Apple has released a considerably important update for Safari on OS X Yosemite, Mavericks and Mountain Lion, patching a WebKit security hole that left users vulnerable.
After releasing then pulling a update for the desktop Safari browser on OS X last week, Apple on Thursday posted Safari 8.0.2 for Yosemite.
In addition to allowing Yosemite users to import username and passwords from Mozilla’s Firefox browser, Safari 8.0.2 fixes a few annoying issues, among them history not syncing across devices if iCloud Drive is disabled and another one prevent a saved password from being autofilled after two devices are added to iCloud Keychain.
The update is available through the Mac App Store’s Updates tab. A standalone installer should be available shortly from the Apple Support website. Safari 7.1.2 for OS X Mavericks and Safari 6.2.2 for OS X Mountain Lion were also released on Thursday.
OS X includes a nifty Dictation feature which allows you to control your Mac and apps with your voice. You can use “speakable items”, basically a set of spoken commands, to open apps, choose menu items, email contacts and convert whole spoken sentences to text, wherever you can type text.
This is much like iOS’s Dictation feature as both iOS and OS X use the same Nuance-powered technology that turns speech to text. iOS devices have limited computing power so the Dictation feature on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad requires network connectivity in iOS 7 (iOS 8 supports streaming voice recognition and 22 new languages).
On the Mac, computing resources like CPU power, battery life and RAM are not of paramount importance as on mobile, Therefore, OS X Mavericks provides a new Enhanced Dictation feature which converts your words to text without utilizing Apple’s servers.
In other words, server-based Dictation lets you dictate without an active Internet connection. Because voice recognition processing runs locally on your Mac, text appears instantly as you speak. That is: continuos, streaming dictation with live feedback is made possible.
In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to turn on Enhanced Dictation in OS X and take advantage of speech-to-text, even when you’re off the grid…
Late yesterday, Apple released Safari 7.0.6 for OS X Mavericks and Safari 6.1.6 for OS X Mountain Lion.
The releases contain improvements to security related to Apple’s desktop browser and are both recommended for all OS X Mavericks and OS X Mountain Lion users.
These updates follow the release of a new version of OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 (build 13F14) that Apple released to developers yesterday…
Following the release of OS X 10.9.3, iTunes 11.2 and the subsequent iTunes 11.2.1 update (which fixed the disappearing Users folder in OS X 10.9.3), Apple on Wednesday issued a pair of Safari updates for OS X Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks systems.
Both Safari 7.0.4 for OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 and Safari 6.1.4 for OS X Lion 10.7.5, OS X Lion Server 10.7.5 and OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5 are now available with fixes for vulnerabilities found in WebKit, the browser’s open-sourced rendering engine…
Following the free OS X Mavericks release, Apple has removed the $19.99 Mountain Lion purchase from the Mac App Store. This has brought headache to owners of older Macs who were looking to upgrade their operating system to OS X Lion or Mountain Lion.
Apple typically keeps only the most current version of OS X on the Mac App Store. As a result, folks who want to purchase a copy of Lion, for example, are required to give Apple a phone call to get either a DVD or a content code via email which lets them download the installer through the Mac App Store.
The company has now made the process easier by selling the redemption codes through its online store…
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…
The latest beta version of Apple’s desktop operating system — OS X 10.8.4 — has been released to developers. This new iteration of Mountain Lion is labeled as build 12E27, and thus far, details on what new features it contains are scarce.
Like Apple often does with its desktop beta releases, it has asked developers to focus on specific aspects of the OS, those being Wi-Fi, Graphics Drivers and Safari.
Just a few moments ago, Apple released an update to Mountain Lion — OS X 10.8.3. The update, which has been in beta since December of 2012, brings quite a few new changes into the fold.
The main people that will be happy with this update are Boot Camp users. First of all, Windows 8 is now supported with Boot Camp, which is obviously a big deal for those of you who dual boot your Macs. Secondly, Boot Camp now supports Macs with a 3TB drive. Check inside for more details on the release…
Earlier today, Apple seeded its latest beta build of OS X 10.8.3 — dubbed 12D58. The release comes with no known issues, though developers are urged to focus on a few areas of interest including: AirPlay, AirPort, Game Center, graphics drivers, and Safari.
If you’re a registered Apple developer, you can head over to Apple’s developer portal and download the full version, or a handy delta update if you’re already situated on the previous 12D54 build.
Mozilla, the non-profit organization behind the Firefox browser, on Tuesday released a new version of the software that finally brings out Retina support. Firefox 18, now available for download from Mozilla, adds support for Apple’s high-resolution Macs nearly six months after Google’s Chrome browser. In addition to the crisp UI elements on Retina Macs, Firefox 18 also enables significant speed gains for JavaScript web apps. Firefox 18 is compatible with OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or later, and requires at least 512 megabytes of RAM and 200 megabytes of hard drive space…
Apple unveiled the iPhone 5 on September 12 and the following day updated the iCloud.com web interface by dropping the Beta flag and introducing the new Notes and Reminders web apps with cloud notifications enabled. Today, club Cupertino improves upon its cloud-based suite of services by adding shared reminders to the Reminders web app on iCloud.com.
You were able to set up shared reminders using Reminders on OS X (not via the stock iOS Reminders app, though), but those wouldn’t sync with the web interface. Today’s update is a minor but important one as it finally provides for a more seamless sync of reminders across devices, though not yet perfect…