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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Rage is a first person shooter for iOS where you blast your way through mutants in some post-apocalyptic disaster, it’s fairly similar to classics Doom and Quake, and that’s because ID Software created them all.

Both versions of the game, Rage and Rage HD, are available free for a limited time, with the HD version bringing higher resolution graphics and textures to iPhone 4, the latest iPod touch, and the iPad and iPad 2.

• Rage HD on the App Store

If you’re an iOS gamer, download it now for some weekend fun. Video of some gameplay action below.

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Apple has released iOS 5 beta 6 for developers to access through either OTA updates on the iOS device itself, or through the iOS Dev Center. Supported hardware continues to be all versions of iPad and iPad 2, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and the last two generations of iPod touch.

OTA updates are by the easiest method to get beta 6, accessed from tapping to Settings > General > Software Update, but you can also download iOS 5b6 IPSW files directly on the iOS dev Center. Alongside the 6th beta of iOS 5 comes iTunes 10.5 beta 6, which is necessary to install the latest iOS beta from IPSW, Xcode 4.2 preview 6, and a new iOS beta for Apple TV2.

The final version of iOS 5 will be released in the Fall, likely alongside the iPhone 5 in October, or possibly slightly earlier if the pre-order rumors are accurate.

Tired of tweaking OS X Lion on your own with all the defaults write commands? Don’t want to manually change iCals leather look back to aluminum? What about older tips like turning the Dock into 2D? Lion Tweaks to the rescue!

This little free app is an extremely easy GUI front-end to a ton of the customizations and tips that we’ve covered here on OSXDaily before, but since they can be activated from a central location at the click of a button, it’s very simple for even the most novice of users to change the way OS X Lion looks.

You can download LionTweaks right now for free (direct download link) or visit the developers website, it’s freeware but the dev is asking for donations.

Looking at what Lion Tweaks does is almost like reviewing our tip archives, with all of the tips below directly within the app and ready to use at the click of a yes/no button:
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If you disabled spelling auto-correct in Mac OS X but find yourself still being autocorrected as you type various words in Safari, that’s because the new versions of Safari has a separate spelling and grammar engine than the core OS. Admittedly, that’s a little confusing to have an app use it’s own unique spelling correction functionality, but fortunately you can control the feature independently if it’s bothering you.

Done with Safari’s auto-correct function? This is how to turn it off on the Mac:
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As if there was any doubt that Apple is the innovator here, here’s an amusing graphic showing the design of tablets before and after the launch of the iPad.

Similar graphics exist comparing the iPhone and smartphones too, DaringFireball links to a few comparing the before-and-after iPhone changes to Android phones. Entertaining find from Gruber.

Skitch, a simple image editor for Mac OS X, is now available free from the Mac App Store. Skitch calls itself an image swiss army knife, but you can think of it like Preview on steroids, with your standard basic image editing features of rotating, cropping, flipping, in addition to various screen grabbing features and the ability to annotate images with pen, text, shape, and arrow tools. The official feature list is:

• Screen grab your desktop, web browser or apps
• Annotate with pen, text, shapes and arrows
• Instantly upload to skitch.com, Flickr, FTP & .me
• Resize, crop, rotate & flip images
• Capture full length (longer than your screen) websites
• Take photos with your built in webcam
• Open and save in many different image formats
• Archive and re-use images from your Skitch history

Of course the other side to Skitch is that you can instantly upload and share images to Skitch.com directly through the app, which makes sharing pictures extremely easy.

Download Skitch for free from the Mac App Store

In case you were wondering, Skitch used to be $9.99 but is now free because it was bought out by Evernote, which is a great note taking and syncing utility.

In modern versions of Mac OS X, the ability to resize any window from any corner or side of is possible; just grab onto it, and when your cursor turns into the little double-sided arrow, start dragging. That’s a great addition in and of itself, but the resizing feature gets even better when some modifier keys are applied, which can further help adjust and direct resizing of windows in OS X.

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Prior to Mac OS X 10.7, you used to be able to click on the “Mac OS X” text to display additional system information about the Mac, showing things like IP Address, OS X version and build number, and the machines Hostname. Apple pulled that ability out of Mac OS X Lion, but you can get part of it back with a defaults write command.

• Launch the Terminal and enter the following command:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow AdminHostInfo HostName

• At the login screen, click on the Clock to see the system info at the login screen

You will need to enter the admin password when asked, and the setting will be in place the next time you access the Mac OS X Lion login screen. Remember, you have to click on the Clock for the hostname and version info to be visible on the login screen. The text will appear alongside the other menubar items.

Clicking to display the text is similar to past versions of Mac OS X, but clicking on the clock is somewhat unintuitive. Ideally, you could show this data in the same way you can add a message to the Lion login screen, but there are currently no known methods to do that unless you want to just manually add the hostname and version number yourself. There are more options regarding the Lion login window in the Server version of the OS, so maybe some of those will be able to move over to the Client version too.

Ahhhh the user Library folder has disappeared again! If you already installed Mac OS X 10.7.1 update, you may have noticed that your user library directory is hidden, again, returning it to the default invisible state that Lion wants. Mildly annoying, but it should be expected that system updates will revert things to how Apple intends. Anyway, here’s a quick refresher on how to show the user library folder again in OS X 10.7.1 (or any other version of OS X)

Launch the Terminal and enter the following command:
chflags nohidden ~/Library

Changes take effect immediately and your user library folder will be shown in the user home directory.

The temporary quick methods to access user library in OS X Lion still work too if you don’t want ~/Library to be visible all the time. Those include:

1. Holding down Option and clicking on the “Go” menu to show “Library” as a choice
2. Hitting Command+Shift+G and typing ~/Library/

Realistically, if you don’t have any business mucking about in your Library files, caches, preferences, and app data, you probably don’t need the Library folder visible, which is obviously why Apple is hiding it by default in Lion.

Thanks to Albert for pointing this out.

Whether you’re a UX or UI designer, app developer, or just want to create some mockups of Mac OS X Lion apps for fun, don’t miss these free OS X Lion UI Element kits from designers Jonatan Castro and Joshua Geiger. The GUI kits come as well labeled multi-layered PSD files that have all the main user interface elements from OS X Lion, ranging from sliders, dials, checkboxes, buttons, tabs, just about everything you can think of.

Download Lion UI Kit PSD file from Dribbble (shown above)

Download Lion UI Kit from SuiteTuts (shown below)

The two kits are slightly different and combine to be fairly complete, with the second kit focusing more on Desktop and Finder elements. The only thing I can find missing is the blue active button you see in things like Save dialogs, but chances are the PSD files will be updated to include that sometime in the near future, and regardless both are well worth the free download.

You can also download similar free GUI element PSD files for iPhone and iPad mockups too.

The newest versions of Mac OS X brings a revamped Preview app that includes the extremely useful Digital Signature feature built right in. Using your Macs built-in front facing iSight camera to capture your signature, Preview can keep multiple electronic signatures on file which can then be appended to PDF’s as needed, allowing for a very quick and easy way to sign a document and then send it along, without having to print a file and sign it with a pen.

This feature is amazingly useful and quite easy to use. To get started, you’ll need a white piece of paper and a pen or dark pencil, you’ll sign a piece of paper which gets scanned and digitized by the Mac so that you can place it onto files. It sounds complex, but it’s not, follow the steps below and you’ll be signing PDF’s with this thing in no time at all!

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Mac OS X 10.7.1 update has been released by Apple for all OS X Lion users to download. One of the most significant bug fixes pertains to dropping WiFi issues, so if you have been experiencing connectivity problems don’t miss this update. Other fixes address issues with HDMI and optical audio, Safari video, and migrating data to OS X Lion.

The update is rather slim at 17.4 MB through Software Update for most Mac users, but there are also separate updates available specifically for MacBook Air 2011 and Mac Mini 2011 models that address issues with those machines too.

Mac OS X 10.7.1 Update Download Links

You can download the OS X 10.7.1 update through Software Update, but if you would rather download the update manually as a DMG for local use, you can do so from Apple:

• Download OS X 10.7.1 Update (Client)
• Download OS X 10.7.1 Update (Server)
• Update for MacBook Air 2011 or Mac Mini 2011
• Update for Mac Mini Server 2011

Release notes from Apple are posted below:
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You may be able to pre-order iPhone 5 as soon as September 30, with the actual launch still occurring in early October, according to a new report from 9to5mac.

Noting that the precise launch and pre-order dates could likely change again, 9to5mac says:

We are reasonably confident, though, that as of today, Apple is planning to unleash their next iPhone on October 7th and offer pre-orders starting on September 29th or 30th.

Pre-orders for the next iPhone would be a welcome change from Apple’s most recent iOS device launch, the iPad 2, which consistently sold out and was nearly impossible to get your hands on for several months. The demand for past iPhone and iPad product launches practically guarantees that iPhone 5 will sell out immediately as well, making pre-orders even more important.

iPhone 5 is expected to have a dual core A5 CPU, an 8MP camera, possibly a redesigned case resembling the MacRumors mockup above, and there is some recent evidence pointing to 4G LTE capabilities. Stay tuned for more.

Making yesterdays 4G iPhone carrier test plist find much more interesting, Engadget was notified by an anonymous source that some major Apple Stores are getting in-store 4G LTE equipment installed by none other than iPhone carrier AT&T:

4G LTE equipment was recently installed in a major Apple store — by AT&T, according to our source. Making things somewhat more interesting is the equipment itself, one piece of which supports only the 700MHz and AWS bands — both of which AT&T plans to use for its LTE network if the T-Mobile acquisition goes through.

The reason for AT&T to install such equipment is unclear, but this obviously has set off a new wave of 4G LTE equipped iPhone 5 rumors and speculation. Engadget also comments that Apple Stores appear to be on a hiring spree:

We’re also told that the Apple Store in question, and all those in the region, are now trying to increase staffing on the sales floor by about 30 percent, which is apparently not related to the usual hiring in the lead up to the holidays (that will apparently still happen later).

4G LTE equipment from AT&T, additional sales floor staffing… nobody knows for sure what is going on here and you should probably consider the LTE talk a rumor at best, but the iPhone 5 is said to launch in October.

Update: The image of the alleged 4G equipment has been removed by request.

Apple and Starbucks have partnered up to offer free weekly iPhone app downloads to patrons of Starbucks stores. The free apps come in the form of a promo code printed on cards available at the register, those promo codes can be redeemed on the iOS App store.

The first free app offered through the new “App Pick of the Week” program is Shazaam Encore, a $5.99 iOS app that lets you determine what song is playing by listening to the music and identifying the song name.

Offering free apps in the “Pick of the Week” program looks to be an expansion of the existing free weekly iTunes song offered by Apple and Starbucks, which are also available via redemption code cards. The free app program was first discovered by CNET, who points out that Apple and Starbucks have had a partnership since 2007 for offering free music downloads.

Earlier in the year, Starbucks also released an iPhone app that lets you make coffee purchases through an iPhone, in addition to tracking customer rewards and purchase history.

Don’t want to make an OS X Lion USB install drive yourself? Apple has you covered, and now the official Apple OS X Lion Thumb Drive is available for purchase through the Apple Store for $69. The main advantage to using a USB installer is that it allows you to install Lion without an internet connection.

You can get the official USB thumb drive on Apple.com

The official Apple offering comes at a bit of a price premium, and even Apple reminds you that “OS X Lion is also available for a lower price as a digital download from the Mac App Store.” so they certainly aren’t trying to upsell anyone. Jump below to see how to create your own drive and save some cash.

Note that Apple’s Lion USB thumb drive is different than the Lion Recovery Disk created by the assistant tool, and it will allow you to install Lion without an internet connection rather than just boot into recovery mode for the internet restore.

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