If you disabled spelling auto-correct in Mac OS X Lion but find yourself still being autocorrected as you type various words in Safari, that’s because Safari 5.1 has a separate spelling and grammar engine than the core OS. Here’s how to turn it off:

• Open a new Safari window and select a text-input box by clicking into it (here’s a quick link to our comments if you want to use that)
• Pull down the Edit menu and scroll down to “Spelling and Grammar”
• Select “Correct Spelling Automatically” so that the check no longer appears next to it

You can disable Safaris spell checking here too, but the autocorrect feature is what actually causes your words to change themselves rather than just be highlighted by the checking feature.

As if there was any doubt that Apple is the innovator here, here’s an amusing graphic showing the design of tablets before and after the launch of the iPad.

Similar graphics exist comparing the iPhone and smartphones too, DaringFireball links to a few comparing the before-and-after iPhone changes to Android phones. Entertaining find from Gruber.

Skitch, a simple image editor for Mac OS X, is now available free from the Mac App Store. Skitch calls itself an image swiss army knife, but you can think of it like Preview on steroids, with your standard basic image editing features of rotating, cropping, flipping, in addition to various screen grabbing features and the ability to annotate images with pen, text, shape, and arrow tools. The official feature list is:

• Screen grab your desktop, web browser or apps
• Annotate with pen, text, shapes and arrows
• Instantly upload to skitch.com, Flickr, FTP & .me
• Resize, crop, rotate & flip images
• Capture full length (longer than your screen) websites
• Take photos with your built in webcam
• Open and save in many different image formats
• Archive and re-use images from your Skitch history

Of course the other side to Skitch is that you can instantly upload and share images to Skitch.com directly through the app, which makes sharing pictures extremely easy.

Download Skitch for free from the Mac App Store

In case you were wondering, Skitch used to be $9.99 but is now free because it was bought out by Evernote, which is a great note taking and syncing utility.

New to Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is the ability to resize any window from any corner or side, just grab onto it, and when your cursor turns into the little double-sided arrow, start dragging. That’s a great addition, but it’s even better when some modifier keys are applied.

Mac OS X Lion Window Resizing Modifier Keys

• Click and Hold Shift - Resizes the window in the direction you are pulling, while maintaining the windows existing aspect ratio
• Click and Hold Option – Resizes the window from the side you are dragging as well as the side directly opposite
• Click and Hold Option+Shift – Combines both to resize the window in all directions while maintaining the aspect ratio, from the center of the window outward

I had known about the first two, but the last combo was found on MacGasm, so head’s up to those guys for the tip.

Prior to Mac OS X 10.7, you used to be able to click on the “Mac OS X” text to display additional system information about the Mac, showing things like IP Address, OS X version and build number, and the machines Hostname. Apple pulled that ability out of Mac OS X Lion, but you can get part of it back with a defaults write command.

• Launch the Terminal and enter the following command:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow AdminHostInfo HostName

• At the login screen, click on the Clock to see the system info at the login screen

You will need to enter the admin password when asked, and the setting will be in place the next time you access the Mac OS X Lion login screen. Remember, you have to click on the Clock for the hostname and version info to be visible on the login screen. The text will appear alongside the other menubar items.

Clicking to display the text is similar to past versions of Mac OS X, but clicking on the clock is somewhat unintuitive. Ideally, you could show this data in the same way you can add a message to the Lion login screen, but there are currently no known methods to do that unless you want to just manually add the hostname and version number yourself. There are more options regarding the Lion login window in the Server version of the OS, so maybe some of those will be able to move over to the Client version too.

Ahhhh the user Library folder has disappeared again! If you already installed Mac OS X 10.7.1 update, you may have noticed that your user library directory is hidden, again, returning it to the default invisible state that Lion wants. Mildly annoying, but it should be expected that system updates will revert things to how Apple intends. Anyway, here’s a quick refresher on how to show the user library folder again in OS X 10.7.1 (or any other version of OS X)

Launch the Terminal and enter the following command:
chflags nohidden ~/Library

Changes take effect immediately and your user library folder will be shown in the user home directory.

The temporary quick methods to access user library in OS X Lion still work too if you don’t want ~/Library to be visible all the time. Those include:

1. Holding down Option and clicking on the “Go” menu to show “Library” as a choice
2. Hitting Command+Shift+G and typing ~/Library/

Realistically, if you don’t have any business mucking about in your Library files, caches, preferences, and app data, you probably don’t need the Library folder visible, which is obviously why Apple is hiding it by default in Lion.

Thanks to Albert for pointing this out.

Whether you’re a UX or UI designer, app developer, or just want to create some mockups of Mac OS X Lion apps for fun, don’t miss these free OS X Lion UI Element kits from designers Jonatan Castro and Joshua Geiger. The GUI kits come as well labeled multi-layered PSD files that have all the main user interface elements from OS X Lion, ranging from sliders, dials, checkboxes, buttons, tabs, just about everything you can think of.

Download Lion UI Kit PSD file from Dribbble (shown above)

Download Lion UI Kit from SuiteTuts (shown below)

The two kits are slightly different and combine to be fairly complete, with the second kit focusing more on Desktop and Finder elements. The only thing I can find missing is the blue active button you see in things like Save dialogs, but chances are the PSD files will be updated to include that sometime in the near future, and regardless both are well worth the free download.

You can also download similar free GUI element PSD files for iPhone and iPad mockups too.

Mac OS X Lion brings a revamped Preview app that includes the extremely useful Digital Signature feature built right in. Using your Macs built-in iSight camera to capture your signature, Preview can keep multiple electronic signatures on file which can then be appended to PDF’s.

Setting a Digital Signature in OS X Lion Preview

• Launch Preview, and from the Preview menu select “Preferences”
• Click on “Signatures” and then “Create Signature”
• Write your signature on a piece of white paper and hold it up to the camera, try to have it somewhat straight on the blue line and watch the “Signature Preview” pane until you are satisfied with the way it looks
• Click on “Accept” to capture the digital signature

Now you can access and stamp your signature onto any PDF files opened within Preview. Technically you can store multiple signatures, so if you want to set additional ones or if your signature has changed, it’s the same steps as above.

Using the Digital Signature in OS X Lion Preview

• Open the PDF file you want to sign
• Click on the Annotations button (pencil icon) followed by the Signatures button (see image below)
• Now click within the document where you want the signature to appear

Voila, once the PDF is signed, just save the document and it’s ready to be used.

This works quite well and it’s a lot faster than printing out, signing, then scanning or faxing a document just so you can get your signature onto something. If you haven’t set your elecronic signature yet in Mac OS X, do it, it’s a very useful feature.

Mac OS X 10.7.1 update has been released by Apple for all OS X Lion users to download. One of the most significant bug fixes pertains to dropping WiFi issues, so if you have been experiencing connectivity problems don’t miss this update. Other fixes address issues with HDMI and optical audio, Safari video, and migrating data to OS X Lion.

The update is rather slim at 17.4 MB through Software Update for most Mac users, but there are also separate updates available specifically for MacBook Air 2011 and Mac Mini 2011 models that address issues with those machines too.

Mac OS X 10.7.1 Update Download Links

You can download the OS X 10.7.1 update through Software Update, but if you would rather download the update manually as a DMG for local use, you can do so from Apple:

• Download OS X 10.7.1 Update (Client)
• Download OS X 10.7.1 Update (Server)
• Update for MacBook Air 2011 or Mac Mini 2011
• Update for Mac Mini Server 2011

Release notes from Apple are posted below:
Read more »

You may be able to pre-order iPhone 5 as soon as September 30, with the actual launch still occurring in early October, according to a new report from 9to5mac.

Noting that the precise launch and pre-order dates could likely change again, 9to5mac says:

We are reasonably confident, though, that as of today, Apple is planning to unleash their next iPhone on October 7th and offer pre-orders starting on September 29th or 30th.

Pre-orders for the next iPhone would be a welcome change from Apple’s most recent iOS device launch, the iPad 2, which consistently sold out and was nearly impossible to get your hands on for several months. The demand for past iPhone and iPad product launches practically guarantees that iPhone 5 will sell out immediately as well, making pre-orders even more important.

iPhone 5 is expected to have a dual core A5 CPU, an 8MP camera, possibly a redesigned case resembling the MacRumors mockup above, and there is some recent evidence pointing to 4G LTE capabilities. Stay tuned for more.