Apple says it will cooperate with developers as they try to update their applications to work with Mac OS X 10.4. In the meantime, some companies offer workarounds.Though some third-party developers have been able to take advantage of new features of Apple Computer Inc.'s Mac OS X 10.4, code-named Tiger, other developers are finding that their creative applications are incompatible.
Though an Apple representative declined to comment on individual cases, he did say the company would cooperate with developers as they try to update their applications.
Click here to read about Bare Bones Software announcing support for Tiger with the release of BBEdit 8.2.
Some manufacturers offer workarounds. For example, Macromedia Inc., the maker of graphics applications such as the Flash, Director and Fireworks product lines, has posted a note that Macintosh users upgrading to Tiger using the "Archive and Install" or "Erase and Install" options will need to reactivate previously installed Macromedia products. Macromedia says the company is working with Apple to resolve this issue.
Extensis Inc., which makes a variety of creative tools including plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop and QuarkXPress, told eWEEK.com that it will soon offer free updates for its Portfolio 7 and Font Reserve products.
The latter, a font management solution, suffers a "minor user-interface problem," according to Martin Stein, the company's senior product manager for font solutions. Stein said users could see one checkbox in the main interface appear "a little beaten up" and could see a drawing problem in the application's Preference pane.
Derek Fine, the product manager for Extensis' Portfolio digital asset management application, admitted a more significant issue with the application. "You can run [Portfolio] in Mac OS X 10.4, but there is a problem in bringing new assets into Portfolio's catalog," he said.
When a user drags or otherwise tries to add an asset to Portfolio's database, the applications produces an error message, he said. The asset is not added, but no information is lost or damaged, he said.
"It's more our fault," Fine said. He said Portfolio places files in a temporary location and the application is hard-coded with that location's path. "The path has changed in 10.4, but Portfolio isn't aware of that," he said, adding that the end-of-month free patch to Portfolio should address this issue.
Creo Inc., a maker of imaging and prepress hardware and software, posted a notice that its Preps imposition tool does not work with Mac OS X 10.4 because of a licensing driver incompatibility.
"As a supplier, we don't get Mac OS X 10.4 until the formal release," said Rochelle van Halm, a media relations manager for the company. She said Creo advised Preps users that there might be compatibility issues prior to Mac OS X 10.4's release.
"In a couple of weeks, we will have an update that will resolve the issues," van Halm said. The update will be a free download, and Creo will advise all 25,000 registered Preps users via e-mail when the update is available, she said.
An Apple tech note stated that Autodesk Cleaner 6, a professional video encoding application, is incompatible with QuickTime 7 and the new H.264 codec, both of which are installed with Mac OS X 10.4 and are available for Mac OS X 10.3.9.
"Initial tests by Autodesk's development and support team indicate that Cleaner 6.0 works properly on [Mac OS X 10.4]," said Kara Misenheimer, a public relations representative at Autodesk.
However, she added, Autodesk does recognize the issue with QuickTime 7 and H.264. "This is not a format currently supported by Cleaner 6.0," she said. She declined to say whether Autodesk would supply an update to Cleaner with H.264 support.
"There are over 12,000 applications written for Mac OS X, and we see more every day, including new Dashboard widgets and Automator actions," Apple spokesman Anuj Nayar said in a statement. We're working closely with those few developers that have some work to do to update their applications for Mac OS X Tiger."
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