Lion is out, but not for you

Advice, News 1 Comment »

Apple released their new version of the OS today. Lion (v.10.7) is available as a download-only upgrade to Snow Leopard (v.10.6) through the Mac App Store, but you should not even consider upgrading, now or in the near future. Aside from the assortment of problems that are inevitable in any new software release, Lion will not support older, PowerPC-based applications. This means things like Quicken 2007 and older version of FileMaker Pro, 4D, and Microsoft Office (to name a few) will not work and would need to be upgraded or replaced.

There will come a point when you will be ready for Lion, but you should use this time to figure out what will and won’t work and make the necessary changes to ensure the transition will be as smooth as possible. In the meantime, let others work out the kinks.

You can read a review of the new features here.

Troubleshooting Mail.app issues

Advice, Support 1 Comment »

One of the questions I often get from users of Mail.app results from a less-than-descriptive error message: “Cannot send message using server XXX”. It suggests a problem with your mail server when, in reality, the problem is with the message itself.

The next time you see an error message like that, press the “Edit Message” button, then check all the addresses in the To, CC and BCC fields. If the address is in a blue bubble, click on it to see which address is checked. If you find one that doesn’t look right (no “@some.domain” or similar problem), correct it and try sending again. For example, if you are typing quickly, you might inadvertently address a message to “fred” when you meant to send it to “fred@domain.com”.

If the addresses look right, check the size of your attachments. As a general rule, your attachments shouldn’t exceed 5 MB.

Can’t see an issue so far? Go to your web browser and make sure you actually have a connection to the Internet. Sometimes you will get disconnected for some reason or another, and Mail doesn’t warn you of that.

Finally, call us and we’ll be happy to troubleshoot.

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