Developed by Halfbrick Studios, Fruit Ninja HD is a funny, quick game for the iPad that combines two ideal game qualities: It’s easy to learn and fun to master.

Melissa Perenson of PCWorld takes the third-generation Kindle for a spin and is impressed.

Media player offers options collecting, managing, and enjoying audio and video from the Web.

Apple has updated Safari to version 5.0.1, activating new extension capabilities and launching the external Safari Extensions Gallery (see "Apple Extends Safari 5 with Reader, HTML5, Performance," 9 June 2010). The Web-based gallery enables users to search for particular extensions, browse extension categories, and install extensions with a single click and no restart.

While Safari has always supported plug-ins such as Flash Player and has been extensible in unsupported ways, Safari Extensions are different. Most importantly they're more secure due to requiring signed digital certificates from Apple that ensure any updates are coming from the original developer and that no one is tampering with them. The extensions are also "sandboxed," meaning they can't communicate with a user's system beyond Safari, and can't provide information to Web sites not specified by the developer. Safari Extensions are also arguably easier for developers to build as they rely on open HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript Web standards and Apple has provided developers with an Extension Builder application. Finally, they're better supported by Apple in their management and installation (hence the easy one-click installation).

Though Safari 5.0 supported Safari Extensions, the feature was deactivated by default and users were on their own to find extensions on the Web. With Safari 5.0.1 and the Safari Extensions Gallery, extensions are on by default and there's a Safari Extensions Gallery menu item in the Safari application menu. Users can continue to search out and download extensions not listed in the gallery, but Apple's site makes it easy to find those that will likely prove, for most people, to be the most useful or interesting.

Apple's recent press release announcing the Safari Extensions Gallery highlighted a few of the new extensions. Among them is an Amazon wish-list extension that enables users to add items from any Web site to an Amazon wish list; a Bing search engine extension that can provide potentially relevant information when any given text is selected, such as a map appearing when an address is highlighted; and a Twitter extension that enables users to tweet directly from Safari when stumbling across content on the Web.

More interesting to us are some of the productivity extensions, such as SafariRestore, which automatically restores your previous browsing session when launching Safari; Sessions, which goes one step further to provide a browsing history manager; and AutoPagerize, which turns lengthy multiple-page Web articles on sites like Ars Technica and the New York Times into a single scrollable Web page.

Safari 5.0.1 also adds a number of smaller features and addresses a handful of stability issues. Improvements include more precise Top Hit results in the address field, more accurate timing for CSS animations, enhanced stability when triggering the keyboard shortcut for Safari Reader, and better stability when scrolling in MobileMe Mail. Problems that have been addressed include a number of site-specific issues, such as displaying multi-page articles from Rolling Stone Magazine's Web site in Safari Reader and printing boarding passes from American Airline's site. Also, Google Wave compatibility with 32-bit systems has been repaired, a bug preventing Safari from launching on Leopard systems with network home directories has been fixed, and a bug causing DNS prefetching of results to overwhelm certain routers has been addressed. A full list of changes is available on Apple's Web site.

The update also fixes several critical security vulnerabilities. These security issues are mainly related to WebKit's handling of various Web elements, malicious RSS feeds, and AutoFill's implementation and could lead to arbitrary code execution, files being sent to remote systems, and, in the case of Autofill, information being disclosed to Web sites without any user interaction. This final fix addresses the vulnerability identified recently by Jeremiah Grossman, so it's once again safe to turn AutoFill on. Safari 5.0.1 is a 37.57 MB download via Software Update and the Apple Support Downloads page.

Finally, Apple has also released Safari 4.1.1 for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger users, including many of the same feature updates, stability improvements, and security fixes - though it does not include support for Safari Extensions. It's also available via Software Update and the Apple Support Downloads page as a 29.53 MB download.

 

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THE MISSING SYNC: Take it with you! The Missing Sync makes
it easy to synchronize contacts, calendars, notes, photos
and more from your Mac to your BlackBerry, HTC, Treo,
iPhone and other phones. <http://www.markspace.com/bits>   Copyright © 2010 Doug McLean. TidBITS is copyright © 2010 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License.

The SSDNow V+ offers decent performance, comparable price and only a modest decrease in read speeds over time.

Amazon is releasing two new 6-inch display Kindles to replace the Kindle 2: a Wi-Fi only model for $139, and one with both AT&T 3G and Wi-Fi for $189. The new devices have 50-percent higher contrast, new fonts, faster performance, longer standby time (a month!), and double the storage, all while weighing less. The new models ship 27 August 2010 in the United States.

 

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Fetch Softworks: Do your FTP or SFTP transfers quit on you?
Fetch 5.6 will keep going when other clients give up, to make
sure all your files arrive safely at their destinations.
Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>   Copyright © 2010 Glenn Fleishman. TidBITS is copyright © 2010 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License.

Macworld Lab has tested the new entry-level iMac powered by the Core i3 processor; here's our test report.

Apple today released Safari 5.0.1 and introduced the Safari Extensions Gallery. Extensions allow users to quickly add powerful new features to Safari — from toolbars that display live web feeds to sophisticated programs that filter web content. Users can download and install extensions either from the Safari Extensions Gallery or directly from a developer’s site.

With a new monitor on the way from Apple, James Galbraith takes a closer look at the 27-inch LED Cinema Display and where it fits in with comparable displays.

A number of people have complained about Safari often crashing on their systems. While Apple's latest Safari update (5.0.1) is supposed to address some stability issues with the program, a number of people are complaining of crashes. Here are some things you can try to hopefully clear these problems.

On the New York Times's health blog, Gretchen Reynolds discusses the dramatic increase in heart disease-related death for folks who sit for long periods (whether in front of a computer or television, or in the car). Even more alarming for those of us who try to get away from our screens for some exercise are recent studies that show that adding exercise to your daily routine fails to lessen the negative health impacts of a sedentary lifestyle. Rather, we desk jockeys should find ways to increase our physical activity while we work. Frequent walking breaks, pacing while you're talking on the phone, or converting to a standing desk, could truly be a lifesaver.

 

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WebCrossing Neighbors Creates Private Social Networks
Create a complete social network with your company or group's
own look. Scalable, extensible and extremely customizable.
Take a guided tour today <http://www.webcrossing.com/tour>   Copyright © 2010 Lex Friedman. TidBITS is copyright © 2010 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License.

Bare Bones Software has released a minor update to its powerful text editor BBEdit. The update doesn't pack in any new features, but it does offer a host of fixes covering a wide range of issues. For those irked by BBEdit 9.5's changed approach with Capitalize Sentences and Capitalize Lines, one of the two dozen fixes reinstates the behavior from pre-9.5 versions of BBEdit, so that the software now once again lowercases your text before applying the selected capitalization. Beyond that fix, the release corrects an issue with updating HTML markup preferences, addresses a bug with prefixed Emacs commands, and attempts to better preserve file permissions when saving documents. Several other fixes to script attachability enable scripts that run when documents are closed to work properly. ($125 new, free update, 16.4 MB)

 

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Fetch Softworks: Do your FTP or SFTP transfers quit on you?
Fetch 5.6 will keep going when other clients give up, to make
sure all your files arrive safely at their destinations.
Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>   Copyright © 2010 Lex Friedman. TidBITS is copyright © 2010 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License.

Password manager applications are all about security and convenience. This app, while not perfect, handles both aspects well.

Ever since I wrote about Extensis's Suitcase 10 font management software (see "A Quick Trip with Suitcase 10", 22 April 2002), I've been on the company's physical mailing list. Usually this means receiving an occasional press packet in the mail, but recently Extensis has started a truly strange ad campaign directed at members of the press.

First, a large cube-shaped FedEx package arrived at my door. I opened it to find a life-size featureless styrofoam head. It clearly came from Extensis, but apart from that there was no clue as to its meaning. It was useless and ugly and there was no reason to keep it, so I put it in the recycle bin (I wasn't sure it was recyclable, but I didn't want it clogging the landfill) and dismissed it from my mind.

Then, a week or two later, Extensis sent me another FedEx package, this time rather flat. I opened it and reached inside, and to my surprise (and horror) I found myself touching a mass of wiry hair. Luckily, it was only a wig, and not an actual scalp or piece of roadkill. So now the clues were in place: the first package was a wig stand, and here was the wig. But there was still no explanation of what Extensis was leading up to.

Nor did I wait to find out; I'd had enough. I phoned Extensis's public relations office and asked them to take me off the mailing list. My objections to this ad campaign were five-fold:

• It's annoying. I don't like mysteries and I don't find the supposed question of what new product some software company is about to announce to be particularly intriguing in the grand scheme of things.

• It's unnecessary. If Extensis wants to tell me something, why can't they just tell me? And if it's a new product they want me to consider for review, why can't they just send me a license, like everyone else?

• It's expensive. Someone has to pay for all this FedEx shipment, the purchase of these objects, the labor required to pack them and send them out, and so on. Presumably that someone will in the end be the purchasers of the software. I wouldn't want to buy software from a company that was spending my money in this way, especially in this modern age of email press releases.

• It's wasteful. This is really the part that gets me. These objects arriving at my house are all going right back out of it. That's not good for the landfill and the planet. And what about the resource costs of packing and shipping these things via FedEx to some unknown number of members of the press? Such behavior shows a callous lack of consideration and consciousness.

• It's assaulting. When I described these mailings to Adam, he immediately put his finger on the horror factor I was having trouble expressing: the whole thing is rather like that creepy scene in The Godfather where the Hollywood producer wakes up with a horse's head in his bed.

The really odd part is that this whole campaign seems to me to be utterly misbegotten. Does Extensis imagine that the press is going to give some software a positive review just because it has been sent some pointless objects? Especially pointless objects that are downright disturbing? One has to wonder what they're smoking over at Extensis, or at Extensis's parent company, Celartem. If I were in charge over there, some heads would roll, and they wouldn't be styrofoam.

 

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Fetch Softworks: Do your FTP or SFTP transfers quit on you?
Fetch 5.6 will keep going when other clients give up, to make
sure all your files arrive safely at their destinations.
Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>   Copyright © 2010 Matt Neuburg. TidBITS is copyright © 2010 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License.

iTunes for Windows (versions 9.2 and 9.2.1) may quit unexpectedly during sync or backup with iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. iTunes may display the following alert messages: "SyncServer has stopped working" (or a similar message) "MobileDeviceHelper has stopped working" Safari 5 for Windows may also quit unexpectedly. This can happen if your PC is set to one of the following timezones: (UTC-11:00) Coordinated Universal Time -11 and Samoa (UTC-04:00) Asuncion (UTC-02:00) Mid-Atlantic (UTC) Coordinated Universal Time and Casablanca (UTC +02:00) Amman, Athens, Bucharest, Istanbul, Beirut, Cairo, Damascus, Jerusalem, Harare, Pretoria, Helsinki, Kyiv, Riga, Sofia, Tallinn, Vilnius, Minsk, and Windhoek (UTC +12:00) Coordinated Universal Time +12 and Auckland, Wellington, and Fiji

Provides speedy Flickr search results.

Apple has released an update to Safari 5, which addresses a number of issues with the initial release, including the problem with black backgrounds appearing when generating mail attachments with scripts. In addition, the program has a built-in link to Apple's new extensions gallery for people to download and install extensions.

After installing Safari 5 (with Mac OS X v10.5.8, Mac OS X v10.6.2, or v10.6.3), or after installing Mac OS X v10.6.4 (which includes Safari 5), you may see a black background instead of readable text in Mail messages that are generated by some applications. These are some of the Apple and third-party applications that may be affected: Mail AppleScript iCal iChat Preview   FileMaker Pro Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel Other applications that generate Mail messages may also be affected.

This document outlines security updates for Apple products.

This document describes the security content of Safari 5.0.1 and Safari 4.1.1. For the protection of our customers, Apple does not disclose, discuss, or confirm security issues until a full investigation has occurred and any necessary patches or releases are available. To learn more about Apple Product Security, see the Apple Product Security website. For information about the Apple Product Security PGP Key, see "How to use the Apple Product Security PGP Key." Where possible, CVE IDs are used to reference the vulnerabilities for further information. To learn about other Security Updates, see "Apple Security Updates."