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Apple seeds Mac OS X 10.6.3 build 10D573 to devs, release probably not imminent
The saga of the 10.6.3 builds continue. Yesterday Apple seeded a new build -- build 10D573 -- to developers. This latest build, similar to the others, asks developers to focus on Graphics Drivers, Images & Photos, Mail, QuickTime, and Security Certificates. There is one known remaining issue, like in the previous two builds, in which Safari 4.0.5 will be re-offered by Software Update after upgrading to 10D573 from a previous seed. Last week a TUAW reader was able to download a *PRERELEASE** build of 10.6.3 on his iMac. We took the Apple slip-up as a sign of an imminent launch, but the builds just keep on coming. Is it going to be released soon? Who the heck knows? But now my guess is that Apple might be waiting for the April 3rd launch of the iPad. Perhaps 10.6.3 and a new iTunes will be required to sync it to your computer? I'll just be happy to start seeing those 10.6.4 builds. Jump on over to World of Apple for 10D573's seed notes.
Cool weird stuff: TUAW reader accidentally downloads 10.6.3 pre-release
Just in case you're thinking that Apple employee access was to blame, here are some basic facts: The reader bought the iMac online from the Apple Store and was never in a retail store with it. The reader who sent us these screen shots is not an Apple employee nor does he have access to Apple's RSA Secure ID or VPN. He performed his update at home and not at an Apple retail store. This kind of update does not normally appear in the wild on Software Update. Prerelease, and specifically "**PRERELEASE**", updates refer to Apple-internal builds distributed to any Apple employee who has access to Apple's VPN. A **PRERELEASE** build is typically seeded to employees 24 to 48 hours before the build goes public via Software Update. The pre-release weighs in at a whopping 1.19GB. The "About This Mac" screen shots he sent us (see below) note the build as 10D527 – a build that was reportedly released to developers today, only two days after the last build. Builds that come close together typically indicate a public release is imminent. It is not clear why this pre-release showed up on the TUAW reader's iMac.
Mac OS X 10.6.3 imminent?
After only two days since the last build was seeded, Apple has pushed another 10.6.3 version out to developers. The newest build is numbered 10D572 and focuses on Graphics Drivers, Quicktime, Images & Photos, Mail, and Security Certificates. In addition, the build also includes: Compatibility issues with OpenGL-based applications Performance improvements for 64-bit Logic Changes to QuickTime X that increase reliability and improve compatibility and security Printing reliability and compatibility with third party printers Issues resolved that prevented files from copying to Windows shares Issues resolved with recurring events in iCal when connected to an Exchange server Issues resolved that prevented files with the "#" or "&" symbols in their names from opening in Rosetta Issues addressed that caused background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail when scrolling Issue resolved that caused machines using BTMM and the Bonjour Sleep Proxy to wake unexpectedly Like the previous build, there is a single known issue: Safari 4.0.5 will be re-offered by Software Update after upgrading to 10D572 from a previous seed. As a general rule, the closer build release dates come to one another, the sooner the build will be released to the general public. 10.6.3 seems like it could very well be the biggest update to Snow Leopard since its launch last August. If the improvements are significant, it's very likely that Apple will soon press 10.6.3 discs to be sold in retail stores, much like they did with Mac OS X 10.5.3.
Charlie Miller to reveal 20 zero day security holes in Mac OS X
Say, Charles -- it's been awhile! But we're pleased as punch to see that you're back to your old ways, poking around within OS X's mainframe just looking for ways to remotely control the system, snag credit card data and download a few interoffice love letters that are carefully stashed 15 folders down within 'Documents.' The famed Apple security expert is planning yet another slam on OS X at CanSecWest, where he'll reveal no fewer than 20 zero day security holes within OS X. According to Miller, "OS X has a large attack surface consisting of open source components, closed source third-party components and closed source Apple components; bugs in any of these types of components can lead to remote compromise." He also goes on to reemphasize something he's been screaming for years: "Mac OS X is like living in a farmhouse in the country with no locks, and Windows is living in a house with bars on the windows in the bad part of town." In other words, Apple users are "safer" (due to the lack of work that goes into hacking them), "but less secure." So, is this a weird way of applying for a security job in Cupertino, or what?
Apple seeds new build of Mac OS X 10.6.3
iPhoneinCanada is reporting that Apple has seeded a new build of Mac OS X 10.6.3. The build, numbered 10D571, weighs in around 700MB and focuses on Graphics Drivers, iChat, QuickTime, Fonts. The build also fixes: Compatibility issues with OpenGL-based applications Performance improvements for 64-bit Logic Changes to QuickTime X that increase reliability and improve compatibility and security Printing reliability and compatibility with third party printers Issues resolved that prevented files from copying to Windows shares Issues resolved with recurring events in iCal when connected to an Exchange server Issues resolved that prevented files with the "#" or "&" symbols in their names from opening in Rosetta Issues addressed that caused background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail when scrolling Issue resolved that caused machines using BTMM and the Bonjour Sleep Proxy to wake unexpectedly There is one known issue in this build: Safari 4.0.5 will be re-offered by Software Update after upgrading to 10D571 from a previous seed. It has been over five months since Snow Leopard has been updated. 10.6 was released on August 28, 2009 followed less than two weeks later by 10.6.1. On November 9, 2009, Apple released 10.6.2.
How to: Get your 1984 Mac running Snow Leopard
Because of that, his instructions get a little technical (he actually replaced the innards rather than just trying to fit a Mac mini in there or something similarly easy). So this isn't a very good project for a first-timer for sure. But if you've got a little DIY experience, or just want to see what it looks like to take apart an old Mac and refill it with modern PC parts (he went Hackintosh on the OS), you should definitely check out his writeup. I wouldn't use the computer as a workstation any more -- because, come on now, who can really do any serious computing on a 9-inch screen? -- but as a music server or just a conversation piece, it's great.
Yet another Mac OS X 10.6.3 seed released to developers
Mac OS X 10.6.3 Build 10D561 has been released to developers less than a week after the previous build. Not a great deal has changed since the last build -- iPhoneinCanada has the specific details on this latest build, which include refinements to OpenGL and 64-bit logic. Since this sixth 10.6.3 build follows so quickly after the last one, it's a good indication that an official release of 10.6.3 is imminent. 10.6.2 arrived on November 9, 2009, and, like the forthcoming 10.6.3, was primarily a bug fix update for Snow Leopard. 10.6.3 should be out any day now in Software Update complete with those always-informative release notes, including my favorite: "increases reliability and improves compatibility and security." [Via MacRumors]
Apple seeds another build of 10.6.3 to devs
Apple seeded another build of OS X 10.6.3 today. This latest build number is 10D558. This is just nine days after Apple seeded build 10D552. iPhoneinCanada is reporting that the current build focuses on Apple Filing Protocol, AirPort, Graphics Drivers, and QuickTime, as well as the following: Performance improvements for 64-bit Logic Addresses compatibility issues with OpenGL-based applications Includes changes to QuickTime X that increase reliability and enhance security Improves printing reliability and compatibility with 3rd party printers Addresses issues that cause background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail Issues that caused machines using BTMM and Bonjour Sleep Proxy to wake unexpectedly Issues with recurring events in iCal when connected to Exchange servers This is the fifth build of 10.6.3 Apple has released since January. While no time frame for release is ever given, generally the closer in time the builds come to one another, the better likelihood that a release is imminent.
Five customized Automator services to help save you time
One gem in Mac OS X that sometimes gets glanced over is the Services menu. Lots of readers may not know yet that Snow Leopard brought with it the ability to create your own customized service in Automator -- in other words, you can get additional selections on a contextual menu when right-clicking within a certain context, say a file within a Finder window. To create a customized service, all you have to do is launch Automator and select "Services" from the "Choose a template for your workflow" window, and then insert your own service from there. Here are five customized services for you to install on your own Mac.
How to "clean install" Snow Leopard
A friend's MacBook had slowed down to a snail's pace. Despite looking everywhere for the issue, streamlining everything I could, and yelling at it, it failed to accelerate to usable speed. So I recommended we start from scratch and build it back up with only the things she was using, free of all the other downloads and aborted installs of various software she never used or cared about. It also housed a prior system, and a PC migration from a few years back. All told, the computer was a bloated, duplicated whale of files and applications for what was essentially a light-load writer's computer. So I backed up the essential parts of her system using Time Machine: documents (including her novel and decades of prior writing, published and unpublished), ten years of family photographs, a 41GB iTunes library, among other things, and then....backed it up again elsewhere, outside of Time Machine. And again. And just for good measure, once more time, to yet another drive. I wasn't going to be the (ex-)friend who lost her novel. What I wanted to do was do the ol' "erase and install" that prior system software discs allowed you to do. But clicking around Snow Leopard left no obvious method for this. But instead of booting Snow Leopard while inside of Mac OS X, if you just directly reboot the computer off the disc itself (holding down the "c" button after the system chime, letting go when you see the Apple logo) you get a few more options. Once you've gone into the installer program, you'll see "Utilities" at the top, and if you select Disc Utility, you can see your hard drive. If you click on "erase" (like I did, with one hand over my eyes) you can wipe the drive clean with various security options, and then you can do a fresh install of Snow Leopard on your computer on a pristine hard drive. Once you've done that, you can either transfer your files back in directly, or use the installer program's built-in migration utility to restore any or all files from Time Machine. And now? The world awaits the Next Great American Novel, untragically unlost by yours truly.
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.
Leopard and Snow Leopard flaw exploited in proof of concept, real-world tomfoolery surely coming soon
Look at you, all cuddled up with your Leopard install, sipping on a steamy hot cocoa, watching the snow fall outdoors, and thinking you don't have a care in the world. We hate to break it to ya but you do have a care, a big one, thanks to a proof of concept hack exploiting a buffer overflow in MacOS 10.5 and 10.6. The flaw has been known about since June, but only now has it been proven to work on Cupertino's latest, and a very straightforward code example of how to use it has been posted online. You know what that means: watch out for those e-mail attachments. Interestingly, the flaw is also said to possibly exist in the PS3 as well, which could make for a very interesting spring -- cocoa or no.
Candelair IR driver addresses Apple remote issues in Snow Leopard
As we wait on the threshold of 10.6.3, there are still some hiccups and interesting issues in Snow Leopard that might make your life a bit more difficult (as Aron mentioned recently). In particular, getting your Apple Remote to behave properly with all the apps that it's supposed to control may be an exercise in frustration. In the case of my unibody MacBook Pro, I couldn't get the machine to recognize any remote commands at all - even after verifying that the batteries were fresh (by looking for infrared flashes via the iSight camera) and trying to pair/unpair the remote. I wasn't alone; there's a five-page thread on Apple's discussion boards detailing a litany of woes with 10.6.x and remote use, with many reports of Front Row overriding remote commands destined for other apps like EyeTV. Good news, though: even if the upcoming OS update doesn't clear up the remote issues, there's a fine & free solution right now. The Candelair driver, provided by the developers of Remote Buddy, installs simply and works like a charm. You can disable/enable the driver via the provided preference pane, or activate a legacy compatibility mode to help old apps behave as expected. For me, I'm just happy that my remote is working again.
Mac OS 10.6.3 to bring many fixes
The release of Mac OS 10.6.3 moves closer as Apple has begun widespread testing of build 10D522. According to AppleInsider, this update focuses on stability and core components like AppKit, CoreMedia, Desktop Services, FileSync, Fonts, HIToolbox and more. The current build is 665.7MB in size. Reports indicate that nearly 60 crash-happy bugs have been squashed across more than 90 components with this update, like printing issues with iCal, Mail and PhotoBooth (fortunately I haven't experienced those). Additionally, 10.6.3 includes native support for the Magic Mouse. Apple began limited testing in December, and has released several builds since. Now that testing has become more widespread and the fixes increase, we move closer to release.
Snow Leopard Creator Codes: one more time, with feeling
I recently wrote about Ross Carter's Snow Leopard Creater Code discoveries and his solution, LaunchCodes. It turns out there were a few issues with the initial implementation, such as Apple Events not being passed along. Normally when you find a file in Spotlight, a PDF for example, opening it launches Preview and the query that was used to locate the file shows up in the search field in Preview. This was no longer working in LaunchCodes, though Ross says he's working on that right now. In the meantime, Michel Fortin has produced Magic Launch, and it solves the majority of the issues that have been presented. Magic Launch installs as a System Preferences pane, and you can drag and drop applications to it to register their file type. Then, you can choose a default application, but optionally specify that it should launch in it the application which created it, when possible. Probably the coolest feature, though, is the rule handling. Similar to rules in Mail.app, you can set up a series of criteria to determine when a different app should open the file. You can have multiple rules, and each rule can check things like file location, file name or extension, text contents, hex contents and/or ASCII contents. That's pretty nifty, and goes beyond the default functionality that was available before we even needed apps like this. Magic Launch is free to try out, and costs $14US for a license. If you're still finding documents annoyingly launching the wrong applications, go download it and give it a try.
SSH and the case-sensitive username in Snow Leopard
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard introduced a lot of under-the-hood changes and many are not very obvious. One such change is to the authentication requirements for logging in remotely via SSH. In 10.5 logging in remotely via SSH was a pretty standard affair. In 10.6, however, security has been beefed up a bit to require case-sensitive login credentials. While this requirement has already been imposed on passwords, Snow Leopard now requires a case-sensitive user name as well. In other words, when logging in via SSH, Snow Leopard differentiates between the username "aron" and "Aron." This threw me for a loop for quite some time and is another one of the numerous reasons I have held off upgrading my Mac mini to 10.6.
Mac 101: Making Text Replacement Work
Text replacement: it's one of Snow Leopard's really cool features. With it, you can type abbreviations and they'll automatically expand into full text. You can convert your most common phrases into just a few keystrokes, and let Snow Leopard take care of the rest. Here's a quick summary of what you need to do to make text replacement work for you. Creating Macros in System Preferences. Open System Preferences (it's in the Apple menu at the top of your screen) and navigate to Language & Text > Text. There you'll find a Symbol and Text Substitution list. Click the + button to add a new item. For this example, put (tuaw) into the Replace column and The Unofficial Apple Weblog into the With column. Leave the box to the left of these items checked. So why use the parentheses? Strictly speaking, they're not necessary. You can define text substitutions on any set of characters, as shown in the screen shot below. What these parentheses do for me, is that they distinguish between when I want to type TUAW and not have it expand, and when I want the abbreviation to transform into the full Weblog name. Enabling Text Replacement Text replacement works on a per-application basis. Many applications default to this feature being off. To make text replacement happen, right-click within any text entry area such as a composition window in Mail or the text entry field in Colloquy, etc. The contextual menu provides a Substitutions submenu. Make sure Text Replacement is checked. If it is not, select it to toggle the option from on to off or off to on. Applying Text Replacment The big secret to making text replacement happen, once you've defined the shortcuts and enabled Text Replacement in the contextual menu, is the space key. Snow Leopard does not apply the shortcut replacement until it detects you have finished typing a phrase. Only then does it perform its internal look up and substitution. Also prepare to wait a second or so. The replacement text often lags behind your typing. So go ahead and keep entering text. The operating system will catch up and perform its substitution work without your oversight. For Mike G., with TUAW affection
Creator codes make a comeback in Snow Leopard with LaunchCodes
In Mac OS X (and back into OS 9 history), a creator code is a hidden value attached to a document and bound to a preferred application, allowing the OS to know which application to use for opening that file. This is particularly helpful for filetypes that have multiple valid 'target' apps (JPEG, PDF, etc.); the creator code lets Preview 'own' its PDF or image files, TextEdit automatically open its text files, and so on. Those who are familiar with the process are already (painfully) aware that Snow Leopard ditched this system a while back (some great details at Ars Technica). For many users -- especially Windows switchers -- the new method is an improvement, allowing a more standardized response to double-clicking a document file that's driven by the file name extension (.doc, .html, and the like). If you're in the former group, though, and missing your creator codes, the developer behind PageHand has a treat for you: LaunchCodes. LaunchCodes is an extremely simple utility which restores the creator code functionality to Snow Leopard. The creator codes never went anywhere; they're still in the metadata. LaunchCodes just tells the system what to do with a filetype. Setup is fast and easy, just enter the extension for the file and assign an application to it (similar to "Always open with"). It runs quietly in your menubar and directs OS X to open the application you prefer for any given type of file. LaunchCodes is $4.95US and is available as a free trial at the PageHand website.
Psystar to shut down 'immediately,' world shrugs
Has the saga finally come to an end? Dow Jones is reporting that Psystar will be firing its eight employees and then "shutting things down immediately," in the words of the company's attorney with the bad-ass name, Eugene Action. Besides, after the latest round of losses at the hands of Apple, this should come as a shock to nobody. Now that we've put all that behind us, can we concentrate on something of importance -- like Tweeting swears from the Zune HD Twitter app?
Psystar banned from copying any version of OS X, helping others install it
And it's all over, folks: The US District Court for the Northern District of California has just permanently forbidden wannbe Mac cloner Psystar from selling modified versions of OS X, providing any tools that enable users to bypass the OS X kernel encryption, and / or intentionally aiding anyone else from infringing Apple's OS X copyrights in any way. We knew this was coming following Apple's decisive victory against Psystar last month -- the only open questions were whether the court would include Snow Leopard and Psytar's Rebel EFI software in the ban, since the lawsuit was specifically about Leopard and Rebel EFI wasn't the subject of any proceedings. Both issues were predictably resolved in favor of Apple: the court specifically included Snow Leopard and any future versions of OS X in the scope of the injunction, and while Judge Alsup couldn't address Rebel EFI directly, he did expressly forbid Psystar from "manufacturing, importing, offering to the public, providing, or otherwise trafficking" in anything that circumvents Apple's OS X hardware locks -- which we'd say covers Rebel EFI's functionality pretty thoroughly. Psystar has until December 31 to comply, and the Judge Alsup isn't kidding around: "Defendant must immediately begin this process, and take the quickest path to compliance; thus, if compliance can be achieved within one hour after this order is filed, defendant shall reasonably see it done." Psystar can still appeal, obviously, but it's already got its own hefty legal bills and a $2.67m fine to pay to Apple, so we've got a feeling this one might have reached the end of the line. P.S.- Amusingly, Judge Alsup appears to be pretty sick of Apple's shenanigans as well: in the section discussing Snow Leopard, he says Apple first tried to block any discovery of Snow Leopard before the OS was released, and then pushed to include the software in the case after it launched. That's why the Florida case over Snow Leopard wasn't merged into this case -- Alsup thought it was a "slick tactic" that "smacked of trying to 'have it both ways,' and offended [his] sense of fair play." Ouch.