macBlogger - Apple Mac Blog

Roland from Mac Tips has pieced together some very helpful screencasts which demonstrate some equally useful applications and how to ‘pimp’ your Mac a bit.

At the time of writing this post there are seven screencasts in total on the site. Some of which include:

• How to include the date in the menu bar
• Add web search to the menu bar
• Ways to cool down your Mac

The videos are excellently put together and are very easy to follow for novice users.

The Monocle application, which places a search bar in the menu bar is especially useful.

Monocle is a simple search tool that puts a universal search field at your disposal. When you want search, you can choose from a number of engines to perform the search in different places. Monocle comes preloaded with engines for Google, Wikipedia, Windows Live Search and Yahoo! Search. You can easily add your own engines by performing an example search inside a web browser window in Monocle

The above quote is taken from the excellent iUseThis site.

Stuart from Modern Life is Rubbish has released a MacOS 6 inspired Wordpress Theme.

Now that’s old-old-school!

A live preview of the theme can be seen here.

I know we have dedicated a few posts in recent days to running native Windows applications on Mac but we can’t help it!

So, what options are available for running Windows apps on Macs?

• Parallels allows you to run XP/Vista virtually within Mac OS X, but for a price.
• Fusion is the alternative to Parallels, but that too comes at a price.
• Crossover can run .exe files within OS X, at a price.
• Bootcamp permits you to boot up XP/Vista on an Intel Macintosh machine, for free!

So that makes Bootcamp the only solution for those who hate parting with their cash. While the other three products allow you to run Windows and OS X simultaneously, Bootcamp restricts you to either choosing to load up Windows or OS X at start up. If you want to run .exe applications on top of Mac, you’re going to have to splash some cash, or maybe not..

Enter Darwine
The Wiki entry for Darwine states that it’s a port of the Wine libraries to Mac OS X. So what is Wine?

Wine is a project which aims to allow a PC with an x86 architecture processor running a Unix-like operating system and the X Window System to execute programs that were originally written for Microsoft Windows

There is more technical jibberings about Wine on its Wiki entry but all you need to know is that Darwine works and it’s an Open Source project hosted on Source Forge. In other words it costs €0.00 to download, install and use.

Of all the applications which can run .exe applications in a Mac environment, it is Crossover which resembles the functionality of Darwine the most. Crossover doesn’t come for free though.

When I first found Crossover, I attempted to run and install the Windows application; Google Talk. Crossover didn’t install the application correctly but nor did Darwine. I assume it’s due to an authentication feature on Google Talk to prevent a cloaking of the user agent or something like that.

After failing once again to install Google Talk on Mac, I attempted to install the Windows version of Filezilla. While Filezilla is available on Mac as a beta, it is very buggy. The below screenshot was taken during the installation process and it indicates a successful installation (click image to enlarge).

The good news is that Filezilla worked a charm! I managed to install, run, connect to a FTP account and install all these beautiful screenshots without any issues. Click the image below to see Filezilla running under Darwine.

With Darwine, you can do some pretty cool things on Mac which you couldn’t do before. Such as install Internet Explorer on Mac.
Why would you want to do that?
- Well, if you’re a web developer then you’re a slave to Internet Explorer no matter which Operating System you use.

But, if you’re a serious developer you should have a Windows machine close to hand for testing against browser and OS compatibility. If you can’t afford or justify having a dedicated Windows machine, then Bootcamp or maybe even an online emulator such as Site Vista might suit you better.

So that’s Darwine. A handy application to have close at hand. It may not work with every Windows application but it won’t cost you past a free trial of Crossover, Parallels or Fusion to find if a compatibility issue exists.

I received an email at the start of the week from Skype notifying me of their newest release. I was a bit disappointed when I arrived at the Skype site to find a Windows only update. What about us Mac folk? Huh? Fear not..

Skype this evening released version 2.7 of their popular VoIP application for Mac consumption. Thank you Skype. I was wondering if you forgot all about us!

The beta release introduces Skype to the OS X Address Book for the first time. This allows you to grab and share your contacts between the two applications.

There is an improved management of your contacts list within the application too. You can now group them into more manageable categories. You can get to this feature by clicking on the cogwheel icon on the main screen.

You can download the beta release by following this link.

Be weary though. A lot of users are reporting issues with this beta release. Users are saying that Skype is running slow and dropping connections at regular intervals. This may be related to the beta release but it also could be related to a general outage issue. You can read up on their encounters via the comments in the press release for Skype beta.

Just a quick note to let our avid readers know that we have changed our anti-spam protection from Dr. Dave’s Spam Karma to Akismet.

A few readers contacted us with commenting issues which related directly to the installation of Dr. Dave.

Hopefully all should be a-okay now. If any notices any issues, such as their comments not being handled correctly, please let us know via our Contact Form.

I earlier blogged about Transmission closing the gap between its features and those of uTorrent’s. The only problem being that one was solely a Mac application and the other a Windows application.

While that is true, it doesn’t mean that uTorrent can’t run on a Mac. I’m not talking about using Bootcamp or Parallels either.

Crossover is a beautiful piece of software which allows you to run native windows .exe applications on Mac.

CrossOver Mac allows you to install many popular Windows applications and games on your Intel OS X Mac. CrossOver includes an easy to use, single click interface, which makes installing Windows software simple and fast. Once installed, your application integrates seamlessly in OS X. Just click and run your application directly from the OS X Finder. Clicking a Windows file or document — including email attachments — will launch the appropriate Windows program, allowing you to work on the files. Best of all, you do it all easily and affordably, without needing a Microsoft operating system license.

Adding new Windows software is easy. Just place your install CD in your Intel Mac, and CrossOver will recognize it and offer to begin the installation process. CrossOver then completes the installation and configures your application to run on your Mac. That’s all there is to it.

While you’re waiting for uTorrent Mac to come out of beta, you can load it up using Crossover by simply double clicking on it like you would do to any mac.app file.

Beautiful, uTorrent running on Mac!

This method does works, but it’s not without its issues.

Finder doesn’t integrate with uTorrent under Crossover but you do get a ‘windowsy’ file navigator to work with. The navigator names your local Documents Finder folder as ‘My Documents’. This is the most feasible location in which to store your downloaded torrent files.

Each time you double click on uTorrent.exe, it goes through the installation process. But that process is hardly an issue as uTorrent is approximately 300kb in size. You’re asked whether or not you wish to add shortcuts to your desktop and start up menu, just untick these options and uTorrent should load up fairly instantly.

Running uTorrent via Crossover on the Mac might not be the most ideal scenario but if you aren’t happy with any of the native Mac torrent applications, such as Transmission or Tomato, then you’re going to have to bide your time until uTorrent comes out of closed beta for the Mac.

The only other application I have attempted to install using Crossover was the Google Talk client. The application successfully installed but it didn’t run properly as it failed the authentication process when sending my login credentials. This is more of a security feature on Google’s side (disallowing unauthorized clients to login to the system) than a feature issue on Crossover’s side.

Crossover is available as a 30 day full trial and costs $59.95 for the full license.

Why not check it to see if you can get your favorite Windows apps running on Mac? I’m not sure if they each will work, but that’s what the trial is for.

Transmission, the best torrent application on Mac, have recently released version .80 to the world. The updated features include:

• Ability to selectively download and prioritize files
• Torrent file creation
• Speed and CPU load improvements
• Fix to UPnP
• Rechecking torrents is now done one-at-a-time to avoid heavy disk load
• Better rechecking of torrents that have many files

The most noticeable of the new features is Transmission’s selective downloading of packaged files. This allows you to prioritize files for download if the torrent contains separate and multiple files.

The screen shot below illustrates this feature in use. Unfortunately the downloaded file, Ubuntu, only has one file referenced from the .torrent file but if a few files were referenced I would be able to select which should be downloaded and which have a higher priority than others.

You can access this feature by right clicking on the file within Transmission, then select Show Inspector, then go to Files. Here you can tick the boxes of the files which you want to download and you can rank them in order of priority of download.

The other noticeable update is Transmission’s ability to create torrents for publication.

Both of these features have long been features of uTorrent, the most popular client on Windows, but uTorrent isn’t available on Mac (yet).

uTorrent for the Mac is currently in closed beta. Torrentfreak has more info available, including screenshots.

uTorrent is my personal favorite Torrent application but with Transmission’s recent feature improvements, will uTorrent be able to dominate the torrent world on both the Windows and Mac platform? Competition is always a good thing and I look forward to uTorrent’s arrival on Mac but at least we have a suitable mainstay in Transmission already freely available.

SlothCam displays live camera feeds from your dashboard. The widget can display feeds from Time Square, Sydney Harbor, The Eiffel Tower and The San Diego Zoo to name but a few.

The below image is a screen grab taken of a sleeping Panda at the San Diego Zoo.

Here we have a rainy Time Square.

And finally a Whale in the Vancouver Aquarium.

I love this widget.

I visit my dashboard maybe a dozen or so times a day and to be able to catch a glimpse of either a whale or a panda is an excellent treat. (it’s far better than playing with Calculator anyway)

Hey there MacHeads!

Before I launch into my post on the Leopard preview I guess I should say who I am and what I’m doing here. My name is Katie and I am officially Mac obsessed. I’ve been a Mac user for as long as I can remember and Cormac recently asked me to contribute here with a post or two. The whole blogging thing is relatively new to me so be patient please!

I thought that as a first post I would tell you all a little bit about the developer Leopard preview which I have been working on lately. Leopard, which is due for release in October, at a cost of approximately €150 has had a lot of coverage on various Mac sites so I thought it would be nice to cover some of the new features here. Unfortunately, due to the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) I can only give you my own thoughts on the features you have heard about and cannot really get into the finer details.

Probably the most talked about changes are the look and feel updates given to the Dock, Finder and a number of other native applications. Finder now uses Cover Flow which makes your Finder window look and feel like you are browsing your iTunes music library. In the same way you can browse your iTunes collection while viewing your artwork, Cover Flow displays a large preview of each file in your directory, while Quick Look will even playing previews of QuickTime movies. The 3D look and feel applied to the dock is carried over to the Finder preview window as well. From a user’s perspective browsing through files could not be any easier now. Finding that photo or movie is simply an arrow click (or two) away!

Another change to document browsing in Leopard is Stacks. You can create Stacks from anything you want to access quickly from one place: a handful of documents, a group of applications, or an entire folder, simply by dropping the folder onto the Dock. When you want to see the files in a Stack, all you have to do is click — Stacks spring open from the Dock in an elegant arc for a few items, or in an at-a-glance grid for more. I find this feature very convenient for folders I access on a regular basis, allowing for fast and efficient access to files in the directory.

One of the most useful features of Leopard for me so far would be Spaces. With Spaces you can create a virtual work area for each application/window and organise each Space the way you want it just by dragging in windows. The Spaces interface is very convenient and user friendly allowing rearranging of Spaces simply by drag-and-drop, toggling between Spaces using the arrow keys and activating an application with a simple Dock click will automagically bring you to the relevant Space for that application. You can create as many Spaces as you need and configure your Spaces by using the Exposé & Spaces pane in System Preferences. Arrange your Spaces according to your needs, then choose the function keys you want to control them. You can also assign applications to specific Spaces, so you will always know which Space your favourite application lives in! Linux users can breathe a sigh of relief at this progression!

My workflow in Leopard is much more efficient and certainly requires less Mighty Mouse clicks. Overall I find the environmental changes to the OS to be very welcome and beneficial from a user’s perspective. New functionality such as Time Machine makes backing up your system an incredibly quick and easy job. It keeps an up-to-date copy of everything on your Mac syncing it with an external drive, and even offering a wireless sync option for Airport Extreme Base station users.

The look and feel of many native applications have also changed in Leopard. Welcome updates to iChat, Mail, Preview, iCal and Safari all add to your daily Mac experience. Bootcamp will be automatically included as part of Leopard, making it even easier to configure a Windows partition on your Mac. With the announcements made at yesterday’s keynote about iWork and iLife ‘08 users can expect even more of their favourite applications to step up with new features ensuring the ultimate work and play environment. Roll on October for a faster, sleeker and more keyboard friendly operating system!!

Steve loves his keynote presentations!

Mr. Jobs is currently in the middle of giving his presentation at the Apple Media Event where he is raving on about the updated iMacs. The iMac range is to be built from aluminum and glass and will come in two sizes, 20″ and 24″ and has four models in total. There is no 17″ but the iMacs will have an entry-level iMac, two mid-range iMacs and a top of the range iMac.

The retro looking iMacs are getting tanked up on hardware too…

• 20-inch, 1680 x 1050 LCD
• 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 1GB RAM
• 250GB SATA
• 8x SuperDrive
• ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT

• 20-inch, 1680 x 1050 LCD
• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 1GB RAM
• 320GB SATA
• 8x SuperDrive
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro

• 24-inch, 1900 x 1200 LCD
• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 1GB RAM
• 320GB SATA
• 8x SuperDrive
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro

• 24-inch, 1900 x 1200 LCD
• 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 2GB RAM
• 500GB SATA
• 8x double-layer SuperDrive
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory

Check out the Specs page on the Apple site for more info.
Update: The Euro prices are after coming through!

The entry level iMac is priced at $1,199 (€1,199.00), the mid-range at $1,499 (€1,449.00) and $1,799 (€1,749), while the top of the range iMac will cost $2,289 (€2,219.00). We will have the Euro price later..

The new keyboards have the same brushed steal look as Pro range and the keyboard is 3 times as narrow as the current one. I’m not sure what the new mice look like.

The images above were posted on a thread on a Mac Forum I go to. When more information (and a video) is made available, I’ll post them up.
Edit: The images are taken from Engadget. They are live blogging the media event.

The new iMacs are available to order as of today, but we’re not certain if it’s US only. The Apple store is currently closed for business while they update, so the new iMacs must be going global. The iMac page on the Apple site hasn’t been updated yet with any information from today’s media event.

I’m getting sick of updating this post. I’ll come back to the new iMacs once the dust has settled.