Some people are more fortunate than others — for example, yesterday’s Mac OS X 10.7.3 update is causing grief for many who used Software Update to install it, while our 27-inch iMac was smooth sailing all the way with this method. If you’re one of those affected, read on for the fix — and while you’re at it, stick around for a little bit and take in the rest of the day’s news for this fine Thursday, February 2, 2012.
Hey, nobody’s perfect, and that includes the engineers at Apple. As noted by Macworld, yesterday’s Mac OS X 10.7.3 update appears to be hiding a little bugaboo that has caused some grief for a number of users. Thankfully, there’s an easy solution, which is to download the larger Combo updater and simply install it over the system having the problem. So what’s the problem? It appears that a number of users who updated via Software Update “discovered upon rebooting that every app they launched would crash, and the ensuing error dialog box sported bizarre overlays: gradient boxes reading ‘CUI CUI,’ along with bright red question marks.” While the fix is easy, if your particular system is crashing every app, you may need to resort to using FireWire Target Disk mode from another Mac to install, or if worse comes to worse, use Lion Recovery mode to get things going again. No word yet from Apple on what the problem might be or how they intend to fix it — most likely they’ll pull the update and replace it with a patched version in the near future.
It’s been quite a week for video editors, with Apple releasing an update for Final Cut Pro X that finally restores missing features from the legacy version and now their rival Avid landing on the iPad with a .99 prosumer offering called Avid Studio. Avid is a familiar name in the pro video world, having pioneered much of the non-linear digital editing used by Hollywood. The company’s latest offering isn’t quite as ambitious, but aims to take on Apple’s own iMovie solution instead. Avid Studio promises “big-screen moviemaking” on the iPad. “Swiftly arrange your clips in the Storyboard, make precision edits using the Timeline, and add high-quality transitions, effects, and a soundtrack,” the app description reads. “Then share your movie directly to YouTube, Facebook, and more — or export your project to Avid Studio for the PC and continue editing with even more advanced tools.” Avid Studio is a 30.7MB download from the App Store and available now for .99.
MacRumors is reporting that Apple’s recent success with the iPhone 4S is paying off in many ways, including a new report out from research firm IDC today that positions Cupertino as the third largest manufacturer of mobile phones worldwide — and that’s not strictly smartphones, but rather mobile phones of all types. With a 128.4 percent year-over-year-change, Apple handily breezed from fifth place to third place, bumping rival LG down a notch. The iPhone maker is now perched behind Nokia in first place and Samsung in second place, although that pair will be much harder to dethrone: Nokia and Samsung sold 113.5 million and 97.6 million handsets respectively in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared with Apple’s relatively modest 37 million.
The folks at Microsoft-owned Skype are back for another heapin’ helpin’ of update fun for the Mac edition, with a new version out today that promises “improved video call stability and improvements to the calling interface.” Of course, that all comes on top of the VoIP giant’s recent bear hug with Facebook, which allows users to check news feeds, instant messages and even video call their friends with or without the client software, thanks to the wonders of modern browser technology. But enough of our yakking, it’s time to click the link and get your update on…
There’s been plenty of chatter this week about what everyone assumes is a bug with iOS 5’s iMessage service, which allows text messages to continue to be received even on stolen or lost devices. As it turns out, the “bug” only rears its ugly head when proper protocol is not followed. According to The Loop, one such incident recently documented by Gizmodo found a customer’s text messages inadvertently going to an iPhone owned by the Apple Genius who assisted her with an unrelated problem. Since the customer’s device had no SIM card, the Genius popped out his own and placed it inside the customer’s, causing a shift in the time-space continuum. Okay, not really, but it did cause the iPhone to start routing the customer’s iMessages to the Genius’ device. As it turns out, toggling iMessage on and off or having the customer put their own SIM card back into their device would have eliminated the problem, as explained by an Apple representative. Problem… solution.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
That surge of Twitter activity this evening was the internet going ape for Facebook’s new IPO filing today in an effort to raise billion. Hey, good luck with that, guys… we’re just hoping all that cash will bring some much-needed fixes to the website, but Zuck probably has some other cool stuff in mind. Oh, and don’t forget to download Mac OS X 10.7.3 which finally hit Software Update today — and while you’re downloading, maybe catch up on the rest of the news for Wednesday, February 1, 2012.
It’s the beginning of February, and that means the iPad 3 rumors are going to start coming in hotter and heavier than they have over the last few months. Like clockwork, the first one is already here, with BGR reporting that leaked photos from “a source claiming to be in possession of an iPad 3 prototype” reveal some key details of the much-anticipated third chapter in the iPad saga. Using a development tool called iBoot, the tipster reveals there could be only two iPad 3 models this time around: One with Wi-Fi only and another with combined GSM, CDMA and LTE that will work with all carriers, both here and abroad. The photos also allegedly reveal an A6 quad-core processor with the model number S5L8945X, which is right in line with numbering scheme for the original iPad’s A4 and iPad 2’s A5 processors. That said, the photos do nothing to stem the long wait for CEO Tim Cook and company to actually reveal the device, let alone a date as to when we can storm the castle — er, Apple Stores — to actually buy one.
After a lengthy period in beta with developers, Apple finally pulled the trigger on the Mac OS X 10.7.3 update, which is now available via Software Update or directly from its servers as a standalone 997.01MB download (a Client Combo is also available, which weighs in at 1.2GB). Among the improvements offered with the new update are language support for Catalan, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, and Ukrainian, fixing issues when using smart cards to log into OS X, resolving issues authenticating with directory services and compatibility issues with Windows file sharing. Apple has posted full release notes which detail every nook and cranny updated with the latest version, and a Security Update 2012-001 is available separately for both Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard server.
It’s been relatively quiet on the iPod front since the media player got bumped from its annual product refresh last year, but TechCrunch is reporting that there may be something worth waiting for. According to Chinese blog Apple.pro, a sixth-generation iPod nano has been spotted with a camera on its square little back, which falls in line with rumors we reported about last year. You’ll recall the fifth-generation iPod nano introduced a rear camera, which was summarily axed the following year when the nano got smaller and more square. Of course, the tiny camera will likely be of the 1.3 megapixel variety — more akin to the front-facing camera of the iPhone 4S than that slick dude capturing images around back, but we’ll take what we can get.
Social networking app Path really made a comeback in 2011, increasing the number of friends to 150 and allowing users to finally share directly to Facebook and Twitter. Today, the company announced a new version 2.0.5 release which adds Depth, billed as “the best way to tilt shift your photos and the only way to tilt shift your videos on the iPhone.” Depth creates a miniaturizing effect for photos and videos by creating a point or plane of clarity and blurring the surroundings, and works in both Spot and Landscape modes as well as before or after an image is taken. The update also introduces pinch, tap, rotate and zoom for photos, tap and rotate for videos, clickable links, friend requests sorted by time and the usual bug fixes. Path 2.0.5 is available for download now from the App Store.
Though it was widely expected, the tech world went a little bananas this evening as social networking giant Facebook officially filed its Initial Public Offering (IPO), revealing that it “earned .7 billion in revenues last year and made billion in profits,” according to AppleInsider. The House That Zuckerberg Built is aiming to raise billion with its public offering, making it the highest amount ever for a tech company. The filing also notes that game maker Zynga makes up 12 percent of Facebook’s revenue with its virtual currency and advertising, but cautions that “our financial results may be adversely affected” should that relationship sour. In December, Facebook revealed that it had 845 million monthly active users, with 483 million active users on a daily basis.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
Sometimes when you win, you really lose, as Apple may have discovered in a German court this week. Other times, you really wish that whole email thing wasn’t so permanent, as it appears Apple and a gang of other tech giants are going to discover in what may be an incredibly expensive class-action lawsuit.
It’s another tough week for Cupertino in the courtroom. Cue the dun-dun and lets review those gavel bangs.
FOSS Patents reports that an appeals court in Germany has upheld a preliminary injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, which was originally granted to Apple last fall. In additional, the court found that the Galaxy Tab 8.9 also falls under the injunction.
The original ruling, ordered last August and upheld in September, was based on a violation of one of Apple’s Community designs — a European version of a design patent. Samsung appealed to the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court, and while that court did uphold the injunction, they did so based on a violation of German unfair competition law, not a design violation.
Sorry about that “unfair” thing… we’ll work on that as we keep selling these.
The distinction is somewhat of a win for Samsung; although the injunction continues to block the sale of the Galaxy 10.1 and 8.9 in Germany, Apple really needed the injunction to be upheld based on design, so that Cupertino could attempt to replicate the decision globally. According to Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents, the “German unfair competition law is pretty unique,” and won’t help Apple in courtrooms in any other country.
So, even though Samsung technically lost the appeal, it succeeded in defeating Apple’s design right, denying Cupertino significant leverage other lawsuits still pending around the world.
That potential class-action lawsuit we covered last week; the one where all the high tech workers in Silicon Valley accused Apple and a number of other tech companies of conspiring to fix their wages and prevent them from changing jobs? You know, the one with all the nasty sounding emails form C-level employees at those companies describing back-room deals with each to control employees? That one is going to trial.
U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh ruled a few days ago that the companies listed in the complaint — including Apple, Google, Adobe, Intel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm — must face a private class-action lawsuit claiming the violated antitrust laws. Koh’s ruling requires the companies to produce documents detailing the agreements, and allow lawyers for the plaintiffs to take depositions.
This could work out really, really well for us.
According to Bloomberg, Koh did not have a problem with the companies potentially making individual agreements with each other, but was concerned with “how it ties together” into a possible conspiracy between all of the companies. The case, which could produce damages that total hundreds of millions of dollars, is filed as In Re High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation, 11-2509, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).
Adrian writes the weekly Law & Apple column for MacLife.com. Follow him on Twitter, subscribe to him on Facebook.
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