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OS X Mountain Lion Update v10.8.3 Released
OS X 10.8.3 Adds 20+ Minutes to Retina MacBook Pro Battery Life
Apple Releases MacBook Pro Retina SMC Update v1.1
Microsoft Releases Office 2008 for Mac 12.3.6 Update
Microsoft Releases Office for Mac 2011 14.3.2 Update
Apple Now Offering iMacs With $40 Built-in VESA Mount Adapter Option
Microsoft Surface Pro Sales Cannibalizing Surface RT?
List An OS X Folder Hierarchy With TextWrangler
VueScan Adds Support For 339 Brother Scanners
OS X Mountain Lion Update v10.8.3 Released
Apple released the third revision of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion on Thursday.
Apple says the 10.8.3 update is recommended for all OS X Mountain Lion users and includes features and fixes that improve the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including the following:
• The ability to redeem iTunes gift cards in the Mac App Store using your Mac's built-in camera
• Boot Camp support for installing Windows 8
• Boot Camp support for Macs with a 3TB hard drive
• A fix for an issue that could cause a file URL to quit apps unexpectedly
• A fix for an issue that may cause Logic Pro to become unresponsive when using certain plug-ins
• A fix for an issue that may cause audio to stutter on 2011 iMacs
The Version 10.8.3 Update also includes an update to Safari 6.0.3 (more on which below).
For detailed information about the security content of this update, visit:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222
You can also download the manual update installer, which is a useful option when you need to update multiple computers but only want to download the update once, and if you keep the installer on file, you'll have it if you ever need to do a system reinstall (happily a rare occurrence in recent years, but it can still happen).
The standalone installers are available from Apple Support Downloads here:
http://support.apple.com/downloads/
Here's more detail on what's changed in OS X 10.8.3, which adds:
• The ability to redeem iTunes gift cards in the Mac App Store using your Mac's built-in camera
• Boot Camp support for installing Windows 8
• Boot Camp support for Macs with a 3 TB hard drive
• A fix for an issue that could cause a file URL to quit apps unexpectedly
• A fix for an issue that may cause Logic Pro to become unresponsive when using certain plug-ins
• A fix for an issue that may cause audio to stutter on 2011 iMacs
• A fix for an issue in Contacts that may cause cards to print out of order
• A fix for an issue that may cause the desktop picture to change after logging out or restarting
• A fix for an issue in Messages that may cause messages to appear out of order after waking from sleep
• A fix for an issue that may cause the screen to display incorrectly after waking from sleep
• Improves compatibility with IMAP servers in the Notes app
Allows the Slideshow screen saver to display photos located in a subfolder
• A fix for an issue in Contacts that may cause addresses to print in the wrong location
• Reliability improvements when using a Microsoft Exchange account in Mail
• Xsan reliability improvements
• A fix for an issue that could cause Active Directory accounts to be locked out after accessing the Security & Privacy pane in System Preferences
• A fix for an issue that could cause link aggregation to not complete after a restart
• A fix for an issue that could cause delays when logging into an Active Directory account on high latency networks
Safari 6.0.3 Changes:
As noted above, Safari 6.0.3 is included in the OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.3 Update and contains fixes that improve performance, stability, and security, including:
• Improves scrolling on facebook.com
• Improves scrolling while zoomed in on a webpage
• Improves performance on webpages with plug-in content
• A fix for an issue that could cause the inaccurate appearance of an alert that bookmarks can't be changed
• A fix for an issue that could cause duplicate bookmarks to appear on an iOS device after editing bookmarks with Safari in OS X
• A fix for an issue that permitted users to access unfiltered search results when searching from google.com when Parental Controls are enabled
• A fix for an issue that could prevent Safari from restoring the last position on a webpage a user navigated back to
dates.
System Requirements
• OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.2
You can check it out at:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1641
and:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5612
OS X 10.8.3 Adds 20+ Minutes to Retina MacBook Pro Battery Life
The Mac Observer's Jim Tanous nots that many Mountain Lion users with MacBooks initially found battery rutime noticeably shorter after upgrading. Battery life improved to normal levels after the introduction of 10.8.2, and now, after three months of betas, Apple released the final build of OS X 10.8.3 Thursday, and that TMO has observed a 23-minute improvement in runtime duration on a 2011 15-inch MacBook Pro at 2.0 GHz, allowing it to achieve the advertised seven hours of productive use for the first time in their testing.
You can check it out at:
http://goo.gl/BRvck
Apple Releases MacBook Pro Retina SMC Update v1.1
The MacBook Pro Retina SMC Update v1.1resolves a rare issue where users may experience slow frame rates when playing graphics-intensive games on the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. It also includes bug fixes for Power Nap, wake from sleep and fan control.
Boot ROM or SMC Version Information:
• After this update has successfully completed, your SMC Version will be: v 2.3f35
For more detail, see:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1237
File Size:
• 504 KB
System Requirements
• OS X 10.7.5 or later
• OS X 10.8.2 or later
For more information, visit:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1559
Microsoft Releases Office 2008 for Mac 12.3.6 Update
officeformachelp.com's William Smith reports that Microsoft has released the Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.3.6 Update, which includes all prior updates but still requires the 12.3.5 update be applied first.
Smith notes that information on Microsoft's site is confusing, since this update supposedly addresses a single issue, which is a vulnerability in Outlook 2008 for Mac, which he says doesn't exist.
Additionally, the Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition update has been updated to 13.1.6, and this update should only be applied after installing the Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.3.6.
Smith observes that the 12.3.6 and 13.1.6 updates will likely be the last for Office for Mac 2008, since the product's support life cycle officially ends April 9.
For the full report visit here:
http://goo.gl/s7Mto
Microsoft Releases Office for Mac 2011 14.3.2 Update
officeformachelp.com's William Smith reports that Microsoft has released the Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 14.3.2 Update. (113 MB) Installation requires first installing the 14.3.1 update. According to the updates description it addresses one security issue and includes multiple bug fixes, including a vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook for Mac that could allow Internet-based images to be downloaded without the customers consent. This would allow the site to know the message has been received and viewed.
For the full report visit here:
http://goo.gl/qJHVK
Apple Now Offering iMacs With $40 Built-in VESA Mount Adapter Option
AppleInsider Staff report that Apple has updated its online store to reflect availability of a new VESA mount-compatible iMac costing $40 more than standard models. The report notes that VESA models are not highly advertised on Apple's Online Store, and nowhere to be seen on the main product page, though a link at the bottom of the iMac configuration tool will take customers to a webpage dedicated to the new versions.
For the full report visit here:
http://goo.gl/EO7Im
Microsoft Surface Pro Sales Cannibalizing Surface RT?
The Register's Neil McAllister reports that the bad news just keeps on coming for Microsoft's line of Surface tablet PCs with sources reporting that sales of the devices continue to disappoint, a only about 1.5 million units sold to date according to a Bloomberg reports citing sources claiming insider knowledge.
That would be a little more than double the total volume since a Canalys estimate that Microsoft had moved about 722,000 Surface RT "consumer" model ARM-powered tablets during Q4 of 2012.
McAllister notes that Microsoft launched the Intel-powered Surface Pro model running Windows 8 in February, hoping it would broaden the Surface's appeal to include power users put off by Windows RT on the ARM-based model, but that apparently hasn't happened, noting that total sales of the entire Surface line are more or less the same as they were during the previous quarter, that means nearly all of the Surface Pro sales came at the expense of Surface RT sales.
For the full report visit here:
http://goo.gl/BsFFw
List An OS X Folder Hierarchy With TextWrangler
MacFixIt'sTopher Kessler says if you need to get a structured list of the directories in a folder, thre are several ways to execute it, but the easiest and slickest is probably to just let Bare Bones Software's free TextWrangler text editor do the grunt work.
You can check it out at:
http://goo.gl/CNwSh
VueScan Adds Support For 339 Brother Scanners
Hamrick Software, the developer of VueScan scanning software, has released its latest version 9.2.10 - adding native support for 339 Brother scanners to VueScan Desktop.
Of these, 204 are network capable which means they will also work with VueScan Mobile.
Ed Hamrick, the developer of VueScan, says "We have had numerous requests from Brother customers asking us for help, and we are pleased that we have added support for such a large number of desktop scanners. We are especially pleased to have added support for so many Brother scanners to our new product, VueScan Mobile, which now supports more than 570 HP, Canon, Epson and Brother scanners."
VueScan Desktop will work on Brother scanners directly for Mac OS X and Linux, which means that no Brother drivers are required. In addition, VueScan no longer needs a WIA driver on Windows or an ICA driver on Mac OS X.
"This means you just plug in your Brother scanner, run VueScan and you're immediately scanning." says Ed Hamrick.
VueScan Desktop now supports more than 2100 scanners, and is available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.
VueScan offers a full range of advanced features; including options for scanning faded slides and prints and automatically adjusting images to optimum color balance that reduces the need to manually do it in Photoshop. It includes built-in IT8 color calibration of scanners, producing colors that look true to life, batch scanning and other advanced and powerful scanning and productivity features, including PDF output.
VueScan Mobile has been available for just over a year, and allows you to seamlessly scan documents and photos straight to your Android device, iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. It is now being used extensively by thousands of new customers and has received excellent customer ratings. Previous to this version, VueScan Mobile supported HP, Canon or Epson WiFi printer/scanners.
VueScan Mobile uses the Wi-Fi connection on your iOS device to find scanners connected to the same Wi-Fi network. If the scanner has a document feeder, VueScan first checks to see if there is a document in the feeder, otherwise it scans from the flatbed.
In addition to sending via e-mail and saving to the Photos App, VueScan Mobile allows you to save scanned images to your favorite iOS apps that can open PDF or JPEG files such as iBooks, Dropbox, GoodReader and Evernote.
VueScan Mobile is available in two versions; the free version which scans with all supported scanners at 300dpi and can export JPEG images, and the full version at $4.99 which supports document feeders, duplex, document management and multi-page PDF.
The VueScan Mobile Free App for Android devices is available in the Google Play App store, the Amazon Appstore and directly from http://www.hamrick.com.
The full version VueScan Mobile App is available for $9.99 (Ł6.99) from the App Store on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, or at:
http://www.itunes.com/appstore
VueScan Desktop is available in two editions, Standard Edition ($39.95 USD) and Professional Edition ($79.95). The Professional Edition adds unlimited free upgrades, advanced IT8 color calibration and support for raw scan files. Multi-user licenses are available.
A fully functional, trial copy of VueScan can be downloaded from:
http://www.hamrick.com/
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