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Setting up Mountain Lion: 12 geek setup tips
After I recently wrote about how I often set up new Macs from scratch rather than taking advantage of migration, many people asked me to share my action logs. While I can't do that specifically because (1) my logs are extremely long and cryptic and (2) they contain tons of personal activation keys and serial numbers, I decided to share a few setup tips to help stem the tide of emails. What follows is a dozen setup tasks that I picked out from my normal techniques, which I thought might be useful to others. Here are some of the things I do to my new systems, to make them shinier and happier and ready to use. 1. Copying my Solid Black desktop pattern I don't know why Apple doesn't provide a ready-built black swatch, so I just add my own. I grab the version from my old system and install it into /Library/Desktop Pictures/Solid Colors/Solid Black.png. So why do I do this? Simple. Because I hate QuickTime's full screen playback. By adding a black-colored background, I can play QuickTime movies on my secondary monitor using Command-3 ("Fit to Screen"), with a black background that doesn't distract me. I have a little AppleScript to help. tell application "System Events" set d to last item in desktops -- Standard Swatch Paths set whitepath to "/Library/Desktop Pictures/Solid Colors/Solid White.png" set blackpath to "/Library/Desktop Pictures/Solid Colors/Solid Black.png" -- Toggle if ((picture of d as string) = ("Esopus Spitzenburg:Library:Desktop Pictures:Solid Colors:Solid White.png" as string)) then set picture of d to POSIX file blackpath else set picture of d to POSIX file whitepath end if end tell 2. Disable Window Zooms I don't know which Apple Engineer came up with the idea that OS X should include a window zooming effect but I bear nothing but animosity for this person. Fortunately there is a solution. defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled -bool NO Death to zooming windows! 3. Update my Hosts I think it was either TJ Luoma or Rich Gaywood who first introduced me to somebodywhocares.org and its custom hosts file. In the words of the providers, "This is an easy and effective way to protect you from many types of spyware, reduces bandwidth use, blocks certain pop-up traps, prevents user tracking by way of 'web bugs' embedded in spam, # provides partial protection to IE from certain web-based exploits and blocks most advertising you would otherwise be subjected to on the Internet." I regularly download updates to /etc/hosts/hosts.withlove, then install it into place. Note that this requires administrator privileges. % sudo cp hosts hosts.original % sudo cp hosts.withlove hosts Once installed, you'll find that your surfing experience improves, your breath becomes more lovely, and the world transforms into a gentle place full of unicorns and love. 4. Establish my Terminal Preferences There is no shell but tsch, and .cshrc is its master. I always set up my system to use /bin/tcsh. Plus, Ryan Paul got me set up with a rocking Ubuntu Mono 13pt font for all my fixed width needs like...nethack and fortune, must-have basics. One's command line quirks are highly personal. Obviously, mine indicate that I'm stuck roughly in 1992. 5. Set up QuickTime Pro Remember QuickTime Pro? I still use it. I bought my license ages ago, and will keep dragging around the app and the registration information for as long as I can. QuickTime 7, the app behind QuickTime Pro, still offers some of the best and most effective video editing tools out there. I make installing QT7/Pro a part of my normal Mac install routine. QuickTime Pro lets me add, separate, or delete tracks, build overlays, trim media, and do ever so much more than iMovie. Sure it's ugly, creaky, and seriously odd, but it's a great tool and one I don't want to lose. [Ed.: Some of us still record our podcasts with it.] 6. Install Perian If you love being able to watch AVI movies from inside QuickTime, Perian is the answer. We own several cameras that record in AVI format and without Perian, we woudn't be able to do that. Sure, the utility may not be supported any more but it still works and is dear to my heart. This is also when I generally install the latest version of Handbrake and libdvdcss. 7. Add Dropbox Who doesn't love Dropbox? That doesn't mean you can't tweak your system. After installing the latest build, make sure to hop into Network > Bandwidth and set Don't Limit for uploads. It's nice to have your shared files finish uploading before the next century. 8. Install Vuescan Remember Vuescan? It's another old app that keeps working and working. I bought my license way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and it still allows me to keep using my archaic flatbed scanner (perfect for school forms) using my 2012 Mac mini running Mountain Lion. Well worth the license fee, it's a great solution for connecting your OS X system to old hardware. 9. Set up Github, etc. I always like getting my dev tools in order, and establishing my keys at Github is one of those essential steps. It's also a good time to install command-line git, update my Xcode find options (via the little magnifying glass in the search fields), disable build notifications (whether Xcode succeeded building or not, I don't want to see them pop up in notification center. I'm sitting RIGHT HERE compiling.), and link to the simulator from my home folder: lns ~/Library/Application\ Support/iPhone\ Simulator sim 10. Copy over my provisions and certificates As an iOS dev, an hour without working provisions is an hour without sunshine. Export from the old system as a password-protected package using organizer (Command-Shift-2 > Devices), and move them to the new system. Easiest way to get up and running with development on your new machine. 11. Tweak Mail There's a lot of stuff that Mail does that I hate. Plus, I'm still getting over the fact that I can no longer use Eudora 6 after 10.6, so every mail task I have to do takes approximately 3x as long or worse. Regardless, now that I live in a Mail world, I disable all sounds (including new mail), enable BCC, and make sure to bring ~/Library/Mail and ~/Library/Mail Downloads along for the joyous ride. If anyone has created Rosetta for Mountain Lion, please let me know. 12. Set up TextEdit In my life, there's no room for fussy rich text. First step out of the box is to switch TextEdit to plain text mode across the board. Then, I hop into System Preferences > iCloud > Documents & Data and get my machine the heck out of using cloud data. This has three effects: 1. It speeds up TextEdit. 2. It stabilizes TextEdit from all those unexplained crashes, and 3. Keeps my data safe. Apple still has a lot of work to do when it comes to net services. I trust iCloud just about as far as, well, not far at all. -- So there you have it, a dozen ways I tweak my new systems. Are there several dozen more? Certainly. I doubt, however, you want to see my logs about: "Call Adobe. Yell at Adobe. Plead with Adobe. Beg Adobe so I can keep using Acrobat and Photoshop." Do I have a dozen more to share? Yes, but only if you find this kind of list useful. Happy new systems, everyone.
Radeon HD 7000 series support in 10.8.3 beta points to new Mac Pro
Here's another possible piece in the puzzle that is the long-hoped-for Mac Pro refresh. When digging around in the recently posted OS X 10.8.3 beta, a user on Netkas.org found that Apple had included video card drivers for AMD's top-end Radeon HD 7000 series, pointing to its possible inclusion in the expected 2013 update of the tower computer. For those not familiar with the Radeon HD 7000 series, it features the first 28-nanometer GPU and tops out at a whopping 3 GB of RAM in the Radeon HD 7970. By comparison, the current Mac Pro is available with the older Radeon 5870, a 1 GB card introduced in 2009 as the first DirectX 11-compatible GPU. Of course, Apple's inclusion of HD 7000 series drivers could simply mean that the next OS X will support the cards for current Pro owners. Outfitting its next top-of-the-line machine with one of these powerful GPUs out of the box would certainly go a long way towards justifying the "Pro" in its name, though. [Via Apple Insider]
Mac mini review (2012)
More Info Mac Mini updated in two new flavors, at $599 for i5 dual-core and $999 for i7 quad-core server model iFixit opens up new Mac Mini, has no trouble putting it all back together again Mac mini review (mid 2011) October 23rd was mostly the iPad mini's coming out party; an event with one major headliner. But that newborn product didn't enter Apple's ecosystem alone. Amidst the flurry of announcements, there was one other wee hardware relative on hand ready to join in on the launch festivities: a refreshed 2012 Mac mini. Addressing criticisms of last year's model, Apple added USB 3.0 ports, upgraded to third-generation Ivy Bridge Core processors and boosted the standard RAM allotment to 4GB (you can configure it with up to 16 gigs). Perhaps most interestingly, it's now offering a hybrid storage option, the so-called FusionDrive, which combines flash memory with a SATA HDD. One quirk still remains, though: the product's demographic leanings. Just who is the Mac mini for? Is it the go-anywhere, portable desktop best integrated in yachts, airports, automobiles and living rooms? Or, with a starting price of $599, is it the perfect, low-cost migration assistant (pun intended) for consumers making the switch from a Windows desktop? Follow on to see which hat this not-quite-an-HTPC wears best.
Mac Pro owner crafts an example Fusion Drive, shows the fearless how it's done
Mac fans not keen on picking up a new iMac to get that best-of-all-worlds Fusion Drive might not have to consider a full-on system swap if they're brave enough. Knowing how Apple's approach unites an SSD and a spinning hard drive in a single logical volume, developer Patrick Stein has used command line code to do just that inside his Mac Pro and prove that it works. His series of experiments with organized data shows the effect on storage speeds and that the pseudo-Fusion should even work with less common ZFS formatting. The publicly available instructions could well be tempting to Mac fans who want speed and storage all at once, although we might personally take a pass -- there's more than a fair share of risk in using an unofficial hack to recreate a storage technique that Apple hasn't even shipped.
MacBook Pro with Retina display review (13-inch, late 2012)
Look down the aisles at any Apple launch event, across the laps of dozens of journalists liveblogging or in some other way documenting the goings-on, and it's inevitable that you'll see MacBooks. A lot of MacBooks. And, since many of those laps are irrevocably linked to owners who spend their days jetting around the globe to other companies' events, those laptops are quite often the travel-friendly MacBook Air. So, while we were excited to see a thinner, lighter 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display unveiled earlier this year, many of us were left asking one question: "Where's the 13-inch version?" Now, a little over four months later, here it is. Why the wait from one to the next? That's for Apple to know and us to speculate about (supply chain concerns? engineering issues?), but the important thing is that it's available now and it is, in many ways, an uncompromised, slightly smaller rendition of the 15-inch version that came before. It's thinner and it's lighter than the current 13-inch Pro but promises better internals and the same battery life as the 13-inch Air. Perfect portions of portability and performance? Let's find out.
Apple camera RAW update for OS X supports Canon EOS M, Nikon D600, compulsive photography
Not every update Apple makes to its RAW support in OS X merits attention, but when a new revision covers several of the biggest camera launches of the year in one fell swoop, we'll have our eyebrows raised. The company's not very elegantly titled Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 4.01 supports the unprocessed photos from Nikon's 'starter' full-frame DSLR, the D600, as well as a handful of hotter mirrorless cameras like the Canon EOS M, Nikon 1 J2, Panasonic Lumix G5 and Sony NEX-F3. Those who aren't keen on swapping lenses still get native RAW support for higher-end compacts like Canon's PowerShot G15 and Sony's Cyber-shot RX100. Provided you're running the necessary OS X Lion or Mountain Lion, Apple just gave you free rein to pick a cutting-edge camera and shoot (in full detail) to your heart's content.
Apple announces Fusion Drive
Apple has pulled one unexpected rabbit out of its hat today, the Apple Fusion Drive. It's a combination of SSD and HDD technology. Fusion Drive is part of the new iMac just announced, and is a technology supported by Mountain Lion. In concept, it's similar to auto-tiering that is used in enterprise environments. In practice, Apple is offering a 128 GB SDD with a 1 TB or 3 TB HDD drive that are combined with smart software. The OS will monitor which apps you use the most and runs them from the SDD. Apple claims that, when the system is idle, it uses 50 percent less power than a standard hard drive. No word on whether this tech will hit other Apple products but it's logical. I'd love to see external drives with this configuration as well.
Apple announces 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display: 2,560 x 1,600 resolution, Thunderbolt and HDMI starting at $1,699
If the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display was feeling lonely up there on its high-resolution pedestal, it needn't any longer. As expected, Apple just announced a 13-inch version to keep it company. The 2,560 x 1,600 resolution means that 13-inch screen offers a ppi of 232, marginally more than its larger brother's 226. As well as that lovely new display, there's a pair of Thunderbolt ports, and a full-size HDMI port to let you make good use of it with, as well as a pair of USB 3s. While this might not be the primary focus of the day, it will definitely be one of the more hotly anticipated reveals from the company's San Jose event this afternoon. The base model will run you $1,699 and comes with a 2.5GHz i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of flash memory. At the top end you can expect 768GB hard drive, atop a Core i7. And, like last time, to top it all off, all the new goodies come in a slimmer, desire-stoking design -- weighing a whole pound less than the 2011 13-incher and at just 0.75-inches thick, 20 percent thinner. Already full of want? Then don't hang around, as it ships today! In the meantime, keep your retinas locked right here for our hands on. For more coverage, visit our Apple Special Event hub!
BusyCal 2 adds new views, menu bar quick entry, gives up Sync Services
It was already among the leading Calendar/iCal replacement apps for productivity aficionados, and now BusyCal has received a boost of new functionality with the release of BusyCal 2. The update includes improved iCloud functionality, and is also compatible with Google Calendar and other services based on the CalDAV standard. It requires OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion; users of Leopard and Snow Leopard can still use BusyCal 1.6 to sync over the local network with 2.0 users. BusyCal 2 adds natural language support for event entry, a live 10-day weather forecast and even a new heat map view that gives you a glimpse at how busy the next 12 months will be. The updated app also works hand in hand with new Mountain Lion features like Notification Center for updates and alerts. A new menu bar applet (similar to Fantastical and Today) lets you browse the day's events without opening the full BusyCal application, and you can also use it to create new events and to-do reminders. In addition to the cloud service calendar access it offers, BusyCal retains its popular ability to sync calendars between instances of the app running on different Macs on the same LAN... with a caveat or two. Users of BusyCal 1.6 should note that there are several functional changes from 1.6 to 2.0. As Apple's Sync Services framework is deprecated in Mountain Lion, features in BusyCal that leveraged it (crossover synchronization with iCal/Calendar, Outlook or Entourage; direct calendar sync via iTunes to iOS devices) are no longer available. Since BusyCal 2.0 doesn't sync with calendar apps that support Exchange, the BC 1.x "hack" that allowed Outlook users to replicate their work calendars onto Google Calendar isn't possible in the new version. In fact, BusyCal 2 doesn't publish calendars to Google at all; they need to be created on the web side, then you can subscribe to them in the app. Another consequence of the rebuild is that LAN-shared calendars (not iCloud or Google hosted calendars) cannot be synced to iTunes devices or published to the cloud services; they are local network only. BusyCal 2 carries over the same clean, accessible aesthetic of its predecessor, letting you view the upcoming days, weeks, months or even years without being overwhelmed. The app is available for US$29.99 via the App Store, but you can take it for a free 30-day test drive via the official website.
TweetBot for Mac reaches the Mac App Store, keeps the 3rd-party Twitter client flame alive
When Twitter put out its strict new API guidelines, there was some doubt as to whether or not third-party clients like Tapbots' Tweetbot for Mac would even make the cut -- the user caps and other curbs on unofficial apps potentially made it tough to develop competition around a different (and possibly better) experience. That makes today's official appearance of Tweetbot in the Mac App Store as much symbolic as it is practical. While there won't be many significant shocks for those who've been participating in Tweetbot's alpha and beta stages, the finished version gives everyone running OS X Mountain Lion a major and sometimes more advanced alternative to official choices, such as TweetDeck, as well as existing third-party options like Twitterrific. A $20 price doesn't make Tweetbot the cheapest way to buck convention by any means, but it might be worth the investment if you're already committed to Tapbots' iOS apps or want to make a statement on the value of third parties in an ecosystem.
Mountain Lion 101: Assign keyboard shortcuts to Mail outgoing accounts
Making its appearance again in Mountain Lion is the ability to assign a keyboard shortcut that'll enter an outgoing email account for a message you are composing in Mail. This feature was available in earlier versions of OS X, but was removed in OS X Lion. Now that the shortcut is back in Mountain Lion, it's time to revisit this feature and show you how to set it up. You can use these instructions below to assign the shortcut and use it when composing an email. Before you get started, you need the name of your email account as it appears in the Mail application. If you don't know these details, then you should open Mail, compose a message and click on the From field to see the available email accounts. The syntax should look something like this: To set the keyboard shortcut, you must open the Keyboard panel in the System Preferences and click on the Keyboard Shortcuts tab as shown below. You can set shortcuts for a variety of apps from this menu, but we are going to focus on Mail. Click on "Application Shortcuts" on the left and look for the + icon at the bottom center. Click on this + and select "Mail" from the Application menu. Type in your email address (don't forget the formatting shown above) into the Menu Title and enter your Keyboard Shortcut combo. As noted by Kirk McElhearn in Macworld hints, the keyboard combo should be easy to remember and ideally related to your email account. I used this suggestion in the example below and selected command-option-control and the letter T for my TUAW account. You can click Add when you are done. The next time you are composing a message, it'll be extremely easy to select the correct email address for the From field. All you have to do is type the shortcut command and Mail will enter the email address you assigned in the shortcut. You can setup shortcuts for a few email address or all of them, if you prefer.
OS X 10.8.2 Supplemental Update 1.0 live in App Store
Do you have issues with certain Japanese characters not appearing in Mail? Are you frustrated by Safari's inability to access secure sites when parental controls are turned on? Or is your system having trouble starting up with more than 64 GB of RAM? If you answered "Yes" to any of these questions, you may be interested in the OS X 10.8.2 Supplemental Update 1.0, currently downloadable from the App Store. This 27 MB Mountain Lion 10.8.2 patch fixes the three specific issues listed, and does require a restart. Macworld notes that there's also a 10.7.5 Supplemental Update in the wild, which addresses a Time Machine issue and a problem with Developer ID-signed apps failing to launch.
Apple releases OS X 10.8.2 update for Mountain Lion: Facebook integration, iMessage fixes and more
Looks like one major software update wasn't enough, as Apple is following its push of iOS 6 with OS X 10.8.2. Weighing in at 697.54MB, it's a pretty substantial update for Mountain Lion users, with that long-awaited Facebook integration chief among the changes. As Twitter presently operates within the OS, Facebook will now too enjoy single sign-on simplicity, and all of OS X's sharing portals will now include Facebook as an option. You'll get Facebook notifications in Notification Center, and you can share Game Center scores with your Facebook pals. It's also being reported that this build restores laptop battery life levels to those seen with Lion. Other new features include the addition of Power Nap for the Late 2010 MacBook Air, a few iMessage tweaks (iMessages sent to your phone number will now appear on your Mac), a new shared Reminders list and the ability to receive FaceTime calls initially sent to your phone number. Passbook users will also enjoy the newfangled ability to add passes right from Safari and Mail, and Dictation now understands Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Korean, Canadian English (!), Canadian French and Italian. We're installing the update now, and you can peek the full changelog after the break. Feel free to toss your post-install impressions in comments as well.
Zorro Macsk review: instantly add touchscreen functionality to your 21.5-inch iMac
Over the years we've come across a few signs that pointed to the possibility of touchscreen-enabled iMacs, but Steve Jobs had already dismissed this as a possibility for current Mac form factors. Quoting the man at the "Back to the Mac" keynote from two years ago: "It gives great demo, but after a while your arm feels like it's going to fall off. Touch surfaces want to be horizontal." So perhaps our fantasy's still stuck in the "research project" phase. Luckily, the more adventurous touchscreen lovers can look to third-party solutions. For MacBooks you have Axiotron's Modbook, except you lose the keyboard and you can't perform the modification yourself. As for iMacs and Cinema Displays, we've been following Troll Touch for its resistive touchscreen replacement panels, but they aren't exactly affordable and most of them have to be installed by the company. Even its user-installable SlipCover series starts from $899, anyway. This leaves us with the Zorro Macsk, a cheekily named iMac accessory hailing from TMDtouch of Shenzhen, China. The 21.5-inch model is priced at just $199 on Amazon with no modifications required. Plus, it supports multitouch -- a glaring omission from Troll Touch's Mac lineup. So is this truly a bargain? Or is it just a case of "you get what you pay for?" Follow past the break to see how we got on with the Zorro Macsk.%Gallery-165013%
7 million upgrades to Mountain Lion sold so far, the fastest-selling version of OS X yet
Kicking off its huge San Francisco event Apple CEO Tim Cook told the packed auditorium that Mountain Lion OS X is the fast-selling operating system it's ever had. He added that the company's family of notebooks have now ranked number 1 in the US for the last three months, grabbing a 27 percent market share. This equates to an additional 15 percent of growth since last year, compared to a slightly more modest two percent growth in the PC sector -- Apple has outpaced the PC industry over the last six years. Check out all the coverage at our iPhone 2012 event hub!
Chitika research: Mountain Lion on 1 of every 10 Macs
In news that really should surprise no one, Chitika Insights used web impressions to determine that a little more than a month after its release, OS X Mountain Lion has been installed on one out of every 10 Macs. Most of those installations took place within the first week of release, with an additional spike in downloads within the past week. With the low upgrade price and the ease of installation through the Mac App Store, the fact that a lot of Macs already are running it isn't a shock. Previous studies by Chitika showed that the adoption of OS X leaped a bit in the month after Lion was released in 2011, and that Mountain Lion downloads accounted for 3% of web traffic in the week after it was released. [via GigaOM]
Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac: Retina Support, Dictation, Instant switching and 30 percent faster performance
Parallels 8 has arrived with a raft of tweaks that makes running Windows on your Mac that much easier. The newest version lets you use Mountain Lion's dictation feature in Windows, open any website in Internet Explorer with a single click and you can even add Redmond-hewn apps to Launchpad. Retina display support is now included, offering you eye-popping detail no matter your operating system and the company's claiming performance has been boosted by up to 30 percent. It'll cost you $80 for the full version, while students get it for $40, and if you purchased Parallels 7 after July 25th, you're eligible to upgrade for free. Meanwhile, if you're more into running Windows software on your iOS device, Parallels Mobile is available from the App Store for $5.
The Engadget Show 35: EVs in Portland, hacked bicycles and a Tesla Model S test drive
With a transportation themed episode, it only seemed natural to take the Engadget Show out of our traditional digs -- it was also a great excuse to visit one of our favorite cities in the world: Portland, Oregon. We drove Mitsubishi's i-MiEV EV around the Northwestern green mecca, stopping at some great PDX spots along the way, including the amazing Ground Kontrol arcade, Hand-Eye Supply and the hackerspace, Brain Silo. We also took the time to speak to some PDX residents, including Core77 co-founder Eric Ludlum and some local modders showing off their homebrew projects. Also, Brian travels out to Boston to ride along with a gang of bike hackers, Myriam takes the Tesla Model S for a spin around the streets of San Francisco and Michael does his best not to fall off the DTV Shredder in the California desert. And, as always, we got a pile of the month's latest and greatest gadgets, including the Google Nexus 7, Hasbro's new Lazer Tag guns and a quick trip around OS X Mountain Lion. Also: comic books, donuts and plenty of EV road trip shenanigans. Click through the break to tune in!
How to get Notification Center to show you what's playing in iTunes
OS X's Notification Center was introduced in Mountain Lion and is now your one-stop location for all alerts. Besides the customary notifications for incoming emails and reminders, you can also use Notification Center for other content like the title and artist of the current track that's playing in iTunes. As showcased by OS X Daily, Now Playing uses AppleScripts and Terminal-Notifier to display the current iTunes track and the artist's name along with your other notifications. The app also works with streaming services like Spotify. Now Playing can be downloaded from Mediafire and installed on your OS X Mountain Lion machine. Another alternative is iTunification from Onible. Inspired by Now Playing, iTunification lets you display the current track and artist in Notification Center and has the added benefit of Growl support. Besides the track and artist name, the Growl option also allows you to display cover art and setup custom alerts. Both of these apps are scaled down versions of GrowlTunes which adds playback controls your menu bar and displays the current track and artist as a Growl notification.
Apple releases Mountain Lion 10.8.2 build to devs, focuses on Facebook, iMessage and more
Shortly after letting the 10.8.1 Mountain Lion out of the bag, Cupertino's now released the next dotted version of its feline OS X to members of the developer community. According to the seed note, this early release will be focusing on a slew of social areas as well as other handy applications, including Facebook, Messages, Game Center, Reminders and, of course, the company's own web browser, Safari. As is usually the case with these young builds, Apple suggests you install it on a machine "you are prepared to erase if necessary," though something tells us you were already well aware of that. But in case you do want to install v10.8.2, you'll find the rest of the deets at the Apple Developer site linked below.
