The iTunes Visualizer is a neat feature of iTunes that’s been around forever, more recent incarnations of the app have brought a more attractive visualizer which is a bit more fun to play around with. In fact, there’s some hidden commands that you can access while in iTunes Visualizer that modify the appearance of what’s displayed on screen.

These work on both Mac and Windows versions of iTunes, so play some music and explore the effects.

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There’s a new iPad commercial out again, and Apple showers the device in superlatives: iPad is cinematic, elementary, academic, full-size, presenting, bought, sold, fantasy, electric.

The latest TV advertisement features the same finger snapping Chilly Gonzales piano song from iPad commercials airing earlier in the year, except at the end there’s an electric guitar playing the same chords.

The latest iPad commercial joins the MacBook Air, iPhone, iPod touch, and iPod nano commercials that are also seen on the airwaves with some regularity.

Previously, Apple used the same song for a similar themed commercial for iPad 1, as part of an ongoing television advertising campaign for the tablet.

Mac users generally don’t have to worry much about viruses, but with the popularity of Macs growing the likelihood of viruses appearing increases. Just recently a new trojan called Boonana Koobface appeared that affects Mac users. If you’re concerned with getting a virus on your Mac, why not download a free anti-virus app for Mac OS X?
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The transparent computer screen effect is always cool, and this stack of 5 transparent laptops is no exception. There’s an iBook (this is pre-iBookstore), a couple PC’s, and even an old school PowerBook in there.

OK so they’re not actually transparent, they’re just carefully shot digital pictures that are opened on each individual laptop to give a see-through effect. This picture was sent to us via Flickr, and doesn’t serve much purpose other than looking cool.

If you need to download iPad firmware and IPSW files, here are the links to do so. These are the original unmodified IPSW files, for versions 3.2 and up for iPad. You can also download iPhone firmware or iPod touch firmware if you need to.

iPad Firmware & IPSW Downloads

These .ipsw files are hosted on Apple’s servers, it’s best to right-click the file you need and “Save As” to prevent some web browsers from trying to extract the file as an archive.
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The GM release of iOS 4.2 is now available to download through Apple’s Developer Program. GM stands for Golden Master, which generally means the software release is ready to ship. The iOS 4.2 update is hotly anticipated for iPad owners in particular, since it will bring multitasking abilities to the device. The update also installs on the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, and the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd generation iPod touches. Installing the iOS 4.2 update requires iTunes 10.1 as well.

If you’re an iOS developer, head on over to Apple’s iOS Developer Center to grab the iOS 4.2 GM build 8C134.

For those who aren’t developers, the wait to download and install iOS 4.2 is not going to be long. It’s expected that the newest version of iOS will be released to the public within a week or two, which would match the November release date that Apple scheduled earlier in the year.

Note: Any download links made available in the comments have not been verified and are not condoned by OSXDaily.com. Use at your own risk.

If you need to open and expand rar files in Mac OS X, you can unrar files with two free utilities available for the Mac. Not only will either of these apps quickly open and decompress .rar files, but it also has the ability to restore corrupted and missing archives using par files. Archive restoration using par2 is often essential when working with torrent and newsgroup downloads.

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The iPhone Dev Team has released RedSn0w 0.9.6 in it’s second beta form for both Windows and Mac platforms. There are two main reasons you’d want to use redsn0w. The first is for Windows users, since redsn0w allows you to use custom IPSW files. The second reason is that redsn0w allows you to use custom boot logos on iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPod touch 2G, assuming you have qualifying bootrom, this is obviously just a cosmetic feature.

Update 11/23/2010: redsn0w 0.9.6b4 download has been released.

The Dev Team notes that you should not use redsn0w if you have used the ultrasn0w unlock in the past, since you may lose the carrier unlock if you were to upgrade to iOS 4.1.

Download Redsn0w 0.9.6b2

These are direct download links for Windows and Mac OS X:
0.9.6b2 for Mac OS X
0.9.6b2 for Windows

Remember that if you need to build a custom IPSW file for redsn0w to use, you’ll have to do so with Pwnage Tool. Otherwise, if you need to access original IPSW files, you can download iPhone firmware & IPSW or iPod touch firmware from two large lists.

The redsn0w 0.9.6b2 jailbreak uses the same exploit as limera1n as opposed to the older DFU mode exploit. If you just want to jailbreak your phone and you’re not concerned with unlocks, I would recommend going with greenpois0n or limera1n, they are a bit easier.

You can have your iPhone display the character count of text messages by enabling an option within the settings, here’s how to do this in iOS:

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Zombie Snow White on a MacBook? Yikes, this is rather horrifying but very fitting for Halloween.

Everyone has probably seen the Snow White decal stuck on the back of a MacBook by now, if you’re a Disney & Apple fan it’s an appropriate tribute to both, and, well, this is a very creepy twist on that. Would I put it on my MacBook? No, I don’t think I would, but then again my personal favorite decal is The Giving Tree, which is a whole lot friendlier. To each there own.

Happy Mac Halloween everyone! And thanks to CJ for sending this picture in.

Oh, and remember it’s not too late to grab a pumpkin and carve an Apple logo pumpkin or to get a creepy iPad wallpaper.

Here’s a nice trick if you need to continuously observe your Macs system usage, including disk usage, CPU, and load average. The great thing about this iostat trick is that it updates constantly, allowing for realtime monitoring of system performance, which can be extremely helpful for performance testing and tracking down various processes or activities that are resource heavy.

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If you’re a writer, student, or blogger, the new MacBook Air might be your portable dream machine. For low CPU intensive tasks, the lightweight notebook boasts a battery life that is significantly better than the advertised time of 5 to 7 hours. AnandTech did some extensive reviews of the new MacBook Air and found the battery to last a staggering 7 to 11.2 hours for the 11″ MacBook Air and 13″ 2010 models respectively:

As glorified typewriters, you can’t beat the battery life offered by the MacBook Air. Light web browsing, document creation and music playback have minimal impact on the Air’s battery life. In fact, we actually beat Apple’s battery life claims in our light tests. The 11-inch Air delivers nearly 7 hours on a single charge and the 13-inch managed 11.2 hours. For a writer, you can’t do better than this.

The results were found with screen brightness at 50%, connected to WiFi, playing an MP3 in iTunes, and with no Flash player loaded while browsing the web. Here’s the chart of the new Air against other MacBook and MacBook Pro models:
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In the Halloween spirit, here’s a really creepy iPad wallpaper of a hand appearing behind foggy glass. Click on the image for a full size 1024×1024 version (hosted at imgur).

For whatever reason this picture reminds me of The Ring, ahh!

This is a comprehensive download list of all the firmware files for iPod touch 2G, iPod touch 3g, and iPod touch 4G, with IPSW from 3.1.2 to the current 4.1.0. All of these IPSW files are hosted with Apple and direct linked to their servers. If you have an iPhone, you can download iPhone firmware instead.

iPod Touch Firmware / IPSW Downloads

We are not hosting the firmware files, they are hosted with Apple. It’s best to right-click on the .ipsw link you need and save it directly to prevent your browser from trying to decompress the firmware package on its own.
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Here’s a cool MacBook mod, a user attached a black MacBook bezel on his white MacBook, creating an Oreo MacBook. I have a white MacBook and always imagined doing this and swapping in a black keyboard too after seeing the MacBook Pro come out with their black bezels and keys. Definitely a great mod and I think it’s one of the more creative Mac setups around.

I’m pretty sure this picture belongs to an OS X Daily reader, another one of our readers sent it in saying he found it following comments on an article, but I haven’t been able to track it down. If this is your MacBook and you want credit, please let us know!

Update: The Oreobook belongs to Joel Adria, you can follow the progress of creating the MacBook hybrid at his website.

Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac has been rated as the best version of Office to ever come to the Mac platform. If you need the powerful office suite, there’s no better place to buy than through Amazon, thanks to their generous discounts and free shipping.

Buy Office 2011 for Mac at a Discount

There are two versions available with different license packages, all offered with free shipping at a great discount of 8% to 14% off the retail price:

Home & Student – 3 License Family Pack – 13% off at $129.99 (MSRP: $149.99)

Home & Student – Single License – 8% off at $109.99 (MSRP: $119.99)

Home and Business – Single License – 13% off at $174.99 (MSRP: $199.99)

Home and Business – 2 License Pack – 14% off at $239.99 (MSRP: $279.99)

If you’re a family or a group of friends and you need to install Office on a few Macs, the cheapest route to go is to get the 3 license pack for home and students. Considering it’s only $20 more than the single license, you might as well get the 3 license pack and find people to split it with, it’s definitely the cheapest way to get Office 2011.

Does your Mac need more memory? How can you tell? Often when a Mac needs more RAM things will start slowing down and you’ll suffer a noticeable performance hit. This can impact everything from the speed of the computer, to how long it takes to launch apps, to sluggishness when interacting with apps, and more. If you experience any of those types of issues, it could be RAM constraints, but rather than guess, let’s actually learn how to check memory usage.

Here’s a 3-step process of how I determine if a Mac user needs additional memory. Using this method you can determine if you need more memory for your Mac too, so let’s follow along.

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Everyone knows that the delete key removes letters and numbers, but it does so one character at a time. That means if you want to delete and entire word, you have to hit the “Delete” key over and over again until it’s gone, right? Wrong! There’s a super handy trick that lets you delete complete words at a time and it’s super easy to use and remember!

To delete an entire typed word at a time, simply hold down the “Option” key while using the Delete key. This will delete a complete word at once (or any other continuous string of characters that are not interrupted), so if you keep hitting Option+Delete it will continue to delete more words.
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