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News Archive for Monday, Oct. 1st, 2012:     Go to Current News Page

Mac Upgrades/Mods | Storage | Video | Audio/Home Theater | macOS Updates/Tips/WiFi
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Reply to Question on OS X 10.8.2 USB 3.0 Card Support:
(late posting this reply to a reader's question if any native USB 3.0 card support in OS X 10.8.2/OS X 10.7.5 update's USB kext.)
"I have a 2010 MacBook Pro 17" with an Express Card slot, which I just updated to 10.8.2 (update went fine for me - unlike some people whom have had a very bad bad experiences). I have two USB 3 Express Cards, a Generic StarTech (Nec / Renesas Electronics based) and the Caldigit card.
Neither of them are (Natively) supported under 10.8.1 or 10.8.2.
There are no drivers found for the StarTech USB 3 card.
The CalDigit does have drivers that worked under Lion and appear to work now under Mountain Lion (at least the driver is identified under ML). However "work" is relative. Caldigit's drivers only support "Mass Storage" class device like hard drives, flash drives and some Compact Card readers for USB 2 and USB 3. If you use a device that uses a different protocol (I work with high speed FW800 / USB 2 / USB 3 cameras) like a mouse or keyboard or USB 2 to serial device, then your SOL. Repeated use of a USB 2 Camera with Caldigits' drivers will lead to a blue screen of death. (BSOD = Windows? or a KP in OS X?) You can't even do plain old Bulk transfer and I/O control without all sorts of weird errors showing up.

Secondly, when Apple announce USB 3 support for the new Macs, several developers on the Apple USB list asked if Apple supported Generic USB 3 cards. The answer was no - and that they only were supporting their own built in EXHCI controllers. They do not support generic XHCI controllers.

Lastly, Apple hasn't posted any info on their new USB 3 APIs either, so unless the device follows an Apple supported USB Class - it likely will not work at all. Developers can't add USB 3 support for them until this gets sorted out. And 3 lines in a .h header file is not documentation - that's a "Bad Apple Joke". HTH...
-Milton A."

I welcome feedback from anyone else that has tested other cards w/OS X 10.8.2 (or 10.7.5).

FYI - The Oct 3rd news page has a report from a 2008 Mac Pro owner that the Sonnet Allegro USB 3.0 PCI Express Card worked (used for AC powered mass storage/Time Machine) in OS X 10.8.2 using Sonnet driver v1.0.8. That driver version cited adding 10.8 compatibility and per their FAQ, driver 1.0.8 also supports OS X 10.7.5. (See notes on connected device compatibility on the linked product page. Oct 3rd news also had a 2nd report from an Allegro card user on issues with some bus-powered USB drives.)
There's also an Allegro USB 3.0 Express/34 card that uses the same driver so I'm assuming it should also work but welcome feedback from any owners. (Including notes on connected device compatibility/limitations.) Thanks.
  

OS X PCI GigaBit Ethernet card reports page updated
Updated our original page of OS X PCI Ethernet Card Compatibility Reports with a report from Milton on a D-Link DGE-30T Gigabit PCI card used in his G5 tower (OS X 10.5.8) after the onboard NIC failed. (If anyone's recently bought a Netgear GA311, let me know if the previous reports from 2010 on native support are still true.)
  
iPhoto 9.4.1 Update (info/download)
(download page linked)
"About iPhoto 9.4.1 (757.62 MB)
What's New in Version 9.4.1:
  • Improves the reliability of syncing to iOS devices via iTunes
  • Fixes an issue that could cause iPhoto to quit unexpectedly when using the Export command
  • Addresses an issue that could cause iPhoto to quit unexpectedly when upgrading multiple books, cards, and calendars
  • Resolves an issue with downloading and viewing photos synced from Facebook albums

System Requirements: OS X 10.7.5, OS X 10.8.2 or later"


  
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