Tips and Tricks

From Macworld

In this article, we’ll focus on techniques that will strengthen your workflow skills and simultaneously reveal some of the new features in Lightroom 1.1. To get the most out of Lightroom 1.1, our approach will diverge from the traditional list of new features. Instead, we’ll provide a few highlights of how new features can be integrated into an effective photographic workflow.

Click here to read more "Enhanced Workflow in Lightroom 1.1"

From Macworld
As far as digital technology has come, there’s still one thing that digital cameras won’t do: give you perfect color every time. In fact, if they gave us perfect color 50 percent of the time, that would be incredible. But unfortunately, every digital camera sneaks some kind of color cast into your images. Here’s how to get your color in line.

Click here to read more "Color Correcting Digital Camera Images"

From Computerworld
About five months ago, Macintosh lovers finally got their hands on Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard,” which boasts more than 300 new features spread across its interface and underpinnings. Some of those features are well-known — the Dock’s “stacks” function, Spaces, Time Machine and Screen Sharing, to name some of those most talked about by users and columnists alike.

But many others are buried just beneath the surface, unknown or ignored by users even though they’ve had Leopard installed for months. These “hidden” features may be things you never heard of or noticed, or even used without realizing their presence or scope—but they’re too good to miss.

Click here to read more "Top 25 Overlooked and Underrated Features in Leopard"

From Macworld

Lightroom is simpler to use than Photoshop, says Martin Evening, and without compromising the quality of color processing in any way. In this article, he points out some special Lightroom features for smarter editing of digital images.

Click here to read more "Smarter Image Editing in Lightroom"

From Instructables.com
This tutorial will show you how to use your iPod to mark songs for automatic deletion so you won't have to remember to do it later. It's the next best thing to having a "delete" button on your iPod. And don't worry this won't delete songs from iTunes, just from your iPod.

Now when you hear a song on your iPod you don't like anymore, you won't have to remember to delete it when you get back to your computer.

Click here to read more "Automatically remove Unwanted Songs from Your iPod"

From Macworld
If you have more than one Mac but don’t want to use a separate hard drive to back up each one, Time Machine can help. Time Machine works in the background, creating backups of files on an external hard drive whenever you modify your system.

You can use a single drive to back up multiple computers with Time Machine in any of the follow three ways.

Click here to read more "Back up Multiple Computers with Time Machine"

From Macworld
As the maintainer of the Mobile Mac Weblog, one of the things I get to do is upgrade mobile hardware. A while back I showed you how to upgrade the hard drive in a Mac Book Pro, or even install a second hard drive. In this Macworld video, I demonstrate the process of upgrading an older MacBook Pro’s 802.11g wireless card to a new, faster 802.11n version. I also cover the kind of performance gains such an upgrade will bring you.

Click here to read more "Upgrade Your Wireless Card"

From PhotoJoJo

Boy, are we excited. We’ve spent every waking moment these last months cooped up in the Photojojo Labs, working tirelessly on what can only be our greatest experiment ever. We’ve finally done it. We’ve found the key to…

Time Travel.

Well, time-lapse photography. Which is basically the same thing.

So go ahead, read our guide on the ins and outs of time-lapse and start churning out your very own time-lapse videos from your photos.

Click here to read more "The Ultimate Guide to Time-Lapse Photography"

From iLounge
It was one of Apple’s worst decisions of 2007: even if you owned a song and wanted to use it as an iPhone ringtone, you couldn’t. Instead, the only custom ringtones you could play were ones sold at a ridiculous price through iTunes, or ones that required hacks and third-party applications to create. Today, Apple has fixed its prior bad call, releasing version 4.1.1 of the iLife ‘08 application GarageBand, an update that now lets you create your own custom iPhone ringtones. Now that Apple has released both GarageBand ‘08 and iTunes 7.5, which stopped trying to block ringtones created by third-party applications, iPhone ringtone creation has never been so easy. Our ten step guide walks you through the process.

Click here to read more "10 Step Guide to iPhone Custom Ringtones in GarageBand ‘08"

From iPhone Central

Google’s torrid love affair with the iPhone continues as the big G rolls out a new iPhone-optimized interface for its online photo-sharing site, Picasa. According to Joe Walnes, a software engineer with Google’s mobile division, the decision to do an iPhone-specific version of Picasa came about where all good ideas do: the pub.

The interface is smooth and easy to use on the iPhone and lets you quickly view your pictures or search for images in the community at large. It even has a slideshow mode, and of course you can flip your images into landscape just by rotating the phone. To access the new interface, head over to Picasa on your iPhone, or by navigating to Google’s revamped homepage and selecting “More” from the toolbar at the top.

Click here to read more "Picasa for iPhone makes a Pretty Picture"

From Computerworld
Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday now behind us, the holiday shopping season is in full swing. Last month, we offered our Holiday Gift Guide to help you sort through this year's gadgets and techie toys.

But shopping for Mac users and Apple fans can sometimes be a challenge -- especially if you want to get something other than the obvious choices, or if you're not as big an Apple fan as the person you're shopping for. With that in mind, here are 10 great gift ideas for the Mac user on your list.

Click here to read more "Mac Gift Guide 2007"

From Bagelturf
I've put together what I think is a comprehensive list of ways to speed up Aperture. Some are quick, some are cheap, some are neither.

Click here to read more "32 Ways To Speed Up Aperture"

From iPhone Central
We’re not sure exactly who would opt to drop the $20 unlimited data part of their iPhone plan—despite the higher speed of Wi-Fi, I still spend far more time on EDGE due to its sheer ubiquity. But at least now you have the option to save that extra $20 a month if, for whatever reason, you find yourself not needing unlimited data.

As of this week, AT&T allows you to get rid of the data plan on your iPhone. Login to your account on AT&T Wireless, choose “Rate Plan & Features” and then “Add/Manage Features.” If you scroll down, you’ll find the section shown above and an option to “Select to Remove.”

Click here to read more "Living off the EDGE"

From TidBITS
Without speculating on precisely what flavor of Suck they were drinking in Cupertino the day Apple decided to make the Leopard menu bar transparent, can we just stipulate that for some users, at least, the imposition of this unwanted "feature", without the courtesy of being granted any sort of choice, is so annoying that we'd be willing to pay $100 just for the satisfaction of reaching down the back of Steve Jobs' jeans and giving him the biggest wedgie of his reality-distorted life? It is with a sense of indomitable smugness, therefore, that we observe that the nut has been cracked, the Gordian knot cut, and the ravelled sleeve knitted up. Someone has found the magic setting that restores to the menu bar its rightful and peacefully solid opacity.

Click here to read more "Transparent Menu Bar, Die Die Die!"

From Macworld
Whenever Apple releases a new version of Mac OS X, two things are certain. First, it will be better than the previous version. Second, there will be things about it people aren’t that happy about.

Leopard is no exception, and among the biggest early complaints have to do with its interface: the new Dock, the partially-transparent menu bar, lined Finder windows—in other words, the things you’ll be looking at whenever you’re using your Mac.

As I did back when Tiger was first released, today I’m going to take a look at some of the first tools for tweaking Leopard’s interface.

Click here to read more "Leopard's 1st Tweaks"

From the Entourage Help Blog
Since Google’s announcement in late October that it would offer free IMAP service for users of its Gmail service, news sites, blogs and forums have been abuzz with the expanded capabilities. Gmail’s message search engine, generous 5GB storage capacity and excellent spam filtering makes dealing with E-mail easy and Google is also enticing iPhone users to its IMAP service by providing detailed setup instructions. Now, because of IMAP, Gmail users can take advantage of all these features from multiple computers and devices while maintaining just one message store.

Click here to read more "Connect Entourage 2004 to Gmail’s IMAP service"

From Pyile
Imagine that you trash an application because of a security flaw. Say, it handles the URL type foofoo, and is proven to be a security risk. But the developer won’t fix it (or hasn’t fixed it yet), so you’ve removed the application from your hard drive to keep yourself safe.

It doesn’t work that way — you’re not safe. Time machine has made a copy in your time machine backup that Mac OS X will cheerfully launch without a warning.

(Shawn's Comment: Thanks to Dan via our mailing list for the heads up on this)

Click here to read more "Mac OS X runs Deleted Applications"

From Guy Kawasaki
Here are the top10 Leopard tips from my friends, Adam Engst et al, at Take Control Books.

Click here to read more "Top 10 Leopard Tips"

From John Rork
What you'll need:
An icon set
icon2icns.app
A little patience.

Click here to read more "Replace the Folder Icons in Leopard"

From AtBatt.com
When there are no power outlets in sight there's nothing more frustrating than a dying laptop battery. We've all been in that situation where we have a couple hours of work left to finish but our battery life is only estimated to last one more. Good news. Often times these situations can be avoided by optimizing the battery performance. Here are 20 tips that will help your laptop battery last longer.

Click here to read more "20 Tips to get more Juice from Your Laptop Battery"

From Macworld
DVRs, such as the ubiquitous TiVo and even those nameless boxes that many cable companies provide, have changed the way we record and watch TV. While they do a great job of time-shifting your favorite TV programs, DVRs either tether you to your TV or require extracting and converting content for other uses. But with a Mac-based DVR and a little know-how, you can watch shows on your beautiful Apple Cinema Display or your laptop—or encode them and use iTunes to put them on your iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV.

Click here to read more "Watch and Record Live TV"

From Gadgetell
From the day it was announced the iPod Touch has been billed as the iPhone without the phone, but is it? Almost daily we seem to hear about things that the iPod Touch isn’t, so this is a pretty good summary for those of us trying to figure out which would be best for us.

Click here to read more "iPhone Features the iTouch won’t give You"

From Macworld
Many people assume that when printing photos at home, you have to use paper from the same company that makes your printer. But while there are certain advantages to sticking with the same brand—a printer’s driver is fine-tuned for the manufacturer’s papers—it’s not your only option. If you’re willing to experiment, you can find a world of alternative media types, including less-expensive glossy papers, exotic handmade papers, and even fabrics. The trick to using unusual papers is understanding which ones your printer can handle and how to adjust your print settings to get good results on their unique surfaces.

Click here to read more "Printing on Unusual Surfaces"

From Macworld
Most large software companies offer their products at a steep discount to students and schools in the hope of nurturing future customers that, once gainfully employed, will pay full price to own and use software with which they’ve grown comfortable.

As I have not been a student for, er, a very long time, I have ignored these discounts, assuming I was not eligible. And though I am not eligible, I do have a daughter who just entered the second grade. You would think second graders would only be eligible for discounts on children’s educational programs, but it turns out that even kindergarteners qualify for prodigious discounts on professional-grade software.

That’s when I stumbled on the Web site for the Academic Superstore. They specialize in selling software at educational discounts, and they aren’t alone. Typing “academic software discount” into Google brings up dozens of similar sites. Browsing the Academic Superstore I quickly found CS3 standard selling for $389.95 and the premium version – which lists for $1,800 – for an astounding $589.95!

From MyFirstMac
If you’re looking to build a simple website, for yourself or your small business, your new Mac makes it very easy with “iWeb.” It’s even easier if you have a .Mac account, because with one, you can publish your website to the Internet with the click of a button. Of course, if you don’t want to pay for .Mac or you already have a site you’d like to update, it’s not quite so obvious how to publish. In this article, you’ll see how to build your website using iWeb, and various ways to publish it.

Click here to read more "Building a Simple Website using iWeb"

From iLounge
The iPod touch has arrived, and as always, we immediately started to put it through its paces. In advance of our comprehensive review, we wanted to help early potential buyers get some quick important facts on how it performs and compares with other iPods, and the iPhone.

Click here to read more "10 Things You Need to Know about iPod touch"

From Gizmodo
Purchasable iPhone Ringtones are officially here. However, with the discovery of free iPhone ringtones from inside iTunes 7.4 (and the rediscovery of them in iTunes 7.4.1), most of you won't want to pay $0.99 for the privilege of using a 30-second version of a song you've already purchased. Here are eight alternative ways to get ringtones onto your iPhone.

Click here to read more "8 Ways to get Ringtones onto Your iPhone"

From Hack the iPhone
Before I get into the instructions for the easy to use program, I want to give credit where credit is due. Because of the hard work of a couple people, "nightwatch", "geohot" and "ziel" in particular, and the rest of the iPhone development team, they created two key programs (Jailbreak and iPhoneInterface) which allow custom ringtones to be installed onto the iPhone. Because of these programs, a new program has been developed: iFuntastic! (by bitSplit Enterprises) which makes it very simple to not only install, but manage ringtones on the iPhone.

Click here to read more "How to Add and Remove Custom Ringtones to Your iPhone"

From MissingManual.com

The iPhone’s finger-driven interface seems natural and obvious. But when you really think about it, making it seem that way was no easy task. There are no menus in the iPhone software, for example, and no checkboxes or radio buttons. Everything on the screen has to be big enough for a fleshy fingertip.

On the other hand, the finger makes an outstanding pointing device; heck, you’ve been pointing with it all your life. It’s much faster to scroll diagonally with a fingertip, for example, than with fussy adjustments on two different scroll bars.

Here, then, are some of the iPhone’s unadvertised taps, double-taps, and other shortcuts, all culled from iPhone: The Missing Manual.

Click here to read more ""

From Macworld
If you work with large Photoshop files, you’re probably well aware of how slowly they save. Much of that time is spent flattening your image in order to create the preview icon you see in the Finder. While useful to have, you probably don’t need to see a preview icon for every interim version of your image. By disabling preview icon generation on save, Photoshop will save your work much more quickly. You can change how Photoshop works permanently via its preferences, or just on a save-by-save basis.

Click here to read more "Save Large Photoshop Files Faster"