Apple updates Thunderbolt software, Aperture and printer drivers
Following Wednesday"s slew of software updates, Apple on Thursday issued a second Thunderbolt software update, alongside new HP and Epson printer drivers and a minor update to Aperture. Also, Apple"s lossless audio format has gone open source.Thunderbolt Software Update 1.1
This update provides support for Apple"s Thunderbolt Display and addresses bug fixes for Thunderbolt devices running Mac OS X Lion.
The download is 72.53MB and is exclusively for Macs running OS X Lion 10.7.2.
Aperture 3.2.1
Apple"s update for its pro-level photography editing tool resolves an issue that caused the program to quit unexpectedly on launch with Macs using Core Duo processors. It also addresses problems that caused the Crop tool to switch to an incorrect orientation or resize incorrectly and resolves rendering issues when cropping with Onscreen Proofing enabled.
Lastly, location menus are now displayed correctly on the map in the Places view when "Photos" is selected in the Library Inspector.
The download is 635.76 MB and requires either Mac OS X 10.6.8 or OS X Lion 10.7.2.
HP Printer Drivers v.2.8 OS X and Epson Printer Drivers v.2.9 OS X
The driver updates include the latest scanning and printing software for HP and Epson devices for Lion and Snow Leopard. HP"s latest drivers weigh in at 514.55MB, while Epson"s are 972.36MB. Both require either Mac OS X 10.6 or later, or OS X Lion.
Thursday"s software updates come on the heels of EFI firmware updates for Thunderbolt Macs and minor changes to iPhoto and QuickTime for Windows released on Wednesday.
Apple Lossless Audio Codec
Mac OS X open source development website Mac OS Forge created a new project for the Apple Lossless Audio Codec on Thursday.
"The Apple Lossless Audio Codec project contains the sources for the ALAC encoder and decoder. Also included is an example command line utility, called alacconvert, to read and write audio data to/from Core Audio Format (CAF) and WAVE files. A description of a "magic cookie" for use with files based on the ISO base media file format (e.g. MP4 and M4A) is included as well," the project"s description reads.
The Mac maker chose to release the codec under the Apache license.
Apple introduced the format as part of QuickTime in 2004, promising CD-quality audio with "about half the storage space." The company went on to support the codec on nearly all of its platforms and devices.