Category — Mac

This homemade music video using Mac apps for The Bird & The Bee's "Do it Again" takes the old "Made on Mac" tagline to the extreme. Enjoy….

Awesome.

PS - If you're digging the song, it's available on iTunes.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Regardless of your particular browser preference, there's no denying that Safari has some great built-in functionality vis-a-vis the core OS X apps. I've always wanted to like Safari, but I never really have. Instead, my browser of choice has always been Camino, with an occasional Firefox window now & then.

In an effort to increase Safari's usability for me, here are a few plugins I've recently adopted.

[Read more →]

Popularity: 1% [?]

I feel like I'm tempting the fate of the LazyWeb / Hoosgot gods, but… here goes….

Is anyone familiar with a good Mac OSX client for Amazon S3? I'm using Leopard and trying out Forklift, however, I would prefer some way to treat S3 as a connectable share or server within Finder.

I have found BucketExplorer and JungleDisk, with JungleDisk looking to be more in line with my ideal implementation.

So… what say you, oh Internet brethren??

Popularity: 1% [?]

I like to catalog my pictures in iPhoto by event and location. It's not only helpful as a reference, but it allows me to make cool travel photo maps online at Flickr or in Google Earth. For example, here's my geotag map from Flickr.

Since iPhoto doesn't offer a native interface for adding geotags to pictures (although some use this hack — !not recommended!), here's a quick and easy way to add location information and geotag your pictures in iPhoto, using Google Earth.

[Read more →]

Popularity: 2% [?]

170 Spoons
Originally uploaded by orangejack.

If you're looking for a great new resource for tech tips and tutorials that are easy to understand, I think you should check out the new site by team Orangejack, 170 Spoons.

Not only are you going to learn some really cool things, but you're going to find some new ways of doing things online that's going to make your life easier.

And who doesn't want easier, right?! Right!

Check out 170 Spoons (because you'll be kicking yourself if you don't!)

Popularity: 2% [?]

One of the great new changes in iPhoto 08 (ok, iPhoto 7 if you want to be technical) is the bundling of the iPhoto library as one package file, a la unix. The advantages are numerous, with the largest being that it is now very difficult for users to accidentally delete or corrupt the library file.

The downside to this new file structure, however, is that it also very difficult for users to browse pictures via the Finder - which makes it very hard to attach your photos to Gmail, for example.

Have no fear… here's a quick and easy guide on how to email your iphoto pictures using Gmail.

[Read more →]

Popularity: 3% [?]

Since I didn't know this and it is a fairly popular support topic, I wanted to post a quick and easy method for importing pictures from Mail.app into iPhoto.

How To: Import pictures from Mail.app to iPhoto

1. Open an email with photo attachments in Mail.app
2. Click and hold the "Save" icon in the message header
3. Select "Add to iPhoto to add the attached messages to iPhoto.

Pretty easy, huh? Yeah, I was kicking myself, too.

Popularity: 2% [?]

With the holidays approaching, many people will be wondering how to download their AOL email address book to use in Mac OSX's default Address Book.

Luckily enough, AOL already has a tool that will allow you to download your AOL address book into OSX. To convert your AOL email contacts, all you need is to download the AOL Service Assistant and run the application.

The program will download and sync your AOL contacts into the Mac Address Book. (Ta-da!)

Popularity: 2% [?]

As you probably know, Google's GMail is all the rage (and has been for the past few years). But as the service continues to expand, more and more people are leaving AOL and using the Google Gmail email.

The one drawback — of course — is that all of your AOL email address contacts are stored on your AOL account and need to be downloaded and converted to Gmail.

Have no fear - converting your AOL email address book to Google is pretty easy.
[Read more →]

Popularity: 3% [?]

After upgrading to Leopard, I am finding kernel panic & frequent shutdowns any time I put my airport under a continuous full load (ie very large uploads/downloads, extended streaming radio, p2p, bittorrent, peer-to-peer).

After doing a little research, it seems that Apple is aware of the kernel panic issue in Leopard, related to the airport wireless being maxed, and has issued Bug ID# 5498631.

What's the solution? I don't know, but I'm hoping Apple gets this resolved ASAP.

Popularity: 1% [?]

With the release of Leopard for OS X, the developers of Adium are working to bring video chat to everyone's favorite Mac IM client.

The gang at Macapper have a screenshot and some commentary.

For those that haven't used video chat before - it's a killer app. When I'm traveling, Merrin and I use Skype with video to stay in touch. The native video chat in iChat is good, depending on the network you're using, but Skype is probably the reigning king.

I don't want to get too far ahead of the release (whenever that might be!), but if video chat on Adium is anywhere near as good as Adium itself… CAN NOT WAIT!

Popularity: 1% [?]

In the Leopard update, Apple has finally resolved one of the most frequent gripes of iCal users - the iCal dock icon was never updated unless the app was running. (Hence the tongue-in-cheek iCal Day celebration annually on Jul 17.)

With the Leopard upgrade, the iCal icon shows today's date… everyday.

Popularity: 1% [?]

For those of you — like me — who experienced a blue screen upon booting an upgrade install of Mac OS X Leopard, here are a few tips to clear the errors that are preventing the system from rebooting.

COMMAND LINE METHOD
Reboot your Mac while holding Cmnd-S on your keyboard. Your computer will boot into the single user mode, no graphics, only the good old command line.

To modify files you need to type the following

/sbin/fsck -fy (then press return)
/sbin/mount -uw / (then press return again)

You can either go straight to their respective folders to delete these four files, or you can do it in one go by typing the following commands and pressing return on your keyboard after each line:

rm -rf /Library/Preference Panes/Application Enhancer.prefpane
rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/ApplicationEnhancer.framework
rm -rf /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/ApplicationEnhancer.bundle
rm -rf /Library/Preferences/com.unsanity.ape.plist

Reboot Leopard - blue screen may appear for several minutes during system check.
Suggested - reboot your Mac from the installation DVD, open Disk Utility and repair the permissions.

My preferred way to handle deleting files is to stay within the OS and avoid the command line altogether.

SECOND MAC FIREWIRE METHOD
Another alternative (which is easier - in my opinion - if you own a second Mac) is to boot the Leopard upgrade into Firewire mode.
Connect your Leopard install to second Mac via Firewire.
Reboot Leopard install holding down "T" at boot to initiate Firewire mode.
Using second Mac, launch finder and browse Leopard install to delete files.

/Library/Preference Panes/Application Enhancer.prefpane
/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationEnhancer.framework
/System/Library/SystemConfiguration/ApplicationEnhancer.bundle
/Library/Preferences/com.unsanity.ape.plist

Unmount Leopard upgrade in second Mac's Finder.
Disconnect Firewire
Reboot Leopard - blue screen may appear for several minutes during system check.
Suggested - reboot your Mac from the installation DVD, open Disk Utility and repair the permissions.

Many (most?) Mac users are not reporting any problems in upgrading from Tiger to Leopard. The root cause of the blue screen is the unsanity app enhancer, which is a common (yet unsupported) third-party resource app.

For those who have not yet installed Leopard, the Unsanity APE app provides an uninstaller that can be used first to remove the framework before the new operating system is installed. Alternatively, users can use the "archive and install" option, which places a new copy of Leopard on the user's computer while moving older operating system files to another folder. That would have the effect of moving the potentially offending APE software to a location where it can do little to interfere with the installation process

To uninstall Application Enhancer - open your System Preferences and in the “Other” section will be the icon for Application Enhancer (If you have it installed), click it and then click the “Troubleshooting” tab, next click the “Uninstall Applications Enhancer” tab.

Given the sheer number of "power users" who have this A.P.E. installed either with or without their knowledge, I find it *very* hard to believe that Apple didn't experience more than their fair share of blue screen boots during beta testing.

Long story short, while it's not Apple's fault, per se, they certainly had an opportunity to modify the Leopard upgrade installation and (apparently) chose not to.

Popularity: 2% [?]

My Palm Treo phone (a Treo 650) has some decent output for mp3s, so I wanted to convert a song in iTunes to use as a ring tone .

How to convert a song in iTunes to ringtone for Treo:

1. Open iTunes, choose a song you like, and play it. NOTE: [purchased music won't work this way]
2. Watch the time on the top of the window and make note of the start time you want the sound to start and the sound to end….so for example, it you like the part of song 30 seconds into it then that would be your start time and if it ends 20 seconds later then your start time is :30 and your end time is :50
3. With the song still selected, go to File>Get Info
4. This brings up the window with Summary, Info, Options, Lyrics and Artwork, CLICK options.
5. Now just add the start and end times.
6. Close window
7. With the song still selected….go to ADVANCED>Convert Selection to Mp3. It will make a copy of the snippet for you in Mp3 format. Your original song remains untouched.
8. Drag the new Mp3 into the Install on Card window in Missing Sync. And do a sync and BINGO…you have customized ringtones added to your SD card on your Treo!!!

If you want to take this one step further, you can assign a different ringtone per caller using mRing.

Enjoy!

Popularity: 3% [?]

With me living out of the hotel in Orlando, I'm miles and miles away from my Tivo and the ESPN Gameplan college football package. I have to tell you - the separation has been killing me. (And my wife & dogs, too, of course.) If only there was some way to have access to my DirecTV, Tivos, and ESPN Gameplan when I'm in Orlando.

Enter the Slingbox AV.

The Slingbox links my DirecTV/Tivo to a private channel on the internet, allowing me to access my stuff anywhere in the world - just like if I were home! In other words, the Slingbox "slings" (beams) my entertainment center anywhere I go with internet access. (demo)

I can watch anything I've recorded, watch live TV on either/both tuners, and program new recordings - all through a virtual Tivo remote that looks just like the one I use at home.

The compression is exceptional, so — provided you have a broadband connection — there is very little noticeable degradation. It's literally just like watching TV.

The setup was quick and painless. Plug it in, plug in the network and away you go. The Slingbox will even set itself up in your router so that you may access it from anywhere worldwide without having to mess with any settings (port forwarding, etc).

If you travel frequently and miss a lot of your favorite programs/channels/team's games, you should definitely check out the Slingbox. I know it probably sounds like I'm shilling for them (I'm not), but this is a seriously awesome product - especially for sports fans.

I am 100% smitten with the Slingbox-ness.

Popularity: 3% [?]