Mac Osx | Glenn Ward

The latest Mac OSX update includes the App Store, now you can have Apps on your Desktop

The latest Mac OSX (10.6.6) update includes the App Store, widgets meet applications and visa versa to produce lightweight desktop Apps not dissimilar to the Apps on your iPhone or iPad. Some popular Applications such as iMovie, Garage Band, Keynote etc have crossed over to the App store and the prices are very reasonable. Installing an App is single click just like in iTunes, the icon appears in your dock and updates regularly occur in the same way as your mobile Apps.

I have tested a couple, comparing them to the versions I have on the iPhone. The Amazon Kindle App is very simple and seamlessly links to your Amazon account.

Installed Quicktime Plug ins and Components for video production

After recently having my first issues playing certain video codecs in Quicktime since the installation of Mac OSX Snow Leopard I thought I’d look at my installed Quicktime Components that in the past have allowed me to play most files. Obviously, Quicktime Pro facilitates many options that are grayed out in the regular Quicktime Player. I also have Premiere Pro which now facilitates many HDD camera files, Final Cut which also supports many mpeg formats and VLC Player which seems to open most files.

Flip4Mac Pro WMV
I have the Flip4Mac Studio Pro for WMV playback and export. There is Flip4Mac Player for WMV Playback, Flip4MacPlayer Pro allows you to import WMV’s for conversion to Quicktime formats although this version is not free, Flip4Mac Studio allows you to export WMV’s in the Quicktime environment but using the presets and Flip4Mac Studio Pro which allows you to create you own custom export settings. I would advise purchasing Studio Pro if you support a company that uses Video in Powerpoint as it provides the most versatility.

Visit The Flip4Mac download page here

Perian
Perian, they say is the Swiss army knife for Quicktime Codecs. I’ll be honest, I installed it and as I can play most formats I guess it helps but couldn’t evaluate it completely. Here is the list of codecs Perian supports.

File formats: AVI, DIVX, FLV, MKV, GVI, VP6, and VFW
Video types: MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivx, H.264, Sorenson H.263, FLV/Sorenson Spark, FSV1, VP6, H263i, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Snow, NuppelVideo, Techsmith Screen Capture, DosBox Capture
Audio types: Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), and MPEG Layer I & II Audio, True Audio, DTS Coherent Acoustics, Nellymoser ASAO
AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3
Subtitle support for SSA/ASS and SR

Download the Perian Plugin here

REDcode
I have REDcode installed but to be honest I have know hardware that would require using this as yet.

Visit the REDcode website here

DIVX 7 Codec
I have the DIVX 7 Component installed which adds playback of .divx videos and .avi files, there is also a DIVX 7 Pro version which allows you to create your own DIVX files but I have not yet had the need to do so so I don’t have this installed

Visit DIVX here

TechSmith EnSharpen
Since I have installed Camtasia on the Edit suites at work I have installed the TechSmith Ensharpen Codec to reduce the problems I might come across saving out screen capture video created in Camtasia and saving them to Quicktime to then import for edit into Adobe Premiere Pro.

Visit the TechSmith EnSharpen Codec page here

I’m pretty sure I have the XVID Component installed too but again am not sure whether this ever needs pulling out of the bag and if it does it probably runs nicely in the background.

For more Qucktime Components visit Apple

VMWare vs Bootcamp – What is best for running a Windows Operating System on your Mac?

Unfortunately, though I tried to avoid it, I do have a need for both Microsoft software as well a Mac based software, both at work and at home. I am fortunate enough to run two different set ups for running windows on an Apple Mac machine. At work I have a VMWare environment known as VM Fusion running Windows XP and on my home MacBook I have Windows vista running on a partitioned part of the drive, set up using Apples Bootcamp which comes pre installed on the Mac. For both situations you will need a working copy of windows.

VMWare Fusion Environment
The VMWare environment essentially loads a program and within this program loads the Windows operating system. All programs such as Microsoft Office work as usual within the environment. Fusion also has a handy little feature known as Unity which hides the VMWare surround displaying you windows programs in much the same way as you mac software. If, for example you minimise Word it slinks down to the Dock and not the Windows taskbar. If you take the time to set up VMWare Fusion you can also conveniently save down your files to convenient places within the Mac system so as to avoid the need to drag and drop files between the operating systems. We have VMWare fully integrated on the company network which means full support from the IT department.

Bootcamp
Bootcamp is relatively easy to install, it happens in two stages. First, you partition the drive, then you install your windows operating system on the partition. The benefit of running the Windows OS separate to Mac OS you would think would be less of a drain on resources but I have to say that when I boot up in Vista the Apple Mac hardware reacts in a completely different way. The fan kicks in pretty early and the system gets hot. Granted the speed seems to be good but if I’m honest with the processors and ram I am operating with I don’t think I’d notice a difference in speed between my windows programs running in Bootcamp and the windows programs running in VMFusion, the downside being running two operating systems at the same time. The main disadvantage is the fact that the two are separate, you can create a drop box to pass files between the two setups as you can see the partitioned drive from each system but it means rebooting.

In summary, if you are prepared to folk out a little extra for a VMWare licence it is well work it. It just means a more seamless work flow between applications. If you want to copy and paste from a window in outlook to Photoshop you can do, if you want to drag and drop from your windows desktop to an application you can do. As a time saver and for ease of use I’d say VMWare Fusion is the winner.

Obvious improvements from Mac OSX Leopard 10.5 to Snow Leopard 10.6

I bought the upgrade to Mac OSX Mainly for the performance upgrades, demands on the computer and hard disk space. Here are the obvious changes (not always upgrades) I noticed so far.

iTunes
When I updated iTunes I noticed that the iTunes welcome screen opened at program start up. No obvious change to the program and everything was as it was.

Mail
I opened Mail and it reconfigured, again everything was as I left it, I’m guessing it’s the improvements to Microsoft Exchange Server that was the main change there.

QuickTime
I must say I almost had a almost had a heart attack when I opened the new Quicktime player, it’s gone all consumer with share instead of export and limited functionality much like when Apple wound the clock back on iMovie. Fortunately I managed to find the legacy player still on the machine Applications > Utilities > Quicktime 7 player with all he old functionality… Few!!

I didn’t check the free Hard Drive space when I did the upgrade but apparently you will get 7 gigs of disc space back. I have noticed speed improvements but the MacBook was pretty quick to begin with although I have not noticed the fan kick in for a while which probably indicates a reduced demand on the hardware.

Oh and the Desktop has changed. Granted this post hasn’t been as in depth as I first envisaged so ask me any questions and I shall test it out for you!

Speed up your blog posts with quick screen grabs using Mac OSX shortcut keys

You could always use Grab, Apple Macs built in screen capture software but I will tell you how to print screen in seconds, even capture screen images ready to go straight into you blog or powerpoint presentation, already cropped and re sized without the need to use a program such as Adobe Photoshop.

Ok, first method. Hold SHIFT + COMMAND + 3 to print the entire screen, this will automatically place a high .png file on your desktop with a generic name.

Second method, SHIFT + COMMAND + 4 provides you with a set of cross hairs to select your desired workspace. Click and hold at the top left of the part of the screen you wish to capture and then drag diagonally down until all of the area is highlighted, release the mouse and the image will be generated and saved to your desktop. If you change your mind press escape to remove the cross hairs.