lion

Apple has made a few EFI firmware updates available this week for Mac users who own a MacBook, 13-inch MacBook Pro, or Mac Mini system from mid 2010, which give these computers the capability to start up the Lion recovery routine via the Internet. In addition, the Mac Mini update fixes a problem with the setting for restarting after a power failure not being retained.

The updates are small downloads of about 3MB in size that should be available via Software Update for relevant systems, but can also be downloaded from the following Apple Support Web pages:

I'll let you in on a little secret: I haven't been thrilled with any iPad keyboard case solution, despite testing and reviewing about half a dozen of them.

Sure, some of them are excellent products. Still, I don't find them essential. This is why I don't use my iPad during mission-critical trips to trade shows and live-blogged events. This is why I don't use my iPad as a laptop replacement. Not entirely. Not yet.

I agree with a lot of what Harry McCracken refers to in his experience with his iPad and the ZaggFolio keyboard case. Ideally, having such an ultraportable, flexible device with a long battery life would be a perfect travel tool. For me, however, that perfect tool hasn't materialized yet.

I'd love to have some sort of evolved hybrid of an iPad and a MacBook Air. I've been dreaming of it for a while, actually. Apple's clearly leaning toward a fusion of sorts between iOS and Mac OS X. Lion was the first step. iOS gets a bit more advanced every year, taking baby steps toward being a true operating system for hard-core computing tasks.

There are several reasons it won't work right now, and the biggest by far is the good old-fashioned trackpad--or lack of it.… Read more

If you are running Adobe CS5 or CS5.5 and have updated to OS X Lion, you may encounter an error with the Adobe Extensions Manager utility in which you cannot install any new extensions.

This issue was found in early December by a number of Adobe CS5 users who had upgraded to OS X Lion, and after investigating the issue, Adobe issued a patch to the software that should allow the Extensions Manager to work properly again. The update has been available in Adobe's Update Manager, so if you regularly update your Adobe software, then you should be … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week people wrote in with questions about optical media not ejecting from the system, Firefox suddenly not opening, how to disable Safari-only mode in Lion, a missing Mac App Store option in OS X, and desktop backgrounds changing after waking from sleep. We continually answer e-mail questions, and though we present answers here, we welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

Question: CD not ejecting from the system MacFixIt reader rlhbond asks:

Do you want to install Lion on your Mac, but use a program that extends your display? Not so fast.

You might need to first update the programs or even uninstall them to avoid a screensaver-related bug they could cause in Lion.

As Apple adds new services, device support, and other features to OS X, the included programming libraries that developers use to write their code also change, which can lead to problems. In the case of display management and extension programs, while the programs still function as they should, changes in the frameworks they use can prevent the system … Read more

One of the biggest disappointments for users of Intuit's popular Quicken personal finance suites, was finding that the program would not work in Apple's latest OS X Lion operating system.

Quicken 2007 and earlier versions are built extensively off of code that is specific to the PowerPC processor, and since Apple's switch to Intel-based computers, Intuit has relied on the Rosetta translator included in Leopard and Snow Leopard to keep its programs running. Quicken ran well with Rosetta, but unfortunately Apple removed it as an option from OS X Lion, which in turn prevented Quicken 2006 ad … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week people wrote in with questions on using Disk Utility from a prior version of OS X, whether or not to repair a broken G5 or upgrade, how to recover a missing Downloads folder on the Dock, and the necessity of the Lion recovery partition. We continually answer e-mail questions, and though we present answers here, we welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

NOTE: The "contact us" box on the MacFixIt … Read more

OS X 10.7 Lion is the first version of Apple's operating system that it has issued as an electronic download. If you have OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard installed on your system, then you can log into the Mac App Store to download and install Lion without needing an optical disc or other external media.

Upon downloading the installer from the Mac App store, if you go back to the App Store and select the Purchases section, you will see the download listed as Installed with no option to redownload it. While redownloading the software should not … Read more

There may be times after upgrading your Mac's operating system that you experience odd slowdowns on the system, either problems with general workflow or issues with booting the system.

Apple's original hardware that shipped with its systems should run its supported operating systems very acceptably; however, some people may have upgraded hardware components of their systems (hard drives, RAM, etc.) and suspect incompatibility with those components as a root cause of the problems.

MacFixIt reader Bruce wrote in with such a concern: