News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
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If you’re waiting for your new MacBook Air to show up, there are a few notes from Apple that may interest you before it arrives. All of the notes, including one about older base stations, outline potential issues and fixes with the MacBook Air.
The MacBook Air is compatible with the 802.11n wireless networking standard and uses a wireless network to access remote discs and install software. However, some older base stations using the draft specification may implement what Apple calls a “wide” channel in the 2.4GHz range that could interfere with the MacBook Air, which conforms to more recent draft specifications.
If this happens to you, Apple recommends changing your older base station to use the 5GHz channels or upgrade your base station to a newer model.
Another potential problem is jumpy or jerky video when using the MacBook Air’s built-in camera. This problem affects the MacBook Air, QuickTime Player Pro and iMovie and can easily be fixed by installing QuickTime 7.4.
Be aware that QuickTime 7.4 has been isolated as the cause of problems with Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro.
If you are using your MacBook Air for prolonged periods of time and find the computer becoming sluggish, the MacBook Air may be attempting to protect itself from overheating by shutting down one core of the CPU.
Apple says that in extreme conditions, the MacBook Air may also reduce the clock rate of the remaining core. The company’s recommendation is to move the computer to a cooler area or use a notebook cooling pad to dissipate the heat.
The last issue outlined by Apple is one that many iPhone owners have dealt with — the headphone jack. Some 3.5mm headphone jacks do not fit securely in the MacBook Air’s port, resulting in poor audio quality. To fix this, you need an adapter to extend the port.
For watching movies, Jobs announced that the second iteration of the Apple TV will allow movies to be downloaded (and even rented) directly from the iTunes Store without the need for a computer to get involved. Of course, this feature is only relevant to Americans, but as an increasing number of Australians are figuring out how to access the US iTunes Store it's worth noting. The iTunes rental service includes both new release and "catalogue" films from all the major studios.
Matthew JC. Powell | Jan 16, 2008
The release of QuickTime 7.4 earlier this month had an unplanned side-effect for one of Apple’s biggest developers, Adobe. According to an Adobe product manager the QuickTime release breaks After Effects and Premiere. Apparently the issue is with QuickTime’s support of Digital Rights Management technology for downloaded movies in iTunes. QuickTime checks movies at regular intervals for DRM violations and since the Adobe products don’t write the headers until it renders the movies, this is seen as a violation.
Jim Dalrymple | Jan 27, 2008
Processors specially developed by Intel for Apple’s new MacBook Air laptop will soon be used by other PC vendors in systems, possibly creating competition for what Apple calls the world’s lightest and thinnest notebook.
Agam Shah | Feb 1, 2008
Apple on Wednesday released an update to QuickTime, version 7.4.1. Available for download from the Software Update system preference, QuickTime is also available from Apple's downloads web site. Separate updaters have been posted for Mac OS X v10.3, 10.4 and 10.5. The update "addresses security issues and improves compatibility with third-party applications," according to Apple. Apple provided no additional details about those changes in the release notes, but confirmed that this update addresses a previously reported incompatibility between QuickTime 7.4 and Adobe After Effects. According to a separately posted note on Apple's web site, QuickTime 7.4.1 also includes a security improvement that can prevent a malicious web site from causing an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.
Peter Cohen and Robert McMullen | Feb 7, 2008
This morning Apple released a new version of its iPhone SDK for developers. iPhone SDK beta 2 includes Interface Builder, a component of Apple’s development tools that lets developers create the interface for their applications. That seems to be the only major change in the latest build, according to the SDK’s read me, which continues to list some known issues. Apple says “this second beta is known to be incompatible with installation folders other than the default /Developer.” Given the importance of UI on the Mac, Interface Builder is a pretty critical tool in the development process, and some developers had chosen to hold off on their efforts until the SDK was revised. Apple unveiled the iPhone SDK at a special event earlier this month, allowing developers to begin building applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. Several high-profile companies have already jumped onboard, demoing their applications at the event. Highlighting the demos was AOL with a native AIM client; other applications from Electronic Arts, Salesforce.com, and Apple were also shown.
