MacMost: Archives

The Image Capture program on your Mac can give you direct control over the pictures on your digital camera. You can even take pictures with your camera while connected to your Mac. You can also create Web pages and PDFs using your photos.

Interviews with iPhone app developers from the 360iDev conference. The developers talk about their apps, what they like about making iPhone and iPod Touch apps, what they don't like, and how others can get started in the business.

The MacMost.com Guide to Switching to the Mac is now in stock in local and online bookstores. You can purchase it today at Amazon.
MacMost.com founder Gary Rosenzweig quickly gets you comfy with your new Mac, demonstrates the “Mac way” to perform every common Windows task, and shows how to do more with Macs than you ever could in Windows… way more!
But the book isn’t just for switchers. It is for anyone who wants to get the most from their Mac. Even experienced Mac users will find useful tips, tricks and techniques.
It’s all here — everything from choosing the right Mac to creating your own videos and DVDs. Rosenzweig covers the latest Macs and the new Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system. Best of all, he focuses on what today’s computer users need to know, including loads of coverage of using your Mac on the Web.
Every Mac switcher needs a friendly Mac expert to show them the ropes. With this book, you’ve got yours!

• Discover what’s different about your Mac’s hardware and software — and what’s similar, too
• Navigate the Finder and learn how Mac files are organized
• Make the most of the Mac’s built-in applications
• Move your stuff from your PC to your new Mac
• Use Safari, Mac’s great built-in Web browser
• Set up Mac email, instant messaging, and audio and video chatting
• Share, back up, and archive your files
• Choose and use Mac business and productivity applications
• Organize your music and buy new songs with iTunes
• Import, manage, edit, and share your photos
• Create awesome videos with iMovie, QuickTime, and iDVD
• Run Windows on your Mac, if you must
• Keep your Mac up to date and running smoothly

You can read more about the book and see a table of contents at http://macmost.com/book.

The free program Fluid allows you to create applications that display a single site in a Safari-like browser. You can use it to turn sites like Gmail into applications, and also access lots of advanced browser functionality not present in Safari.

You can connect two Macs together by re-booting one into Firewire target disk mode. This allows the first Mac to access the second as a Firewire drive. You can then transfer files between the two computers faster than using a network.

You can use three different methods to create links to the iTunes store. These links will automatically open up the iTunes application and take you to the song, artist, video, app, podcast or section in the iTunes Store.

Apple quickly released a dot-version of iTunes, version 9.0.1 to fix many of the bugs that people reported in the first few days after iTunes 9’s release. The bug fixes affected the iTunes store, iPod and iPhone syncing, Genius mixes and more.
Adobe announced a new version of Photoshop Elements for Mac. Version 8 is advertised as working well with iPhoto. You can use an external editor in iPhoto 09 to touch up or alter your pictures. Photoshop Elements is a low-priced version of Photoshop that leaves out some pro features that most users don’t need unless they work as a professional graphic artist or photographer.
While Apple’s tablet remains just a rumor, Microsoft has announced a tablet product. However, it is only a prototype with no release date and few details. It might give us a clue as to what Apple has in mind. The “Courier” is a two-screen tablet that opens like a notebook.

Snow Leopard includes a new version of iCal that lets you edit events in two new ways that make it much easier to use iCal as your calendar program. You can also easily import and sync Google and Yahoo calendars.

Preview was updated for Snow Leopard to include some powerful annotation features. You can now mark up documents and images with lines, notes, highlights and links.

iTunes 9 adds more than just LPs and extended video purchases. There is also a different way to browse your music, a wish list, Genius mixes, iPod syncing options, Twitter and Facebook recommendations, new Smart Playlist features and more.

Apple wasted no time releasing the first dot-update to Snow Leopard. Version 10.6.1 was pushed over Software Update about two weeks ago and is mainly about bug fixes, not new features.
The fixes concern Sierra wireless modems, DVD playback, printer compatibility, the Dock, account setup in Mail and other Mail bugs. There are also some security patches, most likely the same ones rolled out in security updates for both Tiger and Leopard.
MobileMe has also been upgraded with minor features. One is the ability to set the passcode on your iphone remotely. The “Play a Sound” option in MobileMe has been changed to play the sound at maximum volume. There are also a variety of improvements as to how calendars sync, and how you are alerts of conflicts and changes when syncing calendars and contacts.
There is also some movement in the Apple TV department. Apple has discontinued the original 40GB version and has dropped the price on the remaining 160GB version to $229.
In the rumors arena, there is speculation that the mythical Apple Tablet won’t be making an appearance until February.

Take a look at video recording on the new iPod Nano. Learn what it can do and how well it works. See a comparison between the iPod Nano, iPhone 3GS and the Flip Mino.

Take a look at the new iPod Nano which features lots of new features like a video camera, microphone, pedometer and FM radio.

Learn about the new iTunes 9 Home Sharing feature. It lets you easily share and copy media from one computer to another from within iTunes. However, setup requires one or more iTunes accounts and the new features are simply shortcuts to what was already possible.

Apple’s September 9th announcements were all about iTunes and the iPod. However, the new products were almost overshadowed by the fact that the presentation was headed by Steve Jobs himself. This is his first appearance in such a capacity since last year when he stopping speaking for Apple to take care of his health.
At the center of the announcements was iTunes 9, a new version of iTunes that is already available for download through Software Update on your Mac. iTunes 9 features some interface changes in how you view your library, and also a new look for the iTunes music store. New features include the ability for iTunes 9 to communicate across your home network and sync media files between computers. You also have a new interface for deciding which songs and videos sync to your iPod or iPhone. The Genius feature now includes nine mixes created from your music library that act as personal radio stations.
On the iPhone and iPod Touch, version 3.1 of the OS adds a Genius feature to the App Store app, giving you suggestions about which apps you might like. You can also no purchase major-music-label pre-made ringtones in the iTunes app.
New iPods were announced and are now on sale, including new versions of every single iPod. The iPod Touch now has a faster processor and comes in a 64GB size. The iPod Shuffle has new colors. The iPod Classic is now 160GB. The biggest change, however, is the iPod Nano, which now has a video camera, FM radio and pedometer.
All iPods except the Classic have new lower price points. Check out the Apple store for prices for each of the models. All of these new models are already in stores and on sale online.
Apple has made the entire presentation available to watch.

Apple's Steve Jobs announces a new version of iTunes with more advanced syncing options, a new iPod Nano with a video camera, iPhone OS 3.1, pre-made ringtones in the iTunes Store, and a new iPod Touch at a lower price point.

Learn about the new text substitution feature in Snow Leopard that lets you create your own text shortcuts so you can quickly type commonly used phrases or hard-to-type characters.

Learn how to use the new screen recording feature of QuickTime X in Snow Leopard. It provides basic video screen capture ability. Also learn how to go beyond the basics with better third-party applications.

Last Friday Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6, came home to live on many Macs around the world. Most updates went smoothly. Some issues centered around users not having the latest patches to iWork and various third-party applications. Some third-party applications do not have a Snow Leopard-compatible version out yet, but that is rare since Snow Leopard has been available for developers to test on for about 18 months.
But Apple doesn’t seem to be resting after this major release. They have invited press to a special event on September 9. The only hint as to the content of the event is that the invitation shows an iPod and the words: “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it.” So there will most likely be announcements about iTunes and the iPod.
Apple may offer new hardware, perhaps a new Nano and iPod Touch. They may also release iTunes 9. There are strong rumors of them offering song-based ringtones for sale directly from iTunes. Currently, you can purchase whole songs as ringtones and select your own 30 seconds to use as the actual ringtone.
September 9 is the official release date of the remastered Beatles catalog on CD, so it would also make sense that the Beatles songs will go on sale for the first time in the iTunes store. But it would be odd for the event to be named after a Rolling Stones song, in that case.

Snow Leopard introduces QuickTime X, a new version of the QuickTime Player. While it adds trimming and exporting functionality, it lacks many of the advanced features of QuickTime 7, and is no comparison to QuickTime 7 Pro.