Gmail Notifier is a great little utility that lets you know when you have mail in your Gmail inbox. What I have always disliked about it though is the apparent lack of the ability to use the secure https protocol.

If you’re on public networks, this can be a particularly valid concern for privacy and security.

Well, thanks to a great tip at MacOSXHints.com, that is no longer an issue!

Here are five easy steps to setup Gmail Notifier to use the much more secure https protocol:

1. Pull down the Gmail Notifier menu
2. Hold down Command+Option keys, and click Preferences
3. Now you will see a hidden settings editor
4. In the key field, enter SecureAlways – exactly as shown, and a 1 in the Value field
5. Click “Set”, now quit Gmail Notifier and start it again, now all your connections will be through https!

Check out Gmail Notifier here

Source: MacOSXHints.com

The iPhone may be taking up the latest Apple related buzz, but Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is still hotly anticipated. APC has a nice list to remind all of us of what is to come in Leopard, and although the list suggests things you didn’t know, I’m guessing if you’re an avid Apple fan you already do know most of these. So what’s new then? Well, for one, I didn’t know that you could bind applications to Spaces, allowing you to have a unique desktop space for particular apps. Cool huh?

APC: Ten things you didn’t know about Leopard

If you’re anything like me, you’ve accidentally hit command-Q while in Safari on the Mac and lost tons of important tabs. Unfortunately there’s no warning so if you make such a mistake, that’s that.

Well, not quite anymore, thanks to TabStop.

TabStop is a handy utility that causes Safari to warn you before closing a browser window if it includes multiple tabs, so you’ll no longer lose those tabbed sites by mistake.

It’s worth noting that TabStop does not work with Safari 3 beta, nor does it need to since Safari 3 includes a built-in warning.

• Check out Tabstop at the developer home

Perhaps this feature will be included in Safari one day? But for now, it’s available as a browser add-on.

MacScoop has apparently gotten their hands on Apple’s developer roadmap for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, which covers the intended release cycle of development versions from the current version until the final release in October. Nothing new or groundbreaking is included, but it’s still an interesting read and something worth viewing if you’re half as excited about Leopard as we are. Let’s hope Apple keeps on schedule with this one!

MacScoop: Mac OS X Leopard internal roadmap revealed

Mac OS X 10.4.10 update has been released today, covering a series of security and bug fixes, adding a few additional features, and including some other improvements.

Nothing too amazing is in the update in terms of features (especially when compared to what we’ll see in Leopard), but it is still worth downloading, so be sure to get it.

Apple: About the Mac OS X 10.4.10 Update

We apologize for the recent delay here at OS X Daily, updates will continue as normal soon! Thanks readers!

Expose is an awesome feature of Mac OS X that functions as sort of like a window manager and app switcher all in one. I use the feature so often it is almost impossible to live without.

If you don’t use Expose, you should start, and this simple little list of keyboard shortcuts with each accompanying action is a good place to learn how to get started. These are set in a “Function Key – Function” list, so it’s pretty easy to follow and understand.

Read more »

Lots of Mac OS X news lately, and this blows in the face of last weeks news. Apparently, Apple will NOT use ZFS as the file system in Leopard. Information Week provides us with the latest news, which could come as a letdown for some, citing an Apple marketing official “ZFS is not happening,”. So who do you believe? Is Apple trying to keep ZFS under wraps or are they really not using the ZFS file system? Apple is notorious for leaking fake rumors and being sneaky with product features and releases. We’ll know for sure in October…

There has been some concern since the announcement that Leopard is a 64 bit operating system that those of us with 32 bit machines would be left in the dust with Tiger. Fear not though, Endgadget dispels this rumor after talking with Apple. This means that G4’s, G5’s, Core Solo’s and Core Duo’s will be allowed to run Leopard, they just won’t necessarily run at optimal performance for things built for the 64-bit platform. This is both good and bad news, good that we can all run Leopard, bad that we won’t have the same performance as Core 2 Duo Mac users will have. Perhaps this is a good excuse to upgrade your hardware come fall?

Endgadget: 64 bit Leopard will still work with your machine

Some big announcements were made today at WWDC 2007, but amongst the most exciting is the introduction of a new Finder in Mac OS X Leopard.

The new finder functions a lot like iTunes, even down to Cover Flow, which is no longer for just flipping through albums.

In the new Finder, Cover Flow allows you to flip through documents, images, anything that you would normally browse through in the Finder.

The effect is pretty cool to see, so be sure to check out the official video on Apple’s website (scroll towards the bottom of the page to find the video).

View the new Leopard Finder video here

The durable and powerful ZFS file system is said to be the official file system of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, this according to a report on MacNN. Citing the CEO of Sun Microsystems as the source of the information, Apple will reportedly announce the change this next week at the Worldwide Developer Conference. From MacNN: “ZFS is a filesystem developed by Sun that is 128-bit, meaning it offers 16 billion billion times the capacity of 32- or 64-bit systems — virtually unlimited by today’s standards. ZFS also offers increased performance because it is transactional object model rather than more traditional I/O mechanisms.”

Read more at MacNN

Here’s a great Firefox tip that I think you’ll appreciate as much as I do, which allows for a spell checking function in web based input forms.

To accomplish this, you’ll start by editing an entry within the about:config configuration menu of Firefox, where you can enable spell checking in text input fields. For example, as you type into Google or a search engine, your search term will be spell checked client-side! Or if you’re typing into a web form to fill something out, that will be spell checked too.

Read more »

Mac browser usage goes something like this: #1) Safari #2) Firefox and #3) Camino, after that not much is really relevant. While Camino is not as widely used as Safari and Firefox, it’s still a good browser, and some Mac users swear buy it claiming it is better than both it’s better known brothers. If you’re looking to try a new web browser, than now is a great time to try Camino, because version 1.5 carries a bunch of improvement and features that you will be sure to enjoy. Here’s a rundown:
* Spell Checking – spell checker built into every text field
* RSS Feed detection – automatically detect RSS feeds
* Session saving – remembers the sites you are currently visiting and saves them for another session
* Improved tabs – various tabbed browsing features and improvements
* Annoyance Blocking – block pop-ups, obnoxious flash animations, and plugins

Developer home
Download now

Mac OS X is filled with useful features to make your computing life easier. Here’s a great Mac tip provided by Chad Barraford:

“Ever want to quickly save some content in any cocoa app? Maybe a phone number, directions, a picture, url, etc? Highlight it and hit Shift+Command+Y and your Mac will paste the content into a sticky note.”

Thanks Chad!

Wouldn’t it be nice for QuickTime to be borderless? In Mac OS X you can accomplish this with a little bit of a trick, so if you’re on Mac OS X Snow Leopard or before with Quick Time on those releases you can make a few adjustments for borderless playback.

MurphyMac has yet another great screencast covering a unique hack to allow QuickTime to playback without borders, creating a cool floating movie effect. Admittedly, the hack is probably not the most useful for the typical user, but it does make for some some great eye candy and could be really useful for presentations, screen demonstrations, or just plain showing off.

MurphyMac: Borderless QuickTime Playback

Even as a long time Mac user, I learn something new everyday.

Keep in mind that new versions of QuickTime default to borderless playback of videos, so if you’re on a modern system software version you would not need to do this to get borderless playback in Quicktime for Mac.

Want to see available disk space of drives and volumes on the desktop of Mac OS X? Perhaps you’d like to see information about files and folders that are on the Mac desktop as well, including dimensions of images, and data about file counts contained within folders. You can reveal this information easily with a hidden trick in OS X.

Read more »

TubeTV is a great little app that allows you to easily convert web videos to either iPod or Apple TV compatible formats. All you do is direct an URL to the app and it’ll download in either iPod or AppleTV compatible formats. TubeTV requires the Perian QuickTime plugin, but don’t worry it’ll tell you if you don’t have it installed and link to it for you. Other than the extreme ease of use, TubeTV is great because it’s totally free! Check below for a screenshot of TubeTV in action.

Update 6/19/2012: Great news! This is no longer necessary because Apple TV now includes the ability to watch YouTube videos directly on the device and your TV without any conversion at all.

Automator is a powerful automation tool that comes with Mac OS X, unfortunately it’s also another one of those applications that I basically never use. There are many tasks that I could automate, but I’ve just never gotten around to setting up automation. Well, if you’re like me, or if you’re new to Automator, this tutorial on MacApper might be beneficial to you. Covering the basics, it walks us through getting around Automator and how to setup a simple backup. Check it out if you’re curious:

MacApper.com: Tutorial for Automator Basics