Apple released its MacBook Air SMC Firmware Update 1.2 patch yesterday, a 623 kilobyte download that offers the following fixes and changes per the web site:

“This SMC firmware update adds compatibility for the latest service replacement batteries…. After this update has successfully completed, your SMC Version will be: 1.23f20 [for original MacBook Air models, or] 1.34f8 [for more recent models].”

SMC Firmware Updates generally control the System Management Controller on Intel-based Macs. The SMC controls power and thermal management features, including the battery and fans. In this case, new replacement batteries from Apple are apparently different enough that they require the use of this updated version of the SMC firmware.

The update can be downloaded directly or snagged and installed via Mac OS X’s Software Update feature and requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later to install and run.

Late Thursday, Elgato Systems released version 3.1.2 of its EyeTV software application, which finds and tracks all television programming you want to see and allows users to pause live television and save content to file.

The new version, which can be found here (and can also be found through EyeTV 3.0′s update feature), adds the following fixes and features:

• For EyeTV Hybrid (US 2009 and EU 2008 models), as well as some older devices, when capturing analog video, the timeshift setting in Preferences > Devices is now applied while recording. When timeshifting is off, recordings will use less CPU, and will display with a lower latency.
• Quit and Sleep commands were added to EyeTV’s overlay menu.
• Pressing the “Stop” button on the infrared remote control while playing back a recording in the EyeTV overlay menu now features an option to delete the recording.
• Added support for widescreen (16:9) analog capture for all recent Elgato branded hardware. To enable widescreen capture, select “Stretch” from the View > Aspect Ratio menu. This feature is for capture of sources set to output 16:9 pictures squeezed into a standard definition output, usually set top boxes and DVD players. The output device should be set to 16:9 or “wide” output (as if it were feeding a widescreen TV).
• To cycle through EyeTV’s different aspect ratio options, select View > Aspect Ratio > Rotate or press Command-Option-5.
  For NTSC set top boxes connected via RF modulation, EyeTV now supports channels 2 through 69 instead of 3 and 4.
• To aid in solving problems downloading TV Guide data, EyeTV now features a Gemstar Program Guide Diagnostics window, accessible from the Help menu. In order to obtain the most current TV Guide data, EyeTV now additionally downloads data for the second and seventh day out.

New Hardware:

• Support was added for the Devolo dLAN TV Sat, a DVB-S2 network tuner.

Bug Fixes:

• A problem where EyeTV for DTT was not recognized by the EyeTV Setup Assistant has been resolved.
• Problems detecting channels on DVB-S and DVB-S2 transponders with very high data rates have been resolved.
• Teletext highlighting now work when viewing in transparent mode.
• A crash at launch with corrupt preferences has been fixed.
• Crashes while using the auto-update feature have been eliminated.
• Invalid TitanTV Remote Scheduling account settings were not being reported correctly.
• For improved compatibility with Remote Buddy, direct AppleScript access to some overlay menus was added.
• The Apple Remote can no longer put the Mac to sleep while EyeTV is recording.
• A problem where EyeTV would not wake up for recordings if the Energy Saver System Preference contained scheduled sleep/shutdown times has been fixed.
• Problems exporting recordings with multiple Dolby Digital audio tracks have been resolved.
• Several crashes while exporting have been fixed.
• Added support for Eastern European ISO-8859-2 and ISO-8859-5 encodings for channel names and programming guide data.
• EyeTV no longer cancels downloading the programming guide when encountering minor errors.
• EyeTV now displays the file size number formatting in the international display format selected by the user.
• Teletext in subtitle (“transparent”) mode no longer inhibits the timeshift overlay.
• EyeTV now correctly sorts SmartGuide results by the “Where” column.
• France 2 HD and Arte HD are now automatically assigned to tvtv.
• A hang while quitting EyeTV in the middle of a program guide download has been eliminated.
• The EyeTV MPEG Support Component has been updated to fix an incompatibility with Perian and other MPEG-4 decoders that resulted in the first frame always being green.
• Exports to H.264 now include the QuickTime color info extension and the field info extension when the source is interlaced. This resolves dark playback in QuickTime Player.
• EyeTV now supports DivX 7.
• EyeTV is now compatible with the latest release of Flip4Mac Windows Media QuickTime components.
• The overlay menu now responds to infrared commands after changing inputs.
• A problem with white stripes at the edges of Apple TV exports with close captioning has been resolved.
• EyeTV no longer crashes at launch when there is a corrupted text-to-speed voice installed.
• After automatically updating to the latest version, the old version of EyeTV is always moved to the Trash.

EyeTV 3.1.1 requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to install and run. The program retails for US$79.95.

Software developer Mark/Space announced the released of Missing Sync for iPhone 2.0.2 on Wednesday. The Mac client of the application allows you to synchronize notes, documents, and tasks and archive text messages and call history from your iPhone onto your Mac (and vice-versa wherever it applies).

Version 2.0.2, a 13.2 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:

• Added support for iPhone OS 3.0.
• Improved stability with importing Apple Notes, SMS and Call Log information.
• Fixed a problem that prevented the Check for Updates feature from installing the downloaded update.
• Fixed an issue where importing Apple notes could cause duplicate notes.
• Fixed an issue on Tiger (Mac OS X v10.4.x) where the client id we generated for Sync Services was too long (> 63 chars).
• Fixed a problem that could cause a crash when syncing Notes with Entourage.
• Added an “Import Apple Voice Memos” checkbox to the Notes plugin settings sheet that’s enabled only when syncing to Notebook. If checked, any recordings the user has made with the “Voice Memos” app are placed into a “Voice Memos” category in Notebook.
• Added an “Import Voicemails” checkbox to the Notes plugin settings sheet that’s enabled only when syncing to Notebook. If checked, any voicemails the user has on his iPhone are placed into a “Voicemail” category in Notebook.
• iTunes 2.8 has the option to encrypt backup files. If the option to encrypt backup files is enabled in iTunes, The Missing Sync cannot read call log, sms messages, voice memos, voicemail, or import Apple iPhone notes.

Missing Sync for iPhone 2.0.2 retails for US$40 for a single user license and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to install and run.

Late Tuesday, virtualization softare maker VMWare released version 2.0.5 of its Fusion software for the Mac.

Similar to other virtualization software packages, VMWare allows users to run alternate operating systems such as Windows and Linux distributions on Intel-based Macs at native speeds. Other features, such as Unity, allow users to run and minimize Windows applications from the Mac OS X Dock.

The new version, a 289 megabyte download, offers the following new features and fixes:

• Supports Mac OS X Server guest operating systems on Macs with Intel Xeon 5500 and 3500 Series processors (based on Nehalem micro-architecture).
• Provides experimental support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server as a guest operating system (32-bit only).
• Provides experimental support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard as a host operating system (32-bit only).
• Supports Ubuntu 9.04 as a guest operating system, including features such as VMware Tools pre-built modules and Easy Install.
• Reduces CPU usage when a virtual machine is idle under VMware Fusion.
• Contains fixes for more than 80 bugs.

The software requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to install and run and retails for US$79.99.

Apple sent an announcement to developers last Thursday that the next seed for Snow Leopard was available for downloading. AppleInsider reported that this was the second beta of the software released this month and is labeled Mac OS X 10.6 build 10A335.

The new download is reported to also include a new version of 10.6 Snow Leopard Server which incorporates a number of new features. Some of the features mentioned, “[...] new junk mail filters in Mail Server, better automated account creation in Calendar Server, and completely re-written certificate management code”.

One of the developments that may be of interest to businesses that have, or want to deploy, a fleet of iPhones to their employees is the addition of the secure Mobile Access Server. The first hints of the new mobile services comes as a listing on Apple’s Developer site as one of the sessions available at WWDC called Deploying Mobile Access Server. The session has the following description:

Secure remote access to your business network has never been more critical than in today’s increasingly mobile world. The Mobile Access Server provides a path through a corporate firewall for IMAP, SMTP, HTTP, and CalDAV without using VPN. Learn about the features of, and deployment tips for, this powerful new service in Snow Leopard Server.

This comes in addition to features already mentioned such as remote access and control of mobile devices as well as push notifications. This positions OS X Server as a means to deliver intranet web services to iPhone and iPod touch users far more cost effectively than Microsoft Windows Server, and takes advantage of the popularity of the iPhone.

The Adium folks have been hard at work and one of the new features slated for version 1.4 is accessing Twitter accounts. That should come as no surprise considering the explosion of Twitter popularity and the development of software to access the service. As Zack West of the Adium blog put it:

“For well over a year now, Twitter has been an often-requested addition to our repertoire of services. As a user of the service I absolutely understand. The current base of Twitter clients often leave something to be desired, behave in a weird way, or just add an additional application you need to keep open.”

You will be able to open your Twitter timeline in a separate “group chat” window and people you are following will be displayed in a contact list. According to the blog, nearly all the usual features will also be there, such as looking up someone’s info, following and unfollowing, and adding images to Twitpic.

For more information, follow the blog, or download the nightly beta and try it out for yourself. I’m sure they’d love some feedback.

Now if they could just get video working, I could dump iChat!