Showing posts with label Mac OS. Show all posts

Friday, February 25, 2011

Drift Off to Sleep With iTunes & New Sleepytime 1.1.2

Have you ever wanted to listen to music as you drift off to sleep, and have the music turn itself off after you've made it to the land of Nod?
Most clock radios can do this, of course, but if you want to play music from your Mac until you fall asleep, it's more complicated.
Simplifying this process is the idea behind Sleepytime (Mac App Store link), a nifty application that can rock you to sleep with your favorite tunes.
Fire up iTunes and start playing whatever you want to listen to, and then launch Sleepytime.
Choose how long you want iTunes to play (in minutes, hours, or even days), as well as the duration of the fadeout that occurs after that time (in seconds or minutes).
Finally, you can opt to have Sleepytime display a soothing black backdrop with track information while iTunes plays.
Set a time to wake up, choose a playlist, and decide whether you want the "alarm" to start at full volume immediately or to fade in so you won't be jolted awake by the sudden sound.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Power Tip - How to really shrink the Dock

Image via Wikipedia

How to really shrink the Dock Operating Systems Mac OS X Hints Macworld

Source: macworld.com

You probably already know that you can shrink (or enlarge) the Dock by clicking and dragging the bars that separate the applications from folder stacks.
You probably also know that you can adjust the Dock size in System Preferences, by opening the Dock pane and draging the Size slider whichever way you want.
But these tools can only take you so far: They'll make the Dock small, but not really small.
To do that, you need to open the Terminal (Applications/Utilities) and type:

defaults write com.apple.dock tilesize -integer 8

Press Return, then type:

killall Dock

The number at the end of the command can range from 1 (too small to be useful) up to 16 (the smallest size you can achieve with those other tools); 8 is tiny but still visible.
To make such a small Dock useful, you'll probably want to turn on Dock magnification: In the Dock preferences pane, check the box by Magnification and adjust the slider.
If you want to get back to a more normal size, the easiest way to revert this setting is to open that preferences pane again and use the Size slider; as soon as you click and drag it, you'll be returned to the normal size range for the Dock.

Monday, January 31, 2011

DropBox Review

Image via CrunchBase

DropBox Review Summary

Source: Macworld.com

Put simply, Dropbox is an amazingly useful combination of a Web service and a Mac OS X program that work together to make your data accessible from anywhere and to keep it synchronized between your computers.

Once you've installed the Dropbox application and set up a Dropbox account, anything you place in a special Dropbox folder on your Mac is automatically copied to the Dropbox servers, as well as to any other Macs you've set up with that Dropbox account.

If this sounds a bit like the iDisk feature of Apple's MobileMe service, that's because it's similar - except that Dropbox is fast and reliable.

Dropbox is also smarter about copying files: It transfers smaller files before larger ones, copies only the parts of each file that have changed, and compresses all data for the trip.

And Dropbox is better about handling sync conflicts - if the same document is modified on two computers at the same time, Dropbox keeps both copies, adding a "oeconflicted" message to the name of one.

For example, I personally use my Dropbox folder for storing all my in-progress documents, letting me work on those documents from any of my Macs.

I can also access those documents using the Dropbox app for iPhones and iPads, and I can even edit them on my iOS devices using apps such as the Elements text editor.

In addition, many Mac programs, such as TextExpander and 1Password, can use Dropbox to ensure all your Macs have the same settings and data; and because your Dropbox folder is a standard Finder folder, you can use Automator or a utility such as Hazel to automate task across your Macs.

Strengths:
Dropbox offers hassle-free access to synced files on all of your machines.

An amazing feature is that you can also retrieve deleted files, so this product also provides a versioned backup solution.

Dropbox offers a generous 8GB of free storage space, which can be upgraded to 50GB or 100GB plans for a monthly fee.

Weaknesses:
Some users may find 8GB of storage space is rather limiting, but this can be upgraded for a monthly fee.

Overall:
Dropbox truly is one of those amazing must install applications.

More importantly, customer service on the forums is excellent.

Overall:
I've only been using Dropbox for about 3 months now, but I can say, hand on heart, that it is one of the best pieces of software that I have ever used in my life.

Dropbox is an indispensable part of my workflow, and it keeps getting better and better with each release.

Now that it handles most Mac metadata properly, it integrates seamlessly with the Finder; and with Web-browser access, as well as Dropbox software—and Dropbox-enabled third-party programs—available for OS X, Windows, Linux, and iOS, you can access and edit your data from anywhere and any device.

I have yet to find an easier way to share data with other computers and other people. And did I mention the outstanding DropBox documentation?

Note in the PC world review they list "but forces you to do all your sync management from one unmovable folder" This is not true.

Related Resources:

Videos about DropBox

How to get more out DropBox

Concepts:

dropbox, folder, Mac, reviews, sync, feature, storage, backup, Networking, Macworld, computers, account, app, Mice, Automator.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Quickly Create A New Document In The Current Folder With Neu 1.0.1

Image via Wikipedia

Source: macworld.com

By Dan Frakes, Macworld.com - December 2, 2010

Quickly Create A New Document In The Current Folder With Neu 1.0.1

Windows has at least one feature I'd love to see OS X appropriate: the capability to quickly create a new document right in the current folder

A common feature request I get - often from Windows users switching to the Mac, but also from long-time Mac users - is for a way to more-quickly create a new file in the Finder.

This can be very convenient - after all, when you create a new document, chances are you already know where you're going to put it and, in fact, that folder is often already open.

This Windows feature is certainly a more-convenient process than the traditional Mac OS alternative: switching to the appropriate program; creating a new document; choosing the Save command; navigating in the Save dialog to the desired folder; and clicking the Save button.

Because of this convenience, two of my all-time favorite Mac Gems have been NuFile and Document Palette, which offer a contextual menu or an onscreen palette, respectively, for creating a new document in the active Finder window. Sadly, NuFile stopped working as of Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6), with no update in sight, and Document Palette seems to have gone the way of the dodo. (Document Palette actually works perfectly under Snow Leopard; it's just no longer available for downloading.)

So I was more than a little excited to discover Neu, a Snow Leopard-compatible - nay, Snow Leopard-only - utility that combines the best features of NuFile and Document Palette, as well as a few new ones, in one program.

Neu's menu-bar document chooser With Neu running, whenever you're working in a Finder window, you can use Neu in one of five ways to create a new document:

Neu's systemwide menu-bar menu,
Neu's Dock menu,
the Finder's Services submenu (in the Finder menu),
the Finder's contextual menus, or
either of two configurable keyboard shortcuts.

Whichever approach you use, Neu offers two commands: Create Document and Create And Open Document. The former simply creates a new document in the active Finder window; the latter creates the document and then automatically opens it in the appropriate program.

When you use one of Neu's menus to create a new document, the command's submenu displays a list of available templates - choose one to create a document based on that template.

When using Neu's keyboard shortcuts, Neu displays, depending on your settings, either a text list or an icon grid of template options.

Neu's list-view document chooser Neu offers a number of useful options. For example, you can choose to hide Neu's Dock menu or systemwide menu-bar menu, and you can opt to have Neu prompt you to name each new document, using a traditional Save dialog, on the fly.
For advanced users, Neu offers an interesting feature for automatically substituting template text with dynamic data.

For example, by using the correct syntax in your templates, you can have Neu automatically replace variables with, for example, your username, the path to the new file, the date and time the new file was created, and which template was used to create it.

Because of a the way Finder Services work, Neu's Services options appear in the Finder menu only if you first select a file in the active Finder window. Similarly, the contextual-menu commands appear only if you right-click (control-click) on an existing file or folder in the window.

For example, I wish you could customize the order in which templates appear in Neu's grid and list views and its menus.

(Note that if Neu's options don't appear in the Services submenu of the Finder menu or within contextual menus, you may need to manually enable those services in the Keyboard pane of System Preferences.)

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Apple’s Mac App Store Opens for Business

Image via WikipediaApple’s Mac App Store Opens for Business
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/01/06macappstore.html

Apple’s Mac App Store Opens for Business

The Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to the Mac, so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes® account, download and install them in just one step.

The Mac App Store is available for Snow Leopard® users through Software Update as part of Mac OS® X v10.6.6.

"With more than 1,000 apps, the Mac App Store is off to a great start," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We think users are going to love this innovative new way to discover and buy their favorite apps."

The Mac App Store offers apps in Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity, Utilities and other categories.

Users can browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what's hot, see staff favorites, search categories and look up top charts for paid and free apps, as well as user ratings and reviews.

Entirely new apps, as well as current Mac favorites, are available from developers such as Autodesk, Ancestry.com and Boinx.

"We're delighted to bring our professional-grade paint and drawing app, Autodesk SketchBook Pro, to the Mac App Store on its first day of launch," said Carl Bass, Autodesk's CEO. "We've seen tremendous success on the Mac, iPhone and iPad with multiple apps.

We're excited to offer SketchBook Pro on the Mac App Store so artists can easily create everything from quick sketches to high-quality artwork right on their Macs."

"By offering the Ancestry.com Family Tree Maker app on the Mac App Store, we're making it even easier for people to discover and access their family history," said Tim Sullivan, Ancestry.com's CEO. "The Mac App Store will drive a new generation of innovation on the Mac platform."

"We're thrilled to have our award-winning animation, video production and photography software available on the new Mac App Store," said Oliver Breidenbach, Boinx Software's CEO. "The Mac App Store makes it easier than ever for consumers to access all the innovative software designed for the Mac."

To get the Mac App Store, download the Mac OS X v10.6.6 Software Update or visit www.apple.com/mac/app-store.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software.

Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store.

Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.
To get the Mac App Store, download the Mac OS X v10.6.6 Software Update or visit www.apple.com/mac/app-store. To find out more about developing for the Mac App Store visit developer.apple.com/programs/mac.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Use an old Mac as a backup server | Storage & Backup

Image via Wikipedia

Use an old Mac as a backup server

Source: macworld.com

In the innocent days of the very late 20th century there was The Family Computer. This single computer sat in a home's communal space and was shared by each of that home's residents. For many of us, those days are long past. As computers have become more affordable, portable, and necessary, it's now common to find multiple Macs scattered throughout a home. And because it is, it's just as likely that some of those Macs have been retired - replaced with faster or lighter models.

When that happens the question of what to do with an old Mac invariably arises. Given a multi-Mac household and the need to retain the data stored on those Macs, one of the first things you should consider is turning that old Mac into a backup server - one Mac to rule the backup roost. Doing so isn't an overly expensive proposition and it's relatively easy to set up, run, and maintain.

Why a backup server?

Ask Apple about multi-Mac backups and you'll likely be directed to its Time Capsule wireless hard drive.

Time Capsule is an acceptable and easy-to-use solution as it allows you to back up multiple Macs running Leopard or Snow Leopard to a single device via Apple's Time Machine. However, if some of your Macs are using an older version of the Mac OS, you're out of luck as they don't support Time Machine. Additionally, if you have a lot of data to back up, the 1 or 2TB of storage found on a Time Capsule may not be enough. And, of course, at $299 (1TB model) or $499 (2TB model) you're paying for features beyond storage, including wireless routing.

A Mac-based backup server allows you to get around these limitations. With the right software you can back up not only Macs running older versions of the Mac OS, but Windows PCs and Linux computers as well. You can add exactly as much storage as you need (and upgrade that storage at a later time). And you pay only for back up software and storage rather than a wireless router that may be redundant given the gear you already own.

About your setup

One reason an old Mac is ideal for this kind of work is because it needn't be a powerhouse.

Most of today's Mac backup software runs on either PowerPC and Intel processors, requires that the Mac have no more than 1GB of RAM, and much of it runs on older versions of the Mac OS. (Roxio's Retrospect 8, however, requires OS X 10.5 or later and 2GB of RAM.)

Ideally, the Mac you designate as your backup server isn't a power hungry beast (think Power Mac G5).

A first-generation or second-generation Mac mini or MacBook is a good candidate in this regard because it doesn't require a lot of power.

Regardless of which Mac you choose as your backup server, create a schedule within the Energy Saver system preference so that it's on/awake when it needs to back up your other computers and off or asleep when it's idle. The backup server and all the Macs you wish to be backed up will have to be on the same network. For the fastest backups, use a wired Ethernet network (preferably gigabit Ethernet).

If that's not possible, use a wireless network and be prepared to leave your Macs on for an extended period of time while they're backed up.

Alternatively, if you have many Macs with a lot of data, are anxious to get this over with, but you're unwilling to wire your home, it might be worth your while to drag all your Macs into the same room as the backup server and perform the initial backup over a wired network (or bring your Mac server to each client computer).

Once that's complete, return the computers to their original locations and perform subsequent incremental backups over your wireless network. Those incremental backups won't take nearly so long.

In regard to storage, hard drives are today's easiest way to store backups. Storing backups on CD or DVD is fine if you have little data and a single Mac to back up, but it's more trouble than it's worth to babysit a multiple-Mac backup using optical media. Unless you have a Mac with an easily upgradable hard drive (an old Mac Pro or Power Mac G5, for example) you'll want to get an external hard drive. Shop around and you can find 2TB external drives for around $150 - internal 2TB drives can be had for half that.

A power-efficient Mac mini makes a great backup server. Next, calculate the amount of storage you need to back up all your computers and then double or even triple it.

Thanks to massive media files and libraries, we store a lot of data these days. Unless cloud storage really takes hold we can expect to store increasing amounts of data in the future. While a 1TB drive may seem impossible to fill today, next year it may prove to be positively cramped.

What to back up

Part of the backup battle is figuring out what you should and shouldn't back up.

If you don't have a lot of data and do have plenty of storage, there's no harm in backing up your entire Home folder. As long as you store your important data within this folder, you're set. However, if you routinely store data outside of your Home folder - at the root level of your hard drive, for example - you should consider moving it to within that Home folder or prepare to configure your backup software so that it looks in such nooks and crannies for your data.

If, however, you're backing up multiple Macs and all of them have a significant amount of data on them, you must be choosier. At this point, ask yourself this important question: Which of this data will cause me to burst into tears when it's lost? For many people the resulting list will contain these items: Personal photos and videos, e-mail, financial data, in-progress work projects, personal creative projects, contacts, calendar events, and bookmarks.

Now work your way through descending layers of potential regret. For example, if you've purchased a lot of content from the iTunes Store (music and videos rather than books and apps, as you can easily re-download the latter) or spent weeks ripping your CD collection, you'll want a backup of this content somewhere. On the other hand, you can probably exclude the college papers you penned in the mid-90s and that archive of jokes forwarded to your AOL account. Additionally, if you have your application installers (or can easily download them) you needn't back up your applications nor their support files - iDVD's themes and GarageBand's loops come to mind.

Software

There are many backup options available to you.

Apple's Time Machine couldn't be easier to use and is a solid solution for single-computer backups.

Both Bombich Software's free Carbon Copy Cloner and Shirt Pocket Software's $28 SuperDuper are solid choices for making bootable backups.

If you have a mixed environment of Macs and PCs (running Windows and/or Linux) the venerable Retrospect 8 (now owned by Roxio) is a good, though occasionally complicated, option.

Although its name hints that it's a synchronization tool, with version 4 ChronoSync became a more powerful backup tool. At its most basic you choose a source - a folder on your Mac, for example - and a destination, which might be the external hard drive attached to your Mac. Click the Synchronize button and the selected source files are copied to the destination in their current state - as individual files and folders, making it easy to restore just the files you want.

But it can also back up the data from Macs on the network. Simply mount the drive of a networked Mac, choose it or a directory on it as the source, and then select a destination - again, the backup drive attached to your Mac running as a backup server.

When choosing a networked drive you can ask ChronoSync to mount it if it's unmounted. (You have the option to store the username and password necessary to mount the server so that ChronoSync doesn't prompt you for this information when it performs the backup.) ChronoSync can also be configured to unmount the drive when the backup is complete.

ChronoSync is an affordable, flexible solution for multi-Mac backup. ChronoSync provides options for deleted and updated files. Enable the Synchronize Deletions option and any files you delete from the source will also be deleted on the backup. Enabling the Archive Replaced Files option instructs ChronoSync to keep a copy of all the revisions of a file. So, much as you can with Time Machine, you can visit ChronoSync's archive area and retrieve older versions of documents.

Although ChronoSync can mount networked drives and volumes, for a multi-Mac backup setup I've found it wisest to install a copy of the company's ChronoAgent on each Mac I wish to back up. (ChronoAgent costs $10 for a single copy and $40 for a 5-user license.)

ChronoAgent brings a couple of advantages. First, it communicates directly with ChronoSync. This direct connection allows it to scan files more quickly than it can using the normal AFP or SMP network protocols. It also allows ChronoSync access to the entire contents of a Mac’s drive rather than just approved folders and directories. ChronoSync, mounting and backing up network volumes by itself, may encounter permission issues. When used with ChronoAgent you don’t have these issues. Also, those Macs running ChronoAgent can be configured to back up their data as soon as they connect to your network. This is handy for backing up laptops that have returned from a road trip or have been unavailable during a scheduled backup.

With ChronoAgent installed on all my Macs, my workflow goes like this:

I install ChronoSync on my Mac mini backup server. Attached to the Mac mini is a 2TB hard drive.<\LI>

Each of the three Macs I back up has a copy of ChronoAgent. I create a separate ChronoSync Synchronizer document (the document that details a particular backup scheme) for each Mac.<\LI>

I then save these synchronizer documents in a ChronoSync container - a ChronoSync file that contains multiple synchronizer documents that are executed in order when you run the container file.<\LI>

Finally, I create a schedule so that the container file is executed at the end of each work day.<\LI>

Retrospect In the days of OS 9 and earlier, if you were really serious about backing up, Dantz's Retrospect was the tool to use.

Regrettably, the transition to OS X was a rough one for Retrospect. The interface became more convoluted and Retrospect lost some of its features.

In May 2010, Sonic Solutions acquired Retrospect from its owner at the time, EMC, and placed it in Sonic's Roxio division. The current version, Retrospect 8.2, is a product targeted largely at small to medium businesses. However, the $129 Retrospect Desktop 8 for Macintosh with three clients is an affordable and flexible solution for those who need to back up Macs as well as Windows and/or Linux PCs. If you need to back up a mixed environment of PCs and Macs, try Retrospect.

Where ChronoSync stores data as individual documents, Retrospect creates archives, called Media Sets, that contain the backed up data. A single media set can contain backups from multiple sources - your MacBook's internal drive, the iPhoto Library stored on a Mac Pro, and the user folder from a Windows PC. And these media sets can span multiple drives, discs, or tapes. A list of a media set's contents is kept in a catalog, which you can easily scan to locate just the files you want to restore.

Retrospect requires that you install client applications on all the computers you want to back up (additional client licenses cost $38 each, five licenses for $149, or 10 licenses for $299).

Similar to ChronoSync using ChronoAgent, Retrospect communicates directly over the network with its clients, without the need for mounting volumes or running a file server on the client computer. Also, like ChronoSync, Retrospect includes a feature - called Proactive Backup - that will back up a client as it joins the network, rather than waiting for a scheduled time. Retrospect also has the ability to wake sleeping computers on the network so that they can be backed up.

At one time Retrospect was quite challenging to configure and operate, due to a convoluted interface. It has since been significantly cleaned up. Once you've added your backup sources and destinations, creating a backup is as simple as clicking a Backup button and walking through a configuration wizard where you choose your sources and the media set you want to use. You can then assign a schedule to the backup scheme (or script, in Retrospect parlance) you've created.

Easier to use though Retrospect may now be, if you delve into the application's more arcane settings - configuring clients to be automatically added to the Retrospect server application and tweaking verification settings, for instance - you'll spend some time with the manual.

Avoiding the inevitable
The old saw of backup is that it's not a matter of if your computer's hard drive will die, but when. To avoid becoming yet another sad sidebar to the mortality of modern storage media, be proactive and put that old Mac to good use.

Christopher Breen is a Macworld senior editor.

Concepts:

Mac, backup, drives, network, storage, hard drives, MacBook, ChronoSync, Retrospect, backup server, computers, multiple, media, store.

Monday, November 1, 2010

TorchFS - An Improvement on Spotlight

Image via Wikipedia

by Dan Frakes, Macworld.com

Source: www.macworld.com

Spotlight is one of Mac OS X's best - and worst - features.When it works, it's an amazing tool for finding exactly the bit of data you're looking for.

But many people have complaints about its limitations.

One of those limitations is Spotlight's search-results window, which doesn't make it easy to, for example, add additional columns to view more information about found files.

But one of my biggest complaints about the results window is its lack of context.

Rather than dump all my files into my Documents folder, I keep those files fairly organized, with a clear system of hierarchical folders and subfolders.

Yet when I perform a Spotlight search, I see a huge list of files...as if I had simply dumped everything into one big folder.

(If you want to know where a particular file is located, you must select it and then look at the path displayed at the bottom of the window. And you must do this separately for each file.)

TorchFS is a program that displays Spotlight search results using your folder structure.

Or, to look at it another way, it filters your existing files and folders, displaying only those containing results of a Spotlight search.

(TorchFS requires MacFUSE, a system add-on that, in the developer's terms, "makes it possible to implement a fully functional file system in a user-space program on Mac OS X."In plain english, this means that once you've installed MacFUSE, you can add system-level support for new filesystems within your user account by simply running an application. In TorchFS's case, that filesystem is based on SpotlightFS, a virtual filesystem for Spotlight search results. You'll need to download and install MacFUSE before using TorchFS. MacFUSE is also used by ExpanDrive, a previous Mac Gem.)

I was looking for a few Macworld-related documents I created in August of 2009.

When I performed a standard Spotlight search, I ended up with a results window containing a continuous list of 1,714 item, including photos, application-support files, and lots of other cruft that had nothing to do with my Macworld writing.

Even when I sorted the list by type, it was a hassle to find the particular files I was searching for.

Using TorchFS, the results of that same search were presented as a Finder window open to my Home folder, but displaying only those folders that included search results.

I was able to navigate directly to the Macworld folder inside my Documents folder and see only those folders containing documents created in August 2009.

(One limitation of TorchFS is that the current version searches only your Home folder - you can't force it to search your entire hard drive, additional drives, or network drives.)

Also unlike Spotlight's default results window, you can change the Finder-window view of the TorchFS results window, so you can browse those results using icons, a list, columns, or Cover Flow.

TorchFS's Spotlight-results window for a search for PDF documents

I find TorchFS's approach to be much more intuitive than scanning a huge list of results.

By organizing Spotlight-search results using my folder-organization scheme, I'm able to find what I'm looking for much more quickly.

Unfortunately, TorchFS, currently at beta version 0.2, isn't without a few hassles of its own.

One is that because TorchFS uses a virtual filesystem, it requires you to save your Spotlight search as a smart folder and then access that smart folder through a virtual TorchFS "drive" that appears, depending on your Finder settings, on the Desktop, in Finder-window sidebars, and in the Finder's Computer view.

(Any smart folders you've created appear here. TorchFS automatically creates a few smart folders for finding, for example, all documents or all images.)

This makes Torch FS most useful for searches you perform repeatedly, or for the occasional search with an especially messy results list.

Another minor issue is that because of the way the underlying MacFUSE software works, you'll occasionally see a file named "Please wait" inside a folder when browsing search results.

Finally, while TorchFS worked great on a 2009 MacBook and a 2010 Mac mini in my testing, I couldn't get the underlying MacFUSE software to work properly on my 2010 iMac - which meant that TorchFS wouldn't work, either.

(All three computers were running the latest version of Snow Leopard.)

I'm looking forward to future updates to TorchFS, as I'm hooked on its approach to presenting Spotlight search results.

Concepts:

Mac, TorchFS, folder, Spotlight, window, Macworld, app, photo, Prices, Mac Gems, accessories, MacFUSE, smart folders, business, drives.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Keeping Your Mac Hard Drive Clean

Image via Wikipedia

Keeping Your Mac Hard Drive Clean

CleanMyMac 1.9 by MacPaw

macworld.com

CleanMyMac 1.9 by MacPaw

macworld.com

It's difficult to grasp how much garbage accumulates on your desk in a matter of days.

More surprising still is just how filthy your Mac gets even after one or two software installs and a few days of use.

CleanMyMac digs down into the depths of your Mac's hard drive to find extraneous files such as unused language installations, leftover or broken preference files, Universal binaries, and a variety of other files that exist but aren't necessary on your Mac.

Opening the program displays CleanMyMac's main screen where you can choose to kick off a complete system scan or choose to scan only for specific types of files.

For me, the first scan resulted in over 14GB, about 8GB of which were files in my trash that, at the time of the scan, had not been emptied.

Otherwise, it was over 2GB each of language and cache files, with a couple gigs more of other things that were lurking in the dark corners of my Mac.

Once CleanMyMac finds those extra files, it displays detailed information about what those extras are and then you can choose which files you want removed or leave untouched.

CleanMyMac also scans every new drive that you mount and lets you know if there is wasted space on those drives, too.

CleanMyMac is slick, easy to use, and likely to be one of the fastest ways to gain extra space on your hard drive.

Want to stay up-to-date with the latest Gems?

Sign up for the Mac Gems newsletter for a weekly e-mail summary of Gems reviews sent directly to your inbox.

[Jeffery Battersby is an IT Consultant, Apple Trainer, (very) smalltime actor, and regular contributor to Macworld. He writes about Macs and more at his blog.]

We recommend these Utilities for their similarities to the CleanMyMac 1.9 in features, specs, ratings, and user interest.

CleanMyMac digs down into the depths of your Mac's hard drive to find extraneous files that aren't necessary on your Mac.

Data Rescue 3 is a program that every Mac user should at least know about, if not own outright, for those times when you need to restore important files.

Pester makes it easy and convenient to create simple alarms, timers, and reminders.

WhoPaste makes it simple to grab contact data from any source and automatically create a new contact record.

MoveAddict adds the capability to cut and paste files and folders in the Finder, along with some nifty features such as folder merging.

Software utility that's useful for removing old files, deleting all traces of uninstalled apps, and reminding you about common maintenance tasks, such as back-ups and system repairs.

Strengths: Cleans a great deal of clutter with no side effects or problems.

Overall: This app is the best investment I've ever made to keep my Mac clean and free of clutter.

I've used it for two weeks and recovered 3.56 GB of space that was pure junk.

Imagine what it would be in a year.

No problems with the aftermath of cleaning and my Mac runs faster than ever.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Mac Gems I’m thankful for

Image by insidetwit via Flickr

Mac Gems I’m thankful for

Here's an extract from an article on MacWorld I found very useful since I use mostly

Source: macworld.com

It’s Thanksgiving day here in the U.S., and I want to wish all our U.S. readers a happy holiday. Since Thanksgiving falls on a Thursday, which is also a Mac Gems day on the Macworld calendar, I thought I’d mention a few Gems I’m thankful for—the inexpensive apps and utilities that I use every day to increase my productivity and generally make my Mac-using life a bit better.

This isn’t a list of our all-time favorite Gems; we published the most-recent version of that list back in June (although some of those products appear on this list, as well). Nor is it a list of my favorite Gems of 2009; you’ll see that one the week we publish our annual Eddy Awards. Rather, this is a list of Gems that I continue to use every day—Gems that have become such an integral part of my workflow that I often take them for granted.

To the developers of these programs, and of the many other great-but-inexpensive software titles out there, thank you. The Mac experience is better because of you.

DocumentPalette: I use DocumentPalette many times each day to create a new document in the current folder via a keyboard shortcut—I just choose the type of document from the palette that appears.
Dropbox: Over the years, I’ve tried many methods for keeping particular files in sync between my computers, and for sharing files with friends and family. Dropbox, with its Finder integration and automatic syncing, makes it easy.
FlexCal: Flexcal lets me create new iCal (or BusyCal) events without having to open my calendar program. I just press a keyboard shortcut and provide the event details.
Growl: More and more of my favorite programs take adantage of Growl to provide notifications and updates. Throw in HardwareGrower, a Growl add-on that informs me of hardware and network connections and disconnections, and my Mac feels lacking without this utility.
Jumpcut: As a writer, I consider a multiple-Clipboard utility to be a must, and Jumpcut remains my personal favorite for its ease of use and elegant interface.
LaunchBar: Jason Snell put it best: “If I could have only one Mac utility, a solitary piece of software that I could use to improve using my Mac and all its programs as I went about my daily business, it would be Objective Development’s LaunchBar. When I use a Mac that doesn’t have LaunchBar running, I simply feel naked.”
MagiCal: Snow Leopard finally lets you put the date in the menu bar, but I still prefer MagiCal, which instead uses a tiny calendar icon for the date; clicking on the icon displays a useful monthly calendar.
Mercury Mover: Among this add-on’s many features, the one I use the most is the capability to quickly restore windows to particular sizes and positions. For example, by pressing Mercury Mover’s keyboard shortcut followed by S, my Safari window is instantly placed in my favorite location with my favorite dimensions.
MondoMouse: I use MondoMouse dozens of times each day to move and resize windows without having to grab a thin title bar or a tiny resize box—heck, without even having to click a mouse button.
ScreenSharingMenulet: Using OS X’s Screen Sharing feature between my Macs has become a regular part of my daily routine, and ScreenSharingMenulet has made making those Screen Sharing connections simple.
Sharpshooter: Tech writers take screenshots—lots of screenshots. When I choose to use Mac OS X’s built-in screenshot features, Sharpshooter lets me choose, on the fly, the screenshot format, name, and save location.
Shimo: Mac OS X’s built-in VPN functionality doesn’t hold a candle to Shimo, which provides more features, more-reliable connections, and many automation options. It’s also a much-improved alternative to Cisco’s OS X VPN software. Did I mention it provides Growl notifications?
SuperDuper: I’m paranoid about data loss, so I have a rigorous backup routine. Part of that routine is to use SuperDuper to schedule six clone operations every day—two each of three different drives. If a drive dies, I can be back up and running without much delay.
TextExpander: In my line of work, a text-expansion utility—which automatically pastes frequently used text whenever I type a corresponding abbreviation—is up there with multiple Clipboards in terms of productivity gains. And TextExpander is my current favorite. According to the program’s own tally, I’ve expanded over 5500 snippets over the past couple years.
Today: Today shows me the day’s events and tasks in a space-saving window, even if iCal or BusyCal is closed.
Witch: OS X lets you switch between windows in the current program by pressing Command+`. Witch puts that feature to shame by displaying a list of every window in every application, letting you easily switch to—or act on—any of them.

There are plenty of other Gems that I use regularly, but these see daily action on my Mac and have worked their way into my routines. What are your most-used—and most overlooked—Mac Gems? Let us know in the comments. And if you're celebrating today, have a great Thanksgiving, and thanks for reading.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Apple online offer glitch hints at early Snow Leopard launch | Mac OS X

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Macworld

A mistaken offer in Apple’s online store on Wednesday could signal that the company’s latest Mac operating system, code-named Snow Leopard, is primed for launch as early as next week.

The company was offering to ship the as-yet-unreleased Mac OS X 10.6—code-named Snow Leopard—within 24 hours as part of the new Mac Box Set products, which were briefly put on sale on Apple’s Web site.

However, the Box Set products were pulled after a call was made to Apple online sales to check whether the new OS would ship in 24 hours as part of the single-user Box Set edition. The Box Set —which also comes in a family pack edition—offers a plethora of software upgrades to Mac users, including the OS, productivity suites and multimedia applications.

A saleswoman verified that the Box Set was for sale online after checking with technical support. But she said that it might not ship overnight as the Snow Leopard OS was not yet shipping.

The saleswoman could not be reached for comment after the products were pulled, and Apple officials did not return calls or e-mail for comment.

The online store glitch could give credence to reports that Apple is preparing for an early launch of Snow Leopard, which is officially scheduled to go on sale in September. Observers, including analysts and blog sites, have predicted the OS would start to ship as soon as Aug. 28.

Retail sites like Amazon.com are already taking pre-orders for Snow Leopard and the Mac Box Set. Snow Leopard is available as an upgrade to Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard users for $30.

The OS includes a number of systemwide “refinements,” according to Apple’s Web site.The enhancements include quicker installation compared to predecessors, a new version of QuickTime multimedia software and a souped-up user interface. It also includes a number of internal enhancements to perform tasks like video encoding and decoding faster by tapping into the processing power of multiple CPU and graphics processing cores.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Apple Begins Training Support Staff for Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Apple Begins Training Support Staff for Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Source: Mac Rumors - macrumors.com

Macenstein claims to have received information from sources claiming that support training for OS X Snow Leopard has begun and that Apple's new operating system will very likely launch on Friday, August 28th.

According to reliable sources, support training for Snow Leopard has begun, signaling an imminent release of the next major release of OS X. Sources claim a date of Friday, August 28th is extremely likely.
The source also provided several screenshots of Snow Leopard training instructions for AppleCare support representatives. The news corroborates claims from several other sources that Snow Leopard will ship on the 28th, ahead of Apple's announced September launch window.

MacRumors has also heard from a purported AppleCare representative that support staff at their location had just been provided with Snow Leopard discs (containing the rumored 'Golden Master' Build 10A432) for installation on their primary machines. The source noted that OS X Leopard was distributed to AppleCare representatives approximately one week before its October 2007 launch, leading the source to suspect that a Snow Leopard release may in fact be right around the corner.

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