Posts By: Gary Rosenzweig

When you press Command+F to search in the Finder, the search starts with a default search location. It can either be the entire Mac, the current folder, or the last place you performed a search. To set this preference, go to the Finder and choose Finder, Preferences, then Advanced. Look for the “When performing a search” setting.

He’s on the roof waiting for Santa to bring him an iPad. We’ve been married for 10 years, and I still don’t have the nerve to tell him there’s no Santa.

You can add tags to any file in Mac OS X using the Spotlight Comments field. You can then search for files based on those tags. This can help you organize your files when a simple folder system isn't enough.

Learn how to make copies of data CDs and DVDs using Disk Utility. With one optical drive in your Mac, you need to create a temporary disk image on your hard drive. Then use that disk image to create physical copies of your disc.

You can use Automator to alter what happens when a file is added to a folder. In this example, new files added to a folder are then sorted into subfolders according to their type. You can add multiple actions to a folder and then determine which order they are used.

While no big new announcements are expected from Apple during the holiday shopping season, designers and engineers have been busy improving the online buying experience for Apple users.
One such change is the length of song previews in iTunes. Songs that are longer than 2.5 minutes now feature a 90-second preview. At least, in the U.S. iTunes store. But those outside the U.S. have something to cheer about as they can finally take advantage of App Store promo codes. These codes, given out by developers to get reviews and buzz for their new apps, are free coupons that were previously only available for people with U.S. iTunes accounts.
Last month Apple tried to make its iTunes gift card use a little clearer by offering iTunes gift cards with the iBooks icon on them. These are regular iTunes gift cards, but it shows clearly that these can be used for books. iTunes cards can be used to purchase music, apps or books. Apple also offers an Apple Store-specific gift card that can’t be using in iTunes, and a special card that can only be used to purchase an iPhone.

If you’ve got an old vinyl record collection and want to transfer some of the music to your iTunes collection, then a USB turntable might be in order. I tried and liked the Ion Profile. It is inexpensive at less than $100 and the quality is decent. Forget the software that comes with it as it is not Mac compatible. But it showed up as an audio input device without a problem so you can use Audacity or GarageBand to record from it and slice your own tracks from the results.

THQ has been giving us a steady stream of Star Wars games for the iPhone. The latest, Falcon Gunner, is reminiscent of the old arcade title. It works well on the iPhone with the accelerometers. You put yourself in the seat of one of the Millennium Falcon’s guns and shoot down TIE fighters. A special mode uses your camera to put your reality in the background. Not only is this entertaining, but you get quite a workout wheeling around to destroy all the TIE fighters in your living room.

In Address Book you can add a web address for any contact. In Safari, you can make those contacts available in the bookmarks bar by going to Safari Preferences, Bookmarks, Bookmarks bar and choosing Include Address Book. This puts a drop-down menu in your bookmarks bar that includes all web addresses from your contacts.

A common request is to include a small image in Apple Mail email signatures. This isn't easy to do, but there is a trick that can be applied to get a small image added to your signature.

Learn how to use transitions between slides and items in iWork Keynote 09. You can add a variety of transitions between slides with many customizable options. You can also add transitions when building individual items on a slide. You can set the build order of items, and even add additional animation for items on a slide.

Learn how to create and modify photo albums that will then appear on your iPhone in the Photos app. You can create them using iPhoto on your Mac, or folders with subfolders on your Mac or Windows.

One of the major new features of iOS 4.2 is AirPrint, the ability to print directly from your iPhone or iPad. Unfortunately, this only works if you have one of the small group of HP printers that supports it. That makes it a non-feature for most people.
But in the future we hope that Apple allows you to print through your Mac. After all, you can print from one Mac to a printer connected to another Mac. So why not extend that functionality to AirPrint?

Back in the 90s one of the coolest and weirdest pieces of Mac software was Rebirth. It simulated classic synth and drum machines. Lots of fun to play with. Well, now Rebirth is reborn with Rebirth for iPad. And it is just as much fun. You can also find Rebirth for the iPhone though it is much better on the large screen of the iPad.

Winter presents problems: how to operate your iPhone while keeping your gloves on. While you can get gloves that allow you to do this, GloveTips allows you to stick with your favorite gloves and modify them with a kit to allow touchscreen use. They sent me a kit to test out. It takes a little time to install it in your gloves, but certainly works. Now I can finally tell Pandora thumbs up or down while driving on cold mornings.

The 4.2.1 update for iOS brings many new features to the iPad. You can now run several apps at once, organize apps into folders, print to some wireless printers and search inside web pages. There are also improvements to Mail ;and other default apps.

If you are not a computer expert, you may not know some of the terms used to describe your Mac. Learn about your processor, graphics processor, memory, hard drive and other aspects of a computer.

Today is the traditional start for the American holiday shopping season. Here are ten tips for shopping online to buy gifts. Also, check out http://macmost.com/apple-store-discounts for better prices on Apple products.

The long-anticipated update to the iPad version of iOS came out this week. The iPad has now caught up to the iPhone and iPod Touch with many new features.
In particular, multitasking allows the iPad to run several apps at once. Double tapping the home button will bring up a list of currently running apps and allow you to switch between them. Some apps, like Pandora, will already run in the background. This means you can listen to music while you work on other apps.

Apple decided to take one piece of MobileMe and make it free this week: the Find My iPhone functionality. It actually works with the iPod Touch and iPad too. You use your Apple ID and register your iPhone. Then you can go on to your Mac and see its location on a map. Or, you can use the free Find My iPhone app on another iOS device to locate it.