Preview in Mac OS X Lion brought with it several improvements and new features like digital signatures, but it also removed some very useful abilities like the file size estimator, Save As, and added the sometimes obnoxious Auto-Save.

If you miss the old version of Preview from Snow Leopard, and you either have a Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard machine or backup handy, you can restore the older version of Preview (5.0.1) from Snow Leopard to run in OS X 10.7 Lion. Here is how to do this without replacing the OS X Lion version of the app (5.5.1), just in case you want to go revert to the newer version again.

1. From Snow Leopard, make a copy of these folders and transfer them to the desktop of the Mac OS X Lion machine:

/Applications/Preview.app
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MeshKit.framework/

2. From OS X Lion, rename the old Preview.app to something else like “PreviewSnow.app”
3. Copy PreviewSnow.app to the /Applications/ folder in OS X Lion
4. Copy “MeshKit.framework” to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ in OS X Lion and authenticate the change – this folder should not exist on the Lion machine already and you will not be overwriting anything else

Launch PreviewSnow.app from /Applications and it will run as usual, minus the frustrating Lion features and feature removals. If you want to set PreviewSnow.app as the new default app, right click on an image filetype, select “Get Info” and under the “Open With” menu find PreviewSnow.app and then click the “Change All” button underneath:

A true “Save As” is also back with this version, which is better than using the Export or Duplicate functions for many of us.

Excluding folders and files from Time Machine backups is very easy and can make a big difference in the size and speed of backups on a Mac:

• Launch System Preferences and click on “Time Machine”
• Click on “Options”
• Drag and drop folders into the ‘Exclude items from backup’ list
• Click Save and close out of System Preferences

If you’re averse to dragging and dropping, you can also click the + plus button and manually select items and folders to exclude. Removing items from the exclusion list is a matter of clicking the name and hitting either the Delete key or clicking the minus button in the exclusion window.

Changes will not impact past Time Machine backups, but future backups with Time Machine will acknowledge the exclusion list and prevent those items from being backed up.

It’s generally a good idea to keep a complete backup of a Mac, and if you don’t know what to exclude you probably shouldn’t exclude anything.

You can now run Siri directly on the iPad 2, thanks to the recent A5 jailbreak and a few third party tools. While Siri works as expected and will answer your questions and inquiries, getting this all put together isn’t exactly for the impatient and it’s a somewhat lengthy procedure with a fair amount of setup required. If you’re interested in this, here’s what you’ll need to get started:

• Jailbreak iPad 2 with Absinthe – must be on iOS 5.0.1
• Spire and iFile installed – free downloads via Cydia
• SiriProxy running on a computer – Mac OS X, Windows, or Linux

Jailbreaking and installing Spire are the easy parts, it’s really the SiriProxy aspect that requires the most work. It’s also not without risk, as iDB tells us:

This could make your iPad kick into “iPhone mode” which makes your screen look funky, as everything is sized for iPhone. A quick respring should fix this, but you’ve been warned. I had no problems with it, but it’s worth noting

Read the full walkthrough on how to set it up at iDB or check out their great video below to get an idea of what’s entailed in the process.

If you think it’s more trouble than it’s worth, there are rumors that the iPad 3 may include Siri as well, but that won’t be known for certain one way or another until around March.

iPhone serial numbers aren’t just randomly generated, they actually contain some interesting information about the device and it’s history, including what factory it was made in and when, the color of the iPhone, and it’s storage capacity.

If you want to follow along here with an iPhone, you can get the serial number by tapping on Settings > General > About and scrolling down alongside other info like model, IMEI, and baseband firmware version. If the device is connected to a computer you can also look under the “Summary” tab of iTunes to find the serial number.

Reading an iPhone Serial Number

Serial numbers come in the form AABCCDDDEEF which can be read as follows:

• AA = Factory and machine ID
• B = Year manufactured (simplified to final digit, 2010 is 0, 2011 is 1, etc)
• CC = Week of production
• DDD = Unique identifier (but unrelated to UDID)
• EE = Color of device
• F = Size of storage, S is 16GB and T is 32GB

For example, the serial 79049XXXA4S is from factory 79 (presumably Foxconn), was manufactured in 2010 in the 49th week, and is a black 16GB iPhone 4. Some older phones have slightly different labeling, like the iPhone 3G and 3GS may refer to 16GB as “K” rather than S, but for newer hardware this should continue to be accurate unless Apple changes something.

This was discovered a while back by iFixIt during the whole iPhone 4 Antennagate thing as they were trying to figure out what devices were impacted, and if Apple was quietly making changes to the hardware. At this point it’s just a fun way to learn more about your iPhone, so thanks to Tim R. for sending in the tip.

On the much less technical side, you can also use the serial number to check warranty information for the phone, including eligibility for an extended AppleCare plan.

Update: The serial numbers of iPhone 4 CDMA and iPhone 4S are a bit different and don’t follow the same structure. Here are the three digit suffixes for iPhones that do fall into the readability list (thanks Michael):

VR0 (iPhone 2G Silver 4GB)
WH8 (iPhone 2G Silver 8GB)
0KH (iPhone 2G Silver 16GB)
Y7H (iPhone 3G Black 8GB)
Y7K (iPhone 3G Black 16GB)
3NP (iPhone 3GS Black 16GB)
3NR (iPhone 3GS Black 32GB)
3NQ (iPhone 3Gs White 16GB)
3NS (iPhone 3Gs White 32GB)
A4S (iPhone 4 Black 16GB)
A4T (iPhone 4 Black 32GB)

Macs have always had the classic boot chime that announces the system has begun startup or has rebooted, but if you’re in a quiet place you don’t always want that sound to play. You may know that you can temporarily mute the Mac by holding down the Mute key during boot or reboot, but if you are looking for a more permanent solution, check out StartNinja. A free and simple utility that gives users the ability to disable the startup chime, StartNinja will keep the Macs boot sound quiet while allowing the Mac to retain normal sound function otherwise.

• Download StartupNinja for free from developer AllVu

For those running Mac OS X 10.6.8 or prior, holding mute works on a per boot basis, or there is a system preference panel that gives the same ability to disable the boot sound.

Thanks to vijay for the tip in our comments

The default behavior for most command line tools is to show sizes in bytes, for tiny text files that is fine but when you start working with larger items this becomes difficult to read and interpret. The solutions is fairly simple, pass a “human readable” flag with the command, which will convert bytes to a much more meaningful human readable format of kilobytes (kb) , megabytes (mb) , and gigabytes (gb).

Generally, seeing things as human readable is just a matter of passing an -h flag along with the command. Three prominent examples are with ls, du, and df:
ls -lh

df -h

du -h

Read on for some specifics about each:
Read more »

Apple fans have another book to add to their reading lists, this time focusing on the business side of things. Titled Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired – and Secretive – Company Really Works, the reader gets an in depth look at Apple’s unique culture and internal processes, ranging from it’s legendary secrecy to how it creates and markets everyones favorite products.

Here’s the official description from Amazon:

INSIDE APPLE reveals the secret systems, tactics and leadership strategies that allowed Steve Jobs and his company to churn out hit after hit and inspire a cult-like following for its products.

If Apple is Silicon Valley’s answer to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, then author Adam Lashinsky provides readers with a golden ticket to step inside. In this primer on leadership and innovation, the author will introduce readers to concepts like the “DRI” (Apple’s practice of assigning a Directly Responsible Individual to every task) and the Top 100 (an annual ritual in which 100 up-and-coming executives are tapped a la Skull & Bones for a secret retreat with company founder Steve Jobs).

Based on numerous interviews, the book offers exclusive new information about how Apple innovates, deals with its suppliers and is handling the transition into the Post Jobs Era. Lashinsky, a Senior Editor at Large for Fortune, knows the subject cold: In a 2008 cover story for the magazine entitled The Genius Behind Steve: Could Operations Whiz Tim Cook Run The Company Someday he predicted that Tim Cook, then an unknown, would eventually succeed Steve Jobs as CEO.

While Inside Apple is ostensibly a deep dive into one, unique company (and its ecosystem of suppliers, investors, employees and competitors), the lessons about Jobs, leadership, product design and marketing are universal. They should appeal to anyone hoping to bring some of that Apple magic to their own company, career, or creative endeavor.

If you were a fan of the official Steve Jobs biography, you’ll probably enjoy this book too. You can get Inside Apple on Amazon.com for $16, Kindle and iBooks versions are also available.

We recently showed you how to password protect files and folders using encrypted Disk Images in Mac OS X, but if you have an external drive you can go a step further. By using encrypted disk partitions, any drive, be it a USB key, flash drive, hard disk, or whatever else, can be set to require a password before the drive can be mounted and the files accessed.

Require a Password to Access External Drives with an Encrypted Partition

Doing this will format the external drive and erase all of it’s contents, back up the contents before proceeding, and do not lose the set password.

1. Launch “Disk Utility” from /Applications/Utilities/
2. Connect the drive you want password protected
3. Select the drive in Disk Utility, and click on the “Erase” tab
4. Pull down the “Format” menu and choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)”



5. Click on “Erase”
6. At the next screen, set a password – do not lose this password or you will lose access to the drives data
7. Set a hint that isn’t obvious and then click on “Erase”



8. Let Disk Utility run, when finished the drives partition will show up on the desktop, the drive will be accessible for now without a password allowing files to be transferred over. Eject the disk when finished to require a password upon further mounting and usage.

Once the drive has been ejected, connecting it again will require a password before it is even mounted. That screen will look like this:

Clicking on “Remember password in keychain” will allow the drive to be mounted on the Mac without entering the password on that Mac, but it will still require a password to be used on another Mac. For maximum security, it’s best to leave that option unchecked.

For system-wide security measures, don’t forget to password protect a Mac with both login and screen saver passwords, and if you don’t mind the trade offs, to use FileVault to encrypt the entire hard drive and its contents.

Developer build Mac OS X 10.7.3 11D50 has been released to registered Mac developers, this is the sixth dev build of the next update to Mac OS X, and arrives nearly a week after the last 10.7.3 build showed up.

With no known issues, the emphasis is still on iCloud, Address Book, iCal, Mail, Spotlight and Safari. MacRumors notes the builds description suggests “the main improvements in OS X 10.7.3 will be support for several new languages and fixes for issues related to smart cards, directory services authentication, and Windows file sharing.”

Several developer releases of OS X 10.7.3 have been pushed out with no known issues, although a final build hasn’t been made available to the public yet.

Apple has reported an absolute blowout first quarter for fiscal 2012, far exceeding any analysts expectations across the entire product lineup. Record iPhone sales, huge iPad and iPod sales, big Mac sales, giant revenues and profits, Apple is on fire. Take a look at some of these numbers:

Q1 2012 Financials:

• $46.33 billion in revenue
• $13.06 billion net profit
• International sales accounted for 58% of quarters revenue
• Gross margins of 44.7%
• Apple is currently holding over $97,600,000,000 (yes, billion) in cash

Q1 2012 Hardware Numbers:

• 37.04 million iPhones sold
• 15.43 million iPads sold
• 15.4 million iPods sold
• 5.2 million Macs sold

Q1 2012 Other Numbers:

• 85 million iCloud users
• 140 million App Store downloads on Christmas Day alone
• 110 million visitors to Apple Stores

On the quarter, CEO Tim Cook says:

“We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs. Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.”

You can read more about this quarters results on Apple.com

In after hours trading, Apple is now the most valuable company in the world.