OS X Lion brought greyscale icons to the Mac OS X Finder window sidebar, but if you’d rather have some color back in your desktop window sidebars, you can get this done easily through a third party plugin.

If you’ve been following some of our other Lion tips, you may already have SIMBL installed, otherwise it’s a small download.

• Download and install SIMBL, which you can get here
• Download the ColorfulSidebar SIMBL plugin (direct link) or visit the developers home and mount the DMG file
• Move the ColorfulSidebar.bundle into the following SIMBL plugin folder:

~/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/

• Either login and logout of Mac OS X, or just kill the Finder through the Terminal to relaunch it:

killall Finder

One oddity about this solution is that you may need to kill the Finder again to bring the color icons back after a full system reboot, otherwise this works trouble free.

If you ever want to get the grey icons back, you just need to remove the ColorfulSidebar.bundle file from the SIMBL plugins folder and then relaunch the Finder again.

On a somewhat related note, you can also bring back the personal folders in your OS X Lion Finder window sidebars. Those icons will gain color again too.

Steve Jobs has resigned from his role as CEO of Apple, but he will stay on as Chairman of the Board. Tim Cook, the current COO, will become CEO effective immediately.

Steve Jobs provided the following resignation letter:

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

We wish Steve the absolute best.

You can read more on Apple’s press release.

One of several changes to newer versions of OS X is how resetting passwords is handled, previous versions of Mac OS X would have a password reset tool easily accessible from the Utilities menu but that isn’t available anymore, and for some added security you now must access a password reset tool through the command line in Recovery Mode. Don’t let the command line sound complicated though, because it’s really quite easy to use, and we’ll walk through the entire process for OS X Mavericks (10.9), Mountain Lion (10.8), and Lion (10.7).

We’re actually going to cover two tricks, and they will work with or without internet access, and do not rely on any third party tools.
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The desktop in latter versions of Mac OS X has simplified the Finder window sidebars by showing just a few choices, with the emphasis on the ‘All My Files’ directory rather than individually pointing to your Pictures and Documents folders. If you prefer to see more options from the Finder and Desktop window sidebars, you can customize what is shown in that Finder window sidebar quite easily.
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The very first Macs user manual is a fun look at the past, and despite being 27 years old, there are still some undeniably Apple aspects to the manuals imagery and text. The intro paragraph from the first page is classic:

“You’re about to learn a new way to use a computer. If this is your first experience with a computer, you’re starting at a great time. If you’ve used “traditional” computers, you’ll appreciate the Macintosh difference. No more guessing what the computer wants. No more memorizing long commands with names only a programmer could love. With Macintosh, you’re in charge.”

Keep in mind that the original Macintosh was the first mainstream computer to use a mouse and a graphical user interface.

You can see some a few more pictures from the Macintosh User Manual below, but be sure to check out “Thoughts on (and pics of) the original Macintosh User Manual” for even more.

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Heads up to iOS devs out there, if you installed iOS 5 beta 6, you might find it useful to know that sixth beta is set to expire on September 29. At that point you’ll either need to have installed a newer beta, which will surely have been released by then, or downgrade iOS 5 back to 4.

For the rest of us this is worth noting because each time an iOS 5 beta expires, there’s a flurry of speculation from some individuals that Apple is causing iOS 5 beta devices to not work, but that is not the case, the beta is simply expiring.

On the other hand, some have taken this date to indicate some sort of iOS 5 release day, since the date is within the “Fall 2011” timeline set by Apple, but it’s pretty unlikely that Apple would leave any meaningful dates openly available in their releases. Popular opinion at this point seems to be that iOS 5 will be released alongside iPhone 5 in October, with the possibility of pre-orders coming in late September.

The expiration date was found last week by ih8snow on Twitter

AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint will all sell the iPhone 5, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. Todays WSJ’s report continues to specify a “mid-October” release date for the iPhone 5 on all carriers, which is contrary to the Reuters exclusive from earlier today which said late September.

Adding Sprint to the mix means that, if the T-Mobile & AT&T merger goes through, every major cellular carrier in the USA will offer the iPhone on their networks. Sprint is a CDMA network much like Verizon, and is the 3rd largest cell provider in the United States.

AirDrop is a great local peer-to-peer file sharing feature in Mac OS X Lion that is surprisingly useful. That said, the ‘pop’ or drop sound effect that you hear when someone AirDrops you a file has always annoyed me because it’s the same sound effect you hear when you get a new iChat message. Like many other things in OS X Lion, it’s easy to customize with some minor tweaking.

Before changing the sound effect you’ll need to get a new sound to replace it, so find a sound you want to use, but:

• The new sound effect must be in AIFF format. You can convert audio files to AIFF with iTunes or use a third party tool if you want
• Export the sound effect and name it “Invitation.aiff” and place it somewhere like the OS X Desktop for easy access.
• The shorter the sound effect, the better

A short sound is recommended because you don’t want an entire song playing when someone AirDrops you a file, but it will if you don’t shorten a long audio file.

Once you have saved your new audio file:

• Hit Command+Shift+G to bring up the “Go To Folder” window and enter the following path:

/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/

• Locate the file named “Invitation.aiff” and rename it to “Invitation-backup.aiff” – you will need to authenticate the name change, this allows you to revert the change back to the default AirDrop sound

• Drag and drop your own version of “Invitation.aiff” into the open /Resources/ folder, you will need to authenticate again
• Now open the Terminal from /Applications/Utilities/ and type:

killall Finder

• Have someone AirDrop you a new file and enjoy your new AirDrop sound effect

Anytime you want the default sound back, just delete your own Invitation.aiff and rename Invitation-backup.aiff back to Invitation.aiff, kill the Finder, and you’ll hear that familiar iChat pop sound again.

Check out some more OS X Lion tips while you’re at it.

Reuters is chiming in today with an exclusive that seems to confirm some of the existing next-gen iPhone rumors, most significant is that Apple is indeed planning on releasing two distinct iPhone models in the near future, an iPhone 5 and a lower priced iPhone 4(s?).

iPhone 4S: 8GB memory for $200 unsubsidized
First up is that Apple is going to produce a lower-end iPhone 4 with 8GB of onboard memory, the device will be sold around for $200 and is presumably aimed at emerging and pre-paid markets. The Reuters piece later discusses Apple’s explosive growth in Asia-Pacific and China, which suggests that could be the primary market for the cheaper iPhone.

iPhone 5: bigger screen, 8mp camera, better reception
As for iPhone 5, Reuters says that it “will have a bigger touch screen, better antenna and an 8-megapixel camera”, but they also suggest that the iPhone 5 looks much the same as the iPhone 4. This appears to be an ongoing statement, but new leaked cases and various mockups suggest it will have rounded curves instead of the existing iPhone 4 designs sharp lines.

Late September launch date for iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S
Reuters also confirms the rumors of a late September launch, but it remains unclear if that September date is for a full on product release or just when you can pre-order the next-gen iPhones. For what it’s worth, the WSJ/AllThingsD continues to believe that iPhone 5 will launch in October, but their date could also just be the actual shipping timeline of the device.

Dual Mode CDMA & GSM iPhone 5 in the Wild?
Finally, TechCrunch claims that an unnamed iOS developer has shown them proof of an iPhone 5 with dual-mode CDMA & GSM connectivity, matching the so called ‘world phone’ rumor. If that is indeed true, this would be a good move for Apple and consumers alike, since it would be cheaper for Apple to produce, and it would also allow iPhone 5 owners to bring their phone to other networks without incident.

Want to open the Finder and your standard desktop Mac OS X windows from LaunchPad? You can, but you have to drag the Finder application into LaunchPad. Here’s how to do this:

• From the Mac OS X desktop, hit Command+Shift+G to bring up “Go To Folder” and enter the following path:

/System/Library/CoreServices/

• Within /CoreServices/ locate and drag “Finder.app” to the LaunchPad icon in the Dock

Now LaunchPad will show the standard Finder icon, which if clicked on will open up your default Finder window choice, which is typically “All My Files” in OS X Lion.

This tip comes from @mrgan on Twitter, you can follow us there too.

A common complaint about free app giveaways is that they’re often constrained to the USA based iOS App Store, in other words if you’re outside of the US you don’t get in on deals like the recent Rage HD giveaway and the ongoing myriad of other free app offers. This is a bummer for anyone outside of the USA, but thankfully, it’s somewhat easy to alleviate.

How to Access and Download US-based iOS App Store Offers from Outside the USA

The core solution here is to just create an alternate iTunes account that is based in the USA. If you’re going to follow this solution and juggle multiple iTunes accounts, this menubar utility makes switching between them easy and is highly recommended.

Before you get started, you’ll need two things:

• Register another free email account, Gmail is free, quick, and easy
• Any valid US address – use your cousins, uncles, Apple’s, Google’s, etc

Got that? Let’s get started.

• Open the App Store from an iPhone or iPad, and from the “Featured” section scroll down to the bottom and select “Sign Out”
• Now while signed out, locate a free app to download in the App Store, anything in the ‘free download’ section should work
• Try and download the free app, and then select “Create Apple ID” when asked
• Follow the instructions to create a secondary iTunes account, be sure to select United States as the country
• At the credit card and payments screen, select “None” and continue – if you have any problem with this step read our guide on how to create an iTunes account without a credit card
• After you have registered the US iTunes account, verify and activate the account by checking your freshly created email account from the first step

Now you should have complete access to the US iTunes and App Store, which lets you download any of the free apps only available to US-based users. Yes, this technique should also work for the Mac App Store.

Additionally, if you want to access paid US App Store downloads, you can always buy a iTunes gift card and redeem the code on the credit-card free iTunes account to have a balance that is then able to purchase apps as usual.

If you missed out on the $99 HP TouchPad deals that seem to have the entire tech web in a frenzy, don’t forget that you can experience WebOS for free right now on Mac OS X, just by using the SDK’s emulator. You’ll need to download VirtualBox and then the WebOS SDK which comes as a preconfigured virtual machine, but then you can toy around in WebOS and get a feel for the (possibly defunct) touch OS.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

• Download VirtualBox 4.0.12 for OS X (direct download link)
• Download Palm WebOS SDK (direct download link)

Installing the actual emulator is simple, even more so if you have any experience running virtual machines. Just download and run the WebOS SDK installer and when it’s finished the emulator will appear in /Applications ready for you to play around with.

It’s that simple, but if you need any more assistance you can read more on developer.palm.com.

Heads up to @mattgemmell on Twitter for the idea.

Wonder what differences between iOS vs Android users are? What about their personality traits and preferences in things like fashion, food, media consumption, technology, and politics? Or how about general life experience and spending habits?

Stereotypes abound in this giant iOS vs Android user profile infographic, and it covers a wide variety of data that spells out the differences between the average iOS user and Android user. Whether you believe the data or not, it’s an interesting look at the smartphone and tablet OS wars.

Full infographic below (it’s huge):
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Whether you made a Lion recovery drive with Apple’s Lion Recovery Disk Assistant Tool and you’re booting from that or you’re just relying on the Recovery HD partition, this technique works.

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Is autocorrect in Mac OS X driving you nuts? We’ve received a fair amount of complaints regarding Mac OS X spelling autocorrect feature erroneously correcting things like British English words to American English words, and changing the spelling of some words like “colour” to “color” and so on. The reason for this is a language priority setting that should be set beyond just specifying a generic language, and you can set a region specific form of English (or Spanish, Portuguese, etc) that will alleviate this behavior.

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Reading App Store reviews and opinions from a variety of websites only does so much, if you really want to know what an app is like, you have to use it yourself. Some apps offer light versions as free downloads on the App Store, but what about the others? What if you’re on the fence about upgrading to OS X Lion?

The easiest way to try out any Apple software is by just visiting an Apple Store and sitting down with one of their Macs. They’re bundled with a ton of apps at the stores so you can try out things like Mac OS X Lion, the entire iLife and iWork suites, Final Cut Pro X, Aperture, even a bunch of third party apps and games.

Beyond Macs, you can do the same with iPads, iPods, and iPhones, and Apple Stores typically load up their iOS gear with a wide variety of apps and games to experience. I’ve even heard stories of customers requesting to use and try certain apps, and Apple Store employees downloading the app for that trial purpose.

I saw this suggested on Lifehacker a while back, and initially though it was kind of dumb and obvious tip, but now I have found myself recommending to family and friends to go and try out some of the new apps in person, the same way they might check out new Apple hardware before buying. If you live near an Apple Store, why not? It beats trying to negotiate the App Store refund process, which doesn’t reimburse apps you just don’t like anyway.

Emoji are extremely popular picture characters and emoticons that are an integral part of Japanese tech culture and communication, and now that they are included in modern versions of OS X, the Emoji character set is available to everyone on a Mac regardless of your localization settings.

Emoji are quickly taking the world by storm with their inclusion on the iPhone and iPad keyboards as well, and using them on the Mac is a fun way to emphasize dialog and messaging between people. Some of the characters are pretty funny so even if you have no intention on using them they’re fun to browse through.

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I’m not sure this qualifies for a traditional Mac setup post but it’s neat enough that it has to be posted. You’re looking at a Mac Pro with an old school VT220 connected to it functioning as a terminal, as you can see it’s working just fine too, running the ‘top’ command to show off the Mac Pro’s stats.

If this strikes your fancy, you can read more about how to set one up yourself on Jstn.cc

Just for fun, here’s the workstation minus the VT220 terminal, with just a Mac Pro, Cinema Display, and an iPad. It looks a bit lonely without the VT220:

And a closeup of the Vt220:
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