OS X Mountain Lion Operating System Review

Mountain Lion logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Source: macworld.com

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One year and one week since the release of OS X Lion, Apple is back with Mountain Lion, also known as OS X 10.8.

Like Lion, Mountain Lion offers numerous feature additions that will be familiar to iOS users. This OS X release continues Apple’s philosophy of bringing iOS features “back to the Mac,” and includes iMessage, Reminders, Notes, Notification Center, Twitter integration, Game Center, and AirPlay Mirroring. There are even a few features that are making their debut with Mountain Lion, and will find their way back into iOS 6 this fall.

As the first OS X release post-iCloud, Mountain Lion offers a much more thorough integration with Apple’s data-syncing service than Lion offered. Mountain Lion also brings options to limit which kinds of apps users can install, offers systemwide integration with social networking and media-sharing services, and gives some recent MacBook models the power to keep working even when they appear to be asleep. And although there are no actual mountain lions in China, OS X Mountain Lion does add a raft of features to speak to users in the country that’s Apple’s biggest growth opportunity.

At $20, Mountain Lion is Apple’s cheapest OS X upgrade since version 10.1 was free 11 years ago; like Lion, Mountain Lion is available only via a Mac App Store download. The combination of the low price and the easy download will likely make Mountain Lion the most quickly adopted OS X upgrade of all time. Given how solid a release I found Mountain Lion to be, that’s a good thing.

(A compatibility note: Some Macs now running Lion won’t be able to run Mountain Lion. For more details, read our Mountain Lion FAQ.)

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Review of MsgFiler 3.0.1 for Mail

MsgFiler 3.0.1 for Mail Review

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Source: macworld.com

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MsgFiler is the fastest way to move, copy, and label messages in Mail. It also offers useful features for navigating and managing mailboxes.

Back in early 2008, I reviewed MsgFiler 2.0.2, a plugin for Mac OS X's Mail program that lets you file or copy messages using the keyboard, no matter how many mailboxes you have. It quickly became one of my favorite Mail add-ons, and it's one of the major reasons I was able to migrate from my previous e-mail client, Entourage, to Mail. (Yes, Gmail lovers, some of us still like to file mail in folders.)

MsgFiler has seen a few updates since that review, but it recently received a major overhaul to mark the software's debut on the Mac App Store.

MsgFiler 3 (Mac App Store link) offers a number of dramatic improvements that make it even more useful. The biggest change to MsgFiler is that it's no longer a Mail plugin. Thanks to Apple's rules, Mail plugins aren't allowed on the Mac App Store, so the developer has remade MsgFiler as a standard OS X application that communicates with Mail using AppleScript. As long as the MsgFiler app is running when you're using Mail - it's best to set MsgFiler as a Login Item and let it run in the background - its features are available to Mail.

Like MsgFiler 2, the new version makes it easy to file messages to any mailbox. With one or more messages selected, just press MsgFiler's keyboard shortcut - Command+9 by default, but you can change it to whatever you like - and up pops a search window. Type the first few letters of the desired mailbox, and MsgFiler shows a list of all matching mailboxes, sorted by relevance. Otherwise, type a few more letters of the desired mailbox's name, or use the down-arrow key to move down the list. (If you include a space when typing your search term, MsgFiler performs a wildcard search. For example, typing mac re will search for any mailbox that includes mac and re in its name - in my case, finding a mailbox called Macworld Reader Feedback.)

By default, once you press Return to file a message, MsgFiler's window disappears, although you can choose to have the window remain open until you press the MsgFiler keyboard shortcut again - you can even navigate and select messages in Mail while the MsgFiler window is open.

As I mentioned in my previous review, once you've performed the filing procedure a few times, it becomes second nature - and it's a whole lot easier on your hand/wrist/arm than using a mouse or trackpad to drag a message to a mailbox. (Check out the developer's example videos for some nice demos of MsgFiler in action.) To make filing messages even faster, you can designate frequently accessed mailboxes as favorites that will always appear at the top of the results list.

MsgFiler also tracks your filing habits, listing recently accessed mailboxes immediately after favorites. And search results are numbered, letting you use keyboard shortcuts to jump directly to a mailbox.

If you'd rather copy a message to the selected mailbox, leaving the original message in place, click the Copy button or press Shift+Commmand+C. Alternatively, you can view ("open") the selected mailbox in Mail - without doing anything with selected messages - by clicking Open or pressing Command+O, making MsgFiler useful for quickly switching Mail's window to a particular view. (You can switch MsgFiler's default action - the one that occurs when you press Return - to Move or Copy if you use one of these commands frequently.) You can also add a color label to selected messages, and create new mailboxes, right from within the MsgFiler window.

MsgFiler provides a number of useful options for tweaking its behavior. You can restrict mailbox searches to the account you've selected in Mail's Mailboxes pane. You can restrict searches to mailbox names or open them up to full mailbox paths - if you've got mailboxes inside folders, the latter option includes the folder names in searches. You can choose for searches to be case-sensitive or -insensitive. MsgFiler can automatically add a color label to - or remove the color label from - any message it files. Finally, you can force MsgFiler to exclude from its searches mailboxes with names that include specific words or strings.

How much use have I gotten out of MsgFiler? The program provides a nifty count of the number of messages you've filed, and after around three weeks of use, the counter tells me I've filed over 1800 messages - that's a lot of wrist-killing drag-and-drop I've avoided!

There are a couple drawbacks to MsgFiler's conversion from a Mail plugin to an application. The first is that the application version can't exclude from its searches accounts that are offline or inactive - the plugin included this feature. The second is that performance suffers a bit - according to the developer, the plugin's tighter integration with Mail made it faster at loading the mailbox list and at filing messages to IMAP mailboxes (those hosted on your e-mail provider's IMAP servers, rather than "On My Mac).

However, you can restore much of the plugin's speed by manually downloading - guess what - a Mail plugin! Available from the MsgFiler Website, the MsgFiler Engine Mail Plugin improves performance dramatically, and I highly recommend you install it. The plugin is a clever way for MsgFiler to work around the Mac App Store's rules, but it also means you'll need to manually check for, and download, updates to the plugin, since such updates won't be handled by the Mac App Store. (Before installing an updated plugin, be sure to quit both Mail and the MsgFiler application.) Alternatively, you can skip the Mac App Store version altogether and download the older plugin version of MsgFiler, currently at version 2.1.0 - the developer has promised it will be maintained for compatibility with future versions of Snow Leopard, as well as Lion, although you lose out on version 3's new features.

MsgFiler is one of my must-have apps, and I wouldn't be using Mail without it.

Besides the increase in productivity it provides, it also dramatically reduces my repetitive mousing and trackpad-swiping. Best of all, it's simple to use - just press a keyboard shortcut and type a few letters. While there are other Mail add-ons, such as the excellent Mail Act-On, that include message filing among their more-varied feature sets, I find MsgFiler's mail filing to be faster and more efficient - enough so that I actually use MsgFiler together with Mail Act-On.

If, like me, you're a compulsive message filer, you need MsgFiler.

If you'd like to try MsgFiler before purchasing it, the developer recommends downloading the latest beta.

Concepts: Msgfiler, Mac, Mailbox, App, Plugin, Mail Plugin, Internet, Filing, Mac App Store, Keyboard Shortcuts

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Easily download files from URLs on your Mac

Image via Wikipedia

Quickly download files from URLs | Mac OS X | Mac OS X Hints

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Source: macworld.com

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Using this tip, you will be able to create a service on OS X that will enable you to highlight a URL to download and use your new service to download it without opening any other application.

Let's say a friend sent you a link to an app or an MP3 file, and you just want to download the thing.
Normally, you'd copy the URL, open your browser, and paste the URL into the address bar. In some browsers, you'd even need to paste the URL into the address field, hit Enter, wait until the file loads, and then save it.
From the list of templates, select Service.
At the top right of the window, set the service to receive selected URLs in any application.
Then, in the Internet group of actions, double-click on Download URLs.
That will add it to the editing window on the right.
By default, it will download URLs to your Downloads folder; if you wish them to go somewhere else, select that other location from the Where drop-down.
Save the service and give it a name, such as Download Selected URL.
Now, in any app that supports services, find the URL of a downloadable file (or, for the purposes of testing, any URL at all) and select it with your cursor. Open the Services submenu from the application menu and select Download Selected URL from the list. (Or right-click on the selected URL and choose the service from the context menu’s Services section.)
The file connected to the selected URL should download to your selected folder.
If it's especially large, you'll see a spinning cogwheel on the right side of the menubar while the service is running; clicking on that will open a menu where you can cancel the download if you wish.
When the download is done, check the destination folder; your file should be there.
You can make this quicker by assigning a keyboard shortcut to your service: Open System Preferences and select the Keyboard preference pane.
In the Keyboard Shortcuts tab, select Services from the list to the left.
Find Download Selected URL in the list on the right and double-click to its right.
You can then enter a keyboard shortcut - Control-Command-D, perhaps - to assign it to your service.

Concepts:

Mac, download, app, Macworld, Prices, selected URL, accessories, keyboard, Customer Service, Publishing, Cameras, business, ipod, Leopard, Internet

Power Tip - How to really shrink the Dock

Image via Wikipedia

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

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Source: macworld.com

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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.

Related articles

• How I set up a new Mac (macworld.com)
• DockView vs. HyperDock: Head-to-Head (appreaders.com)
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• Command-Click OS X Dock Items to Show Them in Finder [Mac Tip] (lifehacker.com)
• Quickly Create A New Document In The Current Folder With Neu 1.0.1 (think-act-do.blogspot.com)
• Top Ways To Customize The Look Of A New Mac (brighthub.com)
• How to really shrink the Dock (macworld.com)

DropBox Review

Image via CrunchBase

DropBox Review Summary

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Source: Macworld.com

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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
  

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Concepts:

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

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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.

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TorchFS - An Improvement on Spotlight

Image via Wikipedia

by Dan Frakes, Macworld.com

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Source: www.macworld.com

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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.

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Concepts:

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

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Mac OS X 10.7 Lion bringing iOS features to Mac in summer 2011

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Source: www.appleinsider.com

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Inspired by innovations in the iPhone and iPad, the next version of Mac OS X, dubbed "Lion," will bring iOS features to the Mac platform, including multi-touch gestures, the App Store and Home screens, coming Summer 2011.

Apps resume when launched Apple said Lion, shipping next summer, is inspired by many of iPad's software innovations.

Today's sneak peek highlighted just a few of Lion's features, including the Mac App Store, a new way to discover, install and automatically update desktop apps; Launchpad, a new home for all of your Mac apps; system-wide support for full screen apps; and Mission Control, which unifies Exposé, Dashboard, Spaces and full screen apps into an innovative new view of everything running on your Mac, and allows you to instantly navigate anywhere.

"Lion brings many of the best ideas from iPad back to the Mac, plus some fresh new ones like Mission Control that Mac users will really like," Jobs said in a press release.

"Lion has a ton of new features, and we hope the few we had time to preview today will give users a good idea of where we are headed."

Multi-Touch

Jobs said that touchscreens don't work when in front of a user, which is why devices like the iPhone and iPad are successful.
 
Given that, Jobs said Macs will stick with products like the trackpad and Magic Mouse for input.

"This is how we're going to use multi-touch on our Mac products," he said.

Mac App Store

Lion will bring the Mac App Store, which, like on iOS, will include one-click downloads, free and paid downloads, and revenue sharing with developers.

The Mac App Store will also include automatic updates, and software will be licensed for use on all personal Macs.

Apple said the Mac App Store brings the App Store experience to OS X, making discovering, installing and updating Mac apps easier than ever.

Like on iPad, you purchase apps using your iTunes account and they download and install in just one step.

App updates are delivered directly through the Mac App Store, so it's easy to keep all of your apps up to date.

The Mac App Store will be available for Snow Leopard within 90 days and will be included in Lion when it ships next summer.

A demo showing off the Mac App Store showed off the ability to purchase and install Pages with just one click.

Applications can also be added to the Launch Pad, which can be selected from the Mac OS X Dock and brings an iPad-style grid of icons and pages onto the screen as an overlay.

Mission Control

Jobs also announced a new feature, Mission Control, which allows users to view anything running on a Mac and instantly navigate to anywhere.

He said this will combine existing features, like Expose, with new ones like full screen.



Apple said that Mission Control presents you with a unified view of every app and window running on your Mac, so you can instantly navigate anywhere.

Mission Control also incorporates the next generation of Exposé, presenting all the windows running on your Mac grouped by application, alongside thumbnails of full screen apps, Dashboard and other Spaces.

Mission Control clusters alike apps, making them easy to select when in Mission Control.

Launchpad

Launchpad makes it easier than ever to find and launch any app.

Similar to the Home screen on iPad, you can see all the apps on your Mac elegantly displayed just by clicking the Launchpad icon in the dock.

Apps can be organized in any order or grouped into folders, and you can swipe through multiple pages of apps to find the one you want.

Lion includes system-wide support for full screen applications.

With Lion, you can enter full screen mode with just one click, switch from one full screen app to another with just a swipe of the trackpad, and swipe back to the desktop to access your multi-window applications.

"I wish we had another hour and a half to show you more," Jobs said at the conclusion of Wednesday's presentation.

"We'll unveil this over time as we get closer to releasing it."

Related

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OS X: A possible fix for Spotlight re-indexing problems

Image via Wikipedia

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macosxhints.com

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This tip might be handy if Spotlight seems to take forever to re-index. I re-indexed Spotlight, and it started showing the spinning wheel. I was unable to pinpoint an obvious reason for this.

Some weeks later I decided to get rid of most of the DYLD errors from the Console log. As a step in doing I booted the machine into safe mode, and cleaned all the system caches. After having done that Spotlight started working as it should again, reading the indices when performing searches.

[crarko adds: I tested this, and it works as described. I posted it as much as anything as a reminder that clearing the system caches should be a part of any regular maintenance plan, and often an early step in a troubleshooting procedure.]

Ten quick Calculator tricks on a Mac

Image via Wikipedia

Ten quick Calculator tricks

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by Sharon Zardetto, Macworld.com

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Here's how to get the most out of Apple's built-in tool

The lowly Calculator sits there in your Applications folder. It’s so unassuming you barely notice that it has menus and little interface details that make it not quite so lowly after all. These tips work for the Basic calculator. Many also work for the Scientific and Programmer versions available through the Calculator’s View menu.

1. Copy and paste numbers

Need to include a quick calculation in an e-mail message? Because you can’t select anything in the Calculator display, it’s easy to forget you can still use Copy and Paste commands with it. The Copy command (Command-C or Edit -> Copy) always grabs the currently displayed number and places it on the Clipboard so you can use it elsewhere. And, if you’ve copied a number from someplace else, just use Paste (Command-V or Edit -> Paste) when the Calculator’s open to insert the number in the Calculator field. (Many OS versions ago, you could paste in a calculation like 17*34, and it would appear in Calculator as if you had clicked those keys; now that calculation pastes in as the number 1734.)

2. Pick your precision

If kiwis are selling 3 for $5, does one of them cost $1.66667? When you don’t need 15-decimal place precision, use the View menu’s Decimal Places submenu to specify how many digits you want displayed. The displayed number is rounded, not truncated, so 1.66667 becomes 1.67. The actual number is stored internally, however, so you can continue with a calculation that uses the true number instead of the rounded one.

3. Convert units of measure

You may never have to convert hectares to acres, or inches of mercury to pounds per square inch, but the Convert menu provides more mundane changes, too. For example, use it to convert metric units to any of the stubbornly held standard measurements the U.S. uses. Enter a number (or work with the one already there from a calculation) and then choose a category from the menu—Length, for example. Use the pop-up menus in the sheet that appears to specify what you’re converting to and from. The Calculator displays the answer in the chosen units.

4. Repeat the last calculation

With the Calculator’s hidden “repeat the last operation” function, it’s a cinch to compute something like short-term compound interest. Start with 1200 dollars times 1.06 for the first year’s 6 percent return and you get 1272. Just hit Return again, and the number is multiplied by 1.06 again; another press of Return gives you the third-year total of 1429.22.

Alternatively, you can enter numbers in between the repeated operation. So, after the first calculation is done, you can enter 1500 and press Return to get that number multiplied by 1.06.

5. Use the paper tape

The paper tape window not only serves as a quick reference, it can also be printed or saved. This shows the result of the special “repeat last” function, which uses repeated clicks of the equal sign (=) key to perform the same operation—*1.06 was entered only once.

The Window -> Show Paper Tape command opens a small window that shows each of your calculations as soon as you press Return or click on the equal sign (=) key. This lets you check for incorrectly entered numbers. If you realize you want to see your history only after the fact, no problem: Any time you open the paper tape, you’ll see everything you’ve done since you opened the Calculator for the current number-crunching session. If you need a copy of the paper tape, choose File -> Save Tape As or File -> Print Tape. You can also select any part of its display and copy out the information.

6. Store a number

You’re figuring out the cost of tiling the kitchen, with and without the pantry closet, and maybe the back hallway, too. You don’t have to re-enter the $6.47-per-square-foot cost of the tile for the three different calculations.

Enter 6.47 and press M+ to put it into memory. Then, calculate the cost of each area’s tile by multiplying the square footage by the stored tile price, retrieved with a press of the Memory Recall (MR) button. Enter 14*16*MR for one cost, 6*7*MR for the next, and 2.5*3.5*MR for the last.

7. Delete a digit

If you type or click the wrong number, there’s no need to clear everything by clicking on Calculator’s C (for “clear”) key or pressing C on your keyboard. (If you have a full Apple keyboard, you can also use the key labeled Clear.) Press Delete on your keyboard to erase the last digit you entered; press it multiple times to continue erasing digits. (The Forward Delete key doesn’t work for this.)

8. Quickly switch calculators

Click on the Calculator’s Zoom button (the green one of the three buttons in the upper left of its window) to cycle through the three kinds of calculators—Basic, Scientific, and Programmer—instead of using the commands in the View menu.

Normal Calculator

9. Easily change a mistake

If you enter the wrong operator by mistake—pressing the plus sign (+), say, instead of the minus sign (-)—just press the correct one next. Calculator will ignore the first operator.

10. Specify a negative number

Normally, you can’t calculate 4 multiplied by negative 5, because 4*-5 is assumed to be a typo and is treated as 4-5. But you can reverse the “negativity” of a number you just entered by clicking on the Calculator’s plus-or-minus key. (It’s the key with a plus sign on top of a minus sign. You'll find it to the right of the C key.) So, press 4*5 and then, while the 5 is displayed, click on the plus-or-minus key to make it negative. Press Return to see the answer: -20.

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Sharon Zardetto is a long-time Mac author who remembers keeping a calculator in her desk drawer until the Mac introduced the software-based version in 1984. She posted an interesting, though admittedly not very useful, Calculator tip on her MacTipster blog.

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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

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Source: macworld.com

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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.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.”

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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?

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. Today: Today shows me the day’s events and tasks in a space-saving window, even if iCal or BusyCal is closed.

16. 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.

Google launches Chrome for Mac, Linux - with a caveat | Topics | Macworld

Google launches Chrome for Mac, Linux - with a caveat

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Source: Macworld

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by Gregg Keizer, Computerworld

Editor's Note: This story is excerpted from Computerworld. For more Mac coverage, visit Computerworld's Macintosh Knowledge Center.

Google late Thursday released developer-only versions of its Chrome browser for Mac and Linux, making good on a nine-month-old promise that it would eventually add those editions to the Windows version that debuted last September.

The Mac and Linux versions are rough and unstable, warned Google. "We have early developer channel versions of Google Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux, but whatever you do, please DON'T DOWNLOAD THEM!" said Mike Smith and Karen Grunberg, a pair of Chrome product managers, in an entry to a Google blog. "Unless of course you are a developer or take great pleasure in incomplete, unpredictable, and potentially crashing software."

The new versions lack important features and functionality, Smith and Grunberg warned, including compatibility with Adobe's Flash Player plug-in and printing. A current bug list catalogs other missing pieces, ranging from a working bookmark manager -- users can bookmark pages, but there's no way to retrieve a bookmark -- to a memory leak.

Google launched Chrome Sept. 2, 2008, as a Windows-only browser, but began taking names for a notification list for Mac users that same day, and for Linux users shortly after.

Chrome accounted for approximately 1.8 percent of those used last month, according to the most recent data from Web metric company Net Applications, a surge of 27 percent from the month before.

On Windows, Chrome comes in three flavors: Google's developer, beta and stable versions, in ascending order of fit and finish. Google releases more developer preview builds than betas, which in turn accumulate until the company's satisfied with their progress enough to roll out another stable build.

"[We're] trying to get Google Chrome on these platforms stable enough for a beta release as soon as possible!" added Smith and Grunberg.

Although the two program managers acknowledged that the developer preview crashes, Computerworld ran the Mac browser for several hours without a hitch.