UPDATE March 12, 2013: Google has released an update to Chrome for iOS to fix the startup crash through the App Store.
Google recently released Chrome version 25 for the iPhone and iPad, and as great as the new features might be, many users are reporting that the app crashes on start up. I am one of these
users, but I think I found a fix for the issue, which seems to revolve around the syncing protocol, specifically Google anonymous data collection. In order to do this though, you must be quick.
1: Uninstall Chrome for iOS by holding down the icon on the home screen until the icon start to jiggle. Then click on the little x in the top left corner of the app.
2: Reinstall the app from Apple’s App Store.
3: Open the app and hit check “Send Anonymous Usage Data”. Many users in the comments are saying that they had to accept Google’s “Anonymous Usage Data” option on the Terms of Service page in order to get this to work. I did not have to do this on my end, but so far it seems I am the exception. Click “Accept and Continue” when the Terms of Service pop up.
4. When the Google sign-in screen pops up, hit skip.
This is how I got the app to work for me. I had tried just the reinstall, but that still crashed the app for me. It was only when I skipped the login screen that I could once again use Chrome for iOS. I can also confirm that I was afterwards able to re-login to my Google Account and begin syncing Chrome again as normal.
It is interesting to note the the majority of those of people having this problem, though certainly not all, are users using a jailbroken device. Whether or not this is an issue with the jailbreak, with Chrome, or with both has yet to be seen. It has also been verified that Cydia apps/tweaks like BrowserChooser seem to be having no effect in either causing or eliminating the crashes.
Let me know if this worked for you or if you have any other methods that worked. And please share this so we can help others. Hopefully this issue will be resolved soon.
Mountain Lion is about to be uncaged (Image from apple.com)
In their earnings call today, Apple announced that they will be releasing the next version of OS X, dubbed Mountain Lion, on Wednesday July 25th. OS 10.8 will be sold in the Mac App Store for $20 (American), though people who have bought Mac’s since June 11th will be given a free update upon request.
In order to run Mountain Lion, your Mac will need to meet the system requirements. According to Apple, and borrowed from Macworld, these Mac models will support mountain Lion:
Apple says you will need at least 2 gigs of RAM (though I advise at least 4 gigs), at least 8 gigs of free hard drive space (again, I recommend more, maybe 20 to be safe), and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Your Mac also needs to be running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or any version of Lion, though it is advised you have the latest version of Lion to be safe. To check if you have all of the requirements, go to the Apple logo in the top left-hand corner of your Mac, and select about this Mac. This will tell you how much RAM you have, what version of OS X you are using, and what processor you have. If you want to see what model or year number your Mac is, download the free Mactracker and find out.
There are some things you can do to prepare your Mac for the upgrade, so here’s a rundown.
RUN YOUR UPDATES:
This goes both for your Mac and your apps. First go to the Apple logo in the top left-hand corner and select “Software Update”. This will give you any updates needed for your Mac’s OS, plugins, and a few other apps. Keep running this until there is nothing left for Software Update to install. If you have purchased anything from the Mac App Store, go to the Updates section and make sure
Update your stuff (image from apple.com)
all of your apps are up to date, as most of them should have already been upgraded for Mountain Lion compatibility.
For any apps you bought outside the Mac App Store, for example Chrome, Firefox, Adobe Flash, etc. Most should have built-in update processes that should at least notify or let you check for updates. Make sure you run all of them. You could also use a third party tool to check for updates, like Cnet Techtracker or AppFresh.
BACKUP:
Apple’s upgrades usually go smoothly, but it’s not uncommon for some people to have problems. That’s why it’s best to have a backup of all your personal stuff so that you don’t risk losing it. Even better is a bootable backup to restore from, which you can create with a tool like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. The key part of this is to make sure that your backup works as well. So if you’re using an external hard drive, for example, make sure you can access the files by plugging it into your Mac or another Mac and opening some of the files. If you’re using a bootable backup solution, make sure you can boot off of your Mac; you can do this by plugging in your external hard drive, restarting your Mac, and holding the “Option” key when the Mac starts up. Then select the external hard drive and if all is well, then your Mac shoot boot up from the external hard drive.
CHECK FOR ERRORS:
Your hard drive may or may not have errors on it. To test this, open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder (you can also do a Spotlight search for it). Select your Mac’s hard drive in the left sidebar, the select the “First Aid” tab (which should be selected by default) and then hit “Verify Disk Permissions” followed by “Repair Disk Permissions” when the Mac has finished the verification process. Once you have finished
This is Disk Utility.
with permissions, run the “Verify Disk” protocol. It should return with an “OK” message, but should it not then hit “Repair Disk”.
If the repair function cannot fix any problems with the disk, you will need to boot into the recovery partition (Lion user, hold the Option key down at boot) or run your recovery disks that came with your Mac (Snow Leopard and earlier, insert the discs, restart the Mac and hold down the Option key at boot). From here, you will need to run the disc’s/partition’s Disk Utility or reinstall the OS.
REMOVE ENCRYPTION:
If you are using any form of an encryption tool on your Mac’s hard drive, such as the built-in FileVault, TrueCrypt, or any other similar program, you will need to remove this. Encryption can cause problems for the update process when the Mac needs to reboot. Encryption can be re-enabled when the update is done, but for the actual update process it needs to be removed.
Some of you may just want to wait a few weeks before upgrading, especially those who run servers or high end apps like Adobe, etc. This will give others a chance to find bugs between the new OS and any other major apps and you won’t get bitten. Likewise it means these bugs will be taken care of by the time you do decide to upgrade. For the average user, however, as long as you follow the above steps then you should be fine.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about this or any other topic, leave a comment below or email us at easyosx@live.com You can also check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube by hitting the buttons on the top of your screen. And be sure to check us out on Google Plus. Thanks!
Ever wanted to connect your PlayStation controller to your Mac? Ever wanted to play games with it? This video will teach you how to do both:
It came to light recently that Orbitz.com has been directing Mac users of their site to more expensive hotels and services compared to those of PC’s. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Orbitz is doing this because Mac users were already buying more expensive hotels and so Orbitz is just doing this for them automatically. Other websites like Priceline and Expedia say they do not profile customers based on their operating system.
This begs the question whether or not your can get around something like this. I certainly hope other websites decided to pick up on this trend of profiling sales based on operating system, but it is not necessarily bad. Download websites do this to help you download apps to your operating system automatically rather than manually sorting apps by OS. Websites also do this to change the website if you are using a mobile browser on a smartphone or tablet.
However, you can change the user agent of almost every browser. This feature is usually for developers and is added to test website or web app functionality or just for people to get websites to work properly without switching browsers. Here is how to change user agents in Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera on the Mac.
Wall Street Journal story: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304458604577488822667325882.html
