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 […]

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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 […]

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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: What to do if you hate the Launchpad.

Posted by admin on July 28th, 2011
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First off, we’ll admit. We’re fans of the Launchpad—the new iPad-like startup screen on Mac OS X Lion. Not the name, but the application. It’s pretty cool and handy. But we realize there’s different strokes for different folks, and we’ve heard rumblings of our own that some of you aren’t so excited about Launchpad.

Well…never fear…Alex Heath over at CultofMac.com has shared Developer Loren Segal‘s trick to totally nuke your Launchpad clean of all app icons. Alex writes:

This “nuclear option” through a step-by-step process in Terminal will empty the Launchpad database. But he cautions:

“Before you do this, realize that this command will delete data. If you care about how your apps are setup in Launchpad, you will want to backup the .db file below. Do it before issuing the command.”

Step 1: Open Terminal on your Mac (located in the Utilities folder).

Step 2: Backup your current Launchpad database in case you need to restore it. Type this into Terminal:

mkdir ~/Desktop/DB_Backup

Step 3: Now, enter this text to actually copy the database:

cp ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db ~/Desktop/DB_Backup/

Step 4: Enter the following command:

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db 'DELETE FROM apps;' 
&& killall Dock

It’s that simple, states Alex. You should now have a blank Launchpad. Some of your (now empty) app folders may still be there, but you can easily clear those too by dragging an app icon in and then dragging it back out. The folder will then disappear.

So there you have it…if you’re not a fan of Launchpad, you’re sure to be a fan of Alex’s as you “nuke” your startup screen. Let us know if you give this a shot, and how easy of a process it really was.

Mac OS X Lion: Chrome multi-touch for Lion is here.

Posted by mikerocco on July 28th, 2011
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If you love the new features of Mac OS X Lion but you’re not a fan of Safari, you’re in luck. Google has updated it’s browser—Chrome—to re-enable a multi-touch gesture that changed with the Lion operating system. With Lion, a three-finger swipe in either direction swipes through open full-screen apps or desktops. Previously in Chrome, that same three-finger gesture moved you forward or backward in browsing history (in Lion this is now a two-finger gesture).

However, according to a CNET report, Google is Lion “compatible” when it comes to these gestures. They report:

Yesterday, though, Google released Chrome 14.0.835.0 for Mac (and 14.0.835.0 for Linux, and 14.0.835.2 for Windows) that changes the forward and backward navigation to two-finger swipe gestures on Apple machines. The fix worked on my MacBook Pro, but it’ll be some weeks before Chrome 14 arrives as the stable version intended for mainstream users.

This report also points out a few other changes:

The new version also adds support for a new communication protocol for Web Sockets, a high-speed communication mechanism between browsers and Web servers, according to Chrome team member Jason Kersey in the blog post about the new version.

Also new are tweaks to Chrome’s support for multiple user profiles, a feature that will let people use the Web with different online personas. Multiple profile support was an early Chrome feature, but Google pulled back for a long development hiatus.

Hopefully, these changes from Google will be the beginning of a wave of updates for many developers that take advantage of new Lion features, such as multi-touch, full screen, and more. What apps are you wanting to see updated?

Mac OS X Lion: More security. Or less?

Posted by admin on July 27th, 2011
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Just as quickly as some were hailing Mac OS X Lion for improved security, MacRumors references a report from The Register that discusses a vulnerability in the chips that control the batteries in Apple’s notebooks. This discovery, by Charlie Miller, principal research consultant at security firm Accuvant and the other coauthor of The Mac Hacker’s Handbook, indicates a vulnerability could be exploited on a basic level to harm battery function or with additional effort to implant malware that could reinfect computers multiple times.

The article continues: “The batteries’ chips are shipped with default passwords, such that anyone who discovers that password and learns to control the chips’ firmware can potentially hijack them to do anything the hacker wants. That includes permanently ruining batteries at will, and may enable nastier tricks like implanting them with hidden malware that infects the computer no matter how many times software is reinstalled or even potentially causing the batteries to heat up, catch fire or explode. “These batteries just aren’t designed with the idea that people will mess with them,” Miller says. “What I’m showing is that it’s possible to use them to do something really bad.”

We realize when it comes to hacking that, if there’s a will there’s a way. We’re just a little surprised at how quickly this vulnerability came out. Hopefully it’s not a sign of things to come. Hopefully.

Mac OS X Lion: Flash Is Not Disabled In Lion

Posted by admin on July 27th, 2011
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There’s been a lot of talk this past week on whether or not Flash had been disable in Mac OS X Lion. According to this MacStories.net report, the battle between Apple and Flash does not carry over from the iPhone and iPad to Lion. The quote an adobe update and blog post in their story with the following:

With an update and a blog post, Adobe has now clarified that video hardware acceleration is not disabled in Lion.

The final release of Mac OS X Lion (10.7) provides the same support for Flash hardware video acceleration as Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6). The previous “Known Issue” described in a tech note suggesting that video hardware acceleration was disabled in Lion was incorrect and based on tests with a pre-release version of Mac OS X Lion that related to only one particular Mac GPU configuration. We continue to work closely with Apple to provide Flash Player users with a high quality experience on Mac computers.

From the Known Issues page:

Flash Player may cause higher CPU activity when playing a YouTube video. Possibly related to disabled hardware acceleration.

But then there’s an update below the first note:

UPDATE: The final release of Mac OS X Lion (10.7) provides the same support for Flash hardware video acceleration as Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6). The previous “Known Issue” suggesting that video hardware acceleration was disabled in Lion was incorrect and based on tests with a pre-release version of Mac OS X Lion that related to only one particular Mac GPU configuration. We continue to work closely with Apple to provide Flash Player users with a high quality experience on Mac computers.

So there you have. Not a big deal at all. At least that’s what we’re told. Too bad…another battle between Adobe and Apple seems so much more exciting. Don’t you think?

Mac OS X Lion: What’s broken?

Posted by admin on July 27th, 2011
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Have you come across your share of issues with the new OS X Lion software from Apple? Well, if so, you’re not alone. And Darren Murph over at Engadget has listed a few of the most common complaints that have been popping up across the web.

Darren states: You can kiss Rosetta support goodbye, and secondly, it seems as if 10.7 is seriously cramping third-party NAS support for Time Machine. We’ve also had numerous reports from folks that are having issues dragging application installs to their Applications folder, not to mention an uptick in Guest account crashes. Of course, there’s also the whole “I can’t get my free update to Lion!” thing, busted Windows partitions and a veritable plethora of dilemmas when looking at Pro Tools and Cubase.

Darren writes it off to early adoption. Which we certainly won’t argue. Because when it comes to early adoption, you have to take both the good and the bad. What issues, if any, are you having?

Mac OS X Lion: What the critics really think.

Posted by admin on July 27th, 2011
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So you know those of us at MacOSLion.org love the new Mac OS X Lion software from Apple, but what about the so-called experts from around the web? Well, tech blogger Brian Caulfield over at blogs.forbes.com assembled a collection of great quotes from critics around the web. Here’s the list he pulled together:

Walt Mossberg, All Things D: “If you are willing to adjust, it’s the best computer operating system out there.”

David Pogue, The New York Times: “The Lion upgrade, in other words, is classic Apple: innovative to some, gimmicky to others, big leaps forward, a few stumbles back.”

Harry McCracken, Time: “At $29.99, it’s a steal — the no-brainer upgrade that defines the notion of a no-brainer upgrade.”

Brian X Chen, Wired: “Some of the key iPad-like interface tweaks are ugly or nearly useless, but if you just disable and ignore them like I did, full-screen mode, AirDrop, Resume and AutoSave make this very affordable $30 upgrade worth your purchase.”

John Siracusa, Ars Technica: “Seemingly emboldened by the success of iOS, Apple has taken a hatchet to decades of conventional wisdom about desktop operating systems.”

Seems like, for the most part, the experts are as gung-ho for Mac OX X Lion as we are. How ’bout you? What’s the low-down from your first experience?

Mac OS X Lion: Developers Get The First Juicy Update.

Posted by admin on July 26th, 2011
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iCloud cometh. At least for developers in the form of Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 beta. Released over the weekend, the beta software activates iCloud in the system preferences letting you choose which accounts and services to sync. iCloud was promised in early June as part of a wave of much anticipated software updates coming this fall from Apple. Not just for the Mac, but for the iPad and iPhone in the form of IOS5 as well.

According to an Engadget report, iCloud is the only thing the beta offers…with no bug fixes of any kind.

Any of you lucky enough to try out the new beta? Let us know what you think.

Mac OS X Lion: Wi-Fi problems are no problem at all.

Posted by admin on July 26th, 2011
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Upgrading to Lion has been a smooth, easy experience for many. For others, however, there’s been a few hiccups to say the least. One such hiccup for some is intermittent Wi-Fi dropouts.

As Cult Of Mac points out, there are a number of reasons as to why this issue could be happening for many users. Most likely it’s related to a driver issue with some Mac wireless cards and Lion. There’s a good chance that Apple will push an updated to Lion soon to fix this problem, alongside others.

They go on to point out some nice, simple tips to solving the issue:

Basic Wi-Fi troubleshooting tips in Lion:

  1. Turn Wi-Fi off and then back on in Airport on your Mac.
  2. Reboot your Mac.
  3. Reset your router.

Step 1 is definitely the first thing you should try to fix a bad Wi-Fi connection. Simply switching your wireless card on and off could very well fix any wonky connection between your router and Mac.

Step 2 could reset some settings on your Mac that may have carried over from Snow Leopard and caused conflicting issues with Airport, but that’s far-fetched. Rebooting your machine is really just the most basic thing you can do to see if something can be easily corrected.

Reseting your router (unplug it for about 15-30 seconds) will theoretically fix any issues specifically related to your router not playing nice with Lion.

It all seems simple enough. That is until Apple pushes out there own fix…which hopefully comes within the next week or so. Have you experienced any Wi-Fi issues with Lion? If so, did any of the fixes above solve your issues? Let us know…we’d love to hear your feedback.

Mac OS X Lion: Screen Sharing Gets Even Better.

Posted by mikerocco on July 25th, 2011
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Screen sharing has always been a pretty useful feature on a Mac…whether sharing work, accessing files, or trouble-shooting a computer from another location. That’s why it’s great to know that Mac OS X Lion has made Screen Sharing even better.

Over at macstories.net, they doing a pretty good job of discussing what’s new and better. They write: The Screen Sharing.app is available inside System -> Library -> Core Services if you want to manually launch it, but its functionalities are tightly integrated with the Finder, which can recognize computers on a local or remote network either with tools like Hamachi and Back to my Mac, or the Mac’s own Sharing settings in System Preferences.

A few new features get pointed out as well: In OS X Lion, Screen Sharing gets full-screen mode and a new toolbar that’s got icons to get the remote clipboard, send the contents of the clipboard to a remote computer, grab a screenshot, zoom, and switch to observe-only mode.

They go on to say: To log into a Mac, Lion spices up Screen Sharing with some new options: Apple ID, and per-user login. The former is a new way to authenticate with another Mac running Lion without having to create multiple user accounts; in the remote Mac, you can set up as many Apple IDs as you want, so that they’ll be authorized to initiate screen-sharing sessions.

All in all, it sounds like many great improvements to an already great feature. Have you tried out Screen Sharing yet in Mac OS X Lion?

Mac OS Lion Download – Over A Million In One Day

Posted by admin on July 23rd, 2011
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Sites all over the web, like ubergizmo.com, are reporting that Mac OS X Lion has been downloaded over a million times in one day. And at $30 a pop, it’s easy to see why.

Best of all for Apple, early reviewers have raved about the new Apple operating system. Some say it’s the best operating system ever. Others say it’s the future of the post-PC world. We say, we absolutely love it and we’re all in—we’ve even gone as far as switching out the mouse for the Apple Trackpad.

Download it now: Mac OS Lion Download

Are we crazy? Or are you with us when it comes to OS X Lion?

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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.