In order to prepare for the arrival of Snow Leopard, and hopefully deflect some frustrated tech support calls, Apple overnight updated oodles of support documents and knowledge base articles. One of said documents could be vital to people looking to upgrade today, as it contains the blacklist of really incompatible software for 10.6.

The list is split into two parts. The first, which features software that will be automatically moved to an “Incompatible Software” folder, contains some familiar faces, like Unsanity’s Application Enhancer 2.0.1 and earlier, versions of which caused a fair amount of BSOD (including one of my own) when users upgraded from Tiger to Leopard. At least your system won’t just seize up and die this time around. Other programs on this list include:

• Parallels Desktop 2.5 and below
• AT&T’s Laptop Connect Card (1.0.4, 1.0.5, and 1.10.0)
• Norton AntiVirus 11.0
• launch2net 2.13.0 (for some 3G USB dongles)

The second part contains programs that Snow Leopard will prevent from opening, though they will remain in their usual location on your drive. Oddly enough, two of Apple’s own software offerings appear on this list. Here are the most popular offenders:

• Aperture 2.1.1 and below
• Keynote 2.0.2 and below
• Parallels Desktop 3.0
• EyeTV 3.0.0 to 3.1.0
• Ratatouille 1.1

I’ve only posted some of the programs on the list, which will probably be updated by Apple as new incompatibilities are discovered. Note that Apple’s not saying these programs will break or prevent a Snow Leopard install, just that they most definitely will not work with 10.6. If I happened to have any of these currently installed on my system, I’d probably do my best to get rid of any trace of them using AppZapper or something similar before upgrading, just in case.

Who doesn’t battle the Apple Sync Services dragon on a semi-regular basis? Here are a couple of examples from Apple Support about how to resolve problems with this very useful yet unfortunately flawed feature:

• Mac OS X 10.5: Resetting the SyncServices folder
• Sync Services: Advanced troubleshooting for contact and calendar syncing

There are even more support articles around the web, although I think you get the picture. Let’s be clear, syncing any type of data is not trivial. Syncing multiple forms of data (contacts, calendar, bookmarks, etc.) is even less so.

If you use Sync Services and you don’t have issues, count yourself amongst one of the lucky few. If you use Sync Services and you have problems, then read on…

To cure your Sync Services woes, The folks at Spanning Sync recently released a great set of three applications called Spanning Tools. Here is what the package includes:

• Calendar Cleaner: resolves calender conflicts, duplicates, etc.
• Contacts Cleaner: resolves duplicate contacts, bad data with contacts and more.
• Sync Tune-Up: the big-kahuna tool. This one enables you to completely remove any bad Sync Services data and then start syncing with fresh (clean) data.

Where Sync Services gets crazy is when you begin using additional applications that leverage the functionality. Some of these applications include: MobileMe (AB, iCal, Safari, etc.), Microsoft Entourage, Daylite, Missing Sync, Google Contact Sync (from Address Book), Spanning Sync, BusySync, iSync phones and many, many more

What I like about this software suite is that it is focused. You have a specific toolset to resolve some potentially big data synchronization issues. What’s also great is that this suite of tools is very inexpensive – $20. Thus, for a nice crisp Mr. Jackson, you can own a complete toolset to ensure that your Sync Services data is kept clean, fresh, and consistent.

If you’re looking for a something sync-oriented to add to your utilities arsenal, then definitely head on over to the Spanning Tools site – you won’t regret it.

When Apple changed its One to One policy, I had no idea it would eventually affect me personally. As a consumer who recently upgraded to a high-end digital camera, I am also looking to upgrade my digital photo editing and organizing software.

Naturally, as a contributor to this blog, my first thought was to upgrade from iPhoto to Aperture. The problem is, where do I turn to learn how to use all of Aperture’s features? The One to One program would be perfect for me, but that’s no longer an option unless I purchase a new computer from Apple.

For those of you who may have forgotten, the old One to One program cost $99 and included weekly one hour (read: one academic hour, which actually means 50 minutes) sessions for an entire year. Customers could learn about a wide variety of topics, from how to use a Mac, to uploading photos to MobileMe, to editing images in Aperture.

In order to provide an alternative for those like me who’ve been hung out to dry, I’ve done my best gathering resources for people who like a little guidance when learning new software. Fortunately, Aperture is designed so that newcomers can easily figure out how to import photos from a memory card and organize them into projects, but anything more advanced may require additional patience and resources.

• Apple tutorials podcast
• Quick Tips with Richard Harrington podcast
• Apple’s Aperture forum
• Apple’s Exploring Aperture book
• Amazon’s Aperture 4+ star books
• Retail workshops – Don’t expect much unless you live close to a major store. Those in Northern California have two options: San Francisco and Corte Madera.

Let us know about any other good resources you’ve come across for learning Aperture.

Apple today released iPhoto 8.1, a free update to its consumer photo application. The update brings several new features for print products, including new themes and a larger book size. Consumers can now order “extra large” photo books, that start at $49.99 USD for a 13×10 hardcover.

This update for iPhoto also includes three new travel-related photo book themes: Old World Travel, Tropical Travel and Asian Travel. Each is based on the existing travel theme, but includes several unique backgrounds. Apple has also provided additional greeting card themes.

This free update is 161MB and can be downloaded automatically via Software Update or through Apple’s Support Downloads website.

I have no numbers to back this up, but based on personal experience, and anectdotal evidence, I would say that a lot of Mac users are probably using some kind of multi-client IM application like Adium or aMSN. That said, I believed until quite recently that everyone used Messenger identities, only to find that in the U.S., AIM is much more popular. That sort of leaves Yahoo! Messenger out of the picture, but perhaps their newly released 3.0 Beta can change that.

The new beta brings a number of improvements, including support for adding Windows Live contacts, which has been available on the PC version of the software for quite some time. Yahoo! Messenger also now boasts some of the same VOIP features that Skype offers, including receiving and calling out to landline and mobile phones, call forwarding, and voicemail services, all of which are available for an additional fee.

It also introduces stealth settings, which is a selective invisibility filter, meaning you can appear offline to specific, individual users, and remain online for everyone else. I call this “Adultery Mode.” Shame on you if you use it. Shame.

You can also share huge files, up to 2GB, send SMS messages, and broadcast live video to more than one user at a time. As an IM client, Yahoo! Messenger does present some nice extras, and its basic functionality is straightforward and, unlike AIM, not overly distracting visually. Best feature of Yahoo! Messenger for the Mac? The giant, extremly happy smiley face in your dock. Still, I’m definitely not giving up Adium anytime soon.

Nowadays, we use tags pretty much everywhere we work and play online. Flickr, Facebook, Gmail, this blog (and any other blog), and on and on. It’s an easy, intuitive way to keep track of things, and an organizational strategy that transcends categories and other groupings, like date and subject matter. It’s such a great system, it only makes sense that someone would get the bright idea of applying the concept to your own computer and offline files as well.

This is just what Tags (free trial, $29) from Gravity Apps is designed to do. With it, you can tag pretty much anything on your Mac, and then search for tagged items to quickly retrieve loads of associated files, regardless of where they’re kept, what type of file they are, when they were created, etc. Admittedly, it’s a feature that might not be needed if you maintain an obsessively well-organized folder structure, but for anyone outside of that lonely niche, it is a very useful little tool.

Like Quicksilver, the popular Mac launcher app, Tags works best as an always-on application that runs silently in the background, accessible via a keystroke, dock icon, or menu bar item. Pressing “Control + Space” (default, can be changed) at any time brings up the Tags window, which, as long as you’ve selected a taggable file (in Finder, Mail, iPhoto, or others) will allow you to type in a tag to associate with that item. If you’ve already tagged some other items, the app will auto-suggest tags as you type. You can also batch tag multiple items by selecting more than one and then opening the Tags window.

Besides its basic tagging function, Tags has a lot to offer, and depending on your level of comfort, you can use it to supplement Finder so much that you’ll probably end up having little cause to ever click that poor little blue happy face ever again. Clicking in the upper right corner allows you to search your previously tagged items, reveal your results in Finder, and create smart folders based on your Tags to automatically group tagged files.

From the Tag Manager, accessible via the Menu Bar, you can see all your existing tags, how many files are associated with each, and a list of all files under each tag. You can also remove and rename tags here, so that if you want to change a tag with, say, 50 files associated with it, you don’t have to alter each one individually.

Every aspect of the app’s design is consistent with the theme of kraft paper shipping or sales tags, complete with the reinforced hole for string. It’s a nice look, but personally I’d prefer a skin that integrated more naturally with Leopard’s overall look, especially since this is the type of app that’s meant to be used all the time seamlessly in concert with the operating system’s existing features. I’m also not a huge fan of how Tags stays on top of all other windows. I can see how it’s useful, but I’d appreciate an option to turn that off.

All in all, Tags is a great app for those who would like to keep their Mac more organized, but don’t have the desire or the patience to maintain a rigorously policed folder structure. Heck, even if you do have a pristine folder structure, Tags is designed to transcend that and offer you another way to sift through content, so its probably worth a look for the obsessively organized as well. Best of all, you can try out the 30-day trial first to see if it’s something you’ll actually use for more than a day.

It’s generally taken for granted that a cutting edge company such as Apple has a well oiled system of editors and copywriters who check software releases for errors before they go live. Unfortunately, it seems that the system has broken down with the latest iPhone software release.

Apple has written the Categories menu on the new Podcast download area of the new app as “Catagories”. The error is even more unfortunate, as the correct spelling of the word can be seen at the bottom of the page.

Macworld humorously referenced back to Scott Forstall, Apple’s vice president of platform experience, who said:

I actually have a photographer’s loupe that I use to make sure every pixel is right. We will argue over literally a single pixel.

I’ve done the math, and in order to miss the word ‘Catagories’, Scott has overlooked eight hundred and six pixels… He needs to have a few strong words with whoever has been delegated the loupe in recent months.

It will be interesting to see what move Apple takes to correct this. Will they treat it as a priority and push out another software release fairly quickly, or will they simply wait until the next iPhone software update is due? Personally, I expect they’ll wait for a future release — updating the software on your iPhone can be a fairly lengthy process for users (especially those with slow internet connections), and they’re unlikely to be too concerned with a minor spelling error.

I’m interested to know — have you ever noticed any spelling mistakes with previous releases (iPhone or otherwise)?

EDIT: Well, it looks like Apple quickly fixed that issue by updating the download package. How unfortunate (for this article).

Avery recently unveiled the final version of DesignPro for Mac. You’ll find over 1300 predesigned layouts to that you can use for labels, stationery designing, and printing.

“DesignPro offers Mac users one software program that has the flexibility and creativity to design and print the broad range of Avery products,” said Peta-Gaye Latibeaudiere, Senior Product Manager for Avery Dennison. “We are confident that DesignPro will meet the high quality expectations of Mac users.”

DesignPro is a hefty download weighing in at 262 MB. I have used Avery label software in the past. I was happy to see that many of my favorite features were included in the Mac version. Greeting cards & postcards was some of my favorites, and I was customizing in no time. I’m still able to import personal photos. DesignPro let’s me do this by using iPhoto. Although I’m an Aperture 2.0 user I can easily export my photos to iPhoto and from their import them to Avery DesignPro. If designing your own creations is not your style that’s not a problem you have over 2000 clip art to choose from.

DesignPro also gives you the option to merge data from Address Book or Mail effortlessly so you can address your labels without any problems. You also have the option to import playlists and albums from iTunes. Although this is, a free software application Avery DesignPro didn’t skip on the features. There are many things you can do in DesignPro such as; create business cards, dividers, binder inserts, along with a variety of variety of specialty products like iron on transfers for t-shirts.

Log onto Avery’s website and download your free copy of Avery DesignPro. Avery DesignPro is compatible with Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard.

While primarily due to being ill *yet again* (I’m beginning to think Seattle is the nation’s cold/flu incubator), last week’s blogging was further disrupted by the preparations for and celebration of our last child’s second birthday. As you can imagine, children of geeks tend to get more geeky presents and Ian is now the proud user of his own age-appropriate “Leap” device and the plethora of add-ons that go with it. This is also the age where we have tended to start our kids on interactive computer software (that is, if you don’t count Baby Banger). Besides Winnie-ther-Pooh, one of his favorite stories is The Cat in the Hat by the venerable Dr. Seuss, so I grabbed a copy of MacKiev’s electronic version at the Alderwood Mall Apple Store and had it ready to go on the MBPro for the big day.

We’ve purchased other versions of this interactive Cat for his brother and sister, but MacKiev did an outstanding job on this version with enough distinctly Mac touches to warrant a post. What did the developers get right?

A solid installer

While I am – and other experienced Apple users are – fully comfortable dragging applications around, newer Mac users and switchers tend to like installers. Good installers do the heavy lifting for you, make sure you know what’s going on, possibly do extra work (more on that in a bit) and provide an easy way to un-install the program. MacKiev definitely got this right.

Keeping up-to-date

“Registering” children’s software – or any other type of software for that matter – on Windows boxes was usually a task I would avoid since it tended to be little more than a request for spam. The MacKiev installer gave me the option to register and I took a chance since (a) it’s a Mac program and (b) it provided a means to opt-out of spam-like messages. Immediately after registering, I received an e-mail letting me know there was a Leopard update to the program, which I promptly downloaded and installed. While a “check for updates” menu item (*cough* Sparkle *cough*) would have been even better, it was refreshing to get useful mail right from the start.

Choices & control

The Cat in the Hat software has two primary modes, interactive (click on things during the story) or “movie-mode”, which is just an animated reading of the book while words are highlighted. You really don’t need software for the latter, and the book/content publisher finally understood this since the installer asked me if I wanted to upload supplemental content into iTunes. This “supplemental” content was actually the full audio and video of the book, which was copied in DRM-free format into my library where two playlists were also created, ready to sync to my iPhone, iPod or Apple TV (it’s now on all three).

For quite a while, Ian will just be sitting with me as we watch the story unfold or as I click on images to make them do unexpected tricks, but now he’ll also be able to hunt for it on my iPhone (he already knows how to call his mother on it and can get to music he likes without help from anyone, which is a tribute Apple engineers UI design/implementation) or request it as an option for the infrequent TV time the kids get.

MacKiev’s great work has guaranteed a purchase of The ABC Book when Ian is a little older and is definitely something other developers & publishers should seek to emulate in their offerings. If you’ve had some good experiences with other children’s software, be sure to drop a note in the comments (hey, it’s for Ian after all!).

While I’m not trying to only focus on security topics, they just seem to pop up more often than not, including today’s serendipitous discovery that TrueCrypt is available for OS X. Security isn’t just about maintaining system integrity (loosely defined as keeping malicious code from getting onto/running on your system). A critical component is ensuring that your valuable data is protected according to your risk appetite (loosely defined as confidentiality). Macs already have FileVault and secure disk images to handle basic encryption needs, so you may be asking why we need yet another utility for protecting information our systems (a fair question).

If you need/desire cross-platform compatibility, then TrueCrypt is a perfect choice. You can encrypt a virtual disk image onto a USB drive and take it from Windows to Linux to OS X and gain access to your all your secret data, something that is not possible with OS X secure disk images.

The other big “selling point” (difficult to use that term with a free & open source product) is the concept of plausible deniability. Until you go through the process of decrypting/mounting a volume, TrueCrypt file or disk volumes appear to consist of nothing more than random data (i.e. there is no “signature”). It is impossible to prove that a file, a partition or a device is a TrueCrypt volume or that it has been encrypted. This is an important point since we’re going down a very slippery slope (at least in the United States) where folks are now being forced to give up their secrets with full legal backing. You can rename a TrueCrypt file to “Family Vacation.mov” and be able to claim that it’s just a corrupted transfer from your video camera with no way for the authorities to prove otherwise. Similarly, non-boot volumes (which is not an option for OS X yet) have no identifiable tags, making it look like an unformatted partition with random data.

Sadly, one of the coolest features – creating a hidden volume within an encrypted volume – is also not available on OS X yet. This option would allow you to give up your keys/passphrase to an outer-encrypted volume, but have another hidden, encrypted volume within it that uses a separate set of keys/passphrase. This lets you give up some of your secrets but not all of them.

My attempts at downloading and installing TrueCrypt were woefully unsuccessful with Safari under Leopard (the download file was corrupted). It worked fine in Firefox and is available for 10.4 and 10.5, Intel or PPC. I’ll be putting the software through some tests over the next few days, so drop a note in the comments or forums if you have any questions or want to share your experiences with the product.

When it comes to harnessing your Mac’s power for video encoding, you’re left with two choices: digital or physical.

Digital

Handbrake is the go to source for creating digital copies of your video. With Handbrake you can pop in a DVD and select the appropriate preset. You can encode straight to iPod, iPhone or Apple TV. Handbrake is open source, and completely free.

iSquint is great for converting DivX/XviD to Mp4. It’s freeware for basic use, or you can purchase Visual Hub which offers a variety of services. For basic use, iSquint works well and converts fairly quickly. For the best iPod TV out settings, select:

• Check Optimize for TV
• Check H.264
• Scale the slider to the quality setting of your choice

Quick tip for your iPods. If you want to import a video without transferring it to iTunes. Be sure your iPod is set to “Manually Manage” and you can now drag and drop files right onto the iPod icon in iTunes and transfer straight to it.

Physical

MacTheRipper allows you to import DVD Vob files right to your Hard Drive. Couple it with Dvd2OneX and you can shrink the file down to 4.4 gigs so it will fit right on a single layer DVD-R. Personally, if you can find it, I prefer the original version of Dvd2OneX, not the new Dvd2OneX2. Also Dvd2One isn’t freeware and requires purchasing.

Toast 8 will take your Dvd2One or MacTheRipper file and burn it for playback on DVD players. Toast 8 is not freeware and will require purchasing to unlock all its features. Be sure to select UDF in Toast 8 to ensure proper playback.

iTunes
When dealing with importing videos into iTunes, it’s a simple drag and drop. If the video you copy doesn’t go into the proper category (Movie, TV Show, etc) be sure to edit the Metadata as follows:

• Right click and select ‘Get Info’
• Click the ‘Video’ tab
• From the drop down select: TV Show, Movie, or Music Video

Comment any questions, I’ll see if I can answer them. Also if you use any other resources or methods for converting your videos, I’d love to hear about them.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended for any illegal activity. What you do with it is your problem.

The guys at VMware are supremely dedicated to bringing the best support for Virtualization that they can to the Apple platform. I’ve played with both Parallels and Fusion and the choice of the latter was an easy one for me. But the one sticking point tends to be Apple’s licensing of their operating system: They don’t like it running on non-Apple hardware.

But a change in licensing for the Server version of OS X has opened the door for virtualization. VMware is kicking it at Macworld San Francisco as I type this, and demoing their newly installed virtual machine, running OS X 10.5 Server all day long. They’re certain to clear that this is no hacked version of our beloved operating system, but a straight install from an Apple-licensed DVD, running within VMware’s Fusion Virtualization software. And Fusion supports 64 bit operating systems too, so Leopard Server is purring in all its glory.

This is big news, as it effectively enables users to run multiple instances of Leopard Server on a single machine. For Mac-based businesses, the environmental savings of this alone are huge! (Think, reduced power requirements and reduced cooling costs, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.)

If you’re at the Expo, check out the VMware booth and all the cool stuff they’ve got going on.

For those of you who have far too many sites to log into and far too short of a memory to remember them all, this program will save your life. 1Password is a simple, elegant system that incorporates itself into most browsers and like Keychain, will save and place your information accordingly.

Browser Compatibility

For a full list of browser compatibility check out their site. Having Safari and Firefox covered, I was already set. Each browser will offer a similar button as shown above. Once you save a form or identity on a browser, it gets transferred to the other ones.

What It Offers

1Password may be similar to Keychain but ultimately provides for a much more versatile user experience. You can store multiple identities, false or real, multiple registration forms, and billing information for quick check outs. 1Password automatically synchronizes with Keychain and can sync with .Mac for access from multiple computers. Transferring information can be safe and easy by simply copying or backing up your Keychain folder.

If you’re like me and use variations of similar passwords, 1Password offers a quick solution to create passwords for you. It will prompt with you with a slider of choices and will create a unique password, at your set length.

Safety

Like the good Samaritans you are, you question safety. Since 1Password is directly integrated with Keychain, OS X is already set to keep your information safe. 1Password requires a master password to log in. Also it will timeout after a specified time. In the 1Password manager you can edit accounts, add notes, or track history.

Like most good things in the world, 1Password comes with at a cost, $29.95. A bargain considering its abilities. If you’re still skeptical try it out for free and comment your experiences.

So, as indicated, I finally switched to Leopard (went from 10.4.11 to 10.5.1 to be precise). As with previous operating system installs, I also took the opportunity to upgrade the internal drive in my MacBook Pro, this time kicking it up to 320GB with the new WD Scorpio WD3200BEVT (it has turned out to be a great drive). A defense of this process includes:

• Get the latest, highest-capacity 2.5″ drive available (score!)
• Do not have to “waste” time backing up the old system (and I can boot into 10.4.11 when needed)
• No worries about upgrade hassles (i.e. the Logitech debacle)

The biggest benefit has been an early spring cleaning for my system. The plethora of excellent third-party software available for OS X makes it really easy to gather many little (and not-so-little) utilities and applications, most of which are used quite infrequently. The other bit of cruft that tends to accumulate is a host of installer downloads, PDFs, other documents and various source archives, most of which can (and should) be archived (that *is* why I bought the 1TB NAS drive, right?). This time around, I took a more tactical approach to re-building my system: load only those programs and files that generate a “Doh! I need that!” reaction over the course of the next seven days. (While I tried to stick to that “one week” rule, I wound up going into week number two.)

Given that the new year is finally upon us and we are all resolute to start afresh, I thought it would be interesting for me to post what wound up being “must haves” for my core Leopard workstation and encourage TAB readers to shout out theirs in the comments. Some elements will obviously be the same, but it should be an illuminating exercise, especially if it winds up unveiling a cool, niche app that has received little coverage.

With that in mind, here are my day-to-day Leopard “essentials”:

• Adium – the best multi-service IM client for OS X
• Ascent – cycling/fitness tracking app that works very well with Garmin products. If you’re into fitness and have not used this program, definitely check it out. I’m hoping to do a full review in the near future.
• CandyBar – Leopard’s icons and Dock are horrid and this makes it pretty with zero hassles
• Carbon Copy Cloner – you *do* do backups, right?
• EVE Online – while the OS X client is *still* buggy, I am holding out great hope (get with it Cedega!)
• ExpanDrive – a.k.a. Unison (still in beta); great way to get secure remote drive access
• EyeTV – Heroes, LOST and Numb3rs in OTA HD with iPhone goodness added in…need I say more?
• Firefox 3.0 (beta) – an *outstanding* browser
• Flip4mac – full (paid) version; I need codec compatibility
• Garmin Training Center – filling in the gaps Ascent still has and ensuring 100% compatibility
• Growl – universal notification done right
• Handbrake – good conversion utility
• iLife ‘08 – it’s a keeper (though I would like the old iPhoto back, please)
• iWork ‘08 – simplicity, speed and style (albeit missing a few features)
• MarsEdit – not as perfect as it needs to be, but a good blogging client nonetheless
• MenuMeters – because it’s good to know when Windows XP (running in VMware) is eating up 90% of both CPUs
• OmniGraffle Professional – way better than Visio with all the diagramming functionality I require
• OmniPlan – mostly to manage projects in my day job
• Quicksilver – I tried relying solely on Spotlight as a launcher, but realized I actually use some of the QS power-user features
• Radioshift – because I’m a conservative who is also an NPR addict with time to kill on the bus ride home
• Remote Desktop Connection – sigh, I still need to get to Windows remotely almost every day
• Skype – great for cross-platform video chats with folks back east
• Snapz Pro X – I take lots of screen shots, movies, etc
• TextWrangler – lets face it, TextEdit sucks & BBEdit costs too much
• Transmission – because I download, uh, lots of Linux distros…yeah…Linux distros
• Twitterific – I like to think I’ve got friends out there…somewhere…(@hrbrmstr, btw)
• VisualHub – for putting those…ah…Linux distros on my iPhone/AppleTV
• VLC – it can play *anything*
• VMware Fusion – for security tools, running XP, testing Linux & BSD
• WriteRoom – this has helped my writing immensely (though TAB readers may disagree)
• Xcode 3 – because garbage-collected Objective-C rocks my dev-world

Here’s a short-list of what didn’t make the cut:

• ecto – if we could only, somehow get the best features of ecto and MarsEdit combined into one with a few other essentials added in…
• iTerm – Leopard’s new, tabbed Terminal give me almost all of the functionality of iTerm without the need for another app
• Juhu – if Google manages to do something cool with Jaiku, maybe this will make it back
• MenuCalendar iCal – Leopard integration was sketchy and – with iCal showing the day correctly in the Dock – there was little need for this anymore (at least how I was using it)
• Miro – formerly Democracy Player; I rarely used it (one can only stomach so much public content)
• NeoOffice – iWork does all I need for now and I will sadly be using Office 2008 for Mac for work Exchange compatibility
• NewsFire – Google Reader is where it’s at for me, especially with the slick iPhone interface
• SubEthaEdit – no need to collaborate this way and no need for yet-another-text-editor at the moment. It’s a very good app, tho.
• VoodooPad – another very nice app that I wound up never using
• Parallels – took them way too long for consistent Leopard compatibility then got all ‘Microsoft’ with features/pricing; may come back someday, but gone for now

It’s fairly well accepted by most commenters at this point that Time Machine may be one of the biggest features to be part of Leopard. Even those users who managed their own backup solutions – and many still do, including myself – applaud it for making backups both easy and intuitive for the average end user. (I credit it for having dramatically reduced panicked phone calls from friends and family about missing files, and that alone made the effort of updating oh-so worth it.)

However, many of us would also like ways to change the frequency of its backups. By default, Time machine runs once an hour, saving a daily backup at the end of the day and a weekly backup at the end of the week. This behavior continues until the drive it was pointed to is full, at which point it begins to delete the oldest backups. Almost immediately, people wanted a way to change the frequency – even if, like me, half the reason was the annoyance of those bright-blue, flashy LED’s on the external hard drive as it spins up every hour in the middle of the night.

An earlier hint at Mac OSX Hints had users editing a .plist file to change the frequency of backups. This hack consisted of editing com.apple.backupd-auto.plist, specifically the following lines:

StartInterval
3600

A change to that integer value – which is in seconds, by the way – and Time Machine would theoretically back up on your schedule, not Apple’s. However, that seems to cause more problems than it solved, in my experience. Specifically, now Time Machine backs up whenever it likes. (It seems to be about once a day, give or take an hour or so, not once every three hours, as I set it to be.) Upon inspection, it appears that the file’s permissions are broken. Repairing permissions in Disk Utility hangs, and attempting to manually do so, even on a duplicate, causes Finder to crash.
…Let’s just say that method is Not Recommended, then.

Alternatively, there is now this – Time Machine Scheduler.  Time Machine Scheduler does not meddle with the .plist files – it simply runs its own daemon to create a backup.  It can be set for any length of time between 1 and 12 hours, as well as optionally running a backup upon loading.  You have the option of either installing Scheduler and its daemon, in which case you do not need to open TMS, or simply running it from the .app when you want to make a backup. It is also fully compatible with existing Time Machine backups – the preference pane will show that Time Machine is off, but it reads the TMS-created backup and date of last backup without trouble.

There is also the option to mount and unmount the Time Machine backup drive automatically, although I have not tested this.  (I have a partitioned drive, and the other partitions are in frequent use, so I don’t bother.)

This method works very well for me, at a reliable three hours.  It takes the same amount of time to run backups, as well as to load and unload the normal Time Machine interface, and, thank heavens, it actually does it every three hours.  Why Apple didn’t include the option to change the backup frequency all along boggles me.

I will note that a third way to do this is to use Lingon to edit the plist files.  I have not tried it, but I thought I would mention it, for  those who might be interested.  How about you?  Have you tried Lingon?  Time Machine Scheduler?  Did the original .plisthack work for you?

(Time Machine Scheduler and Lingon are both free utilities, available at the links above.)

Rogue Amoeba – makers of some stellar audio software – are gearing up for another Macworld Expo in San Francisco, and have added a new twist to the goodies they’ll be offering. In years past they (like many attending developers) have handed out CDs loaded with their many ‘wares for Expo-goers to try out. The big problem has always been that by the time software is printed to disc and delivered to the Expo, it’s likely that updates have already been made to the software. It’s not the end of the world by any means, but presents a speed bump for those ready to try out the fun new applications.

Enter ‘Live Disc’, Rogue Amoeba’s cool new innovation that [sort of] eliminates the possibility of delivering discs with out-of-date code. They give you the full story on their blog, but here’s the gist of it:

Live Disc presents a window much like a customized Finder window, with application icons that you can drag for copying or double-click for launching. The magic is, if a newer copy exists on our web server, it will copy or launch that version instead, seamlessly.

This a very cool idea – one I’d love to hear your take on if you pick one up at The Big Show in a couple weeks. The really neat part is that this solution was one that was conceived just to show off their real products! It’s not far-fetched that they could package this into an application of it’s own, and all as a byproduct of their main focus. Great work guys! It’s stuff like this that makes me excited to play on a Mac everyday.

The Apple TV and iPod are often maligned for being proprietary. Designed to work with all the content you’ve acquired and ripped into iTunes, they work primarily with music, TV shows, and films you’ve acquired from the iTunes store, or with your iPhoto library. But step outside these file formats and you’re pretty much out of luck.

I’ve been using a program called iSquint to convert .AVI files to play in iTunes, my iPod and via the Apple TV. Now, if you have a friend’s home videos sent to you in .AVI, or you download a video from the Web in .AVI, you can get them onto your big screen.

Using iSquint to make the conversion is simple.

1) Drag the .avi file from your hard drive to the application.
2) Choose to optimize for iPod or TV.
3) Select a quality range, from “Tiny” to “Go Nuts”.
4) Check the “Add to iTunes” box.

iSquint in Action

A few minutes later, when the conversion is complete, you’ve created a brand new .mp4 file, alongside the original .AVI file, and can see it in the “Movies” section of iTunes. If your Apple TV, iPod or iPhone are set to sync, then you’ll have the video the next time you do.

While there are very likely other solutions out there, this is one I’ve found that makes the process simple. If you’re not using iSquint, what have you used to bridge the gap?

The upgrade to Leopard has improved more than just the OS – it made Mail, in my opinion, much more usable.

One of the best features is the data detection in the mouse pointer. Running your mouse over a date produces a small drop-down arrow that gives you the option to add it to iCal. The menu for addresses offers to find them in GoogleMaps, and names offer to add to Address Book, or show the Address Book entry, if one already exists.

The date feature can even recognize fuzzy dates, like ‘Wednesday after next’ and add them to iCal, complete with time, if that was included in the email. This effectively brings the link between Mail and iCal full circle, with the other half being reminder emails from iCal.

It’s got its flaws, sadly. For starters, it’s convinced that there is someone named “Rhode Island” who keeps emailing me and who desperately needs to be added to my address book. And, of course, it doesn’t do this in all parts of the OS. But the rest – it’s the little things that keep many Mac users using it, as opposed to the various other flavors of *nixy systems or even, gasp, Windows. This is a very elegant little thing.

Hard disk space can be extremely valuable, especially for notebook owners. I find myself constantly auditing the contents of my disk, usually with tools like GrandPerspective and WhatSize to find the gremlins that are munching on my available space. Of course my Applications folder always pops up as the biggest offender, but there’s nothing I can do about the whopping 4 GB required for stuff like Final Cut Studio 2, right? I mean, every line of code under the hood of Motion is being used isn’t it?

Apparently not. A little app called Xslimmer claims to free up wasted disk space by removing unnecessary code from Universal Binaries that doesn’t fit with your machine’s architecture. It will also remove unneeded languages from various apps (Adium, for example, has over 20 languages according to Xslimmer’s site) to help slim them down and recover your disk space.

How it Works

Xslimmer’s interface is extremely straightforward. You simply drag applications onto Xslimmer and in analyzes each one to see if it can be slimmed. If the app can be slimmed, Xslimmer will display the current size of the app and it’s estimated “slimmed” size. Some applications cannot be slimmed because there is no extra code or languages, or its on Xslimmer’s blacklist (which, as the name implies, are applications that are not allowed to be slimmed for various reasons). For example, most of CS3 sits on the blacklist:

You can add apps one by one or use the “Genie” to scan your entire disk for potentially fat binaries. When you’re ready, click the “Slim!” button and you’ll be prompted with a warning to back up your applications. You can choose to have Xslimmer save backups somewhere locally, so that you can make sure all applications run as expected after slimming and restore them if needed. Restoring is a simple process – just click the “History” button, and click the restore icon in the history dialog.

The Skinny

I was able to save 2.5 GB from 95 applications in less than ten minutes (though I won’t see my real disk savings until I nuke my backups). That beats the heck out of the 100mb or so that it would take me hours to free up by sifting through all my documents that might be scattered across my machine. Even better, your apps will run the same or even faster than they did before slimming (though there are potentially applications that will not run after the slimming process – good thing the backups seem to be sound).

Overall, Xslimmer is extremely intuitive and kind of fun to use, especially when you see some of the notable savings:

Automator: 28.7mb to 2.95mb
Calculator: 13.4mb to 1.59mb
Disk Utility: 32.7mb to 3.88mb
DVD Player: 42.7mb to 6.48mb
iTunes: 129mb to 31.4mb
Preview: 70.1mb to 9.71mb

At $11.95, Xslimmer is a steal. My only real gripe is that you can’t slim Adobe CS3 apps, but I think that’s something to take up with Adobe and not Xslimmer. You can try a demo and save up to 50mb, if you wanna take it for a test drive before you drop the cash. I would strongly suggest that you make sure that all your apps run as expected after slimming though. I haven’t experienced any issues yet, but better safe than sorry.

No sooner do I write about how I miss CandyBar then lo and behold it appears! CandyBar 3 was released today, available at Panic. It’s $29 for a license, and there’s a free 14 day trial if you want to take it for a spin first. A discount is available to registered users of either Pixadex 2 or CandyBar 2. Leopard only.

The new version is slick. Along with the usual icon swapping capabilities, there are two new features in CandyBar 3 – the ability to customize the dock, and direct integration of Pixadex. There are a number of new icon sets released at the IconFactory at the same time, all including dock mods. The dock to the right is from the icon set that comes preloaded, Float. It’s a fairly clean set, although I’m personally really liking the look of the dock in Amora. The understated black and red there is quite nice.

As a useful touch, the icons and the dock can be changed independently. CandyBar 3 also allows you to change system icons that it previously couldn’t, a nice feature given the number of strangely-bland system icons in Leopard.

Another nice feature is what seems to be the integration of QuickLook – a menu accessible by control-clicking on the icon thumbnails shows the ‘IconLook’ view, a comparison of the different sizes from 16×16 to 512×512 in a very QuickLook-like transparent black window. A nicely visible blue halo indicates icons that have changed from the default in the set.

The biggest benefit, though, is the combination of Pixadex and CandyBar, especially for people (like me) who tend to pick and choose single icons on top of a theme – this integration makes picking an icon as easy as choosing a song in iTunes. One click imports icons loose on your hard drive, although the trial version can only manage 250 loose icons. You can view, change, and use icons from this library as easily as those from iContainers. As before, you can also save your various choices as an iContainer for use later or on other machines.

Previously, I’d not been a particular fan of CandyBar, preferring the freeware LiteIcon (also recently updated for Leopard, but without dock-mod capabilities) and the not-free ShapeShifter. Still, Panic seems to have used the time before this release to make CandyBar 3 much more than just a compatibility update, with the new features making it an improvement over the solutions I’d tried in the past.