Re: Still looking for help on "Official" Apple Applications

In article <1i9xxb2.136mw477o24n7N%dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, David Empson
<dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Curmudgeon <leave@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Following up my own message . . .

I verified by checking the Get Info boxes that virtually everything on
my original list is indeed marked "Copyright Apple" (and the ones that
aren't are no-brainers like Calculator and Dictionary) so I'm confident
that the contents of my current boot partition Applications forder are
now exclusively official stuff from the MotherShip. It occurred to me
that perhaps the best way to make certain they are all updated properly
might be to apply the 10.4.11 Combo Update, so that comes next. I hope
I'm not causing myself problems. Does anyone see any potential issues
with this plan?

Having heard nothing to dissuade me from following the path described
above, I went ahead and downloaded and applied the 10.4.11 Combo Update
and all went smoothly. However, many of the Apple applications retain
some pretty old modification dates:

The modification dates may be arbitrary. Most of my copies of those
applications are the same version as yours but with later modification
dates. It could depend on how they were installed or updated. In my
notes below I haven't bothered to copy out my modification dates (they
are all your dates). I'm running 10.4.11 on the computer I'm comparing
with.

Mod. Date Application (Version)

I have the following in my Applications folder:

09/27/2003 Chess (2.1)
02/26/2004 Sherlock (3.6.1)
02/26/2004 TextEdit (1.4)

I have the following in my Utilities folder:

10/05/2004 Console (2.1)
11/13/2004 AirPort Setup Assistant for Graphite or Snow (3.4.3)
03/01/2005 Directory Access (1.8)
03/11/2005 Grapher (1.0)
03/20/2005 Audio MIDI Setup (2.1)
03/20/2005 DigitalColor Meter (3.4)
03/20/2005 Grab (1.3)
03/20/2005 Migration Assistant (1.0)
03/23/2005 NetInfo Manager (1.4)
03/20/2005 Terminal (1.5)
10/26/2005 AirPort Admin Utility (4.2)
09/22/2006 iPod Software Updater (folder)

Specific comments about other items follow (preceded by the item or
items in question).

11/15/2003 Power Mac SuperDrive Update (1.0)

That won't have been updated since its original release. It is only
relevant for one model of SuperDrive, fixing a compatibility issue
between a Pioneer DVR-103/104 and 4x and faster media (if I remember
right) by doing a firmware update in the drive. You don't need it any
more after it has been run, unless you happen to get another old
SuperDrive and want to patch its firmware.

01/15/2004 iDisk Utility (1.0.1)

You can download this from .Mac. It doesn't come with the system. In
fact, the downloaded version is even older (1.0.0), so I don't know
where you got 1.0.1 from. It is installed in the Utilities folder. It is
mostly obsolete.

02/26/2004 iMovie (3.0.3)
08/09/2004 iPhoto (2.0.1)
11/09/2006 iDVD 3.0.1 (folder)

These are all old versions (from Mac OS X 10.2, 10.3 or the original
release of iLife in 2003). They are part of the retail iLife package.
You can only get later versions by buying iLife '04, iLife '05, iLife
'06 or iLife '08. They are also bundled with a new computer. They are
supposed to be in Applications.

02/26/2004 X11 (1.0)

I don't have that installed on my 10.4 system so can't compare. It goes
in the Utilities folder in recent systems, but was in Applications at
some point in a past system.

03/07/2004 Hard Drive Update (1.0.0)
03/04/2004 Hard Drive Update 1 (1.0.0)

No idea what those two are. They aren't part of a standard system
install.

12/31/2004 Keychain First Aid 1.0 (folder)

I don't have that. It is probably a hangover from an old system, as the
first aid feature is now built into Keychain Access.

10/26/2005 AirPort Setup Assistant (4.2)

I'm missing this one. Never used it anyway - Airport Admin Utility was
more useful. It might have been deleted when I installed the Airport
Utility for my current model Airport Extreme. (I manually reinstalled
Airport Admin Utility so I had both the old and new utilities in case I
needed to explain the old one to someone, but didn't bother with the
setup assistant.) It should be in Utilities.

11/02/2005 Asia Text Extras (folder)

I don't have this installed as I didn't install Asian language support.

03/07/2004 iSight Updater 1.0.2 (folder)
11/02/2005 iSight Updater 1.0.3 (folder)

These are standalone updates which could be downloaded separately or
were available via Software Update. Similar to the SuperDrive update,
they update the firmware in the iSight camera, after which they aren't
needed.

Is it really true that, for example, iMovie, Sherlock, TextEdit, and
X11 haven't been updated since February 26, 2004?

My corresponding files for Sherlock and TextEdit were updated in 2006.
Your modification dates might be wrong, but you have the correct
versions of the applications. Try having a look at the modification date
of the actual code inside the application, as follows (with TextEdit as
an example):

- Locate the icon for TextEdit.
- Ctrl-click on it.
- Choose "Show package contents" from the popup menu.
- In the new window, navigate into the Contents folder, then the MacOS
folder.
- You should see a "TextEdit" icon. Click on it and do a Get Info.

Mine has a modification date of 31 January 2006, which matches the
modification date of the whole TextEdit package.

Your iMovie 3 is an old version and it really hasn't been updated since
2004.

Not sure about X11 unless I go to the trouble of installing it.

Assuming I still have some outdated applications, how best to selectively
update them?

You can't. You have the latest versions (except for iMovie, iPhoto and
iDVD, for which you would have to buy a later version).

Am I better off just sitting on them and waiting for fresh updates given I
will not be moving to Leopard?

Make sure they are all in the correct folder, so that any subsequent
security updates (or 10.4.12 if Apple decides to release it) will
correctly update them.

And again, are some of these redundant such that they can simply be deleted?

You can certainly delete Keychain First Aid and the older version of the
iSight update. The rest are current (for 10.4) or might be needed in
future.

You probably don't need the SuperDrive update any more. Some of the
older iPod updates might not be useful either, but this is trickier
because if you ever get hold of an old iPod model you might need one of
the old versions to update its firmware.

Many, many thanks, David!! One of the things I love best about the
internet is that a wise man from New Zealand can step in and help an
idiot from the western reaches of the Chicago suburban area.

I visited the Apple site and tried a number of specific application
downloads and found that you are absolutely right. There is nothing
that can be done to update some of these ancient applications.

I've tossed a couple of the ones you suggested and have conformed my
directory structure to what you posted, so I will rest easy for now.

I've now already fulfilled one of my New Years resolutions with your
help. Once again, my heartfelt thanks!

Cheers!

Mudge
.

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