The software for this printer is currently unavailable [Lion]

Posted on 01/09/2011 by Ben Collier

Lion no longer installs all the printer drivers out of the box, I guess to cut down on unnecessary downloading from the Mac App Store. On 10.7.1 it wouldn’t let me add a printer with the error:

The software for this printer is currently unavailable. Please contact the printer’s manufacturer for the latest software.

However by running Software Update (from the Apple menu bar) after connecting the printer, it successfully downloaded the correct drivers. The Add Printer option then automatically installs the printer once selected.

Update, thanks to Rob in the comments for his suggestion that seems to be helping a lot of people:

If running Apple’s Software Update doesn’t fix it for you, open Preferences->Print & Scan and then hit ctrl-click (or right mouse) over the list of printers and select “Reset Printing System…”. That will uninstall all your printers but then I was able to add the Officejet by clicking the “+” button and the error went away.

Android 2.1 Browser – Notes on Scrolling

Posted on 02/08/2011 by Ben Collier

Having spent the last few days enjoy the quirks of the Android 2.1 browser and scrolling, here are a few of my findings:

Scroll events are fired, but no DOM changes will be reflected, including CSS, until after the scroll has ended.
All CSS3 animations and transitions are paused.
Down-sampled images are aliased when scrolling (also present in Android 2.3).

Last.fm doesn’t autostart with iTunes in Lion [Fix]

Posted on 30/07/2011 by Ben Collier

Update 04/08/2011: last.fm have updated their client, either use the Check for updates.. in the app or download it.

Still no scrobbling but the release notes show they’ve fixed it for Lion:

1.5.4.28012 (mac) (04/08/11)
—————————-
* Plugin fix for iTunes 10.5
* 64bit version of the plugin for iTunes on Lion

Original:
Sadly the last.fm client doesn’t autostart under Lion when you run iTunes; and there’s yet to be an official update. In fact the entire client has been rather neglected, seeing its last update in October 2010.

If like me, you’ve lost a bunch of scrobbles because you’ve forgotten to open it, you can add last.fm to your login items so it’ll automatically open when your Mac starts.

Open System Preferences then > Users & Groups; select your username and toggle to the Login Items page. Click the + and select the last.fm app to add to the list.

If like myself, you have the last.fm not show in the dock (and only the menu bar), select the Hidden checkbox.

Unfortunately there’s no iPhone / iPad scrobbling support on Lion yet, and I’m not sure how iOS 5 WiFi sync will be able to handle it..

Xcode Install Requires iTunes to be Closed

Posted on 29/07/2011 by Ben Collier

When installing or updating Xcode you need to close iTunes for it to complete. If you’ve closed iTunes but still get this message:

Open Activity Monitor and quit iTunes Helper. The installation will now finish.

This mainly seems to happen on beta versions of iTunes. The helper app runs to detect iOS devices being connected so it can auto-open iTunes.

Mac OS X Lion Login Contact Details Message

Posted on 27/07/2011 by Ben Collier

Hey call me! (and give my laptop back)

In Mac OS X Lion you can now add a short message to the login screen. It’s a long shot but adding contact details might increase the chances of a lost machine being recovered by 0.5%.

To update the message go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General where you can choose Show a message when the screen is locked.
System preferences screenshot on Mac OS X Lion

Don’t forgot to use your own number, although I am happy for any lost laptops to be sent to me.