Showing posts with label Macintosh. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Five Quick Tips to Speed Up Your Mac

Whether we want it to happen or not, our systems all get a little sluggish from time to time. Sometimes it's a full hard drive slowing ...

1. Do a widget inventory.: Widgets are easy to forget about. On a rainy afternoon you may add half-a-dozen just to check them out and then completely forget that they exist by the next morning. But some of those widgets will keep running even when you’re not using your dashboard. It’s always best to keep your widgets, like the rest of your digital life, stripped down to only what you’re actually using.
2. Declutter your desktop.: Windows users enjoy the luxury of having a small army of icons cluttering up their desktop without any ill effects. Us Mac users aren’t so lucky. Each icon on your desktop is treated by OSX as its own window. Same goes for the items on your dock. And while having a handful of icons on your desktop probably won’t make a noticeable impact on overall performance, a full desktop will. Time to get those organized and off the desktop! (just a sidenote, this one shouldn’t help Leopard users. It looks like OSX 10.5 finally tackled this problem.)
3. Keep an eye on the Activity Monitor.: While this may sound like common sense, you’d be surprised at how many little programs are eating up big chunks of your memory. The massive slowdown that prompted my most recent clean up was the result of a tiny little background application I used for PS3 media streaming eating up more than half of my systems available resources. While I don’t have a fix for the program, disabling did provide an easy fix for my system. Had I not checked the Activity Monitor I would have been losing my mind over this one.
4. Turn off unused features.: Remember that time last Spring you turned on Bluetooth to get that picture off your mobile phone? Or that roommate that wanted to jack your signal via internet sharing? Did you remember to turn them off? Take a hunt through your System Preferences and make sure everything you don’t actually use is disabled (but if you’re not sure, and we can’t stress this enough, don’t disable it. We’d hate to see you switch off something you needed and not be too sure on how to get it back).
5. Delete unused preference panes.: Every now and then we download programs that install preference panes, and then forget all about them. The real problem? Lot’s of these will load in the background at startup. Luckily it should be as easy as a right click to remove. If it’s not you can always manually delete them by going to / Library / PreferencePanes.

A lot of this is probably common sense, but it never hurts to see it spelled out. What tips and tricks have you found help you get the best performance out of your Mac?

Friday, January 21, 2011

Digitimes: iPad 2 Will Ship With 5 New Features

Image via Wikipedia

Source: thenextweb.com

Digitimes has cited a report from Chinese news portal Economy Daily News which suggests that Apple’s next generation iPad will incorporate five new features, adding video calling, lighter body, USB ports, new display technology and new 3-axis gyroscopes.

The new features have long been subject to speculation, different sources have already suggested that Apple will feature its FaceTime technology in the iPad 2. With both front and back cameras, users will be able to use the FaceTime service on their iPad, contacting friends and family on their iPhone 4, iPod Touch and Mac computers.

It has also been rumoured that Apple were experimenting with using carbon fiber panels and utilising thinner glass, reducing the mass of the iPad, a device that is currently considerably heavier than other tablet devices in the market. Introducing Apple’s Retina Display technology, coupled with thinner and lighter glass, will ensure high-resolution output and colour performance whilst making the device more portable.

The mention of USB ports is very interesting, particularly as Apple users have long campaigned for them to be added to their tablet devices. This would also signal that iOS would need to be updated to include file management support, something Apple has never offered within its operating system previously.

By adding 3-axis gyroscopes, its possible that Apple will usher in a new wave of tablet physics games, allowing the company to target gamers and younger customers.

Apple understandably remains tight-lipped about its plans, we can expect more information to become available at the beginning of 2011.

Apple to up iPad 2 resolution to 2048 by 1536

Image via Wikipedia

Source: digitimes.com

As Apple is set to start mass producing its next-generation iPad 2 at the end of February, and sources from upstream component makers pointed out that Apple is increasing iPad 2's resolution to 2048 by 1536 and the new strategy is expected to widen the company's technology gap with its competitors.

Apple has also recently started adjusting its iBooks 1.1 application with some designs for bookmark icons to allow it to support the larger resolution, noted the sources adding that the larger resolution should provide the company's App developers more convenience, while all future applications will be able to run under any of Apple's machines including the 27-inch iMac.

In 2011, Apple's iPad series should be able to ship more than 40 million units, the sources estimated. Apple is estimated to have ordered 1.6-1.8 million iPads in January with the order volumes for February expected to drop. iPad 2's initial shipments are expected to be 400,000-600,000 units.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Importing iPhone clips into iMovie

My hacked (for apps) iPhone & an iPod Touch at...

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

Importing iPhone clips into iMovie

Just a basic understanding of how iPhone movies are treated by a Mac and new and older versions of iPhoto and iMovie.
Shoot a movie with your iPhone or 4G iPod touch and then attach the device to your Mac via the sync cable.
Check iPhoto's Library pane and you'll see your iPhone listed as a camera.
Again, by default, its contents will appear in iPhoto's main window.

Movies

Prior to iLife '11

Movies you've captured with your iPhone will appear with a small camcorder icon in their bottom left corner.
Select those movies and click the Import Selected button and the movies will be imported to your iPhoto library.
When you launch iMovie it will likely ask if you'd like to update thumbnails for videos in your iPhoto library.
Let it do that by clicking the Now button. When iMovie's done you should see the clips you've recently imported into iPhoto. This describes how it was done prior to iLife '11.

With the latest version of iMovie - iLife 11

If you have the latest version of iMovie you have a more direct route. iPhoto will still launch and you can still import your iPhone and 4G iPod touch movies into it, but you can also import movies directly into iMovie '11.
Launch iMovie '11, attach your iPhone or 4G iPod touch to your Mac, and click the Camcorder icon that appears just above the Event Library.
In a short while iMovie will recognize the iPhone or iPod touch and produce an Import From window that includes all the videos on the attached device.
At this point, import the clips just as you would from any compatible camera or camcorder.
Select the clips you want and click the Import Selected or Import All button.
In the sheet that subsequently appears, choose the event you want to place the clips in (or create a new event).
If you like, enable the After Import Analyze For option and choose Stabilization and People, Stabilization, or People from the pop-up menu.

Concepts:
movies, iPhone, iMovie, iPhoto, clips, iPod touch, launch iMovie, importing, camcorder icon, Mac, Stabilization, videos, window, camera, attach.

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.

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[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.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Steve's happy - So are we, iSlate and the Apple 2.0 (tablet)

Image by nDevilTV via Flickr

Jobs "extremely happy" with tablet

Source: Apple 2.0 - Fortune Brainstorm Tech

A flood of rumors point to a Jan. 26 unveiling of Apple's new touch-screen device

Apple (AAPL) is a company that leaks with a purpose, and for Christmas it has loosened its normally tight-lipped public relations operation and delivered a heap of neatly wrapped rumors. The best it saved for the New York Times' Bits blog.

Steve is happy. The Times' Nick Bilton reports that when one of his colleagues asked a senior Apple employee if the tablet rumors were true, the response was: “I can’t really say anything, but, let’s just say Steve is extremely happy with the new tablet.”
Mini tablet. Much of the technology in tablet designs that Jobs had previously rejected ended up in the iPhone, a former Apple employee told the Times. "If you have an iPhone," writes Bilton, "you’re carrying around a mini version of an early Apple tablet."

Image by nDevilTV via Flickr

Surprise. Finally, someone who recently left Apple (perhaps the same former employee) told Bilton “You will be very surprised how you interact with the new tablet.” (See AppleInsider for what that might entail.)
Save the date. The Financial Times reports that Apple has rented the big stage at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for a major product announcement on Jan. 26. Source: "people familiar with the plans."
Demo apps. Silicon Alley Insider's Dan Frommer reports that some developers have been told by Apple to prepare apps for onstage demonstration. "They've told select developers that as long as they build their apps to support full screen resolution — rather than a fixed 320×480 — their apps should run just fine," his source says.

Image by Photo Giddy via Flickr

March delivery. Based on a conversation this week with a Taiwanese supplier, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster expects the device to go on sale before the end of March. See here.

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Ten quick Calculator tricks on a Mac

Image via Wikipedia

Ten quick Calculator tricks

by Sharon Zardetto, Macworld.com

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.

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.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Apple’s Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard means business

Image by calu777 via Flickr

Source: iPodDailyNews

Tim Beyers reports for The Motley Fool, 'The iEmpire launched its latest rebellion with the release of Snow Leopard on Friday, the newest edition of Mac OS X, which: At $29, costs about what you'd pay for a fast-food dinner for a family of four; Frees up to 7 gigabytes space on your Mac by eliminating digital clutter; Offers built-in support for Microsoft's Exchange network services, making Macs a whole lot more business-friendly.'

MacDailyNews Take: Anyone with even a cursory understanding of Apple, Microsoft, and Star Wars would never use the term 'iEmpire' to describe Apple or their 'latest rebellion.' For the sake of the value of continuing on, let's pretend that Beyers has never seen Star Wars.

Beyers continues, 'Technology buyers may finally be coming back. To get them to come back to the Mac, Apple needs an OS that does better business. Snow Leopard is that OS... The Mac is back, growling and hungry for market share.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Apple iPhone boosts profit

Image via CrunchBase

Source: City AM

APPLE’S profits jumped by 15 per cent in its third quarter, the firm said yesterday, thanks to sales of its iPhone, which topped five million in the period.

The firm, which recently welcomed chief executive Steve Jobs back to work following liver transplant surgery, said profits rose to $1.23bn (£747m), or $1.35 a share, in its third quarter, compared to $1.07bn, or $1.19 a share a year ago. Revenues increased 12 per cent to $8.33bn.

Sales of its blockbuster smartphone, the iPhone, increased more than sevenfold to 5.2m while the company sold four per cent more Mac computers. But sales of its iPod MP3 player were down seven per cent in the period.

Meanwhile, Yahoo reported an eight per cent increase in its second quarter profit, up to $141m from $131m during the same period last year.

The internet firm beat Wall Street expectations but analysts pointed out that lower revenues had been offset by some $150m in cost-cutting measures implemented by new chief executive Carol Bartz.

Yahoo’s second quarter revenue was down 13 per cent to $1.6bn after it continued to struggle to sell search advertising.

think-act-do

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Five Quick Tips to Speed Up Your Mac

Friday, January 21, 2011

Digitimes: iPad 2 Will Ship With 5 New Features

Apple to up iPad 2 resolution to 2048 by 1536

Friday, January 7, 2011

Importing iPhone clips into iMovie

Importing iPhone clips into iMovie

Movies

Prior to iLife '11

With the latest version of iMovie - iLife 11

Friday, July 16, 2010

Keeping Your Mac Hard Drive Clean

Keeping Your Mac Hard Drive Clean

CleanMyMac 1.9 by MacPaw

Monday, January 4, 2010

Steve's happy - So are we, iSlate and the Apple 2.0 (tablet)

Jobs "extremely happy" with tablet

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Ten quick Calculator tricks on a Mac

Ten quick Calculator tricks

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

1. Copy and paste numbers

2. Pick your precision

3. Convert units of measure

4. Repeat the last calculation

5. Use the paper tape

6. Store a number

7. Delete a digit

8. Quickly switch calculators

9. Easily change a mistake

10. Specify a negative number

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Apple’s Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard means business

Friday, August 28, 2009

Apple iPhone boosts profit

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Friday, January 7, 2011

Importing iPhone clips into iMovie

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Monday, January 4, 2010

Jobs "extremely happy" with tablet

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Ten quick Calculator tricks

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

1. Copy and paste numbers

2. Pick your precision

3. Convert units of measure

4. Repeat the last calculation

5. Use the paper tape

6. Store a number

7. Delete a digit

8. Quickly switch calculators

9. Easily change a mistake

10. Specify a negative number

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Friday, August 28, 2009

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