Apple has updated Safari to version 5.1.4, and although the version number signifies a minor release the update includes several notable performance enhancements and bug fixes. From the average end-users perspective, an 11% boost in Javascript performance and improved handling of Safari extensions will be most noticeable, though the update includes many more changes and bug fixes which are listed below.

Safari 5.1.4 is available for Mac OS X 10.7 and OS X 10.6.8, and is a recommended update to all Safari users. Users can download the latest version via Software Update from the  Apple menu or from Apple directly.

The official change list is as follows:

• Improve JavaScript performance up to 11% over Safari 5.1.3* 
• Improve responsiveness when typing into the search field after changing network configurations, or with an intermittent network connection 
• Address an issue that could cause webpages to flash white when switching between Safari windows
• Address issues that prevented printing U.S. Postal Service shipping labels and embedded PDFs 
• Preserve links in PDFs saved from webpages 
• Fix an issue that could make Flash content appear incomplete after using gesture zooming
• Fix an issue that could cause the screen to dim while watching HTML5 video 
• Improve stability, compatibility, and startup time when using extensions 
• Allow cookies set during regular browsing to be available after using Private Browsing
• Fix an issue that could cause some data to be left behind after pressing the “Remove All Website Data” button

If you use Safari as your default web browser, don’t miss it.

SoundCloud is a popular online music and audio sharing service where a lot of bands and musicians will post their music for others to listen to. Frequently they’ll include a download link to songs, but depending on the posters account, they often have download limits that can be quickly maxed out on popular songs. The easiest solution of course is to just buy the song, but that’s not always an option either, so that’s where this bookmarklet comes into play.
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Now that the Mac has native Emoji support, you can set up text substitutions to automatically convert specific text to emoji when typing shorthand, abbreviations, or emoticons. Here’s how to configure the text-to-emoji conversions:

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Battery life has been an ongoing issue for some iOS 5 users, particularly those with iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. The recent iOS 5.1 update aimed to fix that with “improved battery life” mentioned in the release notes, but just how improved is it? With casual use since the update was released, the consensus at OSXDaily suggests the improvement is substantial, and thus if you haven’t updated your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to iOS 5.1 yet, it is highly recommended to do so now.

Every user is going to notice different gains depending on their device usage and general battery health, but overall the improvements seem to be most noticeable on cellular iOS devices, particularly iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPad 2 3G models. The assumption is that some of the potential location services issues has been resolved, though its certainly worth mentioning that users of the standard Wi-Fi models and iPod touch also report a nice boost, even if it doesn’t seem to be quite as dramatic (likewise, the original drain problem usually wasn’t as bad either).

Monitoring Your iOS Device Battery Life
To get a good feel for the improvement and to monitor battery drain, it’s best to have made note of the prior usage history and then compare it to the iOS 5.1 battery usage, but those who have already updated won’t be able to do this obviously. Nonetheless, it also helps to turn on the “Battery Percentage” indicator and make a mental note of usage data too. Here’s how to do both of these in iOS:

• Tap on “Settings” and tap “General”
• Tap “Usage” and then swipe down to “Time since last full charge” to find the usage time (actively using the device) and standby time (device is on, but not in use)
• In the same “Usage” screen, swipe “Battery Percentage” to “ON” to follow precise drain

The percentage indicator displays alongside the battery icon in the upper right corner of the screen:

Update iOS, Calibrate the Battery, and More
Update to iOS 5.1 and hopefully any lingering battery drain problems will be resolved once and for all. Don’t forget to calibrate an iOS devices battery about once a month by letting it charge to 100% and then running it down to 0% before recharging again, that helps keep the battery in good health. It’s also a good idea to disable battery draining services you don’t use often, be it Bluetooth or Push Notifications, and you can check out some general iOS 5 battery life tips we have discussed before for more on that.

On a side note, if you’re unable to download and update iOS 5.1 try the DNS change we discussed recently, it should resolve that problem immediately and allow you to update without the network errors.

Did iOS 5.1 help your iPhone and iPad battery life too? Let us know in the comments.

Modern versions of Mac OS X include a nice new ability to be able to duplicate and paste files exactly. Basically this means that if a file is owned by another user, Duplicate Exactly and Paste Exactly will preserve the files original ownership and permissions, rather than copy the file with the current user becoming the new owner.

This is a useful feature for administrators, network admins, file sharing, and multi-use Macs, but it has other helpful purposes as well. Let’s cover how to use the Duplicate Exactly and Paste Exactly features in Mac OS.

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This weeks Mac setup comes to us from Raphael C, who uses his Apple gear for iOS and web development. It’s a fairly simple setup, which is perfect for getting things done without too many distractions. Here’s the hardware in use:

• Macbook Pro 13″ mid-2011 model
• Samsung 22″ T220 Display
• Apple Wireless Keyboard
• Magic Trackpad
• iPad 2 16GB with 3G
• iPhone 4S
• iPhone 3G

Raphael points out that the iPhone 3G is mostly around for nostalgia, although it probably continues to have use for testing purposes.

This is a great setup that closely resembles my own, and if you frequent our weekend Mac setups posts, you’ll notice a strong trend of laptop based workstations, where the primary machine is a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air connected to an external display and a keyboard and mouse. Other than the obvious portability aspect, the major advantage to using a Mac laptop is the ease of which a dual-screen setup is immediately possible just by connecting an external display. Maybe it’s just our readers who are inclined to do this, but speaking from experience, it’s a great way to boost productivity.

Send in pictures of your own Apple & Mac hardware setups! Email to osxdailycom@gmail.com and include some brief details of the hardware and what it’s used for.

Savvy iOS developers and hackers should get a kick out of this; you can enable hidden debug settings in some iOS apps by using a profile…

By downloading a few mobileconfig files, you can enable hidden debug settings for Messages, Bluetooth, and FaceTime that log activity and events for each protocol. What you do with that information is entirely up to you, but there’s definitely some room for learning and exploration here.

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Spotlight is the powerful built-in search engine on Mac. Not only will it find just about any file or folder buried on your file system or attached drives, but it also doubles as a fantastically quick application launcher, dictionary lookup tool, and so much more.

If you aren’t using Spotlight on a regular basis yet you really should start doing so, and perhaps it’s just a matter of learning some great tips and shortcuts to help get you started.

With that in mind, here are 13 (11 original keystrokes + 2 bonus) helpful keyboard shortcuts and tricks to assist you in getting the most out of the excellent Mac search feature.

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iOS 5.1 was released a few days ago but some people are still having problems when trying to update. The download can time out, not start at all, or sometimes throw an error message saying “Unable to Check for Update. An error occurred while checking for a software update.” or “The network connection could not be established.”
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iTunes now allows you to convert higher bit rate songs to three options: 128 kbps, 192 kbps, and 256 kbps. Enabling this option lets you save storage space on an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad by compressing the music stored on the device. While intense audiofiles and those who want the absolute highest audio quality of their music will probably not want to use this feature due to the compression, most of us can’t tell the auditory difference between how a 256kbps AAC file vs a 192kbps ACC file sounds, thus it makes sense for many users to use. To use this feature, you’ll need iTunes and an iOS device, here’s what you’ll need to do:
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You may have noticed that with new versions of iOS on iPhone and iPod touch, the behavior changed for how to access the lock screen camera compared to iOS earlier versions. That camera change actually happened with iOS 5.1 and has carried forward to iOS 6, iOS 7, and iOS 8, and it has has caused some confusion as to how it works compared to earlier versions.

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The new iPad is a beautiful thing and will attract many more people to the platform, and so the big question is; which iPad 3 should you get? The answer is pretty simple: buy the 16GB Wi-Fi model. Here are four reasons the base model is perfect, and an attempt to answer questions about color and the never-ending Verizon vs AT&T debate.

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If you’re spending the time and money to develop an iOS app, don’t skimp on the icon. This may sound like silly advice, but the fact is a good icon can make your app stand out in the App Store and on a users home screen, encouraging both downloads and use.
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A version of Redsn0w has been released to jailbreak iOS 5.1 tethered. While easy to do and easy to reverse, be sure to understand the difference between a tethered and untethered jailbreak. Put simply, tethered means the device must be connected to a computer to boot properly and become usable. Some consider this annoying and therefore it is not always recommended.

Requirements

• Compatible with: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 CDMA & GSM, iPod touch 2nd, 3rd, & 4th gen, iPad 1
• Download iOS 5.1 and update if you haven’t done so already
• Download Redsn0w 0.9.10b6, Mac & Windows versions are available

Notice that iPhone 4S, iPad 2, and iPad 3 are not supported by this jailbreak.

Jailbreak iOS 5.1 Tethered with Redsn0w

• Turn the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch OFF
• Connect the iOS device to the computer using the power cable
• Launch Redsn0w (run as Admin from Windows)
• Put the device into DFU mode: hold the Power button and home button together for 10 seconds, then release the Power button while continuing to hold Home for another 10 seconds
• Click “Jailbreak” in Redsn0w to start the jailbreaking process and click “Next” when asked, you’ll see some console gibberish appear on the screen and when finished you’ll be back at the iOS home screen



• Now you must boot tethered, put the iOS device back into DFU mode (hold Power button & home button for 10 seconds, release Power and hold Home for 10 more seconds) and launch Redsn0w again, click on “Extras” and click on on “Just Boot”



• When the iOS device boots, it will be fully usable

Every time the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch is turned on or off it will need to be booted using the Redsn0w tether. This means if the battery dies or the device is rebooted for any reason, you will need to connect the iOS device to a computer running Redsn0w and choose the same “Boot Tethered” option from the Extras menu. If you jailbreak and have the white Cydia icon this means you did not perform a tethered boot, launch redsn0w and do so to resolve that.

Currently iBooks does not work either, if you’re in the midst of reading a page turning novel you may want to avoid this jailbreak for the time being.

The latest version of iOS 5.1 is already jailbroken thanks to the iPhone Dev Team’s newest release of Redsn0w. The jailbreak is tethered however, meaning that each time the iOS device is rebooted it will need to be connected to a computer running redsn0w for boot assistance. iBooks doesn’t yet work either, but an update is expected to resolve that issue shortly. If neither of these two things bother you, grab the jailbreak and enjoy.

Redsn0w 0.9.10b6 works with the following devices running iOS 5.1: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 CDMA & GSM, iPod touch 2nd, 3rd, & 4th gen, iPad 1. Not supported are any A5 based hardware, including iPhone 4S, iPad 2, and iPad 3.

Download Redsn0w 0.9.10b6

• Download now (Mac)
• Download now (Windows)

For those jailbreaking from a Windows machine, remember to run Redsn0w in administrator mode in order to work properly.

If you like watching Apple keynotes and you want to see a presentation on the iPad 3, you don’t want to miss the March 7 2012 event video. Because who better to show you the new iPad 3 and Apple TV 3 than Apple themselves?

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Alongside the new iPad, Apple has started to air a new TV commercial for the device. The ad focuses on the iPads new Retina display, which by all accounts is simply gorgeous in person. Text of the commercial is as follows:

“When a screen becomes this good, colors are more vibrant, words are pin sharp, everything is more brilliant. Because when a screen becomes this good, it’s simply you and the things you care about. The stunning retina display, on the new iPad.”

The resolution of the new iPads display is 2048×1536, twice that of it’s predecessor. The screen is also said to have better color reproduction and improved saturation.

You can pre-order the new iPad right now, the release date is set for March 16.

iTunes 10.6 has been released alongside iOS 5.1. The update includes 1080P support for movies and TV shows downloaded from iTunes Store, but otherwise is fairly minor and includes several bug fixes and improves song matching and how album art is handled.

You can grab the 10.6 update directly from Apple at the link below, through Software Update, or through iTunes itself.

• Download iTunes from Apple

If you intend on performing a manual iOS 5.1 installation through firmware, you’ll want to download iTunes 10.6 beforehand as well.