Review - Apple's MacBook Pro

Provataki writes "OSNews posted a 2-editor review of Apple's MacBook Pro laptop. The whole review feels like a long conversation between the two editors with agreements and disagreements on several issues and topics. They both agree that the laptop is too hot, but there is disagreement on the screen quality for example."

published on Friday, the 23. June 2006, apple-slashdot

Protect email with digital certificates

In Macworld's July article on protecting email data they did not mention the easiest, free, and highly secure method of protecting email by using digital certificates. Apple's Mail tool, Entourage, Windows Outlook and many others, all allow you to use digital certificates to digitally sign and encrypt email. Thawte, a division of VeriSign, offers free personal email certificates. Their is no need to send a password by telephone, fax or iChat, all three being totally insecure unless you're using an encrypted iChat session with another dot Mac subscriber.A digitally signed email accomplishes two things. One, it assures the recipient that the email is actually from the person owning the email address (not an email spoof or someone phishing). Two, it sends a public key contained in the digital certificate which allows the recipient to encrypt email sent to you. Once the two people exchange digitally signed emails, all email traffic between the...

published on Friday, the 23. June 2006, macosxhints

Re-order MailTags keywords and projects at will

When you're using MailTags (a previous Pick of the Week selection), and you add a new Keyword, or add a new Project, it appears at the bottom of the list.If you want to rearrange the list, go to Mail's preferences, and choose the MailTags preferences icon at the top (you might need to click a small >> arrow to see all the preferences).On the Keywords and Projects tab, you can drag items in either list to rearrange them. Put your frequently used ones on top, if you like. I prefer alphabetical order, since I use so many -- it's easier for me to find them that way. The new order is reflected instantly, even on the right-click menus you get when clicking multiple messages. You need not restart Mail.

published on Friday, the 23. June 2006, macosxhints

Change Calculator modes via the zoom button

Not sure if this is of any use but here goes anyway ... clicking the green "maximize" button in Calculator cycles through the Basic, Scientific, and Programmer views.[robg adds: Here's yet another non-standard maximize button behavior. Apparently, this behavior has changed sometime between December 2002 and today; back then, the green button created a tiny calculator window. That mode has apparently vanished, and now the green button is a shortcut for the modes shown in the View menu.]

published on Friday, the 23. June 2006, macosxhints

Use the Apple Remote to control many other apps

When I got my new MacBook Pro, one thing I was looking forward to playing with was the remote control. I was, however, disappointed to find it does not function in many apps I wanted to control -- in particular VLC and Keynote.Remote Buddy fixed that, allowing my remote control to operate many more applications, including both VLC and Keynote. Note: I don't have any connection to iospirit except being a happy customer![robg adds: This previous hint discussed a more limited manner of using the remote in other apps via ControllerMate. This app seems like a more full-featured solution. Note that I haven't tested either of these as of yet.]

published on Friday, the 23. June 2006, macosxhints

Use mouse gestures in any OS X application

xGestures is similar to Cocoa Gestures, only it works for all applications, not just Cocoa ones. Its settings are accessed through a System Preferences pane (much easier than within each application, as in Cocoa Gestures). It supports multiple applications. Application specific gestures override global gestures (as far as I can tell), which makes exceptions easy to deal with. I use it in conjunction with Cocoa Gestures, assigning middle click to Cocoa Gestures, while leaving right click available to xGestures.I have been using this for about six months, and it is possible to almost completely eliminate the keyboard as necessary for input. It saves a lot on mouse mileage, too. Those tiny buttons are no longer a pain to click.I couldn't find it listed anywhere on the site and thought it would be a good addition. It is definitely the most useful input modifi...

published on Friday, the 23. June 2006, macosxhints

New MacBook Looks Like a Keeper

After about 84 hours with Apple Computer's new MacBook, whose high-end version I'm testing, my initial verdict is positive. This is one powerful, affordable Mac portable. Some will complain about heat dissipation -- yes, it's warm; that's why there are products such as LapWorks' Laptop Desk.

published on Friday, the 23. June 2006, macnewsworld

“Apple technology brings World Cup updates to millions”

Jim Dalrymple writes for MacCentral, “Chances are if you’re watching highlights from the FIFA World Cup matches on television, you are seeing Apple technology hard at work. Highlights from the world’s most popular sport are being prepared using multiple Apple products and technologies.” [Jun 22, 2006]

published on Thursday, the 22. June 2006, apple-hot-news

Apple's "Phenomenon" due out in 2008?

The latest release of Apple Computer's Shake compositing software may be the last of its breed, as the company reportedly plans to shift gears and focus on developing the next-generation of the application around a different codebase. Apple made t...

published on Thursday, the 22. June 2006, appleinsider

MacBook Pro Batteries Swelling and Failing

JohnnyCakes writes "MacBook Pro batteries are apparently swelling, then failing. MacFixIt has some grotesque pictures of their own swollen MBP battery, which looks like it has suffered an internal explosion. Apple is replacing batteries on a case-by-case basis, but hasn't yet admitted any wide-scale issues."

published on Thursday, the 22. June 2006, apple-slashdot