My MacOS X

Apple today released Safari 4.0.5 for Mac (Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard) bringing a number of enhancements to Apple’s Internet browser application.

This update is recommended for all Safari users and includes improvements to performance, stability, and security including:

• Performance improvements for Top Sites
• Stability improvements for 3rd-party plug-ins
• Stability improvements for websites with online forms and Scalable Vector Graphics
• Fixes an issue that prevented Safari from changing settings on some Linksys routers
• Fixes an issue that prevented some iWork.com users from commenting on documents

For detailed information on the security content of this update, please visit this site: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

Safari 4.0.5 is available via Software Update and Apple’s Safari download page. The download weighs in at 30.52 MB (Snow Leopard), 38.59 MB (Leopard), 26.78 MB (Tiger).

When tabs finally found their way into Web browsers some years ago, people immediately fell in love with them. In fact, most people wonder how someone could live without them. With Apple’s love for a minimalist interface, you have to wonder why we still don’t have them on the desktop. Whatever the reason, we’ve been left to wait for a third-party solution.

Thankfully, a creative and persistent developer has finally figured out a way to add them into Mac OS X’s Finder without completely replacing the look, feel and functionality of the Finder in the process.

TotalFinder, a SIMBL application by BinaryAge adds elegant tabs, borrowed from Google Chrome, to Mac OS X’s Finder windows. The tabs look, feel and act like tabs in your Web browser for the most part. Along with the tabbed windows (seen above in the screenshot), TotalFinder also adds a few other really cool features.

Though you can drag and drop items between tabs, you can also hit Command + U or double-click a tab while holding the Option key down to merge two adjacent tabs into a sort of dual-pane window. As you can see in the screenshot below, the dual-pane window shows both tabs in the same window, including the sidebar on each side.

Another really handy feature is the ability to invoke, via a keyboard shortcut, a window that glides up from the bottom of your screen, called the Visor. The Finder window fills the entire width of your monitor and about one-third the height. You can quickly hide the window with the same shortcut (double tapping the option key, by default). BinaryAge borrowed this idea from Visor, their app which pops open a Terminal window with a keyboard shortcut.

I found the Visor window feature to be somewhat annoying for me, but other users may love it.

TotalFinder doesn’t stop there with the features. You can also set TotalFinder to place folders at the top in list view, stop creation of .DS_Store files, and show invisible files in the Finder. All of TotalFinder’s preferences can be accessed in the Finder Preferences window by hitting Command + , while in the Finder.

TotalFinder is still in Alpha stage, but I’ve found it perfectly usable – experiencing no adverse behavior at all. The developer plans on charging for the app eventually, but until it’s 1.0 release, TotalFinder is free of charge. Considering how long it took Apple to add virtual desktops (called Spaces in OS X), this may be the only way to add tabs to Finder windows for a very long time.

Added from: the graphic mac

Transparent House used its visualization capabilities to create a tribute to a company they greatly admire on the occasion of the iPad release. The idea was to show a glimpse into the history of this product giant by modeling some of the innovative products they’ve developed in their 3+ decade history.

If Finder is misbehaving you probably think you need to restart your computer. Usually you can fix the problem by relaunching Finder itself. This saves a lot of time since the relaunch only takes seconds to do.

Here 4 ways for relaunching Finder in Snow Leopard

Relaunching with Dock

This is probably the fastest way to relaunch Finder.

1. Hold down control-option and click on the Finder icon stuck onto Dock
2. Choose Relaunch option from appearing contextual menu
3. Finder should be relaunched by then

Relaunching with Terminal

As usual, Terminal lends us a great help in relaunching Finder.

1. Open Terminal
2. Execute command line

   killall Finder
   

3. Finder will be quitted and relaunched after a while

Relaunching with Force Quit Pane

We can use force quit pane to quit any running applications, including relaunching Finder (we can quit Finder).

1. Hit command-option-escape to open Force Quit Pane
2. Select Finder
3. Click on Relaunch button

Relaunching with Quicksilver

Besides using Quicksilver as applications launcher, we can also use it to relaunch applications. This relaunch feature is also applicable to Finder.

1. Download Quicksilver and launch it
2. On the application box type Finder and type Relaunch on action box
3. Hit return key to execute
4. Your Finder should be relaunched by now

That free registration gets you into the expo hall for next year’s show, which will run January 25-29 in San Francisco. Once again, Expo will be held at Moscone Center. You can sign up online for a free expo pass to the MacWorld exhibit until March 8th of this year.

Get your free MacWorld Expo 2011 pass

To reset your OS X password without an OS X CD you have two ways

First Way “create a new admin account”

1. Reboot
2. Hold apple + s down after you hear the chime.
3. When you get text prompt enter in these terminal commands to create a brand new admin account (hitting return after each line):
   • mount -uw /
   • rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
   • shutdown -h now
4. After rebooting you should have a brand new admin account. When you login as the new admin you can simply delete the old one and you’re good to go again!

Second way “Resetting or changing your existing password”

If you’ve ever forgotten your user account password in OS X, All you need is to remember your username (you do remember that, right?) and then reboot your computer.

1. Hold apple + s down after you hear the chime.
2. sh /etc/rc
3. passwd yourusername
4. reboot

P.S. The only major downside to resetting your password this way is that you’ll lose all keychain passwords,

Provides system software resources that are shared by iLife and other applications. This update improves overall stability for the Media Browser and iPhoto slideshows. It also provides compatibility between Aperture 3 and the Media Browser.

The update is recommended for all users of iLife ’09, iWork ’09, and Aperture.

Available via software update

Google today announced  the release of a new beta of Google Chrome for Mac, adding several new features such as extensions and bookmark syncing that were left out of the initial beta released in December while also focusing on a “snappy, safe, and simple browsing experience” for users.

With this new version, you’ll be able to install any of over 2,200 extensions (and counting!) currently available in Chrome’s extensions gallery. Extensions can add useful, informative, fun, or quirky functionality to the browser. You can manage your extensions by clicking on the Window menu and choosing “Extensions.”

Bookmark syncing allows Chrome users to keep their bookmarks synchronized among Chrome browsers on Mac, Windows, and Linux machines. Also added in the new beta are bookmark, cookie, and task managers for increased functionality. A new video preview of Google Chrome for Mac has also been posted.

Existing Chrome users should be automatically upgraded to the new beta (version 5.0.307) within the next day.

iTunes 9.0.3 is available from Apple’s Website or via the Software Update mechanism in OS X.

iTunes 9.0.3 provides a number of important bug fixes, including:

• iTunes no longer ignores your “Remember password for purchases” setting.
• Addresses problems with syncing some Smart Playlists and Podcasts with iPod.
• Resolves a problem recognizing when iPod is connected.
• Addresses issues that affect stability and performance.
• iTunes 9 comes with many new features and improvements, including:

• An improved look and feel, including a new Column Browser for easily browsing your artists or albums, movies, TV shows, and more.
• iTunes Store has a brand new look, with improved navigation for quick and easy exploration.
• iTunes LP and iTunes Extras create unique experiences that feature exclusive interviews, videos, photos, and more — available with select album and movie purchases on the iTunes Store.
• Home Sharing helps you manage your family’s iTunes collection between computers in your home. iTunes can automatically transfer new purchases, or you can choose just the items you want.
• Genius Mixes are created for you by iTunes and play songs from your library that go great together.
• iPod and iPhone syncing now allows you to organize your iPhone and iPod touch home screens directly in iTunes. Syncing is now also more flexible, allowing you to sync individual artists, genres, or TV show and Podcast episodes.
• iTunes U items are now organized into their own section in your iTunes library.
• Sync with iPod nano (5th generation), iPod classic (Fall 2009), and iPod touch (Fall 2009).
• iTunes 9 also includes many other improvements, such as HE-AAC encoding and playback, more flexibility with Smart Playlists rules, simpler organization of your media files inside an iTunes Media folder, and more.

Requirements:

• Home folder to be encrypted.
• Don’t need my Time Machine disk to be encrypted

First, make sure your Time Machine setup is functioning properly.
The XCode installed, as it uses Property List Editor
(Note: you’ll need to change the process a bit if you use a different property list editor.)

How to do that:

You will need to manually edit the preference file for Time Machine, adding the ID string of your File Vault disk to the list of disks to backup. You can’t do this from within System Preferences or otherwise.
One way of finding the ID string of the disk is to open com.apple.finder.plist, located in your user’s /Library/Preferences folder, and look for the FXRecentFolders item.

One of the entries should contain the name of your home folder (your login name) together with an entry called file-data. If it doesn’t, you need to close the plist and visit your home folder in Finder. This will make it a ‘recent folder,’ and then you can check the file again.

The value of _CFURLAliasData inside file-data is the string we need, including the enclosing < and >. Copy this to the clipboard.

Now, disable Time Machine from within System Preferences, make a back up of com.apple.TimeMachine.plist, located in /Library/Preferences, and then open the original file in Property List Editor. Select IncludedVolumes and click Add Child. Select type Data and paste the string you copied earlier.

(If IncludedVolumes doesn’t exist, select Root and click Add Child. Name the new entry IncludedVolumes and make it type Array. Then do the above.)

Check that the path to your home folder isn’t listed in any of the items ExcludeByPath, ExcludedVolumes, or SkipPaths. Save and quit the editor.

Select Back Up Now from the Time Machine menu bar extra to start an initial backup.
Note: You may already have a backup of your image file (located in the hidden folder /Users/.username), in which case you will have duplicates. You might want to exclude this from your backup.

When browsing your backup, your unencrypted home folder will be on the Computer level, alongside your startup disk. Not where it normally is — under /Users — since it is treated like a regular disk.

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Apple has released a firmware update for 2007 aluminum Apple keyboards.
The update improves battery performance when using the Apple Wireless Keyboard in conjunction with other Bluetooth devices such as the Magic Mouse or some Bluetooth headsets. It also fixes an issue that occurred with both the regular and wireless keyboard wherein keys could repeat randomly when typing.
More information, including installation instructions, is available on Apple’s Web site.

The update is available via Software Update and the Apple Support Downloads page. (Free 1.52 MB)

At today’s highly-anticipated media event, Apple announced  the iPad  tablet device, featuring
Display: 9.7-inch, 1024 x 768
RAM: 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB capacities.
Carrying a custom 1 GHz “Apple A4″ chip,
the iPad weighs in at 1.5 pounds and is .5-inch thin.
The iPad will be priced
at $499, $599, and $699 for the varying capacity models without 3G, and $626, $729, and $829 with 3G. Wi-Fi only models are scheduled to ship in 60 days, with 3G-capable model shipping in 90 days.

In terms of standard connectivity, the iPad offers Wi-Fi (802.11n) and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, with 3G models also offering cellular data connectivity. All iPad models have an accelerometer, compass, speakers, a microphone, and a 30-pin dock connector. The iPad also offers a claimed 10 hours of battery life for viewing video, with 1 month of standby battery life.
Accessories will also be available for the iPad, including a dock with a mechanical keyboard that will accommodate the iPad in portrait orientation and a case with a built-in stand for video viewing. Prices on these accessories were not announced. The iPad also supports Bluetooth keyboards.

At the end of the event, Jobs described the iPad as the company’s “most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.” He also pointed out that there are over 125 million iTunes accounts with credit cards and that using the iPad will be second-nature for the more than 75 million iPhone and iPod touch users.