Last week we reported on a thread at Apple's Discussion Boards about an issue affecting some 15" MacBook Pros. Specifically, their hard drives seem to be spinning down and even parking themselves at inappropriate times, like in the middle of a task. It's understandably frustrating, as that would slow things down considerably and offer unwanted "quality time" with the Marble of Doom. According to CNET, Apple is aware of the issue and working on a fix right now.

There's no word on when it will become available, so affected owners should just hold tight for a few more days. Note that one user on the discussion boards claimed to have fixed the problem by creating a new admin account on his machine. We haven't experienced the problem or replicated this fix, so take it for what it's worth.

CNET notes that the issue seems to be limited to the 15" model with a 5400 RPM drive, but at least one user in the discussion board claims to have swapped drives to no avail.

[Via MacNN]

Palm has quite a checkered history when it comes to syncing your Pre with iTunes, going as far as to make the device report itself as an iPod, and leaving lingering speculation that Apple would block the device with future iTunes updates -- which is exactly what has happened. But many Pre owners were surprised (and relieved) to hear that Palm had already fixed the issue, only a week after the problem surfaced.

So, how did Palm manage to get sync working again? Well, the good folks over at PreCentral have discovered that they pulled it off by making the Pre report that its USB chipset is developed by Apple. This change effectively makes the device appear even more like an iPod, as well as further ensnares Palm into what could potentially be a nasty web of legal issues.

While it may not seem like such a bad thing to let iTunes recognize the Pre as an iPod, the problem lies in how Palm is going about doing it. All USB devices report a plethora of information back to the operating system when they are plugged in, including a device ID, a vendor ID that usually identifies the chipset manufacturer, a manufacturer string to identify the name of the company that built the device, as well as other information that identifies various capabilities that the device might have.


Typically, a combination of the vendor ID and device ID can be easily used to identify a specific device, which is how most applications and drivers communicate with USB devices. When you plug in your iPhone, for example, the system sees a device with a vendor ID of 0x05ac (which identifies it as an Apple device), and a product ID like 0x1294. The system then checks to see if any drivers have registered to be notified when this device combination is plugged in, and it continues from there. In the case of the Pre, however, Palm is identifying the vendor ID as 0x05ac, tricking the operating system into thinking it sees an Apple USB device.

As you can see, this process relies on the IDs provided to be correct in order for things to work properly. Because of this, the USB Implementers Forum (commonly called USB-IF) oversees the assignment and handling of these IDs to ensure that things go smoothly. Companies who wish to manufacture USB chipsets have to apply for a vendor ID number, as well as pay annual membership or licensing fees to the USB-IF to be an authorized vendor. So not only is Palm causing technical problems by misrepresenting the device to the computer, but it is doing so by using an ID that Apple has paid for and has the sole legal right to use. Palm, on the other hand, is likely in violation of their own agreement with the USB-IF, which clearly states that "Unauthorized use of assigned or unassigned USB Vendor ID Numbers and associated Product ID Numbers are strictly prohibited." And yes, they do have their own ID for use on their other hardware.

So what does Palm have to say about all of this? They have turned the tables back on Apple, saying that they believe Apple is improperly using the vendor ID to limit the devices that consumers are able to use with iTunes. Wait, what? Isn't that *exactly* what the ID is there for? Most programs that communicate with any USB device check the vendor and device IDs to ensure that they are talking to the right device. If you've ever used the tools that came with your scanner, you've seen this before. HP's Scan Pro checks the USB devices to see if any of them are supported scanners. This is the sole reason these IDs exist, so that the software can identify a connected piece of hardware, and determine whether or not it is compatible. You wouldn't expect HP's Scan Pro to be able to download pictures from your Fujitsu ScanSnap, so why expect iTunes to show the Pre some love?

Don't take this the wrong way, I do think that iTunes and the Pre should get along, but Palm needs to go about it the proper way. Disguising the Pre as an iPod is just like a wolf dressing in sheep's clothing, but things won't go well for the wolf when the shepherd catches up with it.

Did you get home only to find that Mac OS X 10.5.3 had been released today? Well, just as some users were unpacking and installing the shiny new update, issues with SIMBL plug-ins were discovered. If you have SIMBL plugins installed, then you may have an error show up when you try to launch an application. Past updates on systems with these plugins installed have been known to run into some issues.

If you are experiencing plugin predicaments, there is a way to fix the problem. SIMBL plugins (or other, non-SIMBL InputManager plugins, which may also be problematic) can be installed in any one of the following directories:

• ~/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/
• /Library/InputManagers/
• ~/Library/Contextual Menu Items/
• ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/
• ~/Library/InputManagers/

When you see the error in an application, just jot down the name of the plugin and look in those directories for it. When you find the plugin, just move it to a separate folder or toss it into the trash can. The application launch problem should cease.

Have you experienced plug-in issues since installing the 10.5.3 update? If so, tell us about it in the comments.

A malicious QuickTime movie made the rounds across MySpace profiles last weekend, altering user profiles and changing links on their pages to redirect to phishing websites crafted to look like MySpace logins. The movie, CNET reports, actually capitalized on a MySpace flaw and QuickTime's legitimate support for JavaScript to craft what has been dubbed the Quickspace attack. It is also worth noting that while this movie could infect users who simply viewed a compromised page, the attack (as far as we know) only works on IE and Firefox in Windows (in other words: if you're on a Mac, you can resume your regularly scheduled MySpace obsession).

Yesterday, MySpace's chief security officer Hemanshu Nigam contacted Apple to request a fix to plug the hole, even though it was a flaw of MySpace in combination with a legit feature of QuickTime that caused all the damage. Apple is reportedly working on a fix, but for now the two companies have ironed out some workarounds, such as blocking all the phishing URLs and scrubbing their network for compromised profiles.

On a side note: what exactly does one gain from harvesting MySpace account logins? Wouldn't oh, say, credit card numbers be a little more productive? I know there's a lot of kids out there who bank on whether they're in some people's top 8 spaces, but I'm still having a hard time seeing how or why phishers would deal in the same currency.

Thanks Daniel

Zinio, if you aren't familiar, offers magazines in digital format (yes, with DRM), many of them with rich media like embedded movies right in the pages, for Mac and PC. They have quite a selection and they've been around for a few years now, but apparently their latest version (released around the dawn of time) is suffering a quirk due to Apple changing the way QuickTime renders Flash with the latest QuickTime 7.1.3 update, causing embedded rich media to misbehave.

Fortunately, they've issued a fix via email, and it goes a little something like this:

1. Close the Zinio Reader, if open
2. Go to the QuickTime pane in System Preferences
3. In the Advanced tab, check 'Enable Flash'

After that simple process you should be able to return to your regularly scheduled, though in my opinion ridiculously overpriced, reading.

This fix, by the way, is also how you enable iTunes 7 to play interactive booklets from the iTunes Store according to this Apple KB article.

Are you getting tired of other good icons? Hawk Wings, obsessed with all things Mail.app, has tracked down a Photoshop template for creating your own Mail.app icon. Courtesy of John Godfrey, this Photoshop template contains instructions for inserting your own images into a Mail.app icon, and Tim Gaden also recommends rotating your inserted image to 11.2 degrees counter-clockwise, as well as using an 85 x 90 size to get just the right fit.

But, "how do I turn an image into a Mail.app icon?" you ask. Hawk Wings has a solution for that step too: img2icns is a Universal Binary freeware app that can convert JPEGs, PNGs, TIFs and GIFs to the ICNS format, ripe for using a previous (and simple) TUAW Tip for replacing Mail.app's icon with your much more exciting new creation.

Transmit, Panic's FTP client that I firmly believe was coded by angels, has been updated to version 3.5.4. They offer detailed release notes, but the cliff notes include SFTP error improvements, upload/download error and Growl notification fixes, navigation tweaks and much more.

Transmit 3.5.4 is a free update and available from Panic's site.

TUAW readers, please accept my deepest apologies again for this Procrastinatr fiasco. As it turns out, most of my iCal calendars are simply subscriptions to my Google Calendars, so I never saw any damage before posting this. Fortunately, however, a commenter on the Procrastinatr post by the name of ejk has put together an AppleScript that can reverse the damage. After creating my own set of local calendars with events and todos, and testing this four times, I am confident that it works. After the jump I have included the script in its entirety, as well as instructions for your inspection. I have also listed instructions for backing up your calendars as they are. If you just want a download, I have also posted a link to a script I compiled myself, after the jump.

CSS Tweak!, as you might imagine, can optimize and clean up your CSS code with the drag and drop of a file. The widget will report how much smaller your file is going to get, and its description states that your new file is "saved in the same location as the original", so I'm pretty sure this means it doesn't overwrite the original, but proceed (and backup!) with caution.

CSS Tweak! appears to be free and is available from Andy Peatling at his site, CssDev.

Right alongside Firefox's update today, Mozilla has also brought Thunderbird up to the 1.5.0.4 (.3.2.1.12) version with a big improvement for Intel Mac owners: Universal Binary super-powers. Also in this update are security and bug fixes. Let us all take a moment of silence in remembrance of the bugs who lost their lives in the making of this update.

One thing I am not sure of, however, is if that GmailUI extension we blogged earlier will work after this update. Does anyone know?

JC at Mac Geekery has come across a potential solution to the iPod hard drive's 'click of death' that many owners will likely experience at some point or another (After all it's a hard drive and you walk/run/snowboard around with it all day. It has to throw in the towel some day).

After hurling a dead 4G iPod off a 3rd story balcony to test an iPod case, JC discovered that his iPod was suddenly working again - but only for an hour at a time or so. This odd turn of events prompted him to investigate by opening up his iPod, in which case he discovered that his click of death (not necessarily everyone's) was a result of nothing more than an unseated hard drive cable. After putting everything back in its place, JC's 4G iPod is back on top and jamming again.

Check out JC's post for more details, but just in case you're in a similar boat, remember: I'm pretty sure opening your iPod is like tossing your warranty out the window and then running it over repeatedly with an SUV, so attempt this stuff at your own risk. If your warranty has already r-u-n-n-o-f-t, however, then you don't have much to lose.

[thanks William!]

Even as an alpha image editor, I think it's safe to dub ChocoFlop a true "poor man's Photoshop." It offers layers, real-time preview of filters and effects (of which there are many), a slew of selection tools, blending modes, masks, color adjusting and a whole bunch of file formats it can save to and even more it can read from - including many versions of RAW. For the full details, check out the longest image editor feature list I've seen in a long time.

As an alpha it's free, and the author has stated on his blog that, once it goes official and commercial, ChocoFlop won't cost more than $50 USD. I haven't cracked this open yet myself, but if you've been looking for a powerful image editor that offers quite a bit more than the standard CoreImage-based options out there, ChocoFlop should be right up your alley.

Hot on the heels of Firefox releasing a 1.5.0.3 security update, Camino has been bumped to 1.0.1 with mostly security and bug fixes which include:

• Fixed several critical security issues, including those fixed in version 1.8.0.3 of the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine.
• Upgraded the bundled Java Embedding Plugin (http://javaplugin.sf.net) to version 0.9.5 d
• Improved ad-blocking, especially of German ads
• Enabled the opening of local SVG files
• Fixed an issue where Camino on Intel-based Macs was unable to read Keychain entries stored by Camino on PowerPC-based Macs

As always, you can snag a copy from CaminoBrowser.org.