Mac OS X Leopard
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EasyFind is a free alternative to Spotlight
EasyFind is a free application that helps you find files and folders on your Mac. And yes, it's better than Spotlight. EasyFind is made by the folks at DEVONtechnologies who are well-known for developing powerful search software DEVONthink, DEVONagent Pro, and DEVONagent Express, which is to say that EasyFind is made by people who know a lot about search. Compare that to Spotlight, which was a marquee feature of OS X six years ago but never grew into something great. When you launch EasyFind, you will see several options and choices. Don't let years of Spotlight's simplistic UI overwhelm you; options and choices are a good thing. Take a minute to see what's available, and just start searching. Down the left-hand side of the window are criteria for searching: Files and Folders, Only Files, Only Folders, or File Contents. Next choose to search for All Words, Any Word, a Phrase, or Unix-Wildcards. You can also specify whether or not the search should be case sensitive, whether it should look in package contents, or include invisible files and folders. You can also set the scope of the search to be a specific volume/disk, or a specific folder such as your Home folder. 99% of my searches are for things I know are "somewhere" in my Home, or "somewhere" in my Dropbox. Spotlight only lets you choose "current folder" or "everything" which is almost never what I want. That's far more control and options than what Spotlight gives you (or at least what Spotlight gives you without resorting to byzantine keywords), but what I really love is what you get in the results of your search. Of course you get the filename (and you can expand that column to make it wider, I just made it narrow in the screenshot above), but you also get the creation date, the modification date, the size, the kind and location. If you don't want any of those columns, you can turn them off. If you want to change the order of those columns, or if you want to sort your results by any of those columns, you can do that too. EasyFind can search for the content of files, but it is not using Spotlight's database, it is actually running the search when you enter it. That means that it won't be as fast as Spotlight, but on my MacBook Air it is still very quick (the speed will be determined by the number of files you are searching plus the speed of the disk). I keep Spotlight around for those times when I need it, but in actual practice I rarely even do. In fact, I've reassigned my Spotlight Keyboard Shortcut to launch EasyFind instead. (Aside: I had even disabled Spotlight for awhile on my Mac, but there are many things which just don't work properly if Spotlight is completely disabled, so I ended up turning it back on and just ignoring it. YMMV.) You can download EasyFind from the Mac App Store or directly from DEVONtechnologies. If you download it directly, you can get a version which will work on Mac OS X 10.5 or higher (PowerPC or Intel), which is good news for folks running older versions of Mac OS X. Thanks to the folks at DEVONtechnologies for this cool app. Take a look at their other freeware apps too!
Mac 101: Yes, Intel Macs can be booted from an external USB drive
More Mac 101, our ongoing series of tips and tidbits for new Mac users. Update: As the comments point out and Low-End Mac confirms, support for USB booting was present in the Mac OS 9 era with the introduction of dual-channel USB in 1999, available first on the slot-loading iMac and one model of the AGP PowerMac G4; however, your mileage and performance may vary when trying to get these machines to boot Mac OS X from USB devices (as has been previously reported on TUAW). Our apologies for the error! When I wrote my post Tuesday about booting a Mac off an external USB hard drive, I was surprised how many people followed up to tell me that it wouldn't work, and that I needed a Firewire drive to externally boot a Mac. While [much] older machines did indeed need Firewire for bootable external media, that is no longer true. Since the release of the Intel Mac computers [and well beforehand -- see update above], and with Mac OS X 10.4.5 or later, you can start up from an installed system on a USB hard disk. Here's the Apple support document that tells you how to do it. I didn't think it was possible either, and when I bought my MacBook Pro last year, I was wishing I could boot from a USB drive because of the easy availability of inexpensive storage. A little online research revealed the obscure truth. USB booting generally works fine from a bus-powered portable drive as well as a powered USB desktop drive. In my case, I booted up just fine from a portable with no external power supply. Check the support document linked above for more details. So have at it -- either install a clean version of Leopard or Tiger on the drive, or use your favorite bootable-backup utility to clone your existing install to the USB volume. It's a good thing to know as Apple seems to be determined to bury Firewire on the lower priced laptops it sells. It is also possible to boot an Intel Mac from a USB flash drive. That is a bit more involved, and there are several methods. One is Das Boot, a free utility from Sub Rosa that allows you to convert original disks from DiskWarrior, Drive Genius, TechTool Pro and others to a flash drive. Let Google be your friend on this. Many people have put their favorite rescue utility on a bootable flash drive to save them from any problems in the field. Before you ask; no, USB does not support target disk mode -- a sore point for MacBook Air and unibody MacBook owners. Thanks to Dave and others who wrote in asking about this, and thanks to many readers who wondered about the ability of older PPC Macs to do this as well.
TUAW Certification Series: Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server
Last month, I wrote a post about Apple certifications in general. Today, I'll focus on Mac OS X certifications.If you're a Mac geek who wants to make a living troubleshooting Macs, these are the certifications to get because they are your ticket to becoming a member of the Apple Consultants Network (ACN). ACNs can build a relationship with their local Apple store and get references for work that can't be performed by Genius Bar techs, and they're listed on the Apple Consultants Network website. The rest of this article is after the break.TUAW blogger Steve Sande is an Apple Certified Technical Coordinator and volunteers as the South Central US Regional Champion for the Apple Consultants Network.
Security Update 2008-004
Along with the 10.5.4 update, Apple has just released Security Update 2008-004 for users of Mac OS X Tiger (10.4). According to Apple, the update "is recommended for all [Mac OS X Tiger (10.4)] users and improves the security of Mac OS X." You can download this update for the following systems: Security Update 2008-004 (PPC) Security Update 2008-004 (Intel) Security Update 2008-004 Server (PPC) Security Update 2008-004 Server (Intel) The update is available through Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update) or by downloading the installer packages by clicking the links above for your system. Apple has provided a support article for more details on this update.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
So what other tricks can we expect from Leopard?
Along with today's announcement of Leopard's release date, Apple has also now updated the Mac OS X site to reflect all the enhancements you can find in the latest release of OS X. So, what's new? Apple, clearly keen to show what they've been working on in the last few months (what with the delay n'all), have listed all 316 features, categorised them and allowed you to peruse them at your leisure. Here's just a few that caught my eye: AppleScript can now read and write plist files (whilst a little thing, and a niche feature at best, this is promising if you're wanting to backup items such as serial numbers for applications from the application plist files, and do it in AppleScript) .Mac syncing of more system items (Dock items, Dahsboard widgets, Mail notes and, it appears, even the entire System Preferences) TextEdit now support Open Document and Word 2007 files. Open panels now have a Media Browser tab, allowing you to open items directly from the relevant location. Library Randomization - identical to Windows Vista's Address Space Layout Randomization, meaning that people looking to exploit Mac OS X can't rely on system code being at a specific memory address (i.e. it's harder to persuade an OS X system process to execute malicious code). Whilst Apple has always touted the more robust security of Mac vs Windows, it's good to see they're not sitting on their laurels and becoming complacent with OS X. Also of note is the digital signature technology in all the Leopard applications (and third-party developers can sign applications too). I've always believed this to be a technology that would be used in any iPhone SDK, so seeing it within XCode is a promising move - even if the possible use of Digital Signing in an iPhone SDK is pure conjecture on my part. Front Row now sports the Apple TV interface, and the integration with the Apple Movie Trailer site. iChat has seen a smorgasbord of new features added - Photo Booth effects, new media codecs, video and audio chat recording, tabbed chats, the ability to hide your own local video from a chat window, and screen sharing. The list goes on. After a somewhat disappointing WWDC Keynote this year, the '300+ feature' proclamation has reassured me that Apple hasn't necessarily lost its way as a desktop OS and computer company. 26th October just cannot come quick enough.
Getting ready for the next Big Cat
Happy 1st October, TUAW readers! Whilst not a particularly notable date (unless you're my brother, in which case Happy Birthday!) it does in fact signal the countdown to the next release of Mac OS X: 10.5 Leopard - due at some stage in the next 31 days. If you've been living away from Apple civilization for the last 18 months, you'll want to head over to Apple's Leopard features pages, and check out what we can look forward to with the release. But what can we do in the interim, whilst we sit and wait for Steve to announce a launch date? Here's four things to bear in mind to whet the appetite (and potentially empty the wallet) in advance of the Leopard launch.
Apple refutes "late Leopard" rumors
The release date of Mac OS X Leopard is the subject of more speculation yet again, with a source at Apple telling Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg that the OS is still planned for a Spring release. That's in response to an earlier rumor from the endemically unreliable DigiTimes which suggested that the release might be delayed until October. Earlier we heard that Leopard might make be released as early as this month, although it appears as if the Apple source wasn't directly responding to this suggestion. Either way, we're back to square one: no information apart from Apple's original announcement that it'll be out in sometime in the next few months. Exactly when is anyone's guess, and one that unfortunately can't be predicted using the usually infallible Apple rumor generator.[Via digg]
Mac OS X Leopard pushed back for Vista support?
Given that the last Leopard rumor we heard was that it'd actually be shipping early (like, this month), we're not sure how much stock should be put in this latest one, but according to DigiTimes, the word from "industry sources" is that the OS has now been postponed, all the way 'till October. Supposedly, the delay is necessary in order to add support for Vista to the integrated version of Boot Camp, which those same sources say Apple wants so it can increase its chances of grabbing more of that coveted PC market share. While we can't say if that's true or not, we are fairly confident that this won't be the last Leopard rumor we hear before its release, whenever that may be.
Sneak preview of Leopard at WWDC
Are you dying for a sneak peek at Leopard, the next incarnation of OS X? If so, book a ticket for San Francisco in mid-August. Apple has announced, on its site and by email to customers, that it will offer a preview of OS X Leopard at WWDC 2006, scheduled for August 7-11.The Apple site briefly describes five WWDC session tracks -- Application Technologies, Development Tools, Graphics and Media, Information Technologies, and OS Foundations -- but doesn't provide details about specific sessions. If you're considering going, try to get your boss to pick up the registration fee, which is a stiff $1295-$3500 before June 23 and even more after that date. If you're a student, don't overlook Apple's Student Scholarship Program. We told you before -- but it's worth a reminder -- that applications for a free WWDC ticket through that program are due on April 28.
