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Buzz Anderson on quality vs first to market

It's the software, stupid

iPhone OS 3.0. Are you ready?

As of today, iPhone developers who want to have their applications available from the App Store must ensure their apps work with 3.0. If their app fails to work properly with OS 3.0, Apple will yank it out of the App Store when 3.0 hits public and they'll have to recode it.

AIR: A runtime for Twitter clients?

The most interesting product of Twitter’s popularity, to me, has been the explosion of Twitter API client software. There are a slew of cross-platform Adobe Air-based clients, including Twhirl and TweetDeck. TweetDeck in particular appears to be the most popular interface for Twitter other than the Twitter.com web site. (One could be forgiven for assuming the entire point of Air is to serve as a runtime for cross-platform Twitter clients.)

Updating system and applications

Mac users can update their software via several methods. The most common of which is through Software Update which can be accessed from the Apple Menu on the top left hand corner oft the screen (see that Apple logo on the corner?). Through this piece of mechanism, Apple expects its customers to keep their Macs up to date.

Software Update

On the face of it, Software Update lets you choose which updates you want to install by clicking the check boxes and subsequently clicking the Install button at the bottom. But did you know you can also choose to only download the updates without installing them? Apple has yet to make this obvious but it's dead simple. All you have to do is select the updates you want to download and then click on the Update menu on the menu bar. 

While the menu bar has always been an active part of an  application, the user interface of Software Update makes this fact almost invisible, just like with the menu bar during Mac OS X installation or set up, which is the subject of next week's Mac tips.

When you download an update package, you'll find it in the Downloads folder. Double click that to install. If you have multiple Macs to update and have difficulties in going online, this should save you the trouble. However, keep note that some updates may be specific to a particular system, so they may not work on different Macs, namely the Mac OS X System Updates which does vary from system to system when downloaded via Software Update.

Support Downloads

A way to avoid this is to do it the old fashion way which is to go to Apple's Support Downloads site and download the updates manually. While this is not ideal, it saves the uncertainty and is the only way to get the Mac OS X Combo Update which will update your system to the latest version regardless which version you have.

A combo update is one that can be used to update a system directly from an early version to the latest as opposed to the Delta or standard update which has to be from a version immediately prior to the current. 

Here's an example to make it easier to understand. If you have a Mac OS X 10.5.0 and want to go to 10.5.6 in one swoop, you need the Mac OS X 10.5.6 Combo Updater downloaded from Support Downloads. If you go via Software Update route, you'll have to download each update from 10.5.1 to 10.5.2 to 10.5.3, etc. If your system is already on one version prior to the latest, this method is not necessary but you’re still welcomed to do it.

If you have Mac OS X 10.4 or earlier and want to use 10.5.6 for example, you will have to buy 10.5 first from the stores or from Apple Online Store. This is call

Downside of the Combo Updater is it's massive. The 10.5.6 update will fill up an entire CD whereas the standard update takes up only half a CD. Personally, I always go for the Combo Update route because it also lets me use the updater on my colleagues' Macs and it's only one download. Standard updates mean you have to download each update one by one, impractical.

Avalanche of Updates

While Combo Updater is in my opinion a fantastic option from Apple, I can’t help but wonder why this is not an option for all their other apps. When I was a Mac instructor and makeshift admin at my previous job, I dread the days I see Macs with iLife and iWork that are yet to be updated or when I have to do a reinstall.

That’s because I have to install each update for each app one by one from my external HD. I’m not savvy enough to use Automator (Yes, it’s meant to be easy but I still have no idea how make it do what I need to do) so it’s all manual. I have to install the first batch of iLife app updates, then the second, then the third, then the fourth, and same goes with iWork. You cannot miss one update or it just won’t let you update to the latest version. Sometimes I had to do this for multiple Macs at the same time.

I’ll treat you lunch if you have a solution that works. My choice.