The BugBlog

iTunes 10.5.2 Fixes Audio Problem

The minor update for Apple iTunes 10.5.2 fixes and audio distortion problem that comes from playing some imported CDs, according to Apple. It also is supposed to fix some bugs in iTunes Match, which is the Cloud-based music sharing system from Apple. (I haven't gotten around to using that yet.)

If You Need to Restore Your iPad

According to Apple, if you need to restore your iPad 2 from a back-up, you need to be using iTunes 10.2 or later. Otherwise, your iPad backup won't appear in the backup selector.

MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update

Apple has a firmware update for the early 2011 MacBook Pro computers. The update will let you run Lion Recovery from an Internet connection. It also has some compatibility  fixes for Apple Thunderbolt Display compatibility.

Patch for Apple Safari for Windows

If you use Apple's Safari browser for Windows, be aware that Apple has issued Safari 5.1 and Safari 5.0.6 updates that fix at least seven security bugs, including integer overflows in their ColorSync and CoreGraphics functions, that may allow attackers to slip in hostile code via graphics or fonts. See ZD Net for more details.

Upgrade to Lion: Adobe Compatibility

If you create things on your Mac, chances are you use one of the apps in the Adobe Creative Suite - after all, at least one of their apps has been turned into a verb (I'm going to photoshop him out of the picture). So users need to check out Adobe's "Known Issues with Lion" page. Among the highlights (or lowlights, since these may be problems:

• The Java runtime environment is not installed by default, and many Adobe apps need this. So you will need to do a manual install.
• The Crash reporter may only show up long after a crash (10 minutes or so)
• Photoshop droplets may not work.

There's more at the links above.

Upgrade to Lion: VMWare Fusion Compatibility

While my home office has been 100% Mac for a couple of years now, I still need to use some Windows apps. Although I have some old Windows computers around, I've found it much easier to use VMWare Fusion on my iMac to run Windows XP on a virtual machine. Since a virtual machine could have lots of compatibility problems with a new OS, this was one of the first apps for me to check.

According to this page at VMWare Support, it appears to be compatible with only a "few limitations." For one thing, upgrade to VMware Fusion 3.1.3 first - and Fusion 2.x is incompatible. They also recommend reinstalling VMWare after installing Lion, and say the Migration Assistant won't work.

Upgrade to Lion? The Journey Begins

In the old days, when I was writing how-to articles and books on computers, I often had beta editions of a new operating system running on one of my computers, and would upgrade to the gold edition on the first day possible. Plus, back then I almost always had a "test machine" that could get screwed up.

Nowadays, I'm not so much a pioneer (which is a good thing, since pioneers are often the ones with arrows in their backs.) I let the initial adapters jump in, and find all the incompatibilities and bugs that were missed during the testing phase. So before I upgrade to OS X Lion, I'm going to be checking all the compatibility reports on apps that I use all the time. 

What Else in OS X 10.6.8?

According to Apple - the Mac OS X 10.6.8 update also includes an update to the App Store that will allow you Mac to get an upgraded OS the easy way (I don't know - is there ever an easy way to upgrade an OS?) It also includes some fixes for IPv6 as well as improved VPN performance. It also helps clean up MacDefender malware.

Last Bow for Snow Leopard with 10.6.8 Update

In what is probably the last update for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Apple has released the 10.6.8 update. It plugs a security hole that may let an attacker on the same WiFi network (such as that suspicious looking guy over on the other side of Starbucks) trigger a system restart on your computer. It also fixes a bug in the Certificate Trust Policy that may let someone with a "privileged network position" to intercept your credentials. There's more Apple bug patching details here.

MobileMe Duplicates Your Calendars

When migrating from iCal to MobileMe, you may end up with duplicate calendars (a bug that happened to bit me). Apple has some steps you can work through to get back to just one copy of the calenders. Read me about it here. (Of course, once the iCloud replaces MobileMe, this will be replaced with another bug.)