This weeks great Mac setup comes to us from Eddie B who uses his Apple gear for web design and development. The MacBook Air serves as the primary work machine and the Mac Mini, resting below it, functions as a web server. Here’s the full hardware list:

• MacBook Air 11″ (2011)
• MacMini (Late 2009) used as a web development server (Git repo, test server, etc)
• Dual Apple Cinema 20″ Displays (second screen powered by an EVGA UV Plus 19)
• Apple Wired Aluminum Keyboard
• Magic Mouse
• iPad 2
• iPhone 4
• Griffin Elevator Laptop Stand

I’m a big fan of the Apple Cinema Displays, both old and new models have classic designs, even the later model 20″ displays shown don’t look aged whatsoever. It’s also pretty amazing that an ultra-portable Mac like the 11″ Air is powerful enough to function as a primary workstation, they really do provide the best of both worlds to users looking for portability and power.

For those in the market for a laptop stand, the Griffin Elevator laptop stand shown in the shot is hard to beat. I have the same stand for a MacBook Pro and it’s highly recommended for those who use an external monitor with a Mac laptop, it raises a laptop to eye level while providing for huge amounts of airflow underneath.

Want your Mac setup featured? Send in pictures of Apple & Mac setups to osxdailycom@gmail.com and include some brief hardware details and what you use it for.

If you need to quickly retrieve the IP address of the router you are connected to or through, you can find this information immediately in the Terminal of Mac OS X.

Read more »

If your iPad 3 is getting too hot to handle, the solution is to use the iPad outdoors in three feet of snow. Three feet of snow is required because there is a direct correlation between the iPad generation and the amount of snow required to cool the device, thus iPad 3 requires 3 feet of snow. For those of you who don’t have access to three feet of snow, try placing the iPad 3 in a freezer at least three feet under ground, while holding three fingers in the air for at least three seconds while counting backwards from three.

This is obviously a joke, and you’ll notice we haven’t mentioned anything about the mythical iPad 3 heat problem, mostly because it doesn’t exist and we don’t want to reward manufactured controversy. This was funny enough to post on a Friday though, so enjoy a tip that’s about as useless as the original Consumer Reports BS that started it all.

Thanks to Ryan for the picture

If you have MKV movie files you’ve probably noticed they can’t be played on an iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, or a variety of other players. Not to worry though, because MKV video can be easily converted to the compatible M4V format using a free tool called Subler. If you want to get technical, this isn’t actually converting the video because MKV files are packages, basically Subler just repackages the MKV into an M4V, which can then be played in iOS and elsewhere. Anyway, it’s easy to use and very fast, we’ll walk you through the entire process.

Converting MKV Video to M4V with Subler

Subler relies on Perian to work properly, if you don’t have Perian yet be sure to download that before beginning.

1. Download and install Perian (QuickTime component)
2. Download and unzip Subler (get the latest beta)
3. Drag the MKV into Subler that you wish to turn into an M4V



4. Optionally, add metadata as appropriate
5. Hit Command+S to save the M4V file and select a destination

You’ll see a “Saving” progress but Subler works very quickly, you shouldn’t have to wait long for the repackage regardless of the origin MKV video size. The resulting M4V video can now be synced through iTunes to an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, played directly on an Apple TV, or watched on any other device or app that supports M4V.

On a side note, converting MKV to M4V isn’t necessary if you want to watch the movie directly on your computer, in that case, check out a handful of free MKV video players for Mac. If you need to convert other video types to iOS compatible format, Handbrake works great for that.

Thanks to Anthony and others who recommended Subler in the comments.

Knowing how much space you have used on an iOS device and, maybe even more useful and more relevant, knowing how much storage you have remaining, are two important things for any iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch owner.

This guide will show you how to find out just how much storage space is available and used within iOS, whether on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. You’ll simply look no further than the Settings application on the iPhone or iPad, though how you find the information can vary per iOS version. Here’s what you’ll want to do to find the device Storage usage details:
Read more »

Want to run Windows 7 right on an iPad? OnLive Desktop does exactly that, letting you access a cloud-based Windows 7 PC directly from iOS. Complete with the full Microsoft Office 2010 suite, you can use Word, Excel, and Powerpoint with full touch controls, and believe it or not it’s actually really fast and fluid.

Amazingly, this is free for the first 2GB of virtual storage space on the cloud PC, though additional storage and paid plans are available. The paid plans start at $4.99 and include up to 50GB of storage, provide access to more Windows applications, add DropBox support, and also bring full Internet Explorer access with Flash (useful for web developers who don’t want to run IE in virtual machines).

Using OnLive Desktop is easy, here’s all you need to do:

• Download the free OnLive app from the App Store (iPad only)
• Sign up for a free OnLive account

The account signup process requires an email but is otherwise quick and painless. Enter that ID into the app, and you’ll immediately find yourself on the desktop of a Windows 7 machine, right on the iPad.

Try this service out and get it while you can, because there is some question as to how long OnLive Desktop will be around. Microsoft is actively complaining that the service violates their Windows 7 licensing agreements, though OnLive is adamant that it’s supported and is willing to fight for it. Hopefully the two can come to an agreement and keep the OnLive service alive, because frankly it’s a cool technical feat and also has some very useful applications for the real world. Better yet, Microsoft should just buy them and offer the service directly with Windows 8 Metro, which is optimized for touch and may well be a significant competitor to iOS down the road… who knows. Anyway, check it out, even if you don’t like Windows it’s impressive to try out the free service.

Read more »

A free public beta of Photoshop CS6 has been released by Adobe. The beta features some pretty major changes to Photoshop, including a new graphics engine that dramatically speeds up performance of some tools and an all new darkened user interface.

In terms of features, Photoshop CS6 includes a new content-aware patch, blur gallery, type styles, custom strokes to shapes, layer searching, video editing tools, a new crop tool, auto-select interpolation, and improved camera RAW support.

Anyone is free to download and install Adobe Photoshop CS6 Beta and no serial number is needed, although you will be required to enter an Adobe ID and activate online within seven days of first launching the application. From then on, the software is free to use until the final release of Photoshop CS6, which is due out sometime later this year.

If you’re at all interested in Photoshop or image editing, it’s worth a look. Free downloads are available for Mac OS X and Windows, with the Mac version requiring at least 2.5GB of available disk space to install.

• Download for Mac (direct link, 984MB)
• Download for Windows (direct link, 1.7GB)

Watch the video below for a demonstration, or check out Adobe Labs for more info.

Pricing hasn’t been announced, but typically Photoshop is the same price as a new iPad or more. For that reason, many alternatives like Pixelmator or even iPhoto can be good enough for many users photo editing needs.

The next iPhone will feature a significantly larger 4.6″ display, according to a report from Reuters.

The brief report cites an unspecified source who claims that Apple has already placed orders for the larger screen with component suppliers. Display suppliers for the iPhone could be LG and Samsung, with Samsung currently producing 4.6″ displays for their own Galaxy SII Android phone, shown alongside an iPhone 4S above.

If true, the next iPhone screen would be over an inch larger than the current iPhone display, which is measured at 3.5″ diagonally. A larger screen has long been anticipated for the next generation iPhone release, though most speculation focuses on a 4″ display, marking this as the first rumor of a 4.6″ display.

Virtually nothing is known about the next iPhone, though it is expected to follow the release schedule set by the iPhone 4S, which debuted in early October of last year.

Using a little known folder buried within the iTunes directory, you can automatically add any compatible media to iTunes, be it songs, music, movies, just by placing files into the directory. This gets even better when you point downloads to that directory, because all downloaded media is then immediately synced to iTunes with no user interaction.

Read more »

Tired of bash? Prefer zsh, ksh, tcsh, fish, or sh? You can quickly change the default shell in Terminal app, in addition to changing a users default login shell for when logging in remotely with SSH or otherwise. Here’s how to do both.
Read more »

The iPad battery is advertised to last 10 hours and that number really isn’t exaggerated, the battery life is phenomenal. No adjustments are needed to get 8-10 hours of use out of the iPad, but if you want to squeeze the absolute longest amount of battery use possible, you can adjust a few settings to prolong the life even further.

1. Lower the Screen Brightness – We discussed this in a recent iPad tips post, but other than being easier on the eyes this will make the single biggest difference in battery life. With how bright the iPad 2 and Pad 3 displays are, you can usually get away with 60% brightness at all times. At night, going down to 30% or 40% brightness or less is easier on the eyes and will conserve even more battery. Access the setting by double-tapping the home button and swiping to the left.
2. Turn Off Notifications – Is it crucial to get a notification every time it’s your turn in Draw Something? Probably not. Disable Notifications for apps you don’t absolutely have to have notifications posted for and you can recoup some battery life. Find this in Settings > Notifications, and disable them.
3. Disable Bluetooth – If you aren’t using Bluetooth for an external wireless keyboard or otherwise, keep it disabled
4. Use Airplane Mode – When doing something that doesn’t require internet access, turning on AirPlane Mode can save some battery life. Perfect for reading books or doing things on the iPad, and it has the added bonus of preventing internet distractions. Find this in Settings > Airplane Mode
5. Disable Location Services – Most important for 3G/4G iPads, but you will save battery life even if you just have a Wi-Fi model. Turn these off in Settings > Location Services
6. Disable Diagnostic & Usage Reports – Sending out usage and diagnostic reports helps Apple to make a better iOS experience, but it also causes some minor activity in the background. Disable it for maximum battery conservation. Find this in Settings > General > About > Diagnostic & Usage > Don’t Send

You’ll find these tips have value beyond the iPad too, and carefully adjusting settings can help to conserve battery for other iOS devices and even Macs.

You can also check out some more general iOS 5 battery tips, though most of those were aimed at addressing a problem that was fixed with iOS 5.1, and thus wouldn’t be relevant to the new iPad because it ships with iOS 5.1 preinstalled.

Bonus Battery Tips

Here are a few more tips from ArsTechnica that could help too, give them a go if the above solutions aren’t enough for you.

• Turn off iCloud when not in use
• Download and watch movies from the iPad itself rather than streaming with YouTube or Netflix
• Disable LTE (3rd gen 4G models only)

Have any tricks to prolong the iPad battery life even further? Let us know in the comments.

If your new iPad 3 has poor wi-fi reception, you’re not alone. After getting a shiny new iPad 3rd gen, I immediately noticed it wasn’t registering any bars of wireless reception, and wi-fi was strangely slow regardless of the network I joined or the distance to the router. It must be defective and I should storm down to the Apple Store and get a refund, right? Wrong. It’s actually really easy to fix, so before you call AppleCare support, give this fix a try, it worked for me.

• Open Settings and tap on “General”
• Tap “Network” and tap “Wi-Fi”
• Tap the blue arrow next to the wireless router you are connected to
• At the next screen, tap “Forget this Network”
• Go back to Wi-Fi and rejoin the network you just forgot

Like magic, you should now have full reception bars, as visible in the upper left wifi indicator.

If wi-fi is still not working, try this as well:

• From Settings, tap “General” then “Reset”
• Tap “Reset Network Settings”
• Reboot the iPad
• Connect to a wireless network again

Resetting network preferences loses router passwords, be sure to have those handy beforehand.

Often these issues are software related and fairly easy to handle, as I’ve resolved a number of times with OS X Lion too, so don’t assume some of the complaints you’ll read on Gizmodo and Apple Discussions are all hardware related. That said, if you’ve attempted both of the methods outlined above and your 3rd gen iPad wi-fi is still problematic, you might actually have a genuine problem and it would be worth contacting Apple or AppleCare.

If you have an Apple Remote Control and a Mac with an IR receiver port, you can quickly put the Mac to sleep using just the remote control. Obviously you’ll need to be in the same room as the Mac to do this, but it’s pretty handy. Here’s what to do:

• Point the remote control in the direction of the Mac and hold the Play button for about 5-8 seconds

The Mac screen will turn black with a few ZzZz’s appearing on the screen, with sleep immediately following.

Remote control sleep works with the good old white plastic remote controls and the newer aluminum models, the only real requirement is the Mac must have an infrared (IR) port. With the exception of MacBook Air and older Macs, almost all of them do.

For Macs without an IR port, or if you’re not in the same room (let alone the same state), you can always sleep a Mac with email or using SSH after some minimal setup.

Thanks to Brian G for the tip

Do you have an event, announcement, or statement you want to broadcast to a group of people? You can easily send out a mass text message to multiple recipients from the iPhone Messages app. The group text will work regardless of whether the contacts you are sending to have iMessage or SMS text messaging, though iMessage users will have a few more features than those who don’t.

Here’s how to send a mass text message or iMessage from the iPhone or iPad:
Read more »

Diablo 3 has a release date set for May 15, and if you’re like us you’ve been wondering if your computer can handle the game well enough to be worth buying. The good news is that Blizzard looks to be supporting a wide array of hardware, and most fairly modern computers will run the game just fine. As usual, the newer and better your computer the better, but here are the minimum and recommended specs for Diablo III running on Mac and Windows PC’s. You’ll probably want to check against this before pre-ordering or buying the game.

Minimum System Requirements for Mac OS X

• Mac OS X 10.6.8, 10.7.*, or newer
• Intel Core 2 Duo CPU
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT or ATI Radeon HD 2600 or better
• 2GB RAM
• 12 GB of available disk space
• DVD drive for retail disc versions (digital download available)
• Broadband internet connection for multiplayer
• 1024×768 or greater screen resolution

Of course the game will run better with better hardware, here are the recommended specs for Mac users.

Recommended System Requirements for Mac OS X

• OS X 10.7.x or newer
• Core 2 Duo at 2.4GHz or faster
• 4GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M or ATI Radeon HD 4670 or better

If you have a Windows PC, here are the specs for that.

Minimum System Requirements for Windows

• Windows XP, Vista, or 7 with Direct X 9.0c
• Intel Pentium D 2.8GHz or AMD Athlon 64 4400
• NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT or ATI Radeon X1950 Pro or better
• 1GB RAM for Windows XP, 1.5GB RAM for Vista or 7
• 12GB disk space
• DVD drive
• Broadband internet connection
• 1024×768 resolution

For better performance in Diablo III, go with the recommended Windows system requirements instead.

Recommended System Requirements for Windows

• Windows Vista or Windows 7 with latest service packs
• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz or AMD Athlon 2.8GHZ or better
• 4GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce 260 or ATI Radeon HD 4870 or better

A note for Mac users: you will often get better gaming performance by playing in Windows, though this will require Boot Camp and a Windows partition to be able to do. The system requirements will be the same if you choose this route.

Whether you’re new to the iPad or a longtime user, here are some great tips to help you get the most out of the device. A few of these are intended for using on the new iPad, but most of them will be relevant to all iPad models of all ages.

Read more »

Many years ago before Mac OS X, the Mac OS Finder was much more simple. There was no toolbar, no sidebar, no drop shadows, and each folder opened in it’s own window showing you only the icons in that Folder. That was basically the default desktop experience from Mac OS 1.0 through Mac OS 9, and you can bring much of that traditional simplified Finder styling to OS X with a few minor adjustments:

Read more »

The default passcode for iPad and iPhone uses a fairly simple four digit numerical password, these are certainly better to use than nothing, but they can be somewhat easy to guess because statistically many people use common passwords or some variation of a simple theme, like a repetition, countdown, or birth year. An easy way to add more security to an iOS device is to disable simple passcodes and utilize the full keyboard, allowing you to type out complete passwords of varying complexity, instead of the simple numerical passcodes that are initially used.

Here is how to further secure an iOS device by using the strong passcode option:
Read more »