messages app, Notification Center, system-wide Sharing, Facebook integration*, Dictation, AirPlay® Mirroring and Game Center. iCloud® integration makes it easy to set up your Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Messages, Reminders and Notes, and keep everything, including iWork® documents, up to date across all your devices. For more information or to download Mountain Lion visit apple.com/osx/specs. In addition to Mountain Lion, the Mac App Store offers thousands of apps in Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity, Utilities and other categories, and is the largest, fastest growing PC software store in the world. Users can browse new and noteworthy apps, including apps that take advantage of new features in Mountain Lion, as well as check out staff favorites, top charts for free and paid apps, and user ratings and reviews. For more information visit apple.com/mac/app-store. *Facebook integration will be available in an upcoming software update to Mountain Lion. Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.
Apple reports 3 million Mountain Lion downloads in four days, 'most successful OS X release'
We heard some rumblings ahead of the weekend from third-party sources, and like clockwork, Apple has kicked the week off with its weekend box office returns. According to Cupertino's numbers, the latest version of OS X hit 3 million downloads in four days, making for "the most successful OS X release in Apple's history." Price has surely played a role in Mountain Lion's speedy success, running $20 for 200-plus features, according to Apple's numbers. That list includes big additions like Notification Center and AirPlay Mirroring and a selection of smaller tweaks to the decade-old operating system. More information can be found in the customarily self-congratulatory press release, after the break.
New command line tools in Mountain Lion manage encryption, sleep and sharing
For fans of the Terminal, Mountain Lion brought some new command-line utilities. Perhaps the most notable is fdesetup, which Apple explains briefly: "fdesetup allows third-party management tools to enable FileVault, determine encryption status, capture and manage recovery keys, and add users to a FileVault-encrypted system as well as synchronize directory-based user authentication credentials with the local credentials for FileVault access." Apple provides a 'man' page for fdsetup, but if you want more information about it, Rich Trouton at Der Flounder has a very thorough walk-through with a bunch of screenshots and excellent explanations. I'm definitely keeping this one in Pinboard for the inevitable day when I want or need to use fdsetup. I'm also glad to have a more low-level tool for working with FileVault. I had written previously about the "hoops" which were necessary to disable certain users from being able to unlock the computer with FileVault. That process is now a lot easier. But wait, there's more! Patrix over at the Ask Different blog discovered several other new command-line utilities. Some of them are generic Unix utilities (pgrep and pkill) but there are also some OS X specific ones, including: caffeinate – prevent the system from sleeping on behalf of a utility serverinfo – determine server status (is this OS X Server, and, if so, are these things enabled) sharing – create share points for AFP, FTP and SMB services tccutil – manage the privacy database See the original article for more details. Of these, caffeinate seems like the most interesting. I have used Caffeine, the free app from Lighthead Software, to keep my Mac awake at times, but being able to do it in shell scripts could definitely come in handy. Still missing your favorite Unix utility? If Mountain Lion still doesn't have your favorite utility, don't forget you have other options. I have used Rudix when I wanted precompiled binaries, and Homebrew when I want to make my own. Mostly these days I stick with Homebrew, which is regularly updated by a bunch of people, versus Rudix which has a smaller library and seems to be mostly the labor of love of one developer. Others may prefer Fink or MacPorts; I have used both in the past but haven't kept up with them recently. Both of them appear to have been updated for Mountain Lion.
Get Save As back on Mountain Lion's File menu easily and without hacks
You can make the "Save As..." menu item more visible and easier to use simply by giving it a different keyboard shortcut. In 10.7 (Lion), Apple removed the 'Save As' menu item and replaced it with "Duplicate" which did not work the same way. Apple relented in 10.8 (Mountain Lion) by returning "Save As..." but they hid it as an optional menu item which would only be shown when you held down the Option key while looking at the "File" menu. (There is also a keyboard shortcut for "Save As..." in 10.8, but it is not very convenient: Command + Shift + Option + S.) Apple did such a good job hiding "Save As..." that many smart and knowledgeable Mac users still don't know that 'Save As...' exists in Mountain Lion. Fortunately for us, there is a very easy way to make "Save As..." more visible: just change its keyboard shortcut. I'm going to show you two different ways that you can do that (you only need to choose one). Option 1. Terminal.app If you are comfortable using Terminal.app, you can add a different keyboard shortcut this with one simple line. First, quit all your apps except Finder and Terminal. Then paste this command (as one line) into Terminal.app (and press Return): That's it! Launch TextEdit and open the 'File' menu and you should see "Save As..." back in its rightful spot with its original Command + Shift + S shortcut, as shown in the image above. Aside: After you enter the 'defaults write' command, you will not see any confirmation that it was entered correctly. Terminal.app is a little terse sometimes. If you want to verify it from the command-line, enter this: defaults read -globalDomain NSUserKeyEquivalents and look for "Save As..." = "@$s"; in the output. Option 2. System Preferences.app If you would rather not use Terminal, it's still very easy to add the keyboard shortcut. Launch the System Preferences.app, then open the "Keyboard" preference pane. At the top you will see "Keyboard" and "Keyboard Shortcuts" – click "Keyboard Shortcuts" (labeled '1' below). Then in the list on the left side, click "Application Shortcuts" (labeled '2' below). Then click the "+" button (labeled '3' below): Once you press that "+" button, a small window will appear asking you to enter the title of the menu item and the keyboard shortcut that you want to use. Enter "Save As..." in the "Menu Title:" field, and then press the keyboard shortcut that you want to use. In the example below I pressed Command + Shift + S: Note: It used to be true that you had to enter an actual ellipsis (which you can get by pressing Option + ; on a US-English keyboard). However, when I tested this in Mac OS X 10.8.2, it worked with three consecutive periods. Bonus Tip: Hide the "Duplicate" menu item. In my original article I suggested that you also enter a keyboard shortcut for "Duplicate" and while you can do that if you wish, you do not need to do that. However, if you would like to hide the Duplicate menu item, you can do that. There are two steps: first, remap "Save As..." to Command + Shift + S (as shown above). Then the 'trick' is to remap "Duplicate" to Command + Shift + Option + S. What you will have done is swap the keyboard shortcuts for "Duplicate" and "Save As..." which means that OS X will make "Duplicate" the optional command. If you open the "File" menu and hold down "Option" the "Save As..." command will change to "Duplicate" (Thanks to TUAW reader 'rbascuas' for pointing this out in response to the original article!) Important Addendum: "Keep changes in original document" As we reported in August 2012, the "Save As..." command in early versions of 10.8 had an unexpected and likely unwanted side effect in Mountain Lion: it would save the changes in the new document (created by "Save As...") but would also save the changes to the original document. However, Apple realized that users might not want that behavior, so in Mac OS X 10.8.2 they added an option "Keep changes in original document" which you can see here: Option A: If you want to save the changes you've made in the document and then save the document with a different name, then make sure that the box is checked. Option B: If you want your original document to stay as it was when you last saved it and create a new document based on the modified content of that document, then make sure that box is not checked. If you do not see the 'Keep changes in original document' box, then the application is probably going to give you the "Option B" behavior, but if you are not sure, I would suggest choosing Cancel in the "Save" dialog, then copy and paste the contents of the document into a new file, and save the new file. I know that's several extra-and-less-convenient steps, but if you are worried about preserving the original document, better safe than sorry. You could also save the file, duplicate it in Finder, and rename the new instance. Open old file and revert to previous save using 'Versions'. Frankly,I wish that Apple had just left the "Save As..." command alone, but for some reason they didn't ask my opinion. That said, I'm glad that they brought it back in Mountain Lion. I would have paid $20 for that feature alone. Note: This article was re-written and republished on 2013–02–21. The original process still works, but I wanted to update it to reflect some additional information. Read the previous version at web.archive.org.
Talkcast tonight, 10pm ET: Meow, Mountain Lion
Tonight on the Talkcast, it's time to share your first few days with OS X Mountain Lion. Got it running? What's to enjoy? Gotchas in the process? Bonus points for anyone who delivers their comments via Dictation. We'll also dig into Apple's earnings report a bit, given that the markets have not been kind to the modest beat of guidance (and the substantial miss of Wall Street expectations). Bring your calculators. To participate in the call, you can use the browser-only Talkshoe client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for +5 Interactivity, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 pm EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (Viva free weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free X-Lite or other SIP clients -- basic instructions are here. Skype users with dial-out credit can call in via the service, or use those free iPhone minutes. Talk to you tonight!
Mountain Lion 101: Mail VIPs
This Mountain Lion 101 feature is a quickie -- Apple's Mail app now has a new feature called VIPs that gives you one-click access to emails from those very important people in your life. Emails from VIPs have a star next to the sender's name, and a mailbox for each VIP is added to the Favorites bar. With a click on the VIPs tag in the toolbar, a popup showing "All VIPs" and the names of individual VIPs is displayed. You can have up to 100 VIPs identified, but in my opinion, if everybody's a VIP, then nobody's a VIP. I'm using the feature to highlight emails from my boss (Mrs. Sande) and my business partner (Erica Sadun). To make that special someone in your life a VIP, you just move your pointer to the left of the sender's name in a message header. A star appears, and clicking the star makes the person a VIP. You can also click the person's name in a message, then select "Add to VIPs" from the pop-up menu that appears (below). If that person becomes persona non grata in your life, removing them from the VIP list is quite simple. Just click the star again, or you can use the "Remove from VIPs" item that will appear in the pop-up menu seen above. For VIPs that have several email addresses in your Contacts list, messages from any of those email addresses appear in their VIP mailbox. If you're using iCloud Contacts, your VIPs appear on any other Mountain Lion-equipped Mac that is signed into the same iCloud account. To get a special notification in Notification Center when email arrives from my VIPs, I set up a rule in Mail Preferences: You could also theoretically add a special sound to the notification with a rule, or kick off an AppleScript to Tweet you. I leave this as an exercise for the reader. As I mentioned, this isn't an earthshaking addition to Mountain Lion, but it is a surprisingly useful feature that can help you pay more attention to email from special people. If it can help me take notice of one more "honey-do" from my wife and keep me out of the doghouse for at least one day, then the Mail VIP feature is worth the $19.99 Mountain Lion upgrade cost.
Mountain Lion 101: Updated high-quality voice synthesis
Most of the speech hubbub around Mountain Lion has centered on the OS's marquee Dictation feature, which happily accepts your spoken words as a substitute for typing them in. Dictation works in almost any text entry field, and it's surprisingly effective; Steve even dictated his entire post about Dictation. Speech-to-text is only one side of the coin; there's also text-to-speech. OS X Leopard introduced a single high-quality voice named Alex. "He" sounded so natural compared to the previous generation of Mac synth voices that it was a little bit disconcerting. Starting in OS X Lion, users were given the choice to install high-quality synthetic voices licensed from Nuance that supplemented or replaced the "classic" Mac voice options in scores of languages. These voices delivered uncanny quality while chewing up hefty amounts of disk space (upwards of 500 MB in some cases). As pointed out by AppleInsider, the enhanced speech voices have now been updated for Mountain Lion. Users who previously installed a custom voice should now see 2.0 versions of those voices available in the new Software Update zone (which appears at the top of the Updates area in the Mac App Store). If you've never experimented with the voice synth options in OS X, you can change the system voice in the Dictation & Speech system preference pane. Want to make your Mac speak? TextEdit (and most Cocoa-based editors) offers Speech options in the Edit menu or via a contextual menu. You can also pick a hotkey in the Dictation & Speech preference pane to speak any selected text in any application. The preference pane also allows you to turn on spoken alerts for notifications, speak the time or let you know when an app needs your attention, which I imagine would grow tiresome awfully quickly. OS X's voice synthesis skills are also put to full use with VoiceOver, the accessibility screenreader that assists visually impaired users. Sighted users may find it's worth experiencing VoiceOver once or twice, just to get a sense of the amount of engineering work that goes into making OS X a true accessible platform. To turn on the full screenreader interface with VoiceOver, you can use the Accessibility preference pane or just hit ⌘-F5. Automator and AppleScript both support speech output, and there's still the venerable say command-line tool which lets you specify a voice with the -v flag. If you're feeling particularly mischief-minded, remember that say will work on a remote machine via an ssh session. Watch as your officemate jumps clear out of his or her skin when you tell the MacBook Pro on the desk to say -v Trinoids Do not adjust your screen. You will be assimilated. The process is quick and painless, stand by. Fun for the whole family.
Chitika: Mountain Lion accounting for 3% of web traffic
Web tracking firm Chitika has a stat that's actually not all that surprising: Mountain Lion downloads accounted for a relatively huge percentage of web traffic this week. For all web traffic coming to and from Mac computers, Mountain Lions downloads specifically make up 3% of the total. And when you consider just how much bandwidth is being used, that means that Apple almost certainly sold plenty of copies of the new US$19.99 operating system. Chitika also did the math, and believes that Apple users downloaded 2.11 million copies of Mountain Lion in just the first 48 hours after release. Obviously, that's downloads, not purchases -- it's possible that users purchased the OS without downloading it. It's also possible, however, that users were able to download the software without paying for it (through promotional or other means). But even if 90% of those downloads were legitimate purchases, Chitika calculates that Apple has picked up $38 million in revenue from Mountain Lion already. Pretty phenomenal. The lower price and digital delivery options have apparently made Mountain Lion an early hit. We'll have to wait for official figures (and there may be even more adopters over the weekend, when people have time to actually upgrade an OS), but already, it seems like Mountain Lion is a nice success for Apple.
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; }
Mountain Lion 101: Finder encryption via contextual menu (updated)
[Post updated, see below.] Whole-drive encryption isn't one of the sexiest features in OS X, but it's nice to know it's there. FileVault 2 (introduced in Lion; the original FileVault began in 10.3 Panther) can be very useful, especially for Mac users with sensitive information on their hard drives. The ability to lock down either a boot disk or a removable drive means additional security for Mac users when they need it. In Mountain Lion, Apple has made the encryption process easier and faster by adding a contextual menu option to the Finder. Removable drives can be encrypted simply by choosing the Encrypt option when you right-click (or control-click, or two-finger click -- we need a better word for that task) the drive icon. Note that only drives with a GUID partitioning setting can be encrypted, and the resulting encrypted volumes can only be read on other Macs running Lion or Mountain Lion. Mountain Lion also adds encryption as an option for Time Machine backups, and there's a new command-line tool (fdesetup, well-described by Rich Trouton) that allows third-party tools and system administrators to monitor and adjust FileVault settings. ML's FileVault can sync credentials with a directory system in enterprise environments, and the overall encryption scheme is in the process of certification under the US government's FIPS 140-2 standard, appropriate for "sensitive but unclassified information." Encrypting removable drives is now three-clicks easy, but if you want to encrypt your startup disk completely the process has not changed markedly from Lion. Head into System Preferences under Security & Privacy and choose the FileVault menu. You will need to turn on FileVault there. You'll also need to make sure Recovery HD is installed on your hard drive. It should have been when you first installed your system, but it may not have if something went wrong. Then you'll need to have a password for all users using the encryption. Once you activate FileVault, you'll get a recovery key, which is a last-ditch effort to recover your files if your password is lost or forgotten. After that, your files are locked down. You can use the computer normally, but if you ever lose your password and that recovery key (or if someone tries to sneak in without those), your files won't be accessible. There is an option to save the key with Apple itself, but you'll have to answer some other security questions to retrieve it. FileVault also offers an "instant wipe" feature, which will wipe the encryption key and all of your files from your Mac. So if you do encrypt your files and ever need to pass it on to someone else, you can be sure none of your secrets will make the trip. FileVault is a powerful feature, and if you need to keep a secret, it can make an important task very simple. Update: Clarified that the new features in Mountain Lion are the Finder contextual menu, encrypted TM backups and the command-line fdesetup tool, not the underlying FileVault 2 encryption. Our apologies for the mixup.
Mountain Lion 101: Gatekeeper controls app launches for security's sake
Gatekeeper isn't the most obvious feature of the new OS X Mountain Lion system that you probably downloaded and installed yesterday, but it might be one of the most important. Gatekeeper essentially oversees a list of verified developers who have applied for and received a Developer ID from Apple. It also allows you to specify whether your Mac will install apps only from the App Store, from the App Store and this list, or from anywhere you want. If you choose the Mac App Store only, you'll be able to make sure that everything you install has gone through Apple's approval process, which is about as protected from malware as you can get. When you installed Mountain Lion, every app that was already on your Mac got a free pass as far as Gatekeeper is concerned. The apps were grandfathered in as already having been run and cleared; since Gatekeeper works by preventing the first launch of an app, those apps are OK. In fact, you can keep the "Mac App Store and identified developers" setting turned on for safety while still installing and running non-signed apps; just right-click (or control-click) the unsigned app and choose Open. Gatekeeper will prompt you for a single-app exemption and if you're OK with it, the app will launch from then on. Now, not everybody appreciates Apple's "walled garden." Some developers take issue with the fact that they need to be "verified" by Apple before releasing and running software on the Mac. Gatekeeper is also responsible for "sandboxing" applications, which means keeping applications from changing files on parts of your computer that they don't usually interact with (though this does cause problems for apps that do want to dip into your personal system files, usually just to make things easier on you). At any rate, sandboxing and Gatekeeper are a reality for now. If you want to tweak your Gatekeeper settings, you can find them in the System Preferences screen under Security and Privacy. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
