Mac software updates

[Rik]

Apple owed their success to Adobe in the early days.

[Gary]

Apple owed their success to Adobe in the early days.

Adobe did so well, and these days things like the PDF reader and Flash have become nightmares for security, yet its hard to beat photoshop full stop. Odd how you can have such great and such awful software all in one company

[Rik]

Adobe were the industry standard for DTP and photography, not to mention fonts. Where they went wrong was in branching out and buying up. The original purpose of PDF files was to make it easier to move data between designer and printer. The more general usage is what caught them out.

[Gary]

Adobe were the industry standard for DTP and photography, not to mention fonts. Where they went wrong was in branching out and buying up. The original purpose of PDF files was to make it easier to move data between designer and printer. The more general usage is what caught them out.

Makes sense They bought out Macromedia didn't they, and then started bundling download managers and Adobe Air along with that very bloated reader, I am glad I don't use it, but it used to be a work well. Adobe seem incapable of writing reasonably secure software at this time for PDF;s and rich content on the web. I know a few  linux users that wont even use flash.

[Rik]

They bought out quite a few companies, including Macromedia, to broaden their base, but they lost sight of their better qualities along the way.

[Gary]

They bought out quite a few companies, including Macromedia, to broaden their base, but they lost sight of their better qualities along the way.

Seems a common problem across many industries these days 

[Rik]

It does. Small is beautiful.

[Gary]

It does. Small is beautiful.

I agree I could not be more happy with IDNets phone package, the small provider of our cooker, and Washing machine, all of which are non chain stores and just local shops, the one of a kind ones that have to care or they go out of business fast, its increasingly hard to deal with big organisations with bad internal structures via to many managers and bad internal communication, its so easy to get wrapped up in nightmares with a company that no matter how "in the right you are" just don't care anymore. 

[Rik]

Though there are a few small companies which can be just as bad.

[Gary]

Though there are a few small companies which can be just as bad.

True, its a lottery really, word of mouth seems a good way these days of getting what you need

[Rik]

Donald Russell.

[Gary]

Donald Russell.

[Lance]

Donald Russell.

Hard to understand when you have a mouth full!

[Rik]

It never lasts long, Lance.

[Tacitus]

I agree I could not be more happy with IDNets phone package, the small provider of our cooker, and Washing machine, all of which are non chain stores and just local shops, the one of a kind ones that have to care or they go out of business fast....

Problem with the large companies is they are focussed on 'Shareholder Value' - aka Profit.  Trim a bit here, cut a corner there, give the customer a worse deal so they can make ever greater profits.  Once profit becomes the sole focus it's all downhill. 

The smaller companies see profit as the reward for doing a good job, not an end in itself.  As a result they focus on the quality of service.  Obviously they need to make a profit or they wouldn't be in business for long, it's just that it isn't the sole focus of all their endeavours.

I'm all for dealing with the small business wherever I can.

[Rik]

Hear hear.

[Bill]

iTunes 10.0.1 available:

Tunes 10.0.1 makes it easier to share your favorite music with your friends on Ping. You can now Like or Post about music right from your iTunes library. You can also easily see the recent activity of a selected artist in your library, or of all artists and friends you follow on Ping using the new Ping Sidebar.

This release also provides a number of important bug fixes, including:

• Addresses an issue where the picture quality of a video changes depending on whether the on-screen controls are visible.
• Resolves an issue where iTunes may unexpectedly quit while interacting with album artwork viewed in a separate window.
• Fixes a problem that affects the performance of some third-party visualizers.
• Addresses an issue where the iTunes library and playlists appear empty.
• Resolves an issue that created an incompatibility with some third-party shared libraries.

[Gary]

Microsoft Office for Mac update 12.2.7 Critical security update

[Steve]

 

[lozcart]

Snow Leopard and Leopard Java updates via Software Update:

Java for Mac OS 10.6 Update 3 (74.3mb)

Java for Mac OS 10.5 Update 8 (119.07mb)

Improved compatibility, security and reliability.

[Steve]

  and an Aperture 3.1 update for iLife11

[Gary]

Office 2011 for Mac patched critical vulnerability, 2004 and 2008 unpatched as of yet, Microsoft quality testing the patch  so be careful is the order of the day. ( I think MS just want everyone to update)  So far I found 2011 buggy on a friends Mac so sticking to 2008 for now, I will wait for a few more updates I think.

[Steve]

I get the feeling Office 2008 will be my last MS product on the Mac OS X platform, I'm fairly happy now that I can break free.

[Gary]

I get the feeling Office 2008 will be my last MS product on the Mac OS X platform, I'm fairly happy now that I can break free.

I think I'll be using 2008 for a while, the update to 2011 has been on my mind for next year but having seen some of the issues first hand I think now more and more I wont update tbh, Steve. Maybe iWork for my needs will be enough. 2011 throws files into trash on every reboot after using it, the same for Messenger for Mac 8 with av, that even gets the cache cleaned up by OS X after a reboot its all been a let down for many its been a horrid update in my mind, so I am staying as is for now with 2008 which is still far from perfect, it  is good till 2013 anyway in product life cycle. I just wish they would push out the patches for the critical vulnerabilitys, it seems the new Office suite in town got prime time attention over 2008 and 2004  saying that a critical hole in IE was missed this update as well.

Seems to have been a month or two of zero day issues 

[Steve]

I used to get MS software for postage rates under their Home User Program ,since that avenue has closed I find it difficult to justify the expense. iWork is certainly good enough for my needs , a family pack doesn't cost a fortune either. It's just whether we at home can cope with the odd incompatibility as both of us use Office Windows at work.