TIVGGMF February 2007 issue #4
Monthly Newsletter fromEmiratesMac User Group
>Mac 911
Macworld Expo 2007
>Review: Macbook Core 2 Duo >Make your own iPhone!
MJ visits the Mother Ship! - par t 2
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Contents
Contents A word from the editor Comic corner Single User Mode Saves Macbook! Review: iWoz MJ Visits the Mother Ship Review: Macbook Core 2 Duo Review: Belkin USB and FireWire 6-Port Hub for Mac mini Mac911: Solutions to your most vexing Mac problems Dashboard Widgets on Desktop Eject a Disc that is Stuck Emiratesmac.com tips and tricks Review: 2nd Generation iPod Nano Review: OmniWeb Macworld Expo 2007 iPhone papercraft fun Recipe: Chicken and Apples in Honey Mustard Sauce Review: Alpha Baby Mac Keyboard Shortcuts Photoshop tutorial: brushed metal text Review: A first look at Micrsoft’s Zune Special Offers Join EMUG
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Editorial
A word from the editor Apple begins the next 30 years..
I would be remiss if this issue and this editorial didn’t focus on Macworld Expo and what announcements Apple made there. The iPhone was undoubtedly the main announcements and it has reverberated around the world, even in many traditionally non-Apple circles. Even here in the Emirates we’ve seen how businesses that never touched Apple products before are now interested. We even posted on the site about an email we received from a major mobile phone retailer in the Emirates, asking us about when we could sell them iPhones and at what price. With the iPhone Apple enters a new phase. They have to deal with issues they’ve not dealt with before and they stand to gain a lot but also to loose a lot. With the iPod Apple started what seems
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to be a steady march into more mainstream consumer electronics. They even dropped “computer” from the company name, probably more significant than any other news from Macworld Expo. Will this mean that there will come a day when there will be no more Mac computers? Perhaps, but I think that day is far off into the future. One thing that doesn’t seem to have changed though is Apple’s focus on hardware and software. They still seem to be making the best hardware around, and tightly integrate it with the best software available. The Apple TV is I think also a bit of a gamble. And a question many of us have is will it replace the Mac mini? Personally I’d be sad to see the mini go, but I would not be at all surprised. Whether it is another sign that Apple is
moving away from computers as we know them, I don’t know. I do think we’re slowly going to see a changing role for the Mac over the coming years, both in how it’s designed and its intended use. EmiratesMac had a small gathering in Dubai during the keynote speech and we had a lot of fun. This is something we hope to repeat at future events. I think there’s a lot of interested in Apple in the Emirates as the growth of the site and our user group has shown. I for one is eagerly looking forward to the next time Steve Jobs gets on stage for a major announcement. Leopard, anyone?
Comic Corner
Comic corner Blaugh.com has generously given their permission for EMUG to reprint their comic strip in our newsletter. Go to http://www. blaugh.com to see a new comic strip every day. Use the code “blaugh� when you shop at www.Godaddy.com to get 10% off your purchase.
Geekculture.com has generously given their permission for EMUG to reprint their comic strip in our newsletter. Go to http://www. geekculture.com/ joyoftech/ to see a new comic strip every day. Make sure you also check out all the other features on the Geekculture.com web site.
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Single User Mode Saves Macbook! by Magnus
Not long ago I had problems with my Macbook that I eventually fixed by booting into Single User Mode (SUM). Basically booting into SUM means booting your Mac into the command line interface that lies at the heart of everything your Mac does, and not the nice looking Aqua graphical user interface (GUI). I know many of you are saying why would I want to know any command line typing stuff when I can just click with the mouse? The simple answer is that knowing how to do some things at the command line can help you do things that are not possible with the GUI. What happened made me be thankful to Apple for putting in command line access in Mac OS X. I know some of you don’t like command line stuff, but listen to this and you may change your mind. I was installing Bootcamp on my Core 2 Duo Macbook because I was giving a presentation at work about how you can run Windows on Mac. I already had Parallels working beautifully and I saw no reason to get Bootcamp as well but what the heck, I thought, I’d show them both options. I downloaded the Bootcamp installer, ran it, cre-
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ated the drivers disk, partitioned the Mac hard disk, and at the last screen when you should click for Bootcamp to restart the Mac, I clicked and I got the dreaded “You need to restart your computer” message, meaning something had gone terribly wrong. So I rebooted the Mac and held down the Option key to see if I could get into Windows to install it and selected the Windows XP installer CD. It booted,
installed Windows without problems, installed Apple’s drivers, and everything was dandy. So when Windows XP was all set up I wanted to get back into Mac OS X (who wants to stay in Windows?) and I got that error again, same thing as before. I tried booting from the Mac OS X installer disk, same thing. I tried all things I could think of, no luck. Only thing that worked was booting back into Windows (ah, the irony!) What to do? I tried SUM by hold-
ing down Command and S when the Macbook booted up. It went into the command line without problems and once that was finished I typed in “/sbin/fsck -fy”. That command runs the utility that checks a volume to see if it’s feeling okay. It’s kind of like running the Disk Utility. After just a few seconds it started to show all kinds of error messages on the screen and after around 10 minutes it was apparently done. And it said “** The volume Macintosh HD was repaired successfully”. Oh, bliss, I was happy again. But just to be sure, I ran the same command again and it reported no errors. To finish off, I typed “reboot” and the Macbook rebooted straight into Mac OS X and all works fine now. Finally, let me add one suggestion: before attempting anything with Bootcamp, make sure you have backed up your Mac. In this situation I had done a complete backup just before trying the installation.
Review
Review: iWoz by Magnus
Steve Jobs may be the best known of It ends with the design of the Apple which the co-founders of Apple Computer, I and the emergence of Apple Cominputer. Woz, in this part, talks to the evitably and the one credited with saving the reader with excitement and interest, sets in company in the late 1990’s. But if like he was Jobs is the public face and saviour of really having as a company grows is Apple, Steve Wozniak is the heart of “I remember I was driving Steve a good time something he has little Apple, and for many the one of the back from the airport along then. And patience for, I’m sure. two Steves they feel is more at the Highway 85. Steve was coming it’s probHe spends much time core of what Apple actually stands back from a visit to Oregon to a ably true talking about the Apple for. Wozniak, or Woz for short, is place he called an ‘apple orthat some of III which he describes as the engineering mastermind behind chard’. It was actually some kind the hapa hugh failure because it much of Apple’s early products of commune. Steve suggested a piest days was “designed by comincluding the Apple II. If Steve Jobs name - Apple Computer.” - Woz of his life mittee”, for example. is the extrovert salesman who puts so far was This is a bit puzzling since on a show a few times a year and those early days of exploration and most people would probably read dazzles the crowds with this “realexperimentation. He describes with the book to learn more about Apple’s ity distortion field”, Steve Wozniak passion the moment history and there’s little new that is reis blissfully without he realized that vealed here. But if you’re a true Apple any “distortion “So much of the informamaking a comfan you will enjoy it anyway. The field” and comes tion out there about me is puter displaying book is throughout filled with techniacross as just being wrong. I’ve come to hate text and graphcal details that the average reader will himself. Basically ics was going to probably just skip over because they’re the book is divided books about Apple and its revolutionize the too advanced. Woz tries his best to into three parts. history so much because of future, and he had describe them in a simple way, and The first deals with that. For instance, there are they are probably of interest to the built the very fist Woz’s childhood stories that I dropped out of computer that did more technically-savvy readers. Also and school-years, college (I didn’t) or that I was that. Unfortunate- for the more technically interested the the middle part thrown out of the University early parts of the book contain some ly when it comes is his work at of Colorado (I wasn’t), that revealing stories about the early days to describing the HP and budding Steve and I were high school birth of Apple and of personal computers. In conclusion partnership with classmates (we were several his work at Apple, this is not the best or most enjoyable Jobs, and the last years apart in school) and book about Apple, but it is unique in Woz seems to alpart deals with his that Steve and I engineered most doze off and that it tells Wozniak’s side of the story. work with Apple those first computers togethjust write the very If nothing else, it’s well worth readand thereafter. ing just for that fact alone. If you’re necessary things The first part two er (I did them alone).” - Woz to get the book looking for a great book, iWoz isn’t parts are exciting to the end. My it. If you’re looking for a great book and entertaining, about one of the key people in Apple’s guess is that he was telling tales of how never that excited about working there, history, this is it. Woz learned about electronics from especially after the company grew to his father, his first constructions and a Fortune 500 size. Corporate politics his first encounters with Steve Jobs.
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MJ visits the Mother Ship > Part 2 of 3
MJ Visits the Mother Ship by Mohammed
During a recent visit to California I had the great pleasure of spending some time at Apple’s headquarters and some other tech companies in Silicon Valley. I wrote about my experience and here is the second part. In part one I introduced you to the Mother Ship and told you some about what my initial experience was when I went to Apple in California. The second part will continue our journey at Apple and reveal more details. This amazing tour that I had all day, was given to me by one of the iMen working there, a friend I am in debt to for the rest of my life, and don’t know how to repay him back for what he has done. Misho is his nickname and Apple is his game. This iMan, like no other, has given me a bite out of Apple, and made all my dreams come true. I thank you Misho, and appreciate the effort and time you have given me to see this wonderful place. I felt like a little kid, seeing Disneyland for the very first time in my life, and playing in rides like no other. After riding in a train for an hour from San Francisco to Cupertino, Mountain View area, Misho was their waiting for me in the Applemobile. Yes, his car did have an Apple sticker, if you
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were wondering. We had never seen each other before, just spoke on the phone, but he knew me immediately when he saw me. Obviously I was wearing Apple gear on me, that’s pretty much how he knew it was me. Then he went along with his mission of abducting me. We drove to The Mother Ship, and talked the whole way about my trip and Apple. When we reached the Mother Ship, we drove around the surrounding buildings. He showed which is which, but we only got to go into the iGym. Their gym was nice and simple, all the equipments you need to get in shape was available. Plus they had a lot of iMacs on the sides for you to log on and check mail, or browse the net. They also had a slide
show on their iMacs that showed pictures of sporting events they had held in the past. When we were done with that we headed off to the Mother Ship. Misho parked in the underground parking that was designed for the employees. Building five was where we started our journey inside the Mother Ship. I logged in to one of the iMacs in the front desk lobby of the building. I have put my name, company and person I am here to visit. A printed ID was instantly made with an ID number; I took it and walked in. I still have that ID and stuck it on my 17” Powerbook G4. It was amazing, no one was at work for it was a holiday, but security was
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tight and around the clock. But was Appleholic scared? No way, I had my main man here, an iMan in the flesh. I felt like I could run around like a kid and do anything I want and he would protect me if I got in trouble, it felt so much fun. We went upstairs and into his Office. We sat down and I started asking so many questions, I had
so much to say, yet I was speechless cause I couldn’t believe I was where I was. I still thought it was dream, and told Misho to pinch me. He told me about their work system, and his line of work at Apple, the things he do and how he does them. I told him it must be amazing to work for one of the most innovative companies in the world. But being an iMan for so long, doesn’t seem like it means so much to them as much as it does for us mere mortals. He told me, Appleholic, yes, Apple is amazing, and their gadgets are so cool and some products are way ahead of their time, and advanced. Being a simple user of Mac as myself, it does sound amazing to work for the most innovative company, but working for the company is whole different ball game. It’s nice, but it’s also tough and time consuming with loads of deadlines, where you really will have to learn and cope with how to work
under pressure. Expect anything! The CEO Steve Jobs can walk in any time and say “I need something of this and that sort and with these capabilities on my desk in a short period of time”. So the clock will be ticking and your deadline has to be met or else the consequences could be unpleasant. He also told me about their work schedule. They start work at 8am, but then their working hours are so flexible as long as you can get your work done. So you can walk in and out pretty much as you please, and that explains how sometimes when Apple fans that tend to sneak around the Mother Ship would see lights on at 10pm, or 11pm or even 12 midnight. They have a 24-hour access to their offices and labs. They want the best results on their products so they have to offer the best facilities. They do pay for some of their food if your working over time at night, they got names of restaurants that would deliver to the building they are working in. They have a large cafeteria that makes almost everything, with slid down projector screens for the employees to watch special keynote presentations presented by Steve Jobs at the special events like Macworld and WWDC. Doesn’t that sound neat?
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MJ visits the Mother Ship
I wish I could attend one of these events in the near future.
is that! Using the iToilet of Apple was a tight experience.
They already had a huge Christmas tree in the lobby of building one with iMen being able to donate something by placing gifts under the tree. I have actually seen one of the big shots at Apple while I passed by the Christmas tree; he was chilling with a friend and talking to him. I couldn’t help but stare at him like a weirdo. It was Bertrand one of the VPs if I am not mistaken. He was the iMan that got on stage on WWDC 2006 and showed how Microsoft’s new yet unimpressive operating system Vista is a replica of Tiger. He was funny; he cracked me up that day. Anyways, as we walked all around, I even got the privilege to use the iToilet! How cool
I also reminded Misho that I have an iMan friend that I knew from college. We both graduated together as Electrical Engineers, but he got the opportunity to work as an intern at Apple. When I mentioned his name, Misho knew him immediately and told me where he worked; which was one floor above him. He showed me his cubical and I wrote my college friend a note on a posted and stuck it on his Apple display for him to see when he gets to work on Monday. After spending most of the day at the Mother Ship we gave some time for the surrounding neighbor companies that co-existed with Apple. Silicon Valley was rich with most of the big innovative com-
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panies. We visited Intel, and checked out their museum. We visited NVidia and passed by Sony. I saw a lot of companies like Tivo and other big shot companies that have acres of land in that area. Misho then finally took me to huge electronics store in that area. It was like a huge supermarket made just for electronics. How cool is that? We browsed through it very quickly and left. He then dropped me off at the train station at night and said “Mission Accomplished”. In part three I will finish up my story about the stay in California, and tell you the final chapters of what I did at Apple.
Review
Review: Macbook Core 2 Duo by Magnus
When the Macbook was released last year it became an instant hit with customers. It’s been selling like hot cakes, as the expression goes. That seems to have been reinforced after Apple upgraded the Macbook to the Core 2 Duo processor.
Not that much is new There’s really not much to write about in this review. The things that Apple changed in the upgrade is obviously
the processor, they put in an 802.11nready wifi, bigger hard drives, and you can now get Dual Layer supporting SuperDrives in Macbooks. The improvements seem to have helped the Core 2 Duo Macbooks to be around 20% faster than their predecessors, according to reports, and they sure feels snappier in most applications.
What stayed the same Well, everything else, really. The new Macbooks have the same gorgeous, 13.3-inch glossy wide screen with 1280x800 pixels, that is sharp and produces brilliant colors. There’s still Airport Extreme, Bluetooth, Firewire 400, built-in iSight camera, and Gigabit Ethernet for communications, the trackpad with which you can scroll with two fingers, and optical as well as digital analog audio in and out. What has also stayed are the MagSafe power
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Review adaptor and a mini-DVI port for hooking the Macbook up to external projectors or monitors. The Macbook supports monitors up to the 23-inch Cinema Display. Also the differences to the Macbook Pro line of notebooks stay the same. The main one is the graphics card which is still Intel’s integrated graphics in the Macbook and a dedicated card in the Pro line. For most users this probably matters little but it’s something to be aware of. Also, the Macbooks lack an Expresscard slot, and they only have Firewire 400 (there’s Firewire 800 in the Macbook Pros). Wifi problems We tested the 1.83GHz MacThe 802.11n-ready book Core 2 Duo with 2Gb RAM, wifi has apparCombo drive, and 60Gb hard ently led to some drive. You can find the Macproblems with wifi books in MacStore in Abu Dhabi connections. One and Dubai: The white Macbook really annoying 1.83GHz/512/60/Combo sells problem we ran into for 5299Dhs, the white Macbook repeatedly was that 2.0GHz/1Gb/80/SuperDrive (DL) the Macbook would sells for 6099Dhs, and the black refuse to connect to Macbook 2.0GHz/1Gb/120/Suseveral wifi base staperDrive (DL) sells for 6999Dhs. tions. We had problems with Linksys as well as 3Com and whenever any security was added the Macbook would not connect. We understand many other owners of Core 2 Duo Macbooks also experience problems so this is apparently not uncommon. Summing up What can I say? The Core 2 Duo Macbook is a cracking notebook. If you want the smallest notebook that Apple currently makes you don’t have much choice: it’s the Macbook. But being almost as fast as the Macbook Pros in a smaller package, it’s going to appeal to many, and it’s great value for money. If you already have a Core Duo Macbook there is little incentive to upgrade. But if you’re moving from an older Mac you’ll be impressed with the new, speedier Macbook.
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Review: Belkin USB and FireWire 6-Port Hub for Mac mini by Magnus
Belkin is a well known name in Mac and iPod accessories and their usual quality and thought is evident in this product. This is a USB and Firewire hub intended to extend the connectivty of a Mac mini. The hub features four USB 2.0 ports and two Firewire 400 ports. One of each port is on the front of the hub. It’s case is the same milky white color that Apple uses in their products, and it has exactly the same outer dimensions as a Mac mini. This obviously means that it looks very good sitting on top of or beneath a Mac mini. My only wish is that it would use the same brushed aluminum as the mini which would make it blend in even more. It should be pointed out that even though this hub is particularly made to be used with a Mac mini it could just as well be used with any Mac or PC. A potential downside for some users is that the hub is powered by the Mac mini meaning it does not have it’s own power supply. This may mean that some devices that you try to connect will not have enough power. That said, without a power supply, installation is easier and looks neater, and most devices will very likely still work fine. So who should invest in this hub? Really, it’s only if you are going to use it with a Mac mini that it makes sense. You can find other hubs that have the same functionality for less money. The attractiveness is the mini form factor. But if You can find further informayou’re looktion about Belkin’s products at ing to expand http://www.belkin.com. The your Mac tested hub was supplied by Belmini, look no kin in Dubai, and it sells in the further than US for $49.99. We couldn’t get a this hub from price in the UAE in time for this Belkin. publication to go to press.
Mac 911
Mac911: Solutions to your most vexing Mac problems by Christopher Breen
Restoring sidebar entries I accidentally removed the Computer entry from the Finder sidebar. How can I get it back?--Nathan Parker
of Johan Carlsson’s Get Smart Folder Contents Automator action (macworld.com/1461). Install this action and then create the following workflow:
1. Get Smart Folder Contents. From It’s easy enough to lose things in the the pop-up menu, select the smart sidebar--drag them out, and they disappear in a puff of smoke. Thankfully, folder that contains the files you want they’re easy to replace. Choose Finder: to back up. 2. Copy Finder Preferences, click Items. Choose “It’s easy enough to lose on the Sidebar the burn folder tab, and enable things in the sidebar--drag you just created Computer. Your them out, and they disappear from this action’s computer will in a puff of smoke.” To pop-up menu. reappear in the Assuming you’ll sidebar. Want to always be burning the add other items to the sidebar? Just folder’s contents to disc immediately select them in the Finder and press after running this workflow, click on Command-T. the Options triangle and enable the Replacing Existing Files option. This will ensure that the workflow copies Smarter backup burning only truly new files to the burn folder I’ve got a smart folder in the Finder (see top screenshot). Once you’ve conto track files created or modified figured the after a certain date. I would love workflow to to be able to burn the contents of your satisfacthis folder to a disc for backup. But tion, choose it looks as though it contains only File: Save aliases. Is there any way to burn the As and save actual files to disc?--Victor Navone the workflow as an application. When you’re You can do it, if you use Automator ready to copy the current contents in league with a burn folder. First, in of your smart folder to the burn the Finder create a burn folder (File: folder, double-click on the app you’ve New Burn Folder.) Next, grab a copy created. Insert a blank disc in your
burner, and click on the burn folder’s Burn button. You can accomplish much the same thing less conveniently without Automator. Just create a burn folder, open the smart folder containing your recently modified files, and drag its contents to the burn folder. Although the smart folder’s contents are aliases, the burn folder will burn the original files to the disc. Tweaking Pages’ templates Is there any way to change the default paper size and font in Apple’s Pages documents? My new documents always open in A4 paper size, and I end up changing them to letter size every time.--David Albrecht My fervent prayer is that a future version of Mac OS will allow you to save
individual Page Setup configurations for each application--A4 in Pages, US Legal in Keynote, and so on. Until that happens, you have to hold out hope that the application in question
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Mac 911 provides a way to modify its templates will zoom in by a factor of 2x, with and save those modifications. Fortuthe cursor in the middle of the magninately, Pages does. For example, if you fied area. To move around, simply routinely choose the Business Letter drag to an edge; the screen will scroll template from in that direction (see Pages’ templates middle screenshot). sheet, choose it, To zoom out, press “My fervent prayer is that a make the changes Command-opfuture version of Mac OS will you want to its tion-minus key (-). allow you to save individual font and Page To toggle zooming Page Setup configurations for on and off, press Setup settings, each application.” and choose File: Command-optionSave As Tem8. You can cusplate. Give it a tomize all of these name you’re likely keyboard commands to remember--My Business Letters, in the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the for example--and click on Save. The Keyboard & Mouse preference pane. template, complete with your new font and Page Setup settings, will be Slimming Mail’s IMAP messages saved to the My Templates folder and Sometimes, when I’m using Mail will appear when you click on the My to check my IMAP e-mail account Templates entry in Pages’ templates for one brief text message, I have sheet. to wait while a message with a huge file attachment downloads first. Is there A roomful of zoom Recently, I attended a workshop any way to look at just where the presenter was using the headers before Mail downloads entire mesKeynote. When he wanted to show something on his screen in detail, sages?--Tony Sturges he was able to zoom in on the cursor. Do you know how he did this?-- Mail won’t allow you to Greg Larson download just the headers. But it will let you download your messages My guess is that he used the Univerwithout their attachments. sal Access preference pane, like so: Launch System Preferences and click To do this, select Preferences: Accounts and select on the Universal Access preference your IMAP account. Click pane. In the Seeing tab, enable the Zoom option and click on Options. In on the Advanced tab. In the Keep Copies Of Mesthe sheet that appears, set the Maxisages For Offline Viewing pop-up mum Zoom slider to 2 and leave the menu, choose All Messages, But Omit Minimum Zoom slider where it is. Attachments. From now on, Mail Enable the Only When The Pointer Reaches An Edge option at the bottom will download just the messages. To retrieve attachments, you will have of the sheet and click on Done. Next, to click on the Save button in the in the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard & Mouse pane, make sure messages that contain them. For POP you’ve enabled all the Universal Access accounts, you can ask Mail to prompt you before downloading messages shortcuts. When you’re ready to highlight something on screen, press Com- over a certain size. To do so, select the mand-option-equal sign (=). Your Mac POP account, choose the Advanced
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tab, and enter a value in the field that reads Prompt Me To Skip Messages Over X KB. When a message comes in that exceeds the size you’ve set, Mail will ask you whether you want to skip it. I do wish Mail was a bit more flexible in this regard. Let’s say you’ve set up a schedule to download your mail every hour and you’re not sitting in front of your computer when it starts. If you don’t respond to Mail’s prompt within 15 seconds, it will go ahead and start downloading messages even if they exceed your size limits. Entourage, on the other hand, allows you to download a portion of any message that exceeds a certain size. This means you can peruse the subjects at your leisure offline and then choose exactly which messages you want to download.
Covering your tracks I’d like to delete specific, saved Google search entries without having to reset Safari. Is there a way to delete such cached entries individually?--Via the Internet It’s possible to cherry-pick the searches you’d like to clear, but frankly, it’s a pain in the neck. As Mac 911 forum reader Peter Weber explains it, this
Mac 911 automatically remove items from its Downloads window, it won’t create autofill entries, and it won’t add searches to the Google search field.
and click on Create. In the resulting project window, drag the movie into the Video track to separate the video and audio (into the Video and Video Sound tracks, respectively). You can now nudge the audio track to get it into sync. Choose Share: Export “For years I ignored the Movie To Disk Launcher, but now that it’s when you’re done. living in my Dock, I use it
is what you have to do: quit Safari, launch the Property List Editor from the Developer Tools (an optional installation found on the Mac OS X Installer disc), open /Library/Preferences/com.apple .Safari.plist, and look for recent searches in the RecentSearchStrings. Once you’ve found that list, select each entry you’d like to remove and click on the Property List Editor’s Delete button. Close the window and click on Save in the sheet that appears, and the entries you deleted will no longer appear in the list of searches. If you’d rather save your neck, there are a couple of ways to clear out old searches en masse. The first is to click on the magnifying-glass icon in Safari’s Google search field and choose Clear Recent Searches. This prevents prior searches from appearing as autofill entries. Firefox includes a similar feature. Just control-click on the Google search field and choose Clear Search History. To complete the cleansing, open Safari: Preferences, click on the AutoFill tab, and click on the Edit button next to the Other Forms entry. Choose .google.com from the sheet that appears and click on Remove. This zaps any Google autofills. If you want to prevent Safari from recording your searches in the future, turn on Private Browsing (found under the Safari menu). With Private Browsing on, Safari won’t add Web pages to its history, it will
Sunk by sync In iPhoto, I can create perfectly synchronized slide shows in which the much more often.” images and Tip of the month soundtrack Launching at the Ofmatch up perfectly. But when I try fice: Every time I install Microsoft Ofto export such slide shows to a fice, it insists on putting all the Office QuickTime movie, the pictures and applications in the Dock. I have quite sound fall out of sync. What can I enough applications there already, do?--Craig Crossman thank you. There’s only one Office application I do want there: the Project Gallery Launcher (/Applications/MiThe solution is to not use iPhoto. Instead, open a new iMovie project, im- crosoft Office 2004/Office/Project Gallery Launcher). The Project Galport your pictures as still images (you lery Launcher streamlines two daily can import multiple images by dragtasks: First, I often use templates--my ging them into the clip bin), adjust electronic letterhead, fax cover sheet, their length as necessary (by selecting or a blank document--to start new a photo, clicking on Show Photo Setdocuments. The Launcher makes the tings, and adjusting the tortoise-hare process of picking a template and slider), and add a soundtrack to one starting a new document simple. of the program’s two audio tracks. Second, I can easily look up recent When everything is to your liking, Office documents from the Launcher, export the project as a QuickTime which has a preview pane that lets me movie. Choose File: Export, click on view those documents by date (Today, the QuickTime tab, and select an Yesterday, This Week, Last Week, and export setting from the Compress so on). Best of all, it’s really quick. Movie For pop-up menu. Or send it For years I ignored the Launcher, to iDVD by choosing Share: iDVD. If you’ve already exported your iPhoto but now that it’s living in my Dock, slide show as a QuickTime movie and I use it much more often. And since you’d rather not re-create it in another picking a template requires opening application, drag the movie into a new the Launcher anyway, why not keep it close at hand?--K. M. Peterson iMovie project. Place it in the timeline, and choose Advanced: Extract Tools of the trade Audio to place the movie’s audio into a track of its own. Once you’ve got The Extended Network the audio separated, you can pull it You’ve got an iMac in your home ofback into sync. Again, choose File: fice, a Mac mini nestled into your livExport to save the synced- up movie in QuickTime. You can do something ing-room entertainment center, and a MacBook that follows you around the similar with GarageBand 3: launch rest of the house. For you, the days of it, choose New movie Score from the one computer and one Internet conopening window, name your project, nection are over--you want access to
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Mac 911 the Web from wherever you are. Here are some tools that will help. Wireless Router With a wireless router you can blast your cable or DSL connection throughout your house. Countless companies, including Linksys, Netgear, Belkin, and D-Link, offer wireless-G routers for around $50. Or you can go with the higher-priced ($199)-
USB connector on one end and an Ethernet port on the other. Plug a USB device into the connector, and string an Ethernet cable between your router and the adapter. With a little fiddling, that device should appear on the network. A Hefty Hunk of Cat-5 Cable Sometimes, only wires will do. When you need to add an old computer to a network, keep some Category 5 Ethernet cable on hand; a 25-foot cable should do.
> Hint
Dashboard Widgets on Desktop by Yasir
-though more easily configured-Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station. If you opt for the AirPort Extreme Base Station, pick up one of Apple’s $129 AirPort Express boxes. It will extend your wireless network by linking it to the larger Extreme Base Station. This used to be a confounding process, but with the latest AirPort software, it’s a cinch. Power-Line Adapters If wireless won’t reach, try a pair of HomePlug adapters. These devices plug into your home’s power outlets and transfer data across your electrical wiring, and they’re available from a variety of vendors, in both USB and Ethernet flavors, for around $120 a pair. USB Network Adapter You’d like to network your TiVo receiver, but it has no Ethernet port. No problem. Pick up a USB network adapter from your favorite Mac accessories vendor. These small devices, which cost a little over $20, offer a
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You know how Mac OS X slows things down when you hold down the shift key and minimize a window, for example? That also works with Expose. Hold down the shift key while you call up Expose and see it happen in slow motion. It also works with Dashboard. Now the real kicker here is that you can use this to drag a widget onto your desktop. First open the Dashboard
and the Dashboard menu at the bottom of the screen. Then while holding down the shift key, drag a widget onto the dashboard while its expanding slowly. Then let go of the shift key (but keep hold of the widget) and close the dashboard and then let go. It even does that splash effect on your desktop.
> Hint
Eject a Disc that is Stuck by Magnus
A DVD didn’t want to eject from my Macbook. I right-clicked on the icon on the desktop and chose Eject, no luck. I pressed the eject key on the keyboard, no result. It sounded like it was being ejected but it never was and it kept coming back up on the desktop. I found a suggestion somewhere which said go to the hard drive, then System, Library, Core Services, Menu
Extras, and double click on Eject. menu. This puts a small eject icon in the menu bar. Choosing Eject from that menu spit the DVD right out. By the way, if you want to remove the little icon from the menu bar, press the Command key and drag the icon out of the menu bar.
Tips and tricks
> www.emiratesmac.com
Emiratesmac.com tips and tricks by Magnus
We continue our series of tips and tricks for how to do certain things at Emiratesmac. com. The intent is to tell our users about some of the perhaps less well known features and functions on the site in order to make their experience with the site a bit better. This time we focus on one feature, chat. We’ve had a Flash-based chat system installed for some time but it never really worked that well. Most recently during the Macworld Expo keynote many users were repeatedly kicked off the chat. So I decided to look for a replacement that could at least for now work for us. What I settled for was IRC. IRC is not the latest and greatest technology and it certainly isn’t the most stylish of chat solutions but it’s tried, tested, and reliable. Some of you may have followed an IRC channel at events like WWDC and Macworld Expo so you know that it can take a lot of users at the same time. How to connect You basically have two choices for accessing our chat. In the menu bar on the site there’s a link to the Chat. If you click on it a new window will open and after a little while a Java application that connects to our chatroom. The other option is to use a dedicated IRC client software, something like Colloquy.
matic connection between your username on the site and in IRC, so it’s up to you to set up your username in IRC and reserve it so others cannot use it. My suggestion would be to try to protect it as soon as you can. We recommend you use the same nickname in the chat as you do on the site so others will recognize you. IRC Channel The particular IRC server the Java chat client connects you to is a server on the Freenode network. The Freenode network is a network of IRC servers spread all over the world with thousands of chatrooms that can be used for free. We have registered with Freenode as Emiratesmac and we have a channel (chatroom) called #emiratesmac. It is reserved by us but at the moment access is not controlled so anyone can get in there. Nickname In IRC every user has a nickname, similar to the username you have on Emiratesmac.com. There is no auto-
Reserve your nickname We recommend you reserve your nickname in the chat, meaning that no one else can use the same nickname as you. Even if you reserve a nickname it expires (and anyone else can then reserve it) after 60 days of not being used. When you first connect with Colloquy you have to specify which server you connect to and what your
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Tips and tricks being away from IRC for a while and displays the message you enter. When you come back you type “/away” again. You have access to all the same commands in the Java client. Time will tell what users think of this new form of chat and how well it
nickname will be. The password you can fill in later. Once you’re connected go to the Console and type “/msg nickserv register <your-password>”. This will protect your nickname with a password so no one else can use it. You can hide your email address by entering “/msg nickserv set hide email on” but for admins to be able to contact you, you should set your email address with “/msg nickserv set email <your-email-address>”. Other commands Although you can do most anything you need with the menus and contextual menus in Colloquy, some basic commands may be helpful to know. By entering “/whois <username>” you can see some basic information about a particular user. The command “/away <message>” sets your status to
You can download Colloquy for free from http://colloquy.info/. There are other IRC clients for Mac OS X but my preference has for a long time been Colloquy. It has advanced functionality that can satisfy advanced users and at the same time it’s easy to get going for the beginner.
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“Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of real-time Internet chat or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group (many-to-many) communication in discussion forums called channels, but also allows oneto-one communication and data transfers via private message. IRC was created by Jarkko Oikarinen in late August 1988 to replace a program called MUT (MultiUser talk) on a BBS called OuluBox in Finland. Oikarinen found inspiration in Bitnet Relay Chat which operated on the Bitnet network. IRC gained prominence when it was used to report on the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 throughout a media blackout. It was previously used in a similar fashion by Kuwaitis during the Iraqi invasion.” From WikiPedia (http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat)
works. It should present us with less performance problems than our previous chat did. But it’s not as easy to use and it’s not integrated with the rest of the site. Even though we’re a user group that have meetings in person at least once a month, a chat system could be very useful for us. Everyone is not always able to come to meetings and events and this is one way they could participate albeit in a limited fashion.
Freenode has a FAQ at http:// freenode.net/faq.shtml and you can find a list of Freenode servers at http://freenode.net/irc_ servers.shtml.
Review
Review: 2nd Generation iPod Nano by Magnus
In September 2006, Apple launched what they called the “completely remastered” iPod nano. The 2nd generation nano is almost a combination of the 1st generation nano and the old iPod mini. It has the form factor of the first nanos but the aluminum exterior of the mini. It also comes in a selection of color, like the mini, and you can now choose from five vibrant colors. The 2Gb model only comes in silver while the 4Gb nanos come in silver, pink, blue and green. The 8Gb model is available only in black. There is also a red 2nd generation nano. Unfortunately we’ve been told by Apple IMC ME that it will not be sold in the Middle East, which we think is really regrettable. A part of each red nano’s price goes to charity, something that we think is as important here as it is in North America, but I guess Apple does not agree. The mini is back Besides different colors, perhaps the most obvious new feature of the new generation nanos is the body. Imagine taking an iPod mini and squeezing it a bit to make it smaller, and adding a color screen, and you have the new nano. The body is made out of alumi-
num and it does not attract dirt and scratches nearly as much as the first nanos did. Although I cannot confirm it I’d say that Apple has also made the screen more scratch-resistant, which is a good thing.
Nano size indeed You will all agree, I’m sure, that the 1st generation nano was very small indeed. Apple managed somehow to make the 2nd generation even more nano-esque if you like. It now measures 90mm x 40mm x 6.5mm,
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Review and weighs in at 40g. That’s really not much at all. And holding it side by side with a 1st generation nano it both looks and feels a lot smaller and lighter, probably more so than what the real numbers are. Improved endurance and brightness Apple says that the new nanos can play up to 24 hours of music on a single battery charge and that the display is 40 percent brighter than the old nano. We don’t have the equip-
ment to accurately test either claim but I’d say hey are both likely to be true. After using the nano for a couple of weeks I can certainly say battery life is impressive and you are not likely to be in a situation where you run out very often. The screen is much brighter than the previous generation if you compare two devices side by side. This makes the 2nd generation much more useful outdoors, which is where, let’s be honest, many of us use them for recreation or exercise. Software In terms of software functions, arguably the nicest new addition is a search function. With the clickwheel you select Search after which you can select letters and numbers to
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search for. Select “beat” will find “The Beatles” as well as “The Beat Goes On”. Although the search function is a welcome addition, I suspect that many regular iPod users will have their music libraries all set up and well organized already, minimizing the use of the search features. But it’s nice that Apple added it and it will come in handy sooner or later. New Headphones Apple redesigned the white iPod earphones, and they do now feel better in my ears at least. I’m not sure this is really that important since those who use their iPod a lot are likely to buy other earphones anyway, but I guess it’s good that Apple is improving on this aspect as well. The old ones always felt awkward in my ears, while the new ones fit much better. I’m sure it’s different between individuals but the new earphones stay better in place for me than the old ones. Conclusion The 2nd generation nano reaffirms its position in the middle of the iPod range. Whether you should invest in a new nano if you already have a 1st generation one is doubtful. But if you’re considering an iPod for the first time, and size and portability is an issue, and you need a screen, the nano is a safe bet. With different colors to choose from, better battery life, brighter screen, and improved software, the 2nd generation nano is a winner..
The 2nd Generation iPod nanos are sold in MacStore in Abu Dhabi and Dubai for 599Dhs (2Gb), 799Dhs (4Gb), and 990Dhs (8Gb). Apple IMC ME provided the nano for this review. Some accessories for the 1st generation nano are not going to fit the new nanos, so you may have to spend some extra money on that if you upgrade models. Apple offer a range of accessories including a dock, an armband, an AC-adaptor, and a lanyard.
Review
Review: OmniWeb by Magnus
We’ve come to expect that web browsers are free, available to us at no cost. So why would a company continue to develop a browser and charge $14.95 for it? Let’s take a look at the things that make OmniWeb special and see if it’s something for you to check out. Tabs and site preferences The most obvious thing that appears different in OmniWeb is tab drawer. Instead of showing tabs at the top of the screen, like other browsers, OmniWeb shows a drawer with thumbnails of the different web pages. The thumbnails are live so you see changes as they happen. This is a really cool feature but for users with smaller screens it may take up too much valuable screen space. One of the more important features that set OmniWeb aside from the other browsers is that you can set preferences on a site by
site basis. This means that for different sites you can have separate settings for stylesheets, fonts, ad blocking, Javascript, cookies, and more.
won’t add much value for others. My suggestion is that you download the trial and check it out.
Feels slow So what is not so good about OmniWeb? The main complaint I have is that it feels slow. Perhaps it’s the thumbnails in the tab drawer or something else. But browsing with OmniWeb feels slower than both Firefox 2.0 and Safari on my Macbook. I see the spinning wheel in places where I don’t in the other browsers, for example. Perhaps that’s a setting I’ve made, I don’t know.
OmniWeb is available from http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb. You can download and try it for 30 days. If you want to keep using it after the trial period the price is $14.95. OmniGroup can be found on the web at http:// www.omnigroup.com. They make a number of very exciting applications and utilities for Mac OS X, including OmniGraffle, Omni Outliner, and OmniPlan. OmniGroup supplied a serial number for OmniWeb for this review. We will be back in future issues of shuffle with reviews of more OmniGroup software.
Final word Whether you should spend $15 on another browser is up to you. OmniWeb has some special features that may be very useful to some but that
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Macworld Expo
Macworld Expo 2007 by Magnus
It’s over for this year and as usual Macworld Expo leaves us with a line of product announcements and other news that it takes some time to take in and digest. in this article I will try to bring you a summary of the main news from Steve Jobs’ keynote address.
New name
Possibly more important than any of the other announcements is the change of name for Apple as a company. They’ve been known for 30 years as Apple Computer Inc. but they dropped the computer part and from now on they’re just known as Apple Inc. This probably means it’s even easier for people to mistake it for a fruit company but it also means a broader change of directions, I think. Apple announced on their web site some time before the keynote that the first 30 years of the company’s history was only the beginning. We understand now that what they referred to was this change in direction. The company that has had the Mac line of computers as its core for 30 years is ever expanding into other consumer electronic devices, most recently with the iPhone. I don’t think the Mac will disappear anytime soon, but we will probably see more emphasis from Apple on other product lines. And it probably 22 EmiratesMac shuffle
makes sense in a broader context. I believe personal computers as we’ve known them so far are gradually morphing into other devices, more integrated with other things, making them a more natural part of our lives. Apple TV
We found out that what was previously known as the iTV is now going to be called the Apple TV. As you probably know by now the Apple TV is a small device that hooks up
to your TV and lets you send video from iTunes on a Mac to your TV set. To use the Apple TV you a “widescreen TV” and that it works with “widescreen, enhanced-definition or high-definition TVs capable of 1080i, 720p, 576p, or 480p resolutions”. So if you have not invested in an HD-capable
TV set yet, once the Apple TV is out, it may be a good time to do so. All this glorious HD-content can be sent to the Apple TV using 802.11n wifi networking, supported by the new Airport Extreme Base Station and most recent Macs. The Apple TV has a 40 Gb hard drive but you cannot store things to it like on a Mac. That space is only used to temporarily stored media that is streamed to it. It can temporarily store media that is synchronized from a Mac. That way your Apple TV can always be up to date with the movies, TV shows and more that you purchase and download with a Mac. You can also stream content from up to five Macs. On the Apple TV’s hard drive you
Macworld Expo can store up to 50 hours of vid$299. When it will be availeo, 9,000 songs, 25,000 phoable in the Middle East and tos or a combination of each. what the expected price, we The interface of Apple TV is don’t know at this point. basically FrontRow and you iPhone control it with the same Apple Without doubt the big news Remote you use for Macs and at Macworld was the another things. It comes standard nouncement of the iPhone. with most any connection you When would want, inSteve cluding HDMI, The next Macworld Expo is Jobs startcomponent January 14-18 2008 in San ed talkvideo, analog Francisco. EmiratesMac will try ing about and optical auto arrange a group-trip to the three event. If you are interested send dio ports. Steve an email to emiratesmac@mac. devices, Jobs said about com. a mobile the Apple TV phone, an that it is iPod, and “like a DVD an interplayer for the 21st net communication device, century, you connect it to your but in one physical device, entertainment system just like the audience in the Moscone a DVD player, but it plays Center seemed to go wild. digital content you get from And certainly those of us that the Internet rather than DVDs followed it live via IRC and you get from a physical store” other means also were very The Apple TV will be shipping excited. At the heart of what is in February in the US for just so special about the iPhone is the software and the interface. Everything is controlled by a touch screen that covers almost one entire side of the device. There are no physical keys or stylus, like in most other devices, which makes the iPhone something very new and exciting. It means a more natural interface, and an interface that can be software upgradeable in the future. And the interface is multi-touch meaning you can use more than one finger to control it. For example by moving two fingers closer together or further apart, you
zoom in or zoom out. The iPhone will sync with a Mac with iTunes, and other desktop applications such as iCal and Addressbook. It also comes with a full version of Safari which is a first for such a small handheld device. Since the iPhone apparently runs a scaled-down version of OS X, it should be fairly easy for Apple to port applications to it and make them talk to their Mac OS X counterparts. Whether users will be able to install their own software on the iPhone or if it’s restricted is something we don’t know yet. Personally I hope Apple will open it up to third-party developers. For communications the iPhone should have most everything you would want, including GSM, Bluetooth, wifi, and EDGE. EDGE is for data communication EmiratesMac shuffle 23
Macworld Expo over a mobile phone connection and speeds seem to run around 100-150kbps. It’s far from as fast as what’s referred to as 3G mobile phone networks, but there are already speculations that 3G is on its way to iPhone. With all this communication wouldn’t it be cool to be able to purchase stuff from iTunes Store straight from the iPhone? Many questions remain and since Apple still has six months to develop the iPhone before first sales, I’m sure there will be many more announcements before then. Some concerns I have are will the storage be enough since there is no way to expand it via more memory cards or anything, will the screen hold up to constant touching, and what will the battery life be like in everyday use? We’ll see when it makes it to the Middle East, since it will be available in the US in June 2007, in Europe toward the end of 2007 and in Asia in 2008. In Apple’s worldwide organization Apple IMC ME is a part of Apple Europe which then should mean we’d get the iPhone here later this year. But this is of course not at all for sure and at this point I don’t think anyone knows when the iPhone will be available here. No doubt we’ll start to see iPhones here as soon they are out in the US though, so hopefully we can get our hands on one to review it. 24 EmiratesMac shuffle
Airport Extreme
Last, but by no means least, is the new Airport Extreme Base Station. The big news is that it now supports 802.11n which most recent Macs also do. The new Airport Extreme is up to five times faster than the previous model and it can achieve up to twice the range. Both are important factors for any wireless network users. But when we talk about speed, remember that you will still be restricted by your internet connection’s speed when accessing anything outside your network. Not wanting to settle with 802.11b and g, Apple also throws in 802.11a into the mix, a standard not very widely used but that has definite benefits that will appeal to some users. A really cool new feature is that you can plug in any external USB hard drive to the Airport Extreme and it becomes available to all users on the network. Apple includes the Airport Disk Utility with which you can control what will be shared and who has access to what. This instantly turns almost any hard drive into a NAS (Network Attached Storage) something that you previously had to pay quite a bit extra for when buying a hard drive. It’s easy to imagine that the new Airport Extreme base station is much more important to Apple’s future strategy than we think right now. It’s
much faster than the previous Airport Extreme and you can connect a hard drive to it. With those features it’s possible to integrate various devices more closely in our homes, like the Mac, the Apple TV, and indeed the iPhone since it does wifi. My guess we’ve only seen the beginning of what Apple is going to do with the new Airport Extreme. The final word
Macworld Expo was a bit of an anticlimax in a way for me. I had certainly expected some Mac news, at least iLife 07, an updated Mac mini, and perhaps iWork 07 too, but that was not to be I guess. Looking back that was of course because the news about the iPhone was much bigger than anyone had anticipated and Apple didn’t want to steal thunder from it. But it is after all “Macworld”, not “iPhoneworld”. I think we all forgive Apple for this though and we look forward to some exciting Mac news in the near future.
EmiratesMac User Group arranged a special event of our own. Some of the members gathered at a hotel in Dubai to follow the keynote live and we had a lot of fun. This is something we will do again in the future and we hope that as many of you as possible are willing to join in.
iPhone Cutout
iPhone papercraft fun by Magnus
Canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait until the iPhone comes out? Well neither could we, so hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one you could cut out and build to ease down the suspense. Just cut along the dotted line, score the edges and glue the tabs from the inside.
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Recipe
Recipe: Chicken and Apples in Honey Mustard Sauce by Crystal
Ingredients 1/2 cup apple cider 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch Salt Pepper 1 Tbsp honey 1 Tbsp mustard 2 Tbsp seasoned dry breadcrumbs 4 4oz chicken breasts 1 Tbsp olive oil 2 small unpeeled apples, cored and cut into eigths 1/2 cup chicken broth fresh parsley 1. Whisk cider, cornstarch, mustard, honey, salt and pepper (to taste) in a bowl. Set aside. 2. Spread bread crumbs on a piece of wax paper, lightly coat chicken with crumbs. 3. In a large non-stick skillet, heat the oil and add the chicken breasts. Cook over medium heat until golden brown on one side, about 3 minutes. Turn chicken, add apples, and cook until browned on the other side. 4. Add chicken broth, cover and simmer until chicken is tender, about 15 minutes. 26 EmiratesMac shuffle
5. With slotted spoon, remove chicken and apples to serving plates. Whisk cider mixture again and add to skillet. Cook and stir over high heat until lightly thickened and bubbly, 1 to 2 minutes. Spoon over chicken and apples, sprinkle with parsley. Serve with rice. Serves 4.
Crystal is the founder and editor of EmiratesBaby.com. She writes about various kinds of issues of interest to parents in the UAE. Crystal will be bringing us a new recipie based on apples in each edition of the newsletter. She promises it will be an exciting and mouth-watering mix of dessert, main courses, snacks, and more.
Review
Review: Alpha Baby by Crystal
I have found a software program called, Alpha Baby, that lets your child play with the computer with out missing up your work. This game is free and it’s available from http:// www.kldickey.addr.com/alphababy/.
Interaction Alpha Baby has nice interaction, because if you hit the “J” key, then a “J” will pop up on the screen. This will help with letter recognition. So this software should take your child from their toddler years, through there preschool years. Alpha Baby can be a lot more, than a game that lets your child hit the keyboard. You and your child can come up with so many games of your own when playing this software.
What is also better about this game is that it is free, and you cannot get much better than that. Your child can bang away at the keyboard all they want to, and click the mouse, and different shapes, letters, and photos, pop up on the screen, depending on what key they press, and what settings you have selected in AlphaBaby.
iPhoto integration It integrates with iPhoto so you can select an iPhoto album to be displayed, and you can select different things in terms of colors, shapes, and all kinds of things. It’s really a simple program but we think you and your child can get much entertainment out of it. There are a lot of preferences you
can set. Something to note is that if you are integrating with iPhoto and select AlphaBaby to speak the names of photos, make sure you have meaningful names on those photos.
Buy an extra keyboard One final piece of advice I have about using AlphaBaby is this: buy a cheap keyboard that you won’t mind being bashed to pieces by your little one. And a special AlphaBaby-dedicated mouse might be a good idea too.
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Keyboard Shortcuts
Mac Keyboard Shortcuts by MacUAE
Finder
Menu commands
Command - W
Close Window
Shift - Command - Q
Apple Menu - Log out
Option - Command - W
Close all Windows
Shift - Option Command - Q
Apple Menu - Log out immediately
Command - Right Arrow
Expand folder (list view)
Shift - Command - Delete
Finder Menu - Empty Trash
Options - Command Right Arrow
Expand folder and nested subfolders (list view)
Options - shift Command - Delete
Finder Menu - Empty Trash without dialog
Command - Left Arrow
Close Window
Command - H
Finder Menu - Hide Finder
Options - Command - H
Finder Menu - Hide Others
Shift - Command - Q
Apple Menu - Log out
Command - N
File Menu - New Finder window
Shift - Command - N
File Menu - New Folder
Command - O
File Menu - Open
Command - S
File Menu - Save
Shift - Command - S
File Menu - Save as
Command - P
File Menu - Print
Options - Command Up Arrow
Close Window
Startup Pressing X during startup
Force Mac OS X startup
Option - Command Shift - Delete during startup
Bypass primary Startup volume and seek a different start up volume (such as a CD or external disk)
Command - W
File Menu - Close Window
Press C during startup
Start up from a CD that has a system folder
Option - Command - W
File Menu - Close all Windows
Command - I
File Menu - Get Info
Press N during startup
Attempt to start up from a compatible network server (netBook)
Option - Command - I
File Menu - Show Attributes Inspector
Start up in FireWire Target Disk Mode
Command - D
File Menu - Duplicate
Press T during startup
Command - L
File Menu - Make Alias
Shift - Command - R
File Menu - Show original
Press shift during startup
Start up in Safe Boot mode and temporatrily disable login items and non-essential kernel extension files (Mac OS X 10.2 and later)
Command - T
File Menu - Add to Favorites (Mac OS X 10.4 or earlier), Add to Sidebar (Mac OS X 10.4 or later - use shift - Command T for Add to favorites)
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Tutorial
Photoshop tutorial: brushed metal text by Zaid
I like the all new Chevrolet Caprice, it looks tough and powerful. But it deserves a tough brushed metal steel look. You can use the following technique on any version of Photoshop.
Image source: http://www.holden.com.au/www-holden/action/gallery?navid=5&catid=1016&modelid=8000
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Tutorial
STEP 1 Download the image from the source (see sidebar), use the type tool to type “Holden Caprice”. For better type control we will convert the type into an image. While still the Type layer is still selected, from Layer menu, choose Rasterize, then select Type.
STEP 4 Go under Filter menu, under Noise, and choose Add Noise. Enter 6 for Amount, Choose Gaussian for Distribution, check Monochromatic, and click OK. Now go Under the Filter menu, under Blur, and choose Motion Blur. Enter -57 for Angle, 40 pixels for Distance, and click OK.
STEP 5 Go under Filter menu, under Sharpen and choose Unsharp Mask. Enter 400% for Amount, 20 for Radius, 2 for Threshold, and click OK. STEP 2 In the Layers Palette, click on the “Lock Transparent Pixels”. On the Tools Palette make foreground color medium grey, and background color light grey.
STEP 3 Use Gradient Tool, drag over your text from bottom left to top right.
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STEP 6 a) Click on the Add Layer Style button at the bottom of Layers Palette (the button with f or fx).
Tutorial
b) Choose Drop Shadow; Enter 50% for Opacity, 97º for Angle, 2 for Distance, and 3 for Size.
d) Click on the Gradient Overlay name in the left Pane; Change Blend Mode to Overlay from the list, reduce Opacity to 50% and keep Angle at 90º. Click OK. STEP 7 (optional): Add a similar brushed metal border, and dark background with a texture added to it from the Filter menu> Texture > Texturizer and choose Sandstone for texture.
c) Click on the name Bevel and Emboss in the left Pane; Choose Chisel Hard for Technique, 1 for size, in the shading section at the bottom enter 11 for Altitude. Still in the Shading section, click on Gloss Contour arrow to reveal a list and choose Rounded Steps from the list.
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Review
Review: A first look at Microsoft’s Zune by MacUAE
The digital media player market is a market dominated by Apple’s iPod, which can now play music, photos and videos. And how can we forget the amazing iPhone announced recently at MacWorld 2007. The slick revolutionary mobile device that redefines how mobile phones should be from now on. If Apple cannot use the iPhone name for legal reasons I
think they would definitely call it iPod mobile! From the dark side But today, we are not talking about iPods. I can assure what this article is about is nothing that Apple would dare release. It’s a device from a company many consider to be AntiApple. Yes, Microsoft. And let me set
things straight; I do not think that Windows is bad and Mac is good. People can choose whatever side they prefer. Although we’re getting more user from the “dark side of the moon” recently, Windows is the dominating power in the personal computer business, for now. So Microsoft decided to challenge Apple and release their own “Digital Media Player” and they call it Zune. What’s a Zune? What’s a Zune? Well I looked it up in the dictionary and it proposed dune, June, rune, tune, zone, zuni. No Zune! Well to be fair, even iPod is not there. Anyway, I wanted to get the Zune for many reasons. I like to own unique gadgets, for one. How is the Zune unique you might say? Well, this device might be Microsoft’s only contribution to the iPod World. Moreover, I just wanted to get one. I have this feeling that I owe Microsoft the chance to try their best offering
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Review in the hard-drive based music player business. And owning over 10 iPods, a Zune would complete the collection for me in a bizarre way. It’s no iPod So how does it compare to the iPod? Lets me say that it likes Windows. It will never be Mac OS X. Yes it can do everything an iPod can do. Well in a sense. Lets start with the positives. The box is neat, very Apple-like. Once you pull the top off, you’re welcomed by the phrase “Welcome to the social”. I felt there’s a word missing there for some reason. Anyway, enclosed in the box is the Zune (30Gb and white, headphones (surprise!), a data/charging cable, software and manual. The whole package oozes quality and creativity, but it is not Apple. The device itself is a nice solid block of matte plastic meaning I don’t have to clean it every time I touch it (see “How to keep your iPod clean and shiny”, shuffle December 2006), which has a nice screen and click-pad. On top there’s the familiar lock switch and headphones plug. Loaded with music I hookup the Zune to my iMac, and yes I know it doesn’t work with Macs, but I needed to charge it. Charging through USB is an international language. I started fiddling with the device and to my surprise it was loaded with music. Overall it’s a nice music player, I don’t think there is room for innovation in the sound area. The menus are nice, nothing special. Other than music, videos and pictures, the Zune has a built in Radio tuner. Thats a good addition to have I guess. The menu feel & animation is good, again nothing special.
have a Windows version setup in a BootCamp partition as I heard it should work there. So I guess I will not cover the software side of the interconnectivity. From what I heard its not a great experience, so if you are interested you can find more on the net. Squirting Feeling let down on the whole experience, I wanted to try the infamous and much lauded sharing feature. Basically, it works with other Zunes in the vicinity. You locate a fellow Zuner or Zunette, you point and “squirt”. Yes, squirt. Since I didn’t have another Zune to try it on, I started squirting to my iPods. No fun. I was a bit messy to say the least. So lastly, out of boredom, I tried to hookup the Zune to the XBox360, a fellow Microsoft device. They met and synced (no squirt required), but nothing more. My guess it that I don’t have my own media to “stream”. The final word Would I recommend a Zune? No, it’s nothing special. It doesn’t connect to a Mac. You can’t use it as storage device. This article doesn’t cover the details of what Zune can do or its Music Store (not sure if its offered in the Middle East), but I guess I already know what it can do. I have my iPods and that’s enough for me. I guess my white Zune will be a white elephant. That is until I can find another Zune to share squirts with.
Doesn’t work with Parallels After charging I tried to connect it to my MacBook Pro which has Windows XP running on Parallels Desktop, but that didn‚Äôt work for me. I don’t
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Feature
Running Windows on your Mac with Bootcamp by Magnus
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Feature In the previous issue of shuffle we had a review of Parallel’s Desktop for Mac. Parallels has fast become a favorite among Mac users for it’s slick and convenient way of offering Windows and other operating systems without a reboot. Apple provides their own alternative and it’s called Bootcamp. When Bootcamp was released in April 2006 it caused uproar and excitement around the Mac world. Some users felt Apple had betrayed them, allowing Windows to be installed on Macs. Others felt Apple did exactly the right thing, giving users a choice. Bootcamp, weighing in at 143Mb and currently in version 1.1.2 beta, is a free download from Apple. Once installed, the application which is put in your Applications>Utilities folder, will let you partition your drive, burn a CD with Windows drivers, and start the Windows installation. Partitioning your hard drive In order for Bootcamp to be installed on your Mac your hard drive has to be partitioned. This basically means the Bootcamp installer will set aside a certain part of the drive for Windows and the two drives, although still being one physical drive, will to your Mac appear as two different drives. How much space you allocate to Windows will depend on what you’re going to install. 5Gb is the least you can allocate and then you have to think about what you’re going to put in Windows. Figure 1Gb at least for Microsoft Office, several gigabytes for Adobe Creative Suite, and for games the sky’s the limit. Most users with
average requirements probably get away with 10-15Gb but you may want to put aside more. Think carefully before you commit the installer to a certain size because you cannot increase or decrease it later without deleting the partition. The installer seems a bit sensitive to some files and applications being installed. When I tried to put Bootcamp on my Macbook I kept getting an error message saying there was a file that couldn’t be moved so it couldn’t partition the drive and the suggested fix was to reinstall Mac OS X. I didn’t want to to do that so I removed my Parallels installation (after having backed up the whole drive, of course) and then it partitioned just fine. Installing Windows and drivers Once the disk has been partitioned the installer will ask you for your Windows installation disk. It will check the installation disk to make sure you have the required version. To install Windows XP with Bootcamp you need a version of Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2). Once the installer accepts your Windows CD it will reboot and the installation of Windows will begin. After the installation has finished you should as soon as possible update Windows and all its software to make sure you are as safe as possible. To get certain things like the Airport wifi to work you need to insert the drivers CD you burned earlier and install all the drivers. I’ve done this many times and on each occasion it’s seemed to me that the installer has crashed because nothing’s happened for a long time. But each time it has eventually finished the installation, so have a little patience.
Bootcamp or Parallels? Both approaches has their own benefits and drawbacks. The clear benefit of Bootcamp is that it takes over the whole Mac which enables it to make better use of the resource since there is no Mac OS X running at the same time. This means that if you’re into graphics-intensive games, Bootcamp is the way to go. Also other demanding software applications will benefit from running in Bootcamp rather than Parallels. The clear downside is that you have to partition our drive and reboot in order to switch operating system. If you don’t have to switch to Windows very often that may not be a big deal. Parallels works very nicely and I use it every day, but it does require at least 2Gb or RAM to run well. Remember you have Mac OS X and Windows running at the same time and they both want memory. With Parallels you don’t have to partition your drive and it’s easier to recover from problems. A good tip is to make a copy of your Parallels installation once it’s set up so you can just copy it back if you face difficulties. A final word With Bootcamp Apple has given Mac users options. It’s opened up possibilities for many user to argue at work that they can now use a Mac in the corporate environment because they can boot into Windows when they have to but keep running Mac OS X most of the time. Bootcamp works very well for being beta software but do take a backup before you install it. I’m sure Apple has some exciting new things coming up with Bootcamp arriving in Leopard. This is only the beginning folks.
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Review
Special Offers By installing and running Windows on your Mac with Bootcamp you’re turning your Mac into a PC. This means that any vulnerability that Windows on a PC is susceptible to, Windows on your Mac is also susceptible to. With all the multitude of spyware, worms, viruses and more that attack Windows and software running in Windows, you should protect yourself. Microsoft provides for free a good anti-spyware software called Defender (http://www. microsoft.com/defender). There are many anti-virus softwares to choose from. My favorite is Nod32 from Eset (http://www. eset.com/). AVG from Grisoft is also a good alternative and there is a free version (http:// www.grisoft.com). Remember this also applies to Parallels but with Parallels it’s easier to recover from a problem by removing the folder with the Windows installation and starting over.
Bootcamp is a public beta and available for free as a download from Apple at http://www.apple. com/macosx/bootcamp/. Apple has said they will ship Bootcamp as a part of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.
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As a recognized Apple User Group, EMUG receives various kinds of offers for our members. Here are some of the current offers that you can take advantage of. All offers are as far as we’re aware available to the UAE. If you have any problems with an offer or any questions, get in touch with us and we’ll try to sort it out.
Other World Computing: 5% off miniStack hard drive storage systems; 10% off NuPower PowerBook and iBook batteries; Complete information: http:// www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/ otherworldcomputing.html; Discount available globally; Expires 3/31/07. ProSoft Engineering: 25% off Drive Genius, Picture Rescue, Data Rescue, Data Backup & Data Recycler; Available globally; Ongoing; Complete information http://www.mugcenter.com/ vendoroffers/prosoft.html; Order through the ProSoft Engineering web site and use discount code “PRO247”. ScreenCastsOnline: 20% discount on Premium Membership, plus complimentary DVDs of back catalog; Complete information http://www.mugcenter. com/vendoroffers/screencastsonline.html; Discount available globally; Expires 2/12/07. AppleWorks Users Group: Discount on Macintosh batteries; Available globally; No expiration. Actoris: 25% off Xpress Schedule or Food Cost Manger; No expiration; Available globally.
MYOB: $25 off First Edge & $100 off Account Edge; Available globally; No expiration. O’Reilly: 30% off all titles; Available globally; No expiration. Peachpit Press: 25% off all titles by joining the Peachpit Club; Available globally; No expiration. Rogue Amoeba: 22% discount off Audio Hijack Pro; Available globally; Expires 2/28/07. TidBITS: 10% discount on Take Control eBooks; Available globally; No expiration. Globalsat Technology Corporation: 25% discount on Mac products; Available globally; Expires 2/28/07.
Colorful shuffles
Colorful shuffles by Magnus
On January 30 2007, Apple announced that their tiny, little shuffle digital music player, is now available in almost all the colors of the rainbow. You can now get shuffle in blue, pink, green, orange as well as the original shuffle. Greg Joswiak, vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing at Apple said that the new iPod shuffle is “the world’s most wearable digital music player”, and added that “music fans can now choose iPod shuffle in one of five brilliant colors, or they can buy one of each”. As we can see on our very own MJ in a photo taken at a recent user group meeting, the shuffle is indeed wearable. Can you spot the two shuffles? At the time of taking the photo the colored-shuffles were not out yet. Can’t you just see him with all different colored shuffles?
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Membership EmiratesMac User Group is a non-profit, community organization which aims to spread knowledge about Apple products in the United Arab Emirates, and increase the knowledge and skills of its members. Presently, membership in EmiratesMac User Group is 150 Dirhams per year. Membership benefits and special offers are subject to change at any time and will be reviewed annually by EmiratesMac and participating businesses. To see the latest details, go to http:// www.emiratesmac. com/usergroup. Memberships are renewed on an annual basis and the membership period is January to Decemeber. New membership cards will be issued each January for members who wish to remain in EMUG. After applying for a membership, you can pick up your membership card at an EMUG meeting or other event.
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Join EMUG
• Want to meet other Apple users? • Want to learn more about your Mac or iPod? • Want to help others with their problems? • Want to have some fun? • Want to save some money on your Apple purchases?