There’s a lot of fallout, updates and new discoveries about the recent Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard release as well as the usual bits and bytes of Apple-y goodness (and frustration), so let’s get right to it (image at right via Flickr user Kessiye):

• As with most OS upgrades, users are finding a myriad of software compatibility problems with Snow Leopard (which probably wasn’t helped by its early release into the wild). TUAW reports how Logitech keyboard/mouse users (such as myself–I loved reviewing the Wave so much I bought two) can get their hardware working again. And TidBITS offers some workarounds to getting 1Password to work with the 64-bit version of Safari in Snow Leopard.
• Upgraders are already discovering some problems in Snow Leopard (including two-line URLs broken in PDFs viewed in Apple’s Preview application), and there’s already some details leaking out about some of the fixes in the upcoming Snow Leopard 10.6.1 update. But perhaps the most egregious error on Apple’s part is its inclusion of a previous version of Adobe’s Flash Player, which is susceptible to hacking. If you’ve installed Snow Leopard, make sure your Flash Player is the most recent version.
• The New York Times wrote this week that the iPhone is the “Hummer of cellphones” due to its users heavy guzzling of data, which results in dropped calls, spotty service and delayed voice messages. The NYTimes Bits blog followed up with a response from AT&T, which basically boiled down to “nothing to see here, move along.” But as Eric Savitz at the Barron’s Tech Trader Daily blog points out, the real world experience of AT&T’s customers certainly supports the NYTimes article. From my experience, my reception and calls have been fine, but I regularly don’t receive voice mail messages until hours (sometimes 24 hours) after they’ve been sent to me.
• In other AT&T news, it looks like the company is finally going to roll out the iPhone’s MMS service (which enables you to send pictures via the text messaging application) on September 25… just missing the summer window that they promised. However, still no word on a tethering plan (enabling you to use the iPhone as a 3G modem).
• If you’ve got a new Mac with a DisplayPort video output, TUAW reports that you’ll see some new display options when you connect to an HDTV via an HDMI adapter.
• Yojimbo–one of my favorite, always-on pieces of software–has gotten an upgrade to version 2.0. If you’re not familiar with it, Yojimbo (which is also named after my fave Akira Kurosawa movie) is essentially a storage locker (or junk drawer, depending on your view) for all the digital bits in your life–from web passwords to serial numbers to ephemeral web links that you might just one day need after all. In addition to a sweet new icon, the 2.0 version adds a Tag Explorer and improves the Quick Input Panel, the floating Drop Dock, and synchronization with MobileMe (via MacNN and Cult of Mac.
• iStat Menus from iSlayer–another essential software tool I rely on every day–has also been upgraded to 2.0 status and full compatibility with Snow Leopard. The free utility helps you monitor what’s going on with your system from the menu bar–including RAM, network in/out, temperature as well as a better time/date item than Apple’s basic system implementation (via TUAW).
• Here’s an eco twist on the Mophie Juice Pack battery case for the iPhone 3G/3GS: the Solar Surge from Novothink. While it doesn’t provide the 6 hours of additional talk time that the Juice Pack does (or 4.5 hours of the slimmer Juice Pack Air), the integrated solar panel on the back of the case will get you about 30 minutes of talk time on a 3G network after charging the Surge in 2 hours of direct sunlight. A Surge is also coming for the iPod touch, which will come out first and be followed by the iPhone version later in the fall (via Engadget).
• Speaking of all things green and eco, CNet’s Crave reports that upgrading to Snow Leopard could save you money on energy costs. OK, maybe a dollar over the course of a year, but still…
• Here’s some weekend reading for those who haven’t quite decided whether to upgrade to Snow Leopard or not–Ars Technica’s so-deep-it’s-underground 23-page review of the beast (which it calls a “unique and beautiful release”). As a bonus, you can also look back on all ten of the Mac OS X reviews that Ars has written over the past decade.
• And finally… I recently moved my office, which gave me an opportunity to clean out some of the cruft that’s been following me around for years, including several boxes that I’ve saved from my various Apple laptop purchases over the years–including a PowerBook 140 (circa early 1990s), PowerBook G4 (from around 2005), and the MacBook Pro (this year’s model). It’s pretty amazing how slim the most recent MacBook Pro box is–especially when contrasted with how bloated the PowerBook G4 box is since the two laptops aren’t that different in size. Here are some other views of the boxes at Flickr.

  

Don’t forget to check back to End User next Wednesday (September 9), when we’ll cover all the new releases associated with Apple’s iPod rollout event–which should include all-new iPods, iTunes version 9, the new Cocktail digital album format, possible premade ringtones, and maybe a new Apple TV (or maybe not).

–Agen G.N. Schmitz

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