Mac Tricks

Image Editor for Mac – Pixelmator

phil — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:56:34 +0000

If you are looking for a slick image editor for Mac that won’t push you further into debt, check out this Mactricks.net download of the day. Pixelmator has a cool Mac-style interface with most of the fixins’ that Photoshop provides. Brushes, resizing, layers, colors, and more. Remember, it’s not free (I think the full version is $59) but it’s a hell of a lot better than paying a gagillion dollars for Photoshop, and it gets all the basic jobs done. So, if you are looking for a demo, and a very reasonably priced image editor for Mac, Pixelmator is the obvious choice. Check out the trial below.

Download Pixelmator Now (free)

3 Cool New OS X Lion Features You Should Start With…

phil — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 03:14:10 +0000

Features, features, features. I think the next step is being able to drink water from your mouse, or check your blood sugar via USB pad and app (wait, could that be possible? patent pending…). But before the Star Trek Enterprise tools become available, we got these nifty improved features. Includes, uploading video to social media from Quicktime, easier file search capabilities, and how to create accent marks in OS X Lion.

1. Upload a video to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, or Vimeo directly from your Quicktime player. Simply click on the actions arrow (the little box with the arrow popping out) on the Quicktime interface and there you’ll see the options. Also, if you want to strip the audio from a movie and create a separate file, go to File > Export.

2. Apple’s easy search capabilities can easily make us forgetful of where the heck we put stuff. Luckily, Mac’s file search capability keeps getting easier. If you are looking for a file and know the file type, and would just like to search those types so you can narrow your search, first go to your Finder. Type kind: and then the file type you are searching for. Pick a file type from the drop-down menu. Now your search is only limited to files of that type that are stored on your computer. Comes in handy.

3. Creating accent marks in OS X Lion is easy as pie. Simply hold down a letter for a moment and the accent box appears. Click the number corresponding to the accent you want and you’re done.

Sync Android with Mac

sergio — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 07:29:50 +0000

Never forget the underdog. Google’s Android has revolutionized the smartphone marketplace. For those of us with iPhones, we’ve never really had to think about how to setup our devices to work with our Macs, but what if we have an Android? How does one sync their droid, atrix, galaxy s, etc with their Mac? Its easy, lets take a look.

This article explains how to hook up your Android device (running android 2.2 froyo or later) with your Mac.

1. The first step is to connect your phone to your computer. Simply plug a usb cable into your computer, and the other end to the usb port on your phone. Some android phones have multiple methods of connectivity. To set which mode you would like to connect with, go to Settings->Applications->Development and enable USB debugging.

2. The second step is to sync your iTunes with your phone. A free program, Salling Media Sync, will do all of the work. Simply install the application, follow the wizard, and the app will automatically sync all of your iTunes media each time you connect your device.

3. Getting your Address book setup couldn’t be easier. Since Android is based largely on Google services, it makes sense to sync your Address book with Google. From Address book simply go to Preferences->Synchronize with Google. From now on any changes made in either Address book, Google, or your phone will sync automatically across all platforms.

4. Lastly, syncing iCal with your phone is just as easy as the Address book. Simply follow Google’s instructions and you will be setup in less than a minute.

Have any other synchronization tips? Share them here!

Run Windows Applications on a Mac

sergio — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 03:32:44 +0000

Let me tell you something. If you ever paid money for a Windows Emulator for your Mac, make a sad face and read these words very carefully. Open source is free, stable, reliable, and continuously updated. So on the topic of running Windows executables on your Mac, Darwine has been around for years and is the Mac port of the popular Wine app which has been available to *nix users for years. Download it using this easy guide and start playing your favorite Windows game in minutes.

The great thing about open source software is the large community backing it, meaning any problem you run into you can almost assure yourself someone has dealt with it and likely found a solution. If you head on over to the Darwine Google Code Page, you will find the download section with the latest releases and a wiki that will provide support if needed.

To setup Darwine browse over to the Download section and download the latest or “Featured” build. Drag the red Darwine folder to your Applications folder and you’re set. Now browse over to the Darwine folder in your Applications directory, and run WineHelper. Once WineHelper is loaded, go to Application -> Open… Browse to the .exe or whatever Windows file you may want to run, and select it. Chances are your Windows App is now running.

Keep in mind Darwine requires that you have X11 installed, if you don’t just Google “X11 Mac Download”, it’s not hard to find.

Enjoy!

Visualize your Hard Drive Usage

sergio — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:41:45 +0000

I often find it hard to understand how i could be occupying all my hard disk space when all i have is documents and MP3′s. It seems like it would be fairly convenient if Mac provided a way for users to visually represent their hard disk usage. Thankfully where Apple doesn’t fulfill the great Mac community does. Disk Inventory X is a handy little app which will take any drive or storage location on your Mac and create a visual graph along with a file list organized by filetype and location. You’ll be surprised what you find!

The first step to making this work is to download the app. Head over to the Disk Inventory X website, and download the application from the downloads section. I recommend dragging this one to your Utilities folder in the Applications directory, since its really more of a utility then an application.

Run the app and a small box will prompt you with a list of drives, select the volume you wish to visualize and hit ‘Open Volume’ to begin. After a decent wait, you will be prompted with the data. That’s it! From there you have the option of removing files, moving them around, whatever you want. Make sure to click on the actual graph to see what the big blocks are, its kind of fun.

Here are some screenshots: