macBlogger – Apple Mac Blog

Safari is the only browser which allows you to open pdf files inline. All other Mac based browsers force you to download the pdf.

This greatly upsets me

How many times have you clicked on a pdf link without realising it? Before you know it Preview or Acrobat is loading up in the background and you’re going to have to switch windows in order to view the desired content.

Being forced to relinquish control over your actions because of your browsers’ shortcomings is simply not on.

There are no Acrobat or Preview add-ons for Firefox, Camino or Opera to come to your rescue. This is where PDF Browser Plugin saves the day. Download and drop the PDF Browser Plugin.app file into your Library > Internet Plug-ins folder and relaunch your browser. Navigate to a PDF file and click on it.

Ahhh! It begins to download again

This is because this plugin doesn’t work on Intel Macs. But there is a solution. You can switch your browser to open under Rosetta to rectify the situation.

Rosetta is basically a translator which allows native PPC based applications to run under Intel Macs.

In order to open your browser using Rosetta, you must click on the ‘Get Info’ option when you right click on your browser.app folder within Applications. Simply tick the box which says Rosetta. And there you have it! You can open PDF documents inline with your browser.

If you use Firefox or Flock you can control PDF files within your browser even further. PDF Download is a very nice plugin which prompts you when you’re about to open a PDF file. It asks you whether you want to download, open in the browser, open using HTML view, or cancel.

All in all I have to say that I’m disappointed with the handling of PDFs on Mac based browsers. Safari being the only browser to interact without any user configuration is a real let down. Mozilla and Opera need to get in gear and improve their handling of PDFs. I’m sure better PDF handling is a feature request they have seen before..

I don’t think there is anyone left on this planet who is not involved in a social networks of sorts. They’re poping up everywhere, some you signup for, some you ignore.

Facebook is one of those social networks which has been flying under the radar for quite some time. MySpace and Bebo get a lot of media attention but for the most part they’re on the receiving end of bad press (spam, abuse and what have you..).

Facebook on the other hand is thriving in a postive manner. They’re receiving up to 50,000 new signups on a daily basis and last week I joined the Facebook heard. (profile link)

Facebook is a far more mature alternative to MySpace and Bebo.

I signuped with the intention of just chating with friends and exchanging photographs…the usual social networking items. But there a few additional features which grabbed my attention. One such feature is simply called ‘Groups’

macBlogger Facebook Group
The idea behind Facebook’s Groups feature is quite simple. Facebook users can join a group of like minded souls and chat within their discussion threads about topics relating to their group. The exchange of information, photographs, videos and general discussion is the order of the day.

We have setup a macBlogger group on Facebook which we hope will provide valuable information on all things Apple.

Facebook Widget
A tidy little widget called Facebook Watch has been released upon us which acts as a portal between your dashboard and your facebook account. The feature rich widget allows you to view the latest postings on your wall, check who has ‘poked’ you, take a look inside your inbox and it also allows you to check the latest activity of your friends.

Here are a few other Facebook widgets available to download on the Apple website.

I recently went looking for a program to easily draw up some diagrams.

I knew quite a few utilities for Linux and Windows, and of course the OpenOffice drawing tool, but all of those take quite a bit of work to create a diagram not only fast, but also beautifull.

After a bit of searching I encountered OmniGraffle and I played with it for a bit. Within 24 hours I bought it. It’s just great, drawing diagrams, using the auto-layout to apply different styles with a single mouseclick, and fine-tuning the looks by dragging and dropping styles from one object to another.

What I also found surprising is that the manual is actually usefull. It shows a beginner what is possible with OmniGraffle without too much work, and you can immediately try it out.

It is also a perfect tool for mindmapping; I never knew my thoughts were so interesting untill I saw them in colour:)

Some pictures of a simple mindmap, in order:

• Type in your thoughts, a simple map is drawn
  
• A single click switches styles and layout
  
• Drag a style (Lineair…) from the box on the right to the cloud to apply it
  

So, if you have some spare time, download omnigraffle and request a free 24 hour license (fully automatic). And have fun!

iUseThis works much in the same way as Digg. But instead of digging news stories you are digging OS X applications. The site contains pretty much every application imaginable and provides registered users with the ability to declare that ‘they use this’ application via a voting system.

iUseThis displays similar and related applications on the profile view of each application as well. This is a handy way to find cheap alternatives to expensive applications such as Photoshop. If you take a loot at the profile page for Photoshop you’ll see that iUseThis recommends Goldburg and Gimp as alternatives.

The iUseThis top list of applications features VLC on top followed by Firefox, Adium, Safrai and Quicksilver.

There is a bit of an FAQ on their about page if you want to know more but I covered pretty much all you need to know in this short post. It’s a simple but powerful website and is especially useful for those looking for free alternatives to expensive software or those who are new to Macs.

I setup my own profile this morning and I have already added a good few of the applications which I use on a daily basis.

Do you have a profile? If you do then post a link to it in the comments.
Cheers.

The Windows based browser war between Firefox and Internet Explorer has had it’s share of the limelight over the last few years. The ‘war’ was given a bit of a poke recently when it was announced that Firefox has a 38.6% market share in Ireland. A few Irish bloggers rolled in with their stats and they each displayed positive numbers for Firefox, for the most part. But what about the Mac’s browser war? How is that fairing?

If a recent poll on boards.ie is anything to go by then all the cool kids are using Firefox on their Macs. 63.79% of the 58 members polled voted with a preference towards Mozilla’s darling browser while Safari claimed a 34.48% share, Camino accounted for 20.69% of the votes. The only other browser worth a mention is Opera which claimed just over 10% of the vote. The remaining browsers on the list, which included IE, Shiira, Flock, OmniWeb and iCab, might as well have not bothered been included on the poll. Between them they only accounted for 7% of the vote. (click to see the poll image)

It’s worth baring in mind that the poll allowed for multiple selections. Some may think that because of that it doesn’t reflect as accurately as it should but I think it was the correct decision because most of us tend to flirt between different browsers on a daily basis.

Here are some of the reasons given by those who voted;

‘I used Safari when I first got my Mac but I’ve moved back to Firefox now. I missed my extensions far too much’ – ‘The Firefox spell-checker drove me crazy. It was always switching to the British dictionary and then refusing to download the Irish one’ – ‘Firefox has grown too fat and bloated. Safari 3 all the way!’ – ‘Certainly rate it (Camino) above FF which tends to hang on me from time to time’

‘With the high performance of Safari 3, I haven’t used anything else since it was launched! – ‘But I reckon, well, I hope, that by Xmas 2007, that Safari will be amazing’ – ‘I really love Safari 3 and i still reckon that in a few months time it will be fecking amazing, even though it is awesome right now’

‘For a start it’s written in Cocoa and is a true mac app as opposed to a port of a Windows app like Firefox’ -’I find it pretty damn stable, certainly more so than Safari which usually crashes several times a day’- ‘I love its integration with the OS, even the latest release 1.5 making use of the built-in Mac OS X spell-checker’ – ‘I am liking Camino more and more. Very fast.’

‘Opera mini FTW!!! Gives me my mobile internets!’ – ‘ Gotta agree with you about Opera mini, great little program. Too bad I never have any credit to use it. – ‘Opera browser all the way! Speedial is great, nice, skin-able and fast. Widgets are handy as you can have video downloader etc. Fullscreen mode and loads of hot keys!’

So there you have it. Even-though Firefox won the poll it came in for quite the slating while Safari Beta 3 and Camino received the most praise.

Opera’s biggest victory seemed to be related to it’s mini version for mobile devices. I haven’t used Opera mini or a mobile device for browsing the web for the matter but I have used Safari Beta 3 and I have to say…’It’s fast, it’s damn fast’.

But that’s not enough for my liking. It’s not aesthetically pleasing to look at. The brushed metal look is horrible. I hope that by the by the time Leopard comes out, Safari gets a face lift. It needs it badly in my opinion.

I echo some of the abuse which Firefox received from the above quotes. It’s a nice all round browser but it doesn’t sit right on the Mac for me. It is very process intensive, suffers from the same well renowned memory leaks on Mac as it did on Windows/Linux , isn’t as stable as it should be and doesn’t block pop-ups as well on Mac as it does on Windows.

My personal browser preference is Camino. It’s a very quick browser, has a nice and tidy interface and rarely crashes or hangs. It’s not too far from being the complete article but I would like to see an improved attempt to facilitate some Firefox extensionability on Camino. They are both Mozilla projects after all!

But what tale do the stats from this blog tell?

I have a stats package by the name of Firestats installed on macBlogger. You may have seen it in use in the comment forms; it displays the poster’s browser and operating system. It’s a nice plugin and the administration page for the plugin displays the accumulated browser/operating system statistics across the entire site, this includes hits and comments. The image below indicates that Firefox is edging Safari once more in relation to popularity.

These stats however don’t differentiate between Mac, Windows and Linux operating systems. Approximately 60% of macBloggers’ visits occur on the OS X platform! While Firefox is the most popular browser, it isn’t the most popular Mac browser on macBlogger. That accolade goes to Safari.

According to Google Analytics, Safari accounts for 54.49% of the hits received on this blog while Firefox has 39.94%. The much loved Camino (for all it’s raving) only has 3% of the share.

To tell you the truth I’m surprised that Safari is such a popular browser. Before I looked at the stats, I expected Firefox to come out on top easily enough.

A couple of MacBook/MacBook Pro users have asked me how to stop the SuperDrive Update 2.1 from starting up at reboot with the alert: “No Updatable Devices Found”. For anyone who is still suffering this annoyance, Apple have the answer:

To avoid the message, remove the update application from your login items:

1. From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
2. From the View menu, choose Accounts.
3. Click the Login Items pane.
4. Select the SuperDrive Update 2.1 in the list of login items.
5. Click the “–” button to remove the update from the list.
6. Close the Accounts window.

Only two days remaining in the latest MacUpdate software bundle, and all of the additional items have now been unlocked. The bundle contains:

• SRS iWOW – an iTunes plugin for “improved audio immersion and maximum thump”
• GarageSale – a tool for making better eBay auctions
• Cocktail – an extensive toolkit for managing your system
• ProfCast – for recording presentations
• Amadeus Pro – audio editor
• Fetch – FTP/SFTP Client
• GraphicConverter X – the “Swiss army knife” of photo editors

The additional programs which have now been unlocked include:

• Little Snitch – security tool
• Intaglio – an illustration program
• TechTool Pro – a powerful Mac problem solving utility

These 10 products would cost $433.82 individually, but the bundle is going for only $49. Seems like a good buy even if you’re only interested in one or two of the packages.

Macromedia made Captivate for Windows but they decided against developing a Mac version. Maybe they thought the screen capture marketplace on the Mac was too competitive?

Eh, well it ain’t.

I would have hoped that Apple would include a decent application which allows you to record your screen’s activity but alas they didn’t. I’m not sure why either. Especially when a lot of developers like to create video casts featuring themselves demonstrating their sites, etc…

The ideal features of the screen recording applicaiton should include;

• freeware or open source
• be able to record mouse movements and clicks
• be able to record voice
• export to avi, mov, fla, swf,
• be able to illustrate on the screen (ie. draw arrows on the screen)

Mmmm, is that a lot to ask for? If you don’t think so then you’ll probably love my last requirement. I would love if the application could swap between recording the desktop and recording through iSight at the actual user via a touch on the Mac remote control. Now that would be sweet.
Listed below are three applications which I’m going to test out in the coming days. It’s time to see if these guys are capable of satisfying my screen recording requirements….

Cam Studio 2 – Open Source

CamStudio is an open source screencast application cabable of capturing both audio and video directly of your PC screen – and store it for later playback. This is great for demonstrating how different applications, websites, etc. work and how to use their features. CamStudio outputs AVI files but is able to convert these to macromedia flash files (swf), so that the screencasts can easily be used on any website. Advanced features include adding of captions, video-in-video e.g. for narrator and CamStudio’s own loss-less codec, which provide sharp images while keeping the filesize to a minimum.

iShowU – 30 day demo – $20

ShowU allows you to capture and record anything you can see on your screen, along with audio from a compatible source (like a microphone) as well as any audio from the mac itself.

Snapz Pro X – Demo – $69

Snapz Pro X allows you to effortlessly record anything on your screen, saving it as a QuickTime® movie or screenshot that can be emailed, put up on the web, or passed around however you want. Snapz Pro X 2.x costs $69.

Here are some further selections available from Pure Mac. If you can recommend a better screen recording application, then please do so. Like I said earlier, I haven’t actually tried any of these applications myself but once I do, I will post my recommendations.

Whatever screen recording application you decide to run with, be sure to check out the following three helpful applications. Backdrop fills your desktop with a blank background screen so that your cluttered desktop won’t obscure your screen captures . FlySketch allows you to draw on the screen in a similar why to which a blackboard would work and finally, Boinx allows you to highlight your mouse movements on the screen so that the viewers can follow what’s going on a bit easier.

I realise that Filezilla is still very much in early beta and as a result is very very buggy on the Mac. I’m constantly having issues with Filezilla crashing whenever I attempt to use the breadcrumb folder navigation. It seems that when I try to return to the root of the server the entire application fails and I get the spinning beachball of death before being prompted to reopen Filezilla because, guess what, it failed.

I noticed another issue today when using Filezilla. It doesn’t handle hidden files very well at all.

While doing a bit of web development this afternoon, I had to edit my server’s .htaccess file. For security purposes this file is hidden when you view your server’s root using Filezilla. In order to display the .htaccess file you need to click on Server and select ‘Display Hidden Files’ within Filezilla’s menu bar. Once you have activated this feature, you should notice the .htaccess file is viewable within the right pane (the right pane contains the files hosted on your server). All good so far.

I downloaded the .htaccess file to a folder named htaccess on my desktop. But when I enter the directory via Finder there is no file to be seen. I thought I may have made a mistake so I downloaded the file again, and again. Nothing showing. I had a rummage around Finder’s preferences and checked the view options but there was no option there to display any hidden files or folders. Eventually I opened up Textmate, my text editor, and noticed that there is an option to ‘open hidden files’ when you browse for a file to open. I opened the file and did my editing and saved the file.

Okay, so this isn’t ideal but at least I managed to edit the file after going around the roundabout way.

Now I want to re-upload the .htaccess file using Filezilla.

Filezilla doesn’t want to play though. It doesn’t display the hidden file locally on my Mac. This is because Filezilla inherits the Mac’s default Finder settings with regards to displaying hidden files and folders. Brilliant, I love feeling secure on my Mac!! It really helps my productivity!

So how do I upload a hidden file?

I googled around the Inter Web and came across a post by Rob Griffiths about running a terminal command to display hidden files/folders on your Mac. The post advises you to open terminal and to run the command – defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES -. Rob states that you will need to restart Finder in order for the changes to come to effect.

To make the command take effect, you need to restart the Finder. One way to do this is to hold down the Option key, then click and hold on the Finder icon in the Dock. When the contextual menu appears, select Relaunch and the Finder will restart.

If you tire of the dimmed folders and other downsides, just open Terminal and repeat the command, but change YES to NO, then press Return again. You’ll need to relaunch the Finder again, but when you do, everything will be back to normal.

So does this work? Yup, it sure does. And the proof is in the pudding. The pudding in this case being this screenshot of the .htaccess file on display within Filezilla’s local view (left pane within Filezilla).

This is fustrating as hell though. Now every system file is on full display. I only want specific files to be shown and I also want more control and to be able to interact with Finder in a more intituative manner. As far as I can tell there is no option to enable the display of hidden files for specific local directories. This is a right nightmare. There must be an application out there which can alter the display of files and folders in a much simplier way than running commands such as the one Rob posted?

And there is…

Show Hidden Files 1.5 is a small application which executes code similar to Rob’s to either display hidden files or hide displayed files. When you execute the file it refreshes screen so that is a bit annoying but only a little bit.

Jason Guthrie encountered the same exact problem with displaying .htaccess files. The difference between his encounter and mine is that he actually wrote an automator script to counteract the problem.
Apologies for going on a bit of a rant and I realise that it’s not entirely Filezilla’s fault. It would however make my life a lot simplier if Filezilla provided an option to overide the display of local hidden files.