Take an instant snapshot in Photo Booth ( Without the countdown ) . Simply hold down option while pressing the capture button. Alternatively, press Command-Option-T simultaneously.
Showing posts with label Macbook Pro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Macbook Pro. Show all posts
Take an Instant Snapshot in Photo Booth
Take an instant snapshot in Photo Booth ( Without the countdown ) . Simply hold down option while pressing the capture button. Alternatively, press Command-Option-T simultaneously.
Format an External Hard Drive for Mac and Windows
The question most Mac Users always have on their mind is "How can I format my External Hard Drive for Windows?". There could be any number of reasons for wanting to format an external Hard drive -
- Too much junk
- Need space
- Not working
- Not compatible with both windows and mac
Or perhaps simply because you're reorganizing the file system on your Mac. In any case, there's a correct method to do it such that it gives you the best amount of space possible and is compatible with windows as well as mac.
If you have important data on your hard drive make sure you back it up before formatting your hard drive.
So to start, open up Disk Utility which is located in Applications --> Utilities. Or Launchpad --> Utilities
Now, that you have Disk Utility opened up, from the left hand side column select your external hard drive. It will be orange colored. Make sure you select the main Hard drive and not a partition. For example, in the screenshot below, you would select "500.08GB WD My Passport" and not "SHIV WD" Now, click on the partition tab ( as shown selected below )
MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT SELECT YOUR COMPUTER'S HARD DRIVE. ( IN GREY )
Change the partition layout to as many partitions you want in your formatted Hard drive. If you're not sure, select 1 partition.
Change the Name as per your liking.
Change format to Mac OS Extended ( Journaled ).
Leave the size as it is.
And finally, click apply. Your Hard drive should now be formatted for both Windows and Mac.
Magic Mouse: How to Fix The Battery Issue
The Magic Mouse is truly one of Apple's better inventions, albeit not too well known. A multi-touch mouse is in my mind, simply genius. The sheer brilliance of the idea aside, the bluetooth mouse provides a sensational experience. Put it this way, 30 per cent of the pleasure of using a Mac is contributed by the hardware. ( Magic mouse contributes the majority of that number )
The seamless, multitouch surface of the mouse, also functions as the button and is capable of detecting intuitively a swipe, a tap, a pinch, a double tap, a click, a scroll or even a resting hand and also how many fingers were used to do it. In addition to this, if put through the right software it can also double as a trackpad. However there is a tiny flaw. Battery.
It drains enormous amounts of battery. Within a few weeks of average consumption your "long lasting" battery will fall down to 10 per cent or so. The obvious solution ( aside from the tedious task of frequent battery replacement ) would be the heavily advertised Battery charger. Although not a bad idea, it is essentially, a hyped up pack of six rechargeable batteries and a charger. What I am about to tell you however is simply a trick, to change the "few weeks" of battery like to a few months and if done regularly enough maybe even half a year.
Switch off the mouse at night. ( Or when not in use ). You may not believe me now but switching the mouse off at night or otherwise actually somehow seems to increase your mouse battery. Not much, but it does by 5-10 per cent each time. Even if you don't believe what I am saying, surely turning your magic mouse battery off can't do any harm. And in any case, you'll see it for yourself.
How to Run Rosetta PowerPC Apps on Lion
If you haven't updated to Lion yet, don't be in a rush. If you have, this might come as a bit of a shock but Apple has removed Rosetta PowerPC. Which means most of your old applications and games may not work. These apps will now have a white slashed circle on it thus officially declared by Apple to be dead. Another way to check is by right clicking on the app in Finder and clicking on "get-info" or pressing Command-I after selecting the icon in Finder. In the kind section it will say either "Application ( Intel, Universal or PowerPC ). The first two will work with Lion the last will not.
So how to keep Lion and Snow Leopard.
Simple: Upgrade to Lion and Install Snow Leopard on Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion
Parallels Dekstop and VMware Fusion are crossover applications which allow you to run Windows ( or any other Operating System ) on your Mac without having to reboot your Mac.
Mac Application: LockScreen 2
Everyone tends to be paranoid about their computer's security. Even more so when its a Mac. So naturally there are those who have tried to make a nice profit out of it, telling you that your Mac's security isn't good enough, or sometimes trying to sell you onto the "security with better looks" aspect. Of course, its not all true. There were even some individuals and companies with the cheek to sell you onto security software that didn't lock your Mac, but just made it appear so.
Nevertheless, security software can come in Handy, sometimes when you might want to stay logged in and yet keep your Mac locked. Or perhaps you simply want better wallpapers and functions on your logout screen. Or maybe even for a cool new way to unlock your screen.
So if you, for any reason, want an app which does the above, I recommend LockScreen 2
What's better you might ask.
Fancy wallpapers ? Optional.
Better Security ? Not necessarily.
What LockScreen 2 does, in fact have is the ability to "Swipe to unlock". Yes that's right. iOS like slide / swipe to unlock. What to swipe ? Why, your Keyboard of course ! Or mouse or trackpad. An imitation of something that has been with iOS since the very beginning, perhaps, but a great one at that.
Its not one of those Must-Have apps. Nor is it an app that you would be very eager to get especially at $1.99 ( discounted price ) but its a nice, fun app nevertheless. (With a genius for a developer, I might add)
Color Up Your Mac
Facebook Chat on Mac - iChat
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iChat Icon
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Of the millions of Mac Owners and Facebook Users, how many of them do you think use Facebook chat frequently ? ( Meant to be rhetorical but feel free to comment ) Facebook's chat service is quite possibly one of the most attractive features of the Billion dollar enterprise. As opposed to other chat services such as MSN messenger, Facebook allows you to chat with users without having their email ID and also without downloading any software; it works through your web browser. So to use this -
1. You'll need a facebook "username". Go to your facebook profile and it'll be in the url in the format 'http://www.facebook.com/your_username" where 'your_username' is your username.
2. Now open iChat from the applications folder in your mac or search for it on iChat.
3. Now press command-comma(,) to open iChat preferences.
4. Go to accounts within the preferences window and add a new account.
5. Fill in the following details -
Label your Files and Folders
There are some of us, who like to keep our files and folders organized by labeling and color coding the, be it the virtual ones ( on computers ) or even the physical one. Mac provides such an option to color code them which they call "labelling". So to do so, simply select an file or folder, right click on it and choose the color you want in the 'label' section. And thats it. Done.
Mac OS X Lion is Out
Apple just released their newest, much awaited operating system - Mac OS X Lion along with a New Macbook Air and a New Mac Mini. What's more Lion, with over 250 new features in a single update is available for a mere $29.99 for all your Macs as opposed to previous operating system updates which were priced at $129.99 for a single Mac.
Stacks on Mac
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| Fan in the form of a stack |
What are stacks on Mac ?
Stacks on Mac provide an easy way to access folders right from your Dock. These folders are positioned to the right of your Dock seperator. You can add stacks to the Dock by simply dragging a folder here. You can view these stacks in the form of a fan, grid, list or let Mac decide.
Drag Dock's to Right or Left in a Click
Position the Dock to the right or left hand side of your screen in one fluid drag - Click and drag the Dock's Seperator to wherever you want it while Holding down alt / option and shift. ( Click on image to see enlarged view )
Update your Mac and it's Applications
Did you know that your Mac can be updated frequently to a newer bugless version in minutes ? Your apps require updates too to fix bugs. To update, just click on the Apple icon in the top right corner of your screen and click on software update. Select your updates and click Install.
Know Each Detail of Your Mac
Curious about your mac ? Want to see each and every detail about it with a couple of simple clicks ? Click on the Apple button ( top left of your screen ), hold down the alt/option button on your keyboard and "About this Mac" will change to System Profiler. Click on System Profiler.
The Mac Tip Series 9 - System Preferences
System preferences on Mac OS X is an application with all your general settings. In other words, it's like "Control panel" on Windows. To go to System Preferences you can -1. Search for it in spotlight search ( top right corner of screen )
2. Click on the Apple button in the menubar ( top left corner of screen )
3. Click on it in the dock.
The Mac Tip Series 8 - See All Multitouch Gestures for your Mouse / Trackpad
Don't know about all the multitouch gestures for your Mouse / Trackpad ? Go to System preferences --> Mouse / Trackpad and see the demonstrations.
See Bluetooth Mouse, Trackpad and Keyboard Battery percentage
See your Bluetooth keyboard or mouse's battery percentage on Mac. Open System Preferences --> Keyboard or System Preferences --> Mouse or System Preferences --> Trackpad to see the battery percentage which will be located at the bottom left corner of the window.
CYM Did You Know - Twitter Menubar
The Mac Tip Series 7 - Get Information about a File / Folder
In Mac, you can get information such as File size, File Type, File Name, Folder Contents, Location on Mac, Date Created, Date Modified, Entension about any file / folder as well as other functions like locking the File / Folder, Making it Read only, etc.
So what's the long drawn complicated procedure for all this ?
Well, first you select the file and then press Command-I. Complicated, huh ? ( For the sarcasm impaired, you want to skip over that last part )
Mac OS X Lion - Air Drop
In all previous version of Mac, transfering files from one Mac to another was a more complicated process which involved setting up file sharing, connecting to the same network, finding the other Mac, authenticating the transfer and other tedious steps. In Mac OS X Lion, All you have to do is drag and drop it to a "drop spot" and Lion will automatically find all available computers in the network and you simply have to choose one. See the Lion release date.
Apple Mac OS X Lion Release Date ( Expected, Rumor )
No one knows the Mac OS X Lion release date for sure. However, based on Apple's Software Release history, we can be fairly certain that they will release it alongside their newest hardware ( probably on a friday ), which is likely to be some stunning new laptops, possibly Macbook Air. So we can be fairly certain that Apple Mac OS X Lion will be released on 22nd of July
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