July 3 - 2:10am EDT   Only a few days after its D700 announcement (pictured at right), Nikon has released v2.0 firmware for its D3 digital SLR (Windows/Mac), bringing improved autofocus performance, improved Auto White Balance, and an issue that caused the battery indicator to blink, regardless of actual battery charge (which the company claims happened in "rare circumstances"). Nikon says that the firmware update incorporates a number of other fixes, including (1) allowing the aperture setting to be adjusted from the computer when shooting LiveView mode using Camera Control Pro 2 (ver. 2.2.0) or later with a PC-E lens. Other fixes include more "Vignette control" settings and fixes, more ... [full story]

July 1 - 12:00am EDT  Apple on Monday released an update to its 802.11n wireless AirPort products, including its wireless Time Capsule backup solution: The Time Capsule, AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n. The update says that Firmware 7.3.2 updates include bug fixes and that it requires AirPort Utility 5.3.2. AirPort Utility 5.3.2 -- both of which were released in early June and can be obtained via an automatic software update or as a manual download. [full story]

June 16 - 11:10pm EDT  Apple on Monday unveiled Xserve EFI Firmware Update 1.1 for Intel Xserve servers, stating that the patch offers users improved stability when applied. As with most recent Apple updates, little is revealed about what problems the update resolves; it is not known whether "stability improvements" refers to freezing, kernel panics, or other miscellaneous temporary failures. Xserve EFI Firmware Update 1.1 is available from Apple's support website, and through Software Update. [full story]

April 28 - 8:55pm EDT   Apple today posted the iMac ATI Radeon HD Graphics Firmware Update 1.0.1 for iMac owners with either the Radeon HD 2400 XT or HD 2600 Pro graphics cards. The update simply states that it addresses system stability issues in those systems, but does not mention whether any performance enhancing aspects are also included. Firmware updates require an uninterrupted patch process, so users are encouraged to follow the instructions included with the update. [full story]

April 21 - 7:30pm EDT   Apple today released its MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.5.1, which it says provides fixes several issues to improve the stability of MacBook Pro computers. The update revises a recently-issued MBP firmware update that came alongside similar updates for most of its other Mac families, including the MacBook, MacBook Air, and iMac computers -- as well as a specific MacBook Air Bluetooth update -- and also comes with updated version of the Firmware Restoration CD 1.7. "After the firmware is successfully applied to your Mac, your Boot ROM Version will be:
 MBP21.00A5.B08 or MBP31.0070.B07," the company notes. [full story]

April 14 - 7:00pm EDT   iPhone developers testing the latest v1.2.0 beta firmware have found that future implementations of the iPhone OS allows users to press and hold their finger over an image in Safari to save it to their Photo Album. According to Gizmodo, the method works with all new versions of the v1.2.0 beta, and is ideal for saving friends photos from Facebook or a similar service, allowing the photo to serve as a background or other interface element. [full story]

April 9 - 7:00pm EDT   HighPoint Technologies has announced that the RocketRAID 3522 now supports booting Mac OS X on Apple Mac Pro (2006-2007) models. The RocketRAID 3522 has a dual mini-SAS interface that supports up to eight external direct connect SATA hard drives. Some of the new features available in the RocketRAID 3522 include selectable RAID block sizes for application tuning. Advance RAID level 0,1,5,6 and new RAID 3 support. Upgradable firmware support via the HighPoint web GUI and 32-bit EFI boot capability with Mac Pro 2006-2007 models. Booting support for Mac Pro 2008 models will be coming soon and requires an firmware upgrade through the HighPoint web management GUI. [full story]

April 8 - 6:30pm EDT   Apple today released a number of updates, including firmware updates for its MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro as well as firmware for its iMac. The Mac BookAir EFI Firmware Update 1.0, MacBook EFI Firmware Update 1.2, and Mac Book Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.5 fixes several issues to improve the stability of the notebook computers, while the iMac EFI Firmware Update 1.3 fixes several issues to improve the stability of iMac computers. Apple's Firmware Restoration CD 1.6, for its Macs, can restore the firmware of an Intel-based Macintosh computer and the company notes that restoring the firmware will reset some of the computer's preferences to defaults. [full story]

April 8 - 5:05pm EDT   Developers participating in the iPhone SDK beta are discovering that the device is "bricking" itself after the limited-time beta expires. TUAW readers point out that this shouldn't come as a surprise, since a note posted for developers says that the beta would indeed expire if not kept current. Another user notes that the next development firmware version has yet to be seeded to non-enterprise developers, while another still says that a call to the Apple Developer Connection revealed an updated SDK masquerading as an older one. [full story]

March 27 - 11:25pm EDT   Apple today unveiled two updates, one for its Airport drivers under Mac OS X 10.4.x Tiger, and a firmware update for the Mac Pro (Early 2008), bringing the firmware to version 1.3. The AirPort Extreme Update 2008-001 for Tiger is recommended for all users with Intel-based Macs equipped with Tiger, and is said to enhance the reliability of AirPort connections. The update is 1.3MB, and is available from Software Update, as well as Apple's support page. [full story]

March 19 - 12:30am EDT   A new exploit has surfaced for the iPhone's Safari browser that, while drawing parallels to an earlier issue, requires no user input to function. According to iPhone World, the vulnerability is triggered by previously conceived code that has been refined in the above manner. The issue affects firmware version 1.1.4 iPhones, and presumably previous versions. Safari on the Mac and PC were also affected by this vulnerability, but it was recently fixed in Safari 3.1, released today. [full story]

March 10 - 4:50pm EDT   Apple today unveiled an update for the Mac Pro ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card, which was suspected of causing mass system instabilities in those machines. The 792KB update requires Mac OS X 10.5.2 with the latest Leopard graphics update, and is said to improve overall system stability. As with most recent updates, the specific problems and fixes are not listed. The issue was affecting all of the new model Mac Pros, regardless of how old the actual tower was. [full story]

February 19 - 5:55pm EST   Apple today unveiled a firmware fix for MacBook and MacBook Pro owners, remedying some long-standing keyboard issues. The update says it addresses a problem where the computer would ignore the first key pressed after a period of inactivity, also addressing "some other issues", according to the supplied literature. Some users were having similar issues, but related to typing in a text field, regardless of whether or not the computer had been sitting idle. [full story]

February 18 - 5:40pm EST   In response to a large influx of feedback regarding Tiny Code's announcement last week, developer for the app KellyTM revealed that the statement was false. Last week, Tiny Code announced that they were officially working with Apple on making legit iPhone and iPod touch apps, using a copy of the yet-to-be-released software developer's kit. KellyTM had also said that Tiny Code was waiting on the release of firmware version 1.1.4 before releasing any more updates, which he led others to believe was the first implementation of custom apps for the devices. [full story]

February 15 - 1:35pm EST   In what appears to be a move on Apple's part to sway current iPhone and iPod touch jailbreak developers into becoming legit, Tiny Code announced that it would no longer be updating its iPhone Repo application. The developer said that due to a closer relationship with Apple, and use of the official software developers kit, it will abstain from creating software for jailbroken 1.1.3 iPhones. Supposedly Tiny Code will wait for the 1.1.4 firmware before introducing any more software. [full story]