Enormous security update from Apple today !
Weighing in at a whole 6.3MB!
The enigmatic details from Apple read as:
Security Update 2010-003 is recommended for all users and improves the security of Mac OS X.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.
But please note, restart is required!
In case you missed the news on those interwebs there is a new version of the software that runs your iPhone coming out later this year…
The iPhone OS (operating system) version 4.0 should be out this summer, and it boast a host of exciting new features that should enhance your iPhone experience !
Apple boasts of 100+ new features for users, but I won’t spoil the surprise and tell you them all.
But some of them are too good not to share, so here is my list of the best new features in iPhone OS 4.0
Multitasking
This has been a continuous gripe since the iPhone came along. Multitasking, where more than one app/program is running at the same time has not been possible on the iPhone so far. However now:
“Developers will have access to seven multitasking services, which will allow tasks to be performed in the background while preserving performance and battery life. So you’ll be able to make a Voice over IP call while playing a game or checking email, find a restaurant on Urbanspoon while listening to Pandora, and more”
Folders
This one is a doozy!
At the moment the most Apps you can install on your iPhone is 180.
However in iPhone OS 4.0 you will be able to organise your apps into folders and have easy (apparently) control over 2160 Apps!!! Now that is app-tastic…
Not that exciting this one, but still pretty good if you’re a heavy e-mail user:
“See messages from all your email accounts displayed together in a unified inbox, switch between inboxes more quickly, organize messages by threads”
But for me, I’ve saved the best till last…
iBooks
That sexy ebook reader you’ve seen on the iPad is now coming to the iPhone, complete with its free copy of Winnie the Pooh (one of my personal favourite books ever!)
If Apple are half as successful at changing the book publishing industry as they were at changing the music industry, the whole iBook thing should be very exciting…
Are you looking forward to iPhone OS 4.0 ?
I know I am…
You may or may not agree with Apple’s stance on not allowing Adobe Flash on the iPhone or iPad.
However I don’t know about you. but whenever my web browser is acting up, or crashing, or hogging CPU cycles, or memory, nine times out of ten, when I check the activity monitor Flash is the culprit !
If only there was a way you could disable or block flash…
Wait a minute there is!
If you’re running Google Chrome you can install the FlashBlock extension.
The extension automatically blocks flash content on webpages.
Each flash element is being replaced with a placeholder that allows you to load only selected elements on a given page.
You can also manage a whitelist of allowed websites via a configuration panel.In general, FlashBlock helps with lowering memory usage, reducing cpu cycles,
and can be used as an alternative to AdBlock.
I’ve just installed it & will let you know how I get on !
You can get it yourself here
How do you get on with Flash?
The new Snow Leopard is out of the bag…
Here’s what Apple have to say about it:
The 10.6.3 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:
Not a very exciting list, but I’m sure a lot of hard work went in to it all the same !
Might me a new iTunes out soon though, that might be a little more lively !
Paypal have today released a new version of its iPhone app.
As well as having a snazzy new animated splash screen, it included one feature that was sorely missing from its previous version.
It now allows you to send a money request to your contacts (yippee!)
PayPal has offered a free application for the iPhone ever since the App Store launched in mid-2008, and it has gradually been improving over time.
The other significant new features are the ability to withdraw money from Paypal and deposit in into your bank account.
It also has some nifty integration with Bump which enables you to exchange money with other iPhone users simply by tapping the two phones together ! !
This surely is the stuff that dreams are made of…!
Does this spell the end for cash ?
I hope so, that would be nice wouldn’t it !
Although it would require everyone that you knew to have an iPhone… but your mates could never dibb out on paying for a round !
An Apple iPad advert appeared during the US Oscars TV coverage.
Looks pretty nifty.
I expect we’ll see some of these adds in the UK once a release date has been confirmed.
Check out the add below:
Now all I need to do is work out how to justify buying one of these to my wife !
In todays news…
Apple have released their fabled tablet computer, called (we now know) the iPad
The missing first page of the bible is discovered, stating “The Following Story is Fictional and Does Not Depict Any Actual Person or Event”
The Pope unifies all religions under a humanist banner
All wars are overJohn Lennon and George Harrison are discovered alive and well, having had a nice long relaxing holiday during which they’ve written ten albums worth of new material
The Beatles reform…
All carbon and other greenhouse gases are sucked from the atmosphere by aliens, who also remove all fossil fuels from the planet
We are forced to adopt entirely renewable energy sources, and the future environmental stability of the planet is secured…
Some of this is true, some is not…
The most important question of course is when can I order my iPad in the UK, and how can I justify it to my wife… (all comments and suggestions gratefully received…)
I’ve finally forced myself to spend some proper time using and testing Google’s Chrome internet browser on my Macbook.
I must say I’m quite impressed…
Boy is it fast, and not just to load pages, but the whole app launching takes a fraction of the time of my regular browser, Firefox.
My biggest positive however is memory usage.
Those of you who end up with ten or twenty tabs open will, like me, probably notice your machines memory getting filled up, and also the processor can start to churn a lot, presumably trying to manage all the memory usage !
However one of Chrome’s much vaunted features is that every tab runs as its own process.
This is not something you really appreciate until you start using the browser for a while, but pretty soon you can appreciate how this helps keep the memory and processor footprint of the browser down to a minimum.
Obviously the Firefox plugins that you may have installed are not available for Chrome, however the only one I’m truly missing is 1Password which is kind of an essential in my day to day life.
So it’s not quite goodbye to trusty Firefox yet…
You might know that you can right-click on a highlighted word and bring up the OS X dictionary on your Apple 
But did you know that you can press Command+Control+D while hovering over any word, and up pops the definition almost immediately.
If you continue to hold down those keys you can slide your mouse over any other word and get a definition as well. Let go of the keys, and click somewhere else and the dictionary vanishes.
Unfortunately this little feature doesn’t work everywhere. It requires you be in a Cocoa application
My spoulling spelling is often atrocious so this kind of quick tip is a real winner, and another reason to love my Macbook…
Of course I am just guessing, but I’m also guessing that this Window driven “slate PC” will not be a patch on the rumoured iSlate touchscreen tablet device that Apple may or may not be announcing later this month.
This video is very very low on content:
Although I like the fact that Ballmer (Microsoft CEO) demonstrated the device running the Amazon Kindle desktop application with the hit book “Twilight” by Stephanie Meyer. The cover of the book ironically shows a pair of hands cradling an apple.
Nice touch….
But if the iSlate does materialise and if it’s half as good as an iPhone, I’m sure it will wipe the floor with this offering from HP.
