Want to almost instantaneously put a Mac to sleep from your external keyboard? It’s much easier than you’d think, and you don’t need to pull down the Apple menu to accomplish this task. Instead, to quickly sleep your Mac just hold down Command + Option + Eject for about two seconds, and the computer will immediately enter sleep.
That’s one fancy Cupertino Coffee or Cappuccino! I came across this Apple themed coffee drink on Twitter, not sure where the original source or coffee house is but it sure looks nice. Has anyone ever seen one of these in person? Maybe it’s at the Cafe Macs restaurant on the Cupertino campus of Apple? Who knows?
It would take some serious effort to make such a perfect Apple logo that’s for sure. If you want to try yourself, here’s where to begin:
Then you just need a fresh cup of coffee and some steamed milk or cream. Best of luck with your Mac Mocha or Cupertino Cappuccino!
This pic comes from the Twitter via TwitPic: AppleSpotlight. Fun times for all.
I had to develop an iPhone specific website recently and working with the iPhone resolution was a key aspect in this development process. The actual pixel density differs on the iPhone models as well, which will effect the appearance of interface elements and graphics for websites and iPhone applications. Of course knowing the resolution and PPI should not be limited to developers, it dramatically effects the graphic and picture quality of any user experience with the device. Here are each iPhone’s details and a picture comparing the two screens:
* iPhone 4 has a screen resolution of 960×640 pixels, which is twice that of the prior iPhone models
* The iPhone 4 also has a much higher pixel density than it’s predecessors, displaying 326ppi (pixels per inch).
* iPhone 2G, 3G, and 3GS screen resolution is 480×320 pixels
* The iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, and iPhone 3GS has a display of 163ppi (ppi is pixels per inch whereas dpi is dots per inch).
The below image compares the screen resolution of iPhone 3 on the left vs iPhone 4 on the right:
As you can see, the iPhone 4’s increased pixel density makes the resolution significantly better.
“This was a very typical time. I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that’s what I had.” – Steve Jobs
This is rather iconic, isn’t it? Something about that picture captures the minimalist aesthetic that Apple successfully translated to the digital age, with our iPhones and Macs. Quite an amazing picture and quote, both of which come from Diana Walker, who photographed Steve Jobs on several occasions.
You may have seen this picture before made into black and white, which makes the rounds from time to time, again capturing the minimalism of Jobs and therefore Apple known under Jobs.
Source: Diana Walker: The Bigger Picture, worth a look if you want to see some more interesting details. Another great resource for Dianne Walker and Steve Jobs pictures is this TIME article, check it out
A bit retro, but great, isn’t it? Makes for a good wallpaper too.
Someone recently sent me a Nero Image File and I had no idea what to do with it, but after some looking around I discovered you can easily convert a Nero image File to ISO format.
Apparently the only difference between a Nero Image File and a typical ISO is that Nero adds a 300k header to the normal ISO file. Using the command line tool dd we can trim this header and convert the the Nero image file to ISO format.
All of this will be done via the Mac OS X command line so launch Terminal and enter the command as seen below.
Ever wondered what shell you are using at the command line? It’s not unusual to want or need to know which shell is running, and though you may hear this question many times, the answer could be different for every user, thus the easiest thing to do is to issue a terminal command which determines the currently active shell.
I love the web, I hate Flash. I know this isn’t always a popular opinion, but for me it causes a lot of problems. It’s a slow bloated resource hog that makes browsing the web painful, loud, and obnoxious. Really the only time I actually want to use it is on video sharing sites like YouTube, when using Flash is MY choice and not some obnoxious web advertisers with a “Congratulations… blah blah blah” talking Flash ad blasting in the background, so annoying! Ok now that my rant is over… let’s get to the point and find a solution to this problem; what we really want to do is prevent Flash from loading without our permission, right?
Do you need to access and mount an SMB share from the command line on a Mac? You may be used to connecting to Windows PC from the Mac networking features to mount a Windows share on Mac, but you can also connect to Samba shares from the Terminal too.
This article will show several ways to mount and access SAMBA / SMB network shares from the command line of Mac, including with the latest MacOS versions and older Mac OS X releases too, as the process is different depending on the system you are using.
Want to hide all desktop icons on a Mac? Desktop icon clutter can really impact workflow by overwhelming you with files and just too much stuff to look at. Inevitably, it can be hard to avoid since a lot of apps download things to the Desktop by default, we save things there, screenshots go there, it quickly becomes the generic catch-all location for documents and stuff that we’re working with.
If you decide you have too many icons on the desktop and maintaining the desktop is just too much to deal with, you can actually toggle a secret setting in Mac OS X to turn off the Mac desktop icons completely, thereby preventing them from being displayed at all. This effectively hides all the icons from showing up on the Mac desktop only, but all of your files and stuff will still be accessible from elsewhere through the file system and Finder. You can think of this kind of like disabling the desktop, because you can still actually save files and folders to the desktop, it’s just that the icons will not show up. Instead, you’ll just see your desktop wallpaper.
While geeking around I discovered another way to check if your Mac is 64 bit compatible by using the command line. Launch terminal and type “sysctl hw |grep 64bit”
Here’s me using the command on my MacBook which does not have a 64 bit processor:
$ sysctl hw |grep 64bit
hw.cpu64bit_capable: 0
on my friends newer MacBook Pro his results were:
$ sysctl hw |grep 64bit
hw.cpu64bit_capable: 1
meaning it is a 64 bit processor.
I have a million different genres in iTunes and not nearly enough album art, which is fine and dandy until you put iTunes 9 into genre ‘grid’ view and then suddenly you have a bunch of boring looking music note icons. Apparently how iTunes sets genre art is by looking for album art set in that genre, and if it can’t find any album art it will resort to the boring grey box. But not anymore! Thanks to a crafty Mac user, you can now change those dull music note icons into virtually any image you want, which dramatically spruces up your iTunes grid view appearance. Highly recommended iTunes tweaking! Check out the how-to guide here:
Want Gmail Push Notifications on your iPhone? In a crafty workaround, you can get Gmail to push notifications to your iPhone by setting up Gmail as a Microsoft Exchange account. The downside to this method is that you can only have one Microsoft Exchange account setup on your iPhone at a time, so if you already have an Exchange account configured you would have to replace it with the Gmail one. In any case, you can follow the instructions directly from Google on setting up the account so that you can get push notifications: Google Sync: Set Up Your iPhone or iPod Touch
[ via TechCrunch ]
The “uptime” of a computer is how long it has been since it was last rebooted or started up. Since Macs are very stable and generally OS X users rarely have to reboot their machines, the uptime of Macs can reach impressive numbers. You can check the uptime and reboot history of any Mac if you want to find this information yourself, we’ll show you how.
Here’s how to check the uptime in days (or hours) and the rebooting history both via the Command Line of OS X, and also how to find ‘time since boot’ through the System Information profiler on a Mac.
This is just a quick security tip based on some recent news, a couple Japanese computer scientists have figured out a way to crack WPA TKIP encryption in under a minute. This news came out a few weeks ago but after updating my wireless routers firmware I realized I hadn’t made the encryption type change yet myself, so I imagine many other people haven’t as well.
WPA is still more secure than WEP, but now that TKIP has been hacked, it’s best to change your Wireless Router’s encryption method to AES to continue to be secure.
Making the change is quick and easy, just login to your router’s administrative panel and you should find an option to switch the encryption from TKIP to AES.
Obviously this isn’t strictly Mac news, but since it’s a security issue that effects everyone equally, it’s worth posting here. You can learn more from the linked article.
The key takeaway is this: make sure you use the strongest wi-fi security protocol that your wireless router supports, and WEP is not secure. Use WPA2 or WPA anytime it is available, and with a strong password.
Yahoo News: New Attack Cracks Common WiFi Encryption in a Minute
Here’s something you don’t see everyday, Safari in an epic freakout and taxing 7,909.9% CPU usage. WTF?
Disabling Spotlight in Snow Leopard is pretty easy, launch the Terminal and type the following command:
sudo mdutil -a -i off
This tells the Spotlight manager to disable all indexing on all volumes, the command will require your administrative password to execute.
Re-enabling Spotlight in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is just as easy, just reverse the command to:
sudo mdutil -a -i on
Now Spotlight indexing will be back on and work as usual.
MouseOver popups, self-starting blasting audio, auto-refreshing webpages, random sound effects, obnoxious flash ads, resizing of your browser window… oh the web is filled with all sorts of things that are sure to annoy web browsers a world over. Lifehacker came up witha great list of fixes that you can implement in Firefox to reduce the most obnoxious encounters on the web (some work in Safari too). If your pop-up blocker isn’t doing enough for you, try these tricks out too:
First a quick note, we absolutely adore Apple and all it’s software and hardware offerings, but… Hackintosh machines offer an impressive alternative to the official Apple hardware that we all know and love, and in some cases even fill a niche where Apple has yet to dabble (eg: Netbooks). If you’re in the market for a new Mac and you don’t mind sacrificing Apple hardware’s good looks, and you either want to save some serious cash or just want to geek around a bit, building a Hackintosh is a great solution. The Hackintosh movement is growing strong and steady, so grab a Netbook or build a Desktop PC, follow these hackintosh guides, and join us!
Here’s a whole slew of guides for creating a Hackintosh Netbook, and some other very helpful links. I’d personally recommend the Dell Mini 10v for ease of use and functionality, but my own hackintosh is actually an Acer Aspire One (which works great with 10.5.6 but wasn’t easy to get there, required a wifi card upgrade, etc).
Hackintosh Mini 10v – this is our guide on how to get a Hackintosh Dell Mini 10v that runs Mac OS X for just over $200. In my opinion, the Dell Mini 10v is the best option for a really awesome Hackintosh Netbook, it’s got good looks, a 10″ screen, and you can get one extraordinarily cheap by following these steps. Only downside is the RAM upgrade hassle.
Dell Mini 9 / Vostro 90 – if you can get over the awful keyboard on the Dell Mini 9/Vostro 90, it makes a great little hackintosh netbook
MyDellMini Forums – Snow Leopard – the most helpful forum group for the Hackintosh Netbook community is catered to Dell Mini owners, check out the Snow Leopard guides and if you have any questions or problems the MyDellMini forums should be your first line of defense
Asus EEE 1000h – a Hackintosh walkthrough for the Asus EEE PC 1000h
HP Mini 1000 – guide for hackintoshing the HP Mini 1000, just about everything works
Lenovo S10 – onboard ethernet does not work but otherwise following this guide you’ll get a fully functional Hackintosh S10
BoingBoing Netbook Compatibility Chart – a pretty solid chart to see which Netbooks can be turned into a Hackintosh and what works and what doesn’t, last updated in July 2009
Virtually Scale Window Size – very helpful hint for Hackintosh Netbook users with limited screen resolutions and real estate to virtually scale down window sizes
Here’s the best information I know of for building a desktop Hackintosh machine, it’s all based around the infamous Lifehacker guide that shows you how to build a really sweet desktop Hackintosh PC for around $900. The process has gotten even easier thanks to a PKG from Stella and it requires no hacking, just a simple pkg install.
Lifehacker: How to build a Hackintosh with Snow Leopard from Start to Finish – a breakdown of all the hardware and procedures required to build a smoking desktop hackintosh machine, use their newer guide for installing Snow Leopard though
Lifehacker: Install Snow Leopard on your Hackintosh PC with no hacking required – after reading the “how to build” guide from Lifehacker, read this for a much easier method of installing Snow Leopard on your Hackintosh
InsanelyMac Discussion on the Lifehacker Guide – a helpful forum with other Hackintosh users that have followed the Lifehacker guide, and any issues they’ve encountered along the way
Stellarola: Snow Leopard Hardware Compatibility List – repeated below for convenience, Stella is the genius behind the Lifehacker “no hacking” guide
Webcams:
* Dynex DX-WEB1C 1.3MP (Fixed Focus Cam and mic built-in)
* Xbox 360 Live Camera (Manually adjustable Cam only)
* Logitech Quickcam Vision Pro for Mac (Autofocus cam and mic built-in)
* HP KQ246AA (Autofocus cam and mic built-in)
Wired Ethernet Cards
* Netgear GA-311 (PCI)
* Trendnet Gigabit TEG-PCITXR (PCI)
* Rosewill RC-400 (PCI)
* Encore ENLGA-1320 (PCI)
* SMC9452TX-1 (PCI)
* Sonnet Presto Gigabit GE1000-E (PCI-e)
Wireless “Airport” Cards
* Asus WL-138G V2 (PCI)
* Dynex DX-BGDTC (PCI)
* Dell Wireless 1505 (PCI-e)
USB Audio
* SYBA SD-CM-UAUD
* SYBA SD-CM-UAUD71
* M-Audio Jamlab
* Griffin iMic
(above desktop hardware compatibility list courtesy of Stellarola):
Got anymore Hackintosh information or links? Share them with us!
