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Posts tagged with "lion"

Mac App Store Is Slow? Try This “Fix”→

Mac App Store Is Slow? Try This Fix

On Tuesday, I received the new MacBook Air (13-inch, base model) I bought from the Apple online store last week. After I booted it up and entered my personal information, I immediately launched the Mac App Store to re-install all my apps (and I also happened to get free iLife apps in the process). However, I noticed something: the Mac App Store was terribly slow, unusually unresponsive when compared to the same Mac App Store running on my 2008 MacBook Pro and 2009 iMac. I asked on Twitter, and lots of people seemed to share my frustrations with “beachballs”, slow loading times, and general bugginess of the program.

It was strange, because as I said the Mac App Store used to run okay on my two old machines. Apple’s App Stores have never been the fastest or most stable applications for the Mac, but they were acceptable. On my new MacBook Air, the Mac App Store displayed a beachball on launch, quit, and everything in between (including simple actions like loading a new Category). That was until 10 minutes ago, when reader Stu Helm sent me this tip from his personal blog that almost magically fixed my issues with the Mac App Store.

Stu writes:

- Quit the Mac App Store with Command + Option + Q

- Open Keychain Access from Applications > Utilities

- Go to Keychain Access > Preferences > Certificates

- Set ‘Certificate Revocation List (CRL)’ to ‘Off’

- Quit Keychain Access

- Relaunch the Mac App Store and you should be set

From a quick search online, I can see this is a rather old fix – I didn’t know about it. Like I said, it worked perfectly on my machine, and now the App Store’s slowness only depends on the speed of my Internet connection. The ‘Certificate Revocation List (CRL)’ was originally set to “Best Attempt” on my MacBook Air, though I have MobileMe Keychain syncing enabled, so I can’t confirm on the default settings in OS X Lion. As for CRL itself, you can read more on Wikipedia.

If your Mac App Store is acting weird, try this fix. Here’s a video of what it looked like before I set CRL to “off”.

Update: Obviously, you’re changing Keychain Access preferences at your own risk. Our only intention is to point out that, security issues aside, changing this preference “fixes” the problem for several users. Other readers are reporting that you can also set Keychain Access’ CRL back to “Best Attempt” after the first Mac App Store launch, and the app will stay “fixed” in the future. Nate Silva posted more information about CRL and the Mac App Store back in April.

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New Macs Give Users iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand For Free On All Macs

When I received my new MacBook Air three days ago, I immediately launched the Mac App Store to re-download all my apps with a few clicks thanks to Apple’s unified solution that makes it easy to get all the software you already own on a new machine. As I headed over the Purchased tab, however, I noticed downloads for three iLife ‘11 apps – iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand – automatically started in the background. With new Mac purchases, in fact, it turns out Apple is giving away the iLife suite as standalone apps available on the Mac App Store. Normally, these apps would set you back $14.99 each – instead, I got them for free on my new MacBook Air with OS X Lion pre-installed.

As reported by Macworld, the new Mac Minis and MacBook Airs released on July 20th come with the latest versions of OS X and iLife bundled for free. Owners of Macs purchased between June 6 and July 20 can request a copy of OS X Lion through Apple’s Up-to-Date program, whilst the Minis and Airs released two weeks ago already have Lion, but don’t have a physical copy or backup of the OS in the box. This is because Apple will start selling a Lion USB Thumb Drive at $69 in August, and Lion automatically creates a Recovery HD partition that, among other things, allows you to re-install the operating system via an online system that, through a series of security, hardware and Apple ID checks, pulls Lion directly from Apple’s servers.

The iLife apps users will receive with a new Mac, however, can easily be “ported” to an old Snow Leopard installation through the Mac App Store. Once the apps are downloaded and tied to your account, the usual Mac App Store licensing terms apply: apps can be downloaded on any of your Macs authorized with your Apple ID. And because these apps are not exclusive to Lion, they’ll appear in the Purchased tab on a Snow Leopard’s Mac App Store.

The iLife license you get when you set up one of the latest Macs is no different. Which means that if you haven’t yet gotten around to upgrading to iLife ’11, buying a new Mac mini or MacBook Air essentially gets you iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand for all your Macs running OS X 10.6.6 or later (since you need at least that version of Snow Leopard to run the Mac App Store). And this isn’t sneaky or dishonest—it’s right there in the Mac App Store’s software license.

Obviously, these free downloads won’t include digital versions of iWeb and iDVD, which are not available on the Mac App Store. Apple had previously announced its intention to discontinue iWeb, suggesting existing users to find an alternative solution to host their iWeb-designed websites.

Apple Updating Keyboards and Packaging for MacBook Pros: No Install Disc or Internet Recovery

Remember when Leopard came out in 2007? Apple quickly refreshed their line of MacBooks to include a new keyboard layout to accommodate the changes made in Lion. The Exposé and Dashboard keys were added, and integration with OS X 10.5 and 10.6 has remained until now. As of Lion and the new MacBook Airs, Apple has introduced Mission Control and Launchpad keys, while removing the Dashboard key from its F4 spot.

MacTrast is giving us a glimpse at Apple’s new packaging for their MacBook line that reveals the Lion desktop, Andromeda Galaxy. Manuals are also being updated to accommodate the new OS and Apple is removing the install disc. As for MacBooks (and as spotted before), Apple is tweaking keyboards to fit the new functions. Previous Macs should soon be updated to come with Lion preinstalled. As before, Apple is keeping the packaging elegant and is pursuing reducing the amount of clutter to be found in box.

One concern that MacTrast noted is that while MacBooks are coming without the install disc, they don’t include the ability to install Lion over-the-air (likely this ability will come with a hardware revision to the MacBook Pro line). Apple will offer a USB thumb drive in the future for $69 to users who want to maintain their own machines, and only the current MacBook Air and Mac Mini include Internet Recovery for users who need to reinstall OS X in case of a failure — Apple is encouraging users to visit the Apple store for hardware failures.

[MacTrast via MacRumors]

Hide Apps and Folders in Launchpad with Launchpad-Control

A problem I have with Launchpad (and the SpringBoard on iOS) is that while you can rearrange and group apps, sometimes you just want to hide apps or get rid of them completely. This is possible on iOS via a Jailbreak, but how can we hide unnecessary apps and folders in Launchpad on the Mac? Andreas Ganske’s Launchpad-Control is your ticket to greater control.

Launchpad-Control is super simple to use. Download it, unzip the archive, and drag the icon to your Applications folder in your Finder’s sidebar. When you open Launchpad-Control, you’re presented with a list of all the apps displayed in your Launchpad. Simply uncheck the folders or apps you don’t want to see, click Apply, then wait as your dock is killed and comes back into view. When you own open Launchpad, all of the apps you wanted to hide will no longer be active. It’s so simple to use, but fair warning: using this app comes at your own risk!

You can download Launchpad-Control from http://chaosspace.de/. Remember to donate if you find this free utility useful!

[via @ChaosCoder]

Reveal the Dock in fullscreen apps→

Reveal the Dock in fullscreen apps

To get to the Dock from a fullscreen app, just move the pointer all the way to the edge where the Dock is pinned, then swipe or move the mouse in the same direction again, as if you were trying to move beyond the edge. The Dock pops right up, with no keyboard commands needed.

I saw question about this directed at @macstoriesnet yesterday, although I didn’t know the trick. This morning Macworld comes through with a simple solution, although their explanation is a little confusing. Here’s the gist: if your dock is on the bottom of the screen, swipe your mouse cursor down twice at the bottom edge of the display. If your dock is at the right of the screen, swipe your mouse cursor right twice. This works even when you automatically hide and show the dock. If you have an app that’s open in another desktop space, you can simply click on its application icon in the dock to jump to that space without initiating Mission Control or swiping between desktops.

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Getting Started with Mail in Lion

Maybe you’re new to Lion (welcome newly acquainted Mac users), or maybe you’re not much of a Mail user to begin with. Well, “Hello From Cupertino, CA”! Much of the hype around Lion has revolved around the iOS-inspired changes made to Mail, which aims to make reading messages, composing email, and navigating through conversations really easy. To do this, Mail likes to hide the Mailbox List, while getting you comfortable with the new Favorites Bar. Lion’s new vertical message list and message-preview pane better make use of wide-screen displays, especially while full-screen. If you’re not familiar with this terminology yet, don’t worry. Grab a cup of coffee, your favorite morning or afternoon pastry, and get ready to set up Lion with your account.

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Screens for Mac Makes VNC Easy and Organized

I’m a big fan of Edovia’s Screen VNC client for the iPhone and iPad. Whilst I still use LogMeIn when I need to access my computer’s filesystem remotely and I enjoy the service’s social features and network-recognition capabilities (when combined with Hamachi), my basic VNC needs can be easily satisfied with Screens, which provides a very intuitive interface to set up new computers, connect to them, and use them. I don’t recall a single time I haven’t used Screens at least once a day in the past few months to quickly connect to my iMac while I’m on the couch, and fire up some Spotify through the room. For quick connections, Screens is a great app – it even works on 3G and remote Wi-Fi networks thanks to a companion desktop app that will make your Mac available outside your local network.

In my overview of the improved Screen Sharing app in OS X Lion, I detailed how Apple enhanced the system utility with new clipboard features, per-user login, and possibility of grabbing a screenshot of the connected machine. With Screens for Mac, released last week, Edovia offers an alternative to Apple’s default Screen Sharing app that doesn’t have new breakthrough functionalities, but dramatically improves the organization of your remote desktops, and gives you more control over what you’re connecting to. Read more

Face Detection Technology And APIs Make Their Way Into iOS 5

After doing some digging in iOS 5, 9to5 Mac today reported that Apple is planning to open up face detection APIs to developers. It appears from what they found that Apple will bring similar face detection techniques that Photo Booth on Lion currently employs to iOS and allow developers to build different apps that utilize the APIs.

These claims come after 9to5 Mac found the ‘CIFaceFeature’ and ‘CIDetector’ APIs within a recent beta build of iOS 5, which they say are “very advanced” APIs. The first of the two can be used by developers to locate where a person’s mouth and eyes are, whilst the latter is used when processing those images for face detection. Apple’s Developer Library online also already has some notes on the new APIs for developers to take advantage of.

Obviously at this point there is only speculation as to what these purported APIs could be used for – an obvious stretch is that the iPad version of Photo Booth may add the new effects added to the Lion version that take advantage of the information of where a person’s facial features are. It is also claimed that Polar Rose, a company that specialized in facial recognition software and was purchased by Apple last year, played a role in the development of these technologies within iOS and Lion.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

All You Need To Know About Quick Look In Lion, Plus Some Handy Tips And Tricks

We briefly touched upon the improvements to Quick Look in our Lion review last week, speaking of the improvements made to it in broad strokes. But we felt as though it was worth a second look because there have been quite a few improvements, including many that are subtle but really nice touches.

New Look
The biggest change is of course the refreshed look, which Cody described in the review as “painted in a new white lacquer compared to the smokey previews in Leopard and Snow Leopard”. The reaction to this change has been both positive and negative, but broadly speaking we think it’s a good change, it feels cleaner and more refined – gone is that thick and wasteful bar at the bottom of the Quick Look window.

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