iOS 5 will finally bring iPhone users the ability to customize their text message alert sounds. Yes, customize, as in your own user created text tones the same way the ringtone maker in iTunes 10 works. You’ll no longer be forced to select from the limited Apple default offerings or hear the barrage of Tri-Tone ever again, the world of audio is open to SMS alerts.

This may seem like a relatively minor feature, but it’s been long anticipated and highly desired by nearly everyone with an iPhone. Yet another reason for developers to download iOS 5 beta 3 now and for the rest of the world to be excited about the public fall release of iOS 5… just a few more months away.

Customized text tones were discovered in Beta 3 by TechCrunch, whose picture shows a generic custom .m4r ringtone file set as a text tone. Prior to this version of iOS 5, users were forced to use jailbreak tweaks to access custom SMS alert sounds.

If you want to keep an eye on your Mac’s CPU temperature, you can choose between two different apps to display the temperature right in your menu bar. If you’re running Mac OS X 10.6.8 or lower, both apps are free, but if you’re on Lion then you’ll have to pay for one of the options.

You’ll see that both of these apps do a lot more than just display CPU temperature, they detect and display all internal temperatures including battery, various locations on the enclosure, the heat sink, hard drive, and each CPU core. We’re going to mostly ignore that though and aim for CPU temps.

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Apple has a good sense of humor and doesn’t mind picking on themselves and their legendary secrecy. The t-shirt is available for purchase exclusively at Apple’s Company Store in Cupertino California, the message is:

“I visited the Apple campus.
But that’s all I’m allowed to say.”

You’ve always been able to buy Apple t-shirts and gear at the Company Store, but this looks like a new addition for 2011. The Apple Company Store is located at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino California, it even has its own website, but you can’t order anything online, so if you want one of these you’ll have to make the trip yourself.

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Apple has released iOS 5 beta 3 for developers to download, the build comes as 9A5259f and supports iPad 2, iPad, iPhone 4 GSM & CDMA, iPhone 3GS, and iPod touch 3rd & 4th generations. Apple TV2 has received a separate update, however it is still not considered iOS 5.

Alongside the latest iOS 5 beta comes a new version of iTunes 10.5 at beta 3, which seems to be required to sync iTunes with your iOS 5 beta 3 devices.

You can download the latest beta directly from iOS Dev Center, as usual you will need an active developer ID to access the files.

Using GeekTool and lsof, you can display an automatically updated list of open network connections directly on a Mac OS X desktop. This is tip is a “safe” alternative to the previously mentioned open_ports utility.

The problem with installing and using open_ports is that it is a third party script running as root, and for many users that is unacceptable. Here is a method that is native to Mac OS X and doesn’t even require root access to watch network connections:

First, if you want to discard the GeekTool portion and just get a quick look at open connections, you can quickly list all open network connections with:
lsof -i | grep -E "(LISTEN|ESTABLISHED)"

You could also combine this with the ‘watch’ utility and just keep an eye on open connections in a terminal window.

That portion of the tip has been covered here before regarding lsof, but the next part is geared specifically for GeekTool because it allows a constantly refreshed list of active connections to overlay against your desktop background picture.
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You can watch all open network connections for both incoming and outgoing transfers using a free command line utility called open_ports.sh. Open_Ports is much more useful than using lsof to list open internet connectionsbecause it provides extensive network information in a very easy to read format, including what program or process is opening the connection, which port and user, the number of connections per process, the hostname being connected to, the country, and even the city.

Additionally, open_ports shows you all of your open ports listening for connections, again with information about the application, user, port number and name, and even the service IP range. All of the output is color coded, a red background signifies the process is owned by root, red text means the IP address doesn’t correspond to a domain name, blue means the IP matches several domain names, and green text means the protocol is encrypted.

Installation requires some experience with the command line, but chances are if you want an application like this then that won’t be an issue. Here we go…
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Most lefties have adapted to the righty-centric world of computing, but this isn’t necessary on a Mac. The Apple Magic Mouse, Apple wireless mouse, wired mouses, trackpad, and even most 3rd party mice have a symmetrical shape, so those that are left handed just need to adjust a few settings in Mac OS X to get the mouse on their dominant side.

We’ll show you how to change the mouse button to be left handed in Mac OS X, and also how to change the trackpad behavior to be for left handed people too.

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This Mac setup has all you need and is checking out none other than OSXDaily.com: a MacBook Pro 15″ with matte anti-glare display sits atop a Griffin Elevator Stand while connected to an Apple Cinema Display, an iPad sits to the right, and there are two iPhones rounding it out.

This is a nice clean desk setup, and the Magic Trackpad and MagicMouse ensure the MacBook Pro is ready for Lion and the new multitouch gestures.

Thanks for sending this in JW!

I’m going to walk through the process of making a bootable Mac OS X 10.7 Lion installation drive out of any USB flash drive key. This is similar to the process of making a bootable Lion installer DVD, but I prefer a USB flash drive because it’s faster, smaller, and I have a MacBook Air so an installation DVD isn’t too useful for me.

This is pretty easy to do, but I have made the walkthrough as simple as possible with plenty of screenshots, so just follow along the instructions.

Requirements:

• A Mac with Mac OS X 10.6.8 so you can download and access Lion
• 8GB+ USB flash key drive, these are cheap and ubiquitous on Amazon.com
• Download Mac OS X Lion from the Mac App Store ($29.99)

Got all that? Good, let’s proceed.

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The powerful textutil command for Mac offers an amazing capability to convert a text documents font family and text size, transforming the document with ease and precision right from the command line of Mac OS.

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Two new reports suggest that the Mac OS X Lion release date is indeed set for next week, likely on Thursday, July 14th, and that a new Macbook Air will launch alongside Lion.

The first report comes from 9to5mac, the origin of the suggested July 14th launch date, whose sources are saying that new retail signage is due next Wednesday at Apple Stores, likely for both OS X Lion and new MacBook Air models:

We’ve heard from a few overseas sources that Apple Retail stores are planning ‘overnights’ on July 13th. Overnights are generally where Apple refreshes store displays and trains up management on new products.

Corroborating 9to5mac is a similar report from AppleInsider, who cites a source with access to Apples internal retail news network, saying:

a new bulletin posted to the system this week is advising store management to perform RAM upgrades to certain Mac models on the showroom floors by Sunday, July 10th at the latest — presumably in preparation for those models to be upgraded with Lion shortly thereafter.

AppleInsider also mentions the retail store overnight plan for an unspecified time next week, but suggests that the revised MacBook Air may make an appearance later in the month and not on the actual launch date of Lion.

OS X Lion will cost $29.99 and be downloadable exclusively through the Mac App Store.

Mac OS X has a fancy way of refreshing your Dashboard widgets. It’s better watched than described or shown in pictures, so open up Dashboard, click on any widget, then hit Command+R and watch the widget disappear and reappear into a twirl.

The larger and more colorful the widget the better the effect, and you can hit command+R repeatedly if you feel like showing this off to someone else. Other than refreshing a widget, which rarely needs to happen, this isn’t too useful, but it’s great eye candy.

This comes via Chronic on Twitter, you can follow us there too.
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The easiest way to get HTTP header information from any website is by using the command line tool curl. The syntax to retrieve a website header goes like this:

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Retina iPad 2 rumors just won’t die, and alongside the report that iPhone 4S is really just iPhone 5 in disguise, ThisIsMyNext mentions a new iPad will launch this year. Dubbed “iPad HD”, or “iPad Pro”, supposedly the next model will not be iPad 3, instead it will compliment the existing iPad 2 lineup with the main difference being a 2048×1536 resolution display.

Our sources are saying that not only will there be a newly designed iPhone coming in the fall, but there is going to be a new entry into the iPad family as well. As hard as it might be to believe, the new tablet is said to sport a double resolution screen (2048 x 1536), and will be dubbed the “iPad HD.” The idea behind the product is apparently that it will be a “pro” device aimed at a higher end market — folks who work in video and photo production possibly — and will be introduced alongside something like an iPad version of Final Cut or Aperture. This product is specifically said to not be the iPad 3, rather a complimentary piece of the iPad 2 line. Think MacBook and MacBook Pro.

The most compelling argument against any new iPad introductions this year was the statement directly from Steve Jobs at the iPad 2 unveiling event, declaring 2011 the “Year of iPad 2”
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If you’ve been confused by the whole iPhone 4S vs iPhone 5 thing, we may finally have an answer. Contrary to reports suggesting otherwise, ThisIsMyNext is claiming that the “iPhone 4S” doesn’t exist as a separate product at all, it’s simply Apple disguising the newest iPhone 5 components in the older iPhone 4 enclosure.

Suggesting the disguise is to throw off any leaks of what the next-gen iPhone will look like, ThisIsMyNext explains further:

Simply put, as the iPhone 5 components are built for a smaller and lighter device, they can be easily fit into a casing which for all intents and purposes looks identical to an iPhone 4… and that’s exactly what Apple has been doing. Our sources tell us that the company has been testing the new components in old iPhone cases, for obvious reasons. Some of those reports we’ve heard about a larger screen for the old design would make sense too, as a slight tweak of the size (say, to a 3.7-inch display), would be barely noticeable to the eye, but obvious in internal component design. So if you’ve been wondering why the rumors about the iPhone 4S rose to such a din, now you know.

They also state that the “highest levels” of Apple are ready to move beyond the iPhone 4 design and release something completely new.

Disguising prototype iPhones certainly makes sense, and this could explain why the alleged China Mobile iPhone 5 leak picture looks just like an iPhone 4. Nonetheless, using current enclosures doesn’t address the reoccurring rumors of a cheaper iPhone aimed at the pre-paid market. Maybe the iPhone 4 will take the place of the iPhone 3GS as the cheapest iPhone offering? That would be an impressive feat considering the high quality and expensive parts that exist in iPhone 4, but Apple’s huge buying power could make it happen.

We will likely have an answer to all of these questions in late September.

You might be looking at a prototype iPhone 5 running on the worlds largest cellular carrier, China Mobile. The iPhone pictured looks very similar to the iPhone 4, but clearly shows an unreleased baseband version 06.10.01, and like other Apple prototype iPhones, there is no IMEI number.

The image has been posted to several Chinese websites and was picked up by AppleInsider. Adding some potential legitimacy to the photo is that Apple COO Tim Cook was reportedly spotted at China Mobile corporate offices last month. Apple has apparently long been interested in bringing the iPhone to China Mobile and it’s 600 million+ subscribers (to put 600 million in perspective, that’s 2x more cell subscribers than the entire population of the USA).

So is this an iPhone 5? Nobody knows for sure, but many rumors suggest the iPhone 5 will closely resemble the iPhone 4, yet be thinner and lighter, which would explain why the pictured phone does not look substantially different from the front view. If not an iPhone 5, it may also be the so-called “iPhone 4S” that is rumored to exist as a cheaper alternative aimed primarily at emerging and prepaid markets, and launch alongside iPhone 5 this September. It’s also entirely possible this is just a prototype for network testing, or even a fake. Stay tuned.

Update: A new report suggests that Apple is disguising iPhone 5 in iPhone 4 enclosures to throw off leaks, so this could very well be the real deal in terms of internal components.

Facebook just announced their built-in video chat feature that uses Skype to initiate video calls, but unfortunately support for the new feature is lacking for users with Mac OS X Lion and the latest version of Safari. If you try it, you’ll see the video call button has been greyed out with a message saying “Not supported in this browser or OS version”.

Don’t worry, there’s a ridiculously easy fix, all you need to do is change your browsers user agent in Safari (or Chrome or Firefox), here’s how in Safari:

• Pull down the Developer menu and select “Safari 5.1 – Mac”
• Reload Facebook and enjoy video chatting

Tough work huh?
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Do you need to convert a text file to RTF, plain text TXT, HTML, DOC, or another familiar document format? The excellent textutil command line utility can make quick work of text file conversion and manipulation on the Mac, and there is no need to download any additional software or tools as it’s built right in to Mac OS.

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