Mac OS X 10.10.4 Supports TRIM for Third-Party SSD Hard Drives

Earlier today Apple released OS X 10.10.4, an under-the-hood update to OS X that introduced several bug fixes and improvements. One improvement, according to Ars Technica, is support for TRIM for third-party SSD hard drives. We previously covered TRIM likely coming natively to the next version of OS X El Capitan but it appears support has already arrived.

Photo via ArsTechnica

With today’s OS X 10.10.4 update, however, Apple has added a command line utility that can be used to enable TRIM on third-party SSDs without having to download and install anything. Called trimforce, the utility can be executed from the OS X terminal, and it requires a reboot to start working.

TRIM is a system-level command that allows the operating system and the drive to communicate about which areas of the drive are considered unused and thus ready to be erased and rewritten to. In the absence of TRIM, users can see significantly slower drive writes as the drive begins to fill up. Most modern operating systems support TRIM but for Apple's OS X, it has only included support for its OEM SSDs. This means that Mac users looking to install an after-market SSD in a machine originally intended for spinning disc hard drives would run into trouble without the help of other third-party tools.

To enable TRIM, a user just has to type "sudo trimforce enable" into the Terminal window. Ars Technica points out that running TRIM prompts a "scary" message from the system, but notes it's largely because each SSD implements TRIM in a different way, with older disks sometimes acting in a way OS X would not expect.

MacRumors forum readers have been testing and discussing the update in our forums and sharing their experiences.

List of Countries Where Apple Music and Beats 1 Radio Are Now Available

Apple has posted a list of over 115 countries where some combination of Apple Music, Apple Music Radio, Beats 1 Radio and iTunes Match are available per the iPhone in Canada blog. Apple Music and Apple Music Radio are available in 110 countries as of today's launch, while Angola, Puerto Rico, Israel, Taiwan, and Turkey are five countries where the streaming music service has yet to launch.

Apple Music's "For You" section for curated playlists and music recommendations
Beats 1 Radio is currently unavailable in select countries, including the Bahamas, Bahrain, Burkina-Faso, Egypt, Hungary, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Mozambique, Namibia, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Turkey and United Arab Emirates. iTunes Match, technically available through Apple Music and as a standalone service, is available in all countries listed except for Romania.

To check the availability of Apple Music, Apple Music Radio, Beats 1 Radio, and iTunes Match in your region, be sure to look at the full list of countries on Apple's website. Apple has also posted a similar list of regions where Apple Music will be available across the U.S. and Canada, Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Not all features of Apple Music will be available in each country.

Beats 1 Radio appears to be down for many

Many readers are reporting Beats1 Radio is offline with error -12880 on iOS and just a spin on iTunes for Mac. As per usual, Apple’s System status page shows no outage but currently we aren’t able to find anyone able to get online.

iTunes is showing the below error:

@9to5mac pic.twitter.com/EeOUBteGS8

— Timothy Phillips  (@filupskid) July 1, 2015

@9to5mac I get another message in iOS 9 pic.twitter.com/htqmhsiWgQ

— Facundo Carió (@facucario) July 1, 2015

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Hands-On Walkthrough of Apple Music and Beats 1 Radio

Apple's much-anticipated music service, Apple Music, launched this morning as part of iOS 8.4, bringing on-demand streaming music, the Beats 1 radio station, and Apple Connect, Apple's new social network aimed at letting artists connect with fans in new and unique ways.

We went hands-on with Apple Music in iOS 8.4 to give you a look at how the new service works, what it looks like, what it costs, and how to use it. Check out the video below to get a thorough overview of all three Apple Music components.


Apple Music's main streaming feature is a "For You" section within the Music app that offers up on-demand music recommendations based on preferences you've entered and music you've listed to previously. "For You" is able to offer more refined, tailored recommendations as you listen to more and more music.


The "New" tab, also part of the on-demand streaming service, displays a variety of music that's new and popular, organized into songs and albums. This section also includes music picks from Apple Music editors.


Much of the content in these two Music app features requires a subscription to Apple Music, which is free for three months, after which it's priced at $9.99 or $14.99 for a family. A third "Radio" tab in the app houses the new 24/7 live Beats 1 radio station and other radio offerings, and radio content will always be free to access.


Apple Connect, the artist-centric social network, is also available through a tab in the Music app, and it displays status updates, photos, videos, and more from artists you follow. The final section is focused on "My Music," housing music you've added from Apple Music, songs you've purchased from iTunes, and playlists you've created, all in one spot.


All of these features that are available in iOS 8.4's new Music app are also available in iTunes 12.2, which was just released this afternoon. iTunes 12.2 offers up all of the same tabs and access to music, radio stations, and curated playlists.

Because Apple Music is free for the first three months, all iTunes users can download it and check it out for themselves without having to shell out cash. If you haven't downloaded Apple Music yet, it's well worth giving it a look.

To read more about setting up Apple Music, make sure to check out our guide on Getting Started with Apple Music and Beats 1 on iOS, Mac, and PC.