iTunes,OS X,Wireless Whining,Parallels

Apple has released the new version of iTunes, iTunes 10. This one has new features (obviously) including the ability to rent HD TV episodes for 99¢, a new thing called Ping that lets you keep up with your favorite stars and their most rabid fans, new iPods for those who like to collect hardware, play music wirelessly via AirPlay on AirPlay-enabled speakers (I wonder how long it will take to get the first version of those out), plus some other  goodies.

Image © Apple, 2010

I know wireless is a popular item these days but is it becoming too much of a good thing? Chances are, if your house was built for you and you thought you might want to put in a security system, you probably had it hard-wired in. Why? Because you get contact points everywhere rather than the limited number a wireless system can support. Same with your surround sound.  Chances are you won’t be moving those speakers around too often, so again, you likely have them wired in. Phone lines? I bet you didn’t put them in every room, just the ones that would either support your wireless base-station or that would need them for PPV TV access. Computer networks? Have you secured them? Have you changed you passwords for them recently?

If you have a wireless setup for your keyboard or mouse, say hello to Bluetooth. Got a hands-free for you cell phone that came with the car? that’s Bluetooth too, and very easy to listen in on your conversations by the way.

All I’m saying is all that wireless may not be so great after all. The boxes outght to come with stickers that say "Use with Caution!"

For those who might not have been watching, Parallels’ has released a new version of their Parallels for Mac, version 5.0.9376. This looks like another patch release but I’ll post something if I see anything interesting.

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apple,osx,mac,snow leopard,RAID,disk drives,storage

Something I’ve been wanting to do for a while is to put redundancy back in our iTunes server. Originally, I had two LaCie 500 GB drives that were mirrored (RAID 1). (See (a) in the figure below.) The iTunes library grew as we bought more seasons of TV shows, movies, and music, and we finally ran out of space. For a while I was copying older stuff to another drive but that quickly lost its luster.

The "second generation" of our iTunes server had no redundancy; just a single 1TB Western Digital My Book Home Edition drive. Now everything was back on one drive. I started burning DVDs of the files but a family of four with different tastes in audio and video make it really hard to keep up. Plus, we were over the 80% mark on drive utilization so…

In accordance with Moore’s Law, drive capacities goes up, prices come down. What cost me $159 last Christmas now costs me $119. I bought three (3) more of the WD 1TB drives and hooked them up. This time though, I grouped them a bit differently.

First, I created two sets of two drives each. (See (b) in the figure above.) Each set is configured to be Striped (RAID 0) so that half the data lives on one drive and the other half of the data lives on the other drive. This more for performance that data protection (no check bits). Then I Mirrored (RAID 1) the two sets to get redundancy. In theory, if any single drive fails, you can replace it and rebuild the RAID.

Is RAID 1+0 better performance-wise than RAID 0+1? I don’t know. Apple’s computers¹ come with software-based RAID built into the OS. Software-based RAID is going to be slower than hardware-based RAID solutions. Add in the lag time from USB 2.0 or FireWire 400 and it may not matter in the end.

In any case, I have a 2 TB RAID-enabled set-up that should provide enough storage through say, Christmas?

—–

1. Apple’s Xserve offers RAID 5 support in hardware.

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iTunes 9 update,iPhone,iPod,os x,snow leopard

Apple released an update (mainly bug fixes) to iTunes. This one, 9.0.1, doesn’t appear to add any new features, just clean up some odd behaviors.

One issue I am interested in seeing the improvements for is syncing between iTunes, and iPhone and iPod touch. Maybe it’s a perception problem on my part but it always seems to be slow to sync. Of course, it could also be the 2 megabit limit in USB 2. (Apple, why did you leave a better technology like FireWire for something so bandwidth limited like USB 2?)

BTW, the Mac OS X 10.6.1 update came out last week I think. Per the Apple support site…

The 10.6.1 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes for:

- compatibility with some Sierra Wireless 3G modems
– an issue that might cause DVD playback to stop unexpectedly
– some printer compatibility drivers not appearing properly in the add printer browser
– an issue that might make it difficult to remove an item from the Dock
– instances where automatic account setup in Mail might not work
– an issue where pressing cmd-opt-t in Mail brings up the special characters menu instead of moving a message
– Motion 4 becoming unresponsive

Anyway, it all looks good at this picnic. Grab a plate and enjoy!

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iTunes 9,iPhone,iPod,macs

Much as I love Apple and Steve Jobs (good to have you back, Steve), I must confess that I take what Apple’s Marketing says with a grain of salt. Reality sometimes fails to live up to the hype. I know, some of you are thinking "he speaks heresy!" Think back to the whole MobileMe Push-isn’t-really-Push and you’ll know what I mean.

While I like iTunes, the truth is I use it for a subset of functions (manage iPhones, iPods, and our Apple TV; sometimes play music; buy music; manage podcasts; etc.). I’m not a power user in the least. So when iTunes 9 showed up in the Software Update I yawned and flipped through the new features.

Home Sharing caught my eye. Our primary iTunes library is on the Mac mini. Four of the Mac laptops are "authorized users" under my iTunes ID. Of the laptops, mine is the "backup" machine for music. I buy most of the music for my wife and I so it made sense. She is more of a video buff so most of the movies and TV shows are her choice. I copy the MPEG-4 files to DVDs for backup.

One of the reasons I was excited about Home Sharing over the "stream sharing" method we had before is now you can copy the files directly from one iTunes instance to another. Before I would have to mount the iTunes drive and then import the files to get them into the database. Pain in the butt! Add to that the fact that I have been "upgrading" my iTunes library to iTunes+¹ music (ala non-DRM) so we can play it on other devices we have (like the PS3, PSP, "non-authorized" Macs and PCs). Home Sharing makes it easy for me pull the DRM’d stuff out of my iTunes libraries and replace it with the non-DRM’d stuff.

The other thing I love about Home Sharing is now you can compare two iTunes libraries (say a master and a backup) and figure out what’s missing. Do this by selecting the shared library (A), change the Show option from "All Items" to "Items not in my library" (B), and then select and drag a song (C).

Now if we could just get that 5 machines changed to say 8 or 10, that would truly be awesome! Families do have multiple computers, Steve. (We have 8 machines in our house: 5 Mac laptops, 2 PC laptops, and a Mac mini at last count, plus a PS3, a PSP, and some other goodies. Look, some people collect cars, I collect electronics!)

—

1. I’ve been upgrading since they first allowed it so my individual bills each time are fairly small. If I had to do it all at once, ouch! This is one of those things Apple just needs to get over and allow people to upgrade piece-meal. The current "big bang" policy is costing Apple, the labels and the artists revenue.

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Along comes OS X Leopard 10.5 and suddenly the scan function broke. I kept waiting for hp to release an update but no soap. There was a work-around though: scan it to JPEG or TIFF, write the scanned image to a memory card, and work from that. Yuck! Over the months, I would check hp’s site and no fix was forth-coming. You could print, fax and make copies without an issue, just not scan.

A couple of weeks ago, I got seriously frustrated about the scanning thing and bought a NeatReceipts scanner. As I noted in a previous post, I think it rocks. The unit is small so it doesn’t take up much desk space (small enough for travel if you do that sort of thing). While it is a single sheet, single side scanner, it works well for what I’m scanning: medical documents and receipts.

Anyway, we all know that OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 came out on August 28th. As I started installing it on our home machines, I came across this obscure note that Apple’s Image Capture application could now read scans from devices on the wireless network. Sure enough, I fired it up and it worked! I went to hp’s web site and they mentioned it in their notes on Snow Leopard.

In the notes for Snow Leopard, they confirmed that scanning had been incorporated into Image Capture.

There is also a release of software that can be installed on 10.3, 10.4 and 10.5 machines that uses the hp Photosmart software for scanning.

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parallels,mac,software,os x snow leopard,neatworks

Like many of you, I was at my favorite mac store, macmedia in peoria, to pick up my copy of OS X Snow Leopard. Tighter, faster, more stable, better security, 64-bits – in short all words that are music to my ears. But into every life a little rain must fall.

Parallels 4.0.3846

I’ve been using version 4.0.3844 for some time now and have really enjoyed the stability and versatility I get from the Parallels’ software. Last night I updated to 4.0.3846 figuring they had already found a few bugs and fixed ‘em. Not so fast, Jack.

I left a Vista instance running on my MacBook Pro last night when I went to bed. Yes, I am one of the 12 people who bought Vista Home Premium but in my own defense, they have a deal where if you have XP, you pay for the Vista upgrade and when the new Windows 7 comes out on 22 October, you get that upgrade for free. Plus I need Vista to diagnose a problem for a friend so we all win in this case. (I wonder if the Giant of Redmond will feel pressed to release Windows 7 early?)

When I got up this morning, Parallels’ had crashed. I sent in a crash report like a good little customer and tried to start Vista again. No luck. Parallels starts, it just won’t load a windows VM.

I might see if it can install Ubuntu 9.04. That was a known issue fixed in 3846. Then I could try reloading a Windows instance but since the 3.x to 4.0 upgrade requirement to reload all my windows instances, I’m not going to think fondly of doing it again!

More to come on this one.

NeatReceipts and NeatWorks 2.1.8

NeatWorks is the software that runs with the NeatReceipts scanner. They have release a couple of updates in the last few days to fix bugs likely connected with Snow Leopard. I was doing some single page scans direct to PDF and in processing page 6 I got a crash report. I filled in the info about what I was doing and sent it off. The really cool thing about this crash was when I restarted NeatWorks, it completed the processing of the page that had failed and output a PDF.

NeatWorks Customer Service just rocks, too. When I bought my NeatReceipts scanner/software package I didn’t look for a Mac or PC version. My bad. They actually sell two different versions – one for PC’s and on for Mac’s. The scanner is the same in both flavors, just a different CD with the software. Because I called the same day I bought the scanner, the Customer Service Representative was able to "exchange" the software bundle by invalidating the PC key and sending me a new Mac key and a link to download the software. I don’t know if they do that on a regular basis or not, but they made me a very happy customer. (Huge thanks to Claudine Smith at Neat who made it happen!)

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mac os x,snow leopard,10.6

“It’s Here!”

From Apple: Apple today announced that Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard will go on sale Friday, August 28 at Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers, and that Apple’s online store is now accepting pre-orders. Snow Leopard builds on a decade of OS X innovation and success with hundreds of refinements, new core technologies and out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange. Snow Leopard will be available as an upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard users for $29. (Box photo from the Apple website and is Copyright © 2009 Apple, Inc.)

Apple focused on making the OS more compact (7GB smaller on the disk), more stable, and faster than Leopard. It’s 64-bits out of the box yet retains 32-bit compatibility, improves security, reduces the OS foot print, better multi-core support via Grand Central, better graphics support via OpenCL, and a faster QuickTime X. For those lucky enough to use a Mac at work (not me I’m afraid), you’ll be getting Microsoft Exchange support right-out-of-the-box.

What About Mircosoft?”

Apple will beat the Microsoft to the punch with their next generation operating system by two months. Microsoft has announced availability of 22 October 2009 for Windows 7, their replacement for the ill-fated and much-maligned Windows Vista. Whilst I don’t normally shill for Microsoft, if you are still running Windows XP, you can upgrade to Vista right now and get Windows 7 when it comes out for FREE. (That alone should tell you something about Vista!) And provided you aren’t getting an OEM’d version of Windows 7 (i.e., you buy it straight from Microsoft), I think you will like it’s speed and enhancements. All that “value added” bloatware is missing.

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apple,os x,10.5.8

Not to say I’m late but I do confess to being a bit behind in my blogging here at Nowhere! Apple has released what should be the final major Leopard update (10.5.8) before they release Snow Leopard (10.6) in September.

From Apple’s Software Update note, this is the typical "enhances the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac." The release has fixes for AirPort, Display System Preferences, and Bluetooth. The real meat-and-potatoes in the 10.5.8 release are to be found in HT3606 (Safari 4.0.2, an Automator fix for Aperture, iCal and Sync fixes, etc) and HT1222.

BTW, there were security updates released on August 11th (Safari 4.0.3) and 12th (security update 2009-004) so you might want to get a wiggle on and get those as well.

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apple,os x,updates,aperture

Apple has a new update out called ProKit Update 5.0. As shown below, this update is suggested for users of Apple’s pro software lines: Aperture, Logic, Final Cut, etc. It download’s in a blink and installation is almost as quick. Best thing? You don’t have to reboot your Mac afterward.

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apple,os x,safari 4

Here’s a Safari 4 trick you may not have discovered yet. This is a quick way to open a new tab and load it with your "Top Sites" page. If you put your cursor in an open spot in the tab bar (see the red circle in the top photo below). Double click in that area and you get a new tab showing the curved "wall of windows" containing your top sites.

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