MacMost: Video Podcast

Reflecting back on Steve Jobs' life, here are seven things that I admired about this self-made man. He was an innovator, improver, showman, and and enthusiast. We was also imperfect and uncompromising.

Apple announced the new iPhone 4s. The new phone will include a faster processor, better camera and come with the ability to listen and respond to voice commands and take dictation. The new phone comes out on October 14. It will also be available on Sprint for the first time. iOS 5 and iCloud will come out on October 12 for some older iOS devices.

There are some odd and unusual things on your Mac that you can do with the Terminal. You can create banners, use your screen saver as your desktop background, look at interesting, daily calendars, and play hidden games.

If you want to view a folder full of photos in the Finder, you can do it using one of several Finder window views. You can also enlarge the icons, use Quick Look or Preview.

When your hard drive is full it is time to look through your files and determine what you should archive or just delete. Old video files and applications you are no longer using are common culprits. A drive that is almost full can slow down your Mac.

You can combine different elements of iMovie to create your own effects and titles. As an example, learn how to create scrolling end credits that include still images fading in and out on the left.

Smart Playlists in iTunes are lists of songs that automatically update according to search criteria. You can create a Smart Playlist that looks for songs in your library according to how recently they were added or played, or how you have rated them, their genres and other properties.

Check out Gary's list of apps that he suggests most people install on a new Mac on the first day. The list includes some utilities and browser plug-ins. You can get the links and make your own suggestions at https://macmost.com/must-have-lion-apps

In addition to using DropBox to sync files between your Macs, you can also use it to share files with friends. You can make a file public and provide your friends with a link to it. You can also share a folder between friends with DropBox accounts. There is even a special photo galleries folder that will allow you to share photos easily.

A portable Mac using Lion and Time Machine creates local snapshots of new and modified files when it cannot access its TIme Machine drive. These local snapshots can be used to recover deleted or mistakenly modified files. They take advantage of unused space on your hard drive and adjust according to how much space you have available.

QR Codes are barcode-like boxes of dots that you can find in magazines, posters, signs and business cards. They usually represent web page addresses. You can use free apps on your iPhone to easily scan these codes and see where they lead. You can also make your own QR Codes using free web services.

In Final Cut Pro X you can switch back and forth between videos using a variety of methods. The video can shift from one viewpoint to another while the audio stays constant. Learn about mixing multiple video tracks and going back and forth between them.

Learn the basic steps to start backing up your Mac with Time Machine. Every computer user should back up his or her data on a regular basis, and using Time Machine on your Mac makes that easy. Find out how to get started.

You can perform a variety of text transformations and substitutions using standard menu commands. For instance, you can change all of the characters in a selection to upper or lower case. You can also change straight quotes to curly quotes, two dashes to long dashes, and have segments of text automatically change as you type.

It is difficult to change the tempo of an individual track in GarageBand because all tracks will match the tempo of the song by default. But if you copy tracks into new loops, you can hold the speed of those tracks steady as you adjust the tempo of the song.

Learn where to go if your Apple product breaks, or you have a problem you can't figure out. You can use Apple's Genius Bar or call their support line. You can also join a local user group or take your Mac to a local repair shop.

Learn how to use transitions in Final Cut Pro X. There are several ways to apply transitions between clips, and many ways to adjust the end and start points of the two clips. You can also customize each transition.

iMovie limits you to one picture-in-picture effect at a time. But you can cheat by placing multiple pictures in a single image using an image editing tool.

The Resume feature in Lion allows you to quit applications and then run them again with your windows intact. Any documents or windows you had open before will open again the next time you use the application. This can be disorienting at first, but it can also be useful. Find out how to quit applications and have them start fresh next time. Find out how to disable the Resume feature if it is not for you.

The function keys, also called the F-keys, serve two purposes on your Mac. Found at the top of all Apple keyboards, these keys can be used for special functions like volume control, iTunes playback or accessing Mission Control. But they can also be used as F1, F2, F3, etc., keys. Find out how to switch between the two modes.