Updates OSX

Meltdown & Spectre

January 5, 2018 by Peter Bockenhauer

We want to make you aware of two bugs that affect nearly every device made in the last 20 years.

Simply put, these security flaws put your information at risk. The best course of action (as it has always been) is do two things:

1) Keep all your devices (Macs, iPhones, iPads and Apple TVs) and software up-to-date with the latest updates and patches.
2) Do not install software or click on links from untrusted sources.

For more detailed information, please see the links below:

About speculative execution vulnerabilities in ARM-based and Intel CPUs – https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208394
Same as it ever was: There’s no reason to melt down – https://blog.agilebits.com/2018/01/04/same-as-it-ever-was-theres-no-reason-to-melt-down/
Meltdown & Spectre – https://meltdownattack.com

Category: Best Practice, iOS, Mac, Updates iOS, Updates OSX

Apple reveals OS X 10.11 El Capitan and iOS 9

June 8, 2015 by Tim Drenk

Apple revealed the next version of OS X 10.11 which has been named El Capitan. Apple has posted a page describing the new features and improvements that are coming. Apple also showed off iOS 9. You can see what’s coming next here.

Category: Updates iOS, Updates OSX

OS X 10.10.3 and Photos

April 9, 2015 by Tim Drenk

Apple released the update for Yosemite, 10.10.3, yesterday. You can get it through the Mac App Store if it doesn’t show up as an update or you can download the combo updater if you didn’t updated to 10.10.2.

With 10.10.3, comes the new Photos app. iMore.com has a good post about using Photos with multiple Macs. The post assumes that the different Macs are using the same iCloud account, however. If you are using different iCloud accounts on the different Macs, you would use the Shared tab and create a Shared Album.

Category: Articles, Updates OSX

OS X History

October 15, 2014 by Joel Gerdeen

With a new version OS X 10.10 named Yosemite soon upon us, I remembered back to the first version that was released in March of 2001. Actually there was a server version in 1999 that I never used. Yosemite is 11th version for the desktop since the first was 10.0. I still have a copy of OS X 10.0, code named Cheetah though the box did not have the cat name on it. That version cost me $129.

In version 10.1 Apple formally used the name Puma. They continued with big cat names until 10.9 which they named Mavericks. I have copies of all and actually run 10.3 Panther, 10.4 Tiger, 10.5 Leopard and 10.6 Snow Leopard on various old Macs in my collection. Tiger supports OS 9 in Classic mode as well. You can read about all versions of the Mac OS at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mac_OS

I am also in the process os scanning all old Mini’app’les newsletters to add to our web site. It appears that the first substantial mention of OS X was in the May 2001 issue where an article from Tidbits was included. Since an OCR of the scan copy required cleanup, I looked on the Tidbits site to find the original. Not finding it, I emailed Adam Engst, the author, who provided the following link: http://tidbits.com/article/6372 . This article still has good advice as to who should install a new version of Mac OS X and when.

If you plan to upgrade to Yosemite, the following is a good resource though there are plenty of other free articles being published.
http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/yosemite-upgrading?pt=TB1239&cp=CPN016640904PRE

Category: Articles, Best Practice, Software, Updates OSX

OS X 10.9.5 Update

September 18, 2014 by Tim Drenk

Apple released 10.9.5 last night, the fifth major update, and maybe it’s last update, to OS X Mavericks. You can get the update on any supported system using the built-in Software Update functionality through the Mac App Store, or by using the standalone installer available from Apple.com.

Category: Updates OSX