by Veit on November 11, 2009
After I rebuilt my Mac using the Migration Assistant, everything worked – with the exception of Adobe’s Creative Suite, CS3. Getting CS3 (and also CS4!) to work turned out to be a much bigger issue than thought, with many hours spent digging through Adobe’s knowledgebase, their forums and on the phone.
In general, the problem is as follows: If you use the MacOSX Migration Assistant to migrate to a new Mac or to rebuild an existing Mac, chances are very high that you will run into the dreaded Adobe Creative Suite “Licensing for this product has stopped” issue. Even if you do not migrate your applications (as I did), the Migration Assistant migrates some of its settings, which renders the Creative Suite product unable to start. To analyze my CS3 problems, I went as far as installing a trial copy of Photoshop CS4, which would not work either. That alerted me to the fact that this was not a licensing issue for a particular CS component, but for all of Adobe’s creative suite products.
There are only two ways how to fix this issue:
- Reinstall your Mac without the use of the Migration Assistant (only to be used as a last resort, if everything else fails)
- Do some open-heart surgery (don’t worry – if it fails, your only alternative would have been a complete reinstall anyway)
Following are step-by-step instructions of how to get Adoce Creative Suite CS3 and CS4 to work again:
- Make sure you have copies of your Adobe products handy, since you will need to reinstall them. Don’t start this without having the disks or files you need for reinstallation.
- You will also need your admin/super-user password.
- Download a copy of the Adobe Flash player, since you will lose Flash in the process. Don’t install it yet.
- Download a copy of the Adobe CS3 clean script (there’s also one for CS4). Run it to uninstall CS3. It will delete the entire CS3 installation plus Flash.
- Uninstall any other Adobe software – better safe than sorry.
- Go to the following folders one at a time and delete anything that starts with “Adobe”, “Macromedia” and “FlexNet” or has it somewhere in its name:
- /Library/Application Support
- /Library/Preferences
- /Applications
- /Applications/Utilities
- ~/Library/Application Support
- Use the finder to search for Adobe, Macromedia or FlexNet. Examine every file or folder – if in doubt throw it away
- Empty your recycling bin, so all the files are gone for sure!
- Reboot.
- Reinstall the Flash Player that you downloaded in Step 3.
- Install CS3 from your install disks. Bingo, it works!
- Install any other Adobe product that you removed.
Done! Now my Mac is fully restored!
by Veit on September 10, 2009
Yesterday, Steve Jobs re-introduced the new Apple handheld equation:
Microphone + WiFi = iPhone Killer
With a microphone and WiFi, you have access to Google Voice in a browser, thus a potential phone. Add to that a Verizon MiFi and you have a de-facto cell phone.
That, and not Steve Jobs’ bogus answer to David Pogue on how Apple did not understand how to market an iPod Touch, is the reason we did not see a camera and video in the iPod Touch. And why the Nano does not include WiFi.
That is also why we we will not see an iPod camera, as Joe thinks we will. And why the iPad could have both WiFi and a microphone – it’s not a hand-held (or at least what a consumer understands a handheld to be).
Expect future Apple handhelds to follow this formula – Apple needs to protect its iPhone franchise
by Veit on September 9, 2009
Apple’s Music event today was interesting as much for what was said as for what was left out. But after a few hours of reflection, here’s my initial take on the impact of Apple’s announcements.
1. Apple will protect the iPhone franchise at all cost
Well, we did not get the most important announcement – the microphone in the new iPod Touch. Thus no video. But no camera at all? Unless Apple will release an out-of-cycle iPod Touch update due to the rumored manufacturing issues, the de-featuring of the new iPod Touch is a clear indication that Apple wants to protect its iPhone franchise at all cost. Apple was aware that a microphone would make it much easier for digeratis to use the iPod Touch as an “Ersatz” phone. Obviously, they were not willing to take the risk. And with no video, why incur the extra charge for a camera? Thanks, but we’d rather keep the money.
In fact, by looking at the OS 3.1 update, especially the peer-to-peer gaming feature, Apple seems to be positioning the iPod Touch more and more in the gaming space. Not surprising, but not totally understandable, either.
2. The iPad will not have a camera, either
While the iPad was neither announced (not surprisingly) nor mentioned, the continued de-featuring of the iPod Touch is a clear indication what not to expect in the iPad. For the same reasons as with the Touch, the iPad will not feature a microphone, either. No mic, no video and now we know, no camera. Frankly, I’m not sure, we would need a camera in the iPad, but we can now be sure we will not get one.
3. Developers scratching their heads
What’s this new iTunes feature allowing homes to share apps? I have not seen data indicating how many copies of an app a household buys on average, but if it is only 1.1, that is a 10% sales cut the developers just incurred. Thank you, Apple – first the approval mess and now you cost me sales as well? Even although the impact will probably be minimal, I’m sure developers are not happy about Home Sharing. But there’s some compensation for that, in the form of App Genius.
4. App Genius is genius – for Apple
Genius for Apps looks interesting, although I have not spent a lot of time with the new OS 3.1. Of course, it is Apple’s blatant attempt to get more cash from us through additional and better merchandizing. This must have developers smiling. We will see how good this will work, how much sales will increase and whether it will make up for lost sales due to home sharing. But it will boost the number of apps downloaded and also the number of apps sold – both important numbers to Apple’s Marketing machine. Not to mention additional revenue which they will gladly take.
What else do you think was really important in today’s event?
by Veit on October 14, 2008
Having switched myself from Windows to the Mac around 18 months ago and being very happy about it (except for business where I switched back to XP), when my wife’s DELL notebook had to be re-purposed, it was no question that she would switch to the Mac as well.
Before the switch, she was a not overly happy, but generally satisfied Windows XP user (email in Thunderbird, browsing with IE and some Firefox, lots of Word, some Excel). As the CSO (Chief Support Officer) of our household, I was unhappy, because I hated “getting the call” and also the generally poor remote diagnosis capabilities that more often than not prevented me from fixing Windows remotely. Therefore, as an added benefit of the switch, supporting her would become much easier for me, even when I was traveling or at the office.
About two months ago, we switched and she got a sparkling new iMac. While at it, I switched her from Thunderbird to Apple’s mail.app, but left her with Firefox and Safari as her two browsers and Office 2004 for text editing and spreadsheet use.
So far, the results have been mixed. The CSO is pretty happy — support requests have been down and onsite/offsite support is much easier to provide. However, the customer is decidedly unhappy and is becoming more agitated about the shortcomings of the Mac. Poor user-friendliness of mail.app is probably the main issue, so I’m thinking about switching her back to Thunderbird (which IMHO is much better than mail.app anyway). The lack of a task bar in the Mac, window overlap, esp. in Office, disappearing Office menu bars and automatic text and window sizing in all apps (or the lack/poor implementation thereof), esp. in the Finder, are all issues that keep her getting more and more unhappy with her Mac.
So facing a situation where you have either a satisfied customer / unhappy CSO or a happy CSO / unhappy customer, I have my suspicions what the outcome of this development will be. Stay tuned as this saga unfolds…
