os

Half of iPhone users buy at least an app a month

Although iPhone and Android users download and spend time using about the same number of applications, iPhone users are more apt to buy one, according to a report released Thursday by AdMob.

Among mobile-device consumers surveyed by AdMob for its "January 2010 Metrics Report," 50 percent of all iPhone users and 35 percent of iPod Touch owners purchase at least one app a month. Those numbers compare with 24 percent of Palm's WebOS owners and 21 percent of Android users who buy at least one app each month. Results did not include Research In Motion's BlackBerry.

iPod Touch owners seem to be the heaviest downloaders in general, grabbing an average of 12 apps per month, versus iPhone and Android users who download 9 apps a month. WebOS users overall download only around 6 apps per month, which may be due in large part to the scarcity of available apps.

Touch owners are also the heaviest users, spending an average of 100 minutes each month using their apps, compared with WebOS users at 87 minutes, Android users at 80 minutes, and iPhone users at 79 minutes.… Read more

Tip: Accessing hidden Menu-Extra options

It is well-known that there are hidden menu options available in the OS X system and contextual menus, that can be used by holding various modifier keys while clicking the menus. If you need to find these functions, the easiest way is to browse through and press various combinations of modifier keys to reveal the hidden commands. While you may be aware of this for the system menus, similar options are also available in a number of menu extras. This feature is often overlooked, but can be exceptionally useful, especially when troubleshooting your Mac.… Read more

Apple releases, then pulls, then rereleases iPhone OS SDK 3.2 beta 3 for iPad (Updated)

Updated February 24, 2010 at 10:30 a.m. PST: Updated to reflect that Beta 3 is available again for download.

Apple briefly released and then pulled, without explanation, an update for the iPhone SDK for the iPad, which would have brought the current version of that SDK to 3.2 beta 3.

The short-lived update followed the second iPhone OS and SDK 3.2 beta for the Apple iPad, released several weeks ago.

Prior to the SDK being pulled, 9to5Mac managed to gain access and published some screenshots showing an expanded Settings app, evidence of YouTube playing video in … Read more

Next Firefox to drop Mac OS X 10.4 support

Mozilla has officially decided that the next major version of Firefox will require at least Mac OS X 10.5 when running on Apple computers.

"We believe a Mac OS X 10.5 minimum will allow us to provide the best experience possible to our users," Mozilla Mac programmer Josh Aas said Tuesday in a mailing list announcement. Firefox is built on a browser engine called Gecko, and the upcoming version 1.9.3 will have technology for Mac OS X 10.4 and before removed, he said.

The recently released Firefox 3.6 works on Mac OS … Read more

Slow typing in text fields? Check the spell checker!

Entering information in text fields should be smooth and fast, with no pauses or delays of any kind. Despite this, some background tasks if corrupt or otherwise malfunctioning may interfere with typing. One of the most common is OS X's spell checking behavior, but sometimes, the built-in options are not to blame.… Read more

Tip: Beef up default system security in OS X

For any Mac, new or current, you can do several things to easily increase the security of your system. Apple has several options and system settings for enhancing security, most of which are available if you browse through the system preferences, but there are also other settings and practices that can help increase security.… Read more

Grooveshark: On-demand tunes for your mobile

Grooveshark on Tuesday released a mobile app for Palm OS, bringing the experience of mobile on-demand music to Palm phones like the Pre, Pre Plus, and the Pixi for the first time. The Palm app joins Grooveshark Mobile versions for Android and BlackBerry (it doesn't work on the Storm), both of which were quietly released in early January.

If you're not familiar with Grooveshark, the concept is similar to Rhapsody or Spotify (which is not available in the U.S. yet): type in the name of just about any song, album, or artist, and you'll get a … Read more

Weekly Utilities Update: OnyX, BlueHarvest, coconutBattery, more...

Our Weekly Utilities Update report is a list of all the updates for many Mac utilities that have been released in the past week. While utilities can be any tool that helps you perform a routine task (including image manipulation and synchronization), our main focus in this column is to bring you those tools that help in troubleshooting Mac hardware and software problems. This week's updates include file recovery software, application management utilities, a number of system cleaning and maintenance utilities, and more.… Read more

Concerns about losing website settings when resetting Safari

If you've run into odd behavior with Safari, one convenient way to empty caches and otherwise clear temporary data is to use the "Reset Safari" option in the "Safari" application menu. Despite the convenience of this feature, some people may wonder what will happen for each option, and what might happen to personal data.… Read more

'Color table is missing' and other errors after updating printer drivers

Apple provides a number of printer drivers as part of the CUPS and Gutenprint systems that ship with OS X. These options are enough to get most users up and running, but may be missing a few model-specific features for some printers, so people may opt to install official drivers from the manufacturer. Some who have done this have run into problems, such as the printers not having options for the full set of features, and printing will give them errors such as the "Color table is missing."… Read more