upgrades

There may be times after upgrading your Mac's operating system that you experience odd slowdowns on the system, either problems with general workflow or issues with booting the system.

Apple's original hardware that shipped with its systems should run its supported operating systems very acceptably; however, some people may have upgraded hardware components of their systems (hard drives, RAM, etc.) and suspect incompatibility with those components as a root cause of the problems.

MacFixIt reader Bruce wrote in with such a concern:

Mozilla has begun notifying Firefox 3.6 users that now is a good time to upgrade to Firefox 8.0.1--and to the browser's new fast-moving ethos.

The change had been planned for at least two other occasions in recent weeks, but Mozilla postponed it. And then yesterday, Mozilla flipped the switch so that when Firefox 3.6 checks with a server to find out if there's an update, it'll find the newest version of the browser.

"It's live, and users should see an update in the next 24 hours," said spokeswoman Erica Jostedt. … Read more

Perhaps you have a hard time getting behind National Parfait Day or Dress Spotty Day.

Here's a worthy cause for today, though: Update Your Parents' Browser Day.

The Atlantic's Alexis Madrigal came up with it as a constructive pasttime for the day after Thanksgiving, when many folks are visiting their folks at home.

If you can't persuade your parents to drop Internet Explorer 6 because YouTube will stop working, "wait until they slip into a tryptophan-induced coma and then sneak into the den," Madrigal suggests.

I'd throw protection against security vulnerabilities into the upgrade … Read more

Amazon is selling many smartphones for just a penny through Cyber Monday, Microsoft uses bacon to entice potential employees to its Kinect for Windows group, and Facebook may be working on a smartphone with HTC codenamed Buffy after the TV show.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

People frustrated by the upgrade and setup process in prior versions of Windows may find a more user-friendly experience in Windows 8.

Ensuring that Windows installs properly across a variety of hardware and software configurations has always been a major challenge, and one that Microsoft has never solved to the satisfaction of all users.

Microsoft has already taken some big steps forward in this respect with Windows 7. Its next version of Windows promises further improvements, as described in the latest edition of the Building Windows 8 blog by Christa St. Pierre from Microsoft's setup and deployment team:

It's time for Photoshop customers to think carefully about how to pay for the software, because Adobe Systems is curtailing upgrade deals to steer people toward a new $600-per-year subscription for a wide range of its products.

Subscription pricing, in which a person gets rights to use software for period payments, has been a mixed success in recent years. Red Hat has made it work with Linux and related server software, but Microsoft's enthusiasm for subscription pricing seems to be emerging mostly through online services such as Office 365.

Adobe--a software powerhouse going through a rough patch with layoffs … Read more

The first Google Android phone sporting Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has hit store shelves in the U.K. And now every other Android owner is wondering when they'll get to taste this yummy new OS.

Google released the source code for Ice Cream Sandwich earlier this week, which is good news for these Android enthusiasts. This means that device makers and other developers can get to work on porting the software to other devices. Will your Android samrtphone be one of them? If not can you still get Ice Cream Sandwich anyway? In this edition of Ask … Read more

Can cold weather ruin your car speakers? More of your insights into self-driving cars, recommendations for cheap cars that are fun to drive, and our plans to review the VW GTI.

YouTube may start releasing its own original content, Coldplay gives a cold shoulder to music streaming, and Sony pays Ericsson to take over the handset business.

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded: