Reprinted from TidBITS#817/20-Feb-06 with permission. Copyright (C) 2006, TidBITS. All rights reserved. http://www.tidbits.com/ MailBITS/20-Feb-06 ------------------ **Mac OS X 10.4.5 Fixes Nits** -- Apple last week released Mac OS X 10.4.5, a bug-fix update that offers oodles of small changes. Most notable are a fix that prevents Safari from crashing when deleting AOL email messages via AOL webmail, proper functioning of Apple's IPsec VPN client with Cisco servers whether or not NAT (Network Address Translation) is used, a fix for synchronizing with an iDisk larger than 4 GB, and a fix that enables some previously problematic Epson printers to be used successfully via an AirPort Extreme base station. A number of changes affect only Intel-based Macs, including two fixes to Rosetta: one that enables applications to open files located via the search field in Open dialogs and another that enables Rosetta-translated applications to receive Keychain notifications correctly. Many of the other changes are cosmetic (Fast User Switching's rotating cube now appears as expected on primary and mirrored displays) or highly specific (the Setup Assistant no longer crashes if Kotoeri is selected as the keyboard type following an English language installation of Mac OS X). Mac OS X 10.4.5 is available as separate delta updates for Mac OS 10.4.4 (16 MB for PowerPC, 98 MB for Intel), and as a 125 MB combo update for PowerPC-based Macs that will update any previous version of Mac OS X 10.4. The delta update via Software Update is only 6.4 MB for PowerPC-based Macs, while the update for Intel-based Macs is 40 MB. [ACE] **MacBook Pro Ships at Higher Speeds** -- The MacBook Pro starts shipping last week with faster processors than promised. Apple said pre-orders started moving out 14-Feb-06 and will be available in retail Apple Stores and resellers. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that Apple's idea of "shipping" referred to the laptops leaving the factories in Asia, since as of press time it appears the first orders are due to arrive in customers' hands early this week. The 15-inch laptop was originally announced to include a 1.67 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, but Apple said that the lowest speed to ship is now 1.83 GHz (the former top speed for this model; see "Intel-Based iMac and MacBook Pro Ship Earlier than Expected" in TidBITS-812_ for the machine's full specifications). The higher- speed standard model now features a 2.0 GHz processor, which can be reconfigured to have a 2.16 GHz processor for an extra $300 - that's $300 for a one-twelfth faster processor. The 1.83 GHz model does not offer the processor speed bump as a build-to-order option. Apple said that outstanding pre-orders can be tweaked for faster speeds. (However, if your machine has already shipped that might be problematic!) [GF] **iKey 2.2 Adds Double-Key Hotkeys, USB Device Events** -- Script Software has released iKey 2.2, the latest version of their automation utility. Most notable among the new features is one I requested: double-key hotkeys that enable you to invoke a shortcut that chooses the Save As menu item, for instance, when you press Command-S-A (that's pressing Command-S, letting up on the S, and pressing A quickly). This is a brilliant feature I found utterly addictive in Nisus Writer Classic (it's also available in a limited fashion in Microsoft Word's internal keyboard customization, and in QuicKeys X3 from Startly Technologies), and it makes assigning memorable hotkeys to a constantly proliferating set of shortcuts far easier. Also new in iKey 2.2 are USB device events that let you invoke shortcuts using the various buttons and scroll wheels on USB devices attached to your Mac (unfortunately, you can't use a USB device event if you have another USB driver such as USB Overdrive installed). iKey 2.2 now saves the contents of the clipboard automatically before invoking certain clipboard commands and restores those contents afterwards; two new clipboard commands give you manual control over saving and restoring clipboard contents. It's easier to attach icons to your shortcuts, floating menus no longer include system contextual menu items, Apple's Backup application can now save iKey's settings, iKey warns you if there's a conflict between any of your hotkeys and system hotkeys, and a new version of my "Take Control of iKey 2" manual documents all the changes. iKey 2.2 is a free upgrade for registered users and new copies cost $30; it's a 4.8 MB download and is available as a universal binary for users of both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs. [ACE] **El Camino Becomes Real** -- Even though Camino has been in development and available in one form or another for several years, the free, open-source Camino Web browser celebrated its 1.0 birth on Valentine's Day (14-Feb-06). With its roots in the same Mozilla development project that brought us Firefox and connections to Safari (Camino was originally called Chimera, and one of the primary Chimera developers went to Apple to work on the browser that became Safari), Camino offers the fast, lightweight Gecko rendering engine and a suite of modern browser features that may make it a prime candidate for your primary browser. Camino 1.0 supports tabbed browsing, pop-up and advertisement blocking, page security warnings, large picture scaling, a clean downloads experience, and broad media player support. Users who are happy with Safari, Firefox, or another favorite browser may still want to try Camino for its excellent rendering speed and integration with Mac OS X. Camino 1.0 is a universal binary, optimized for use on both PowerPC and Intel Macs. It requires Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later, and is available as a standard download (14.2 MB) or a multilingual download (19.5 MB) that supports Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese (for Brazil or Portugal), Russian, Slovak, and Swedish. [MHA] .