Switching to a Mac for Dummies, 2nd Edition
Product Review
Publisher: Wiley Publishing
Price: $24.99
Pros: Table of Contents makes finding specific areas of interest easy to find and contents are easy to understand
Cons: Snow Leopard was referenced on book cover but no descriptive information was contained in the book, not even release notes information
Product Rating
Impressive
by Kathy Matsumoto, AAUG Member
CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSURE: Wiley Publishing provided a free copy of Switching to a Mac for Dummies to me for the purpose of this review.
I am a novice Mac user and I have been attempting to make the adjustment from using a PC to a Mac. I thought written information would assist in my transition and, after receiving my dummies book, I immediately began reading through it. The Table of Contents makes it easy to find subjects you are looking for. The first chapters of the book are very basic, exactly what you would expect if you were new to the world of Macs. I will say that throughout the book, the author writes as an enthusiastic fan of Mac products and his cheery attitude builds excitement for making the change to Mac. As I skimmed through the information I was familiar with, I learned about the command key and other unique features of the Mac. Chapter 5 was the most helpful one for me because it contained a great table comparing terminology between Windows and Mac. Also included in Chapter 5 was a list of keyboard shortcuts.
Tips, things to remember, and warnings are highlighted throughout the book making it easy to thumb through chapters and find important items. The author spent quite a bit of time discussing passwords and security. One important thing I learned was that the author does not recommend downloading virus protection unless you are also planning to install Windows on your Mac.
I was especially interested in learning about Snow Leopard but was disappointed when reviewing the book. Although the book’s cover states “get the most from Mac OS X Snow Leopard” I didn’t find any specifics. The book does state that Snow Leopard is an updated version of the Mac operating system and is version 10.6. Information on what makes Snow Leopard a better operating system would have been helpful, even if release notes from Apple had been included.
What helped me: Chapter 5: Mac OS X for Windows Users. This chapter, as I stated earlier in my review, has terminology, keyboard shortcuts, and information on Time Machine and Time Capsule and other differences between Macs and Windows.
What I have yet to explore: IPhoto (Chapter 12), Producing Movies and Music (Chapter 13), and Building Your Space on the Web (Chapter 14). I have uploaded photos to my Mac and my son has used IPhoto to play a slide show accompanied by ITunes music. The slide shows are so much fun to view.
Bottom line recommendation about book: This book provides a good overview of the differences between Macs and Windows. The author definitely is a Mac fan and recommends Macs for their quality. You can find terminology, program information, and lots of tips if you have questions and don’t want to search Help on Apple’s web site.
Take Control of Passwords in Mac OS X v2.0
Product Review
Publisher: TidBITS Publishing, Inc.
Price: $10 ebook, $20.99 print
Pros: Clear examples, logical presentation, personal how-to stories and opinions. Seems to cover all password situations for OS X users.
Cons: Daunting, but necessary, mnemonic devices and complex technical instructions.
Product Rating
Excellent
by Kay Vreeland, AAUG Member
Disclaimer: TidBITS Publishing Inc. provided a free copy of Take Control of Passwords in Mac OS X v2.0 to me for the purpose of this review.
My New Year’s resolution to organize the plastic bag full of paper scraps with passwords written on them will be a success because of Joe Kissell’s clear and logical explanation of how to manage passwords. Scanning the book is scary for someone who is poor at rocket science, since a major goal here is to teach us how to remember passwords and some of the mnemonic formulas look a lot like advanced brain games. The key to user accessibility for truly secure password protection is Kissell’s system for matching your personality type, risk level and the two types of passwords, security and identity, to a password-generating system that works for you. Then, once you decide to rely (mostly) on technology or (mostly) on your brain, you can begin with the Mac OS X eight passwords and go on to the hundreds you have for all the sites you access securely. If you are looking at a plastic bag overflowing with paper scraps of existing passwords, go immediately to p. 110 for hints on how to Update Old Passwords.
I learned about things I never imagined existed, like not using special characters generated with the Option key or spaces or quotes for OS X login passwords. Also, the need for an emergency password plan and how to recover forgotten passwords called loudly to me. By starting with assessing password needs from pp. 10-12 and then spending time with the first two chapters, Password Basics and Password Strategy, and finally skipping to chapter 9 on keeping passwords secure, I could get a good overview of the world of passwords in 25 pages. Only then was I able to put my study hat on and work on understanding the nuts and bolts of creating and maintaining passwords in the remaining 75 pages.
Kissell’s use of real-life situations (the ones on attacks riveted me) helped me see how passwords need to work. Making decisions on what password style I will adopt will let me analyze each password event in order to master and take control of my own password universe. Without an index for referral, I found that keeping a list of terms helped to search the ebook for what I needed.
This is the clearest and most sensible password manager manual I have seen.
The book includes a click-through to 20% discount on 1Password BUT 1Password 3 for Snow Leopard is still in Beta because of difficulties running it on Safari and will be released later in 2010. 1Password 2 runs on Snow Leopard with a workaround for the new 64-bit Safari.
News Flash: Apple already working on Mac OS X 10.7
The blogosphere is buzzing with the news that Apple is already hard at work on Mac OS X 10.7, the logical successor to the recently released Snow Leopard. The “news” should really come as a surprise to no one, though, as Apple was likely already working on 10.7 even before 10.6 entered the developer beta stage.
MacRumors discovered that a bug had been filed for the open source component launchd, which manages running processes on Mac OS X. The bug report referenced build number 11A47 of Mac OS X. As MacRumors explains, the numbering scheme for builds of Mac OS X follows a predictable pattern—for example, Mac OS X 10.6 is build 10A432, while 10.6.2 is build 10B504. The first number refers to major versions, so build 11Axx would refer to the next major version: 10.7.
MacGraPhoto app bundle targets graphically oriented users
If you work with graphics and are looking for some new tools to add to your collection, you might want to check out the bundle of seven indie Mac apps in MacGraPhoto. The collection of graphics apps is available for a limited time for just $40—a savings of 84 percent off the normal price of buying them individually. Refer friends to buy the bundle, and you could even end up getting all seven apps for free.
We spoke to developer Jacob Gorban, of Israel-based Apparent Software, about the bundle. “We thought the idea of organizing a ‘theme’ bundle will make it appealing to users who usually only need one or two apps from a generic bundle, such as all the others out there,” Gorban told Ars. “We’ve participated in a couple smaller bundles ourselves, but most other bundles are made by marketers.”
Netbooks shunned by official Mac OS X 10.6.2 release
The fears of netbook users with an appreciation for Mac OS X have been confirmed this week with the release of the 10.6.2 update to Snow Leopard. Users of “hackintoshed” netbooks are now finding out the hard way that attempting to install the just-released 10.6.2 update results in an unusable machine.
“So, I can tell you 10.6.2 DOES NOT WORK with the [Dell] Mini10v,” wrote MyDellMini forum member Crisu. “OS X tries to start, but it hangs before you can see the Apple and system is trying to boot again… you are in a loop.”
Mac OS X 10.6.2 out now along with Leopard security update
Apple released several updates Monday afternoon, including the second point release of Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Updates move the version of Snow Leopard client and server to 10.6.2, while the security fixes that are part of that update are packaged for Leopard (10.5.8) as Security Update 2009-006.
Mac OS X 10.6.2 includes over a hundred fixes in all, including a known issue with guest accounts and deleted home folders. The update brings tweaks to Spotlight indexing of Exchange accounts, reliability of menu extras, problems with using four-finger swipes, Front Row video performance, VoiceOver improvements, and video performance for the newest iMac models. There are also fixes and improvements for handling fonts, graphics—especially when using DVI to Mini DisplayPort adapters—Mail, MobileMe, AFP networking, printing, and improved plug-in reliability in Safari.
Apple’s Boot Camp users must wait for Windows 7 support
If your copy of Windows 7 has arrived and you are champing at the bit to get it installed on your Mac via Boot Camp, you may want to slow down. According to an Apple Knowledge Base posting (via MacUser), Apple has plans to eventually support Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate, but… not right now. An update for Boot Camp that supports Windows 7 will be coming before the end of the year, but will still have several caveats.
For starters, the update will require Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard—those of you stuck on Leopard won’t be upgrading to Windows 7 either. Secondly, Apple has dropped support for many of the machines it manufactured in 2006. If you run a 17″ or 20″ iMac, 15″ or 17″ MacBook Pro, or a Mac Pro from that year, you may be out of luck.
Indie Mac developers offer promotion with a funny name
Indie Mac developer Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software has been highly critical of the now-perennial MacHeist promotion in the past. MacHeist relies on deep discounts and giveaways to drum up a wider audience for software. The deals are so good for consumers, in fact, that it’s not too far from getting software with a “five-finger discount.” So Jalkut enlisted other like-minded developers to offer “One Finger Discount,” a 20 percent-off sale coinciding with MacHeist’s latest nanoBundle promotion.
MacHeist’s promotion is a selection of six Mac apps, including WriteRoom and Twitterrific, that have a combined retail value of $154. For one week only, these apps are available for free. While the promotion offers a lot of exposure for smaller, independent developers, developers end up with lots of customers and not much money. It also has a potential downside in that it could give users the notion that software should cost next to nothing.
Parallels Desktop 5 claims performance edge in Win-on-Mac
Parallels has announced that the fifth version of its x86 virtualization software, Parallels Desktop 5, is now shipping for Mac OS X. Like competitor VMware’s Fusion 3, it adds support for running on Snow Leopard and hosting Windows 7 on a virtual machine. However, independent benchmarks show that Desktop 5 still retains a performance lead, specially in 3D graphics performance.
The latest version of Parallels’ solution to run Windows on a Mac—hey, it runs Linux just fine, too—boasts 70 new features, most of which are related to OS integration and speed improvements. Users can now choose from several levels of running a VM, from full-screen all the way to a “Crystal Mode” enhanced Coherence, where Windows applications integrate with running Mac OS X applications, similar to the way Classic worked for Mac OS 9 applications. It also adds support for multi-touch gestures in Windows, format-retaining copy & paste (with images) between Mac and Windows, copy & paste support for Linux VMs, “true” multi-monitor support, and an always-on Windows application folder in the Dock for quick access.
Gone yesterday, here today; Atom support back in dev seed
We reported earlier this week that Apple had seemingly dropped support for Intel’s Atom processor from the most recent developer seed of Mac OS X 10.6.2, leading some to speculate that Apple did so to thwart some users from running the operating system on non-Apple hardware. We thought that Apple’s move wasn’t malicious in intent, but more likely related to code optimization. Still, the news left many Netbook users running Snow Leopard fearing the worst. It was truly a “here today, gone tomorrow” scenario.
The source of the news, who was quite surprised that their post received all the attention it did, is now reporting that the most recent build of OS X 10.6.2, 10C535, has seen the rise of Atom support from the ashes like some sort of software phoenix. That’s right, everything is back to normal, nothing to see here, everyone can go back to running Mac OS X on their underpowered baby laptop.
