Apple World

You’re sitting there and that commercial comes on. You know, the one with the cool indie music in the background. What is that song? Normally, this would be the moment you’d whip out your iPhone and Shazam that -- but wait, your friend pulls out her iPhone and fires up SoundHound. Who gets the song first? And more importantly, who gets it right?

Shazam Encore ($5.99/iPhone & iPod)
Shazam for iPad (Free/iPad) 

Shazam from Shazam Entertainment Ltd. has been around in one form or another on the iOS platform since 2009 and has dominated this sphere for some time. Currently it rolls in four flavors, an iPad only version; and on the iPhone a free version limited to five songs identified per month; Shazam Encore, the paid version with unlimited songs identified and tons more featuers; and (Shazam) RED, the charitable branded version of Encore.

Tap the big button to get started
Use is simplicity itself. Even if you don’t have a smartphone, you’ve probably seen someone whip their phone out, press the big button on their screen, then hold their phone up to speakers somewhere. That’s all it takes.  A small “acoustical fingerprint” of the song is taken, and faster than you can say “Shazam” the app has uploaded it to Shazam’s servers and tagged it. In other words, it has identified the song, informed you who sings it, what the track’s name is, what album it’s on, and where you can buy it on iTunes.


There's an iPad version but there isn't really anything not in the iPhone verson
There are two separate apps for your iPhone and your iPad, but apart from a broader canvas to lay things out on, we didn't really see that having both was necessary. We wondered why Shazam didn't come in a universal flavor, but that's a decision the developers stuck with. That said, we liked Shazam on our iPad better than we liked SoundHound (which seemed very busy), but we are more likely to pull out our iPhone in any given moment, so the point is rather moot.

Lots of choices once you find your song
Since that initial service, Shazam has piled on more features to keep up with their challenger, SoundHound to the point that both apps offer fairly similar extras.  The first offering was the ability to share your song taggings with your friends on Facebook and Twitter, and then came more. You could find out if the band had an upcoming tour, you could watch YouTube videos of that song or ones similar and get recommendations of other songs you might like.

Takes you straight to the song to buy it
The most recent version of Shazam Encore also provides links to reviews of the albums, a map of where you tagged the song in case you forget when you tagged a song but not where, and the ability to delete tags. You can also connect to your Pandora account and create a station based around that song. It also will connect to your Spotify account and play the song there. If lyrics are available, you can also download lyrics of the song as well as play a small snippet of the song to confirm your tag is correct.

You want lyrics? You get lyrics.
Which brings us to the main point, all of these additional features are just icing on the cake. The real question is, how well does Shazam do what it’s advertised as doing. The answer, dear reader, lies with you. Obviously background noise will play a role in how well the app works. Trying to tag a song in your living room by yourself is one thing and trying to tag a song in a noisy bar is another.

The right, the wrong, and the obscure

That said, we had to admit that Shazam had its strengths and weaknesses. Classical music was almost a bust no matter how many times we tried. Jazz fared somewhat better, though we can’t precisely see why Mingus’ classic “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” might be confused with Cher’s “Believe.” Songs with lyrics tended to fare better than those without but overall, Shazam was pretty good at whatever we threw at it as long as it wasn’t too far off the beaten path.

SoundHound ∞ ($6.99/Universal)

If you’re going to take on a recognized leader in the field, you’re going to have to bring something better or different to the table. SoundHound, Inc.'s first attempt at that with their app SoundHound was the touting that you could sing or hum a song into the microphone -- you didn’t need the actual tune. So if you heard it on the radio while you were in the shower and you could remember the melody, conceivably you could hop out of the shower, run down the hall, and sing a bit into your iPhone and sweet musical identification would be yours.

My "doo be doo be doo" got me close but no Sinatra
Well, while SoundHound still includes that as part of its offerings, it’s not quite as loudly touted because the results are so wildly varying. If you can’t carry a tune or even if you can, your answers are just as likely to be way off the mark as they are to be correct. And so SoundHound rolled in the ability to type parts of the lyrics in, a built in Google search just for lyrics, if you will. (You can also type in song name or artist, but if you know that, why are you bothering with this app?)

Tag a song or type in a snatch of lyrics
Basically operating on the same principle as Shazam, you hear a song, open the app, hold your phone as close to the speaker as possible (and hope for as little background noise as possible), and tap the big button. Across the bottom of the app are three buttons, a bookmark one to see previously tagged songs, a flame icon to see hot songs in the US and around the world, and what looks like a small iPod nano. Tap that one and suddenly SoundHound is your replacement iPod controls.

Control your iPod and you get lyrics with it? Sweet.
It gets better. If SoundHound has the song in its lyrics library, they scroll right across the top of your song from your iPod. Ever wonder what that guy was singing? Not anymore you won't. Of all the extras SoundHound offers, this is by far one of the killer ones.
Other items in the category of extras, SoundHound likewise offered lyrics, a direct link to purchase the track on iTunes, YouTube videos of the song in question, an automatic Pandora station builder based around the song, a tour date ticker, artists seen as similar (Bonnie Raitt is similar to Tom Waits?), and SoundHound’s recommended songs.  It also shows you which albums you’re likely to find the song (those old jazz standards show up everywhere) and where on the map you were when you tagged it.

Get some extras
But that’s not the real question. Again, that’s just icing.
Was SoundHound always correct or better than Shazam? Well, it turns out it was better with some things, equal on others, and worse on still others. Once again, your mileage will vary depending on what you’re looking for and what your tagging conditions are. However, we should add that in almost every single test we ran, running the gamut of genres, SoundHound smoked Shazam in recognition speed.

The tricky, the more obscure, and the precise location
For example, Shazam was completely stymied with one of the most recognizable pieces of music in the world, the opening da da da dum of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. SoundHound, after three tries, not only got it right, but also got the orchestra correct as well. The exact subtle variations between the London Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra putting this out could well tax the most enthusiastic classical music buff. Shazam never even came close.
In fact, based on our record collection, SoundHound managed to nab more songs correctly than Shazam did overall. There were occasional obscurities (the Final Jeopardy theme music and Lou Barlow’s lo-fi cover of Bryan Adams’ “Run to You”) that SoundHound stumbled over, but then there were places it nabbed specifics Shazam missed (Radiohead’s “Faithless the WonderBoy” was on the EP Itch, which SoundHound found, while Shazam placed it on the Pablo Honey album).

Top of the Pops

The second set is more like our results
We’ve been faithful users of Shazam since we first got our iPhone. In fact, it was one of the apps we downloaded. Sure, there were times it failed us, and we suspect it will get better as it grows its song databases. And having Spotify just one click away from the song tag? Beautiful -- but something SoundHound is just as likely to add soon enough too. So we didn’t think SoundHound would sway us from our first love, but it did. Tagging was faster, more accurate, and on target over a wider range of material. Use was just as easy as Shazam and a couple of the extras, such as lyrics and iPod controls were more appealing. While Shazam touts LyricPlay, we found it often simply refused to cooperate. We’re practical people and we’ll pick a better core service any day, and SoundHound's core service is better and its extras had that something extra.

Photo via Apple Defects

Don't know how to properly coil the MagSafe cord for your MacBook or MacBook Pro? Well that's cool, but you might want to start doing it the correct way, lest you burn your house down. The guys at Tested have figured out a simple way to make sure your laptop's power cord is properly wound up, without the risk of electrical shock.

To do this properly, create a loop at the beginning of the coil (referred to as the "pigtail") and then wrap it around the MagSafe powerbrick as you normally would. The pigtail actually prevents the ends from bending too much, which could cause wire exposure and ultimately lead to sudden death.

We're sort of exaggerating, but this is one of those PSAs you don't want to avoid. We should also add that you make sure to coil the cord in its "natural" way, e.g.  in the direction the cord was going right out of the box. And if you can't remember any of these instructions, just keep this in mind: don't go against the curve.

Stacks let you quickly access data from your Dock, but Apple doesn’t let you add a stack containing your most recently accessed files or apps unless you use the following Terminal command:

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

killall Dock

When the Dock reappears, you’ll find a stack of recent items beside the Trash. To change which items appear in the stack, right-click it to choose Recent Applications, Recent Documents, Recent Servers, Favorite Volumes, or Favorite Items.

Most of us go about our day, deftly printing the most common, letter-sized documents without a care in the world -- that is, until we want to switch things up and print photos instead, only to find that Mac OS X’s normally easy-to-use printer settings suddenly fail to be of much help.
We don’t often have to think about printing on a Mac -- once you’ve installed the appropriate driver for your printer, it tends to “just work,” like most things do in the World of Apple. That is, until they don’t work, leaving the user stabbing blindly at settings in the Print window in a desperate attempt to make things right once more.

Although print settings vary from program to program, the nitty-gritty stuff is buried inside a pulldown menu aptly named after the application in question. Casual users may never have need to dig into these settings until trouble arises, or you need to switch to specialized paper, perhaps for photos, cards or business presentations.

For example, pulling down Safari’s printer options reveals a host of hidden options, ranging from Layout and Color Matching to the vitally important Print Settings and even Booklet Printing options, depending on which printer you’re using. (As a general rule, the more expensive your printer is, the more options you’ll probably find lurking within your driver software.)

We won’t go into detail on each of these choices right now, but here’s a peek at a few important ones, as well as some printer “gotchas” to watch out for.

Print Settings

Depending on what kind of printer you’re using, you’ll see a section for Print Settings (or possibly Color/Quality Options). Important things to watch out for here include the Media Type and Color setting -- if you’re printing on a specific type of paper, you’ll definitely want to change the Media Type to match to get optimal results.

Many printers include both Automatic and Advanced options under Print Settings. Automatic generally works fine for casual printing, but if you’re looking to squeeze a bit more quality out of your prints (especially for photos), switch to Advanced mode and tweak some of the settings there. These might include Print Quality options ranging from Economy to Normal to Fine settings that could dramatically improve the final output.

How do you know which settings to use? A lot of it is unfortunately trial and error, but suffice it to say, it also depends a lot on what you’re outputting. Photo prints will benefit most from higher quality settings and more expensive paper, but even archival text-only documents will benefit from a trip to the Print Settings so you’ll print the sharpest, cleanest type your printer is capable of.

Media Type and Speed

While most of us enjoy care-free printing on whatever paper we can get our hands on, there’s something to be said for selectively choosing the Media Type under Print Settings -- you may think it’s just a ploy by manufacturers to get more of your hard-earned dollars, but the right paper and settings can make the difference.

The key here is to select the correct Media Type, which can often be a confusing mess to end users. In the example above, Epson offers six different types of paper (plus an Envelope option) under Media Type, five of which they manufacture. What’s the difference between “Ultra Premium Photo Paper Glossy” and “Photo Paper Glossy”? No one except the engineers at Epson probably know for sure, but since inkjet printing is an exact science, it pays to match the Media Type to your exact brand of paper for best results.

Likewise, the old adage “Do you want it done quickly or do you want it done well?” applies here -- most of us probably print with the standard Automatic settings, from which the printer tries to get the job done quickly with decent quality. However, a quick slide toward the Quality setting -- even for those of you using otherwise Automatic settings -- can greatly improve the final output.

Color Management

Many printer drivers also feature a section dedicated to how color is printed on the page. In the case of our Epson printer, this includes options to customize the brightness, contrast, saturation and individual ink cartridges separately, rely on their own PhotoEnhance technology or just turn off color management altogether and get the most faithful printout you can, theoretically speaking.

Due to the vagaries of Apple’s built-in ColorSync or even the advanced color management built into applications such as Adobe Photoshop or InDesign, there’s no such thing as the ideal setup from the printer driver -- you’ll have to do some trial and error to get the best results, so have plenty of paper and ink handy.

Don’t Forget Page Setup

Printer settings used to be considerably more confusing with Mac OS X, with key settings such as paper size, scale and portrait or landscape tucked away under a separate Page Setup window instead of front and center with the rest of the Print options.

Thankfully, Apple has consolidated the Page Setup options into the Print window these days, although some old-school applications such as TextEdit or much of Adobe’s Creative Suite still keep them separated. Before heading to the Print window, be sure to check for a Page Setup option under the File menu -- if it’s there, open that sucker up and make sure your settings match what you intend to print.

Among the Page Setup options are the Format For pulldown; whether you have several printers or only one, you’ll want to change “Any Printer” to match the one you’re about to use so the rest of your Page Setup options are properly shown. Page Size should match the media you’re about to print on, which varies from printer to printer -- for example, some printers don’t automatically include 4x6 print settings, even though they may be capable of printing them.



Thankfully, you can roll your own quite easily -- pull down the Paper Size and select “Manage Custom Sizes.” From there, it’s a simple matter of clicking the + button to add a custom paper size, then entering the desired width and height. You’ll want to choose the correct printer under Non-Printable Area, since this varies from model to model, but you can always override those setting by selecting “User Defined” and manually entering those numbers.

Once you’re finished, you can double-click on the text field to name your new custom size, then be sure to click OK. Now you’ll see your custom size listed below the default settings, and you can add other custom sizes as oddball jobs come up, such as wedding invitations or other projects.

Finally, be sure to select the proper paper Orientation and Scale. Do you want to print your text in portrait or landscape? You can see at a glance which way the text will read and which way the paper should feed, then you can reduce or magnify the printout as necessary and click OK when ready. Now when you visit the Print window, your Page Setup will be carried straight over and you’ll be good to go.

Apple’s AirPort Extreme is best known as a slick, easy to use wireless router for sharing an internet connection with computers and mobile devices in your home. But like many Apple products, its seemingly nondescript appearance belies its awesome capability. Here are five ways you can get the most from your existing AirPort Extreme – and even your hard drive-equipped Time Capsule or diminutive AirPort Express as well.

Share a USB Printer with Your Household

Despite the abundance of cheap USB inkjet printers, there are very good reasons to avoid buying one for every computer in your home. For one, the longer a printer sits unused, the more ink you’ll waste having to clean the cartridge(s) the next time you want to use it, wasting costly ink. Thankfully, AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express and Time Capsule all come with a single USB 2.0 port capable of attaching a printer or hard drive (more on that in a moment), allowing everyone in your home to have access to the same printer.
To go wireless, simply plug the printer’s USB cable into the USB port on back of your AirPort device and connect the other end to the printer. You’ll have to install the appropriate printer driver software onto each computer you plan to use, as well as take a visit to System Preferences > Print & Fax and add the newly-wireless device to your printer roster. Click the + symbol and select the printer from the Add Printer list – your printer will be now recognized as a Bonjour device. Select it from the list, allow Mac OS X to populate the printer settings, click Add and you’ll now have wireless access to the printer.

Make Your Networked Printer Work with iOS AirPrint

After enjoying wireless liberation for your USB printer, you’ll likely want to experience such freedom from your iOS device as well. Sadly, Apple has limited AirPrint functionality introduced with iOS 4.2 to a handful of newer Wi-Fi enabled printers from HP, but there’s an inexpensive way to get AirPrint working with wired or networked printers.
eCamm’s $9.99 Printopia is the most elegant way to make your printers available via AirPrint, although it does have one major caveat (aside from the modest cost) – it runs on a Mac OS X computer, so if that particular system is shut down or otherwise unavailable, so is your ability to print from iOS.
To surmount this limitation, enlist an always-on computer in your home. For example, if you already use a Mac mini in your home theatre setup, it’s likely that you keep it on 24/7. Since your USB printer is now network-connected thanks to AirPort, you can install Printopia on just such a system and have AirPrint capabilities for the networked printer, available at all times.
After purchasing and installing Printopia, open the settings in System Preferences, make sure the switch is set to On, and that your AirPort-connected USB printer is checked (along with any others attached to the same computer). Now, when you attempt to print from an iOS device running 4.2 or later, you’ll see all of your Printopia-shared printers as an option, including the one being shared from your AirPort Extreme.

Network Storage for the Whole Family

USB 2.0 hard drives are also perfectly compatible with the AirPort Extreme’s USB port your printer is now attached to. But how can you plug two devices into one port? The answer is simple: with a multi-port USB hub. By attaching even a simple four-port hub to the AirPort’s USB port, you can immediately expand your horizons with multiple printers or hard drives. Best of all, those small, unpowered hubs will also work just fine with AirPort, drawing necessary power from the USB port itself.
Apple calls an AirPort-attached hard drive an “AirDisk,” and to make yours available to any computer on the network, first launch Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility, select your AirPort and click Manual Setup. Select Disks from the top of the window, then the File Sharing tab. Here you’ll want to check “Enable file sharing” to make the AirPort storage visible to your computers; you’ll also find options to secure your disk with a password, if necessary. Be sure to click Update to commit these changes on your AirPort when finished.
Next, plug the hard drive into an available USB port (either directly or via hub), open a Finder window and look for your AirPort under the Shared section at left. Click on it, enter your password (if required) and your AirDisk will now appear mounted on your computer with a blue drive icon, and can be accessed from any other computers on your network the same way. As always, you’ll get the best results from a wired network (preferably Ethernet 1000baseT) or an 802.11n wireless connection.

Use an AirDisk for Time Machine Backup

With a USB hard drive (or two) connected to your AirPort network, the door is open to new possibilities. That includes using your new AirDisk as a central Time Machine backup drive for all of the computers on your home network. With your AirDisk mounted and available on your computer, simply head to System Preferences, open Time Machine settings under System and click on Select Disk. Like magic, your AirDisk will show up in the list of available hard drives, even showing you which AirPort network the drive is connected to. Select the drive, click Use for Backup and you’re ready to go.
If you have many gigabytes of data on your computers, an 802.11n network should be considered a minimum requirement for Time Machine use. Also, the bigger the USB hard drive, the better for Time Machine use – if you’re using an AirDisk to back up more than one system, you’ll want to consider more than 1TB in order to have plenty of backup space for the future.

Extend Your Wireless Range with an AirPort Express

Now that you’ve successfully added a printer and hard drive (or two), you may want to beef up your wireless network to maximize your range, particularly in larger homes or apartments. The most effective method is to add an inexpensive AirPort Express to extend your wireless range. While a second AirPort device can pick up the signal from another device and carry it further, the best way to accomplish this is to connect the two AirPort devices using an Ethernet cable.
Assuming your current AirPort Extreme is already set up and working, you’ll want to run a Cat 5 or 6 Ethernet cable from any one of the three jacks on the back to the Ethernet port on the AirPort Express; plug the Express into an available AC power outlet to power it up.
Next, launch Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility, select your AirPort Extreme and click Manual Setup. Select the AirPort icon, then the Wireless tab and make sure “Allow this network to be extended” is checked – it’s under Wireless Network Name. Take note of all of your settings under the Wireless tab, since you’ll want to enter most of them again for the Express. Click Update to lock in your changes.
Now select the AirPort Express in AirPort Utility and click Manual Setup; you’ll be asked to switch wireless networks, so click Switch. Select the AirPort icon, then under the Wireless tab make sure Wireless Mode is “Create a wireless network” and that your “Wireless Network Name” matches that of your AirPort Extreme. Select a different channel, preferably one that’s at least two numbers above or below the one used by the Extreme; Wireless Security should match your AirPort Extreme. You may also want to visit the Base Station tab to give your Express its own unique name and password.
Finally, click on the Internet icon at the top and change Connect Using to “Ethernet” and Connection Sharing to “Off (Bridge Mode)” – this will bridge the two AirPorts to carry the connection for your Extreme to the Express over Ethernet. Click Update to commit your changes. Now your AirPort Express will seamlessly appear as an extension of the same network you already use – as you move about your house with a laptop or mobile device, it will intelligently pick up the Wi-Fi signal that’s closest, whether it comes from the Extreme or the newly-added Express.

If you have a nice-looking screensaver like us, you want to see it all the time. Type the command below in Terminal, and your current screensaver will appear as your Desktop’s background image. Then, as with all commands on this page and the next, hit Return.

/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background &

Simple? Check. Fun? Totally. But if you get motion sickness, simply close the Terminal window to return your Desktop to normal.

Spotlight search results not appearing as they should? Force Spotlight to re-index itself with the following two commands:

sudo mdutil -E /

sudo mdutil -i on /

You’ll be prompted for your administrator password. Then, after a few minutes’ delay, Spotlight will begin re-indexing your Mac.

With iPhoto's new card and calendar making feature, it's pretty easy to make a last minute keepsake for relatively cheap, and without having to don your parka and head out to the store or post office. But, sometimes it can be a little tricky getting started on the crafting process, so we put together a few quick tips for making some holiday cheer with iPhoto '11.

1. Pick a photo

First things first, you'll want to select a photo that is clear, has a balanced color composition, and will put a smile on even the grumpiest man's face.



In this case, we chose a photo of me as a Pokeman master--because you gotta catch 'em all.

Click on Events and select your photo, then tap the "Create" button in the bottom right corner to begin. Select what kind of craft you're interested in creating, and then click "Create" when you get to the cover flow screen of letterpress choices.

2. Editing your card

We suggest adding the most inspirational message when creating your card. if you're having a tough time seeing the text, select the slider on the zoom option in the bottom left-hand corner to hone in on the area you're currently editing.



You can also change the font face, size, and orientation from the little menu that pops up above your text, or click on the Design option in the bottom right-hand corner of iPhoto to change the text color.

3. Adding in more pictures

Say you want to add in extra pictures of your Pokemo--er, pets. A small icon will pop up; click on that to get a list of options that will enable you to add in more photos from your iPhoto events. Careful not to get too crowded though--you don't want the card to be too busy.




To add in extra photos, right-click on the selection to open up the photo browser. Then, go to "Show Last 10 months" or "Last imported". When you've found the photo you're looking for, drag it into the selected photo frame. If you've selected to add more than one photo, select the next photo frame and repeat this process.




When you're finished, used the Navigator at the bottom left-hand screen to pan over to a different area of the card.

4. Sending off your finished product

Click the "Buy Card" selection, and select whether or not you want the Apple logo to appear on the back of the card. When you check out, you'll be prompted to enter in your iTunes or Apple ID, and then you'll be asked for your Shipping information.

To save money and to get your cards right away, you can also choose to print out your card on your own printer. If your printer doesn't support double-sided printing, you'll have to print out one side of the card on card-stock paper and reinsert the it back into the printer. Be sure to practice a few times with regular paper to get the orientation correct before using up all your fancy paper.

Making a Calendar

To make a calendar, you can use the same techniques, but instead select a specific set of photos to have printed onto it. Once you choose your design, you'll be prompted to choose a calendar to import from iCal, and you have to option to include national holidays (from various regions!) and birthdays from iCal. Like the cards, you can print these out on your own printer for speed and to save money.

This is so weird. I have a FileMaker database that I’ve been using for years to send out party invitations to my friends, but now I’m getting a black background in all of my outgoing emails.

A side effect of upgrading to Safari 5 (or Mac OS 10.6.4, which includes Safari 5) is that attachments sent to Mail from any application (such as FileMaker Pro, Microsoft Word, or a custom AppleScript) will now give you a black background in your outgoing email messages that makes your text unreadable. Apple is aware of this issue and will hopefully resolve this in a future software update. But for now, there are four workarounds.

If you don’t care about the hyperlinks or the formatting of your message, you can change your email to plain text by choosing Format > Make Plain Text.
Seeing this strange black background when you try to send an email message with Mail? There are several ways to fix it.

If you need to keep the formatting intact for your message, click anywhere in the body of your Mail message, choose Edit > Select All (Command-A), then Edit > Cut (Command-X), then press Delete on your keyboard to clear the leftover elements in your message. Finally, choose Edit > Paste And Match Style.

If you’d rather not go through that hassle for each one of your outgoing messages, install the excellent Mail Attachments Iconizer  which gives you an unprecedented amount of control in handling Mail attachments and also conveniently works around this bug.

And of course, your final option would be to switch to a different email application altogether, such as Microsoft Entourage.

If you're a savvy geek--which, as a reader of this site, you totally are--you can turn to the powerful real-time text input and collaboration technology built in to Google Docs. With the recent announcement that Google's cloud-based productivity suite now boasts the ability to edit and collaborate on documents from Android and iOS devices, there's no excuse for not doing so!
You can set up your own private chatroom and message board by following these few simple steps:

1. Get an Account

If you don't already have a Google account, you're going to need one. The same goes for anyone you want to have access to your chat-room-on-the-cheap, or glorified instant message board. Don't worry, setting up a Google account is nothing but win. Aside from being able to use Google Docs, you'll have access to a free email address, an excellent blogging client and all the other bells and whistles that have made Google the tech giant it is today.
To set up your free Google account, just follow this link and answer any questions that the good people from Mountain View, CA. ask you.

2. Meet Google Docs!

Now that you have a Google account, it's time to put it to work. Navigate to Google Docs, located here, and sign in with your new credentials. Once signed in, look to the top left corner of your browser's window for a button marked "Create new" and click it. You'll be presented with a number of options for the different types of Google Doc files you can create. For this exercise, choose "Document".

3. Give it a Name

You'll want to give your chat room document a name to set it apart from the other files that you'll no doubt dabble with moving forward. In the top left corner of your browser, click on the title field. A pop up box will open prompting you to give your document a title.
Once you've entered a title, enter a bit of text into the document, and click the save button.

Step 4. Invite Some Folks Over

With your chat room ready to go, you're gonna need some people to chat with. To invite a few folks over, turn your attention to the top right corner of the screen. Click the Share button and enter in the email addresses of the people that you want to chat with. An invitation will be send to the email addresses you enter.

5. Get Your Chat On

With your Google Doc chat room set up, and all of your friends invited, all that's left is to start chatting. Thanks to Google Docs new fangled integration with Android and iOS handsets, as well as just about every browser under the sun, you'll be able to chat in real time with your friends, co-workers and clients with as much or as little privacy as you please. Once the conversation is done, you can preserve the document for prosterity's sake, erase it or even send it out via email.

I’d like to upgrade to Snow Leopard, but I’m afraid that if I do, the RightZoom app I have installed will no longer work, and I can’t figure out how to determine whether it will or not. SnowChecker (free, snowleopard.wikidot.com/snowchecker) doesn’t list RightZoom, so I couldn’t check compatibility that way. I’m not sure I want to go back to the default behavior of OS X’s yellow and green buttons, but I’d like to upgrade. Any advice?

You’re in luck. BlazingTools Software has updated RightZoom  to be Snow Leopard compatible as of version 1.7. We installed and tested it on a MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard, and it worked as expected. Upgrade away!

RightZoom is a handy way to make those green buttons behave.

For readers who haven’t tried RightZoom, it’s a utility that lets you reassign the green “zoom” button at the top-left of application windows to make that window full-screen. You can limit this behavior to certain applications, or exclude applications, and even set keyboard shortcuts for maximizing windows, instead of or in addition to the green button.

I found this tip by accident and wanted to share it--hope you haven’t heard this before. One frustrating thing about the iPhone is photo management. Oh, sure, you get a chance to delete photos after importing them into iPhoto, but you only get that one chance, and it’s all or nothing. If you only want to delete some of the photos, you’ve got to do that manually on the phone--or so I thought.

Turns out there’s another way. Plug in your iPhone and open Preview, then select File > Import From [Your iPhone’s Name]. A window appears showing all the photos on your phone, and you can move them around, save them to disk, and delete them from the phone individually or in batches. Don’t ask me why this is in Preview and not iPhoto!

Preview's photo-import window has tons of information and power. Who knew?

Great tip--we had never heard of that! Thanks so much for passing it on! (This was sent in by Mike Romo, who manages Norton for Mac products for Symantec, plus writes a weekly column for iFanboy.com.)

This tip works with iPads too, and if you have both an iPad and an iPhone connected to your Mac at once, the menu item becomes Import From Camera, with a submenu that lets you choose which device. We are just as baffled as you regarding why this is in Preview instead of iPhoto, or even stuck in iTunes somewhere. But it works great, and that’s the most important thing.

Whenever somebody sends me a link to an album in the iTunes Store or an app from the App Store, Safari launches and shows me all the information in a webpage with reviews and song previews and everything. But then iTunes automatically launches and shows me the exact same information! How do I stop Safari from auto-launching iTunes?

The behavior you’re seeing is a throwback to the days when there was no such thing as an iTunes Preview webpage. Back then, the only way you could view album or app information was to view them in iTunes, so those links launched iTunes. However, when Apple launched iTunes Preview pages with this same information, they forgot to remove the functionality that forces iTunes to auto-launch.

The NoMoreiTunes extension prevents iTunes from automatically launching when you click on an iTunes URL.

The easiest way to prevent iTunes from auto-launching is to use Software Update to upgrade to Safari 5, which now supports extensions. To enable extensions, go into Safari > Preferences, click the Advanced tab, and check “Show Develop menu in menu bar.” Then, from the Develop menu at the top of the screen, select Enable Extensions.

Finally, download the ingenious NoMoreiTunes extension (free, einserver.de), and you’re all set! You can still launch iTunes from any Preview webpage by clicking the View in iTunes button in the left margin. And if you ever want to uninstall this, or any Safari 5 extension, you’ll find controls in Safari > Preferences > Extensions.

For instructions on how to prevent Firefox and Chrome from auto-launching iTunes, check out The Apple Blog’s informative entry on this topic.

Keeping your iPhone apps current is a breeze, but with a few tools, updating software on your Mac can be just as easy. Here's how.

With the bevy of software available for the Mac, it can sometimes be difficult to remember to update all of the applications you may have installed. After all, that software is meant to be used, not just updated constantly. But in reality, many Mac apps require care and feeding, so we’ll show you the best, most efficient path to getting that chore done without squandering any of your precious free time.

Software Update keeps your Apple applications up to date, but don't forget about your third-party software, too.

Difficulty Level: Easy
What You Need:
>> EAppFresh (free, metaquark.de/appfresh)

1. Software Update

Make Software Update behave the way you want.

Apple includes its own updater (appropriately called Software Update) on every Mac. This utility periodically checks to see if your Apple software--Mac OS X, iWork, iLife, and so on--is up to date. If it finds there’s an update available, it will open and prompt you to install the new update. You can fine-tune how often it checks in System Preferences > Software Update. And you can ignore an update you don’t need by selecting it and choosing Update > Ignore Updates from the menu bar.

2. Microsoft AutoUpdate

Microsoft's updater works just like Software Update, but for the Office Suite.

To check for updates in any of the Microsoft Office applications, go to Help > Check for Updates. This launches the Microsoft AutoUpdate utility, which has a drop-down to let you specify how often it should run: Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. Clicking Help launches a page of additional info in your default browser.

3. Adobe Updater

It's best to have Adobe Updater update all your Adobe apps, but you can exclude some if you like.

Adobe’s aptly named Adobe Updater works just like Microsoft’s. It can check weekly or monthly for updates to your Adobe Creative Suite apps, and you can even manually exclude CS apps you never use (hi, Fireworks!) in the preferences. To force a check outside the regular schedule, select Help > Updates from any Adobe application.

4. Sparkle

Applications using Sparkle present users with three update options: Skip This Version, Remind Me Later, and Install Update.

Other Mac developers use a framework called Sparkle in their applications to help users keep those applications up to date. When developers push out an update for an application with the Sparkle framework, you, the end user, see a pop-up window, letting you know the update is available and offering to install it for you. But this all happens when you launch the app, so now you’re stuck waiting for an update at the exact moment you wanted to use that application--the main problem with checking for updates on startup rather than automatically.

5. AppFresh

The main screen of AppFresh can be a little daunting at first, but it becomes friendlier the more you use it.

Luckily, several software-updating utilities can watch for updates to any of your applications without waiting for you to launch the applications. Free utility AppFresh is an excellent choice--it uses the app database at osx.iusethis.com to check for newly released updates, but also checks with Apple Software Update, Microsoft AutoUpdate, Adobe Updater, and your Sparkle-enabled applications. It can even update widgets, preference panes, and some plug-ins.

6. All Together Now

The download queue shows the download and install process for each application you're updating.

When you first launch AppFresh, it scans your Applications folder. When it’s done, look under the Status section in the left pane for an item called Update Available. Click that to see all of the applications on your system that have an update. To download updates one at a time, simply right-click the application and select Install. Or hold down the Command key while selecting multiple applications, then right-click and choose Install to update several at once.

AppFresh Alternatives

Because everybody loves to have options!

MacUpdate Desktop

MacUpdate.com is a go-to website for finding new Mac apps, and the handy MacUpdate Desktop application can check your system for software updates as well. The app has a nice simple UI, and it found six more updates for us than AppFresh did; however, you’ll pay $20 a year for this application and service. And unlike AppFresh, it can’t update your Apple apps.

CNET TechTracker

CNET TechTracker (free, cnet.com/techtracker) requires a free CNET account to use. Even though CNET has a large database of applications, TechTracker found fewer updates than AppFresh or MacUpdate Desktop. But it doesn’t check for Apple updates, screensavers, plug-ins, or widgets, which likely accounts for the discrepancy.

LogicielMacUpdate

LogicielMacUpdate (free, eagle-of-liberty.com/logicielmacupdate) sits in your menu bar and provides one-click access to app updates. But unfortunately, its smaller application database means that it comes up with fewer updates than the other options here, and it doesn’t check for Apple updates.