Mac

Apple readying fix for sleep crashes on 2013 MacBook Air

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The truth is yet to be known, however it seems that Apple has been having several major problems with recently released software and hardware, at least more than usual. There are the severe bugs in iOS 7, which have yet to be fixed, Mavericks has been a mess especially for Gmail users, and the new MacBooks have had several problems.

One of those problems is about to be fixed. 2013 MacBook Air owners have been experiencing intermittent issues when the computer goes to sleep and/or wakes up. Sometimes the computer crashes completely, sometimes it just freezes, or users are presented with a black screen.

This has led to some extremely lengthy threads on the Apple Support site.

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These problems have gone unresolved since at least November of last year. It looks like the problem is related to a Mavericks (OS X 10.9) bug, which causes the keyboard and touchpad to miscommunicate. It also seems to be only affecting a small percentage of users.

Clever and ambitious users have been able to re-create the issue by pressing the power button, and clicking the touch pad immediately. Which has led to the conclusion that something is going wrong with the way the software communicates clicks during the wakeup/sleep process.

A Fix is Coming

Apple is already deep into development of the next software update for Mavericks. They released another seed of OS X 10.9.2 to developers earlier this week. According to an Apple Support Representative, the fix for these problems will be included in that update, as long as nothing crops up that prevents the fix from being deployed between now and the update’s release.

Developers who are using the beta, which is now in its fourth iteration, have claimed that the problem has been completely fixed. It looks like Apple did this by preventing the computer from going to sleep when the power button is pressed accidentally. Whether or not this solves the problem for all users will remain to be seen.

How to Get Around the Problem Now

If you are experiencing this problem, there seems to be only one work around that works, and that is to do a hard restart of your computer. To do so all you need to do is press and hold the power button.

The question is when will Apple release the patch with the fix? The answer, as always when it comes to Apple, is when they think its ready. It could be tomorrow or it could be a couple months away. Logic seems to indicate that it will be sooner rather than later, as it is at beta 4 at this point, so it has to be getting pretty close. Bold prediction: expect the update to drop in March alongside iOS 7.1.

News

Record songs from iTunes Radio with this new Mac App

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It’s hard to tell whether or not Apple’s iTunes Radio has been a success. They haven’t announced numbers beyond the first weekend, so who knows how it’s really doing. For those of you who do use the service, which can be accessed through iTunes on the Mac, doubleTwist has released a new Mac app, called AirPlay Recorder, which allows you to record songs played on iTunes Radio for later listening.

What the App Does

Basically the way it works is by tricking iTunes into thinking the app is an AirPlay device. Which then causes the music to go to the app, which then records it. It’s very simple, and probably very illegal (more on that later). Each track is saved in your music folder in a specialized “Recorder” folder that can then be transferred directly into iTunes.

This marks the second time that doubleTwist has released an app to rip songs from iTunes Radio. They released an Android app in January, which basically does the same thing; only it does the recording on an Android device instead of directly on the Mac.

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DoubleTwist AirPlay Recorder
Legally Speaking

What the app does is cool, no doubt, and it is most definitely useful to start a huge collection of music, the question is whether it’s legal or not. While we’re no lawyers here, it seems unlikely that it follows the letter of the law.

The developers claim it is legal because in the US radio and TV are available under the Fair Use clause of copyright law. “We are based in the US where recording radio and TV for personal use has been protected under fair use for decades,” writes the developer on their Google Play app page.

Of course, this takes a pretty liberal view of what radio really is. iTunes Radio isn’t exactly radio as we knew it 20 years ago before the Internet became popular.

Will the App Survive?

That’s the question isn’t it? Technologically speaking can Apple block an App like this without blocking legitimate AirPlay receivers? It would seem the only way is if they somehow have a way to block certain receivers, which is of course possible, knowing Apple.

It’ll be interesting to see how Apple responds to this, or if they will respond at all. If they have a way of blocking it, they will for sure. If they don’t have a way, chances are nothing will be said about it from Cupertino.

The AirPlay Recorder app costs $9.99, and is available on the doubleTwist website. It does have a free trial version, but will only record the first 10 seconds of each track until you make the purchase. It’s quite expensive, but since you’ll save money on buying CDs from iTunes, you’ll make it up in no time.

News

Apple named most valuable brand 4th year running

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According to this year’s Brand Finance Global 500 report, Apple remains the world’s most valuable brand. Apple is joined in the top five by Samsung, Google, Microsoft, and Verizon. According to the report, they hold a significant lead over second place Samsung. Brand Finance’s CEO writes:

“What sets [Apple] apart is its ability to monetize [its] brand. For example, though tablets were in use before the iPad, it was the application of the Apple brand to the concept that captured the public imagination and allowed it to take off as a commercial reality.”

Brand Finance, which ran the study, valued Apple at $104.7 billion, which is up 20% over 2013. Samsung, who is number two, is valued at $78.75 billion, which is up 34% on 2013. So while Apple is still number one, Samsung is growing faster. Another year or two like this past one, and Samsung will overtake Apple for the number one spot.

Clouds on the Horizon

We all know about the “Apple is Doomed” narrative that continuously fascinates the press. Despite this endless news cycle of doom and gloom, Apple continues to deliver amazing quarterly results. Wall Street doesn’t seem to care, all they seem to worry about is what’s next, and they don’t think Apple has that answer.

Of course that outlook completely ignores the way Apple does things. There was a huge chunk of time between the Macintosh and the iPod; another chunk between the iPod and the iPhone, and another between the iPhone and the iPad. These revolutionary and “magical” products don’t just appear overnight. Whether the next one is an iWatch or an Apple TV set, or perhaps an iCar, who knows. What’s almost for sure is that Apple isn’t standing still, even though many pundits think they are.

Samsung is facing the same issues as Apple; a maturing smartphone market, and very few ways to innovate on smartphones. Samsung of course has other businesses that it can fall back on, like building refrigerators and ships. Apple doesn’t have that backup market, which is what crazy investors are worried about.

The real question isn’t whether or not Apple will come out with something new (since the answer is of course they will), but rather when and will it be enough? The “Apple is Doomed” industry is a big market for a lot of websites and a lot of analysts. Even after Apple wows us with their next great disruptive product, they will likely go right back to naysaying and predicting the end of Apple.

Bottom Line

Apple is number one, and will continue to do well over the next few years; very well, in fact, with billions of dollars in the bank. Apple will continue to plug along, introducing amazing products and iterating on existing product lines. Likewise the Doomsday group will continue to foresee cloudy skies. It seems that’s just the way of the world.

News

Updates few and far between for the Mac Mini

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Over the last year, Apple has updated every single Mac in its lineup except the Mac Mini. The Mini is the cheapest Mac that Apple makes; yet it hasn’t received an update since fall 2012. Where is the next Mac Mini, and when it does come, what can we expect?
Why Hasn’t Apple Updated the Mac Mini?

This is the question a lot of Mac Mini aficionados have been asking since all the other Macs were updated in late 2013. There is obviously some reason why Apple has chosen to leave the Mac Mini out of all the fun. Here are several reasons we’ve come up with:

  • They just haven’t had time – Apple has a lot going on, even in the Mac department. They’re dealing with Mac Pro delays and Mavericks issues, as well as updates to OS X. That doesn’t even mention what’s happening in other parts of the company. Perhaps they just haven’t gotten around to it.
  • They aren’t planning on updating it again – This is a possibility. As we said the Mac Mini is the cheapest of the Macs, hence also the one with the lowest margins. Perhaps Apple has chosen to focus on the higher end Macs. Unlikely, but possible.
  • They are redesigning it – Redesigns take longer. If they are going with the new Intel chips, they’ll need a new interior architecture, so that could take time, even if they leave the outside the same.
  • Supply Constrictions – There’s a chance that there just aren’t enough processors or memory available for Apple to dedicate to the Mac Mini at this time.

No matter the reason, there haven’t been many rumors about a new Mac Mini, so an update could still be months away.

What We Expect of a New Mac Mini

The most obvious improvement for the Mac Mini is the inclusion of Haswell processors. This would also mean the addition of USB 3.0, and possibly the first computer outside of the Mac Pro with Thunderbolt 2.0. Other improvements, however, are also likely yet harder to predict. As we said above, in order to use the new Haswell processors, Apple will need to tweak the internal layout of the Mac Mini. This could lead to a complete redesign of the computer or it could just be an internal redesign.

MacRumors suggests that we’ll see a bigger hard drive and the inclusion of more RAM. This seems highly unlikely, since all of Apple’s other desktop and laptop computers are abandoning traditional storage for PCI flash-based storage. Even the Mac Pro has gone this direction. There is no reason to suspect that Apple will abandon that direction now and keep a mechanical hard drive in the new Mac Mini.

According to the only Mac Mini rumor we could find, Apple is planning on bringing the Mac Mini to market by the end of February. If that’s the case they had better get a move on as there are only a few days left. More likely we’ll see something at WWDC or perhaps at the annual fall event.

How-To

How to disable Magic Mouse scrolling

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With its wireless and multi-touch capabilities, the Apple Magic Mouse is quite magical indeed. That is until you dive deep into multi-page PDFs, large spreadsheets and other documents that require extra fine mouse control. The Magic Mouse can be sensitive and easily cause you to lose your place with the slightest movement. This can only lead to anger, frustration and lost time. Lets disable Magic Mouse scrolling once and for all.

1. Go to your System Preferences and select Accessibility.

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2. Now under Accessibility, scroll down the left menu and select Mouse & Trackpad. Then in the lower right select Mouse Options.

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3. You have a few options now to fine tune your scrolling. To completely disable scrolling, uncheck the scrolling checkbox. You can also leave it checked and modify your scrolling by either adjusting the scroll speed from slow to fast or changing the drop down menu from with inertia to without inertia. To finalize your changes click done.

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Now you know how to disable Magic Mouse scrolling completely. However some people may want to disable only the horizontal scrolling and leave the vertical scrolling on. To do this you will have to use the Terminal. The Terminal application is located in your Applications/Utilities folder. Although not difficult to complete we would recommend for advanced users only.

To disable horizontal scrolling paste the following command in Terminal, and hit Return:

defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse MouseHorizontalScroll -bool NO

To re-enable horizontal scrolling paste the following command in Terminal, and hit Return:

defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse MouseHorizontalScroll -bool YES

For these Terminal commands to take effect you will have to do one of two things. On the bottom of the Magic Mouse turn the power button to off, then back on to reconnect via bluetooth. Your second option would be to restart the computer. After that your changes should take effect.