Cool Mac Gear

Apple caught me a bit flat-footed with the OS 10.2.2 release, which I hadn't anticipated quite so soon. I had the second installment of the Odyssey "first 200" retrospective slotted for Tuesday, and was away most of the day attending to medical issues, so am in catch up mode this morning.

Of course I still haven't downloaded the standalone 10.2.2 updater, but I have been perusing anecdotes from early adopters in various Web forms, and we have one right here.

There are the usual horror stories that follow most new system version upgrades, along with some accounts of success. I suppose there is more incentive to go public with one's experiences if they have been bad.

Nevertheless, I'm not in a super big rush to install OS 10.2.2 yet, until the smoke clears a bit. However, reports of improved Finder speed, such as the one from reader Jonathan Tyzack below, make 10.2.2 sound promising.

Two versions of the installer are available. One is for updating version 10.2.1 to 10.2.2, the other 10.2 to 10.2.2 (a "Combo" update). Many enhancements are delivered with the latter because this as a combo update, it includes those delivered with both Mac OS X 10.2.1 and Mac OS X 10.2.2.

Useful lnks:

(#120164) Mac OS X 10.2.2 Update (Combo)
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n120164

(#120165) Mac OS X 10.2.2 Update
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n120165

Downloads:
http://www.info.apple.com/support/downloads.html

General Info:
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n107140

According to Apple, enhancements delivered with this update include:

Digital Hub and Peripheral Device Enhancements
• Improves playback of large media files and peripheral device file copying.
• Resolves a rare situation in which an inadvertently-ejected CD does not become available to the file system when reinserted and applications that accessed the disc cannot be quit.
• Addresses an issue in which an enhanced CD's data and audio sessions do not appear as expected on the desktop when using iTunes and inserting the disc more than once.
• Addresses a formatting issue that could occur when printing or previewing some TIFF documents.
• Addresses an issue in which ColorSync settings for some third-party displays are not retained after restarting or logging out.
• Addresses an issue when printing more than one copy of a file to a postscript printer from Adobe Photoshop 7.0.
• Improves compatibility with HP 4MV printers when printing over an Ethernet network.
• Includes drivers for additional third-party disc burners, including: LaCie d2 48x24x48x, Sony CRX-820E, Toshiba SD-R2212 and SD-R1202, Pioneer DVR-105, and Yamaha CDW-F1 44x24x44x models.

Networking and Modem Enhancements
• Windows File Sharing (SMB) shared volumes may now be browsed by their user-assigned name.
• Resolves an issue in which an incorrect "Change Password Failed" alert may appear when changing a Mac OS X 10.2 Server client's password via AFP.
• Addresses an issue in which some internal Apple modems may fail to respond, displaying a "Could not open the communication device" alert.
• Addresses an issue in which no sound is produced by some internal Apple modems until several seconds after making a connection.
• Resolves an issue in which some internal Apple modems fail to respond when connecting to the Internet.
• Alerts and warnings no longer appear when you cancel a connection to your iDisk in the connection dialog.
• Addresses a startup issue that could occur if an LDAP server designated in Directory Access is not available.
• Addresses a data loss issue that could occur when copying a file whose filename ends with "#02," or other hexadecimal number, via AFP.
• Available disk space on an iDisk is updated more quickly after deleting files.
• Addresses an issue in which an iDisk would appear with an inaccurate 1 GB capacity and 1023 MB available.
• Addresses some issues that could cause a "error -36" alert when copying files to an iDisk.

Address Book and Mail Enhancements
• Resolves an issue in which Address Book could become unresponsive when using the Large Type menu and switching between applications.
• Address Book can now better import groups from prior versions of Address Book.
• Resolves a potential issue when transferring vCards from Address Book to a mobile phone via Bluetooth.
• Allows address information to be imported when dragging vCards to Address Book that were created with Address Book from any version of Mac OS X 10.1.
• Corrects Address Book address format for Australian entries.
• Improves responsiveness when switching in and out of edit mode in the Address Book. • Address Book entries without a name included now appear in the All group list with the email address as the name, instead of "<No Name>".
• Addresses the rare issue in which Mail may unexpectedly quit when replying to a message.
• Improves the responsiveness of the Mail application's date column and thread highlighting feature.
• Improves the reliability of transitioning a Mac OS X 10.1.5 Address Book.addressbook to an Address Book for Mac OS X 10.2 format.

Application Enhancements
• Improves compatibility for Microsoft PowerPoint presentations that use animations. • Addresses a potential Disk Copy volume imaging permissions issue that could affect non-Admin users.
• Improves updating of applications installed with Mac OS X, updating them only if they have not been relocated or deleted.
• Addresses a display issue that may occur when Command-clicking a URL in some third-party applications, including BBEdit and Mailsmith.
• Addresses a situation in which the menu bar and Dock are not shown until you click the desktop is clicked after quitting a third-party game application.
• Addresses an issue in which some PDF files created with Mac OS X do not open as expected with Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.
• Reduces occurrences of "missing text" when browsing some webpages.
• Improves compatibility for FAXstf when a fax is being sent while the computer is restarted, shut down, or entering sleep mode.

Other Enhancements
• Improves security when using a read-write disk image volume in which "Ignore ownership on this volume" has been deselected.
• Addresses an issue in which Software Update notifications are turned off when upgrading from Mac OS X 10.1 to Mac OS X 10.2.
• Addresses an issue in which, after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.2, an unexpected value in a user's com.apple.LaunchServices.plist file could prevent proper startup.
• Addresses a potential kernel panic situation when using three video cards and more than 512 MB of RAM.
• Addresses a potential issue in which an unauthorized user could log in as a deleted user.
• Improves the Find function of the Finder by no longer finding items in invisible folders.
• Reduces the time required for switching between Sherlock channels when using a low-bandwidth connection
• Sherlock channels may now be saved as a file.
• Allows automatic login to work as expected following an Archive and Install.
• Improves time needed to wake some portable computers.
• Addresses a potential loss of video when waking some PowerBook computers from sleep after using DVD Player.
• Addresses a potential issue in which the computer does not respond when quitting DVD Player on some portable computers.
• Includes Apache version 1.3.27.
o Addresses a potential security issue in which access to system daemons could be blocked when RFC-based services are enabled.

Reading through that list, I don't see anything that makes me say "boy I've just got to have that!," but of course in any system upgrade there are undocumented tweaks intended to improve general performance.

Re: Odyssey 200 - 10.2.2 Update Includes Graphics Card Drivers Re: OS X speed
AppleCare Document: 107140/ 10.2 update

Re: Odyssey 200 - 10.2.2 Update Includes Graphics Card Drivers

From Jonathan Tyzack

Hi Charles,

just a quick note to say that the 10.2.2 update includes ATi and nVidia card drivers. I don't know if the ATi ones are the same as those in the standalone October update, but my system is still snappier than it was before after applying the update. BTW, since my last e-mail I have noticed that scrolling is only truly smooth in my browser (OmniWeb 4.1.1) with just text visible - if an image is scrolling on the screen, the overhead increases and it becomes jerkier again. That is most likely due to the nature of Quartz rendering - the text isn't anywhere near as complex as a picture.

As for 10.2.2, AddressBook, Mail and the Calculator app are all much more responsive than they were previously. I've only had it installed for a few hours and haven't yet noticed a great deal different but there were a *lot* of changes under the hood - FWIW, if you didn't know this already, when installing any update from its .pkg file, you can check what is to be installed as follows:

1) Go through the motions up until the stage where you select the destination disk for installation.
2) Highlight your disk, then go to the Installer>File menu and click Show Files
3) A window will appear listing the paths of all files to be installed:

You can look through the lot to see exactly what is going to go where and precisely what is being updated.

Cheers,

Jonathan

P.S. nice idea with Odyssey 200/201

Hi Jonathan;

Thanks for the info. Great tip about the pkg.file install.

Charles

Re: OS X speed

From Tom Bender

Yup; the new prices are definitely enticing. I wish they had gone for a faster G3 chip in the iBook, but other than that solid upgrades with great value.

Hello!

I am suspicious that the choice of G3 chip speed was a marketing decision to differentiate the iBook and PowerBook lines. Actually, I wonder if a 500 MHz G4 might not have been a better choice than a 1 GHz G3, especially with respect to OS X interface speed, power consumption, heat generation, cost, etc. What do you think? (I don't have the specs.)

Have you considered a used or refurbed TiBook? Prices should be really attractive now.

Sincerely,
Tom

Hi Tom;

I don't have the comparative specs between the 800 MHz G3 and 500 MHz G4 either. However, Macs Only! just did a <a href="http://www.macsonly.com/">bake-off comparison</a> between the 800 MHz iBook and an 800 MHz TiBook. The G3 was actually fastest in a category or two, but of course the G4 mopped the floor with it where Altivec optimization came into play.

Several people who have upgraded their Pismo PowerBooks with the 500 MHz G4 daughtercard upgrades available from Newer Technology and Powerlogix tell me that their 'Books run cooler with the G4 than they did with the G3. If they run cooler then my Pismo, that's pretty impressive, so perhaps you're right, at least in terms of OS X performance.

The TiBook is cool, but it scares me a bit as a long-term proposition. It's beastly expensive to repair, and I perceive it to be significanlty less rugged thaNovember the iBook. I elaborated somewhat on that issue in my The Road Warrior column on MacOpinion this week.

Charles

AppleCare Document: 107140/ 10.2 update

From judson

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107140

The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here:
http://www.applelinks.com/news/odyssey/

CM

Charles W. Moore