You may know by now that OS X Lion drops Rosetta support, that means old PowerPC apps will no longer run in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.

List What Installed Apps Are Incompatible with OS X 10.7 Lion

For incompatible applications, all you are looking for is the “PowerPC” designation, here’s the easiest way to get a list of these installed on your Mac:

• Launch System Profiler (from Spotlight or hold down Option > Apple menu > System Profiler)
• Look for the “Software” menu on the left side Contents list
• Click on “Applications”
• Click on “Kind” to sort your installed applications by architecture type, scroll through the list until you see “PowerPC”

Anything listed as “PowerPC” will not run in 10.7 Lion. Intel and Universal apps will run just fine.

If you are completely dependent on one of these PPC apps, you may want to try a dual boot OS X 10.6 and 10.7 configuration, or just skip upgrading to Lion until a Lion-compatible version of that app is made available.

If you look in System Profiler and none of your apps are listed as PowerPC, you should have no compatibility issues. You can view the broader Mac OS X Lion system requirements if you haven’t done so already, but aside from requiring a 64-bit processor they are fairly lenient.

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iOS 4.3.4 update has been released by Apple, the update is aimed at patching the PDF vulnerability in iOS 4.3.3 that allowed JailbreakMe 3 to work from a web browser. Because of this, if you used a jailbreak like JailbreakMe 3, do not upgrade to iOS 4.3.4 or you will lose your jailbreak. Users who are not dependent on jailbreaking should upgrade to iOS 4.3.4 because it patches security holes.

The update has been pushed out for all iOS 4.3 compatible hardware, in addition to a special version of iOS 4.2.9 for iPhone 4 CDMA users. You can download the update directly from iTunes, or you can use the direct download links below to obtain IPSW files per device.

iOS 4.3.4 Direct Download Links

These are direct download links for IPSW from Apple’s servers:

• iPhone 4 (GSM)
• iPhone 4 (CDMA) (iOS 4.2.9)
• iPhone 3GS
• iPad 2 (WiFi)
• iPad 2 (GSM)
• iPad 2 (CDMA)
• iPad 1 (WiFi)
• iPod touch 3rd Gen
• iPod touch 4th Gen

If you have any trouble downloading the firmware, right-click and ‘Save as’ and be sure the file downloads as a .ipsw and not .zip. After you have the proper file, hold Option (Mac) or Shift (Mac OS X) and click on the restore button within iTunes. You can read more about using IPSW files here if you are unsure.

Have you ever wondered specifically what processor was being used on a Mac, including processor type and CPU speed? It’s actually quite easy to retrieve CPU information from the command line in Mac OS X, though the commands to use to get the processor information may be unfamiliar to many.

We’ll show two ways to grab a Macs CPU details from the command line of MacOS and Mac OS X. These tricks work on virtually all Mac OS versions and CPU architecture types.

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We’ve all been waiting for it, we’re seeing the Lion apps pop-up on the App Store, and Lion has been said to launch alongside new MacBook Airs, so they must be due out any minute now right? Close, AllThingsD says their sources have confirmed the new MacBook Air’s are arriving “late next week” and to “look for an announcement Thursday or Friday“.

Admittedly, AllThingsD’s article seemed a little vague, but before you jump to conclusions that they are randomly guessing, their executive editor Kara Swisher chimed in to directly address any skepticism in their articles comments:

“We never guess. You’ll see.” is about as strong of a statement as one could make to address the doubters. To put some further bite into that language, All Things Digital’s Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg are known to have tipsters inside Apple, and have both even interviewed Steve Jobs directly on numerous occasions:
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Remember that classic Sesame Street song “Everyone Makes Mistakes”? Your sister and your brother and your dad and mother too? Well even Apple does too, at least in regards to their website stock photos.

In an amusing picture featured on the Apple Store’s Parallels Desktop 6 page, the Parallels USB installer stick is jammed into, well, the Ethernet port, which is several ports away from the proper USB location on a unibody MacBook Pro 15″ model. Oops.

This is almost as funny as the four-eared cat engraved on the iPad. I’m sure the image will get fixed quickly, and to be fair, this could be a generic product shot provided by Parallels or a third party, so it may not be Apple’s mistake at all.

Thanks for sending this in Scott

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One of the most highly desired features of iOS by anyone who shares an iPad is the ability to have multiple user accounts. This would allow parents to share iPads with their kids, friends to share with friends, and me to share the iPad with my girlfriend, and everyone could have their own custom springboard, app settings, wallpapers, and settings without interfering with others.

Multi-user accounts won’t be appearing officially in iOS anytime soon – as far as anyone knows – but if you jailbreak your iPad you can get an app from Cydia that does allow you to access and switch between multiple user accounts on the iPad right now.

Side note: if you’re new to jailbreaking but want to try this out, the absolute easiest jailbreak method for iPad and iPad 2 is by using JailbreakMe 3 with iOS 4.3.3, it’s entirely web-based at jailbreakme.com and as simple as it gets, just be sure to backup your iPad before starting.

The app is called iUsers and here’s how to download and use it:

• Launch Cydia and add “cydia.iblogeek.com” as a repository
• Search for iUsers

After you’ve downloaded iUsers, you add and switch user accounts with:

• Tap on Settings > Extensions > iUsers
• Tap “Add User” and enter a name, passcode, and choose to give them full admin access or not
• To switch user accounts, go to your iPad lock screen and tap on the Accounts button in the corner to bring up the user selector, shown in the screenshot up top

I came across this app on MacStories and they caution that iUsers might not work well with backups because it reboots Springboard to activate, but if you’re cool with that risk then this is a nice add-on. I have to say that of all the new features that iOS 5 introduces that eliminate the need for a jailbreak, this is one that Apple really should include in future iOS versions, it’s just too useful not to.

A demonstration video of iUsers is embedded below:

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Spotify, the extraordinarily popular streaming music service that took Europe by storm, has just launched in the USA. Currently it’s open by invite-only, but no big deal, we have a handful of invites to give away, so here’s how to get in the drawing.

Enter to Win a Spotify Invite from Us!

Here’s all you need to do to enter:

1. Follow @osxdaily on Twitter (if you don’t follow us we can’t direct message you an invite)
2. Tweet the following: “I want a @Spotify Invite from @osxdaily because ______” (give any reason you want a Spotify invite)

We will select winners at random and we’re going to give them all away today by 8pm PST, so hurry up if you want a chance. The drawing is only open to US residents, because the codes only work for US residents and EU residents already have Spotify anyway.

Update: Check your Direct Messages on Twitter, we’ve sent out a ton of invites. Stay tuned, if we have any more we’ll send those out too!

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Despite the fact that today is (was) the speculative launch day, OS X Lion has yet to appear. Nevermind that though, the good news is that Apple is rapidly accepting Lion-ready apps to the Mac App Store, indicating that a launch will be very soon.

If you’ve been following along here, we pointed out earlier in the week that Apple had just recently began accepting Lion apps to be reviewed for the Mac App Store, which cast some doubt on a launch this week. Additionally, we cited AppleInsider who suggested that Lion was pushed back to the “week of July 21st” due to some last minute security issues, and separately, we’d also been hearing that Lion would be launched next week, but the reliability of those sources has yet to be determined (no offense people) so just take that info with a grain of salt. Here’s what we said, which also touches on what “Lion-ready” means for OS X apps:

Independently, we have heard chatter of a July 19th or July 22 launch for Lion, but like all other claims on a specific launch date, they appear to be mostly speculative. The only certainty is that Apple appears to maintain a fluid timeline for the Lion release, but putting the launch off a week or two would give Apple plenty of time to approve Lion-compatible apps for the Mac App Store. Among other things, Lion compatibility means 64-bit architecture and also generally includes support for Lion-specific features like Versions and Full Screen apps.

As you can see in the screenshot above from the app WordCrasher, some of the Lion-ready apps on the Mac App Store specifically point out support for fullscreen mode, Resume, and Versions.

For it’s part, Apple has thus far announced simply that Lion will be released in July on the Mac App Store, but has yet to provide a specific day when 10.7 would be widely available.

Update: In addition to WordCrasher, BusyCal, Cruz, Pilot eLog, Harmony Worship, ShortCuts, SwordSoft Layout, and many more have also been added to the App Store with Lion support.

Need to know exactly when your Mac was last booted, put to sleep, or woke from sleep? You can get precise information about boot and sleep times directly from the command line, which can be invaluable for anything from troubleshooting various Mac problems to scheduling scripts, or even for your own forensic purposes to determine when a computer was last used.

Each of these command strings requires input into the Terminal, that application can be found in /Applications/Utilities/ or launched from Spotlight or Launchpad. We’ll assume you have some experience with the command line, though copying and pasting the command strings will work just fine.

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Clicking-and-holding on an app icon in Mac OS X LaunchPad activates the jiggle, but you can also hold down the Option key to immediately start the jiggle.

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Another method to install Mac OS X Lion on other personal machines is by using Target Disk Mode, this allows you to use one Mac as the installation drive to install OS X 10.7 directly to another Mac via Firewire or Thunderbolt. This is fast, prevents redownloading which saves bandwidth, and works flawlessly. This tip was sent in by Randy, so a huge thanks to him for the tip and accompanying screenshots.

Quick note: Personally I find it easier to create and use a Lion install USB drive or even a home-made Lion installation DVD, if you have access to a USB key or DVD burner those would be my recommended methods. That isn’t viable for everyone though, so this article will show you exactly how you would install OS X Lion on another Mac using Target Disk Mode only.

Requirements:
Before getting started, be sure to have the following.

• At least two Macs – one to serve as the installer, and the recipient Mac where Lion is going to be installed on
• All Macs must have FireWire and/or ThunderBolt and support Target Disk Mode, as well as the accompany cable to directly connect two Macs:

• FireWire to FireWire cable
• Thunderbolt cable

Confirm that you meet all the requirements, and then let’s begin partitioning a hard drive so it can serve as a Lion installer for other local Macs.

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If you just got a RAM upgrade and you want to test the memory, or if you just want a great free addition to a Mac troubleshooting toolbox, download Rember now.

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We showed you how to display the CPU temperature in your Mac OS X menu bar, but what about showing the real temperature outdoors? A little free app called Meteorologist does just that, sitting in your menubar and giving you weather updates on the locations you specify.

Meteorologist puts a tracked locations temperature along with a little icon to demonstrate the current weather right in the menu bar. When you click on the menu item, a full menu displays that allows you to track multiple locations weather, the forecast, highs and lows, humidity, pressure, UV index, visibility, humidity, wind speed and direction, and even the sun and moon rising and setting times. If you want to see radar information that’s available too, what you see and what you don’t is customizable.

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Apple has sent registered Mac OS X developers an email requesting submissions for Lion apps. In the email, Apple says that OS X Lion “will soon be available” and requests that developers use the newly released XCode 4.1 GM build to submit their Lion compatible apps:

OS X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system, will soon be available to millions of Mac users around the world. Submit your Lion apps for review now so they can be on the Mac App Store when Lion ships this month.

Be sure to build, test, and compile your apps using Mac OS X Lion GM Seed and Xcode 4.1 for Lion GM seed prior to uploading your binary to iTunes Connect.

If Apple is just now starting to accept Lion apps, that email could indicate that OS X Lion will not be released this Thursday as originally anticipated, but instead slightly later in the month.

Giving more weight to a later launch is AppleInsider. Indicating that a backlit keyboard equipped MacBook Air would be launched during the “week of July 21st” and that Lion may have been delayed due to some “last minute security issues”, AppleInsider also notes that Friday’s are a historically favored launch day for Mac OS X releases:
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If you present or create screen casts with any regularity, you probably know that being able to clearly show the cursor can make a huge difference in the audiences ability to follow what you are doing on screen. This is especially true for product demonstrations and high resolution screens shown by projectors, where a tiny cursor can easily get lost.

Whether you are using QuickTime’s Screen Recorder or demoing new software to a group, here are three ways to make the Mac OS X cursor more visible for a presentation, two are free and one is a paid but professional solution.

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The iPhone Dev Team has released a new version of redsn0w to properly jailbreak iOS 5 beta 3. Previous versions of redsn0w apparently worked to jailbreak the latest iOS beta, but caused a bug where all App Store apps would not launch, this is what Redsn0w 0.9.8b2 fixes.

If you already jailbroke iOS 5b3 with the prior version of redsn0w, you can just use this updated version to perform a tethered boot which resolves the problem. Otherwise, if you are new to jailbreaking iOS 5 beta 3, then just point this new version of redsn0w at the latest 5.0b3 IPSW file.

Download Redsn0w 0.9.8b2

Note: this does not activate an iPhone, you will still need a registered UDID with Apple.

• Download Now (Mac)
• Download Now (Windows)

This version of redsn0w only works on iOS 5 beta 3 on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 GSM & CDMA, iPod touch 3rd & 4th gen, and iPad 1. iPad 2 support is lacking. The jailbreak is tethered, meaning you must connect it to a computer on each reboot. This is not intended for wide consumption, but mostly for Cydia app developers.

iOS 5 will finally bring iPhone users the ability to customize their text message alert sounds. Yes, customize, as in your own user created text tones the same way the ringtone maker in iTunes 10 works. You’ll no longer be forced to select from the limited Apple default offerings or hear the barrage of Tri-Tone ever again, the world of audio is open to SMS alerts.

This may seem like a relatively minor feature, but it’s been long anticipated and highly desired by nearly everyone with an iPhone. Yet another reason for developers to download iOS 5 beta 3 now and for the rest of the world to be excited about the public fall release of iOS 5… just a few more months away.

Customized text tones were discovered in Beta 3 by TechCrunch, whose picture shows a generic custom .m4r ringtone file set as a text tone. Prior to this version of iOS 5, users were forced to use jailbreak tweaks to access custom SMS alert sounds.

If you want to keep an eye on your Mac’s CPU temperature, you can choose between two different apps to display the temperature right in your menu bar. If you’re running Mac OS X 10.6.8 or lower, both apps are free, but if you’re on Lion then you’ll have to pay for one of the options.

You’ll see that both of these apps do a lot more than just display CPU temperature, they detect and display all internal temperatures including battery, various locations on the enclosure, the heat sink, hard drive, and each CPU core. We’re going to mostly ignore that though and aim for CPU temps.

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