• archive,  linux,  mac os x,  windows

    Archiving CDs and DVDs with .ISO Files

    I wanted to start going through my Apple, Palm, and Microsoft CDs and DVDs and convert them to .ISO files for backup and archival purposes. In a way, I wanted to give back to the Internet for being able to download and use floppy disk archives of Apple II, 68k Macintosh, and Newton software.

    This post will outline the steps to create an ISO 9660 archive disc image file.

    I will be using my Mac Studio (M1 Max CPU, macOS Ventura 13.2), an Apple USB SuperDrive with an Apple USB-C to USB adapter, and the Disk Utility program.

    Here is my .ISO image file capture process:

    Step 1: Connect the SuperDrive and insert your disc.

    Step 2: Launch Disk Utility and select the disc from the pane on the left.

        Step 3: In the Save As dialog box, enter a title for your .ISO file, and set Format = DVD/CD master.

        Step 4: Click the Save button.

        Step 5: Open Terminal and then run the following command:

        hdiutil convert /home/username/original.cdr -format UDTO -o /home/username/destination.iso

        where /home/username/original.cdr is the Save As path and filename from Step 3 and where /home/username/destination.iso is the hdiutil .ISO file output path and filename

        Step 6: Rename the file so that .iso is the only filename extension.

        Step 7: Test out your .ISO image by mounting it on another Mac, a Windows PC, or Linux machine.

        Don’t forget to preserve any important information in companion files, such as the full software title, CD keys or serial numbers that are necessary to re-install the software, and version numbers and publication dates. Bonus points are awarded if you go the extra mile and scan the face of the CD/DVD, packing materials, or paperwork that came with the disc.

      1. games,  ms-dos,  vintage,  vmware,  windows

        Creating Image Files for Use with Virtual Machines

        This weekend, I started a small project to install some old DOS and Windows 95-family games into virtual machines (VMs) that I have running in VMware Fusion (VMware Workstation on Windows PCs).

        Trying to get old MS-DOS games, like Quake and Tie Fighter working have proven to be particularly difficult as I have long forgotten the art of configuring drivers in autoexec.bat and confg.sys.

        To help, I have found two tools that have been useful in this weekend’s hacking effort to get the games loaded and relearn what was forgotten.

        The first is Apple’s own Disk Utility. Disk Utility can be used for a number of things on macOS, but it can be used to bundle up the contents of a folder into a floppy disk .img file. Apple has a really good step-by-step KB support article on how to make disk images.

        I wasn’t having much success in using Disk Utility to create CD and DVD .iso files. So, rather than waste many hours on troubleshooting, I chose to download InfraRecorder for Windows and load it into a Windows 10 Insider VM. The free software can be downloaded from Ninite.com – a site the provides safe utility software for Windows PCs without all of the malware, bloatware, adware…you get the idea.

        Finally, if you are looking for some old boot disks or OS installers, WinWorld has a full library of software that should have what you are looking for. For me, I needed that Windows 98 Second Edition floppy to get the oakcdrom.sys file since my original floppy went missing over a decade ago.

      2. apple,  itunes,  macintosh,  windows

        iTunes Updated to 12.7, Slims Down

        itunes_12_7

        After yesterday’s September Event, which introduced us to the new iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and the amazing iPhone X (aka “10”), Apple released iTunes 12.7 for Mac and Windows PCs.

        itunes_software_update_12_7

        In the release notes for this update, Apple reaffirms iTunes focus on “music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and audiobooks.”  That’s great news for me, because I use iTunes on my 5K iMac every day to listen to music while I’m working and to watch TV shows and movies that I have purchased from the iTunes Store.

        itunes127_macos_first_launch.png

        However, Apple is dropping support for some iOS device content management features.

        “If you previously used iTunes to sync apps, books, or ringtones to your iOS device, use the new App Store, iBooks, or Sounds Settings on iOS to redownload them without your computer.”

        This change should not be unexpected.  iOS devices, including the iPod touch, the only surviving iPod at this point, has had the same “I can get it from the Store myself” that iPhones and iPads enjoy.  Yesterday’s slimming down of iTunes is a welcomed change that gets rid of some of the cruft that has built up in iTunes over the last few years.

        For more details, visit the Apple Support website.

         

      3. browsers,  chrome,  edge,  firefox,  internet explorer,  mac os x,  windows

        The State of PC Browser Marketshare

         

        Despite hosting this blog on a Google service, Blogger, I am really not a fan of Google Chrome.  I am a paid supporter of Mozilla FireFox and I prefer Apple’s Safari.  Google already has amassed a massive profile of pretty much all of us who use the Internet, that I do not want to make it any easier than it already is for them to get an even better view into how I use the Internet.

        document.getElementById(“na636038585536790000”).src=”http://www.netmarketshare.com/report.aspx?qprid=1″+String.fromCharCode(38)+”qptimeframe=M”+String.fromCharCode(38)+”qpsp=199″+String.fromCharCode(38)+”qpnp=11″+String.fromCharCode(38)+”qpch=350″+String.fromCharCode(38)+”qpdt=1″+String.fromCharCode(38)+”qpct=4″+String.fromCharCode(38)+”qpcustomb=0″+String.fromCharCode(38)+”qpcid=fw249659″+String.fromCharCode(38)+”qpf=16″+String.fromCharCode(38)+”qpwidth=600″+String.fromCharCode(38)+”qpdisplay=1111″+String.fromCharCode(38)+”qpmr=10″+String.fromCharCode(38)+”site=”+window.location.hostname

        If the NetMarketShare.com desktop browser usage trending is even remotely close to accurate, I may not be able to maintain my objection to Google Chrome much longer.

        Consider the embedded graphic above.  It shows that between December 2015 and March 2016 Internet Explorer dropped down to  39% from about 46% – a dead heat with Google Chrome.  But looks what happens between March 2016 and June 2016.  The downward trend of Internet Explorer accelerates, and as of about two weeks ago, stands at just below 32%.  Some of that decline, I am sure has to do with the aggressive push by Microsoft to get anyone still using Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows 8.1 over onto Windows 10, which we all know favors the new Edge browser.  If we add Edge’s 5% share to that of Internet Explorer’s 32%, we get 37% vs Chrome’s 49%.

        The bottom line here is that if there are some corporate web based tool or commercial website that is flaky or if it is not supported, it probably won’t be anytime soon.  As an old Vulcan proverb goes, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. (Or the one.)  I’m just not happy with all of the tracking and profiling.

        [Via NetMarketShare.com…]

      4. content server,  document management,  enterprise connect,  microso,  records management,  windows

        Troubleshooting Enterprise Connect Client Issues

        Earlier today I was asked to help troubleshoot an OpenText Enterprise Connect client issue in a pre-production quality assurance environment.  It appears that testers were experiencing issues trying to open or edit documents stored in Content Server with the new desktop client.  Today, the QA team was testing Enterprise Connect 10.5.2.178 with Content Server 10.5.0 and Enterprise Connect module 10.5.2.

        The error being raised was:

        Method ‘PrepareEditOpen’ not implemented for repository ‘CSTest2’

        There was no problem accessing the test documents from the Content Server 10.5.0 web UI or via WebDAV.

        Since the issue was showing up on the clients, I decided to turn on error logging in Enterprise Connect

        Enabling Enterprise Connect Logging

        1.Right-clicking the Enterprise Connect desktop icon.

        2. Choose “Options” from the pop-up contextual menu.

        3. When the Options window appears, click the “Logging Options…” button.

        4. On the Logging Options page, check “Log Enabled” and select “Error” from the “Apply to All” drop down menu.

        5. Set the “File Location” field to which ever folder works best for you.

        6. Click the “Apply” and “Exit” buttons.  Close the Options window.

        7. Logout of Windows and login in again to activate logging.

        At this point, I reproduced the error trying to view a document in Content Server using the Enterprise Connect client.  when the error was reproduced, go back into the logging options and disable logging.

        On my test machine, three logs were created: uc_explorer.log, uc_ucscore.log and uc_ucsync.log.  Open the uc_ucscore.log file in your favorite text editor.  I suggest Notepad++ over Notepad.

        Scroll down to the bottom of the log to see the errors.  I found the following:

        08:15:18.41 [UCSCORE    ](4588): ERROR: Could not get service.
        08:15:21.58 [UCSCORE    ](4588): ERROR: Can’t query Office Editor Documents: Could not find a part of the path ‘C:\Users\[WindowsAccountName]\AppData\Roaming\OpenText\OTEdit\[CSInstanceName]\c2149\’.
        .
        .
        .
        08:16:27.62 [    ](4588): ERROR: WebEditRequest.GetDocumentInfo: exception.type=System.NotImplementedException; exception.message=Server not capable of Webedit.Unreserve;

        During my investigation, I noticed that the \c2149\ folder was not created on my client.  Don’t get fooled by that error message.  The real clue was the next line:

        exception.message=Server not capable of Webedit.Unreserve;

        This error says that the Content Server webedit module can’t do it’s job.

        To verify the problem was with the Content Server instance and not the Enterprise Connect client installed on the PC, I added another URL connection string to Enterprise Connect for a disaster recovery instance and tested the ability to open documents.  Enterprise Connect was able to open a copy of a test document that was in the DR instance just fine.  So, the problem was at the QA Content Server.

        Taking a look at the installed modules, I quickly discovered that the OpenText Enterprise Connect, Email Services and Content Server Web Edit modules where all at version 10.5.0.  The Enterprise Connect client being tested as 10.5.2.

        To finally resolve the issue, I backed up the OTHome directory (the path Content Server is installed into) and the SQL database and performed the upgrades to each of the modules to bring them up to version 10.5.2.  Once that was complete, the QA test clients were able to open, edit and update documents without further trouble.

      5. android,  apple,  beats,  el capitan,  ios 9,  ipad,  ipad mini,  iphone,  mac os x,  music,  radio,  windows,  wwdc

        Thoughts on the Apple WWDC 15 Keynote Presentation

        Yesterday, Apple kicked off their twenty-sixth WWDC conference with a keynote address from Tim Cook.

        If you haven’t already watched the keynote session, you can do so now directly from the WWDC page on Apple.com.

        What follows are my thoughts and comments as I watched the presentation early this morning about the exciting new updates coming to OS X, iOS and watchOS.

        Opening Remarks

        Usually, the formula for an Apple keynote presentation is to welcome everyone and then run through a number of slides talking about how well Apple is doing. This year, Cook announced that 2015 is the twenty-sixth developer’s conference.  In addition to the live stream of the keynote, he also announced that for the first time ever, Apple will be live streaming 30 developer sessions this year to try and accommodate the developers who were not able to buy a ticket to this year’s conference.

        In short, Cook said “everything’s great” and then turned the stage over to Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President, Software Engineering to talk about advances in OS X, iOS and the new watchOS.

        Mac OS X El Capitan Update

        – 55% of active Mac users have upgraded to OS X Yosemite
        – Mac OS X 10.11 will be called OS X El Capitan; notice the lack of “10.11” in the product name
        – Two major areas of focus for El Capitan: user experience and performance

        The user experience performance should be thought of as a refinement of last year’s bold new OS X design language in Yosemite.  The tent pole features that were shown off include the new Informed Search features of Spotlight, refinements of the built-in OS X apps and window and workspace management with Mission Control, the Spaces bar and the new Split View windows control.

        Of all of the new updates, I think I will get the most utility out of the new Split View controls.  The windows snapping feature of Windows 7 is one that I use all of the time at work and the one Windows feature that I wished my Mac has built in by default.  (The other was the smoky grey Vista Start bar, but that was addressed last year with the Yosemite dark mode menu.)

        Informed Search in Spotlight allows you to use nature language text to help find things on your Mac.  With Informed Search, you can now type in search terms like “Show me all of my photos from last June”.  That’s pretty powerful because it lets us type in what we are looking for an let the computer figure out what we meant rather than us tying to remember some details about how, when or where we may have stored the files on disk.

        There was also a brief demo of a new feature coming to Safari wherein that if a video, say an ad, starts auto-playing a video in a tab that you are not looking at, a speaker mute icon will appear in the URL/search navigation bar.  Just click it and the audio is instantly muted.  That will really become a handy feature as more and more websites start auto-playing video ads on their sites.

        There isn’t enough time to cover all of the OS X El Capitan features

        Apple has to pick and choose what features are going to be high-lighted on stage.  Some interesting features that appeared in the “…and so much more.” slide include:

        – New system font – Yes, Apple Watch’s San Francisco font is coming to Mac OS X
        – Last search – Sounds like a really nice time saver
        – Rename from context menu
        – Time to leave reminders
        – Redesigned Disk Utility – seems like an odd update; are enhancements to HFS+ coming?
        – File copy resume
        – Copy file path in Finder

        On the OS X performance side of the house, Apple is bringing their Metal graphics engine that debuted on iOS last year “back to the Mac” El Capitan.  Metal will give professional apps and game developers a higher performance graphics layer than the older OpenGL and OpenCL platforms.

        Reportedly, all of Apple’s first party apps are being enhanced to take advantage of Metal.  I’m looking forward to the performance boost to things like the quick view feature that let’s you look at a document without having to launch the app first.  Oh, and when you do have to launch apps, Apple is working on making the time you wait for apps to launch must quicker.

        The schedule for Mac OS X El Capitan is:

        – Developers get a free preview starting right now.
        – Public beta testers will get El Capitan next month (July)
        – El Capitan general release will ship “this fall”

         iOS 9 Update

        – 83% of active iPhone users are running iOS 8 today
        – iOS 9’s major focus is “elevating” the foundation:improved battery life, better performance, and security enhancements

        Just like with OS X El Capitan, intelligence and informed seraching is coming to iOS 9 and Siri.  Siri can now understand more natural language requests like “show me pictures from …” or create new reminders based on what you are looking at in an app such as Safari.  Siri can even look up phone numbers for incoming calls that aren’t in your contacts by searching your email and making a suggestion.

        As with all of these security features, iOS 9 keeps all of your data private.

        Craig Federighi discussed personal data privacy in iOS 9

        Some other cool features that Federighi showed off, include:

        – iOS’ swipe to the left of the first app launcher screen is coming back and has been enhanced to offer contextual suggestions

        – Search has been enhanced to include new categories of information

        – iOS 9 searching has a new Search API that can be used to search across installed apps and provide deep linking to specific content and take you back to search results

        – Apple is building in intelligence into iOS, but they are not data mining; all information stays on device

        – Look ups for information is all anonymous, not shared – you are always in control of your data

        ZDNet’s iOS 9 beta lock screen

        One of the nice features coming to iOS 9 that didn’t get highlighted in the presentation is that Apple is improving iOS security by increasing the number of digits in a PIN from 4 to 6.  By adding just two additional digits to the PIN, iPhones and iPads will become all the more difficult to “hack” using a brute force attach.  ZDNet had a nice little write up about this feature.

        Jennifer Bailey talks about how Apple is simplifying the wallet with Apple Pay

        To talk about the updates to Apple Pay in iOS 9, Apple brought out VP, Apple Pay, Jennifer Bailey!  I was really surprised to see Apple giving a woman “FaceTime” (sorry about the pun) on the WWDC stage.  It would appear that Apple really is trying to show that it is a diverse company and not just a company run by “old 50-something white dudes”.

        In addition to launching Apple Pay in the UK later this year, Bailey went on to talk about the upcoming changes to Apple Pay in iOS 9.  They include:

        – Discover Card is coming to Apple Pay this year
        – Square is releasing a new NFC Apple Pay reader that will be in stores this fall
        – Store loyalty and reward card support is coming to Apple Pay
        – Passbook is being renamed to “Wallet”

        It’s that last on that I feel is kind of cheap.  Apple clearly has the head start on all of the competing mobile payment systems.  That’s not to say they arrived first – just that they have an early success advantage.  Switching to Wallet from Passbook, to me, makes it sound like Apple is chaing after Google.

        Maps, an app that has been steadily improving year-over-year, is also getting updated to include support for public transit information, specifically:

        – Adding a new Transit map (buses, trains, subway stations) with departure times
        – Step by step walking directions
        – Siri is being integrated to the new Maps transit information

        I’m glad to see that Apple is adding public transit information to Maps.  Android users have had this information via Google Maps for a long time now.  Apple Maps has had a rough start, but it is clear that Apple is committed to enhancing their mapping service over time.

        With iOS 9, Apple is included an all new pre-installed application called “News”.  News will bring “beautiful content from the worlds best world’s greatest sources, personalized for you.”  To help introduce and demonstrate News, Apple brought out the VP Application Product Management, Susan Prescott.

         Let’s just stop for a minute and let it sink in that Apple now has had two high ranking women on the WWDC stage showing off some of their newest software with the world watching.  This is the new-new Apple.

        Susan Prescott shows off the all-new News app for iOS 9

        I’m really excited about the new News app for iPad and iPhone.  I read the Wall Street Journal on my iPad most days in the WSJ app.  I’ll probably still do that because I have a subscription, but the News app has a lot going for it.  I can see in the future, the News app taking the place of Newsstand in the future.

        With News, you tell the app a little about what websites you like to visist and the kinds of articles you like to read on them.  Form there, News will aggregate a feed of news articles, beautifully rendered and laid out for you to read.  The app updates each time you launch it so there will always be fresh content to read and presented in a visually stunning way.

        Up until now, I have this on again off again relationship with Facebook.  I’ve recently started using it again after having liked the WSJ and New York Times pages so that I get news added to my Facebook feed.  I’ve never really been happy about liking pages on Facebook because of all the creepy things they are probably doing to collect my data.  With News, all of that is gone!

        The high points on New include:

        – News updates each time you launch it.  The more you read the better News can be about learning
        about what you like to read
        – News will ship for both iPad and iPhone
        – News will have privacy built in from the start.  There will be no sharing of data with Apple or third-parties about what you are reading
        – This is, in my opinion, a direct shot at Facebook instant articles and I’m glad to have an Apple alternative
        – When News goes live, there will be 30 New York Times articles published a day for News.
        – If all of this reading is anonymous, and there is no data sharing with publishers, who’s footing the bill for the stories?

        iPad iOS 9 Enhancements

        With iOS 9, Apple shows the iPad more love than it’s seen in the last two releases.  It’s clear that Apple is looking to bolster how their industry-leading tablet is both viewed (it’s not just a really large iPhone) and used (now with more productivity and multitasking enhancements).

        iOS 9 brings the Shortcut Bar to the iPad keyboard

        iPad gets the new Shortcut Bar as part of the new iOS 9 keyboard of iPad.  Not only does the keyboard give you predictive text for what you might be typing, but now you have access to text tools right in the keyboard.  The new Shortcut Bar provides convenient access cut/copy/paste functions as well as the ability to add bold, italics and underlined text.  You can even add an attachment if the app support it.

        If you’re not convinced that Apple is trying to cater to people who want to use the iPad as their only computer, a new two finger gesture allows you to move the insertion point cursor around the screen when you place two fingers over the keyboard and move them around as if you were using the trackpad on a MacBook.  This should be a pretty handy feature for people who become frustrated with how you move the cursor around the screen. I know a lot of people who will be happy to have this feature.  I have to wonder if the new iPad Air 3 will feature a Force Touch screen unlocking even more functionality of the track pad-like feature of iOS 9.

        iOS 9 bring Multitasking to the iPad

        Adding iOS 9 to an iPad Air 2 you are able to begin using the new Split Screen feature.  Split Screen was first rumored last year to be a part of iOS 8.  With iOS 9, Split Screen is now a reality.

        The iPad Air 2 running iOS 9 will be able to use Split Screen

        In Split Screen mode, both halves of the screen are running separate applications simultaneously.  You can also grab the slider in the middle of the screen to resize the two windows according to what you are working on.  Regrettably, Screen Split is only available with the iPad Air 2 and will not work with the iPad Air.  Personally, I think that’s a mistake, but no one asked me.

        In addition to Split Screen, is Slide Over.  With Slide Over, you swipe in from the right edge of the screen to open a new column that takes up about one-third of the screen.

        The iPad Air 2 with a Slide Over pane open

        As with Split Screen, both apps are live at the same time.  This feature is really hand if you are working with data in the first two-thirds of the screen and you want to use the last third of the screen to go look something up.  When the Slide Over pane is visible, you will see a Notification Center style tab at the top of the screen. When you pull down on this tab, an app picker appears of the running apps that you can choose to snap in and replace the current app that is in the Slide Over pane.

        The iPad Air 2 Slide Over open app selector

        Slide Over is not a hardware exclusive feature tied to the iPad Air 2 and will also work on the iPad Air, iPad mini 2 and the iPad mini 3.

        Lastly, you can double-click the Home button (or Touch ID button on the new iPad Air 2) to bring up the new iPad Task Switcher.  Unlike the card view used today, running applications are presented on a sort of digital carrousel.

        The iPad Air 2 using the new Task Switcher

         While the new Task Switch looks new and refreshed, nothing that we saw in the demo showed any new features.

        All the Reset of iOS 9

        There’s so much good stuff coming in iOS 9 it’s hard to catalog it all in this single post.  Some of the more important goodies include:

        – A new iOS 9 Low Power mode will extend battery life for up to three hours (estimated)

        – iOS 9 will only require 1.4GB of free space needed to upgrade – iOS 8 required a whopping 4.6GB of free space to run the upgrade

        – HomeKit gadgets can now be securely connected your iPhone over the Internet via iCloud.  Very very cool.

        – Wireless CarPlay what a snoozer.  I’d just like to have CarPlay support in my 2015 Honda Accord  EX.  Oh well, maybe in three to four years when my current least is up Apple and Honda will have their collective acts together. (I’m so glad that Honda was a CarPlay launch partner.)

        – Swift 2 has gone Open Source – now anyone can use it.  A standards compiler and support for iOS, OS X and Linux will be available later this year.  Notice that Windows is missing from that list.

        The release schedule for iOS 9 is:

        – Developers get a free preview starting right now.
        – Public beta testers will get iOS 9 next month (July)
        – iOS 9 general release will ship “this fall”

        Lastly, iOS 9 will install and run on all of the current iOS hardware, which is: iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad mini, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and yes, even the iPod touch 5th generation.

        watchOS 2 Update

        It’s hard to comprehend that Apple Watch and watchOS 1.0 have only been shipping for about six weeks now and already Apple is pushing forward with enhancements to existing features and native application support with watchOS 2.  (I’ll have my Apple Watch review post up before watchOS 2 ships, I promise.)

        Here are some thoughts on what’s coming in watchOS 2 later this year.

        – Seeing “watchOS” on a slide makes me immediately think of Palm’s now defunct “webOS”.  Old habits die really hard I guess.

        – watchOS 2 will bring native apps to the platform.  These apps can run without an iPhone within range of Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

        watchOS 2 will being new watch faces to the current list of watch face styles.  Photo Face and Photo Album Face are new watch faces that will allow you to pick a photo to use as your watch face or a Photos album to randomly display pictures from each time you activate the watch face.  Another cool animated watch face will be the new Time-Lapse face.  Apple will pre-build time lapsed “slideshows” of a select set of cities like London and New York that will animate when the watch face is on.

        Apple also promised that in watchOS 2, software developers will be able to add their own “widgets” or “complications” to watch faces.  Complications are the little blocks of information on the wathc face like the date, upcoming apponintments, battery level and fitness tracking rings.

        Lastly, while you are looking at the watch face, you can scroll the digital crown to see calendar events that happened earlier today or that will be coming up later in the day.

        watchOS 2 also adds:

        – Night Stand mode: when the Watch is charging and turned on it’s side withwith the digital crown and button facing up the screen will work like an alarm clock.

        – Email replies using Siri dictation

        – Make and receive FaceTime audio calls directly on the Watch

        – Siri voice command support for activating the Workout app – “Start a 30 minute run in the park.”

        – Siri voice command to display a specific glance on the Watch face

        With watchOS 2, we are really going to see the flood gates open with regard to what developers can access on the Watch – native apps, new complications, system level access to microphone and speakers and the on board sensors – and all new apps to dream up and make available for use.

        Lastly, as you might have already guessed, watchOS 2 will be a free upgrade coming “this fall.”

        On more thing… Apple Music

        I appreciate that Apple is once again using “One more thing…” in their presentations.  It’s a classic move that Steve Jobs would use to whip up the crowd into a frenzy before showing off one last software package, some new hardware or a new Apple service. 

        Yesterday, Tim Cook returned to that familiar place to talk about Apple’s upcoming Apple Music service and Beats 1 124/7 live radio station.  Naturally, Apple’s fans when nuts.

        Apple’s Jimmie Iovine introduces the new Apple Music streaming service

        Tim Cook kicks off the last segment of the WWDC keynote by introducing Apple Music and Jimmy Ivone to tell us about what Apple Music is all about.

        Apple Music is a new streaming service, 24hr live radio and fans connecting with to artists

        Apple describes Apple Music as:
        – A new revolutionary music service
        – 24/7 live radio service broadcast around the world
        – A new way of connecting fans with artists

        With Apple Music, you will have all of your music all in on place.  Your iTunes library meets the full iTunes Music library streamed to your iOS device, Mac, Windows PC and before the year’s out, Google Android devices.

        I have to say, when Iovine started talking about a “revolutionary new music service” I’m pretty sure I heard echos of Steve Jobs introducing the original iPhone back in 2007.  (You can watch Jobs introduce the iPhone below.)

        [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hUIxyE2Ns8]

        Apple also made a short video featuring Trent Reznor, Artist/Apple Creative, to tell us about the new music service.

        Next up, is Beats 1. a live global radio station with Zane Lowe and his team of real DJs working as hosts around the clock from New York, Los Angles and London.  To help introduce Beats 1, Apple played a short video featuring Zane Lowe talking about how Apple put together Beats 1.

        All of the music recommendations and playlists from Apple Music and Beats 1 are curated by humans to deliver the best possible listening experience for whatever music you want to listen to.

        And last, but not least, is @Connect, which allows artists to upload and share what they are doing directly to their fans.  To help understand how Connect brings fans and artists – big and small – together, Apple brought Drake out to talk about his experience with Connect.  Yet another win for diversity on the Apple stage.

        The schedule for Apple Music, which includes Beats 1 and Connect is:

        – Rolls out with iOS 8.4 on June 30, with new versions of iTunes for Mac and Windows PC.  Android support coming later this year.

        – The first three months of Apple Music are free.  After that, it’s just $9.99/month for an individual subscription.

        – For family of up to six people, a sharing subscription is just $14.99/month and each person has their own library, playlists, recommendations, et el.

        To close out the keynote presentation, Tim Cook invited The Weekend up on stance to perform a new single.  I’m sure it will be on the iTunes Music Store before long.

      6. microsoft,  update,  windows,  windows server

        Microsoft’s ANS Alerts Are No Longer Free

        Tomorrow’s Microsoft “Patch Tuesday” is going to seem a little bit more confusing than past patch days for the majority of Microsoft’s customers.

        “They’ve gone from free to fee, and for really no particular reason,” said Andrew Storms, vice president of security services at New Context, a San Francisco-based security consultancy, in an interview.”

        Microsoft Windows administrators have been familiar with the ANS, or Advanced Notification Service emails that were sent out a head of Microsoft’s scheduled patch release date with information regarding what software was to be patched, their classification of the patch, and associated knowledge base articles.  Starting with tomorrow’s patch Tuesday, Microsoft will not provide advanced notice of patches.

        “Customer feedback indicates that many of our large customers no longer use ANS in the same way they did in the past due to optimized testing and deployment methodologies,” said Chris Betz, senior director at the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC). “While some customers still rely on ANS, the vast majority wait for Update Tuesday, or take no action, allowing updates to occur automatically.”

        “Microsoft prefers to call its monthly security release “Update Tuesday,” apparently believing “Patch Tuesday” carries negative connotations.”

        So, unless your organization pays for premiere support or is otherwise involved in sharing security information with Microsoft, you will no longer be receiving these email updates.

        Personally, I’ve never participated in the online briefings, but I would skim the list of patches, sorry, “updates” that Microsoft would be pushing out to Microsoft Windows Update Servers (WUS) running on private networks.  While I’m sad to see the email notices and blog postings go away, for small to mid-sized organizations, I’m not sure that there will be a meaningful impact on day-to-day operations.  What will likely become of this is that Windows client and Windows Server administrators will need to pay more attention when testing the latest updates before deploying them on production servers.

        [Via ComputerWorld.com…]

      7. adobe,  flash,  linux,  security,  windows

        Upgrade to Adobe Flash Player 14.0.125 Now

        Adobe has issued a security bulletin urging Flash users to upgrade to the latest release, version 14.0.125.  Windows PCs, Macs, and machines running Linux with unlatched versions of Flash are vulnerable that could allow an attacker to take control of the computer.

        “Adobe has released security updates for Adobe Flash Player 13.0.0.214 and earlier versions for Windows and Macintosh and Adobe Flash Player 11.2.202.359 and earlier versions for Linux. These updates address vulnerabilities that could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. Adobe recommends users update their product installations to the latest versions[.]”

        You can download the latest version of Adobe Flash Player for your Windows PC, Macintosh, or Linux machine from Adobe Flash Player download website.

        Today’s full APSB14-16 security bulletin can be read on the Adobe website.

      8. apple,  ios 7,  itunes,  mac os x,  mac pro,  macbook pro,  windows

        Apple Releases OS X, Windows, and iOS Software Updates

        Earlier today, Apple released maintenance updates for OS X 10.9 Mavericks, iTunes 11.2, Safari 7.0.3, and the iOS Podcast app.

        The OS X Mavericks update, available now from the Mac App Store, is recommended for all customers running OS X 10.9.  For Mac Pro and 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display customers using 4K displays, Apple has added improvements for the new hi-resolution monitors.

        The update also includes Safari 7.0.3, bringing with it security improvements.

        Apple also rolled out iTunes 11.2 for Mac OS X and Windows PCs.  The latest maintenance release of iTunes brings with it enhancements for finding, playing, and managing podcasts.  In addition to iTunes 11.2, Apple also updated their iOS Podcast app to version 2.1.

        iTunes 11.2 and Podcasts 2.1 are available now from the Mac App Store (Macintosh), Apple Software Update control panel (Windows PC) and the App Store (iOS).

      9. apple,  itunes,  mac os x,  windows

        iTunes 11.1.5 Update Now Available

        A day after rolling out the Mac OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 update, Apple today released the iTunes 11.1.5 update.

        A minor update for both Mac OS X and Windows PCs, iTunes 11.1.5 addresses an issue that can cause iTunes to crash unexpectedly when an iDevice is connected.
        You can download the update on OS X from the Mac App Store while Windows users can get the update from the Apple Software Update utility.
        The official release notes on the Apple website.