Security Update 2008-007 is recommended for all users and improves the security of Mac OS X. Previous security updates have been incorporated into this security update.

For information on the security content of this update, visit http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

iTunes 8 includes Genius, which makes playlists from songs in your library that go great together. Genius also includes Genius sidebar, which recommends music from the iTunes Store that you don’t already have.

With iTunes 8, browse your artists and albums visually with the new Grid view; download your favorite TV shows in HD quality from the iTunes Store; sync your media with iPod nano (4th generation), iPod classic (120GB), and iPod touch (2nd generation); and enjoy a stunning new music visualizer.

iTunes 8 and iTunes U are now accessible with VoiceOver on your Mac.

iTunes 8.0.1 improves stability and performance and provides a number of important bug fixes, including:

• Seamlessly plays the current song when creating a new Genius playlist.
• Improves syncing spoken menus to iPod nano.
• Addresses an issue of deleting HD TV episodes when downloading.
• Improves checking for updates from the App Store
• Improves accessibility with VoiceOver.
• Addresses problems syncing Genius results to iPod.

In July, while I was working on the eleventh edition of Quicken 2009: The Official Guide for Quicken Press, I wrote the following sidebar for Chapter 13. But by the time I had completed it I realized that it was probably not a good addition to the book for various liability reasons. So I pulled it out and wrote this post, dating it to appear after the Quicken book was published.

I need to stress that the only thing I’m advising here is for people to be conservative when borrowing money. I don’t want to see the U.S. economy getting any worse, and I certainly don’t want to hear stories about people — especially people with families — losing their homes. Consider my advice and take it with a grain of salt. While there’s no reward without risk, there’s also a lesser chance of loss without it.

Here’s my unpublished sidebar:

Mortgage Options: What Does This Mean To You?

I’m not a financial advisor and I don’t feel comfortable giving financial advice. But here’s one piece of advice I feel I must give in this eleventh edition of my Quicken book: Don’t make unrealistic assumptions.

The mortgage crisis that’s currently going on in this country is due, in part, to unrealistic assumptions made by borrowers. Some people assumed that the home they were buying would quickly rise in value so it would be worth far more than they were paying in just a year or two. They reasoned that they could always sell it at profit if they had trouble making mortgage payments. Other people assumed that rates would continue to stay low or even go lower, so payments on their adjustable rate mortgages would stay the same or be reduced. And most people probably assumed that the economy would stay strong, fuel prices wouldn’t rise, and they’d stay employed.

Hindsight is 20-20. As we saw, the worst combination of economic changes recently hit the U.S. The “housing bubble” burst and home values declined. Soon, many people’s mortgages — some for 90% or 100% of the home’s purchase price! — exceeded the value of their homes. Some homes could only be sold at a loss, with the seller still in debt on a home he no longer owned. Interest rates rose and adjustable rate mortgages rose with them. The cost of living increased, making it difficult for many people to cover their living expenses and pay their mortgage. A rash of layoffs throughout the country left many people unemployed. It was the perfect storm.

When I advise readers not to make assumptions, I’m warning those of you considering a home purchase not to make the same mistakes that other home buyers made over the few years before the housing bubble burst. They assumed best case scenario and they were proven very wrong. It may be better to assume the worst case scenario. If housing values remain flat or decline, mortgage rates rise, the cost of living continues to rise, or you lose your job, can you still afford the home you’ve selected with the mortgage deal you’ve chosen? If not, perhaps you need to find a better deal or choose a more affordable home.

Be smart — not sorry.

This Front Row update provides improved iTunes 8.0 compatibility and bug fixes.

QuickTime 7.5.5 includes changes that increase reliability, improve application compatibility and enhance security.

This release is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users.

For detailed information on the security content of this update, visit http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798.

In early August, I was interviewed by MacVoices producer Chuck Joiner about my new Lynda.com course covering WordPress.com, WordPress.com Essential Training. The interview went live today. You can read about the interview, access related links and listen to our conversation on the MacVoices Web site.

MacVoices, by the way, is available as a podcast. It’s a great way to get news about new Mac products delivered to iTunes and your iPod. If you haven’t checked it out yet, please do! I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

The Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.2 Update contains several changes that improve stability and performance. In addition, this update includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of a computer’s memory by using malicious code.

You can learn more at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956344.

Note: This update is huge: over 100 MB. If you’re updating on a laptop, make sure you have a good Internet connection and your power cable attached.

iPhoto 7.1.4

This update contains new holiday greeting card and postcard themes for use with Apple print products. It also addresses general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and addresses a number of other minor issues.

iWeb 2.0.4

This update addresses general compatibility issues.

iMovie 7.1.4

This update addresses general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and addresses a number of other minor issues.

iLife Support 8.3

iLife Support provides system software components shared by all iLife ’08 applications. This update improves overall stability and addresses a number of other minor issues. It is recommended for all users for iLife ’08.

For information on the security content of this update, visit http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798

The Mac OS X Update For MobileMe is recommended for users running Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.4 and includes general system fixes that enhance your Mac for MobileMe.

For detailed information about MobileMe, visit http://www.me.com.

This week, Apple released its new online service, MobileMe. At the same time, it discontinued its old service, .Mac.

My Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard book provides some coverage of the features of .Mac. I have not yet had time to work with and develop new material covering MobileMe. I expect to be writing new articles and creating new videos about MobileMe soon. You’ll find them here as I release them.

In the meantime, if you’re a .Mac user, I highly recommend that you read Apple’s support document, “.Mac to MobileMe transition FAQ.” It will provide you the basic information you need to make the transition from the old service to the new one.

If you have specific questions about using MobileMe features, please use the comments link or form for this article. Although I can’t guarantee an answer, I will use the questions I receive here to write new articles about MobileMe for this site. Just keep in mind that I can’t provide technical support for connection and compatibility problems. For that kind of help, please turn to Apple Support.

There’s nothing wrong with Office 2004 that’s fixed in Office 2008. It’s the same software with some Interface tweaks. After all, at this point, what can Microsoft do to change Office?

The answer, of course, is to create an abomination like Office 2007 for Windows. They said they made it more intuitive, but for who? People who have never seen a computer before? As a long-time Office user, the new “ribbon” interface drives me batty. I can’t find any of the commands I need.

I thank my lucky stars that they didn’t destroy the Mac version, too.

But although I didn’t need or want to update to Office 2008 for Macintosh, I soon realized that if I wanted to record videos about the software and write the occasional article or Maria’s Guides post about it, I should bite the bullet and put it on at least one of my computers. That lucky computer was my MacBook Pro, which I have with me in Washington State this summer.

The installer warned me that the sky would fall (or something equally horrible would happen) if I didn’t uninstall previous versions of Word. So, like a real sucker, I let the installer uninstall Office 2004. I’d learn Office 2008 with a thorough emersion.

Compatibility Woes

I began running into problems almost immediately. The first was compatibility. For some reason, the geniuses in Redmond decided that Office 2007 (Windows) and 2008 (Mac OS) should have a different file format. So when you save a document from Word 2008, by default, it saves in the .docx format. Unfortunately, the vast majority of my editors and other people I share files with did not upgrade to Office 2007 or 2008. These people couldn’t read the files without installing a special converter, which was not immediately available.

And if I happened to open a Word 2003 or 2004 file and save it, I got all kinds of worrisome warnings about document formatting possibly being lost.

The solution, of course, was to save in Word 97-2004 format. And so I didn’t have to deal with choosing a file type option every time I saved a document, I set that as the default file type. That would pretty much guarantee that my file could be read by anyone using any modern version of Word.

Macro Woes

Things got worse.

I began work on a book I revise each year. (I’m not allowed to say what it is because I’m under nondisclosure, but you can probably figure it out if you consult my Books list.) That book is written in Word, which my editors use. We make extensive use of the Track Changes feature. All of my editors are on Word 2003 (Windows). While I assume that the Track Changes feature works the same in both versions, I know the macro feature does not.

You see, the geniuses in Redmond decided to disable Word’s Visual Basic macro feature in Word 2008 for Macintosh. Sure, there’s a dialog full of predefined macros that are probably preprogrammed into the software. I haven’t fiddled with the feature yet, so I can’t say much more about it.

But I can tell you that if you try to open a Word document or template that contains macros with Word 2008, Word wants to strip them out. Yes, you can open the file without stripping out the macros, but you can’t use the macros.

While for most folks, this might not be such a big deal, it’s a huge deal for this book project. Each book file has to be based on a template that includes these macros. The macros automate several tasks and really do make my life easier. I want to use the macros.

While I do have my old 12-in PowerBook handy and it has Word 2004 on it, it doesn’t have Photoshop on it. I need Photoshop, which is on my MacBook Pro, to process the screenshots. My MacBook Pro also has my e-mail software so I can send out the finished chapter files and art.

I was looking at a workflow nightmare. My options were as follows:

• Run the software I’m writing about on my Dell PC (it’s a Windows software program), write the book on my PowerBook, and edit the screenshots on my MacBook Pro. That meant having three laptops open while I worked and shuffling the files among all three computers before putting them on the MacBook Pro to send them out.
• Reinstall Word 2004 on my MacBook Pro. Then run the software I’m writing about on my Dell laptop and do all the text and image editing, as well as e-mailing final files, from my MacBook Pro.

Which option would you choose?

So that’s why I’m downgrading to Word 2004 on my MacBook Pro.

The 10.5.4 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac.

For detailed information on this update, visit http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1994.
For detailed information on security updates, visit http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

This update contains several improvements to enhance stability and performance.

For detailed information about this update, visit
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=119963.

Note that this is a huge update: 150+ megabytes! Be sure you have a fast connection and enough time to complete the download before beginning the update.

QuickTime 7.5 improves application compatibility and addresses security issues.

This release is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users.

For detailed information on the security content of this update, visit http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798.

The 10.5.3 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac.

For detailed information on this update, visit http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1141.
For detailed information on security updates, visit http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.