Make good use of your Spaces

Space: a continuous area or expanse that is free, available, or unoccupied

I’d say Spaces is probably THE most underrated and underused feature of OS X ! Some of you don’t even know about it Some of the mainstream Macs come with screens, that have comparatively low resolutions, viz. 1280×800 px of screen estate is all you get on a 13″ MacBook !

With “so much” screen space, you can probably have a Firefox window occupying all of the screen. If for some random reason, you wanna have one or two more windows/apps open, and be able to switch between them seamlessly, Spaces is the way to go !

You can have a maximum of 16 virtual desktops, all running at the same time, but each one different from the other. Now, that’s Spaces for you !

If you’re using Spaces for the first time now, you’d have to enable it from System Preferences.

• Open System Preferences
• Click on the Expose & Spaces icon
  
• Click on the Spaces tab
• Click “Enable Spaces”

You can choose to customize the shortcut key for activating Spaces. Press that key and see the magic happen!

Psst, try hitting the Expose shortcut when you’re using Spaces

SSH into your iPhone/iPod touch, install custom themes/ringtones and much more !

SFTP/SSH as its called, is a set of protocols that lets you access the contents of you iPhone/iPod touch, provided its jailbroken and you’ve set up SSH on it. Today, I’m gonna teach you guys just that !

What you need:
iPhone/iPod touch
Mac/PC
Cyberduck
WiFi Connection

What you can do:
Make use of custom themes
Set custom Ringtones
Brick your iPhone/iPod touch

Note that your iPhone/iPod touch needs to be jailbroken and they need to be on the same network as your Mac/PC

Now, here’s what you’ll need to do to enable SSH on your device, if you haven’t:

1. Install OpenSSH & Toggle SSH from the Cydia package manager
2. Open Toggle SSH app and press “Enable” to enable SSH
3. Restart your device

Optional: If you have SBSettings installed, you could simplify your job of turning SSH on/off

That’s almost it, now head over to your Mac and open Cyberduck
Click on “Open Connection” and a dialogue box like the one below should pop up. Make sure you use similar settings and fill in the details properly.

The IP Address of your device can be looked up in WiFi, by clicking the right pointing arrow of your WiFi network

After you do that successfully, you should come across a screen like this one:

To use custom themes, you need to have WinterBoard installed on your device.
You should be able to get some really kickass themes from the MacThemes Forum

To install them, you need to place the .theme folder under /Library/themes (Alias)
To use custom ringtones, you need to place the files under /Library/ringtones (Alias)

DO NOT fiddle with any directories, other than those I mentioned
I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY LOSS to your data/device if you goof up with something

I mentioned something called bricking of your device. If you do something terribly wrong, such as deleting the lib/dev/bin directories, even by mistake, don’t get your panties in a bunch yet

You’ll just need to reset your device OS, by putting it into DFU Mode, and restoring with the firmware of your choice

DFU Mode:
1. Connect your device to your Mac/PC
2. Hold Home and Power buttons at the same time for exactly 10 seconds
3. Let go of the Power button after 10 seconds and continue to hold the Home button until iTunes pops up and detects your device in Recovery Mode

I’m gonna say it again for my own safety, I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING AT ALL, if you goof up

How To: Stream stuff from your Mac to a DLNA device

So that you don’t have to keep running around between your Mac and PS3, copying stuff that you wanna watch/listen to ! Just set up a Media Server on you Mac, sit back, and stream all you want ! Here’s what you’ll need to increase the productivity of this simply awesome device called the Playstation 3 !

What you’ll need:
Mac/PC
DLNA Device
WiFi Router
PS3 Media Server

In my case, the DLNA device is a PS3, so I’m gonna be using this freeware called PS3 Media Server to stream Video/Music/Pictures from my Mac to the PS3, of course

What you can do:
Stream Movies/TV Shows/Music/iTunes Library/Photos from your Mac to your PS3 within the reach of your WiFi network

Okay, assuming that your Mac/PC and the PS3, are connected to one common network, let’s proceed further !

Here’s what the application would look like when you run it for the first time, provided the PS3 has been turned on and Media Server detection is enabled:

To enable detection of Media Servers on your PS3, you need to do this: Settings >> Network Settings >>Media Server Connection > Enabled

The application is capable of transcoding unknown video/audio formats into PS3 friendly formats, on-the-fly. You don’t have to worry about your Blu Ray rips (MKVs) or FLACs not playing on your PS3 anymore

Alright, if you’ve managed to get everything right, you should see something like this on the XMB, though the name “HackPro.local” would be replaced by the name that you’ve given to your Mac/PC:

PS3 Media Server is the only software I’ve come across that successfully transcodes video at a sustainable speed ! I could easily stream a 720p MKV with absolutely no lags/quality issues at all. I could also stream my whole iTunes library, YES, all of it, including Podcasts and Playlists ! DRM content wouldn’t wanna stream, for sure

This guide applies for PCs and also for other DLNA certified devices such as Blu Ray players/NAS devices ! Lemme know if you’re successful with devices other than the PS3, cos I haven’t really tried on anything else at all…

Snow Leopard on a PC !

I’ve been busy doing something all these days. Busy, trying to get Snow Leopard working on my PC And I’ve succeeded ! I’ll be writing a short tutorial on how to get Snow Leopard up and running on a compatible PC with similar hardware as mine.

Here’s the hardware I’m using:

• Intel DG31PR Motherboard
• Intel Q8200 Core 2 Quad 2.33 GHz Processor
• nVidia 9500 GT 512 MB DDR3 Graphics Card

Prerequisites:

• A working installation of Leopard
• A dedicated 320 GB + HDD formatted in GPT (GUID Partition Table)

Here’s all the files you’ll ever need to successfully install Snow Leopard on similar hardware.
There’s also a guide in those files. Don’t give up till you succeed

Screenshots: Flickr Set

Splitting DMG Archives

You have a 4GB+ DMG archive, for example a game or something, which you wanna fit onto your FAT32 partitioned hard drive. Not possible huh ? No, think again. I’m back after a week, and I’m gonna teach you how to split DMG archives. There are number of tools that can do the same. Some of them work, some don’t, but the most bulletproof way is to do it in the Terminal

There’s a tool on a Mac that does pretty much everything concerning the disks. It’s called hdiutil. It can attach, detach (eject), verify, mount, unmount and segment a volume, to name a few. To use this tool you have just got to type in a command. For a start you may want to get a view on hdiutil’s features by typing hdiutil help. Hit Enter to execute a command.

There’s more to the list, but I cudn’t find a way of fitting in so much content in one screenshot
To segment an image, let’s say DMG you could use a command:

hdiutil segment -o mydvd -segmentSize 100M /Users/[YOUR.USERNAME.HERE]/Desktop/dvdimage.dmg

That command would create segments (mydvd.002.dmgpart, mydvd.003.dmgpart, etc.) in your Home folder of an image named dvdimage.dmg on your desktop.

‘-o mydvd’ stands for the prefix that is used to name the segments. Segment size would be 100MB as defined by the segmentSize parameter. If you’d want the segment size to be 500KB you could just use 500k instead of 100M. Alternatively you could also split your image by the number of segments. In that case you should replace ‘-segmentSize 100M’ with ‘-segmentCount 5′ for example. That would split your image into 5 segments.

A good thing about it is that you don’t even have to rejoin these segments later. You can just click the first segment (in above example it would be mydvd.dmg) so Mac will verify the image and attach the DMG as it usually does. Or use Disk Utility to burn it by using the first segment as well.

Automator – Rename Files & Label Them

Today’s Automator Action: Rename Files & Label Them

You have a shit load of pictures to be renamed. You wanna label them with colors. What do you do ? Automator, to the rescue !

Follow these simple steps and be able to Rename Files and also Label Them:

• Follow the basic steps from the previous Automator post
• Add Rename Finder Items and Label Finder Items from the Automator Library
• Customize them as you want and voila !

Here’s a small example:

I have 100 odd pics here in a folder called Party ! I want them to renamed with Party as suffix and numbers as postfixes, beginning from 1. Here’s what I did to achieve that:

As you can see from the above screenshots, you can add more than one Automation at the same time depending upon what you want it to do for you.

That’s all for now ! Try tweaking that Record button

Automator 101

I’m quite sure you guys would have noticed that robotic icon with a pipe in its hand ! That’s AUTOMATOR. Its the most useful software there is on Leopard. Batch Processing, that’s Automator’s forte.

I’ll give you some scenarios where you guys have to sit and do a lot of work to get your work done. You have some pictures which you clicked at last night’s party. They’re all in your camera’s native resolution. They’re freakin’ huge to upload anywhere on the internet ! What and how will you resize them ? Can’t think of anything ? Okay, lets begin !

Today’s Automator Action: Resize Photos

• Put the pictures into a folder
• Select all the pictures
• Alternate click on any one photo
• Move the cursor to “More”
• Now, move it to “Automator”
• Click on “Create Workflow”

Now that you’ve done all that, an Automator window should pop up on your screen. You see too many things and you’re dazed and confused ! Here’s what you need to do again:

• Look toward the left side of the Automator window
• There should be an open drop down called “Library” with names like “Calendar, Contacts…” and so on
• Since you’re working on Photos, you need to select the “Photos” sub menu in the Library menu
• Now you see more options to the right of the Library menu
• Select “Scale Images”
• Double click on “Scale Images” after you select it
• Automator will ask you if you want your original photos to be preserved after you scale them
• Depending on your choice select whatever you want
• One more sub menu which itself is called “Scale Images” opens up to the right side of “Scale Images”
• Select the type of scaling you want
• Now select “Run” in the top right corner of the Automator window
• Sit back and relax while Automator processes your images !

Stay tuned for more Automator 101 !

BlackBerry FTW !

Its called the BlackBerry 8520 Curve, codename “Gemini”

Only one word can describe how good the phone is: EPIC !

Its the most affordable BlackBerry yet ! It retails for INR 16,000, but locked to the Bharti Airtel network. The QWERTY keypad is just wow ! I used to use a full touchscreen phone before this, on which I used to freak out typing out long messages. Since the day I got the phone, I’ve used up atleast, say, half my free message limit of 300 messages

I suddenly feel the urge to type out messages instead of calling up

I hate to say this, and I know this is like comparing a penis with a vagina, but I feel the BlackBerry is much better than the epic iPhone itself

Apple outs 10.5.8 Update for Leopard

Today, Apple let out 10.5.8 for Leopard. Here’s the official changelog from Apple:

• Upgrades Safari to version 4.0.2.
• Improves the accuracy of full history search in Safari 4.
• Resolves an issue in which certain resolutions might not appear in the Display pane in System Preferences.
• Dragging an Aperture image into Automator now invokes an Aperture action instead of incorrectly invoking an iPhoto action.
• Resolves an issue that could prevent importing of large photo and movie files from digital cameras.
• Improves overall Bluetooth reliability with external devices, USB webcams and printers.
• Addresses an issue that could cause extended startup times.
• Improves iCal reliability with MobileMe Sync and CalDav.
• Addresses data reliability issues with iDisk and MobileMe.
• Improves overall reliability with AFP.
• Improves overall reliability with Managed Client.
• Improves compatibility and reliability for joining AirPort networks.
• Improves Sync Service reliability.
• Includes additional RAW image support for several third-party cameras.
• Improves compatibility with some external USB hard drives.
• Includes latest security fixes.

Its a 280 MB download if you’re on 10.5.7 right now. If you’re on 10.5-10.5.6, the Combo Update is a 800 MB download.

Links:

Combo Update
Standalone Update

Useful, Free Apps for the Mac

Audacity

Do you have the Audacity to edit sound ? If yes, this is the right app for you ! Audacity lets you edit sound in ways you wouldn’t have imagined. Its THE MOST powerful sound editor available across all platforms ! Its a nifty tool giving an inclination to the user. You can cut/chop/copy/duplicate/paste/do whatever the f**k you want with your sound clip or for that matter, a whole set of clips ! You can convert any music format to any other music format, its just limitless. Psst, you can also make ringtones with it, don’t ask me how Please don’t complain about the UI though. I know, its horrible for a Mac app.

Tweetie

Tweetie, as the name suggests is a Twitter client for Mac OS X, developed by atebits. Its a beautifully written program, with some really nice animations to get you going ! You can sign in to multiple Twitter accounts at the same time, if you wish to. The free version comes with ads, but they’re not irritating, as they’re quite relevant and useful in some cases. You can upgrade to the full version by paying a premium of 20$. By far, of all the Twitter clients I’ve seen, Tweetie is the best ! The bird won’t let you down when it comes to friendliness

AppCleaner

Uninstalling an App on a Mac is not as easy as drag-and-drop. The Apps that you install create plist files in System directories. Quite obviously, the new Mac user would not dare to tamper with uncharted territory ! AppCleaner does the job for you n00bs out there.

It makes uninstalling apps as simple as installing applications, drag-and-drop. It will automatically find relevant files for the app you want to uninstall, and delete them all in one go ! Its also capable of uninstalling Widgets, Preference Panes and Menu Plugins ! Its got some kickass animations as well ! So, go ahead, install-uninstall and play around without fear !

HandBrake

HandBrake is a one-stop-app for all your video converting needs. It supports a huge variety of formats. It also rips DVDs to any format you want. It supports various profiles for all kinds of devices. Being quite a powerful tool, you can convert a 2-hour DivX movie to an iPod compatible format in under an hour on a fairly powerful Mac. Think, the new aluminum MacBook Pro.

The UI is a simple one, which even a n00b can understand. You can even choose to queue up a few videos and leave it on.

So, if you wanna watch videos within the comfort of your iPod/Mobile/PS3/Xbox, this is what you’re looking for !