mac diddy

As a support technician, I put my hands on a lot of computers and of course I’ve found that some people take care of their Macbooks better than others. After a couple of years of use they range from grungy and gunked-up to clean and pristine. I tend to fall on the anal-retentive side of the spectrum to the point where I’ll sometimes clean a computer which I am servicing only because touching that grimy keyboard makes me want to scrub the skin off of my hands.

Occasionally I’ll get questions from users about how to safely clean a Macbook. Others want to know how to get the most life from their battery. And so I present part one of a few observations and tips to keep your Macbook looking unsoiled and performing like a champ.

Part 1: Don’t pull the Magsafe adapter by its neck.

Let’s start with safety first. You know that innovative Magsafe power adapter which enthusiastically snaps into place on your Macbook with a satisfying click, yet comes off easily enough that you don’t hose your Macbook when you trip over the chord? Well they’re not invincible and this is a case where an ounce of prevention can save you copious pounds of cure. Prevention tip: when you remove the Magsafe adapter from your Macbook, grab it by the head, not the neck (chord).

It seems that when people repeatedly pull this adapted by its neck, the chord itself stretches and weakens in that area. Over time, this could lead to a broken adapter requiring an expensive replacement… if you’re lucky. In the worst cases, the frayed connectors can actually sizzle and catch fire! It’s all very avoidable by simply developing one good habit (grab it by the head always).

Coming soon, part deux: Cleaning your Macbook

Lots of people are having trouble getting the Lide 80 to work in 10.6 “Snow Leopard”. Well I was able to recreate the issue (application runs, but unexpectedly quits the second you try to perform a scan) and come up with a fix. Instructions:

1. Be sure you have installed Rosetta. It is an option when installing 10.6 Snow Leopard. It is not installed by default, so you will need to customize your install.
2. Be sure you have the latest version of the LIDE80_7275MXEN.dmg file. Even though it is the same old version number, Canon seems to have updated the installed to make it work in 10.5 and up.
3. Run the installer.
4. The problem is that the installer misses one item during the installation. Re-open the LIDE80_7275MXEN.dmg image. Inside you will see a folder titled “Into Users_Shared”. Inside that you will find a folder called CanoScanLIDE80. Copy this folder into Users->Shared on your hard drive.
5. If you’re using Photoshop, look in the disk image for a folder called “Into Plug-In” and copy its contents to Applications->Adobe Photoshop->Plug-Ins->Import/Export. You must run Photoshop in Rosetta in order for the plugin to work. To do so, go to the Photoshop app and click once on it to select it. Then press Command-i to bring up the Get Info window. Click the box which says Open Using Rosetta.
6. Restart your computer.
7. You’re done. Hope this works for you… please let me know!

Snow Leopard users who check Software Update will find that Apple has already released 10.6.1, just two weeks after the release of the operating system.

From Apple:

• compatibility with some Sierra Wireless 3G modems
• an issue that might cause DVD playback to stop unexpectedly
• some printer compatibility drivers not appearing properly in the add printer browser
• an issue that might make it difficult to remove an item from the Dock
• instances where automatic account setup in Mail might not work
• an issue where pressing cmd-opt-t in Mail brings up the special characters menu instead of moving a message
• Motion 4 becoming unresponsive

Edit: I’ve figured out the issue and rather than edit the heck out of this post, I’ve created a new post with instructions.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my Lide 80 scanner has been working fine in Snow Leopard, despite the fact that it hasn’t been officially support since 10.4. Well this seems to have generated some interest from frustrated Lide 80 users, so I thought I’d give a few tips:

• Be certain to download the most recent versions of the drivers/software from Canon’s site. Despite the fact that version numbers haven’t changed in years, it does appear that Canon has updated the files themselves.
• If the software installer is problematic, you might try logging in as the root user in order to install the software.
• You’re going to need Rosetta installed. The 10.6 installer doesn’t install this by default, but you can install it after-the-fact from the installer disk. This will allow the older CanoScan software and drivers to function in 10.6.

I am able to scan both through the Photoshop plug-in and with the CanoScan software. To scan through Photoshop, you must open the application with Rosetta. To do this, find the application and select it, click command-i for Get Info, and check the box to open it in Rosetta.

Hopefully this will help you get some more life out of your Lide 80. If you found this helpful or have any questions, please feel free to use the comments section by clicking the number to the left of this post.

Update: The game subcategories have reappeared, now underneath the right column. Still no subcategories under some of the other genres, but perhaps this is a sign that those are coming.

Along with the shiny (and slightly buggy) new version of iTunes release on Wednesday, Apple updated their iTunes store. With the tens of thousands of apps available, App Store users have been pining for better tools with which to navigate, sort, and explore the myriad of offerings. So naturally expectations were high for the new iTunes 9 combined with the new iTunes store.

Sadly, not only have expectations not been met thus far, but many users have found the new interface to be a significant step backwards when it comes to browsing apps. This author would argue that the only thing the new format improves is Apple’s ability to spotlight apps of their choosing, while presenting major obstacles for users to navigate on their own.

In the old App store, you might click on Games, the fastest growing category in the App Store. You would then be brought to a page which spotlighted a bunch of apps and more importantly, gave you a bunch of subcategories to help you browse. You could limit your browsing to categories you enjoyed, like Strategy, Puzzle, Action, Word, RPG, etc. Now instead you just get 661 pages of apps with very few sorting options. Also gone is the useful ability to sort by customer rating.

You might notice a Browse option hidden in small text at the bottom of the App Store home page. This takes you to a text-based list with hardly any sorting options. Want to browse the medical apps? Well no subcategories there. Just 1,361 apps on one page without even icons to catch your eye. Just the names of apps, prices, and developers to go by. And while you can add sort options like Ratings in the View Options, they don’t seem to work. Click on Games and you do get subcategories here, but with 4,708 Puzzle games alone, you’ve got little to work with other than the massive list of app titles.

While a few bugs (like the occasional unexpected quit in iTunes 9) are par for the course, these larger issue make the launch of the new iTunes feel premature. As the App Store grows quickly and shows few signs of slowing down, good apps are getting lost in the massive shuffle and Apple should know that we need better tools to sort through all of the noise. I’ve made my noise about it and you could let Apple know that you want the same through their feedback options, listed below.

iTunes Feedback

Apple Feedback Page

Of course, it’s not all gloom and doom. As I mentioned previously, the added ability to organize your current apps through iTunes is a welcome addition and the iTunes LP functionality shows lots of promise. With some bug fixes, I’m certain the Apple will get the new iTunes at least up to par with the old iTunes where app browsing is concerned. But as the App Store multiplies, will par still be good enough?

Amongst other improvements, the iPhone 3.1 software update released today allows you to organize and re-order the apps on your iPhone through a new interface in iTunes. Users will likely find this to be a handy alternative to the clunky click-and-drag system on the iPhone itself. The new iTunes interface presents a clean and responsive means to shift apps around your iPhone.

Just prepare to allow for plenty of time for the update to complete. By the time iTunes automatically downloaded and installed 3.1, backed up the updated phone, and then re-synched, I had counted close to 40 minutes total for my 16GB iPhone 3G.

AT&T has announced that the long-awaited MMS feature would be coming to U.S. customers this September 25th. It is well known that iPhone users have already put incredible strain on AT&T’s data network, so their official line is not surprising:

The unique capabilities and high usage of the iPhone’s multimedia capabilities required us to work on our network MMS architecture to carry the expected record volumes of MMS traffic and ensure an excellent experience from Day One.

The availability of built-in MMS on the iPhone should at last put an end to the current cumbersome method of receiving an image through the Messages app, where users must leave the app to visit a website and enter a unique username and password for each multimedia message they receive. This was particularly tedious before the recent addition of copy and paste functionality in iPhone 3.0 software.

The “free memory” apps are either changing or disappearing from the App Store quickly. I first noticed this a few days ago when I updated iStat and the handy feature was gone from the new version.

For those who don’t already know, memory-freeing apps free up runtime memory on your iPhone, making it more readily available to other apps. Sometimes the results are dramatic on a phone which is running low on memory resources, upping the free memory from 2MBs to 40MBs in seconds.

According to iStat developer Bjango, their “Free Memory function was removed at Apple’s request.” Recession Apps confirmed that Apple is demanding app developers remove this feature. Rather than remove the feature from their app, aptly named Free Memory, they removed it from the App Store entirely.

Apple’s reasoning behind these demands remains a mystery, which is not entirely surprising given the oft secretive nature of their App Store related decisions. It is especially strange after a long enough history of Apple approving free memory apps and the move is sure to hurt some developers who built their apps around this feature. Personally, I will be reverting iStat – one of my favorite apps – to the previous version in order to retain the feature.

Simplified installer. Unlike past versions of the OS X installer, Snow Leopard has removed several options, including Archive/Install and Erase/Install. Your only option is to do a straight upgrade, unless you are installing to a disk with no previous operating system, in which case you will do a clean install by default.

Rosetta not installed by default. Be sure to hit the Customize button when you install 10.6 and choose to install Rosetta. It is minute (2MB) and it will come in handy if you want to open any older apps which are not updated to Universal Binary.

Short install time. I didn’t time it, but the installer told me 40 minutes and I’m sure it didn’t take more than 20. My best guess would be more like 15.

Snow Leopard is Quick. Of course your mileage may vary, but my 8-core Mac Pro is snappier than it’s ever been. I did a clean install of 10.5 Leopard on another drive for comparison and there’s no doubt that the interface in 10.6 is quicker. Not sure if the results will be as dramatic on 2-core Macs, but I’ll do that experiment ASAP and post results.

Time Machine still works. I was wondering if I’d have to wipe my Time Machine drive and start it over, but all of my backups are visible and initial tests indicate that they are usable.

Printer and Scanner still work. I was certain 10.6 would be the end of the line for my scanner (CanoScan Lide 80) and so this was easily the biggest surprise for me, as this scanner hasn’t been supported since 10.4. In 10.5 I was able to get it working by opening Photoshop CS3 in Rosetta and running the plug-in from there. No tweaking or reinstalling necessary… nothing seems to have changed in the way both my scanner and LaserJet P1005 operate.

I realize that this might be a massive understatement, but Mac users tend to be a little more enthusiastic about their platform of choice. So naturally as we are on the cusp of the release of Apple’s newest operating system, complete with great new features and promised performance enhancements, anticipation levels are high.

But it is times like these when some of us (myself included) need to be reminded that for all of the excitement around a new operating system release, upgrading your OS is not something to be taken lightly. There are plenty of potential pitfalls along the way and high hopes can turn into tears if you’re not careful. And so I present this non-exhaustive list of considerations before you go forward.

1. Wait!

Upon its public release, Snow Leopard will transition from beta to finished product, but is any current operating system ever really finished? Anyone familiar with Software Update on their Mac knows that realistically Apple will be working on this release for years, even after 10.7 hits the shelves. Although Apple does a very respectable job testing their software products in the beta phase, the real testing happens when it hits the market. Indeed, with the infinite complexities of real-world applications, the first release of any operating system is something of a glorified beta 2.0. Like the Grail Knights choosing to commence their journeys in the darkest, thickest parts of the forrest, early adopters face potential pitfalls and problems which are not always resolved with a quick Google search.

Of course if you’re like me, then waiting isn’t even a consideration – you want to stay ahead of the curve and even if there are problems, you want to know about them. But for a lot of users, the benefits of waiting for 10.6.1 or 10.6.2 should be considered. By then, Apple will have worked out some bugs in the OS and perhaps in the installer itself. Also, developers will have released some compatibility patches or perhaps new versions of their applications. Then there are the drivers for your peripherals… no guarantees that every device will be ready for 10.6 on day one.

As it stands, Adobe has not tested their Creative Suite 3 with 10.6 and have stated that they have no intention of support the CS3 with Snow Leopard. That doesn’t mean it won’t work… it probably will but it’s also quite possible that some functionality will be broken. Are you ready to shell out for their CS4 upgrades in order to remain productive? Maybe CS3 will just work and it won’t matter, but you can’t know until these things have been tested in the market at large.

2. Set aside some time.

OK, so like me you’re not going to wait. Well set aside some time to get things set up right and potentially troubleshoot some issues. If you keep in mind that this process might be a significant interruption to your productivity, then you’re less likely to greet potential challenges with frustration.

3. Backup, backup, backup!

I cannot stress enough the importance of backing up your data, regardless of whether or not you plan an OS upgrade. If left in service, every hard drive will fail eventually. But when you perform a system upgrade, there is always the potential for data loss which is not related to failing hardware. Pre-existing directory damage, installer bugs, bad installer media… not that these things are necessarily likely, but they do happen and when they do, you don’t want all of your data eggs in one data basket.

So before you get started, be sure that:

• All critical user data (pictures, music, documents, etc.) on the drive is backed up.
• All other critical data (applications, fonts, templates, preferences, network settings) is backed up or available for re-installation.

Ideally, you should clone your hard drive to be sure that 100% of the data and settings will be available to you later.

4. Be sure to have plenty of free space on the target drive.

Apple requires you have 5GB free. I strongly suggest more. If you have less than 10GB free, then chances are that free space is pretty well fragmented. Something I’ve noticed over the years working with Mac OS X is that when it gets low on space and fragmented, you start seeing significantly more directory errors and performance slow down.

I would go so far as to say that if you have less than 20GB free space, then you should consider upgrading your hard drive in the process. Storage is cheap and your need for more space is inevitable at this point, so you might as well take care of this before you upgrade. Otherwise you could be looking at doing it all again in a few months.

5. Clean up your target drive.

In the least, use Disk Utility to verify/repair the Disk Permissions and verify the volume as well. Ideally, you should also use a program like Disk Warrior to clean the disk directory. A squeaky-clean directory is going to up your odds significantly for a successful upgrade.

6. Type of install.* [Please see article update below]

The Mac OS installer gives you several options:

• Upgrade. This simply upgrades your current operating system, leaving your settings and user data in place. Easiest install type, but in my experience it also has the most potential to be buggy. With the considerable changes made to the working guts of 10.6, I’m a little more hesitant to recommend this option this time around, but we’ll see.
• Archive/Install.* [please see Update below] This option makes an archive of your current OS and installs a fresh copy of the new one. It also maintains all of your user data and settings with a pretty good degree of success. Overall I tend to use this option much more than a straight Upgrade because it is more thorough yet doesn’t usually require much more effort. That said, it is more likely that some applications might need to be reinstalled after using an Archive/Install. And because it doesn’t delete your old system, you will want to be especially certain that you have lots of free space when performing this type of install.
• Clean install. This is simply installing a fresh copy of the new OS on a disk which is blank or doesn’t contain an OS already. After doing this you will either move your personally data and install apps manually or use Apple’s Migration Assistant to pull your data from another drive.

Personally I’m a believer that when it comes to an OS upgrade, more is more. My systems tend to run squeaky clean and I believe it is because I tend to build my machines on clean installs and migrate the data back manually. It’s a bit tedious, but it seems to make for the most stable platform. Every other method is in my opinion something of a concession, trading potential stability for ease of install.

That said, if you’re well backed up, then there is no real harm in making that concession. Myself, I plan to perform an Archive/Install first and hope for the best. Then after a few updates to 10.6, I’ll do a clean install when time permits. Again, I remain skeptical about the straight Upgrade option. I saw enough issues with this option when going from 10.4 to 10.5 and so many of Snow Leopard’s changes are under the hood that I wonder if this time an Upgrade could possibly work better.

My final piece of advice is that you re-read section 3 – backup! Go crazy and make multiple backups. After all, if you make a single backup and then wipe your main drive, then you still have all of your eggs in one basket during the procedure. So have two drives for backups. This is truly a case where an ounce of prevention is worth copious pounds of cure. I’ve seen too much heartbreak when people learn this lesson the hard way.

Good luck and have fun with the upgrade!

*Update: Based on previous versions of OS X, I assumed 10.6 would offer all of the install options that its predecessors did. Turns out Apple has removed the option to Archive/Install. If you are installing to a blank disk (or a disk which otherwise lacks an OS), it will perform a clean install. Otherwise, the installer performs an Upgrade by default.