Posts By: Gary Rosenzweig

Mac cleaning apps are being advertised heavily across the Internet. But do you need these programs? Some of what they do is already being done by OS X. And most of the rest is simply an effort to remove a small number of files from your drive and give you more drive space. But you can do better by archiving projects and keeping your documents tidy on your own.

Apple announced and released a new version of the MacBook Pro this week, the biggest announcement at Monday’s Worldwide Developer Conference keynote. The new MacBook Pro is the first laptop to feature a retina display, similar to the new iPad. The new machine also comes with an SSD hard drive, no optical drive, HDMI output and a redesigned case featuring a new fan and battery system.
The rest of the MacBook line was given an incremental boost with new processors and memory. The 17-inch Macbook Pro was retired. The Mac Pro was also given a small incremental increase in power, but remains the only Mac without Thunderbolt support. Apple did add this week that new professional Macs will be coming in 2013.
In other news at the keynote, Apple revealed that the next version of OS X for Macs will come out in July. A new version of iOS is now in the hands of developers. iOS 6 will bring Siri support to new iPads, and Facebook integration, a new Maps app, and many other features.

The ball and paddle game has been around since, well literally the very beginning of video games. Multiponk finally takes it to the next level with interesting variations and nice graphics. There are traps, bumpers and bonuses in the middle of the playing field. Play against the computer or up to three other people on the same device.

I know this probably isn’t what Apple meant by sandboxing, but I just want to be sure we are doing things right.”

Do you drag and drop files to the trash in the Dock? A power user tip is to select a file and use Command+Delete to move the selected files to the trash.

Many people often wonder what export settings to use in iMovie in order to create the best DVDs. But DVDs are standard definition, and any video you export from iMovie will be re-encoded into a special DVD format. So it is merely a matter of exporting at the best settings available and then letting your DVD software use the best version of the video possible to create the DVD.

At the Worldwide Developer Conference Apple announced the next generation MacBook Pro complete with a retina display, the first Mac to get such a screen. In addition, Mountain Lion's release date was specified as this July, and iOS 6 for iPhones, the iPod touch and the iPad was announced. The new iOS will feature Facebook integration, a new Maps app and other new features.

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.

Evidence seems to strongly suggest a new Mac Pro will arrive next week at the WWDC. Are you a Mac Pro user? Have you been looking forward to a new machine? Or, do you think Apple should ditch the expensive tower and focus on consumer models only?

Bravesmart is a fun puzzle game where you create matches of three on a board to build better pieces. It is a single-player puzzle board game, but with a bit of a forced construction metaphor to make it a little more fun.

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

There are several ways to access menu bar items with the keyboard. Here is one you may not know about. Press Command+Shift+?. This gives you access to the menu bar’s help field. Then type part of the name of the command. For instance, in Safari you can type “New.” When the list of help items appears, the menu choice is usually the first one. Use the down arrow to get to it. Then Return to activate that menu item.

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.

I’ve been using the Kinds In Mind web site for years to figure out whether a film is appropriate for the whole family. They break a movie down with easy-to-understand rankings which lets me make a determination instead of forcing an opinion on me. Now there is a Kids In Mind app, which will make it easier to get to their reviews quickly.

You can monitor your system using the Activity Monitor application in your Applications/Utilities folder. In that app you can go to View, Dock Icon and change the way the icon appears. It can show your CPU, memory, disk or network usage in a little graph in the icon. So then you can hide the app itself, but still keep tabs on your system.

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!”