MacMost: Archives

If you are a recent switcher to Macs, you may be having trouble adjusting to the Apple keyboard and the way keyboard shortcuts work. Learn about the Command key and how to get to some basic keyboard shortcuts. Learn the Mac equivalents to how to change a file name, copy a file and Control+Alt+Delete.

Apple will kick off next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference with a keynote at 10 a.m. pacific time on Monday. Rumor sites have been publishing article after article claiming evidence that new Macs will be announced at the keynote.
Of particular interest is the potential for new Mac Pros, a line that has not been updated in a while. The new Mac Pros may feature faster processors and memory, Thunderbolt, USB 3.0, and other features. There are also rumors of new MacBook Pros, a larger screen MacBook Air and new iMacs. The Mac Pro refresh can also be considered likely as the WWDC is an event for developers and Apple has announced new developer hardware at the event in the past.
We can also expect to hear more about Mountain Lion and iOS 6, the next versions of Apple’s two operating systems. While Mountain Lion has been in developer’s hands for a while now, this may be the announcement of an official public release date. iOS 6, on the other hand, has not been talked about previously. There is much speculation about new features in iOS 6, such as Siri integration with 3rd-party apps, new mapping functionality, and Facebook integration.

I bought a Kindle book on how to use the Kindle. I can’t figure out how to read it.”

After you have made many iMovie projects, you may want to remove them from your projects and events lists. This can be as easy as just moving the folders and files from your movies folder. If you want to go back to that project, simply move the files and folders back to their original locations.

While you may never need to go into your Mac's Library folders, it can be enlightening to know what they are used for and what is inside. This is where things like fonts, caches, preferences files and application support files are stored.

If you carry around USB flash drives, you may want to consider password protecting them in case they are lost or stolen. It is easy to format a drive with encryption using the OS X Disk Utility app.

Apple news was dominated this week by CEO Tim Cook’s appearance at the All Things Digital Conference. He was interviewed on stage and asked about Apple’s future. While he didn’t announce any new products, he gave hints to Apple’s direction.
He mentioned that new features are in store for the iPhone Siri feature. Since Siri is merely send audio to Apple’s servers and responds remotely, it is easy for Apple to change how Siri works without any hardware or even software updates.
He also danced around questions about a future television product, without dismissing the possibility. Another issue was better Facebook integration with OS X and iOS, and Cook seemed to hint that it is in the works.
Cook also responded to criticism over Apple using overseas manufacturing. He pointed out that the iPad’s A5 processor and all iOS device “gorilla glass” is made in the U.S.
Today U.S. pre-paid mobile carrier Cricket announced they will start selling the iPhone. While the phone will cost more than from other carriers, because of the lack of subsidies, monthly costs will be less. The idea of no having a long-term contract may attract many customers.

“100 million YouTube channels and still nothing to watch!”

Learn how to make playlists of your favorite songs and share them with friends. You can burn various types of CDs. You can also share your playlist online with friends using Ping, or gift a whole custom-made album of music to a friend.

Learn about the different hard drive formats like Mac OS, NTFS and FAT32. Find out how you can use NTFS drives with a Mac, and Mac OS drives using Windows. See how FAT32 formatted drives can be used to store files accessible to both systems.

“My ancestors were charlatan fortune tellers for medieval kings.”
“What is it that you do?”
“Basically the same thing. I’m a Wall Street analyst.”

With RSS reading functionality being removed from Safari and Mail in Mountain Lion, it is a good time to come up with an alternative. Google offers a free, easy-to-use and powerful RSS reader web site. It also works with several different apps so you can read your news on different devices and keep your data in sync.

If your carrier supports it, you can set up a personal hotspot with your iPhone so other devices like a MacBook or iPad can access the Internet. You can also connect with a dock cable or via Bluetooth.

One of the export options in iPhoto will let you export a set of photos as a web gallery, but not tied to any specific Internet service. You get a set a files that can be uploaded to your independent web host to your own site.

Many rumors of new iPhones and Mac this week centered around improved screens. Some reports say that new MacBooks and iMacs this year will feature retina displays — higher density displays that are used on the iPhone and iPad. The change could be announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June along with developer tools to allow Mac app makers to build resolution-independent interfaces.
Rumors also persist that a new iPhone may feature a slightly larger screen. This could mean simply that the number of pixels on the already-dense screens remains the same, but the physical size of the screen changes. Or, it could mean a taller screen that will continue to run existing apps without using the extra space, or leaving the extra space for notifications and other information. A new iPhone could be released in the fall, one year after the current model.

“I tried writing a book but couldn’t finish it. I tried blogging but couldn’t think of what to write. I tried tweeting and 140 characters was still too much.”
“What about Pinterest? All you need to do is click on photos you like.”
“Hmmm. Still seems like a lot of work.”

If you need to create printable forms that have blank spaces, you should use tab stops instead of underscore characters. Using tab stops allows you to line up blank spaces perfectly, making your forms look more professional.

Recently the environmental organization Greenpeace has been staging events to pressure Apple into using more renewable energy to power their data centers. They have blocked a shipment of coal to power plants, and have projected messages on to Apple’s headquarters building.
On the one hand, encouraging Apple as opposed to another company may bring more awareness to the need for renewable energy. On the other hand, Apple does a lot in this area already, including powering 50% of its North Carolina data center with renewable energy and stating that they hope to power 100% of its future Oregon center with it.
Should Greenpeace target Apple?

Google Drive is a new cloud storage system that is tied into Google Docs and your Gmail account. It is similar to DropBox and also offers a reasonable amount of storage space for free. You can use it to sync documents between your Macs or simply keep backup copies. You can also share Google Drive files with others.

By setting a soundtrack to your Keynote presentation and then recording the presentation you can create a slideshow timed to music. You can use Keynote's special transitions and effects to make the slideshow interesting and unique. You can then export the presentation as a video.