The new cat, OSX 10.8

Well I downloaded Mountain Lion. I am not one to safely wait for initial problems to surface and be solved in OS updates. Sometimes I pay dearly for that, but often I an pleased with the new updated, slick interface. This is one of those cases. I'm very happy with the new calendar interface, and even Address Book, now called Contacts. Obviously I have yet to play with all of the new features in this operating system, but right now I am writing this blog using the speech dictation function. Which is awesome! And yes, this OS seems much faster. Obviously, I will write more later. Or should I say I will talk more later.


But for now, here is a link to:


80 Mountain Lion Tips and Tricks from MacLife

Mountain Lion Launches (July 25)

Apple's CEO TIm Cook made the announcement today, Mountain Lion, OSX 10.8 will officially launch tomorrow, and be available for $19.99 from the Mac App Store.

Remember, some older machines will not be compatible. In order to download the app, your machine must meet these requirements:

Mountain Lion OS Requirements

• OS X v10.6.8 or later
• 2GB of memory
• 8GB of available space
• Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply
• Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may apply

See my post from July 11 to see compatible machines.

Will you upgrade? I will...

List of hacked email accounts.

While Yahoo claims to have fixed the security flaw that allowed hackers to steal more than 450,000 usernames and passwords, the hacker group D33Ds published these passwords and email addresses. Curious if your email address is one?


For a list of accounts, click here:


Dazzlepod

Hackers post Yahoo log-in info.

Meant as a warning, a group of hackers who call themselves, " the D33Ds company" published log on information for over 453,000 Yahoo service accounts. 


“We hope that the parties responsible for managing the security of this subdomain will take this as a wake-up call, and not as a threat,” the hackers said. “There have been many security holes exploited in webservers belonging to Yahoo! Inc. that have caused far greater damage than our disclosure. Please do not take them lightly.”


This group claims to have hacked into the database by exploiting an SQL injection vulnerability found on a Yahoo subdomain. These credentials don't only include yahoo.com email addresses, but also those from other public and private email providers, like GMAIL, HOTMAIL and AOL.


What can you do? Change your passwords as soon as possible, and read more at Macworld, here:

Hackers publish emails, passwords from Yahoo service

and CNET here:

Yahoo hack reveals most-used passwords

Mountain Lion

Speaking of upgrades, the new cat is around the corner. The release Apple's Mountain Lion, OSX 10.8 is imminent and many Mac users will want to upgrade (I know I will). Do you have what it takes? You must be running OSX 10.7 (Lion) or the most recent version of Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6.8) to download Mountain Lion from the app store. And some older machines will not be compatible. Here is the official list of compatible macs:

• iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
• MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
• Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
• Xserve (Early 2009)

Assuming you have the requirements necessary, here's a good article from Macworld explaining how to get your machine(s) ready:

Get Your Mac Ready For Mountain Lion

Not gone...

Apologies for being away from my post, I will spare you the typical excuses. BUT, onward. 
I had a chance to look at the new Retina MacBook Pro. Yes, it's lovely, and if I was in the market for a new machine I would get one. But my 1 year old MBP is still zippy, and I mostly use my Air anyway. My idea of a perfect set up, spare no funds? Still an iMac and an Air.  But many customers ask, when to upgrade?

Mmmmoof?

The old saying, , “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, unfortunately does not apply to computers. Of course, the idea of spending over $1000 every 3 years does not sit well with most of us, so here are some guidelines for when to upgrade. There are two elements to upgrading your system: hardware and software. Let’s talk about software first.

About every year or so, Apple upgrades it’s operating system. An operating system is software that manages hardware resources as well as other system software. So for example, if your system up to date, and is running the most current version of Lion, which is Mac OSX (which stands for Operating System 10) 10.7.4, this is your computer’s operating system. For example, the OS provides services for the drivers that allow your printer to communicate with your machine and Microsoft Word to work with your printer. So it acts as an intermediary between applications and the computer. When software companies come out with new versions of their products, they have to make sure that current operating systems will be compatible. In order to do that, they often remove compatibility with older systems. If your OS is too old, your software will become outdated, and no longer supported. In some cases, like in the case of Eudora (an email program), the company that created it no longer exists.

And now about hardware: To compound the compatibility problem, Apple upgrades it’s internal hardware, too, and when that happens, some older software will no longer work on new machines. There was a big bang in the Apple orchard in 2005 when Apple announced plans to use Intel microprocessors (called “chips”) in all of their machines, replacing the PowerPC chip. So these days, all of Apples products have Intel inside. This means that not only will software written for the Intel chip often not work with older machines, but also software written for the earlier chip will not always work on the new machines. This is most likely why your printer does not work. Many printers do not have drivers for machines with operating systems earlier than OSX 10.5.

One of the biggest problems with waiting too long to upgrade, either the OS or the computer, is that the learning curve to jump from 10.4 to the current one today, 10.7 is pretty high. And this can be very frustrating, as you indicated in letter. Along with upgrading the OS, you may have to upgrade some of the software on your machine to retain compatibility. Most software companies keep up with the changes, but some are notorious for lack of backward compatibility. So unfortunately, the spending does not stop with the purchase of a machine. Like a car, maintenance costs continue through your ownership. So the general rule of thumb is this: keep your operating system current, and when your computer can no longer run the current OS, get a new computer.

iPhone 5, Fall Launch?

According to iMore, the next iPhone will be released this fall. Although there have been rumors of a larger (4 Inch) screen, sources seem to indicate that Apple will stick with the current size, 3.5 inches.  This is not to say that they are not considering a larger one, and we all know that rumors about Apple's pre-released products can be all over the board.


You can read the full article here:


iMore iPhone 5 


In summary, they claim the new iPhone will have:

• Similar if not same sized screen (currently 3.5-inch but not set in stone)
• 4G LTE radio
• New “micro dock” connector
• Fall/October 2012 release

Scrivener

A customer writes to me:

Dear Macmama,

I am an author, and have been using Microsoft Word to write my memoirs. I thought it would be easier than just using a typewriter, but I still have scraps of paper all over my desk, as well as photos I want to add. I thought writing on the computer would simplify this task, but I find myself having a hard time being organized.  Is there a better way? Daniel F., Oakland

Dear Daniel,

While Microsoft Word is a powerful word processor, and has features that most of us never use, it can be frustrating to writers who need a solution to not only document a narrative, but also organize timelines, photos, clippings, text snippets and research. And the outlining features are a bit clumsy. For outlines and project organization, I use Omni Outliner Pro, which I’ll talk about another time. 

But for writers who need to gather ideas as well as make outlines, I prefer a different solution. Enter Scrivener, a writing application that according the makers at Literature &Latte (I love that!) allows you to, “Outline. Edit. Storyboard. Write.” 

I have been reviewing Scrivener for about a week now, and I have to say I love it, and wish that I had the great American novel waiting to burst from my fingers. While the learning curve is a bit steep, the benefits are many. In this one application, you can gather and organize your research, make an outline, organize characters, photos, websites, text clippings and media files. One of the small features that I love is the “composition mode”. Like the old days, when you type, the “paper” moves, not the cursor. So you are always looking at the middle of the screen when you type. You can turn this feature off if you are more comfortable with the current word processing cursor behavior. Another feature, which is also available in Word 2011, is full screen mode, so you can remove the distractions that live on our desktops. One of the UC Berkeley professors that first told me about Scrivener loves the fact that he can still write on virtual index cards.

Scrivener comes with extensive tutorials, both interactive and video, and the user forums on the web are helpful and thorough. The developer is also very responsive when you have questions or issues, and according to user reviews, usually answers emails within a few hours. This application has been designed beautifully and thoroughly. As I said, it takes some work and study to learn, but the payoff of mastering an extensive authoring tool is worth it.

Scrivener is $45 to buy, free to try and can be found here:

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php

iPaid

Yes, today on launch day, I bought an iPad. 
I did not pre-order.
I did not stand in line before 8am (in the pouring rain).
I didn't rush into the Apple store as soon as I woke up.

I worked all day, and on the way home decided to stop at the Apple store on 4th Street in Berkeley, CA, where I live, just to see what this 3rd iPad in 2 years looks like. As I entered the store around 4PM, I asked the greeter (did they learn that from Walmart?) if they were sold out of iPads. "That depends on which one you want", he answered. How about the 32 GB WiFi model in white, I asked?
"Yes, we have those in stock". 
I love those words. Although I was not planning on buying one today, when I saw what an improvement the display is over that of the 1st generation (which I own), I thought  I kind of might like to maybe have that, like now.


So my new pal Wayne brought one over to me, and a nice tall employee fetched me a pink cover from high up on the wall, and home I trotted to set up my new iPad. In about 20 minutes, it was all done, all of my apps, movies, photos, etc. were transferred from a back up of my older iPad. Seamless and trouble free. I did have to re-add a password for one of my email accounts.


Do I love it? Not sure, but it is awfully pretty. My last model was a 32 GB WIFI+3G. I only used the 3G once, while we were moving across country, and had no ISP for a few weeks. But I have an iPhone, and did not want to shell out the extra $129 for 3G. More later!

Quicken for Mac 2007 now compatible with Lion, $14.99

Intuit has finally released a Lion compatible Quicken 2007 for Mac. According to Intuit:


Quicken Mac 2005 – 2007 data files will automatically convert into the Lion compatible version. If you're currently running Quicken Essentials for Mac on OS X 10.7 Lion, and have previously converted from Quicken 2005, 2006 or 2007 for Mac, you'll be able to migrate your Quicken Essentials transaction data to Quicken Mac 2007 OS X Lion compatible.


Many Mac customers, frustrated that Quicken would no longer work on Lion moved to other financial software solutions (I moved to iBank). It is not clear whether Intuit is planning to offer an updated, more full featured version of Quicken for the future. According to macrumors.com:


Quicken 2007 was a popular personal financial management application for Mac, but instead of building upon the popular application Intuit elected to rebuild the application as a stripped-down Quicken Essentials for Mac. The new version was widely panned by reviewers for its considerable loss of functionality compared to Quicken 2007. 


Here is a link to Intuit's Quicken for Mac OSX Lion  page.