Gizmos and Apple OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

Apple released OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard) this morning. Many software companies are working to update their products to work well with this new technology.

Here at ExploreLearning our Gizmos make use of the Shockwave plug-in. If you have already installed 10.6 you may have noticed that you can't see the Gizmos. We don't like that at all! We investigated the issue and wanted to let you know that there is a way for you to start viewing the Gizmos!

The developer of this plug-in is Adobe, and they have stated that they are working on updating the plug-in to work with the new operating system natively, but currently you will have to run in "32-bit" mode. In the future the plug-in will be updated and you will no longer need to follow these steps.

If you have already installed Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6) and previously had Shockwave installed (see further below if you don't have Shockwave installed) follow these steps to view the Gizmos:

1. Print this page (so you can quit your web browser and continue).
2. Quit the Safari browser (in menu choose Safari > Quit Safari)
3. In the dock click and hold on the Safari icon
4. Select "Options > Show in Finder"
   
5. You will now see the main Safari application
   
6. With Safari selected choose File > Get Info from the menu, or use Apple-i keyboard combination
7. You will see a checkbox labeled "Open in 32-bit mode" on the Safari Info panel
8. Select that option
   
9. Be sure that Open using Rosetta is NOT selected
10. Close the "Safari Info" window
11. Restart your computer. After the restart please check once again that Safari is still properly set to 32-bit mode by following steps 3 through 10 again.
12. Start Safari by clicking on the icon in the dock
13. You should now be able to view Gizmos!

If you have any problems following these steps you may have to talk with your technology coordinator or teacher. If you are still having any problems be sure to drop a line to customer support on our contact page and we will work with you to solve the problem.

As the software and technology associated with our content changes we will continue to keep you updated.

Note: To be sure you have the most recent version of Shockwave you can click here: Shockwave download link.

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Update: Jan. 20, 2010

If you try to view a Gizmo and see an error similar to the one below it indicates you have not yet set Safari to run in 32-bit mode. You should try to follow the steps shown above one more time.

Update: Sept. 23, 2010

Adobe has released an updated version of Shockwave (11.5.8.612) which is now compatible with Snow Leopard. You no longer need to set Safari to run in 32-bit mode (with a few exceptions - more information in this newer post).