Check your Software Updates! Mac OS X 10.6.3 update has been released and is recommended to install for all Mac OS X Snow Leopard users. The amount of fixes is pretty substantial, here’s the main list provided in the Software Update panel:
* improve the reliability and compatibility of QuickTime X
* address compatibility issues with OpenGL-based applications
* address an issue that causes background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail
* resolve an issue that prevented files with the # or & characters in their names from opening in Rosetta applications
* resolve an issue that prevented files from copying to Windows file servers
* improve performance of Logic Pro 9 and Main Stage 2 when running in 64-bit mode
* improve sleep and wake reliability when using Bonjour wake on demand
* address a color issue in iMovie with HD content
* improve printing reliability
* resolve issues with recurring events in iCal when connected to an Exchange server
* improve the reliability of 3rd party USB input devices
* fix glowing, stuck, or dark pixels when viewing video from the iMac (Late 2009) built-in iSight camera
Looking through the full list of improvements I noticed a couple of Airport updates:
* general reliability for wireless connections.
* improvements to 802.1X reliability, including closed network connections, and WPA2.
These really caught my eye since there’s been a sizable amount of people (including myself and other OS X Daily writers) that have had various problems with Snow Leopard and wireless connectivity. I’m hoping these will help fix the dropped wireless connection problems in Snow Leopard completely.
“[Name] is an application downloaded from the internet. Are you sure you want to open it?”
Starting in new-ish versions of Mac OS X, you may have noticed that when you download a file from the web and go to open it, you will get a prompt saying something along these lines, warning that an application has been downloaded from the internet, and asking to confirm if you actually want to open it or not.
This is Mac OS X just being safe, which is generally a good thing for most users, but if you always know for sure what you’re downloading it could even be overly safe. For users who wish to stop those messages, you can turn off that warning dialog by turning to the command line and a defaults write string. We’ll show you how to turn this off (and back on) if you don’t want that message to appear.
Here’s a random fact of the day: Steve Jobs drives a Mercedes SL55 AMG, with no license plates. Instead there’s just a plate frame with a little barcode in the middle (apparently the bar code is standard on Mercedes). I guess Steve really doesn’t like the look of the license plate, his car has been spotted frequently around the Silicon Valley and for at least two years now it has been missing the front and rear plates. Failure to display license plates is a $250 fine in California, which makes you wonder how often he gets pulled over and ticketed for the infraction.
Want to have a Mac read text in a document or webpage to you? Text To Speech is an excellent feature which allows Mac users to have words on screen spoken aloud. You can make your Mac talk to you in various different ways, at different speeds, and even speaking with different voices, all by using the powerful built-in Text-to-Speech abilities of Mac OS X. With this feature, you can either speak a few words, phrases, or even an entire document.
We’ll cover the two quickest and easiest ways to use Text to Speech on a Mac from common apps like word processors, web browsers, and text editors, and also demonstrate the command line ‘say’ trick to speak text by way of the Terminal application. Finally, we’ll also show you how to change the voices used, and the rate of speech (meaning, how fast the words are spoken).
Want to play Team Fortress 2, Half-Life, Counterstrike, and some of the other sweet Valve games on your Mac? Apply to be an official beta tester for the upcoming Mac version of Steam. It’s a simple questionnaire that goes through your computing setup and gaming habits, and then you provide a copy of your System Profile information. Beyond randomness (or luck), it seems who gets chosen to download the beta client is based on Valve’s hardware testing needs.
A user on TUAW claims to have applied and received a very quick response with an approval, writing the following in the comments:
Wow..that was quick…I just entered my application and they emailed me back code to get mac version of steam client….within hours of entering !! this is like christmas..I’m going to test out some team fortress !!
Why not give it a go yourself? Head on over to Steam’s Mac beta signup site:
A classic setup: a MacBook Pro and an iMac. This setup is extra awesome because the owner of the machines was viewing OS X Daily when he took the picture, cool!
I was recently asked to do some maintenance work on a relatives iMac, and one of their chief complaints was the speed of Photo Booth, the fun application that takes pictures and distorts them with your iSight. Upon inspection of the machine, I found that Photo Booth was running extremely slow, launching the application would take nearly a minute before the camera image would show up and the program was ready to use, and then actions within the app were dreadfully slow.
I quickly noticed that their picture count was over 2000 photos stored within Photo Booth! Apparently their kids are absolutely in love with the application and entertain themselves for hours on end just making goofy faces (alright I admit, I do this too).
So, if you haven’t guessed it yet, here’s my fix on how to speed up Photo Booth again in Mac OS X, and yes it works: Read more »
MakeMKV lets you rip DVD’s and Blu-Ray discs easily in Mac OS X (or Windows or Linux for that matter), and during the beta, the program is free! Each beta release works for 60 days and then it automatically stops functioning, so go ahead and grab the beta version for some free blu ray ripping. The process is simple and straight forward, select the source Blu-Ray or DVD, select an output location, and click “Make MKV” then wait. Blu-Ray’s take a while to rip, and obviously you’ll need a blu-ray drive on your Mac to have that functionality. DVD’s are relatively quick to process, in about 20 minutes you should have a finished dvd rip.
Features of MakeMKV include:
* Reads DVD and Blu-ray discs
* Reads Blu-ray discs protected with latest versions of AACS and BD+
* Preserves all video and audio tracks, including HD audio
* Preserves chapters information
* Preserves all meta-information (track language, audio type)
The program is cross platform compatible so if you want to use it in Windows or Linux that’s fine too. Note that although the Blu-Ray ripping functionality expires after 60 days with the beta program, the DVD ripping ability will still be maintained.
The Mac OS X Finder column view is really handy, letting you see multiple folder contents side by side in a hierarchical view. But unless you set the default column width yourself, anytime you launch a new Finder window, the columns size will be reset on a per window basis.
Computer cables are always getting in the way, falling on the floor, getting tangled up, or otherwise becoming some form of hassle, right? Well rather than go crazy, you can use this really neat binder clip solution to organize each cable.
There’s not much to this trick, the binder clips are the same ones you buy at an office supply store, or that you can find around just about any office or workspace.
Seriously. Use binder clips to create an instant and cheap cable organization solution! Just clip them onto the end of your desk and slide in the cables and away you go.
“Ahhhh my Mac isn’t working! I need to reset the SMC!” You have tried rebooting, you’ve reset the PRAM, you’ve done it all, but your Mac is still behaving strangely. What next? In certain circumstances, resetting your Mac System Management Controller (SMC) can be a solution. This is sometimes necessary to restore normal lower level system functionality to your Mac, particularly for power and hardware related troubles.
We’ll show you exactly how to reset the SMC on any type of Mac (and any version of Mac OS X) and the type of problems that it may resolve.
Have you ever wondered what your mouse is doing when it’s moving around all day as you work? Well with a cool app called IOGraphica, you can do exactly that on a Mac or Windows PC. The end result is quite interesting as you can see from the pictures.
Here’s a pretty cool case mode for the Mac Mini, turning it into a nice black little box. How the guy went about it seems a little cost prohibitive for my tastes ($129 for a new black frame! Why not just paint it?) but the end result is pretty nice looking. Kind of makes you wish Apple made them in black too huh? I’m still hoping Apple releases new revisions in pure unibody aluminum rather than the plastic top.
Mac Mini’s make awesome little media centers since they are so small and have more features than an AppleTV. Following the below guide you will be able to do the following with a Mac Mini:
Watch HD movies, videos, view photos, listen to music, and view weather from your couch on your TV.
Watch Hulu, YouTube, and any other streaming online video on your TV
Add & delete torrents to download onto the Mac Mini, remotely
Control the media center via your iPhone
Watch the movies stored on your Mac Mini on your iPhone
Serve websites from your Mini to the world
Browse the web, play games, and use your Mac Mini on a TV from your couch, wirelessly
Note: If this walkthrough seems a little overkill to you, check out our easy guide to setup a Mac Media Center which will provide a simpler setup, minus some of the features like remote torrent management.
Update: With the release of the new Mac Mini (2010 model), you won’t need any additional video or audio cables and adapters, only an HDMI cable! The new Mac Mini makes a perfect media center and outputs HD content flawlessly, plus it doubles as a great Mac, highly recommended. You can get the new Mac Mini for $669 from Amazon with free shipping
How to setup a Mac Mini as a media center, server, and torrents box
I just did all this and figured someone would benefit. It’s more of a link-list than a how-to; it’s also very dumbed down for anyone who’s not knowledgeable on any of this stuff…
Disclaimer: Do this all at your own risk. This all worked for me and I’m thoroughly enjoying the setup. If you feel there’s a better way to do some of this, feel free to comment!
Purchase a Mac Mini
You can pick up a Mac Mini from the usual suspects: Apple, MacMall (sometimes small discount), Amazon (usually good discount and free shipping), Craigslist, eBay, etc. Apple Store – $699 with free shipping MacMall Amazon – New Mac Mini for $669 with free shipping – BEST DEAL
Don’t forget to check the Apple Refurbished Store for discounted machines, though most of the time there aren’t Mac Minis available.
Make sure that whatever Mac Mini you get is capable of playing high definition video if you’d like that capability. Generally speaking the newer the Mini the better (the newest 2010 model is ideal), and an Intel chip with 2GB of RAM is highly preferable.
Get the Media Center Software
Your Mini will just be a Mac hooked up to a TV without the right media center software. Download and install Plex – Awesome media center app, this is the base software for your Mac Mini media center and runs on top of Mac OS X.
Some of the newer Mac Minis have optical audio out through the headphone jack. If yours is an older Mac Mini use the mini -> RCA (red/white) cable. The 2010 Mac Mini carries audio over HDMI, so no audio cable is necessary. mini -> TosLink (Optical Audio) mini -> RCA
Control the Mac Mini Media Center Wirelessly
To access and control the Mac Mini from your couch (or anywhere wirelessly), you’ll need:
Wireless Bluetooth keyboard, the Apple Wireless Keyboard works wonderfully and looks great on a coffee table
Once your Mac Mini is hooked up to your TV (through HDMI or otherwise), sync the wireless keyboard and mouse to the machine. You’ll be able to use it as a large external monitor and then browse the web, play games, and use it as any regular Mac. This ability alone is totally awesome and well worth getting a mini for. If you wanted to you could stop here and just use things like Hulu to watch streaming video on your media center mini, but you’re this far you might as well go all out!
Controlling the Media Center with your iPhone
Snatch. Awesome app that allows you to use your phone as a trackpad, as well as a remote control for Plex. This article shows you how to make a custom remote screen with a decently attractive theme. Very sweet. Air Video. Allows you to stream movies from your Mac Mini to your iPhone, works over 3G (albeit very slowly)!
Setting up the Server
I highly, highly recommend a very strong password on your Mac Mini.
To use the Mac Mini as a web server you’ll need a few things. First, you’ll need to be able to reach the Mini from outside your network. I accomplished this by getting a free account at DynDNS. You can pick from a few free domains, most of them pretty terrible. You’ll then need to download and install their free IP updater client. This small app runs in the background and updates your dynamic IP to DynDNS. This way, when you type in your chosen domain name, your DynDNS account will always know to send the request to the correct IP and get the Mac Mini.
Download and install XAMPP. Very nice web server stack that installs and runs very smoothly.
By default, Apache listens on port 80. Most ISPs block traffic on port 80 (mine did), so you can make Apache listen to a different port by editing your httpd.conf file:
* Open Terminal, at the prompt type: sudo vim /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/etc/httpd.conf
* Type your password and you’ll be editing the httpd.conf file in vim. It looks a little scary, but it’s just a command line based text editor.
* Press the down arrow until you come to a line that says, “Listen 80.”
* Press the letter “I” to enter edit mode, now change “Listen 80” to “Listen 8080.” Press Esc to exit insert mode.
* While holding Shift, press Z twice to save and exit.
(Note: you can use nano/pico or another command line text editor if you are more comfortable)
There, now Apache is listening on port 8080 and most ISPs will be none the wiser.
Open the XAMPP Control app (in your applications folder / XAMPP) and start all your services. You can quit this app once you’ve started the services, they don’t stop unless you re-open XAMPP Control and stop them manually. Now go to a browser and enter the following URL: http://localhost:8080 – That website is being served from the Mac Mini!
In the preferences for Transmission select the “Remote” tab. Check the box for “Enable remote access.” After you read the next point (Router Settings & Port Forwarding) and activate port forwarding you’ll be able to reach this web interface from anywhere in the world by entering the URL http://your.domain.com:9091 – Neat, huh? I’ve used this feature waaay more than I thought I would considering I’m out of my house all the time with my Macbook Pro. I simply download the torrent to my MBP, then upload it to my Mac Mini to do all the heavy lifting. Torrents are ready to go by the time I get home!
Router Settings & Port Forwarding
If you’re like me, you have a few different machines all getting their internet from a wireless router. I have a Linksys WRT54GL running Tomato Firmware. In order for the router to know which computer to send requests to, you’ll need to specify a few port-forwarding rules. You’ll need to get the local IP of your Mac Mini from your router device list. My Mac Mini happened to be 192.168.1.145. So in my router settings I set up the following rules under the port-forwarding settings:
Port: 5900 - Label: VNC - Forward to: 192.168.1.145
Port: 8080 - Label: Web Server - Forward to: 192.168.1.145
Port: 9091 - Label: Torrents - Forward to: 192.168.1.145
Shortening Ugly URLs
If you happen to own your own domain name you can avoid having to type in those ugly URLs (blah.dyndns.net) by using 301 redirects. Simply open or create an .htaccess file on your web host’s server that says:
Now when you type in yourdomain.com/home you’ll be redirected to your Mac Mini and the same for yourdomain.com/torrent! Handy.
Sharing Preferences
Open System Preferences and click “Sharing.” You’ll see plenty of options, mine look like this. You should do the same if you want the capabilities listed here.
Screen Sharing
Now that all that’s set up you should be able to access your Mac Mini’s desktop from anywhere in the world. Just activate Finder and, in the menu bar, click Go > Connect to Server. Type in:
vnc://your.domain.com
You should be able to type in your user/pass and, voila, you’re at your Mac Mini’s desktop.
That’s about all I’ve got for now. Please let me know if I’m missing anything and feel free to add your input!
This should make for a pretty nice little Mac Mini that lets you:
* Add/Edit/Delete active torrents without being anywhere near your house
* Watch movies & TV shows, listen to music, view photos, and view weather from your couch
* Control your media center with an iPhone
* Create/edit websites on your Mac Mini and access those sites from the web
* View your videos on your iPhone while in other rooms of your house or apartment
Enjoy!
[ The content of this article has been edited and based on a piece from Jordan with permission. Image via Flickr ]
Thanks again Jordan! We got this awesome submission from a reader who found the following content originally on the social sharing site Reddit. Thank you to Derek Lee for the submission, and a special thanks to Jordan at Shift Creative for the guide and permission to republish!
You can set Mac OS X to automatically display file and folder information directly within the Finder windows of the file system, much like the desktop of OS X.
If you’re moving from a Windows PC to a Mac, then you’ll probably want to move your iTunes library with it. This lets you keep all of your music, apps, and downloaded media, and you won’t skip a beat.
This article will cover moving an iTunes library from a PC to a Mac OS X based machine using just about any version of iTunes, to insure everything is transferred over to properly you’ll go about consolidating all music files into a single transportable library that can then be copied directly to a Mac. This is by far the easiest way to transfer an iTunes library from Windows to Mac OS X (and even vice versa), and it’s entirely free – there is no need to download any of the third party apps or services that claim to do it for you.
Let’s get started copying your iTunes media over! Read more »
How about a nice shiny copy of: Michaelsoft Binbows!
What? I don’t know either. Several readers have sent this into us and I’ve seen it circulating around the web, but there doesn’t seem to be a backstory included with it. Maybe this is part of a new Microsoft rebranding campaign in Japan, but I doubt it. Whatever it is, it’s worth a laugh, and I think I’ll stick with Mac OS X.
Checking through web stats I noticed OS X Daily is getting frequent visits by individuals running Mac OS X 10.7, an operating system that generally nobody knows much about at the moment. Looking around on the web I found that we aren’t the only ones, with both MacRumors and MacNN reporting the same uptick in 10.7 user visits. Google Analytics shows the visitors as ‘Intel 10.7’ and it’s possible some are just user_agent spoofing but based on the wide reports I think it’s safe to assume it’s an early beta version being used by people inside Apple.
It really makes you wonder what 10.7 holds for Mac users future, there’s rumors of it being 64-bit only, having a new fancy GUI, more cloud integration and features, amongst other things, all of which are impossible to verify and are really based on nothing more than rumors and speculation. It’s safe to assume that Mac OS X 10.7 will probably not be called Ceiling Cat… but if MacRumors is right, perhaps we’ll get some more information and see a developer preview (sans new GUI, of course) at WWDC 2010?
Starting in new-ish versions of Mac OS X, you may have noticed that when you download a file from the web and go to open it, you will get a prompt saying something along these lines, warning that an application has been downloaded from the internet, and asking to confirm if you actually want to open it or not.
I was recently asked to do some maintenance work on a relatives iMac, and one of their chief complaints was the speed of Photo Booth, the fun application that takes pictures and distorts them with your iSight. Upon inspection of the machine, I found that Photo Booth was running extremely slow, launching the application would take nearly a minute before the camera image would show up and the program was ready to use, and then actions within the app were dreadfully slow. 
MakeMKV lets you rip DVD’s and Blu-Ray discs easily in Mac OS X (or Windows or Linux for that matter), and during the beta, the program is free! Each beta release works for 60 days and then it automatically stops functioning, so go ahead and grab the beta version for some free blu ray ripping. The process is simple and straight forward, select the source Blu-Ray or DVD, select an output location, and click “Make MKV” then wait. Blu-Ray’s take a while to rip, and obviously you’ll need a blu-ray drive on your Mac to have that functionality. DVD’s are relatively quick to process, in about 20 minutes you should have a finished dvd rip.
. Here are an assortment of cables you may need, verify which is necessary for your mini model:
works wonderfully and looks great on a coffee table
is perfect
running 
Checking through web stats I noticed OS X Daily is getting frequent visits by individuals running Mac OS X 10.7, an operating system that generally nobody knows much about at the moment. Looking around on the web I found that we aren’t the only ones, with both 
