The font size of the Mac Finder window sidebar is customizable, allowing you to adjust to a larger or smaller font size of both the text and icons found in the Finder sidebars of OS X.
If you’ve been busy customizing the Favorites folders and colorizing the Finder sidebar icons, you might want to change the font and icon size of that sidebar text while you’re at it. This is possible in all semi new versions of OS X, but oddly enough, this isn’t in the “Finder Preferences” or “View Options” where you might expect to find it, and instead the option to toggle sizes is in the general System Preferences.
Apple is planning on having iOS 5 GM provided to it’s overseas suppliers sometime during the week of September 23 to September 30, which is in line with the only publicly announced “fall” release date specified by Apple. The GM build, which stands for Golden Master, will be then be preinstalled on all iPads, iPod touch, and iPhone models, including whatever the next-gen iOS devices happen to be.
This information comes from a reputable analyst who supplied a research note to AppleInsider, which also reemphasizes that next month will be the public release of the next iPhone:
A release of iOS 5 to assemblers the week of Sept. 23 means its likely finalized hardware units for the new iPhone and iPod touch will begin to ship at the end of September. With an estimated 10 to 12 days for shipping, the two new devices are likely to be available by mid-October
Releasing the GM at the end of this month would also give app developers plenty of time to ensure compatibility with the finalized version of iOS 5. The current iOS 5 dev release is beta 7, which is considerably more stable and speedy than prior versions.
iOS 5 adds over 200 new features to the platform and has significant ties to Apple’s upcoming iCloud service, which is expected to launch alongside the new mobile operating system.
Apple’s secrecy is the stuff of legends, and if you’ve ever wondered how Apple went about keeping the iPad a secret prior to it’s launch, this story from BusinessInsider is quite interesting.
Relayed from an anonymous but successful developer who worked with the iPad prior to the the products official launch, it’s a fascinating look at the efforts Apple goes through to keep a product under wraps:
Now that it’s over a year, I can talk about it.
I was probably the sixth person to get an iPad.
We got two of them flown out.
The criteria was that we had to have a room with no windows. They changed the locks on the door.
Three developers and I were the only people allowed to go in the room. Apple needed the names and social security numbers of the people who had access.
Apple needed to be able to drill a hole in the desk and chain the devices to desk. They used those bicycle cables.
They had these custom frames built around them so we couldn’t even tell what the iPads looked like. We could plug into them so we could code to them and we could touch the screen and play with that, but we couldn’t see the form factor.
Then they took pictures of the wood grain. If any pictures leaked out, they could trace it back to which desk they came from.
I wasn’t allowed to tell our CEO. I wasn’t allowed to tell anybody anything about what we were doing. I couldn’t even tell my wife. She was like, “You’re going to get fired if this doesn’t work.”
I hadn’t thought about that but she was probably right.
Luckily, it worked out very well.
The heavily masked image at the top came from Engadget a few days prior to the official iPad unveiling in January 2010, and is likely an accuruate representation of the custom frame that masked the iPads appearance in the developers tale.
Stories like this really make you wonder what Apple is currently cooking up somewhere in some dark window-less room…
iPhone 5 may be available in both black and white colors, and be offered at the same 16GB and 32GB capacities as iPhone 4, if a product listing on UK’s Vodafone is to be believed. AppleInsider discovered the product page for a signal booster which makes direct references to four distinct models; “iPhone 5 32GB White”, “iPhone 5 16GB White”, “iPhone 5 32GB Black”, and “iPhone 5 16GB Black”.
It could be presumptive or simply a typo, but the iPhone 5 language has since been removed from the listing, which also references current iPhone 4, 3GS, and 3G models. It would not be surprising for both black and white iPhone 5’s to be available from the get-go, but many rumors have anticipated, or hoped for, a 64GB iPhone model, the necessity of which may be questionable thanks to iCloud.
This great reader submitted setup comes from recent Mac switcher Brian D and features an iMac 27″ that is backlit with some Ikea LED strip lighting, an iPad 2, and an external 18″(?) display atop the iPads box. All of the screens are running the classic Flip clock screensaver, Fliqlo, which is one of my personal favorites. Elsewhere you’ll spot an iPhone, a retro cell phone, Apple’s classic wireless keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse, but few cords thanks to a customized Ikea desk with grommets drilled to hide all the cables.
Congrats on the switch to Mac and thanks for sending in this great setup Brian!
You can submit your own Mac setups to: osxdailycom@gmail.com
If you’re going to run something like OpenSSH or MobileTerminal on your iPhone or iOS device so that you can SSH in to it, you’ll want to change the root password for obvious security reasons. Without doing this, anyone can use the default ‘alpine’ password and connect to the hardware, assuming they know an SSH server is running and have the devices LAN IP address.
Note: this only matters for users who have jailbroken an iOS devices and then are running an active SSH server like MobileTerminal. This is not a necessary procedure for other iPhone or iPad users because no server runs open by default and there is therefore no security risk.
Looking for a fun game to play this weekend on the iPad? Grab Crimson: Steam Pirates, an action-strategy game where you can battle through a series of pirate voyages with over a dozen different boats, subs, and airships. The turn-based game is getting raving reviews which isn’t too shocking considering it’s coming from Bungie, the creators of the Halo franchise and Marathon. Here’s the games description from iTunes App Store:
In Crimson: Steam Pirates, plumes of black smoke fill the blue Caribbean sky as Thomas Blood’s pirate fleet steams ahead—over, above, and below the waves. On the surface, ships bristle with swivel cannons and lightning guns. Above, zeppelins drip with incendiary bombs. And below, silent and deadly, submarines stalk their targets, torpedoes at the ready.
Command your fleet and your Steampunk crew using an elegant action interface. Crimson: Steam Pirates’ turn-based gameplay provides an addicting mixture of strategy and action as you anticipate your enemies’ moves and counter them, luring them into a deadly hail of weapons fire while uncovering the mystery brewing in the Caribbean.
If you dual boot Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.7 then you may have noticed that some apps installed in one OS don’t necessarily work in the other. Some of these are because of 10.7 Lion specific features or Rosetta, but others throw random errors that don’t make much sense. Case in point: Adobe Photoshop.
Launching Photoshop installed within Snow Leopard from Lion, you get the nondescript “Error 6” telling you to reinstall Photoshop. Instead of installing PS on both partitions, you can skirt this error by using a symbolic link to access the 10.6 installations App Support folder. This will save disk space and the hassle of managing multiple Creative Suite installations.
From Mac OS X Lion:
Quit Photoshop
Launch the Terminal (/Applications/Terminal)
Enter the following command – this assumes your OS X 10.6 drive is called “Macintosh HD” be sure to change that if it’s not:
From time to time we like to post some unusual or fun stuff, but this is really out there. A Japanese manufacturer has created what has to be the creepiest iPhone case in existence, it’s a disembodied hand that you have to hold in order to use the iPhone. WTF. As if that concept wasn’t strange enough, the sales pictures are even more peculiar, like this guy putting a wedding ring onto the iPhones hand and cuddling it to his face:
I’m not sure if these are intended to be a joke or are serious, but if you actually want one they run about $65, or ¥5000, and can be ordered through Rakuten.co.jp.
Note: this is obviously geared towards more advanced users who are comfortable with the command line and understand what changes they are making. Read the full article to see if these adjustments are right for you. If any of this seems confusing, you probably shouldn’t be making these changes or at least using this method, and the aforementioned LionTweaks utility may be a better fit. Proceed at your own risk.
Option 1) The Full Suite: customize .bash_profile, .bash_prompt, .aliases, git, and Mac OS X with defaults writes
If you want to make a ton of settings adjustments to .bash_profile, .aliases, .gitconfig, and all of the below defaults write commands, you can use this git command in the Terminal to do everything. Before jumping into this one, it’d be a good idea to review the files yourself to make sure the changes are things you want.
git clone https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles.git && cd dotfiles && ./bootstrap.sh
The .aliases file is pretty useful, but includes some commands like ngrep that are not preinstalled by default, so you’ll need homebrew or otherwise to install those.
Option 2) The defaults write changes to Mac OS X only
If you’re not interested in all of the terminal adjustments and aliases, you can just also just get the .osx file from this link
In either case, after git is finished or you have grabbed the .osx file yourself, you can execute the script with:
./.osx
This will activate all of the commands listed below at once. We’ve covered just about all of these before but having them in a centralized location and easily writable from a bash script is very useful when you’re setting up a new Mac.
Option 3: Selectively customizing OS X by entering the defaults write commands yourself
Here’s the full list of defaults write commands that are contained within the .osx file, review this before launching the script or just pick and choose which ones you want to use by putting them into the Terminal:
# Enable full keyboard access for all controls (e.g. enable Tab in modal dialogs)
defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleKeyboardUIMode -int 3
# Enable the 2D Dock
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -bool true
# Disable menu bar transparency
defaults write -g AppleEnableMenuBarTransparency -bool false
# Expand save panel by default
defaults write -g NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -bool true
# Automatically open a new Finder window when a volume is mounted
defaults write com.apple.frameworks.diskimages auto-open-ro-root -bool true
defaults write com.apple.frameworks.diskimages auto-open-rw-root -bool true
# Show the ~/Library folder
chflags nohidden ~/Library
# Disable local Time Machine backups
sudo tmutil disablelocal
# Kill affected applications
for app in Safari Finder Dock Mail; do killall “$app”; done
# Fix for the ancient UTF-8 bug in QuickLook (http://mths.be/bbo)
echo “0x08000100:0” > ~/.CFUserTextEncoding
If you’re making manual changes, many of these will require either the Finder, Dock, or other applications to be relaunched before they are activated. This is generally handled through the script with the second to last command (“Kill affected applications”) but with so many changes being made, it may be easier to just reboot your Mac to insure everything is working properly.
Sprint will be the USA’s only cell provider to offer unlimited data plans with the upcoming iPhone 5. This latest news come from Bloomberg, who also confirms the mid-October release date:
Sprint, the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier, plans to begin selling the device in mid-October under a deal with Apple for the next model, the iPhone 5, said the people, who wouldn’t be identified because the plans aren’t public. Becoming the country’s only operator to offer the device with unlimited data service for a flat fee may help Sprint draw customers from AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which already carry the phone, they said.
Pricing for the iPhone 5 unlimited data plans remains to be seen, but Sprint currently offers three different unlimited data packages ranging from $69.99/mo for unlimited data and messaging but 450 minutes, up to $99.99 per month for unlimited everything – data, SMS, and minutes. If Sprint was to maintain these price points for iPhone customers, they would be the most competitively priced iPhone plans offered to US customers.
On the other side of the data situation is Verizon and AT&T, who have long canceled unlimited data plans and are instead raising rates while reducing data limits, leaving only those grandfathered into the unlimited data plans to still have access to them. Sprint offering unlimited data and cheaper plans could very well draw a significant amount of users to their network.
Rumors also persist that pre-orders for iPhone 5 will become available prior to the official release next month, alongside iOS 5, iCloud, and the cheaper iPhone 4S.
If you have a mixed network of Mac and Windows PC’s, chances are good that you’ll be wanting to move files between the two operating systems. The easiest way to share files from Mac OS X to Windows is to enable Samba support for a given user account on the Mac. This tutorial will how to share files between Mac and Windows PC this way.
Samba (SMB) may have a funny name but it’s essentially just Mac OS X to Windows file sharing support. Because it’s not required by all Mac users or for Mac-to-Mac sharing, it’s actually a separate unique sharing option within Mac OS X File Sharing panel, and enabling it allows a Windows PC to connect to the Mac without any additional software. Let’s cover exactly how to enable this feature, and then how to connect to a shared Mac from a networked Windows PC so that you can swap files back and forth with ease.
You may know by now that Mac OS X Lion has Emoji support, which is easily accessible in most applications. This brings a wide range of icons and emoticons to the Mac, and some of them are perfect to customize the appearance of LaunchPad folder names. Here’s how:
Open TextEdit and then hit Command+Option+T to bring up the ‘Special Character’ tool
Select “Emoji” from the list on the left and then select a sub category, find an emoticon or icon you want to use and double-click it to make it appear in the blank TextEdit window
Highlight and copy the emoji icon in TextEdit so that it is stored within the clipboard
Click to open the folder you want to edit, then double-click on the folder name to make changes
Use your mouse cursor or the arrow keys to go to the beginning of the word, and hit Command+P to paste the Emoji icon into the folder name
Click out of the folder to set the change
Removing the emoji icon from the folder name is the same as deleting any other character. This is actually an older tip from the iOS world but LaunchPad and iOS’s SpringBoard are so similar that it works in Lion.
These Emoji icons tend to look their best on larger screens mostly because the LaunchPad icons are larger, something that nobody has yet figured out how to control independently – although the LaunchPad icons are universally larger in Mac OS X 10.7.2 developer betas, there is still no way to adjust the size.
The Mac App Store has a hidden element inspector that lets you view the source of any page or element drawn within the App Store, letting you extract text or images, and even enter your own code into the console (which can lead to all sorts of fun things). This is probably most useful for web and app developers, but anyone with some curiosity might get a kick out of this feature too.
To enable the Mac App Store’s element inspector, quit out of the App Store and then launch the Terminal. Enter the following defaults write command:
Hit Return and then relaunch the App Store. You can now right-click to “Inspect Element” on anything, just like you would in Safari through the developer DOM inspector tool.
As you may have guessed, this works because the Mac App Store is basically just a WebKit wrapper for a website.
There isn’t much reason to disable this feature because it’s only activated by a right-click, but if you want to, that defaults write command is:
The Preview image editing and photo viewing app in Mac OS X includes the ability to capture screen shots directly within the application. The resulting images open directly into Preview rather than saving to the Mac desktop, allowing user changes to file size, resolution, color, and file format.
There are three different screen capture modes available in Preview that are almost identical to the standard keyboard shortcuts that are typically used on the Mac. Here’s how to use each of the three options to take images of the entire screen (or screens) in the Preview app of OS X:
The latest MacUpdate Bundle has been announced, stuffing in 11 great Mac apps at a dramatically reduced price. Purchased individually these would cost $487, but the MacUpdate Bundle brings the combined price down to $49.99. The apps include:
Toast 11 Titanium ($99) – Burn CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray discs, plus convert and export video for iPhone and PSP, etc
Printopia ($19) – first 10,000 buyers only – Share printers with iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and enable wireless printing on Mac printers
Data Rescue 3 ($99) – Data recovery tool for deleted files and failing hard drives
FX Photo Studio Pro 2 ($39.99) – Powerful post-processing photo editor with 159 effects and 15 customizable color correction tools
Fantastical ($19.99) – Popular menu-bar based calendar that uses natural language to create events
iStat Menus 3 ($16) – Monitor system stats and performance from the menubar: CPU, memory, disk use, bandwidth, temperatures, and so much more
PhoneView ($19.95) – Access and read iPhone voicemail, SMS, call history, voice memos, and more, easily from your Mac
Concealer ($19.95) – Stores information like passwords, credit cards, and license keys, securely with encryption
EarthDesk 5 ($24.95) – Replaces the static desktop picture with a rendered image of Earth with live sun, moon, and cloud coverage
Mellel 2 ($29) – Powerful word processor for writers, scholars, technical writing with multilingual support
Bookends 11 ($99) – Reference management and bibliography app for students and professionals with Mellel, Word, and Pages support
Considering some of these apps cost $99 alone this is quite a deal. If you counted 12 apps you’re not delirious, but Printopia is available only to the first 10,000 buyers and then drops off the included list, bringing the app count back down to 11.
Watch the video below for a quick walkthrough if you’re unfamiliar with any of the apps by name, or you can read more on the MacUpdate Bundle page:
Switching between active Desktops/Spaces in OS X with the three fingered sideways swipe is very quick, but an even faster method is by using the Control keys.
The first option is to use the Control + Arrow keys, which is enabled by default. As you might expect, Control + Left Arrow switches to the desktop Space to the left, Control + Right Arrow goes to the right. Read more »
Rant time! Waking up this morning to 49 new emails from “Apple Support Communities Updates” was less than pleasant, especially considering I had already unsubscribed from all email notifications the night before – or so I thought.
It turns out that you have to unsubscribe to email notifications from each individual thread that you are engaged with on Apple’s Discussion Boards…
Stop Emails from Apple Support Communities Updates
Feels a bit weird to be troubleshooting this, but here’s how to finally shut the email updates off:
Click on any link to get to Apple’s Support Communities and then click on your profile name
Look on the right side for the “Actions” box and click on “Manage email notifications” – yes believe it or not this is separate from the above option to manage your email notifications
Click on each box to check what threads you want to unsubscribe from, or check the topmost box to unsubscribe from all threads you have participated in
Click on the “Remove selected notifications” button
Oddly enough you have to manually unsubscribe for every thread you participate in, so even if you have unsubscribed from other threads in the past but then participate in a new thread, you’ll have to do this again. Read more »
If you have a mixed network of Mac and Windows PC’s, chances are good that you’ll be wanting to move files between the two operating systems. The easiest way to share files from Mac OS X to Windows is to enable Samba support for a given user account on the Mac. This tutorial will how to share files between Mac and Windows PC this way.
The Preview image editing and photo viewing app in Mac OS X includes the ability to capture screen shots directly within the application. The resulting images open directly into Preview rather than saving to the Mac desktop, allowing user changes to file size, resolution, color, and file format. 
