Tag Archives: Mac

The software for this printer is currently unavailable [Lion]

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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.

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

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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.

Mac System Preferences - adding last.fm to login items

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..

Missing Fonts in Mac OS X Lion (10.7)

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After upgrading to Lion I found it disabled a few of the system fonts. This made lots of websites not display as intended and warnings about Missing Fonts in Pages (which had the benefit of artificially inflating my book’s page count bringing it nearer completion).

Turns out Lion can disable certain fonts in certain circumstances; I did a clean install of Lion on a different drive when running the Install Mac OS X Lion app.

You can re-enable the fonts like this:

  1. Open Font Book, it’s stored in your Applications folder. You’ve got Lion now so you could be fancy and use Launchpad.
  2. Find a font that has been disabled – in my case Verdana was the key one. Right click the font and select Enable ‘font name’ Family:
    Enabling the Verdana font in the Font Book on Mac Lion
  3. Repeat this for any other fonts that have been disabled.

 

You can automatically activate fonts added in the future by ticking Automatic font activation from the Font Book Preferences menu:

Font Book preference window

Mac OS X Lion’s “Safe files” No Longer Opens Disk Images

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Looks like in Safari 5.1 in Lion disk images (.dmg) are no longer classed as “Safe” files after the whole Mac Defender cat and mouse malware saga.

The enabled by default “Open ‘safe’ files after downloading” preference of Safari automatically opens certain types of files as a convenience aid.

Safari 5.0 on Snow Leopard:

Safari 5.1 on Lion:

I found this quite useful, but I guess it’s just another move closer to an ‘App Store’ only world..

Improve Compressed Bluetooth Audio on Mac

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If you’re experiencing compressed audio when connecting to a bluetooth headset on your Mac, you can change a setting to improve the quality:

  1. Option (alt) click the bluetooth icon in the menu bar and select Open Bluetooth Explorer.The hidden bluetooth menu - Open Bluetooth Explorer
  2. When Bluetooth Explorer opens, select Utilities then Special Options from the menu bar.Utilities then Special Options
  3. Finally increase the minimum bitpool to around 40 and the maximum bitpool to the maximum, 64. Tick the enable role switching option if it isn’t already enabled.Increasing the bluetooth audio quality by increasing the minimum and maximum bitpool bandwidths
  4. Finally, quit Bluetooth Explorer to save the settings. You might need to turn bluetooth off and on for the changes to take effect.

This increases the bitrate of your A2DP bluetooth audio which lowers the compression of the sounds.

Alternatively you can do this quickly by pasting this command into terminal:

defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Bitpool Min (editable)" 45

Or run this app: Enhance Bluetooth Audio Quality.app

If you’re looking to get some bluetooth earphones, I highly recommend the Sony Ericsson MW-600 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones.