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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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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Leopard Dock and Menu Bar user interface options

November 4, 2007 at 2:54 pm · Filed under Tips, Support, Software

I installed Apple’s latest version of OS X, version 10.5 or “Leopard” last week. I’ll sideline the oh-so-popular debate about questionable UI changes in Leopard, and instead post quick ‘fixes’ I found regarding two things I wasn’t a fan of:

Change OS X Dock for Leopard

Not a fan of the new 3d dock? Try a 2d dock that is available but unfortunately not exposed as an option. Here’s all you need to do:

1. Open the Terminal application located in your Applications > Utilities folder
2. Type:
   defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES
   killall Dock

The first line requests that a 2d rendition of the Dock be used. The second line terminates and then restarts all instances of the Dock.

Change Leopard’s Translucent Menu Bar

The Apple hacking community has yet to find a quick Terminal command to revert to an opaque Menu Bar. What can be done is a quick modification to your Desktop Wallpaper which will achieve the same effect. Some have scoffed at this method. My take? It’s clever and easy: thumbs up.

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