Mac OS 7.6.1: Type 11 errors; AppleVision extension; PowerBook low battery warnings

a. Type 11 errors Notable news for those users plagued by Type 11 errors. Mac OS 7.6.1 (expected to be released by the end of this month) will eliminate most of these errors! Actually, as I read it, you will not necessarily get any fewer errors. You will simply get more accurate error messages. As Apple states it: "Most crashes in native code previously were mapped to the 'miscellaneous fatal error' code which is 11. We now calculate the real error code and report the correct number."

But there is another bonus here. If you do get one of these errors, it is now more likely to result in an "unexpectedly quit" message than a system error "bomb" message. This means that you will not have to restart your Mac to continue after getting the error (although, to be safe, Apple still recommends that you restart anyway).

b. AppleVision Some (although certainly not all) of the problems and confusion people have with their AppleVision monitors can be traced to the AppleVision extension (currently version 1.0.2. or 1.0.4, depending upon what Mac you use). Hopefully, things will improve with Mac OS 7.6.1. It includes a new version 1.5.1 of this extension.

c. PowerBook low battery warnings PowerBooks running Mac OS 7.6.1 will have only two low battery warnings. What used to be the first one of three warnings (the one that told you that you were "running on reserve power and your screen has been dimmed") has been eliminated.

[Some related info can be found in an article in MacWEEK. Another article has information on this summer's Tempo release. The complete text of the ReadMe file for Mac OS 7.6.1 (and similar stuff that Apple has not yet made public) can be found on the Mac OS Rumors web site.]