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TidBITS#996/21-Sep-09

As Snow Leopard and the iPhone OS 3.1 settle in, we have a practical issue for you this week, thanks to guest writers Michael E. Cohen and Lewis Butler. Michael explains how changes in the iPhone OS could cause duplication when syncing calendar events, and Lewis figures out how to improve Snow Leopard’s autocorrection capabilities. In other news, Adam explains how to watch Apple events online; and Glenn Fleishman covers Google’s acquisition of reCAPTCHA, the introduction of the AT&T 3G MicroCell home cellular base station, and the 802.11n chip buried in the new iPod touch. Doug McLean also contributes a pair of features: a look at widespread SuperDrive problems and an article about the plight of real snow leopards (and what you can do to help!). Notable software releases this week include Sandvox 1.6.4, Mellel 2.7, MercuryMover 2.0.6, Camera Raw 5.5, Lightroom 2.5, and Things 1.2.2.

Adam Engst 3 comments

Watch Apple Events Online

If you aren't invited to Apple's special events and want to see the real thing rather than reading liveblog transcripts, subscribe to the Apple Keynotes podcast or check the QuickTime Guide.

Lewis Butler 15 comments

Improve Snow Leopard’s Autocorrection Capabilities

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard offers automatic spelling correction, but all too often, it recognizes your typos as words other than what you meant, causing even more work. To ensure accurate replacements, try using the TidBITS AutoCorrect Dictionary of over 2,700 corrections. TidBITS contributor Lewis Butler explains how to do it.

Doug McLean 6 comments

Protecting Snow Leopard’s Namesake Cats

Apple's release of Snow Leopard is for many people the first time they've heard of the big cat, and many more don't know that the actual snow leopard is an extremely endangered species. Here's a look at current efforts to protect the animal, and how you can get involved.

Doug McLean 23 comments

Exploring Widespread SuperDrive Problems

An attempt to track down reports of widespread defective SuperDrives via Apple discussion forums reveals the difficulty in assessing these sorts of large-scale issues, yet also confirms the existence of some kind of significant problem at play.

Jeff Carlson No comments

Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk for 21-Sep-09

This week's discussions cover a broad range of topics: the severity of the recent malware intrusion at the New York Times Web site; using a wireless keyboard and mouse on an older iMac; tracking down an age-old bug in Microsoft Word; problems starting a Power Mac G5; disabling the system-wide spelling checker in Mac OS X, and running Dragon Naturally Speaking in a virtual Windows environment on the Mac.