Archives for October, 2007

Post your Mac OS X 10.5 (”Leopard”) upgrade experiences here as comments on this post. To get things started, here are a few of mine.

NOTE: There seem to be lots of reports that third party “haxies” that use Unsanity Software’s Application Program Enhancer (APE) technology can cause major problems with the Leopard upgrade. Unsanity’s site currently says APE version 2.0.3 is not compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 so if you have APE installed (look for an Application Enhancer icon in your System Preferences window) then you should definitely uninstall it using it’s built-in uninstaller option before upgrading.

UPDATE: Yep it’s true Apple now says that APE causes problems with the Leopard update.

I upgraded three machines: a PowerPC Mac mini, a G5 Tower and a MacBook Pro, and so far the experience has been excellent!

I decided to do a “clean migration” installation on all three machines (What is that you ask? Well, first I did a full backup of each to external hard drives using Carbon Copy Cloner then did a clean install of 10.5 wiping out all existing data. When the install finished and it asked if I wanted to copy my info I choose to restore it “from another Mac” then plugged in the firewire backup drive when it asked for the other computer and allowed it to restore everything from Applications to Users. The end result is a fresh OS install with all of my data and settings the same as they were right down to the Desktop picture. Takes about 2-3 hours total.)

Only glitches I noticed were on the Date & Time System Preference pane: my time zone was reset to Atlanta, GA and the option to synchronize to a time server was now turned off. Both are easily corrected.

.Mac users, don’t panic if when the upgraded machine first tries to sync your Bookmarks, Contacts, etc. you get warnings about multiple conflicts. I’ve seen it here twice and in both cases there were no actual differences between what was on my Mac and what was up on the .Mac servers and allowing the synchronization to proceed didn’t result in any lost information (but your mileage may vary so to be safe consider exporting your entire Address Book contents to a Vcard format backup file in the Addressbook application before doing the upgrade or first sync.)

If you have one or more external hard drives attached you’ll see a prompt asking if you want to use one for your Time Machine backups. You can choose to back up to drives that have other data on them but make sure there’s enough free space to hold everything on your internal drive plus room to spare. If you want to dedicate a drive for Time Machine I’d suggest erasing and unplugging it before installing Leopard, then when the install is all done plug it in and select it when you are prompted. The backup runs in the background so expect it to take a while before the full initial backup is done.

So far things are looking good and problem free. Beyond the obvious visual differences (good and possibly otherwise) expect to keep finding lots of small improvements just about everywhere as you settle in.

Personally I’m thrilled with what I’ve seen so far, Leopard seems to have that extra bit of polish and stability that I sometimes thought was missing in 10.4.

Don’t forget, post your experiences here by clicking the “click here to comment on this post” link below.

Dave

Looks like Apple is throwing a bit of an event for the Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” launch this Friday. The stores are closing at 5:00 and re-opening at 6:00, Leopard’s official release time. Apple says they’ll be giving free Leopard tee shirts to the first 500 people through the doors so head on over to The Pier in Atlantic City or the Sagemore Apple Store in Marlton to grab one for yourself.

Feel free to use comments on this post to arrange times to meet up at the Stores before they open.

Today Steve Jobs announced that there will be an official sanctioned SDK (Software Developers’ Kit) that will allow developers outside of Apple to create their own native applications for the iPhone and the iPod Touch! It should be available in February 2008.

The announcement was posted to the Apple Hot News page, here is the full text:

click here for more

Apple has finally announced an official launch date for Mac OS X 10.5 (a.k.a. “Leopard”) and that date is Friday, October 26th. FYI: Here is Apple’s big list of 300 new Leopard features.

Before you rush out and pre-order your copy you should first check the tech specs to make sure your Mac qualifies. In brief, your machine must have a G4, G5 or Intel processor and if it’s a G4 it must also have an operating speed of 867MHz or higher. G3 based Macs are NOT supported. You can check this information by choosing About This Mac from the Apple menu.

My assumption is that the G4 processor speed requirement is as much about the associated hardware such as the graphics chip as it is about the raw processor speed so installing a processor upgrade in an otherwise unqualified machine probably won’t be enough to allow you to install and run Leopard.

Also be aware that as of 10.5 Apple has eliminated support for running Classic (pre-Mac OS X) applications so you’ll have to replace any you’re still using with Mac OS X equivalents before you upgrade.

Retail price is $130 but if you bought a new Mac on or after October 1st you will be able to get Leopard from Apple for just $10 to cover shipping.

Topic

Tricks & Treats Night

When

Friday October 12th 2007, 7:30pm – 10pm

Who

Everyone!

Where

Room M129, Building M, ACCC Mays Landing Campus

Another ACAMUG tradition, bring your favorite (brief) Mac tricks and tips to show the rest of the group and get a treat in return!

And we’ll have a special visitor: Cory Nilsen, a past member who some members may remember for his part in a demo of Illustrator a few years back. Dennis saw him at the A.C. Apple Store, where he works when he’s not going to college, and invited him to come by the next meeting.

Unfortunately Cory has learned he has to work the night of the meeting so we won’t see him this month, but hopefully we’ll be seeing him and maybe even some fellow Apple Store employees at a future meeting.

Presentation topics may change so be sure to verify on the day of the meeting. Got questions you’d like to have answered? Feel free to post them here as comments before the meeting so the presenters have a chance to prepare.