If you’re a guitar player, or even a beginner, there’s a sweet application on the iPhone that helps you get up to speed with new chords and scales. It’s like one of those crappy Ernie Ball how to books, but like a million times better, and actually useful. What good is a damn chord progression on paper, if you have absolutely no idea what the chords should sound like in the first place? The Guitar Tool Kit solves most of those problems, as well as gives you access to a tuner, chord book, scale information, and all for different types of guitars (12 string, 6 strings, Bass, and 5 string bass). It’s become quite the handy little tool. Have any idea what a B Persian scale should look like with an E flat tuning? I sure as hell didn’t, but after a couple of quick clicks, I had it at my finger tips.

Photo credit: Daniel Y. Go

It is reaching the end of summer in Alaska, I am so sorry to say. It is now time to finish all of the summer tasks that we have undertaken this year. But would you paint the house without pressure washing it first? Would you put up your summer harvest without cleaning up your kitchen first? If you agree that preparation is key in successful summer project, then why would you take on a major upgrade to your computer without some preparation? This guide is for both the ultra-paranoid and for those who just want to make sure their computer will work as they need it to after the upgrade. These tips are not specific to Snow Leopard, but to any major upgrade to the Macintosh operating system. Do your homework It has been a couple weeks, so most of the developers have ensured their software runs on Snow Leopard. It doesn’t hurt to check, though. Either go to the website for your software or check out the Wiki. This community page will give you an idea about what software gets broken by Snow Leopard. If you can live without an incompatible piece of software, and choose to upgrade anyway, uninstall the offending application before proceeding. Take out the trash Update time is a great time to sit down with your system and clean it up. This task may be as daunting as cleaning out the garage before winter, but as everyone knows it has to be done. This is a great time to go through and organize your data. Check that the software that you use commonly has been updated to the latest version. Often applications will do an automatic check when launched. For optimum function, the hard disk should have at least 10% empty disk space. This is especially true when installing a major upgrade. If your file system is bulging with duplicate data in old files, a scan may be in order. With OmniDiskSweeper, you can quickly find out what files are hogging all that space. The free software will sort out your largest files so that you can take a look at them and decide if you need to keep them around any longer. After you’re done make sure you empty the Trash. Repair your system Leopard and previous versions of Mac OS X. have a number of tasks that need to be run on a regular basis in order to keep the system efficient. If the computer is not running 24/7, sometimes these operations do not occur. Using the utility OnyX, you can make sure the file system is repaired and organized. The specific functions in the very least that should be performed are permissions repair, the daily, weekly, and monthly scripts, and Spotlight Index rebuild. You can also use a utility like DiskWarrior or TechTool Pro in order to rebuild directories. Backup I’m going to assume that you are using Time Machine for the simple reason that Leopard makes it so incredibly simple that it would be a sin not to take advantage of the technology. Take the time to check and make sure you have a current Time Machine backup. If anything goes wrong, not to say that it will, the system can be restored with a good Time Machine backup. However, for the ultra-paranoid and people who cannot have any downtime, a clone or snapshot of the system should be made. This requires an extra hard drive at least as large as the hard drive in your computer. SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner are both utilities you can use for free to create your very own system clone. The advantage of a clone is that it can be booted. If something goes horribly wrong, for example, a power outage in the middle of the install, a clone will allow you to be up and running in less than five minutes. Schedule some quality time with your Mac This is a major upgrade, and that means that the install will be doing some pretty serious work. The process of installing Snow Leopard takes over an hour. Allow that much time for the upgrade to run. Ideally, everything will be fine and you will be back to playing your favorite game as soon as it is finished. If you somehow end up with a cat fight on your hands, you will need some extra time to sort all that out. If you do the update in the evening, and you find something is not working the way you’d like it to, you will have all night to restore your system. If rollback to Leopard is necessary, you can simply restore from Time Machine overnight. It is not recommended to perform this upgrade the day before a trip to Maui, an hour before that big presentation, or right before that scheduled quest on World of Warcraft. System testing Check to make sure all of your software functions properly. It is very possible that some of the applications may have a specific Snow Leopard update. There has also been a major upgrade to iTunes in the past few days, so that will be need to be upgraded as well. You have been rewarded for your planning. Your system should be functioning even more efficiently with the new enhancements that Snow Leopard has brought to your system. Now that your Mac has been serviced and upgraded, you can get back to putting up that moose and making jelly. Oh, and while you’re doing that fall cleanup, remember Miss Mac don’t do Windows! Image Credit: Tambako the Jaguar

I wish I had the ability to do everything I wanted from any window on the Mac. I know it sounds a little grandiose, but why can’t we delete a file while a save file dialog is open? I know it seems counter intuitive at first thought, but it would save a lot of time if you had the ability. On that note, saving files in general is a giant pain in the rear these days. Click here, click there, click again, and again, and then click save. Well, you no longer have to do that. Default Folder X makes navigating folders in the finder a breeze. It’s all about saving time this week, and this application takes the cake. It lets you get things done immediately, and not in 40 seconds time Do what you want in a save/open dialog Have you ever noticed a file sitting in a folder that you want to delete, while saving another file? I know I have, well until default folder x let it happen, finder couldn’t care less what you wanted to do. That’s the beauty of this application. It gives you additional functionality that you’ve thought about on a couple of occasions, without ever being able to use. Get directory assistance Another really cool thing is that you can drill down into folders without having to click your way through them. You just mouse over the menubar icon and then start scrolling over the menu. You’ll drill down a lot quicker than you did in the Finder. You can also save default folder locations for applications. If you put all your photoshop files in a folder titled graphics, and all your essays in a school folder, you can now ensure that these applications open the right folder while saving. Huge time saver. Get information on a file The “get info” option in the finder is pretty snazzy, but you can now also get file information while you’re saving. It’s a great way to make sure you don’t accidentally save over something you shouldn’t. This application is full of handy tricks that save you time and effort. Between this application, and Path Finder, you’ll never have another need for the Finder. I’d love it if Apple bought up both applications then added the functionality to the Finder. It might help us actually get work done on our laptops. Image Credit: Kasaa

This is the second installment of my week of recommending GTD applications. If you want the other recommendations just click the tag “GTD“. Mail Act-On has let me get a handle on my email. I was using some of the mail rules for Mail.app already, and Mail Act-On has let me take it to the next step. I’ve been able to filter emails into appropriate folders so I don’t have to manually move them after reading. It’s been really handy, and helps me keep things in order, and more importantly, keep things ready for archiving. So, for instance, I have all the emails coming inbound going to my “Macgasm” folder. I set up exceptions to send all the emails to tips@macgasm.net to go into “Macgasm Tips”, and then emails notifying me of comments on the site going into a folder named “Macgasm Comments”. It’s been really easy to set up, and it lets me address emails en masse quite easily. Mail Act-On takes that step a little bit further and lets you assign rules to both ingoing and outgoing emails, as well as set up hot keys to apply certain rules and actions to your inbox. If you sent a ridiculous amount of email, and really want to cut down on the time you spend organizing it, I recommend Mail Act-On, it’s saved me a ton of time over the last week, and I’ll be continuing to use it for a long time–unless something better comes along. Image Credit: Martin LaBar

Here’s yet another Snow Leopard Tip. You know that CMD+TAB trick we’ve all grown to love over the years?  You know, the one that lets us jump between open applications quickly?  Well, now we’ve got another little trick to accompany it. When you’re jumping through applications and stop on one, while holding down the command key, push the down arrow on your keyboard.  You’re activating expose.  So, if you have a million finder windows open and you CMD+TAB to the Finder icon, and then push the down key, you’ll be able to see every single on of them, then select one to bring to the front of the pile. Here’s yet another Snow Leopard Tip. You know that CMD+TAB trick we’ve all grown to love over the years?  You know, the one that lets us jump between open applications quickly?  Well, now we’ve got another little trick to accompany it. When you’re jumping through applications and stop on one, while holding down the command key, push the down arrow on your keyboard.  You’re activating expose.  So, if you have a million finder windows open and you CMD+TAB to the Finder icon, and then push the down key, you’ll be able to see every single on of them, then select one to bring to the front of the pile.

Since writing our first book review, I’ve received a dozen “please share” emails from people looking to figure out how to get the tools needed to work with green screens in iMovie 09. It’s important to note that you need iMovie 09. Previous versions don’t have the tools needed to work with the green beast, so, you should probably upgrade if you haven’t. Other than that, there’s a couple of small steps, and you’ll be well on your way.

Open the Preferences for iMovie Under the general tab, check the ‘Show Advanced Tools’ option Close the preferences A number of new buttons, and options should appear. Now, all you need to do is drop your background footage into your timeline. Then, select the green screen footage you want to overlay your background footage. On releasing your mouse button you should be met with a menu. Select Green Screen. Done!

Photo Credit: markhassize11feet

A couple days ago I got a weird request from a friend. “How can I unzip a 7z file?” Not only did I not have an answer for him, but I had no idea what the heck a 7z file was.

Turns out that a 7z file is actually a data compression format that uses multiple formats to ensure that the compression is super compressing things, I guess. It’s hard to explain it in non super boring terms, but that’s essentially it. It’s like a riddle wrapped in an enigma. It just is what it is. Anyhow, if you come into contact with the file format on your Mac and need to figure out how to crack the safe, you can use a free application called 7zX. It’s a straight forward app that unpackages the files. It’s that simple, nothing complicated here. I thought I’d pass along the information just in case you need it. Photo Credit: sea legs snapshots

Sync Google Contacts with Address Book We’ve talked about the benefits of syncing your information with the cloud before, and our opinions remain the same.  Anytime you can get stuff syncing between devices for free you should do  it.  Philosophical arguments aside, Google has been doing some great stuff giving us the ability to sync calendars, and documents across multiple devices. Previous to Snow Leopard, iPhone/Touch users had the ability to sync their address books with google’s contact servers, but anyone with out either of those devices were left out in the cold.  All of that’s changed with Snow Leopard.  Anyone can do it now, and I recommend you do it.  You never know when you’re gonna be stranded somewhere with a phone that’s dead.  If you can get the internet, you’ll want to be able to get your contact information. Here’s how you do it. We’ve talked about the benefits of syncing your information with the cloud before, and our opinions remain the same.  Anytime you can get stuff syncing between devices for free you should do  it.  Philosophical arguments aside, Google/Yahoo have been doing some great stuff giving us the ability to sync calendars, and documents across multiple devices, and now everyone can sync contacts. Previous to Snow Leopard, iPhone/Touch users had the ability to sync their address books with Google’s contact servers, but anyone with out either of those devices were left out in the cold.  All of that’s changed with Snow Leopard.  Anyone can do it now, and I recommend you do it.  You never know when you’re gonna be stranded somewhere with a phone that’s dead.  If you can get the internet, you’ll want to be able to get your contact information. Here’s how you do it.

Open the address book application Open the address book’s preferences Click the accounts tab Check the synchronize with Google Click the configure button. Fill in the information Let the address book do its thing. Done.

Photo Credit: christyxcore

If you have more than one mac on your network you’ve probably used Apple’s screensharing at some point.  It’s super handy and helps you maintain another computer without having to sit in a chair in front of it. Much like the other under the hood enhancements that Snow Leopard has brought to our Mac’s, Screen Sharing is no different.  We now have the ability to use some really handy keyboard shortcuts over the VNC connection.  Previously these shortcuts would only work on our local machines, and really throw a wrench into our workflow. Here’s a quick video showing you it in action. If you have more than one Mac on your network, you’ve probably used Apple’s screen sharing at some point.  It’s super handy and helps you maintain another computer without having to sit in a chair in front of it. Much like the other under the hood enhancements that Snow Leopard has brought to our Macs, Screen Sharing is no different.  We now have the ability to use some really handy keyboard shortcuts over the VNC connection.  Previously these shortcuts would only work on our local machines, and really throw a wrench into our workflow. Here’s a quick video showing you it in action.

[download in HD]

Everyone knows the iPhone is an awesome gadget, with lots of features and apps to make everyday life easier, so when I went backpacking around Europe, it was the first item on my list. However, not everything is as easy as it seems. Here are some thoughts on how to make the most of it and not go crazy with its short comings… Battery life: Have your wall charger with you at all times and charge your iPhone whenever you can. The battery WILL drain when you most need it, like when you arrive in Berlin, for some reason at the wrong train station, with no place to sleep, no idea where to go and for some reason can’t find anyone who speaks English. (I guess I could also get a map, a REAL compass and have a guide book with me at all times but what kind of geek would I be if I did that?) If your iPhone’s battery is running low, STOP USING IT. Don’t think “oh, I know my way from here, I won’t get lost”. If you’re anything like me, you WILL ALWAYS get lost right before your iPhone shuts itself down. If even with my expert tips you still managed to reach 3% of battery, take a moment to write down on a piece of paper or notebook (remember those?) any important details you might need, like your hostel’s address or the phone number of the guy whose couch you’re crashing on.

Battery Life All-in-One Travel Power Plug Adapter Mophie Juice Pack

Attitude & communication: Squealing and taking pics of the Apple Store when you get to Regent Street not only makes you look tourist-y it also makes you look really weird, just sayin’ (from experience). Waving goodbye to the Apple Store when you’re about to leave London apparently is also not a good look (don’t make fun of me, we don’t have Apple Stores here). Happy hour at the hostel bar is not the time to sit in the corner and post on Twitter how much fun you’re having. Specially if you’re travelling alone, you’ll want to meet people when you can (so you’ll actually have interesting stuff to tweet about). Showing all the cool stuff your iPhone can do is not a good way to strike up a conversation with fellow travelers (unless they’re iPhone geeks too in which case you can just say hello from across the room with the “Banner” app).

Banner Online Translator World Customs

Navigation: There are a few good navigation apps that have stored maps, which means you won’t get a huge bill from downloading maps all the time (I have Navigon) but I came to realize that for walking directions Maps is still a lot better. What I ended up doing was getting the directions I needed in Maps whenever I found a free wifi hotspot and then just followed the path. I left Navigon mostly to find some POIs and to find my way back to the hostel when i was lost in the middle of Bruges with no wi-fi around (Bruges is very small, so according to my tour guide no one gets lost there, except me of course). Unfortunately even Maps won’t help you if you gest lost inside a train station like I did. That’s one situation where it helps to have a language app so you can look up what the word “exit” looks like in the language of the country you’re in so you can more easily find your way out. I know we like to think the iPhone is the most perfect gadget ever, but sometimes it will fail you. When I was trying to find a cyber cafe in Paris, Maps sent me to TWO wrong locations. When I actually tried asking the guy at the reception desk of my hostel, I found out there was actually a cyber cafe just a block away. We geeks might like to use our gadgets for everything but sometimes getting out of our technological bubble and actually talking to people is a good idea. We might even make a friend (yes, geeks can have friends too). Keep in mind that sometimes it might be fun to forget the iPhone and let yourself get lost, you might find some cool places you wouldn’t find otherwise like (…)

MetrO AroundMe Wi-Fi Finder

Security (the iPhone’s, not yours): Try not to use your iPhone (unless you really need it) when you’re getting drunk at the hostel bar. Alcohol makes it a lot more likely that you’ll drop it, spill something on it or hand it over to someone and forget to get it back. That being said you should ALWAYS use it to take pics of people doing embarrassing drunk things (then you’ll have something to trade for the video of you dancing on top of the hostel bar, hopefully before it hits YouTube). If you walk around alone at night, which you should avoid if possible in a strange city, try to memorize your path back to your hostel before you leave; you don’t want to draw attention to yourself by using your iPhone to find your way if you happen to get lost in a bad part of town. If you’re going to use your iPhone to take a lot of pictures consider investing in a case with a wrist strap. My boat tour around Amterdam would have been a lot more enjoyable if I wasn’t so worried I would  drop my iPhone in the canal every time I used it to take pics.

If Found Wasted PhoneSCREAM Anti-theft

Accommodation: Double check that the hostel where you’re staying really has free wi-fi. Sometimes free wi-fi is only available for the people who pay more for the same room (so it’s not really free), only in the lobby or not available in the building where your room is. Location, location, location. In most dorm rooms usually only the bottom beds have a power outlet nearby (if that) so you should try to claim those beds if possible. You’ll want to let your iPhone charge through the night whenever you can but you should never let it charge on the power outlet on the other side of the room. It’s also a good idea to get a bed near the door so you won’t bump into everything when you get to your room drunk at 4am. If you can’t find a bed near the door, the iPhone can be a pretty discreet light source to find your way through those crowded dorm rooms.

Budget Hotels Europe Just Light Flashlight Zimmer

Photo Credits: Sikachu!, MacExposure, takuhitosotome

This is more of an application “plugin” than a stand alone app. It requires a plugin system for your mac to work, but if you haven’t checked out Simbl yet, or you haven’t found a great use to install it, Visor might be the application that puts you over the top a little. It doesn’t get much more geeky than the command line, and if you get your socks all tied in knots over some terminal love, then you MUST have this application.  It lets you bring up the terminal from any application you’re in.  You can assign a shortcut key to the operation, and upon hitting the key combo the terminal opens from the menubar.  It’s really handy if you spend a lot of time jumping in and out of the terminal. See it in action…

There are those among us who may still enjoy making “mix” CDs for ourselves or others. Did you know that you can print out an entire track list for a particular playlist? It’s actually quite simple.

Create Playlist This one we’ll leave up to you. Create any playlist you want or use one of the canned ones that comes stock with iTunes. For our example We’ll use the Top 25 Most Played. Select Playlist To Print Click File -> Print This will bring up a dialog box where you can select which type of layout you would like. My favorite is to use ‘CD Jewel Case Insert’ and Select Mosaic. This will provide a list of songs on the left along with a Mosaic of the album covers on the right. Print out your Cover It’s that simple. Things to remember. The track list can only display 25 items when doing a CD Cover insert. If you’re doing anything other version the only limitation should be the size of the paper. An example of the Top 25 songs that I have can be found here. One thing to keep in mind is that these covers can be quite large in terms of space. My example is 7.1 Megabytes. It’s not a whole lot, but it’s a nice little trick that can spruce up that mix CD that you’re making. Or as a handy way to backup your playlists in case you decide to do a wipe and reload of your computer when you install Snow Leopard.

Wow, now here’s something I’ve wanted since I first got an iPhone, and I’m sure there are many others of you out there that feel the same way. I remember seeing a concept similar to this one earlier this year, and have included the video below so you can compare to the existing version. Movement is an app from Jeff Stieler which sadly, is only for Jailbroken phones. It lets you move around all the apps and games on your device with ease, something which is rumored and we all hope turns up in an upcoming version of iTunes. All you have to do is connect your device over USB, hit ‘read apps’ to get your current app order then drag them all around to your heart’s content. You can select just the one app you can’t be bothered to drag to that 9th page you have, or you can select that whole page of fart apps you have, add a new page and move them to the very end out of the way. Then hit ‘write apps’ and after backing up the old springboard (as the app’s still in beta), just re-spring the device and you have your new layout.

There seems to still be a whole bunch of bugs in this release, but the support forum seems to be pretty active, so login and help Jeff make it an ever better app. Until Apple bring us an official way to do this, it’s your next best thing.

Did you know that you can speed up the playback speed on your iPhone?  That’s right, you can play your podcasts at both 1.5x and 2.0x speeds.  It takes a bit getting used to, but there’s nothing better than cutting down that 2 hour podcast into a fraction of the time commitment. I mean I love podcasts and all but 2 hours… really? It took me a while to figure out (had to chat with Grant about it), but I managed to track down the settings.  Here’s the steps:

Start the podcast like you normally would, Leave the album up on the screen, Tap the album art once and a new overlay should pop up, A mail icon, a rewind icon, and a playback speed icon, You can now choose between 1, 1.5, and 2.0x speeds.

There ya go!  Save some time, listen to your podcast’s in chimpunk voices. [Photo Via Strangeless]

Did you know that you can speed up the playback speed on your iPhone?  That’s right, you can play your podcasts at both 1.5x and 2.0x speeds.  It takes a bit getting used to, but there’s nothing better than cutting down that 2 hour podcast into a fraction of the time commitment. I mean I love podcasts and all but 2 hours… really? It took me a while to figure out (had to chat with Grant about it), but I managed to track down the settings.  Here’s the steps:

Start the podcast like you normally would, Leave the album up on the screen, Tap the album art once and a new overlay should pop up, A mail icon, a rewind icon, and a playback speed icon, You can now choose between 1, 1.5, and 2.0x speeds.

There ya go!  Save some time, listen to your podcast’s in chimpunk voices. [Photo Via Strangeless]

I’ve had a constant struggle with ToDo applications lately (or GTD apps if you prefer), I’m both hot and cold when it comes to their use in my work flow.  When things get really busy and out of control for me I start dropping things into the application, but once  things slow down I tend to neglect them.  It’s been a cat and mouse game for well over a year.  One thing that has always irked me was a lack of syncing between my todo lists and my multiple machines. All the applications seem to provide options for syncing, but none seem to integrate free, over the internet, options. This is where dropbox comes in handy. For those of you not in the “know”, dropbox gives you 2gb of syncable storage space, for free!  They give you an application that lets you sync those files between multiple computers.  If you need more space they also have a Pro accounts which gives you 50gb or 100gb (neither of which are free, and both of which are a monthly charge of $9.99, and $19.99 respectively). These two applications can be mashed together to sync your OmniFocus todo’s across multiple machines very simply.

Click preferences in OmniFocus, then the sync icon, then the “disk” option, then choose the location, then select your DropBox folder, click sync now, rinse and repeat on your other computers.

Now you can have your “todos” with you where every you are!