Odds and Ends: Panther breaks Font Reserve?; Fixing Flash problems; Windows iTunes updated; Panther shipping updates

Panther breaks Font Reserve Classic Activator According to MacFixIt reader Eli Kroen, both Design Tools Monthly and Extensis tech support confirm that Font Reserve's Classic Activator feature -- used to share your OS X font database with OS 9 applications running in the Classic Environment -- does not work in Panther. Extensis tech support did not indicate whether or not Font Reserve was going to be updated for Panther compatibility; however, Extensis claims that the current version of Suitcase (their other font management utility) is compatible.

Fixing Flash playback problems We've occasionally received reports of problems playing Flash movies in Safari and other Web browsers. We recently received an email from Joshua Orzech, citing one potential cause of such problems, revealed in a post on the Mac OS X Hints website. Open the QuickTime pane of System Preferences, click the Plug-In tab, and then click the "MIME settings" button. In the resulting list of MIME types, scroll down to the settings for "Miscellaneous - Miscellaneous file formats." If "Flash file" is checked, the QuickTime browser plug-in is attempting to play Flash files, and preventing the Flash plug-in from handling them. Uncheck the box next to "Flash file" and the Flas plug-in will again be used to play Flash movies.

Apple updates iTunes for Windows If you're a Mac user who also uses Windows, Apple has released an updated version of iTunes for Windows, v4.1.1, which fixes a serious problem with Windows 2000 and third-party CD burning software that could prevent a PC from starting up after installing iTunes.

Panther shipping updates Following up on yesterday's story that Panther has begun shipping (we've also received shipping notices from Apple), some readers -- including resellers -- report that they have already received, and even installed, the new version of Mac OS X. A number of readers report that their shipment tracking indicates that it will arrive today (Thursday).

New/Updated Knowledge Base Articles

• 107669 Mac OS X 10.2.8: Can't Connect via Ethernet After Installing Update covers a networking problem previously reported on MacFixIt, caused by the initial (pulled) version of 10.2.8 (build 6R65). The solution is to install the newer release of 10.2.8, available via Software Update.
• 107032 Mac OS X 10.2: "Error -43" When Copying Files to Windows Shared Volume covers the cause of such problems: illegal characters in file names.
• 25430 Mac OS X 10.2: Archive and Install, "Preserve Users and Network Settings" Is Dimmed provides two possible solutions to this problem.
• 25436 Mac OS X 10.2: Last Printer Used Becomes Default Printer describes this odd behavior, although it doesn't offer a workaround other than to make sure the desired printer is selected the next time you print.
• 25541 Mac OS X 10.2.8 or Earlier: Network Preference Pane Missing DHCP, BootP Options; Cannot Change Settings discusses a problem where certain choices are not available in the TCP/IP tab of Network preferences. The solution is to restart your Mac.
• 25575 Mac OS: Moving Files From Your Older Macintosh to a New One provides some suggested solutions for moving files from an older Mac to a newer one.

Resources