MacOSXHints.com

How to use a new iPod with an old Mac@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:30:00 +0200

The newest generation of iPods requires iTunes 8 or higher. iTunes 8 requires Windows XP service pack 2 or higher, or MacOSX 10.4.9 or higher. So what do you do if you have an older Mac which can not run, or otherwise is not running OS X 10.4.9 or later? Or perhaps you just don't want to upgrade your entire OS just to use a new iPod. Here is one possible solution...Since Apple writes software that supports very old Windows operating systems from six or more years ago, but does not support its own Mac OS systems from just three or so years ago, the answer is to run Virtual PC on your older Mac, and run Windows XP service pack 2 or higher on it. There, thanks to Windows, you can install iTunes 8 with no problems. You'll have to transfer your library over to the windows side, and you'll have to launch Virtual PC every time you want to update your iPod -- but at least you can use a new generation iPod on an older Mac.Sad, but it works.

Fix a Remote Desktop 3.2.2 sharing issue@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:30:00 +0200

Since upgrading to the latest version of Remote Desktop (v 3.2.2), I've noticed that many of the computers in the client list are not 'available.' Their status is listed only as 'Screen sharing available,' and that's all I can do ... all of the added functionality of Remote Desktop is no longer available.In our research lab, we keep all of our client computers with the same setup, but somewhat frustratingly, only some of the clients were exhibiting this problem. Inspection of the Sharing setup from System Preferences revealed no difference between any of the clients.I then checked the firewall settings on each client. We run the default OS X firewall with the "Set access for specific services and applications" setting. It was then that I noticed that the ARDAgent application was appearing in the list of specific applications, but it was set to 'block incoming connections' (only on the problem computers). Changing this back to 'Allow incoming connections' fixed the pr...

Run Mac desktops virtually on PC servers@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:30:00 +0200

I'm the administrator for a group of creative artists and have a number of Macs (of most all flavors) running on our network. While I love OS X Server, it remains (for me) too hard and complex to do what I need. I want an easy path to manage all my Mac users on a central server farm (preferably HP servers, since that is what our IT department has in our data center). I've heard about Mac OS X server running virtually, but only on Xserve. My quest for running OS X virtually only led to more frustration:I don't really want to virtualize OS X Server.I don't need or want to manage two licenses (one on the server and one on the client).We don't have Xserves and probably never will.Then Bingo! I found DiscCloud -- and it works perfectly, with the help of this hint, of course! Here are some tips to help get it running:The first mistake I made was downloading the wrong version of VMware Server. You...

10.4: Security Update 2008-06 and Network preferences@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:30:00 +0200

After running the latest security update on 10.4.11, I noticed I couldn't change any settings in Network Preferences. Opening up that settings screen would result in a "Your network settings have been changed by another application" window popping up in an endless loop.It turns out the security update makes some changes to the way PPP passwords are stored. Now, instead of being stored in a world-readable file, they're stored in the Keychain. For some reason, the update gets confused with existing PPP passwords and gets stuck in a loop. The easy way out: open Terminal and delete your existing network configuration. (You might want to make a paper backup to ease the task of entering them in again later.) In Terminal, type these commands (press Return after each) ...

10.5 Allow non-admin users to add and remove printers@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:30:00 +0200

pMy techs and I were searching for a way to allow non-admin users to add and remove printers under 10.5. Unfortunately, we could only find a few hints that involved modifying /etc/cups/cupsd.conf -- which did not really meet our needs (those hints did not allow a standard way for a non-admin user to remove printers). So, here's our solution...Please note that we have only tested this a few times, but it seems to work. What we're doing is editing /etc/authorization. More specifically, we're changing the system.preferences dictionary item within the authorization file so that the group string is set to everyone, rather than admin. One way to do this through the GUI is to copy /etc/authorization to your desktop, add .plist to the end of the filename, edit the file with Property List Editor, save, and remove the .plist extension. Then replace the original authorizat...

Avoid drop box file permission issues@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:30:00 +0200

On the Macs in my home, we have permissions issues when copying files into other users' Drop Boxes. If my wife, for example, sends me a file via the Drop Box, and I move it to another folder, the permissions are not appropriate for me -- files only open as read only, because the ownership is not correct. So to use files sent this way, we have to Option-drag them from the Drop Box. This creates a copy, with the appropriate ownership.I'm not sure if this happens to others, but for us, it's an annoyance. As long, however, as we Option-drag, we can use the files as we want to.[robg adds: I don't see this issue here, and in talking with Kirk about the problem, we compared the Permissions section of the Get Info dialog for our Drop Box folders. On my machines, including a brand-new iMac that's fresh from the factory, there are two entries for my user in the Permissions section -- one with Custom privileges, and one with Read & Write privileges. On his machines, ...

10.5: How to save YouTube videos from cache@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:30:02 +0200

This previous hint explained how to download Flash videos in Safari via the Activity Viewer. This still works in Leopard -- most of the time. However, I had trouble with a large video one day, and found it was stored in the Google video cache. The download would stall and timeout (pausing the Safari download and restarting it caused Safari to restart the download from the beginning -- I suspect it was meant to be streamed only.) The download would work fine in the YouTube Flash player, and it would even cache fully within the web page. YouTube uses Adobe Flash file format *.flv files. Adobe FLV files used by the YouTube flash player are not stored in the Leopard 10.5 Safari cache. Even if they were, they would be stored inside a SQLite database file, which is not very useful. (If you are looking for oth...

View enhanced search engine results in Safari@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:30:01 +0200

I've created a custom style sheet for Safari (which also works in all other major browsers) that enhances the results listings from major search engines -- it numbers all the results, including any paid advertising, which makes it easier to see how your site ranks while checking out various search results. (It also highlights links and images that use the "nofollow" attribute.) To use this custom sheet in Safari, save the style sheet locally somewhere; name it something like Custom Style Sheet.css. In Safari, open preferences, click Advanced, then click the drop-down next to Style Sheet and navigate to the Custom Style Sheet.css you just saved. You can read more about this custom style sheet in this entry on my blog -- I think this is a big upgrade for all web/SEO people using Safari. [robg adds: I...

Open parent folder in a new window@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:30:03 +0200

By default, double-clicking a folder in the Mac OS X Finder opens the folder in the current window. You probably know that you can open a new window for a folder that appears in the current window by holding down the Command key before double-clicking. You might also know you can open the parent of the current folder in a new window with Command-Up Arrow -- but this will close the original folder, too. To open the parent folder of the current window in a new window, while leaving the current window open, hold Command and Control, and then press the Up Arrow key on the keyboard.

10.5: Modify the login window with Workgroup Manager@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:30:02 +0200

I have always liked the result of this hint (and others like it in 10.4) that allowed me to customize the login window, but a quick search of the archive seems to show that no such hint exists for 10.5 (although I grant that I didn't try this one in 10.5). The existing hints for Workgroup Server don't address the login window specifically. However, I have figured out how to make all sorts of modifications to the login window by using Apple's free Server Admin Tools. To modify your login window, follow the instructions in this hint to download and install the Server Admin Tools and open Workgroup Manager. (Note that the link I provided in the previous...

Print to an HP Laserjet 6L via a parallel-to-USB adapter@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:30:01 +0200

I have tried adding an HP LaserJet 6L printer via Printer Setup Utility many times, and I always got the USB device to show under the default browser, but I could not add the printer. So I went to More Printers (holding down the Option key), clicked Advanced, and tried selecting USB Printer. This brought up usb://, but I could not find address using System Profiler or USB Prober. Anyway, my grandson comes in, and asks "what's that Unknown button right at the bottom of the Advanced panel?" So I click it, and it comes up with a URL: usb://Unknown/Unknown?serial=0. I tried this, using the Gutenprint HP 6L driver -- and it works perfectly, even waking the printer if necessary. This works with OS X 10.4.11; hope it helps others -- I googled for help on this, but didn't find anything on the subject.

10.5: Use a built-in command line audio player@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:30:00 +0200

OS X 10.5 includes a command line audio player (in /usr/bin) called afplay. This is very useful if you want to play a sound file from the command line, shell script, Automator action, etc. The /usr/bin directory is in your path by default, so you can just type afplay file.mp3 to play that file.afplay makes use of Core Audio, so I think it can play any audio file that QuickTime supports (including mp3, aiff, wav, etc.). If any one is interested, Apple also provides the source code for this application with the Xcode developer tools. You'll find it in this folder: /Developer � Examples � CoreAudio � Services � AudioFileTools.[robg adds: There's a very simple man page for afplay, which then tells you that help is available with afplay -h. There are a few interesting options, including the ability to play a defi...

Avoid a hardware model filter bug in OS X Server@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:30:00 +0200

This is more of a workaround than a hint, but will hopefully save some folks the hours of annoyance I've had to deal with. The problem can be summarized as follows: In the Server Admin application, installed with Apple's Server Admin Tools, you can manage many of Mac OS X Server's features, including Netboot and Netinstall images. Once you have created a Netinstall image, you have the option in Server Admin to specify what types of Apple hardware are allowed to boot the image over the network. I refer to these filters as hardware model type filters, though I'm not sure of their official name. Anyway, once a model type filter is set for a given Netinstall image, a workaround is required to make future edits to the same filter in the GUI.Steps to Reproduce the bug:Create a netinstall image.Edit the hardware model type filter by clicking the pencil button, then click OK, then Save.Try again to edit the same hardware model type filter, click Ok...

Set the fax log level to possibly resend failed faxes@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:30:00 +0200

OS X uses a disappointingly convoluted set of programs and preferences to send a fax. Trying to debug why a particular fax isn't getting through to a particular machine is frustrating, since Apple doesn't provide any help at all. If you happen to stumble upon it, you may see the CUPS log file in /var/log/cups/error_log, which may contain error messages about your failed fax. You can also see this file by opening the log from the fax printer queue (if you made one).I've found that the Apple OS X fax formats aren't particularly compatible with a number of other fax recipients -- I sometimes get repeated errors in /var/log/cups/error_log that look like this:E [date time] [Job 53] There was a fax protocol error.E [date time] PID 352 (/usr/libexec/cups/backend/fax) stopped with status 1!I [date time] Hint: Try setting the LogLevel to "debug" to find out more.But that leaves you wondering "how do I set LogLevel to ...

Easily share Cycorder videos off jailbroken iPhones@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:30:00 +0200

We have a number of first-generation iPhones fully unlocked and jailbroken using Pwnage from the iPhone Dev Team. (The iPhone 3G is not currently software-unlockable with any degree of reliability.)One of the challenges for both 'official' (installed from Apple's App Store) and 'unofficial' (using installer.app or Cydia) apps that create content (photos, videos, text etc) is how to share the content. One approach taken by several apps is to offer to send an attachment via email. While this is fine for text files and photos, it's not so appropriate for larger files like video. You could also install OpenSSH and use scp to get the files, but that involves opening up root access which I didn't want to do for users who are a bit less tech savvy. Here's our particular problem and solution. I have installed the Cycorder app, which allows you to capture video, but relies on scp and a knowledge of where the files are to move files off of the phone. By a ...

Print PDFs directly to iPod touch (and iPhone)@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

I frequently want to print copies of maps, directions or other things to take with me on the road. Since I found the app Air Sharing for my iPod touch, I can save the docs to PDF, and then copy them to my iPod touch for offline viewing. I put together an Automator workflow [65KB download] that allows me to do this directly from the print dialog box. To configure the workflow, put the (unzipped) downloaded file into the /Library/PDF Services folder. Open the workflow in Automator, and then set the IP address of your iPod touch or iPhone in the first line of the AppleScript action, and set the save to location in the last action to the desired location on your iPod touch/iPhone. (Note that you need to have the iPhone/iPod touch mounted via Air Sharing to use this workflow.) Finally, save the workflo...

Directly access System Preference panes in the Dock@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

As of OS X 10.5 at least, dragging a preference pane into the right (Documents) side of the Dock will allow direct access to that preference with a single click. Drag any preference pane from /System � Library � PreferencePanes or /Library � PreferencePanes, and drop it into the dock. Click it, and System Preferences will open with that pane active.I use this for a connection utility for a wireless USB modem (that has been implemented as a preference rather than an actual app). So I click the pane, then use the Connect button to activate the 3G modem. This is more logical than opening preferences.This is close to, but not exactly the same, as several previous hints on this topic. I don't know when it became possible, as I only have one Mac and its OS is kept up to date.[robg adds: The preference panes are now basically like mini applications -- you can place them in the sidebar or toolbar, and if double-clicked in the Finder, that pane will open in ...

10.5: Make Spotlight index Thunderbird 2.0 messages@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

After some work, I finally managed to get Thunderbird 2.0 and Leopard's Spotlight working together -- at least it is good enough for me, but it is still far from the kind of integration you get between Mail.app and Spotlight.Here are the numerous steps I took to get it working (I use two GMail accounts managed via IMAP):Download the Thunderbird.mdimporter. Double-clicking on it should install it in /Library � Spotlight.In Thunderbird, open Preferences � Advanced � General � Configuration Editor. Set mail.spotlight.enable to true.Reboot your Mac and verify that the Thunderbird.mdimporter is registered by checking the output of /usr/bin/mdimport -L in Terminal.Create a Thunderbird.emails directory in your user's Documents folder.Make sure Th...

A fix for Google calDAV calendars nor showing up in iCal@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

I synchronize my iCal and Google calendars using calDAV (based on these instructions). After getting everything running, I had a calDAV calendar in my iCal which was not showing up in the sidebar. The "account" was showing up (the stuff written in grey, capital letters, with a triangle next to it) but no calendar in the account. No error message, either.The problem was that I was using non-ASCII characters in the name of the calendar (what a surprise). I changed it on the Google website, deleted the account in iCal, added it again, and voil�, now it shows as expected.Not sure if this is linked to 10.5.5 or not; I just know it was at some point working, and that I had this problem for about a week or so. Hope this helps.

10.5: Fix a CUPS printing problem in 10.5.5@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:30:03 +0200

There seems to be a bug in the OS X 10.5.5 update that make many printers behave oddly. I have found that printing to Adobe PDF Queues, Xerox, and Oki printers exhibit the same problem: the printout can be randomly zoomed, rotated, or offset each time you print! The fix I have found that works on all 50 of my office's Mac Pros is to replace the pstops file in /usr/libexec/cups/filter directory with the one from a 10.5.4 machine. Obviously this is an important system file, so make sure you backup first! [robg adds: I can't confirm either the problem or the fix; the two printers I have here seem to work fine in 10.5.5.]

An rsync-based backup solution for easy backups@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:30:02 +0200

I had the need for a simple backup solution for disk-to-disk backups on servers. I wanted it to be administered through a terminal (via ssh), run in the background without user interaction, and email me a report once it did its work. I also wanted it to autorotate my backups, and to use hardlinks to save space and speed up incremental backups. Since I couldn't find something simple that suited my needs, I wrote mlbackup. mlbackup is a convenient wrapper around rsync 3, which is included in the download. rsync 3 itself is compiled as an universal binary, optimized for PPC and Intel processors in 32-bit and 64-bit incarnations. There are a ton of features in mlbackup; beyond the autorotation, use of hard links, and email notification noted above, it also includes easy configuration via a text file, backs up all HFS+ metadata, skips certain OS X files (caches, te...

10.5: Speed drag-selection of large icons@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:30:03 +0200

There appears to be a minor bug in the Leopard Finder: drag-selecting multiple icons when they are set to full size is very slow and unusable (at least on my 2.4GHz 17" MacBook Pro running OS X 10.5.5). The solution is to change the icon size to 112x112 pixels or lower. Still pretty big, but much faster for some reason. [robg adds: I tested this on my Mac Pro, and indeed, there's a big change in performance when you compare, say, 116x116 to 112x112. It's especially noticeable if you're drag-selecting in a folder with a large number of items in it.]

Copy music to iPod based on recent iTunes playback@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:30:02 +0200

My iTunes library is much larger than the capacity of a 4GB (or even 8GB) Flash-memory-based iPod. Therefore I searched for a solution that would allow me to automatically copy a selection of songs I'm actually listening to over to my iPod. I didn't want to bother changing the playlist I am syncing with the iPod manually every week or so. The solution was based on this AppleScript snippet I found on the Internet, with some changes to make it work the way I wanted it to work. The script adds albums to a playlist based on the songs I recently played. In that way, the iPod is always filled with the music I'm enjoying right now. 2br Here is the script: with ti...

See an Easter Egg in Texas Hold'em on iPhone@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:30:01 +0200

Ever since Texas Hold'em 1.1 made its way onto my iPhone, I could swear the game was making faces at me! I finally figured out what was happening... Make just about any non-game related finger stroke (a circle, a capital L, or any random zig-zag...) on the screen while playing in landscape mode (where all players' hands are visible at once). Keep your eye on your player icon at the bottom of the screen to see the game's Easter Egg -- a silly cartoon face that fades out after a second or so.

Scrub video playback in VLC media player@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:30:04 +0200

I don't know whether its a new feature or old, but you can scrub through videos in the latest version of the VLC media player by double finger scrolling (in the left or right direction) on the trackpad of newer Mac laptops. [robg adds: This is definitely new in 0.9.2; I have both it and 0.8.6, and there's no scrubbing via scroll in 0.8.6. You can also scrub with a Mighty Mouse, and with any mouse capable of horizontal scrolling -- which should be any mouse with a scroll wheel. You just need to hold Shift while using the scroll wheel to scroll horizontally while using such rodents.]

Make MobileFinder more powerful on jailbroken iPhones@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:30:01 +0200

If you've got a jailbroken 2.x iPhone and use MobileFinder from the App Store, here's a way to give it even more power. By moving MobileFinder to the top-level Applications folder on the iPhone (instead of in the /User/Applications folder), you can then create symbolic links to folders from other applications such as Cycorder or MxTube. Once linked, you can then easily access these folders via MobileFinder. Note that you'll need to have SSH installed on your jailbroken iPhone to use this hint. SSH to your jailbroken iPhone in Terminal. Find the MobileFinder app inside /User/Application folder; it will be inside one of the folders with long names. cd to that folder. Type the following in Terminal: $ mv MobileFinder.app /Applications/MobileFinder.app $ cd /Applications $ chown -R root MobileFinder.app Turn the iPhone off and back on. If you can't see MobileFinder, install anything else (via...

Set default startup volume from boot volume screen@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:30:05 +0200

When you start up a Mac holding down the Option key, the boot volume menu appears on the screen -- this shows all bootable volumes on the screen, making it simple to boot from any volume in your Mac.You can also, it turns out, set the default boot volume (the volume that will boot when you don't hold the Option key down) from this screen. To set the default start-up volume, press Control and click on an arrow under the volume of your choice. When Control is pressed, the upward arrow turns into a circular arrow, denoting the persistence of the choice.Note that I have tested this on only the newest iMac and MacBook Pro.[robg adds: This trick did not work on my November 2006 (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo) MacBook Pro.]

Greatly reduce CPU usage with Cricket Wireless modem@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:30:03 +0200

If any of you are Cricket wireless modem users, you know there is a huge problem with the software you download from their support site. When I first used it, my Activity Monitor was reading an average of 85% CPU usage on both cores! This is completely unacceptable for any reason, so before I returned the USB modem they provide, I figured out the following little trick. Having done this, my CPU load is now under 2% on my 2.4GHz iMac. The software to control your internet access is not doing anything than setting up a VPN, and they can get away with such poorly written programs because the download installs a modem script. So, once you have the script, why not give that software the slip? Here's what I did: Download and install the software on your Mac. You want to make sure that the modem is going to properly connect to the internet in the first place. Go to System Preferences � Network, and add a VPN. Choose L2PTP over IPSec as the type, and n...

View PC files on the Mac while VirtualPC is running@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:30:02 +0200

To view your PC files on the Mac desktop while running Virtual PC with Windows running (or for just viewing your Windows files without launching Virtual PC), you need to first create a Mac alias to one of your Windows folders (created while running VirtualPC). Once that alias is created, when double-clicked, the Windows hard drive will show on your Mac desktop -- even if you're running Windows via VirtualPC at the time. [robg adds: I don't have VirtualPC, so I can't test this one.]

Play iPhone music videos in the background@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:30:01 +0200

If you're watching a video and you lock your iPhone or return to the home screen, video playback stops. This makes sense for movies, but for music videos, a user may want to listen to the music without actually watching the video. The simple workaround is to set the Home button's functionality to iPod in the iPhone's preferences. Next start any music video, and press the screen lock button (this pauses the music). Now press the screen lock button or the Home button again to show the unlock screen. Double tap the Home button and the iPod controls will appear. Press play and you are good to go! If you want to use the iPhone for other things, such as browsing Safari, make sure you press the Home button before you lock the screen. This way, when you unlock the phone, you won't be taken back to the music video, but instead will be on the home screen. (Note that pressing the Home button while in a video pauses the video, and that double tapping for iPod c...

Encrypt Mail, Address Book, and iCal data@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:30:04 +0200

Like many of you, I keep lots of personal information on my laptop that I would like to keep private in case I lose physical control of the computer (theft, or more likely these days, sudden seizure by the government). There are a few ways to accomplish on-the-fly encryption with OS X, of course, but none of them really fit my needs. FileVault has not been known to be exceptionally reliable (although I've never tried it in Leopard) and is totally unconfigurable. Whole disk encryption is a little overkill for me, so I don't feel like eating the CPU overhead that it entails. On the other end of the spectrum, casual security like an Open Firmware / EFI password, and a strong login password are easily defeated, and only deter those with no interest in your data anyway. What I really want is a way to encrypt just a certain set of private data (like my email in Mail.app, contacts in Address Book, and calendars in iCal), with as little inconvenience as possible. The best ...

Monitor Xserve temperature, voltage, power via Munin@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:30:02 +0200

Many system administrators are using Munin to monitor and make graphs of many details about their servers. However, there is no official plug-in for Mac OS X Server and Xserve to monitor temperature, power, or voltage. Aqua Ray, however, provides some of them; that page has download links for G4, G5, and Intel Xserves, along with explanations on how to install them on a current version of Munin. [robg adds: These plug-ins appear to be free, but I haven't tested them to see how well they work.]

Quickly change a far-away date in iPhone's Calendar@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:30:01 +0200

I've noticed when creating a new event in the iPhone's Calendar, sometimes it gives me a far far away date (usually if I've been looking at old, or future events), or previous recurrences of an event (two years ago, for example). By default, date is displayed as Weekday-Day-Month, Hour and Minutes. Changing to another month, or worse, another year, is a time-consuming task. One obvious solution is to cancel that event, go to Today, and create a new one, so the date is closer to the desired one. But if you have already typed information about the event, it may be frustrating to re-enter all of it. A simpler way to get the right date quickly is to turn on the All-Day event switch, so the date picker changes to Day, Month, Year. Simply change your date, and turn off the All-Day switch again to enter the hour.

A script to install all required Software Updates@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:30:04 +0200

After a version of OS X matures, it can be a pain to sit through several rounds of updates if you need to rebuild a machine from scratch. You install one set of updates, the machine restarts, and then the next set of updates pops-up. After a few cycles, this gets really old. To work around that problem, I created a shell script that runs Software Update, installs all available updates, reboots, and repeats the process until there are no more updates left. #!/bin/sh # This script will run softwareupdate, install all available updates, reboot and repeat # until no more updates are available. It must be run as root. # To use in its current form, name the script initswupdater.sh and put it in /Library/Management. # T...

How to view C-SPAN streams with Flip4Mac WMV player@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:30:03 +0200

The C-SPAN web site's support for WMV on Mac (via Flip4Mac) is broken. Since many people may not want to install Real Player (the other option on C-SPAN), C-SPAN's broken web site means those Mac users can no longer stream live video from c-span.org. But the C-SPAN streams themselves actually work just fine with Flip4Mac -- it's the broken web page at C-SPAN that is preventing Mac users from getting the streams. Until/unless the C-SPAN site is fixed, here are the URLs for the current C-SPAN streams (obtained from a Windows PC): CSPAN CSPAN2 CSPAN3

Update iPhone software/firmware from any computer@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:30:02 +0200

I have a friend who had their G5 die, and they are relying on their iPhone while waiting for their new iMac to ship. However, they have been having issues with the various bugs in the iPhone's 2.0.x software. So I decided to update their iPhone from my MacBook Pro. I couldn't find any documentation that said if it was possible, so I gave it a try. When you first plug in the other iPhone, iTunes asks you to erase and sync the phone; hit Cancel at this point. Next, select the iPhone in the Devices column, and uncheck the 'Automatically sync when this iPhone is connected' and 'Sync only checked songs and videos' boxes in the Options section of the Summary tab. Now click the Update button to run the update. The iphone will do its update thing, and no data will be lost.

Delete multiple photos from the iPhone's Camera Roll@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:30:01 +0200

I kept building up my photo collection on the iPhone's Camera Roll. There is no obvious way to delete a bunch of them -- short of deleting all of them -- from iPhoto (or even iTunes). You can, howver, use the Image Capture in OS X to do it. Launch Image Capture and hit the Download Some button, and you are then free to roam the camera roll, selecting and deleting multiple images. My camera roll had over 1,000 photos in it, and taking pictures got very sluggish. You can erase them from the camera roll and sync them though iTunes. Browsing is much faster on synced rolls than on the standard Camera Roll. [robg adds: Obviously, you could use iPhoto to import all, then say yes when asked if you want to delete the images after the import is done. If, for some reason, you wanted to keep some images in the Camera Roll, then this hint would work. The use of Image Capture was noted in the comments to ...

Toggle binary bits in Calculator's Programmer mode@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:30:04 +0200

Using the OS X Calculator program in Programmer (Command-3) mode, there is an obvious button that says Show Binary (or Hide Binary); click it, and a panel appears (or disappears) showing the binary version of what's in the main display. While the button is obvious, the following is not: if if you click on one of the binary bits, it will toggle that bit's state and the calculator's main LCD will change accordingly. Why is this useful? For the average person it won't be, but it does help if you are visually analyzing a bitstream (say, with a hex editor) and need to quickly compare hex numbers by toggling particular bits on or off.

10.5: Re-enable remote X viewing in 10.5.5@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:30:03 +0200

When you upgrade to OS X 10.5.5, remote X viewing (via X11) gets disabled. This is fine for most people, however for those of us who use remote apps, it's a pain. The following defaults setting will take care of the issue. In Terminal, issue this command: defaults write org.x.X11 nolisten_tcp 0 [robg adds: I haven't tested this one.]

Corrupt entry in iPhone's Contacts can cause issues@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:30:02 +0200

After two iPhone replacements, five Genius bar visits, two new SIM cards, the 2.1 software update, and countless restores, I have identified a relatively simple fix for the following two iPhone problems: While in sleep mode, the iPhone hangs when receiving a phone call. The Contacts app launches slowly, and exhibits jerky scrolling (especially with large contact databases) It turned out I had a corrupt Contact app record -- my own. I did all my iPhone testing (on both of my iPhones) by calling the iPhone from my home phone. Here's my theory of what happens when the iPhone get an incoming call: The iPhone detects an incoming phone call and awakens The iPhone grabs the caller ID information The iPhone application MobliePhone passes the caller ID information to the application Contacts The Contacts application looks in its database for a record that matches the caller ID If there is a match, a picture of the ca...

How to force an iPhone into restore mode@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:30:01 +0200

My iPhone 3G locked up on me recently. I mean it really locked up on me. The Sleep plus Home button reset trick (hold both for about 10 seconds) wouldn't work. The iPhone wouldn't get passed the initial Apple logo while booting. Plugging it into iTunes simply caused iTunes to freeze. There was nothing I could do. So after taking it to an Apple store and talking with a Genius there, I learned this trick for forcing the iPhone to go into restore mode. WARNING: This is a last restort! All the data on your iPhone will be cleared and it will be reset to factory defaults. Turn off the iPhone (you can hold down the Sleep button, or use Sleep + Home, and release as soon as the screen shuts off). Hold down the Home button while connecting to your computer with iTunes already open and ready for a connection. iTunes will prompt you to perform a software restore. Your iPhone will obviously be wiped new and be reset as a result and you...

Sync subscribed iCal calendars to MobileMe via script@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:30:03 +0200

As discussed in many places, the MobileMe cloud does not serve calendars you have subscribed to out to the iPhone -- only local calendars are synced. I need to see a calendar which my secretary maintains, so I created an AppleScript which duplicates that calendar into one local to my Mac, which then syncs to the iPhone.My AppleScript skills are rudimentary, but here it is:(* Script to duplicate Calendar orgCalendar into target dupCalendarE.H. 12.9.2008*)property myCopies : 0property myUpdates : 0property myObsoletes : 0property orgCalendar : "Sekretariat"property dupCalendar : "Sekretariat copy"property dupEvents : {}property myDeletes : {}set myCopies to 0set myUpdates to 0set myObsoletes to 0set dupEvents to {}tell appli...

10.5: Be aware of a Save As bug in Mail@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:30:01 +0200

Here's warning to all users saving their emails from Mail in Rich Text Format (File � Save As, then set the Format pop-up to Rich Text Format). Even if you check the Include Attachments box, the Leopard version of Apple Mail omits the the attachments in the RTFD package (in Tiger, everything worked fine). To verify this, export a message using RTF, then Control-click on the exported RTFD file in the Finder and choose Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu to inspect the package -- you'll find the original message, but none of the attachments. [robg adds: I verified that this problem still exists in the just-released OS X 10.5.5 update, and it does. I also found it's true of exports set to use Plain Text mode. The only way to export with attachments, it seems, is to use Original Format mode.]

Use an unofficial 'private browsing' mode on the iPhone@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

While there are many reasons to want to conceal only a part of one's browsing history, there's no official way to browse privately, or selectively delete, history entries on the iPhone. However, I recently discovered, through equal parts curiosity and accident, a way to achieve a similar result. Browse to a site you'd like to keep out of your browser history, conduct your business, and then when you're done, navigate to a less-sensitive site. Then hold the Home button down until Safari "force quits" back to the iPhone's home screen. When you reopen Safari, you'll see the last page you had open, but when you check history, you'll find nothing from the last session except that page. YouTube App works similarly, but you don't need to navigate to a new page. Once you force quit, that entire session apparently vanishes into the ether. This is more useful, for me at least. Most of us don't have prying spouses furiously scouring our phon...

Scroll and zoom PDFs in Mobile Safari on the iPhone@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

If you have a PDF document embedded in a web page, the iPhone won't let you look through it with one finger scrolling. However, if you start using two-finger scrolling on the document, you can scroll around it like any other web page. The pinch/expand gesture also works to zoom in or out on the PDF.The iPhone will load it pretty slowly, but it'll get there eventually.

Jump back one song via headphones and iPhone 2.1@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

This probably applies to the iPod touch, too, but I've only tested it on the iPhone. If you use the iPhone's headphones (or a third-party set with click-control), iPhone 2.1 adds one more feature to the clicker: triple-click to jump back one song. So one click will pause the current song, two clicks will jump forward one track, and three (very quick) clicks will jump backward one song.Thanks to Rob Randtoul (creator of some of my favorite desktop images) for pointing this one out to me.

10.5: Keep Boot Camp partitions off the desktop@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

I wanted to prevent the Boot Camp partition from showing up on my user's destkop, while not preventing other mounted disks from showing there. I had tried editing the /etc/fstab file, but ran into glitches when putting that into an image (OS X and Windows XP) and mass-duplicating it for my 6,000 MacBook users. I then noticed that Boot Camp would pick up what the volume's name was in Windows, and name it in OS X accordingly. So I simply put a dot in front of the name while booted into Windows, and rebooted into OS X.After doing this, the partition no longer shows the hard drive icon on the desktop. It doesn't hide the partition from Finder windows, but it does not show it on the desktop. It was a quick and dirty solution that also worked with the image I created. I believe this only works in the newest version of Boot Camp. [robg adds: I've marked this one ...

10.5: FunctionFlip - Toggle laptop's function key behavior@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:55:00 +0200

Developer / Product Page: Kevin Gessner / Product Page Price: FreeDo you have a Mac laptop with the multi-function Function keys (i.e. controlling brightness, keyboard illumination, media playback)? A setting in System Preferences controls how these keys work -- you can either have them work directly, or only when holding down the Fn button. But what if you want some of them (brightness, for instance) to work just by pressing the function key, and would prefer others (that you'd rather not press by accident, or what rather use for other commands) work only when holding down the Fn key?The answer is this week's Pick of the Week, FunctionFlip. It's a simple System Prefe...

New poll posted on Mac purchase plans@MacOSXHints.com

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 05:09:00 +0200

I've just posted a new poll on your personal Mac purchase plans. Basically, with what we know now (not much, as usual), which Mac do you plan to purchase next for personal use? For each model, you can choose the currently-shipping version, or the we-know-they're-coming-someday next revision to that model. There's also an option for an as-of-yet unannounced Mac model -- something like the Mythical Mid-range Mac Minitower, for instance.Personally, I keep holding out hope for the Minitower, but I don't think that will come to pass, so it'll probably be a next-revision iMac for the kids.

10.5: Fix connect/disconnect Bluetooth modem issue@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

By default, OS X 10.5.4 lets you set up a mobile phone to act as a Bluetooth modem, but this does not always work. For instance, it doesn't work with a Nokia E61 on the O2 network in the UK.When you try Connect Bluetooth from the menu bar, you will see Connecting..., immediately followed by Disconnecting ..., and then finally an error saying that it "Could not negotiate a connection with the remote PPP server." This error persists even after taking care to enter the correct username, password, APN, CID, and to change the necessary settings on the phone. Googling on this will also produce a lot advice to install custom modem scripts. This is often misleading, since these scripts were mostly designed to fill gaps in OS X 10.4.*.In fact, the "connecting/disconnecting" problem is because Leopard, by default, requires a new kind of PPP authorization (MS-CHAP[v2]) which not all...

One way to use secure communications on an iPhone@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

Although the AIM iPhone application works great, the chats are not encrypted. Although iPhone email is great, there is no way to receive or send SMIME email. So, if you are an iPhone user who wants to send a secure message or have a secure conversation with another iPhone user or a computer user what can you do? Without spending a fortune? In fact, doing it for free?What we did is create a "sharing" IMAP Gmail account with https set as a requirement in the Gmail settings. Then all persons who will need to have the ability to send/receive secure communication get login credentials for this shared Gmail account. (Granted, anyone who has access to this account can read any messages, but we obviously could create other shared email accounts as needed to deal with smaller groups.)With that set up, when someone needs to send a secure message, they send (via email or AIM) notification to the other parties that they are posting ...

10.5: Add date and time stamp to web receipt filenames@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

After upgrading to Leopard, I found that when I was printing a web receipt, I had a number of duplicate 'Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder' options in the PDF menu of the Print dialog box. When testing the duplicates, the web receipts seemed to end up in different odd places.This was in part due the fact that I had created an Automator workflow (see previous hint) for 10.4. In Leopard, there is a new built-in item ;Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder' that comes from this file: /Library � PDF Services � Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder.pdfworkflow. Control-click on the pdfworkflow file, and navigate into Contents, where you'll find the working part of this bundle, a python script named tool.This script creates a folder Web Receipts folder in your user's Documents folder, and puts web receipts ...

Fix a Western Digital My Book drive formatting problem@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

Twice now I have had problems formatting a new Western Digital My Book external drive under 10.5.x. Disk Utility fails to format the drive as Max OS X Extended Journaled with a "Format failed..." message. The first time this happened, I found an obscure firmware update at Western Digital's forums. This time, I found a quicker solution in this thread over at macForums. Here's a short executive summary version: Open Disk Utility and select your drive. Go to the Partition tab, name the drive as you wish, and choose one partition. Partition the drive. Select the partition you just created. Go to Options (on the bottom of the dialog window) and select GUID Partition Table/OK, then click Apply. That's it; you can now format the drive successfully.

10.5: Run Spore in OS X 10.5.2@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

While Spore (the full game, not Creature Creator) states that it require OS X 10.5.3, it's possible to get it running on OS X 10.5.2. I thought that I'd try to get it to run under 10.5.2 first in case it was possible, so I wouldn't need to upgrade. Unfortunately, 10.5.3 and later breaks compatibility with Starcraft, Diablo and some other older games on Nvidia 8x00 graphics. Here's how I got it running in 10.5.2: Insert the CD, then using Terminal or something that can see invisible files, copy the whole contents of the CD to your hard disk, to somewhere like /Spore/. Navigate to /Spore � SPORE(TM) Install.app � (Control-clcik and Show Package Contents) � Contents � Resources. Open tgInstall.plist in your favorite pure text editor. Comment out the $INSTALLVOLUME line, as shown below: ...

Installing apps on multiple iPod touches/iPhones@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

I found it necessary to go through an authorization process to use apps from the iTunes app store on a second iPhone/iPod Touch. This might seem unremarkable but, curiously, the computer on which the apps were saved in iTunes was already authorized for iTunes purchases and, on attempting to sync the apps to the second iPhone, the obtuse error message was that "this computer" was not authorized for the apps.The hint to make it work was to double click on each app icon in the iTunes list (while the receiving iPhone is connected) and authorize the app for use on another machine (up to five can be authorized).The reference in the error message to "this computer" clearly is meant to be "this iPhone/iPod Touch."

One way to disable the iPhone's typing auto-correct@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

My fiancee Ana, recently got her iPhone in The Philippines. As she splits her typing time between English and Tagalog, she complained to me that the iPhone's autocorrect was making her Tagalog typing extremely difficult, as the iPhone kept trying to correct all her Tagalog. She asked me if I knew a way to disable the auto-correct and although I searched around the net for a published solution, couldn't find one, so I had to look on my own. Here is my workaround.The auto-correct feature is tied to the language that you are typing in. If you disable your English keyboard, the auto-correct feature will be disabled. But the iPhone will not allow you to disable the default keyboard if only one is activated. So all you have to do is activate at least one more keyboard, and you are good to go. As both my girlfriend and I have a need to type in Japanese, we both have Japanese keyboards enabled, so we were already set. But in general, this is the workaround:Home Scree...

10.5: Restore a folder's view options to default settings@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

I have most of my folders set to open with the defaults I've set for icon size, view columns, etc.; plus a few folders which have their own customized settings. In Tiger and earlier, there was a button on the View Options panel to restore a customized folder to the default view, but we lost this with Leopard.To restore a folder to the default view settings in Leopard, open the View Options panel (Command-J, or View � Show View Options) then hold down the Option key. With the Option key down, the 'Use as Defaults' button will change to 'Restore to Defaults.'

Make mass changes in iTunes' device control dashboard@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

If you ever want to select all but one playlist (or movie, podcast, app, etc.) to sync in your iPod or iPhone's iTunes dashboard, it seems you have to select every single one manually.It turns out there's an easier way: just Option-click on any entry in the list. This will toggle the state of all items in the list between 'selected' and 'not selected.' Then you can just change the few you don't want (or do want), and sync.

10.5: Disable Data Detectors in Mail@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

An interesting change in Leopard was the addition of Data Detectors to Mail, which automatically detect info such as dates, times, names, and addresses, and let you use that data directly from the message in iCal. It can be a very convenient feature, but some users find it annoying. To disable it, quit Mail, and in Terminal, simply enter:defaults write com.apple.mail DisableDataDetectors YESIf you want to enable it again, quit Mail, and repeat the above command, but replace YES with NO (confounded double negatives!).[robg adds: This previous hint explains how to enable Data Detectors in iChat, which are disabled by default in that program.]

How to search via contacts' nicknames on the iPhone@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

While the nickname field of Address Book entries does sync to the iPhone, it's not searchable on the iPhone. Also, it's not used as the display name in call lists or SMS chats. I much prefer reading friend's short names or nicknames instead of their full name when they call.The easy solution to achieve that is to turn your friends into companies. Use each person's nickname as the company name, and check the Company box in Address Book. The only downside to this solution is that now their full names are not searchable on the iPhone anymore.Quite a simple and obvious hint, but maybe helpful for some nonetheless...

Record video from FireWire tuner devices via the CLI@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

There are a couple of hints here on how to record FireWire video from cable boxes such as the Motorola DCT-6000 family (I've got a DCT-6200 myself). But they involve using AVCVideoCap.app from the FireWire SDK, or weird hacks based on it. I've stripped out the important stuff from AVCVideoCap.app, and written a CLI utility that can be run without the need for a UI. I call it clover, after our dog. (This source is distributed per the terms of the Apple license in the original SDK.)It's currently beta but works for me; anyone who wishes to help me test it is encouraged to give it a shot. To use it, you simply hook up your Mac to your video tuner with a FireWire cable, then run clover with the following options:-c channel_number-d duratio...

Add folders to the iTunes library via the command line@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0200

If, like me, you like to make yourself feel all l33t by doing a lot of system and file management on the command line, you'll have been frustrated at least once by failing to be able to add freshly-downloaded MP3s to the iTunes library (once you've salted them away in your carefully-ordered music stash, naturally) via Terminal.Well, be frustrated no more! Here is a handy-dandy AppleScript I wrote to do just that right in the shell. It takes the path to your newly-minted MP3 folder as an argument, and here's the code:on run named_folder set folder_alias to POSIX file named_folder tell application "iTunes" add folder_alias to library playlist 1 end tellend runOn Leopard, save this to a text file with this as the first line:#!/usr/bin/osascriptThen chmod a+x the script to make it executable, and you can invoke this as you would any shell script:~/scripts/addToITunesLibrary ~/Music/mp3/_purchased/Malcolm M...

A fix for disappearing to dos and calendars in iCal@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:30:03 +0200

Recently, iCal started acting strangely with screen artifacts, non-responsive behavior, and unexpected quits (I would think that Leopard would start expecting them after a couple dozen times!). I could change views from the menu, but not from any of the buttons. Deleting the iCal preference files brought only temporary satisfaction. iCal would then open fine, but at some point, the calendars and to dos would suddenly disappear from sight. (I found this would happen when I would open the to do list.) Hiding the to do list would make the calendars visible again, but I still could not work in them. After some testing (checking one calendar at a time and opening the to do list to see if it would freeze), I narrowed down the problem to a corrupted to do in one of the calendars. This is how I fixed it: Quit iCal. Delete the following preference file: ~/Library � Preferences � com.apple.iCal.plist Open iCal. With the to do list hidden, export...

An unexpected fix for odd iPhone troubles@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:30:01 +0200

Recently my nearly one-year-old iPhone kept telling me that an accessory was not compatible with the iPhone, even though I had not plugged in an accessory. A few days later, I could not put my iPhone into silence mode. After getting ready to send it in for repair, I discovered it was simply compacted debris, collected from being carried in my pocket, in the bottom port that was making the iPhone think it was plugged into something. A blast of canned air did the trick, and my iPhone is now as good as new again.

Sync with .Mac (MobileMe) from the command line@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:30:05 +0200

I noticed a new post on a very old thread on the Mac OS X Hints forums site, which was about being able to start a sync to .Mac (MobileMe) from the command line. The new post showed how to use an AppleScript to control the MobileMe preferences pane and then click the Sync Now button. While this may work, I suspected that there must be a better way, and so I had a dig around. I found dotmacsyncclient, located in /System � Library � PrivateFrameworks � DotMacSyncManager.framework � Versions � A � Resources. Further investigation showed that, indeed, you can start a sync from the command line -- and much more. Note that the following examples assume you have cd'ed into the above directory first...

Use a longer alphanumeric passcode on the iPhone@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:30:02 +0200

A lot of people don't know that Apple provides a free iPhone configuration utility, but they do, and it can add some great features you can't get any other way. The simplest use of the program is to enable complex passcodes on the iphone. I know some people don't want to have to type in a long password to get into their iPhone, but I'm a bit paranoid -- so protecting all of my email accounts, contacts, etc. with an annoyingly-long and complex password seems worth it to me. Here is how you do it: Install and launch the iPhone Configuration Utility. Click on Configuration Profiles in the Library menu on the left. Click the New+ button along the top of the window, and on the General tab, fill out the info (Name, Identifier, etc.); there is no need to digitally sign it. Next Click on the Passcode tab, and check Require Passcode on Device. Check the various ...

Keep multiple calendars synced and viewable on iPhone@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:30:01 +0200

I use a Mac at home and a PC at work. At home, I have a personal calendar on iCal and a family calendar on Goggle Calendars. At work, I have a work calendar on Outlook and a company calendar on Google. From Outlook, I publish my work calendar to a private server. At home, I publish my personal calendar to MobileMe. At work, I subscribe to the Office calendar, my personal calendar and the family calendar. At home, I subscribe to my work calendar, my office calendar and my family calendar. I then sync these calendars at home with my iPhone through iTunes. I select the "Sync iCal Calendars" option in iTunes to sync all of my calendars to my iPhone. I do not allow MobileMe to manage the syncing because it will not sync all of my subscribed calendars separately. While this has the advantage of showing me separate calendars on my iPhone, it does require me to sync the phone with iTunes to get all of the calendars updated rather than having automatic syncing in the background...

Import Address Book contacts into a new Verizon phone@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

Here's the scenario:You have a phone with Verizon, and you have 1,000 contacts in your Mac's Address Book. Perhaps you've had a previous Verizon phone, but you've never backed up your contacts from that phone -- but you do have your contacts on your computer and want to get them into your phone. I'm here to tell you that yes, it can be done, I promise. What this does is turn your Firefox web browser into an input robot that fills out the stupid little manual input forms on Verizon's website automatically, over and over, using a CSV file as the input source.Read on for the step-by-step... Here are the steps:First, you need to activate Verizon's Backup Service -- this allows you to download contacts from (yes from) your phone, as well as manually type in contacts to your phone (don't panic, just keep reading).You'll need to make a text file list of your contacts or Address Book. It must be saved in CSV (comma separated values) format....

One way to scroll in form boxes on the iPhone@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

As many have discovered, the trick for scrolling in list boxes on the iPhone (using two fingers) doesn't work in form boxes. If you've ever tried typing a post on a forum or elsewhere from the iPhone, you've discovered that editing what you've typed is a near impossibility if the text entry box is too small, as two-finger scrolling doesn't work. By tapping/holding inside a form and bringing up the magnifying glass, you can scroll up and down by dragging and holding the magnifying glass in the direction you wish to scroll.

Automatically reconnect iChat if connection drops@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:30:03 +0200

I've had the problem with my iChat Jabber connections (gtalk and yahoo.jabber.org.uk gateway) constantly crashing, causing an error dialog in iChat. Since the Chax add-on no longer seems to support automatically reconnecting to crashed connections in 10.5, I found this great idea for a crontab script to force a reconnection using AppleScript. However, the only problem is that this would start iChat even if it was not running. So I used this slightly extended script to make it check if iChat was running before executing the login command. I added this line to my crontab (via crontab -e or the Cronnix crontab editor) to make it re-run every minute using the command line: * * * * * osascript -e 'tell application "Sy...

Quickly extract all email addresses from Address Book@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:30:02 +0200

To quickly (as compared to using nested loops in AppleScript) extract all email addresses from the Address Book, you can tap into Address Book?s SQLite database using the command line (in Terminal): sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/AddressBook/AddressBook-v22.abcddb "select ZADDRESSNORMALIZED from ZABCDEMAILADDRESS;" If you want to alphabetize and remove duplicates: sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/AddressBook/AddressBook-v22.abcddb "select ZADDRESSNORMALIZED from ZABCDEMAILADDRESS;" | sort | uniq Please note: This works in Leopard, and should work in Tiger too. However, the database filename looks like it could change at a...

An advanced script/web solution to track stolen Macs@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:30:01 +0200

I worked in a school district for a few years where we had two break-ins that included thefts of Mac laptops. So I decided to create something that would help track laptops in the event they were stolen. This is of course free, one of its major advantages. It is also hosted by yourself, so it is easy to control. This has run on about 1,500 computers without causing any type of overload on machines or the network, and it does exactly what it is suppose to do. I now use it on all home and family computers because I trust it so well. I have used it for about a half a year and it works on Tiger and Leopard. Note that this is software, so if the thief erases the hard drive on the computer, this will remove the phoning home capabilities. This does take some tinkering around, so it's fairly advanced. But the end result is very rewarding. This hint is broken up into the following sections -- be sure not to skip anything: What this essentially will do Little bits o...

Sync Outlook, iCal, iPhone, and Google Calendars@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

For a while now, I have been looking for a way to keep my iPhone calendar in sync with my work Microsoft Outlook calendar. Now I've found a way!Part 1: MobileMe, iCal, and iPhone:At home, I sync my iPhone calendar with iCal on my Mac. Now with the new MobileMe, my iPhone stays in near constant sync with my MobileMe calendar. My Mac at home also stays in sync (syncs every 15 minutes) with my MobileMe calendar.Part 2: Spanning Sync - iCal and Google CalendarThere is a program called Spanning Sync that syncs iCal on my Mac with my Google calendar. This program also runs every 15 minutes. (The downside is that this program costs a whopping $65.)Part 3: Google Calendar Sync - Google Calendar and Microsoft OutlookGoogle has released Google Calendar Sync, a program that syncs your Google Calendar with Microsoft O...

Add an iPhone call log to iCal via AppleScript@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:30:04 +0200

If you're like me, it is often nice to know the time spent on a call (especially if you charge your services by the minute) and even though the cheapest cell phones out there can tell you the time you were just on the phone, that data is buried deep in iPhone's records and unaccessible from the touch GUI. I have been using a script created in ruby called calllog2ical, which you can download from this page at Google Code. The install process is a breeze and it can be called from Terminal. After using the script for about a week, I decided it would be nicer to use an AppleScript to access the shell script, and so I wrote one. Its all of one line and goes like this: do shell script "/usr/local/bin/calllog2ical.rb -v0 iPhone\\ Call\\ Log" In the above code, the calendar I am syncing to is iPhone Call Log. Notes: In order to get the AppleScript ...

10.5: Use Apple Remote Desktop for OS X Server install@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:30:03 +0200

You can use Apple Remote Desktop to connect to a machine that is booted from the O X 10.5 server installation disk by typing the first eight characters of the computer's serial number into the password field while leaving the user name field blank. [robg adds: I haven't tested this one, and I don't know if it works with the Client installation disk as well.]

Fix iPhone geotagged images for certain geographies@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:30:02 +0200

Unfortunately, there?s something awry with the way the iPhone's geotagged photos are being handled in OS X. At the moment, whether you import photos through iPhoto, Preview or using Image Capture, at some point the GPS reference may get set to North/West. This is a problem if you don?t live in the northwestern hemisphere. Regardless of whether Apple fixes this, you?re still going to have to retag all of your old photos. So tonight, I wrote an AppleScript that automates the process. This script can either be set as the Automatic Task in the ImageCapture utility, or you can drag files onto the script for processing. Copy and paste the code below into Script Editor, customize for your location, and then save as an application (eg. File Format: Application). I've #commented the code to help you find where to tweak the North/South/East/West variables. ...

Possibly recover from a dual CPU failure on a Mac Pro@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

When I tried to boot my Mac Pro recently, it failed -- all I got was a black screen and a chime. I opened the case, and on the motherboard, I saw two LEDs were red: the cpuA and cpuB failure lights. My warranty is over, but here are the steps I followed to get it working again: Turn off your Mac and unplug the power cord. Remove the CMOS battery on the motherboard (just above the graphic card). Wait 10 seconds -- I'm not sure if this is necessary, but it worked for me. Plug the power cord back into the Mac. Press the power button. The Mac should boot normally and give you the startup chime, but you want your CMOS battery back. Turn off the Mac, then unplug the power cord again. Put the CMOS battery back in. That's it; boot and enjoy! [robg adds: I've never seen this on my Mac Pro, and I'm not sure if it's a sign of a failing CMOS battery, or something else. I'm publishing the hint beca...

Another way to set up a 'unified' iPhone email inbox@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

With no unified Inbox (for good or bad), people have come up with lots (and lots) of ways of combining their email accounts into one. And with MobileMe offering push, I'm guessing some people have tried this configuration: having all their emails forward to their mac/me.com address.However, then the problem is with replying ... when you do so, you'll expose your mac/me.com address. So, there's always the option of setting up extra SMTP servers (which has already been documented). But that doesn't allow you to truly reply from a different account (let's say your email address is for a business, and the name is different).At least for Google (and other IMAP accounts?), there's a way to create a "send-only" account -- which has already been documented as using the "manual" checking of that account only. But that could leave you with more emails unread than you expect (as your phone may check the non-MobileMe account).So is there a way to:Set up a Gmail a...

10.5: Install ImageMagick without Fink or MacPorts@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

I needed ImageMagick -- especially as a Ruby GEM -- so I had to somehow get gem install rmagick working, as it didn't work out of the box: Leopard doesn't ship with ImageMagick.If you've ever tried to install ImageMagick without Fink or MacPorts, you'll have a quite good chance to go completely nuts. Especially the interdependencies of libjpeg and ghostscript are insane. I also wanted to keep the install as small as possible, and therefore I decided against installing the whole ghostscript package (but you may do so if you like).I created a set of commands that you can copy-and-paste into a shell script, which should install ImageMagick flawlessly on your Mac. Please notice that Mac OS X 10.5.4 (or higher), XCode 3.1 (or higher), and X11 is required. You'll find the shell command...

Timeline - Beautfiul timelines made easy@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:08:00 +0200

Developer: Bee Documents Price: $40 [$65 for 3D Edition]Back in June, I wrote about the Apple Design Awards at the 2008 edition of Apple's WWDC, where Bee Documents' Timeline 3D earned a runner-up award for Best Mac OS X Leopard Application. And while I've been on vacation for the last week or so, I noticed today that Dan Frakes gave Timeline a spot in Mac Gems last week. Given I wasn't looking at much new software over the last week, I thought Timeline would be a reasonable first pick for my return from vaca...

Create Acer Aspire One recovery USB drive on a Mac@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

Acer's Aspire One netbook laptop comes without an optical drive. It does comes with a DVD, though, that lets you either install Linpus Linux OS to the netbook by connecting an external USB optical drive to it, or create a recovery USB drive using the DVD in other computer (a Mac, in this case). In order to use the DVD, you are supposed to boot from it, but Macs will not recognize it as bootable media. I used VMWare Fusion to create an "Other Linux 2.6.x kernel" virtual machine, inserted the DVD, and the VM automatically booted from the DVD without having to leave my Mac OS X environment. The wizard that comes up does not recognize the SATA drive in my Macbook (understandably, since the Acer Aspire One comes with no HDD). It will consider, conversely, the first USB flash drive it finds to be the local HDD, and any subsequent USB flash drives to be just that: external USB flash drives. So, if you want to be able to create a recovery drive using an exter...

Show all events in iCal search results@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

There's no way easy to remove old events in iCal. In older versions, I could simply open the search results and shift-select the events. In the 10.5 version of iCal, search results are simply empty when no search term is used. I played around with some search terms, and found that you can display all events in iCal by entering "_ (that's quote-space). You can then delete old events by selecting them, right-clicking and choosing "Cut". [kirkmc adds: You can have iCal automatically delete events older than a certain number of days in the program's Advanced preferences, but this hint shows how to view all the events on all your calendars. While noodling with iCal, I found that there's an easier way to do it: just enter a single apostrophe (') or period (.) in the Search box. Both of these seem to display all my events.]

Script to create an ad-hoc network to sync iPhone@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

Due to the lack of an equivalent to Palm's sync conduits, many iPhone applications are syncing to your computer over a local wireless network. When I tote my laptop around with me, I often don't have a network available to sync with, or I don't trust the networks that are available. Here's an AppleScript I use to set up my laptop to talk with my phone when I'm not at home. It creates an ad-hoc network with 128-bit WEP encryption. Optionally you can make a network location (System Preferences > Network) with the same name as the network you're creating. In addition to allowing me to configure my other network connections, this lets me easily revert to my normal networks by selecting my default location when I'm done. The iPhone will remember the password after the first time you join the network, although you may have to select it if there are multiple networks available. If you get an error message that the network already exists, check to make sure your phon...

Watching video podcasts on the iPhone and iPod touch@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

In the past, video podcasts were also available in the Music section of your iPhone or iPod touch, and you could listen to their content content as audio only. Since version 2.0, you can access video podcasts from the Music menu, but you can view their video now. You can also view them in both portrait and landscape mode. [kirkmc adds: In this earlier hint, we mentioned that you would only get the audio of video podcasts when playing them from the Podcast menu. It's up to you to determine if this new behavior is good or bad.]

Install the fish shell@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

The fish shell is a modern command-line shell that aims to be more discoverable and less beholden to tradition than other shells like bash and csh. Among its many unique features are on-the-fly syntax highlighting of the command line, as well as tab completion for everything under the sun with descriptions for each possible completion. Unfortunately, this shell does not ship with Mac OS X, so you'll need to do some work to install it. First, download and install MacPorts. This will provide a Terminal command, port, that you can run to download packages. If you prefer a nice GUI for this, though, I recommend downloading and installing Porticus as well. If you're using plain old port, type port install fish at the command line. If you're using Porticus (or another MacPorts GUI), search for "fish" in "All Packages" and click the Instal...

Script to list all filesystem objects with ACLs@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

Access Control Lists (ACLs) are active by default in Leopard. The OS checks ACLs before it checks the standard POSIX (rwxrwxrwx) permission bits. That means it's possible to have what appears to be a secure file or directory, but a bad ACL could allow rogue processes or rogue users to gain access. This isn't just a problem of user misconfiguration. In the last three years, I've submitted vulnerability reports to four major software vendors, because their OS X installer packages altered the POSIX permission settings (and sometimes ownership) on some important files or directories. If an installer package adds or alters an ACL (to your tax records, for example), it might go unnoticed (but could make you quite unhappy when you found out). Unfortunately, there aren't any good tools to find ACLs, or to verify that they haven't been altered. Apple's Verify Permissions feat...

Make Spotlight results easier to read@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

By default when viewing a Spotlight "all results" window or a Smart Folder or Search, the view is set to "icon view" and the file names are truncated, making it very hard to find the exact file you want. You can switch the search results to "list view" but you may find that the setting doesn't stick. Well, there's good news. Under Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, there's a way to make the view settings for all Smart Folders and the "All Results" search window stick.Open the Finder.Under "Search for" in the sidebar, click on one of the search items (for example, All Documents). (If you don't have any smart folders there, just do a Spotlight search and choose Show All.)Switch the view to "List view" or whatever view you are comfortable with.In the menu bar, click View > Show View Options, or press Command-J on your keyboard to open the View Options windo...

Consequences of Bad RAM@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

I recently purchased a used G5 Power Mac (2 x 1.8 GHz with 2 GB RAM) with System 10.4.11 installed on the 160 GB HD. It was bought to replace a Quicksilver which had been upgraded to run OS X 10.5.4 so I naturally wanted to upgrade this machine to 10.5.4. Upon running the Install DVD using the Archive & Install option, I got an error message stating that "The BaseSystem package was not compatible with this machine and to contact the software supplier." At this stage I did not suspect a RAM problem so proceeded to install 10.5.1 on the same HD using another G5 of the same specs. It loaded OK so I moved the disk back to the "new" G5 and tried to run the Migration Assistant to recover the data files we needed. The Migration Assistant stalled and, in the process, probably corrupted the bookkeeping file that I most wanted to access. I then suspected that the Leopard Install disk might have been faulty, since that was an implication of the error message. I bought a new...

Sync Tasks on iPhone using Safari Bookmarks@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

Like others, I have been annoyed by the lack of Tasks synchronization on the iPhone. This hint is a very basic workaround, but one that can give you with a rudimentary Tasks list, of sorts, which can be edited on either an iPhone or computer and can be synced. This works with the iPhone and Safari on Mac OS X; I haven't tested it on Windows. In Safari, create a new Bookmarks Bar folder; I called it To Do. Choose Bookmarks > Show all Bookmarks. In the new folder, made in Step 1, add a number of bookmarks: I did this by dragging the current URL from Safari into the folder. I did this about 10 times. The URL used is unimportant. Edit the names of the bookmarks, and just name them "." (period, but the name can be any characters). You now have 10 "blank" bookmarks. Edit each of the names to correspond to a task. For example: "Fill in Tax return by 12/10", "Kill Bill", etc. The bookmarks in the 'To Do' folder ar...

Easily sync iPhone without backing up first@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

This recent tip showed how to disable the backup process when syncing an iPhone by using a Terminal command. The way I do it is much less elegant, but has the benefit of being simple for novices and allowing the user to choose whether to perform a full back-up or a simple sync when the phone is plugged in.I've created an album in iPhoto called iPhone Sync which contains one photo. When I plug in my phone (which is set to not auto-sync on connect), I can perform the lengthy backup by pressing the Sync button in iTunes.If I only want to perform a basic sync (which will copy any new music, videos, or applications to the phone), however, all I have to do is toggle that album in the Photos tab of the iPhone in iTunes. This adds an Apply button where Sync used to be. Clicking the Apply button avoids a full back up, and only copies over new files.[robg adds: Another...

See Gmail unread message count in Safari's dock icon@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

If you are like me, you want to keep an eye on your private e-mails even when you're working. In my company, all ports except the ones for FTP and HTTP are blocked, so there's no chance to run e-mail client software such as Mail. I also don't want to log into my mail account every hour (IT/help desk is watching you...), or install a special widget or menulet -- but now I've found a nice way to stay informed about new messages in my Gmail mailbox.The following assumes you have Safari running all the time, and that you're using Gmail (or any other mail account with an RSS feed available).Download the Safari Dock Status SIMBL plug-in. Eventually you have to install SIMBL as well. With the help of SIMBL, you can extend some aspects of Safari (and other applications). Both are free, but install them at your own risk.SIMBL comes with an installer, but th...

Possible conflict with open messages in Mail and iPhone@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

Be aware that if you leave an email message displayed/open on your iPhone, that message may not appear in Mail's messages list on your computer(s).I've tried to replicate the issue with other messages, but wasn't able to do so 100% of the time. So I'm not sure why sometimes this is the case, and other times not. In any event, this is how it happened:My iPhone was in Sleep mode.On my MBP, I read an email message, flagged it, marked it Unread, and moved on to other email messages.When finished (leaving Mail open), I put my MBP to sleep.Later that evening on my iPhone, I opened that email message.Without closing the message, I put my iPhone to sleep.The next day, back in Mail on my MBP, that message was no longer in the messages list.On my iPhone, the "missing" message was still displayed in the Mail app. I closed the message by returning to the messages list, and after a couple minutes, that message was once...

Check for future-posted articles via JavaScript@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

Many news sites post the next day's contributor columns several hours before providing a link on the website. Since these typically use a standard, date-based URL, I've created JavaScript bookmarks that automatically update to check if tomorrow's column has been posted.For example, the following bookmark will check to see if David Pogue's latest State of the Art column has been posted. (Since his feature runs every Thursday, the bookmark will pull up his next column when it's posted on Wednesday afternoon/evening). The standard URL format for his column is:http://www.nytimes.com/YEAR/MONTH/DAY/technology/personaltech/DAYpogue.htmlSo my JavaScript bookmark looks like this:javascript:d=new Date();window.open("http://www.nytimes.com/"+d.getFullYear()+"/0"+(d.getMonth()+1)+"/"+(d.getDate()+1)+"/te...

Create a Time Machine-like feature for Safari tabs@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

Safari's new 'Reopen All Windows From Last Session' feature is great, but it needs to be improved upon. For example, I usually have a lot of windows with a lot of tabs. Unfortunately, if I start up Safari and then close it down without first clicking 'Reopen All Windows From Last Session,' well, my last session is now a single window. What I want is something like Time Machine for Safari.I have been using the following method (posted on my blog) for several months. Basically, the process involves creating a script and a LaunchAgent to run the script. I hope that this helps others as much as it has helped me![robg adds: Read the rest of the article for the how-to from the author's blog -- however, this is here primarily as backup, in case the original blog post ever vanishes. Any changes to the original post won't be reflected here, but read on for the write-up as it appeared on the author's blog as ...

Use OpenStep's Ni.snd in OS X@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

I had OpenStep running in a virtual machine for quite a long time before I got the idea to extract and convert the Ni.snd to something that OS X can play back.For those who don't know: OpenStep had many of the same system sounds found in today's OS X. However, OS X lacks the most important one from OpenStep -- it's the "Ni" sound from Monty Python's Knights who say Ni. This hint presupposes that you have access to an OpenStep installation, as I don't know if the sound was included with NextStep.In OpenStep, find the sound file, which is located at /NextLibrary/Sounds/Ni.sndSomehow, move the file over to your Mac. Since I use a virtual machine, I first tried to use NFS for that, but failed miserably. So I installed OmniWeb 3 and mailed the sound file to myself. Astonishing that the webmail site (GMX) even worked in the old browser, but it did ...

Create a Dock bookmark to show all Safari bookmarks@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

This hint explains one way create a bookmark in your Dock that will bring up the All Bookmarks page in Safari. In Safari, entering the URL bookmarks:// does the same thing as pressing the Bookmarks button in the Bookmarks Bar, or selecting Bookmarks � Show All Bookmarks. Confused yet? Good! The only trouble is that LaunchServices (the program that Mac OS X uses to open URLs) doesn't know how to open the bookmarks:// protocol. So here's how to create the Dock entry and make it fully functional:Create a new Safari bookmark for the URL bookmarks://Drag this bookmark to your Dock, which will create a springy ampersand.Download and install the freeware MisFox. In the program, click the Protocol Helpers tab and press the New button. Enter the Protocol bookmarks, and for the Helper, choose /Applications/Safari.app.Now the Bookmarks bookmark in your Dock will open y...

Use iPhone to check if a remote is working@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0200

You can use your iPhone to check if a household remote control is working. Start the Camera application, then point the remote in question toward the camera. Be sure the end of the remote with the dark plastic filter is facing the back of the iPhone. If the remote's batteries work, and the remote are functional, you will see a light glow in the picture of the remote in the iPhone's viewfinder window. This can help narrow down a balky remote as to being broken or just having bad batteries.This trick isn't unique to iPhones, but takes advantage of the camera's sensitivity to infrared light, and the fact that you never go anywhere without your iPhone!

Trigger Skype video callback via AppleScript@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:30:01 +0200

The following Applescript code makes Skype start a call, waits 60 seconds for reply, and when a reply is received, it will start video sending (there's no need for Skyp's auto-send-video option to be on). You can start this script in many ways: Use Mail rules configured to start the script if subject or content matches some rules you decide (the parameters here are fake, do not try this on my email). Go to Mail » Preferences, select Rules, create a new rule, choose the conditions you want to trigger the call, and under 'Perform the following action,' select 'Run AppleScript' and find your saved script. Insert some code in a PHP script -- something like (untested code): . In this way, a web page/link can start video sending. Instead of PHP, you may call a shell script directly via the web. Schedule a call with iCal. Create an event, and under Alarm, choose "Run script." Use as a ...

Perform Google 'lucky' searches from Safari's URL bar@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:30:04 +0200

If you use Firefox, and you Shift-Return a search in the Google search box, Firefox will perform an "I'm Feeling Lucky" search and show you the corresponding page. However this is not the case with Safari, but you can get a similar result using the free Safari plug-in Safari Stand's Quick Search feature. In the SafariStand settings, enable Quick Search and add a new line called something like Google lucky. Set a shortcut (I use l) and define the URL as: http://www.google.com/search?q=@key&btnI=I'm+Feeling+Lucky You can now perform a Google "I'm feeling lucky" search directly in the URL address bar by typing something like l osxhints. When you press Return, Safari will open up the first match from Google.

Disable backups to speed iPhone/iPod touch syncing@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:30:02 +0200

I have several (more than 30) applications installed in my iPhone 2.0 (some of them are over 10MB). I've been a bit disappointed with the oh-so-slow syncs in iTunes due to the required backup process. Searching a bit, I found that I could disable the backups by setting a hidden iTunes preference. Quit iTunes, open Terminal, and enter this command: defaults write com.apple.itunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool YES Whe you next sync, your iPhone won't be backed up, so the actual sync will go quickly. If you feel the need to back up your data again at some point, simply change YES to NO and sync your device (quit iTunes before changing the setting). After the backup is done, you can then disable backups again. If you want to restore a previous backup, you must set this value to NO before trying the restore. [robg adds: The long backup times with iPhone 2.0 software are a real pain -- while sometimes they seem speedy, my ...

An AppleScript to convert PDFs to Safari bookmarks@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:30:01 +0200

Copy the following AppleScript into Script Editor, and save as an application: on open pdfFiles tell application "Finder" repeat with pdfFile in pdfFiles set thedestination to folder of pdfFile set theName to displayed name of pdfFile -- convert pdf to base64 and copy result to clipboard do shell script "/usr/bin/perl -0777 -e 'use MIME::Base64; $text = <>; $text = encode_base64($text); $text =~ s/\s+//g; print "data:application/pdf;charset=utf-8;base64,$text\n";' < " & quoted form of POSIX path of pdfFile & " | pbcopy" set theurl to the clipboard make new internet location file to theurl at thedestination with properties {name:theName} end...

10.5: Create any mobile phone plug-in for iSync@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:30:03 +0200

If you are slightly tech-savvy, Apple has introduced (on the Xcode Developer DVD that ships with Leopard) an application to help you create your own mobile phone plug-ins. If you have not already installed the Developer Tools, do so. If you have, go to /Developer � Applications � Utilities in the Finder. The application you are looking for is named iSync Plug-in Maker, which is essentially a graphical wizard that assists you in rapidly putting together and then testing your own plug-in for any mobile phone device. After testing, the program helps you create a distribution/installation package. A lot of people are using the tool and then making money selling their own plug-ins -- but now you know where to find the same tools, so you can do this on your own. Apple even has ...

Ease the task of arranging new App Store installs@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:30:02 +0200

One of the more annoying things about the iPhone is the process of rearranging application icons. When all you could add to your phone's screen were a few web shortcuts, things weren't so bad. But now that you may have 50 or more third-party programs on your iPhone, it can be a real pain to drag newly-installed programs to the proper position on the proper screen. (How about a Mac program to ease the process, Apple?) This is especially true if each of your screens are completely filled with the maximum of 16 icons, as something will have to shuffle off to another page while you're dragging -- and if you drop the new program onto a full screen, you'll then need to go find the application that got shuffled away, and move that one to its desired location, too. To avoid this, just leave an empty spot on each screen, placing only 15 icons per screen. This solves the drag-arrange issue noted above. As you drag from screen to screen, no icons will jump off the page, as th...

Use the iPhone Remote app without a wireless router@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:30:01 +0200

Something that may be fairly overlooked, but useful is using the iPhone Remote Application when you don't have access to a wireless network. I love taking my Macbook Pro on the go and have fallen in love with the Remote App, but there's not always a wireless network availiable! A quick and simple fix for this is to create your own secure wireless network using your Mac. A step by step process would look something like this: Click on the wireless icon in the menu bar and select Create Network. Choose a name. If you are around other locked or untrusted wireless signals, you will want to choose an unused channel. (I would say use the two channel rule, but you're not transferring data here.) Make sure you put a password on it! Open up the Network System Preferences panel. You'll want to create a new location to make it easier for future use, and it's easiest to stick with the default network settings. This step is optional, but if you're on the go, it...

New poll - How many App Store apps do you have?@MacOSXHints.com

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:38:00 +0200

The iPhone/iPod touch store has been open for about 10 days ... leading to today's poll, which asks how many App Store apps are on your iPhone/iPod touch? I realize the numbers probably increase daily for most of us, but I thought it'd be interesting to see just how many apps we're all installing. In my case, that number is about 45, but a good number of those are installed just to test and possibly review for Macworld. I have about 30 programs that I use somewhat regularly.-rob.

Use a Keyspan USB-to-Serial adapter with Virtual Box@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:30:03 +0200

Sun's VirtualBox is a slick new virtualization alternative to VMWare Fusion, Parallels, and the like. For some of us, we not only need to run a Windows app, but that app requires a connection to a serial device. Here's what I did just now to get my Keyspan USA-19HS USB-to-Serial adapter working in VirtualBox under Windows XP: Windows XP installed without a hitch, but it had no COM ports set up. It turns out that I hadn't turned them on in VirtualBox, so I did that. Installed the Keyspan drivers on my Mac (Leopard, 10.5.4). Downloaded SerialClient, the excellent app that seems to make this work. Attached the Keyspan adapter. In XP, I went into the Add Hardware wizard, and scrolled down to the bottom to add hardware I pick from a list. Basically, I wanted to force XP to set up an item in Device Manager for a COM port. The device was created, but for some...

Enter bookmarklets directly on iPhone@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:30:02 +0200

If you're temporarily stuck without your Mac, you can still enter some Javascript bookmarklets directly on your iPhone, with a little trouble: Turn on Settings � Airplane Mode. Launch Safari and tap OK on dismiss the "Turn off Airplane Mode" dialog. Enter your the bookmarklet in the location bar. Dismiss the "Safari can't open the page" dialog. Bookmark the page. Turn off Airplane mode. This works for bookmarklets that set the location property, and perhaps others as well. When Safari aborts the script because it can't open the page, it leaves the bookmarklet in the address field, allowing it to be bookmarked.

Use many email addresses on one iPhone email account@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:30:01 +0200

Using Mail on OS X, you can assign multiple sender addresses to one account. As covered in this ancient hint, this is done by just separating each address with a comma in the account's setup screen. This same trick now works with the iPhone 2.0 firmware -- before it would just use the first address in the list. So if you have, for example, a Gmail account where you forward all your other mail addresses, you can now easily send mail from all of those addresses. Of course, your SMTP server must allow sending from foreign addresses for this to work.

10.5: Spotlight and the Time Machine disk@MacOSXHints.com

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:30:00 +0200

After much experimentation with the various known techniques and applications for turning off Spotlight indexing on a volume, I have concluded that it is not possible to convince OS X (Leopard) to not index the volume being used for Time Machine. This is true even if Time Machine is set to Off, its volume is added to Spotlight's Privacy list, and the volume has a .metadata_never_index file at its root. The volume I was using is a partition on an external FireWire 800 drive dedicated to Time Machine. My guess is that Apple enforces indexing on the Time Machine volume to facilitate searching backups, as suggested in this knowledge base document. But there are many ways to search, I don't use Spotlight all that much, the volume is 400GB, and I really just don't want Spotlight chewing on it -- especially when there's...

Reduce volume on iPhone/iPod touch games@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:30:00 +0200

The iPhone app store is great, but some of the apps are poorly designed. One such design flaw can be seen in certain games that have music, but no volume control. This can often be fixed with the physical volume control on the iPhone, but what if you have an iPod touch, and the in-game music is too loud for your tastes?It turns out that the new volume limit feature is a global setting, not just applicable to iPod music playback Go to Settings � Music � Volume Limit from the home screen, and set it to an agreeable level. This will automatically lower the volume of those pesky games.You have to set it back when you're done, if you want to have your iPod music louder, of course.

Use iPhone as a speaker phone in the car@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:30:00 +0200

Something that maybe not everyone has thought about with the iPhone is that the microphone is good enough to use in conjunction with an FM transmitter in the car as a speaker phone. This is a cheap and secure way to drive and speak at the same time.The quality of the sound for the receiving part may not be the best, but it's good enough and it's better than using a headset. It even stops the music when the phone rings, such as a good installation of a phone kit for a car will do when receiving a call.

Change the icon used for zipped files@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:30:00 +0200

If, like me, you find the default white zip file icon in 10.5 bland and boring, then it is quite easy to change it if you are using the built-in Archive Utility:Open up Finder and go to /System/Library/CoreServices.Find the Archive Utility, Control-click on it and select Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu.Navigate into Contents » Resources.Make a backup copy of bah-zip.icns (or any of the other compressed icons you'd like to change) by dragging the file to a folder in your user's home folder. The system will create a copy.Find an icon you'd like to use, and copy it into this folder, renaming it to bah-zip.icns. I chose to copy the nice green bah.icns file from this same directory, renamed it to bah-zip.icns, and then copied it back in. (You will need to enter your admin password to modify this folder.)Restart Finder or logout/login, and you will now have a nice customized zip icon ...

Send clickable URL as the subject of a Mail message@MacOSXHints.com

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:30:00 +0200

This is perhaps more of a curiosity than a hint, but it may be useful to someone out there. Did you know that if you send a URL as the subject of a Mail message, it will arrive as a link (if the recipient is also using Mail.app)?The strange thing is that the URL will open the browser when clicked, but the cursor does not show the text as a URL (i.e. the cursor does not change to a pointing finger when over the text).[robg adds: I had to experiment with this before I was able to get it working. To have the link work, you must compose in rich text mode (which makes sense), and there must be some body text. If you send a blank e-mail, then the URL isn't parsed, even when writing in rich text mode.]

Find corrupt fonts using Spotlight in Terminal@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:30:05 +0200

In doing an mdimport -A in Terminal, I noticed a particular attribute called com_apple_ats_font_invalid. Spotlight seems to set this attribute for files in a font folder (e.g. ~/Library/Fonts) that aren't valid font files. Try this is a Terminal window to see if you have any bad fonts: $ mdfind "com_apple_ats_font_invalid == 1" You can see this in action if you use the -live switch on the above command. Once the mdfind starts, in another Terminal window, create a bad font: $ echo "bad font" > ~/Library/Fonts/badfont.ttf You'll see that the query in the first window now shows one match; remove the file you just created (rm ~/Library/Fonts/badfont.ttf), and the query count will drop to zero. Press Control-C to end the mdfind in the other window. I'm not sure if this is new for Leopard or whether Tiger has it as well.

Date calculations with stock and Gnu versions of 'date'@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:30:04 +0200

The stock OS X date command ships with a useful -v command that allows date calculation. For example, to determine the last day of February, you could use the following: date -v3m -v1d That's the third month in the first -v, and then less one day in the second -v. man date gives many examples. On the other hand, the Gnu version of date that's available from MacPorts does not support this option. Playing a bit with the --date option for Gnu's date, I came up with: date --date="march 1 1 day ago" This results in the same date calculation as in the stock date function. Gnu's date also includes the option of printing rfc-2822 and rfc-3339 dates. The latter can be used for applications like Google that require xls dates: date --rfc-3339='ns' 2008-07-23 18:28:00.110568000+05:30 The ...

Manage the periodic logs@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:30:02 +0200

There has been some discussion here about the periodic maintenance tasks and making them run: 10.4: Reschedule periodic maintenance tasks A simple shell script to run system maintenance tasks What hasn't so far been addressed is the logs themselves. I got very interested in these as I suddenly (under 10.4) couldn't account for 5GB on my hard disk. It turns out that the primary culprit was the daily.out log file that had simply grown out of all proportions. The periodic logs are never cleaned up, and thus just grow in size each and every time the periodic maintenance tasks are run. For example: [21:02:...

Connect to a LEAP wireless network with iPhone 2.0@MacOSXHints.com

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:30:01 +0200

My company uses the LEAP security protocol for its wireless network. The iPhone doesn't list LEAP as a network security option, but the following workaround works with iPhones and iPod Touches that have the 2.0 software update. Go to your Settings app. Then select Wi-Fi. Next, select Other. Enter the name of your LEAP network. Under Security, select WPA Enterprise. Then enter your username and password. That's it. It works like a charm for my company's wireless network.

Reformat standard web pages for better iPhone display@MacOSXHints.com

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:30:00 +0200

Mobile Safari on the iPhone does an amazing job displaying web pages. However, I find that in the context of viewing some web pages on the go, that this view isn't necessarily the best way to read some pages. For example, even though the iPhone interface is awesome, I don't really want to waste time zooming and messing with a page to read the actual content. I'd rather just load up a page, read my content, and move on. (Of course, the best solution would be if web designers designed alternate "iPhone-optimized" views that would look great on the iPhone, but only a few mainstream sites do this as of the time of this post.)I discovered back in my Treo days that Google has a page that translates web pages to "mobile-friendly" versions. I find that loading pages using this URL reduces page load time, and makes them easier to read on the iPhone. So, I created a bookmarklet that allows you to take the current page in Mobile Safari...