Mac tips, tricks and more

Must have menubar apps

2009-06-21T19:02:00.001-07:00

1) Bokeh

The first application on the list, Bokeh, is the application designed to free up your CPU cycles by freezing out applications, or all of your applications. Its great for any renderings that you might be doing and you want to do them just that little bit quicker. I have written about it previously here.

2) Breakaway

Although I am not a big user of this application Breakaway is designed to mute and disable your speakers/iTunes and audio jack when you unplug or plug in your headphones. Useful if you end up unplugging your headphones a lot.

3) Caffeine

When you watch a lot of videos or movies on youtube or similar, your screensaver when you are watching your video may pop in. Very annoying. Caffeine is designed to give your computer a coffee boost and stops you Mac going to sleep. Useful since you don’t have to move the mouse every 5 minutes and interrupting your viewing experience. If you want more information I have written about it here.

4) Camouflage

If you clutter up your desktop you may want to de-clutter it quickly and easily.Camouflage is designed to remove all of desktop icons from view and give you your wallpaper back. Good is you are doing screen casts or productions involving your desktop.

5) Check Off

Although iCal and Mail to-do list is very useful, an even better version of this is Check Off a menu bar application designed to give you a check-able list of all of your task which you can quickly organise and check off.

6) Coconut Wifi

The WiFi menu from Apple is good, but it could be better. Although you can press option to get more information it is not very visual and useful. Coconut WiFi is designed to give you more information and be better at informing you about the networks floating over your head.

7) Countdown Clock

Very simple little application Countdown Clock counts down from one time to another. Great if you are waiting for lunch and you want to no exactly how long you have to wait. It is only simple but very useful if you are waiting for lunch.

8) Digg Update

If you are addicted to Digg like I am, Digg Updater is a great little app to receive all of the latest updates and stories from the Digg site. Hopefully I will see another of my stories on Digg some time soon.

9) Ejector

A simple little menu bar application, Ejector, enables you to click eject disks, iPods etc from your computer. Simpler that going into finder and pressing the eject button. Quite a lot of people use this one regularly.

10) Expandrive

Expandrive is very useful if you have a remote server or computer and you want to use the more visual Finder method of upload and changing files rather than Terminal or the command line. I have written about this little application here, if you would like to read more.

11) Feed Animal

A cool little application that displays RSS/Atom feeds in your menu bar. Good if you only subscribe to a couple of feeds. Added bonus of it sending updates to growl. Feed Animal. If you have quite a lot of feeds this sort of applictions isn’t for you.

12) FuzzyClock

Most people I know when they read a clock will say 10 past four, instead of 4:08PM.FuzzyClock is a little application which fuzzes up the time and make it a bit more human. Different to the normal menu bar apps you find.

13) Geek Tool

Although this does have a pane in System Preferences. Geek Tool is designed to display geeky stuff on your desktop, such as Terminal outputs, UNIX logs and pictures to name a few.

14) Gmail Notifier

Most people use Gmail, so Gmail Notifier shows you alerts in your menu bar, so you can see when you have new Gmail messages or upcoming Google Calendar events without having to open a web browser.

15) Grab Up

I like Grab Up. Its a mixture of Grab to take pictures and [Insert Favourite Image Sharing Site Here]. You simply take your picture, magic then happens as it uploads it to their servers and you can then share it with your friends though IM. I have written a post about this application previously, you can find it here.

16) Growl Tunes

From the team over at Growl, which produces one of the best applications for the Mac,Growl Tunes allows you to display the current track in Growl and allows you to rate it from the menu bar. Small and simple.

17) IAlertU

A very cool little tool that sends off all of the alarm bells when any one moves you MacBook. Funny to use in the office or at home. It also takes a picture of the offender so you can punish them later. Not overly useful if you actually want to keep your Mac secure from thieves. iAlertU.

18) InsomniaX

Similar to Caffeine InsomniaX is designed to keep your Mac awake. It is designed to keep you computer up and running even if you close the lid on your laptop or trying to make it go to sleep through other methods. Very useful if you want to keep you computer constantly running, but does use more electrical power and can cause overheat on a Macbook i you close the lid. You can read more about it from me here.

19) IP Broadcaster

A very simple menu bar application. IP Broadcaster displays you IP address, both WAN and LAN in your menu bar. Very useful if you are programming, or sorting out configuration files and you need reminding of your IP address.

20) IPaste

If you are a power user on your Mac and you do a lot of copy and pasting you may want to increase the size of you clipboard. There are various applications that can do this for you but iPaste is a lot simpler and cleaner.

21) Isolator

If you have the attention span of a second and you can’t help checking facebook or your twitter feed you may want to isolate yourself from distractions. Isolator enables you to block out other applications by covering them up or blurring them from view.

22) IStat

Probably one of the best application you can have for the menu bar. iStat enables you monitor pretty much anything from the menu bar. CPU, RAM, Disk, Network as well as a whole load of other things. You can see my taking on this little app here.

23) Mail Unread Menu

A simple application that checks mail to see how many unread message you have in mail.Mail Unread Menu is useful if you hide the dock and can’t always see it.
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24) MainMenu

One of my favourite apps for making sure your Mac is in tip top condition. MainMenugives you all of your option in one place to keep you log files clean, cached cleared and permissions repaired. I wrote about it earlier today if you would like to read more.

25) MenuCalenderClock

MenuCalendarClock is an iCal compatible menu calendar and a configurable menu clock.It enables you to quickly add, edit and view events for the menu bar.
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26) MenuPrefs

MenuPrefs is a simple menu-bar application that sits in your System-wide menu-bar space, giving you a richly featured alternative access to your commonly used System Preference Panes. You can specify what panes to show, and even in what order to show them.

27) MUmenu

Developed by the MacUpdate site, MUMenu is designed to let you know which applications need updating from the MacUpdate site.
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28) NNW Unread Menu

Done by the same people that did number 23, NNW Unread Menu is designed to show in you menu bar the number of unread headlines in Net News Wire.
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29) Nocturne

I reviewed this menu bar app last month. Nocturne is designed to send you Macs screen into a state where it is easy to view and see during bright sunlight or in the day. I use this one a lot since I site outside with my Mac during the day.

30) Quickpass

Secure passwords are hard to generate, the best ones are the random ones which contain a lot of different characters and symbols. If you want a bit of help with password generation QuickPass can generate some passwords for you. You can read more about this menu bar here.

31) Quicksilver

Not much needs to be said about Quicksilver. Although I don’t use it that much, a lot of people swear by it. Quicksilver for the uninformed enables you to do action quickly and simply without a lot of user interaction.

32) Server Siren

If you have a webserver or an internal server, and you a bit addicted to uptime and response time you may want to checkout Server Siren. Its a little application that pings your servers to make sure it is up and running. I prefer Pingdom myself.
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33) Sites Status

Very similar to the previous application except this application is free. Site Status pings you sites to make sure they are up and running. Site Status.
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34) SMARTReporter

A cool little menu bar application that shows you the SMART data for your hardrives from the menu bar. Although I haven’t had any drives that showed bad SMART data before they have failed. May be useful to some people. SMARTReporter.

35) SmcFanControl

One of the most useful apps I have used one laptop. smcFanControl enables you to control what speeds you fans run at. Very good if you laptop or computer runs a bit hot and you want to pump up the fan speed to cool your computer down a bit.

36) Spirited Away

A little menu bar application that checks an applications activity and hides it when it has become inactive for a certain period of time. Spirtied Away, cool for clearing clutter.
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37) SSHKeychain

A cool little menu bar that will come in useful for people who are security conscious and want to keep their connection as secure as possible. SSHKeychain enables you to manage and load you SSH keys when connecting to the Internet.

38) Tinycal

Similar to the previous calender applications, TinyCal integrates with Google Calender. It can show multiple months, use custom calendars, and show holidays and personal calendars.
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39) Todos

As you fill up your computer with more and more applications it becomes difficult to find the application you want. Todos, is a quick application launcher which finds every application on you computer and displays there icons in an easy to use interface. It says it is only tested on Tiger but works fine on my Leopard machine.
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40) Uptime Menu Bar

It does nothing more than show the uptime of the application. Pretty simple. Uptime Menubar, I have linked to MacUpdate due to the host site being down at time of writing.
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41) URLwell

I really like this little menu bar app. I am for every filling up my desktop with links to websites which I want to visit but don’t yet deserve a bookmark in Firefox. Just drag the link to URLwell’s menu bar icon and it’s saved. When you look at it, it can be removed from the list, or if you prefer, it’ll just be checked off to mark that you’ve seen it, and remain in the list.

42) WOW Watcher

If you are addicted to WOW, or have an interesting know when you favourite realm or server is only WOW Watcher can do that for you. It is designed to check your servers and seem if they are up. Boasts features of Growl notifications, auto-launch and login, and capable of tracking any amount of servers.

43) Xmenu

Designed to enable you to get to folders and files on your operating system quicker than you normally can. Xmenu enables you to view, as if in Finder, folder structures and files for quick launch and navigation.

44) Xscope

Of you are an application designer your Mac will not be the same without Xscope. It boasts a lot of small but useful little programs that can help anyone find dimensions of buttons, colours, sizes and closeup views of anything on their screen. Although it is a little bulky it is very useful.

45) You Control Tunes

Last but not least on the grand list of menu bar applications is You Control Tunes. One of my favourite applications it enables you to control pretty much everything for playing music in iTunes. Rating, tracks, albums. A good little application that is well worth a download.

Safari 4 Beta. New Features and Tweaks

2009-06-21T18:37:00.001-07:00

In Safari 4, the tab bar is totally redesigned and put to top of the browser, just like what we see in Google Chrome. It takes time to adapt to this change, but you can always change it to old position using following Terminal command lines.

Change. Move Back Tab Bar to Old Position

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop -bool NO killall Safari & open -a Safari

Loading Indicator

Instead of using blue progress bar, Safari 4 now is using loading indicator to tell user that Safari is loading the page. The drawback is that now we can't really see how many percents of the page have been loaded.

Change. Restore Blue Progress Bar

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeToolbarRedesign -bool NO defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4LoadProgressStyle -bool NO killall Safari & open -a Safari

Autocomplete Menu

Like the autocomplete form, now Safari 4 provides autocomplete menu for its URL bar. By typing a few letters for the URL, Safari 4 can help us search through History for matching URLs.

Change. Disable Autocomplete Menu

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeFancyURLCompletionList -bool NO killall Safari & open -a Safari

Google Search Suggestion

If you've installed Inquisitor before, you will get the idea of how this works.

Change. Disable Google Search Suggestion

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeGoogleSuggest -bool NO killall Safari & open -a Safari

CoverFlow View for Bookmarks

The elegant coverflow view now appears on Safari 4 bookmarks, though it's not necessary for quick bookmark search but I really love it.

Change. Disable CoverFlow View

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeFlowViewInBookmarksView -bool NO killall Safari & open -a Safari

Top Sites

The most obvious change in Safari 4. No need to explain further. *he he*

Change. Disable Top Sites

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeTopSites -bool NO killall Safari & open -a Safari

Top Sites Dimming Animation

When you're clicking on one of your top sites, an animation will take place and the browser screen will be dimmed.

Change. No Dimming

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4TopSitesZoomToPageAnimationDimsSnapshot -bool NO killall Safari & open -a Safari

Download itunes

2009-06-21T18:28:00.000-07:00

Download itunes 8.2

mut have mac os

10.4.11

Downloas safari 4

2009-06-21T18:26:00.000-07:00

Essential mac apps

2009-06-21T11:55:00.000-07:00

Essential Mac OS X Applications...

Acquisition - Gnutella file sharing client
Adium - Multi-protocol instant messenger client
Address-o-sync - Sync multiple Macs without .Mac
Amadeus - Great tool for audio enthusiast
Audio Hijack Pro - Custom audio output filtering
Backlight - Menu extra toggles screensaver as your desktop
BurnX Free - Burn multiple sessions on CD
Butler - Get more out of Finder
CandyBar - Change your application and system icons
Carbon Copy Cloner - Easy-to-use backup/cloning utility
Chmox - An OS X native CHM file (Compiled HTML/eBook) reader
Cocktail - Simplifies use of UNIX functions in OS X, and more
Colloquy - IRC client
CSSEdit - Visual CSS style editor
DeepVacuum - Download entire websites
Default Folder - Expanded functionality in "Save As.." dialogue boxes
Deja Vu - Schedule regular file backups
Delicious Library - Catalogue your books, cd's, games, dvd's
Dimensionizer - Contextual Menu to display an image’s dimensions
DeskShade - Hide desktop icons, terminal lock, and more
Desktastic - Doodle on your desktop
Dock-It - Add multiple multi-fucntion docks
DragThing - An alternative to the dock
DV Backup - Use your DV camera as a backup medium
Evocam - Webcam application with built in web server, FTP, etc.
FileJuicer - Extract images from Powerpoint, PDF, HTML, and CAB files
Fink - Unix Ports for X
Firefox - Open source web browser
Fugu - An SFTP, SCP and SSH frontend
Huevos - Customisable search engine helper
HyperEdit - live previews of HTML and PHP pages
iBank - Intuitive personal finance manager
iBiz - Self-employed time billing manager
iConquer - 1-to-6 player world conquest game
iPodDisk - Utilize your iPod as an iDisk
iRooster - Great free alarm clock
iWipe - Secure disk and file deletion
iZoom - Crop and resize your photos
LiteSwitch X - Keyboard application switcher
Little Snitch - Alerts you of outgoing network connections
MacJanitor - Great tool for running & rescheduling OS X maintenance tasks
MacMame - Multi arcade machine emulator
MacSniffer - View all traffic on a network connection
MacTheRipper - Go Ahead, Back that DVD up
MacTracker - Database of all Mac models
Mac Vim - The aqua version of Vim
Mail.appetizer - Enhance Mail with this small but handy notification plugin
Mplayer for OS X - Another great video player
Net Monitor - Network throughput monitor
Net Tool Box - Handy tool for the toolkit - for network issues
NetNewsWire - RSS aggregator (If you're gonna use one, use NetNewsWire)
Onyx - System tweaks and configuration
OSXvnc - VNC remote control protocol
PDF Browser Plugin - Allows web browsers to display PDF files
Pixen - Pixel graphics editor
Quicksilver - Application launcher and much more
RCDefaultApp - Preference pane to set default applications
Renamer4Mac - Rename files en masse. Useful for digital cameras
SideTrack trackpad driver - Enhanced trackpad driver for Apple Laptops
Simon Extreme - Classic Milton Bradley Simon game
Skype - Uses P2P for phone-over-internet talking
SubEthaEdit - Use Rendezvous for collaborative editing
Synergy - Adds iTunes controls to your menu bar
Transmit - FTP client
Unison - Usenet newsreader handles messages, files, & media
Virtue - Virtual desktop manager
VLC - Play DivX encoded movies (and more).
VoodooPad - Notepad with many advanced features
Word Browser Plugin - Allows web browsers to display Word files
xPad - Notebook/scrapbook supports drag & drop
XRay - Expanded version of the Finder's "Get Info" window
xScope - Suite of screen tools for UI designers

Terminal tricks (leopard)

2009-06-21T11:25:00.000-07:00

Dock

Stacks, Activate Mouse Over Gradient

defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilte-stack -boolean YES killall Dock

Stacks, Deactivate Mouse Over Gradient

defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilte-stack -boolean NO killall Dock

New Stacks Folder, Recent Application

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{ "tile-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile"; }' killall Dock

Two Dimensional Dock

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES killall Dock

Three Dimensional Dock

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO killall Dock

Safari

Font Size, Set Minimum Value

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitMinimumFontSize 13 defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitMinimumFixedFontSize 14 killall Safari

Font Size, Disable Minimum Font Size

defaults delete com.apple.Safari WebKitMinimumFontSize defaults delete com.apple.Safari WebKitMinimumFixedFontSize killall Safari

Safari Bookmarks, Disable Fav-Icons

killall Safari cd ~/Library/Safari rm WebpageIcons.db ln -s /dev/null WebpageIcons.db

Safari Bookmarks, Enable Fav-Icons

Drag and drop the original WebpageIcons.db into ~ ▸ Library ▸ Safari

Warning

For the next command lines, you will be using sudo command that will affect the whole system. Next command lines will be harmless as long as they are correctly typed (but I suggested you to copy and paste them directly to your Terminal). If you want to play around with sudo command lines, do it for your own risk.

Menu Bar

Solid White Menu Bar

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer 'EnvironmentVariables' -dict 'CI_NO_BACKGROUND_IMAGE' 1

Grayish Menu Bar

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer 'EnvironmentVariables' -dict 'CI_NO_BACKGROUND_IMAGE' 0

Translucent Menu Bar

sudo defaults delete /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer 'EnvironmentVariables'

Finder

Sidebar, Change Headings

cp /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/LocalizableCore.strings ~

Open LocalizableCore.strings and search for SD5. Change the headings strings as you like; Don't forget to save. Then type into Terminal :

sudo cp ~/LocalizableCore.strings /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/ killall Finder

Terminal tricks (tiger)

2009-06-21T11:17:00.000-07:00

1. defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES
Makes hidden applications' dock icons translucent. NO to reverse.

2. defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool YES
Normally the arrows next to artists and albums in your iTunes library search the iTunes store when you click them. This command changes them so that clicking will search your iTunes library instead. Put NO at the end to reverse.

. defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES
This allows you to drag widgets out of Dashboard onto the desktop. Requires the dock to be relaunched to take effect, so type "killall Dock" and press enter. Now, if you click and hold onto a widget in the dashboard and press F12 to return to the desktop, the widget won't disappear with the rest. Put NO at the end to reverse.

4. defaults write com.apple.mail PreferPlainText -bool TRUE
Forces all mail to be displayed as plain text. Replace TRUE with FALSE to reverse.

5. defaults write -g NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -bool TRUE
Sets expanded save dialogs as default (showing column/list view of folders rather than a drop down menu). Replace TRUE with FALSE to reverse.

6. /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background
Displays the currently chosen screen saver to be shown as the desktop background. Press Control-C or Command-. to stop. More details here.

7. defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow AdminHostInfo SystemVersion
Displays useful system stats in the login window. More details here. Replace "SystemVersion" with one of the following for different stats:
SystemBuild
SerialNumber
IPAddress
DSStatus
Time
HostName

8. sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList -array-add shortname1 shortname2 shortname3
To remove accounts from the login window type this command with the short name of each account you wish to remove. More details here.

9. com.apple.frameworks.diskimages skip-verify TRUE
Skip disk image verification. Potentially risky, use with disk images from trusted sources. Replace TRUE with FALSE to reverse.

10. defaults write "Apple Global Domain" AppleScrollBarVariant DoubleBothPuts double scroll arrows at both ends of scroll bar. Use Appearance pane in system preferences to reset.

11. defaults write com.apple.CrashReporter DialogType none
Disables the unexpectedly quit dialog that normally appears when an application crashes. Replace "none" with "prompt" to enable again.

12. defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitHistoryItemLimit 2000 and/or

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitHistoryAgeInDaysLimit 30
Sets the history limit in Safari to a certain number of items and and/or a certain age.

13. defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
Shows hidden files in the finder. Replace TRUE with FALSE to hide hidden files again

14. defaults write com.apple.safari IncludeDebugMenu 1
Enables the debug menu in Safari. Type again but with 0 instead of 1 at the end to disable.

15. defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
Deactivates Dashboard. Requires the dock to be relaunched to take effect, so type "killall Dock" and press enter. Replace YES with NO to enable again.