Leopard – The Graphic Mac

Analysis of Mac OS X release dates

James — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:30:07 +0000

Apple is about to ship it’s 65th release of Mac OS X – counting all the minor updates. The Robservatory has a table showing all major releases of OS X from the public beta through the latest public version. Completely useless, but fun to look back on.

Control multiple Macs with one keyboard and mouse

James — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:00:09 +0000

teleport lets you use a single mouse and keyboard to control several Macs. Simply reach an edge of your screen, and your mouse teleports to your nearby Mac, which also becomes controlled by your keyboard.

The pasteboard can be synchronized, and you can even drag & drop files between your Macs. You can make a donation to the developer if you find teleport useful in your workflow.

Control multiple Macs with one keyboard and mouse

teleport features:

keyboard bindings: you can assign a keyboard shortcut to a controlled Mac to directly jump to it.
host specific options: you can define the switching and sharing options per host, to have different settings.
much improved file transfers: a lot faster, specially when transferring folders, no more size limitation, supports multiple files.
full multi-screens support: all screens of shared Macs are now visible, so pairing a secondary screen is much easier than before.
full gestures support, as well as volume controls.
host location indicator: when positioning a host around your Mac, a red line appear at the location where the switch will occur.
sound notification: teleport can play a sound when it switches to another Mac.
host appearance indicator: when a host comes online, a line will flash on the corresponding border to notify that you can now control it.

Download teleport here.

View detailed WiFi settings in Snow Leopard’s Airport menu

James — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:21:44 +0000

I mentioned a new feature of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard earlier this week, and today I have another one for you that enhances the Airport menu.

Snow Leopard Airport Menu

Hold down the Option key while clicking the Airport icon in your menubar to view detailed statistics about the network you’re currently connected to, such as the Channel, Security Settings and more. While this probably holds little value for the average user, it can be quite valuable for network admins and people who just love to know everything about what’s going on with their Mac at every moment.

Stuffit Deluxe 2009 takes advantage of Leopard features

James — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:52:49 +0000

Years ago, back in the days before OSX, file compression on the Mac meant using applications like DiskDoubler and Aladdin Stuffit. Stuffit was a staple of every Mac computer. Many applications required the Expander app just to install, and virtually any file you downloaded off the Internet for the Mac was compressed using the Stuffit format. You could make the argument that it was the single most popular non-Apple application on the Mac for years. Aladdin (later known as Allume) sold Stuffit to Smith Micro Software in 2005, at which time it was still the dominant file compression method on the Mac OS. Flash-forward to present day and we now have file compression built-in to the OS, via BOMArchiveHelper’s .zip format. So you might be wondering why you would need anything more. Read on to find out why. Stuffit Deluxe 2009 is still the ultimate in file compression for the Mac. Stuffit Deluxe does a superior job compressing files, including photos, MP3s, PDFs, and all your other documents. Compressed archives are compatible with both the Mac and Windows operating systems, which can be de-compressed with the free Stuffit Expander. Files can be compressed by up to 98%, making online file transfer speedy, and backups more space-efficient.

More than just compression

Stuffit Deluxe offers more than just compression though, it’s a full archive management application. With Stuffit Deluxe, you can securely archive multiple files into one archive file with strong 512-bit password encryption. It also offers built-in protection against data corruption. Stuffit Archives feature the ability to preview the documents contained inside them with the Archive Manager, or using OSX’s Quick Look feature. You can even browse archives in the Finder. It’s really quite handy, and resolves one of the things I hated about using Stuffit in years past (not knowing what’s inside the archive). Stuffit offers a plethora of OSX integration via contextual menus that allow you to Stuff and email with a single click. The MagicMenu feature allows you to compress and expand archives with a simple keystroke, making working with Stuffit files a breeze. Stuffit also works with Automator workflows, and Stuffit archives can be previewed in Time Machine. There’s also built-in FTP and MobileMe file transfer support. Colorful icons indicate at a glance what compression format a particular archive uses.

Compression options

One of Stuffit’s strongest points is that it can handle a mountain of file compression formats. Over 25 formats are supported, including:

.sit

.sitx

.zip

.tar

.sea

.exe

.hqx

.gz

.rar

.cab

Files can be compressed as single archives, or automatically split into customizable sizes. Stuffit can also create Self-Expanding Archives, making it easy for those without the free Expander application installed. Unlike past versions, Stuffit Deluxe 2009 uses a patented 24-bit image compression method to shrink .jpg images up to 30% with no visible image artifacts. Optimized compression for PDFs and MP3 files is also included, along with TIFF, PNG, GIF and BMP compressors. Virtually any file you can think of will benefit from Stuffit’s latest compression algorithms.

Purchase Options

Stuffit comes in three flavors. Stuffit Expander 2009 is free. Obviously, Expander only expands files. This is perfect if you frequently receive compressed files of all types, but don’t have the need to compress or manage them beyond what OSX can do. Stuffit Standard 2009 offers basic compression and expansion tools, including data corruption protection and password/encryption features for $49.99. Stuffit Deluxe 2009 offers all the features I described above for $79.99.

Closing thoughts

While I’ll admit that for basic file compression, the typical Mac users needs nothing more than OSX’s built-in .zip compression feature. But for users who need to save every last bit they can, manage large quantities of archive files, encrypt and password-protect archives, and have quick previews of archive contents, Stuffit Deluxe 2009 is still a worthy app to have in your Mac’s Utility folder.

Eliminate shadows in Leopard screenshots

James — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:00:53 +0000

In the last few months one of my favorite sites, CreativeTechs‘ QuickTips, has blogged two of my previous articles (Easily remove an OSX System Preference Pane, and Copy multiple Photoshop layers into a new document without flattening). Today I’m happy to return the favor with this tip from CreativeTechs on eliminating shadows you get when using Command + Shift + 4 in Leopard screenshots. To do it, simply fire up OSX’s Terminal application (located in Applications/Utilities) and enter the following:

 defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true

Then logout and log back in, or restart. Your screenshots should now be void of shadows. As noted in the CreativeTechs article, this method works well. But for the really picky designer, the artifacts left around the rounded corners of windows (as seen above) can be a real nuisance. Be sure to check out the link at the bottom of the article that will make a Photoshop Action available which gets rid of the Leopard shadow, and replaces it with a custom layer style which you can turn on and off as you wish. By the way, if you wish to set the shadow defaults back to normal, you can do so by opening the Terminal again and entering the following:

 defaults delete com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow

Happy shadow hacking!

Add Adobe Kuler feature to OSX Leopard applications

James — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:39:00 +0000

Lithoglyph’s Mondrianum is a powerful plug-in for OSX Leopard that enables Mac applications to leverage the resources of Adobe Kuler. Adobe kuler is an online community where you can explore, create, and share color themes. Once installed, Mondrianum acts like a built-in, system-wide color picker, available in any Mac application that supports this feature of Mac OS X. Apple’s own iWork and iLife suites, Adobe Photoshop, and other applications like Coda, CSSEdit, and many more, all work well with Mondrianum. Mondrianum combines the best of the community content on Kuler and the nativeness of Mac applications. If you work with colors on a Mac, be sure to check it out!< Thanks to Ivan at CreativeBits for pointing out this great tool for OSX.

13 cool OSX Leopard tweeks via Terminal

James — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:51:39 +0000

There are already many applications available which allow you to tweek the settings in OSX Leopard to adjust the dock, the menu bar, and other areas you wish to alter. But one thing that bothers me is having all those little apps hanging around my hard drive, or worse yet, running at all times. UsingMac has listed 13 very handy Terminal commands that do the same thing as many of these apps, without the space and memory overhead.… Read the rest