Your Mac includes a pretty good video player called QuickTime Player, but by default QuickTime won’t play some of the more unique codecs like DivX. You can enable full DivX support by downloading a free QuickTime Player plugin called Perian.

Using QuickTime as a Free DiVX Player on the Mac

Here’s how to get QuickTime to play DivX video:

• Quick out of QuickTime Player (if it’s open)
• Download Perian from here (it’s free)
• Install Perian by double clicking on “Perian.prefPane”
• Relaunch QuickTime Player, it now has DivX codec support

The DivX video should now play trouble free within QuickTime Player.

Downloading and installing something like Perian to play DivX has several advantages, one it’s completely free, and two, Perian supports tons of other video formats, so you are unlikely to encounter any issues when watching movies on your Mac again. The other great thing about Perian is that it doubles as a video conversion utility, which lets you do things like convert an AVI to MOV amongst other formats.

You may notice an excessive amount of disk activity and high CPU utilization from a process called “find” that runs randomly in Mac OS X. This process has been a cause of concern by some users because of it’s behavior, but this is not spyware and the process should not cause worry. If you see the “find” process running you should let it run its course of operation.

What is the “find” process in Mac OS X?
The “find” process is run by user “nobody” and is a normal part of Mac OS X system maintenance, and according to Apple the process clears caches, updates system databases, and removes temporary files that are used by Mac OS X for a variety of functions.

When does “find” run?
You’ll usually see “find” running early in the morning, it’s scheduled to run at 3:15am daily, and then again on 4:30am Saturdays and 5:30am on the first day of a new month. If you leave your Mac running, you likely won’t encounter the process, however if you sleep your Mac, you may notice the process appear in the task manager or Activity Monitor upon the system waking. Sometimes you will the “find” process running concurrently with “makewhatis” and this is also normal.

Despite the name, ‘find’ is not directly related to Spotlight or the mdworker and MDS process and they usually are not run together.

Advanced: adjusting the periodic update schedule
You can read more about the maintenance schedule of Mac OS X by reading the man page for ‘periodic’, to do so, at the command line type the following:

man periodic

You can also manually run ‘periodic’ which will run the maintenance scripts system wide or on a specified directory basis. Additionally, if you know what you are doing you can modify the periodic schedule by editing the periodic.conf file located at:

/etc/defaults/periodic.conf
Editing the periodic schedule should only be considered by advanced users and systems administrators, and a backup of the periodic.conf file should be made prior to adjustment.

The latest version of TinyUmbrella has been released and it’s compatible with iOS 4.2.1. TinyUmbrella lets you save SHSH blobs from compatible hardware, allowing you to upgrade your iOS version while maintaining older versions of baseband.

TinyUmbrella is of particular interest to those who want to unlock their iPhone, if you are looking to unlock your iPhone you should save your existing iOS 4.1 shsh blobs before downloading and updating to iOS 4.2.1. Here’s why this matters, directly from the TinyUmbrella developer:

Do not update to 4.2.1 for the baseband protection. TinyUmbrella is no longer able to kick you out of recovery for that version. TinyUmbrella still works for prior versions and will be able to restore and kick you out of recovery for those versions but 4.2.1 has a baseband version check that will stop your device from booting if your baseband was not updated.

Download TinyUmbrella 4.2.1

You can download the latest TinyUmbrella 4.2.1 from the developers site here or through the links below:

• Get the Mac version 4.21.01 (direct download link) (4.21.12 beta version)
• Get the Windows version 4.21.01 (direct download link) (4.21.11)
• Get the Linux version (direct download link)

If you’re not sure what to do, you can follow our guide to learn how to save SHSH blobs with firmware umbrella.

Here’s a sweet MacBook Pro setup found on Flickr that functions as a portable editing station. Here are the specs according to the flickr page:

MacBook Pro 15″ Core i5 2.4Ghz
4GB of RAM
500GB 7200RPM Seagate Momentus XT Hard Drive
High Res Screen

G-Tech G Drive mini 500GB Hard Drive
Wacom Intuos 3 4″ x 6″ Tablet
Gretagmacbeth Eye-One Display 2 Colorimeter
Calumet UDMA Firewire CF Reader
Apple Magic Mouse
Garmin eTrex Summit HC

The Momentus XT Hybrid is a fantastic drive that we have recommended in the past as the best MacBook Pro hard drive upgrade for the price. That combined with upgrading RAM to 8GB is a great way to get some killer performance from your Mac hardware.

Here’s an awesome setup that really makes the best use of available hardware. On the left, a desktop Hackintosh powers the dual 22″ LG monitors, while an older lampshade iMac runs Linux on the right.

Amazon has tons of awesome sales for Black Friday this year, if you’re shopping for yourself or for others this holiday it’s definitely worth checking out.

The iPod touch seems to be on everyones shopping and wishlist, Amazon has the 8GB model for $30 off, and they’re also selling a Kindle for really cheap:

• iPod touch 8Gb for $199
• Kindle 2 for $89 (will be a featured Lightning Deal at 9am PST)

Prices on other iPod’s seem to fluctuate but the 64GB model was as low as $350 for a brief while before going back up. There’s also a bunch of huge discounts on TV’s, electronics, gadgets, software, books, everything really, it’s Amazon after all. The new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and MacBook are also discounted alongside a bunch of other Apple hardware and accessories, including iPhone and iPad cases.

Check out Amazon Black Friday sales for much more and shop away. Who needs to go to a physical store when you have the web?

Apple hardware is rarely discounted so when you can find a sale it’s always nice. There are some good deals out there for new MacBook Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Air models this Black Friday. Apple isn’t discounting all of their hardware, but Amazon is stepping in where Apple left off and offering discounts on the same gear with free shipping. If you’re looking to save some money, here are some of the deals floating around:
Read more »

Apple has posted their Black Friday sales deals for both the Apple Stores and Apple Online Store. You can expect about $100 off a new Mac, and a decent discount on the iPad and iPod series:

• iMac – $1098 ($101 discount)
• MacBook Pro – $1098 ($101 discount)
• MacBook Air – $1198 ($101 discount)
• iPod Nano – $138 ($11 discount)
• iPad – $458 ($41 discount)
• iPod touch – $208 ($21 discount)

If you’re looking for an iPhone, AT&T is offering a great Black Friday sale for an iPhone 4 for $99 with a 2 year contract, it’s a refurbed iPhone but it carries the same warranty as a new iPhone that otherwise costs $200. We’re not sure if Apple is going to match AT&T’s refurb iPhone deal.

The best deals from Apple are probably the MacBook Air and the iPad, the other prices are similar to what you get on Apple hardware with a student discount.

I’m not one to enjoy crowded shopping, so I personally would either shop online with Apple or just go to Amazon for the same discounts on most Apple hardware.

Amazon is offering some huge discounts on the latest version of Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac, the Home and Student edition are offered at a full 26% discount at the moment, which saves you $41 on the family pack of three licenses and $31 off the single license.

These are by far the cheapest prices I’ve seen for Office 2011, and it ships free from Amazon:

• Office Mac Home and Student 2011 – Family Pack (3 Licenses) – $108.99 (27% Discount)
• Office Mac Home and Student 2011 – Single License – $88.99 (26% Discount)

Business versions are also discounted but not quite as much, at 9% off a single license and 12% off 2 licenses.

Black Friday through Cyber Monday are truly some of the best times to find deals, if you’re anything like me you hate crowded shopping malls which makes these online deals that much more appealing. Thank you Amazon.

This is like the Inception of Windows errors; there’s a problem with “Reports and Solutions” so Windows is checking for a solution to that problem. Will it ever end or do we have to go deeper into this infinite Windows failure loop?

I’m just glad I no longer use Windows on any sort of regular basis, although I do have to use Internet Explorer on the Mac from time to time for browser testing… and what fun that is.

Thanks for sending this picture in Greg.

Amazon just slashed the price of the Seagate Momentus XT 500 GB 7200RPM 2.5″ SSD Hybrid Drive to $99 with free shipping, this is now a 32% discount from the MSRP and $22 cheaper than the already great deal from last week. Here’s what I said about the drive last week:

The Seagate Momentus XT 500GB is 2.5″ and will fit in the Mac Mini, MacBook, and MacBook Pro. The hard drive comes highly recommended for it’s very fast performance, which is achieved through a unique hybrid model that offers an onboard SSD drive that seamlessly caches frequently accessed data from the spinning 7200 RPM drive. The result is performance that is close to that of an SSD drive, but you gain significantly more disk space and pay a fraction of the price of a standard SSD drive.

I don’t know if this is part of a Black Friday sale or what, but this is one of the better upgrades you can get for a MacBook Pro for the price. Combine one of these SSD Hybrids with an 8GB RAM upgrade and your MacBook Pro will be one happy camper.

If you’re interested, head over to Amazon and grab the Seagate Momentus XT 500 GB 7200RPM 2.5″ SSD Hybrid Drive for $99.

If you’re in the market for an iPhone this Christmas, Black Friday might be the best time to buy. AT&T’s Black Friday Deals on the iPhone start at just $49 for an iPhone 3GS and $99 for an iPhone 4 16GB model, which is a full 50% off the retail price of a new iPhone 4 (yes, you still need to sign a 2 year contract). These prices are for refurbished units, but refurbs have the same warranty as a new iPhone from both AT&T and Apple, so there isn’t much reason to not buy one instead and save some cash.

AT&T iPhone Black Friday Deals & Sales

These are Black Friday only prices, so to get the discount you have to buy through AT&T on Friday, November 26: Read more »

Along with the release of the newer iOS updates and new versions of redsn0w, came the return of the so called “tethered jailbreak” which has caused some confusion as to it’s definition. I’ll explain what a tethered jailbreak is versus an untethered jailbreak, and why one is better than the other. If you want the short answer: an untethered jailbreak is always better.
Read more »

Bored with how your iPhone and iPad folders are looking? Well you can really stylize things by using wingdings and emoji icons to customize iOS folder labels. This gives each folder a much more interesting appearance, complete with little icons alongside the name.

The first thing you’ll want to do is be sure you have enabled the iOS Emoji keyboard on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and then the rest is easy.

Read more »

Some users are reporting that their song and media library has disappeared after downloading iOS 4.2.1 and installing the update. You’ll know you’re effected because instead of your typical iPod music library loading in the iPod app, you’ll get a message that says “No Content” and telling you to download music from iTunes.

Fix the “No Content” after iOS 4.2.1 update bug

One of our commenters has found an even easier fix for the “No Content” bug with iOS 4.2.1 update:

• Tap on “Settings” and then on “General” and then on “International”
• Change your Language to another option, for example if your default is English, change it to Francais
• Relaunch the iPod app and wait for the iPod library to update
• Your music has returned, navigate back to Language settings and revert back to English (or your default)

Thank you to Griga for the iOS based solution! No syncing required with this method.

Here’s the original fix for the “No Content” bug: what you do to make your music and media content reappear:

• Disconnect your iPhone or iPod from your computer and then reconnect it again
• Select your device in iTunes
• Select Music and start playing a song from iTunes
• Sync your iPhone as usual
• Launch the iPod app, your music should appear

If your music and media library have not reappeared then try the process again, it should work.
Read more »

Redsn0w 0.9.6b4 works to jailbreak iOS 4.2.1, but for many devices it remains a tethered jailbreak. A tethered jailbreak means that you have to connect the iPhone or iPod touch to your computer and run redsn0w every time the device reboots or runs out of battery. Only the iPhone 3G, older iPhone 3GS, and older iPod touch 2G will work untethered with redsn0w. I would recommend most users wait for an untethered jailbreak since it will be easier in the longrun, but if you’re determined to jailbreak the latest iOS, here’s how:
Read more »

Civilization 5 for Mac has been released, but before you grab a copy you should check the system requirements to make sure your Mac can run the game. As usual, the better your Mac the better the game will run. Here are the official Mac system requirements:
Read more »

Redsn0w 0.9.6b4 has been released for download by the iPhone dev team, and it allows you to jailbreak iOS 4.2.1, but there’s a catch; not all hardware get an untethered jailbreak. Redsn0w 0.9.6b4 only supports the following devices for untethered jailbreaks: iPhone 3G, older iPhone 3GS, and older iPod touch 2G models. All other iOS devices will have to be plugged into your computer with redsn0w launched each time you reboot the device (or your battery dies). For this reason, I would recommend most people wait on trying to jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 until another untethered solution is available.

Download Redsn0w 0.9.6b4

You can grab the latest redsn0w release for Mac or Windows:

• redsn0w 0.9.6b4 for Mac – click here
• redsn0w 0.9.6b4 for Windows – click here or (Mirror 1)

Note about unlocking iOS 4.2.1
If you plan on unlocking your iPhone, do not update to iOS 4.2.1 and do not use redsn0w for now because it will update your baseband. Unlockers should save SSH blobs from their current firmware (iOS 4.1 or earlier) and wait for a PwnageTool update so that you can upgrade to iOS 4.2.1 without updating the devices firmware. If you update to 4.2.1 you risk losing the ability to unlock your iPhone.

Update about unlocking iOS 4.2.1
You can get the redsn0w 0.9.6b5 download which will work to jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 and allows you to unlock iOS 4.2.1 with ultrasn0w for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.

Update 2: redsn0w 0.9.6b6 download is now available and helps to resolve battery drain issues with unlocked iPhone 3GS and 3G models.

Update 3: Redsn0w 0.9.6rc8 is out.