Google Quick Search Box vs Quicksilver

Sure, Google Quick Search Box looks cool, but can it do this?

Retro-blogging: best posts of June 2008

Previously, on "The Mac Newbie":

• How to open a terminal path in Finder
• How to see High-Definition Trailers on FrontRow
• How to open PDFs on Firefox 3
• How to download musics from MySpace using Safari and "wget"
• How to make your Mac sing to you
  

How I (kinda) turned my iPod Touch into an iPhone with just $29

With these Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic, and using Skype for iPhone/iPod Touch, I just got myself a nice pseudo-iPhone.


Of course, it requires some WiFi available somewhere near my location, but what the hell? It's still great.

Photobooth tips

I didn't know how to disable the "pseudo-flash" setting in Photobooth (and there's no setting that you can change directly to override this) and so, to this day, I used the reversed contrast setting trick: in my case I have to press Command+Option+CTRL+8 to activate it and then the "pseudo-flash" will be black instead of white. But then again, using this trick doesn't allow me to fully control the quality of the photo because I still have to see it with that x-ray look.

Lucky enough, Mac Tricks and Tips has posted these useful tips to use with Photobooth:

• Disable Flash in Photo Booth

Disabling flash in PhotoBooth is really easy all you have to do is hold the Shift key while you click to take a picture and the screen will not flash white.


• Disable Countdown in Photo Booth

Disabling the picture count down in PhotoBooth is just a matter of holding down the Option key while you click to take a picture, your photo will take immediately.

You can also combine the keystrokes by holding down Option-Shift and you’ll immediately take a picture without the flash.

Tweeting from Terminal

I still prefer the Twitter+Quicksilver integration tip, but if you're a Terminal geek addict, then this tip is for you.

Retro-blogging: best posts of February 2008

Previously, on the "Mac Newbie":

• Strange problem with Quicksilver (to this day I still haven't found a solution for this)
• How to open PDFs in Firefox in Mac OS X
• How to turn off the startup sound on your Mac
• A few interesting applications for your Mac
• iMovie and iDVD: the apps that could be great, but aren't
• Avoid Apple Remote's evil twins
• How to burn MP3s to a CD with folders on iTunes

The consequences of being a popular OS

If you're one of those that think there are no viruses or other malware for Mac OS X, then you're mistaken. The only reason why viruses haven proliferate to Mac OS X is only because viruses' creators are busy devising new nasty malware programs for Windows and because the market share of Mac users is still too small to justify the time spent creating them.

But now that Apple has been cutting a larger and larger piece of the market's pie, the attention of these "evil-doers" has turned to Mac OS X and other Apple-related software.


The latest news on this issue are related to torrent-based downloads. People downloading the latest version of iWork'09 or Photoshop CS4 through the popular file-sharing network are likely to also be downloading a trojan that gives access to your computer to a mal-intentioned user.

So, you might want to consider installing an anti-virus, specially if you're downloading this software from these "not-so-legal" networks.

How to make Command-Left Arrow 'go to the start of the current line' rather than 'go back one page' on Firefox

As you may have noticed, this blog is hosted on Blogger under the Blogspot.com domain. One thing that really annoys me with the Post Editor in Blogger is that, when using Firefox, if I try to use the Home key shortcut (Command-Left Arrow), instead of going to the beginning of the line on the text box where I'm editing a post as expected, the browser goes back one page.

This problem occurs because that specific combination of keys (Command-Left Arrow) is configured in Firefox to behave as Going Back one page instead of the usual Mac OS X-like behaviour of Home key.


Luckly, and for every problem that exists in Firefox, there's an extension that is ready to save the day: Keyconfig. It adds the ability to create new or modify existing shortcuts defined by a element. Basically, all you have to do is install the extension and then navigate to the Tools --> Keyconfig, click on the "Back : Command-Left Arrow" entry, then click the Disable button.

In case you're having problems installing the extension, leave a comment here and I'll try to give some help. Enjoy!

Source: Mac OS X Hints

No serial for iWork'09

Now isn't that interesting? Apple suddenly decided to remove all anti-piracy measures from the new version of iWork. It basically means that iWork ‘09 retail boxes no longer come with a serial number. You just have to install iWork ‘09 from the enclosed disc and you’re ready to go.

Now the interesting part is to discover why Apple did this. Here's some possible explanations:

• It doesn't work - In this era of online forums and piracy websites, what's the point of keeping up with a technique that doesn't work? Requiring a serial number to install iWork'09 is like requiring a post-it with your name on it to enter a Barack Obama's press conference. It's just not effective.
• Bundled with a Mac - why put a serial number if you're planning to include it with every Mac that is produced? Kind of like what happens with iLife, iWork should be included with every Mac if they're planning to at least get a byte at Microsoft Office's market.
• Because it's that good - Apple may think iWork is good enough for people to actually buy it. And this is just a bold (and arrogant) move to say something like that: "Our product is so good that people will feel like they want to pay for it". Hence, the no-privacy move.
• To focus on what matters - Instead of wasting time (and a lot of money) finding new ways for stopping software piracy, like Microsoft does (and with very little return), Apple will probably focus on making their product a lot better. And they really should. iWork is still the only Apple software I don't use because it's not a suitable alternative to Microsoft Office (yet). Well, except for Keynote that makes my presentations and classes look really cool :-)
  
• Just for fun - Because the guys at Cupertino enjoy seeing bloggers come up with a theory for every move and decision that comes from Apple HQ. Yes, myself included.

How to fix converted QuickTime movies that have no sound

I've been making some short videos of my son with my new digital camera, a Sony CyberShot DSC-H50, with the goal of syncing them to my iPod Touch so that I have them around to show to family, friends and colleagues.

However, when I use QuickTime to convert the video to the iPhone/iPod Touch format, I get stuck with a video with no sound. And why is that? It's because my digital camera (and as most digital cameras) records the video and audio on the same stream within the movie file. And QuickTime is only able to convert movies that have separate video and audio streams.


In search for a solution to this problem, I found this neat program that takes care of that conversion real easily: MPEG Streamclip.

So if you're having similar problems, make sure you give this program a try.