Apple has started airing three new Mac ads that focus on an Apple Store Genius who is called upon in three unusual circumstances. The TV spots started during the Olympic games and are quite unlike other ads Apple has put out recently.

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This weeks Mac setup comes to us from Claus F., an art director from Denmark who uses all the Apple hardware for creating commercials, leaflets, tickets, DVD art, magazines, ads, and other graphics work.

Hardware shown from left to right includes:

• MacBook Pro 1,1 (2006) – OS X 10.6.8
• iPad 1 (2010) WiFi/3G – iOS 5.1
• iMac 21.5″ (2010) 3.06 GHz, 16GB RAM – OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
• Apple Magic Mouse & Wireless Keyboard
• Logitech Ergonomic mouse

Not shown is an iPhone 4.

It’s good to see some of the original Intel MacBook Pro hardware still around and kicking despite not supporting the latest two OS X releases, it’s really a testament to the build quality of Apple hardware. The iPad stand looks like a miniature easel, I haven’t seen one of those before but it looks quite nice and raises the iPad to a perfect level for something like AirDisplay.

Want your Mac setup featured? Send in a good picture or two with a list of hardware and a short description of what the gear is used for to osxdailycom@gmail.com

Mac OS X defaults to preventing applications from unidentified developers or sources from being launched. You’ll discover the message in Mac OS when you try to launch a Mac app that didn’t come from a verified source or from the Mac App Store, and you’ll get an alert dialog that says “[App name] can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer”.

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One Apple fan didn’t take kindly to the office message of “PLEASE DO NOT PRINT LARGE JOBS” (all in caps of course!) and decided to take on the note quite literally, printing an enormous rasterbatored image of the classic Steve Jobs portrait.

The original message was obviously aimed at preventing ginormous print jobs that hog printer queues office-folk are all too familiar with. This is completely stupid, but this is office rebellion and humor at its finest with an Apple twist, and though it probably belongs on Passive Aggressive Notes more than here, it’s too funny to ignore for a Friday.

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Dictation is available to the Mac with newer versions of system software, but despite being one of the major features of Mac OS you may find that it’s not enabled by default on some Macs.

It’s easy to enable Dictation on a Mac though and it’s even easier to use, let’s get started to learn how to enable this handy voice-to-text feature and then how to use it in Mac OS.
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Skeumorphism seems to be here to stay, but if you’re bent on ridding OS X apps like Contacts (Address Book) and Calendar (iCal) of any traces of the stitched leather appearance, Mountain Tweaks makes it as easy as a couple of clicks for OS X Mountain Lion users.

• Get Mountain Tweaks free from TweaksApp

Mountain Tweaks is a free download, just look for the tiny ‘here’ text on the page rather than clicking the blue download/pay button.

Download and launch Mountain Tweaks, click the “Mountain Lion” tab, and then click the “Yes” buttons for both of the Leather entries. Restoring back to the leather appearance is as simple as clicking “No” under the same tab.

If MountainTweaks feels familiar it’s because it’s the sister app of LionTweaks, which serves the same leather UI removal purpose for apps in OS X Lion.

As of now there’s no way to remove the skeumorphic interfaces of Notes or Reminders, but it’s pretty likely those will be modifiable too once someone figures it out.

After you’ve upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion on the primary Mac you bought it from, the installer app deletes itself from your /Applications/ folder. This makes sense for those who only own a single Mac, but if you plan on installing OS X Mountain Lion on multiple Macs or just want to create an additional boot USB drive for installs and upgrades, it’s kind of annoying.

If you fall into the multi-Mac category or want a backup of the installer around, you’ll need to re-download the Mountain Lion installer app from the Mac App Store – you will not be charged again for redownloading – here’s how:

• Launch the Mac App Store and hold down the “Option” while clicking on the “Purchases” tab
• Locate “OS X Mountain Lion” in the list, and click on the “Install” button to redownload
• Find the “Install OS X Mountain Lion” app in your /Applications/ folder when finished downloading

For those with bandwidth concerns it’s a good idea to make a copy of the Installer app somewhere so you don’t lose it again. Or just make a boot disk and not worry about it again.

Safari 6 is bundled with OS X Mountain Lion and it was just released for OS X Lion as well, and though it’s a very worthwhile update with some great features like the single search/url bar, one not-so-great change is the removal of the RSS subscribe button. The good news is a third party developer has already created a Safari extension that brings back an RSS button, and installing it is just a click away.

• Get the Safari Feed Extension here from RedSweater

Once the Subscribe to RSS button has been added to Safari, clicking on it will open the websites RSS feed into whatever your default RSS reader is. If you don’t have a dedicated feed reader like NetNewsWire or Google Reader, it will default to opening the feeds in Mail app.

This little extension has been making the rounds of the Apple-web today for good reason, anytime a long-existing feature disappears from a software release it can cause some confusion and disappointment.

By the way, if you haven’t subscribed to the OSXDaily RSS feed yet, join 50,000+ others and do so and you’ll never miss a beat from us. Our feed includes full posts, no nonsense. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed via email and get a daily newsletter of articles delivered to your inbox.

Multi-Mac households can buy OS X Mountain Lion once for $19.99 and use that single purchase to install and upgrade all of their other personal authorized Macs.

This is allowed by Apple’s generous Mac App Store licensing agreement that began with Lion, and though most people don’t bother to read the fine print, here’s the section of the OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 License Agreement that pertains to the matter:

“(i) to download, install, use, and run for personal, non-commercial use, one (1) copy of the Apple Software directly on each Apple-branded computer running OS X Lion or OS X Snow Leopard (“Mac computer”) that you own or control.”

Basically that means as long as the Macs share the same Apple ID, you will be able to easily re-download Mountain Lion on another Mac, whether it’s running Lion or Snow Leopard. You can also just copy the Installer over, or manually make a bootable Mountain Lion installer drive and use that to upgrade the other Macs in the household. Here are several approaches to getting the other Macs upgraded:

Method 1) Downloading Mountain Lion on Other Macs

The simplest way to upgrade other Macs is to just download the installer on other Macs. From the other computer(s) you wish to upgrade to Mountain Lion:

• Launch the Mac App Store and be sure you are logged in with the same Apple ID that you originally bought Mountain Lion with
• Click on the “Purchases” icon and locate “OS X Mountain Lion”, then click the “Install” button
• Run the installer as usual to upgrade the Mac

Don’t want to re-download OS X 10.8 from the App Store? You can also just copy the installer to other Macs. Here are two simple ways to do this over a network, the easy way with AirPort and the traditional way with File Sharing. The best time to do this is before upgrading the primary Mac so that you have easy access to the Mountain Lion installer without having to re-download it from the App Store.

Method 2) Transfer the Mountain Lion Installer Over AirDrop

If the Macs you’re upgrading are running Lion, using AirDrop to transfer the installer is by far the easiest solution and it will prevent you from having to download the 10.8 Installer app again from the App Store:

1. From the Mac you are copying the Installer from: open a new Finder window and navigate to /Applications/ and locate the file “Install OS X Mountain Lion.app” then open another Finder window and select “AirDrop” from the sidebar
2. From the Mac(s) you are transferring Mountain Lion installer to: open a new Finder window and choose “AirDrop” from the sidebar
3. Drag and drop “Install OS X Mountain Lion.app” to the destination Mac(s) in AirDrop, and accept the file transfer on the destination Macs
4. When finished copying, upgrade to OS X 10.8 as usual

For Macs without AirDrop support, use traditional File Sharing described next.

Method 3) Copying OS X Mountain Lion Installer to Other Macs via LAN

In order to do this, you’ll need to have downloaded the Mountain Lion installer and not installed it yet, or else you’d have to re-download Mountain Lion. This solution is best for multi-Mac networks and for those looking to upgrade to Snow Leopard

1. On all Macs you wish to copy the Installer to, enable File Sharing by going to  Apple menu > System Preferences > Sharing > check “File Sharing”
2. From the Finder of the Mac with Mountain Lion installer, go to /Applications/ to find the installer “Install OS X Mountain Lion.app”
3. Open a new Finder window and hit Command+K to bring up “Connect to Server”, choose “Browse” and connect to the shared Mac
4. Navigate to the shared Macs /Applications/ folder and copy “Install OS X Mountain Lion.app” to it
5. Repeat as necessary for other personal Macs

Alternative Multi-Mac Upgrade Methods

These are generally for more advanced users since most require the creation of boot disks:

• Copy the installer to a DVD or USB key – this method on it’s own will not be bootable
• Clean install OS X Mountain Lion with a boot disk
• Manually make a bootable Mountain Lion installer drive out of an extra USB drive or DVD
• Use a tool like Lion Disk Maker to create a boot DVD/USB

Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments. Happy upgrading!

Though most users are best served by the easy upgrade process to OS X Mountain Lion through the Mac App Store, some people want to perform a clean install and start with a blank slate. A clean install means the drive is completely erased and Mac OS X 10.8 is installed fresh, nothing else is on the drive, no apps are installed, and no files are included.

The process described below will format the selected Mac disk and erase everything on it, followed by performing a completely clean and fresh installation of OS X Mountain Lion.

We’d highly recommend backing up your Mac before performing a clean install, even if you have no intention on using it afterwards.

1. If you don’t have it yet, get Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store but do not install it yet (or redownload it if you did install it)
2. Create a bootable install drive for OS X Mountain Lion, make one manually with a USB drive or use the LionDiskMaker tool to automate the process with a USB or DVD
3. With the boot installer drive connected to the Mac, reboot and hold down the Option key
4. Choose the “Mac OS X Installer” startup volume from the boot menu
5. Select “Disk Utility” and choose the hard drive you wish to format, click the “Erase” tab, and then pull down the “Format” menu and select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” as the type, name the drive if you wish
6. Click the “Erase” button and let the drive format – this is the point of no return
7. When finished, quit out of Disk Utility and now select the “Install Mac OS X” option from the menu
8. Choose your freshly formatted hard drive and install Mountain Lion

When the Mac reboots you will have a clean installation of Mac OS X 10.8 to work with.

At this point you can either import files and apps from the backup you made, manually copy over backed up files, or just start anew.

Mountain Lion is out! You can upgrade a Mac right out of the App Store, but some people prefer to make a boot disk. If you’re in that group, rather than making a bootable OS X Mountain Lion installer yourself the old fashioned way, you can do it all in a few clicks with the help of a free app called LionDiskMaker.

After you’ve downloaded the OS X Mountain Lion installer from the Mac App Store, launch LionDiskMaker and it will locate the installer app, extract the disk image, and then make the boot disk. It’s about as simple as it gets.

For burning a boot DVD you will need a 4.7GB or larger blank DVD and a SuperDrive. For USB install drives or SD cards the drive needs at least 8GB of space available. LionDiskMaker formats the drive you point it at, remember that when you are picking a disk to make bootable for the installer.

• Get the newest version of LinoDiskMaker free from the developer

Making a boot installer is really helpful if you need to install Mountain Lion on multiple Macs and don’t want to re-download it on each Mac from the App Store, or if you want to perform a clean install. If you don’t need the bootable aspect, you can also just copy the Installer app file from the /Applications/ directory to other Macs and it will work to perform the OS X upgrade too.
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Right alongside the freshly launched OS X Mountain Lion, Apple has released Safari 6 for OS X Lion users. Users can download Safari 6 from Software Update via the  Apple menu.

The Omnibar, which Apple calls the “Smart Search Field”, is the biggest visible change, it combines the URL bar with the Search bar allowing for a much cleaner minimalist user interface that more closely resembles Google Chrome. The Omnibar is worth the update alone in our view, but there are a handful of other nice features that are also great like Offline Reading List, which saves complete web pages for reading later when you don’t have an internet connection, a Do Not Track option for enhanced web privacy, the Password Pane management tool for web logins, Baidu search for Chinese users, and a bunch of fixes and performance enhancements.

If you’re not upgrading to Mountain Lion today, do yourself a favor and at least get Safari 6.

OS X Mountain Lion has been released by Apple. The major update to Mac OS provides over 200 new features, including iMessage support, Reminders, Notification Center, Notes, Game Center, extensive iCloud integration, and much more.

The upgrade costs $19.99 but is available for free to Mac users who bought a Mac within the past month.

• Get Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store Now

Apple’s generous licensing terms allow you to install a single purchase of Mountain Lion on all of your personal Macs. If you don’t want to re-download OS X 10.8 each time on each computer, you can make a Mountain Lion boot installer from any USB drive or DVD.

Be sure to back up each Mac before installing, follow our simple guide on things to do before upgrading if you haven’t done so yet.

Update: Mountain Lion is now available!

No more rumors or speculation, Apple CEO Tim Cook has confirmed that OS X Mountain Lion will launch July 25:

“We’re thrilled with record sales of 17 million iPads in the June quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve also just updated the entire MacBook line, will release Mountain Lion tomorrow and will be launching iOS 6 this Fall. We are also really looking forward to the amazing new products we’ve got in the pipeline.”

That quote comes directly from Apple’s PR library ahead of the Q3 2012 earnings call this afternoon, and also serves to reiterate the release date of iOS 6 later this year, while also teasing for whatever “amazing new products” (new iPhone? iPad mini?) Cook is referring to.

As we mentioned earlier in our recap of things to do before installing Mountain Lion, you’ll want to back up your Mac before installing OS X 10.8 on your Mac.

The release of OS X Mountain Lion is just around the corner (it’s official: July 25), but before jumping into the latest major Mac system update, you’ll want to do a few things. We’ve broken it down to a few simple essentials that are easy to follow:
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Open Wi-Fi networks are everywhere, if you’re stationed in an area with tons of them you’ll probably want to prioritize your own network to be the top wireless network to join so you don’t accidentally end up on someone elses unsecured network. Prioritizing is also a good idea if you use Personal Hotspot in public so you don’t end up on an open public access point.

The simplest way to prevent a Mac from joining one network over another is to set priority, giving your preferred wifi routers precedent over the others.

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The iPad screen defaults to automatically dim itself and then turn itself off to black after a fairly short amount of time of inactivity. That’s great for preserving battery life of iOS devices, but if you’re like me you keep an iPad or iPhone alongside you full time while working as a control panel for Pandora, podcasts, and email, and having the screen lock after a few minutes of inactivity is annoying.

Fortunately you can adjust the amount of time it takes for the display of iPad to dim and lock itself.

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Apple is airing a new iPhone 4S commercial titled “Busy Day” that features director Martin Scorsese in a conversation with the voice assistant Siri while riding around in the back of a taxicab.

A transcript of the dialog between Scorsese and Siri is as follows, courtesy of MacRumors:

Scorsese: What’s my day look like?

Siri: Another busy day today.

Scorsese: Are you serious?

Siri: Yes, I’m not allowed to be frivolous.

Scorsese: Ah, OK. Move my 4 o’clock today to tomorrow. Change my 11AM to 2.

Siri: OK, Marty. I scheduled it for today.

Scorsese: Is that Rick? Where’s Rick?

Siri: Here’s Rick.

Scorsese: Oh, no that’s not Rick. Now, how’s the traffic headed downtown?

Siri: Here’s the traffic.

Scorsese: Oh, it’s terrible, terrible. Driver, driver, cut across. Cut across. We’ll never make it downtown this way. I like you Siri, you’re going places.

Siri: I’ll try to remember that.

This is the fourth iPhone 4S ad to feature a major celebrity, and the 3rd recent Apple commercial to be aired in general. Last month a new ad for the iPad started airing alongside a spot for the Retina MacBook Pro.