Apple is now selling a thumb drive installer on the Apple online store (and perhaps in brick/mortar stores as well) for $69.00.

The absence of a Lion install DVD has caused a bit of uproar (Lion, roar… never mind) with users who are concerned that if they need to reinstall their system, there’s no easy way to do it, and no way at all without a fast Internet connection.

Several sites published articles on how to create a DVD or flash drive installer, but this is the first official Apple release of a physical tool for the purpose.

If you want to roll your own, these articles may be useful:

How to create an OS X Lion Install Disc

How to make a bootable Lion install disc or drive

How to burn a Lion boot disc

Build your own Lion install USB thumb drive for cheap

I’ve created my own thumb drive installer, and it works.

Related posts:

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2. Prep your Mac for Lion Get ready for OS X 10.7 Computerworld posted an article...
3. Notes from a Lion crash-test dummy I installed Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Wednesday afternoon, on...

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Apple released an update to Mac OS X 10.6.7 to address a bug that caused problems for some users. They had issues with some OpenType fonts not displaying and printing correctly, particularly in PDFs.

Snow Leopard Font Update by Apple

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1377

If you’ve had issues with the recent 10.6.7 update, or if you are using Mac OS X 10.6, I highly recommend that you download and install the update, either using the link on this page or with Software Update.

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Apple released iPhoto 9.0.1 update to address the problems a few users have experienced updating their iPhoto libraries after purchasing iLife ’11.

Use Software Update or go to Apple’s download page to get the update. If you purchase iLife ’11, download the update and install it immediately after installing the ’11 suite, before you open iPhoto. This should prevent the problems that have been reported by early adopters.

Apple’s knowledge base article with information about the update and the problems it addresses. I recommend reading it, so you’ll know what the move to iPhoto ’11 will involve.

Expect upgrading a large iPhoto library to take quite a while… could be over an hour.

Upgrading after a force-quitting a previous attempt could result in data loss.

If you did force-quite an upgrade attempt be sure to install iPHoto 9.0.1 before trying again.

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SecureMac released a removal tool for the trojan reported yesterday. If you’re careful, or don’t use social networking, this shouldn’t be much of an issue. Even so, I’d recommend using this tool, and using it to check from time to time.

It looks as if Macintosh usage has grown to the point that thieves who prey on computer users are beginning to target Macs. Our free ride may be coming to a close. Time will tell…

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I don’t know how widespread the problem is, but there are reports of iLife ’11 purchasers opening iPhoto ’11, waiting a loooong time for their library to update, and then finding their images gone.

Events are in some cases named correctly, but the images are gone, though placeholders may remain. In one case, the iPhoto library shrank from 233GB to 6.3GB!

Another user reported that he connected his camera to his Mac and used Image Capture to open a day’s worth of photos. He set it to import the photos into iPhoto ’11 and delete the images from the camera (NOT a good idea… I recommend deleting images using the controls on the camera. It may not be necessary, but it’s advice repeated by a large number of experts who should know) but then got an error message indicating there was not enough room on the volume to import the photos.

He had 30 GB of space on his drive, he says, but now has no photos in his camera, or on his Mac from the day’s shooting… a unique day and unrepeatable, apparently.

The first user had a Time Machine backup and was able to recover his iPhoto library. In fact, he backed it up twice.

This may be unusual behavior, but any time we use new software that has to upgrade a library or otherwise change data, it’s essential to backup before hand.

I am planning to get iLife ’11 in the near future and will report my experiences, and in the mean time, don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the new app.

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MacFixIt has a post today about another low-risk Mac malware appearance, written by Topher Kessler. I’m quoting it below:

Though not a grave security risk for
Mac users, a new Trojan horse called “OSX/HellRTS.D” has been identified by Intego (developers of VirusBarrier X). The new Trojan is a variant of a backdoor server called “HellRaiser,” which was developed to allow full control of an infected PC by a remote attacker.

As with many Trojan horses, this new one is a modification to previous code so hackers can hopefully get around current security measures and virus definitions.

Once installed it will duplicate itself and mask itself as legitimate applications that are already on the computer. It will then set up a server through which it can send e-mails, allow for remote connections, and communicate with remote servers.

The program is distributed as a file that must be installed by a user, and is being made available through user-provided download sources such as online forums and other less-than-legitimate Web sites, and the code is a universal binary file so it will work on both Intel and PowerPC Macs.

Since the installation of this Trojan requires you to manually install the first copy of it, the risk is relatively low, especially since the distribution is through forum postings and other unofficial download sites. As such, the easiest way to prevent infection is to only download programs from a legitimate source such as the developer’s direct site, or from a source like VersionTracker or CNET’s Download.com.

Unfortunately, in situations where there are many users for a machine, it is difficult to tell how the computer is being used and at times what is being installed (even standard users can install some applications to their own accounts). Apple provides parental controls, but users may still run across these programs and try to install them.

There are some steps you can take to ensure your system is safe:

1. Virus Scanning

   Active virus scanning is still not considered a requirement for OS X, but at least have a good scanner installed that you can run periodically. I use Sophos antivirus, but there are several others including MacScan, VirusBarrier, and ClamXav. Ensure your virus definitions are up to date, and if you do not want to manually scan your system periodically, have the program automatically run scans at times when you are not using your system.

2. Restrict administrative access

   It is unclear whether this Trojan requires administrative access to run (or at least run some of its features), but in general it is good practice to limit access to administrative rights, even for yourself. Set up an administrative account and then create a standard account for yourself for daily activities, and only use the administrative account to configure the system.

3. Set up incoming and outgoing firewalls

   Apple’s built-in application firewall is great for preventing access to your system; however, little prevents applications from sending information back out. In addition to regularly going over and removing application exceptions from the OS X firewall (done in the Security system preferences), install a program like Little Snitch, which will notify you of any program that is trying to send information out.

4. Avoid malware

   It is very easy to avoid malware. As previously mentioned, do not install items that you downloaded from forums, but also avoid special deals that are not directly from developers or reputable vendors. Avoid installing items obtained from “warez” and porn sites, and if your browser automatically downloads an installer file, delete it. If a Web site claims you need a plug-in for a specific function, research the plug-in and download it from the developer.

For more tips on increasing the security of your system, check out this article.

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By Topher Kessler, published originally at MacFixIt

Regardless of how you have decided to install OS X (Software Update, Delta, or Combo installers), you may run into a problem where the system might hang on installation. Though the occurrence of this with the 10.6.3 update seems to be rare, when it happens you may see it sit forever with the spinning color wheel, or go blank to a blue, black, or gray screen and require a forced restart. Even if the system appears to be healthy after the forced restart, there is the possibility that some files could be corrupt. As a precaution we recommend reapplying the combo updater.

Most hangs at installation usually happen when the system is running more maintenance-based routines or performing commands like restarting, so the system will not necessarily be hurt; however, there is always the chance that files can get corrupted by interrupting the installation process.

If your computer hangs during installation, try the following steps:

1. Give it time

Many times the system will sit at a blue or black screen for a while, so be sure to give it ample time before concluding the system is hung up. Let it sit there for about half an hour to see if it resolves the hang and continues the installation process properly.

2. Hard-reset only if the system is not doing anything

If the system does not respond after waiting, only hard-reset it if the hard drive is not working. Put your ear to the case of the system to hear if the drive is working. If so, wait until you cannot hear the drive chattering away and then press and hold the power button until the system shuts off.

3.Immediately boot to safe mode

Once the system has been powered down, boot it up and immediately press the Shift key to go to Safe Mode. This will run some diagnostics scripts at boot-up, and also load the OS in a minimal way to prevent any interference. When booted, run Disk Utility’s permissions fix and hard-drive verification routines, as well as run any maintenance utilities you may have for cleaning the system’s temporary files (caches, etc.).

4. Reapply the combo updater

Even if the system seems to be working fine, after any fault in the installation it is always best to re-run the installation using the “Combo” updater. This will ensure that all installed files are in working order, and prevent any currently unused but corrupt files from causing problems later on. We recommend you download the Combo updater and run it when booted in Safe Mode.

5. Check permissions after installation

Once you have completed the installation with the Combo updater, use Disk Utility to run a full permissions fix on the hard drive. This will ensure that all updated files are properly accessible by the system, and prevent slowdowns and hangs that could result if the system cannot access these files.

6. Start over from backup

If the installation is still not working properly, even after reapplying the Combo updater, then it is highly recommended you start over. This can be done by reverting to a backup you made before applying the 10.6.3 update (Time Machine or a cloned drive), or by performing a reinstall of the OS from the Snow Leopard DVD. When you have reverted to the backup, be sure to fully prepare your system for the update by following the procedures suggested in this article.

7. Full reinstall

Reverting to a backup is the preferred method, since it will keep all of your settings and program installations intact; however, some people may not have this in which case a reinstallation may be necessary. Snow Leopard will perform an archive and install, which will preserve user data and installed applications, so reinstalling should keep most settings intact.

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Apple announced that the issues that affected some of the new 27″ iMacs are solved by two new firmware updates.

A small number of purchasers of the incredibly popular new iMacs found their displays a bit yellowish, or flickering, and when the new iMacs sold out of some stores and resellers, let to rumors that production had been stopped because of the problem.

Apple released the iMac Graphics Firmware 1.0 to update the graphics processor and then released he iMac Display Firmware Update 1.0 for the rest of the display hardware.

If you’ve had any issues with the display on a 27″ iMac, download the two firmware updates and install them. Your display should behave afterwards.

iMac Graphics Firmware Update 1.0

iMac Display Firmware Update 1.0

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Yep. Maintenance. Just like your car, a Mac needs to have “stuff” done to it from time to time, to keep running normally and to prevent slow performance and the dreaded SPOD (spinning pizza-wheel of death).

CAUTION: Unless specifically noted, the links to applications will be for Snow Leopard versions. Contact the developer for earlier versions.

When do I need to do maintenance?

I recommend that at the very least, you repair permissions once a year. If strange symptoms appear, you can repair perms as a troubleshooting procedure, but it should be done at least annually. Not everyone agrees, but Apple recommends it, and they know more about their stuff than the rest of us. It can’t hurt.

In addition, I’d clear caches and rebuild the directory at least annually. In an intensive business situation, I’d do it every 6 months. Video production, music production, graphic arts businesses in particular will benefit from more frequent maintenance.

How do I maintain my Mac?

You can always call me, of course. Or another good consultant. If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, and you aren’t losing money by spending time on your Mac more profitably spent on your business, and you’re willing to spend some money on utilities, you can use Onyx (freeware) or Snow Leopard Cache Cleaner (or the Leopard, Tiger and Panther versions found here) for clearing caches. Disk Warrior is the standard tool for rebuilding directories. That’s all it does, but it does it so well!

WARNING! BACK UP PRIOR TO DOING MAINTENANCE TASKS!

I thought Mac OS did it’s own maintenance!

It does, sort of. There are daily, weekly and monthly tasks built into the OS that do a lot of the maintenance work. When they work. Up until Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) there was a bug in the system that caused a problem. The tasks are scheduled for 3 am, but if the Mac is not on and awake, it is supposed to run the tasks at the next available opportunity. The bug prevented that, so unless your Mac was awake, they didn’t get done in Panther and Tiger.

Fortunately there’s a lovely little freeware utility called Anacron that fixes the problem. It’s available in Panther and Tiger flavors, and once installed is completely invisible.

What’s the Directory, and how do I rebuild it?

Think of the directory as the road map the processor uses to tell the hard drive where to look for the bits and bytes that make up the applications and files we use. That’s a vast over-simplification, but it’ll give you an idea of what it is.

Please, don’t comment with long descriptions of what it really means… very few of us care. This post is for those who just want their Mac to work. If you want more detailed info, contact me directly.

There is, in my opinion, only one tool to rebuild the directory. Disk Warrior is a one-trick pony. It only does one thing, but it does it very well indeed. It needs to be installed on a different drive from the one you are rebuilding, so unless you have a bootable external drive or are willing to purchase one, don’t bother with this one. It’s cheaper to have me do it.

My Mac is REAL SLOOOOOOW

More often than not when I hear this from a client it’s one of two things. Either their hard drive is more than 80% full (usually more like 90%) or their drive is heavily fragmented.

Mac OS X uses virtual memory extensively, unless you have 10+ GB of RAM (and even then!). The reason you can have lots of files and apps open at the same time is that when the all the available memory is used, the system can write to the hard drive, instead of memory modules. This is slower than writing to the memory modules, but works pretty well. When there is very little space left on the drive, or if the free space is in little chunks, none very large and scattered all over the drive, the virtual memory process gets very slow indeed.

Recommendations generally are for at least 15-20% free space on your drive. There is an argument that the larger drives today don’t need so much, that 50 GB is more than enough. My experience tells me to go with the recommendation. Drives are not expensive, but lack of productivity is. If you have less than 10% free space, the answer is to get a bigger drive, or if you have enough free space but it’s fragmented badly, to defrag the drive.

I thought OS X took care of fragmentation

The Mac OS is great at taking care of file fragmentation, or at least making it a small issue. It does nothing for volume fragmentation.

File fragmentation comes when your hard drive is forced to write a big file in more that one piece, due to the lack of adequate free space. This doesn’t cause problems, usually, as the modern Mac operating system is able to keep track easily, and hard drives are fast enough to minimize the problem.

Volume fragmentation comes when the free space (where no active files are written, tho erased files may still reside there) becomes so fragmented that productivity slows down. This can only be

Danger, Will Robinson!

Mucking about with your hard drive is dangerous to your files! Back up BEFORE you do any heavy maintenance, and especially before defragmenting your drive.

Defragging

The only software I am comfortable with to defrag is called iDefrag (Coriolis Systems, $29.95). It works. It’s scary, if you understand what it does, but it works.

The alternative is to clone to an erased external drive with Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper (my personal preference), both free (Super Duper is $27.95, but the demo is free. Limited features, but it works for this purpose).

Is that it?

Pretty much. Anything else falls under the heading of troubleshooting, which is another kettle of gigabytes.

By the way, before you ask, Tech Tool Pro is a wonderful application that I use for a number of things, but for defragging, and especially for rebuilding the directory, I prefer the apps listed above. Your mileage may vary. Hope this helps…

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Apple posted a knowegebase document that most of will need sooner or later. The content is below:

If you’re troubleshooting a broadband Internet connection issue related to your modem or router, you should ask your ISP certain questions (or check their support website).  If you use a modem/router that your ISP did not provide, you should ask the manufacturer of the device instead (or check their support website).

Note: This article applies to third-party broadband modems and routers. If you use an AirPort product, check out the resources available on this page instead.

Products Affected
AirPort, Mac OS X 10.5, Mac OS X 10.6

Before contacting your ISP have the following information ready

• What version of Mac OS X is installed?  Mac OS X v10.____.
• Which computers or devices are unable to access the Internet?

 

• Are the devices connecting wirelessly or via an Ethernet cable, or does it vary by device?
• Which exact make and model of modem and/or router do you use?
• What versions of firmware are installed on your modem and/or router? (If you don’t know how to check the firmware version, refer to the documentation that came with the modem or router.) 
• Can you connect to the Internet if the modem is connected directly to your Mac via an Ethernet cable?

 

Questions to ask your ISP or modem/router manufacturer

• Is there a firmware update available for the modem or router? 

 

• If a firmware update is available, how do you install it from your Mac? 
• Is there any MAC address filtering active on the modem or router? If so, can that be adjusted or disabled?
• If there a battery backup in the modem, how can it be temporarily disabled when resetting the modem?

 

• Can the ISP remotely reset the modem? If not, how can you (accounting for any battery backup). 
• Is there a firewall or proxy server active on the modem/router? 
• Does the modem provide additional services, such as wireless access or VoIP telephone services?




• If so, do you have another way of making or receiving phone calls? 
• Does the modem act as a router, or provide wireless services? 
• How should the Network pane in System Preferences be configured? 
• What IP address range should the modem or router provide? 
• Is it possible to replace the modem with a different or newer model?

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