Best OS X 10.5 Hints contest winners revealed!

After some delays due to both Macworld Expo and hearing back from all of the winners, I'm please today to announce the 10 winners in our Best Leopard Hints contest. The winners were chosen by rankings from both the public voting, and votes from the Macworld editorial team (yours truly excluded). We then took the average of both groups' scores, and used that number to create the final rankings. Note that this is the first time the winners will see what they've won -- as of now, they only know that they've won something. So without further ado, here's how things wound up...iPod Shuffle winners:10th: Enable data detectors in iChat -- Zach S. from New York, NY. 9th: Use Help to select menu items via keyboard -- Aaron J. from Beaverton, OR (and no, I don't know him!). 8th: ...

published on Friday, the 18. January 2008, macosxhints

10.5: Set fine volume levels using the keyboard

When using the volume control function keys on an Apple laptop, there's a limited amount of control over the volume -- each key press moves the volume by one entire unit in the onscreen bezel. However, by pressing Shift and Option along with the volume key you want to use, you can break up each large step in the volume control bezel into four parts, instead of having to use the menu bar item or System Preferences for fine-grained control.[robg adds: I don't have 10.4 with me on the road this week, but a friend tested it for me and said it did not work. Hence, I've marked this hint as 10.5 only. If that turns out to be wrong, please let me know. Someone else with an external third-party keyboard said it didn't work for him in 10.5 -- so this hint may also require a laptop Mac and built-in keyboard. If someone can test using an Apple external on a desktop and/or laptop, plea...

published on Thursday, the 17. January 2008, macosxhints

IOGEAR unveils Dual-Link DVI KVMP switch

IOGEAR today unveiled the Dual-Link DVI KVMP & MultiMedia Switch (site not updated, alternate switch shown at right) at Macworld Expo. The 2-port switching device allows users to share a Dual-Link DVI display, USB keyboard, mouse, and 7.1 surround-sound between two computers. The Dual-Link DVI KVMP & MultiMedia Switch supports seamless switching an...

published on Monday, the 14. January 2008, macintosh-news-network

10.5: Make Synergy keyboard sharing work in 10.5

There is this fine little program named Synergy, which I use to share one keyboard with my Mac and my Linux box. In 10.5, my Synergy LoginHook (as described here) stopped working. However, I received a crash report stating "single thread forked" (or something similar), and if the program was started in the foreground (option -f), it still worked. So i changend my LoginHook a bit and added -f > /tmp/synergy.log 2>&1 & as the last line to start the daemon in the foreground and redirect the output somewhere else. It's a hack, but it works. Here's my final script: #!/bin/s...

published on Tuesday, the 18. December 2007, macosxhints

Completely disable trackpad touches while typing

Have you been frustrated with how the slightest touch on the trackpad causes the text cursor to jump to a different line when you're typing away, especially when you're in mid-thought and wanted to capture everything? (This only applies, of course, if you've enabled trackpad clicking.) Have you been even more frustrated when the Ignore accidental trackpad input setting within the Keyboard & Mouse preferences still doesn't work 100% of the time? I've been very frustrated with that, and went looking for a Mac Gem or AppleScript that would allow me to disable the trackpad with a keyboard (similar to the PC laptops that have an extra button near the trackpad). I couldn't find anything out there (yet), but as it turns out, Apple has something built-in that allows you to accomplish something very close. And surprisingly, it's actually very effective. Just visit the Universal Access System Preferences panel, click on the Mouse & Trackpad tab, and enable...

published on Wednesday, the 5. December 2007, macosxhints

10.5: Set different modifier keys for external keyboards

I use a PC keyboard to go with my MacBook at home, which is fine until I need to use a keyboard shortcut that starts with Command. Then I sometimes get pretty confused figuring out just where the Command key is. In Leopard, I can set different Modifier Keys for different keyboards, so I remap ALT to Command and WIN to Option on my PC keyboard. Here's how: Plug in a external keyboard to your Mac Go to System Preferences and open the Keyboard & Mouse pane Click Modifier Keys under the Keyboard tab Select External Keyboard, and change the modifier keys End of confusion!

published on Friday, the 26. October 2007, macosxhints

New iMac and iLife ?08: ?An improvement on an already stellar computer.?

?It?s an improvement on an already stellar computer,? says Katherine Boehret (The Wall Street Journal), referring to the new iMac. ?The keyboard is radical-looking. It?s much flatter and sleeker than typical desktop PC keyboards. I found it easier to type with.? Boehret goes on to explore iLife ?08, ?I quickly picked up on how to use the new features in iPhoto and iMovie, thanks to unintimidating, self-explanatory icons.? She continues, ?My video camera was instantly recognized when I plugged it into the iMac? and ?in just about 15 minutes, I created a short movie.? Boehret concludes, ?The new programs in iLife ?08 are a pleasure to use, and the new iMac is a great way to experience them.?

published on Wednesday, the 15. August 2007, apple-hot-news

New slimline iMac keyboard revealed?

The heavily rumored new iMac keyboard may be real, according to a series of photos provided to Engadget. Confirming earlier claims, the design shown is exceptionally thin and uses individually isolated keys similar to the MacBook or Sony's VAIO TZ; the entire design is less than 1cm (0.39 inches) thick and requires extrusions for the USB ports, ac...

published on Friday, the 27. July 2007, macintosh-news-network

A keyboard-only method of pairing a Bluetooth mouse

My Mighty Mouse has never automatically connected. It's a favorite, and I've removed it and added it back. It still will not automatically connect when I turn it on. The Bluetooth keyboard automatically connects with no problem. At work, I connected an external screen for daily use, then took the MacBook Pro back home at the end of the day. It thus became very important to find a way to tell the computer to connect to the mouse with nothing more than the keyboard. The following is how you can connect to your mouse with nothing more than the keyboard if your arrangement is like mine.First, navigate to the Bluetooth System Preferences panel. Make sure the last option (Show Bluetooth status in the menu bar) is enabled. That should put the Bluetooth icon in the right side of the menu bar. If I now press Control-F8, the system will select the far right menu bar option, which is my wireless connection. I then use the left arrow to get to the Bluetooth icon, then the down arrow to ...

published on Thursday, the 26. July 2007, macosxhints

Quick Tip of the Week: Capturing Screen Shots

If you?ve ever wanted to grab a screen shot, you?ll definitely want to watch the video Quick Tip of the Week. It shows you the keyboard shortcuts you can use to capture a single window, the entire desktop, or a portion of it that you define. From creating PDFs in any application to using the built-in Dictionary to viewing multiple Inspectors in Pages, the Quick Tip of the Week shows you how to get more out of Mac OS X, iWork, Mail, iLife, and other Mac applications.

published on Monday, the 23. July 2007, apple-hot-news