tips
Latest
Download.com posts list of top iTunes add-ons
I could've sworn that Download.com got rid of their Mac software section a while ago, but alas: digg submissions never lie. CNET's Download.com has posted a list of top iTunes add-ons for tackling everything from grabbing album art to watching who is listening to which songs from your library. Included in the list is RadioLover which lets you record streaming radio, as well as iPodRip with (thankfully) an accurate explanation as to why its abilities aren't included in iTunes itself. This list actually part of a guide Download.com wrote called iTunes Advanced, which includes some handy tips for things like adding an equalizer column to your list of songs to easily assign custom EQ settings to specific songs, as well as a list of hotkeys for the default iTunes visualization mode.Seasoned iTunes pros will probably balk at getting iTunes advice from Download.com, but there are probably at least a couple handy tidbits here for just about everyone.
Scobleizer hints at "dizzying amount" of new Apple products
As I write this, I'm still contemplating the implications of getting Apple tips from a former Microsoft evangelizer's blog, but check this out as I philosophize for the afternoon: The Scobleizer (yea, the one and only), dropped a huge (yet unfortunately vague) hint of what Apple has up their sleeve: "Speaking of Apple, they are readying a dizzying amount of new products. I wish I could camp out at an Apple store during the World Wide Developer Conference on August 7th". Apparently (we're trusting you on this Ron!), Mr. Scoble's brother actually works for Apple, which is why he also goes on to decline commenting any further for fear of the Wrath of Jobs™.Hey, Mr. Scoble, you can spill some juicy tidbits. Apple gave up on that case for ousting that other blogger; why not give it a shot?Thanks Chris G.
Safari bookmark tips from macosxhints
The never-failing macosxhints.com is at it again, this time with a series of tips concerning Safari, speed and bookmark management. This tip offers a simple method for using the Finder to sort Safari's bookmarks alphabetically (hint: make sure you hit cmd + j in the Finder and enable the 'Keep arranged by name' option), while this tip points out that Safari can receive a noticeable speed boost if you organize as many of your bookmarks into folders as possible.If you're really looking to speed up Safari, the speed boost/folder tip also contains a roundup from Rob Griffith of quite a few other macosxhints tips that can re-energize Safari's experience.
TUAW Tip: shortcuts for Sleep, Restart and Shut Down
We here at TUAW are suckers for productive shortcuts, and since yesterday's System Preferences tip was such a hit, I thought I'd post a few shortcuts to speed up the Sleep, Restart and Shut Down commands. There's actually quite a few ways to accomplish these tasks, so I'll try to mention all the methods I've heard of. The first: hold the option key while selecting Restart or Shut Down from the Apple Menu to bypass the 'Are You Sure?' dialog, and cut right to the chase. You even get visual feedback in the Apple Menu; click the menu, then press the option key to see the trailing dots disappear from those two commands (as far as I know, this is a typical UI feedback element used throughout the OS; any commands - at least in Cocoa apps - that have keyboard modifiers will change their appearance in the menu if you press the modifier before choosing the option).The second method is my personal favorite: 100% keyboard shortcuts. Here's a list: Sleep = opt + cmd + eject Restart = ctrl + cmd + eject Shut Down = ctrl + opt + cmd + eject The third method, involving the power key, can still be counted as a keyboard shortcut, but since I almost never touch the power key (I Sleep my Macs about 99% of the time via my aforementioned favorite method), I don't really consider it part of my typical keystroke regimen. For you power key lovers out there, you can press your Mac's power key, and at the resulting 'Are you sure?' dialog that contains four buttons (Restart, Sleep, Cancel and Shut Down), you can press the first letters of a couple of these actions. Specifically, 'r' for Restart, 's' for Sleep and Enter for Shut Down. 'C' for Cancel doesn't seem to work, but Esc should get you out of the dialog if you need to keep computing.Here's hoping you don't have a Homer Simpson-like brain, where each new shortcut you learn knocks out an old one. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts on these shortcuts, and enjoy one more trick for working with your Mac just a little bit faster.
TUAW Tip: shortcuts for display, audio and keyboard preferences
This simple tip was actually sent to us by TUAW reader Zoli Honig. It works on my MacBook Pro, and I assume other portables: if you hold the option key while pressing any of the F-key shortcuts for display brightness, keyboard brightness or audio volume settings, System Preferences will open and take you straight to the relevant preference pane. I don't know if this is Mac OS X Tiger only, and I don't have desktop machine to test with, so if you're still on Panther or using some kind of desktop Mac, feel free to share whether this tip works on your machines in the comments.
macosxhints debuts hint-rating system
The 'don't-buy-a-Mac-without-it' macosxhints.com has debuted a hint rating system, allowing both logged in and anonymous users to place a 1-5 star rating on each hint. As you might expect, their stats page now includes a 'Top 20 Rated Hints' section at the bottom. This should allow you to spend even more time you never intended to, learning even cooler ways to use your Mac.
Top five tips we turned down this week
Every day, Joystiq receives innumerable tips from people eager to guide our way through the world of video game news and culture. Most of the time, everything goes swimmingly: an interesting link pops up, you let us know, and we write it up. Sometimes, it doesn't go so smoothly.When we reject a tip, it may be because we've already reported on the story, or because the content of the tip isn't right for Joystiq. Other times, the rejected tip is dead wrong. Usually this is the fault of the source, not the tipster. Very often, rejected tips are also ones that, for whatever reason, make us laugh. This post is dedicated to the tipsters behind the tips that we didn't use this week.
"My Mac Won't Start!" pocket guide
For their 100th QuickTips email newsletter, Seattle area mac support agency CreativeTechs has published a handy little troubleshooting guide that fits neatly in your shirt pocket. The "My Mac Won't Start!" pocketmod tiny guide is available as a free PDF download, and covers basic troubleshooting steps such as starting up in safe mode, single user mode, booting from an external device, and attempting to view the machine using target disk mode. The QuickTips newsletter is something I've been subscribed to for a few months now, and it never fails to bring new insight into the way I use my Mac. Although aimed at creative professionals, the mailer has tips that are applicable to almost everybody, no matter their profession.
macosxhints gets redesigned
The invaluable macosxhints has received a redesign and feature boost. The site's theme has received a stylistic bump, and legibility has improved site-wide. New functionality and features include more topic categories and a better search (while Rob won't use the term 'better', I will). Registered and logged in users will likely welcome simplified account management tools and more control over what information you include and display for others.Head over and take a look at macosxhints' new look and add your $0.02 to their announcement post.
Unix tips for your Mac
Benjamin Han has compiled a list of Unix tips for people who don't know their MAN from their pids. He covers the gamut from backing up files, to reloading Cisco VPN kernel extensions, to sending email from the command line.This is a great way to start the journey to command line jockey.
Apple Support doc: Mac maintenance Quick Assist
Apple has released a "Mac Maintenance Quick Assist" support document that is more or less a 10-step guide aimed at beginners for taking care of their Mac, both inside and out. These steps include good, basic practices such as using relevant names for files instead of "DSC_00001.jpg," while also recommending that you occasionally clean your Mac (duh).I was surprised to see a few tips make this list, however. The first: Check for viruses. "Macs don't get anywhere near the amount of viruses that Windows PCs are prone to, but that doesn't mean that they can't get infected," reads tip #8. I guess the guys who wrote this article didn't get the memo from the team who made the "Macs don't get viruses" TV commercials. The other odd tips deal with Mac maintenance stuff, like repairing permissions and defragging your hard drive. I was under the impression that, since Panther, Mac OS X defragged itself. On the permissions topic, there has been a lot of chatter over the last couple of months about whether repairing permissions is actually useful. Just check out the pseudo-series John Gruber had on the topic.All in all, I think I was actually a little frightened by evidence of even cheesier one-liners making their way into Apple's support docs: "As a Mac user, you won't have to do windows, but you will need to do some housekeeping!" Yuk yuk.
7 easy steps to keep your laptop safe
Folks, this ain't rocket science, however, it is a good reminder. Macsupport.ca has posted 7 tips that'll help keep your shiny Mac laptop out of the hands of thieves (or will at least foil them when they attempt to get your precious, precious data).As I mention the tips aren't mind blowing, but they are good solid steps that very person using a portable Mac should be doing. The biggest one is turn off automatic log in, make the miscreants who took your Mac work a little.[via Digg]
How To: Run other OSes on your Mac with Parallels Workstation
Parallels has been creating a lot of buzz with their Workstation software that allows Intel Mac users to run almost any version of Windows, Linux and many other OSs right inside of Mac OS X, without the need for shutting down what you're doing in Mac OS X to reboot into the other OS. This 'virtualization' ability of the new Intel chips is a pretty big deal, and from my experience with running Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux on my MacBook Pro, I can understand why.However, all this stuff about 'virtual machines' and using Parallels Workstation to install another OS inside Mac OS X can be a little daunting, so I thought I would put together a basic how-to for anyone interested in this software and what's possible with it. I'll try to explain some terminology to help clear up any confusion, and I will cover using Parallels Workstation to install both Windows XP and Ubuntu, one of the more popular 'consumer friendly' versions of Linux, or so I'm told (disclaimer: I know absolutely nothing about Linux aside from the 'most of it's free' convention and the few headlines that come across digg, so go easy on me if you have Ubuntu questions).Click ahead for my five steps to running multiple OSs with Parallels Workstation in Mac OS X.
Find the Oblivion unicorn
Is there a gamer alive who doesn't love unicorns? Did I say gamer? I meant 11-year-old girl. Anyway, reader Andy has posted instructions on how to find the "hidden" unicorn in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. See the map above for the exact location. According to Andy it will attack you if you stab it with a sword. Next up: How to find the Liger from Napolean Dynamite's trapper keeper. [Thanks Andy]
Tip us off (we're not omniscient... yet)
We like to think we know everything there is to know about anything 360, but I'll let you in on a little secret......are you listening?We don't.Not yet at least! That's where you come in. If you stumble across anything in your intarweb travels that makes you stop and say (out loud) to yourself, "Hey! Those nerds at Xbox 360 Fanboy should have posted this forever ago," instead of waiting a couple months to see if we find it ourselves, use our handy tips form and let us know! If we use your tip, we'll be sure to give you a shout-out. You can forward that post to your parents/significant other/imaginary friend (you choose) to prove that spending hours a day online trolling for 360 minutiae does pay off. Not in money of course, but in that warm feeling you get inside knowing that you've provided even more fodder for the slightly obsessed fanboys who stop here in their daily (or hourly) travels.Thanks, The Xbox 360 Fanboy crew
Secrets of an Apple Tech Support Guy
I earned my Mac chops fixing Apple computers in and out of warranty for an AASP in NYC and became intimately familiar with GSX (Apple's part-ordering and support system; née Service Source). I also learned a few tricks along the way--things that might be useful to the masses. Some of the things in my portable toolbox:Apple's Black StickAs Command-Tab reminds us today, Apple's technical support manuals consistently refer to this mysterious tool for performing tasks. It's available from Apple via their normal ordering channels for like $10 but you can easily find it for sale for a fraction of that cost. We always had a few of these lying around. A non-conducting and non-marring plastic tool can be a remarkably handy thing to have around when you're taking apart PowerBooks.Why iMac Cases Used to be TranslucentSeveral years ago, I was working in the field on a slot-loading iMac. I don't recall exactly what I was doing, but probably replacing the modem (as there was a spate of modem failures). I had flipped the blue beasty upside-down and taken the bottom casing off to get to the logic board and modem assembly (it's connected to the I/O ports). While removing the modem assembly (or perhaps it was while removing the silver EMI shielding), I accidentally dropped a screw down inside the translucent casing. Oh crap! Anyone whose taken the slot-loading iMacs apart (like to get at the video analog board) knows that removing the top (colored) casing can be a royal pain-in-the-ass. I really didn't want to have to completely disassemble the iMac just to retrieve this screw. Damn! There must be an easier way! Fortunately, I typically carried with me in my bag, a package of those 10-12" long pull-ties for binding together cabling. I also carry with me in the winter months some chapstick. I put some chapstick on the end of one of the pull-ties and went fishing. 30 seconds and one still-assembled iMac later, I had my screw back. Heh.Telescoping MagnetI bought one of these after the above incident.Your Best Friend, the Multi-bit ScrewdriverThe absolute best compact screwdriver out there is actually made by Compaq for its technicians. I've had this driver for a really long time and its been a trusty companion with me on countless service calls. It comes with the Torx-8 driver for those screws that Apple seeed to use in almost every single machine they shipped between 1997 and 2004 (still are, for all I know).Your Other Best FriendI can't count high enough to count the number of times my Leatherman Wave multi-tool saved my rear while on site, from whittling down the plastic power buttons on the first slot-loading iMacs so they'd fit better into the molding so they machines wouldn't keep putting themselves to sleep, to the tool of last resort in deftly extracting a stuck Zip disk from a dying Zip drive, to carefully stripping a wire with the scissors tool.Screw KitsSelf-explanatory. Keep with you a small bag of screws of many many different sizes, especially those used for securing hard drives or logic boards. OK, techies, what tools, tips, or tricks do you have? Maybe you've rescued a HD from complete data loss by freezing it in zip-lock bag (I have, on several occasions), or maybe you've your own MacGyver tech support story.Update: I've linked the picture to the Threadless.com T-Shirt shop. I couldn't remember where the image came from (it was among the many thousands I have squirreled away). Thanks for the info.
Breakfast Topic: Breakfast Topics
We've been running the "Breakfast Topic" feature for several weeks, and now's the chance for you to step forward and suggest your own topic for discussion. If you've got a burning issue you'd love us to post about, or a topic you want other readers to chime in on, simply send it in via the tips form.You can also send in any other tips or suggestions for the site via the same form, if you're itching to see us write about something in particular.
Getting started with Quicksilver: understanding the basics
Prompted by a TUAW reader comment on my post the other day about some Quicksilver fundamentals, I thought I would take a crack at posting some short tutorials on what Quicksilver actually does, and how to get started with it. I'm talking about the most basic of the basics here for anyone who is curious but still confused as to what the heck they're looking at the first time they launch Quicksilver. To anyone who can't make heads or tails of it: I don't blame you. It took me quite a while to wrap my head around all this stuff, so I hope I can do you some justice with this post.Disclaimer - I use a somewhat modified version of Quicksilver and I've added a lot of extras, but for this demo I *think* I've properly fixed my copy to look like a default Quicksilver install.Speaking of my screenshot - let's get started.
Learn to love Apple's Calendar widget
When Apple first released Mac OS 10.4.4 with its brand new Dashboard widgets back in January, more than a few of you gave the updated calendar widget a big thumbs down. I don't mind it, but it seems I'm in the minority. This post is for you nay-sayers.Macworld is describing some great tips for quickly navigating the calendar widget. You can use your right and left arrow keys to jump from month to month, and the up and down arrows to move from year to year. To quickly return to the current month, just hit the home key (or fn plus left arrow on a laptop). Now don't you love calendar just a little bit more?
TUAW Tip: Customize the Finder's toolbar, too
Dave Caolo showed you how to take control of the Finder's sidebar a couple weeks back. Today, I wanted to shed the same light on the Finder's toolbar, as you can customize it and add some tools not found in a default Mac OS X installation.The first thing I like to do is add 'other' kinds of folders (and files) up there, such as my Library, that I don't necessarily want in my sidebar. To do this, you can drag a file or folder up next to the buttons in the Finder, and wait a second - you won't receive instantaneous feedback like you do when adding something to the sidebar. After a second or so, the Finder's search box will move over farther to the right (like when you add something to the Dock), signifying that you can now add that item to the toolbar.You can also add a few more tools to the Finder toolbar by right-clicking on it (just like many other application windows) and choosing "Customize Toolbar." You will be presented with a whole set of handy buttons and actions you can drag and drop to add such as eject, get info, connect to server, burn and more. Even though we covered how to get a file or folder's path by command-clicking on a window's title bar icon, I also like to add the Path button to the Finder's toolbar with this trick for one more level of convenience.Since I'm willing to bet that I haven't covered all the Finder toolbar tricks, feel free to share yours in the comments.
