MacBook
Showing posts with label MacBook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MacBook. Show all posts
Apple issues software fix in response to MacBook Pro battery problems

Apple issues software fix in response to MacBook Pro battery problems

12:42 AM 0 Comment
After Consumer Reports found wild variations in the new MacBook Pro's battery life, Apple blamed the problem on a Safari bug.

Apple has issued a fix to a Safari bug that it blames for problems with the new MacBook Pro's battery life.
Consumer Reports has refused to recommend the laptop to consumers after its tests showed the battery life on the machines would last anywhere from 19.5 hours to 3.75 hours.
Apple said the findings did not match the results of its own tests.
Now, after reviewing Consumer Reports' diagnostic data, the Cupertino company says the problem can be attributed to a Safari bug that was triggered by the settings Consumer Reports used.
"We appreciate the opportunity to work with Consumer Reports over the holidays to understand their battery test results," said Apple in a statement to Consumer Reports. "We learned that when testing battery life on Mac notebooks, Consumer Reports uses a hidden Safari setting for developing web sites which turns off the browser cache... We have also fixed the bug uncovered in this test."
The fix for the Safari bug is currently only available to those who sign up for the Apple Beta Software program, but it will be a part of a broader software update available in a few weeks.
Luckily for Apple, Consumer Reports says it's re-running its battery tests after downloading the software fix and will give the MacBook Pros a recommended rating if the problem is resolved.
These models were the first MacBooks to not receive recommended ratings from Consumer Reports -- and they were the only laptops out of 140 tested that demonstrated such inconsistent battery life.
6 apps to install on a new MacBook

6 apps to install on a new MacBook

11:24 PM 0 Comment
This six-pack of apps belongs on your Mac.


These are the first six apps I installed on my new MacBook Pro, from a text expander to a word processor, with four useful apps in between. All are free except the first, which costs only $5 and offers a free trial. Let's take them in alphabetical order.

aText

aText is a simple, text-expansion app that lets you create abbreviations for commonly typed words and phrases. With it, for example, I can type "@@" instead of my email address. Or "ty" instead of "thank you." It offers other features but it's worth the cost simply for a handful of keyboard shortcuts that saves me time each day.
aText costs $4.99 (£4.18 in the UK and AU$7.05 in Australia) and is available from Tran Ky Nam Software. You can try aText free for 14 days.

Making your own keyboard shortcuts in aText can save so much time.Photo by Matt Elliott/CNET


Chrome

It hogs more system resources than Safari, but I need Chrome because of its little favicons that let me -- at a quick glance -- make sense out of the dozens of tabs I have open at any given moment during the day. Until Safari adds favicons to its boring and uselessly gray tabs, I'm stuck with Chrome on my Mac.
Chrome is free and available from Google.

Dropbox

Apple is making strides with iCloud Drive, but I still can't quit my Dropbox habit. It remains my preferred method for moving files between my iPhone and Mac along with sharing files from my Mac to others. The Dropbox app integrates itself into Finder and adds a helpful menu bar icon for quick access.
Dropbox is free and available from Dropbox.com.
Dropbox is still a great way to upload files to the cloud and share them with others.
Photo by Matt Elliott/CNET

Flux

If you are enjoying Night Shift on your iPhone, then you'll like Flux for your Mac. It adjusts the color temperature of your Mac's display according to the time of day. So, cooler temperatures during the day when the sun is up, then warmer colors at sunset and even warmer at bedtime.
Flux is free and available from Download.com.

Itsycal

There are more powerful calendar apps than Itsycal, but I prefer Itsycal for its simplicity. It installs an icon in the menu bar that displays the current date. You can click on the Itsycal icon to see the full month. Itsycal also lets you link to the MacOS stock Calendar app and will display upcoming appointments, but you can't schedule appointments with Itsycal. That's fine by me since I like it just to be able to glance at my menu bar to see today's date.
Itsycal is free and available direct from developer Mowglii.
Itsycal is a very simple way to see your calendar.
Photo by Matt Elliott/CNET

LibreOffice

I need to work with Microsoft Word docs on occasion, and I think LibreOffice does a better job in approximating Word than Apple's Pages app. I don't use Word enough that I need to shell out forOffice for Mac, and the free LibreOffice is a suitable stand-in for Word if you don't need it on a daily basis (that's why God invented Google Docs).
LibreOffice is free as well as open-source, and available from The Document Foundation.
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