lion

Apple's World Wide Developers Conference starts on Monday, and while the main focus appears to be on updates to iOS (read my iOS 7 wish list here) and various Mac hardware, it's highly likely we'll get an update for Mac OS X 10.9 as well. At this point, we don't know what will be announced and we don't even know which "cat" will be associated with the release. Even the picture above (a giant banner currently displayed at Moscone Center) is suspiciously free of any cats at all, so it's hard … Read more

Yesterday Apple released the OS X 10.8.4 update for Mac users, which brings a number of fixes for network connectivity, VoiceOver, Boot Camp, and online services like FaceTime and Exchange.

While the update has been relatively smooth so far, a few people are experiencing problems in which the update does not properly install. In some cases the update will download and then give an error when running; in other instances the update will appear to work properly but then the system will reboot to OS X 10.8.3.

If you experience these or similar problems when attempting … Read more

Apple released what is likely to be the last round of fixes to 10.8 Mountain Lion ahead of a look at the next major version of OS X at next week's Worldwide Developer conference.

10.8.4 -- which has been in developer testing for months -- went out Tuesday and fixes a handful of bugs while promising "improvements' in other areas.

Key among them is a fix for a bug in Apple's Messages software that would display messages out of order, an issue that could make the app's conversational style useless and confusing.

On … Read more

Starting with OS X 10.7 Lion, Apple introduced Auto Save and Resume features that make it so the system will continually save your ongoing work, along with each program's current set of opened windows. This feature allows the system to maintain your workflow in the event of a power failure or crash, or even if you simply quit your program without saving.

To see this feature in action, open TextEdit, Pages, Safari, or another program that is built to work with these services, and create a new document without saving it. Make modifications to it and then choose &… Read more

An ongoing issue for some people who have installed Mountain Lion is the inability to access their systems' internal optical drives. Once installed, inserting a disc results in a couple of noises before the disc is ejected. While this can sometimes happen for burned discs that are no longer readable, it appears to happen for all discs, be they home-burned or commercial.

If this is happening on your system, first try testing the problem with multiple operating systems to see if the problem is hardware or software based. If your system came with gray boot discs, try inserting them and … Read more

Since its move to online purchasing and distribution of its operating system software, Apple has no longer included gray recovery DVDs with its Mac systems. Instead, if you wish to reinstall OS X you simply reboot to the OS X Recovery HD and use the tools there to format your hard drive (should you choose to), then run the installer to download OS X from Apple's servers.

While convenient for those with fast broadband connections, sometimes you may find yourself in a location without fast Internet and would benefit from having a way to reinstall OS X from scratch. … Read more

Lack of maintenance will most likely lead your Mac to become sluggish or less responsive. Maintenance (Mountain Lion) for Mac allows you to maintain the basics of your system without much hassle; but without a scheduling function, you'll have to remember to run it manually.

The installation of this free application is quick and easy. Maintenance (Mountain Lion) for Mac also offers a rather basic but quite intuitive interface. The application displays a single window divided into sections where users can select which tasks they wish to run. Users can select a single or multiple options by checking the … Read more

While not easily completed with native programs, users may still want the ability to create a bootable USB of their Mac OS. Lion DiskMaker for Mac lacks any other features, but completes this function well.

The free program downloaded and installed easily. Minimal instructions were included beyond a frequently asked questions section and it was not clear if technical support was available. At startup, Lion DiskMaker for Mac immediately asks which operating system the user would like to use, whether OS X 10.7 or 10.8. The menu is small, but uncomplicated and walks the user through the process. … Read more

In the wild, sea lions are kept busy with hunting prey, caring for young, and swimming about in the great big ocean. In captivity, they have more time to devote to activities like sunning themselves, playing, and rocking out.

Ronan the California sea lion lives at the Long Marine Laboratory at the University of California in Santa Cruz. University researchers have studied Ronan's ability to keep the beat of musical tracks by nodding her head. She seems to particularly enjoy upbeat, jazzy disco numbers.

Ronan was first trained to bob her head to a simple metronome-like sound. Once she figured that out, she was able to find and keep the beat of more complex music all on her own. Previously, this ability has only been observed in parrots and humans.… Read more