I love tabbed windows and I use them everywhere I can, whether instant messaging in iChat to hoarding sites in Safari. Now you can get tabbed windows in Mac OS X’s Finder! TotalFinder is a really cool app that brings full tab functionality to the Mac desktop, allowing you to not only create tabs of Finder windows, but also the ability to drag and drop files into the tabs (and thus, the folder), and you can create a new tab by just dragging a directory to the tab bar!

This is one of the best desktop hacks I’ve ever seen on a Mac, and based on the improved usability I wouldn’t be surprised if we see tabbed Finder windows in later versions of Mac OS X.

TotalFinder is actually a SIMBL plugin, and is still under development. Technically in alpha mode, it worked well enough to be completely usable and it didn’t crash on me during testing. I’ve seen a few user reported bugs when using the split window tab mode, but I’m sure they’ll be ironed out quickly by the developer.

If you’re a fan of tabbed windows, don’t miss this.

TotalFinder Developer home
Download now

[ BinaryAge via GraphicMac ]

Do you have a large directory of movies? Not sure what each video is? If you’re in thumbnail view at a large enough resolution (looks like 68×68 is the threshold for me) or in Cover Flow view, you can play movie files directly within the Finder by hovering over their icon to display a play button. Simply click play and the video complete with sound will play seamlessly within the Mac OS X Finder window, hover while it’s playing and there’s a pause button too.

The built in Mac speakers aren’t really adequate for playing rich loud music or media, so you’ll want to get a better set. What kind of speakers to will want depend on your needs, but I’d recommend getting a quality set for your home workstation and then if you’re a road warrior get a separate set of portable speakers. I’ll go over a few options that I have direct experience with here.

The best speakers for your MacBook, MacBook Pro, or iMac

Audioengine A5 Powered Multimedia Speaker System – $325 – The sound quality on the AudioEngine A5’s is nothing short of absolutely amazing, with some great features to boot. The speakers include easy line-in to hookup your iPod/iPhone, a USB port to charge your iPod, a power outlet for hooking up an Airport Express, a built-in amplifier, and did I mention seriously amazing sound? I heard these at a friends house and knew I had to get a set myself. If you’re a music lover, audiophile, or a musician and you want truly amazing sound on a budget, just stop reading and get these speakers, your ears will thank you. No more 128kbps audio files with these, you’ll want to play 256kbps or better. My only complaint is that they don’t include a remote control. The AudioEngine A5’s come in black, white, and a snazzy bamboo.

I have to rave about the AudioEngine’s because they are without a doubt the best speakers I’ve heard at anything even close to the price range. For a Mac (or iPod or any PC really) they produce the highest quality sound possible without spending a ton of money.

Ok now I realize not everyone wants to spend $325 for near studio quality sound on their Mac, or they just want something smaller, so here’s some decent options that are significantly cheaper:

Cheap but good speakers for your MacBook, MacBook Pro, or iMac

Altec Lansing BXR1220 2.0 Speakers – $15 – these are small speakers with surprisingly decent sound for their size. Don’t expect deep rich bass or anything though, it’s just not really possible with something this compact and without a subwoofer.

Logitech S220 2.1 Speakers with Subwoofer – $24 – Now if you’re less concerned about space and portability, for about $25 these speakers produce some great bass thanks to the included subwoofer. A friend of mine has these hooked up his MacBook and plays them quite loud at BBQ’s and I’m always impressed that for the sound quality they’re so cheap.

Altec Lansing VS4121 Audio System – $60 – I had a pair of Altec Lansings just like these on my Mac before I got some AudioEngine A5’s, and I was always happy with their sound quality. The subwoofer helps produce rich bass and the speakers provide loud and quality sound for music, movies, and gaming.

Ultra portable speakers for your MacBook and MacBook Pro

Altec Lansing iML237USB Ultra Portable Speakers – $49 – This thing is small and ultra portable, the main downside is that it draws from USB to take power so you’ll be losing a USB port. If you’re a serious roadwarrior though and you’re more concerned with bag space than overall sound richness and just need something loud for teleconferencing, entertainment, or presentations, this is a good choice. I first saw one of these when a someone brought it out of his bag during a presentation, it looked like a chubby YoYo.

B-Flex 2 Stereo USB Speaker – $39 – These are a fascinating speaker, it plugs into your USB port and then has a flexible arm to aim in any which direction. I admit I haven’t heard these myself but they were recommended by a friend for their portability and sound quality, and I trust his opinion so Ill include them. For maximum portability and cord-free speakers these look like a great bet.

What about speakers for the Mac Pro and Mac Mini?

My suggestions for the Mac Mini would be the same as the other Mac’s, but since the Mini is so tiny and stylish I figure Mini owners will be more particular about the appearance of their speakers. In regards to the Mac Pro, since it’s more of a professionals machine I would imagine a Mac Pro user would want professional grade speakers, while the AudioEngine A5’s certainly meet that requirement on a budget, there are other options geared specifically towards audio professionals, but I have no personal experience with that kind of high-end sound equipment.

Obviously there are many other options out there for Mac speakers, but these are just the ones I have come across relatively recently. Feel free to share your own speaker suggestions or experiences in the comments.

You can easily and quickly preview fonts within Mac OS X by navigating to the font directory in /Library/Fonts/ and changing the Finder view to Cover Flow mode. Now flicking through all your available fonts is easy as can be.

An alternative method to preview fonts is navigating to /Library/Fonts/ (Hit Command+Shift+G in the Mac Finder and type in the path) and then selecting list view, and then hit the Spacebar to enter into Quick Look mode, you’ll now be able to scroll through every font and see the full alphabet rendered in the selected font in lowercase and uppercase.

You can view .PSD Adobe Photoshop files directly in Mac OS X with no additional software, thanks to Quick Look and Preview.

To get a fast preview of a PSD file, simply select the document within the Finder and hit the Spacebar to launch the PSD file rendered in Mac OS X’s very own Quick Look. If you want a bit more control over viewing the PSD file (zoom, resize, whatever), you can take it a step further by opening the PSD document within the Preview app, just drag and drop it onto the application icon and away you go (note some versions of Mac OS X will automatically open PSD files within Preview if you just double-click on them, assuming Photoshop is not installed on the Mac).

If you want to edit a PSD file with the same type of capabilities as Photoshop without paying for it, you could try using Gimp, a free open source Photoshop clone. It’s not perfect but works pretty well for image editing, and if you’re not trying to do anything overly complex, it’ll save you a few hundred bucks.

Why is Apple so successful? Look at what, and how, they sell.

* You walk into a beautiful Apple Store

* You’re presented with amazingly attractive machines

* The packaging is clean, minimal, and enticing

* The operating system is simple to use yet amazingly powerful

I came across a post simplifying this on MinimalMac and found myself completely agreeing. Buying an Apple product, especially a Mac, is an experience from the start to the finish.

It’s an experience I’ve never been able to replicate when buying a PC, which typically comes from a loud and generic electronics store with product overload, and that sensory overload never ends: open the PC box and you have stacks of paper warranties and user manuals, various driver disks, promotional offers for this and that, a ton of cables and cords haphazardly thrown in a box. Then you finally boot the thing up just to be overwhelmed with a Windows install that has been bloated up a storm with OEM garbageware and 20 icons on your desktop… there is just no comparison, you don’t get that from Apple and you never will.

This is exactly why they’re so successful, Apple just gets it.

Now, MinimalMac does a more elegant job of telling the story than I do via fewer words and a few pictures, so be sure to scroll through them, it’ll only take a second and for four pictures, it does a good job of capturing the Apple buying experience.

MinimalMac: What Apple Sells

If you’re a developer and you haven’t found out about FileMerge yet, you are missing out on one of the more useful apps included within Apple’s XCode installation. FileMerge lets you select any two files and it will compare the two, pointing out any differences between the files. If you’re a developer you already know why this is wildly useful, as it makes tracking down major and minor code changes remarkably easy. Apparently FileMerge is a survivor from the days of NeXTStep, and once you see how useful it is, you’ll see why it was saved and bundled with XCode.

XCode can be installed from the CD/DVD’s included with your Mac, or downloaded for free from the Apple Developer site. Once XCode has been installed, FileMerge will be located at /Developer/Applications/Utilities/FileMerge

[ FileMerge screenshot from Schwehr.org ]

Want to quickly setup a free proxy server? This article and video from Labnol.org is about as easy as it gets. The walkthrough is geared to Windows users but the technology, software, and setup is practically identical on a Mac, just download the Mac versions of python and Google App Engine SDK rather than Windows versions.

Labnol: Setup a Proxy Server in 5 minutes

You can quickly Get Info on any file or application from within Spotlight, simply highlight the file you want to Get Info on and hit Command+i to pull up the Get Info window. Very handy!

Apple’s Mac OS X operating system is continuing to grow in popularity, with a recent survey showing that Apple’s Mac OS X now accounts for nearly 11% of web usage, vs 86.8% with Windows and 1.3% for mobile based browsers.

What’s even more interesting though is that Apple’s share has grown 29.4% over the past year, while Microsoft’s Windows share actually shrunk 3.8%!

You can read more at VentureBeat: OS X slowly chipping away at Microsoft