Turn off Mac remote sensor

June 26, 2008 at 8:08 pm · Filed under Tips, Support, Hardware

In addition to Macs in the house, I also have an Apple TV.  When I’m in my living room and using my Apple TV’s remote, my MacBook Pro also responds and fires up Front Row… not exactly what I’m wanting to happen!  In fact, I rarely have a reason to use an Apple Remote to control my MacBook Pro.

The solution I needed: Turning off the MacBook Pro’s remote sensor.  It’s very simple, although the setting was not where I expected to find it.  Here’s how:

Disabling a remote sensor on OS X

1. Open System Preferences
2. Click the “Security” icon
3. Check the option “Disable remote control infrared receiver”

That’s it!

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Get rid of Mail.app SPAM

March 29, 2008 at 1:11 pm · Filed under Mac for PC Users, Tips, Support, Software

A few tips you can try to get a handle on SPAM for your .Mac email account for users of Mail.app (Apple’s default email application).

Be Sure SPAM Filtering is Enabled in Mail

Mail provides some basic SPAM protection.  If it’s off it’s of no use to you, so be sure that it’s enabled.

1. In Mail navigate to Mail > Preferences…
2. Click the Junk Mail option
3. Ensure “Enable junk mail filtering” is checked

With junk mail filtering enabled, there is one more thing you need to do: train Mail. Mail constantly learns from what you flag as SPAM to try to do a better job in the future. Be sure that you flag junk mail as such as opposed to just deleting it.

Get a More Advanced SPAM Protection

The junk mail filtering for Mail on OS X is a nice feature, but it does seem that it takes it awhile to learn a new strain of SPAM when it encounters it. I’ve considered getting more SPAM protection for Mail.app, but just haven’t bitten the bullet yet.

The program which holds the most appeal to me is called SpamSieve by C-Command Software. If there is an opportunity to evaluate SpamSieve prior to purchase I’ll give it a test drive and report back on how effective it is.

Report SPAM you Receive

I’m not sure if it will assist in your short-term battle with SPAM, but being a part of the solution is always a good thing (right?). When you do get SPAM, submit it to a SPAM reporting service such as SpamCop–be sure you go to spamcop.NET not .COM.

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Office 2008 breaks fonts during installation

March 12, 2008 at 9:01 pm · Filed under Tips, Miscellaneous, Support, Software

I just installed the retail version of Office 2008 for Mac and ran in to a problem. After running the installer, I started experiencing font issues. Safari specifically was having issues. I’m not the only one who has experienced this; it’s an issue that reared its head during the Beta testing but apparently didn’t get taken care of completely before Office shipped.

Avoiding font issues when installing Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac

It’s simple: When the Installer recommends that you close ALL applications, take the installer’s advice. If you do so, you should be in the clear.

Correcting font issues after installing Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac

If you didn’t heed the installer warning and you’re reading this post, you likely have some interesting font issues. The problem stems from the installation of fonts which took place as a part of the Office 2008 installation. Here’s how to bring things back to normal:

1. Open the Font Book application
2. Look for fonts which have a circle indicator next to their name. This indicates that there are duplicate versions of the font installed.

   

3. Expand the font and identify the variant (bold, italic, condensed, etc.) of the font that has the issue (or variants).
4. Click on one of the font variants and click Command-I to Show Font Info

   

5. Identify which of the fonts is the original version, and which was later installed (look for the “Duplicate” attribute toward the bottom of the criteria in the right-hand side pane showing the font information. If it says ‘yes’, this is the one you’ll want to remove).
6. To remove the font variant, Control+Click on the font/variant name to remove.
7. Continue to do this until you’ve removed all the newly installed, duplicated fonts.
8. Restart your Mac. Everything should be back to normal.

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Undocumented iPhone Field Test Mode

March 10, 2008 at 2:50 pm · Filed under Tips, Hardware

Here’s a screen that you weren’t supposed to see on your iPhone. It’s the iPhone’s Field Test Mode which provides the following menu items to be used in test mode:

• Network Information
• Cell Information
• GPRS Information
• PDP Information
• Call Information
• Versions

iPhone Field Test Mode

1. Select the Keypad (dialer) on your iPhone
2. Enter the following number:
   * 3 0 0 1 # 1 2 3 4 5 # *
3. Press the “Call” button

That’s it-your phone will present you with the Field Test screen. This was originally posted on the Cellular PCS web site (Apple iPhone Field Test Mode).  To be honest, I really have no use for this kind of information…  Interesting though.

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Set default program for different file types in OS X

February 21, 2008 at 11:33 pm · Filed under Tips, Support

If you’ve come to the Mac from Windows you’ve probably decided that setting the default program for specific types of files is something on the Mac that doesn’t “just work.”

Instinctively, the first thing most people try is to Control-Click the file, select the “Open With…” option and then click the “Other…” option. You’re presented with what looks like the solution:

One would think selecting the program and then clicking the “Always Open With” checkbox would do the job. But, it doesn’t. OS X is just referring to THIS file—not all files of this type. It’s not completely clear, and pretty frustrating.

Changing the default application for all files of a certain type:

1. Control-Click any file of the type that you wish to set the default application for
2. Select the “Get Info” option
3. If it is closed, expand the “Open with:” section
4. Select the application you wish to open all files of this type
5. Click the “Change All…” button

That’s it. Now all files of the type you modified will open with the application you selected.

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Quickly lock your Mac without putting it to sleep

January 23, 2008 at 3:20 pm · Filed under Mac for PC Users, Tips, Support

When I converted from Windows, I was used to quickly locking my computer buy hitting Ctrl-Alt-Delete and then selecting the ‘lock computer‘ option.  On a Mac, there isn’t a direct equivalent to Ctrl-Alt-Delete, but there’s another method that let’s you lock your desktop quickly without having to put the computer to sleep or log off.

The method involves setting your screen saver to require a password upon waking, and assigning a ‘hot corner’ so initiating the screen saver takes no time at all.  It also assumes that your user account requires a password to log in.

It only takes a minute to set it up.  Here’s what you need to do:

1. Open System Preferences (if it’s not in your Dock, you can go to > System Preferences at the top of the screen)
2. From the System Preferences screen, click the “Desktop & Screen Saver” icon under “Personal” settings.
3. There are two panels, “Desktop” and “Screen Saver“.  If the Screen Saver isn’t the active panel, select it.
4. Click the “Hot Corners…” button at the bottom left-hand corner of the panel.
5. The four select controls represent the four corners of your screen.  Set the top left-hand select control to “Start Screen Saver“.
6. Click the “OK” button.

You can now start the screen saver any time you like by putting the mouse at the top left of the screen and not moving it for two or three seconds.  Now lets make sure your computer will require a password when it wakes from the screen saver:

1. If you closed System Preferences, open it.
2. Click the “Security” icon under “Personal” settings.
3. There are three panels: “General”, “File Vault” and “Firewall.”  With the “General” panel selected ensure the “Require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver” checkbox is checked.
4. Close System Preferences.

That’s it! Now, to lock your Mac at any time all you need to do is drag your mouse to the top left-hand corner of the screen.  Your screen saver will automatically start in two or three seconds.  Then, when you later wake the computer it will prompt you (or anyone else!) for a password to unlock it.

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Leopard dock tip: Show recent applications, documents and more

December 31, 2007 at 2:19 pm · Filed under Tips

The Leopard dock has a great undocumented feature which allows quick access to:

• Recent applications
• Recent documents
• Recent servers
• Favorite volumes
• Favorite items

Here’s how to enable the feature:

1. Open Terminal
2. Enable the Dock item by typing:

   defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{ "tile-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile"; }'

3. Stop and restart the Dock to see the change by typing (still in Terminal):

   killall Dock

The new item appears on the right-hand side of the dock and defaults to displaying Recent Applications. To change what is displayed right-click the icon.

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Mac OS X screen capture tips

December 31, 2007 at 1:18 pm · Filed under Mac for PC Users, Tips

Creating a screen capture of part or all of the screen with OS X is pretty straightforward once you know what keys to press. Here’s a quick rundown:

OS X screen capture keystrokes

• Command-Shift-3: takes a screen capture of the entire screen
• Command-Shift-4: allows you to select the area of the screen to capture
• Command-Shift-4 [release] Space : allows you to take a screen capture of an application window

Each of the above commands creates a screen capture of the desired area and places it on your desktop. If you prefer to take a screen capture which you can paste into a document, email, chat (etc.), just hold down the Control key in addition to the keystrokes above. The screen capture will be put onto the clipboard instead of saved in a file to your desktop.

Changing OS X screen capture file type

The default file type for screen captures is PNG. If you prefer a different format, it can easily be changed:

1. Open a Terminal window
2. Type the following line:

   defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

The above Terminal command will change the screen capture file format to JPEG format the next time you log in. Available screen capture file format options include:

• gif
• jpg
• tiff
• pdf
• psd

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MacBook Pro hard drive upgrade tips

December 2, 2007 at 9:08 pm · Filed under Tips, Support, Hardware

After upgrading my Mac Book Pro hard drive last week, I’ve got a few tips if you’re heading down that road yourself.

The job: Upgrading my internal 80 GB hard drive to a 120 GB or larger drive.

What I ended up selecting for the replacement drive was a Hitachi Travelstar (5K160) 160GB Mobile Hard Drive. I chose this as my upgrade drive for a few reasons:

1. I knew that specific drive would work well as I learned about it in a Mac World hard drive upgrade article.
2. The drive has received very good or excellent reviews as a MacBook Pro upgrade drive. It gets good marks for how quiet it is (my unit is no louder than the one it replaced), it is a bit faster than the stock 80 GB unit, and battery life doesn’t suffer, but improves.
3. The price of the drive is hard to beat.

Here’s my notes and recommendations, I hope they help you make a quick, painless upgrade to your MacBook Pro:

Leverage these two guides as a starting point for your hard drive upgrade:

• Mac World: Upgrading the MacBook Pro’s hard drive
• iFixit: Fixit Guide (select your MacBook model, then download and print the guide)

Shopping List

• Hitachi Travelstar 160GB Mobile Hard Drive - OEM
• #0 Phillips Screwdriver, Torx T6 (Many kits do not have the #0 OR the T6—Radio Shack sells an excellent kit with both included)

Additions/modifications to the Mac World and iFixit Guide:

• If you are going to use Boot Camp (ever), read my last post about how to erase (format) the hard drive to ensure it is Boot Camp ready.
• When you disassemble your MacBook Pro, use some duct or masking tape to ensure you don’t lose screws. It may sound silly, but when that first screw goes tic-tac-tic across your tile floor and you waste 20 minutes trying to find it you’ll thank me. Actualy printing out the iFixit Guide and taping the screws to it isn’t a bad way to go.
• After removing the hard drive from the Mac chassis, you also need to remove four additional screws which have rubber ‘washers’ and transfer them over to your replacement drive. Removing the screws from my factory drive was easy. When you place them onto your new drive just be sure not to over-tighten them. I’m not sure exactly what those ‘washers’ are called. Take a look at the photos below to see exactly what I’m referring too.
  
  
• For backing up my drive, I used Carbon Copy Cloner (Mac World’s article suggests Super Duper) and had no problems whatsoever. Carbon Copy Cloner is a well thought out donation-ware (uncrippled shareware) title.

The “do not cover” hole on the Hitachi Travelstar

After seating the new drive in the chassis, I started putting the cabling back in place and ran into a problem. The Travelstar 160 GB had a clear message on it to not cover a hole on its housing. That hole is a “breather hole” and meant to be left open. After trying several different ways, I could not find a way to re-route Apple’s cabling. There are two DIY solutions. One, cover the hole. I covered mine and I’ve been watching the drive temperature and it has been fine. The second, with some thin foam or plastic build a riser so the drive can breathe.

I hope your upgrade is quick and easy!

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How to ensure your MacBook Pro hard drive upgrade is Boot Camp ready

December 1, 2007 at 7:22 pm · Filed under Tips, Support, Hardware

I recently upgraded my MacBook Pro’s 80 GB hard drive to a 160 GB Hitachi Travelstar. I leaned on an upgrade article I found on Mac World and everything went smooth. In fact, it was completely painless until I tried to use Tiger’s Boot Camp Assistant at which time my Mac told me that the hard drive could not be partitioned and I would need to reformat it.

The exact error message Boot Camp Assistant reported to me was:

“The Startup Disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition.

The startup disk must be formatted as a single MAC OS Extended (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows”

In accordance with the instructions from Mac World, I DID partition the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). After repeating the entire process of erasing the new drive and migrating my backed-up OS onto the new drive and failing, I was just about at the point of starting over with my Tiger installation disks. Luckily, I found a solution.

Apple’s Support and forums offered no solutions. After digging around on the Internet and finding many similar problems but no answers, I stumbled upon an article that noted that to get Windows up and running under Boot Camp the drive had to be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID partition scheme.

Now I was even more confused, because when formatting the new drive with Disk Utility there is no GUID partition scheme option. The GUID partition scheme does exist, however. There just isn’t a logical way to format the disk with it using Disk Utility.

Formatting a hard drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID partition scheme:

1. Open Disk Utility.
2. Select the drive you wish to erase (format).
3. Format the drive as “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”.
4. Still in Disk Utility and with the drive you just formatted selected, click the “Partition” tab.
5. Divide the disk into two partitions (the size is irrelevant, we’ll be deleting one of the partitions before we’re done).
6. For each partition again specify the “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” format type.
7. For each partition click the “Options…” button and select the “GUID Partition Table” option.
8. Partition the drive.
9. When the partitioning is complete, remove the second partition (select it and click the ‘-’ button)
10. Apply the change.

The result: a single partition hard drive which is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID Partition Table. Now you can open Boot Camp Assistant, partition the drive, and install Windows.

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