Tag Archives: Mountain Lion

OS X Mountain Lion Application Can’t be Verified!

Apple,

It appears that a number of people trying to update OS X to Mountain Lion are having issues.

They are getting this message. “This Copy of the Install OS X Mountain Lion Application can’t be verified. It may have been corrupted or tampered with during download. Delete this copy of the application, and go to the Purchases page of the Mac App Store to download a new copy”

So far Apple has not come out with instructions on how to fix this. One of my MacBook Pro’s is throwing this error and fails to be able to be upgraded

If you read all of the threads, there seems to be a handful of suggestions out there re-downloading in most cases does not solve the issue. After deleting the 4.3gb file re-downloading, and cleaning out the cache files (another suggestion) the issue remains.

This seems to be isolated by the thread reads are now over 10,000.

Some have tried booting into recovery mode by holding down the option key when powering up and running Disk Utility and running repair disk permissions.  One should use some caution here as Disk utility can ruin your day if you press the wrong button.

My specific Mac had a number of issues that the repair disk permissions fixed, but it has not solved my issue of being able to upgrade. Until someone comes up with some more ideas, or Apple publishes a fix I have Mac that will remain on the older operating system.

I will have to admit up to this point I have never had an issue in updating or upgrading a Mac, so now I can equally bash on the Windows and OS X upgrade process as nothing is perfect. This is one weakness of the cloud. If you received a physical disk this type of validation of the download would not be an issue.

Update: After I launched recover mode and ran the disk utility for repair disk permissions, then put the mountain lion upgrade in the trash can and deleted it re-booted and downloaded the upgrade again, I was able to get a good install. Make sure you delete the install file do not over write the previous download.

First Look at Mountain Lion

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It took from 8:37 AM to 11:25 AM  to download and install Mountain Lion. I suspect this is because everybody was trying to do it at the same time and this process will get a lot faster. The first thing you’ll notice when Mountain Lion starts are that Notifications and Notes and have been added to your dock. Both of Notifications and Notes work pretty much as they do on the iPad or iPhone if you have one. To control what apps can send a notification and how it will appear on your desktop go into System Preferences and then Notifications and then set the preferences  for each how you want it. You have a choice of None, Banners which appears and then disappears and Alerts which will remain on the screen until you dismiss them. If you want to turn off Notifications all together click on the notification icon in the upper right hand corner of your screen and then pull it down and you’ll see the option to turn Notifications off. Or you can simply option-click in the Notification icon to turn it on and off. I have to admit I hardly ever use Notes on the iPad but with the ability to do notes on the desktop and have it sync to the iPad I suspect I will be using it more.

The next thing I tried was mirroring my Mac Mini desktop to my Apple TV and it worked perfectly. It appears that as long as your Mac Mini and AppleTV are on the same network mirroring will work. You can only turn off mirroring at the computer as far as I can tell, which doesn’t make sense to me. However it is possible that I am missing something. I not sure how often I will be using mirroring, it would make more sense if I had a lap top, but it is nice to have.

I then tried dictation. To start to dictate you simply hit the function key twice within any application, and the microphone will show up or you can go up to the menu bar and under edit and hit start dictation. You can change the keyboard shortcut by going into System preference and then Dictation. If you have a Mac Mini like I do, you will need a microphone for this to work. Dictation is excellent at not picking up background noise. While testing dictation I was watching Security Now and it didn’t pick any of it up. Dictation worked surprisingly well and I suspect it will work even better once I learn how to do it correctly.

The first time you tweet something it will ask if you want to use this Twitter account for all OSX applications. If you use Safari, you can share a page by clicking on the icon in the upper left corner. At this time point you can share to Twitter, Messages and by email. Facebook should be added later this fall. I am disappointed but not surprised that there is no way to share to Google Plus. I also wish there was a keyboard shortcut for each option, right now the only one available is if you want to email a page to someone.  Also what you can share to seems to be app specific, for example Notes only shares to Messages and email, while  you can also share to Twitter if you use TextEdit

When I started up Safari I got the message that the Safari Omnibar extension that I had installed was no longer valid. I had to download the uninstaller from the Web site and when I went to deploy it I got a message that I couldn’t open it because it was from an unidentified developer. To open it I had to go into Security & Privacy and under General set the “Allow applications downloaded from” to anywhere. Unless you know what you are doing I recommend leaving it at the default which is Mac App Store and identified developers.

I am still going through the hidden things that are available on Mountain Lion, so far I am most impressed by dictation. I have run across a couple of hiccups, such as the ability to crop being grayed out in Preview and the application Skitch keeps crashing. Have you tried Mountain Lion yet. Do you like it and have you discovered any hidden tricks.

Getting Ready for Mountain Lion

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According to Apple, Mountain Lion is going to be released within the next ten days. So if you are thinking of upgrading it is time to get ready. The first thing you will want to do is to check to see if your machine is eligible for Mountain Lion. To do this take the following steps:

  1. Click on the Apple logo in the upper left hand corner of your screen
  2. Then About this Mac.
  3. Then click on More Info and copy the year and time of year your mac was produced, for example mine was mid 2011.
  4. Then go to the Apple Mountain Lion Spec Page and see if it is on the list.

If it isn’t on the list you cannot upgrade, Not all Macs that run Lion will be eligible for Mountain Lion. For example my early 2008 Macbook runs Lion fine, however it is not eligible for the Mountain Lion upgrade. If your machine is on the list, congratulation you are eligible for the upgrade. Now make sure you have at least 4GB of memory, although 8GB is recommended by most experts, also make sure you have at least 8 GB of space available. Do a backup, in case something goes wrong. This is also a good time to do some tidying up, clear out your download folder, empty the trash and perhaps get rid of those applications you downloaded but never use. A good application that can help you do this is Disk Doctor available through the Mac app store for $1.99. It will clear out your trash, cache, download folder and languages you don’t use. As always, if you are not sure-don’t delete. Now you are ready for Mountain Lion, which according to all rumors should come out on Wednesday in the Mac App store for $20.00.

Just because you are ready to upgrade to Mountain Lion doesn’t mean you should.  Mountain Lion is an evolutionary not revolutionary upgrade. There are some cool things that are being added such as Dictation, Reminders, Messages, and Notes to name a few. However there is nothing that is a must have for most people. So before you upgrade check to see if your favorite applications can run under Mountain Lion. You can check the app compatibility table at RoaringApp. If the app has a question mark next to it, doesn’t mean it will not run under Mountain Lion, it just means it hasn’t been tested and you should proceed with caution. This is especial true if you are running a small business.

If you decide that you want to take the leap, remember that everyone else is taking the leap at the same time and the download may take some time, so be patient, make some tea or have a beer and relax. Getting frustrate will not make the download and install go any faster.

Initial Thoughts on WWDC

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My initial thoughts on what was announced at WWDC. First the good, the new Macbook Pro with retina display was definitely the highlight of the show. The display has over 5 million pixels on the 15.4 inch display with a resolution of 2880×1800 resolution. The Macbook Pro with the retina display weights only 4.46 lb. and is 0.71 inches thin. It has a HDMI port, 2 USB 3.0/2.0 ports, SDXC card and 2 Thunderbolt connections. The fire wire port is gone. It has a Quad-Core Intel Core i7 processor. It starts at $2,199 for the base model. They also are updating the Macbook Pro 13- and 15-inch without the Retina display.  They are both  getting the latest Ivy Bridge chips along with other hardware upgrades.  Ports included are 2 USB 3.0 ports, 1 Thunderbolt ports, and an SDXC card input and a Gigabit Ethernet connection.

Mountain Lion will be available in July for anyone using Snow Leopard or Lion. It will only be $20.00 for the upgrade. iCloud update will allow users to drag documents into the cloud and then they will be available on all your Apple devices. The documents can then be edited on all devices. There will be a dedicated sharing button in Safari, making it easy to share your webpages to your Social networks.   Notifications will be coming to Mountain Lion. Facebook integration will be available in the Notification center. There will be a share button integrated into the system allowing you to easily share your photos, videos and other files out to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Vimeo.  It appears the Facebook integration is not coming until the fall.  A new feature Power Nap will allow you to set your computer to sync with iCloud, email and Time Machine while it sleeps. With Mountain Lion you will be able to use AirPlay to mirror content up to 1080p from your Mac to your TV. Game Center is also coming to the Mac and will work across all mac platforms.

Siri is coming to the current iPad and iPad 2 and will offer more information about sports, restaurants, movies and more. Facebook integration is also coming with iOS 6 with a tap to post option in the Notification Center. You will be able to turn on a Do Not Disturb feature which will silent alerts or incoming calls for a set amount of times. FaceTime will now work over 3G. Your phone number and Apple ID will be united under FaceTime. iOS 6 will include a Passbook feature which will allow you to store and access electronic versions of tickets, boarding passes and merchant cards. If you are near a store or movie theatre that uses the reward card or ticket that is in your Passbook an alert will pop up notify you. As expected Apple is getting rid of its dependency on Google Maps on iOs 6. It will use its own mapping solution with Yelp and crowd source traffic information integrated. There will also be turn by turn directions using Siri.

There were some disappointments. No mention of a new iPhone, although it seems to be a given with the introduction of iOS 6. It appears that Apple will no longer be upgrading the 17 inch Macbook pro and that line is going away. There is no upgrade for Mac mini or the iMac. There was no mention of the mythical Apple TV and no sdk was released for the current Apple TV, I found that disappointing. All in all I was happy with what was announced at WWDC. I will continue to watch what else is coming out of WWDC the rest of the week.

WWDC Rumor Roundup

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WWDC is a week-long event with over a 100 sessions of which the Keynote is just one of them. It is for both iOs and OsX developers There will be sessions on everything from developing graphical applications including game, media rich books, video and audio application to sessions for Web kit developers and how to make money by using StoreKit.

We already know that both Mountain Lion and iOS 6 will be front and center in both the keynote and the various sessions. If you read the Apple about WWDC page it is also clear that they will be emphasizing the retina display and how to take advantage of it. Another point of emphasis will be the integration of social media including Twitter. It is rumored that Facebook integration will be introduced, however that has not been confirmed. Even Tim Cook has admitted that Ping, which was Apple latest attempt to make iTunes social has been less than successful. It appears that Apple has given up creating its own social network and instead is concentrating on integrating already existing social networks into its ecosystem. I think this makes sense, social networks have never been Apple’s strength. Apple will probably also announce its own mapping solution under iOs 6 removing its dependence on Google maps.

These are things we know are going to be introduced at WWDC unless something unforeseen happens, but what about the unconfirmed rumors. The first is Siri for iPad. This is most likely just for the current iPad and iPad 2, but not for the original iPad. I have to admit being an owner of an iPad, but not an iPhone I am looking forward to trying Siri out, although I am not sure what I will use it for. Also under iOs 6,  A Do not Disturb, mode for reminders appears be coming. I would love it if they would add a clear all box to reminders, so I didn’t have to click on each section.  Some people expect iCloud to be upgraded to include new web apps including notes and reminders. Since Mobile Me is shutting down at the end of June it would not be surprising to see an enhanced photo sharing option under iCloud to replace it.

Most people also expect new hardware to be released during the week of WWDC including new Macbook Airs, Mac Pros and MacBook Pros. Some of the upgrades that are rumored are the introduction of USB 3.0, the employment of Intel’s Ivy Bridge CPUs, retina display in a notebook, and the 17-inch Macbook being discontinue. All these rumors have their plus and minuses, which Techcrunch does a good job at articulating in the post Which Apple WWDC Rumors Are Most Likely to Come True. Most people don’t expect the new iPhone to be introduced at WWDC, although out of focus pictures of iPhone 5 parts keep showing up on the Web. The Boy Genus site says that Apple will release an SDK for the current Apple TV to third-party developers.  This would open it up to third-party applications. If this happens, some people see it as a step toward the release of the mythical stand alone Apple TV. There are even a few who expect the mythical stand alone Apple TV to be introduced at WWDC. I do hope the SDK rumor is true, the current Apple TV has so much potential if only Apple would open it up to developers.

How many of these rumors will come true, only Apple knows, however there are a couple of things I can guarantee.  The first is that there will probably be at least one surprise. The second is there will also be at least one rumor that will not come true because of a last-minute hiccup. Third the various tech sites will spend at least a week after WWDC talking about where Apple failed and why. Finally there will be an in-depth analysis clearly showing that Apple is falling apart because Tim Cook’s hair was out-of-place or his shirt was untucked or a slide didn’t work perfectly during the keynote.  All I know is at 1 pm EST on Monday I will probably have one of the many tech sites who will be live blogging the keynote open and TWiT.tv  playing in the background. How about you?  If you are a Mac user have you been following the rumors and will you be following the keynote live.