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.

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.

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.

I was playing around with Google Quick Search Box recently and was really surprised by all the functionality it provides. Once I got it fully set up with plugins and services, I realized it can give me just about everything I used to rely on Quicksilver for.

Quicksilver has really become the default interface for my Mac, so I’ve been wary about losing options by switching to something more stable and future proofed, but after seeing what QSB has to offer, I’m sold.

Plugins

While QSB seems to be focused on searching for things locally and online, its plugin options give it the opportunity to extend its reach far beyond searching. Already there are plugins available for running Shell and AppleScripts, browsing your Delicious bookmarks, and accessing services, with lots more on the way.

Demo Time

I thought it might be fun to show you some of these features in action so I threw together a quick little screencast.

While I’d like to see some better integration of custom services (I can’t seem to get my homemade services to show up as action items within QSB — perhaps I’m just doing it wrong), I remain really optimistic about where this is all going. With the future development of Quicksilver up in the air, and with a ton of functionality already available with QSB, I think now is the time to make the switch.

If you have your own favorite plugin or service or additional tips for getting serious with QSB, please share them in the comments.

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.

Originally introduced in OS X Tiger, Automator is a drag-and-drop form of scripting. You can create workflows to easily speed up many tasks. With each version of OS X, Automator has seen some improvements, but with Snow Leopard, it finally realizes its full potential.

It realizes it by allowing you to create your own Services. Unless you really needed to delve into the Services menu (located under the Application menu) you’re likely to never even know it’s there — when I asked a friend to screenshot her Leopard Services menu for this article, she replied “what menu?” That menu was, to put it gently, a bleeping mess. Every service showed up, even ones that couldn’t be used with program or you had little or no use for. Here’s what it looks like in Leopard.

In Snow Leopard, the Services menu now only displays actions that can be handled by that program. You can also choose what services show up, so if there’s one you never use, you can hide it. Services are also contextual and will show up when you right-click on an actionable item like text in Pages or a file in Finder. If you click on a file in the Finder, and then the gear icon in the toolbar, you can also see what actions apply to that file.

In Leopard, I could create a Finder or iCal action, but creating workflows that would work in any application wasn’t very user friendly. You might be able to create an AppleScript, or if you’re a Quicksilver junkie you could create an action for it, but Snow Leopard really lets the average user create tools to enhance productivity. Now that Automator can create Services, it’s really becoming a powerful tool. Also, in Snow Leopard, Automator can now use data detectors, so if you select an address, you can use Automator to write an action that’ll look it up in Google Maps.

I’m going to show you a few services I created today while learning the new tools — as well as a few I got from macosxautomation.com. Now, I’m not saying you couldn’t do these in 10.5, but how slick and easy it now is in 10.6 is amazing. I can easily see the Services menu now acting as a sort of Macro Central to it make it easy to find my actions.

Emailing Specific Files to Specific People

I’m in a weekly D&D group and we use Wizard’s Character Builder to manage our characters (sadly, it’s Windows-only, ensuring I’ll be a Parallels customer for the foreseeable future). Kelsey, our GM, wants a copy and I’ll send a copy to the guy that hosts the game in case I forget to print them out. I created the service in the screenshot below to automatically attach my characters to a mail message and send them off. Now, regardless of what program I’m in, I can just choose the service I created and email them. I’ve got a few services like this created to email files to frequent recipients.

Lookup Text On Wikipedia

If you’re typing away and you want to look up text on Wikipedia, download the Internet Services action from macosxautomation.com. This will bring up a pop-up window that’ll let you quickly search Wikipedia. In what’s likely an “I’m missing something obvious moment,” I can’t seem to get the action to work from within Safari. While we’re on the subject of Safari, that same Internet Services action lets you create a webpage popup of any page. By default, it presents itself as an iPhone, so you get a small, mobile optimized pop up. This is handy if there’s any web sites you frequently consult.

Browse Your iPhoto Library

This is another one I downloaded from macosxautomation.com. One of the features I love in iWork is being able to browse my iPhoto library and insert a photo into my document. Now, with the Browse Library service, I can have that same functionality in any program.

Weird Glitches and Problems

So far in my admittedly small data sample, I’ve only run into a few issues. I’ve already talked about the Wiki lookup not working in Safari, but I’ve also noticed Automator doesn’t see text selected in Microsoft Word 2008 as “selected text” — no services other than the general services show up in Word (I didn’t try out the rest of the suite). What’s interesting is there are a ton of Office-related actions included in Automator. I’ve had an e-mail discussion with Microsoft’s Mac BU about this and they’re looking into it.

Resources

MacBreak Video has a great session with Sal Saghoian, the AppleScript Product Manager at Apple. I’m constantly amazed at how Sal’s laid-back presentation style actually makes what could be a dry topic easy to follow. He’ll show you some great video examples of what the new Automator can do.

I’ve mentioned macosxautomation.com multiple times, and I’m mentioning it again. This site is promising to be my one-stop shop as I continue to learn about Automator.

The changes in Automator look fantastic. Until now, my Automator usage has been very situational. In Snow Leopard, I’m looking forward to creating workflows I’ll be using daily.

I took to the soapbox recently about the lack of flexibility in iPhoto for incremental backups. I still don’t have a great solution that suits my particular needs and desires, though some useful suggestions can be found in the comments of that post. But here’s a little tip that may be useful if you’ve got lots of archived iPhoto libraries and you want to quickly drill down to the standout shots. I call it the “iPhoto Favorites Library.”

In my experience, a year’s worth of photographs is around 4,000 strong. Of those 4,000 image files, somewhere between 5 and 10 percent get four- and five-star ratings. Sure, most of my photos are important to me personally, but the majority aren’t the ones I’ll go to when showing off the kids to a friend on my iPhone. Now take into consideration your yearly (or whatever) iPhoto library backups, and you’ve got a mountain of photos in several different libraries to traverse before you find your those standouts.

The solution is pretty straightforward, actually. Pull all of your four- and five-star photos (assuming you’re consistently using ratings) from each of your archived iPhoto libraries. If you’ve created Smart Albums in iPhoto in the past (such as anything with four or five stars), you can create a simple Automator workflow that filters photos from that album, selects them, and copies them to a designated folder of your choosing. This effectively exports all those photos you want, from whichever iPhoto library is currently set as the default. Is it easier than just opening that library and dragging and dropping them by hand? Probably not, but that’s your call.

Once you’ve got a folder full of four- and five-star photos from over the years, it’s time to create a new iPhoto library. Open iPhoto and hold the Option key. This allows you to select a new library to create. With that blank library open, drag all of those photos from (their file location) above into iPhoto. Moving forward, you’d just open this Favorites library and add the latest keepers to it.

Perhaps I’ve answered my own question to the iPhoto Backup issue. I don’t need to cart all of those so-so images around all year long. I could just roll with a Favorites library, and then my current yearly library. Either way, this should help you access those great photos from years passed more quickly, without having to spend time digging through multiple libraries.

The Apple TV, as envisioned by Apple, is truly a very niche market device. You’re basically paying money for something that lets you pay more money to buy or rent music, movies and TV shows from the iTunes store. Sure, you can also stream content from iTunes on a computer, but when trying to stream from a central generic media device, the out of the box software just doesn’t cut it.

It is, however, possible to customize your Apple TV with unauthorized third party software (much like a jailbreak for iPhones/iPod touches) to transform it into a fantastic cheap media player (with certain limitations).

Suitable For Your Needs?

Now I have a Mac mini downstairs connected to my HDTV with EyeTV USB tuners and I think this is the ideal setup. However, upstairs in my bedroom I have an old SD TV that was paired up with an old HP laptop running windows with XBMC. The HP’s lack of stability finally became too frustrating, so after researching my options, I spent AU$330 (~US$276) on an Apple TV box and put XBMC on it.

My SD TV has component plugs so Apple TV works fine with it, and I’ve not had one hiccup while streaming .avi files from my file server over my wireless network. Its important to note, however, that some 720p HD playback can be a bit jerky, due to XBMC not having hardware acceleration support — but if you’re like me and wouldn’t want to watch 720p downscaled this doesn’t matter. I’ve finally got a totally stable (and completely silent) wireless TV streamer upstairs that I can control with my iPhone.

Here’s a complete guide on how to load XBMC and Boxee on to your Apple TV to make it much more useful.

Required Tools

*A USB Memory stick with at least 512MB that can be formatted.
*A PowerPC or Intel Mac. The procedure can also be done from a windows box, but since this is TheAppleBlog, this guide is exclusive to Macs.
*An AppleTV device with firmware version 2.3 (the most current at the time of this writing).

Preparing

Head over to http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/ and download the OSX version of the atvusb-creator. This will let you boot your Apple TV from the USB stick and install the required patches to your device.

First, you should remove all USB drives from your computer as a safety precaution to prevent accidentally picking the wrong USB device to create your patchstick. Insert your empty USB stick and run atvusb-creator.app:

The default options as above are suitable for most, so you can go ahead and click the “Create Using ->” button (assuming your usb pathstick is the only usb drive connected as recommended). This will partition and format the patchstick and then copy all the required files to it. With this done, it’s time to go to your Apple TV.

Patching Apple TV

Unplug the power cable from your Apple TV and put the USB stick in the port at the back.

Plug your Apple TV back in and watch the custom Linux OS do its work. This will take a few minutes and you will see lots of lines of text:

When you see the text “Please unplug your Apple TV to reboot/reset the device” you can unplug your USB stick and reset. When it boots up again, you will now see a slightly altered menu:

You now have both XBMC and Boxee installed on your Apple TV — however its best to update your system to the latest releases. From the new XBMC/Boxee menu on the left, go into the “Updates” menu on the right. Then select the Launcher 3.1 download:

This will be a quick download and update process. You should then also turn off Apple TV’s ability to automatically update itself. This is to prevent any new updates from Apple breaking your ability to use XBMC or Boxee. This can be done in the “Settings” menu by toggling the “ATV OS Update Enabled” option to “No”:

You can then download the latest stable release of XBMC and/or Boxee in the newly renamed “Downloads” menu. The standard Apple TV Remote works fine in both XBMC and Boxee. There are also a number of iPhone/iPod touch apps that let you control these directly.

Running the Latest Bleeding Edge XBMC

If you’re brave (or some may say foolish), you can also run the latest nightly builds of XBMC. To do this you’ll need to telnet into your Apple TV and set a preference via the command line to make this option appear in Launcher’s Downloads menu. From a command line tool (such as Terminal that comes with OSX) type:

ssh frontrow@appletv.local

When prompted for a password, enter frontrow and then type:

defaults write com.teamxbmc.xbmclauncher XBMCAdditionalDownloadPlistURLs -array http://www.sshcs.com/xbmc/Info.asp

This will then enable the option in Launcher to download a latest nightly build of XBMC:

Restoring to Factory Settings

If you want to restore your Apple TV to its vanilla settings, simply follow these steps. From a command line tool type:

ssh frontrow@appletv.local

When prompted for a password, enter frontrow and then type:

sudo rm -rf /Applications/{Boxee,XBMC}.app/
sudo rm -rf /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/PlugIns/XBMCLauncher.frappliance/
rm -rf /Users/frontrow/Library/Application\ Support/{BOXEE,XBMC}/
sudo reboot

It’s a shame Apple doesn’t seem interested in unlocking the power of their home media device themselves, but at least doing it on your own isn’t as difficult as you might expect.

Time again to pop a shell and dig into the deep, geeky Unix internals of OS X with Dig Into Unix. Today we are going to look at two top-shelf power tools for text editing: sed and awk.

Sed is a Stream EDitor, and if you recall our previous Dig Into Unix installment concerning standard streams, you’ll understand that the streams we are talking about are actually just text from one source or another. Sed’s bread and butter is text search and replace, very similary to the “Edit” and “Find…” functions in TextEdit and many other GUI text editors. Unlike those text editors though, sed, by default, will write its output to the screen, or stdout.

As an example, try some basic operations on this string of text:
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back.

Save the string of text as a file named test.txt, and type this into the Terminal:
sed s/quick/slow/g test.txt

The fox is now slow on the screen, but not changed in the file itself. To follow the stream, the text came from the file, through sed, and to the screeen. The best set of examples I’ve found for getting right into sed and starting to play with it is the collection of sed one liners hosted at Sourceforge.

Personally, I use sed when I’ve got a large number of configuration files that need to be edited. For example, it might be decided that we do not need our Nagios monitoring system alerting on the a certain statistic. I could go into 100 different files and perform the same action on all of them, or I could rely on a simple shell script and sed to do it for me.


for each in `ls *.cfg`; do
mv $each $each.bak #Safety First!
sed '30,35s/^/\#/g' $each.bak > $each
done


This will plow through all of the config files in a certain directory and add a # sign at the beginning of lines 30 through 35, commenting those lines out. Then I can restart Nagios, and if all goes well, delete all of the .bak files created as backups by the script.

While sed operates on lines and regular expressions (the subject of a future Dig Into Unix article!), awk works with fields. When given a stream of text, either from a text file or piped in from another application, awk can manipulate the text and rearrange the words. By default, awk separates the text fields by a space character, but you can use any other character you’d like.

Like sed, awk also has a great collection of one liners, this collection here is a great resource collected by Eric Pement. In my day to day activities, I call on awk when I want to format text for a report or to be input into another application.

To use our quick brown fox example again, we can print only the fourth, third, and second words, in reverse order, with this command:
awk '{ print $4, $3, $2 }' test

That will print out “fox brown quick”. Not very practical or useful. Something more practical might be to manipulate a list of comma separated values. Using the “-F” flag in awk, you can tell awk to separate it’s fields based on the comma, as in:
awk -F, '{ print $1 }' test

Since there are no commas in the test file, this will print the entire string of text. So, we could run this command to take care of that:
sed s/\ /,/g test > test2

This will use sed to replace all spaces with commas. The backslash is there to escape a special character, so the space is interpreted literally and not as part of a command. Now, you could use awk to manipulate the string of text as needed.
awk -F, '{ print $7, $8, $9, $10, $5, $6, $1, $2, $3, $4 " did" }' test2

This article has just barely skimmed the surface of what sed and awk can do. There are some rather hefty books dedicated to the pair, this one from O’Reilly has been on my desk for years now. Awk is an entire programming language, but the point of this series is not to teach the in-depth details, it’s just to get your feet wet, and maybe, just maybe leave you thirsting for more. The real rub is that everything that sed and awk can do can also be done, at times more efficiently, with the practical extraction and report language…better known as Perl, which is the subject of a future Dig Into Unix article.

Welcome to another episode of TheAppleBlog’s iPhone Dev Sessions. We left off with a drum app tutorial called Bickboxx. For this tutorial, we’re building off of the first Bickboxx project, so go back and finish it if you haven’t already. Or if you want to cheat, grab the Bickboxx code from Github.

The Story

The Boss is happy we’ve released Bickboxx, the iPhone drum app, but now he wants to know how it’s doing. Not just sales-wise.

How many people use our app? How many times have they used the app? How much time do they spend using our app? How many users do we have in each city, state and country? How many illegal haxored versions are out there? How many people open the app once and never use it again?

Yikes. That’s a lot of questions.

Lucky for us, we don’t have to write hundreds of lines of code and roll our own analytics server to track the answer to these questions.

There are dozens of iPhone analytics APIs that will do all of the heavy lifting for us. Flurry, Mobclix, and Medialets come to mind.

There isn’t a clear leader in iPhone analytics yet but for this tutorial we’ll be using Pinch Analytics. It has comprehensive documentation and its reporting is detailed as well.

Signing Up for a Pinch Media Account

The first thing you want to do is sign up for a Pinch Media account. The first part of registration is the usual username/email/password page. The second part detailing your app takes you to this:

Since Bickboxx isn’t a real app that you’ll be distributing, you don’t have to fill out any of this. You can skip this part by clicking the “I’ll do it later” button.

When you are adding analytics to your real-life app, I’ve filled out some sample data for you to go by. Note that if you don’t add an app into Pinch Media, you won’t be able to view any analytics reports.

Download and Install the Pinch Media SDK

After you’ve signed up for an account, download and unzip the SDK.

Open up the Bickboxx project in Xcode. Drag the Beacon+FBConnect.h and Beacon.h files into the Classes directory in the Xcode project.

Make sure the “Copy items into destination group’s folder (if needed)” checkbox is checked. Click Add. We do this so our code knows how to access the Pinch Media methods in the libPMAnalytics-rXX.a library.

We’ll need to import the libPMAnalytics-rXX.a library next. Do this by dragging the libPMAnalytics-rXX.a file to the Frameworks folder in Xcode. Again, make sure the “Copy items into destination group’s folder (if needed)” checkbox is checked. Click Add.

Install the Supporting SDKs

We need a few more frameworks to get going. We may not use these frameworks directly, but Pinch Analytics does.

Ctrl-Click the Frameworks folder and choose Add → Existing Frameworks…

Select libsqlite3.dylib and click Add.

Do the same for the SystemConfiguration.framework.

Lastly, do the same for CoreLocation.framework.

Build the project to make sure everything is in place. It should compile. Got it? Good.

Adding the Pinch Analytics Code

Add this import statement for the Beacon.h file into BickBoxxAppDelegate.h.

#import “Beacon.h”

Adding this will allow us access to the Pinch Analytics methods from inside our BickBoxxAppDelegate.m file. Your BickboxxAppDelegate.h file should now look like this. Our change is in line 2.

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import "Beacon.h"

@class BickBoxxViewController;

@interface BickBoxxAppDelegate : NSObject <UIApplicationDelegate> {
  UIWindow *window;
  BickBoxxViewController *viewController;
}

@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UIWindow *window;
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet BickBoxxViewController *viewController;

@end

Open up BickBoxxAppDelegate.m and locate the applicationDidFinishLaunching method. Add this line of code.

NSString *applicationCode = @"REPLACE THIS WITH YOUR APPLICATION CODE";

Replace the REPLACE THIS WITH YOUR APPLICATION CODE with your Application Code from Pinch Media. You can find your application code in your Pinch Media account.

This is your unique ID that Pinch Media uses to identify which app is sending data to them. If you opted to not setup an app during registration, you need to do this to get an Application Code. If you don’t put in a valid Application Code, you won’t get any analytics reports and you’re wasting your time.

We’re going to use this applicationCode NSString to activate our analytics beacon. Add this line of code to the applicationDidFinishLaunching method.

[Beacon initAndStartBeaconWithApplicationCode:applicationCode
    useCoreLocation:YES useOnlyWiFi:NO];

This fires up the analytics code when the app launches. Note that we’re sending in the applicationCode NSString that we inserted in the previous step. Also note the useCoreLocation parameter. You can set this to YES or NO depending on whether you want to capture location statistics.

Use this with caution. If you think you’ll offend your users by asking for their location, set this to NO.

Another parameter is useOnlyWiFi. Not everyone in the world has an unlimited data plan. They’ll be none to happy if your app is sending data over the mobile network when they don’t want it to.

Like the useCoreLocation parameter, use this parameter with caution. If set to YES, the analytics data will be sent to Pinch Media only when they’re connected to Wi-Fi. This way, the people who pay their mobile carrier per kilobyte won’t get mad. The downside is that you will miss usage statistics if they never connect to Wi-Fi.

If you’re not worried about being responsible for someone’s data overages, set this to NO.

Your code in BickBoxxAppDelegate.m for the applicationDidFinishLaunching method should now look like this.

- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application {

	// New code below this
	NSString *applicationCode = @"REPLACE THIS WITH YOUR APPLICATION CODE";
  [Beacon initAndStartBeaconWithApplicationCode:applicationCode
								 useCoreLocation:YES useOnlyWiFi:NO];

  // Old code below this
	[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarHidden:YES animated:NO];

  // Override point for customization after app launch
  [window addSubview:viewController.view];
  [window makeKeyAndVisible];
}

Finally, when we exit the app or your app crashes (your apps never crash right?), we need to stop the analytics beacon.

Add this method to the BickBoxxAppDelegate.m file.

- (void)applicationWillTerminate:(UIApplication *)application {
  [[Beacon shared] endBeacon];
}

Build and run your app.

You’re Done!

That’s it — you’re done! Go to lunch and have a sandwich. Nothing’s changed to the user except it’s going to ask if it’s okay that Bickboxx uses their location. You can now login to Pinch Media’s site and see all your pretty statistics and graphs. Worth noting is that the data isn’t real-time — it’s only updated twice a day.

Homework

The Boss is happy now that we can measure the performance of our app. He wants more detail on which buttons are pressed the most. You can do this by adding sub-beacons, which you can read about at the documentation site.

BickBoxx On Github and the iTunes App Store

Like last time, the code is open-sourced on Github. You can check your code against the code here if you start to stumble.

We’re here to show you how to build actual apps. You can download the app as it’s built at the iTunes App Store. More info on the open-source/open-tutorialized efforts on the BickBoxx website.

As any person who frequently uses email will tell you, email signatures are very important as they usually provide more information than just a standard name and email address from the sender. You can spice up an email signature since Mail offers support for HTML signatures. If you are fairly comfortable with getting your feet wet with HTML & CSS, they are a snap to create. Read on for how you can make one!

A Note on iPhone Support

This how-to is written specifically for Apple’s Mail in OS X. Also, these signatures will display on an iPhone, but currently there is no method (aside from jailbreaking) to support these signatures on outgoing emails originating from an iPhone. Depending on the amount of content in your email signature, you may need to further tweak the CSS to get something that looks the way you want it to. For those who have already jailbroken their phone, look forward to an upcoming article on how to accomplish these signatures on your iPhone.

Let’s Get Started

Here is a quick example of what we will be creating.

For this how-to, you will need Mail, Safari and some type of HTML editor; my preference is Coda. Our email signature is simply an HTML page with some CSS styling. The code for mine is included below.

<style>
#sig a:link{color: #690;}
#sig a:visited{color: #690;}
#sig a:hover{color: #690;}
</style>
<div id="sig" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;line-height: 14px; margin: 6px 0; padding: 8px; border-top: 1px #999 dotted; border-bottom: 1px #999 dotted; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif; font-size: 10px; color: #555;" >

<strong style="color: #690;">Chris Ryan</strong> Blogger, Designer, Thinker & Nerd
web: <a href="http://www.theappleblog.com" style="color: #690; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px #999999 dotted;">theappleblog.com</a> email: <a href="mailto:chris@theappleblog.com" style="color: #690; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px #999 dotted;">chris@theappleblog.com</a></div>

Copy this code (tweaked for your own purposes) into a new HTML document and save it as signature.html. Now open this file in Safari and inspect it to ensure that everything is correct as you would like it to appear in the bottom of your emails. Be sure and click the links to make sure they work correctly as well (and link to your content and not mine!).

If everything looks good, then go to File and pick “Save As” and save the file as a .webarchive. This is the same format that Mail uses to save your signature files.

Our next step is to go into Mail and create a new blank signature. This is found under the Mail menu and by clicking on Preferences. In the Signatures tab, you can click the plus icon to add a new signature. By default, Mail will pre-populate this signature with your name and email address. What has really happened is Mail has created a new .webarchive file with that signature content. We’re going to replace it with the file we created earlier.

Close the Signature window and quit Mail (changes should be saved automatically). Now go to your home folder and then open the Library folder. Inside you will find a Mail folder and inside of that, yet another folder called, you guessed it, Signatures (Home → Library → Mail → Signatures). Inside of here are the .webarchive files for your signatures. If the signature you created above was the very first one, there should only be one file in here. If you already have multiple existing signatures, you can double click these files and use Safari to inspect their contents.

Locate the file that matches the simple new email signature we just saw in Mail. With the icon selected, press return as if you were going to change the file name. When the file name highlights, copy this to the clipboard (Command + C) and press return again to switch out of file renaming mode.

Go back to the desktop where you saved the .webarchive of your signature file and rename it using the filename you copied to the clipboard. You should now have a file with a very cryptic filename (such as “AAD4FDB4-8AE3-49F2-8079-161E16525CC0.webarchive”).

Now, drag this file back into the Signatures folder and Finder will alert you that it wants to overwrite this existing file. Click “Replace” to accept and when the transfer is complete, your Signature should be ready to go.

Launch Mail and go back to your preferences to verify the new signature is showing up. If you have multiple email accounts setup within Mail, make sure you drag the signature to the appropriate email accounts.

Create a new message and viola! Your new signature is there (or if you do not have them turned on by default, they are accessible from the Signature menu in the upper right area of a new email message window).

One Last Word On Coding

One special piece to note about the example code above is the usage of -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; which overrides the iPhone’s default attempts to re-scale the signature. This was essential in making my signature look best on the iPhone. Again, with the amount of content you have in your signature, you may need to play around with the CSS to get something that displays the way you want when you view your sent or received messages on the iPhone.

Depending on your comfort level with CSS, you can tweak the signature a bit more and even add a small picture. Some HTML based email browsers, like Yahoo or Gmail, will not display this picture by default though. There are other solutions to this, such as using Data URLs to represent your picture and for more information on that, check out this how-to.

This time of year, it seems almost inevitable. There’s a forum post somewhere, a plea for help in the middle of the night, asking a time-honored question. No, it’s not “the answer to Life, the Universe, Everything!” It’s more profound than that: “I’m starting school this fall and I want to know what to get, iWork or Office. I’m going to be writing light papers.”

So, I’m going to compare the two programs when writing a research paper to MLA standards. While there are a plethora of other options — I can see the “use LaTeX” comments in my head now — I’m focusing on Word and Pages. Word and Pages both support EndNote X2 and Math Type 6, but since I’ve never used Math Type, I’m not going to be able to comment on it.

The Price Myth

On the surface, any comparison of price comes out in iWork’s favor. iWork lists for $79. The Home and Student version of Office 2008 is $150, but that version is crippled for enterprise support, so if you want to connect to your school’s Exchange server, you’ll need the Standard version, which is $399. Wow, that’s a lotta leaves.

However, since we are talking about academic pricing, it’s important to note Microsoft is very generous with its educational pricing — through my school, I can get Office 2008 Standard for $80. With an educational price of $71, Apple is less generous, but the price gap between the two suites is now negligible.

Built-in Templates

Neither package had any templates I felt adhered to the MLA standard, but it’s short work to create your own. Usually, I end up needing to massage the styles every now and then since professors have different requirements.

Citation Management

It’s unlikely you’re going to get through a semester without hearing a teacher say, “Give me 10 pages on the Middle East; cite your sources.” If your major isn’t one that requires heavy citations usage, you can get away with just about any word processor out there. In my mind, however, any topic of academic writing tools lives and dies by citation management for one simple reason: I’m too lazy to build the bibliography myself.

While there are multiple choices for citation management, I’m going to focus on EndNote X2 and Microsoft’s built-in citation manger. I’m focusing on EndNote because it’s the sole manager with native support for both apps. I’ll get the sticker shock out of the way early: EndNote costs around $109 from an educator’s web site. However, my university has a volume site license and I can download it for free, legally, off my school’s intranet. So, before buying it, check with your school.

One of the nice features in EndNote is its ability to search any school’s library. I find this invaluable when starting a research paper. For the Middle East paper, I fired up EndNote, connected to Northeastern’s library, and typed in “Israel” as a keyword. I could look through books I felt might be useful, note if they are available, and print out their location in the stacks. For the rest of this article, I’m going to assume you’ve built your EndNote library.

Endnote's Online Search Screen

Citation Management: Pages

In Pages, go to the Insert menu and choose “EndNote Citation.” It’ll then bring you to the EndNote search screen; type in the author or title you want to add and click insert.

Pages Insert Citation

Pages Inserting Citation

As you add each citation, EndNote will automatically create the bibliography.

Citation Management: Pages Conclusion

Pages citation management requires EndNote X2. If your university doesn’t have a site license for EndNote, and you want to use Pages to write papers, you’re on the hook for the EndNote license, or do citation management by hand.

Citation Management: Word 2008 & EndNote

Word 2008 handles EndNote citations similar to Pages. Go to Tools → EndNote X2 → Find Citations. Then type in the search criteria and click Insert.

Word 2008: Fnd Citation

Word 2008: Insert Citation

Word 2008: Citation Inserted

As in Pages, EndNote in Word also auto-adds the citations to the bibliography.

Citation Management: Word 2008’s Built-in Manager

While Word’s Citation Manager offers no connectivity to library databases, or the ability to import from EndNote, once I’ve created a citation it’s very easy to add it. Granted, EndNote’s method isn’t exactly suffering, but in Word it’s simply a double-click. Also, each citation is added to a master citation database, so if you use the same source on multiple papers it’s easy to add them to your document.

You can access the Citation Manager from the Formatting Toolbar. To create a citation, click the “+” button and enter in the details.

To add a citation to your paper, simply select it from the list and double-click it. The citation will appear in-line. One nice thing about Word’s manager is if you select the citation you get a pull-down menu that lets you customize the citation. If you choose Edit this Citation, you can select the page range for the citation.

Unlike EndNote, the bibliography is not automatically created; you use the Document Elements tab. From there. you can choose the bibliography style.

Citation Management: Word Conclusion
While both EndNote and Word’s manager work well, I find myself using Word’s more than EndNote for lazy reasons: I like having everything in one program. If the paper I’m working on has a plethora of library sources, that’ll tip the scales towards EndNote as my manager of choice. If your university doesn’t have a site license for a citation manager, Word’s tool is very usable.

Additional Features

Citation management is all you’ll need for run-of-the-mill research papers. If you’re writing basic papers, and have a license to EndNote, feature-wise they are a wash. If your paper is more complicated than that, however, you can start widening the gap between Word and Pages.

One notable difference between the two programs is how they handle figure captions. In Pages, you can link a text box to a figure, and type in “Figure 2-1: A very nice screenshot.” Word, however, can auto-number the figure and use that to create a Table of Figures.

Word also has an impressive array of Smart Art graphics which will let you create quick graphics.

Playing Well With Others

Once you’re all done with the paper, now comes the crucial moment: handing it in. If you’re simply handing in a printed copy, there’s no difference between the two. However, in four years of night school I think I’ve only handed in one paper physically. Most of my classes are online and my classroom professors often just want the paper emailed to them.

Based on my experiences, you’d be hard-pressed to find a teacher that can take a Pages file; I’ve found exactly zero teachers who can take one. Fortunately, Pages can export as a Word document so it’s easy to get the teacher a Word file. Any form of file conversion makes me nervous, though. I subscribe to the theory that Murphy was an optimist, and the file you export from Pages to Word and email to a professor at deadline will be the one file that beats all odds and is an unreadable mess. Now, it’s never happened to me, and I’ve found for simple files like research papers Pages export function is quite good. However, it’s like juggling chainsaws. Sooner or later you’re gonna drop one in a bad area.

That said, Word is not always fine wines and nice cheeses. There’s one teacher I frequently have who cannot accept .docx files (the new default format Word saves in). Again, I can “save as” to an older format, but tend to sweat the dialogue box that comes up and says, “Some features specific to the .docx format may not transfer properly. Since this is your thesis paper, and your teacher is still in the stone ages of computing, I’m going to choose this paper to come out as Ancient Mandarin. Have a nice day.” OK, it’s not quite like that, but I tend to get a little nervous.

When it comes to sharing files with others, I trust Word over Pages. While I’ve never had any noticeable problems on research papers, I feel I’m eliminating a possible danger point by using Word.

The Moment of Truth: Which do I prefer?

I’ve flip-flopped for a while between the two programs. Pages won out for a while because of its quick launching speed, but Service Pack 2 for Office 2008 has significantly improved launch speeds. Small features like easily handling captions and lesser chances of file conversion weirdness make me prefer Word over Pages. If your writing needs are modest, and simple essays are the norm, Pages will do just fine. However, even my Technical Communications classes require some sort of source citation, so it’s wise to plan on needing one.

There’s one area I think iWork wins over Office 2008: Keynote. If your major is heavy on giving presentations, and you can use your Mac to give them, I think Keynote is much better than PowerPoint. The focus of this piece is Word and Pages, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Keynote as a strength of iWork.

Like most things, it can come down to price, but I think Word wins on this one. If the worst-case is your school offers no special educational pricing on Office or EndNote, buying the Home and Student version of Office 2008 is still cheaper when you factor in the extra $100 for EndNote. While a lot of people tend to complain that Word is bloated, I’ve found various school projects require me to use those features.

The OS X boot image epitomizes the simplicity and elegance of the operating system itself, showing a basic Apple logo set against a light grey background. I’m a huge fan of this simple layout, but was very interested to hear about BootXChanger, a tiny application that can alter the boot image to anything you’d like.

BootXChanger comes with an excellent set of PNG images already at a boot-screen-appropriate size and resolution, along with a set of instructions for creating your own. It makes this Mac customization, which would otherwise require some fairly complex digging around, remarkably simple.

Installation

Installing the application follows the standard “Drag to Applications” process and, after double clicking the BootXChanger icon, you are presented with a very straight forward interface.

BootXChanger

You’re able to drag-and-drop any PNG file into the window before clicking “Apply” and entering your administrator username and password. If you’re unhappy with the outcome, reverting to the default image only requires one click.

Available Images

BootXChanger comes bundled with a range of nostalgic Mac icons, bound to recreate a few memories.

Included Boot Images

It also has a range of limitations, put in place deliberately by the developer. The most notable is that BootXChanger will not change the background color of the boot screen (it remains the standard #BFBFBF hex color). This is done so as not to damage the appearance of the loading spinner, displayed as your computer boots. It means that the background of your images must be the same if you’d like them to blend in with the background.

Other limitations center around the number of colors that can be used in the image. The developer suggests that you keep it below 100, and stick to using GIF or PNG-8 image formats.

Intel Macs also have further limitations as images must be compressed to fit inside the boot file. Images that are overly complex may not be suitable for use. BootXChanger checks all these possibilities for you, and will refuse to alter your system if the chosen image is an incorrect format.

Examples

Here are a variety of different examples, showing the outcome of various BootXChanger images:

Backup First!

As with any software that alters system or boot files, I would certainly recommend making a backup of your system prior to experimenting. If anything goes wrong (and your Mac won’t boot), insert your OS X installation CD and select your hard drive as the startup disk for the subsequent restart.

BootXChanger is a fantastic, simple application to make adjusting your boot icon a straight-forward process. It’s likely to automatically prevent you from making any problematic changes, so have fun experimenting!

As I mentioned in the My Netbook: The iPhone article, my iPhone is central to my life. But one area that’s been a challenge is getting text to and from it. As I mentioned in the article, most of what I write on the iPhone is blog posts where any formatting is done after the fact. I find myself in situations where I need to be able to modify text from various computers and my iPhone. For instance, yesterday I was heading to the grocery store after work. I had a list going and my wife called and added her list which reminded me of something else, and then she called back and … well you get the idea.

I’ve flipped around between QuickOffice, Documents to Go, and Notes to handle this, but I was never satisfied. Notes and Documents to Go go require me to be on my Mac and sync to it. That’s overkill for a shopping list. I don’t mind the iPhone keyboard, but typing “2 cases of water” with another phone jammed in my ear is awkward; it’s much easier to just type it on my work computer. Plus, syncing often just feels like a bother, doesn’t it? Not to mention lengthy with the “let me me nip off to the pub while this backup runs” issue that’s back with 3.0.

What worked best was QuickOffice writing the file to an iDisk. But iDisk is all I would be using from MobileMe, and I just can’t get my mind around paying $99 a year for that convenience. Not to mention, handling simple text through the .doc format just seemed overkill. I could work off the cloud, but if I’m in a low signal area, I’m out of luck.

So, the solution I’ve found myself going with is using Drafts in the iPhone/Gmail web interface. I can create a draft, give it a title and merrily type away on the iPhone. When I save it, it syncs to my Gmail account where I can edit the draft on any computer that’s connected to the Internet. As long as I don’t put in a recipient, it wont get accidentally sent. I also don’t need to worry about initiating a sync; it all happens in the background.

How about you? What solutions to this problem have you found?

iPhone Mail Drafts

Gmail Drafts Screen

Aperture is a great photo management application, but may not be suitable for everyone. I recently made a decision to move back to iPhoto in order to use some of the features in the latest release. Several of these, such as face recognition, are not present in the current version of Aperture.

This decision posed a problem. How do you move several thousand photos out of Aperture and back into iPhoto, without tearing your hair out in the process? This how-to will outline a few different possibilities, along with the process I found to work best.

Why Move?

Before exploring the different export options, I feel the need to answer the question of why you would want to move away from an advanced application such as Aperture:

1. You could be switching to a different workflow, with a different “pro” tool such as Lightroom.
2. You may desire the faster performance of iPhoto, which feels much quicker than Aperture on lower specification machines.
3. Or, like me, you may want to switch to access iPhoto-specific features.

Although you can access Aperture images in iPhoto, this isn’t the same as moving them all across from one application to another. If you’d just like to access Aperture images, you can do so by clicking File > Show Aperture Library:

Show Aperture Library

A solution is needed for exporting all of your images in a useful folder structure, ready for importing into another application of choice.

Drag-and-Drop

The simplest way to move photos from one application to another is by dragging and dropping them out of Aperture, then back into a new iPhoto event or album. Providing you’ve set Aperture to export full-resolution versions when dragging out, this method can work well.

The problem with this solution is simple: time. If you have a few hundred photo albums, exporting each one separately can be a very long winded process, and take far too long to be practical. A better solution exists for exporting all the photos in your Library with one click.

Bulk Exporting

Fortunately, Aperture comes with a fairly advanced set of export preferences allowing you to specific exactly how a folder structure will be created, along with how files are to be named.

First, select the images to export (this is likely to be all the images in your Library). Click File → Export → Version (or Master, if you’d like the original images). You can then look for the “Subfolder Format” section, and choose “Edit” to define your own export structure.

Edit Folder Structure

This will launch a simple interface for defining a folder structure for export. This is particularly user friendly and easy-to-use.

Export Settings

The options chosen here will reflect how you have chosen to organize your Aperture library. You may have a different Project for each shoot, or prefer to use Folders to structure photos. Either way, you can select from a few of the following:

• Project Name
• Folder Name
• Year/Date/Time (both the current time, and that of shooting)
• Various Custom Numbers/Fields

Using a combination of these options should allow for a flexible export structure, and result in a well organized set of photos on your hard drive.

You can also adjust how files themselves are named using a similar process under the “Name Format” menu.

Importing into iPhoto should then be as simple as dragging the resulting folders of photos into the application. Appropriately titled events will automatically be created.

Other Solutions

A few other solutions exist for simplifying this process and automating it further. You could try this Automator script which, while a little dated, could do the trick.

It’s also possible to approach the problem with AppleScript, though this is a slightly more advanced solution.

Either way, I hope you no longer feel unduly concerned that you are “locked in” to Aperture. The export process can be fairly simple and, while you may lose some meta data, it isn’t too difficult to move a structured set of images out of the application.

This is the third installment of our Dig Into Unix series, an ongoing look into the deep, geeky insides of the core of OS X. In the first part, we got to fire up the Terminal and take a look around the filesystem as the OS sees it, which is slightly different from how the rest of us see it through the Finder. In the second installment, we took a look at vi, the ancient text editor fit for kings.

Today, I’d like to cover a very basic, but very powerful, aspect of Unix, the three standard streams: standard in, standard out, and standard error. These three are normally abbreviated as stdin, stdout and stderr.

When interacting with an application on the command line, it’s good to imagine that application with three pipes. One is a big funnel, right on top — this is stdin, accepting input from the keyboard. The second pipe is on the bottom, stdout, sending text to the Terminal. The third, stderr, sticks out the side, and normally also sends its output to the Terminal. I say “normally” because the standard streams can be redirected by certain key characters. For example, if you use “cat” to display a document, you are sending stdout to the Terminal. However, if you use “cat” like this, you actually send the output of the cat command to another file, redirecting stdout to a new text file.

cat someFile 1> someCopy.txt

The number one in the command above represents stdout. The right arrow is telling the shell that you’d like to redirect stdout to a new file. If that file already exists, this command will replace that file with the contents of “someFile”. If you’d like to append the text to someCopy.txt, you could do this as well:

cat someOtherFile 1>> someCopy.txt

You’ll notice that I used two right arrows that time. Using the double right arrows tells the shell to append the text to the end of the file. This works great for keeping a running log of regularly scheduled tasks.

Sometimes you’ll want to either keep error messages out of the way, or you’ll like to keep a log of error messages. In this case, you can redirect stderr to a file like this:

grep something somewhere 2> grep_error_log

The grep command is another Unix power tool that we’ll touch on later in the series. For now, just know that grep searches for strings of text in files. In the command above, I told grep to search for the string “something” in the file “somewhere” and then redirect stderr “2” to a file named “grep_error_log.” Run this command without the redirect on it, then add the redirect and run it again. You can compare the contents of the error log to what you saw on the terminal and see that they are the same.

Being able to redirect output is handy, but not really a “power tool.” The real power is in the pipe, the key on the far right above the return key, that looks like this: “|”, and it’s probably a key that you may have looked at and wondered…“why is that there?” The pipe takes the stdout from one command and feeds it to the stdin of another command. Think about the picture above; now imagine plugging lots of different commands into each other in a long string. The nature of Unix is that it is continually used in ways that its creators never imagined. It is truly a system limited only by your creativity and curiosity.

During one of my early classes on Unix, after we had entered in a command very similar to the one below, the instructor stood up and said, “Congratulations, you are all programmers!” We weren’t, not by a long shot, but the idea was that by entering commands and stringing them together in the Terminal, we were programming the computer to perform a specific task. We were not using a traditional “programming” language like C or even Java, but we were programming directly to the shell.

To put this idea into action, consider this command:

cat someFile | grep someText 1> foundText

First of all, yes, I’m aware that this is a useless use of cat. That’s not the point. The point is that the above command connects cat’s stdout, which normally points to the Terminal, to stdin of grep, which then searches what it has been handed for the string “someText,” and then, just for good measure, redirect the output of grep to a file named “foundText.”

The simple illustrations I’ve given here work in all kinds of situations. Personally, I use the pipe and stream redirection to parse the results of commands that search logs, retrieve information from the Internet, and reformat data into comma separated values for importing into Numbers, Excel or OpenOffice. There are very few limitations to what you can do with plain text and the tools lurking under the hood of your Mac.

One of the big, new features of the iPhone is its ability to tether. BlackBerrys have had this ability for a while, so below I have outlined how to tether your BlackBerry with your Mac to use your Internet connection to browse the web with your computer.

Some Things to Note

• This tutorial is for Leopard.
• I have successfully tested this with a BlackBerry Bold and a BlackBerry Curve 8900 using the 8800 modem drivers, but it should also work with the BlackBerry 8100, 8700 and 8800.
• Some service providers have a special tethering plan that you may need to add to your cell phone. (It will work without the tethering packing, but you might get slammed with overage charges if they catch you.)

Configure Your BlackBerry

1. Open “Manage Connections.”
2. Click the checkbox next to “Bluetooth” to turn Bluetooth on.
3. Scroll down to “Set up Bluetooth.”
4. A pop-up will come up to name your device; name it.
5. An “Add Device” pop up will come up; click “Cancel.”
6. Click the BlackBerry menu; select “Options.”
7. Set Discoverable to “Yes.”
8. Save changes.

Configure Your Mac

1. Download & Install BlackBerry modem scripts for OS X.
2. Go to System Preferences → Bluetooth.
3. Check “Show Bluetooth status in the menu bar.”
4. Click on the menu bar item and select “Set up Bluetooth Device.”
   
5. A pop-up will appear; click “Continue.”
6. Select “Mobile phone” as the type of device.
7. When the computer finds your phone, select it and click “Continue.”
8. You’ll be given a passkey. Enter the passkey into your BlackBerry.
9. After successfully pairing your computer with your BlackBerry, you will get a pop-up that asks, “Accept connection request from (your computer)?” Click the checkbox “Don’t ask again” and select “Yes.”
10. Your computer will now ask, “Access the Internet with your phone’s data connection?” Click the check box, and select “Continue.”
    
11. Enter the following information into the appropriate boxes. (This is for AT&T. Do a Google search for other vendors.):
    • Username: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
    • Password: CINGULAR1
    • Phone Number: wap.cingular
12. Save and close.
13. Now open up network preferences: Applications → System preferences → Network
14. Click the Plus Button.
    • Interface: Bluetooth
    • Service Name: Whatever you want, I named it “Tethered BB”
      
15. Enter in all the information again:
    • Username: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
    • Password: CINGULAR1
    • Phone Number: wap.cingular

    

16. Click “Advanced:”
    • Vendor: Research In Motion
    • Model: BlackBerry 8800
    • Dial mode: Ignore dial tone when dialing

    

17. Save Settings.

Connect to the Internet

Make sure Bluetooth is enabled on both you phone and your computer!

1. Click the Dialer icon in your menu bar.
2. Select Connect Tethered BB (or whatever you named your connection in step 14 of setting up your computer) from the drop-down menu.
3. After a few seconds you should be connected!

I previously wrote an article on how to stream your data from a Time Capsule and local computer over the Internet. After figuring out the basics of networking, I moved onto wanting to control my media center computer remotely. Below I’ve outlined the steps to set up remotely controlling your home computer over the Internet.

Some Things to Note

• This tutorial assumes you’re using a Mac on your home network with screen-sharing turned on, that it’s powered on most of the time, and that it has a static IP address (the tutorial explains how to do each of these things).
• You must have an external static IP address (my broadband Internet came with that).

Determine your External IP Address

We’re going to be referring back to this number a lot. Make sure you write it down.

1. Go to What is My IP Address?
2. Write down the number next to “Your IP Address is”
   

Set Your Computer to a Static IP Address

1. Launch System Preferences: Applications → System Preferences
2. Under the “Internet & Network” section, click on the “Network” icon
3. In the left hand menu, select the “Ethernet” or “Airport” device. (Select whichever one you are using to connect to your network, it will have a green ball next to it and say “Connected.”)
4. Click “Advanced”
   
5. Click the “TCIP/IP” tab
6. Write down the number next to “IPV4 Address” (from now on we’ll refer to this as your “Internal IP Address”)
   
7. In the “Configure IPV4″ pull down menu, select “Using DHCP with Manual address”
8. The box next to “IPV4 Address” will default to all zeros. Type in the number we wrote down in step 6 (your internal IP Address)
   
9. Close System Preferences

Set Up Screen-sharing on Your Computer

1. Launch System Preferences: Applications → System Preferences
2. Under the “Internet & Network” section, click on the “Sharing” icon
3. Select the checkbox next to “Remote Management”
4. A pop up will come up with a ton of checkboxes asking you what you would like to do when remotely managing. I checked everything and clicked “OK.”
   
5. Select the “Computer Settings” button
6. Check the box next to “VNC users may control screen with password” and enter a password in the text box next door. Click “OK” after you’ve entered a password.
   
7. Close System Preferences

Forward Port 5900

Port 5900 is the Apple VNC port. We need to forward from our external IP address to the computer that’s sharing files on our internal network.

Every router is different, so below I’ve outlined the basic steps. You’re going to have to consult your router’s documentation for exact instructions. Portfoward.com has documentation for a lot of routers and I also wrote an article for the Airport Extreme.

1. Log into your router. If you’ve left the router with the default configuration, launch a web browser and enter “192.168.1.1″ (most routers default to this IP). If this doesn’t work, consult your router’s manual for directions on how to get to the configuration panel.
2. Once you’re logged into your router, find the port forwarding section (mine was under the “Applications and Gaming” tab).
3. Forward both the TCP and UDP ports from the router to your file sharing computer’s IP Address.

Connect to your Computer Over the Internet

Now comes the fun part: connecting to our computer over the Internet.

1. Head over to SourceForge and download/install the latest version of Chicken of the VNC
2. Launch Chicken of the VNC. If you are currently on your home network (the network with the computer that has the screen we want to control) and did everything correctly by default, you should see the name of the computer you are trying to connect. All you have to do is type in the password we set earlier and click “Connect.”
3. To add a new location, click the small plus arrow in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen.
4. A pop-up window will ask you to name the location. Name it whatever you like.
5. In the “Host” box, replace the phrase “localhost” with the external IP address we determined earlier
6. In the “Password” box, type in the password we set earlier and select the “Remember Password” checkbox.
   
7. Click “Connect.” If you did everything correctly, you should be able to control your computer.

Optional Step: Forward a Domain Name to Your External IP Address

Remembering a domain name is much easier than remembering an IP address, so for this optional step we’re going to forward a domain name to our External IP address that we wrote down earlier. Then when we go to the “Connect to Server,” you can enter in the domain name instead of the IP address.

This guide is for GoDaddy, but the same basic procedure should apply for other domain registrars.

1. Purchase a domain at Godaddy.com.
2. Log into your Account Manager.
3. In the My Products section, click Domain Manager.
4. Click the domain name for which you want to create an A record.
5. In the Total DNS section, click Total DNS Control and MX Records.
6. Click Add New A Record.
7. Complete the following:

   Host Name: The host name the A record links to. You can enter @ to map the record directly to your domain.

   Points to IP Address: The external IP address that we wrote down earlier.

   TTL: The time increment for which the server should cache the information.

8. Click OK.

UPDATE: As some users have commented, opening ports on your firewall can pose a security risk. Always exercise extreme caution when opening ports and never give out your external IP address.

I recently switched from my iPhone to a BlackBerry. A few weeks after the transition, I have discovered my likes and dislikes between phones, and by far the most frustrating difference is the “syncing with computer” feature. An iPhone is literally plug and play, whereas a BlackBerry requires tons of configuration, even for the simplest tasks.

Below I have roughly outlined how to send files between your BlackBerry and computer via Bluetooth.

Pair BlackBerry to your computer

1. On your BlackBerry, turn on Bluetooth.
2. From your manage connections menu on your BlackBerry select “Set up Bluetooth.”
3. Click the menu button and select “Options.”
4. Next to discoverable, select “Yes.”
5. On your Mac, launch System Preferences (Applications → System Preferences).
6. Under the “Hardware” section click on the “Bluetooth” icon.
7. Make sure Bluetooth is turned on. Click the “Set up New Device” icon in the middle of the Bluetooth window. (If you already have a device set up, click the plus arrow in the device column.)
8. The setup wizard will pop up. Click “Continue” on the first pop-up window.
9. On the “Select Device Type” window select “Mobile Phone.”
10. Select your phone from the next screen and click continue.
11. Your computer will prompt you with a PIN to enter into your BlackBerry. Enter the PIN into the BlackBerry device.
12. If you entered the PIN correctly, your devices will be paired.
13. Uncheck the “Access the Internet with your phone’s data connection” box.
14. Your phone is now paired with your computer.

Turn on Bluetooth file-sharing on your Mac

1. Launch System Preferences (Applications → System Preferences).
2. Under the “Internet & Network” section, click on the “Sharing” icon.
3. In the “Services” column, select the checkbox next to “Bluetooth Sharing.”
   
4. Leave everything as default. (You can change the preferences if you want, but I just left as the default.)
5. Close System Preferences.

Send a file from your BlackBerry to your Mac

1. Browse your BlackBerry’s media and find the file that you want to transfer.
2. With the file selected, pull up your BlackBerry menu and select “Sending Using Bluetooth” from the BlackBerry menu.
3. A pop-up will come up on your BlackBerry asking you to select a device. Select the paired computer you want to transfer the file to.
4. A pop-up window will appear on your computer asking what you want to do. Accept the transfer, and the file will start transferring.

Send a file from your Mac to your BlackBerry

1. Pull up your BlackBerry media browser on your device.
2. Open the menu and select “Receive Using Bluetooth.”
3. On your Mac, find the file you want to transfer and right-click on it.
4. From the pop-up menu, select “More → Send [...] to Bluetooth Device” and select your phone from the pop out menu.
   
5. Make sure you BlackBerry isn’t asleep. If you make a successful connection, you will get a pop-up on your BlackBerry asking what to do with the file. Select the location you want the file to save and and click “Save.” The file will begin to transfer. NOTE: I’ve had this fail a few times, but when I hit send again from my Mac computer it works; seems like second time is the charm. Making sure your BlackBerry is not asleep is also crucial.

With the iPhone 3G S on sale in a matter of days, a rush of 3G and original iPhone owners will be selling their phones and upgrading to the new model. If you are planning on selling your current iPhone, there are a few simple steps that can help maximize your resale value.

Before beginning the process of selling your current iPhone, ponder one last time whether it’s a good idea. There’s a lot to like in the new iPhone, but more than a few features are still missing. If you purchased an iPhone 3G last July from AT&T, you will not be eligible for the “standard” upgrade now, incurring $200 in additional cost unless you wait until December. Of course, December will be just six months from the next iteration of the iPhone, so why not just wait until June 2010, for a potential 4G iPhone, possibly on the Verizon LTE network? Obviously that last bit is a little friendly speculation.

So, again, why not just wait until next June? Because I don’t want to.

Setting aside better battery life, a better camera, and a compass with an app that looks like it’s from Myst, the iPhone 3G S is at least 50 percent faster than previous models, and has a better GPU too. From playing games to booting apps to rendering web pages, the extra cost of upgrading now will be saved in time spent using the iPhone 3G S. All that remains is to minimize that upfront cost as much as possible.

Step 1: Presentation

Even before choosing a selling venue, take at least one photo of your current iPhone and everything sold with it. Using a picture of the actual iPhone is superior to an advertising photo in that it both shows the prospective buyers what they are getting and that the phone is working. As you can see in the picture below, the headphones are not included. Frankly, anyone who would buy earbuds with a year’s worth of my ear wax and sweat from the gym coating them is not someone I want to sell to. Or meet. Having said that, you can sell your new headset from the iPhone 3G S with your old phone. It’s your choice, unlike where you’ll likely sell your iPhone.

Woodgrain is a nice background, clutter from your living space, not so much

Step 2: Where to Sell

Love it or hate it, it’s eBay. Sure, if you live in a large city, you can use craigslist, but eBay is the virtual bazaar for most of the planet that wants to buy an iPhone. Last year, eBay had additional rules on selling iPhones, including requiring PayPal for transactions, but not so far this year. Regarding price, the iPhone 3G appears to be going for between $300 and $400 right now, the original model a little less. Of course, you’ll have to decide whether or not to jailbreak the phone, which would likely increase the eventual selling price. Also, opting to sell worldwide will garner higher bids. For me, both those options were outside my personal comfort zone, but I still sold my original iPhone last September for close to $400, which brings us to the details.

Step 3: How to Sell

“Apple iPhone 3G 16GB Black *Warranty* *Free Shipping*“

That listing, the picture, and a short description is all you need. In the description, I state that my iPhone is in excellent condition, that it is being sold to upgrade to an iPhone 3G S, and that buyers have the “option” of unlocking it. I also state when the warranty will expire. One-year warranties on iPhone 3Gs will start expiring as soon as July 11. Free shipping sets my ad apart from others, and is one less thing prospective buyers have to worry about. Considering the large numbers of used iPhones that will be coming on the market in the next few weeks, opting for a shorter auction makes more sense. It means an ad with fewer days buried behind thousands of others. As for a minimum selling price, I’m going with $300 for an iPhone 3G.

Step 4: Sale, Packing, and Shipping

A lot of people are going to e-mail with questions or propositions of a dubious nature. Stick to your auction rules, which in my case includes selling to U.S. residents with a lot of positive feedback. It goes without saying that you don’t ship until they “paypal you the monies.” Once the sale is made, wipe the iPhone: Settings → General → Reset → Erase all Content and Settings. Remove the SIM card, clean the iPhone thoroughly, then pack it in its box, and pack that box in a larger one filled with styrofoam peanuts or other packing material. Don’t go cheap at the end. For me, that means UPS, a tracking number that I can follow every step of the way, and a signature required for delivery.

Step 5: Count the Cost

Since I do yearly upgrades, I always opt for the low-end iPhone. The retail cost of a 16GB iPhone will be approximately $450, tax and activation fee included. I expect that that my iPhone 3G will net me $350, taking into account shipping and PayPal fees. That means my iPhone 3G S will cost me about a quarter a day over the next year.

That’s a small price to pay for the fastest, most powerful, most hyped iPhone yet.