Apple announces new Mac awesomeness and Multi-Touch Magic Trackpad
Early this morning, the Apple Oompa-loompas were busy pealing the gossamer veils from few new products of Mac awesomeness while singing their happy tunes. The all-in-one iMac line has been updated with the latest Intel Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 processors and powerful new graphics. Starting at $1,199 (US), the new iMac line now boasts dual-core processor speeds up to 3.6 GHz, quad-core speeds up to 2.93 GHz and discrete graphics including the ATI Radeon HD 5750.
Particularly interesting is the announcement of the new Magic Trackpad, with a smooth glass and aluminum design, gives iMac users the same Multi-Touch gestures (click this…it's cool)» that MacBook and MacBook Pro users have already mastered. It will be sold optionally for $69 (US).
Stepping over to the Mac Pro table, Apple unveiled a new line with up to 12 processing cores.1 The line sports the latest quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors, all-new ATI graphics and the option for up to four 512GB solid state drives.2
Lastly, we arrive at the new 27-inch LED Cinema Display with 2560 x 1440 resolution and 60 percent more screen real estate than the 24-inch LED Cinema Display. The built-in iSight video camera, microphone and speakers, powered USB 2.0 hub, and universal MagSafe connector means the display is pure awesomeness at $999 (US). Yum.
Now, as a topic of discussion… The Magic Trackpad: is it a hit or a miss? I know a lot of people, myself included, developed a big hate for the Magic Mouse. I think the Magic Trackpad will be easier to use since it is basically an input device we’re already accustomed to, but what do you think? Drop me a note in the comments.
Boot Up
Boot time can be a moment of truth for drives on the fritz. These free utilities can put you in a more confident position dealing with troublesome installs.
This app could really save you in a pinch. It is a script that can be launched from the command line in single-user-mode to repair the disk, repair privileges, delete caches and more. Could be a lifesaver.
We’ve featured this one before on Freeloader Friday, but it is worth mentioning again. This application creates a burnable, bootable image of your OS X install. You select the utilities and applications to include.
Listed as shareware, this is actually $5 donation-ware. And it is worth much more. CCC backs up and syncs disks, including permissions, hidden files and boot-ability. The app also features a scheduling feature.
The props this week go to the freeware programmers that make these drive-saving applications.
Downloads provided by MacUpdate
Superior Ad Blocking on OS X
I love surfing the web. I have DSL and I get pretty good download speeds (compared to 56K modems, insane download speeds). Even though I have a good connection, I still hate downloading obtrusive ads. You know those huge “skyscraper” ads, or those pesky Flash ads that seem to take forever to download? Even more annoying are the pop-up ads that show up on a surprising amount of sites considering everyone hates them with a passion (except evil marketing types). I’m about to show you how to block almost all of the aforementioned ads in ANY browser in OS X. If you don’t want to be bothered with pop-ups use a program or browser that disables them. My method only stops the ads from loading, not the window from popping. Chimera has a killer pop-up blocker installed by default (haven’t seen one so far).
Some people may say that it isn’t right to block ads… That’s how sites stay free. That’s true, and that’s exactly why I’m only giving directions to block the big boys that have no concern at all for your privacy (can we say doubleclick?). This will not block ads on MacMerc, MacMinute, MacUpdate or any other well run site. My goal by blocking ads is to speed up surfing. Only graphical ads are blocked… Text ads are let through. If you really like a site and you’re afraid that they will lose income when you block its ads, look around on that site and most likely there are other ways you can support it. Most webmasters would rather all their visitors gave $10 a year than have to run ads. I know MacMerc would 
. If you can’t find anything just email someone there and ask where you can send a donation. It will be appreciated.
The following is a list of the “Big Boys” in the adserving market that many sites use to outsource ads:
doubleclick.net
linkexchange.com
adsmart.net
admonitor.net
msn.com (not an outsource service but gobs of ads come out of ads.msn.com)
smartclicks.com
focalink.com
bravenet.com
bfast.com
sextracker.com (You’d be surprised)
hitbox.com
valueclick.com
fastclick.net
realmedia.com (these ads are hugely huge)
And there are several more. If you do a lot of “source hunting” you’ll soon notice that 90% of ads come from less than 100 locations.. Should be easy to block right? Well, in OS X it’s a piece of cake.
Open the terminal by going to /Applications/Utilities/ and opening Terminal. You may not have ever used the Terminal before but do not worry, this won’t be hard. Type:
sudo pico /private/etc/hosts
When prompted, enter in your administrator password (if you’re the only user of your computer, it’s just your regular password). When you type nothing will appear on screen (not even *’s). This is a security mechanism. When you finish your password just press enter. You’ll be taken to a screen that should look something like below:
Pico is a simple text editor for Unix. It’s commands are a little funny for Mac users since it uses control instead of command, but it’s otherwise really easy to learn. The ^ key signifies control for any interested souls out there . What this file does is associate hosts. The first line means when a request for localhost comes in send it to 127.0.0.1 (almost the universal address for the local-computer). What we’re going to do is insert some well known ad servers into the right hand column, and send them to 127.0.0.1 in the left hand column. For extra points we’re going to set up a custom 404 error page to keep blocked ads looking pretty. Here is a list I compiled of the most popular/annoying ad servers along with the 127.0.0.1 forwarding address. Copy and paste this list into pico (select the text and press Control-C, in pico use the arrow keys to highlight an area below the last line with text on it and press command-v). Once you successfully copied the addresses press Control-o and hit enter once you see the message asking for a file name. Then hit Control-x. Keep the terminal open for the 404 message step (not a real message that shows in the Terminal, but you need to keep it open for the step that prevents nasty errors to be shown).
Now you need to turn on your personal web server. If you don’t, you’ll have to click through warning messages about every 2 seconds for most every page you visit. To do so just open up the System Preferences by going to the Apple Menu and choosing “System Prefrences…”. Once the preference pane opens, choose Sharing. In the sharing pane, check the persona web sharing box. The pane should look like this before you click the check box:
If you were to restart your computer now, and started browsing the web, you’d notice a lot fewer ads. But, you’d also notice really weird looking error messages. Here’s a picture I took of my browser at Tucows.com:
I think having the ads in place might look better… But the load times without them are much nicer. To fix this, we’re going to make a custom error message. All that text means is that the ads can’t be found on your computer… Of course they can’t… We’re trying to get rid of them! Get back in the Terminal and type:
sudo pico /etc/httpd/httpd.conf
You’ll be greeted with the now familiar Pico interface but now with a lot more text. No worries, this is a down and dirty task. Press Control-w and type (or paste):
ErrorDocument
Look for the following text:
# ErrorDocument 404 /missing.html
Move your cursor with the arrow keys until it’s one character to the right of the #. Hit delete. This “un-comments” the line. We’re telling Apache that when there is a missing page, use missing.html instead of the error message. If you run a web server (like I do) you can get more tricky and throw it to a script that dynamically decides if you’re trying to block an ad or if someone found a broken link on your web server (I’ll save that for part 2). To save this file hit control-o and then control-X. You can close the Terminal. Now just download this file and place it in /Library/Webserver/Documents/.
Go ahead and restart your computer. When you next start your web browser, head over to a large site like CNN or TuCows and notice the difference. I’d suggest using Chimera to get the best effect… no pop windows and no large sive ads. If you go back to TuCows you’ll see a nice ad free version like this:
If you find this saves you time, please consider supporting MacMerc by donating through PayPal below or by purchasing through our MacMerc.com Store. By offering you this tutorial we are effectively removing this site’s only source of income. We love every aspect of this site except the hosting bill.
Don’t forget to support the sites you like if you block their ads!
UPDATE (10/23/08 – 19:02 PT): Thanks to a MacMerc.com reader who submitted this tip to update this tutorial for Mac OS X 10.5:
Just wanted to let you guys know that I recently figured out how to get the Superior Ad Blocking walkthru to work in 10.5. Instead of editting the /private/etc/hosts file (which actually changes the correct one in 10.5) it’s easier to change the /etc/hosts as it will also apply to other users on the computer. Second the httpd.conf has moved from /etc/httpd/httpd.conf to /etc/apache2/httpd.conf. Just trying to help out! Cheers and Good Luck!
Our readers are the best!
–Rick
Apple needs a budget-minded box
Though the Apple lawyers have yet to flex their muscles, the buzz about John Fraser’s iBox (read the Wired article here) means only one thing: Apple-ites want Pizza!
And no, I’m not talking about the round pie of Italian descent. I’m referring to a low-cost Mac box with all the basic features needed by the average user.
The iBox, as Fraser calls his design, is based on current Apple-manufactured boards, enclosed in a slim, monitor-independent case, that’s not only stylish and attractive, but not too cumbersome on a desktop.
After the January MacWorld Expo, I was thoroughly disturbed at the absence of a line of boxes that addressed this segment, as well as the growing complexity of the overall line of hardware options. Though there are affordable Mac options, such as the iBook and eMac, none of these machines are attractive enough in a market where Dell is pushing complete PC systems for less than $500.
I do agree with a robust line of laptops, however there is such a thing as too much. I personally take issue with the existence of a 17″ Powerbook. Though amazingly portable for its size, and an incredible accomplishment in that segment, this machine is just too much. The 17″ AlBook, is going to attract too few users outside of the music and science fields, areas I believe Apple already has enough strength. But ol’ Steve-O wanted one, and he got it. It’s one heck of a show-piece.
It’s time that Apple look at one important fact that can bring them into the homes of many more users, including PC-only households: the iPod. Windows users have embraced the portable music-playing hard drives, almost as much as Mac fanatics. Now it’s time to tie the noose, and convert this user base, which has already started its journey.
If Apple were to produce a sub-$700, monitor-independent box, with the features listed below, I believe they have nothing too lose:
Processor: 800 Mhz G4
Memory: 384 MB
HD: 40 GB
Optical: Combo Drive
Ports: Firewire 400 (1 front and 1 back), USB (1 front and 2 back), 10/100 Enet, Audio In/Out.
Video: 32MB video card with ADC & VGA out.
Slots: 2 free PCI slots
Wireless: PC card slot & Bluetooth ready.
I’m currently running a TiBook/400, the first TiBook released, and it handles everything I throw at it. It cuts through OS 10.2.4 easily, running all the apps I use, simultaneously. From Safari, to iTunes, to Photoshop & Illustrator, I find the performance excessively sufficient.
The advent of firewire & USB (now a standard in all Mac hardware) would eliminate legacy issues, as would a swappable ZIF socket processor. And as far as monitors are concerned, If you have an iPod, you have a computer, and that means you have a monitor. But, in the case that you want something fancier, the Apple LCD line is still there if you want some pricier options.
Despite the design genius of the iMac, it’s still tough to go in and shell out $1300+ at an Apple store, when a late model PC with ALL the bells & whistles pops in under a grand, and is infinitely more upgradeable than the beautiful all-in-one wonder.
As far as the hardware is concerned, I doubt it would be difficult for Apple to port one of its laptop motherboard designs for this box, if not basing it on the current eMac.
And this would not only be a switcher box, but also help Apple make inroads into the enterprise and education markets, where, combined with the power of the Xserve, “going Apple” would become incredibly attractive. And imagine the addition of a mini-tablet for power users or teachers. Admit it, you’ve read the rumors.
Laptops will still be needed, though some streamlining of the iBook and PowerBook lines wouldn’t hurt, as will the PowerMac for advanced and extreme users. But if Apple wants to gain more substantial market share – once again take control of the education segment, jump in to the enterprise world, and on top gain tons more switchers – they have to own up to price point. Lessen the margin on hardware to increase your user base. And then capitalize on those users with DLDs, and software.
What would you rather buy, an iMac, or an iBox and an iPod? Monitors will be monitors, and it’s time Apple ended its love affair with all-in-one, upgrade-challenged machines that aren’t as attractive as PCs, other than in good-looks.
I’ll buy Mac for the rest of my life, no matter the price. And most Mac users will. But those worried about their bottom line, and PC users in general, would rather not. They’d be happier with Dell.com and a Domino’s pie.
Be a MacMerc and look the part
Is this a crass commercial announcement? Yes, yes it is.
MacMerc.com was started several years ago but it wasn’t until January 2002
that the MacMerc culture really started to gel. If you’ve spent any time in
our forums, you know
the names and the personalities. If you were one of the early MacMerc forum
pioneers, you might even have one of our limited edition (now discontinued)
second generation MacMerc.com caps. If you missed out on the caps, you can still
dress yourself up in MacMerc.com attire with the vast selection of items in
our
store. Let’s take a look at the selection:
 |
The This is our main line of products and the best way to send the clearest Products available: Baseball Jersey (retro MacMerc.com |
?
 |
Inspired by the threadbare shirt worn by Eddie Murphy in Beverly Products available: White T-Shirt, Ash Grey T-Shirt, |
?
 |
Don’t you get it? Don’t worry, just go into TextEdit and hold down the Products available: T-Shirt, Ash Grey T-Shirt, Jr. Baby |
?
 |
A few people have misinterpreted our Option-Shift-K graphic as being Products available: White T-Shirt |
?
 |
One of two shirts we have inspired by events at the site itself. This Products available: Grey T-Shirt |
?
 |
MacMerc.com Part Apple logo, part Maltese cross and all MacMerc.com. This collection Products available: T-Shirt, Baseball Jersey, Grey T-Shirt, |
?
 |
This t-shirt commemoratesthe Products available: White T-Shirt |
Getting the Most from Thunderbird
This partner in crime to the Firefox browser is arguably the best way to get your email. I know it is the default client of several of the ‘Mercs, and should be yours too.
Sometimes overshadowed by the popularity of the browser, Thunderbird has a slew of complementary extensions, which is what we’ll be looking at today.
First up, we’ll put Thunderbird on equal footing with in line spell checking. While the default install comes with a spelling dialog, many of us prefer the convenience of mark-as-you-type spell-checking.
Grab the In-Line SpellChecker extension here. Remember that Thunderbird extensions must be downloaded to disk and installed from the Extensions window (click the +).
Next up we’ll set up Thunderbird to retrieve your Yahoo! or Hotmail with the WebMail extension. After installing the WebMail extension and either the Yahoo! or Hotmail extension, you’ll be able to configure a new email account to retrieve your mail from your web-based system.
To set up the extension you’ll have to select a free port for your system to emulate a mail server. Once you have a green status light, TB will pull down your mail.
Add an icon representing the weather in the zip code of your choice with the World Weather extension. The icon and temperature shows up below your mail folders on the left.
Now, to lighten things up we’ll bring in the tunes with the Thunderbird version of FoxyTunes. With this extension you’ll be able to control iTunes from inside Thunderbird.
Adjust volume, skip around and view the playing track in this subtle interface along the bottom of your Mail window.
Now, you’ve got an email application to be reckoned with! Take advantage of these extensions to bulk up your Thunderbird, and I’ll see you back here next week.
Spring Cleaning 2
Keeping your Mac properly tuned is important. Like an oil-change, you Mac needs some maintenance every now and then.
This utility locates empty folders, aliases and duplicate files, and trashes them (upon your request). This is a great way to shake out the dust from old backups and moved files.
Main Menu gives you menubar access to common actions like repairing permissions, updating prebindings and force-emptying the trash. Its home in the menubar serves as a great reminder to use it.
This is another application that will save you some trips to the Terminal. From it you can run a bunch of OS X’s built-in command line utilities.
We’ve featured this utility before. Monolingual tosses all your unused languages from your system. This can free up a significant amount of space. It has been updated to work in Jaguar and Panther.
Now you can ditch your DS_Store files before burning directories to CD or sharing them with PC users which might be confused by the not-so-invisible-anymore files.
This interesting application will hide folders applications have created and use in your Documents folder. Once hidden, the applications can still use them, but you no longer have to look at them.
Here’s another way to get your documents in order. This utility digs through your Home folder and lets you look at the contents by size and date. It also helps you find duplicates for disposal.
We’re deleting things left and right, but sometimes sensitive files should be really deleted. This simple free application deleted and overwrites your file three times to ensure it won’t come back to haunt you.
While we’re all about appearances here, this Power User Monday will help you tame your invisible files.
Before you go anywhere, you might want to check last year’s spring cleaning episode for more free utilities. If you’ve procrastinated too much, you might need to hit James’s Emergency Repairs tutorial from Power User Monday.
Of course, any time you’re altering your system and its files, you should use caution. Back up often, and read documentation! Have fun and clean the crap off your Mac!
Downloads provided by MacUpdate
mini Land-line
Combining your mini with a USB Skype handset and Skype’s cheap call-out service can turn your mini into a virtual land-line with long distance calling rates no traditional phone company can beat. Forget paying a monthly fee. For about $4/month you can even buy a phone number for your Skype account and have people call you from land-line phones. And with more than 40 million members, you’ll be able to talk to tons of Skype users for free.
One word of warning: the phone service described here should not be considered a full replacement for your traditional phone line – as it does NOT support 911 emergency calling.
The Hardware
- Mac mini (or any Mac with a USB port)
- A USB Skype Handset like Hawking Tech’s Net-Talk USB Phone or Ipevo’s Free-1. Prices range from $30-$75.
Contrary to what you may read, the Free-1 isn’t the only Mac-compatible Skype phone. For the purposes of this tutorial I went with the Net-Talk because it has a display on the unit that allow you to use it without interacting with your Mac.
The Software
- Skype
for OS X and a Skype Account.
Skype is a free download, and your account is free to open. To call out to regular phones you will need to purchase SkypeOut credit (in increments of $10) and to purchase a phone number by which land-line callers can reach you, you’ll need to buy SkypeIn at $12/3 months or $35/year.
Now, to put it all together – with Skype installed you are ready to install the Net-Phone’s drivers. Once you have granted the Net-Phone access to the Skype API (in Skype) you are ready to make calls from your handset. From the Net-Phone you can start Skype and make calls.
From the Net-Phone you can navigate between Skype’s tabs, your contacts list and recent calls. Using the navigational wheel you can also view and select contacts and recent numbers and start calls. The handset can be used for free Skype-to-Skype calls as well as calls out to external numbers. Incoming calls from Skype users or external numbers via SkypeIn ring on the handset and can be answered just as you would your old analog phone (you must be logged in to your Skype account on your Mac to receive calls).
We should note that Skype requires an audio input – which out of the box the mini lacks. The Net-Phone satisfies this requirement and also makes up for this lack by including input and output jacks for microphones and headsets right on the unit. In addition to interfacing directly with Skype, the Net-Phone is recognized by the OS as an audio input and output. This means that while the dial pad may work only with Skype, the handset can be used with audio chat applications like iChat AV.
Hardware buttons for volume and mute are quite useful too. The Net-Phone complements new Mac silver-on-white hardware and the back-lit display is very readable. The handset makes Skype’s cheap calling easy and accessible. And, thanks to the power of VoIP you can take your Skype account anywhere and call from any Internet connection.
Please direct comments/corrections on the article to the author, brian AT macmerc DOT com.
mini Survivor
Most houses are connected and powered through three connections: electrical, analog phone and cable. In many areas, power outages are the most common. What does this mean to you? Consider the following. If you are working on your computer during an outage you will lose unsaved data. If you connect to the internet via cable or DSL then you will lose your connection to the internet. This last part is critical if you use VoIP – without power you are without phone (even if your analog phone lines are working).
Okay, with the background laid, lets move on to the fun. We will set up our Mac mini’s to weather the storm and – as long as our cable internet or analog phone line is still live – preserve our connections even without power.
What you’ll need:
- Mac mini or Mac with USB
- A battery backup with USB control and Mac support (I used the Belkin 375VAUSB backup).
- Broadband modem (an optionally VoIP)
Battery back-ups are not new, but few of us have them in our homes. There is a good selection of sub-500VA backups. Without laying down a lot of cash, we can buy ourselves 15-20 minutes of run time for our Macs. If we want to gear up for a longer blackout, we can use our backup on only our broadband modem and VoIP adapter, keeping our phone line alive much longer.
Phone and cable lines tend to be more reliable in an emergency than power. If your local cable repeaters are supported by battery back-up (as they often are, especially in newer neighborhoods) then you can maintain you connection as long as your cable modem is powered. If you have VoIP and your connection is still working, you can bypass the busy circuit log-jam than tends to crash local phone switches.
By choosing a Mac supported battery backup, we have the option of controlling the unit from our Macs. Belkin units ship with Bulldog Plus software you can set up the device to automatically shut down your Mac, saving your data and preserving your backup power. You can also schedule battery testing and check the health of your battery.
Beyond the software setup and the plugging-in of your Mac and modem (and VoIp adapter if applicable) there’s really not anything else to do but wait for Mother Nature’s fury. While its not much for the instant gratification, you’ll thank yourself later.
Skin Websites, Save Directory Listings and Script your Services Menu
Camino consistently scores in speed and native Cocoa goodness, but often gets left behind by the add-on functionality of its older brother Firefox.
Thanks to an easy hack and tons of user-contributed scripts, you can emulate some of the most popular abilities of Firefox’s most flexible extension: Greasemonkey.
Userstyles.org has a huge repository of css scripts that reshape your favorite websites – from bloglines to IMDB. While these are easily added using a Firefox extension, they can also be added to Camino by pasting the scripts (minus the first namspace line) into a userContent.css in your /Library/Application Support/Camino/chrome folder.
(Above is an example skin for Google Reader that is Aqua-licious)
While we’re putting Camino on equal ground with other browsers, we can grab this Open Source plugin to enable newer versions of Java in Camino (or Firefox). While Safari uses the most recent versions of Java are exclusive to Safari, without the above plugin other browsers are left with outdated code. No more!
ThisService will turn shell scripts and AppleScripts into system-wide services. You can use these scripts to enter text, transform text or send it to another application. The best example John Gruber’s Markdown (a custom markup language that can be transformed into fully formatted text). For more, see the resources page.
Keep directories full of project files that you’d love to catalog? Shindler is a simple application that will create a text file listing the contents of a directory (and its sub-directories). Its as easy as drag and drop. Supported on Tiger, but worked on my Panther machine.
