MacFixIt

How to re-enable older Flash in Safari 5.1.7

In the latest version of Safari, Apple enhanced the browser with a security measure that ensures users make use of the latest version of Flash player. The browser will check for the latest version of Flash, and if your installed version is out of date, then it will disable the plug-in and prompt you to download the latest version, but this might not always be desired.

This security feature has been applauded by Adobe's Brad Arkin, who in a blog posting stated:

"We welcome today's initiative by Apple to encourage Mac users to stay up-to-date: With the Apple

Tackling SMC console errors after OS X 10.7.4 update

The OS X 10.7.4 update that Apple released yesterday has been a relatively smooth update for many people, and is a recommended update because of its fix for a password logging error and the ability to preserve users' preferences for whether to open windows when logging back in. However, a few people have found that this update causes massive number of kernel-related error messages to be displayed in the system console.

As described by Apple Discussion member "paddyiyer", after updating the following messages can be seen repeated in the Console utility:

5/9/12 7:20:23.000 more

Sandboxed applications 'crashing' in OS X upon location change

An apparent bug is present in OS X 10.7 "Lion" that causes some applications to crash when the system's network location configuration is changed. However, while the system generates a crash report, the applications appear to have not crashed at all.

This issue happens because of a bug with how OS X handles both network location configurations and its process sandboxing routines.

In OS X you can set up different "locations" in the Network system preferences -- convenient configurations for the various network setups you might need for your work. For instance, a home Wi-Fi setup might be more

Bluetooth blues follow OS X 10.7.4 update

Yesterday Apple released the OS X 10.7.4 update, which addressed a number of problems and security issues in OS X, including the logging of some users' passwords in plain text and the long-standing log-out option for reopening windows always being enabled. Along with this update, however, came a security update to Bluetooth that has caused some people's Bluetooth configurations to not work properly.

The Bluetooth service in OS X 10.7 through 10.7.3 had a bug that meant a local user could potentially hack the Bluetooth daemon process and execute arbitrary code with system privileges, more

OS X 10.7.4 fixes FileVault password snafu

Last week a security hole in OS X 10.7.3 was uncovered where the account passwords for Lion users who had upgraded from Snow Leopard and who were still using the legacy FileVault encryption scheme were being stored in plain text in system log files. This issue happened apparently because a debugging flag for the OS software had been left enabled in the public release. Following this finding, Apple today issued the next version of OS X Lion, which along with other fixes and tweaks, closes this security hole for these users.

The security hole was found to be more

Apple releases Safari 5.1.7, Snow Leopard updates, and more.

Accompanying today's updates for OS X Lion client and server, Apple has released a number of other updates for its supported operating systems and OS X software.

The first is a security update for Snow Leopard, which applies similar security updates for its components that were applied to Lion in the OS X 10.7.4 update. Apple has a knowledgebase page on the security details of this update, but as of this writing the page is not loading from the Apple support site.

In addition to the Operating System updates, Apple has made available updates to its popular more

Disable elastic scrolling in OS X

If you have been using OS X Lion, you will find that Apple has implemented an elastic bouncelike feature to its scrolling behavior, where when you reach the end of a document while scrolling, the page will appear to stretch beyond the extent of the page where it reveals a gray texture pattern, followed by sliding back to its expected location. This behavior occurs when you use multitouch input devices such as Apple's trackpads or Magic Mouse, and while fun from some perspectives, it's a feature that some might not want to have on all the time.

While more

Apple pushes out OS X 10.7.4 with new Safari in tow

Apple today released 10.7.4, the fourth minor update to Lion, and one that squashes a number of bugs and patches a security hole.

Among the fixes is one for Apple's FileVault data encryption technology, which cropped up in an earlier update. That issue kept user passwords in a log file that was stored in plain text if a user had upgraded from past versions of OS X.

Other notable changes include a new version of Safari (version 5.1.6), which Apple says is more stable. Once users install the OS X update, they can get Safari more

Mountain Lion to arrive sooner than expected?

For the past couple of months Apple has been teasing the public with its upcoming version of OS X, called Mountain Lion. Earlier this year Apple released a sneak peek of the new Mountain Lion features on its Web site, and has since been releasing builds of the operating system to developers for testing. While Apple has claimed the OS will be released this summer, new developments suggests this date may be earlier rather than later.

In the past when Apple has promised software releases during the summer, it has waited until the very end of summer to release them, more

How to count items in a folder in OS X

In past versions of OS X, Apple offered an obvious item count indicator that showed the number of items in a given folder. This feature was present by default in the Finder, which made it convenient to use for managing folder contents. However, Apple has changed this in Lion so that there is no obvious item count indicator.

This setup was done as part of Apple's more minimal approach to the user interface; it has removed toolbars and scroll bars among other items in order to present as much content on screen as possible. Unfortunately, some convenient aspects have more