If you use your Mac at night or in the dark, you need to do your eyes and brain a favor by downloading Flux. The idea behind Flux is simple; when the sun is down you shouldn’t be staring at the immensely bright computer screen that is made to mimic sunlight. Instead, your displays lighting should become warmer and softer, mimicking the lighting in your room.

Settings are simple, set your location (or zip code) and what kind of lighting your computer is located in, and set the lighting transition speed. Flux does the rest, at sundown your display becomes warmer and easier on the eyes, and at sunrise the display is back to its bright usual self.

What does Flux look like on the Mac?
You can’t really take a screenshot of the changes so I cast a light hue on a screenshot to give you an idea of the subtle change. Default is on the left, and Flux adjusted is on the right:
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Mac OS X 10.7 Lion will support the TRIM function for SSD’s, this should significantly boost the lifespan and performance of SSD drives. Hints for support were first discovered last year by Anandtech, but now HardMac has confirmed that support is included in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview.

TRIM is important because it allows the operating system to notify an SSD which blocks of data are no longer in use on the drive, allowing them to be wiped and written over more efficiently. Without TRIM, an SSD drive can become gradually slower over time as blocks that were once in use become slower to write new data over.

Somewhat lost in the hubbub of the MacBook Pro 2011 refresh and Mac OS X Lion 10.7 Developer Preview was the launch of FaceTime HD, which is now finalized and available for all Mac users to download from the Mac App Store. The new version supports 720p video calls, but in order to make 720p calls you’d need a Mac with an HD camera (like the new MacBook Pro’s), otherwise you’ll maintain the current VGA quality video.

FaceTime costs $1 now? I thought it was free? What gives?
While the beta release of FaceTime was free, the final release of FaceTime costs $0.99. Apparently charging for FaceTime is due to an accounting requirement (MacGasm explains this if you’re interested), but I think it also serves the purpose of getting Mac users familiar with downloading apps from the Mac App Store. I say this because I think the upgrade to Mac OS X 10.7 Lion will be available as a paid download through the Mac App Store, but this could just be wishful thinking on my part too.

Get it now from the Mac App Store for $0.99 (direct link)

We know a few of our readers wanted the Fuji wallpaper out of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview, so here it is in high resolution glory (2560×1600). Click for the full version, it’s a rather large 5MB JPEG.

You can also get the gorgeous Mac OS X Lion space galaxy wallpaper from Versions if you want it.

Thanks for sending this in S.E.!

Apple released a Developer Preview of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, included are many features that were seen in the October “Back to the Mac” event, in addition to several new ideas.

Highlighted features of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Preview

Many Lion features are borrowed from iOS:

• Launchpad – iOS style app launching and folder management
• Full-screen apps
• Mission Control – Encompasses Dashboard & Expose as a super window manager
• Gestures & animations – extensive multi-touch support
• Auto-Save
• Versions – built-in version control of all documents, in an interface similar to Time Machine
• Resume – saves your Macs last state after reboot, all apps, sites, and documents included
• Mail 5 - very similar to Mail on iPad
• AirDrop – instant wireless document transfers
• Lion Server – now built into Mac OS X Lion, no longer a separate OS

The Developer Preview requires a 64-bit Core 2 Duo processor or newer, and you must currently be running 10.6.6 in order to download the preview release.

Downloading & Installing Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview

If you’re a registered Apple Developer, go to Mac Dev Center to download your copy of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview, it weighs in at a hefty 3.6GB.

Each installation of Mac OS X Lion seed requires a redemption code from the Mac Dev Center, preventing unauthorized users from running the developer release software.

Want to hide the Mac menu bar? You can do that and set a few more options to automatically hide and show the menu bar with a free utility called MenuEclipse, the end result is pretty similar to the way you can automatically hide and show the Dock. In the screenshot above, I have the menubar completely hidden, but it will activate if I move the cursor over the menu bar.

If you rely on the menu bar often, hiding it from view isn’t the most practical thing in the world, so instead you can give it a subtle shade that automatically dims when it’s not in use. Below is the Mac OS X menu in the dimly “hidden” mode, but it’s still visible:

The effect is actually closer to auto-dimming and auto-highlighting of the menubar, since the menu bar shades and then brightens again when you hover over it with your cursor. Below is the screenshot of when the cursor is over the menubar, which brightens it up to be usable again:
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A friend called me last night frantic that suddenly Safari had become the default web browser on her Mac again, presumably the change was caused by a software update but nonetheless they were very annoyed since they prefer Chrome and couldn’t figure out how to set it back. If you find yourself in this situation, here’s how to switch back to use Chrome as your full time web browser:

Set Chrome to be the Default Web Browser

• From the Chrome menu, select Preferences
• Click on the “Basics” tab
• At the bottom of the Basics preferences, click on “Make Google Chrome my default browser”

That’s all there is to it, now all links will open in Chrome again.

You can usually set the default browser to whatever you want via the apps preferences, but if all else fails, you can always just set the default web browser in Mac OS X through Safari (yes, you use Safari to set the default even if you choose not to use Safari as the default).

As most modern OS’s go, Mac OS X is generally pretty intelligent with how it prioritizes processes. That said, if you want to give any running task an extra kick in the pants, you can use a free tool called Process Renicer. Launching the app gives you a task manager of sorts where you can double-click on any running process and then adjust it’s “nice” value to increase it’s CPU priority. The app is basically just a GUI frontend to the command line tool ‘renice’ which is generally for advanced users.

Giving any task a lower nice value will up it’s priority, and giving it a higher nice value will lower it’s CPU priority. This sounds paradoxical, but that’s just the way it works.

Most users won’t need an app like this, but if you want to push along a video conversion for your iPhone or something similar, you can do so. Remember that if you adjust the nice process downward dramatically, your CPU load is going to go through the roof and ignite your fans.

ProcessRenicer is a free download from developer EOSGarden.com

You can instantly change file permissions in Mac OS X without getting your hands dirty in the command line. All you need to do is access the “Get Info” panel for the file in question:

• Select the file or app in the Finder you want to edit permissions for
• Hit Command+i to “Get Info” about the selected file (or go to File > Get Info)
• At the bottom of the Get Info window, you’ll see “Sharing & Permissions”, select the arrow to drop down the options
• Adjust permissions per user: read and write, read only, or no access

When you’re finished setting permissions and privileges, close the Get Info window and the changes take effect immediately.

One of our readers pointed out that you can use Get Info to adjust file permissions on remote files using the Mac OS X built-in FTP client, which is pretty convenient if you’re without a separate FTP app.

Generally speaking, if you’re not sure what to set, you shouldn’t mess around with file permissions since it can change the way a file or application responds.

Update: This app was intended to be free only on 2/20 but it is now 2/21 2/22 and the app is still free to download. Get it while you can!

If you have a Mac media center pay attention, Mobile Mouse Pro turns your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad into a fantastic remote control, and for today only the app is free to download!

Turn your iPhone & iPod touch into a full featured remote control
Mobile Mouse Pro is great because it gives you an application switcher, full trackpad support, full virtual keyboard access, ability to use the iPhone/iPod as media remote with play/pause/stop/volume adjustment, web remote, and so much more. Seriously this app is awesome, so grab it while you can for free. The other bonus? The app is cross platform compatible, so if your media center isn’t a Mac but a Windows PC, it will still work.

Download Mobile Mouse Pro from the iTunes App store – FREE for today only
The wireless remote app is free to download today only from the iTunes App Store.

• MobileMouse Pro for iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad – Free from the iTunes App Store

After you get the client for your iOS device, grab the free server software for your computer:
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