Apple Reviews, Tips, and News
We the People of AppletizeMe, in Order to form a more perfect tutorial, relay a tip, and provide information, do ordain and establish this Embedded video link with Flash. That’s right, we’re tutorializing through video now.
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Macminicolo, a company that dedicates themselves to providing quality dedicated hosting (using only Mac minis of course), is running a contest that could land you some pretty sweet gear. Heck, you could even have your own Mac server if you win. The contest is also very simple as well, just answer this question for them: "What would you do with a remote mini?" Conquer the world? Hug it? Your call. If your idea is the best, you win this sweet prize pack which includes a Mac Mini, one year of free hosting, and a MacBook Air.
Have some ideas handy? Find details on how to enter here.
Even though there are no known viruses for the Mac at the moment, you never know when something could pop up and cause trouble. With that said, it is always better to be safe than sorry and if staying protected also comes at no expense, there really should be no excuse for us Mac users. If you are still without an anti-virus, get protected for free by downloading ClamXav. Let’s not forget that even though viruses don’t affect Macs, they can still be passed on from your computer to windows users. Like I said before it is absolutely free to download and it could save you and your friends with Windows a lot of headaches in the future.
Let’s face it, stuff breaks. This applies to Macs just as well as Windows PC’s (Only difference is that you have an 80% chance of starting windows and receiving an error, the odds are much more favorable with a Mac :)).
For those of you who run into some problems with your Mac running OS X Leopard, try these quick troubleshooting steps to help resolve you issue.
1. Restart your Mac
A simple restart of your computer might resolve your issue forever. If that is the case, you are officially done troubleshooting.
2. Check to see if you are running out of space
Another fairly common and easy to fix problem. You always want to have a minimum of 3GB available on your hard drive. More is ideal and recommended if you burn cd’s/dvd’s or use resource intensive applications. Remember that swapfiles (generated from applications launched on startup) on launch will take up 2GB of space immediately!
To fix your space problem: Delete some files! Consider getting an external hard drive and upgrade your RAM if you like running a bunch of applications simultaneously as this will reduce swapfiles.
3. Repair Permissions
Open Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities Folder). Select your boot drive (Probably “Macintosh HD”). Proceed to click on the First Aid Tab and then click on Repair Permissions.
4. Create a new User Account
Go to your System Preferences >>> Accounts and create a new user account. Log out of your current account and log in to your new one. If this fixes your problem you know that the cause is your user account. At this point, some serious troubleshooting is in order. Consider taking your Mac in for repairs or if you are up to it, backup your data from your previous account to your new user account until you pinpoint what file is causing your problem.
5. Deep Clean all Caches
Try using a third party tool like Leopard Cache Cleaner to deep clean all of your caches. Reboot your system and see if that corrected the issue.
6. Startup in SafeBoot Mode
You can do this by holding your shift key during initial boot. If you do not run into your problem while in SafeBoot, you can be sure that the problem lies with Extensions or StartupItems. You can find most of these at /Library/Extensions/ and /Library/StartUpItem/. Try moving some to your desktop, starting with third party extensions, and try to pinpoint the problem. There is a possibility that the problem might be from an extension installed in /System/Library/Extension/. You probably do not want to mess with those if you do not know what you are doing since you could screw up your whole system. If you cant isolate your issue moving the /Library/Extensions/ and /Library/StartupItem/ it is probably best to take your Mac in for repair.
7. Reset your Firmware
Resetting your firmware to factory default is pretty simple. Simply hold down cmd+opt+O+F during boot up and you will be presented with open firmware. Once inside type this:
reset-nvram (hit return)
reset-all (hit return again, the system will reboot)
8. Unplug all USB and Firewire Devices
Reboot your computer with everything unplugged except for your Apple mouse. If this fixes the problem, you have a bad external drive or a bad port on your computer. Try to isolate the problem.
I hope that these tips above are useful to some people. If you need some help with any of these feel free to comment and I will try to help you out. If these do not fix your problem, post a comment describing your issue and I might just write a guide to help troubleshoot that issue. Either way, subscribe to our feed to make sure you get the latest troubleshooting guides and up to the minute product news and reviews. Thanks for reading!
A quick and easy way to make your large files a bit easier to e-mail is by using the built-in Compress tool. With it, creating a ZIP archive of a single file, multiple files or even complete folders is a simply a matter of a few clicks.
3 Steps to Smaller File Sizes:
1. Select everything you want compressed and right click on any of the files.
2. Scroll down to Compress “Your File Name Here” and select it.
3. Wait a few seconds and enjoy your smaller, more compact file that is ideal for e-mailing.
That’s it! You are done. You will be presented with a .zip file. Simply attach that file to your e-mails and you are well on your way! See images below if you need further help.
If you are looking to remove Time Machine from the dock, the Time Machine Launcher 1.2 widget might be the ideal tool for you. This simple and free widget allows you to launch Time Machine directly from your Dashboard instead of using the Dock or menu bar. The widget will also keep you up to date on new releases.
Screenshot of widget and all of its features.
Looks good right? If you haven’t done so already, you can download Time Machine Launcher 1.2 here.
The release of Leopard OS X has brought forth many features that have been for the most part, welcomed within the Mac community. Some users however, prefer to have an old-school look to Leopard while maintaining all of the features that they enjoy from the new operating system. No problem, AppletizeMe is here to help! Simply follow this quick guide to perform some very small tweaks to Leopard that will help your Mac look, feel, and behave the way you want it to.
Dock Changes
Kill The Dock Reflection
Some people don’t like the new dock reflection. If you are one of those people, this is a pretty easy fix. Simply open up terminal and input these two commands to shut off reflection:
$ defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES
$ killall Dock
The first command turns off the reflective look and the second command reloads your dock. (Don’t type the $ in terminal). If you miss your old shiny dock after you take off the reflection and want to revert back to the default, simply replace –boolean YES with –boolean NO on the first command and proceed to reload the dock with the second.
Black Triangles instead of Blue Dots
Leopard uses little blue dots to indicate open application on the dock. If you liked Tiger’s black triangles instead, you can easily revert back to them following this tutorial over at Silver Mac.
Quick Look Add-ons
Having the power to preview images, documents, and other files with a tap of the spacebar is an excellent tool to have. If you want to use this nifty feature with even more file extensions, simply follow the steps below.
Previewing ZIP archives
To have the ability to preview contents of ZIP archives by tapping your space bar simply install the free Zip Quick Look plug-in. Step by step directions are available at that site.
Preview Folder Contents
You can also add the ability to preview folders by tapping your space bar by adding yet another easy to install plug-in. Here are simple instructions on how to set-up Quick look to view folder contents.
Other Useful Tweaks
Customizing Time Machine’s Backup Schedule
Simply download the free TimeMachineScheduler and install it. It will allow you to set your default backup time from 1 to 12 hours apart instead of getting stuck with Time Machine’s default one-hour backups.
Turning ON your firewall
Some of you might not know that Leopard’s built in firewall is turned off by default. If you would like to enable it, proceed to System Preferences’ Security area and choose either “Allow only essential services” or set explicit exceptions for services that can communicate through the firewall by selecting the “Set access for specific services and applications”.
I hope these tweaks where useful for you and made Leopard a bit more personal. Make sure to subscribe so you can get all of our future tweaks and optimization guides, there will be plenty of them.
With the release of OS X Leopard, Mac users now enjoy a robust collection of software and features that are truly remarkable. Regardless of all the new toys Leopard comes loaded with, there are always some useful applications roaming around that are completely free and further enhance your experience with your Mac. In light of that, AppletizeMe.Com is proud to provide you with this Top 5 Leopard Friendly Freeware article. We have searched the Internet for the best of the best and now proudly present our work for your benefit and enjoyment. If you do not have these already, consider downloading them for a more enjoyable experience with your Mac.
5. Mozilla Firefox (http://www.Mozilla.com)
Let’s face it. Most of us spend a lot of time browsing the web. In fact, that’s why many of us buy a computer in the first place. Mozilla Firefox is an incredibly flexible browser that functions extremely well under Leopard and while yes, Safari does come with every Mac and is a very capable browser, Firefox is an excellent alternative and dare I say, a slightly better browser than Safari. The many plug-ins available over at Mozilla.com and the robust browsing experience makes it the browser of choice for me. Try it out, it’s free to use and is an excellent alternative to Safari.
4. Flip4Mac WMV (Flip4Mac)
If you have been using your Mac without this handy little component, chances are you ran into a WMV file that wouldn’t play. This simple addition allows you to view WMV files even while using Safari to browse the Internet.
3. NeoOffice (http://www.NeoOffice.org)
For those that want a free alternative to Office 08 for Mac, NeoOffice is a full-featured set of office applications (including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database programs) for Mac OS X. It is based on the very popular OpenOffice for Windows and provides a very robust suite of features and is even compatible with Microsoft Office. The best free alternative to Office 08 for Mac.
2. AppCleaner (AppCleaner)
This very small application is the freeware version of the very popular shareware program, AppZapper. While removing applications is a breeze on Leopard, most of the time these removed applications will leave stray files behind that will take up space on your hard drive. AppCleaner makes sure that you do not have any of those files left behind and helps maintain a cleaner hard drive.
1. Adium (http://www.adiumx.com)
For all of the messenger junkies out there, this tool is a must. With Adium, you can quickly connect to AIM, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, and many other services under one easy to use interface. This very simple to use, yet very capable messenger client will allow you to connect to all your friends over multiple clients without having to open each different program.
There you have it folks. Our take one some of the best freeware available for Mac. Download them, enjoy them, and drop us a note to tell us how you like your new toys.
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