You're about to spend US$19.99 on Mountain Lion and want to know how long it will take to update your Mac. Fortunately, the folks at Tekserve have updated several machines and shared the results. The New York-based company keeps several demo machines running on its sales floor for customers to try, including laptops and desktops. The team recently updated every last one to Mountain Lion (we assume they were on the latest version of Lion previously). Note what a difference SSD made in the chart below: Apple servers are very busy today, as the company is distributing new Mac versions of iPhoto, iMovie, Safari and iWork in addition to the OS. Our readers have reported a range of download times from one to three hours. The Mountain Lion installer is 4.05 GB in size. All this means you should set some time aside and get comfortable. Tell us how it goes.#next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }Continue reading How long will it take to install Mountain Lion?How long will it take to install Mountain Lion? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 25 Jul 2012 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Sunday, 12 August 2012
Open System Preferences-Notification Center-Mountain Lion
Mountain Lion's Notification Center is handy. It displays banners and alerts from notification-aware apps to keep you informed of changes, like a new Twitter mention, Calendar event or email message. That last one can get distracting, depending on how much email you receive. Here are some ways to tame email alerts:
- Disable alerts and banners in System Preferences. Open System Preferences and click Notifications. Select Mail from the list on the right and then click None. You'll no longer see email notifications.
- Quit Mail. Apple's Mail app won't push notifications if it isn't running.
- Turn them all of at once. Open Notification Center on your Mac and swipe up to the very top. Move the slider labeled Show Alerts and Banners to the Off position to silence all pop-up alerts and banners (they still appear listed in Notification Center itself). Slide it back to On to restore alerts and banners.
Notification Center-Mountain Lion-Hot Corners
Apple's Mountain Lion introduced Notification Center to the Mac. This handy feature lets notification-aware apps display pop-up style alerts when something changes, like an incoming email message, Twitter mention, Calendar appointment and more. Apple notes that you can access Mountain Lion's Notification Center by swiping your trackpad or Magic Trackpad from left to right. Alternatively, you can click the Notification Center icon in your Mac's menu bar (here's a more thorough look at Notification Center options). Those are great, but I use a third option. Specifically, I've assigned Notification Center to a hot corner by following these steps:
- Launch System Preferences and click Desktop & Screen Saver.
- Click the Screen Saver tab, then click Hot Corners.
- Click the drop-down menu at your corner of choice, choose Notification Center and then click OK.
Monday, 6 August 2012
Wall Street Expectations-Mountain Lion-Talkshoe
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!#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; }Talkcast tonight, 10pm ET: Meow, Mountain Lion originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 29 Jul 2012 19:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Sunday, 5 August 2012
Proper Power Management-Mountain Lion-Power Nap
One of OS X Mountain Lion's lesser-known features is the curiously named Power Nap. It's roughly analogous to an actual sleeping mountain lion; while he's catching some Zs in a tree, his brain is constantly aware of what's going on around him, monitoring sounds and scents that might spell danger or food. Likewise, Mountain Lion's Power Nap will keep your Mac a tiny bit awake. Just enough of the system will be active during sleep (on certain Mac models) to grab email, notes, reminders and messages, run backups, and download OS X updates. All of this is done without turning on a screen, powering up a fan, or doing anything else that could appear to be "waking" your Mac. It's enabled for both plugged-in and battery-only setups by checking the appropriate Power Nap box on System Preferences > Energy Saver. Power Nap in OS X Mountain Lion works only on current MacBooks that only ship with built-in flash storage -- the MacBook Air (2nd generation, meaning 2011 or later) and Retina MacBook Pro -- so this isn't a feature you're going to see on every Mac today. Will we see this extending to more Macs in the future? I certainly hope so; it could theoretically work on any Mac with proper power management circuitry and a boot SSD. I've enabled it on my 2011 MacBook Air and it works quite well. Previously, if I hadn't awakened the MBA for several days, I could count on having the Mail app spin for quite a while as it downloaded my email. Now when I open my Air's cover, I can be sure that it's going to be up to date with most, if not all, of my email. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } Continue reading Mountain Lion 101: Power NapMountain Lion 101: Power Nap originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 25 Jul 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Encryption Scheme-Removable Drives-Contextual Menu-Mountain Lion
[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: Finder encryption via contextual menu (updated) originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jul 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Sunday, 17 June 2012
Full Screen
Dear Aunt TUAW, Ever since I upgraded to OS X Lion, I've been unable to use dual monitors if I have an application running in full screen on my iMac's display. I would love to be able to fire a movie up on the second display, make it full screen and still make use of my iMac, rather than turning it into a 21.5" television that can do so much more...
Any ways to accomplish this? Your loving nephew, Josh, aka Single-Display in Columbus Dear Josh, Lion's inability to properly handle full screen apps across multiple displays is truly an irritating feature, although it's one that Mountain Lion will apparently address. Instead, she recommends using QuickTime's "Fit to Screen" (Command-3) for that television watching instead of "Enter Full Screen" (Control-Command-F). Yes, this leaves your desktop wallpaper visible. So if you are really concerned about these things, hop into System Preferences and set your desktop to a solid black (System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Desktop > Apple > Solid Colors > Black). Auntie has found one exception to the full screen dilemma: Aperture. According to Uncle Rich, Aperture will use the second monitor when the primary one is in full screen mode. It doesn't do it by default but you can turn it on after entering full screen. This is probably because Aperture's full screen mode predates Lion, though; Aperture has always worked this way. Want to let Apple know how you feel about dual-full-screen issues? Drop them a note at their bug reporting site. Hugs, Auntie T.Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me watch and work at the same time originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 15 Jun 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Friday, 18 May 2012
Unofficial Apple Weblog-Laptop Upgrades-Macbook Pro-Bloomberg
Bloomberg reports that Apple is preparing laptop upgrades with models that are thinner than the existing Pro units; the new machines are expected to run on Intel's Ivy Bridge processors. This follows on rumors from earlier today that a new MacBook Pro and iMac appeared on the Geekbench benchmarking tool. The machines, which Bloomberg says are to be announced during WWDC, are also expected to sport Retina or HiDPI displays and a flash memory subsystem to speed up boot times. All those details are in line with a post from 9to5 Mac earlier today. Bloomberg also says that Apple might announce Mountain Lion's release date during WWDC as well.Bloomberg: Apple will debut new laptop lineup at WWDC originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 14 May 2012 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Developer Center-Mountain Lion
Apple has pushed the third preview of OS X Mountain Lion to developers. A number of known issues are still present in the preview, including booting issues with FileVault enabled and installing Mountain Lion on a system running OS 10.7.2 or earlier with FireVault turned on could fail. Other known issues include involve sandboxing apps, iTunes, Mail, a delay in Back to My Mac, DVD Player, Time Machine, QuickTime and a number of problems with Game Center. Full release notes are available in Apple's Developer Center. The second developer's preview was released on March 16.Apple releases third preview build of OS X Mountain Lion for developers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Mac Development-Mac App Store-Gatekeeper-Apps
Apple issued a three month extension on application sandboxing today, giving devs a little more breathing room before new rules take over. June 1 2012 is now the enforcement date. We've been having many discussions about Mac development in the TUAW backchannel over the last week. The introduction of GateKeeper and the notion of signed apps, sandboxing, and developer IDs have us talking about where Apple is taking the Mac, and will be moving Mac development in general. Overall, we think things are moving towards a win for consumers and better opportunities for devs. Read on to learn more about these technologies, and how they affect developers and App Store. GateKeeper is Apple's new approach to making your Mac safer by giving you control over which applications may download and run on your computer. With GateKeeper, developers sign apps to authenticate them with the OS -- both apps that you purchase from the Mac App Store and, at the developer's option, also apps you purchase elsewhere. With Mountain Lion, you choose which apps are allowed to run. You'll be able to disable GateKeeper and run apps from anywhere if you like, although this is not the default setting. The thing is this: Apple continues moving towards a more controlled, less open, more appliance-like concept of what a Mac means. That redefinition is causing ripples, affecting app development more and more. Applications can do fewer things, access fewer system resources, and control other apps less than they did in the past. Developers who choose to enroll in the Mac development program pay a $99/year fee just as those who enroll in the iOS development program do. Once enrolled, they can sign their apps as identified developers -- as well as gain access to early beta versions of unreleased operating systems. When the iPhone SDK first debuted, many people including yours truly complained about what couldn't be done with the APIs: what files could be accessed, what routines could be called, and so forth. Coming from a general computing background, one learns to expect to build whatever one can imagine. If the building blocks are there, then why not build whatever tools you need? That all ties into a background of fully open computing. Apple's policy split the dev community into the jailbreak world and the App Store world, with many people crossing over depending on what they were building. Under jailbreak, developers gain full access to the entire iOS file system and run apps in a fully privileged mode. This gives devs a much broader development vocabulary to work with. The jailbreak world became known for its innovation, with Apple mining those forward-looking ideas and free R&D and bringing them into successive iterations of their operating system. At the same time, developers had to change. If they wanted to market through App Store, they had to relinquish product ideas that wouldn't work within the more closed-off system that App Store submission required and look instead for opportunities of development that were allowed. No one can look at App Store today, with its countless apps, and say that Apple denied developers opportunity. It's just a somewhat different opportunity than many developers expected. It's an opportunity that restricted certain kinds of applications, most typically OS enhancements and utilities (which have flourished on other mobile platforms with less oversight of developer access). Overall, Apple has provided better tools, better marketing, and better sales avenues than had existed before. The end result has been apps that are significantly better than previous generations. And now, Apple is doing the same thing for the Mac. This is emotionally hard for some long-term devs like me. We want Linux-y freedom for whatever we want to build and distribute. Now, with sandboxing (a technique that restricts application access to full system files; all apps that are not sandboxed will be removed from the Mac App Store starting June 1st [Update: Older read more..