AuntTUAW
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Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me share my photos overseas
Dear Aunt TUAW, I have an iPad2. I am traveling to Spain in November and want to NOT tote my 17" Macbook. Is there an easy way to take files (primarily older photos that I have taken) with me on a USB flash drive and using the camera connection kit USB adapter have access to these files so I can display them to my Spanish hosts? Your loving nephew, Leo Dear Leo, It's a lot easier to let your data travel by itself. Consider uploading your photos to Flickr, PhotoStream or Dropbox. The Camera Connection Kit is primarily intended to let you offload your photos from your camera to a net-connected device, so you can better use your equipment's limited storage. Although you can use the CCK for bringing photos along, you'd probably be far better served by copying your pictures to a net service and accessing them with your hosts' own computers. Plus, CCK components are small and easy to lose. That aside, let Auntie remind you that forcing people to sit through long slideshows is condemned by the Geneva Conventions of Unusual Cruelty. As a rule, you'll want to bring the bare minimum to keep in touch on your trip, or to use for music or reading during down-time. It's the people, and the experiences there that you'll want to savor, not the toys that you have to lug around with you. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me repurpose my G5 tower
Dear Aunt TUAW, I have an old G5 tower and I want to re-purpose it in an awesome way. I've gotten suggestions like creating a server or putting another computer in it, but I am more interested in creating something clever and unexpected. Any ideas? Your loving nephew, Ben Dear Ben, Auntie thinks it would make an awesome iBarbie house for your kids. Uncle Victor suggested you create a Terrarium and Aunt Meg thought a mailbox might be a nice thought. We all agreed that an EZ Bake Oven would be cool -- especially if you could use the superdrive to automatically feed the cake pan under the cooking light. Anyway, Auntie thought it might be fun to throw this one out to all her nieces and nephews. Got an idea for Cousin Ben? Drop a suggestion into the comments! Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me dual tune
Dear Aunt TUAW, What the heck is going on with eyeTV why after 3-4 years of promises do they still not support dual tuners, or channel sorting? i've tried to reach out to elgato in various different digital ways, but to no avail, does TUAW have any contacts they could touch on to figure this out? Alternatively, is there any mac software that will do what EyeTV does, and give me support for my dual Terratec H7 Tuners? Your loving nephew, Ole Dear Ole, Auntie contacted Nick Freeman over at Elgato, to see if he could lend a hand with your question. He looked into this and here's what he had to say. He writes, "We're sorry to hear that your two TerraTec H7 devices aren't working simultaneously with EyeTV, on one Mac. Let me tell you a bit more about how EyeTV can (and can't) work with multiple devices. EyeTV is able to work with many TV tuners, from a wide variety of manufacturers. We've been able to get most of those devices to work well when used with EyeTV alone, and even in some combinations. For example, EyeTV software works fine when using two Elgato satellite products on the same Mac, at the same time. We're happy to support many TerraTec products, but we can only officially support them for individual use. We can't certify using more than one of them on the same Mac at the same time. You have found one of the few combinations that simply doesn't work (two TerraTec H7 units on the same Mac), but since that hardware is from a 3rd party, we're not able to modify it to potentially add multiple unit support. We're constantly trying to improve EyeTV, and while we'll try to support more products in the future, we may not be able to resolve this issue with two TerraTec H7 units. We apologize that we're not able to offer the extra feature you desire." Auntie hopes that, at least, gives you some insight as to what is going on. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Where is my iPad 2 Siri voice assistant?
Dear Aunt TUAW, My iPad 2 has an A5 processor. It's got iOS 5. It's super-powerful. So where's my Siri? Your loving nephew, JJ Dear JJ, The iPad 2 may have a souped-up processor, but Apple has never marketed its voice control handsfree features to the iPad. Those have been specific to the iPhone. You can do a quick google for "enable iPad voice control" to get a sense of that. For now, Apple's position is this: "Siri is available in Beta only on iPhone 4S and requires Internet access. Siri may not be available in all languages or in all areas, and features may vary by area. Cellular data charges may apply." There are some hard at work at reverse-engineering Siri to the iPad (and other iPhone handsets). Voice Control was successfully back-ported to earlier units through jailbreak tweaks. Is Siri compatibility possible for the iPad? Probably so. Does Auntie believe that other iPhone models can support Siri's technical requirements? Yes. Or at least, she believes the iPhone 4 and the iPad line are the most likely contenders for pre-4S compatibility, as Auntie is under the impression that human utterances need a certain degree of digital pre-processing before being sent off to Siri-central for recognition. Will Siri be ported by Apple any time soon to these platforms? Don't hold your breath. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me check already-purchased app prices
Dear Aunt TUAW, While I await a reply back on Twitter from Apple's @AppStore account, I was hoping you could help me out, given your past as a ninja and Olympian. As I try and gift purchases of awesome apps from the App Store to friends, followers and family, I hit an issue: apps I've already downloaded for myself do not show their prices. Instead, the word "Downloaded" appears where the price should be. How can I see the prices of apps I have already purchased so I can gift them to people and not have the price be a game of Russian Roulette? Your help or any readers that know the answer to the above would be greatly appreciated and perhaps a small gift code would be sent there way as thanks. Your loving nephew, Part-Time Game Geek Dear PTGG, Easy peasy. In App Store, right-click the application icon. Choose Copy Link and launch Safari. Paste the URL into the search field (not the navigation field) and click return. The first search result should show the price. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me find iPad apps for my cousin
Dear Aunt TUAW, My cousin recently had emergency brain surgery. She's 10 years old, but she can't speak, and she doesn't have very good motor control. She is expected to recover fully, but in the meantime, she can't really do much. She got an iPad from another relative, and I'm in charge of finding apps for her new toy. Do you or your nieces or nephews have any suggestions? She can read and write, and laugh at funny things still, but she might not be able to draw lines in Spy Mouse or react quickly like in Doodle Jump. Any suggestions would help! Your loving nephew, James Dear James, Auntie is sure lots and lots of her nieces and nephews are going to jump in in the comments with some terrific suggestions. To get things started, she turned to iOS developer Steven Troughton-Smith, who has worked on a language assistance project for the autistic. He has promised to get you set up with an ad-hoc version of Grace, which normally sells for €29.99 (about $40). Please contact Auntie through the normal TUAW tip form, and we'll put you in touch with him. (Speaking of the tip form, it's sheer luck that Auntie found your comment. Please nephews and nieces, use the tip form to contact Auntie -- don't leave questions or requests in post comments.) Grace is an app that allows people to build sentences from a vocabulary of cards; over 120 are preloaded. Troughton-Smith noted that you can add photos to the app with the camera or from the photo library to create your own items of vocabulary. "It's easy to use and fast, as we spent a lot of time making sure that the UI wouldn't frustrate kids who needed to use it to communicate." You can read more about Grace here. TUAW reader mdw also had some suggestions for your cousin. He writes, "Have a look at the hacking autism site. Although it is for children with autism, you'll find for example that BlockCad is freeware for children with limited motor skills. You might also find AAC apps useful." We all wish your cousin a speedy recovery and hope that she continues to regain health over time. Got more suggestions for James? Leave them in the comments! Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: How can I add art to my USB stick folders?
Dear Aunt TUAW, I have been trying to put a custom background image on a USB drive with little success. I know how to do this on a standard folder and a homemade DVD, but I can't seem to make it stay on the USB when I plug it back in. Do you have an idea as to what' I'm doing wrong? Your loving nephew, Ben P.S. - Thanks for the cobbler recipe, and Janie says, "Hi." Dear Ben, Auntie's going to take a wild guess that you're not using HFS+ on your USB stick. If you need Windows compatibility, you're probably going to lose out on the pretty. So Auntie's going to turn this one over to her nieces and nephews. Do you know of a FAT solution for putting art into USB stick folders? Let her know in the comments. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Am I being phished?
Dear Aunt TUAW, I just got an email from the apple seed programme inviting me to test the next update for lion. There is some chatter on various forums but I still don't know if this is legit. Have you heard anything? The email and content doesn't have the polish that I would expect from apple, hence the concern. However many say it's legit. Big ask to hand over my apple ID. I would love to participate :( Your loving nephew, Brian Dear Brian, Apple Seed is a legitimate invitation-only Apple beta program, which is completely separate from their paid developer program. Apple offers Apple Seed for early compatibility testing and feature feedback. It goes way back and was, if Auntie has done her Google right, originally called the Customer Quality Feedback program. They have seeded both hardware and software in the past. As you'd expect, the program requires that you accept a strict confidentiality agreement. Most recently, Apple Seed was noticed when it gave non-developers early access to OS X 10.7 Lion this Summer. When you're in doubt about possible phishing, it always helps to check the actual e-mail links. In Apple Mail, choose View > Message > Raw Source. (Other clients offer similar options but with different menu choices.) Make sure the actual links (http://) lead to the same place that the text suggests. For example, this line says it will take you to appleseed.apple.com but it actually does not. Always exercise caution when dealing with unsolicited offers but in this case, you may actually have been invited to the Apple Seed program. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: I just bought an app and then won it
Dear Aunt TUAW, The good news: I just received an (legit) email saying I won a license for Sparrow! The bad news: I paid for it LITERALLY 15 minutes ago. I'm not about to ask for a refund. Oh well. I hope the developer does something great with his cut of my ten bucks. Thoughts? Your loving nephew, Dave Dear Dave, If Sparrow was worth supporting before winning a copy, then it was worth supporting after. Don't think about this as having picked up an extra tangible good that you didn't need. Think about it as voting for the app's continued development. It's seldom considered, but software developers cannot live on rainbows, hugs, and unicorn tears. Money creates the infrastructure that builds the apps you love. Without cash, there can't be software. By purchasing the app, you're going to help place your vote for keeping it going in the long term -- even if you missed out on a "deal." Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: What happened to double-clicking dividers?
Dear Aunt TUAW, When using Finder and viewing files in "details" view, you used to be able in Snow Leopard and "below" to double-click on the file "divider" to automatically expand the file name column to be able to see the entire file or folder name within that folder. In Lion you have to manually drag the divider to be able to see the entire file or folder name. Is there something i can change in the settings within Lion to change it back to the way Snow Leopard worked, when double-clicking the divider would automatically expand the column to see the longest file or folder's name within that folder? Your loving nephew, Tommy F. Dear Tommy, As far as Auntie can tell, this still works the same in Lion. Called right-sizing, this allows you to fit the column to its text contents. Perhaps you weren't double-clicking the right-size handle? It looks like a pause button and is found at the bottom of each column. You know you're in the right place because the cursor switches from an arrow to a resize handle (vertical line with arrows pointing out to each side.) Here's a quick video showing right-sizing in action. Did you know that there's also a right-size contextual pop-up menu? Just right-click the Right Size handle to bring it into view. Hugs, Auntie T. Update: Auntie took Tommy's "details view" as meaning the column view, when you can click on any item and see its details and preview. Commenters disagree. Could you right-size list-view columns in Snow Leopard?
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me collect and chart data on the iPad
Dear Aunt TUAW, A nephew needs some help. I just got my iPad and I'm really, really liking it. Although not a replacement for my Macbook Pro, it certainly has cut down on my usage a lot. I'm trying to create an "Evaluation Form" for my iPad and immediately process the results for display. I have 10 categories with 10 questions in each category. The participant provides a score of; 1 (less like them) - to - 10 (more like them) and secondly they rank the relevance of the question to their situation: Completely Irrelevant - Somewhat Irrelevant - Somewhat Relevant - Completely Relevant to weight the score's importance to the participant. With Excel I've been using a basic spreadsheet for inputting the data and then on a following Sheet showing the results in a Radar Chart which has been quite effective. The first chart show results by category. Then additional charts breakdown the result of the questions within each category. I like the Radar Chart because it quite visually tells the participant where their strengths are and where they are weak. Well of course Excel does not work on the iPad except through third-party apps and Numbers doesn't do Radar Charts. I'm hoping you might have a suggestion on how to get this to work on my iPad or to provide an alternative "App for that. (Thought about Roambi but there's no way to directly input data on the fly). Here's an example: Category 1 Question: A Input ____ Relevance ____ Question: B Input ____ Relevance ____ Question: C Input ____ Relevance ____ Your loving nephew, Tom Dear Tom, You're asking a lot of that poor iPad. There are bits and pieces around of what you're trying to do, but not one single solution -- at least as far as Auntie knows of. She turned to iOS developer Zach Starkebaum, whose Form Tools PDF app allows users to enter data using PDF-based forms. He told her that when it comes to radar charts the options are limited on the iPad. "If you can move into the world of line and bar graphs there are many options like Numbers and OmniGraphSketcher that can provide professional charts." But radar charts? A little harder to come by. "If you need radar charts and you have an available internet connection, Google docs is an option," Starkebaum explained. "On your Mac, you can setup a Google spreadsheet with a Radar chart much like you would in Excel. The interface for Google docs on the iPad is somewhat limited, you will probably want to setup the spreadsheet on a Mac or PC." Starkebaum pointed to this example sheet he created, that you can copy and modify. He recommends enabling the Publish as web page option available under the Share menu, explaining that this allows you to get a quick link to a web or PDF version of the spreadsheet. Here is a link from his example; you can even create a form from the spreadsheet to enable easy data entry. Open the spreadsheet in Safari on your iPad and enter the appropriate values. Open the link to the published web page and you will have a presentable Radar Chart. If you just want to capture the form information for entry later, Starkebaum's own app Form Tools PDF), has a new version that will be available soon that supports the export of form data as a CSV file that you can open in Excel for further processing. Don't feel that you have to be tied to a single app solution for both gathering and viewing the data. Auntie sends Zach Starkebaum a big hug for his help in researching this information and doing all that legwork with the forms! Here's hoping that it helps you out. Kisses, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: What's wrong with Lion VNC?
Dear Aunt TUAW, I recently upgraded to Lion 10.7 and have found that VNC (I use iteleport) on Lion has not been working. I have searched far and wide across the jungles and valleys of the interweb to no avail. I did find that I am not the only one having this problem. Any help you could provide would be much appreciated Thanks, Niko Dear Niko, Apple's Screen Sharing / Remote Desktop Server appears to have a bug related to mouse movement feedback. Auntie contacted iTeleport Mobile, who helpfully pointed her to this page. Apple says they're working on a fix. In the meantime, iTeleport offers a workaround by suggesting you adjust your primary display so it lies to the left of all other displays. What's more, Jahanzeb Sherwani of iTeleport promised to get in touch with you directly to help you work through your current problems. Expect a letter in your in-box. Thank you, Jahanzeb! Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me run Windows on Mac
Dear Aunt TUAW, I am new to the Mac community, and there are some programs that are unsupported on the Mac and I know there are a few options to run Windows on a Mac. When I search online for the best options and answers to my questions (what is the best option, do I need a Windows license/disc, difference between emulators/virtual machines, Parallels vs Boot Camp vs VMware Fusion etc), most of the info is pretty old and outdated. Can you help me navigate jumping out of the Windows into the Apple Orchard? Lovingly with One Foot on Both Platforms, James Dear James, For any full Windows install, you definitely need a Windows license. A disc will certainly help you install, whether you go with Boot Camp (dual-boot) or Parallels/VMware Fusion/VirtualBox (run inside an virtualized PC). Auntie knows there are pluses and minuses to both these approaches which our noble commenters will surely dive into with both feet, but here's the abbreviated version. Boot Camp offers the fastest, fullest Windows-on-Apple hardware experience. You basically get a complete Windows install, but on a shiny Apple computer. For gaming, hardware-dependent apps and maximum available performance, it's the no-compromises option, but you do need to reboot to switch between Windows and OS X, so it may slow you down in that regard. The other main option is virtualization, creating a 'PC in a box' that runs in software under OS X. Both market leaders Parallels and VMware Fusion have some compromises in speed and peripheral integration, but they do so while running at the same time as OS X, with easy file access and other shared elements. The open-source and free VirtualBox may have a few more rough edges but it does do the job for intermittent use. Another solution is Crossover. Allowing you to run Windows apps inside OS X, it does not require a license or a Windows disc... but as Uncle Mike puts it, "60% of the time, it works every time." Not all Windows applications play nicely in Crossover's W32 API compatibility environment (based on the open-source Wine project), and those that do launch may be limited in their functionality. It pays to try out Crossover first, however, if your application is on the supported list -- it might be perfect for you. In the end, it all comes down to how integrated you need your Windows experience to be. If you don't do a lot of switching back and forth, dual-booting through Boot Camp may be your best solution. If you do, then virtual Windows helps integrate your apps better. Auntie's not a big Windows user, so she invites her more Win-ny nieces and nephews to jump in with suggestions. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Where are my versions?
Dear Aunt TUAW, Hi, I found (the hard way) what seems to be a bug in Lion's new "Versions" feature. If I take an image that is on the desktop, make an edit (e.g. annotate it) and then quit Preview, it automatically saves the change. Then if I open the file again, I can use File->Revert to Saved, and restore the original, all fine. However, when the image is on my USB memory stick, it is all good until I try to restore the original version. It says "No previous version available" and "Time Machine can't find your backup disk." This is obviously a huge problem. If I make edits to an image on the USB stick, I need to manually undo everything before quitting to prevent them from being saved. Is this an issue on your computers as well, or is it just me? Your loving nephew, Romesh Dear Romesh, Versions does not work on non-HFS+ volumes. It's likely the format of your flash drive causing these issues. Normally, Lion saves your app versions in .DocumentRevisions-V100 in the hard drive root, but only on HFS+. When you edit a file on an unsupported volume, Lion deletes temporary versions when you close the document. That's why you're seeing that behavior. There are no versions to recover to when you work outside of HFS+. You can easily reformat your thumb drive to HFS+ in Disk Utility. Follow the directions in this post for partitioning and formatting the stick. Once reformatted, Lion will be able to create the revisions folder, and allow Preview to access those earlier versions. Another advantage for HFS+ formatting is this: when you use HFS+ you can also use FileVault on your USB sticks, which will prevent anyone from being able to read its contents if it's lost/stolen. Auntie has added a few extra versioning notes for the interested (read "geeks") below this response. Hugs, Auntie T. The Document Interaction Control Menu Here are a few tips about versioning that you might not have known about. You've already seen the document interaction menu, the triangle-based drop-down menu that appears to the right of the file name in the title bar. When accessed, it looks like this. When you select Browse All Versions, did you know that you could use the option key to change the "Restore" option into "Restore a Copy"? Also, did you know that the document interaction menu also appears inside the version browser? Click to the right of each file name on the history stack and you'll find the option to "Delete this version". If you hold down the option key, that changes to "Delete Old Versions", allowing you to clean up the entire history at once. The Versions Infrastructure
Dear Aunt TUAW: Should I buy a Windows laptop?
Dear Aunt TUAW, I am considering selling my beloved MacBook Pro (15" unibody") and replacing it with, gasp!, a Windows laptop. Please try to convince me otherwise. Or else list me a number of laptops that I may find suitable and not too dissimilar from the 'MacBook look". My budget is £1000. Thanks. Your loving nephew, Jon Dear Jon, Auntie's fond of Apple user experience and their laptop equipment, but if you prefer Windows then buy Windows; ditto Linux. You certainly can get a lot of "specs" for that money. As far as Auntie is concerned, it's never about the "MacBook look". It's about the quality of the manufacturer and the comfort of the operating system. There are a lot of superb portable computers on the market, and not all of them have a fruit logo on them. TUAW's sister site Engadget covers Windows laptops extensively. It's your money and your choice. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Beta 7 bricked my iPhone 3GS
Dear Aunt TUAW, Beta 7 bricked my 3GS. Help. Your loving nephew, Chi C. Dear Chi, No, it didn't. Read the release notes. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me take notes at school
Dear Aunt TUAW, Now that most of the country's college students are going back to school, I need recommendations for note-taking software for my Mac. In the meantime, let me say, "Boo-hoo Microsoft for not making OneNote for OS X." Sincerely, Kenny M Dear Kenny, If you're looking for an OS X app that hits many of OneNote's sweet spots, consider the US$39.99 Pear Note from Useful Fruit. Developer Chad Sellers tells TUAW, "Pear Note is often looked at as a more focused Mac alternative to OneNote." If you record lectures as you take notes, Pear Note may be the app for you. It integrates your typed notes with audio, providing many of the same kinds of note-taking features as OneNote. Timestamps for each keystroke allow you to associate what you typed with what was being said at the same time. Just click on the text notes to jump to the point in the recording when you typed it, and start listening again to that topic. If you plan to use an iPad and a Mac, the upcoming Pear Note for iPad will coordinate with the Mac version via Dropbox. Do recognize, though, that Pear Note is for creating notes, not organizing them. Sellers says, "I wanted people to be able to use whatever organizational tool they like with Pear Note. So, some organize their notes in folders on the filesystem, some throw them all in Documents and use search to find things, and some use Yojimbo, Together, or Evernote to organize them." Now, if you're more of a visual scribbler than a listener, Auntie suggests the $29.99 Circus Ponies Notebook. Notebook shines in its ability to add diagrams, flow charts and sketches to any page and provides full stylus integration. You can import PDF documents and add notes on top of that material. Plus, you can "...'clip' selections from web pages and other apps straight into your Notebooks," according to Circus Ponies' marketing text. Notebooks stores the URL with the clip, allowing you to return to pages that you've taken notes on. Perhaps your prefer an outline approach? Auntie's got a suggestion for you, too. How about the $39.99 OmniOutliner? It provides excellent outlining tools. OmniOutliner lets you collect and organize information using a traditional outliner on steroids. With it, you can build multi-columned documents that include many spreadsheet enhancements, so your outlines can come to life. If you're a bullet-point style note taker, OmniOutliner probably provides all (if not more) the functionality you need for in-class organizing. Got another OS X note-taking app to recommend? Drop a note in the comments, because Auntie loves hearing from you. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me adjust my mouse tracking on the fly
Dear Aunt TUAW, I'm happily running Lion on my computer now, but I've noticed an issue with the mouse tracking speed that is driving me batty. I use a dual-screen setup with my 13" Macbook Air and a 23" Apple Cinema Display (with a Magic Mouse), and the tracking speed doesn't remain constant across the two screens. Adjusting for a normal tracking speed on the Cinema Display results in painfully slow mouse movement on the MBA -- almost as if the proportional movement (relative to the screen size) is calibrated to remain the same. Is this an early Lion bug, or is this a new "feature" that I can somehow unwind? Please help! Your loving, but annoyed, nephew, Nate Dear Nate, Auntie doesn't have good news for you. And that's because the mouse speed option cannot be set on a per-monitor basis. Mouse tracking is controlled as part of system defaults, in the Universal Access preferences pane. The actual preference is called mouseDriverMaxSpeed and can range as an integer between 1 (lethargic) and 32 (zippy). Here's how you'd read the current setting from the command line. defaults read com.apple.universalaccess mouseDriverMaxSpeed Whatever number you set to feel right on one monitor will either feel draggy or hyper on the other. Unfortunately, the problem with auto-scaling the mouse lies in detecting when the cursor has changed between screens. There's no system notification generated so nothing for Auntie to build a tool on, to update the defaults as you move the cursor around. So, Auntie thought she'd throw this one out to all her other nephews and nieces. Have any of you found a solution for Nate that doesn't hinge on system notifications? Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Could we see a MacBook touch?
Dear Aunt TUAW, So is this year that we see the MacBook touch? What do you think is going to debut this fall? Your loving nephew, Mark S. Dear Mark, Auntie is already deciding on specs for her MacBook touch, even though she recognizes how utterly remote the likelihood is of Apple going in that direction. She does not encourage you to hold your breath on that account. That being said, Auntie envisions 11" and 13" models that work with and without a keypad/trackpad accessory. Because Auntie likes speculating. She especially likes the idea of dual-mode boot to pick the OS, allowing the unit to flip between iPad and OS X. With Bootcamp, her MacBook touch might even run Linux and Windows -- because she finds it particularly hilarious to think that the first successful touch Windows and touch Linux might be running on Apple hardware. Mind you, there's already been a Linux-on-iPhone/Android-on-iPhone thing going on for a few years via planetbeing. In Auntie's dreams, this delicious technical concoction would have a starting price for 64 GB model around $999. So why the touch? Why take a perfectly successful line of laptops and touch-ize them? Especially when no one wants to use vertical screens. Auntie isn't thinking about the office; she's dreaming of the road. If you've ever spent long periods of time using LogMeIn/iTeleport/etc on the iPad, you'll get the "why" of all this: because work does matter and while the iPad does cross the boundary between lightweight computing and serious work, it does so under protest. Moving OS X to a tablet form factor with Mac software running on it can be a big win for corporate computing. The iPad has proved how useful that is. OS X adds more power. In the end, Auntie's summary is this: Longshot, certainly. Realm of possibility, totally. Likelihood, don't hold your breath. But Auntie can dream, can't she? Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me ditch the screenshot shadow
Dear Aunt TUAW, I miss my old style screenshots. I use screenshots a LOT for presentations and training purposes -- specifically the window-only snapshot (cmd-ctrl-shift-4 followed by the spacebar). This feature is still in Lion; however, it now includes a pretty big drop shadow with the screenshot. Is there a way I can turn this drop shadow off to trim the window down to just the important parts -- the window and its contents? Your loving nephew, Patrick Dear Patrick, There's a simple command-line approach to controlling whether Lion adds those shadows or not (Snow Leopard, too, as this dates back quite a while). Just issue the following to disable the shadows. Use false instead of true to enable them. defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true There are other cool screencapture preferences you can use as well. For example, you can set the capture format to JPEG, TIFF, or PNG using the following. Google around to discover more. defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpeg After setting the defaults, you must restart the SystemUI server: killall SystemUIServer And there you have it. If you're not a command-line kind of guy, you can also use the latest build of GrabUpper to set the shadow and capture format defaults with a simple menu selection. Hope this helps! Hugs, Auntie T.
