Apple issues software installer update

Apple has released a small update for its Software Update service, which addresses a problem with Snow Leopard systems where the installers for some software updates may not run. This issue does not happen for all software updates, so only a select few people will experience updates not installing; however, without being patched, the issue might surface with future updates that Apple releases.
On systems where this problem happens, the Software Update utility will detect updates as being available, but when you click to install them, nothing will happen. If you are having such problems on your system, then you might try downloading and running this latest patch. The patch should be available via Software Update for systems running OS X 10.6.8, so be sure you have applied the latest OS update in order to install this patch (don't worry, it does not require itself in order to install). In addition to using Software Update, the patch can also be downloaded from the update's Web site.
When installed, your system will have a new version of the PackageKit framework that is used for handling the .pkg installer files that are used to distribute software updates from Apple and third-party developers, and will also replace some launch agent and daemon files in the System folder. You should not need to reboot your system after applying this update; however, doing so will ensure the new launch daemons and framework executables load properly after updating.

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How to control music without switching tabs in Chrome

Whether you're the DJ at your workplace or you just like to browse Web radio at home, there are a zillion options for listening to your favorite tunes. One drawback of Web-based listening is keeping track of the tab that's playing the music when you need to backtrack, skip ahead, or otherwise control the flow. Unity Player is a great, free Chrome extension that lets you use basic controls from any tab. Here's how to use it:

• Install Unity Player here. 
• You should now have an icon in the upper right of Chrome that looks like a musical note. When you've got music playing in some other Chrome tab, just click that icon to bring up a small control panel featuring the album art.
  

  Unity Player in action.

  (Credit: Rob Lightner/CNET)
• Skip ahead, pause, backtrack, thumbs-up, or thumbs-down as you wish. 
• You can also click the album art thumbnail to bring up the tab that is playing the music if you want to make changes or close it entirely. 

That's it! The range of music apps covered is fairly broad and includes Grooveshark, Turntable.fm, Google Music, and Pandora. There's no support for Spotify or Last.fm yet, but I'd expect the developers to add them pretty quickly if they can. (Last.fm is a part of CBS Interactive, which also publishes CNET.)

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Name your own price for a four-game Android bundle

The Humble Bundle for Android 2 includes four games--five if you pay at least the average selling price. And you also get desktop versions.

(Credit: Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET)

I love a good game bundle. And the Humble Bundle folks are back with another one that's just for Android users. Well, sort of--it's also for Windows, Mac, and Linux users.
The Humble Bundle for Android 2 comes with four indie games: Avadon: The Black Fortress, Canabalt, Cogs, and Zen Bound 2. Purchased separately, they'd cost you around $57 (almost--see below).
When you buy the bundle, however, you set the price. Two bucks. Twenty cents. A 10-spot. A portion of the proceeds (whatever portion you want, in fact) can go to charity, so it's not crazy to open your wallet a bit more than you otherwise might.
But wait, it gets better. If you pay more than the average purchase price (currently $6.36), you get a bonus game: Swords & Soldiers, which is actually debuting for Android and Linux as part of this deal. (It was previously just for Windows and Mac.) Just to clarify, it's that fifth game that brings the bundle's value to $57.
I can't say I'm familiar with most of these titles. I have played Canabalt, and it's a blast. But having checked out the promo video, which has clips from all five games, I think they all look pretty good. A little something for everyone.
And as I mentioned earlier, the bundle includes not only the Android versions of these games, but also the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions. You even get the game soundtracks, a nice little perk.
As with previous Humble Bundles, you can decide how your payment gets divided among the developers, a pair of charities (Child's Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation), and the bundlers. Pretty cool arrangement.
This is a great way to score some terrific games on the cheap. And if you're feeling philanthropic, it's a great way to score some terrific games and help some worthy causes. Win-win.

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Speed up file sorting dramatically in Windows

If you need to move lots of files into different locations, you can start to see double pretty quickly. This makes it easy to make mistakes, and of course it's not the most efficient process even when you're at your best. Pneumatic Tubes File Router is a free app for Windows that lets you set up destinations and then quickly drag and drop files or add them to a "conveyor belt" for easy sorting. Here's how it works:

• Download and install Pneumatic Tubes File Router here. 
• The first time you run it, click the green plus-sign icon in the upper left to create new pipes. Just select a location, a name, and an icon (if you like). You can also add a hotkey for each destination. 
• Once you've got your destinations set up, you can either drag and drop files from Explorer or other file managers straight into your pipes, or toggle the conveyor belt. This opens a folder (the default is the root directory, but you can go anywhere) and lets you flip between files and send them down a pipe easily.

Pneumatic Tubes File Router

(Credit: Rob Lightner/CNET)

That's it! Pneumatic Tubes is quite simple, but makes file sorting so much easier that it's worth a try

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With CS6, Photoshop takes a step toward Videoshop

Photoshop CS6 provides video-editing features, including the ability to apply tone and color changes from Photoshop's photo-editing tools. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Don't beat yourself up if you didn't know that some modest video editing abilities are tucked into the premium version of Photoshop CS5.
But expect a lot more starting today, when Adobe Systems releases an open beta version of Photoshop CS6 code-named Superstition.
The new version brings video from the higher-priced Extended version of Photoshop to the standard version, and it adds editing features such as the ability to apply Photoshop tone and color adjustments. And instead of relying on Apple's QuickTime, the new tool draws from Adobe technology elsewhere in the Creative Suite, such as the Adobe Media Encoder to handle a broad range of video formats for the full-fledged video tool, Premiere Pro.
For a detailed look at how well it works, look at CNET's hands-on look at Photoshop CS6 from my colleague Lori Grunin. And the software--a beta version of Photoshop CS6 Extended, is downloadable from Adobe Labs or Download.com.
The Photoshop video move reflects the spread of video technology to customers who might not have shot video before.

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Point-and-shoot digital cameras have been able to shoot video for years, but it's still a relative novelty among SLRs, the camera of choice for photo enthusiasts and pros. And mobile phones are doing better, with 1080p shooting now a common high-end feature.
Despite the trend, though, many people were just letting their videos languish, Adobe concluded after conducting some research, said Zorana Gee, a Photoshop product manager.
"It's become much more important in the last couple years, especially with new cameras and with all the photographers now starting to shoot video. Many devices now originally focused on taking still images now take videos, and often very good quality video," Gee said. However, she said, "Research showed people aren't doing anything with their videos. They just can't find the time, they might not want to learn a new app, they might not be a Premiere customer, or they don't consider themselves [Premiere] Elements user."
Thus, Adobe decided to put video in front of customers, mirroring what it's done with Lightroom 4.
Lightroom 4 has only basic editing abilities, though: customers can trim videos and apply editing presets. In contrast, Photoshop can be used to composite multiple videos, adding basic transition effects like a gradual crossfade from one clip to another or a fade to black at the end.
And it integrates with other Photoshop features.
"We have all of Photoshop capabilities available. Want black and white? Create a black-and-white adjustment layer. Lens correction? Pop into the lens correction [module]. If I want to add a type layer, I can," Gee said.
The new Photoshop includes a wide range of other new features, many of them previewed on YouTube. Among them:

• More sophisticated tools to fill in patches left when imagery is moved or erased.
• Blur effects to restrict focus only to a spot or spots, or to apply a tilt-shift lens effects.
• Better automatic photo corrections that compares a shot to a database of thousands of images to try to predict the intended outcome.
• A new dark user interface by default.
• Better vector editing abilities such as dashed lines.
• Raw-image editing controls also used in Lightroom 4 to better handle the full range contrasting light and dark tones.
• A big boost from the graphics chip for many tasks using technology called the Mercury Graphics Engine that's closely related to the GPU-based Mercury Playback Engine that debuted in Premiere Pro CS5.
"We're wrapping our whole GPU [graphics processing unit] pipeline over the Mercury Playback Engine," Gee said. For graphics chores, Adobe uses the OpenGL standard as the interface for hardware acceleration.
For some computing tasks that run on the GPU, the CS5 graphics engine uses Nvidia's CUDA technology. That technology choice limited the engine to Nvidia cards--and indeed to high-end cards unless you hacked around a little. But Photoshop CS6 uses OpenCL, a related technology that works with AMD and Intel graphics, too. Windows driver support isn't the best, but Adobe believes GPU acceleration in general is much better.
"We're much more flexible and broad in terms of the cards we support," Gee said. At least 256MB of video RAM is needed, and some features don't work on Windows XP.
Technologies that use GPU acceleration include the blur technology, puppet warp, transformations, and a refurbished cropping tool.
When the final version is released (it's due the first half of this year), it'll cost $699 for the standard version and $999 for extended. Upgrades cost $199 and $399, respectively. Adobe hasn't released subscription pricing yet beyond saying Photoshop Extended is included in the $600-per-year Creative Cloud subscription, which also includes the rest of the Creative Suite, the tablet-oriented Touch apps, some other product like Lightroom and Edge, and various online services.
Here's Adobe's Russell Brown (breathlessly) showing off a half-dozen features in Photoshop CS6:
Here's Adobe's full list of new features; check below for the list of niggling "just-do-it" (JDI) items, many suggested by customers.
General
• Dark UI
• UI Consistency
• Properties Panel (Adjustments/Masks/3D)
• Lighting Effects Gallery
• Presets (Migrate Presets and Import/Export)
• Crop (all new and redesigned)
• Patch Tool w/Content-Aware Option
• Content-Aware Move Tool (formerly the Remix Tool)
• Scripted Patterns (Fill/Pattern)
• Contact Sheet II plug-in back in app
• PDF Presentation back in the app
• File Import Image from Device now includes ImageKit scanning and camera acquisition support
• Minibridge UI tweaks--Filmstrip Mode
• MENA Support (Middle-East and North African text support)
• Rich Cursor information throughout the app (i.e. Crop, Transform, Move, Vectors, etc.)

GPU/Performance
• GPU Warp Transform
• GPU Puppet Warp Preview
• GPU Liquify--Button for last Liquify used and Cmd + F works
• GPU Oil Paint (Pixel Bender) Artistic Filter
• Adaptive Wide Angle
• Lighting Effects and Blur Galleries
• Background Save, Auto-Save and Auto Recover

Photographers
• ACR 7--Local controls for White Balance and Noise Reduction, new black/white and highlight/shadow controls
• Blur Gallery (Tilt-Shift, Iris and Field Blur)
• Video (No longer limited to Extended)--Video Group Layers
• Adaptive Wide Angle--Includes support for panoramas!
• Face-Aware Mask Generation--Change to Color Range
• Intelligent Auto-Correction

Designers
• Type Styles
• Type Menu (Insert Lorem Ipsum JDI)
• New Dictionaries
• Improved Font Rendering--Gamma setting in Color Settings
• Pixel Accuracy/Snap to Pixels
• New Vector Layers
• Styles on Groups
• Stack of top JDI's specifically for designers
• Layer Search

Painting
• Erodible Tips
• Airbrush Tips
• Brush Rotation for Static Tips
• Oil Paint Filter (Pixel Bender)
• New presets • JDI's specifically for painters
• Painting Performance, CPU and GPU
• Default Tablet Pose Parameters for Mouse Film Industry
• 10-bit Monitor Support
• 3D LUTs, color adjustments

Printing
• Completely Redesigned Print Dialog
• Print Selected Area is back and the selection can be adjusted in the Print Dialog
• "Edit" button added for the description field in the Print Dialog
• When using Photoshop Manages Colors, the list of profiles is now filtered to hide profiles that are inappropriate for your currently selected printer
• Users can change the "preview well" background color in the Print Dialog to better suit their needs

Here's a video from Adobe's Julieanne Kost highlighting some top features:
And here's the JDI list. Adobe lets its programmers tackle these if they can bang out the change in a day or three, Gee said.
Brushes
• HUD brush resize and hardness can now change opacity
• Increase brush size to 5000px
• Change color dynamics to per stroke instead of per tip (user option for old behavior)
• Brightness/contrast slider for textures when painting
• Brush projection for static tips
• Brush cursor reflects brush dynamics for round and captured tips
Eyedropper
• Show the sample size popup for the various eyedropper tools (black point, white point, etc.)
• Add ignore adjustment layers options bar item for the eyedropper
• New mode for eyedropper to select layers current and below

File formats
• Read common stereo image pair formats (JPS, PNS) Allow for more bit depths in TIFF files
• Read BIGTIFF format
• Give the user choices regarding how they want transparency treated in OpenEXR on file open
Grammar
• Policed throughout app
• Use consistent grammar style in the title of dialog windows (no commands such as "Choose a color:")
Layers
• Add a contextual menu item that deletes a layer effect not just disables it
• Add dither options to Layer Styles for Gradient Overlay and Gradient Stroke
• Allow 00 or Shift 00 to work when setting layer/fill opacity (previously no way to get 0%)
• Add bicubic sharper & bicubic smoother options when free transforming layers
• Allow changing of blend modes for multiple layers at once
• Allow locking of multiple layers
• CMD+J to duplicate layers and layer group
• Allow changing color labels to multiple layers at once
• Layer tooltips to include layer name (if defined)
• Opt+click on toggle arrows (groups and effects) in layer panel should close all targets
• Show blend if/Blending Effects badge on layer
• Show correct opacity and blend mode values for hidden layers
• Tab goes to next layer on inline layer rename, SHIFT + TAB goes to previous
• New command to raster layer effect into layer, merging the selected layers into themselves
• Reorder effects in the layers palette to match the Z-order style/blend mode (bottom most effects in terms of blending order, drop shadow is below the other effects
Liquify
• Resize Liquify brush with shortcuts
• Increase maximum Liquify brush size Add option to load last mesh
Presets
• Add new document presets for common devices (e.g. iPhone, iPad, etc.)
• Add new Gradient Map presets for toning and split toning
• Sticky reorganization of tool presets (changes persist after re-launch)
• Add Contact Sheet II as an Automation option

SDK
• Add the ability to return an array of guides in a document from the scripting SDK
• Add ability to access tool name associated with the tool preset name via scripting

Selections
• Make the marquee, lasso, and mask panel feather values support decimal places like the feather dialog
• Remember feather radius when showing dialog for selection from a path

Transform
• Improve dragging of vector curves
• Don't hide smart object icon when transforming a layer
• Rotate 90 with even x odd pixel dimension to be smooth (bjango.com)
• Undo or disable auto-rotate on open

UI
• Remove the app bar and reduce the drag/app bar over 30%
• [Windows] New/open document to context click on a document tab (has always been on Mac, now on Windows too)
• Add "Don't show again" checkbox to Purge warnings

Miscellaneous
• Enable Split Channels for documents with layers
• Select Hex field by default and allow clipboard pastes with # in contents (i.e. #fffffff)
• Increased GPU stability by prequalifying GPUs on the fly before use
• Auto-select the best resample method based on the type of resize
• Enable Invert and Threshold adjustments for masks in 32-bit
• Hold SHIFT during startup to disable 3rd party plugins
• Add warning message that 16-bit images cannot display their file size in the Save as JPEG dialog o Add command to insert "lorem ipsum" for type

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The best ways to format an external drive for Windows and Mac

(Credit: Photo by Sharon Vaknin/CNET)

If you need to expand your storage space with an external hard drive and you use both Mac and PC, you'll likely run into a few obstacles. Hard drives advertised as being compatible with Windows and Mac OS may have misled you into thinking you could actually use one hard drive for both computers.
You can, but not out of the box.
Most external hard drives (HD) are sold in a format called NTFS, which is designed to work with Windows. Macs read and write to a different format, called HFS+. Another format, called FAT32 is compatible with both OS platforms. Here's a look at how the different HD format types function:

FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
- Natively read/write FAT32 on Windows and Mac OS X.
- Maximum file size: 4GB
- Maximum volume size: 2TB
NTFS (Windows NT File System)
- Natively read/write NTFS on Windows. - Read-only NTFS on Mac OS X
- Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and above but has proven instable.
- Maximum file size: 16 TB
- Maximum volume size: 256TB
HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, aka Mac OS Extended)
- Natively read/write HFS+ on Mac OS X
- Required for Time Machine
- Maximum file size: 8EiB
- Maximum volume size: 8EiB

Isn't FAT32 the obvious solution?

According to the list above, formatting your hard drive to FAT32 so that you can read and write on either OS seems like the obvious solution. The video and directions below will guide you through the process, but before you format your HD to FAT32, beware of these drawbacks:

• FAT32 offers no security, unlike NTFS, which allows you to set permissions. If your HD gets into the wrong hands, that person will be able to access your data.
• The max size for any given file stored on a FAT32-formatted HD is 4GB. So, for example, if you want to store a 9GB movie, it will be impossible.
• In general, FAT32 drives are more susceptible to disk errors.
• It's not a huge issue, but FAT32 is less efficient at storing files. Its large cluster sizes waste disk space, unlike the other HD storage formats.

If you've considered these issues and would still like to use FAT32, this video will guide you through the process of formatting your HD to FAT32 using a Windows or Mac PC:

OK, what are my alternatives to using FAT32?

The good news is, it's not FAT32 or nothing. The alternative solutions do require more tinkering, but if you do not want to risk FAT32's lack of security, choose from one of the following alternatives.
Option 1: Format to NTFS, and use NTFS-3G to read/write on Mac.
If you keep your hard drive's out-of-the-box NTFS format for all the reasons FAT32 displeases, there's a workaround that will allow your Mac to read and write files to the drive. NTFS-3G is an open-source program that, when coupled with MacFuse, will let you use your NTFS drive on your Mac. However, it is an open-source program, so use it at your own risk. Many have vouched for its success, but others complain about bugs.
The commercial solution, which will give you access to support and software updates, is Paragon NTFS. It's $20, offers Lion support, and you get a five-day trial to try before you buy.
Option 2: Format to HFS+, and use HFS Explorer to read/write on PC.
Conversely, you can format the HD to HFS+ and use HFSExplorer for Windows to read and write to the Mac-formatted hard drive. To get started, you'll first have to format the hard drive from NTFS to HFS+. Here's how:

Plug your HD into the Mac and open Disk Utility, which can be accessed by searching for it in Spotlight. Then, select your hard drive from the left sidebar. Now go to the Erase tab. In the Volume Format list, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then, click Erase at the bottom to format the drive. Please note that this will complete erase the drive. Any data you want to keep on that drive must be backed up elsewhere first.

Now that the hard drive is formatted to HFS+, install HFSExplorer (free) on your Windows machine to get read and write access to the drive. This is an open-source program, so use it at your own risk. Alternatively, you can opt for paid software like MacDrive instead.
Option 3: Create two partitions on your hard drive to use with each OS, separately.
This solution is a little different than the previous two because instead of having one hard drive that works with both machines, you're splitting your HD into two sections, each dedicated to a different OS. For example, if you have a 1TB hard drive, 500GB of storage can be used with your Windows computer, and 500 will be dedicated to your Mac computer.
You won't be able to write to the Mac side from your Windows computer, and vice versa, but it's a good solution for people who want all the advantages each format has to offer for its respective system. Here's how to do it:

Step 1: Connect the empty external HD to your Mac and launch Disk Utility. Select the drive from the left sidebar, then click the Partition tab. Under Partition layout, select "2 Partitions." Now, drag the boxes to adjust the size of each partition. For example, you might want more storage for your Mac than you do for your PC. Now, click on the top partition, name it "Windows," and change its format to MS-DOS. Then click the second partition, name it "Mac," and change its format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Give your settings a final lookover and click Apply. Step 2: Plug the hard drive into your Windows PC. Open the Start menu and search for Disk Management. Select the search result and the Disk Management utility will launch. In the left sidebar, you should see your hard drive and its partitions. Right-click the Windows partition and select Format. In the Format dialog box, under File System, select FAT32. Click OK and complete the format process.

With these three options you'll be able to take advantage of either platform's offerings, be it Time Machine support or security options. In the end, you may end up using FAT32 for its simplicity, but don't say I didn't warn you about the risks.

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Chrome overtakes Internet Explorer worldwide for first time

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