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How do I remove the WD Quick view icon in menu bar?
I install some app from WD external Hard and it add some incon in my menu bar but I don't know how can I remove it, I try to drag it out of the system bar while holding the "command" key (but it didn't work for this type of icon) I also try to uninstall this app via CleanApp but I can't find it!
sorry because of my low reputation I can't post the image here. :(

give us a link to the image and I'll be happy to post it for you.

The best way to get an app to stop appearing in the menu bar is to make it stop opening automatically when you log in. Here's how:
I believe that this app is just a login item. Here's how to remove it from your Login Items list.
Open System Preferences (/Applications). Go to Users & Groups -> your account -> Login Items. Click the lock at the bottom left and enter your password. Find the Quick View app in the list, select it, and click the minus sign below the list.
Hope this helps!

For this particular app, WD provide an uninstaller. It should be in your Applications folder (look for "WD Quick View Uninstaller.app").
You will need to reboot before it is fully removed but it is disabled as soon as you run the installer (I was monitoring its network activity before and after).
It appears to be totally fine to remove it since it only provides information to the user rather than affecting any actual functionality of the drive. If your model of WD drive comes with a management console then all the information is apparently in there (this would be accessed via a browser. For a My Book Live it would be http://mybooklive.local/UI/ ).

The URL in the answer only works in your own network of course and probably also needs to be changed if your WD hard drive is  not called mybooklive.

Good point, thanks! I've edited to clarify. For some reason when I answered I was thinking that this was a My Book Live specific question!

Apps that want to start at system launch have a couple of ways of doing this. Sometimes, it can be administered from the Login Items screen. But not always.
First check if the app has preference settings of its own. For example, the Brother Control Center has a launch at boot option.
If the WD app doesn't have that option, then you can check for a few places in the /Library -- StartupItems and LaunchAgents (and potentially LaunchDaemons). You'll need to provide an admin's password to delete files from those places. Of course, you should be aware of what you're deleting since things are typically put in those places for a reason.

According to this WD forum thread, it is just a login item removable from the Users sysprefs pane. http://community.wdc.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/WD-Quick-view-icon/m-p/103248

All you need to do is open Activity Monitor and quit the WD QuickView process. Then go to Library/Application Support/WD SmartWare, where you will find WDQuickView.app. Move it to trash and delete it. It's as simple as that.


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iPhone stuck in Recovery mode. Trouble restoring iPhone - what could I do?
I have an iPhone 3G. I am trying to restore it but have had trouble all day. This is what I have done so far:

Run redsn0w 0.96b6
Use iPhone1,2_4.2.1_8C148_Restore.ipsw as the current firmware.
Run redsn0w with default settings until the iPhone enters DFU mode
Everything from redsn0w's perspective runs great - the phone installs the jailbroken data, and reboots, as expected.
I then open up iTunes and still get a "an iPhone was detected in recovery mode" error. My iPhone shows the frustrating image of the USB cable plugging into iTunes.

What could I be doing wrong? I'm at my wits end here.
Thanks.

related: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/9101/jailbroken-iphone-dead-what-firmware-load-options-do-i-have

A program called the firmware umbrella can be used to "kick a device out of recovery mode".

You have uninstall iTunes completely then reinstall it, then restart your computer for this to work. Then you put your device in DFU or recovery and restore and it should work.
If your baseband is 06.15 then you will get a 1015 error if your updating to 4.3.3.

Solved by pushing it out of Recovery mode cycle by using ReiBoot (https://www.tenorshare.com/products/reiboot.html). I am sure there are some other apps that can do this too. It's very simple to do, I just installed it, run it, plug the iPhone in computer via USB. It detects the iPhone, offers a "push out of recovery mode" button of sort. Click the button and voila!

source: Stack Exchange

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Uncompress (zlib) files that "S3 Backup" compressed to Amazon S3
On windows I was using "s3 Backup" to backup files to amazon s3. One of the options is to compress with zlib.
As far as I can tell there is no mac version of this app. So now I need to figure out how to uncompress those files as I bring them on my mac. Anyone know a good way to uncompress files that were compressed with zlib?
The files retain the same name and extention after they had been compressed. I tried adding different extensions to the ends of the files to see if some standard compression programs would uncompress them but they did not.
I have also tried messing around command-line with the "uncompress" command. But no luck there either. Unless I can figure out a way to uncompress them I will be force to re-upload everything to amazon with compression off.
thanks in advance

Additionally, if you still want to use Amazon S3 on your Mac, one of the best alternatives I've found is Arq ($): http://www.haystacksoftware.com/arq/ The Developer is friendly and you can even ask him if there are chances of reusing your data.

To help figure out what these files are compressed with, you can try using the file command from the terminal. It should give you output like this:
% file archive.zip
archive.zip: Zip archive data, at least v2.0 to extract
% file archive.tgz
archive.gz: gzip compressed data, from Unix, last modified: Wed Aug  3 06:21:00 2005, max compression
% file srchive.bz2
archive.bz2: bzip2 compressed data, block size = 900k

zlib compression is built in to Mac OS X.
If the files are not automatically unarchived, you can try the following to unarchive them:
Add a .zip extension and open the file. This should do the trick. If it doesn't, try the following.
Open Archive Utility (/System/Library/CoreServices) and go to File-> Expand Archive.
Navigate to your file and let it do its thing.
Let us know how this works for you.

certainly a good idea. When I do that the file that is outputted is is a ".cpgz" file? it also seems to be associated from an archive.. if I un-archive that I get a zip file! which then un-zips to a cpgz file. around and around in  a circle.

I think zlib is gzip ie .gz files not .zip so try this rename and/or use the Unarchiver.app

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Snow Leopard cannot find my LaCie Network Space 2 when it's connected through USB.
I have a LaCie Network Space 2 (and I wish I had bought a WD instead) which is connected to my iMac with USB. I have used it before through LAN, but I've moved my Mac to another room and now I connected it with USB as that transfers faster. The problem is that the disk doesn't show up in the Finder, not even in Disk Utilities. I've been fighting with this for a few hours now, but I couldn't find anything :(
Windows, however can find it.
What can be wrong?

I'm using Snow Leopard.

Does it show up in System Profiler, USB?

I wouldn't recommend a WD. I have had problems with them not showing up at all on computers. I would recommend http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/external-hard-drive/desktop-hard-drive/ this drive from Seagate.

Did any of theses answers helped? Because I just bought a "Lacie Network Space 2 2TB" and I've connected it to a Mac using USB but it doens't appear in Finder or Desktop. I'm using a MacBook Pro Mac OS X 10.7.5. I also tried connecting it to a MacBook Mac OS X 10.5.6. The same problem happened. I just want to use it as an external HD. I also have a Lacie 750 GB and I've never had a problem with it. Do you know why my Lacie Network Space 2 doesn't appear in my Mac's Desktop? I've tried turning it ON/OFF, but it didn't help. Thank you.
Daguito.

Same thing happened to me couple of times. I powered the HDD on/off couple of times and then restarted the Mac before it reappeared again on Finder.

Plug it while its off & then turn it on, it works for me every time

Is it connected via FTP or AFP? I have found that Macs will oftentimes have a problem connecting via FTP. Try sharing it over AFP.

You should try using 'Hardware Growler', which is available as a Free-Addon to the free 'Growl 1.2.2'. It will show all Device Connections at Startup of the Device and you can check if the Device is sending a Signal to you Mac.
I had a similar case with an external Drive once and with the help of Hardware-Growler noticed that the external Drive was continously sending connecting and disconnecting Signals to my Mac and was not showing up in the Finder. I could isolate my Problem to a faulty AC-Adapter, but i doubt that's the case here.
Are you connecting the LaCie directly to you Mac or is there a USB-Hub in between?

Try using Disk Utility to repair disk permissions on your computer, while the external drive is plugged in.
Then try resetting your PRAM.
Then try connecting to the drive using something other than USB (eg, firewire).

What issue does this solve?

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Mount & unmount volume notifications
For the last month or so, I have been receiving notification windows in the upper right-hand corner whenever a volume is mounted or unmounted (i.e. portable hard drive, Time Machine, etc.) How do I turn these notifications off?

As far as I know, this isn't built in to the system. Do you remember installing any software to trigger this?
Also, do you just mean that an icon appears on the desktop, or a real notification box appears?

If Growl is installed and you want to turn off just the notifications for volume mounts and dismounts (as opposed to getting rid of Growl altogether):

System Preferences, Growl panel
Applications tab
Select HardwareGrowler from the list
Configure
Notifications tab
In the dropdown, for each notification (e.g. Volume Mounted) you want to disable:
Select it and untick the 'Enabled' box.

(Edit:) Or, as fnurl points out, remove HG entirely.
I find it useful enough to keep, but tweaked to my liking.  It alerts me if my WiFi starts bouncing, f/ex.  YMMV, as always.

Check to see if you have Growl installed - it will be in System Preferences. Sometimes applications install it without your permission - even though the growl team explicitly don't allow it. Its safe though, I use and love the product.

I use HardwareGrowler to get these messages.
Perhaps HardwareGrowler is launching at startup? If you do not want this, go to
System Preferences → Accounts → Your Account → Login items
and find HardwareGrowler and remove it from the list.


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What is your view using mac pro 8 core 8 GB system for software development?
I have never used Mac system before but I am considering switching to Mac Pro 8 core 8 GB model. Currently I am using Linux box based on Dell Core 2 Duo with 4GB ram (that is maximum it can have). I am running into performance issues and sluggish application startup especially Natilus file maanger. Usually I have multiple applications running at same time.
I also need to run windows virtual machines for software testing.
If I invest in Mac Pro system:
Would I get much better performance?
Would I be able to run Windows as virtual machine within Mac Osx?
Would the learning curve be easier in terms of radically different UI on Mac Osx?
What about SSD disk on mac pro? Does it make very visible difference in performance when running applications?
One huge benefit I will get is to be able test web applications under mac osx/safari and as well as be able to develop for iphone and ipad.

You will definitely get a performance boost by upgrading from the Linux box to the Mac Pro. However, I don't believe that you'll see a huge difference in terms of actual performance between that Mac Pro and, say, an iMac with a 3.6Ghz i5 and 6 or 8 GB RAM.
As long as you're not doing a lot of gaming or other graphics-intensive or math-intensive things, the iMac should seem to the user almost as fast as the Mac Pro.
There's no harm getting the Pro, but I think you may as well save yourself the money...
As for running a VM, that's easy. You can even, with Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion, run Windows apps and Mac apps side-by side.
Other software to look into is Boot Camp (free, supplied by Apple, restart required to switch systems) and Sun/Oracle VirtualBox (free, no restart required, some features missing).
As for the learning curve: It's not too bad. Lots of people make the transition. IIRC, 50% of Mac purchases are first-time Mac users. Apple offers a Switching 101 guide to help you out. Also, if you're used to Linux, you'll catch on quickly. Besides, most of the CL stuff is the same, so you'll always be at home there.
As for SSDs: They're really, really fast. You can see various tests and comparisons run by manufacturer OWC here. For best shock value, watch their video where they race an SSD machine with an HDD one to boot and open apps from CS5. It's pretty amazing...
A cordial welcome to the world of Mac!

Thanks a lot esp for the imac tip. It clears up quite a few things. I don't play any games but I do develop 3d software . I am assuming I can run latest Sun java JDK on Mac OSX because I am mainly Java developer ( forgot to mention this point).

The Java situation is a bit unclear - currently you have to get Java from Apple who don't always keep up with the very latest - in the future then it will come from Oracle but unknown when

Caveat Emptor: SSDs are really fast but also not (at the time of writing) as reliable as regular HDD:  http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/05/the-hot-crazy-solid-state-drive-scale.html

Honestly, if you're good with Linux and Windows, adding in OS X won't be a problem and coming from Linux, you'll love terminal.
From my experience, SSD's add a ton of performance and the current Mac Pro's would be more than powerful enough for development and future expandability.
There are a few different virtual machine programs you might want to look into (Parallels/VMWare/Virtual Box), but I haven't tried a bad one.
Hope that helps!

One of the big reasons Mac Pros cost more is because they use graphics cards certified for certain professional graphics applications (Maya, Autocad, etc.). This in mind, do you need to pay that extra premium for something you won't use, or will an iMac suffice?


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Can I feed spoofed video to sites like omegle.com that require a connected camera?
Sites like omegle.com want video from my connected camera, but I don't
have one. How can I feed omegle.com (a Flash app) a spoofed video feed
(eg, a static picture, mp4 file, etc?)

CamTwist creates "pseudo-video" devices for lots of different things, so you could display your desktop or any subset of it, or other content you choose. CamTwist's feature set is likely very similar to Ryan Sharp's suggestion for ManyCam.

Score! Can it do audio too, or is that a separate app?

Mmmm. I don't entirely remember. IIRC I used Soundflower for streaming computer audio.

iGlasses is one way to do this. It shows up as a camera on websites, and you can play a video or show an image by dragging it into the effects tab.

http://ecamm.com/mac/iglasses

Theres a free application called ManyCam, I've used it on Facebook and ChatRoulette to display a picture or movie file instead of my iSight.

Good idea, but didn't install on my Mac, not sure why.


text:
Change iPad keyboard by modifying system files
I want to access the iPad system files on my computer, so that I can modify them to change one of the iPad keyboards to support my language.
However, when I plug the iPad to my Windows 7 PC, Windows opens it as a storage device with only some wallpaper. I can't see any system files.
How do I access the system and content files for the iPad?

This doesn't sound like something Apple would let you do - has the iPad been jailbroken yet?

What is the language you need?

A certain number of custom keyboards are available on the App Store... maybe this could be the easiest solution for you.

To access the file system on an iPad you will need to jailbreak it. Then you can install ssh and use that to access the filesystem. This guide provides some details.
The reason that you aren't able to see the system files on the iPad when you simply connect it to your computer is because you aren't meant to. Apple hides all of the internal system details to keep the iPad a simple to use consumer device. Most people don't need to modify or even see the system files. Before heading straight for the system internals, consider there may be a simpler way to achieve your goal.

Jailbreak your iPad using http://evasi0n.com and you will have total access to the filesystem.

You will definitely need to jailbreak (which i recommend evasi0n.com for), and then you will probably want to download the cydia app called iFile. iFile allows you to view and edit a wide range of files directly from your iPad. It costs some money but it is worth it.
If you're looking for something free or need to manage the files from you computer i recommend PhoneBrowse by iMobie.com.

The recommended approach is to add the keyboard for the desired language by enabling it within the Settings app. On your iPad, go to Settings app → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard..., and select the keyboard of your choice. Of late, iOS has evolved to include support for a wide variety of languages and this approach should be taken first.
The intended approach as discussed in the question is neither possible and straightforward, nor is it recommended for attempting to add support for a new language in your iPad keyboard. Also, it isn't advisable to jailbreak your iOS device just for the sake for changing keyboard language.
Additionally, starting with iOS 8, Apple has enabled support for 3rd-party keyboard apps. A lot of such apps are now available on the App Store, and you should be able to find the one that fits your requirements. Alternatively, you can also write your own keyboard app that best suits your needs.
You can Learn more about keyboard settings by reading this Apple Support article, About the keyboards settings on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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text:
Long iPhone voice memos won't import to my Mac
I recorded a lengthy meeting today in two parts.  The first part was 20 minutes, and it was easily imported to my Mac.  The second, about 55 minutes, will not sync.  It is still on the phone, but I want to transfer it to my computer so that I can create an MP3 version.
Can anyone tell me whats wrong?

hmm... weird for sure

Yesterday I just created a 2h recording using the standard Apple's Voice Memo and "imported" seamlessly to my Mac, no issues at all. It went to my music library in an album "Voice Memos".
I can only say there's nothing special that should cause such an issue and I confirmed it. What I would do in your case is checking the Console hoping for some informative warning and trying to record another file and see how that goes.
But there's a good chance you've got it and is just not finding it, like other dudes. Worst case scenario, get iPhone Explorer and grab them manually. There are some steps you might want to follow and see if it helps in you case. The first one is: Restart you mac.


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iPhone 4 Bluetooth Compatability
I have a problem with the connection between my iPhone 4 and the bluetooth system in my car.
Frequently it will not connect to my car and frequently the connection breaks down during dialling and calls.
When this happens the call is usually still active on the handset and I fumble to establish if the call is still active. Needless to say this is extremely dangerous and frustrating while driving and could easily result in a serious accident.
I contacted Apple Support who informed me that the phone does not have "full blown bluetooth" and "has restrictive compatibility". I was also informed that this fact was stated on the technical spec, but I have not seen it.
Had I been aware of this I would not have purchased the phone.
Is there a way to enhance the connectivity of the bluetooth?

What is is that you want us to answer? Please edit your question to clarify.

What is the bluetooth system in the car? is it built in or a small bluetooth device?


text:
How precisely can I track distances using the iPhone accelerometers?
Theoretically the accelerometers in an iPhone can be used to track distance using interpolation over time.
What is the estimated error for tracking distances between 1 and 10 meters?
Is there any iPhone app that work as a measuring tape?

From what I've heard, the iPhone accelerometer output is very noisy - most applications that utilize it for any sort of moderate precision work do a lot of filtering and output modification to smooth out the noise.
An iPhone can be placed flat on a table, and the accelerometer will still output a fair bit of data.  I imagine you could certainly use it to measure longer distances (>10m), but I probably wouldn't trust it for high resolution measurements.

The accelerometer chips used in the iPhone have too much noise to be used for accurate distance integration over even short distances with simple movements.  Even if it were a quiet sensor and provided good data, Apple pre-filters the accelerometer in a way that prevents applications from performing a proper integration.
The filtering is useful to lower the terrible noise floor, and to make app developer's lives easier whether they want 1 update per second or 100, but it's irreversible and Apple doesn't provide a way to get the raw data, so any acceleration integration only produces delayed distance with significant overshoot.
This is, of course, on top of the normal problems of using an accelerometer to find distance (removing gravity - which the gyroscope makes much easier - for instance).
Most of the pedometer apps use the accelerometer to count steps and use the GPS to measure distance over longer distances and to calibrate the user's individual step distance.  They do not calculate distance using the accelerometer.

There are plenty of pedometer apps, so you might check their reviews. Also, in terms of accuracy, here's an answer at stackoverflow.
... and another answer implementing a pedometer with around 20m accuracy.

The accumulated error of time integration is too much to measure distance from accelerometers. Even for industrial seismographs, most of them can not practically measure distance, even if filtering is adopted.

I wrote a blog post about it. Getting distance with accelerometer and other iPhone sensors without using GPS is definitely possible. Results aren't 100% accurate but usable.
http://www.nomtek.com/scanning-rooms-with-an-iphone/

Posting links only isn't really very helpful. Links disappear over time, so at least some précis of what the link says would be more useful to future readers.

Did you want something like this?
MagicPlan by Sensopia
Depending on what you want to use that information for, couldn't hurt to reach out to the app developers.

The problem isn't the precision of the accelerometer but its precision relative to the time of the measurement.
If you can move the phone from point A to point B in a fraction of a second, you should be able to get a very accurate measurement. If you take a minute or an hour for the same measurement, however, the accuracy will be near zero because of the noise.

12 years later, the technology in Phones has been enhanced such that measurements are more precise and reliable.
The app SizeUp - a smart tape measure - is one such tool I use.
Disclaimer - I have no financial or other connection to the developer of SizeUp, My Size Israel 2014 Ltd.

The question was about using the accelerometer for such measurements. That app doesn't do the measurement using the accelerometer.

The essential question: "Is there any iPhone app that work [sic] as a measuring tape?" TBH/ the technology has vastly improved since the question was posited, and I gave a cogent answer. SizeUp, I believe, employs the LIDAR system (used for Face ID) for its measurements. Perhaps it uses LIDAR in concert with newer-gen accelerometers.

Image analysis, maybe lidar, probalby not accelerometer. There have been demonstrations that show that lidar does not really add much. Sorry, I don't have a link and am going by memory. I was more interested in lidar when I got my lidar-enabled ipad. In finding out its limitations, I've not really used it.

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Is it possible to retrieve SMS messages that have been deleted from my iPhone?
I have read a lot about this online and would like to confirm once and for all.
Is it possible to retrieve SMS messages that have been deleted from my iPhone?
I know it is possible to get access to the sms.db file but that only holds the current SMS messages. I tried that and was successful in getting it off the phone but when checking the contents there were no deleted messages.
And this would not be relying on any backups either, i.e. I backed up my phone, sent a message and then deleted it without backing up before deleting. Is that SMS gone for good?

You could try to recover information from the sqlite file using for example a hex editor. Here is a quote from SQLite FAQ:

I accidentally deleted some important information from my SQLite database. How can I recover it?
If you have a backup copy of your database file, recover the information from your backup.
If you do not have a backup, recovery is very difficult. You might be able to find partial string data in a binary dump of the raw database file. Recovering numeric data might also be possible given special tools, though to our knowledge no such tools exist. SQLite is sometimes compiled with the SQLITE_SECURE_DELETE option which overwrites all deleted content with zeros. If that is the case then recovery is clearly impossible. Recovery is also impossible if you have run VACUUM since the data was deleted. If SQLITE_SECURE_DELETE is not used and VACUUM has not been run, then some of the deleted content might still be in the database file, in areas marked for reuse. But, again, there exist no procedures or tools that we know of to help you recover that data.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for your answer, I'll try that but am not hopeful. I'm assuming there are no caches that would contain the data I'm looking for (since the phone hasn't been restarted)


text:
Can I play audio out to both USB and Bluetooth on a MacPro simultaneously?
I'm running Snow Leopard on a Mac Pro- audio preferences seem to limit audio output to only one port at a time. Is there a way around this? Also the Bluetooth output from the Mac is really weak, is there any way to increase it or make it more effective?

Concerning the audio devides: try this and if it fails try this.

You can use JackOSX it's a powerful and easy app from unix world that allow you to dispatch any input/output into any input/output


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Is there an Automator action to create Keynote presentation from text file?
I need to import a text file (consisting of subtitles) into a Keynote presentation. I need to turn each subtitle into a single slide, interspersed with blank (black) slides. I'd like to create an Automator action in order to do this.
I think the way to do this is to filter paragraphs ending in two line breaks, but I don't know how to do it.

Importing text into multiple Keynote slides directly
I finally found out how you can import text paragraphs directly into multiple Keynote slides. Here's a quick proof of concept that works with iWork '08 Keynote at least:

Open Keynote, select Black template or use your own subtitling template (the title component is what will hold the text on each slide)
Select View > Outline to show the presentation outline on the left
Click on the small icon of the first screen in the outline list
Paste in text -- each paragraph will go into the title of a new slide

Note that the selected slide's title will be replaced with the first pasted paragraph
All formatting (e.g. italics) seem to be lost at this stage, unfortunately

Select all slides in the outline list (cmd+A)
Select Format > Reapply master to slide to fix the font and text color of pasted text to the ones defined in the template

You can also use Edit > Paste and match style when pasting in text to avoid the last steps of fixing the font and color.
So Keynote does have some basic import text into multiple slides functionality.
To preserve the formatting (italics etc) you can still go the paste into Powerpoint, save and open PPT into Keynote route.
Original response: Subtitling with slideware works OK
I have done movie subtitling before with Powerpoint. Something similar probably will work with Keynote or you can use Powerpoint and import that into Keynote for better visual quality.
By experimenting I found out that importing RTF files into Powerpoint mapped each paragraph to one slide. All italics and formatting was preserved, too.
Thus I made a RTF files out of the subtitle text documents (using some editor that allowed finding and replacing paragraph marks etc) and imported the RTF into Powerpoint that had a template with just a few white lines of text at the bottom of the screen.
Before anyone asks: This can be really useful for movies that are only shown once or twice at a festival: Show the text somewhere using a video projector and someone times the subtitle slides by hand. Cheap and works well.
Other notes:

I found that adding the blank slide between each subtitle text slide really helped (i.e. two paragraph marks between subtitles):

To advance to the next text, quickly press -> -> producing a slight flicker that made people notice the text change.
Hide text for a while? -> ... wait and -> to show the next text item. Very flexible.

If you show the text over the movie image, you want to make a mask (think cardboard and duct tape ;-) for the video projector so that the edges of the video projector display area will be blurred -- otherwise they will be visible.
I would guess that some work by hand will be necessary to make the best results, as the source material is never uniform enough to automate completely.

Mac note: If you want to automate things that are not covered by Automator workflows, you can automate almost anything on a Mac with QuicKeys or other macro tools, even UNIX shell scripts or perl and the "osascript" command to integrate with AppleScript and GUI Applications...
Please let us know what solution you find that works with Keynote. Thanks.
Microsoft Office HOWTO (Added later)
I just tried this again with Mac Office 2004's Word and Powerpoint. Seemed to work OK still. Probably works with all Office versions.
What I did was:

Wrote some paragraphs of text in Word.
Saved the document as RTF (File > Save as > Format: RTF)
In Powerpoint, selected File > Open > the RTF text file. Sorry, earlier I remembered that I used some import command, it was open instead.
Powerpoint asked me if I wanted to open it with Powerpoint or Word, chose Powerpoint
The text was placed on multiple slides, one paragraph on each slide in as the slide title
Save in Powerpoint and open the PPT file in Keynote, should import OK
If you use suitable format for the slide(s) or suitable slide masters (white bold text on black and positioning) it should be good to go...

I think this process is pretty simple and could be automated with e.g. QuicKeys or AppleScript.


text:
Manage local emails on two Mac computers
I use Outlook for Mac on my iMac and my Macbook (that I use when I travel).
Due to storage limitations in my employers Exchange servers, I need to store emails locally (as well on the server).
Is there any ways to have access to the locally stored emails on both my iMac and MacBook? Easy ways prefered ...

Are you allowed by your employer to have the data (i.e. mail) on external systems?

I would suggest using Gmail's powerful IMAP features to keep your emails synced on both computers.
I have set this up for lots of people and it works great.
Get a Gmail account and go to settings - Accounts and Import.
You will have to set it up to check mail using POP3 and enter your mail server settings.  Next set up Send mail as choose Send mail from another address then put your outgoing smtp settings.
Next go to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab and enable IMAP and click on the Configuration instructions and it will give you the settings to enter into Apple Mail.
Once your Apple Mail is set up on both computers it will keep all your messages synced.  You can also set it up on your iphone or Android.

Hi, Thanks for this suggestion. One question, how safe is gmail? And how safe is Google? Do they read/index emails for searching? Another question I have is regarding POP3, would this mean that all the email on my company server are deleted as part of the process, or are they still there? Thanks again. Niklas

On the POP 3 settings there is a check box to choose whether or not to leave a copy of the messages on the mail server.  I find it very secure as long as you select force https in the settings.  It's not like Yahoo where accounts get hacked all the time.  Google does save archives but they don't use them for anything unless subpoenaed by a court of law.

I can't think of a simple way to do this.  You could share your Mail folder on one of the machines and create a link to it on the other machine - or you could involve another email server.  I would do the latter.  Get an IMAP emil account, even a gmail or better yet a google apps account.  Add the email address (using IMAP,) at work, and when you need to move stuff onto the local machine due to storage restriction, instead of moving it onto the local machine, move it into your IMAP account.  It will be sync'd since IMAP does syncing natively.  All you'd have to do then is set up the IMAP account on the other computer as well.


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Using Automator to obtain content from multiple webpages?
I'd like to use Apple's Automator to obtain content from multiple webpages. The webpages each contain links, text, and photos. I would then like to place this information in a text document.
Detailed steps would be much appreciated!
Thanks for your help!

Automator, as an automation tool, is a bit of a sledgehammer, so the following is a bit clumsy, but works.
Automator provides two actions for choosing URLs: Get Specified URLs, that allows one to specify a pre-determined list of URLs, and Get Current Webpage from Safari, that specifies the URL of Safari's current webpage. It also provides three nice actions for parsing we webpages: Get Text from Webpage, Get Image URLs from Webpage and Get Link URLs from Webpages, which do what you would expect them to. Finally, Automator provides an action to place text in a document: Set Contents of TextEdit Document. You may also want to use the Get Specified Text action to separate the text, images, and links sections of your new TextEdit Document.
Here is what your complete Automator workflow might look like:
Get Specified Text --- Text of Webpage ---
Set Contents of TextEdit Document using the "by replacing" option.
Get Current Webpage from Safari
Get Text from Webpage
Set Contents of TextEdit Document using the "by appending" option.
Get Specified Text --- Images URLs of Webpage ---
Set Contents of TextEdit Document using the "by appending" option.
Get Current Webpage from Safari
Get Image URLs from Webpage
Set Contents of TextEdit Document using the "by appending" option.
Get Specified Text --- Link URLs of Webpage ---
Set Contents of TextEdit Document using the "by appending" option.
Get Current Webpage from Safari
Get Link URLs from Webpages
Set Contents of TextEdit Document using the "by appending" option.
When this workflow finishes, there will be a new untitled TextEdit document open whose contents is text, image URLs and link URLs of Safari's current webpage. You can save it wherever you please.


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FoxToPhone or Chrome2Phone for iPhone
Is there a FoxToPhone or Chrome2Phone app for the iPhone?
Chrome2Phone is an app for Android OS, and goes hand in hand with a Chrome or Firefox extension.
Basically lets you send the url of the web page you are surfing to your phone, or some text on the web page. Very useful. Easier than emailing it to yourself.
But I haven't found equivalent for the iPhone.

I took a look at the app store and I found a few apps that can sync with Firefox and some other browsers.  Below are some details.
i-Pusher ($2.99, no ratings): Submit various content from your favorite desktop browser into your i-Device in one click...you will instantly receive a link, text, image or youtube video link on your mobile device. Personal Note: You do have to install the appropriate extension in your desktop browser.
Firefox Home (Free, 3/5 stars) Firefox Home Provides access to your desktop history, bookmarks and open tabs on your iPhone.  Personal Note: Not a web browser itself.  I think this is close to home of what you need.  I played with this before and I was able to continue browsing my opened tabs on my desktop Firefox using its Firefox Sync feature. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/firefox-home/id380366933?mt=8
360 Web Browser | Download Manager and Firefox Sync (99¢, 4/5 stars) Personal Note: This is actually a third party browser with many desktop like functionality like add ons and download managers with many configuration settings. It uses Firefox Sync, found in Settings in the app.  I just reread its description and apparently it can also do Flash Videos using a CC Plugin. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/360-web-browser-download-manager/id387737097?mt=8

Thanks for the detailed response. I'll take a look at those. i-Pusher looks like what I'm after. Strangely it doesn't seem that popular yet. A bit pricey, they would do better at 1.99 or .99.

I wonder though if i-Pusher is safe. Not to be biased, but it looks like its from Russia, and I identify Russian software with Hackers. It may not be based in reality, but its just how I feel.


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Iphone 4 is acting glitchy.Should I update it?
I've had my IPhone 4 since October 30th. Yesterday, it started acting funny.  I can't receive text messages and when I do receive calls they go straight to  voicemail. I'll get the voice mail several hours later. I can send texts AND make calls. I have reset everything on my phone and nothing has worked. I haven't updated anything on my  phone because it is jail broken and I do not want to lose my games. Is it possible that because I have not updated it's acting up? I know it isn't my account. Could there be anything else wrong with it?

I don't think having a slight outdated OS or Jailbroken device would cause those glitches to occur.  On my iPhone 4 it once acted funny in a different way by not responding to my finger taps correctly.  Try this, it helped me:

Hold the sleep/wake button on top and the home button at the same time.  When the "slide to power off" slider appears keep holding the two buttons.
When it appears to be off keep holding the two buttons still.
Finally, when the boot apple logo appears you can release the two buttons.

This isn't a jailbreak technique that turns the phone into DFU or Recovery Mode.  It's like a soft reboot that clears any lingering data on its RAM that might be causing your problems.

I think it might be a problem with the network. Ill have to get the account password and talk to AT&T. I've tried the reboot as well. Talking to AT&T is my last hope...next to taking it to the Apple Store. Thank you for the reply.

Since it is a jailbroke phone, go to the SBSettings and tap on More.  Under Mobile Substrate Addons turn off any cydia apps you are running (careful not to turn off something you don't recognize, they may actually brick your phone if turned off.).  Then Respring.  If the problem goes away then it is a cydia app that is causing the problem.  @mattsnow had a similar problem using a tethering jailbreak app.  Let me know how it went.
If you don't have SBSettings, its easy to find it on Cydia.

Back when I had a 3G I had this exact problem. it was related to tethering being enabled via the http://help.benm.at/ hack.
Reverted and things started working fine.


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Sharing one IP address among multiple Apple devices
Is it possible to share one IP address between two Apple laptops (both running Snow Leopard in my case) so that both devices can connect to the internet?

Belongs on http://superuser.com

Linksys sells Network Address Translation routers for around $60 USD. It's amazing how much computing and networking power they can shove in a cheap plastic box these days.

Yeah or better still serverfault.com

@Gary Green This is a home computing question, not a serious server question for serverfault.

Yes, but with caveats.
MacOS X has an "internet sharing" mode in the "Sharing" control panel, but you have to use different network interfaces for the "internet facing" and "internal facing" sides of your network.
So if you're connected to the Internet over your ethernet port, you can share your connection to WiFi clients.  What you can't do is connect and share over the same port.

I have one laptop connected to the internet via ethernet and does internet sharing via airport. However, another one cannot connect to the internet (In the network system preference, it warns that it cannot find IP address). It might be because I only have assigned one IP address?

i think it's better to get a router than use internet sharing mainly because the mac sharing the internet connection will need to remain powered on when your second mac needs the internet. =)

Yes - either use a router or turn on "Internet Sharing" on one of the laptops (effectively the same thing as using a router).
System Preferences => Sharing => Internet Sharing

Thanks for the reply! I have tried internet sharing using airport with one laptop connected to the internet via ethernet but another one seems to be not able to find IP address. I thought this might be because I only have one IP address assigned.

In order for computers to talk on the same network, they must have different IP addresses. However, it is possible to have two or more computers share an internet connection by having them on a private network separate from the internet, then routing their data through a gateway that is able to be on more than one network. The gateway usually uses a system called "Network Address Translation" or NAT to allow the computers on the private network to operate as if they are on the internet.
This is what most home routers do. They provide a private network and a NAT gateway, often combined with a wireless access point and and ADSL modem.
Internet Sharing (in System Preferences => Sharing) allows a Mac to act as this gateway. It will set up any unused network interface with a private IP address and allocate private IP addresses to any other computers you put on that network. It will then route data from computers on that network to the internet, performing NAT so that all the traffic on the internet seems to be coming from it, and not the other computers.


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iPod in recovery mode, how do I make it stop?
Why is my iPod Nano 6th generation playing in recovery mode? How do I take it off of recovery mode?

If an iPod is in recovery mode, something is wrong with the iPod that needs to recover. Thus, it needs to be plugged into iTunes so it can be restored before it can play again.
This is caused by a problem with the software, and iTunes is the way to fix it.


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Upgrading a jailbroken iPhone from 3.1.3 without data loss
I have a jailbroken iPhone 3GS with 3.1.3 and I want to upgrade it to 3.2.
Is it possible to do so without losing everything?

I don't particularly see why you would lose your data when upgrading… but then I also don't particularly see why you'd prefer to have your 3GS on 3.2x when you could have it on 4.2x just as easily…
Do you sync your iPhone with iTunes and use it to back up? If so, you're unlikely to have a problem. Just go to http://iclarified.com/tutorials/iphone/ and pick the tutorial that's right for your phone's situation.

I see why - because 4 isn't needed and it's slower. But I have mine on 4 due to other reasons and, as long as you keep it clean, it's not that bad and not so much slower.


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Lost search function iPhone after upgrading to 4.3
Does anyone know how or why the search function in my text messaging is no longer working correctly after I upgraded to 4.3 on my 3G iPhone?
All was fine until I upgraded and now even tho I can see a name in a text for example I search for it and it comes back as "No results".

I too am dissapointed since the search function NEVER slowed my phone down before, and was/is the most used funtion on my phone. The upgrade to iOS 4.0 (and above), which removed the search function, has slowed it down massively, to the point where it lags on every single feature and data retrieval!

Searching SMS messages was disabled due to battery life and performance concerns for the 3G, you can see this in the iPhone: Which iOS 4 software features does my iPhone support? article on apple.com
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4204

iPhone 3G does not support Spotlight search for SMS/MMS messages.

how is this answer useful? sorry but anybody knows how to fix this problem? I too cant search for text in my messages or emails. use to be the most effective function i used. it only brings up the messages after the upgrade evn though the messages are still in the same folder. There must be a fix to allow search for all contents (not just the contecnts after the upgrade)
please help!
s

Nope. This is the correct answer. You are asking to do something that is no longer possible. It is like being annoyed that you asked the question "How do I fly by flapping my arms?" and someone says "It doesn't work like that." If you downgrade your device you can probably return search functionality, but it was disabled in 4.0 because it caused unacceptable slowdown in devices.


text:
Task switching on iOS 4.3.1?
I just upgraded my iPod (4gen) from iOS 4.3 to 4.3.1.  Pressing the button twice now no longer brings up the app switcher.
Is there some setting I need to change to bring this back?  I didn't see anything in the release notes about removing or disabling this feature.

Works on my 3rd gen, for what it's worth.  It's always been a bit finicky timing-wise for me, though.

I played around with it for a few minutes, and eventually it went back to the old mode where task switching works.  I have no idea why, and I didn't change any setting.
It's not just the speed: I've never had trouble getting task switching to work, and for the first 10 minutes after upgrading, it didn't work no matter how fast I clicked it.  It would zip over to the useless search screen and back really fast.


text:
Why doesn't my iPod Classic show all the songs it holds?
I recently bought a new iPod Classic 120GB, mainly to use on my Numark iDJ2 but also for general use.
I have it set so that all my iTunes songs are automatically pulled over to it and when I look at its contents on iTunes all my songs are there. However, if I unplug it and then search through it manually, some artists don't appear. (I haven't yet found a pattern.)
The only reason I mention my iDJ2 is that I have Numark's 'Librarian' software installed on my iPod so that the iDJ2 can categorize and play all of my songs. I don't see how it should be responsible for this problem though.
Any help much appreciated and let me know if you need any more info.

Could it be that some albums are tagged as "Compilation"? In this case the artists in these albums are not shown in the "Artists" submenu... Uncheck the "Compilation" check-box (or something like that - I don't use iTunes!) in the Information tab and they magically appear in the list.
PS. When you select an artist that "has" a proper album, the songs in the Compilation albums are also shown.


text:
macbook pro 2011 13" doesn't detect external display
I have a miniDP to VGA adapter, and its worked fine until this morning, I woke up and shook the mouse, but only the internal MacBook screen worked, not the external monitor. I tried to reset SMC and PRAM but it did not help. What might be wrong?

Did you disconnect the miniDP and reconnect it? Sometimes OSX loses track of it.

Have you tried the usual things to rule out the chance that it's a problem with your monitor? You can always make sure that everything's plugged in and turned on. If the monitor has a test function, you can try it to make sure that the monitor still works.

I tried diferent type and size monitors

@MartínMarconcini when I can't get peripherals to be recognized suddenly, I always: a) disconnect EVERYTHING I can (for laptops that is everything) b) reboot zapping the PRAM (hold down 'command-option-p-r' keys during boot up until you hear at least a second chime, which should be at/near maximum normal volume, screen brightness will also revert to default (on laptops). c) restart again, then connect periphs back up.


text:
Can iPods (3rd gen) brick completely if left uncharged?
I have an old 3rd generation iPod, barely used it since I got an iPhone a couple of years ago. I wasn't expecting the battery to hold its charge anymore (I've replaced it once or twice already, infact), but even when plugged in there is no reaction, the device is just dead.
Is this the natural conclusion of leaving it idle/flat for many months? Or do you think there is another problem with the device? (I could perhaps get a replacement battery but I'm not sure that would help)

How long have you left it plugged in?

i tried a few hours i think and still no signs of a circuit. as per mspasov's comment below, however, I will perhaps try for longer. i'm not surprised that the battery doesn't work any more but i expected plugging it in would at least give you a complete circuit to power the device

oh wow it just came back to life. must have been a faulty wire or socket somewhere (it may not hold its charge when it's recharged but it could still be useful). unless that previous attempt to charge had helped.

Thats why I asked how long you left it charging (I never had a chance to write an actual answer). Ive had a few of these devices get to no charge, and sometimes it takes a bit after plugging it in to even get a charge enough to cut on

Lithium-ion polymer batteries should not be deep discharged. This is a quote from Lithium-ion Polymer wikipedia page

During discharge on load, the load has to be removed as soon as the voltage drops below approximately 3.0 V per cell (used in a series combination), or else the battery will subsequently no longer accept a full charge and may experience problems holding voltage under load. This can be achieved, as with other lithium-ion batteries, also harmed by under- and over-voltage, by circuitry that prevents overcharge and deep discharge.

So discharging batteries below some threshold will make it unable to recharge. The best way to store your battery is to keep it charged around 50%.
On the Apple Batteries iPod page, Apple says that you should:

Use iPod Regularly
  For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month. If you use your iPod infrequently (gasp), you might want to add a reminder to your calendar program

So my conclusion is that your usage pattern could be a probable cause for your battery problem.

has it right. I will say, though, that I've heard many tales (including 2nd hand from personal friends) that when it appears to be dead this way, sometimes charging it for days -- sometimes even a week or two -- will bring it back to life.

Worth trying what Matthew suggested


text:
AppTamer for RAM
Does anyone know of an app like AppTamer http://www.stclairsoft.com/AppTamer/index.html that frees RAM usage and not just CPU?

Sounds strange, but Command-Q works best.

Hate to say this, but RAM isn't something that can just magically be erased without an impact on the system. There are four kinds of ram:
Free - is free to use and optimal for use when applications are opened
Inactive - is memory that is no longer used that is deleted when needed. Inactive memory allows for past tasks to occur faster when being repeated (for example launching an application that was previously used but then quit). This RAM basically acts as FREE RAM and the system deletes it and uses it when needed, but deleting it without needing to will actually hinder ur macs performance since these caches will be deleted.
Active & Wired - is used by currently running applications and in NO CASE can it be deleted without a system impact.
What i'm getting at, is that there is no reason to have to clear ram, that which can be cleared is cleared automatically when needed and that which can't be cleared just... can't be cleared :P

Totally agree. I hated this stuff when I was on Windows -- all it did was page everything out -- which was fine if you wanted your rad-3D game to start up just bit faster without having to page things out as it loaded, but it only slowed everything else down like all-get-out. Having to wait for Explorer to draw the desktop background line-by-line was ridiculous, and yet I never saw the end of those kinds of apps being paraded around. RAM is RAM. The OS is generally quite good at managing it - more likely, better than us humans. Leave it to manage it, and life is better, IMO. ;-)

There's an app in the Mac App Store called iCleanMemory which claims to do this.
Alternatively you can fire up terminal and type "purge" although this may only be available if you have the developer tools installed.

You can't free up any more RAM than is free-able natively by the OS -- something the OS will do automatically on its own when it needs it. If more memory is really necessary, do just that: get more memory. :-)


text:
Cannot watch iTunes purchased media with old Apple ID
When attempting to watch purchased older material on iTunes I have been receiving a prompt stating that my MacBook is not authorized to view material. As the material was purchased unsing my original Apple ID - having since changed ID's twice - I am not able to view this material without entering the password for the old ID. I am then directed through iForgot to the change the password. Here iForgot states the prompting information provided is not recognized. As I cannot enter a password for this old ID I cannot view this material
I am having similar problems with apps purchased on my iPhone under this original ID.
Sounds like others are dealing with the same issue. Any solutions?

If you remember the old id and still have access to the email account associated with it, you can definitely reset the password and then authorize your macbook to play these files.
iForgot will prompt you for information, but it should allow a password reset via email, not just questions. If you still cannot remember/access the info, I recommend sending apple an email via their iTunes store support and see if they can identify you via other means.
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/contact.html

+1 for suggestion to contact iTunes Support.  They are very helpful!

What if I no longer have access to the email account. Apple support is saying there is NO WAY to unlock the account even though I have all the credit card info and other identifying information. Should I open a separate question?

If you have no access to the account, and no password, you are pretty much SOL my friend.

The issue is the built in DRM in these files, specifically intended to keep you from playing music that you didn't purchase.  Your best bet is to re-activate those older Apple ID's and enter them in, authorizing your computer.  That will be the simplest way.
The only other ways that I know of are to re-encode the data to a non-DRM format, which will likely be much more difficult than finding your old Apple ID's.


text:
Airport connection problem, self-assigned IP address, not able to connect
On some wireless networks that others can seem to access just fine, my MacBook Pro won't connect, I get an error like this in the Network pref panel:
AirPort has the self-assigned IP address 169.254.148.134
and will not be able to connect to the Internet.

This occasionally happens with unsecured networks, and also with secured networks where I know the password is right, and the password appears to be accepted.

See similar question on SuperUser: Why won't a MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard obtain an IP address (DHCP)?

Can also depend on the router.  Some routers allow you to change the 'index' or 'key' that is in use.  IE - you can define say 4 different keys or passwords that the wireless network can use, then you tell it which one you want to be in use right now.
My experience has been that Macs will always try to connect using index or key 0, never any other key.  The connector (MB or MBP) has to be using the same index or key number for the wireless handshake process to work properly.
I've had situations, therefore, where PC's were connecting just fine to a well-setup network and there was no reason the Mac shouldn't - and an hour or so later I figured out that that's what it had been the whole time.
Frustrating to say the least.  May be fixed now, I think last time I ran into it was an early 10.6.

is there any way to set the index, either on the Mac, or on the router so it works?

You will have to find the option in the router settings.  Once you do find it, change it to 0 or 1, whichever is lowest, and try again.

this worked, thanks.  logged into router, the "channel" was set to 6.  Changed it to 1, which was the lowest option, and connected fine.

Aah, be aware.  That is not related to what I was talking about.  The channel is analogous to the channel on a TV.  Depending on surrounding devices, you will get better or worse reception by virtue of interference.  Still, changing the channel from the default, 6, is a good move regardless.

so where do you find the option in the "router" or any other device settings.
for example I have an iphone tethered with tetherme
and when I try to connect via wifi, it gets me the "WIFI has a self assigned IP of 169.254.206.101 and will not be able to connect"
on the other hand MiFI does not have this problem


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Problem when updating using Software Update
I tried to update Mac OS X using Software Update. But when I tap on software updates, it's checking software updates and listing the available updates.
I didn't see Mac OS X update available in the list. I am not able to do this. Can you guys please help ?

What is your current OS X version ??
The latest OS X is 10.6.7 - and if you can't get it through "Software Update", then you can download the whole OS X v10.6.7 Update Combo here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1361

You may already be on the latest version (check with the menu item  > About This Mac).
If not, you may have accidentally “Ignored” the update (⌫ in Software Update or the menu item Update > Ignore Update…).
You might try the Software Update menu item Software Update > Reset Ignored Updates (it is only enabled if you have Ignored an update in the past).


text:
building wine on mac
I'm not really a big fan of macports or any package manager that exists for Mac; Im more of a compile from source guy. Has anyone here tried compiling wine for OSX so that I can execute exe files on my OSX(10.6)?
Are there any alternatives for wine that you would suggest?

Package managers also build from source ;) The advantage is that they leave your system in a clean state... have a look at Homebrew: http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/

This sounds like what you're looking for: http://code.google.com/p/osxwinebuilder/


text:
How do I maximize window after I've minimize them?
I'm a new Mac user and I regularly minimize windows using the Command + M shortcut. Is there a keyboard shortcut to restore these windows?

The only way I know of is to get into Exposé mode (e.g. press (fn +) F3 on newer keyboards) and then pressing the down arrow key. You will see the currently selected minimised window (in the lower third of the screen) surrounded by a blue shadow and you can select other windows by moving around with the arrow keys. You can then bring any window to the foreground by hitting return.

beside Asmus Solution you can use cmd+tab to find your minimize software's windows after you go on select windows hold option and release all the key.

That's what I use. Sad it doesn't go for multi-window apps (like browsers or document apps).

I'm curious how to do this cmd+tab and then option.  I'm on Mavericks and it didn't do anything for me, so it could be that it no longer works on this OS.  But I'm not clear what you mean by "go on select windows" @Am1rr3zA and @Eimantas, so I might not be doing it right.  Please give some more details.

@RobBednark When doing cmd+tab, go to the app's icon you want to restore and while holding cmd press option. After option is pressed - release cmd.

Doesn't work if there are multiple windows of an application collapsed under one icon, say multiple VScode windows


text:
How to connect iPhone 3GS to a computer monitor without jailbreak?
I have to do a presentation where I want to demo some apps on an iPhone 3GS.
Is there a way to mirror the iPhone screen on a computer screen without jailbreaking?

For a 3GS, no.
There isn't a way on any iOS device aside from the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S.


text:
Can you add an accented characters to the querty keyboard on the iPad?
I'm looking to add another layer to the querty keyboard on the iPad so I can get accented characters.  Can I do that?

You mean hold the letters for a while?

An even simpler way to access the most commonly accented characters is to hold down that letter and you are given options.
To see what I mean, just click and hold on the letter "o" and you'll be given a lot of choices.
The standard keyboard on a USA iPad will have accented characters for e, y, u, i, o, a, s, z, c and n.

Gee – I had no idea. I'll leave my answer up anyhow, as it could be useful too. But this is clearly the right answer to the question asked.

The way to do that is to add more keyboards. If you have several keyboards active, you can cycle through them using the globe key to the left of the space bar. To add more keyboards, go to Settings → General → Keyboard → International Keyboards. Pick a national keyboard that has the accented letters you want.

bonus: the spell checker will also spell check in that language. very useful!

No, you can not modify the keyboard layout itself without jail breaking the OS. The other answers do list the existing features for accessing these characters, but I have written an article summarizing why having alternate keys on iOS isn't equivalent to keyboards with dedicated single key presses for commonly used keys.

Welcome to Ask Different! It's okay to include a link, but please summarize or excerpt it in the answer. The idea is to make the answer stand alone. Please take a look at the FAQs for more info. Thank you :)


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iPad management in medium sized business
Our developer is putting the finishing touches on an internal web application. We'll be using it on the internal network and through a series of iPads. The iPads will connect through our IPSec VPN to the web application. We'll have approximately 15 iPads when fully rolled out.
I fooled around with the iPhone Configuration Utility and set up the wireless credentials and VPN configuration, as well as locked down the music and video section.
There's a couple points that I'm not really that happy with. For example, I don't really want the Address Book or Calendar visible particularly. I've moved them onto a second page of Apps.
I also don't like that the VPN disconnects every time the device is put to sleep. I'd prefer if the VPN autoconnected like the Wifi does, but that's not so much of an issue as the automatic disconnection. I wouldn't even mind if the iPad remembered the VPN password, because the user has to type the iPad password, VPN password and then the application username and password, which makes for a bit of a tedious experience.
I don't see any configuration options on the device or the iPhone Configuration Utility.
My question is does anyone have any experience in the 3rd party vendors that use the additional enterprise APIs and if so, do any of these annoyances I've listed above possible could be handled using such a 3rd party company / software?

Cisco IPSec deployments can take advantage of certificate-based authentication via
industry-standard X.509 digital certificates. With certificate-based authentication, iPad supports VPN On Demand. VPN On Demand can establish a connection automatically
when accessing predefined domains, which would provide you with seamless VPN connectivity.
For two-factor token-based authentication, iPad supports RSA SecurID as well as
CRYPTOCard. Users enter a PIN and a token-generated, one-time password directly on
iPad when establishing a VPN connection.
Now without jailbreaking, you can't remove/hide the iBooks or any default icon. Unless someone knows otherwise.


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iphone unlocked in bestbuy?
I am in vancouver B.C. Is the iphone4 bought in bestbuy official unlocked?I saw that the network of iphone4 is telus but have a uncontract price on bb website. So can the iphone4 be used in other countries? thank you!

related: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/2276/buying-officially-unlocked-iphone-4-in-the-us


text:
How can I open a Terminal window directly from my current Finder location?
I was wondering if there was any was I could right click inside any instance of a "Finder" window such that I have an option that says "Open Terminal Here". It would be really helpful.

As of Mac OS X Lion 10.7, Terminal provides Services for opening a new terminal window or tab at the selected folder in Finder. They also work with absolute pathnames selected in text (in any application). You can enable these services with System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services. Look for "New Terminal at Folder" and "New Terminal Tab at Folder". You can also assign them shortcut keys.
In addition, you can now drag folders (and pathnames) onto the Terminal application icon to open a new terminal window, or onto a tab bar in a terminal window to create a new tab in that window. If you drag onto a tab (rather than into the terminal view) it will execute a complete cd command to switch to that directory without any additional typing.
As of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8, Command-Dragging into a terminal will also execute a complete cd command.
Note: The New Terminal at Folder service will become active when you select a folder in Finder. You cannot simply have the folder open and run the service "in place". Go back to the parent folder, select the relevant folder, then activate the service via the Services menu or context menu.

T'was already enabled on mine, but with key set to 'none'. Is there a recommended shortcut? (side note: really wish MacOS had something set by default, so it wouldn't be left to everyone having to do it manually themselves and hence different shortcuts for each user)

@stevec or at least a list of available shortcuts. Btw: this is only working when you click on a folder, not when you don't have a folder or a file focused. In this case it should just open on the desktop or in root and be a global shortcut in general. Super annoying.

Doesn't work on Bug Sur. I couldn't find Services on the right-click menu!

@Dr.jacky it works in Big Sur. You clicked on a folder icon+name, not the window background? Did it work for you before upgrading to Big Sur or is this the first time you've tried using Services in Finder?

@ChrisPage Thanks! It works. The issue was, there were lots of items in right-click so, I couldn't see that specific one.

@Dr.jacky You can disable services you don’t use to reduce the number of menu items.

This only works when your are outside of a given folder, and you are selecting it. It does not work if you are already in it. Classic Apple.

The solution to your troubles is called Go2Shell and it does exactly what you're describing. You can find it on the App Store and best of all... it's totally free.

Not work in Catalina!

The version on the App Store doesn't download for Catalina, but the version directly from the developers can be downloaded and appears to work: https://zipzapmac.com/Go2Shell

Didn't get it running on Catalina either. Even though I pressed "add to finder" button I do not see any new button in Finder.

Direct link: https://zipzapmac.com/DMGs/Go2Shell.dmg

cdto seems like it is just what you need. It is a mini-application, designed to be put in the Finder's toolbar, when you run it it will open a terminal window and cd to the current directory in Finder.

Works well on Catalina

Works well on Big Sur.

Newer versions don't support opening iTerm2 :\

Works well in Ventura for M1/2 chips

For those using iTerm, the AppleScript syntax has change in iTerm version 3. Here's the full procedure to follow to create a shortcut in the Finder.

Launch Automator.
Select "Application" :

Choose "run Applescript" :

Paste the code below:
-- get the current directory in Finder
on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "Finder"
        set _cwd to quoted form of (POSIX path of (folder of the front window as alias))
    end tell
    CD_to(_cwd)
end run

-- change directory in iTerm (version >= 3)
on CD_to(_cwd)
    tell application "iTerm"
        activate

        try
            set _window to first window
        on error
            set _window to (create window with profile "Default")
        end try

        tell _window
            tell current session
                write text "cd " & _cwd & ";clear;"
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
end CD_to

Click "File" -> "Export" to export as an .app, save it in /Applications.
Move the application to the Finder icons bar while holding ⌘ :

Done !
You can change the icon in the Finder by following the instructions here (change the icon of the application you created with Automator).

Any update for big Sur ?

For iTerm, the existing answer about Services also applies: Finder > Services > New iTerm2 Window Here is available by default.

A different approach: DTerm, which gives you a floating command prompt at the top of the window. This works in many apps, not just Finder.

If you have the "Path Bar" shown (View > Show Path Bar). You can Right Click on any element to get a Open In Terminal option

This is perhaps the best answer, no System property change, no additional tools.

I mostly use this function:
cf() {
  cd "$(osascript -e 'tell app "Finder" to POSIX path of (insertion location as alias)')"
}

You could also assign a shortcut to a script like the ones below.
Reuse an existing tab or create a new window (Terminal):
tell application "Finder" to set p to POSIX path of (insertion location as alias)
tell application "Terminal"
    if (exists window 1) and not busy of window 1 then
        do script "cd " & quoted form of p in window 1
    else
        do script "cd " & quoted form of p
    end if
    activate
end tell

Reuse an existing tab or create a new tab (Terminal):
tell application "Finder" to set p to POSIX path of (insertion location as alias)
tell application "Terminal"
    if not (exists window 1) then reopen
    activate
    if busy of window 1 then
        tell application "System Events" to keystroke "t" using command down
    end if
    do script "cd " & quoted form of p in window 1
end tell

Always create a new tab (iTerm 2):
tell application "Finder" to set p to POSIX path of (insertion location as alias)
tell application "iTerm"
    if exists current terminal then
        current terminal
    else
        make new terminal
    end if
    tell (launch session "Default") of result to write text "cd " & quoted form of p
    activate
end tell

The first two scripts have a few advantages compared to the services added in 10.7:

As of 10.9, there is a bug where services that receive folders as input are never listed in the services menu in column view. If you assign the New Terminal Tab at Folder service a keyboard shortcut, it doesn't work in column view.
They use the folder on the title bar instead of requiring you to select a folder first.
They reuse the frontmost tab if it is not busy, e.g. running a command, displaying a man page, or running emacs.

If you use 10.7 or 10.8, change tell application "Finder" to set p to POSIX path of (insertion location as alias) to:
tell application "Finder"
    if exists Finder window 1 then
        set p to POSIX path of (target of Finder window 1 as alias)
    else
        set p to POSIX path of (path to desktop)
    end if
end tell

There is a bug in 10.7 and 10.8 (but not in 10.9 or 10.6) where Finder ignores windows created after the last time focus was moved to another application and back when getting the insertion location property.

Hi, Thanks for your scripts, but they don't seem to work properly on OS Catalina, can you help me with my issue: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/399682/applescript-to-open-terminal-at-directory-does-not-work

Try this:
https://github.com/nmadhok/OpenInTerminal
It works with the Finder's sidebar items, multiple folder/file selections and anything you could think of. Really easy to use!

It works well with high sierra!

You can drag any file or folder from the finder onto a Terminal window to insert a string of said file or folder's absolute path.
This will work on any standard install (at least back until 10.4 Tiger [¿maybe earlier?]) without needing additional software our twiddling of preferences, either of which may later freak out your non-techy friend if it happens to be his/her Mac that you’re working on. This trick also works for any process that is running in the Terminal, e.g. emacs or vi (assuming you’ve got vi in the appropriate mode, or however it is that you people who use vi do).

You can do this with the service feature.
The following site contains an example of such a service:
http://blog.leenarts.net/2009/09/03/open-service-here/

OpenInTerminal
You could try OpenInTerminal: https://github.com/Ji4n1ng/OpenInTerminal
It has a really nice icon and is implemented as Finder Extension. There are also two versions ('regular' and 'lite).
OpenInTerminal can also be installed using homebrew:
brew install --cask openinterminal

Service Station, on the Mac App Store, allows you to fully customize your right-click menu in Finder.
One of the most popular actions is to open Terminal by right-clicking in the Finder:

I'm the developer and would love if you gave it a try.

https://servicestation.menu
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/service-station/id1503136033

The app is fully sandboxed and uses the modern Finder Sync Extension API. I like using it more than the Services menu, as detailed in other answers, as you don't have to dig through the submenu.

ShellHere
http://etresoft.org/shellhere.html
— Etresoft and John Daniel

… right click inside any instance of a "Finder" window …

I don't know whether it can be reached through a contextual menu, but I keep ShellHere in the toolbar of Finder.

OnMyCommand
http://free.abracode.com/cmworkshop/on_my_command.html
— version 2.3 (2011-01-16)
Screenshot etc. at http://www.wuala.com/grahamperrin/public/2011/07/31/d/?mode=gallery
Installed and used by me on Snow Leopard before upgrading to Lion. Too soon for me to say whether version 2.3 is compatible with Lion.

You can the app I developed FinderGo, which is open source and easy to use

I use this for years http://openterminal.quentin.paris/
Just right click on anywhere Finder, choose Open Terminal

Best, works on latest macos 2022

Try the app Open Terminal

This application allows you to open a Terminal window with the path of the current Finder window.


text:
How can I get Google Voice SMS notifications?
I have an iPhone 4 with the Google Voice app. However I don't get notifications at all, I've tried everything! If I want to check if I received a text I have to go into the app and press the refresh button.
How can I get notifications working?

Go to Settings -> Notifications -> Google Voice. You'll see underneath the the 'Google Voice' line what's being pushed for notifications, chances are yours will say 'Off'. Just tap it and pick which ones you want to happen when you receive a SMS.

Otherwise, it's an issue in Google's server. Not much you can do.


text:
iphone jailbreak - its asking for active sim card
i'm in china and need to jailbreak/unlock my iphone to use it here with chinese sim card. I followed the instructions online about how to do this using a program called snowbreeze. It worked and i believe the iphone now has ios 4.3.1 and the ipad baseband. However, in order to unlock the thing i need to get into it, and it is asking me to insert 'a valid sim card with no PIN  lock to active iPhone.
Not sure what i should do here? I lost my tmobile sim card in a hotel and don't have one. Is it necessary to insert a tmobile sim card just to turn the phone on? (Also my sim card has a pin on it so how can even that work?). If this is the answer then i will try my gf's tmobile sim card. Please help, thanks.

At the risk of stating what you've probably already tried... Insert the Chinese sim card you want to use.


text:
How can I share Apple Remote Desktop's list of machines to other computers?
We have a server that runs ARD and we use it for Network Discovery. I'm in the process of writing a few scripts to grab the ARD lists and push them to Support Analysts machines.
However the com.apple.RemoteDesktop.plist is not the key file here.
Does anybody know if this is possible?

Is there anything we can add to our answers to help you out? Have you solved your problem yet?

I believe you can do this with automator.  You can have an automator script pull your list of ARD computers, (I suppose you could do this from the remote task server as well,) and then execute various functions after that list is pulled in.
You can also of course execute AppleScripts (and therefore shell scripts,) through Automator as well, so this should be all you need.
In short: Yes!

In case Harv's yes wasn't emphatic enough - Apple Remote Desktop and Automator were made for each other.
You can export lists of machines from ARD explicitly or programatically using AppleScript and Automator.
I've know of no program that "needs" Automator more than ARD. Having remote desktop to act on many machines means the automation saves you serious amounts of time getting your tasks done.
The time you spend learning Automator for managing macs is almost always repaid hundreds of times over when you are managing more than 20 machines for any length of time. Do also explore the built in Asset Management functions before you dive into Automator for the first time. Since ARD stores all data in a SQL type database, you can always dump the fields that interest you to a flat file if you prefer that over structured access to the live data.


text:
Photoshop CS issues on Mac Mini PowerPC G4 (1.2)
I dont have enough free memory to run PhotoShop CS. I'm looking into external drives to free up space.  I would also like to upgrade OS so I can watch netflix, and maybe would help with streaming video in general. If I upgrade, not sure what to upgrade to as I want to still be able to use PS CS, office X.1, amd maybe dreamweaver MX (less important) since I already have have these and there would be no cost. Any suggestions are much, much appreciated. I don't know many tech terms beyond CPU, HD, Platform, etc. I am not very technical.I did upgrade the CPU myself thanks to youttube but not sure what the speed is now. All I know is I upgraded to the "maximum".
Thank You for any help! Hard to type with the delay on this page, forgive typos!

If you go to the Apple Menu > About This Mac, it will tell you your CPU speed, RAM size, and Mac OS version. If you select your hard drive on the desktop and press Command-I, it will say the hard drive size and free space. Can you post these five numbers?

1.42 GHz PowerPC G4. Not sure if that means it's intel or not. 1 GB SDRAM , as for hard drive size I don't have a Command button so I hope the following infor will work: Activity Monitor shows I have approx 67GB utilized with 7GB free. Running OS X 10.4.11. I Run a pet rescue so saving money was important and I purchased used equipment with old software and don't know much about it (also don't have a mac keyboard so I miss out on some things). I hope that's all the info you need. Please help, we all appreciate it!

General information before we get to the crux of the question: "PowerPC" means you're not on Intel. 7 gigs free hard drive space is getting close to insufficient, but I usually don't have problems until I get less than 4-5 gigs. You may want to get an external hard drive and move some of your data files over there to free up space.
At 1 gig of RAM, you should probably look into upgrading that. I would expect the machine would work with two gigs, more would be pushing it. iFixit has very complete instructions of how to disassemble and reassemble nearly all Macs.
Your processor speed is high enough that you can upgrade to Leopard (10.5), but that may not actually improve much for you. For starters, if you upgrade to Leopard, you will no longer be able to run programs in Classic (Mac OS 9). If this is important, don't upgrade the OS. Also, I doubt an OS upgrade will make it easier to run Netflix and other online videos, as that is more of a hardware thing: Netflix, for instance, requires an Intel Mac. (I just tried it on my iBook G4 1.33 GHz, a fairly similar machine to yours, running 10.5 and got the system requirements page instead of the video. Netflix requires Microsoft's Silverlight which requires an Intel processor, so that's never going to work.)


text:
Application to periodically update desktop with new images from Flickr tag search?
Are there any applications I can use to periodically download new images from a Flickr tag search and update my desktop picture (preferably with support for multiple monitors)?

I'd like to create one...

DeskLickr is a few years old, and I've not tried it, but it should do what you want.

Thanks for the suggestion.  I had to turn off the "Change picture" option in the Desktop and Screen Saver prefpane, but it works like a charm!


text:
Bootcamp and Windows 7 - Mounting the .iso onto a blank DVD-R
So im trying to install Windows 7 Ultimate via Bootcamp on my Macbook Pro 13"....Managed to partition the HDD but for some reason whenever I click install, the Macbook restarts and I'm met with a black screen with white text that read something along the lines of "This is not a bootable device" or something like that.
Now i should note that Windows is on a DVD-R, so i thought maybe the DVD-R was damaged so i created an .cdr image of the DVD-R via the disk utility and then changed the file name to .iso as stated on this website - http://www.ehow.com/how_2093946_create-disk-image-mac-osx.html.
But now I'm wondering how do I mount the .iso onto another DVD-R? Or am i going about the entire thing completely wrong? In other words, help!

Are you burning the ISO file on to a DVD-R as a file or as a DVD image? There's a big difference between the two. Only the latter method works.
To burn a DVD from the ISO image, follow this Apple guide:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2087

The ISO file is a virtual DVD, not a file that needs to be burned onto one. To turn this virtual DVD into a real one, put a blank in your machine and right click the ISO and select to open it with Disk Utility. Click Burn on the top bar and follow the on-screen prompts.


text:
How do I check how many RAM slots I have in use?
I own a 2010 13" macbook, and I'd like to do a RAM update from 2gb to 4gb.
Before I buy brand new 2x2gb ram, I'd like to make sure that my macbook has 2x1gb or 1x2gb ram slots.  I mean, if both slots are used or if there's only 1 used.
Is there a command line to have that information?

The System Information app has this information (and a lot of other info about your computer). Access it by going to the Apple menu (top left of your screen), selecting About This Mac, and clicking the More Info button.
Fire up the app and click on the Memory tab. You'll get a visual representation of how much memory you have and how it's installed. There is a rectangle for each memory slot, and each rectangle will be labeled "Empty", or with the capacity of the chip inserted.

For even more info, go to File-> System Report.
In the new window that appears, click Memory in the list on the left. It will show you the number of slots and what's in each one. In the below screenshot, there is one empty bank. It's the one with the Size, Type, Speed, and Status as Empty.
If none of yours say empty, you've got something in every slot.

Note that if you have an older version of OS X than Lion, you won't have the visual representation. You can open System Profiler (/Applications/Utilities) and follow the directions from the second half of this answer.

To literally check from the command line, use system_profiler:
$ system_profiler SPMemoryDataType

Memory:

    Memory Slots:

      ECC: Disabled

        BANK 0/DIMM0:

          Size: 4 GB
          Type: DDR3
          Speed: 1067 MHz
          Status: OK
          Manufacturer: 0x8394
          Part Number: 0x393931363434202839393636343429000000
          Serial Number: 0x00000000

        BANK 1/DIMM0:

          Size: 4 GB
          Type: DDR3
          Speed: 1067 MHz
          Status: OK
          Manufacturer: 0x8394
          Part Number: 0x393931363434202839393636343429000000
          Serial Number: 0x00000000

Go to apple menu > About This Mac > More Info and click on "Memory" on the left. That should give you detailed information about your RAM.


text:
Screen refresh rates on mobile devices
Are there any hand held devices, PDA , phones or pads that have a screen refresh rate of 120Hz.

Possible duplicate http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/8006/what-is-the-ipads-screen-refresh-rate

Just wondering... Why would you want that?

@Cawas - The only thing I can think of is mobile active-shutter 3d stuff...

Since you are dealing with devices that have LCD screens (and not CRTs), it ultimately doesn't matter what the refresh rate is -- what matters most is how quickly a pixel can change from one color to another, and this isn't constant across the color range the device can display.
It is important how certain videos are processed since 24p can't fit into 60 equally (hence the supposed value of 120hz), but you'll find conflicting views as to if it is all that noticeable, useful, and/or even desirable. Let's just say this: I've never had a problem watching a video on my iPhone or iPad and noticing bad motion blur or odd artifacts.

120 Hz is exactly 2x refresh rate for room lighting in the USA. You sure you won't set up unwanted interference? It may be subtle, but it might become tiring.
I'm not sure refresh rate is that important with modern non-CRT displays. The difference between min and max lumens is significantly lower these days than with the old technology, isn't it?

Odds are the OP wants that sync with US power in order to videotape them without having scan lines show. Since these aren't CRTs, though, it shouldn't be a problem. I know that I've videorecorded iPhone and iPad screens with no problems whatsoever.


text:
Converting spoken word audio files into text
I've been working on transcribing a lecture series from audio to text files.  There are just over 20 lectures, and each one is about an hour long.  Using VLC Player, I'm able to slow down the speaker's words to a rate that I can keep up with.
However, it's extremely slow going, and it takes so much concentration that I can barely get through a third of a lecture before I have to take an extended break.
The thought had occurred to me that I would be better served by using some kind of speech recognition software, and then proofreading the computer-generated result.
This is likely to be a one-time thing, so while I don't mind using commercial software to get the job done, it would be preferable if it wasn't too expensive (or free; free is always good).
Command-line solutions are fine, too (:
Any suggestions?

My experience is that unless you get a very good speech to text solution, you are simply letting yourself in for a lot of frustration. You'll be spending more time making corrections to garbled transcriptions than you would have spent typing from the start.
There's a reason there are not many effective solutions on the market: this stuff is HARD!
The Dragon engine from Nuance is the best I've tried.

The best I could find for Mac was MacSpeech Scribe, from Nuance Communications, Inc. It is $150, which definitely is a drawback, and there doesen't seem to be other alternatives. There is a free app for iPhone, and there might be one for iPad too, but I beleive they have limitation as to the amout of time you can record allowing just up to 60 seconds. Aside from this, the speech is sent to the servers of Dragon, and then sent back to you: I dont know how efficient it would be to be chopping your lectures to 1 minute parts and s


text:
Looking for a combined Clock/News/Weather/Calendar iPad app
I'm looking for an app I can leave running and that shows me all necessary info at 1 glance without any need for interaction.
Ideally, it should contain

a clock
good, concise news
weather forecast
list of my next appointments
subjects of my unread emails

Other people might also like

rss feeds
twitter feed

I already searched for such an app for half an hour and found nothing. Well except for a Dashboard app that was rejected by Apple because it was expandable and looked like the os x dashboard.
There are alternative calendar apps, there are weather apps that show the time, there are twitter apps, rss readers, email apps. Surely somebody has combined all of them?
Can somebody pinpoint me to such apps, or explain why they don't exist? Thanks.

I might be able to roll one for you. ;)

Cool! Go ahead!

Feel free to get in touch with me via email - my info is on my website.

I'll answer myself. There is no such app.
The main reason is probably the rejection of that Dashboard app, which made other devs afraid in losing their invested development time if it gets rejected as well.
Future iOS updates might introduce a Dashboard feature, which might be similar to what I was wishing.

Consider Panic's Status Board app: it includes configurable modules for everything you've asked for.

I'm looking for a such app myself and so far I've found one DeskMate Pro. Maybe not ideal, but much better than the other apps.
Hope it will help you.

Application has been removed from the app store.

Notification Center on iOS 5 fits the bill as you can configure it to list the notification in your preferred order and it floats above all programs running whenever you wish to see the notifications.

You could achieve some of this without an app at all: put iGoogle widgets for the features you desire on your iGoogle page, then keep a browser window open to that page in Safari in your iPad.
There are roughly a billion iGoogle widgets to choose from, and they include widgets for weather, calendars, news, Twitter, RSS, and more.  You can choose the color theme too.
The main problems with this approach would seem to be that the display of information is not as compact on the screen as you could achieve with a custom-coded app, so it may be a problem to fit everything that you want so that you can see it all at once.  Also, I haven't figured out a way to make the Google search bar go away, and it takes up an unfortunate amount of space at the top of the page (less so in the vertical orientation on an iPad, but more in the horizontal orientation).


text:
Using a dropdown menu with arrow keys in Photoshop
This may be a tad specific but it's one thing that irks me with OS X.
In Photoshop, if I want to change a layer style from 'Normal' to say 'Overlay', I need to click the dropdown list and select 'Overlay'. If I then wanted to change this again, I can't just use the keyboard buttons to scroll up or down the list - I need to go in using the mouse again and it's a bit of a pain.
Scrolling with the arrow keys works fine on other drop down lists like fonts etc.
Any ideas?

Hear, hear! Though this might be unanswerable and be because of how Photoshop is written. I've also noticed that navigating in the dialogs doesn't work as in other apps, even when keyboard access: all controls is selected in the OSX preferences. Arrow keys might work in font, opacity etc. drop-downs because they allow keyboard input.

I am not sure if you can do this with the arrow keys but there are shortcut keys for navigating the layers box
Changing layer styles

(with layer selected) hold down ⌥ + ⇧ (option & shift) and use the + or - keys to cycle through the various layer dropdown

Navigation of layers

UP  ⌥ + ]
DOWN ⌥ + [

Repositioning a selected layer

(with layer selected) Move up a layer
  with ⌘ + ]
(with layer selected) Move down a
  layer with  ⌘ + [

these work for me with the CS5 version of photoshop


text:
Original iTunes Library Gone, How to ReBuild Library On New Drive?
I have lost my original source itunes library music and files.
However, I do have backup copies of everything on an external disk, I copied the original files and organization structure of the old library to an external disk.  (we'll call this external disk 1)
I need to rebuild my library in a hurry, on a new external disk! (external disk 2)
My question is, how do I do this, so my new library (on external disk 2) is exactly the same as the original?
Any help you could provide me with would be sincerely appreciated!
Looking forward to hearing your solution!

The simplest way (fewest steps) is

Copy the iTunes folder from old (disk 1) to new (disk 2)
Start iTunes with the option key depressed and select the library from the new (disk 2)

Do edit your post or comment back if there are additional factors to take into account or if this doesn't work for some reason. Assuming your backup is good, complete and you preserved the correct location of all the files - iTunes will remember the new disk as long as it's always connected before it starts.
If things look good - I would check the following as well

Verify the iTunes Media Folder Location in "Advanced Preferences tab" is pointing to the correct folder on new (disk 2)
Select File -> Library -> Organize Library from the iTunes menu to have iTunes apply the current settings from the previous step.

Down the road once you are sure things are working - it might be better to keep only the Media Folder on the new (disk 2) and move all the other files to your home folder. This lets you start iTunes for iOS device syncs and such when the external is not connected. I wouldn't do both things the same week. Just get things working for now :-)

Thanks so much for your response, I'm happy to have your support.  The trouble is that I seemed to have copy only my music files, not the iTunes Library file.  This was my mistake and I really should have checked this earlier.  Needless to say, the method you suggested isn't working, as I am missing the files.  However, I do have some other backed up iTunes library files that I may be able to use.  I'm not sure if they are from my Disk 1 lib

OK - that complicates things. I would try importing all of the songs you have into the new library (wherever you want it to last) and see if you can import your old library file to recover some of the playlists and meta-data. This is the sort of thing where calling AppleCare really shines if you've paid for that support. The other angle is to use the option launch trick to point iTunes at whatever old iTunes library file you have. Don't actually play any music - just export the library to an xml file on the desktop. That imports better than adding a library file in my experience.

bmike, thanks so much for all your advice.  I really appreciate that you were here today to help me try to solve this problem!  :)

Best of luck recovering/rebuilding thing. For the future - just be sure to export your whole library as an xml - from there you can recover much easier if you ever have data loss or corruption. Thanks for the kind words.

What's the problem with copying the entire iTunes Library folder to the new disk, then using the Add to Library feature (File>Add to Library) and selecting the folder on the new disk?
Surely this rebuilds a new Library based on the iTunes folder on disk 2?

Thanks so much for your response, I'm happy to have your support.  I'm still having some troubles, here's the problem.  My original music was stored on an external disk, which was destroyed.  I had backup copies of this music on Disk 1, however not the iTunes Library files.  This was my mistake and I really should have checked this earlier.  Needless to say, the method you suggested isn't working, as I am missing the Library files.  I have some other backed up iTunes library files that I may be able to use, not sure if they from the original iTunes library though. Would appreciate a hand, thx!