Don’t want to dig out the Terminal or Activity Monitor to relaunch the Finder? No sweat.
Hold down Option and then right-click on the Finder icon in the Dock. You’ll now see an otherwise hidden “Relaunch” option, select it and Finder will quit and relaunch. It only takes a few seconds to reload.
Relaunching the Finder is sometimes necessary for troubleshooting reasons, but it’s also required for many Mac OS X interfacetweaks to take effect, including many defaults write commands.
On the other hand, if you’re already in the Terminal with a defaults write command, maybe it’s easier to just type the standard:
killall Finder
This also causes the Finder to relaunch, as does killing it in the Activity Monitor… but if you don’t have to leave the Finder, why bother?
Whether you’re just trying to update iOS firmware, downgrade, or jailbreak, it’s not terribly unusual for an iPhone to get stuck in Recovery Mode. You’ll know you’re stuck because the phone displays the classic USB to iTunes logo, and iTunes gives you the Recovery Mode detected message. Sometimes you can escape just by hardbooting the phone, but if that doesn’t work you can use a tool like RecBoot.
If you’re video chatting at night or in an area with limited lighting, you can brighten your face by opening up a blank white web browser window. This is obviously a really simple tip, but it’s kind of fun to see how surprisingly useful blank browser windows can be (like speeding up Safari on the iPhone 3G).
The simplest way to create a blank browser window is to open up about:blank which works in every modern browser.
The idea is probably taken from Photo Booth, which uses an all white screen as a virtual flash of sorts to brighten your mug when you take a picture (you can disable that by holding down the Shift key). I’m guessing it won’t be long until some developers start creating wrappers for FaceTime, iChat, and Skype to have this in some form of native app.
Sick of Angry Birds yet? Too bad, because now you can download and play Angry Birds completely for free with the Chrome web browser. This was just released at Google IO 2011, and the game should run on any OS with the Chrome browser. If you somehow avoided downloading Angry Birds, Rio, and the 56,000 other variations for Mac, iOS, Windows, Android, and whatever else, now you have no excuse to not be assimilated.
You’ll need to be using the Chrome (or Safari!) web browser to download and play this. The game is practically the same although there’s an extra set of Chrome specific levels for some new gameplay. Angry Birds Chrome plays reasonably well although sound doesn’t appear to work (in Mac OS X at least) and if you have more than a few browser tabs open the gameplay gets choppy, but for a web game it’s pretty good and it does make sense to exist in a browser. Happy gaming.
You can run multiple instances of any application in Mac OS X with a little command line magic. Using the ‘open’ command to launch GUI apps from the Terminal, we can run a new instance of any app, even if it is already running.
TenFourFox is an essential web browser for any Mac OS X user that is still using a PowerPC machine. It’s a fork of Mozilla that is practically identical to Firefox 4, the only difference is that it includes support for PowerPC chips, meaning you’ll get all the CSS3 and HTML5 support that Firefox 4 comes with, and perhaps more importantly, most Firefox add-ons are supported.
The developers have a pretty funny attitude about the project, here’s part of their explanation as to why TenFourFox was created:
…we were horrified when Mozilla delivered the one-two punch of dropping both support for Tiger and our beloved Power Macs from Firefox 4. A quad 2.5GHz G5 isn’t worth using to surf the web? Really? And you guys still support Windows XP?
Sure sounds ridiculous when they put it like that, doesn’t it?
TenFourFox is completely free and has builds optimized for PowerPC G3, G4, and G5 architecture.
System requirements to run TenFourFox are a PowerPC G3, Mac OS X 10.4.11 or Mac OS X 10.5.8, 100 MB of disk space, and 256MB of RAM. Performance is apparently really fast, although they do caution that video playback will be poor on PowerPC Macs that are slower than 1.2GHz.
What are you waiting for? Breathe new life into that old Mac. Long live PowerPC!
While some web ads are unobtrusive, others are really annoying. If you’re tired of seeing web ads, you can install adblock extensions in every major web browser and never see another ad again.
Obligatory notice: blocking ads prevents web publishers from supporting themselves, ad revenue is what pays the bills for websites like this one and countless others. Read on for responsible ad blocking tips.
Computer scientists from Harvards School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have come up with an incredibly unique use for the iPhone; finding landmines. Actually, it’s an iPhone app, and it works by using audio signals from traditional metal detectors to create a visual image of metallic objects in the ground, making it easier for minesweepers to differentiate between a deadly landmine and a harmless piece of metal.
Some of the most secure passwords you can use are those that are randomly generated. From the command line, you can randomize potential passwords in a multitude of ways, which can be used as secure passwords of generated characters.
We’ll cover several primary methods of generating random sequences and then show you how to combine commands to make the generated passwords even more random.
How AT&T Detects Unofficial Tethering from the iPhone
So how does AT&T know you are tethering in the first place? Apparently it’s very easy to detect from iPhone users, as AndroidPolice explains:
Jailbroken iPhones typically use the same tethering technique as a standard iPhone, the one that’s already present in iOS. This method exposes tethering activity quite readily, because the iPhone, when in tethering mode, sends traffic through an alternate APN (AT&T access point/router) for the express purpose of identifying the traffic as tethered data. This makes it extremely easy for AT&T to identify whether or not an iOS device is utilizing tethering, and just how much of their data is consumed via tethering.
In other words, AT&T simply looks at who is using tethered data through these APN’s, and then they cross-check these user accounts to see if they’re paying for a tethering plan. It’s that simple.
A few months ago, AT&T began cracking down on unofficial iPhone tethering usage by sending warning messages to account holders. The message was simple; if you’re using tethering but not paying for a tethering plan, you will be automatically upgraded to a tethering plan. Now AT&T is making good on that promise, and has started to automatically update user accounts that they suspect of using unofficial tethering methods.
Those who use a tethering app such as MyWi or PDANet are being notified of their plan changes through text messages:
AT&T Free Msg: We’ve noticed you’re continuing to enjoy the tethering feature with your smartphone. Your plan has been updated to a tethering plan ($45/mo incl. 4GB) and you’ll soon see this change reflected on an upcoming billing statement. Visit att.com/dataplans or call 866-679-7136.
Outside of having your data plan updated and including a new monthly tethering plan fee of $45, there does not appear to be any repercussions or animosity from AT&T. The biggest complaints from users about the AT&T crackdown pertain to data usage rights, with many suggesting that once they pay for wireless data they should be able to use it as they wish. Furthermore, grandfathered unlimited data accounts that are automatically updated to a tethering plan lose their unlimited data capability, and instead receive a 4GB transfer limit.
For some users this could be seen as good news, since the original iPhone and iPhone 3G are not capable of using official wireless tethering through Personal Hotspot due to the inability to update to iOS 4.3. While AT&T hasn’t specifically OKayed the usage, this suggests old iPhone owners can use wireless tethering through MyWi and PDANet without incident, assuming they pay the standard tethering fees to AT&T.
MyWi and PDANet are both apps available exclusively on the Cydia store to users who jailbreak their iPhones. Jailbreaking is not illegal, but it is frowned upon by Apple.
Apple is the most valuable brand in the world, with a brand value of a staggering $153.3 billion. Perhaps more impressive than the overall value is that Apple’s brand valuation grew a whopping 84% year over year.
Other Notable Findings from the brand valuation report:
Google is #2 at $111.4 billion, down -2% from the year prior
Microsoft is #5 with a brand value of $78.2 billion, up 2% from 2010
AT&T is #7 with a brand value of $69.9 billion, I’ll go ahead and speculate that this is helped by their long-running iPhone exclusivity
Verizon Wireless is #13 with a brand value of $42.8 billion, who recently started carrying iPhone
China Mobile, #9 on the list, has been in talks with Apple to bring the iPhone on their network
Unsurprisingly, Bloomberg contributes much of Apple’s brand growth to the success of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac lineup.
You can see the full top 100 brands list at MillwardBrown.com. I find it interesting that some of the other top brand entries are either direct competitors to Apple (Google, Microsoft, Blackberry, etc), or carriers and resellers of Apple products (AT&T, Verizon, Walmart, Target, Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, etc).
For those using larger displays you may wish the Mac OS X Dock icon magnification was greater on the Mac, but it turns out this can be achieved easily with a defaults write command.
With a little effort, you can super magnify the size of Dock icons on Mac.
Think you’ll ever be in a situation where your iPad needs to survive a drop from 1/10th of a mile up? Do you ever get so frustrated with your MacBook Pro that you want to toss it out of a two story window, but you don’t want it to actually break?
These are ridiculous scenarios and not survivable, right? Wrong. The new high-tech G-Form Extreme Sleeves for iPad and MacBooks do exactly that, and for the skeptics, the creators went about making videos to demonstrate how these cases allow electronics to absorb serious impacts.
The first video shows an iPad enclosed in a G-Form Extreme Sleeve being dropped from a light aircraft at 500′ and surviving. The second video shows a MacBook Pro 13″ wrapped in an Extreme Sleeve being thrown off a second story deck. Both survive without incident or damage. I’d say that’s pretty impressive.
Want to always show line numbers in TextWrangler documents on Mac OS X? Of course you do! This is a great feature and it’s super easy to enable displaying of line numbers in TextWrangler for Mac:
Redsnow 0.9.6rc16 has been released for iOS 4.3.3 jailbreakers. This new version serves primarily to resolve a few bugs with the prior redsn0w app, most notably with the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4’s side switch improperly vibrating. Additional fixes resolve a problem with verbose booting on the iPhone 3GS and an issue with the Windows app crashing during the jailbreak process.
If you are already jailbroken from rc15, you can simply run rc16 over that jailbreak to apply the bug fixes. If you need a walkthrough, follow this guide to jailbreak iOS 4.3.3 with redsn0w, everything is identical.
As mentioned above, the Windows-specific bug fix pertains exclusively to those jailbreaking from Windows Visa and Win 7. These users no longer have to adjust CPU affinity of redsn0w to prevent a crash, although it still must be ran in XP mode. This does not effect Mac users.
We’ll update more redsn0w releases and important jailbreak info as it becomes available.
I got tired my desktop and login wallpaper today and went looking for a bunch of new ones. Instead of keeping them to myself, I’ve decided to share the wealth. Without further ado, here are 15 high resolution wallpapers that will make your desktop look beautiful again.
The iPad is already a huge hit in China, and some trendy restaurants are cashing in on the craze by using the iPad as a visual menu to order your meal from. Is this gimmicky or just another creative use of the iPad?
Redsnow 0.9.6rc16 has been released for 
