Episode #278
This week on For Mac Eyes Only: Mike and Gary offer their predictions for Apple’s upcoming event, iMac Drive Warranties, It’s Easy(?) Being Green, Italian Class Action Suit, Apple Updates Java One Last Time, Nobody Wants an Apple I?, Mega Moscow Apple Museum, Syncing Google Contact Groups to Address Book.
NEWS
> Apple Schedules Media Event for October 23rd
> iMac Owners Get 1TB Extended Warranty
> Apple Purchases Particle for HTML5 Prowess
> EPEAT Backpedals: What Does it Means to be “Green”?
> Class Action Filed in Italy Over AppleCare Warranties
> iNEWS: Apple Awarded iPad Design Patent
> ERRATUM: What is a Patent?
> UPDATE: Java for OS X 2012-006
> UPDATE: Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 11
> UPDATE: Mozilla Firefox 16.0.1
> UPDATE: Acorn 3.5
> iNEWS: BBC Radio Player for iOS
> FUN NEWS Follow-Up: Apple I Fails to Sell
> FUN NEWS: Interview with Moscow Apple Museum Founder
> Moscow Apple Museum
> Moscow Apple Museum Flickr Gallery
For Mac Eyes Only is brought to you by Audible.com:
Please visit http://audiblepodcast.com/fmeo for your free audiobook download.
Question: Bob is looking for an Address Book/Contacts replacement for OS X that can sync his Google Contact groups.
> Cobook
> Lifehacker’s Early Review of Cobook
CONTACT US
Subscribe to our Podcast Feed or
Download the show here!
Running Time: 1:14:55
Hi Mike and Gary –
I really liked the podcast as usual this week.
I wanted to report out on the install the JAVA UPDATE which REMOVES the java everywhere not just in the browsers.
I took the plunge because in the past I have both “turned off Java everywhere” and then gone in and turned it on and disabled it in the browsers and in both cases I was only prevented from doing the on line crosswords in the WSJ!
I want to note that this latter bit is just a Fault of WSJ because UK’s The Times Crossword Club which also has on line playing DOES NOT require Java (good for them!) so you don’t have to use Java I learned.
So I DID RUN THE UPDATE – just plunging in and figuring if an app hasn’t clued in that Apple is yanking Java support and requiring the Oracle version, then I just won’t use that app. I think I am lucky and am not using Adobe CS or other apps. Related to this update: I read in another website that Yahoo Gaming Center requires Java and doesn’t work when a person tries to install the Oracle version just in an FYI.
Well, just thought I’d post what I did!
Xercise Nut Lisa
Hi All,
In addition to her feedback here in the comments, Lisa also asked for some clarification on the story in the FMEO Forums. She also wanted to know how to tell if the Java runtime is still installed.
Here was my reply to her:
There’s a lot more to the story than what we reported. My question was: why does Apple feel it’s okay to leave the Java plugin installed on Snowy, but not on Lion or Mountain Lion?
Well, the answer is because Oracle doesn’t make a Java plugin for Snowy! However, if Apple removed it for security reasons, then that might force Oracle to create one — that’s my thinking anyway.
AND the reason they remove Java Preferences from 10.7 and 10.8 is because Oracle has their own and Apple’s would be redundant.
The confusion from the story — and this is my fault for not explaining it properly — is the mixed message of uninstalling the plugin from one version of OS X, but not the other.
The Java Runtime is another story and applications should be okay if Apple only removes the browser plugin, but the Runtime doesn’t exist within 10.7 or 10.8 unless you install Apple’s plugin, so my question was: if Apple uninstalls the plugin, will they also remove the Runtime needed by applications? And that’s why I cautioned checking with the support pages of apps you use that rely upon Java before running the “update”.
Now to your question:
Open a Terminal window and type: java -version and press return. That will tell you if you have the Java runtime installed and what version you’re running.
To find the location type: sudo /usr/libexec/java_home and press return.
Running that, you should see the location the of the runtime is: Macintosh HD > System > Library > Java > JavaVirtualMachines
In there, you should see a file named 1.6.0.jdk. That’s your Java runtime. If you have a newer one from Oracle it will be 1.7.0.jdk. Don’t want it? You can delete it. Just keep in mind some apps — not websites, but apps — may need it.
There are also some other locations on the Mac that reference that jdk file, but you should be safe to simply leave those untouched.
Hope that helps!