It’s Just Poison…

After writing about Candybar and icons, I thought I’d share a quick little tip on how to change an applications icon in os x.

Step 1: Select the icon or application with an icon you like.
Step 2: Press Command+I to bring up the info screen.
Step 3: Click on the little icon in the top-left corner and press Command+C (standard copy command). You should see a little blue halo around the icon when doing this.

Step 4: Select the app you want to change the icon on and press Command+I to bring up the info window on that one.
Step 5: Click on the icon in the top-left and press Command+V (standard paste command). BAM! yer done. =)

.: Adam

Tags: OS X by .: Adam
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If you’re a web/app designer (or just crazy about icons) and you’re on a mac, you need Candybar. This app was originally designed to replace icons on your mac with custom ones. So if you wanted to swap out your finder icon for something a little cooler, this was the GUI tool that made it all easier. In the newest release, they also handle swapping of Dock images (the actual Dock itself). What they also added in this release was icon management. It stores all your icons into folders and groups. Allows for quick browsing and size checks. This is that feature that I love. It makes my life so much easier when looking for an icon that’s “just right” for what I’m working on. It also allows me to download crap-loads of icons and just throw them in Candybar to use later if i need to.

It even has Quickview build right into it. So when you highlight an icon and hit the spacebar, a HUD will popup with all available sizes of that icon.

The other nifty feature that I like a lot is the exporting ability of icons. You can turn an icon into an image, or an image into an icon. It supports: Icon, ICNS, ICO, TIFF, PNG, GIF, JPEG.

And of course it still swaps out application icons and mac icons really well. Here’s a snippit of my dock with a couple custom icons (Finder, Mail, Firefox) and a custom dock image:

That’s all i got to say about that =)

.: Adam

Tags: OS X by .: Adam
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Something that’s always bothered me about OS X is the time in the top right corner. Why is there no date?! Until Leopard, the iCal icon was always stuck on something like June 21st. Now they wised up and have it show the real date. What a concept. So, pre-Leopard, I had to find something that would put the date in the top right corner of my menu bar. The first app I found that worked well was MenuCalendarClock. This thing was perfect! Not only did it put the date, but it also showed the calendar when you clicked on it, and it had your events and ToDo list for that day. They have two different versions: iCal, and Entourage. What else was cool was that you can double click on a date and it opens iCal right to that day.

Now I use a new app called iStats Menu from iSlayer.com (what an awesome name =). It has most of the same features as MenuCalendarClock (the iCal version), but a ton of other non-time/date features. You can put all kinds of stats and graphs in your menu bar to watch your computers activity. If you’re at all interested in what’s going on, you should at least check it out. It is missing a couple features that I liked on iCal, but here’s why I switched:

• The date formatting is more variable
• Better looking icon in the menu bar
• I use the other stats items (RAM, CPU, Network usage)
• Calendar looks nicer
• World clock feature

The items that I lost from switching:

• Clicking on a date to bring up iCal
• Listing of events and To-Do’s

Although I can’t click on a date, there is a link at the bottom to launch iCal (just doesn’t go to a specific date). For the replacement of To-Do’s and events, I now use Anxiety for To-Do’s and this iCal Widget for my events. After separating it, I’m beginning to prefer it this way.

.: Adam

Tags: OS X by .: Adam
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A little while ago, I made a Twitter app for the mac called Whereiam. I had two main goals when I made this thing.

1. Attach a users location to every post.
2. Keep it simple

I think I’ve covered both parts.

Whereiam is a little app that was whipped up to allow quick postings to Twitter that include a link to a map of your location. Location is derived from Wifi Positioning. No GPS required =).

See an example posting here!

As of right now, it’s a OS X app only. It’s main components are in perl, so it should be easy to port to other OS’s later. I’ve only run / tested in on Leopard (10.5.3). Since this derives location based on WiFi, it will not work with wireless broadband cards (HSDPA, EVDO) or Ethernet. It needs WiFi.

Download Whereiam

If someone can get this to work on an iPhone, I’d like a copy. I don’t have an iPhone yet, but would like to host a copy with the original app.

Thanks!

.: Adam

Tags: OS X by .: Adam
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The photobooth app is pretty cool, and handy. But there’s 3 things that bother me about it. The first is I like to control my lighting. When the “flash” kicks off, it washes everything out, and looks like crap. The second is waiting for the count down… just take it! The third is that everything is mirrored. Has a tendency to get irritating when taking photos with text involved.

Well, thankfully there’s a way to solve the first two (from Tekzilla):

Hold down the shift key when you press the take picture button and your picture will be taken without using the flash. If you hold down the option key when you press the take picture button your picture will be taken without using the count-down delay. If you hold down both the shift and options keys, your picture will be taken immediately and without the flash.

As for the mirroring, I still have to resort to Photoshop.

.: Adam

Tags: OS X by .: Adam
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If you were using the Beta 2 version of the RDC client from microsoft and were a little flustered that it expired without a new version to upgrade to, you’re in luck. The new beta is out. And this one doesn’t expire!

Get it here:

Download Remote Desktop Beta 3

Tags: OS X by .: Adam
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In PC land, password protecting a zip file is fairly common. In OS X land, it’s not.

So what happens when you try to unzip a .ZIP file in OS X that has a password on it? OS X fires up its Archive utility and errors out with this:

(Error 1 - Operation not permitted)

Wonderful.

So what do you do?

Open up a Terminal session (it’s in the Utilities folder in Applications) and run this:

# /usr/bin/unzip [filename].zip

That will prompt you to enter a password and inflate its contents fine =)

I’ve also tested OS X compression apps: UnRARX and iArchiver.

On a side-note, Stuffit Expander will prompt for the password as well

Tags: OS X by .: Adam
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This year’s apple keynote was lame.

The only real announcement worth anything is about the MacBook Air (which was leaked by wired yesterday). It’s a neat toy, but here’s the downsides:

- No Ethernet port
- MacBook style keyboard
- Trackpad is ginormous
- 64GB SSD drive is $1000 extra!
- Superdrive is external and extra
- Only 1 USB port
- adapter needed for DVI (ie. Micro DVI)
- Processor is a 1.6
- Pimped out one (1.8ghz w/ SSD) = $3,100

I also just noticed that they’re selling a USB / Ethernet adapter for $30. Umm, but won’t that eat up the 1 USB Port?

It’s cool that it’s super thin, has a battery that will last forever, and is “Green” (i’ll rant about that new wave of b.s. later), but seriously. You’re going to have to keep it in a bag with your superdrive and all the various add-on adapters that you’ll need (sold separately of course).

Boo…

Tags: OS X, Rants by .: Adam
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If you have a mac running Leopard (OS X 10.5), you’re probably already familiar with the freaking awesome QuickLook feature. This what’s triggered when you press the spacebar while a file is selected.

I just found out that there are actually plugins for QuickLook to enable you to view even more formats!

Here’s a list of ones that I’ve grabbed so far:

- BetterZipQL: Allows QuickLook of contents within a Zip file
- colorxml: Color formats XML docs
- Folder: View the contents of a selected folder
- QLColorCode: Color formatting of various Code docs

Find a bunch of plugins at QuickLookPlugins.com

To install QuickLook plugins, you should copy the “*.qlgenerator” file into /Library/QuickLook/ or ~/Library/QuickLook/. Note that “*” in the filename will vary based on exactly which QuickLook item you choose to install.

If a QuickLook folder is not present, feel free to create one.

After copying the file into the directory you will need to logout and then back in to your account for it to become active. Alternatively, you can prevent having to logout by running the following command in Terminal:

qlmanage -r

This will force OS X to search /Library/QuickLook and ~/Library/QuickLook for plugins and load them accordingly.

Tags: OS X by .: Adam
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DocColor: a little while ago I showed you how to change the type of dock in Leopard, well, now there’s a little app that lets you change the color of your dock (DockColor). Looks like all it does is modify a png file, but it does it well =)

And if you’re looking to change the dock completely, go here: LeopardDocks.com. They have about a bajillion you can download.

Tags: OS X by .: Adam
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