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Safari address bar appears to be locked

Written by Joe Aimonetti

Occasionally users may find that their address bar in Safari is locked. They are not able to enter any text into the field. The most likely cause of this is a corrupt preference file.

If you are attempting to click in the address bar of Safari and type a URL and you find you cannot, try these steps:

1. Navigate to: MacintoshHD > Users >username > Library > Preferences 2. Drag the "com.apple.Safari.plist" file to the Desktop. Note: This will reset all your Safari preferences. 3. Open Safari and test … Read more

Safari automatically deleting cookies

Written by Joe Aimonetti

Some users have reported that occasionally Safari will automatically delete all cookies when the user quits the browser. Upon reopening Safari, no cookies remain.

Cookies are small pieces of text stored in your browser that identify information about your history with regards to the sites you have visited, including site preferences and settings. When these cookies are deleted the user is required to re-enter all of their information--an annoying task for even moderately heavy Internet users.

If you find that Safari is automatically deleting your cookies, you can most likely suspect the cookie preference file has … Read more

Problems preordering Snow Leopard

Written by Topher Kessler

The upcoming release of OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" is much-anticipated, and we have written articles on how to prepare for it, since a few of the advertised features will only work on certain Mac models. As part of the preparation, Apple has an up-to-date program for the upcoming OS, for which many Leopard users are eligible, but people seem to be having problems with this page.

Apple Discussion poster "xcitu" writes:

"I want to use the Snow Leopard pre-order offer. I can order it now, before 8th of September … Read more

Boot Camp assistant requring OS X reinstallation.

Written by Topher Kessler

If you have many files on your hard drive and have extensively used it (i.e., updating your system many times), you may not be able to install Boot Camp and will get an error regarding the inability to partition and set up the drive.

Apple Discussion poster "TAGVoar" writes:

"I have an iMac 24" that I want to use Boot Camp on. When I try it says I need to reinstall Mac OS X fresh then use Boot Camp."

This error happens because unmoveable system files are scattered too sparsely … Read more

Running Windows for free on your Mac

Written by Topher Kessler

Virtualization is one of the most useful features of current computing hardware, allowing you to run multiple operating systems at once on a computer at near-native speeds. Despite its benefits, one of the big problems is that while many people have Windows software, they do not want to pay extra for running it on their Macs.

There are many ways to get Windows applications running on your Mac, and we discussed these in our article on options for running windows on the Mac. However, all of these options do require some form of license, either just … Read more

UPDATE: Garageband 5.1 update fixes critical security issues

Written by Joe Aimonetti

Not mentioned in the release notes of Apple's latest update to their music-making application, Garageband, was a critical security update that fixed an issue where the program could change cookie preferences in Safari to accept all incoming cookies.

From security expert Graham Cluley:

"It appears that GarageBand could change the security preferences on the Safari web browser to allow cookies to be accepted from all sites rather than "Only from sites I visit". That could mean that you were no longer blocking third-party cookies that advertisers can use to track your activity … Read more

Mozilla releases security updates for Firefox (3.5.2, 3.0.13)

Reported by Joe Aimonetti

Mozilla has released another round of security updates for its popular browser, Firefox. The updates are primarily security related, fixing crash bugs and issues with SSL communications.

This security update is not considered high priority (though it is recommended for all users), and can be downloaded from the Firefox homepage--or users can wait until Firefox's automatic update kicks in.

Read the Release Notes for Firefox 3.5.2. Read the Security Advisories for Firefox 3.5. Download Firefox 3.0.x here. Read more information about the Firefox security update from MacWorld.

Experiencing problems? … Read more

Apple releases GarageBand 5.1 update

Written by Topher Kessler

Apple has posted an update to GarageBand, bringing the application to version 5.1 and adding support for new audio interfaces as well as adding a few new features and improvements.

The update specifically adds these features:

GarageBand track effects and Audio Units can now be added to a guitar track Improved support for Apogee audio interfaces Faster switching to full screen in Magic GarageBand Improved access to audio monitoring settings

The update weighs in at 139.29MB, and can be downloaded in Software Update, or from Apple's GarageBand downloads page. For more about the … Read more

Review: atMonitor

Written by Topher Kessler

I recently wrote a small guide to Activity Monitor, which looked at the statistics and system details that Activity Monitor tracks. While Apple's approach to an all-in-one interface for managing system processes will work for many people, it is not the best by far. For one, it lacks some commonly used features, such as temperature monitoring, that along with system process monitoring tell you the state of hardware in your system. There are a variety of monitoring programs out there, but a relatively new one that has come to my attention is atMonitor: a freeware … Read more