If you have a Mac without a functioning DVD drive (or a MacBook Air), you’ll need to find another way to upgrade to Snow Leopard, thankfully this is very easy, all you’ll need is an external firewire or USB hard drive. You’ll need access to a DVD drive *somewhere* so that you can make a disk image of the Snow Leopard install disk with the Disk Utility tool, but once you have the disc image you won’t need the DVD drive again. What you WILL need the entire time though is an external Firewire or USB drive that you don’t mind formatting, so that you can make the device bootable and upgrade to Snow Leopard from it.

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OS X Daily reader Todd Harris has tipped us off that when installing Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, your /etc/hosts file is reset. If you followed a tip we posted a while back about how to block access to specific websites then this is particularly relevant to you, so be sure to manually adjust /etc/hosts again so that the sites you want blocked are reincluded. Of course there are many other uses for /etc/hosts too, so the long story shortened is this: if you have a custom /etc/hosts file, back it up prior to and restore it after you have finished installing 10.6 Snow Leopard! Thanks for the tip Todd!

I don’t know why but when I upgraded to Snow Leopard my wireless internet got all wonky, connections were dropping left and right and I couldn’t maintain any worthwhile airport connection for longer than a few minutes. DHCP was behaving particularly strange and the automatic settings pulled from my router were dropping every few seconds. I’m reposting this here not only as some sort of catharsis but also in the event that it helps someone else troubleshoot their wireless problems in 10.6.

Here’s what I did to fix my Airport wireless connection from dropping in Snow Leopard. There was no silver bullet, but each setting allowed my airport connection to become more stable, and the combination of all of these changes has sustained a connection without dropping:

* Changed DHCP auto settings to manual – now I manually set my IP address on the network, I just set something high so it wouldn’t interfere with other DHCP machines. As long as you have the subnet mask, router, and DNS settings configured manually as well, this shouldn’t be a problem.

* Change Wireless Channels – I noticed that a neighbor recently changed their wireless channel to the same one I was on, it’s a weak signal but can still cause interference. I logged into my wireless router and changed the wireless channel to a more obscure and unique one.

* Disabled “Wireless G only” Mode – what seems to have finally sealed the deal was disabling ‘Wireless G Only’ mode that I had set on my router, yea things could theoretically be a little slower but I haven’t noticed, and I’ll wait an extra millisecond or two for a webpage to load if it means I can use my MacBook wirelessly at home as intended.

Interestingly enough, I tried doing each of these things entirely on it’s own and it did not resolve the problem, it was the combination of everything that seems to have ‘fixed’ my airport connection problems. I know my wireless connection issues with Snow Leopard are a fluke here, I imagine it’s something unique to my network and router that only a few other users will encounter. Anyway, if you’re having any wireless connection problems in Snow Leopard 10.6 too, try these things out and see if it works for you as well.

Update: Mac OS X 10.6.3 has been released and contains a few Airport bug fixes, it would be wise to install that software update in addition to trying these tips.

Some more Wireless connection troubleshooting tips:
* Update to the latest version of Mac OS X (10.6.3 includes numerous Airport fixes)
* Reset your router
* Reset your cable modem/DSL
* Disable WPA/WEP protection
* Change security protocol from WEP to WPA/WPA2
* Switch wireless channels – pick a channel no neighbor is using.
* Turn Airport on & off (via menu or Network preferences)
* Delete and then recreate/reestablish wireless network connection
* Create a new Network Location
* Make sure your router firmware and Airport card firmware is up to date
* Zap the PRAM on your Mac (hold Command+Option+P+R on restart)
* Flush the DNS cache using the Terminal command: dscacheutil -flushcache
* Delete the com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist and com.apple.internetconfig.plist files from ~/Library/Preferences
* Trash your home directories SystemConfiguration folder and reboot – Remove all files within ~/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ and reboot your machine. Make sure you delete the proper folder, this is in your home directory.

If all else fails, try this, which has worked for some individuals:
* Reset your Mac’s System Management Controller (SMC) : Shutdown the MacBook/Pro, remove the battery, disconnect the power, hold the Power Key for 15 seconds. Replace the battery, reconnect power, and zap PRAM and wait for 2 chimes before letting the keys go. Check out more information on when and how to reset your SMC.

-David Mendez

I still don’t know why AT&T and Apple don’t enable Internet Tethering by default on the iPhone, but nonetheless they don’t… but you can enable it yourself with a little work! The simplest way I’ve found without Jailbreaking your iPhone requires a few settings changes from updating a system profile, which you can download from BenM.at, just visit the page from your iPhone. After you install the adjusted profile, Internet Tethering will be enabled, easy huh? This definitely works, but it does have the strange effect of disabling Visual Voicemail… now supposedly if you have AT&T then this configuration profile fixes that problem, but I haven’t tried it myself, so your mileage may vary and proceed at your own risk (remember to visit that link from your iPhone). Basically after you install that profile and double-check the setting exists, have your iPhone hooked up to your Mac (or PC? untested) and the rest is pretty much setup for you, your Mac should pull DHCP settings from AT&T and suddenly you’re using the AT&T data network from your Mac via your iPhone! Sweet!

So again here’s the breakdown, visit these links and install the profiles from your iPhone:
Internet Tethering + Visual voicemail profile – AT&T only! – untested personally, but supposedly works
Internet Tethering but disabled visual voicemail – worked for me, YMMV though

If you run into any problems, simply go to Settings > General > Profiles and delete the profile and things should be back to normal. Remember to proceed at your own risk! I have no idea if AT&T will start charging you different rates or if this voids your warranty, but like any hack, it’s best to proceed with caution and expect some disapproval from AT&T and Apple. Hopefully Apple and AT&T will soon enable this feature by default and won’t charge anymore for it.

I love Pandora and use it all the time, so I was pretty frustrated when I discovered that I had hit the 40 hour limit and was being asked to pay for the service. Well, like any good Mac geek I poked around and figured out a way to reset the 40 hour limit (Windows users scroll below for how-to), and here’s how I did it:

Reset / Remove Pandoras 40 hour limit

* In your Home directory, open Library > Preferences > Macromedia > Flash Player > #SharedObjects
* You’ll find a bunch of directories in here with various randomly generated names like JZK819C3P and H8R1ZK19M, etc – these are basically cookies for Flash Player and if you don’t mind losing other settings elsewhere, you can delete all these folders to reset your Pandora music limit, but if you’d rather preserve other settings and just reset Pandora, read on…
* In the Finder window Search Box, type “pandora” and then select the folder “Macromedia” as your search directory rather than ‘This Mac’
* Delete just these files/folders, they’re usually labeled pandora, pandora.com, and #pandora.com
* Ta da! Your Pandora limit is now reset and you have another 40 hours to listen! Alternatively, you could just pay the $1/month to use Pandora, it’s such a great app it’s worth it.

Reset / Remove the Pandora 40 hour limit in Windows

Many of us have Windows PC’s as well, so we might as well cover the bases for the Windows XP/Vista/7 users too:

* Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects
Replace “USERNAME” with your user name
* Same as above, there will be a bunch of random folder names, you can delete them all, or just the ones containing ‘pandora’ in the name
* Now navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\macromedia.com\support\flashplayer\sys
* Find the folder named ‘#pandora.com’ and delete it, or just delete all the files
* Finally, navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\USER\Cookies and delete everything labeled ‘pandora’

Following all these directions, and you’ll be listening to Pandora free of the forty hour limitation again! Enjoy!

iPhone / iPod Touch users: the iPhone and iPod Touch version of Pandora seems to be immune to the 40 hour music limit (for now at least).

So now that Snow Leopard is out, how does it stack up? In many cases it’s faster and in some cases, well, it’s slower. It appears that the most significant speed gains are in Apple’s own software and Mac OS X itself, this is likely because Apple has optimized as much as possible to use Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL. Overall, nearly everyone who has installed Snow Leopard agrees that their Mac feels faster and more responsive, and Gizmodo has a pretty compelling video of the speed boost in Apple’s Preview app. For me personally, Snow Leopard feels a lot faster, and I’m pretty happy about that! Check out the links below for more.

Gizmodo: Snow Leopard review – lightened and enlightened

MacWorld: Gauging Snow Leopard’s Speed Boosts

Engadget: Snow Leopard Review

Successfully developing for the iPhone and iPod Touch is fun but it’s not easy, sure, you’ll want a good book, but after you’ve written your first app, what do you do next? TechCrunch for mobile geeks site MobileCrunch has a couple great detailed tips for small independent developers to increase their chances for success on Apple’s App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Here’s the readers digest version:

• #1) The Hare beats the Tortoise. Develop fast, release often.
• #2) Make sure the price is right. (basically, $1)
• #3) Show off your feathers. (ie: have a good looking icon and screenshots)
• #4) Partner for success. (group with other small developers to cross promote)
• #5) PR isn’t all its cracked out to be. (send links to blogs and reviewers, but don’t bother spending big money on a PR rush)

Read the details and more helpful hints at MobileCrunch: Rising to the top -5 ways indie developers succeed in the app store

I installed some Software Updates recently on an older Mac Mini and left my house to go on a run, I came back about an hour later to find that nothing was installed yet, my Mac Mini was stuck on “Configuring Installation” – hmm now what? Well, it’s a rare occurrence, but it can happen and thankfully it’s easily fixable. First, do not reboot the machine half installed! Follow these steps from Apple and you should be good to go:

Quit (or if necessary, Force Quit) Software Update.

Click the Finder icon in the Dock.

From the Go menu choose “Go to Folder”.

Type: /Library/Updates

Click Go. The /Library/Updates folder opens.

Select all contents of this folder and move them to the Trash.

Once the above steps are complete, use Software Update again to re-download and install the update.

Phew! Apple to the rescue! This hanging installation problem was supposedly fixed in 10.5.6 so anyone that has kept up to date thus far will probably not run into this problem… unless you’re like me and have older Macs that you neglect to update the software on more than once a year! Oops!

If you’ve ever wanted to know what’s being executed, which packages are being installed, and the installation directories and file locations of a Mac OS X system install, then you’ll enjoy this tip sent to us on Twitter by Murtika Laksmi:

While installing Snow Leopard do the following:
* At the “Mac OS X Installer” menu select “Window > Installer Log”
* In the “Installer Log” select “Show All Logs”
* Resize the window so you can see both the text and progress bar
It was quite interesting to watch during my upgrade!

Thanks Murtika!

I was pretty excited to install Snow Leopard today, and the upgrade from 10.5.8 went without a hitch, finishing in about an hour. A couple Snow Leopard install tips:
* Be sure to customize your installation to have Rosetta support, as it’s not installed by default anymore.
* If you’re an X-Code user, you’ll probably want to upgrade that separately as well (included in the optional installs directory on the Snow Leopard disc).

Positive Observations: Finder is definitely snappier, so are Preview, Safari, iTunes, and iChat. The new darker default display gamma is a big improvement, looks very nice.

Negative Observations: Wireless connections are dropping randomly and constantly on my MacBook, looks like I’m not alone here, I can sustain a connection longer than a few seconds by not using DHCP and manually entering the necessary TCP/IP settings. Synergy does not work well, if at all, unable to connect, timeouts, and drops (could be related to aforementioned network problems?)

It’s worth mentioning that several of my friends and colleagues have installed Snow Leopard on their machines (upgrades and fresh installs) with no issues.

This is somewhat controversial because it is against the Apple EULA, but apparently you can save $140 if you’re a Tiger 10.4 user and run the 10.6 Snow Leopard upgrade without a problem. To make things even more interesting, popular Mac writer Walt Mossberg actually recommends that you do this if you are a Tiger user. So it’s really up to the end users, either save money and upgrade directly, or go the other route and you’ll be out $140.

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is a great upgrade and it’s one I would highly recommend installing on any compatible Mac. The fact that you can save a lot of money by upgrading directly from 10.4 is a huge bonus.

You can get Mac OS X 10.6.3 Snow Leopard from Amazon with free shipping for $29.

As with all software upgrades, be sure to backup your data before installing.

A friend of mine that is new to Macs couldn’t figure out how to get a CD to eject, after some frustration he then complained that his MacBook doesn’t have the paperclip hole to forcibly eject a disc from the superdrive. After some discussion I realized he’s probably not alone in his confusion of how eject a stuck disk on a Mac, so here’s a few different ways to do it, ranging from easy to more advanced. If a disk is still stuck in the drive after these methods have been exhausted, you may have an actual hardware problem.

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Yet another feature to be excited about, ZDNet reports that Apple has included a malware blocker in 10.6 Snow Leopard. Personally I have never run into any malware or viruses in Mac OS X, but it’s nice to know that Apple is including this functionality by default in their latest operating system. Better safe than sorry!

Read more at ZDNet: Apple adds malware blocker in Snow Leopard

[below image is borrowed from ZDNet]

The Hackintosh community is rather controversial but increasingly popular, and some of the most appealing Hackintosh machines are those based around Netbooks, tiny lightweight laptops that fill a niche Apple has yet to dabble in. The Dell Mini 9 has long been the cream of the Hackintosh Netbook crop, but it looks like the Dell Mini 10v is giving it a run for it’s money, the internals are largely the same but it has a 10″ screen. (Note that the Dell Mini 10 and 10v are completely different units with different hardware, the 10v is Hackintosh compatible, the 10 is not). It’s worth noting that installing Mac OS X on something other than Apple hardware is against the Apple OS X EULA, so the legitimacy of the entire Hackintosh movement is dubious at best, but morals aside…

If you want to run Mac OS X 10.6.2 on a Dell Mini 10v and want to pay around $200 USD, check out our guide for a cheap hackintosh netbook

Installation is pretty simple, check out these how-to guides on MyDellMini.com, which guarantees a fool proof, no hassle, everything working Mac OS X 10.5.8 or even Mac OS X 10.6.2 installation on the Dell Mini 10v:

MyDellMini: Fool proof no hassle Mini 10v Hackintosh guide

It’ll be interesting to see how Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard runs on these Hackintosh machines… time will soon tell!

Updated 2/25/2010: You can now easily install Snow Leopard 10.6 on the Dell Mini 10v, we have linked the easiest guide on MyDellMini forums for your convenience.

MyDellMini: How to Install 10.6 on a Mini 10v

The Mac world is really heating up with anticipation for the upcoming Snow Leopard release, due this Friday. LifeHacker wrote up a great guide on how to prepare your Mac for the Snow Leopard install, including tips on cleaning up your existing 10.5 installation and backing up your current Mac OS X install. I’ll probably just upgrade my existing 10.5 install, although having a fresh, clean, and snappy installation is mighty appealing. If you haven’t ordered Snow Leopard yet, you can get Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard from Amazon for $24.99, which is at a 14% discount on the Apple Store offering.

LifeHacker: Prep Your Mac for Snow Leopard

Making a RAM disk prior to Mac OS X was quickly accomplished through a control panel, or you can make one from the command line too, but since OS X this ability has been lost without turning to the terminal.

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The best thing about a sour economy are the price wars that benefit consumers, and in this case Amazon has dropped the price of 10.6 Snow Leopard 14% to $24.99, this is both good and bad news. Good news because Mac users can save 14% over Apple’s retail price, bad news because it’s $0.01 under the ‘free shipping for orders over $25’ limit – doh! You can always pad your order with something random like A Christmas Carol for $1, or better yet pick up a useful companion book like Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Missing Manual. The price was also dropped 10% on the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Family Pack for 5 users down to $43.99. Sweet!

Update:Amazon has adjusted the price to $25, so it now qualifies for free shipping again.

We all know Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is the next major version of Mac OS to be released in 2009, and we know some of the features too. But going further, the UK’s Register Hardware has a nice multipage preview of Snow Leopard, pointing out some changes, refinements, and new features.

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