O'Grady's PowerPage

Tag: Mac

  • Developer cites OS X 10.8.1 beta as substantially improving Apple notebook battery life

    Come the OS X 10.8.1 update, your Apple notebook’s battery life could improve significantly.

    Per Softpedia, substantial improvements were discovered by an unnamed developer after installing OS X 10.8.1. Previously, the developer’s MacBook was reportedly showing a battery life of 4 hours and 5 minutes after a full charge, but installing the beta software increased the advertised battery life to over 8 hours.

    The details suggest Apple is working to fix battery life issues that some users have reported since the release of Mountain Lion on the Mac App Store in July.

    Those complaints were later validated by a series of tests conducted by Ars Technica. Their unscientific data showed that Apple’s new operating system drains batteries significantly faster than its predecessor, OS X 10.7 Lion.

    While Apple has not publicly commented on any battery issues with Mountain Lion, a number of users who have posted on Apple’s official community forum have said that company representatives reached out to them and obtained system information in an attempt to fix the issue.

    Only certain MacBook models have been reported by users to experience the battery drain issue introduced with the launch of Mountain Lion. Some others have said that their battery life actually increased since updating to OS X 10.8.

    The first pre-release beta of OS X 10.8.1 was supplied to Apple’s developer community earlier this month. Documentation accompanying Build 12B13 revealed it aims to correct a display noise issue when using Thunderbolt, but made no mention of battery life.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

  • Google Chrome updated to 21.0.1180.81

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    You can’t knock frequent updates.

    On Friday, Google released a beta of version 21.0.1180.81 of its Chrome web browser. The update, a 43.8 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:

    – Duplex Printing defaults to Yes, which prints extra pages even for a 1 page print out (Issue 138312).

    – Print preview takes forever on Win XP (issue: 140044).

    – Anti-DDoS inversion of logic (Issues: 141643, 141081).

    – Pepper Flash: in file uploads, treats HTTP status != 200 as failure, breaking (e.g.) uploads to Amazon S3 (Issue: 140468).

    – Projectmanager.com application causes Flash to hang (Issue: 141018)
    Turn off TLS 1.1 in Chrome 21 Stable (Issue: 142172).

    – An additional scroll bar appears at the right on many sites (issue: 140239).

    – Setting and unsetting display:none obliterates current scroll position (issue: 140101).

    Google Chrome 21.0.1180.81 requires an Intel-based Mac with Mac OS X 10.5 or later to install and run. If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback to offer, please let us know in the comments.

  • Apple seeds third Mac OS X 10.7.5 beta to developer community

    The nice thing about betas, it means they’re a bit closer to getting somewhere.

    Per MacNN, Apple is seeding a third developer beta of OS X 10.7.5 to developers. The code is listed as build 11G36, and as before, has no known issues. Apple is also holding steady on testing focus, asking developers to look at graphics quality and performance, along with media importing, editing, and viewing.

    The Mac OS X 10.7.5 update may or may not be the last for OS X Lion, since Mountain Lion has been available for several weeks. Apple is forging new ground with its current development cycle, since it has switched to releasing a new OS every year. As a result, it may end up having to support Lion well into Mountain Lion’s lifespan.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

  • Cocktail updated to 6.0.2

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    On Thursday, shareware developer Maintain released version 6.0.2 of CocktailCocktail (Lion Edition), the popular shareware utility program that allows for additional Mac OS X system tests. The new version, a 2.2 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and features:

    – Addresses an issue in which Cocktail could not force empty the Trash.

    – Addresses an issue in which Cocktail may fail to scan preference files.

    – Various improvements to the Pilot scheduler.

    – Resolves some OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion compatibility issues.

    Cocktail 6.0.2 retails for a US$19.00 shareware registration fee and requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.8 or later to install and run.

  • Adobe releases Flash Player 11.3.300.271 update

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    Late Wednesday, Adobe released Flash Player 11.3.300.271 for Mac OS X, a 11.6 megabyte download via MacUpdate. The new version adds a slew of security fixes outlined here.

    Flash Player 11.3.300.271 requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.6 or later to install and run.

    If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback, please feel free to hurl your two cents in via the comments.