Yesterday I wrote a long post venting about the issues that 10.5.6 has brought to me and to my Macbook Pro. I was having a problem with mail crashing every time I loaded a message with an attachment. Well, I am delighted to report that the issue has been fixed thanks to a user by the name of Til-Berlin on the Apple discussion forums:

In the end I found out that I have two Mail.app on my HDD. Apperently I was using a old updated (which reports also as 3.5). Deleting it and using only the one at /Programs solved my issue. I believe this is the application file from the Combo Update.

~ Til-Berlin (Link)

I looked at the version of Mail I was using from my Dock icon (Mail Menu > About Mail) and noticed that my version was 3.5 897.2/903.3. This is the problem. The current version of Mail is 3.5 903.3 only! I did a quick spotlight search on my mac to find 2 versions of Mail, one was the currupt one that I was using, and one was the good version (3.5 903.3.) I removed the bad one (3.5 897.2/903.3) and then added the good one to my dock, and opened it up. IT WORKED!

Til-Berlin suggested to reinstall the combo update after all of this, but I didn’t have to do this.

I hope this helps everyone who is having problems. You can check out my other post with fixes and details on the problem here: http://atlchris.com/582/os-x-1056-i-hate-you/

What is Boxee? Well, Boxee is a must have application for anyone who loves television, movies, music, and pictures. In a nut shell, Boxee is a beautifully designed application that was created bring your digital media content from your computer to your TV. Whether you download movies illegally, stream them from Netflix, or even pull them in from free online sources all over the net; Boxee will make life easier for you.

Design

One of the many things that makes Boxee stand out from it competitors is its design. Boxee was designed with ease of use, beauty, and the Apple remote all in mind. The ease of use factor is just that. It is easy to use. Menus are laid out nice and orderly. Everything is easy to find, from a TV show on your hard drive to a episode of The Office from Hulu.com. I pointed out beauty, because Boxee stays faithful the the Apple beautiful design principles. Buttons are very large and colorful, text has nice hover and glow effects, colors flow beautiful, and finally, slide transitions are used when switching from page to page. While these might not seem important to a review, I find design a major factor in how much I like an application.

OS X Leopard is by far the best OS I have ever used. It has been flawless to me with no problems, until now. Apple recently released Mac OS X (10.5.6) update to all Leopard users. Being the Apple fan boy that I am, I ran the upgrade as soon as it showed up on my desktop. Boy was this a mistake! Mac OS X 10.5.6 is riddled with bugs and issues. MacFixIt.com has released a couple of post highlighting the many problems associated with this update. Mac users beware, DO NOT UPGRADE TO 10.5.6 JUST YET!

One particular problem has me very frustrated. When I launch the OS X Mail application, which I use religiously to keep my 15 email account in control, it crashes as the result of an attachment. Yes, doesn’t that sound strange? I can load Mail just fine, but the second I click on an email with an attachment, it freezes up and crashes. It can be a image, a PDF, a doc, … it doesn’t matter, just the loading of the attachment results in a application crash.

To me, 1Password is the single greatest application on OS X. 1Password is an application that allows you to securely use one master password to access all your web accounts, credit card data, and online identities from your Mac and iPhone. It is as easy as command + |.

What It Does

1Password has 3 main things I consider to be its core functions. The first one is a secure password manager. 1Pasword creates a secure database of all your web passwords and organizes them in a very clear and easy to manage interface. It also helps you to generate very secure passwords all from inside your browser.

The second core functionality associated with 1Password is a great form filler. You can create identities in the application where you fill out names, addresses, phone numbers, emails… Then when you go to sign up for a new web application, all you have to do is click the 1P button and import all your identity info into the form.

The third core functionality is one I don’t really use, but I know people that do, and that is the wallet! This allows you to securely store credit card information in a nice and organized database. It works with credit cards, membership id cards, web services, and bank account numbers.

So I have received a couple of emails and comments from people asking what apps I have actually purchased for my Macbook Pro and my iPhone, so I decided to write a post letting everyone know what apps I think are just so totally awesome that I have actually spent money on them.

I will start with my Macbook Pro. I have had my MBP for a while now, so I have really had the chance to explore a lot of the apps that are made for OS X. I was a windows man up until I purchased this machine so I had ZERO Mac OS X apps in my collection.

Adobe Photoshop CS2

I lucked out with this program. As many of you know, Photoshop runs for about $650 at most locations. Well I was able to snag a CS2 version (slightly outdated, currently on CS3) on Craigslist for just $100.00. That is a heck of a deal! I use Photoshop regularly so it was my very first purchase after I got my new MBP.

Price Paid: $100.00
Homepage: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/index.html

So of you might have heard from my tweets, or my status updates on various sites, that I recently bought a Macbook Pro. Below is a list of the specs in the model I purchased:

• 15.4 inch Matte Screen
• 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 2GB Memory
• 200GB Hard Drive
• Double-layer SuperDrive
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB

I purchased it from the Apple Store at Lenox Mall in Atlanta, Georgia. I originally went into the store expecting to buy a 2.5GHz/250GB/Glossy model, but the lady in the store talked some sense into me! I decided to go for the smaller processor because of the $400.00 difference, I just didn’t see it being justified, and also I was coming for a 1.8GHz windows machine, so I figured 2.4GHz was plenty of an upgrade. I also changed my mind on the Glossy/Matte because of the need for real colors in my designs and photography. I am very surprised at how well I like the Matte, because my old laptop was Glossy.

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I first heard about this program on the TWiT Podcast. It sounded pretty interesting so I decided to check it out. It is currently in private beta mode; this means you have to get invited to use it. After my invite came I installed the Windows XP version of the program which also installed a Firefox button.

This program allows you to make notes in many different ways and share it across platform and hardware. You can make a note in a Windows Vista machine and view that same note on your iPhone with one click of the synchronize button. It works with Windows XP/Vista, Mac OS X, Windows Mobile, iPhone (currently a web application, but soon to be an on phone application), and Blackberry OS (coming soon.)

I use this program daily, anytime I see a interesting article I would like to remember, or need to finish reading later, I don’t bother adding it to my, already bloated, favorites in Firefox. I just clip it into Evernote and save it. Then when I get home it is on my desktop, and if I am on a public computer I can also get to it through Evernote.com.