Archive for the 'Apple' Category

Last year there were rumors being spread about the end of InputManagers in Leopard. The rumors contained horrifying details about the end of InputManager and SIMBL. One developer, Emanuele Vulcano, developed PlugSuit, a new way to apply SIMBL InputManagers. This guarantees that these plug-ins would not meet their demise. Although the rumors turned out to be false, this development ensures the existence of application plug-ins for years to come.

On the Mac, there are many web browsers available. Mozilla Firefox is a great cross-platform browser, but until recent betas it hasn’t been very efficient or overall good-looking on the Mac. Apple’s Safari is simple and elegant, but lacks any official plug-ins, making it difficult to do the kind of advanced work that you can with Firefox extensions. For today, we’re going to be focusing on these two popular browsers. Many people seem to like the simplicity and integrated interface of Safari, but wish that they could have the wide array of extensions available for Firefox at their disposal.

With the release of Leopard came over 300 new features. Some of these new features includes Time Machine, Screen Sharing, and Quick Look. I find Quick Look to be the most useful addition to Mac OS X. Upon installing Leopard, Mac users had one gripe — they complained that Quick Look could not handle all of the file extensions that they used in their daily lives. To solve this problem, developers created plug-ins for Quick Look in order to make it more compatible with different file extensions.

Being a blogger for MacApper gives me the chance to become skilled in the art of using Apple’s “Grab” feature. This mighty feature allows its controller to take screenshots of any part of the computer. With Leopard’s arrival, more interesting features have come to grab, assisting my fellow knowledgeable bloggers. We would like to share with you the shortcuts necessary in order to get the best screenshot possible from your Apple computer.

Many of us are dependent on Amazon for everything from books and video games to batteries and toilet paper. Nearly six months ago the online shopping behemoth launched their MP3 store amidst hopes of topping Apple in the music download arena. Besting Apple may prove an uphill battle, however. In the months following the Amazon MP3 store launch, iTunes became the number 1 music retailer in the US.

Despite iTunes’ big lead, Amazon still has a lot going for it. If you haven’t yet made a purchase via the Amazon MP3 store here is what you’ve been missing out on: Amazon sells high quality, non-DRM MP3 downloads for less than a buck each.

I am very happy about the direction in which the Mac OS X GUI is going, although sadly many Mac users aren’t interested in (or don’t know about) the “lower levels” of the Macintosh Operating System. Have you ever wondered why the Terminal greets you with the words “Welcome to Darwin”? Why do BSD and Mac OS share certain bits of code? Why does Wikipedia describe Mac OS X as a graphical operating system? Today we’re going to take a look at the underlying open source technology which powers your fancy Leopard OS - the hidden core set of components, named Darwin.

Back on March 20th, MacApper was sent exclusive video of Ollie Wagner and Geoff Pado’s new app Misu. Since, then Misu v1.0 has been released, and is available to the general public. Now that Misu has been released to the public, I can now go into more detail about what Misu actualy does.

The first thing that Misu asks you to do is to connect at least two iPods to your computer. So right right from the start, you require three things for Misu to work. Two iPods, two iPod cables, and at least two free USB ports. Once you connect two or more iPods, you will see their icons appear on top of the window.

Time Machine was an awesome addition to OS X, and it works brilliantly. However, to me, it can be a bit annoying to have Time Machine in the Dock; I’m always hitting it when I don’t mean to. So to solve this little problem, I’ve found a better place to keep it…Finder!

Time Machine is part of the Finder (thinking a little outside the box), as it is basically an extension of the Finder’s functionality, so why not make it a little bit more part of the Finder - Drag the Time Machine icon, from the Applications folder onto the top pane of the Finder window, et voilà! - you can remove it from your dock, and still have a quick way back to the past

Google the phrase “execute Automator workflows” and you’ll find tips on incorporating workflows into existing applications or running them from the command line. The Apple document Mac 101: Automator will give you the basics on saving your workflow as something other than a workflow, but let’s talk about the ways that we incorporate Automator into the everyday use of our Macs. Usually, if you’re a mouse person, you’ll double-click the workflow, Automator will open, and you’ll click the play button to run. In this post I’ve included some time-saving ways to execute Automator actions and incorporate them into the Finder.

After recently doing some spring cleaning on my iPod Touch during my move from 1.1.3 to 1.1.4, I decided to try a few new applications. One of these applications is called Touchpad Pro, and simply put, it’s a way to easily control your trackpad and keyboard remotely.

One day of the week is more famous than any other for our favourite, fruit-based company. Tuesday. Everything that is anything at Apple is revealed on a Tuesday, and I believe that a recent Fortune article has revealed why Tuesday is the day.

So “Why?” I hear you ask — well it sounds like it’s all due to Apple’s compulsion for perfection: Marathon Monday Meetings.

After topping Fortune’s coveted “Fortune 500″ list, Fortune has run a series of articles on the company, including an extremely interesting read — a rare interview with Mr Jobs himself, where he revealed the following:

I’ve had my iPhone for months now and, until about two weeks ago, I was secretly unhappy with how it handled my email. You see, I get lots of email. Lots and lots, as a matter of fact, and it comes into twelve different accounts. I used to use Apple’s Mail to manage it on my MacBook, and all was good. But when I got my iPhone, I discovered that the phone’s lack of spam-filtering power made it literally unusable for my deluge of email.

I’ve been a long time iPhoto user, but I’ve also been a long time amateur photographer. When Apple introduced Aperture, I was, of course, very interested.

I tried it out, was promptly confused by the interface, and turned off by the price tag. Now Apple has introduced Aperture 2, I thought I’d take another test drive. I’m a happy with iPhoto, so I went into the free trial with a few things in mind.

• What does Aperture have that iPhoto doesn’t?
• What does Aperture not have that iPhoto does?
• Would Aperture be worth the $199?

Tuesdays are nearly always the Apple day of the week. It’s Apple’s release date of choice, and rightly so; it allows stock to be in stores, and hence people’s hands, by the weekend.

But 2008 has been an interesting year, and it all started with a comment at a small event, known as MacWorld from a Mr Steven P. Jobs (ever heard of him, I certainly haven’t):

No question Macs come with an array of great fonts for almost any project, be it a presentation or a research paper. In fact according to Apple, Mac OS X “includes over $10,000 worth of high quality Roman, Japanese and Chinese fonts”. This is great, but with just a tiny bit of effort, hundreds of high quality free fonts can also be at your disposal.

In just a couple easy steps you’ll have all sorts of fun new fonts to play around with, and you’ll have no more excuses to use Comic Sans or Papyrus.