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Giving or getting a Mac for the holidays? 10 apps every new Mac user needs
All new Macs come with great bundled software. Between the iLife suite, Safari, iTunes, and TextEdit, plus the ability to access and use cloud applications for free, almost all of the most basic modern computing needs get met for most users. That said, having used four different Macs over the past seven years, there are several applications that don't come with OS X that I find myself immediately loading onto a new Mac. Most of these are big-name apps that you've probably already heard of, but it's still pretty amazing how much extra functionality you can eke out of a Mac with only ten additional programs, and all of them (save the last one) are free. Whether you're buying a new Mac for a relative this holiday season or getting a new one for yourself, these are ten applications you should download as soon as that shiny new machine loads the desktop for the first time.
Quick QuickTime Q&A
QuickTime was one of the few apps which changed significantly in Snow Leopard. We've heard from some readers who missed the initial reports about it, so we're repeating it here, with some additional QuickTime information. Q: "What happened to QuickTime in Snow Leopard?" QuickTime Player "X" has brought significant changes to the way the app looks and works. Most notably, there is no "chrome" to the player when a file is being played. This is intended to let you see as much of the picture as possible. Q: "How do I get the old QuickTime back?" You can install QuickTime Player 7 on Snow Leopard. Apple even posted instructions which boil down to this: Insert your Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Install DVD. Open the Optional Installs folder and double-click "Optional Installs.mpkg". Select the QuickTime 7 option and click Continue. QuickTime Player 7 will be installed in your Utilities folder. It goes on to say "If you double-click any media that requires QuickTime Player 7 for playback and it is not already installed, you will be asked if you want to download it from Apple." Q: "I had QuickTime Pro before I upgraded to Snow Leopard, I want to use its features!" That's not really a question, but we understand that you're upset. QuickTime Pro had the ability to do more than QuickTime X. If you installed Snow Leopard over your Leopard installation, check /Applications/Utilities/ QuickTime 7 should already be there. If not, you can install it as above. Q: "I have QuickTime 7.6.3, and I tried to install 7.6.4 but it wouldn't let me." That isn't a question either. You're not very good at this Q&A thing, are you? Nevermind. This confused me as well. The webpage for QuickTime 7.6.4 says that it is for "... Mac OS X 10.5 or later" but the download page for QuickTime 7 says that it is for Leopard or Tiger only. The installer for QuickTime 7.6.4 refuses to install on Snow Leopard. Q: "What's New in QuickTime 7.6.4?" That's a good question. From Apple: "QuickTime 7.6.4 includes changes that increase reliability, improve compatibility and enhance security. This release is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users." It's unclear why this isn't available for Snow Leopard. Perhaps the security and compatibility aren't applicable. I hope. Q: "How can I take a screenshot of a movie in QuickTime X?" One gripe about the new QuickTime X is that when you pause a video, the on-screen controls stay visible, making it impossible to grab a clean screenshot. TUAW reader Gwion Daniel wrote in to tell us that you can make the controls fade by double-clicking the picture frame. I have had mixed results with this. I have had the most success double-clicking on the far right side of the window (where the scrollbar would be, if there was one). Sometimes it seems to work, sometimes it takes a few tries. If you can't get it to work, fire up VLC and use the menu item Video > Snapshot. Q: "What happened to QuickTime X's preferences?" Thery aren't any clearly visibe as there's no preference menu. However, if you install the Secrets preference panel which we mentioned earlier you'll find hidden preferences for: Autoplay movies on open Allow multiple simultaneous recordings Always hide title bar Autohide titlebar/controller Autoshow titlebar/controller Automatically show subtitles and closed captioning on open Exit fullscreen when switching apps Use square corners I'm hoping that the new QuickTime player will eventually regain all of QuickTime 7 Pro's functionality and the user interface will become a little more user-friendly (hiding these basic preferences seems like an odd decision), but for now we are living in an in-between time in QuickTime's development. QuickTime turns 18 this year, and it's obviously going through some changes. 'Ol Quicktime is no longer who it was, nor is it yet what it will be when it grows up. At least you don't have to worry about it staying out all night with its friends.
Hippo Remote is a great app, now you can win a copy
I've become very accustomed to remote-controlling my computers for a while, but nothing ever seemed to get it right. Apple's Remote for iTunes is great, of course, but what about all my other stuff on my Mac, like Boxee or VLC? Yeah, you can get some specific remotes for those apps (frankly the VLC remotes I've used were terrible and would just quit working sometimes). But what you really want is a master remote that'll take all those tasks over for you. Enter Hippo Remote [iTunes Link], a wonderful, simple, brilliant little remote app for your iPhone or iPod touch and Mac -- or PC. Hippo Remote starts off as a trackpad, and supports gestures, multi-touch (like scrolling and zooming) and even replicates circular scrolling. There's a keyboard with F-keys, a history and navigation keys. There are app profiles for Powerpoint, Boxee, VLC, even Gmail and Windows Media Center. There's also a login manager for stuff like Gmail or Twitter, so it's very, very fast at getting you to where you need to be all via iPhone screen. Hippo Remote's response is like butter. Scrolling, swiping, tracking are all wonderful, even on my congested network. I can even use wake-on-LAN or wake-on-wireless to zap those computers alive from anywhere in my house. All this and the only setup was to add a password for VNC connections in my System Preferences on my Mac. There is a HippoVNC application which enables a few other features, but I don't use it. Instead, I have a saved profile for the Mac I have hooked to my HDTV, and with one tap I'm controlling that Mac via iPhone. It just doesn't get any easier. Now you can win a copy of Hippo Remote for your own iPhone or iPod touch. Just leave a comment on this post and you're entered. Promo codes are only available for the US, sorry. Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older. To enter leave a comment on this post. The comment must be left before Saturday, November 7, 2009, 11:59PM Eastern Time. You may enter only once. Five winners will be selected in a random drawing. Prize: One promo code for Hippo Remote (Value: US$4.99) Click Here for complete Official Rules.
VLC 1.0.2 includes 64-bit Mac port and security fixes
VideoLAN's popular cross-platform open source media player VLC 1.0.2 is now available with an important security update. The rest of the release notes are rather terse and nerdy: "BEWARE: this release is not compatible with Tiger. This version introduces many fixes, notably for SSA decoding, v4l2, MacOS interface, ogg/theora, x264 modules and security issues. It also introduces the port to 64bits for Mac OS platform and 2 new languages (Kazakh and Croatian)." I'm not sure what "Mac OS interface" fixes were included (the app looks the same to me, but perhaps it refers to minor fixes rather than major changes), but two things probably jumped out to you: the first is that the app is not compatible with Tiger, although this is not new with 1.0.2 (downloads for older versions of Mac OS X are still available). The second is the "big" news: VLC is now 64-bit. Again, this is not a change that end-users are likely to notice, but if you have been following news about Snow Leopard you know that 64-bit has gotten a lot of emphasis, and it's great to see VLC is keeping up. Someone recently asked why I would use VLC on the Mac when I had QuickTime Player or Apple's built-in DVD app. My answer was two-fold and simple: I use it because when I want to watch DVDs I can press command+D (to open the DVD), press enter, and VLC automatically takes me to the main menu of the DVD, skipping all the ads and previews and other nonsense that the movie companies try to force you to watch every single time you put in a DVD. The other big reason I use VLC is because is has an option (under the "Video" menu item) called "Float on Top" which, as you would expect, keeps the video window above other windows. I was disappointed to see that even QuickTime Player X does not offer a similar feature. VLC may not be beautiful to look at, and its advanced preferences are enough to make a normal person go cross-eyed with confusion, but it is a video playback workhorse, especially when paired with the US$3 iPhone remote control app (iTunes link). Update: 64-bit versions of VLC have been suspended due to lack of Mac developers. However, some may be looking for a 64-bit version of VLC to use with HandBrake. In that case you can still use vlc-1.0.2-intel64.dmg which should be available on the VLC website and mirrors. The file is 19,682,357 bytes (19.7MB in Snow Leopard, 18.7MB in Leopard). (Why is there a difference in file sizes?)
VLC 1.0.0 released
While being a useful tool for several years now, VLC has finally reached that first pinnacle of software development: 1.0. VLC is an alternative media player for Mac, Windows and Linux that handles a wide variety of media file formats without requiring additional software (like Perian) to be installed on your system. It can also be used as a server to stream video on higher-bandwidth networks. Personally, I think it's handy for things like making still frame images of DVDs, or capturing video from your EyeTV tuner. Anytime I have to send QuickTime or MP4 video to PC or Linux users, I recommend they download and install VLC to watch it. The software isn't for everyone: If you're already familiar with VLC, the upgrade is a solid one. Performance is good, and the feature list is tough to beat. If you've never used VLC and you're happy with QuickTime Player (thank you very much), then feel free to pass this one by. Binaries for VLC 1.0 are available for Intel-based Macs running Mac OS X Leopard (and developer previews of Snow Leopard). Source code and other, older packages for PowerPC and earlier versions of Mac OS X are also available. Thanks, Chris!
VLC 0.8.6d improves Leopard compatibility
Since upgrading to Leopard some folks have been having trouble with the popular open-source video player VLC from VideoLAN. Fortunately, the project has just released 0.8.6d substantially improving Leopard compatibility. The changes include video output improvements as well as support for the Apple Remote and various bug fixes. If you're running VLC under Leopard you'll want to upgrade.VLC is a free download from VideoLAN. It's available in both Universal and Intel only builds.[via Accelerate Your Mac]
This Old Mac: Icebooks
Remember when Apple ditched the clamshell iBooks and created the sleeker "icebook" form factor? My wife calls them Chiclets. Well we have 3 of them: a 500 MHz G3 from 2001 with a 10GB drive, a 800MHz G4 with a 60GB drive but a busted optical drive, and a 1.2GHz G4 with a 30GB drive but working CDR/DVD drive. The 800MHz machine is still my old personal machine, although between hacks and apps and data overload it is very slow. The other two have found new life.The oldest iBook actually has the best build quality, I think. The keyboard feels good, and none of the keys have rubbed off. It is fast and solid. However, since it is so old, I decided to use OS 9 as the primary OS. We inherited a bunch of old educational CD's from the 90's and the iBook plays almost all of them better than the PPC-based Mac mini in the den. Perhaps the biggest drawback? The smell of burning plastic that is emitted from the possibly-not-covered-by-recall motherboard. Oops.The newest iBook is zippy enough to handle video from apps like VLC (for the playlists) without a hitch, so we're using it as a video jukebox of sorts. Connected to the network I can either stream or move videos to it for the kids, plus it runs all the OS X educational software we've got. Oh, and TuxPaint, which also runs on my personal machine in case they both want to draw at the same time. The working optical drive on the 1.2GHz came in handy at the beach recently, when the TV in the kids room didn't work. So we used the iBook as a DVD player.Of course, if you work in primary education this is probably a snoozefest to you. Apple sold quite a few (though not nearly enough) iBooks to the educational markets back in the day. So it should come as no surprise that my wife and I recycle our old work machines as kid machines. What makes the iBook so special is the ability to run OS 9 natively and the form factor. Sure, iMacs are great, but you can't take them on vacation. The old clamshells are OK as well, but a little bulky. Then again, maybe I just can't bear to throw anything away.UPDATE: Added a gallery.%Gallery-3585%
Chroma feature movie player
Chroma is a video player for OS X "optimized for playing feature movies." Though there are many free options that will play most anything that Chroma will (QuickTime with Perian, VLC, mPlayerOSX, etc.), nonetheless Chroma has some nice features that may make it worthwhile for watching features in particular. These include "IntelliAspect" which eliminates the black (letterboxing) bars when viewing in full screen, built-in AVI/Divx support, built-in DVD support, fine-grained scrubbing controls, and a "Picture-In-Picture" Overlay mode, "which presents the movie in a small square in a corner of your screen, on top of your regular desktop."Chroma is $22 and a demo is available from mirailabs. If Chroma is worth the price it's for rather subtle niceties like the IntelliAspect and the scrubbing controls. If you just want to play videos, one of the free options will likely be fine.
Apple TV hacks coming fast and furious: VLC, SSH, VNC, Apache and more
The Apple TV hacks are coming fast and furious as recorded on both the Something Awful thread we already told you about, and at the Apple TV Hacks blog. Over at Something Awful, user macado shows the Apple TV successfully decoding a 720p XviD clip using the open source VLC player (though only for 6 minutes). Other users have demonstrated Firefox and iTunes running on an Apple TV as well. Meanwhile at Apple TV Hacks, there are already tutorials up on getting SSH and AFP access and even setting up Remote Desktop (VNC) and Apache.In short, the Apple TV has been busted wide open and is well on its way to being hacked into a general purpose (if rather underpowered) mini Mac mini (Mac nano, perhaps?), running OS X 10.4.7 as you can see above. For those of you with a hankering to break your warranties, it looks like the Apple TV is eminently hackable and has a lot of potential.[Via Apple TV Hacks]Update: the 6 minute thing has to do with the fact that the Apple TV automatically resets after 6 minutes (see the comments below).
Matsushita demonstrates data beaming with visible light
Infrared hasn't exactly taken the wireless data transfer world by storm, and while it seems to still flank the sides of modern smartphones and the occasional laptop, we can't exactly recall the last time we found it particularly useful in a public setting. Matsushita is out to solve the data beaming quandary, and it's looking to add a little light to the situation all the while with a visible twist. The technology allows data to be beamed from transmitter to receiver via visible light, and aside from purportedly streaming information along at "optical fiber speeds," it can also pull double duty as an indoor lighting source if you're short on lamps. The firm is hoping to get the standard ratified soon, and ideally, would like to see kiosks set up to beam information onto consumer / client receivers by just walking up to the light source, pairing up their device, and walking away happy. Additionally, this system could have a leg up on other wireless alternatives in sensitive areas such as hospitals, as the Visible Light Communications (VLC) creation won't interfere with pulse-makers and other medical equipment. Now, how long before this stuff hits the handset market?[Via Gearfuse]
HDHomeRun HDTV Mac Streaming Tool
I first heard about the HDHomeRun on DL.TV a while back, and while it looked very interesting I was left disappointed that it lacked full Mac support. The HDHomeRun is a cool little device that contains two over-the-air HDTV tuners to receive HDTV and then stream that HD content over your home ethernet network. The streams it produces can be viewed with VLC so it it was possible, if somewhat difficult, to make it function with a Mac. Now, however, aa1979 has posted a Mac GUI to the Silicon Dust forums which makes it much easier to set up a stream. It's still far from as full featured as the Windows Media Center interfaces, and you still need to use VLC to watch the stream, but the level of hackery necessary to use the HDHomeRun with the Mac has gone down considerably. I wish EyeTV supported the HDHomeRun, though there's some hope that once SageTV gets going on the Mac (later this year) it may support this device to make a true Mac-based HDTV DVR.Thanks, Andy!
Stream Live HDTV with VLC
Somebody we know around these parts has posted a nice tutorial over at MacDevCenter on how to use VLC to stream live HDTV from an EyeTV compatible tuner to other Macs around your house. This way if you set up a Mac media center computer to record HDTV, you can shoot that content to other Macs (or even, perish the thought, Windows PCs, since VLC is cross-platform). The same basic methodology should allow you to stream already downloaded/recorded programs as well. Since VLC has a web-based remote, you can even control it from the client computer as well. There are many good non-obvious tips here, particularly Erica's way of exposing the MPEG transport stream, so if you're interested in a Mac based HDTV system, check it out.
VLC patched with MOAB fix
See, that didn't take long! VideoLAN's VLC media player has been revised to version 0.8.6a, which closes the vulnerability noted by Month of Apple Bugs and also makes improvements to Full Screen Mode.If you aren't already using VLC for its incredible powers of playback and streaming, now would be an ideal time to start.[via Versiontracker]
Former Apple engineer offers fixes for Month of Apple bugs silliness
Landon Fuller, programmer and former Apple BSD Technology Group engineer extraordinaire, has offered to try and provide fixes for the exploits that appear during this asinine Month of Apple Bugs. Landon has already posted workarounds for the QuickTime vulnerability, and he links a change the VLC team has already made to their codebase (which is likely to be rolled out soon). I join many others in thanking Landon for his work, but I still wish he didn't have to do it. Why should a former Apple engineer use his free time to chase after publicized exploits, when Apple themselves (and any 3rd parties) should be the ones to fix these problems at their core?Thanks Bill I
VLC 0.8.6 released
VideoLan Client version 0.8.6 just went live over at videolan.org. The new update includes support for Windows Media Video 9 and Flash Video, improved H.264 decoding, better Windows Unicode support, a Fullscreen controller, and support for the Apple Remote. Other improvements include "vastly improved" playlist support, with Shoutcast TV listings, last.fm/Audioscrobbler support, and "live search"--which I'm going to have to play with to figure out what that means. The interface has been updated bigtime and the Linux and Windows UIs are brand new. The OS X interface uses custom artwork by Simon Damkjar Andersen. New hotkeys for crop and zoom are included as well as snapshot support. You'll find lots of new video effects including "Adjust", "Invert", "Distort" (such as Wave, Ripple and Gradient) filters and a "puzzle video output" filter, which sounds cool but not very useful. More details to follow as we get a chance to download and play with the new software. YAY!Thanks Andrew Eller
How-To: Transcode & stream videos on Xbox 360
Last week's Xbox 360 Fall Dashboard update added support for the Windows Media Video (WMV) video codec. The feature was a welcomed gain for non-Media Center users who have been limited to photo and music sharing between their Windows PCs and Xbox 360s -- and to anyone who's longed to watch video files on 360 via a thumb drive or CD/DVD.Unfortunately, licensing fees and digital rights concerns have limited the patch to WMV-support only. Being Microsoft's proprietary format, WMV is neither popular or oft-used, taking a backseat to preferred codecs like DivX and XviD. And so, we're still left scrambling for a solution to getting our video content onto Xbox 360.
Give VLC a makeover
I love VLC, the open source cross platform media player, but the cone icon isn't all that great. Imagine my surprise as I was clicking around the MacRabbit website (after checking out CSSEdit 2.0) and I came across the VLC Makeover Kit. It replaces all the stock icons with cool silver and black ones. Silly? Perhaps, but it sure looks much nicer in my Dock now.
NicePlayer
Whenever I want to play something in fullscreen mode (that isn't in iTunes) I fire up VLC. It is a nice, all purpose media player but it isn't exactly a good looking application. NicePlayer, which plays anything that Quicktime can play, has a fullscreen mode and has a unique look to it. I'm not sure where I stand on the 'window-less' aspect of the UI, but the play is nice. It is AppleScriptable, supports playlists, and has a number of display options. Not bad when you consider the price: free.[via Daring Fireball]
VLC 0.8.5 released with Intel Mac, Growl support, many improvements
The most excellent jack-of-many-formats VLC media player has just reached version 0.8.5, and boy does it pack a whallop - just check out the release notes. The biggest new additions to write home about are Universal Binary support, Growl notifications, a statistics system, new skin support including skins from Winamp 2 (for those who just can't let go), new video filters, support for downloading updates (possibly due to Sparkle?) and a whole lot more.VLC is a feature-packed media player with support for a boatload of media formats, and is available free for many OSs from VideoLAN.
