Swapping your Mission Control background image is actually quite simple
As soon as I installed Mac OS X Lion I began playing around with all the new features. Naturally, Mission Control and Dashboard were two of the first things I tried. I immediately hated the image backgrounds Apple chose to use and began searching for a way to alter them. It didn’t take long, and it’s quite simple to do. Here are are the instructions. (more…)
Error messages on the Mac have always been a mystery, rarely do they tell you anything that can point you in the right direction for troubleshooting. Mac OS X is no different, and Time Machine has plenty of its own error messages to learn and love.
Thankfully, James Pond has put together a pretty good Time Machine troubleshooting guide and made it available for everyone.
I came across the site this past weekend because my Time Machine backups kept failing, and I had no idea why. The site offers a Dashboard Widget that helped diagnose the problem, and in fact pointed me directly to the file that was causing the backup to fail.
One of the things I love about Google Chrome and Firefox is the ability to do Google searches using the address bar, rather than being forced to have valuable space taken up with a separate search box in the toolbar. It’s one of those few relatively minor things that kept me from using Safari for quite a while.
Search from the address bar in Safari
Apparently I wasn’t alone, because a developer has recently released SafariOmnibar (direct download) for Safari for Snow Leopard and Lion. Run the Package installer and you’re good to go. As you can see in the image above, you’ll have the convenience of a single address/search bar.
The question of the day: Will Adobe CS apps choke on Lion fur?
I received several emails since yesterday morning asking why I hadn’t posted an extensive review of Mac OS X Lion. I’ve already stopped replying to those emails, and thought it better to update everyone on the most common subjects.
If you go through the archives here, you’ll find that I’ve never really reviewed the latest Mac OS X upgrades. The reason is simple. Everyone else already has it covered. Seriously, if you really want to read re-hashed press releases from Apple you don’t need me to do it. The features found in Lion are awesome. The updated interface is awesome. The new Mail is awesome. And for the most part, everything works just as before.
Just buy it, it’s only $30 and it’s awesome.
I run Adobe Creative Suite 5, so that’s the only version I can comment on with first-hand knowledge. In short, it works just as it did in Snow Leopard. And I mean that literally. Adobe CS apps don’t take advantage of any of Lion’s new features like Versions, Full Screen, Restore, and some multi-touch gestures.
There are a few issues with CS apps running under OS X 10.7, which Adobe has outlined in this Knowledge Base article, but for the most part they are minor.
See comments above. They run just about the same as they did in Snow Leopard – whether you consider that fast or slow is a matter of opinion.
I work for an ad agency, not Adobe.
No. But that’s because the idea that Lion is iOS for the Mac is way overblown. Apple has implemented a few features from iOS, ALL of which can be turned off or simply ignored. Other than the interface colors, and a few other minor tweaks, it’s not a whole lot different than running Snow Leopard.
That being said, if you’re unhappy with the direction Lion has taken, you’re going to really hate the next few years. If you buy a new mouse for your Mac today, it’s not far-fetched to say it’s probably the last one you’ll ever use (if it’s a decently made one, anyway). That spaghetti string of cables behind your desk is probably going to get a lot smaller in the coming years. Everything is going wireless – including the charging of your iPhones, iPods and other small devices.
I believe we’re on the front doorstep of a new revolution of change in the technology industry. In closing, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
A collection of interesting or otherwise helpful links I’ve come across recently that you may not have seen:
Quicken replacements for OS X Lion
If you rely on Quicken 2007 for your personal finance management AND plan on upgrading to Mac OS X Lion, you have a decision to make: switch to another app, or don’t upgrade to Lion. TUAW breaks down your alternatives.
From chaos to an organized Desktop with Shelves
DesktopShelves is a new app that helps you fight the clutter on your Desktop by organizing files on shelves. A shelf the size of 5 icons holds 20 files. For those obsessed with a clean desktop, this might be the answer.
3 Column Reader Safari extension makes Google Reader beautiful
3 Column Reader turns Google Reader into a 3 column reading experience, perfect for a widescreen LCD screen. If you use Google Reader, this is a great extension for Safari.
Make a Bootable Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Installer from a USB Flash Drive
For those concerned about having a bootable backup of Mac OS X Lion, fear not. OSX Daily hooks you up with a great walk-through of the process. I’ll be giving this one a shot the moment I get my hands on the final version of Lion.
Death To The QR Code
QR Codes are everywhere – and they’re usually not used in convenient places. Here’s a hint, advertisers, QR codes on a billboard aren’t going to work… we’re busy driving a car at the moment! BusinessInsider.com reflects on the subject.
QR Code generator for Safari
Ok, so the previous article didn’t convince you, and you want to create your own QR Codes anyway. QR Code Generator for Safari puts a button in your toolbar which when clicked generates a QR Code for the page you’re on.
It’s no secret that I’ve been a huge fan of Extensis Suitcase Fusion for many years. In fact, I’ve never veered away from it for my font management needs since the days of Mac OS 9 on my PPC Macs. Recently I was asked by the folks at Linotype/Monotype to take a look at FontExplorer X Pro 3. I had no interest in switching font managers but I figured what the heck, I’ll give it a try.What started with admiring the very slick icon, ended up being complete surprise to me, and a shift in my thinking about my preferred font management app of choice.
FontExplorer X Pro 3 (I’ll call it FEX from this point forward) isn’t the “mostly glitz and little guts” type of alternative application you run into when trying to replace a big-name app. FEX is stable, fast, intuitive, and actually works as advertised. After about an hour of use, I began to think “this is nice, but at some point today this thing is going to do something to tick me off.” FEX never did.
FontExplorer X Pro's main window contains exactly what you would expect in a font manager
The main window of FEX is much like any other font manager, listing your fonts and font sets in a column on the left, with a preview of fonts on the right. And like other font managers, FEX allows you to create groups of fonts you use frequently, add tags to your fonts for easy searching, get more in-depth info about your fonts, and set up custom type previews of selected fonts. Being a Suitcase Fusion user, I felt right at home in FEX. (more…)
The promise made by Apple's Genius Bar is rarely delivered on anymore
When Apple built their first store here in Phoenix, Arizona I was ecstatic. No longer would I be forced to order Apple-related products online, I could walk into a store and walk out with virtually anything I needed. The atmosphere was fantastic – with plenty of space to move around and try everything, the staff knowledgeable and helpful, and the Genius Bar was such a great resource.
The Apple Retail Store has lost virtually everything that made it great, mostly due to their own popularity and success. It’s truly unfortunate. (more…)
You’ve no doubt read a lot about OS X Lion, Apple’s next generation operating system for the Mac. The last few weeks have seen the tech media publishing gobs of information, but some of the new features in Lion aren’t getting the attention that some of the more popular features like Launchpad, the new Mail and Calendar apps, and iCloud are.
A few features that should be in the final release of Lion when it ships in July that you may not have read about include: (more…)
A few months ago I shared a fantastic app to customize the your login items at startup called DelayedLauncher. Customizing not only your startup items, but delaying the time between the individual apps launching can speed up the total amount of time spent waiting for your apps to launch. I recently came across Startupizer, an elegant app that does just that.
Startupizer ($5.99 in the Mac App Store) enhanches System Preferences login items by offering conditional startup based on your preferred criteria.
Startupizer for Mac allows for more control over your login items
Like DelayedLauncher, Startupizer allows you to specify an amount of time between each startup item launching, thus reducing the overall amount of time spent at startup just sitting there waiting. This is especially useful if you have apps that rely on databases when launched, such as Extensis Suitcase Fusion (if you use Fusion, you’re certainly familiar with the hard drive thrashing and launch delay at startup).
Startupizer goes a little further than the free DelayedLauncher in that it allows for more customization, such as the ability to set criteria based on time, or whether or not your laptop is running off battery or power cord.
Overall, I prefer the free DelayedLauncher because my needs are simple. I just want to avoid the gang of apps all trying to launch at once when I start up my Mac. For that, DelayedLauncher is perfect. But if your needs are more specific – such as the ability to have certain apps launch at specified times of day, etc., check out Startupizer.
Did you know that you can resize a Mac OS X Finder window when you’re in Column View to fit the widest folder or file name automatically? It’s a simple keyboard shortcut, and can save you a lot of scrolling and manual resizing.
Just hold down the Option key and double click the widget at the bottom of the column divider. I love working in Column View in Mac OS X’s Finder, and this shortcut makes it easier to get a view of full file names.