AMITIAE - Wednesday 23 October 2013
Cassandra: Installing OS X 10.9, Mavericks, and Some Navel-Gazing While I Waited |
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By Graham K. Rogers
I watched the Apple event held at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts when several products - hardware and software - were announced. Before bed, I put online my initial notes on what we had seen. Then, after breakfast, I had a more detailed look at some of the products, particularly with regard to pricing and availability here. After clearing some of the many updates that were available for the iOS devices, I turned my attention to the Mac and its update to OS X 10.9, Mavericks. For certain reasons, I downloaded the complete install and that took quite a time, but first there was some preparation. I have been fortunate with updates to OS X ever since version 10.2, Jaguar but you can make your own luck in part by good preparation. This began with a final backup to Time Machine. I do this almost every day, but with an OS update, this was not the time to be lazy. That done, I restarted the computer in the Rescue partition, by using the Command + R keys at startup. From the menu, I selected Disk Utility and ran a repair of the disk, following that with a Permissions Repair.
The ISP must have been having a semi-off day as the download was a little slower than I had hoped: 500 MB took about 10 minutes, so I could expect the whole thing to take something like 2 hours. I let it get on with what it was doing.
In the meantime, I switched to the iPad to compare those new Macs. I had put off updating and one thing that bothered me concerned storage, so I looked at the specifications. First I had to pass the iPad opening screen. Like the iPhone, I was asked to authorise the Keychain. I used the "other device" option again. I had configured the iPhone with the Mac; with the iPad, I was asked to confirm on the iPhone. These devices, and Mavericks, make it clear that Apple intends that iCloud is to be a major part of its forward strategy.
As I had bought these before the Mac App Store existed, updates had never appeared in the past. They had to be downloaded from the Apple downloads pages. If I had ever deleted them - for example in a total reinstall - it would be difficult (at best) to retrieve them. I had spent considerable time with Apple personnel a few months ago discussing this via email. I am sure others were similarly affected and will also be pleased. Along with the Apple updates listed, some 3rd party apps installed on the Mac were also shown as available (Analog and iTemplates).
I did read the License agreement, noting particularly,
The location data and queries collected by Apple are collected in a form that does not personally identify you and may be used by Apple and its partners, licensees and third party developers to provide and improve location-based products and services. By using any location-based services provided by or through the Apple Software, you agree and consent to Apple's and its partners', licensees' and third party developers' transmission, collection, maintenance, processing and use of your location data and queries to provide and improve such products and services. You may withdraw this consent at any time by going to the Location Services setting in the Apple Software and either turning off the global Location Services setting or turning off the individual location setting of each location-aware application on your computer. and
WITHOUT LIMITATION THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION OR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL, LIFE SUPPORT OR WEAPONS SYSTEMS. Near the end of the Agreement, as well as the export restrictions, there were notices about MPEG-4, H264/AVC, and AMR (Adaptive Multi-rate) and others which Apple licence. I clicked, "Agree," of course.
With nothing happening, I quit App Store. On the restart, the updates icon still showed a figure 6. In the main panel the apps still had "Update" shown rather than a price: that was encouraging. I clicked on the update icon at the top of the App Store pane and there they all were: Pages, Aperture, Numbers, iPhoto, iMovie and Keynote. I clicked on "Update All" signed in with my password and went to make some tea.
Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs. |
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