O'Grady's PowerPage

Tag: 10.6.4

  • Apple releases Snow Leopard Graphics Update 1.0

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    Late Tuesday, Apple released its Snow Leopard Graphics Update 1.0 patch. The update, a 65.7 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:

    – Addresses frame rate issues occurring in Portal and Team Fortress 2 by Valve, on iMac (Late 2009 and Mid 2010), Mac mini (Early 2009 and Mid 2010), Mac Pro (Early 2009), MacBook (Early 2009 and Mid 2010) and MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010) or MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2010) models.

    – Resolves an issue that could cause Aperture 3, or StarCraft II by Blizzard, to unexpectedly quit or become unresponsive.

    – Resolves an image corruption issue that may occur when disconnecting and reconnecting external displays while the system is running.

    The update requires Mac OS X 10.6.4 or later to install and run.

    If you’ve tried the update and noticed any changes, please let us know.

  • Apple releases iMac (Mid 2010) Display Brightness Update 1.0

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    Late Thursday, Apple released the iMac (Mid 2010) Display Brightness Update 1.0 for its current 21.5″ iMac desktops.

    The update, a 378 kilobyte download, addresses an issue with 21.5-inch iMac (Mid 2010) display brightness.

    The update requires Mac OS X 10.6.4 or later to install and run and is also available via Mac OS X’s Software Update feature on qualifying hardware.

    If you’ve tried the update and noticed any changes, please let us know.

  • Apple posts changes to MobileMe back end, apps

    There’s always something happening on the server end and Apple’s MobileMe service is no exception. Per CNET, Apple released a new bout of changes to the MobileMe services on Thursday. The changes cover everything from iApp improvements to using the MobileMe website and working from within OS X 10.6.4:

    Improvements with iOS 4.0 (for iPhone and iPod touch):
    The Mail app supports MobileMe Mail aliases when composing or replying to messages.

    Find My iPhone app:
    The new Find My iPhone app allows you to find your device from another iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

    iDisk app version 1.2:
    Designed for both iPhone and iPad.
    Option to open iDisk documents in compatible apps (such as open a PDF file in iBooks).

    Gallery app version 1.1.1:
    When viewing individual photos over a Wi-Fi network, higher resolution images are automatically downloaded on iPhone 4.

    Improvements with Mac OS X v10.6.4:
    Fixes an issue that may cause Address Book contacts to disappear when sharing is enabled.

    MobileMe Control Panel 1.6:
    Improves syncing of MobileMe Contacts with Microsoft Outlook. See this article for details.

    Mail at me.com:
    The new MobileMe Mail web application is available for all users.

    Find My iPhone at me.com:
    The Find My iPhone web application has a full-screen map view. Multiple devices are listed in a sidebar.

    Calendar Beta at me.com:
    The beta includes a new web application with support for calendar sharing and event invitations.

    Me.com website:
    Clicking the cloud icon brings up an application switcher.
    Clicking your name allows you to access Help, Account, and sign out.

  • How-To: Work around Mail program errors in Mac OS X 10.6.4

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    Following the update to Mac OS X 10.6.4, a number of users are experiencing an error where Apple’s Mail email client will not open. Per CNET, when the application is launched, a message stating “Mail version 4.3 (1081/1078) cannot be used on Mac OS X Version 10.6.4” is displayed and the program shuts down.

    The version of Mail that is included with OS X 10.6.4 is 4.3 or build 1081, which can be found by right-clicking the Mail application, choosing “Show Package Contents”, opening the /Contents/version.plist file, and checking the version string. Apple purposefully prevents some builds of Applications from running on different versions of OS X, and this type of error will be presented if you try to do so.

    One reason this may happen if the OS X update did not complete properly and the system detects the version of Mail as being the older one. The following are a few approaches you can try to fix the problem:

    “Reapply the combo updater:
    If this problem happens to you, the first thing to try is to reinstall the OS X 10.6.4 update using the “Combo” updater. Download the updater, boot into Safe Mode by restarting and holding the Shift key at bootup, and then run the installer. As an extra safeguard, you can run general maintenance routines beforehand to ensure permissions and caches are in order.

    The OS X 10.6.4 Combo updater can be found here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1048

    Downgrade Mail and then reapply the combo updater:
    Since the Combo updater may not have a full version of Mail included, and instead may only have updated components for Mail, you can try putting a previous version of Mail on the system and then running the combo updater to update it to the latest version. Older versions of Mail can be found in the following locations:

    A Time Machine backup:
    On the Snow Leopard installation DVD (use Pacifist to extract it)
    From another computer running OS X 10.6.3 or earlier

    Copy from another system:
    Lastly, if you have access to another system that has a properly functioning version of Mail, you can copy the program from that computer to your OS X 10.6.4 installation. You can use a USB flash drive or copy the program over the network and replace the one on your system, but after doing so be sure to run a permissions fix on the boot drive.

    Archive and Install:
    As a last resort, if the update did not work you can either restore your whole system to a previous version by using Time Machine and then upgrading again with the “Combo” updater, or you can use the OS X 10.6 installation DVD to reinstall OS X. By default the installer will run an “Archive and Install” method, which will replace your system components and Apple-supplied applications with those that are on the DVD. From here, immediately update the system again using the “Combo” updater.”

    If you’ve seen this issue on your end and have any fixes or workarounds of your own, let us know.

  • Nvidia releases Mac OS X 10.6.4-compatible driver for GTX-285 graphics card

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    This is sort of interesting.

    With the recent release of the Mac OS X 10.6.4 update, assorted users have complained of conflicts with some of Nvidia’s graphics cards. Responding to this, Nvidia has released a new suite of graphics drivers for the GTX-285 graphics card. The driver, a 20.87 megabyte download, is listed for OS X 10.6.4 only, and is specifically for the GTX-285 card that is available as a third-party purchase for Mac Pro systems.

    Per CNET, the update specifically addresses OpenGL performance issues and improved compatibility with the latest OS X software updates. In addition, the update has support for applications that implement Nvidia’s CUDA technology, but you will need to download and install an additional driver for this functionality.

    Keep in mind that this driver will replace the one provided by Apple, and while it should bring new and updated functionality to the GPU, there is a chance that you may experience some errors. If so, try booting into Safe Mode and using a maintenance application to clear the system’s boot caches, along with running other general maintenance routines.

    If you’ve tried the updated driver and have any feedback to offer, please let us know.