OS

Chrome for Mac tries graphical tab management

Chrome programmers have begun experimental work to endow Google's browser with a full-screen tab-management interface similar to the Panorama feature Mozilla is adding to Firefox.

As browsers have expanded to accommodate ever larger amounts of computing tasks, separating different tasks into different tabs across the top of the browser window, managing them has become more onerous. A list of five or six tabs isn't so bad, but when there are 20 or 40, it's a different story. Mozilla's Panorama, nee Tab Candy, provides a full-screen view of all a browser window's tabs, grouped how the … Read more

MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed from our readers. This week we have questions on missing "new message" chimes in Mail, installing iPhoto from another computer, Time Machine drives not being recognized despite being formatted properly, and how to set a system to boot to the 64-bit kernel by default.

Question: New message chimes in Mail

MacFixIt reader "Robert" asks:

I have an iMac that is 2 years old. When I purchased it I was running Leopard 10.5.8 I have since upgraded to Snow Leopard 10.6.4 I … Read more

Apple releases MacBook Pro EFI Firmware update 1.9, iWork 9.0.4

Apple has released an update for 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pro systems released in mid-2010, which addresses a problem that could cause freezes and hangs during use, and more notably during start-up. The prevalence of this problem is rare, but has affected a few systems.

In addition to the freezes and hangs, the update addresses compatibility issues with external displays.

In order to install the update, you will need to have your external power supply attached and should expect a gray screen with a status bar appear when the system reboots. It is important that you do not interrupt this … Read more

File sizes not adding up in Snow Leopard

When you get information on a file in the Finder, you can see numerous attributes including the file size. Under some circumstances, however, the size reported in the information window of the Finder may differ from the size reported by other file-sizing utilities.

We were recently contacted by a MacFixIt reader who was trying to get the size of a selection of files via AppleScript, and in order to do so was using the OS X "System Events" to grab file sizes with AppleScript code similar to the following:

tell application "Finder" &… Read more

Console error message: 'Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds'

After running your system for a while and using various applications, you may receive an error stating, "Throttling Respawn: Will start in 10 seconds," over and over again. These messages are usually associated with a plist file and will repeat every 10 seconds for as long as the system is booted.

12/30/09 9:20:13 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.50186 (com.akamai.client.plist) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds 12/30/09 9:20:23 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.50186 (com.akamai.client.plist) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds 12/… Read more

How to regain access to user files and folders after copying or migrating

There are times when you may copy files or folders to your system and cannot access them because the system does not allow you permission to them. In the case of folders, you may see a small "no entry" symbol to the lower right of the folder icon. This may happen after migrating or copying files, but it can also happen when accessing shared resources such as network drives, thumb drives, or external hard drives.

The reason these files are not accessible is a simple mixup in the permissions flags for them. Usually when you copy files, the … Read more

Firefox 3.6 likely the last for PowerPC Macs

The current version of Firefox will likely be the end of the road for people using PowerPC Macs.

A final decision will be based on usage data that's better than what Mozilla possesses right now, but technical difficulties raised by Firefox 4 improvements mean at a minimum that it's a strong possibility only Intel-based Macs will be able to run the new browser.

"I am gathering data on the number of PPC users we have, but the likely outcome is that we will not be supporting PPC [PowerPC] for Firefox 4," said Mike Beltzner, Mozilla's … Read more

iAds in iBooks may be closer than you think

The Wall Street Journal reports that iAds may appear in iBooks as publishers watch their profits dwindle amid technology advances like Apple's iPad. The publishing industry has been less than supportive of these advances and the result could come at the expense of its content.

From a business standpoint, though, this makes total sense. Ads have been queued and served in every other form of digital technology for as long as I can remember. Why not add them to books? With heavy competition in the e-book market, prices are dropping and with it, profits. Enter Apple's iAds.

With … Read more

Angry Birds game finally lands on WebOS devices

If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch and you're not yet playing Angry Birds, you don't know what you're missing.

Angry Birds, which has been downloaded more than 5 million times via iTunes, is a game in which you play an army of titular birds angry at an enemy army of green pigs that have stolen all your eggs. They've made up structures to hide behind, which you destroy by flinging super-powered birds at them, knocking down their walls.

The game is far and away one of the most fun games on the platform. … Read more

Apple Releases Security update 2010-005 for OS X 10.5 and 10.6

Apple has released a security update for OS X 10.6 and OS X 10.5 machines, which addresses a number of security holes for both the client and server versions of OS X. For both the client and server versions, the update fixes several problems that could lead to arbitrary code execution.

The specific services fixed are CoreGraphics, Apple Type Services, PHP, and libsecurity (certificate host name resolution), as well as Samba. The majority of the exploits are buffer overflows that could result in arbitrary code execution.

It is highly recommended that you apply these updates to your system, … Read more