MacMost: Archives

Apple released Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” yesterday, the highly anticipated new OS with features like Mission Control, Versions, full-screen apps, AirDrop and new Mail features.
Lion is only available from the Mac App Store as a $29 download for those running the latest version of Snow Leopard. In August Apple will sell a $69 USB flash drive containing a Lion installer. Apple also updated Safari, iTunes and iWork this week for Lion compatibility. Those updates are available with Software Update or in the Mac App Store.
In addition, new MacBook Air models and new Mac mini models were introduced. Both of these lines now come with Thunderbolt ports for connecting peripherals. They both also received processor speed bumps.

“What planet have you been living on? Everyone knows not to stand in front of a store when a new Mac product comes out.”

There are hundreds of keyboard shortcuts for Mac users. There are Mission Control shortcuts, Finder shortcuts, system shortcuts, application shortcuts and more. Many you can find by just looking through the menu bar for that application. You can find system ones by looking in the System Preferences under Keyboard.

But some keyboard shortcuts are more useful than others. And some are harder to remember than others.
So MacMost has compiled a list of our top “power user” keyboard shortcuts for Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion). Here they all are on a single PDF page, downloadable and printable: The MacMost Lion Power User Keyboard Shortcuts. Download it and pass it along!

Check out Mission Control, a new feature for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Mission Control combines some features of Spaces and Expose and creates a new interface in Mac OS X for navigating between apps. You can give apps their own screen and flip between screens easily.

If you have trouble reading text on your computer screen, there are lots of ways to adjust the size of text on web pages, email messages, word processing documents and other applications. You can quickly adjust text, even just temporarily with keyboard shortcuts, without changing the text itself, just how it is displayed to you.

Many iMovie users wonder why they get black bars on the sides or above and below an image that the drop into their movie. This is caused when the picture is a different aspect ratio than the video. You can use cropping in iMovie 11 to select the area of the image you want to use, and whether to include any black space around the image.

All Apple has said about the Release of Lion, Mac OS X 10.7, is that it will happen this month. But many rumors pin the date as early as today. Others say next week.
In addition to the new OS, there are rumors of new Macs. Most rumor sites agree that there will be new MacBook Air models soon with i3 or i5 processors and Thunderbolt ports. Some rumors also claim new Mac minis, new low-end MacBooks and new Mac Pros.
It is likely that if Apple is planning to release new Macs soon that they would wait for Lion so that the new hardware comes with Lion installed. Otherwise, buyers would need to perform a major system update just days after purchase. Apple has its quarterly earnings report due out on Tuesday and has sometimes released new Macs shortly after such reports.

“I want to get iOS 5 for my iPhone 3Gs but I’ll upgrade to an iPhone 5 if it has 4G.”
“5, 3, 5, 4 what? Why can’t Apple use cute kitty names instead of numbers for the iPhone too?”

Sometimes computer users stress too much about disk usage. They worry when they see varying amount of free and used space and their computers and when they notice those numbers change even though they haven't done anything. Find out what Mac OS X does that uses disk space on a regular basis.

Apple users can sometimes stress about when is the best time to by a new Mac, iPhone, iPad or iPod. Rumors are always around that a new device is on the way. But putting off a purchase isn't always that important. Learn to research the validity of rumors and don't stress about getting your new Apple hardware at the exact right time.

In this special episode, learn to now stress about your MacBook or iOS device battery. It may not be worth it to expend a lot of time and stress to extend your battery's life by only a little bit.

Mac OS X 10.7, AKA Lion, should be released this month. And according to reports Apple is right on schedule. They released a gold master update of Lion to developers on Friday. Such a release usually signals the end of testing.
Once Lion has been released, all new Macs will feature the OS pre-installed. The update will be available in the Mac App Store to Snow Leopard users at the same time. It is expected to be a 4 GB download. Apple has said that users can bring their Macs into Apple Stores and use the wifi there to download the update if their home connection is too slow.
As of today, Verizon is no longer offering unlimited data plans for the iPhone. They warned at the launch of the Verizon iPhone that unlimited plans were only going to be offered temporarily. They offer 2 GB, 5 GB and 10 GB per month data plans, with overage costs of $10 per GB. Presumably anyone currently with an unlimited plan can continue with that plan. Check your Verizon account or their sales site for details and pricing. AT&T also started with unlimited data plans but now only offers similar tiered plans.

“Roger has been impossible to deal with since Apple decided to use his picture in the OS X Lion icon.”

Take a look at four extensions that you might find useful. You can discover web page-specific keyboard shortcuts. You can select and jump to links using only your keyboard. You can lock tabs. You can make it easier to generate shortened URLS.

Learn how to look up the serial number for your Mac, and then use that number to get the official model number for your Mac. You must have that model number to purchase memory upgrades. Find out about the Tech Specs section of the Apple web site where you can learn more about your Mac and other Apple devices.

Take a look at four free Safari extensions that you may find useful. You can add a customizable toolbar, view multiple pages in one long page instead, print specific areas of a page and see your incoming Gmail at the top of the Safari window.

A major update for Snow Leopard was released this week that sets up the Mac App Store for the Lion upgrade expected in July. It also fixes many security issues and bugs. You can get the update by running Software Update on any Mac with Snow Leopard. You can read details about the update at Apple’s site.
The Thunderbolt connectors on new MacBook Pros and iMacs became useful this week with the release of the first RAID disk drive system and an official Apple Thunderbolt cable.

“Kodiak, Cheeta, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion.”
Apple Fanboys don’t count sheep.

There are many ways to edit song information in iTunes that will help you sort your music. You can group songs together in an album using the Album Artist field. You can also set track numbers and use alternative song, album and artist information just for sorting.

If you have produced a video in iMovie and the file size is too large, you can use a free program called MPEG Streamclip to compress it with little loss of quality. The key is to use .mp4 with h264 compression and then adjust the bit rate to get the right trade-off of file size versus quality.