Stan's List

Firefox 3.0.2 addresses a number of security and stability issues

* Fixed several security issues.
* Fixed several stability issues.
* Official releases for Sinhala and Slovene are now available.
* Beta releases for Bengali, Galician, Hindi, Icelandic, Kannada, Marathi, Telegu, and Thai are available for testing.
* Fixed a number of minor issues with the layout of certain web pages.
* Fixed several theme issues that affected right-to-left locales.
* Fixed issue that caused some users with customized toolbars to have their Back and Forward buttons go missing (bug 426026)
* Add new Extended Validation (EV) roots to Firefox 3.0.2.
* On certain IDN sites, the password manager would not fill in username and password details properly.
* Fixed several hangs and crashes that occurred when using screen readers.
* Fixed Mac-specific issues.

Mac Spectrum has a good article on when you should consider moving to Leopard. Consideration must be given to hardware, but features, especially when Tiger reach, with 10.4.11, and a considerable level of stability. Tiger and Leopard are run side by side as the hardware requires it. A good read for anyone able to run either, or contemplating upgrading hardware.

In the week since Apple and NBC agreed to a new contract, NBC experienced 1 million iTunes downloads and a 30% share of the top episodes, including the “Saturday Night Live” spoof of Sarah Palin, the most watched episode ever, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Today Apple announced the Apple Ultracompact USB Power Adapter Exchange program. Apple has determined that under certain conditions the new ultracompact Apple USB power adapter’s metal prongs can break off and remain in a power outlet, creating a risk of electric shock. We have received reports of detached blades involving a very small percentage of the adapters sold, but no injuries have been reported.
The ultracompact USB power adapters were supplied with every iPhone 3G sold in the following countries, and may also have been purchased separately as an accessory:
* US
* Japan
* Canada
* Mexico
* Several Latin American countries

VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, …) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols, and more

Changes between 0.9.1 and 0.9.2
——————————-

* Restored the old behavior of –sout-keep. It is now de-activated by default.
* Skins2 interface repaired on Windows.
* Multiple bugfixes.

changes from previous versions:

Note: There is already listed changes between 0.9.2 and 1.0.

What Apple Remote Desktop 3.2.2 Client includes:

* Improves reliability of the Copy Items command.
* Upgrade Client Software command now uses unicast packets for improved reliability on certain networks.
* Fixes to the “Force Quit All Applications” and “Copy Items to Computer Automator” actions.

This Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update extends RAW file compatibility for Aperture 2 and iPhoto ’08 for the following cameras:

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS/Kiss Digital F/1000D
Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n
Nikon D700
Olympus EVOLT E-420
Olympus EVOLT E-520
Olympus SP-570
Samsung GX-10
Samsung GX-20
Sony DSLR-A300
Sony DSC-R

If you have not connected your iPhone to iTunes lately, notice of iPhone 2.1 availability will be indicated when checking for updates.

All iPhones benefit from this update, with the first iPhone getting the nod. The update to my first generation iPhone went smooth and quick.

In settings, you have to ability to set the preferences for those applications that provide for it. For example: AIM, At Bat, NetNewsWire, and Pandora allow adjusting of their preferences.

What is new in iPhone 2.1

* Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls
* Significantly better battery life for most users
* Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
* Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
* Faster installation of 3rd party applications
* Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third party applications
* Improved performance in text messaging
* Faster loading and searching of contacts
* Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
* Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
* Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
* Genius playlist creation

The Mac OS X 10.5.5 Update is recommended for Mac OS X Leopard versions 10.5, 10.5.1, 10.5.2, 10.5.3 and 10.5.4. It includes general operating system improvements that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac.

The update is available via Software Update or direct download of the delta update or the combo update

For detailed information about security updates, please visit this website.

What’s included?

General

* Includes recent Apple security updates.
* Addresses stability issues with video playback, processor core idling, and remote disc sharing for MacBook Air.
* Addresses an issue in which some Macs could unexpectedly power on at the same time each day.
* Resolves a stability issue in TextEdit that could be found when accessing the color palette.
* Improves Spotlight indexing performance.
* Fixes an issue in which contacts might not sync properly with PalmOS-based devices.
* Improves iPhone sync reliability with iCal and Address Book.
* Includes improvements to Active Directory (see this article for more information).
* Improves Speech Dictionary.
* Fixes Kerberos authentication issues for Mac OS X 10.5 clients that connect to certain Samba servers, such as Mac OS X Server version 10.4.
* Includes extensive graphics enhancements.

Address Book

* Addresses stability issues that may occur when creating a Smart Group.
* Resolves a printing issue with address cards containing information that spans more than one page.

Disk Utility and Directory Utility

* Improves reliability when rebuilding a software mirror RAID volume in Disk Utility.
* Improves reliability of server status displayed in Directory Utility.

iCal

* Updates iCal to more accurately handle repeating events.
* Improves performance when choosing meeting attendees.
* Resolves an issue in which the “Refresh All” option may be dimmed (“grayed out”) in the contextual menu for certain calendars.
* Fixes issues with read-only calendars.
* Addresses an issue that prevents an invitee from moving an event to a different calendar.
* Resolves an issue with syncing published calendars.

Mail

* Addresses performance issues related to displaying IMAP messages.
* Resolves an issue with SMTP settings for AIM, Compuserve, Hanmail, Yahoo!, and Time Warner Road Runner email accounts.
* Addresses stability issues that may occur when dragging a file to the Mail icon in the Dock.
* Addresses an issue with the “Organized by Thread” view in which the date does not appear when the thread is collapsed.
* Resolves an issue in which RSS feeds could temporarily disappear from the sidebar.
* Improves Mail robustness when sending messages.
* Improves reliability when saving drafts that have attachments.

MobileMe

* Improves overall sync reliability.
* Improves Back to My Mac reliability.

Time Machine

* Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.
* Addresses performance issues that may affect initial and in-progress backups.
* Fixes an issue in which an incorrect alert message could appear stating that a backup volume does not have enough free space.
* Time Machine can now back up iPhone backups that are on your Mac, as well as other items in (~/Library/Application Support).

Granted, they were not even close to their 40% of the TV downloads in their previous partnership with iTunes. So, it seems that they were crawling on their hands and knees begging to come back. Not so, says Bloomberg. NBC returned because it got the varied pricing it wanted, 99¢ (legacy), $1.99 (current) and $2.99 (hi-def).

Bloomberg apparently is not aware of similar formats already priced accordingly.