With Black Friday rapidly approaching, the time of the year for spending is upon us. Although I’m sure all of us Mac lovers are considering which Apple product we’ll be blowing our budget on (mine will be a Magic Mouse), there are also the other gadgets in our lives to consider.

One of the most important gadgets for Mac users is often the digital camera, what with all those wonderful iLife tools we can use to manipulate and share the photos and videos we take with our digital cameras. As such, here’s a quick guide on picking the right digital camera for you.

Rules to Remember

1) The inverse law of megapixels
Despite what the guy at the Best Buy tells you, more megapixels does not mean better photos. In fact, in this day and age the opposite is true. This is because the more megapixels you pack onto a camera sensor, especially the tiny sensors found on most point and shoot cameras, the worst they become at picking up light. Nowadays you can’t buy a camera with fewer than six or seven megapixels, which is more than enough for most, and you will actually hurt your picture quality if you buy small cameras with more than 10 or 12 megapixels.

2) Think about where you shoot
Most people don’t stop and think about the type of photos they take before they buy, not realizing that there are tradeoffs to be made. For example if you take a lot of photos in low light conditions, buying a camera with a larger sensor and whose lens can open up wider to pick up more light, like the Canon S90 or Panasonic LX3, makes a lot of sense, but such cameras also mean giving up zoom range. The opposite is true if you like to get close to your subjects. You can pick up a pocketable point and shoot with a 12x zoom like the Panasonic DMC-ZS3, but you’re going to give up low light capabilities. If you want the best quality in all conditions you’re going to have to give up portability and carry around a large DSLR.

3) Don’t forget the accessories
Even if you’re not spending a ton of money, a few simple accessories can improve your photography experience. I almost always recommend picking up an extra battery. There’s nothing more annoying than having your camera die on you in the middle of a trip or family event. Another useful accessory is a tripod, which doesn’t necessarily need to be a gigantic. Picking up something like a Gorrilla pod, which is both cheap and small, can let you stabilize the camera when taking shots with a long exposure, like a night scenery shot, and also lets you set up the camera better for self-portraits.

4) Decide how serious you are about photography
If you’re truly a point and shoot photographer, then it’s important for you to pick up a camera with a good automatic mode and wide selection of usable scene modes. If you’re more advanced, or want to learn how to take more control of your camera, then expect to pay more for a camera with full manual controls. If you’re a serious photographer or if you’re ready to take the leap to the highest level of photography, then it may be time to invest in a DSLR, which allows you to swap lenses for various photographic situations.

5) Don’t cheap out
We’re Mac users for a reason. We recognize quality and are willing to pay more in order to get the best. The same is true with digital cameras. The universe of cameras under $150 is enormous, and they’re all almost the same. By paying a bit more, I’d say more than $200 for a point and shoot, you’ll find a significant increase in photo quality and features. That’s not to say that every camera under $150 is poor and every one over $200 is good, you’ll still need to do research, but there’s less chaff to sift through at higher price points and a better chance of picking up something you’ll be happy with.

Cameras to Consider

The cameras below are widely seen as solid performers in their class. If you’re still bewildered by the options out there, these are a good place to start your research.

Canon PowerShot SD780 IS

Price: $199

This is a good fit for anyone who wants a reasonably adept camera in a small and slim package. The price is reasonable too, but don’t expect wonders from the tiny sensor in this camera. Expect to use the flash in even slightly dim conditions. On the plus side, you do get face detection, HD video recording and image stabilization.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3

Price: $270

Stepping up a bit in price over entry-level point and shoot cameras, the ZS3 is still a very good value considering what you get. That is an extremely impressive zoom range, from wide angle for scenery shots all the way up to a 300mm zoom for getting close to subjects far away. HD video is also a big plus here, with the ability to zoom while recording, something that not all cameras can do. Not all is perfect, however, as the ZS3’s sensor is tiny, which combined with a less than impressive maximum aperture means that this camera struggles in low light situations. If you’re looking for small and versatile, however, the ZS3 hits the sweet spot in a lot of places.

Canon S90

Price: $430

Canon’s newest addition to their high-end point and shoot lineup offers quite a few features that will get advanced amateurs excited. First up is a significantly larger sensor than that found in most point and shoot cameras. Combined with a lens that sports an f/2 aperture at the wide end, this means the camera struggles much less than typical point and shoots in low light situations. You also get a full range of manual controls and an interesting click wheel around the lens that can be assigned to a variety of functions. The S90 doesn’t come cheap, however, and it is missing some features like HD video that you can find on much less expensive cameras.

Nikon D60

Price: $640

DSLR’s like the D60 combine a huge sensor for even better low light photography, with the option to switch lenses to match your particular situation. Be ready to continue spending, however, as in this world it’s the quality of your glass (lenses) more than the camera itself that will dictate the quality of your photos, and lenses don’t come cheap. The D60 is a good choice for those just entering the world of interchangeable lenses as it’s available at a reasonable price and it offers a more gradual learning curve than other more advanced DSLRs. That said, it does lack one of the new sexy features that you are beginning to see on DSLRs: video recording. If that’s a must for you check out the Canon T1i.

I love having the luxury of video capture on my iPhone 3GS, because it’s available to me anytime I need it. The only problem is, it’s either video or photo capture, so I’m potentially out of luck if I captured one and decidedly would have rather had the other. Yeah, I kind of like having my cake and eating it all in a single sitting too.

The good news — in this particular case at least — is that if you capture the event in video, you have a pretty good chance of getting decent still photos out of it when you’re through.

While this tip is aimed at iPhone 3GS users who can shoot their own video, it’s possible to use on any model when viewing video. The beauty of editing 3GS video that you’ve shot, is the frame scrubber that is made available for editing purposes. That feature just makes it a lot easier to pinpoint the image that you want to pull from the video content. (This becomes important when one frame is blurry, and the next is not.)

Once you’ve found the frame that you want to make into a photo in your iPhone album, we just need to capture it. For the best results, make sure the control bezels are hidden from the screen. Usually tapping the screen once will cause them to slide out of view. Then, to perform the screen capture, press and hold the Home button. While holding the Home button, click the Sleep button on top of the phone. You’ve now saved that movie frame to your photo library as a stand-alone picture file.

The quality of your resulting photo depends completely on the video that was captured first. If there are slow movements that limit or eliminate blur, that will give the best outcome to this process. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s better than no photos from an event at all!

So you’re loving your brand new Magic Mouse but are missing the ability to activate Expose and Spaces right from the mouse? Not to worry, we’ve got you covered. Using SIMBL and a neat little preference pane called MultiClutch, we can map our own custom shortcuts to the left and right swipes coming from the Magic Mouse and have them activate Spaces and Expose instead of navigating forward and back.

Getting Setup

The first thing we need to do is to get MultiClutch up and working in a 64-bit Snow Leopard world. MultiClutch, like a lot of apps relying on InputManagers, kind of got gimped when the new big cat showed up. Luckily though, a recent fork in the project now allows for its plugin to be loaded through the latest SIMBL release.

You can find some detailed instructions on how to get MultiClutch up and running from the source of the new plugin, but essentially what you need to do is:

• Install the original MultiClutch application.
• Install the latest version of SIMBL.
• Download the forked version of the MultiClutch plugin and load it into the SIMBL plugin directory at /Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins.
• Go in and remove the old version of the MultiClutch plugin from /Library/InputManagers.

Adding Shortcuts

Once you have MultiClutch up and running, open its preference pane and add new gestures for Swipe Left and Swipe Right and then assign them each key commands. If you’re configuring for use with Spaces and Expose you’ll have to use one of the function keys. You may have to do some shuffling around depending on what function keys you already have mapped. I used F1 and F2 as they weren’t already mapped to anything.

Then just go into your preferences for Expose and Spaces and set Activate Spaces and All Windows to the corresponding key command you used in MultiClutch. Since we’re using SIMBL you’ll have to quit and relaunch any applications that were already active when we started in order for the system to pick up our new shortcuts when that application is active.

Caveat Emptor

Obviously this is not an ideal solution, and ultimately it would be best for Apple to build in some customization options for Magic Mouse gestures right into the Mouse preference pane. As with anything that is this hacked together, your milage may vary, but I’ve been using it for a couple days now and it’s working great. On the whole I really love the new Magic Mouse but not having my Expose and Spaces was a bit of a deal breaker for me. Hopefully this will at least be able to tide us over until a more solid solution comes along.

We’ve all seen the Steve Jobs, the iPhone, the iPod, and the Mac costumes, but what do you do if you want to stand out from the crowd? The motto of our beloved company has long been “Think Different,” and it’s about time we bring that to the Halloween arena, too.

The day itself is tomorrow, so I’m providing some suggestions that haven’t been done to death, and that will go over especially well if you go to your local Mac club’s Halloween bash this weekend.

Costume #1: John Sculley

The Jobs costume, and even the Woz costume, are common enough, and Flickr is replete with examples of both. What isn’t so common is people opting to dress up like former Apple CEO John Sculley, who was Apple’s CEO when Steve Jobs was ousted from the company.

To dress up as Sculley, think conventional business person. A dark suit and sensible, solid-colored tie is best. Use some flour or temporary coloring in your hair to achieve a salt-and-pepper type look. Carry a bottle of Pepsi, or, as Steve Jobs likes to call it, “sugared water.” Carry a Newton in the other hand if you can find one. Also bring with you many copies of your autobiography “Odyssey” and distribute to everyone you meet.

Costume #2: The Apple Lisa

It’s easy to dress like the original Mac, since the shape is basically the same as a large cardboard box which you can then detail as needed. What’s more challenging, and therefore more impressive if you do pull it off, is the Apple Lisa.

The Lisa, released in 1983, was a beast compared to the Mac, a wide squat gal with two 5.25-inch floppy drives stacked next to the built-in monitor. You could manage this on your own, but for more accuracy, partner up and make this a two person costume. For added fun, create an Apple ProFile external hard disk replica and wear it atop your Lisa costume. When people accuse you of being unsuccessful, retort with “At least NASA loved me!”

Costume #3: Hexley the Platypus

Who doesn’t love the adorable mascot of Apple’s open source operating system, Darwin? His name is Hexley, and he’s a platypus, and he’s unsanctioned by Apple. Whether or not he’s officially approved of by Apple, which bases OS X on the Darwin POSIX-compliant operating system, as a costume idea, he’s rife with potential.

At the very least, you’ll need a full-body platypus costume, which can’t be that hard to find. Just look in the “marsupial” section at your local dress-up shop. If all the platypus costumes are already rented, a black duck-bill and a flat, broad tail will suffice.

If you really want to go all out, you’ll also need a soft red cap with devil horns attached to it, and a big red pitchfork. Other optional props include a perfect floating sphere of water, a giant-size old-fashioned key, and a giant worm. If you feel like being even more obscure, try other Apple-related mascots like Clarus the Dogcow.

Costume #4: The Moscone Center

It’s the building where virtually every major Apple event goes down, including the Macworld Expo, and the Worldwide Developers Conference. It’s also probably the most challenging costume on this list, but if you go for the very recognizable corner view seen in the photo shown here, it might not be that difficult.

Wear two large pieces of cardboard joined to form a corner. Round the top, and coat with yellow tissue paper to mimic the inside lighting. Cover with a top layer of cellophane or transparency material to emulate the windows, and make sure to paint in window separators and apply giant Apple decals. Make a “street” attached to the bottom of the costume, and glue toy cars to it for added realism.

There you have it, four ways to stand out from the crowd this Halloween, and show your love of Apple. Also a great way to alienate non-techies and possibly get beat up, if you’re still in high school.

I’ve been playing around with Google Quick Search Box lately and am especially enjoying this services plugin from Martin Kuhl which lets you activate and pass input to OS X services right from within QSB.

One snag though has been that services created through the new Automator template included in Snow Leopard leave out some vital bits that limit integration. Luckily, a handy application from Waffle Software called ThisService makes creating proper services that integrate seamlessly with QSB a lot easier than you might think.

Being able to extend the functionality of QSB with OS X services really opens up a lot of possibilities. Grab text or files in QSB and pass them on to your services to do whatever you want with them, like creating a new To Do item in iCal. I’ve been focused recently on replicating functionality that I lost when I made the switch over from Quicksilver and I think that this improved service integration will get me about 90 percent of the way there.

The bad news is that this means I need to whip up a bunch of custom services for myself. The good news is that ThisService makes that task very easy. Just give it a script (AppleScript will do, but if you’re more comfortable with other scripting languages you can use those), define the type and name of your service and click Create Service. ThisService handles all the fiddly Cocoa bits and spits out a completed service into your ~/Library/Services directory where QSB will see it and serve it up as an available action when appropriate.

Actually writing your AppleScript will likely be the most complicated part, which is why ThisServices comes bundled with some handy starter scripts to put you on the right path. They also make a number of example scripts and services available for download from their site. The scripts don’t need to be complicated. For example, here is the one I use for adding To Do items in iCal:

on process(input)
tell application "iCal"
tell calendar "work"
make new todo at end with properties {summary:input}
end tell
end tell
end process

If you wanted to get fancy you could pass additional properties like the due date, priority, etc., but just getting a new item into the list is all I need.

Once you have your service setup accessing them through Quick Search Box is as easy as can be. Because showing seems to be more useful than describing, below is a quick little video clip of the To Do service in action. What kind of services would you like to have? Share your thoughts in the comments.

The advent of the cloud over the past few years has meant that a lot of the tasks that we were used to doing on our Mac have now moved to the web. This brings with it a host of issues, from data ownership to reliability of services (see recent Sidekick fiasco) and whether the web can deliver a Mac-like experience.

Putting all that aside, however, a more mundane problem is managing all of those sites and getting to them quickly and easily. Individual apps conveniently come with their own icon on your dock, web apps do not, forcing you to dig through the myriad of open tabs in your browser to find the app you need.If you’ve truly made the jump to cloud computing there is, thankfully, a better way: site specific browsers (SSBs). The basic idea is simple: Create a separate web browser, complete with its own icon on the dock, to browse to a single site. We’ve covered an excellent example of a site specific browser here on TAB in the past, Mailplane, which is used to access Gmail’s online interface.

The beauty of an SSB is not only do you get the bonus of neatly having your own icon for a single web application, but it also allows that site to integrate with OS X more completely. For example you can have things like address book access and dock badges, all things that Mailplane does for Gmail.

That’s great if you use Gmail, but what about all the other great web-based applications out there? Although there are not specific SSBs for things like Twitter, Google Calendar, Remember The Milk and other web services, there are two different programs that will let you take any web site and turn it into a site specific browser: Fluid and Prism. The major difference between the two is that Fluid uses Webkit to power its SSBs, while Prism uses the Gecko browser base that runs Firefox.

Aside from these underlying technologies, the two programs offer remarkably similar functionality. Simply enter a web address, choose an icon (or just use the site favicon), and voila, a new program based on that site will be created for you. What’s more, each browser can accept various scripts to add functionality like a dock icon and even Growl notifications. You can even make an SSB your default email or RSS program.

In many ways SSBs may represent the future of computing. Just look at Google’s upcoming Chrome OS, where the browser is the operating system. In such a situation it makes no sense to continue using the outdated system of web pages and browser bookmarks. When a website is a program unto itself you can argue that it deserves to be treated as one at the operating system level.

Although I’ve been supporting Macs since they came out in 1984 (when I was in high school), I haven’t received any “formal” training. It has mostly been learning by doing, reading the occasional book and now of course, TheAppleBlog. Does formal certification really make a difference as a technician? You tell me.

Recently I got into an argument with a vendor that somehow thought a technician who first started repairing Macs sixth months ago trumped my 25 years experience. Did certification make this person a better technician? Having done quite a bit of hiring myself, I’ve too often found that certification only verifies your ability to take a test and may not have bearing in the real world.

Now that the market has changed and everyone seems to be competing for scarce resources, perhaps a certification would be an additional edge? What’s the business strategy for independent Mac technicians wanting more? The answer took a lot of research — even Apple wasn’t able to answer my questions — so learn from my journey.

Credit goes to both Brian Best of BestMacs and Doug Hanley of MacTEK Training, because without them I wouldn’t understand the alphabet soup of ACSP, ACMT, ACTC, ACSA, AASP, ACN and more. Didn’t we all become Mac users to avoid mysterious terms? As many of you know, the ease of the Apple user interface is equalled only by the frustration of trying to understand Apple’s certifications programs. Figuring out this path was much harder than any video game I’ve ever played, but a “game” may be the best metaphor to describe the process.

The Game

You begin the “game” as a general Mac user. The three worlds you’ll generally see in the game are IT, Pro Apps, and Sales. As an IT person maybe you have skills, maybe you don’t. Nothing stops you from simply repairing Macs on your own, unless you do things that specifically void the warranty and you get caught doing so. You do not need permission per se from Apple to work on Macs. Many folks are happy at this level collecting coins one by one, but you can’t proceed any further unless you get a certification — the key that unlocks the next level in the game.

The first certification most go for is Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) which used to be known as an Apple Certified Help Desk Specialist (ACHDS). This certifies your ability to understand the operating system and is earned based on the OS version. Therefore, you are an Apple Certified Support Professional in 10.5 (or soon 10.6). Each OS requires certification, but your certification does not expire. Therefore, if you are a ACHDS in 10.3, you can call yourself certified without understanding 10.5 at all. Your can take the test without training (many do), self-study via materials from Peachpit, or attend an instructor-lead course at an Apple Authorized Training Center (AATC). MacTek is one of those centers. You’ll take the test at a Prometric testing center and pay around $200. The test takes about 90 minutes or so and you get the results immediately.

Apple Consultants Network

While certification is the means, the end you may be reaching for is the ability to join the Apple Consultants Network (ACN). Joining the ACN requires any Apple certification, such as the ACSP discussed above, or any number of other certifications (described below, though one source says not all certifications are valid, so beware). Keeping with the video game analogy, the ACN is like an entire new area of the video game you want to explore, but the boss that must be defeated first is Apple, and your weapon is a certification!

After getting a certification you can then apply to join the ACN. The application fee is $60 and the actual fee to join is $395 as a sole proprietor. The full requirements are here. You’ll get lots of benefits such as product discounts as well as the ability to network with other Macintosh consultants. As an ACN, Apple store employees may hand out your card to customers in the store. Now your business can really expand as every Apple store customer is a potential customer for you.

ACN membership is great and many stay at this level of the “game” using the ACN membership as a multiplier for their income. However, you still can’t do hardware repairs under warranty nor order Apple parts. As with the video game, you’re stuck at this level unless you explore further and try to defeat the next boss. Apple always controls the rules. Accept it as part of the game. Fail to accept it and you’ll get slapped back to the beginning of the game quicker than you can click the home button.

Server Administration Certification

From this point, you have a couple directions you can go. You can focus on repair and service, or you can focus on server or advanced software administration (many folks will do both). I will discuss the server administration certifications and the hardware services certifications. You can think of each of these as two separate worlds in the game. You can choose one or the other, or explore them both.

The first level server administration certification is another 4-letter acronym: ACTC: Apple Certified Technical Coordinator. In addition to passing the test for ACSP, you’ll face the Server Essentials test. This extends your workstation abilities to servers. An even higher level of certification within the server realm is an ACSA — Apple Certified Systems Administrator. For the ACSA, you’ll need to pass four tests: Server Essentials, Directory Services, Deployment, and Mobility and Security for 10.6 (or Advanced System Administration for 10.5).

Apple also offers the ACMA (Apple Certified Media Administrator) which includes Server Essentials, Xsan, Final Cut Server and as an option, Support Essentials, Deployment, Directory Services, or Final Cut Level 1. Other certifications are not necessarily IT related and are software-focused. That’s a realm I’m not exploring as we chose the IT track at the beginning of the game.

Hardware Repair Certification

Moving on from server administration to actual Apple hardware repair, the primary certification you will earn is the Apple Certified Macintosh Technician (ACMT), formerly the Apple Certified Portable Technician (ACPT) and Apple Certified Desktop Technician (ACDT). This certification means you are theoretically qualified to do warranty repairs on Apple Macintosh equipment. The skills required for ACMT are those of hardware repair and software troubleshooting. You don’t need an ACSP to be an ACMT, but many people earn both. The educational process for hardware repair is more intense and it’s less likely you’ll pass the test without some training. At this level, you can also go to an AATC and pay about $4,800 for both the hardware and software aspects of the course, or your can purchase self-study materials from Apple called “Apple Care Technician Training” for $299.

Apple Authorized Service Provider

Similar to how passing the ACSP allows you to join the Apple Consultants Network, passing the ACMT allows you to enter the realm of an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP). You may not automatically become one though, and only AASP’s get reimbursement from Apple for warranty work. However, being an ACMT is very helpful if you want to get a job as an AASP. You may also apply to do warranty repairs for your larger organization of over 50 Macs via the Self-Service program. If you want to advance to being able to do warranty repairs for anyone, you’ll face that same boss again, Apple. Note that becoming an ACMT will not necessarily earn you any more money than an ACSA or ACTC. Facing the next boss may be too expensive and too restricting, but if you do want the next level, read on.

Getting to that AASP level is really the final level of the game. You’ll need to have an ACMT on staff and follow stricter requirements than joining the Apple Consultants Network. Generally you’ll need a real store front and not be a one-person operation. Apple grants exceptions (doesn’t every game have cheat codes?), but don’t count on it. Once you have your AASP you can be listed with Apple as a service provider and get reimbursed for warranty repairs.

So I’ve loaded the game and pressed Start. Is certification worth it? What about ACN or AASP? Which training should I go for? Is instructor lead training worth it? Any training vendors willing to sponsor me? What about the self-study programs? Share with me your experiences in the game and let’s develop a definitive guide including “cheat codes.”

Apple-authorized Organizations

ACN (Apple Consultants Network)
What it is: Network on Apple professionals, receives discounts and assistance from Apple, and can be referred from Apple retail stores.
Requirements: Any certification.

AASP (Apple Authorized Service Provider)
What is it: Business that is permitted to do Apple warranty repairs for reimbursement and order parts from Apple.
Requirements: Have an Apple Certified Macintosh Technician on staff, among other requirements.

Certifications

Apple Certified Support Professional: Basic understanding of the client Mac operating system and troubleshooting.

Apple Certified Technical Coordinator: Deeper understanding of the Mac OS, including the Mac OS X Server and Server Essentials.

Apple Certified Systems Administrator: Even greater technical understanding of the Mac OS X Server, including passing tests on Server Essentials, Directory Services, Deployment, and Mobility and Security.

Apple Certified Media Administrator: This is a sister track of the “Apple Certified Systems Administrator” with a focus on the needs of media management, and includes training in XSan or Final Cut.

Apple Certified Macintosh Technician: You can do Apple hardware repairs, both in and out of warranty. Required to start (or get a job with) an Apple Authorized Service Provider, or self-service your large organization.

My first post on becoming a minimalist with your Mac had great feedback, so I’m back with another round of tips to keep your digital workspace as simple as possible.

Reduce Finder Window Clutter

Right click on the top of any finder window and select “Customize Toolbar…” Drag out any items you don’t need. For example, I have no idea what to do with that Action menu.

Another thing to try is to right-click on the top of the window again and select “Text Only.” This should simplify all of your Finder windows.

Browsers

Safari

Hide Tab bar. Hide Bookmarks bar. Customize your toolbar and remove all unnecessary buttons.

Firefox

Turn off “Always show the tab bar.” Hide Bookmarks bar. Customize your toolbar by only showing text.

Stainless

Stainless is an extremely simple to use web browser. Some might view its limitations as disappointing whereas I see them as a means to provide a non-distracting browsing experience. Tabs and a tiny bookmarking sidebar. That’s it. The company maintains a Twitter account to discuss development progress. Give it a download and let me know what you think. By the way, the above screenshot is the default appearance.

Really Clean Out Your Dock

Why do you still have such a full dock when all of your applications are only a few keystrokes away? Applications like Google Quick Search Box, Launchbar, Quicksilver and even Spotlight are available to help relieve your dock and still increase your productivity. I know some of you have tried these tools and just forgot to use them. That happened to me as well. It takes time to create the habit. Need to open Photoshop? Command + Space, “pho”, Enter. Now that I’m hooked on Quicksilver I can’t remember what it was like before.

Helvetica Takeover

Looking for a way to refresh your online applications? Do you like Helvetica? Even if you are unsure, you should check out the following Helvetica tweaks to your favorite online tools. Detailed installation instructions are available at each of the websites.

GMail: http://www.josefrichter.com/helvetimail

Google Reader: http://helvetireader.com

Google Calendar: http://www.iamadtaylor.com/helvetical

Twitter: http://www.josefrichter.com/helvetwitter

Full disclosure

In my first round of minimalism tips there was one part lacking further explanation. I had Tweetie open but there was no Tweetie window. Why? I use a Mimo Monitor. It is somewhat contradictory to recommend purchasing hardware and adding something to your work environment in a minimalism discussion. However, for $129 it is a simple way to move your task list, Twitter app, buddy list, or Adobe windows off screen. Below you can see a Mimo Monitor next to my 24″ iMac.

What are some of the ways you keep your Mac minimal?

I’m sorta picky about what I put in my Menu Bar. It probably stems from my MacBook’s 13″ screen turning pixels into a premium. Whatever the case, I audit the icons that are displayed there on a regular basis. If this sounds remotely familiar, the following tip may be a good way to remove System Usage info from the Menu Bar (if you use something like iStat Menus, for example).

The Apple-provided Activity Monitor (found in /Applications/Utilities) is a great source of information about how your system is currently running. Often, when I have a system slow down, or the fan’s running abnormally, a quick peek at Activity Monitor can pinpoint the application that’s gone rogue on me. But better yet, if you don’t want to keep it in view all the time, you can set Activity Monitor to display a selected bit of system info in place of its Dock icon.

It’s a simple setup, you just have to know that the feature is available.

With Activity Monitor open, select the View menu, and then Dock Icon. There are 5 options to view in the Dock Icon:

1. CPU Usage
2. CPU History
3. Network Usage
4. Disk Activity
5. Memory Usage

The CPU Usage display is the cleanest looking by far, while the rest are high contrast line graph style views. I’ll point out too (and this is only tested in Snow Leopard, but I’m guessing it’s valid for Leopard too) that you can right click (or CMD click) the Activity Monitor icon in the Dock, and the same Dock Icon menu is available from there.

You can’t monitor everything at once this way, but if — for example — your CPU seems to be running slow, watching that for a little while may be helpful to you. Of course if you hide your Dock it’s not immediately available all the time, but it still saves you some clutter in your Menu Bar.

I have always been curious about what kind of tools people have used to liveblog events (especially those involving Apple). As many of you readers know, Apple recently held a media event on 9.9.09. I jumped on the opportunity to attend and represent TheAppleBlog. Naturally, one of my responsibilities was to liveblog everything.

Here’s the plan that was put together:

Hardware

• Macbook Pro
• iPhone
• Canon G10
• Eye-Fi Pro card

Software

• CoverItLive
• Text messaging
• Email
• Flickr
• Adium
• Eye-Fi Manager

Josh Pigford, TheAppleBlog’s editor, manned the computer to keep up a constant stream of updates on Twitter and  CoverItLive, an awesome liveblogging tool. Before I had access to a Wi-Fi network, I used my iPhone to send Josh text messages and email photos. I was warned by several other attendees that Wi-Fi never holds up during events. The proof? Everyone there appeared to have a 3G card for their laptops. I was extremely concerned, but at least I had my iPhone as a backup.

Once the press were allowed to check in and move closer to the building, I whipped out my Macbook Pro and jumped on the Wi-Fi network. I had to configure the Eye-Fi card so my Canon G10 would automatically upload photos as I took them. Configuring the card was quick and easy (thanks Eye-Fi!). The photos would be uploaded to Eye-Fi and then immediately sent to my Flickr account for Josh to grab.

Eventually we were allowed to enter and take our seats.  The end result was a comical combination of high and low tech. While photos were uploading (over the surprisingly reliable Wi-Fi network) I typed out virtually everything said on stage to Josh over AOL Instant Messenger (Adium). It was his responsibility to interpret and publish my never-ending stream of consciousness writing style into something you could read through via CoverItLive. I was surprised to see how much he let through (including my comments about Phil Schiller dancing in his seat).

I hope you all enjoyed the coverage, and if you have any suggestions on how to improve for next time please leave a comment.

If you listen to music on the go, chances are you suffer from tangled and knotted wires on your buds. I’ve discovered an effortless solution for keeping my 3GS buds untangled. If you want to learn my secret, watch the video below.

A few months back, I purchased a pair of Skullcandy Full Metal Jacket earphones. Unfortunately, they’ve stopped working and, what’s worse, the folks at Skullcandy still haven’t replied to any of my emails.

Rather than dwell on the disappointment of my bad Skullcandy buds, I decided to dig out the free headphones I received from Apple with my iPhone 3GS.

My bright white 3GS buds work wonderfully, plus they even feature in-line volume controls and a good quality mic. However the cables, being awkwardly spindly, tend to tangle up at any opportunity.

All the usual anti-tangling techniques involve rolling your wire up tightly — less movement means less potential for tangling. A tight roll can also damage the actual wire in your headphones, though.

I’ve happened upon a three-step technique that solves my tangling issues. There’s nothing to learn, there are no special knots, and there’s absolutely no wrapping, rolling or tying of any sort. It’s the perfect technique for lazy listeners.

It’s worth noting that you could probably use this method with any headphones, but I’ve only tried it using Apple’s iPhone 3GS buds. It’s made possible because of the little clip that’s attached to one of the wires on the 3GS headphones.

Note that I’ve found that one of the buds can get a little tangled occasionally, though most of the time, this trick works almost perfectly and I rarely encounter knots or tangles.

After testing this at home, I searched high and low and haven’t managed to find anyone else sharing this tip online. Please let me know in the comments if it works for you, too.

A little over ten days ago Apple launched a shiny new Apple and the Environment microsite showcasing the company’s commitment to greener production and business practise. So I thought it would be appropriate to take a leaf (pun intended) from Apple’s book and look at ways to be more energy efficient in my daily computing.

Mac OS X has some great power-saving features for MacBook users, but there are simple things you can do to squeeze those precious extra minutes of useful life out of your battery. And, to prove it to myself, I’m doing all of my writing today on my MacBook Pro in my garden, without the power cord. Oh yes, I’m living life on the edge, people!

Some of these tips are screamingly obvious; others contribute only modest energy savings. In aggregate, though, these tips can help you get significant life out of a single charge. So here they are, presented in no particular order of importance.

1. Dim the screen

Relatively speaking, that LED panel uses a fabulous amount of power, and, most of the time, simply doesn’t need to be so super bright. Turn it down to a comfortable level where you don’t have to squint to see what you’re doing.

2. Dim the Keyboard

The optical fiber backlighting in the keyboard can sometimes be brought to life even when you can see the keys perfectly well. When that happens, you can probably afford to turn it down a bit.

3. Stop Playing DVDs/CDs…

Your optical drive uses a motor. And a laser. They exhaust batteries in no time.

4. …and Stop Playing Video/Music from the HDD

Sorry, I know you stopped using your Optical Drive, but playing music or video is a power-guzzling process irrespective of where the source files happen to be.

5. Spin Down That Disc

Avoid doing anything that requires the hard drive to spin. Be mindful of the applications you run, and avoid those which require lots of read/write activity. Also, pop in to your System Preferences → Energy Saver and select “Put the hard disk(s) to sleep whenever possible.”

6. Go Easy on Your CPU

You can’t put the CPU to sleep, but you can go easy on it. Cycles spent crunching numbers equals battery drain. Quit anything you absolutely do not need. Mail, iCal, iTunes and goodness knows what else, even when hidden, are claiming CPU cycles.

7. Select the Right Video Card

If you own a late 2008 model MacBook Pro or later, you’ll have two graphic chips at your disposal. There’s the NVIDIA 9600, ideal for web browsing and text editing, or the more powerful 9600M, a better choice for gaming and video editing. In your System Preferences, choose Energy Saver and select Graphics: Better Battery Life. This will tell Mac OS X to use the 9600 chipset rather than its power-crazed big brother.

8. Internal Fans

Your MacBook should do a decent job of managing its own internal cooling, but if you’re competent doing this yourself, you might consider using a tool like smcFanControl to spin those things down. Just don’t blame me if you melt your MacBook as a result. (Seriously, if you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t even try this tip!)

9. Switch Off the Radios

Your Wi-Fi and bluetooth radios don’t have to be on all the time, do they? If preserving power matters to you, turn them off.

10. Ditch the Mouse

If your bluetooth radio is turned off, you can pack away that wireless Mighty Mouse. Using a wired Mighty Mouse? You should pack that away, too; that laser is sucking-up the juice.

11. Unplug That iPod!

If you keep your iPod or iPhone connected to your MacBook, remove them. Even if you’re not actively syncing them (and you’re not — if you followed my advice, iTunes is turned off by now) they’re keeping their own batteries topped-up via that good old USB copper. Your MacBook’s battery will thank you for unplugging them.

12. External Drives

If you’re using USB-powered external hard drives for backup/storage, unplug them (but be aware this means your backup routine may be disrupted!) Even if you’re not using your external drive all the time, remember that if you invoke an Open or Save As dialogue, those connected storage devices will spin-up on the off-chance you want to use them. If you don’t, that was power wasted!

13. Close the Lid

If you are going to be inactive for a while, consider putting the machine to sleep (or if you’ll be inactive for a long time, go one better and shut-down completely.)

14. Plan Ahead

If it’s at all practicable, plan what you are going to do before you even power-up your MacBook.

So there you have it. Combine these tips into your daily mobile-compute and you ought to see some serious improvements in productive, working battery life. Also, remember to let your battery fully drain at least once a month.

How well did I do here in the garden today? I squeezed about four hours out of my battery before I had to plug in. Give it a try, you might be surprised at just how much power your little lithium friend can muster.

How do you maximize battery life? Short of actually plugging in to the nearest wall or carrying spare batteries (that’s cheating!), what tips have I missed from this list? Share them in the comments below.

Think affiliate programs are solely the province of SEO firms and experts? Think again. There’s such a thing as a malware affiliate program, and a very recent one targets Mac users specifically. It’s a sign that cyber-crime is beginning to target Apple more aggressively than it has in the past.

ZDNet.com reports that a group called the “Partnerka,” which consists of Russian spam and malware affiliates, have begun to focus on the Mac. Their tactics involve using social engineering tricks (read: preying on human weakness) to install fake codecs and scareware programs (the kind that pressure you into installing and paying for bogus single purpose anti-malware software).

The plans and methods of the “Partnerka” were revealed at the Virus Bulletin Conference 2009, where Sophos Labs researcher Dmitry Samosseikko talked about a site called Mac-codec.com which has since been taken down, that offered a bounty of 43 cents for each successful installation of malicious software on a Mac computer. According to Samosseikko, that’s a high price, and indicates that the Mac malware game is becoming more attractive to online crime organizations.

Even though the site is gone, the threat is not. These malware schemes work because they offer something many Mac users might be looking for. Partnerka’s Mac-codec.com was offering video players and fake video codecs that attempt to draw in people trying to playback video they’ve downloaded somewhere on the web. Previous DNS-changing trojan malware attempts depended on porn video lures.

Focus on the Mac platform might be growing for online criminals, but most malware plots still require you to make the first move. To help protect yourself from fake and harmful codecs, use Perian and VLC, and if your video still won’t play back, just give up altogether. No video content is worth the theft of your private data, after all.

Having finally gotten around to upgrading to iWeb ‘09, I’ve found the best new feature to be an old trick that stopped working in iWeb ‘08. It’s a simple method for inserting photo albums onto other pages, like blogs — and for iWeb ‘09 users it’s a hidden feature that shouldn’t be missed.

The greatest strength of iWeb, its ease of use, is also its greatest weakness. Through themes and templates, iWeb rigidly controls the fundamental design of web pages. While you can create custom pages with the use of HTML, iWeb offers templates for essentially two types of web pages: photos and blogs.

Creating a photo page in iWeb is as easy as dragging an iPhoto album from the Media Browser. Creating blog entries is also easy; just start typing over the placeholder text in a new entry template. Adding individual photos to a blog entry is drag-and-drop simple as well, but drag an album into a blog entry and iWeb will only create a separate photo page. What iWeb doesn’t tell you is that’s the first step to adding a photo album to any page in iWeb.

Actually, the first step is to create an Albums Page, a web page that’s acts as a directory of a group of photo albums, and one that’s left out of your web site map. I named mine “Misc” and use it to keep photo albums I use on non-album pages. For the above example, I created a photo page with a few images of an antique desk.

You then create the non-photo page for the album, in this case a blog entry about the antique secretary desk.

Going back to the photo page, select the rectangular frame that is the album and copy it. As you can see, it’s now in the clipboard.

Finally, you simply paste it into another web page, in this case at the bottom of the blog entry. Upon publishing, there is now an inline photo album on a blog page. The inline album can have all the features of the one on the actual photo page, too, including the option of a slideshow and image downloading. You can see the actual page here.

When you want photos in iWeb, but not a photo page, remember that an inline album is only a few steps away.

Snow Leopard is selling like hotcakes. It’s selling  much better than Tiger, and a lot better than Leopard, too. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say those strong sales numbers had something to do with price. Microsoft appears to think so, too.

For a limited time, Microsoft is offering students the opportunity to grab one Windows 7 upgrade to either the Home Premium or Professional versions of the upcoming operating system for only $29.99, the same price that the single-user version of Snow Leopard retails for.

That’s $90 cheaper than the Home Premium upgrade costs at regular retail prices, and $170 off the price of the Professional version. There is a catch, though. You need to have a valid student email address from a U.S. educational institution (college or university) in order to qualify.

AppleInsider claims that there are similar deals in place in the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Korea and Mexico, though I could only find a “Coming Soon” notice when I tried to change the country using a drop down menu at the top of the order page. Entering a valid Canadian university email address also got me nowhere.

Microsoft is very much aware that Apple’s student market share is one of the company’s most consistent strengths, despite recent incursions by low-cost netbook machines into that demographic. This deep discounting, and the accompanying 741.com micro-site on which it can be found show that Redmond is willing to go to great lengths to try to recapture some of the youth market.

If you’re planning on taking advantage of this deal using yours or a relative’s student email address to install Windows 7 on your Boot Camp partition, remember that the deal only applies to upgrades, not full versions, so you’ll already need either Vista or XP installed for it to work.

Although much has been said about the death of RSS I, for one, still get most of my news via RSS feeds every day. I find Twitter to be filled with too much extraneous junk, and services like Friendfeed and Facebook still don’t offer the feature set I want from my daily news aggregator. My RSS service of choice is Google Reader, which should come as no surprise as it is by far the most popular RSS Reader out there.

Getting your Google Reader fix is as simple as navigating to the website, but what I really want is a desktop solution that offers all of Google Reader’s features while giving me a Mac-like experience and offline access to downloaded articles. A year ago the choices in this space were almost nil, but thankfully we’ve seen several applications jump into the fray recently. Let’s take a look at each of the contenders.

NetNewsWire

Many Mac users will be familiar with NetNewsWire, which has long been one of the best RSS readers for the platform. I was thus thrilled to hear that the next version of NetNewsWire will be bringing Google Reader support.

NetNewsWire's interface should be familiar to many Mac users.

The current beta of NetNewsWire does support synchronization, starring and folders, but features such as sharing and liking items are still not available. Thankfully the developer has indicated that those features will be implemented. Unfortunately, there’s no word about future support for notes and tagging.

NetNewsWire offers excellent keyboard support, a built-in web browser as well as integration with Delicious and Instapaper. Lacking is Twitter or Facebook support. You can send articles directly to a blogging client on your computer, which is a nice feature. I also like the three pane interface that is offered as an alternative to the more traditional interface with articles on top and the preview below.

NetNewsWire also offers a 3-column view and a tabbed browser

Once the latest version of NetNewsWire gets out of beta, the combination of excellent user interface with reasonable Google Reader support will likely be compelling for many. It will still be missing some important features however, like notes, tagging or posting directly to Twitter and Facebook. This will likely keep me from using the software.

EventBox

Unlike other solutions on this list, EventBox is not singularly focused on RSS feeds. Instead it seeks to be the center of your online social life, with support for Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Digg and other services in addition to Google Reader support.

The user interface offers access to your folders and feeds, but given the multi-use nature of the software I have to say that it feels a bit like Google Reader has been shoehorned into a generic interface. There are no keyboard shortcuts for sharing and starring, for example, and no support for tagging or liking.

Google Reader shares the spotlight with other services in EventBox.

Given EventBox’s support for a wide variety of social networks, you might expect sharing items from Google Reader to those various networks would be easy. Unfortunately this isn’t the case. You can send an item to Twitter or Instapaper, but not directly to any of the other social networks that EventBox supports.

EventBox is still undergoing active development and the developer says they are specifically working on improving integration between services. Still, improving the Google Reader implementation doesn’t seem to be high on the priority list. Hopefully this changes in the future, but as of now it’s not a good choice for most Google Reader users.

Gruml

I have used both NetNewsWire and EventBox extensively in the past, but I have to admit that Gruml is new to me. To be fair, it’s new to many of us as the application just opened to a public beta a few weeks ago.

At first glance Gruml is a Google Reader power user’s dream. It has by far the most complete implementation of features amongst the three applications I looked at, including support for starring, sharing, liking, notes and tags. There’s also support for posting an article directly to Twitter.

Gruml packs in the features, but constant lag is a problem.

The user interface is similar to NetNewsWire’s, with the option of a standard mail-like interface or a three-column view. Like NetNewsWire, there is also a built-in web browser for viewing articles and solid keyboard navigation support. Unique to Gruml is a menu bar icon that shows you how many unread items you have and pops up a list of the most recent articles when you click on it.

Gruml also offers the most complete access to Google Reader interface features, for example you can view your starred, shared, liked and noted items. You may also view a list of all your feeds, see them organized by folder or view articles by tag.

Unfortunately not all is well with Gruml, as you might expect from an application that is still in Beta. The biggest problem is laggy performance. While using the application I experienced constant slowdowns. Even moving to a new article would sometimes summon a beach ball, as did attempting to mark all articles in a folder as read.

If the developers of Gruml can address these performance issues, however, it currently offers the greatest hope for a complete Google Reader experience on the Mac desktop.

Conclusion

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, Mac desktop clients for Google Reader are a new phenomenon. This can be seen clearly by the fact that all three pieces of software I looked at are still in Beta. As it stands today, I don’t find any of them offer the mix of features and performance I’m looking for, so I still use a Fluid SSB with Google Gears for offline support to access Google Reader. All three applications offer hope for the future, however, and I can easily see myself using one of these in a year.

Snow Leopard was a remarkably painless upgrade for me, but one particularly important piece of software was broken: Google Gears.

For those who don’t know, Gears is Google’s framework for storing browser data offline. It works with many Google services as well as some third-party products. I use Gears primarily with Site Specific Browsers (SSBs) like Mailplane and Fluid, which give me offline access to Gmail, Google Reader and Remember The Milk.

These are some of my most used programs, and as such it became eminently obvious to me after the Snow Leopard upgrade that Google Gears was no longer working. To be clear, not all Snow Leopard installs will cause Google Gears to stop functioning. If you do a standard upgrade, Gears functionality should be carried over. Rather, it’s those like me who see a new operating system update as an opportunity to do a clean installation that will run into problems.

Specifically the new 64-bit version of Safari includes updated security features that are incompatible with Google Gears. If you tried to install Google Gears for OS X you would get a warning telling you that Google Gears won’t install on a version of OS X higher than 10.5. Now this makes some sense since Gears simply won’t work with the 64-bit version of Safari, but it also means that other programs like Mailplane and Fluid, which will work fine with the current version of Google Gears, are unable to get access to it’s features.

Google gears won't install on a clean Snow Leopard installation.

Thankfully, the helpful folks who developed Mailplane have created a hacked installer for Google Gears that skips the version check and allows you to install the program in Snow Leopard. You can pick up the modified installer here. As with any hack, proceed at your own risk, but my own experience has been flawless. Once I installed this version of Gears, Mailplane and Fluid were once again able to take advantage of the offline features of sites like Gmail.

Even with this version of Gears installed you won’t be able to use Gears with 64-bit Safari. If you do want to use Gears with Safari you will need to run it in 32-bit mode. This can be done easily by right-clicking on the Safari package, choosing Get Info and putting a check in the box next to “Open in 32-bit mode”. Those of you who use Gears with Firefox may be wondering what all the fuss is about as Gears works fine with that browser. That’s because Gears for Firefox is actually a Firefox extension, rather than an operating system service as Gears for OS X is.

I hope this helps out all those other Snow Leopard users who depend on Google Gears and lost the functionality during a clean install. Hopefully Google updates Gears to work natively with Snow Leopard soon so workarounds like these are unnecessary.

Smart Playlists in iTunes have always been a powerful way to create specific playlists to meet your needs, from creating a rotating fresh playlist for syncing to an iDevice to creating a specific playlist for a party. Being able to say “give me my music that hasn’t been played in the last month, that is of at least 320kbps and is rated 5 stars” is pretty sweet.

In iTunes 8 and earlier you could create all of these multiple rules and have them applied with a ‘match operator,’ which could be ALL (all rules have to match for a track to be included) or ANY (if any of the single rules apply the track will be included).

iTunes 9 has quietly and substantially expanded the level of complexity that you can create in these rules by allowing you to create nested rules. This lets you build up substantial logic with multiple ANY and ALL match operators being applied.

Lets look at a simple example.

Here I have four individual rules:

• Not played in the last week
• Bitrate is higher than 150kbps
• Was added to my iTunes library this year
• Is Music (not a podcast, or video)

Previously this had to be an ALL or ANY. But now the rule comes down to one and four and (two or three). So it will give me all music that hasn’t been played in the last week, and has either been added this year or is higher than 150kbps.

The example above is simple but reflects the power that can be obtain from single level nesting. But wait, there’s just one more thing. Actually, there’s more than one; you can have up to five levels of nesting.

The possible combinations of logic available here are liable to do one’s head in — but I’d be interested in seeing what complex rules are being used by our readers. Let us know how you use Smart Playlists.

From what I’ve been reading on support forums, some users of Quicksilver saw no affect from upgrading their machines to Snow Leopard. I however, was not one of those people. And although I am warming more and more to Google Quick Search Box, I still supplement my usage of QSB with Quicksilver where the former is lacking in features. So I tinkered around until I was able to resuscitate and use Quicksilver again under Snow Leopard.

Been having similar problems? Let me walk you through the process.

First, make sure you’ve upgraded to the most current version of Quicksilver. B56a7 is the most up to date version, that is built for Snow Leopard. Download it here if you haven’t already done so. Once that’s done, go ahead and try running Quicksilver. If you’re lucky, that’s all that is needed. If you’re not, don’t fret, because we’ll figure it out in short order.

What I found to be the issue with getting my installation of Quicksilver working, was the huge collection of plug-ins that I’ve installed over the years. Plug-ins (in my opinion) are what have made Quicksilver what it is to so many of us today. They extend it into nearly every nook and cranny of your Mac, allowing you to control everything. The downside, is that some of those plug-ins are broken in OS 10.6’s new underlying architecture.

So let’s fix that.

• Navigate (using Finder) to ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver
• Open the ‘PlugIns’ folder
• Select all of the plug-in files, and drag them someplace else (I suggest the Desktop, for easy access, as we’ll be using them again)

Now, let’s make sure Quicksilver opens before we go any further. If at this point the answer is no, I’d recommend posting the question to the Blacktree Quicksilver group on Google. (I’m happy to help too of course, but I’m not that bright, and if I can’t duplicate your setup, there’s a slim chance I’ll be useful on the subject.) If on the other hand, Quicksilver is starting up, let’s continue.

• Quit Quicksilver
• Drag the first plug-in (that you moved somewhere, like your Desktop) back into that ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/PlugIns folder
• Launch Quicksilver

Did Quicksilver remain open? Or did is crash after a few moments? If Quicksilver is still running, then that plug-in was not the culprit, and you may return to the ‘Quit Quicksilver’ step, and repeat with the next plug-in file. If Quicksilver bombed after launch, continue on below. (Does this feel like a choose your own adventure to anyone else?)

• In the ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/PlugIns folder, delete the plug-in that you just placed there

Unfortunately, that plug-in was no longer valid under the new Snow Leopard architecture. At this point, you should rinse and repeat (so to speak), moving the next plug-in file from your Desktop, into the Quicksilver PlugIns folder, and then seeing if Quicksilver crashes or not. Do this until you’ve deleted the bad plug-ins, and have the rest installed, with Quicksilver running happily again.

As a point of reference, the plug-ins that appear to cause me trouble were:
- Airport Module
- Services Menu
- Text Manipulations (not 100 percent certain about this one)
- Image Manipulations (not 100 percent certain about this one)
- Any interface modules seem to be causing issues as well

The downside is, you may lose some level of functionality (if you were even using that particular plug-in) from Quicksilver. The upside is that you’ll still be able to run Quicksilver, if somewhat pared-down in capability. In my case, I didn’t lose anything I’d been using regularly. In the event that you have actually lost something of use to you, you can either downgrade back to OS 10.5.8 (probably not realistic), or wait on Google QSB to get up to speed, as I have seen some great strides on that application in a short period of time.

Did Snow Leopard leave your old AppleTalk printer out in the cold? Grab a hot cup of cocoa and warm your printer up with some of these handy tips to continue to use your classic AppleTalk printer with your state of the art operating system.

Print Via USB

Of course! Get a longer USB cable if possible, but what if your printer doesn’t have a USB port? It may have an old-style parallel port probably marked “LPT.” For those people who have not seen them, here is a picture of one of these ports. Support for laser printers with these can be spotty, so use at your own risk. Not all the USB to Parallel Port adapters work well with the Macs, so do some research beforehand or buy from a place with a generous return policy.

Print Over IP

Some printers that support AppleTalk support other protocols such as IP. Many old LaserWriter workhorses such as the 16/600 fall into this category. If you are in a large office, ask your IT staff for help, but for those in a small office environment who are their own IT person, follow along! The hardest part is figuring out how to configure the IP address of the printer.

Step one is to find an open IP. Don’t try to use DHCP settings because if the IP address changes for some reason, it will be invisible on the network. Look at the IP address on your Mac by going to System Preferences and then Network. Your IP address will be in the format XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX. If you are using an Airport router, it’s probably 10.0.1.x, other routers will most likely be 192.168.1.x or 192.168.0.x. I always make printers .150 simply because I was taught that in school. Why? Just because. Avoid numbers in the low single digits, one hundreds, or two hundreds. Other devices may use these. To be extra safe, open up terminal and ping the address you decide on just to make sure nothing else is using it.

Actually configuring the printer may be tricky. Some will let you do it in the printer’s control panel in a “Network” or “TCP/IP” sub-menu. Let Google be your guide and simply search for your printer and TCP/IP settings or address. I wish I could be more specific. Some printers will have a “Printer Utility,” but those may not work in Snow Leopard. Try and print a test page so you confirm that you set the IP address correctly. Since HPs are such popular printers, here’s a link that covers most of its printers.

Next, go to the “Print & Fax” system preference pane and click the plus icon and then “IP” icon. Which do you choose from under the “Protocol” options? First try “HP Jetdirect-socket,” even if it’s not an HP printer. If it’s an older printer, start with LPD. Newer printers might accept IPP. Just type the IP address. Even if the IP address says valid and complete, that doesn’t mean you are talking to it. Most likely, Snow Leopard won’t be able to figure out which driver it to use. You’ll need to select it manually from the “Print Using” drop down. Since the printer worked in Leopard or Tiger, you’ll most likely have the driver already. Click “Add” and then run a test print. One of those three protocols should work. If not, you have other options.

Personally, I’ve had to do this with quite a few clients lately, printing to the larger business machine class multifunction copy stations, and it works like a charm.

Use a Parallel (or USB) to Ethernet Print Server

These boxes cost around $50. In my experience, I’ve rarely seen an Ethernet-only printer. As stated earlier, they usually have a parallel port as another port option.

You’ll need to confirm the print server supports printing over TCP/IP, but I’ve found that most do. It may have a Windows-only configuration utility, so be sure to check if it supports Mac out of the box, if you don’t have access to a Windows machine. Follow the procedures in the Print Over IP option above to pick an IP address and add the printer.

Alternatively, if you have a Airport Express or Airport Extreme, hook the printer up to that if the printer supports USB.

Use a Windows Machine as a Print Server (GASP!)

If you’ve tried everything else and it just doesn’t work, or you happen to have an old PC lying around, you can make it into a print server. Install the printer normally (if there is such a way) in Windows and make sure it works. Then go to “Add Printer” and click on “Windows” and your PC and the associated shared printer should appear. If it doesn’t, additional info can be found in this Apple Support document. Not all printers can be shared over Windows, but if it worked over ethernet, it should work over Windows via Print Sharing. Setting this up is not easy nor for the faint of heart! Often times a firewall needs to be configured on the PC to allow printer sharing.

Buy a New Printer

If your primary method of printing was via AppleTalk, your printer is probably pretty old, so maybe it’s time to buy a new one. A new printer has easier-to-find consumables and is most likely more energy efficient than your old one. Sure, you’ve already got money invested in the toner for the old one, but check its specs as compared to a new printer. Look at the material and labor cost of retrofitting your old printer versus buying a new one. You might be surprised at the ultimate value of buying a newer printer.

None of these solutions are a perfect guarantee you will be able to use your old printer forever, but they might help you get life out of the old bucket of bolts for a while longer, saving you money while letting you enjoy the features of Apple’s latest and greatest cat.