Tag: Mac os X

A Note on uTime for Mac and macOS Sierra

~ Matthew Jagiela

uTime App Icon

Back when uTime for OS X (now refered to as macOS) first came out I wrote about how iCloud syncing did not work with macOS Sierra. Shortly after this discovery I filed a bug report with Apple and now that the official release of Sierra is upon us and the feature is still broken I thought it was time for an update on the situation.

The problem is how uTime syncs arrays between devices. Without going into complex details the feature was noted by Apple as being broken and was being looked into. They did not fix it with the release of macOS Sierra which is very disappointing as it renders uTime useless if not being used alongside an iOS device.

However, with the second beta of macOS Sierra 10.12.1 the issue is fixed and iCloud syncs between devices yet again. What this means is that Apple has figured out the problem and the next update to macOS should solve the problem.

I appreciate the patience and I know this is a big problem but it is out of my control unless I want to change both the way the iOS app and macOS app work. If this problem wasn’t fixed with 10.12.1 then I would have probably start to have done.

Thank you for the patience and keep your eye out for macOS updates.

Download uTime for macOS

 

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uTime for OS X 1.1.2 Now Available!

~ Matthew Jagiela

uTime App Icon

uTime 1.1.2 is now being pushed to the Mac App Store. uTime 1.1.2 contains bug fixes and improvements. The official changelog is:

1.1.2:
-Added Links to download uTime in the info panel.
-Fixed error where hitting “Web Support” did nothing.
-User interface improvements

That’s all for this update. There will be much more to come to both uTime for OS X and uTime for OS X in the near future. Until then though happy downloading.

Download uTime for OS X | uTime for iOS

OS X 10.9 Mavericks Beta 4 Now Available From App Store

~ Matthew Jagiela

Screen Shot 2013-07-22 at 6.43.42 PMEven though both the iOS and OS X developer portals are down for everyone due to a hacker on Thursday morning Apple has released the new OS X 10.9 beta 4 update to developers running OS 10.9. If you are a developer running OS 10.8 and want to upgrade you are out of luck till the developer portal comes back up which could be a while… However if you  are running OS X 10.9 just go on the App Store and hit the Updates tab.

Apple even though pushed a new Mavericks update today they took a break from iOS 7 beta 4 from it’s 2 week cycle as we did not see an update today due to the fact the developer site is closed. We could see the update either next week or whenever the portal comes back because there are some crucial bugs that need to be fixed.

 

iOS 7 May Include Airdrop

~ Matthew Jagiela

AirDrop+icon-426x426

Airdrop is a great way to share files between Macs very easily. All you need to do is drag and drop the file and then it is shared if the other user accepts it. It would appear that Airdrop may be making it’s way to iOS 7 that is being revealed next week from today.

Sources say that the AirDrop functionality is currently integrated into the standard iOS share menu. AirDrop will work between two iOS devices and potentially between an iOS device and a Mac. The feature will make it easier than ever to transfer, for example, a photograph or document from one person’s iPhone to another person’s iPad.

While iCloud synchronization works well for sharing photos and documents between two iOS devices owned by the same person, the AirDrop feature will allow seamless individual file exchanges between iOS devices belonging to different people.

This would be great for iOS as it would allow people to share something instantly with no trouble at all. I can’t wait for it and I hope it is true but Apple was rumored to do this last year and scrapped it but I hope they introduce it this year.

WWDC  countdown clock is available here and iOS 7 information can be found here including what I want. 

OS X Mountain Lion Review

~ Matthew Jagiela ~ Leave a comment

Today is the day where you can finally get your hands on the newest greatest version of Mac Software, OS X Mountain Lion. Fortunatly I have had the software ever sense it was announced so I am going to tell you what’s good and bad. So lets get started.

Good: Messages

One of the things that first surfaced when iMessage was announced in iOS 5 is when was it going to be implemented into the Mac. Well mountain Lion brings that functionality. Messages replaces iChat but still has all the same features just with the addition of having all your conversations in one window and having the ability to send iMessages to every iOS 5+ device. Remember if you have the messages BETA tomorrow it will expire forcing you to upgrade to Mountain Lion for the feature.

★★★★

Good: Reminders

One of the things that a student or business man needs is a ToDo list. I will be using this app for the course of the upcoming school year. The reminders app for mac is great. All you need to do is add a what you need to do and when it needs to be done by and your done. You can also tell your reminder to go off when you leave or when you arrive somewhere. However that feature is more for iOS device syncing to your 36/LTE iPad or iPhone not your mac. The cross platforming will make sure you will get what you need to get done, well done. Notifications will also remind you to get done the item you added.

★★★★

Good: Notes

One of the things that bothered me when MobileMe and iCloud syncing came out was that you needed to go into the Mail app to get to them and syncing was TERRIBLE. Not only is the new Notes App easy to use it works very well also! It will sync automatically with iCloud throughout your iCloud enabled devices. You can also add Photos and bullet points into the application! Over all I really like it for Mountain Lion but I would love to see you be able to add photos and bullets to iOS.

★★★★

OK:Airplay Mirroring

One of the things I was really excited about was the addition of airplay mirroring for the Mac in Mountain Lion, however I have an early 2011 2nd GEN Macbook Air as my latest model with no intention of upgrading anytime soon and I was very disappointed that my Mac was not supported. Something with the processor but I bet it will be great for users who could take advantage of it but I have a feeling it will be very lagy for some which is ok. I hope maybe someday Apple will allow older Macs to be able to take advantage of this feature (one can dream).

★★★

Good: Game Center

I like game center on iOS I really do. I think that when Game Center for the mac get’s applications that are ready for it then it will be amazing. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to see how good it is so I can’t really give it a star count but I will be able to give it a rating when I get some apps that support it but I think it is going very far and will have an impact on Mac gaming.

iCloud Storage

iCloud storage was teased about a year ago and we never got it. However in Mountain Lion they gave it to the text edit app. Hopefully soon enough if not tomorrow they will update iWork so we can start having data throughout our devices. I can say across Macs with text edit iCloud storage worked very well for me though and I can’t wait to see it get into iWork so I can have my documents everywhere I go.

★★★★

Good: Notification Center

 One of the things that I really like about mountain lion is the notifications and the notification center. Taken from iOS all you need to do to access notification center is take to fingers and slide them from the very right of your trackpad and swipe left or hit the notification button in the top right of the screen! You can also hit the tweet button and send a tweet to twitter and eventually to Facebook!

★★★★

Really Bad: No more X11

x11 is used by many popular cross platform conversions from Windows. One of the most popular applications being GIMP. One of the thing’s Apple has done is totally removed X11 from Mac so GIMP and other applications that use x11 will not work and will have to be written natively unless there is a work around.

NO STARS

OK: GateKeeper

One of the things Apple added for security in Mountain Lion is Gate Keeper and new security measurements. From now on your Mac running Mountain Lion will check with Apple daily for security updates. Also with Gate Keeper you can only allow App store Apps, signed Apps from registered development companies, or software from anywhere. It is only ok because it shows that the Mac may start to be restricted from outside developers eventually but overall I like how Apple is handling security with this.

★★★★

Summary

Mountain Lion is the best operating system Apple has released for the Mac so far and with software updates coming to use many of the new features some we don’t even know about will make the entire OS better. For only $20 it is a great upgrade for your Mac as you will have security, new features, and even more. However if you want to upgrade but one of these features is a deal breaker later today I will have a video on how to make another disk partition for Mountain Lion and can keep your current OS.

Final Score ★★★★

Apple Releases OS X Security Test Update for Mountain Lion

~ Matthew Jagiela ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday Apple released a Security Update test for OS X Mountain Lion Preview 4(2). The update is an astonishing 1.18GB and has the following updates:

  • Daily Checks for required security updates
  • The ability to install required security updates automatically or after restarting your mac
  • A more secure connection to Apple’s update servers

So if you are running Mountain Lion beta 4 then go and get the update! Or wait for the push notification saying it was installed and you need to restart your mac! Happy downloading.

Messages won’t work when Mountain Lion Is Released

~ Matthew Jagiela ~ Leave a comment

Messages for mac is amazing. I will be having a full review up tomorrow. However it is in beta for a reason, so when Apple is ready to release Mountain Lion there will only be a few bugs rather than a lot of them. So what happens when the beta period is over? Well according to this that consomac.fr was able to find you will have to either get rid of it or upgrade to Mountain Lion. So there you go I will have an app review and the messages review up tomorrow.