Google Wave Invitations

I've been using Google Wave for a while now and they were kind enough to send some invitations for me to distribute around. So, I have 3 left. If you want one, just leave a comment here or send a reply/DM on Twitter with your e-mail address.

Geek alert: I'll be using FIFO as the sorting protocol in case there are more candidates than the number of invitations. Good luck :-)

Installing Snow Leopard (on a Mac OS X Tiger machine)

So, as you may know (and probably getting tired of knowing by now) I upgraded to Snow Leopard. The process was very simple and there's really no point in doing a thorough analysis of it, so I'll just leave some photos that I took while waiting.

Just before that, a few tips for those of you that want to upgrade as well:

• Backup your old data before upgrading
  
• Have you backup everything? No, go ahead... I'll wait
• And when you think you've backup everything just make a final check :-)
• Then insert the disc and install Mac OS X 10.6 a.k.a. Snow Leopard

Chances are that everything will go smoothly and no problems will arise from installing the new operating system. But since uncle Murphy is always looking waiting for the right moment to appear, you might as well be prepared with all your data safe somewhere.

Another quick note: this post is about my experience which consisted on upgrading from Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) to 10.6. So, this post is not really helpful to those of you upgrading from Leopard.

I bought the Mac Box Set (which includes Mac OS X 10.6, iLife'09 and iWork'09). Yeah, I know I could have just bought the $29 update package that can also do the upgrade from Tiger, but didn't so for two reasons:

1. I would be in violation of Apple's license agreement
2. I wouldn't have iLife'09 and iWork'09

So, with the package on my desk, it was quite easy to see what I should do:

(I like these little messages that Apple pust on the packages with "slight" hints of what to do)

After inserting the DVD, one clear difference from the Leopard upgrading process was that installing it from Tiger, requires restarting the machine right from the beginning of the installation process:


After a quick restart, the installation process asks which language you want to use:


And then, you're ready to start the installation. In my case, I decided to wipe clean the hard disk with the Disk Utility to make sure that all the accumulated garbage I had on the previous version of Mac OS X (yes, I backup everything before. Did you?)


After cleaning up the hard disk, it was time to start the real installation:



Obviously, the "time remaining" part of the installation process is never accurate and it more or less bounced from 30 minutes to 28, back to 29 and then to 26 (for a really long time), then 23 and then going on normally until 11 minutes and then suddenly it finishes. So, in total it took about 26 minutes to finish this part. At this point, I decided to read the manual that comes with the disc and get myself acquainted with the novelties in 10.6.


After copying all the files and restarting "again", the new OS boots with the usual flying "welcome" messages in several different languages:


And then after just setting up the usual stuff (language and keyboard preferences, user accounts, etc...)...


... I was ready to use my new Mac OS X:


So, from start to finish, I took exactly 48 minutes to upgrade. Not bad for a clean install.
After that, I just inserted the iLife'09 DVD, installed it and then the same for the iWork'09. More or less 10 minutes for each.

Loving the new Operating System

Yes, it's fast... and I mean really fast. Clicking on folders and files seems to open these a lot faster and navigation is usually more fluid. The new features (remember that I was coming from Tiger) like Spaces, Time Machine and Stacks are really cool.

Recovering my data was quite straightforward and I didn't face any major problems (except one that I'll mention bellow) so in a couple of hours I had my machine up and running almost like the previous version.

Now for the boring part

The boring part was in fact checking compatibilities for applications. I backup my previously installed applications so that I could use them now. Most of them worked without any problems, but some of them required installing new versions. And not so amusing, some of them are only available for Snow Leopard in beta versions. Which means that bugs may surface. But so far, it has been quite peaceful.

The only app that I'm having a hard time is QuickSilver. Because I use it all the time and some of its plugins are not yet available in the 10.6 version, in some ways it is more or less useless for me right now.

I also had some problems with a few of my calendars. I have 5 calendars that I used in the previous version of iCal (in Tiger). I backed up everything but when it was time to import them to the new iCal, only 2 of them imported successfully. I don't know why, but for some reason those other 3 calendars were being very stubborn.

Since I heard that Snow Leopard now had built-in support for Google Calendar integration with iCal, I decided to try the following:

1. Create new calendars on Google Calendar
2. Import the information of the 3 non-working calendars to Google Calendar
3. Synchronize with iCal

Guess what? It worked perfectly. Now, I have GCalendar <-> iCal dual integration working perfectly.
Why didn't the calendars import on iCal and did so on Google Calendar, I'll never know. But it's good to know that Google is always here to help :-) By the way, the same built-in integration between Google Contacts (and Yahoo Contacts) and Address Book is also available, provided that you use iSync for the synchronization process.

So, in the end I'm quite pleased with this process and it was a lot less painful than I thought it would be. I fully recommend upgrading to Snow Leopard but bare in mind that some of the applications may not work in Snow Leopard. So, do your homework, and check the compatibilities beforehand.

Google Quick Search Box vs Quicksilver

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

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.

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.

Why wait for the Apple Keynote Remote App?

One of the interesting things presented at MacWorld'09 was the new feature on iWork: the possibility to remote-control a Keynote presentation using your iPod Touch or iPhone. This is done by using this app (iTunes link).

However, if you browse the iTunes App Store a little bit you'll see that this is no innovation at all as many of these applications already exist (most of them require installing an extra app on your Mac to allow the controlling process):

• Keymote - free (Donationware)
  
• Pointer Remote - $0,99 (allows working with PowerPoint)
• iPresenter - $2,99 (works with PowerPoint only)
  
• jfControl - $3,99
  
• AirMote - $4,99 (doesn't require installing an app on your Mac)
  
• StageHand - $7,99 (more complete with some interesting features)
  
• RemoteBuddy - $19,99 (allows controlling much more than just presentations)

Source: TUAW

Mac Highlights of 2008

The UsingMac blog has made an impressive post with the highlights of the Mac world of 2008. From apps to tips, tricks, tweaks, plugins, wallpapers and tutorials, you'll find everything there. Have a look.

1 year of Mac: the best applications for Mac OS X

After 1 year of using Mac OS X, I believe I can now give some advise towards what applications you should definitely install on your Mac. To that end, I created this short list of applications (in alphabetical order) that I think are essential for any Mac user:

Adium - (free) the ultimate Instant Messaging application. I use it to talk with all my friends using MSN, GTalk, ICQ, Yahoo and pretty much every well-known IM infrastructure there is.

AppCleaner - (free) Uninstalling applications in Mac OS X is as simple as dragging them to the Trash. However, some applications leave some orphan files behind that, while most probably won't hurt your system, will eat up disk space. Using AppCleaner you can delete any trace of an application that you want to uninstall from your Mac.

Burn - (free) if what you want is a simple CD/DVD Burning application, then Burn is your thing. It burns data/music/images into DVDs and CDs with just a few clicks.

Cyberduck - (free) FTP made simple. Cyberduck allows you to access all kinds of repositories that use the FTP, SFTP or WebDAV protocols, even through SSH.

Disk Inventory X - (free) this is an excellent application for when your hard disk is getting full and you need to discover what's eating up disk space. It uses both a list view and a graphical view that allows you to quickly determine what file types are using more space.

Eclipse - (free) whether you work with Java, C++, PHP, HTML or any other programming language, Eclipse is the right IDE for intense development. It even has specific builds for Mac OS X.

Firefox - (free) Safari (the built-in Mac OS X browser) is quite good but it has some limitations, when compared to Firefox. Due to its extensions, Firefox is most definitely the best Internet browser that you can install on your Mac.

Growl - (free) Growl is one of those applications that it's too amazing to describe in just a few words. It's basically a way for some applications in Mac OS X to show bubble notifications to the user. However, these are totally configurable and the level of intrusiveness is totally defined by the user so as to avoid Windows-like boring notification messages.

Jumpcut - (free) if you write a lot of reports and you need to copy and paste data from several different sources, then you need an application like Jumpcut. This app is a simple viewer of your clipboard history that allows you to choose which (previously copied) text you want to paste at any given moment. Brilliant and quite useful for a programmer like me.

LiquidMac - (free) if your Mac has a sudden motion sensor (most Apple notebooks do) then you have to install this app. It uses the data from that sensor to simulate the behaviour of a liquid in your screen. That is, as you tilt the screen the liquid will behave just as if you were manipulating a bowl of water.

MenuMeters - (free) MenuMeters is a great way of keeping track of your Mac's resources. It allows displaying CPU, RAM, disk, network and lot more runtime information on the menubar at the top of Mac OS X's desktop.

NetNewsWire - (free) I used to use Google Reader as my RSS feeds reader, but it required me to have an Internet connection to access them [1]. NetNewsWire is the Mac OS X version of the news client for the Newsgator service and it is a lot better because it allows me to access my feeds offline, on my mobile phone, on the web (on any computer there of) and still maintain all these channels synchronized (read/unread/clippings/starred items).

Parallels - (Commercial) If you have Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) then you can use BootCamp to also install Windows on your Mac (if you absolutely totally need to do it). But for those that still run Tiger (10.4), we have to use virtualization and Parallels is exactly the tool for it. Too bad it's not free.

Phun - (free) this application allows you to play with a 2D physics environment right there on your Mac. When I first installed this I played with it for hours. It's just amazing and feels quite real. Fully recommended for physics students studying about masses, forces and engines.

Quicksilver - (free) It's an app launcher. No! It's a task shortcutter. No! It's an iTunes controller. No! It's an Address Book browser. No! It's all of that and much, much more! Quicksilver is one of the most amazing apps I've ever seen. But in due time, I'll create the ultimate post about it.

Skype - (free) who needs a description of Skype? It's simple, if you like to phone your friends that live abroad and pay nothing (or very little) for calling them, then you totally should install Skype.

Transmission - (free) if you want to download some files using the BitTorrent protocol then Transmission is the perfect application because it's direct and simple and is very lightweight (read "very low resource-consuming").

Thunderbird - (free) Apple Mail is great but again, extensions can turn Thunderbird into a much more powerful e-mail solution. The only bad thing about Thunderbird on Mac OS X is the lack of integration with Adress Book, but there are some ways of getting around that.

VLC - (free) this is the ultimate video player for Mac OS X. Quicktime is quite powerful but without the necessary codecs there are a lot movies that it won't be able to play [2]. VLC doesn't need codecs because they're already built-in the application.


[1] I know that Google Gears allows offline access to your feeds, but if by any chance you'd close your browser and then try to open Google Reader again when no connection is available, the browser won't even let you access the offline reader.

[2] I know Perian is a great solution but there are also some disadvantages in installing it.

1 year of Mac: Windows/Mac interoperability

One of the things that worried me the most when I decided to switch to Mac OS X, is the interoperability with Windows. Because I have to collaborate with some work colleagues that use Windows, namely in writing papers, reports, presentations and other documents, I had to make sure that switching to Mac wasn't going to jeopardize these collaboration activities.


The first step was to ensure that I could do the same things in Mac OS X that I was able to do in Windows. And to that end, the switcher's application guide and the how-to switch to Mac guide from the Tao of Mac were really helpful. For example, the application guide allowed me to discover that the Mac OS X's equivalent to Nero was Burn, a nice and simple CD\DVD burning application. And the switching guide is excellent to learn those small differences between the Windows environment and Mac OS X environment. Other guides were also useful.

The second step was to ensure that it was possible to maintain a fair level of interoperability between the two operating systems so as to make sure that I could still do my work once I switched. And to my surprise, the interoperability between the two systems is quite efficient and peaceful: whether it's for network file sharing (whether is PC-to-Mac or Mac-to-PC), playing media files between the two systems (for example, playing WMV files on a Mac), printer sharing (again PC-to-Mac or Mac-to-PC), Microsoft Office documents sharing (there's also a MS Office version for Mac) or instant messaging (just install Adium).

And if everything else fails, you can always just run Windows on your Mac, using virtualization software or simply by double-partitioning your hard disk with the two operating systems.

To this date I haven't had any problems working with colleagues that use Windows. In fact, I think that those with which I work remotely haven't even realized that I've switched to Mac :-)

Open Office 3 for Mac

As soon as I knew that a new version of Open Office was available for Mac, I decided to test it to see if they finally were able to create a valid competitor of Microsoft Office. Obviously, I don't expect an open source initiative (even with the dimension of Open Office) to reach the same level of completeness as Microsoft Office (hate Windows or not, fact is that Microsoft Office is an excellent tool). But at least, I would expect it to reach a certain level of compatibility.

First, let's have a look at the things that I liked in this new version:

• Speed - version 3.0.0 is in fact a lot faster than the previous version (2.4.1) I tested on my Mac. The launch app loads quickly and opening files is quite fast. The only thing that is not so smooth is window resizing.

What, no more good things?
Nope, that's it!

Now, for the problems I encountered:

• Native look - it still doesn't feel like a native Mac application (except for the speed). The looks still resemble a poorly-designed Java application. Also, Command + Shift + Left Arrow (Home) or Right Arrow (End) don't work as they should. Instead of selecting text from the beginning/end of the line untl the end/beginning of the line, it selects text word by word.
  
• Still no support for track changes - For me, this is one of Word's most important tools. When exchanging documents with colleagues, I often have to use track changes to suggest changes in parts of the documents and insert comments. So, a word processor that doesn't have this feature is quite useless to me. Other users may survive without this feature, though.
• Integration Open Office <--> Word - I decided to create a document in Word to test the integration between the two office suites. In this document I inserted the most common formatting that one can use (bullet points, headings, comments, track changes, tables, etc...). As I said before, no track changes support, which results in track changes text appearing as simple text with a different formatting (but no way of accepting or rejecting changes). And simple bullet points result in the strange symbol that you see on the image on the right. Even the integration between iWork's Pages and Microsoft Office is better.

For now, I haven't tested other Office applications such as Excel and Power Point, but as soon as I have the time, I'll have a look at it.
But, bottom line, my first experience with this new version of Open Office was not a good one. So, I guess we still have to wait a bit longer for a version that comes along and shakens the Microsoft Office's throne.

How to create programs that make use of the potential of your Macbook Pro

If you have a Macbook Pro, chances are that you've already made use of some of the unique functionalities that this great Apple laptop has, such as the Sudden Motion Sensor or the Ambient Light Sensor.

For example, here's a list of cool apps that use the Sudden Motion Sensor:

• AMSVisualizer - Just a simple app that allows you to view the behaviour of the sensor
  
• LiquidMac -Play with fluids...not real, don't worry
  
• MacSaber - for the Star Wars fan
• netPong - use your Macbook Pro as your board
• Stable Window - another simple app to see the behaviour of the sensor

These apps are really cool, but what if you want to create your own? Then, you have to use the right libraries. Daniel Shiffman was kind enough to create a Sudden Motion Sensor Library that you can use with Processing. And if you're looking to mess around with the Ambient Light Sensor, then use Martin Rädlinger's Ambient Light Sensor Library (to be used also with Processing).

Try them out. They should be simple enough to the experienced programmer.

How to fix iTunes video playback that crashes your Mac

Every now and then, while playing some video podcasts and movies on iTunes, when the mouse hovers the movie (to trigger the appearance of the controls), my Mac completely freezes and I have to do a hard-reset. I couldn't figure out what caused this...until now.

If you remember, a few months back I posted a nice tip on how to enhance FrontRow in order to watch all kinds of video files, instead of just Quicktime files. This included installing Perian, a component plugin for QuickTime that adds native support for many popular video formats.

What I failed to notice is that this component somehow conflicts with video playback on iTunes and was the cause of these crashes. But since it only happened ocasionaly with certain video files I wasn't able to find the relation between the two applications.

But today, as I was doing some maintenance on my System Preferences, I notice the Perian section and decided to have a look and suddenly everything made sense: Perian makes some changes so as to allow playback of different video formats, right? So it must deal with video codecs, right? So, it may be related to the video crashes on iTunes... I decided to remove Perian and "voilá"...everything seems to be working just fine in iTunes now. At least, the videos that frequently crashed my Mac, now work like a charm.

Spore Origins for iPod: my review

As soon as I knew that a version of Spore was released for 5G iPods, I "ran to the nearest" iTunes store and purchased the game (here). This is what I've been playing for the last 2 days (that is, whenever I have my iPod around and have some free time to kill).


Spore Origins is more of a teaser than an actual game, but it is still great fun. It allows you to play the first stage of the newly-released game Spore, a simulation-based game (kind of like The Sims) that allows you to control a living being from its micro-cellular stage up to a level where space exploration takes place.

For now, I won't be playing Spore as it was only released for Mac OS X Leopard and since I only have Tiger installed, this will have to wait until I upgrade. By the way, if you're one of the lucky guys that is already playing Spore, check out the cheat codes for the game.

But we're here to talk about Spore Origins and I have to say that I didn't have this much fun with my iPod ever since I purchased iQuiz. You start the game as a small organism which has to survive by eating smaller organisms and staying away from larger ones. But as you keep going and collect DNA points, you're able to "evolve" your organism and add some features to it, such as enhancing its movement, defence or attack capabilities.

This is where the game gets really interesting, because the level of flexibility allows gamers to create the strangest organisms that you can imagine. Check out a demo video:


But these changes in your living being should not be made lightly as they will determine its success throughout the following levels. For example, I had to restart the game because I didn't "invest" in defence capabilities and got "stuck" in a level where these were crucial for my organism's survivability.

I know what you're thinking: being an iPod game, it can't be that interesting because the controls are very limited. Well, it doesn't feel that way, I assure you. The click-wheel, as with everything with the iPod, is very intuitive and it feels like a normal joystick in a typical 2D game.

Even though this game is just a way of opening up your appetite for the real deal, you can still have some real fun while in the train/bus on your way to work.

Fully recommended!

No Google Chrome for Mac? Don't worry, Firefox will do just fine

At first I was somewhat sad that Google didn't release a Mac OS X version of their new open ultra-mega-super-sweet browser, Chrome. Well, why shouldn't I? They even published a nice comic book that explains how they came up with it.

But then everything went back to normal when this Lifehacker's post reminded me why it's so great to have extensions in Firefox. :-)


Anyway, this won't stop me from trying the Mac OS X version of Google Chrome as soon as it's released. I'm actually looking forward to it. Well, let's wait and see...

How to efficiently manage your clipboard

Working with multiple text documents can be a very tough task, specially when you have a lot of copy-pasting to do. And the usual shortcut keys (Cmd+C, Cmd+V), while very handy, are not enough to deal with multiple pieces of text.

That's why Jumpcut is so great:

"Jumpcut is an application that provides "clipboard buffering" — that is, access to text that you've cut or copied, even if you've subsequently cut or copied something else. The goal of Jumpcut's interface is to provide quick, natural, intuitive access to your clipboard's history."

It allows you to set a hot key dedicated to this special "Paste" feature and then, with an interface similar to Quicksilver, you can choose which of the previous "Copys" you want to use.

Give it a try. It's quite handy!