bugs posts

Filed under: Software

VMware Fusion 2.0.5 update squashes bugs, adds 10.6 support

by Mel Martin on Jun 25th 2009 at 4:30PM

VMware Fusion has now been updated to version 2.05. The release number is Build 173382. It is a free update to all Fusion 1 and Fusion 2 owners.

The update includes:

Support for Mac OS X Server guest operating systems with Intel Xeon 5500 and 3500 series processors
Experimental support for Snow Leopard Server as a guest OS (32 bit only)
Experimental support for Snow Leopard as a host OS (32 bit only)
Reduces CPU usage when a VM is idle
Contains more than 80 bug fixes

I applied the update this morning and had no issues. You can get a look at the release notes here. Your Fusion app should update automatically on launch, or you can download the update from the VMware support web site.

Thanks to Martin for the tip

Tags: bugs, emulation, Snow Leopard, update, virtualization, VMware, VMware Fusion

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Bugs/Recalls, iTunes, Apple, Developer, App Store

Twitpocalypse aftermath and "incident" fixes on the App Store

by Mike Schramm on Jun 16th 2009 at 10:00AM

I didn't really take last week's Twitocalypse that seriously, but as you probably know by now, it turned out a little worse than expected -- we'd been told that Twitterrific (and, we assumed, most other Twitter apps) would be fine, and of course, as Craig Hockenberry explains on his blog, things ended up not-so-fine. Desktop app developers, of course, could publish updates as quickly as they could code them; iPhone developers were in a different situation.

When the Iconfactory's app stopped working, most people (including me) got an API error all weekend. Craig found the bug, then he and his team were able to leverage their contacts at Apple Developer Relations to help expedite the release; in short order, an update was pushed out to the App Store. I downloaded it yesterday, and can tell you that things are fixed... at least until the numerical limit on Twitter's tweet identifier raises its head again (or the Newton flips out, but that's another story).

Hockenberry also has ideas about how to keep issues like this from happening again. Not the actual issue of a variable overflow (that will undoubtedly happen again at some point, on Twitter or any other API that scales way faster than anyone expects it to), but the issue of iPhone apps needing a quick fix. He says that Apple should give every developer a number of "incidents" -- situations rarely used, in which a high priority fix can get sent out to apps in major emergencies. He says, and it's true, that for most developers, it's not a question of if you'll need to send out a critical fix, it's a matter of when. And support by Apple, obviously limited to one or two instances per developer, would help developers, distributors, and consumers.

Of course, it's up to Apple, and it's not like they've smoothed out the approval process so well already that they can start adding wrinkles to it. But clearly, given that the Twitterrific update went through quickly, there's room for exceptions to be made.

[via DF]

Tags: api-error, app-store-approval, apple, approval-process, bugs, critical, critical-fix, design, developer, iphone, ipod-touch, support, twitpocalypse, twitter, Twitterrific, update

Filed under: iLife, Software, Troubleshooting

iPhoto 8.0.3 updater bug bites many

by David Winograd on Jun 13th 2009 at 6:30PM

Yesterday I tried to open up iPhoto '09, and was greeted with a screen telling me that my iPhoto library needed to be updated. This was sort of odd, since I had run the program many times since the software update of June 4th bringing the program to version 8.0.3, but what the heck. I clicked on upgrade and the program crashed displaying one of the wonderfully unclear error screens of hex numbers.

After trying all the usual things like rebooting, resetting the PRAM and saying 'Candyman' three times in front of a mirror, I sheepishly gave up and called Apple. It turned out that this has been happening to many people. Up until two days ago, Apple had been capturing reports to find the source. I was told that they stopped capturing reports when they numbered around 3,000.

What Apple found was a bug in the 8.0.3 updater, and apparently the bug could bite just about anytime since it didn't necessarily rear its head directly after the update. The bug, in various incarnations with various solutions, is to be cursorily found in the support forums, but here is the authorized Apple fix:

Hold down the option key as you boot iPhoto and you'll see a screen like the one displayed here. Just choose your library (there should only be one) and iPhoto will boot normally. Problem solved! As of now the problem hasn't resurfaced for me, and according to Apple tech support, it shouldn't. This bug will be squashed in a future iPhoto update but for now it's easy to get around.

Tags: bugs, ilife 09, Ilife09, iphoto, tips, troubleshooting

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review

Stop the presses! AP News for iPhone is a mess

by Mel Martin on May 27th 2009 at 2:15PM

My, my. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The Associated Press has updated the AP News app for the iPhone and iPod touch. They took a mildly aggravating program and turned it into a mass of bugs, freezes and GUI mistakes.

Let's start from the beginning. The iTunes store notified me that AP News 2.0 was available. Great idea. The older version wasn't too stable. I did the update, and it started asking questions, like 'where was I?' so the local news would kick in. I answered the question and went to the next screen. Lockup. I force-quit the app, and tried again. Blank screen, followed by a slow return to the iPhone home screen. Tried again. Same result. And so on.

Deleted the app, and then reloaded it again. Got past the location screen, and then was presented with endless options to configure the news I wanted. If the iPhone screen didn't scroll, this list would have extended all the way to the floor. I'll bet I missed some important news while I was fiddling with that screen.

Anyway, it's up and running. The GUI is not improved. Instead of getting the top national news stories I get a mixture of national, local, wacky and other stuff that it defaults to. I liked the old way where I got a whole scrollable screen of top national news. Now I get 2 stories before the other stuff shows up. You can change this setting, but no more than 5 stories in any category. Not exactly a tribute to free choice.

There are a lot of new features, mostly about customizing this app. You can now see stories in landscape mode, but here's a good one. The story lists won't work in landscape, only the individual stories, so you are constantly changing the orientation of the phone. You can localize the app to crash in Spanish or French, which I guess is an improvement. It also says there are major increases to stability. Really? This thing is a bug-fest.

Amazingly, the AP support page notes that many people will have trouble installing the app, and to download it again with WiFi. Hey, how about making a proper installer so I don't have to do that? Gee whiz.

I don't think the people who developed this app have much of an idea about how people consume news, or how to make a simple and useful interface for controlling it. Judging from the reviews this new app is getting, it might be time for the AP to go back to the drawing board and start again.

Frankly, if you like this update, it will be news to the rest of us.

Tags: Ap News, app store, bad apps, BadApps, bugs, crashes, iPhone, iPod touch

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, Software, Macbook Pro, Mac Pro

Getting the little things right in Mac OS X

by Mel Martin on Jan 21st 2009 at 2:30PM

Mac OS X has been pretty much a dream for me. I can't ever remember getting the Apple blue or gray screen of death. My Mac Pro is up 24/7 and only reboots when I've done a software update. Most of the time it happily chugs along. The same is true for my MacBook Pro. It's been problem-free except for one bad battery that started to swell. Apple eagerly replaced it.

That makes it all the more vexing when minor things go wrong that seem pretty unexplainable. One little problem is Apple Mail notification sounds. They seem to work about half the time. I have 3 email accounts, and the one that is the most unreliable is the MobileMe account. Even though mail sounds are turned on, I usually don't get any sound when mails comes in. I use the 'glass' sound, but it fails on any selection. My POP mail accounts seem to trigger the alert properly.

This same problem existed in Tiger, and has survived several Leopard updates. This minor but irritating issue exists on both my computers, and so far has eluded all my detective work to eliminate it. This bug is impervious to permission resetting, changing default mail sounds, playing with the sound control panel, (yes, 'play user interface sounds' is checked) and making sure that Growl and other 3rd party hacks are nowhere on my computers. The guys at the Genius Bar scratch their heads and smile.

The Apple support boards are full of similar complaints, and when you eliminate the people that had their sound turned down, or the other obvious fixes, there is a pretty large residue of people who have this problem. Apple must be aware of it.

Don't get me started on the error I get 2-3 times a week when Time Machine tells me a backup didn't work, and then the next hour everything is fine. This is another error that has survived several Leopard updates. Like a good citizen, I always do the larger combo updates to have the best chance of replacing any bad system components.

Every OS has a long list of issues. Actually, I find the current build of OS X the most reliable system software I have ever used. That said, I'd love to see some of these little bugs cleaned up. I'm sure you have your own lists and will share them.

Maybe Apple will read this and send me a fix for my notification sounds issue. The problem is, I probably won't notice the mail when it comes in. Grrrrr.

Tags: bugs, Leopard, mail sounds, OS X, Tiger

Filed under: Bad Apple, iPhone

BGR brings the pain: ten things wrong with the iPhone

by Michael Rose on Jan 21st 2009 at 1:00PM

Yesterday's Boy Genius Report post citing the top ten deficiencies of the iPhone (no copy & paste, no video recording, and more) has generated more than 100 responses, some suggesting a fix for many failings (jailbreak the phone) and others hopping on the Blackberry or Palm Pre bandwagons in the hope that competition for the iPhone will spur more software innovation from Apple. While the App Store may be the hottest thing since that soldering iron you accidentally left turned on that ignited your Dad's workbench (and that's why you're not allowed in the garage anymore), even the sneakiest third-party developers can't effectively replace what Apple has failed to provide.

Given the sense of pent-up frustration from some (but not all) iPhone 3G owners over a laundry list of things the phone doesn't do, or doesn't do well, here's your chance to cheer or castigate Apple in the hopes of a brighter day to come. Vote in our poll and comment below with your top priorities for improvements -- or, if you're a happy camper, your favorite feature of today's iPhone.

[via Smoking Apples/Twitter]

Tags: boy genius report, BoyGeniusReport, bugs, gripes, iphone, missing

Filed under: Hardware, Bugs/Recalls, Blast From the Past

Date/time bugs throughout the years for Apple

by Megan Lavey on Dec 31st 2008 at 11:30AM

As 30GB Zune owners deal with the sudden bricking of their systems after midnight this morning, hopefully they can take comfort in the fact they are not alone in this. Throughout the years, Apple products had their share of time & date problems.

In February 2000, Newton owners began reporting that they were having issues with the Newton being rather confused about what century it was in. Some users discovered that when they entered two-digit numbers as part of birthdays and other common abbreviated dates, things got wonky. For example, if I entered my birth date as 2-28-80 on the Newton, it interpreted the number as being February 28, 2080 rather than 1980. Entries of full dates in the 1900s were also affected. Other users stated that when they tried finding 20th century dates in the Find applet of the Newton, the system actually performed the search using 21st-century dates.

Fixes included resetting the system clock back to 1999 to enter those dates before resetting it again back to 2000 and applying software patches. Sadly, it's a bug that HAL-9000 forgot to mention. Apple even reported back in 1998 that the Newton was Y2K-compliant. Of course, this won't even begin to cover the problems that Newton owners still using the product will have in 2010. If you see our own Newton-sporting Steve Sande at Macworld, be sure to tease him about it.

A Tiger bug discovered in 2005 revealed that Safari's RSS reader would list some items as being an hour ahead of when they were actually posted -- news from the future is not catastrophic, but certainly could be confusing.

Our research this morning hasn't turned up any date-related iPod or iPhone hiccups, but if you know of any examples please let us know in the comments. As for the Zune bricks, there's been no word yet from Microsoft regarding the failures, but Engadget's readers have already come up with a number of theories including blaming it on Steve Jobs, the year 2008 being one-second longer, and other conspiracy theories that are sure to come throughout the day.

Tags: brick, bricked, bugs, date, newton, time, zune

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

I Love Katamari in the App Store, optimization not included

by Mike Schramm on Dec 15th 2008 at 9:00PM

Can't believe we didn't think to ask of this before Namco gave it to us, but here it is -- there is already an official version of I Love Katamari (otherwise known as Katamari Damacy) right there on the App Store and playable on the iPhone. What a perfect game to put on the iPhone -- it's casual, it's easy to pick up but tough to master, and the analog controls, while perfect for a pair of analog sticks, work great on a touchscreen as well.

Unfortunately, it's not quite perfect yet -- the game slows down fast, and quickly becomes unplayable with all the stuff on the screen. But lots of people are hoping for an update from Namco, and while that hope might not quite be justified (is Namco really going to commit to making this game great, or are they just taking advantage of a hot property?), you never know. Pac Man has been a winner for the company for sure, so maybe they will make sure that Katamari plays as well as its console versions. As much as we appreciate original games on the iPhone, there's nothing wrong with quality ports of console gems as well, and if Namco can patch out the bugs to everyone's satisfaction, there's no question that's what this will be.

Tags: app-store, apps, breaking news, BreakingNews, buggy, bugs, damacy, games, i-love-katamari, katamari, katamari-damacy, namco, pac-man

Filed under: Bugs/Recalls, iPhone

iPhone bug a potential threat?

by Dave Caolo on Nov 12th 2008 at 11:33AM

There's a lot of "could" and "might" in this story, folks, so keep that in mind. MacNN is reporting that a group of iPhone developers has identified a bug in the current iPhone firmware that could lead to an exploit of the Default.png file.

Default.png is what's displayed when an application is launched in the iPhone. Typically it's a static image, but some of Apple's applications use a dynamic file, which could be fooled into granting access to third party code.

This sounds like conjecture to us, and MacNN's sources are not known, so keep that in mind. Plus, iPhone firmware 2.2 is rumored to be released on the 21st. Perhaps it will lock this down.

Tags: bugs, exploit, iphone, rumors

Filed under: Odds and ends, iPhone

iPhone Safe Mode: Who knew?

by Erica Sadun on Sep 19th 2008 at 4:00PM

What happens when you set your jailbroken iPhone to "fast respring" (that is, turn on one of the SpringBoard relaunching options) via BossTool, and SpringBoard crashes? Safe mode, apparently. Who knew that Safe Mode even existed on the iPhone? I certainly didn't until TUAW reader Max S. sent in the pictures below.

Safe Mode apparently disables certain system extensions. You can get out of safe mode by rebooting. So let's see, a blue screen of doom and safe mode. Hmmm. I thought this phone was manufactured by Apple. Where's Seinfeld?

Anyway, this isn't the first time the topic of iPhone's Safe Mode has come up. I googled up this Austrian page and a few other hits -- most of which seemed to appear in September of 2008, after the recent firmware upgrade.

Know anything about Safe Mode and the iPhone? Drop a comment and tell us more.

Gallery: iPhone Safe Mode

Update: Readers do know more! They point out that this is a Winterboard feature and not part of Apple's firmware.

Tags: Bugs, Safe Mode, SafeMode, SpringBoard

Filed under: Software, Freeware

Transmission 1.2 released

by Cory Bohon on May 10th 2008 at 1:00PM

If you're a fan of the ever so popular BitTorrent client, Transmission, then you might like to hear that a new version was just released. According to the release notes some of the fixes included:

You can now reset global statistics
Support of multitracker torrents has been improved
UPnP port mapping now faster on startup
Ability to IP block using the Bluetack Level1 blocklist
Dock badge images have been updated

The new dock badges provide greater readability of the transfer in progress. Transmission is freeware and can be downloaded from their website.

Tags: Bit Torrent, BitTorrent, bugs, client, fixes, Transmission

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software

Madden and the iMac: a story of woe

by Mike Schramm on Oct 20th 2007 at 4:00PM

Mac | Life wasn't content to just read about Madden 08 on the Mac-- they tried to actually run it. And for all of us Mac gamers out there, I'm sorry to say the experience didn't go well.

Now, we already knew that neither Madden nor Tiger Woods would run on any Mac with the GMA950 graphics processors in it, so the Mac mini and the MacBook were already out of the question. The screenshot above came from an iMac, though. Clearly the text is bungled up beyond readability. The same problem appeared in the menus for the game, and even during play-- the scoreboard had overlapping graphics problems as well. Unbelievable. Did they (or Transgaming, whose Cider technology was supposed to be how EA ported these games) have their QA team play this thing even once on a Mac? This is what Apple was showing off at WWDC?

For their part, EA blames Apple's drivers, and says a driver update is coming "later this month" (M|L wisely suggests that means Leopard). Poor form, EA. Not that we expected much (EA games are often plagued with release problems, on any platform), but this is not how you bring gaming back to the Mac.

Tags: bugs, cider, ea, imac, madden, transgaming, unplayable

Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Blogs

MarsEdit 2.0.2 fixes bugs

by Mike Schramm on Sep 18th 2007 at 12:00PM

Scott's favorite blogging software has gotten another update, hot on the heels of the big 2.0 release. MarsEdit 2.0.2 patches up the big release with a few "slightly urgent" fixes involving using external editors and Evaluation mode (including a bug that caused you to be nagged a little more often than expected). There are also a few other typo and bug fixes (including a small fix to 2.0.1, which was only up for a little bit, so you didn't miss anything).

The update is available over on Red Sweater's site, and if you haven't started editing on Mars yet, the full program is available for $29.95.

Tags: blogging, bugs, marsedit, software, typos

Filed under: Software, Bugs/Recalls

Keynote bug: Spontaneous reboots

by Dave Caolo on Aug 30th 2007 at 11:30AM

Despite Keynote's maturity, a significant bug remains. Several users are reporting that pressing the "Play" button after composing a project causes the machine to immediately reboot.

From what's been reported so far, it seems to be limited to laptops, specifically iBooks and MacBooks, with and without an external monitor attached. At this point, no fix has been found.

Have any of you experienced this problem? Can you lend a hand in the troubleshooting?

Thanks, tipster!

Tags: bugs, keynote

Filed under: iPhone

iPhone Tales of Woe: Booting to Single User

by Erica Sadun on Jul 27th 2007 at 3:30PM

A short while back, Digg hosted a link to this crashed iPhone showing single user mode. In that case, the error message stated that the iPhone couldn't "exec /bin/sh for single user: No such file or directory." Now that the iPhone has been thoroughly hacked, this error has evolved somewhat.

Last night, TUAW friend DrunkDwarf crashed his iPhone but since he'd actually installed a copy of /bin/sh his error was somewhat different. Instead of complaining that it couldn't find /bin/sh, his iPhone simply... ran it. Not that this was much better news. Without a keyboard and no way to attach one, DrunkDwarf was a bit out of luck. He ended up having to do a restore.

Tags: bugs, errors, instability, single user mode, SingleUserMode

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