Aluminum housing presents MacBook FireWire challenges
The "unibody" aluminum housing on the new MacBooks might have been a contributing factor to the designers' decision to not include a FireWire port, according to Rainier Brockerhoff's analysis. The new internal layout of components aligns each peace to eliminate any overlap, except for the keyboard. This contributes to the strength of the design and the compact form-factor. The motherboard remains ...
published on Wednesday, the 29. October 2008, macintosh-news-network
Use AppleScript to ease Greek, super/subscripts in Word
Word 2008's synchronized audio recordings in Notebook Layout format are ideal for taking notes in college lectures, but what about that physics or math lecture where you want to type in a ton of Greek letters, superscripts, and subscripts, and the toolbox just won't cut it? Go to Word, open the Scripts menu, and in the About this menu... item, choose Open Folder. In that folder, create (using ScriptEditor) the following three AppleScript files. Note that the backslash (and following characters) in their names create keyboard shortcuts for each script, which you'll see in Word's Scripts menu: AppleScript #1: Save this one as GreekToMe\scC.scpt after pasting into ScriptEditor: set textReturned to text returned ...
published on Monday, the 27. October 2008, macosxhints
Logitech intros backlit keyboard trio
Logitech has started its week in earnest on Tuesday with the launch of three keyboards, all of which tout high-contrast backlighting to render the keys visible in the dark. The Illuminated Keyboard is considered the leader and is one of Logitech's thinnest keyboards ever at 0.37in thick but has the full layout of a desktop keyboard. The keys are also unique; although they have the speed of a not...
published on Tuesday, the 2. September 2008, macintosh-news-network
MacBook Air-style keyboard for iPhone
An iPhone modder recently unveiled a MacBook Air-style makeover for the iPhone's keyboard, offering users an attractive alternative to the jeweled buttons of the default keyboard. Just Another iPhone Blog reveals that although the keys have a smaller appearance, they are aesthetically pleasing and do not permanently replace the layout for the defau...
published on Friday, the 4. July 2008, macintosh-news-network
KeyStrokes 4.1 on-screen keyboard goes Universal
Assistware says its KeyStrokes 4.1 on-screen keyboard for Mac users with physical impairments is now available as a Universal Binary. The company calls KeyStrokes 4.1 an "importantî update with improved support for Mac OS X Leopard Spaces, automatic keyboard layout switching for Leopard and other improvements. Assistware has also included it...
published on Wednesday, the 25. June 2008, macintosh-news-network
Toggle display mode on newer laptop keyboards
The new keyboard found on MacBooks and MacBook Pros now contain Dashboard, Exposé, and media controls on the function keys, but removed the toggle between mirror mode and extended desktop mode. On the prior keyboards, the toggle display mode function was located on the F7 key. On the new keyboards, you toggle display modes by pressing Command-F1. This only seems to work from the built-in laptop keyboard. [robg adds: From the "coming full circle" department, this behavior existed way back in 2002, then apparently was either forgotten about or disabled on newer laptops, only to make a return on the new models. I'm running this one now because the keyboard layout on the new machines lacks the mirror function on F7, so you may not think to try (nor perhaps be able to find) a 2002 hint as the solution.]
published on Monday, the 14. April 2008, macosxhints
Insert non-breaking spaces
I'm not sure how far back this goes, but on Leopard at least, pressing Option-Space on the US or US Extended keyboard layouts inserts a non-breaking space (U+00A0) rather than a normal space (U+0020). This might be useful for some people; unfortunately there seems to be no simple shortcut for inserting non-breaking hyphens on either of these two keyboard layouts.
published on Monday, the 24. March 2008, macosxhints
ArKaos replaces VJ app with GrandVJ
ArKaos has announced that its self-titled video-jockey software is being replaced with a new program, GrandVJ. Like its predecessor, GrandVJ is used to mix, trigger and manipulate video sources during live music performances, or at other events when live video sequences are needed. The program is based on its predecessor's piano keyboard layout, ...
published on Wednesday, the 12. March 2008, macintosh-news-network
Updates come for KeyStrokes, SwitchXS, LayoutKitchen
AssistiveWare says it has released updates for three of its main programs. KeyStrokes, the company's predictive on-screen keyboard, is now in version 4; the main change is the addition of LayoutKitchen, which lets users create custom keyboards that can incorporate things such as voice commands, program launches and AppleScripts. The software also...
published on Monday, the 21. January 2008, macintosh-news-network
Apple patents dyamically-lit keyboard concept
A second Apple patent application, published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office, shows a new keyboard design that may change how some future Macs operate. Each key in the new layout has multiple OLED lights, which are tied to application-specific integrated circuits; the lights can form symbols specific to a command, and may in some cases...
published on Thursday, the 3. January 2008, macintosh-news-network