Skip to content
Thoughtful, detailed coverage of everything Apple for 33 years
and the TidBITS Content Network for Apple professionals

TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 17 August 2015

Safari 8.0.8, 7.1.8, and 6.2.8 — Apple has released Safari 7.1.8 for OS X 10.9 Mavericks and Safari 6.2.8 for 10.8 Mountain Lion, along with Safari 8.0.8 for 10.10 Yosemite (which is included in the just-released 10.10.5 update; see “OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite and iOS 8.4.1 Address Numerous Security Holes,” 14 August 2015). All three versions receive numerous security fixes, including an improved method of displaying the origins of prompts for user information, multiple memory corruption patches in WebKit, improved cookie handling, and a fix for a problem with caching
HTTP authentication (which could carry over credentials entered in private browsing to regular browsing). Safari 7.1.8 and Safari 6.2.8 are available as standalone downloads via Software Update, while Safari 8.0.8 is available only within the 10.10.5 Yosemite update. (Free)

Read/post comments about Safari 8.0.8, 7.1.8, and 6.2.8.

PDFpen and PDFpenPro 7.3 — Smile has released version 7.3 of PDFpen and PDFpenPro with improved scanning speed and reliability, and enhanced compatibility with the beta release of OS X 10.11 El Capitan. The PDF editing apps also fix a bug that caused form field names to reset to defaults after re-opening a document, resolve an issue that caused the Table of Contents to appear empty, and fix several instances of crashes. ($74.95/$124.95 new with a 20 percent discount for TidBITS members, free updates, 52.6/53.2 MB,
release notes, 10.10+)

Read/post comments about PDFpen and PDFpenPro 7.3.

BBEdit 11.1.2 — Bare Bones Software has released BBEdit 11.1.2 with a buffet of bug fixes and improvements. The update improves the default worksheet stationery to account for current features and behaviors, ensures that Process Duplicate Lines correctly includes the last carriage return in the selection, updates the scripting dictionary to include new options for Zap Gremlins, fixes a bug with the CSS language module that would scan beyond the <style>..</style> pair in HTML documents and lead to “unexpected effects,” and fixes a memory leak that would occur after
various text transformations and when computing sub-line differences. ($49.99, free update, 11.5 MB, release notes, 10.8.5+)

Read/post comments about BBEdit 11.1.2.

Security Update 2015-006 — Apple has issued Security Update 2015-006 for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and 10.9 Mavericks, mirroring many of the security fixes that appeared in the concurrently released 10.10.5 Yosemite (see “OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite and iOS 8.4.1 Address Numerous Security Holes,” 14 August 2015). The list of patches that affects all OS releases includes memory corruption issues with processing font files that could lead to arbitrary code execution, multiple vulnerabilities in libxml2 versions prior to 2.9.2, and memory corruption issues in QuickTime 7.
Security Update 2015-006 is available via Software Update or via direct download from Apple’s Support Downloads Web site. (Free. For 10.8 Mountain Lion, 206 MB; for 10.9 Mavericks, 257.2 MB)

Read/post comments about Security Update 2015-006.

iTunes 12.2.2 — Apple has released iTunes 12.2.2 with several improvements and fixes for the Apple Music service. Clicking the Beats 1 banner in the Radio tab now brings you to a page that displays what show is currently on, as well as links to playlists from previous shows and a complete broadcast schedule. You can also view a list of artists that you’re following on Apple Music, though Kirk McElhearn (author of the recently released “Take Control of iTunes 12: The FAQ”) points out it’s not in an obvious place. First click your name in the toolbar, and then click Following in the popover to see the full list of artists; click a Following button to unfollow an artist (the button morphs to Follow). You can also now tell Apple Music what recommended songs you don’t like. In addition, the update fixes a bug that caused iTunes to lose its place when returning to a previous page in Apple Music, resolves a problem that prevented artists from being sorted correctly in My Music, and fixes an issue where playlists in the action
menu failed to match the playlists in your library. (Free, 222 MB via direct download or via Software Update, 10.7.5+)

Read/post comments about iTunes 12.2.2.

Subscribe today so you don’t miss any TidBITS articles!

Every week you’ll get tech tips, in-depth reviews, and insightful news analysis for discerning Apple users. For over 33 years, we’ve published professional, member-supported tech journalism that makes you smarter.

Registration confirmation will be emailed to you.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA. The Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.