Tools, utilities, and drivers

In addition to firmware updates for MacBook systems and updates for iPhoto, Aperture, iOS, and Mountain Lion, Apple has issued security updates for both OS X Snow Leopard and Lion.

The updates should be available via Software Update for systems running their respective operating systems, but they can also be downloaded from the Apple Support downloads pages for the respective updates:

OS X Lion Update 10.7.5 Server Combo (1.99GB) OS X Lion Update 10.7.5 Server (1.22GB) OS X Lion Update 10.7.5 Client Combo (1.91GB) OS X Lion Update 10.7.5 Client (… Read more

Apple has released a security update for the Apple-supported Java runtime for OS X, which many users have installed on their systems. Java for OS X is available for Apple's latest three OS X releases starting with Snow Leopard. The update should be available through Apple's Software Update service (in the Apple menu).

This update was released by Oracle last week to tackle a few outstanding vulnerabilities (separate from those recently found in its latest Java 7 runtime), but since Java 6 for OS X is maintained and distributed by Apple, OS X users have had to wait … Read more

Parallels Desktop 8 has been made available for public purchase, offering faster graphics and improved startup and resume times over previous versions. If you need to run Windows or any other operating system on your Mac, then while dual booting is arguably the fastest and most stable option for executing code, another approach that perhaps has more utility is virtualization, where you can open a window to the hardware on your system and allow a second operating system to run simultaneously.

In the past week, the developers for the top two commercial virtualization programs for OS X (VMWare Fusion and … Read more

Both Parallels and VMware have announced the availability of the next versions of their popular virtualization software for running Windows and other operating systems within OS X. VMware Fusion 5 is available for download today, and the next version of Parallels Desktop will be released very soon on September 4.

Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion are two of several available options for running guest operating systems within OS X so you can use applications and services supported for those operating systems along with your OS X applications without having to leave OS X and boot directly to them. This approach … Read more

Generally when Apple releases a major upgrade to OS X, it quickly follows with an update to tackle some of the immediate and outstanding bugs with the software. The time frame for this update has been between 13 days (for Snow Leopard) to 26 days (for Lion), and while Mountain Lion has gone for about a month so far in its initial release, the first update is now available and addresses pertinent problems with Thunderbolt audio noise and Mail accounts not working, among other issues.

One problem that people have reported with OS X 10.8 is an audio noise issue … Read more

With its newly designed user interface, Norton Mobile Utilities makes it a bit simpler to manage your Android device's performance. The four main modules are all reorganized, and it's easy to jump into any function, right from the get-go.

But version 2.0 doesn't just come with a prettier face. The updated app now offers a few premium paid features that Android users are sure to find interesting. For the $9.99 upgrade fee, you can get an automatic task killer, customized battery saver profile, data usage tracker, and more.

Norton Mobile Utilities Lite is free to … Read more

The newest update to Google Translate for Android adds Google Goggles' optical character recognition (OCR) technology, so you can translate text using only your device's camera lens. Whereas previously you had to type, hand-write (onscreen), or say your text aloud in order to use the app, this new feature requires none of the above.

To use the new OCR feature, just push the camera button at the bottom of the main translate screen. This activates your camera and opens a viewfinder just below the translation field. After you take your picture, brush the text you want to translate, and … Read more

Including images in an Office document can ensure that all relevant data is located in one spot for everyone's convenience. Maybe you need to include a schematic or blueprint diagram to help illustrate a point, or feel photos documenting a problem or demonstration could give your work a bit more power. In any case, the easy part is putting the images into the document, but what if you need to pull the images out of a file?

Sure you could use a screen grabber for small files, but what about large, high-quality images that don't fit into one … Read more

Lots of tools claim to be useful for your PC. Whether an application cleans out junk files, duplicates, or other nasties, a lot of the time it wants to take a spot in your right-click menu. Supposedly, this is for "your convenience," but most of us know what's convenient and what's just more bloat for Windows.

CCleaner released a recent update that added a feature that allows you to clean out random application shortcuts from the right-click menu. This is useful for those apps that either didn't give you a choice in the matter, or … Read more