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Mac 101: Eject button in the menu bar
If you're using a keyboard without an eject key, say a non-Apple keyboard, an older Apple keyboard or (in my case) a really old Apple keyboard, you're probably missing that eject button. Sure, you can launch iTunes and select "Eject Disk" from the Controls menu, but there's a much easier way.Navigate to the CoreServices folder, which lives in your system's Library. There, you'll find "Eject.menu" in the Menu Extras folder. Simply double-click that sucker and presto! An eject button is now in your menu bar.To remove it, simply click it and drag it onto the desktop while holding down the Command key. You can also re-arrange menu bar items by dragging with the Command key depressed.[Via MacSupport]
TUAW Tip: Use Help to select menu items in Leopard
Over at Mac OS X Hints I recently ran into this doozy of a hint that I somehow missed on its first go around. Basically the idea is to capitalize on a great new feature in Leopard's help. You can get to any menu item without your mouse by activating the help menu with the keyboard shortcut ??? + ? (i.e. ??? + shift + /). Then type the name of the menu command you want and scroll down to it with the arrow keys. That command's menu will automatically drop down with the item highlighted, hit enter and you're done! If you're a keyboard maven this is a really easy way to get to your menu items (though you can also activate the menubar from the keyboard with ???F2).Thanks Brandon!
Google Buddy brings searching to the menu bar
Spotlight is great for searching your computer and networked Macs from the menu bar, but what if you want to search the internet also? Well, here comes Google Buddy, which allows you to search Google using the menu bar. There are multiple ways to search using Google Buddy: Simple Search - this presents a spotlight-esque menu item that allows you to search for any web page using Google Advanced Search - this allows you to use the advanced features that Google offers, such as searching using modifiers (all, exactly, any, none) or searching a specific site Image Search - just as the name hints, it allows you to search Google images Advanced Video Search - this allows you to search Google Video (however, since Google now owns YouTube, they should have included a YouTube search feature as well) Advanced News Search - allows you to search Google's News archive Special Searches - this feature allows you to search for movies, weather, links, and phone numbers While using this application, the one disadvantage that I found was the auto-completion. While auto-completion is good, Google Buddy's auto-complete seemed to be "too-fast," so fast in fact that I ended up searching for wrong items. Luckily, there is an option in the preferences to turn this off ("Show search suggestions" check box). This looks like an excellent piece of software for the Mac, and it now has a permanent home in my menu bar! Google Buddy is available from Recurring Dream for the small price of $11.95; there is also a demo available.
Opaque Leopard menubar solved
The famed annoyance of the translucent Leopard menubar has finally been solved. Steve Miner has posted a tip that involves changing an environment variable by editing a plist to make Leopard think it's running on an older Mac that doesn't support the translucency. Once done, it will make your menubar solid white. The guys at Many Tricks (of Butler fame) take this to the next level with Menu Bar Tint, which places a pleasing tint gradient over your now blindingly white menubar, and thus returning your Leopard desktop to harmony. So there you go, if you just what an opaque menubar, run Miner's trick; if then want it to look better, have a look at Menu Bar Tint.Update: Gruber points out that commenters on Mac OSX Hints have discovered that Miner's original tip includes a kind of scaling factor. Apparently a setting of 0.63 gives you a greyish menubar "like the opaque menu bar Leopard shows on systems with older video cards." Doing it this way does not require you to have Menu Bar Tint running all the time, and yet apparently still gives a gradient (see below).
SoundSource updated to 1.3, Mac Pro gets headphone autoswitch
Over at the Rogue Amoeba blog there's a post announcing the release of SoundSource 1.3, an update to the handy menubar sound settings utility. I didn't know this, but the new Mac Pros apparently do not automatically switch to the headphone port when you plug in a pair of cans. SoundSource 1.3 brings this feature to the Mac Pro. For those of us not lucky enough to be running a Pro there's not a lot new (besides the icon), but SoundSource remains an essential tool for anyone with a number of different audio inputs and/or outputs.SoundSource remains a free download from Rogue Amoeba.
iStat menus 1.1 released
We last discussed iStat menus back in June and now the Australian company iSlayer has pushed out version 1.1, adding a variety of new features. Most important perhaps is the re-designed preference pane interface and calendar. There are also a variety of new graphs and breakdowns, as well as some a new sources and some Leopard-only features and improvements. While I've always been a fan of MenuMeters and MenuCalendarClock for similar functionality, iStat menus looks very intriguing, especially given the large number of possible data sources it can monitor.iStat menus remains a free download from iSlayer.[via Macworld UK]
Hide the Spotlight icon in your menubar
If you don't like or don't use the Spotlight icon in your menubar, there are a couple of tips at Mac OS X Hints that describe how to hide or simply get rid of it. This first hint that caught my eye while browsing RSS feeds describes a way to 'paint over' the icon. While that sounds like a good idea and all, you still end up with a blank area in the menubar simply taking up space where the Spotlight icon used to be. Fortunately, Rob Griffiths, Macworld Senior Editor and Mac OS X Hints purveyor extraordinare, linked an older tip in the footnotes of this first one that describes how to properly remove the item from your menubar so others can take its place. It isn't a difficult process - you simply remove Search.bundle from /System/Library/CoreServices and restart the SystemUIServer process in Activity Monitor. Instead of deleting that item, however, I would definitely echo Mac OS X Hints in recommending either backing it up or renaming it just in case you change your mind in the future.Also, this only knocks Spotlight out of the menubar, cutting off your use of the quick 'n easy menu and the more powerful Spotlight window for searching. However, this in no way disables Spotlight across Mac OS X or your applications; you should still be able to run Spotlight searches from the search box in Finder windows and make use of Spotlight in any apps that use it (NetNewsWire, Mail, etc.). I tried this myself and the process went just fine, but I found that I needed to copy the bundle to my Desktop, then delete it from the CoreServices folder. Also, I needed to force quit the SystemUIServer in order for the change to actually take effect. The process restarted itself just fine, and Spotlight disappeared from my menubar. Replacing the bundle (requiring me to authenticate as Administrator) and force quitting the process yet again (oh that poor process) returned Spotlight to its throne in the absolute right of my menubar.
Leopard's new menubar is hideous
I haven't watched the keynote yet, and I've been spending most of my time looking through the other new features of Mac OS X Leopard. After I found that non-transparent menubar mod for Leopard, however, I can't get over how hideous that new menubar really is. I also hate to say it, but Apple's secrecy with this UI change until now screams 'Cupertino borrowed one of Redmond's photocopiers' (the new Windows Vista, for those who haven't seen it, contains what many - including myself - consider to be a literally dizzying overabundance of transparent window borders and menus). Seriously: what is Apple thinking by turning the menubar nearly invisible, but keeping the 'just slightly' translucent aspect and white color of previous menus? I think this looks absolutely dreadful, as it doesn't even look like the menubar and the menus have anything to do with each other anymore, and I'll be damned if Apple takes the actual menus this translucent as well. In fact, if they went that over the edge, I could comfortably say that I wouldn't buy a copy of Leopard until someone developed a modification that switches the menubar and menu back from the brink of "hey look, Vista went transparent!"-ness (of course, a simple Apple-provided checkbox in System Preferences would do just fine as well).Given Peter Maurer's mod and disinterest in this change surfacing from others, I can only hope that more voice their opinion - whether they do or don't like it - and that Apple listens if it the consensus on this menubar change turns out to be a thumbs down. After all, Leopard still is a developer-only beta, and October is still a long way away.
Non-transparent mod for Leopard's new menubar
If you've seen any pictures or movies of Leopard's (mostly) final UI in action from this week's WWDC events or the new Leopard section at apple.com, you've probably noticed that Apple has introduced a new design to their menubar, Desktop and Dock (watch the video to see these new toys in action). The new Dock features an updated design with some eye candy that some might find more useful than others, while the menubar has gone semi-transparent in an effort to place more emphasis on an uncluttered desktop and allowing users to feature their favorite photos and desktop images.As usual, when an OS maker dabbles with revamping some of their most standard UI conventions, not everyone will want to hop on the train for a ride. Peter Maurer and the crew at Many Tricks (makers of apps like Butler, Service Scrubber, yFlicks and more) are apparently so uninterested in taking a trip with the transparent menubar that they produced what is quite possibly the first non-transparent menubar hack for Leopard. Being that I am but a lowly professional blogger, I have no copy of Leopard on which to tinker with this mod, but given the historic quality of work from Maurer and Many Tricks, I would imagine it's written well, and the source is even provided for those who would like to have their way with this modification.Now that we've seen the true Leopard in action and a mod for part of its UI has appeared less than a week after the unveiling, it will be interesting to see how the rest of the Mac community - particularly the developers who have the power to make modifications like this - will lay down their opinions through work like Maurer's.
WiFind replacement Airport menubar item
WiFind from Tasty Apps is a neat little replacement for Airport menubar item that adds some cool features. Specifically it shows right in the drop-down menu both whether or not networks are locked and also each WAP's signal strength. This is surely a much handier way to check all those networks at your local coffee shop, rather than just trying to connect to each one. It is worth pointing out, however, that WiFind does its magic via a SIMBL plugin.WiFind is $8 and a demo is available.[via Digg]
Google Hosted Mail Notifier
I found a widget back in January that did a ho-hum job of checking your Google hosted email (via Google's Apps for Your Domain service), but it doesn't always behave, and for RAM-conscious users a widget simply isn't the way to go. Fortunately, the Google Hosted Mail Notifier has risen to the challenge of providing a simple menubar item for checking your Google Hosted email, complete with customizable Growl alerts, choices in time intervals for checking mail, sounds, HTTPS connections and more. It works really well, though I wish it used a different icon than the official Google Notifier to help differentiate it from the pack. Still, for a donationware app from Troels Bay, the same crew who brought us the Google Reader Notifier (and please, show the dev some donation love), this is a great piece of work.
FMenu: Facebook in Your Menubar
Kids these days are always going on about their Facebook "social utility." I don't understand such things, but anyway I bring news of FMenu, a little menubar program that keeps you apprised of developments with the popular online community. According to the developer, FMenu will sit quietly in your menubar until one of the following occurs: A friend updates his profile A friend changes his status A friend writes a new note Someone writes on your wall You have new messages You have new pokes You have new friend requests You have new photo comments At this point, through the glorious magic of Growl, you are informed and can take appropriate action (which I suppose does not include my preferred solution of deleting your Facebook profile).</grumpy_old_man>In any case, FMenu is Open Source and a free download, but donations are requested.[Via Digg]Update: typo
MagiCal: Menubar Calendar
MagiCal is a cool little calendar application from Charcoal Design. As you can see it just puts a drop-down calendar in your menubar for easy access. In addition, you can actually "tear off" a month and leave it on your desktop (handy for making reservations, I find). MagiCal can also add the date and time in a customized format to your menubar, if you want to use it instead of OS X's built-in clock.While my favorite menubar calendar remains the more full-featured MenuCalendarClock, it is $20 and MagiCal is a free download (donations requested). One last cool thing about MagiCal is that the developer offers three versions for download: Universal Binary, PPC, and Intel. The single platform ones are indeed about half the size of the UB. Personally, I wish more developers would consider doing this.
High Priority: iCal To-Do's in Your Menubar
High Priority is a little program that adds a nice, simple drop-down pane to your menubar listing your iCal To Do items. In addition to a custom views (by calendar, date, priority, etc.), you can all add and edit To Dos directly within High Priority. There's also a global hotkey for you keyboard jockeys. Combine this with the Quicksilver iCal tricks, and you've got a much handier interface to your To Do list than iCal itself. High Priority is a reasonable $6 and a demo is available.[Via Merlin Mann on MacBreak Weekly 26]
Selectively hide the dock and menubar in some apps
Yet another slick tip I found while parsing my Mac OS X Hints feed is a fairly simple hack for setting the dock and menubar to auto-hide based on which app is in the foreground. This can come in very handy if you usually like to see these elements, but often work in screen-hungry apps that can't auto-hide them on their own. I'm even interested in trying this on Photoshop, which can hide the dock and menubar, but only when in full screen mode (which I don't often like to use). The tip essentially involves using something like the Property List Editor (a free app included in Apple's Developer Tools) or Pref Setter to copy and paste two short lines of code into an application's info.plist file. The hint contains everything you need to hack away, including a hint from The Rob himself which I'd like to echo: definitely make a backup of the app, or at least the info.plist file, before you copy and paste your way into a problem. That said, enjoy having the best of both worlds.
Widget Watch: Menu Butler
Menu Butler is most likely one of those 'run it every now and then' Dashboard widgets for those times when managing your menulets manually just isn't your bag of beans. This widget simply serves as an easy launching pad for virtually all of Mac OS X's built-in menulets that live in /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras. If you start tinkering and adding some of these, they can of course be removed simply by holding command while dragging and dropping them out of the menubar.Menu Butler is free and available from MacMage.
Google Reader Notifier for Mac OS X
I posted earlier this month of my love for the recently refreshed Google Reader, though for many users it's still missing one key feature: a notification utility for new headlines. Some newsreader apps and services have all sorts of widgets and menubar apps that can notify users of new content in their favorite feeds, and now the new Google Reader has one as well, the Google Reader Notifier (unofficial, not provided by Google). Based on GROSX (which worked on the previous version of Google Reader), this notifier can check your entire Google Reader account for new headlines, or you can give it a specific label to watch. While the Google Reader Notifier it doesn't provide popup notifications like Google's official notifiers, it can display an unread count. One downside to those who aren't quite as RSS obsessed as others is that it can only be set to check at intervals of 5, 10 or 30 minutes - there are no lengthier options like 1 hour, 3 hours, etc. Still, this is a nice utility that shakes hands well with a Google Labs service.Google Reader Notifier is free and available from the developer's site.
Colorize your Menu bar
I'm not a huge fan of color in the menu bar, but that probably stems from the fact that I'm not a huge fan of color in the rest of my operating environment (and why I use the graphite visual style). However, it seems that there are a good many people want their OS to look like it was made by Fischer Price, and that's where iColon and MenuPics come in. These two applications both do exactly the same thing; add a dash of color to the otherwise drab utilitarian menu icons sitting in the top-right corner of your screen. The only real differences between the two are universal binary status (iColon is, MenuPics isn't) and how many customization options they give you (iColon only adds color to the normal Bluetooth, Airport, and Battery Meter, while MenuPics gives you the choice to change the icons all together.)
Delibar update fixes login problems
I wish I had more to say about this update, like it doubles your Mac's performance or solves world hunger, but it mainly fixes login problems by updating to the new del.icio.us API. Delibar, for those scratching your heads, is what I consider the missing link of social bookmarking which actually makes your 'marks useful; it's a menubar item that provides access to all your del.icio.us bookmarks, even storing them in a folder hierarchy (the first tag is the main folder, second tag is a subfolder) and displaying tag bundles you create at the site. It's an indispensable utility in my arsenal, and if you've been having login issues like I have (Quicksilver's del.icio.us plugin can't seem to login anymore either), this 0.8.2 update should fix your issues.Delibar is donationware and available from Whamoo.
Magnify what you're working on with iPiece
For those times when the 6pt type in EULA's just doesn't quite cut it and you literally consider the possibility that your lost car keys could be lying around somewhere on your Desktop, there is iPiece - a magnifying glass for Mac OS X. Double-clicking its icon in the menubar (is that in the HIG's?) opens a magnifying window next to your mouse (fortunately: not right on top of it) and follows it like a hyperactive kitten. Its product page lists uses ranging from adding some legibility to small lists of text on websites to having an extra magnifying trick up your sleeve when editing images. Some of you may prefer Mac OS X's built-in magnifying features, accessible from the Universal Access pane in System Preferences (especially since this feature has keyboard shortcuts; hint-hint, iPiece), so we'll let you decide whether iPiece earns a spot in that menubar.iPiece is a Universal Binary, costs $10 for a license and is available from Old Jewel Software.
