As the Apple Turns: Scene 3029: Incremental Improvement (5/2/01)

Incremental Improvement (5/2/01)

Other than the nifty new iBook, the only other real announcement at yesterday's press event was relatively minor, but important nonetheless: Mac OS X 10.0.2 is now available, and this latest update adds the long-awaited CD-R/RW compatibility that we've all been waiting for. (Just before Mac OS X's initial release, Steve promised that it'd be available by the end of April-- and while it's technically a day late, we're not planning on holding that against him.) So those of you bleeding-edgers who are running Apple's lickable new operating system should fire up your Preferences panel, click on Software Update, let it do its thing, and before you know it you'll be able to rip, mix, and burn.

For the record, we downloaded and applied the update on our PowerBook last night, and while we did run into some minor snags, it wasn't anything to cry about. Basically Software Update told us there were three updates we needed: the Epson Printer Drivers pack from 10.0.1 (which we never bothered to install), Mac OS X 10.0.2 itself, and iTunes 1.1 (which adds CD-burning capabilities to Apple's music app, now that Mac OS X supports the technology). Figuring we'd just go whole hog, we gave the go-ahead to install all three updates. However, Software Update appeared to hang about two-thirds of the way through the operation. After staring at an unchanging progress bar for the better part of half an hour, we took a chance and force-quit the application. After a restart for good measure-- and yes, we were able to boot after a botched system upgrade, thank you very much-- Software Update reported that all we needed was Mac OS X 10.0.2. We gave it a second try.

That time around, things went much smoother-- although the optimization part of the install took literally forty-five minutes to complete, which was a bit of a surprise. Eventually, though, we were up and running happily with 10.0.2, and we're happy to report that our Dock runs smoother, application launches are much faster, and even our volume and mute keys finally work. As for CD-burning, well, that still doesn't seem to be happening for us. However, we're going to go out on a limb and say that the problem probably isn't with Mac OS X 10.0.2 or iTunes 1.1, but rather stems from the fact that we don't actually own a CD-R drive. (That's just a hunch, mind you, and we'll probably submit a bug report to Apple just in case.) Other than that, though, we're really digging the extra speed and the restoration of our volume keys. Kudos to the Mac OS X development team for a steadily-improving customer experience; at this rate, we have no doubt that Mac OS X will be very ready for prime time by this summer, if not sooner.

SceneLink (3029)

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Mash-ups and original music by AtAT's former Intern and Goddess-in-Training

The above scene was taken from the 5/2/01 episode:

May 2, 2001: The new iBook is here, and it looks hauntingly familiar somehow. Meanwhile, Apple smacks Dell upside the head with an education order for 23,000 iBooks, and Mac OS X 10.0.2 is here for those of you itching to burn...

Other scenes from that episode:

3027: The TiBook Starter Kit (5/2/01) Needless to say, drama fiends who hoped for some sort of bombshell announcement that would shake us to the very cores of our beings are probably just a smidge disappointed. Apple has neither bought Handspring nor been bought by Sony...
3028: Education Sales Brawl 101 (5/2/01) While the iBook is designated as Apple's "consumer portable," the company clearly had another market firmly in mind during yesterday's product intro: education. Yup, Apple is taking its grudge match with Dell to the next level; stung by being smacked into second place by one of the beigest-thinking boxmakers on the planet, Steve devoted a good chunk of the long-awaited "press event" to playing up just how perfect the new iBook is for use in and out of the classroom...

Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast...


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