Mac OS X Lion: Sonos updates software for Apple’s new operating system.

We love news like this—another company updates their software for Mac OS X Lion, Apple’s new operating system. This time the company doing the update is Sonos for their easy-to-use home music system. And, yes, we’re big fans of Sonos. Though the inconveniences caused by Lion were a major problem for many. Here’s what tuaw.com […]

sonos_sirius_now_playing sonos_sirius_now_playing

Mac OS X Lion: Server bug discovered with Windows XP and Windows 7.

Another day, another bug. But we think some bugs should somewhat be expected with a new operating system…and, no, we don’t think that makes it okay either. So what is it this time? Well, tuaw.com is reporting a bug has been discovered in OS X Lion Server. According to tuaw.com, it appears when a user […]

Mac-OS-X-Lion-Wallpaper Mac-OS-X-Lion-Wallpaper

Mac OS X Lion: Accepts any LDAP password.

Security issues, anyone? According to a recent post at tuaw.com, Mac OS X Lion has a major one. And one that could be a nightmare for network administrators everywhere. Here’s what tuaw.com has to say: For some reason, Macs running Lion that use LDAP to authenticate users to shared resources work just fine for the […]

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Mac OS Lion: Signature for PDFs made easy.

Apple’s new operating system—OS X Lion—has made signing PDFs easier than ever. And tuaw.com does a great job of explaining this handy new feature. Here’s their take: It’s been possible to scan in your handwritten signature and sign documents in earlier versions of Mac OS X, but it was a complex process and one most […]

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Mac OS Lion: Ships without Flash Player, but can it stay that way?

Apple’s new operating ships with Flash Player installed. But what about all the Flash video on the web? Well, you can either install the battery-draining software or look for another option. But is there really another option? Well, according to this article by 9to5mac.com, there is…and here’s what they have to say: …the FlashtoHTML5 extension […]

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Mac OS X Lion: Sonos updates software for Apple’s new operating system.

Posted by mikerocco on September 8th, 2011
sonos_sirius_now_playing

We love news like this—another company updates their software for Mac OS X Lion, Apple’s new operating system. This time the company doing the update is Sonos for their easy-to-use home music system. And, yes, we’re big fans of Sonos. Though the inconveniences caused by Lion were a major problem for many.

Here’s what tuaw.com had to say about the Sonos update:

It has taken a long time but the Sonos software is now Lion friendly. When Lion came out in July, Apple substantially changed the way shares work, and the popular Sonos home music system depended on theSMB protocol to share with your iTunes library. In Lion, Apple moved to a proprietary method, and that started the problems and caused a lot of anger among Sonos owners. Streaming services like Pandora, SiriusXM, or Spotifyworked fine, but you couldn’t get access to you own music if you had your files on your main computer or an external drive. Some people had their music on a Network Attached Storage device, or NAS, but Lion broke some of those as well.

I’ve tested the Sonos update, and it does the trick, which will make music starved Sonos customers happy. If you are using the iOS Sonos remote apps have an update today as well. Happy listening.

So there you have it. Another software update for Lion compatibility. Were you using Sonos? Or is there other software you’re using that not working well with Lion?

Mac OS X Lion: Server bug discovered with Windows XP and Windows 7.

Posted by mikerocco on September 8th, 2011
Mac-OS-X-Lion-Wallpaper

Another day, another bug. But we think some bugs should somewhat be expected with a new operating system…and, no, we don’t think that makes it okay either.

So what is it this time? Well, tuaw.com is reporting a bug has been discovered in OS X Lion Server. According to tuaw.com, it appears when a user tries to share a file with extended attributes with a Windows XP or Windows 7 system.

They go on to say:

The bug was first discovered by Steve Maser, a senior systems administrator at the University of Michigan’s Office of Technology Transfer. In a message posted to the OS X Server list, Maser details the bug:

“If a file/folder on your 10.7.x Mac (and this includes Mac OS X Server) has some specific (?) extended attributes on it and you do Windows Sharing for Windows users to access the file/folders — you won’t be able to pull the file down to your Windows desktop. I verified this with Windows 7.” The bug has also been verified with Windows XP.

According to Steve, the copy process appears to begin, before halting with an error message like, “the file name you specified is not valid or too long,” or less frequently, an “Invalid MS-DOS Function” message.

Maser also notes a workaround he devised. It’s not a fix but it will allow for a file to be copied by removing the attributes from the file’s metadata. Apple hasn’t acknowledged the bug yet, but per Masers posting, they now know about it and and fix should be added to OS X Lion server in the future.

Is this a bug you’ve run across? Have you tried the workaround?

Mac OS X Lion: Accepts any LDAP password.

Posted by mikerocco on September 1st, 2011
Mac-OS-X-Lion-10.7-500x256

Security issues, anyone? According to a recent post at tuaw.com, Mac OS X Lion has a major one. And one that could be a nightmare for network administrators everywhere. Here’s what tuaw.com has to say:

For some reason, Macs running Lion that use LDAP to authenticate users to shared resources work just fine for the initial login. After that point, Lion users can use any password and still log in.

Macs running older versions of OS X, Windows PCs, and Linux machines authenticate properly on the same LDAP servers, but the Lion machines exhibit the bad behavior. There are no security problems with Macs running Lion and logging into networks that use protocols other than LDAP.

So there you have it. Not good news for Apple. Certainly not good news for network administrators. Nor those employees who keep pressure their companies to get them Macs.

 

Mac OS Lion: Signature for PDFs made easy.

Posted by mikerocco on August 22nd, 2011
signature-capture-cjr

Apple’s new operating system—OS X Lion—has made signing PDFs easier than ever. And tuaw.com does a great job of explaining this handy new feature. Here’s their take:

It’s been possible to scan in your handwritten signature and sign documents in earlier versions of Mac OS X, but it was a complex process and one most people probably never trifled with. 

Lion’s version of Preview comes with a built-in signature scanner that makes signing documents far simpler. In the Annotations toolbar you now have an option to create a signature from your Mac’s built-in iSight camera. All you need to do is use black ink to sign a piece of white paper, align your signature toward the camera using the onscreen guides, and take a snapshot of the signature. 

Preview can store multiple signatures, so if you need to both sign and initial documents, you’re able to do so easily using Preview’s annotation functions. It’s a great feature, and one that ensures my printer will be gathering even more dust than it already has.

However, TUAW does have one clarification to make:

[Just to be clear, this process only applies a graphical representation of your signature; it does not cryptographically ‘sign’ the PDF document to ensure that it has remained unmodified. Adobe’s Acrobat application can sign PDFs with both a graphic and a digital signature; NitroPDF also has this feature, as does the DocQ web service. The DocuSign web service provides ‘electronic signatures,’ which are not exactly the same thing either. –Ed.]

There you go…another nice, simple feature of Mac OS X Lion. Any more tricks that you’ve come across that we haven’t hit on here at macoslion.org?

Mac OS Lion: Ships without Flash Player, but can it stay that way?

Posted by mikerocco on August 21st, 2011
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Apple’s new operating ships with Flash Player installed. But what about all the Flash video on the web? Well, you can either install the battery-draining software or look for another option. But is there really another option?

Well, according to this article by 9to5mac.com, there is…and here’s what they have to say:

…the FlashtoHTML5 extension from Joris Vervuurt was Godsent. The extensions has a sole purpose: It replaces the CPU-hogging YouTube Flash Player with an HTML5 video player.

Of course, YouTube has had an experimental HTML5 video player available for some time now, but Vervuurt’s dedicated extension beats YouTube’s solution on ease of use and the ability to choose maximum video resolution (360p, 720p, 1080p and 4K), plus it works with Flash videos embedded on other sites. One caveat: The extension depends upon whether or not YouTube has HTML5-friendly counterparts of Flash videos available on its servers. The FlashtoHTML5 extension is available here. The 9KB download requires Safari 5 and works like a charm under OS X Lion, especially used withClick2Flash, a Flash-blocking plug-in for Safari.

There you have it. Are you ready to go at the world wide web flash-free? We are. Let us know if you give it a shot.

Mac OS Lion: Our first update has arrived—10.7.1.

Posted by mikerocco on August 20th, 2011
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Any little kinks you’ve been experiencing with Mac OS X Lion will hopefully be solved…with Apple’s release(s) of its first update to the new operating system.

According to MacRumors.com, the new update addresses the following:

The 10.7.1 update is recommended for all users running OS X Lion and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability and compatibility of your Mac, including fixes that: 

– Address an issue that may cause the system to become unresponsive when playing a video in Safari. 
– Resolve an issue that may cause system audio to stop working when using HDMI or optical audio out. 
– Improve the reliability of Wi-Fi connections. 
– Resolve an issue that prevents transfer of your data, settings, and compatible applications to a new Mac running OS X Lion. 

Apple has also released a version of OS X 10.7.1 specific to the latest MacBook Air and Mac mini models, adding a few additional fixes.

– Resolve an issue where MacBook Air may boot up when MagSafe Adapter is attached 
– Resolve an issue causing intermittent display flickering on MacBook Air. 
– Resolve an issue that causes the SD card slot in Mac mini to run at reduced speed with SD and SDHC media.

Finally, Apple has released a separate OS X Lion Update 10.7.1 (Server) update for those systems with Lion Server components installed, improving the reliability of the Apple File Service, and a unique OS X Lion 10.7.1 Update for Mac mini 2011 (Server) update including all of the OS X 10.7.1, Lion Server, and specific Mac mini changes. 

Furthermore, MacRumors addesses a beta release for developers that deals with the new iCloud service to be released this fall:

Apple has been seeding developers with builds of 10.7.2 to prepare for the launch of Apple’s full iCloud service later this year, but the company did not provide any builds of OS X 10.7.1 for developer testing.

All good stuff as far as we’re concerned. And a great sign of things to come—like iCloud, IOS5, and more. Can’t wait for the fall.

Mac OS Lion: What don’t you like about Lion? No problem, just tweak it.

Posted by mikerocco on August 10th, 2011
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Well look at what we have here? A free download that let’s you tweak many of the new, little features in Apple’s new operating system—Mac OS X Lion—that may or may not bug the living ___ out of you.

TUAW is where we came across this little gem called Lion Tweaks. And here’s what they have to say about it:

Annoyed by the small changes in Lion? A new app called Lion Tweaks allows you to quickly turn on or off certain features in Lion that may be bugging you. The free app does nothing revolutionary, because all of these tweaks could be accessed in Terminal, but it’s nice to have a centralized place. I’m already eyeing, “Change iCal Leather to Aluminum”. (via Betanews)

Download

Mac OS Lion: Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. Now available for your downloading pleasure.

Posted by mikerocco on August 10th, 2011
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Good news for those looking for a way to create a Lion Recovery volume. According to MacObserver.com, it’s available now as a download from Apple. Here’s what they have to say:

Apple released Lion Recovery Disk Assistant Monday, a free download that allows users to create a Lion Recovery volume on an external drive. This allows users to use that drive to reinstall Mac OS X on a Mac, run Disk Utility for disk repairs, or restore from a Time Machine Backup.

To use Lion Recovery Disk Assistant to create this external drive (be it a harddrive or thumb drive), users must run it on a Mac that has an existing Recovery partition on it. This is an invisible partition created when you first install Lion.

Once created, the external Recovery HD partition doesn’t include a full install of Lion, but if you need to reinstall it starts the process, allows you to give it your Mac App Store (iTunes) credentials, and handles the download and installation process.

According to Apple, “When the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant completes, the new partition will not be visible in the Finder or Disk Utility. To access Lion Recovery, reboot the computer while holding the Option key. Select Recovery HD from the Startup Manager.” 

Note that the creation process will erase your external drive, so take appropriate precautions with any data you may have on that drive.

Lion Recovery Disk Assistant is a free download.

So what are you waiting for? Go get it.


Mac OX Lion: The super-duper, wammer-jammer guide to everything Lion. And then some.

Posted by mikerocco on August 9th, 2011
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When enough is never enough, MacWorld is there for you…with an in-depth 132-page guide to anything and everything Mac OS X Lion. Seriously, check it out for yourself, as here’s what they have to say:

In this book, we walk you through everything you need to know about Lion, starting with a comprehensive rundown of all the new features present in this version of Mac OS X. We help you install Lion, troubleshoot any installation woes, and learn how to set up a boot disc or drive.

Once you’ve got Lion up and running, discover how to navigate the new interface by using Multi-Touch gestures, Mission Control, and Launchpad; share files in AirDrop; and control other screens via Screen Sharing. Avoid ever having to manually save documents again with Lion’s new Auto Save, Versions, and Resume features. Protect yourself from would-be data thieves by using Apple’s FileVault 2 encryption functionality. And finally, find out about tons of new features, big and small, that Apple has added to the OS’s included applications.

If it sounds like something you like, it’s available in just about every form—ibook, Kindle, CD-Rom, something called a printed book and more. Prices range from $9.99 to $24.99 depending on the form. They’ve also added a nice 23-page sample PDF for you viewing pleasure, and to convince you this is a must-buy book. What do you think? A must-buy?

 

Mac OS Lion: Hate the new look of iCal in Lion?

Posted by mikerocco on August 8th, 2011
iCal-quick-add

You’re not alone. But someone did more than just complain, they actually did something about it. Over at macnix.blogspot.com, they created new images files to go inside iCal.app and AddressBook.app to give them an aluminium look like previous versions of OS X. And best of all, they gave the step-by-step on how to change it:

This is a simplified version of my previous post which uses a package installer to apply the skins automatically without you having to manually modify the iCal.app and Address Book.app files.  The original manual process is still available for those that prefer to see whats actually being modified, but both methods effectively do exactly the same thing.

Click here to go to the manual installation instructions.

For the simplified installer based method, continue reading…

DMG files for Automatic Installation (Last updated 30/07/11)
Address Book Skin – 10.7_Address_Book_Skin_Installer.dmg
iCal Skin – 10.7_iCal_Skin_Installer.dmg

These skins are provided free of charge but please make a donation if you use them regularly :)

Nice job to macnix.blogspot.com for doing something about it—a great solution for those who aren’t thrilled about the new look of iCal in Mac OS X Lion. Are you fan? If not, will you be changing based on this solution?

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  • Mac OS Lion

    Welcome to Mac OS Lion. We are your resource for all things related to Apple's New Operating System, Lion. Browse the categories for news, tips, tutorials, videos, downloads and more.

    Just wanted to share all the goodness of Mac OS X Lion with those who are as big of fans of Apple as we are. Let us be your source for anything and everything OS Lion. Check back often for tips, updates, and more as we explore what others have to say about the new Apple software, as well as our own computer experience for everything OS X Lion has to offer.