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ExtraBITS for 07-Sep-09

Where There’s a Hacky Will, There’s a Hacky Way — Years ago, TidBITS published an article calling Input Managers “the work of the Devil.” Now Apple has slammed the door on Input Managers: in Snow Leopard, 64-bit apps don’t load them. Password manager 1Password was an Input Manager, yet the 1Password 3 beta works in 64-bit Safari. Read Kevin Ballard’s blog post to learn about 1Password’s new technique for hacking into Safari. (Posted 2009-09-06)

Why Web Content Will Look Darker Under Snow Leopard — Is your screen looking a little darker? Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard adopts a default screen gamma setting of 2.2 (the same as Windows) instead of the traditional Mac setting of 1.8. Adobe’s John Nack consulted with a color expert to get some perspective on why the Mac has always been 1.8 (and the reason doesn’t even involve color). (Posted 2009-09-06)

Snow Leopard Includes Outdated Flash Player — Adobe is reporting that Snow Leopard installs an outdated – and vulnerable – version of Flash Player (though it was likely the most reasonable version to include at the time Snow Leopard was locked down for shipping). So, even if you recently updated Flash Player to avoid security vulnerabilities, you’ll need to update again if you’ve moved to Snow Leopard in the meantime. (Posted 2009-09-03)

AT&T Announces iPhone MMS Support for 25-Sep-09 — AT&T has issued a media alert saying that the company will turn on MMS – Multimedia Messaging Service – for the iPhone 3G and 3GS on 25-Sep-09. A software update on that date will make it possible for iPhone users to transmit images, audio, video, and rich text to other MMS-enabled mobile phones. (Posted 2009-09-03)

MacNotables Discuss Snow Leopard Features and Upgrades — In this edition of the MacNotables podcast, Adam joins Ted Landau, Andy Ihnatko, and host Chuck Joiner to talk about why Snow Leopard was released early, what’s cool about it, and when normal people should think about upgrading. (Posted 2009-09-03)

iPhone MMS, Tethering Delayed Due to AT&T Capacity Woes — In a New York Times article about AT&T’s struggles to keep up with the demand that iPhone users are placing on its cellular data network, author Jenna Wortham writes that the MMS and tethering features of the iPhone OS 3.0 have been delayed because AT&T can’t handle the existing capacity. (Posted 2009-09-02)

DIY: Petabytes on a Budget — It’s not really the sort of thing just anyone can do, but Tim Nufire explains in this blog post how online backup company Backblaze created storage pods that can hold 67 terabytes for just under $8,000. (Posted 2009-09-02)

Adam Muses about Technology and Society in On the Log Podcast — After the publication of his “Post-Literate” article, Adam talks with On the Log host John Meadows about the implications of living with ubiquitous technology that the vast majority of people don’t understand well, if at all. (Posted 2009-09-02)

First Reactions to Snow Leopard Installation Experience — On the MacJury podcast for 01-Sep-09, two out of five “jurors” are TidBITS editors and Take Control authors – Joe Kissell and Matt Neuburg. Find out how everyone’s Snow Leopard installation experience went. And hear a vociferous argument about whether or not Apple’s Intel-only policy for Snow Leopard is fair to users. (Posted 2009-09-01)

Drifting into Snow Leopard — In a one-hour MacVoices podcast interview, TidBITS contributing editor Matt Neuburg gives examples of why small interface tweaks and behind-the-scenes improvements give user good reason to upgrade to Snow Leopard. (Posted 2009-09-01)

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