Mavericks

OS X Mavericks 10.9.1 to fix remaining Mail bugs and refine graphics performance

Apple released its OS X 10.9 Mavericks as a free Mac App Store upgrade on October 22.

As is the norm with new OS releases, while these things tend to address complaints and issues from the previous version they frequently introduce new ones as well.

For example, immediately after Mavericks went live a bunch of people started complaining about a new and annoying Gmail issue in the stock Mail app.

This past Friday, the company supplied its registered Mac developers with the first beta release of what would become the OS X 10.9.1 software update. The software focuses on graphics enhancements and is said to squash the remaining Mail bugs...

This jaw-dropping concept totally reimagines Apple’s dull OS X Messages app

The iDB team very much depends on Apple's Messages app as our day-to-day communications tool to keep everyone on the same page. Disregarding for a moment the ongoing iMessage reliability issues, the Messages app that comes bundled with OS X feels terribly outdated both design and feature-wise, even in Mavericks.

Basically nothing has changed since the iChat days apart from iMessage integration and a few questionable UI tweaks adding up to the overall clunkiness.

Thinking differently about the software, Palo Alto, California-based user interface designer Denis Pakhaliuk has envisioned a remarkable concept which has immediately left me speechless and wanting for more.

The awesomeness is right after the break...

Apple addresses Mavericks issues with updates for Mail and iBooks

Good news this afternoon for folks who have been dealing with teething issues in the just-released OS X Mavericks. Apple has posted updates today for the Mail and iBooks apps, which should resolve two of the more popular complaints.

The iBooks update brings the app to version 1.0.1 and includes bug fixes and stability improvements. And the Mail update promises to improve general stability and compatibility with Gmail, solving issues that made the client unreliable...

Apple working on fixes for Mavericks Mail, iBooks, Safari and Remote Desktop Client issues

Apple's free Mavericks update contains a set of compelling headline features and nice-to-haves, like tapping the ambient light sensor to detect motion in order to prevent system sleep.

But as any Mac owner could tell you, each major OS X release brings with it inevitable early adopter issues in the form of bugs and various software-related issues and hiccups. Mavericks is no exception.

Though definitely more stable and less susceptible to teething issues than perhaps any OS X release thus far, Mavericks affects your productivity by introducing unreliable performance with Gmail accounts in Mail. Other stock apps suffer from typical 1.0 release issues, but rest assured that Apple is hard at work squashing these pesky bugs as we speak...

Mavericks detects motion via light sensor to prevent system sleep

Concerned Mac users took to Twitter this morning following the revelation of a chunk of code found in OS X Mavericks update that resets idle time when the computer detects motion. They feared this meant the iSight camera is 'always watching.'

But as it turns out, that's not the case at all. The code, which was first spotted by Moshen Chen of Radiantlabs, actually makes clever use of the light sensor positioned to the left of the iSight camera by interpreting "changes in light" as movement...

Future OS X, iLife and iWork updates will continue to be free

One of the easily overlooked aspects of last week's iPad keynote is how Apple revolutionized software pricing. "The days of spending hundreds of dollars to get most out of your computer are gone," charismatic software chief Craig Federighi enthusiastically remarked just before revealing that OS X Mavericks will be a free upgrade to everyone.

The move has ushered in “a new era of Mac,” he said. And of course on the iOS side, the iLife and iWork suite of apps for content creation and productivity has gone from paid to free for every new iOS device owner.

The best part: future updates to iWork/iLife apps and upcoming new versions of the Mac operating system are going to continue to be completely free. What sort of dark magic is that?

Is iCloud Keychain available in my country?

With Tuesday's free release of OS X Mavericks, Apple users can now opt to have their Safari web passwords securely synchronized across their iOS devices and Macs through the power of iCloud. The useful feature dubbed iCloud Keychain made a brief appearance in iOS 7 betas before being pulled from iOS 7 Gold Master, only to re-surface in iOS 7.0.3. What you probably don't know is that iCloud Keychain isn't necessarily supported everywhere so Apple's published a handy list detailing iCloud Keychain availability by country...

Slingbox gains AirPlay place-shifting, Blockbuster movies, plays nice with Mavericks

The Slingbox, a TV streaming media device made by Sling Media, has received a nice little firmware update earlier today bringing support for AirPlay, a technology from Apple that streams media from iOS devices and Macs to a TV set through the $99 Apple TV set-top box. It's a notable enhancement: with AirPlay, owners of Slingboxes can stream live television from their Slingbox-connected TV to any Apple TV-connected TV set.

In addition to AirPlay support, the firmware update brings on-demand high-definition movies from Blockbuster and support for Apple's just-released OS X Mavericks (a free upgrade on the Mac App Store). More on that in just a second...

Flash Player is finally sandboxed in Safari on Mavericks, says Adobe

Yours truly long stopped using the standalone Flash Player so you could imagine I'm fairly puzzled that folks to this date continue to rely on Adobe's plug-in. I know, if you're into Flash games/apps and other Flash-authored content, there's no escaping Adobe's multimedia run-time.

Among the reasons I keep Flash miles away from my Macs: the instability, resource hoginess and excessive proneness to malware and other types of vulnerabilities and malicious attacks.

With this week’s release of Safari in OS X Mavericks, the Flash Player will now be protected by a new operating system feature called App Sandbox, Adobe announced Thursday...

Free OS X Mavericks update now available in the Mac App Store

Earlier today, Apple announced that this year's OS X update would be free for the first time ever to current Mac users. That's right, as long as you have a compatible Mac computer, you're eligible to get OS X Mavericks for free.

The update is a big one, bringing about several UI changes, new applications like Maps and iBooks, and a number of new features like Finder tabs and tags and quick reply for messages. And it's now available for download...

Safari 6.1 is out, brings Shared Links, Power Saver, Sidebar and more to Mountain Lion

In addition to a host of updates to its various iOS apps, Apple following today's iPad keynote has released the Safari 6.1 update, bringing some of the features that are part of the free OS X Mavericks update to Mountain Lion Macs. These include the Shared Links feature, the new Sidebar and Power Saver which improves battery performance when browsing plug-in heavy web pages on notebook systems...

What to do if you’re running Mavericks GM, and you can’t download the final version

A little while ago, I encountered a very frustrating issue that had me pulling my hair out for a while. That is, until I finally stumbled upon the fix for the issue.

As a registered developer, I've been testing out Mavericks since Developer Preview 3, and I made it a habit of installing every release up until the GM version. The nice thing about the Mavericks betas is that you can grab the updates directly from the Mac App Store without having to completely reinstall the OS once a new beta ships.

That all changed when Apple released a stealth (13A603) GM update a few days ago, which didn't feature an update in the Mac App Store. Either you needed to completely reinstall with the new GM build, or just deal with the outdated (13A598) GM build until hopefully OS X 10.9.1 places you back on the correct upgrade path.

Sure this was annoying, but it didn't sound like a huge deal to me until I wanted to download Mavericks this evening in order to make a USB install key, and was continuously met with an error message.