MyMac

iTunes 10.5.3 Update

2012-01-19T20:43:00.000-08:00

Back from China visit, 3 weeks away, I found no update at all on Jan 15, 2012. Today Apple released the iBook2 and related information at New York news conference. iTunes update is released afterward.

Here is a snapshot of the update:

The following is the comparison of spaces used before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...70,352
After	...68,692
Difference (A-B)	1,660

Apple Support Story

2011-12-18T21:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I purchased iPhone 4S, 64G white model. It is a beautiful device. However, I soon realized there is one issue: iPhone does not show in my iTunes. I have so many apps in my iTunes for my previous iPhone 4, therefore, I do need to use iTunes to sync my previous iOS contents back to this new device.

Last night, I tried to google for solution, but with no luck. It looks like a common issue, but all the suggestions would not work for my case. I restarted my iMac 27 and restarted my iPhone. Still my iPhone is not in my iTunes.

Today is Sunday. I was not sure if Apple support was available or not. I dialed 1-800-MyApple anyway. Apple support was available. That's a good news. It took about 10+ minutes to get a support person on line. I spent 20 to talk with him. He verified my iTunes and Mac OS versions. He also told me to enable iTunes preference: Device section with Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads form syncing automatically enabled. Still there was no luck to show my iPhone.

He transferred me to a senior special list on this issue. It took about another 10 minutes to get available person. Then we went through several times reboot with safe mode, hold on shift key while rebooting. He also instructed me to repair disk permissions from rescue HD after reboot with option key. Still no luck. During the initial time, he also asked me if I connected my iPhones through USB hub or if there are any other USB devices. I cleared all those issues.

Then I asked my what are in my Macintosh HD's Library\StartupItems. That's something I did not know before. I found two items:

Privoxy
VistualBox

He recommended me to move those to Desktop or remote them if I don't need them. I removed them. Still the problem existed. He then sent me a file of "Capture Data.app.zip", which is an app to capture some disk log files for Apple engineers to analyze what may cause conflict or block iPhone display. When I started the app, there were several options to select. He was not sure what to select.

Finally, during the time I repairing my disk permissions, He told me take a break and he would call me back in minutes. It had been over 1.5 hours passed. During this break, I grasped some food and drinks. Soon he called me back. Instead of capturing system log files, he suggested me to reinstalled iTunes from Apple web page.

I downloaded iTunes from the web. During the installation, I asked him if I should uninstall it first. He told me that iTunes is part of Mac OS application and it cannot be uninstalled. Therefore, there is no need to uninstall iTunes.

I run the iTunes.dmg after downloading. I followed the instruction to install the app. After the installation, he told me to quit iTunes first and unplug my iPhone. Then start iTunes. This time my iPhone is displayed in Devices on the left panel. You got it finally! he said. What a relief from him, I can tell from his voice.

After the installation, I saw this nice end-thank-you screen:

It has been over 2 hours for my support case. It is actually not my iPhone's issue. It was my computer. However, my Mac just past 90 days telephone support warranty. He did recommend me to get extended 3 year warranty.

From this case, I realize that this warranty is actually great deal. You have to pay for your get. With extended 3 year telephone support, I think it'll save me a lot in terms of time and trouble to get my computer to local Apple store. Just image this case, how much Apple has to pay for support staff over hours on my one case. The fee is basically break even for Apple to this type of service.

After my vacation back from China, I am sure to get the telephone support case.

iTunes 10.5.2 Update

2011-12-12T17:46:00.000-08:00

From AppleInsider.com I got the news about the update. This update does not require reboot, but I need to reboot before and after the update in order to get the disk space difference.

Here are two snapshots of the update:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...861,156
After	...622,888
Difference (A-B)	-238,268

Updates: Safari 5.1.2 and Keynote 5.1.1

2011-12-04T20:55:00.001-08:00

I got two updates today: Safari 5.1.2 and Knote 5.1.1

Here are two snapshots of the update:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...84,116
After	...10,744
Difference (A-B)	-73,372

iTunes 10.5.1 Update

2011-11-19T18:21:00.001-08:00

This is an update I got today while I was writing a Chinese blog. I did have time to reboot before and after the updating. I let it go during my writing process.

Here is a snapshot of the updates:

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...6,411,056
After	...4,919,532
Difference (A-B)	-149,1524

Mac Digital Camera, iOS 5.0.1 and iPhoto Updates

2011-11-11T10:00:00.001-08:00

Last night I got several updates: Mac digital camera update, iOS 5.0.1 update for my iPhone 4 and iPad 2, and iPhoto 9.2.1 update from Apple Store.

Here are some snapshots of the updates:

he following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...852
After	...4,468
Difference (A-B)	3,616

iMac Thunderbolt Update 1.1

2011-10-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

Today I found two updates: one for iMac EFI and another for Epson Printer Update.

The following are normal Apple updates:

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...927,104
After	...727,268
Difference (A-B)	-199,836

iMac EFI Update

2011-10-27T18:05:00.000-07:00

Today I found two updates: one for iMac EFI and another for Epson Printer Update.

The following are normal Apple updates:

During the update, the following windows was displayed to explain what would happen during the iMac EFI update. I heart a bright sound after reboot.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...4,596
After	...9,832
Difference (A-B)	5,236

Mac OS, iTunes and Lion Updates

2011-10-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow will be the iPhone4S release date. I found several updates today:Lion Recovery Update, iTunes 10.5, Mac OS Update 10.7.2. In addition to that, iOS5 for iPad and iPhone are available as well. iPhoto and Xcode are also updated.

The following are normal Apple updates:

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...458,312
After	...1,194,076
Difference (A-B)	735,764

We'll Never Hear Steve Jobs Live Voice

2011-10-05T21:55:00.000-07:00

Today is a sad day. Steve Jobs passes away, at his age 56. I wrote a blog in my Chinese blog to remember him.

New Updates After I Got New iMac27

2011-09-21T20:25:00.000-07:00

After I got my new iMac 27, I found a long list of updates, including OS and Thunderbolt updates. On the second day, I got another two updates. I have not had time to experience my iMac yet.

One thing I noticed immediately is that the process of checking new updates is much faster than before, less than 1 minute. The same process used to be taking long time. Not sure if this is one of enhancements or not. I think this should be belonging to Lion.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	..405,816
After	...790,712
Difference (A-B)	384,896

The following are updates on the next day:

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	..790,712
After	...650,012
Difference (A-B)	-140,700

My iMac27 Arrived!

2011-09-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

Today my iMac 27 arrived, much earlier than expected. When I brought it home, I set it up in just minutes. Now It is in the progress to transfer all my data and apps from my TimeMachine, about 1 hour and 8 minutes left.

Today is the last day for back-to-school special. This year, the special is $100 iTunes gift card. I am still thinking if I should get MacBook Air 13"or not. I have plan to bring one back to China and give it to my sister as a gift.

I have sent out 4 Apple laptops (1 MB, 2 MBP and 1 MBA) to my relatives. They were all very suppressed by my generosity. For me, I think Apple laptops are the best gift, better than anything else.

Mac PowerPoint 2001 Presenter Mode Issue

2011-09-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

Today I went to an event for continuing education instructors by Chinook Learning Services. An motivation speaker, Marco Iafrate, was invited to give a speech about integrating mind and body for better communication decisions and ideas. It was a great talk. I recognized the speaker's computer right away: a nice MacBookPro.

However, there was one very disappointed issue: the presentation view on project screen was not in full screen mode. During the break, several people from audience want to the front to offer help. I was there. I thought I could help, but I have never used PPT for Mac before. My initial thought was the settings in the projector. But it was find when I changed to desktop and there was no problem to present a pdf file in full screen mode. However, I could not figure it out. Since the time was short, Marco told us to give it up and restore it back the its original status. I told Marco that he should get his PPT file in PDF instead of PPT for Mac app.

After I got back home, the issue is still in my mind. I googled this issue and found some information about it (I don't have PPT so I cannot test it out).

One thing I did not gave it a try is to use Mac's zoom feature for the screen. In many of WWDC shows, Apple presenters uses the zoom feature (control+scroll up) to enlarge a portion of screen. The interface of PPT is too crowded. The ribbon area take too much spaces, which makes the slide show too small. May be there is a way to disable ribbon show and to make the window cleaner.

References

The following are some information I found from web:

This forum discussion looks like the same issue as we had today. There two toolbar buttons in ribbon: Presenter View and Mirror Show. It looks like PPT uses 2 screens for presentation.
Apple support communities forum has one topic about similar issue. A solution is about to configure screen from Apple system preferences: Displays.

Another Experience Using TimeMachine

2011-09-14T22:25:00.000-07:00

I sold me iMac 27 last weekend. Now I am using my daughter's MBP. I have the same account on this MBP as in my previous iMac 27. However, since I have not used this MBP for very long time (3 years?), all the local settings such as apps, Safari bookmarks and other system settings are very old. I miss my iMac 27 environment very much. I know this one is just a temporary one just for about 2 weeks(my new iMac 27 is on its way to my house as I received a notice from Apple), but I feel that I am a kind of lost: missing all the settings, bookmarks and my podcasts.

Restoration of User Account from TM

Today I had a thought during the day. Can I use my TM to restore my iMac 27 account to my MBP? I gave it a try about half hour ago. It works great!

Step 1. Plug in my TM USB cable to my MBP
Step 2. Start Migration Assistance
Step 3. Go through its wizard with selection from TM. I only select my account and Applications since I don't have enough space in MBP.

In less than 10 minutes, I got my iMac 27 account back to my current MBP. Now I am using my account will almost all the settings. For example, I get my Safari bookmark back. Now I can see my RSS feeds.

New Findings of Restoration

One thing about TM restoration is that I don't have enough space on the current MBP so I have to deselect some big size items such as Movies, Documents, and Public. This makes the size of restoration much smaller, to fit my MBP. After the restoration, my account is back.

Almost everything I need are back! In my iTunes, I find that all my podcasts are there. Some items actually are not available. I think those are videos, which were not migrated. My keychain is also back. Now I can use it for my Safari visiting all my personal web services.

Another very interesting thing is that I did select Applications in TM migration because I want to use some tools. All the tools I want are back. However, ones already in my MBP are not updated. TM seems smart enough to avoid overwriting apps. For example, Skype on MBP is an old vernon, while Skype on my TM is a new vernon. Skype was not updated or not migrated over. I think that TM does not overwrite any apps even apps on TM is newer. This explains that why iLife on my iMac 21 are all 2011 ones. I did complete migration when I got iMac 21. Another reason may be for not sealing apps, but not sure. For example, you can delete existing old ones to get new one from TM. Not sure it is possible for Apple apps.

Encryption of TM

I notice that I did not enable encryption for my TM. This may not safe. Anyone may take TM to get account restored. It will require password to log in to account, but theft may have enough time to try out after migration. I think it is recommend to encrypt TM.

Conclusion

I really like this smart and convenient migration feature of Apple computer. It saves tones of time. I am able to get back to my normal life in just minutes.

Since this restoration is just for temporary usage, I'll delete this restored account when I get my iMac 27. I have no important files saved here during the transition time.

My Late 2009 iMac was Sold

2011-09-11T09:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I sold my iMac 27 (late 2009 model) at price $1300.00. I put it at local kijiji web site with no OBO. The reason I want to sell this one is that I want take advantage of the back to school sale opportunity. I can get about $200.00 back, with one year warranty, new iLife 2011, Lion OS, plus new hardware (CPU and Magic track pad). I think it is a great deal after 3 years usage.

I sold me iMac 24 last month at very low price. That was my first Mac computer. Now I think if I hold my iMac 27 longer, I would not be able to sale it at good price. There always some one want to save money. In terms of usage, I think for ordinary people, there should be no different between my previous iMac 27 and new iMac 27 entry level from Apple. This is my strategy right now.

I am going to order another new iMac 27 entry level soon. With TM, I'll be back to my big screen and normal life in at most 2 weeks? Now I am using my daughter's MacBook Pro 15, the old model. It is a good machine, but the battery needs to be replaced.

Apple Care Support and 2 Finger Swipe in Safari not Working Issue

2011-09-08T21:00:00.000-07:00

Today I called Apple Care support to resolve my iMac issue. The issue is that two finger swipe did not work in the past weeks. When I received this iMac, I transferred all user accounts from TM to this computer. It was working fine.

BB uses this computer most of time. One day she told me that two-finger-swipe stopped working. I tried to check system settings and could not find anything wrong. I found that other users are OK. Only BB's account has this issue.

I googled web, and found one solution from Apple discussion forum. One person phoned Apple care and got a solution: delete com.apple.systempreferences.plist from user account's Library/preferences folder. I tried but it did not working.

Then I decided to give Apple a call. I tried twos ago. The working hours is 8:00am-9:00pm Extern Time. I missed twice when I remembered to call after work. I could ask BB to call but I would rather to get experience from Apple Care Support. Today I made a call once I got home.

A lady answered my call. It sounds like that she has not much experience with this issue. She told me that she is going to check with senior manager. I waited 5 minutes. When she was back, she told me that she had a solution. This one is actually as same as the one I found. It did not work. I even tried to reboot iMac after removing the plist file. She went back to her line again asking her manager.

Then the manager was on the phone. We tried various ways. Including reboot by holding option key, unplugged power cord for 1 minutes, restarted by holding option+command+p+r. None of those was working.

He admitted it is a really rare issue. I gave all my story about the issue. He said that it must be something screwed up in this account. Finally, after he thought it for a while, he asked me to pull the plist file of Safari out of Library/Preferences. When it is out, two-fingure -swipe is back to normal after Safari is restarted. It is Safari plist file that is corrupted!

The support call took about 1 hour. I am happy with the result.

After that, I further approve it is the Safari plist issue. I put the systempreferneces plist back. It is fine. When I put the trouble Safari plist back, two-finger-swip stops working.

Here is the corrupted plist file. Does any one know what is wrong in the file?

EPSON Printer Update 2.8

2011-08-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I found this update but I did not have time to do it. Today after work, I completed this update. As far As I known this update is for EPSON printer, not Mac OS update from Apple directly, but all the updates have to be through Mac updates.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	..99,184
After	...63,512
Difference (A-B)	-35,672

iTunes 10.4.1 Update

2011-08-22T19:47:00.000-07:00

Today I got one update about iTunes 10.4.1. I have not experienced any issues with iTunes since I got Lion. However, according to AppleInsideer article this updates fixed some instability issues, so I did the update anyway.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	..7,896
After	...9,364
Difference (A-B)	1,468

After my updates, I watched a nice podcast: 309 - Lion - Finder & Safari [Free Sampler Show], by ScreenCastOnLine. It shows so much and nice features of Lion. I love those features.

By the way, one thing I notice is that there is no more podcast URL links. The URL copy is for podcast only, not for an item. I remember the previous iTunes (may be fore Lion) has Copy URL for a podcast item, which is a long name of URL for iTunes only.

References:

AppleInsider: iTunes Update 10.4.1
ScreenCastOnLine: 309 - Lion - Finder & Safari [Free Sampler Show] (podcast link).

New iMac 21 Arrived!

2011-08-16T21:31:00.000-07:00

My first iMac 24 was sold through Kijiji two weeks ago at the price of $575.00. After that, I ordered iMac 21 with education price: $1149 + $10 recycle fee - $100 off and $100 iTunes credit card. It took almost one week to have my new iMac.

One thing I realized that there is no welcome message when I turn on the iMac. I did TM transfer, which took about 2 hours. There is no installation disk. Not sure how I can get my iLife to the machine. Several days ago I found chat support at Apple's support web site. I just went to the support and could not find chat. I think I have to make a call this week to ask about iLife installation.

Mac OS 10.7.1 Update

2011-08-16T21:23:00.000-07:00

This is the first update after I installed Lion. It does not include any fix to add file size to Preview, as I want. I don't think my voice will heard. Anyway, I just take two more steps to compare file size: to save file as JPEG and to use command+I to get file information. I am getting used to it.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	..1,304
After	...3,080
Difference (A-B)	1,776

COPY DVD Disk

2011-08-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

I have not used DVD disk for very long time. Yesterday I got two DVD movie disk(Melaleuca Convention). I need to make a copy of them. Here are two ways I did.

DUPLICATE TO HD

The first method is to use Finder to make a copy of DVD and burn it to DVD:

Insert the original DVD. Open Finder
Select the DVD
Right click or Control+click on the DVD, select Dupliacte. This will copy the whole DVD back to my Desktop. The copy may take a while.
When the duplicate is done, insert a blank DVD. Select the folder and click on Burn on toolbar if it is available. Or control+click on the folder and select "Burn ... to Disc..."

Using Disk Utility Tool

I did search on Web to find out if my above method is correct of not. What I found is that there is alternative way to make a copy of DVD.

Launch Disk Utility Tool first (from Spotlight, type in Disk...). Put the original DVD into DVD driver. From the left panel, select the whole DVD (not the sub-node item).

From Preview's menu, select File->New->Disk Image from... The following dialog window is opened:

For Image Format, select DVD/CD master. Leave the encryption as none. This will start creating DVD image cdr. The copy process may take a while to complete.

After the car file is created, insert a blank DVD into DVD driver. Stay in the Disk Utility Tool, the cdr file should be displayed on the left panel. Select the cdr file, click on Burn tool bar item. This will prompt another window. My experience is to selected 2x speed. This will create a DVD playable on most DVD devices, even though it takes longer time to burn.

Conclusion

I did my DVD copy in Lion. Both methods seem working fine. My DVD does not contain chapters or other menu options. I am not sure if the first simple method will work for chapter DVD or not. According to some people suggestion, the second method seems better.

I would copy the cdr file to an external HD for backup. If I need to make another copy, I then can us it to save my half time of the DVD copy.

Reference

The following is a Youtube DIY on this topic.

Copy a DVD using Disk Utility

Lion Boot Disk

2011-07-28T19:58:00.000-07:00

After listened to some podcasts about Lion installation, I decide to test out the DVD disk I made while I installed Lion to my Macs. According to the information I received from all the resources, the bootable disk should be burned from Disk Utility tool. Therefore, I am not sure if the DVD I burned directly from Finder to DVD is bootable or not. I have to test it out by restarting my Mac.

It approved that my way to burn dmg file is not the right way. I could not find out my DVD. During the restart process, the boot selection is turned on when the option key is pressed. However, I found that there was two disks to boot: my Mac Lion HD and a Recovery HD. I have never seen this Recovery HD before. I think that Lion creates a boot disk in my HD. Since there is no disk available for Lion installation, there should be a way to boot in case of HD repairing. Now I recall that Snow Leopard recommends to use the original disk to boot and to use the Disk Utility tool to verify and repair HD.

To verify the Recovery HD is really a Lion boot disk, I started my OS from the Recovery HD. It is a Lion boot HD. Here is the entrance of the startup:

Here is the menu item of Utilities:

Here is the Disk Utility. As in the window, Disk 1 contains a Mac OS X Base System:

I copied my Lion dmg file to my desktop and then followed the correct instruction to burn my Lion dmg file from Disk Utility app. Now the new DVD is bootable. Here is my second try of restart with boot disk selection:

I verified the DVD disk by selecting it as start. It took several minutes, maybe 10+ minutes to load start files. The DVD media is just too slow to start up. That's why Apple does not like optical disk at all. It is just like floppy disk ten years ago. It is time to retire DVD/CD media.

After all these tests, I am back to my Lion. The new log in window is very different from the previous one, and I like its simple interface. One thing I realize is that the resume seems working when I log in: all the previously opened windows are resumed. Another thing I noticed that re-log in after sleep or lock is much faster than before. It takes less than a second to bring me back. I remember that Snow Leopard takes several seconds to resume network connection, specially when Safari is opened. Now everything is back instantly.

Mac Lion Update

2011-07-23T07:55:00.000-07:00

I am in the process of updating my Mac OS to Lion. Since I got one new MacBookPro 15 this month. I am entitled to get free update. Here are some notes about the update.

First, I need to get redeem code from Apple. There is Apple web page for Canadian Mac users to get free Lion redeem code. This site is for Canada. I was trying to get it from US Apple site, and I could not pass through. It was hard to find it out from Apple web site. I found it from from MacRumors forum.

At the end of the process, I saved the result as PDF(or print it as PDF). It is critical to remember the redeem code. Then it is very straightforward to get it is from Apple Store. Now it is in downloading process. I started at about 9:00am.

I also found this CNET News article about to burn DVD for Lion Installation. I am going to follow the instruction to give it a try.

At: 10:02, the download is done.

I have installed Lion on my 3 Mac computers. One more to go, but I have to wait to make sure my daughter's Adobe's apps are OK with Lion.

After the installation, there is one new update: iTunes 10.4.1 with support of full screen.

Here is the space difference between installations of Lion and iTunes update:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	..,13,796,024
After Lion	...8,780,612
After Update	...9,450,752
Difference (A Lion-B)	-5,015,412
Difference (AU-AL)	669,960

From the appearance, at first glance, it looks like the same as before. However, after playing for a while, I noticed some big differences. For example, srcollbars are different. The default scroll behavior does get awkward, but it is very easy to get used to it.

The biggest issue I have right now is the Preview's SaveAs is gone. I could not use previous Cmd+Shift+s to get difference format for pictures. I have to use Export or Duplicate and Save. The Save dialog does not display file size information. This is a problem for me. I would like the different format to compare the picture size difference so that I'll make decision to save it or not.

Another big change is that Java is not installed by default. I tried to test Adobe PS and it prompt to install Java.

References

Apple Free Lion web page for Canadian new Mac users
MacRumors Forum: free Lion for Canadian Mac users
CNET MacFixIt article: how to make a DVD disk of Lion
MacFixIt: how to install Front Row on OS Lion
MaxFixIt: how to keep Snow Leopard when update to Lion
ScreenCastOnLine: Full Free Show SCO0305a - Installing Lion(also available on iTunes podcast)

Mac Software Updates: 5 Items

2011-07-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

Today I got 5 items of updates: Mac Migration Assistant, iWork, iTunes, RemoteDeskTop, and Safari. Not sure if they are related to the preparation of the new Mac Lion or not. My Macs have not updated yet. I may get updates when my daughter is back tonight, because she has a new MacBookPro purchased last week. She is entitled to get the new update of OS Lion.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	..509,088
After	...418,125
Difference (A-B)	-90,964

iWeb and iDVD Updates

2011-07-16T20:06:00.000-07:00

It is close to Lions release. I got the following updates which do not seem related to Lions. I'll not rush to Lions update when it is out because my daughter just purchased MacBookPro 15 about one week ago. She is legible to get free Lions update from App Store. I am not sure if I can use the same one for my other computers or not.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	..913,604
After	...711,608
Difference (A-B)	201,996

Mac OS 10.6.8 and Epson Printer 2.7 Updates

2011-06-23T20:44:00.000-07:00

The Mac OS 10.6.8 Update is property for the preparation of Lion OS, based on the information from AppleInsider: enhancement for the App Store. Epson printer is the update from the printer supplier Epson.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	..346,204
After	...420,900
Difference (A-B)	74,696

AirPort Utility Update 5.5.3

2011-06-18T17:04:00.000-07:00

This is a update about AirPort Utility update 5.5.3.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	..7,202,344
After	...6,720,,920
Difference (A-B)	-481,424

iPad Interface Quirk: Parallel Fingers in Frame with Scrollbars

2011-06-18T16:31:00.000-07:00

I tried to use iPad to read my programming blog long time ago and I realized that some frames with scrollbars were static, for example, CodeDom and Expression Calculator (2). I thought that iPad browser does not support scrollbars.

To my surprise, I just found a solution. In iPad, scroll bar are not visible by default. Actually, iPad does support scrollbars. In the case of frame, you have to move the content by two fingers. According to this blog(iPad interface quirk: scrolling frames lack scrollbars), it notes that this feature is in iPad's menu. I gave it a try. It does work.

In above case, it obviously shows the content flow. You can apply the same rule when you see a frame with content overflow even without scrollbar hint. The following picture is from another blog on this trick(Make Your iPad Dance with Two Fingers):

iPone Tip: Autocorrect

2011-06-14T21:49:00.000-07:00

Just watched a tip from Apple's iPhone Quick Tips. Here are some snap-shots about the tip.

When you type, you may see hint for correction:

You may miss to correct the wrong word:

Just tap the word, you will see corrections:

and you can tap the correct word:

iTunes 10.3.1 Update

2011-06-08T18:51:00.000-07:00

After WWDC11 opening keynote speech by Steve Jobs two days ago, Apple silently released this iTunes 10.3.1 update. I believe this one is related to iCloud free service. I am actually expecting Lion update.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...39,804
After	...50,256
Difference (A-B)	10,452

Mac Security Update 2011-003

2011-05-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

This is a surprise update against to Mac Defender malware, according to AppleInsider information. I had encountered this malware when I was gooling image of Shanghai Apple retail store. I got a fake web page. It displayed a warning message saying that my Mac was infected with a dialog window. No matter I clicked on cancel or OK button an download was done repeatedly. I think I followed instruction to disable auto-open when download in Safari preference, as a result, the download repeated.

I wrote several blogs on this issue in my Chinese blog with detail information at blog.creaders.net/chudq. I disarmed the package and the zip file with terminal commands.

Apple support web link for this update does seem any disclosure of the malware issue.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...4,664
After	...2,036
Difference (A-B)	-2,628

ProKit Update 7.0

2011-05-19T18:19:00.000-07:00

In the past weeks, I have been very busy with Chinese blogs, helped one of old friend, from China visiting Calgary, to buy a MacBookPro 13 and gave him a training, and spent some time doing my Melaleuca business. I have not got chance to check my updates so this update prompt me last night. As usual, I did record my HD spaces before and after. Here is the update snap-shot of the update.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...747,272
After	...803,760
Difference (A-B)	56,488

iPhone 4.3.3 Update

2011-05-07T15:11:00.000-07:00

This is the expected update for iPhone location issue. Apple releases this update to restrict location file saved on iPhone and there will be no more back up of the location file back to Mac. For me, I really do not concern any location information collected by iPhone, because I trust Apple doing this for better performance issue. As you can read the information about the fix, all it is about the cache. Without cache, the performance is not going to be better.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...412
After	...717,196
Difference (A-B)	716,784

This space calculation may not be correct since I noticed several podcasts were also downloaded during the update process.

Snow Leopard Font Update 1.0

2011-05-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

I saw this update last week but I did not have time to do it. Today the first thing is to get this update. I am always in sync with Mac OS update. Yesterday I had iChat with my friend and I found that his Mac does not have App Store. I told him that he must have a long list not updated yet. For most Mac users, I think the updates from Apple are very important and it is so simple to get updated. Keep in tune with Apple.

This update requires a reboot.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...41,868
After	...38,604
Difference (A-B)	-3,264

iTunes 10.2.2 Update

2011-04-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

Quickly I got this update: iTunes 10.2.2.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...55,920
After	...30,384
Difference (A-B)	-25,536

Safari(5.0.5) and Security(2011-2) Update

2011-04-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

It has been for quite while not seeing updates. Today I did the following two updates.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...5,152
After	...59,868
Difference (A-B)	54,716

App from App Store on multiple Macs

2011-03-27T14:36:00.000-07:00

Today I tried to purchase iLife 11 on my iMac 27. Actually I purchased this item about one month ago when I was on my iMac 24. On the web, some people say that you can install an app from App Store on more than one machines. I was not sure it is true. I tried to get it on my iMac 27 about 1 week time later after my initial purchase. I got a warning message saying to Buy app. I stopped there to avoid double charge.

I talked to Apple tech person when I was picking up my repaired iMac 24. I told him that I had purchased iLife11 from App Store and asked him if I could get it back. He told me that, if I cannot find it from my TM, I should be able to repurchase it from Apple Store without any charge.

"You can install the app up to 5 machines. If you get charge, just phone iTunes support line", he said with confidence. This is confirmation, at least from Apple people.

Today I went to App Store again on my iMac 27. After I pressed "Buy" button, I saw this message:

I am really happy with the App Store. It is a great news for Mac users.

My iMac24 is Back

2011-03-27T12:29:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, the same date iPad 2 is available in Canada, I got a call from the local Apple store about my iMac 24 is ready for pick up. I went to the store after work. There were a lots people outside and in the store for iPad 2. I was warned that there would be long time to wait; however it did not take to much time to get my iMac 24 back. I paid $264.00 for the replacement of the HD, $39 for the service and tax, in total of $318.15.

With my TM as backup, I did migration of all my OS and data back when I got home (it was late since I spent about 2 hours in line to get a new iPad 2). The migration took quite long time, about 3 hours. After that, I had to run Apple updates to get all the newest update during the time my iMac at Apple store. After that everything are back.

This was the first blue screen when the power was on:

Apple installed OS on my iMac. So quickly I was the OS screen with searching for my wireless keyboard.

Mac OS found my TM and prompt me to the installation and migration screen. I selected "From a Time Machine backup"

It took a while for the migration to figure out the space needed for restoring:

At the start, the estimate time was over 1 hour, but soon it was changed to 4 hour and then 3, 2, 1. I cannot remember actual time it spent. I was on another iMac 27 and about 1:00am on the next day I finished the migration.

The Apple Software Update after the migration took another very long time period. I did not wait for the complete. The next day I checked my iMac 24, and I found that all my OS, application and data are back to their status, including my purchase of iLife 11 from iMovie 11. Now my iMac 24 is back to work.

My iMac24 is Dead!

2011-03-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

Last night my iMac 24, my first Mac purchased in 2007, was dead. It was in white screen and I could not login. I tried to turn off the power and turned it on again several times, still no luck.

Then I tried to book it from my Mac OS CD. At first, there was no internal HD in destination for installation, only my USB and TM drives are there:

I opened Disk Utility from menu, there is no HD neither:

I tried to erase the HD to see if I could get it back with clean disk. I got error message. I tried to do partition as well and also an error. All those process took long time to the point of error:

After all those tries, fortunately, I saw my Mac HD. I then verified and repaired the disk. It took about half hour and finally there was an error message:

All those tries were failed. One little progress was that I got my login screen again. I could login to my account. It looked like OK, but I am sure the HD has issues.

I sent my iMac 24 to local Apple Store(Market Mall). I was told that the HD was dead for sure. There was another issue about CD sensor, which costs about $13.00, but the HD and repair costs me about $313.00. To buy an internal HD with 500GB in the market will cost less than $100.00, but I would not take the risk the hassle to do it myself. I was told that the repair will take about 1-3 business days to get it back. I hope it will be fine.

Mac OS 10.6.7 Update

2011-03-22T20:42:00.000-07:00

This is Mac OS 10.6.7 update. Based on rumours, this update is mainly for MBP product line. At the same time, I saw Apple also has a update 4.2.1.

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...571,544
After	...5,152
Difference (A-B)	-566,392

New Icon: I Love Apple

2011-03-20T17:51:00.000-07:00

I have created a new icon for my blog: I Love My Apple. This icon is based on Mac symbol fonts. Here are the steps how I did this creation.

Find Symbols from Font Book

Font Book is a utility application that comes with Mac OS for viewing and managing fonts. In Mac OS, fonts can be organized by collections. Within Font Book, all symbol fonts are within Symbols collection (if you download new fonts, those fonts may not be in Symbols collection, but you can easily move them there).

Font Book provides only samples for view. It does not have the complete view of all characters.

Enter Symbols in a Document
I used NeoOffice to edit my doc. If I can find any symbols from the Font Book, I'll copy and paste them to my doc. Since FB does not display all the characters by fonts, I have to find symbols if they are not visible in FB.

In most document editors, there is way to insert character from menu Insert|Special Character... to get a window for selecting special character.

Notice that a unicode is displayed when a char is selected. This is very helpful if you know the unicode from a font. There are many free Mac fonts available and they may have complete symbols with unicodes.

For my icon purpose, I used several symbol fonts. Here is a list of fonts:

I: TackODing
Love: VTMeiOrnamentsOnBlack
Apple: Mac Dingbats

Here is the doc with several examples. The first girl is from font Chickabiddies, the second carton from TackODing, and third lady from TackODing.

Take Screen Shortcut

Finally, I take a screen shortcut to capture interest area as a png picture. It is very easy to do in Mac: use the screen shortcut key command+shift+4 to select an area. The result will be a png picture on my Desktop.

I always use Yahoo's SmushIt web service to further reduce the size of the picture. This compress will save about 10-30% in size without any quality difference in visual mode.

By the way, there are many additional fonts are available on web. Here is a web for Mac fonts.

Apple Web Link to Donate for Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief

2011-03-14T19:57:00.001-07:00

I found yesterday that Apple web page in US has a link for donations for Japan earthquake and tsunami relief. However, it did show anything in my iTunes after click. Today it works. I placed my little donation through Apple to Japanese people.

AppleTV Updated: iOS4.3?

2011-03-09T20:59:00.000-08:00

Today my AppleTV also has an update. It looks like that this one is related to iOS4.3. Not sure what new features are in this update. Here are some photos I took by using my iPhone 4. Sorry for unclear pictures caused by my shaking hands.

I found the new updates when I turned on my AppleTV:

Whats new after the update:

One obvious new item in the main screen: MLB.TV

iOS 4.3 Related Updates

2011-03-09T20:08:00.000-08:00

Before iPad 2 release on Mar 11, 2010, I got a massive updates related to iOS 4.3. First was iPhone 4 update, then iPad update. After that, the software updates contain iTunes 10.2.1, Sarari 5.0.4 and Java Mac OS Update 4.0.

The following is the comparison of the used space differences between each before and after(command: df -lak, unit: Kilobytes in 1024-blocks):

Items	Used	Difference(A-B)
Before	...7,492,136
iPhone4 After	...7,946,484	454,348
iPad1 After	8,633,524	687,040
Others After	8,709,448	75,924

Quick and Dirty Tips: 2 Terminal Commands

2011-03-05T21:46:00.001-08:00

Terminal is a very useful application in Mac OS. It is a Mac application located at /Applications/Utilities folder. There are tones of command available you can use in Terminal. Actually many GUIs in Mac OK are based on those commands or scripts. The UI is used just for getting information to execute Terminal commands.

Here are two very interesting, I think useful as well, commands. The first one is reboot. Obviously it is a command to reboot your Mac. To execute it you have to use sudo command to do it:

YourMac:~$ sudo reboot
Password:

sudo is a command for supper user. The command reboot requires supper user to execute.

The second command is more flexible. It is shutdown. There are additional arguments you can specify to execute the command. For example, when you want to shutdown, reboot if you want to, force to shutdown if there are some other users on and messages you want to use as a warning notice. As same as the first one, you need to use sudo to execute the command:

YourMac:~$ sudo shutdown -r -k +2 Please get out of this machine!
Password:

The above commands will reboot the machine and force all the users log out in 2 minutes.

Another interesting thing I found is that normally, only the user with administrator privilege can execute above commands. If you are standard user, you cannot reboot your machine by those commands even you know the sudo password. This is Mac OS security issue. You may set standard user with root right, but I could not figure out. I think it is better to keep standard user in its default settings. Personally speaking, I think to use standard user is more secure. You just don't need the administrator rights in most cases if you just use apps such as Safari, iMovie, iPhoto or iWorks.

iTunes 10.2 Update

2011-03-03T22:05:00.000-08:00

This iTunes 10.2 update is related to the new coming iOS 4.3 sharing to mobile devices, according to AppleInsider.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...35,236
After	...70,000
Difference (A-B)	34,764

Epson Printer Update 2.6

2011-02-28T20:47:00.000-08:00

This is Epson Printer update 2.6.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...8,804
After	...2,204
Difference (A-B)	-6,600

iWeb 3.0.3 Update

2011-02-21T16:56:00.000-08:00

It has been for a while no update. I found this one two days ago and I did the update this morning.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...133,484
After	...343,408
Difference (A-B)	209,924

iTunes 10.1.2 Update

2011-01-27T20:46:00.000-08:00

Quickly I have got this new update for iTunes 10.1.2. Two new featuers: AirPlay for Apple TV and Sync for all iSO devices. The later one is believed for iPhones 4 for Verizon, which will be out on February 10, 2011.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...62,648
After	...46,z596
Difference (A-B)	-16,052

New Update: iDVD 7.1.1

2011-01-25T21:02:00.000-08:00

This is a new update for all iDVD 7 users.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...46,476
After	...1,696
Difference (A-B)	-44,780

Apple Store for Mac and Serval Other Updates

2011-01-17T22:03:00.000-08:00

I was away on vacation for about 20 days. When I came back I found the following updates, including Apple Store for Mac.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...244,232
After	...16,972
Difference (A-B)	-227,260

iTunes and AirPort Updates

2010-12-17T21:15:00.000-08:00

I found two updates from Apple this evening. One is for iTunes and another is for AirPort Utility.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...26,148
After	...80,388
Difference (A-B)	54,240

Mac Apps: Glims Plug in for Safari and TimeMachineEditor

2010-12-16T19:56:00.000-08:00

I found two great and long waiting Mac applications. One is a plugin for Safari to load previous tabs on start: Glims. Safari, unlike Chrome or FireFox, does not restore the previous tabs on start. I have tried to figure out a way to do that for long time. Now Glims does what I want.

The second one is to add TimeMachine backup intervals. By default, the TimeMachine does backups at about one hour interval and there is no configuration to change it. This frequent backups are not suitable for MacBook Air. I would like to schedule backup in a daily base. I think I found this app information from Mac Geek Gab podcast 300. This was an around table talk with several geeks. During the talk, each one mentioned his favourite apps. TimeMachineEditor got my immediate attention.

I really like this tool. Basically, it is a UI tool for backup schedule. In order to do the backup in the schedule way, the TimeMachine has to be turned off. I think that TimeMachineEditor is a script based app. It generates a script to schedule TM job.

Today I verified that my TM did have a backup as scheduled:

Mac App for MacBook Battery: coconutBattery

2010-12-13T17:44:00.000-08:00

Battery usage hours and battery life are critical specs for laptop computers. Based on the information from Apple, my new MacBook Air 13" is supposed to have 7 hour usage. I am going to test out how good the battery is. One way to test it is to use it and keep eye on its battery hours. Another way is to use application to monitor and record battery hours.

I found one free Mac app related to Battery specs. It is coconutBattery. Here is the current status of my battery:

However, it does actually provide information about my MacBook usage history, such as when is the last charge time, and how many hours are in sleep mode and active mode since the last charge. It may be a good case for a Mac app.

The Mac OS does provide a tool to show the battery status. It is an icon on the right top side the system menu bar. It provides different way to show batter status such as time left, and access to Energy Save Preference.

Yesterday I noticed from this icon that my battery reached to a very low point. Then it displayed a warning message saying that my MacBook Air would be in sleep mode in a few minutes:

I waited for the moment. In a few of minutes, my computer went to a black screen. There was no respond for any key pressed. After that, I plugged in my power and the screen came back. It was very nice experience. I think the battery status icon does provide accurate status. This provides me a chance to save my data and turn off my computer if no power is available.

MacBook Air Setup

2010-12-12T10:42:00.000-08:00

I got a MacBook Air 13" base model last Black Friday(Nov 26, 2010). The price was abut $100 off the regular price, or $50 less than the education price. 11" did have special. That's why I did not hesitate to pick up this modal. Another reason is that I will take this laptop with me during my Christmas vacation back to Beijing.

Since the Air model has limited HD space, 112GB, I cannot migrate all my account from my iMac27 to this one. The basic I need are iTunes music, podcasts, and some applications. What I did is to use Migration Assistant app to only migrate my iTunes music and uncheck all the others. After that, I installed XCode from my iMac CD as shared, and simply copied some my favourite apps from my iMac 27 to Air's Public->Drop Box.

All works fine; however, I realized that all most of all the music contents, videos and podcasts are not available:

I thought that I may not do it correctly. I tried three times. What I have in my iTunes are all the icons and items only, but most of the contents are not there. In iTunes, for each item, there is one Show in Finder menu item in its context menu. This is what I had in my Air:

At my iMac 27, I can find out where the music file is. Actually, I realize that my iTunes at my iMac 27 has sharing turned on for all the contents. As a result, all the music, podcasts and videos are in my Public->Music folder. I did not check the Public folder in my Migration. The Migration does not show further detail under the Public. I could not turn Public as checked since the size was too big.

Fortunately, all my music are organized by albums, and each album is a folder. I first copied the albums I am interested from my iMac 27 to my Air's Drop Box. Then I moved the files from my Drop Box to the same location on my Air. After that, all the music I want are there in my iTunes.

One thing I realize that copying a group of music or video files in large size takes long time to complete. The communication between my iMac and Aire is in WiFi mode. There is no wire connection. I have placed an order of ethernet to USB cable and USB male to male cable from Monoprice. When I receive it, I give it a try again with 4.11GB in size again.

By the way, to get the summary size of group files, select a group of files in Finder first. Open its context menu, control+click. Then hold option key, the menu "Get Info" will change to "Get Summary Info". "Get Summary Info" will display one info window, while "Get Info" will display a group of Windows.

Update: today (Dec 16, 2010) I received my USB to Ethernet adaptor. I gave it try again. With 400MB video file, it took about 14 minutes with the USB-Ethernet wire connection:

while Wifi took about more than 20 minutes for the same file:

Free App: EasyFind

2010-12-04T10:52:00.000-08:00

I found a great tool for finding files, EasyFinder by DEVONTechnologies. This is a supplementary tool for Mac Finder. I could not find figure out a way to find a file by matching file patterns. EasyFinder provides a nice UI with a lots of features in addition to what I need.

The UI is a Finder like window. To search for files, for example "black friday", type in the word in search box, and click on Find button on the right. The result will be displayed in the main area with detail information by columns. The UI supports quick view, open, reveal in Finder, and delete.

Be careful with delete, there is no warning for delete. By default, the deleted file will be in Trash. Unfortunately, if the deleted file in a long path somewhere hard to remember, you cannot restore it back from Trash. The restore feature is a long demanded feature from Mac users. Therefore, I removed the Delete button from toolbar and add Info instead:

I found out that Control+C copies file names with whole path if one or more files are selected. This may be a way or good habit to take a note of files before you delete any files.

Update: Safari 5.0.3

2010-11-18T20:37:00.001-08:00

Today I did a update: Safari 5.0.3. It looks like that there are no any new features in this update. I did have some crash issues with Safari. Not sure if this update will resolve the issue or better than before.

and the following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...18,908
After	...91,192
Difference (A-B)	72,284

iTunes 10.1 Update: AirPlay is Out

2010-11-13T11:23:00.000-08:00

The expected iTunes 10.1 update is out. The major item in the update is AirPlay. Couple things I realized new in my iTunes are that first there is one icon on the lower right corner of the main screen. This one has Apple TV option when it is clicked:

This one does work to transfer audio content to my Apple TV. However, it does not work for video content, even there is one similar icon in the video control component:

I hope that AirPlay will work with video content soon.

Here is the update information:

and the following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...491,992
After	...80,684
Difference (A-B)	-411,308

Mac OS Update 10.6.5

2010-11-10T19:12:00.000-08:00

Today Apple released the expected update of Mac OS 10.6.5. The expected AirPrint is not included in this release. There many rumours about the delay of this new feature. For me, it is not very important. I have not used print for years. All my files are either in doc, excel or pdf files. I event rarely print at work. I am expecting AirPlay coming out in iOS 4.2.

Here is the snap-shot of the update:

and the following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...34,180
After	...684,104
Difference (A-B)	649,924

Shortcut Key to Skip Partial Section in Audio/Video Play

2010-11-06T11:47:00.000-07:00

I posted a blog on how to skip partial section in iPod Touch and iPad. Those devices are touch based devices. The corresponding feature on iMac can be done by using mouse drag. However, I prefer to use keyboard shortcut keys if possible. It is slow and sometimes painful by using mouse.

Apple support web site has a summary of iTunes Keyboard Shortcuts. It is nice to know some shortcuts; however, I could not find keys to skip partial sections while playing audio or videos. For example, some podcasts has repetitive beginning section or commercials within their contents. It is painful to drag mouse to skip.

By incident, I found a shortcut key to do it: option+command+right arrow key! It works very well. Holding both option and command keys, then pressing right arrow key once, it will skip about 5 second play. This shortcut key can be pressed repeatedly to skip partial sections quickly. I like it very much.

I got Apple TV!

2010-10-31T13:13:00.000-07:00

I purchased Apple TV yesterday. I went to the local Apple store for my appointment regarding my iMac27 reboot issue. There were a lots Apple TV available on shelf. However, I don't like Apple's 10% restocking charge. After my appointment, I went to a close-by Future shop and Best-buy. Apple TV was sold out at both locations. Finally I got it from another Future shop, 15 minutes drive.

AppleTV is so small and it is very easy to set up. Only two lines I have to plug in, one for power and another HDMI wire. I use my AirePort Extreme Base Station wireless as my internet connection. It does support Wi-Fi connection as well. I tried to use it with its original remote controller and my 1st gen iPod Touch, Remote App. It works well. Some of YouTube contents take some waiting time or pause. I think that may be caused by internet or YouTube. There are a lots from Podcasts and I enjoyed some shows.

I also tried to access to iMac 24's iTunes. In order to do that, I have to set up my iTunes sharing on from iTunes Preference. Then I have to log on with my Apple ID. Then I have to set it up from Apple TV with the same Apple ID, which can be set in Settings|General|iTunes Store. In order to view content from iMac 24, I have to let it on. Unfortunately only one computer can be set up.

I am going to get Netflex service. Since there are so many contents available in AppleTV, I have cancelled my cable TV service.

Disk Utility: Repair Disk

2010-10-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

Today I found my iMac 24 has disk linkage issues when I tried to use OnyX to clean my Internet cache and cookies. This is the first time I have seen this problem. I know I can use Disk Utility to fix the problem. I gave it a try.

The first thing I did was to use the tool of Disk Utility (which can be found in Spotlight) to verify the issue. Click the Verify button to start checking:

It did report the problem. After the problem was identified, a prompt dialog was displayed with instructions to fix the issue. I remember that it says to start from the OS installation disk and choose Disk Utility to fix the issue. Coincidentally, I went to the local Apple store to ask the same question about my daughter's MacBook Pro (she had memory failure, none Apple memory). Her laptop has disk issue but she has no time to fix it. I tried to confirm to fix the issue by using Disk Utility tool. The genius guy told me to use the tool from the installation disk, not from the OS tool on HD.

BOOT FROM THE OS INSTALLATION DISK

It took me a while to reboot my Mac from the installation disk. I tried to insert the disk and then restart. It did not start from the disk. Soon I realized that when I put the disk in, there is restart button in the OS installation app. First click on the Utilities... button:

and then click on Restart button:

This made the boot from the installation disk!

NOTE: I later found out that there is one option available from System Preference: Startup Disk. You can select the startup disk from this option. If you place the OS Installation CD into the CD driver, you should see the disk there and make the selection:

FIND DISK TOOL FROM UTILITIES MENU

After that, I saw installation window displayed (I could not take any snapshots). To start the Disk Utility tool, select menu Utilities and then Disk... The instruction is also explained in the Disk Utility tool (see above). Note: there is nothing in the installation window to tell you where to find the Disk tool. It is in the top menu's drop-down!

The repair went smoothly and the problem was fixed. After that, I verified the disk again. It was OK.

I tried the same step to boot from the installation disk on my iMac27. I could not start from the disk. This is another problem. I tried many times. The Apple logo in while screen stays there forever. I think I have a different problem. Even my HD is OK, but why not I cannot start it from the disk. I set up a genius appointment with the Apple store, this Saturday. I'll update the result.

NOTE: I realized two days later after the time when I wrote this blog that I actually have two sets of OS Installation CD. I then tried to use another set OS 10.6.2 disk. Reboot from this disk works fine. Not sure if I have to use the original disk to boot or not.

I have another two sets of OS disks. I tried them and only one installation disk works. It seems that not any boot disk work with iMac.

DISK PERMISSIONS

Another issue I have is the disk permissions. When I run it from Disk Utility tool, I got some messages about my disk permissions. For example the following snapshot is the one I just run today:

Click on Log, all the log messages are displayed in another window:

**********
2010-10-30 09:05:57 -0600: Disk Utility started.

2010-10-30 09:08:09 -0600: Verify permissions for “10.6.1 boot”
2010-10-30 09:08:31 -0600: Permissions differ on "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Classes/jconsole.jar", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrwxr-xr-x .
2010-10-30 09:08:31 -0600: User differs on "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Home/lib", should be 95, user is 0.
2010-10-30 09:08:31 -0600: User differs on "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Libraries", should be 95, user is 0.
2010-10-30 09:09:26 -0600: Permissions differ on "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Resources/JavaPluginCocoa.bundle/Contents/Resources/Java/deploy.jar", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrwxr-xr-x .
2010-10-30 09:09:26 -0600: Permissions differ on "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Resources/JavaPluginCocoa.bundle/Contents/Resources/Java/libdeploy.jnilib", should be -rwxr-xr-x , they are lrwxr-xr-x .
2010-10-30 09:09:42 -0600: ACL found but not expected on "private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf".
2010-10-30 09:09:42 -0600: ACL found but not expected on "private/etc/apache2/users".
2010-10-30 09:09:51 -0600: ACL found but not expected on "Library/Preferences/Audio".
2010-10-30 09:09:51 -0600: ACL found but not expected on "Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf.plist".
2010-10-30 09:09:52 -0600: ACL found but not expected on "Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/Image - Duplicate as JPEG.scpt".
2010-10-30 09:10:04 -0600: ACL found but not expected on "System/Library/Keychains/X509Anchors".
2010-10-30 09:10:19 -0600: Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Admin.framework/Versions/A/Resources/readconfig" has been modified and will not be repaired.
2010-10-30 09:10:19 -0600: Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Admin.framework/Versions/A/Resources/writeconfig" has been modified and will not be repaired.
2010-10-30 09:10:21 -0600: ACL found but not expected on "private/etc/hostconfig".
2010-10-30 09:10:21 -0600: ACL found but not expected on "private/etc/master.passwd".
2010-10-30 09:10:21 -0600: ACL found but not expected on "private/etc/passwd".
2010-10-30 09:10:21 -0600: ACL found but not expected on "private/var/yp/binding".
2010-10-30 09:10:23 -0600: 
2010-10-30 09:10:23 -0600: Permissions verification complete
2010-10-30 09:10:23 -0600: 
2010-10-30 09:10:23 -0600:

I tried to verify permissions and repair permissions from boot disk and my HD. Still it looks like that I cannot resolve the permission issue. I don't experience any issues when I use my iMac. Not sure how I can resolve the disk permission issue.

UPDATE FROM GENIUS BAR

I came back from my visit to local Apple store's genius bar. I was told that I do need to use the original Mac OS disk to boot. It will not not boot from other disks. This is what I expected. In case I lose my original disk, I have to call Apple support line to get a disk. The tech person told me that it is strongly recommended to get Apple Care plan since I am off my 90 days warranty with call support.

In terms of disk permission, I told him that I tried to repair the disk permission problems from local and disk reboot. None of those resolved the disk permission issues, which stays there. I was told that it used to be problem for previous OS such as tiger. As long as I don't experience any problems, I should not worry about the issue. I might get advice from Apple Care support if I to phone in.

Mac OS Updates: JavaForOS and ProKit, and FaceTime beta

2010-10-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

On the same day of Apple's Back to the Mac event, two new updates are released: Java for OS 10.6 Update 3 and ProKit 6.0.1.

Space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...815,956
After	...604,348
Difference (A-B)	-211,608

After that, I downed FaceTime for Mac beta. It looks like Skype or iChat. I tried it without any calls because it was too late. With it I can make any calls to another Mac or iPhone FaceTime over Wi-Fi. One thing I feel not convenient is that the contacts do not have groups, nor search is available. I can add my favourite, that's it. Here is the space difference before and after the installation:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...4,348
After	...40,876
Difference (A-B)	36,528

iTunes 10.0.1 Update

2010-09-25T20:04:00.000-07:00

This update is iTunes 10.0.1 Update with a long list of fixes and new features.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...656
After	...2,604
Difference (A-B)	1,948

Delete Old Time Machine Backups

2010-09-25T13:16:00.000-07:00

Recently I get several Time Machine warning messages about my TM is full. My mac's disk space is about 271GB in use and my TM is 500GB. I have to either update my USB TM to bigger size or I have to delete some old backups. Before I go the former solution, I think the later one is quick solution for me, since I know my oldest backups can be removed without any concern.

Although the deletion is very easy and straightforward, I did not find it through TM UI when I went to my TM history. I quickly found the way by googling. Here is a snapshot of the menu item from a backup:

The Action menu list provides deleting and restoring actions depending on the current selections as well. For example, if I select a file, I can delete it from TM or restore it back to my current OS.

By the way, TM does not allow me take a selection screenshot by Shift-Command-4, but I can do whole screen snapshot (S-C-3). Then I take a selection screenshot from the image's quick view.

Mac OS Security Update 2010-06

2010-09-21T21:50:00.000-07:00

This update is a security update.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...316
After	...820
Difference (A-B)	504

Safari and iWeb Updates

2010-09-08T20:54:00.000-07:00

Today I got two software updates prompt: one for Safari and another for iWeb. I knew the former from AppleInsider during my work today, the later, iWeb, is a surprise. It is a update related to MobileMe with minor issues. Not sure if there are any new features added or not. I hope iWeb would support multiple users for web sites.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...851,852
After	...453,640
Difference (A-B)	-398,212

iTunes 10 Update

2010-09-02T20:36:00.000-07:00

Today I tried to update again from iMac and soon I saw the update of iTunes 10, just as expected. This update does not require reboot. After reboot, I started iTunes. The interface is very similar to the previous version. There may be some different UI layout in Music. The biggest new feature is Ping.

I tried Ping. From there I can follow some artists, Yo-Yo Ma, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift. There is section to set up my personal profile with brief description. However, the description is only a text box. It does not take HTML tags such as anchor. It looks like I cannot directly post my messages in Ping. I can post comments to other people's reviews or artists' posts. Ping is an integrated part of iTunes. I can write reviews to songs or videos, click Like and mark stars. All those activities are displayed in my Ping's Profile and My Reviews. As Steve Jobs said, Ping is all about music. It is truly a social platform for music. I think it is good for music lovers. For me, it is a great way to find out good music pieces and learn about western culture. Interestingly, today, I also find out many Chinese singers, and I left some my Likes and my rating Stars for their songs.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...235,664
After	...193,196
Difference (A-B)	-42,468

Apple Music Event with New Product Release

2010-09-01T23:25:00.000-07:00

Today is the Apple Music Event. I actually wrote this blog a few days (started on August 27, 2010) before the event and I have scheduled this one as a post dated blog on September 1, 2010. Therefore, this post contains two sections: one with my hope or guess and one we see today.

My Expectations

There are many rumours about what Apple will announce in the coming event. As an iMac user with many Apple products, I really hope Apple will have some surprises with wonderful products and services.

New Version of iPod Touch with 3G and Retina Display. I agree with most people that iPod Touch will have Camera, both front and back, with retina display. As well iPod Touch will have option of 3G data plan with carriers similar to iPad one.

Renewed Apple TV. I hope Daniel's expectation will be true: iSight camera, iOS, and FaceTime on Apple TV.

More Services for MobileMe. Many rumours say that Apple has invested huge amount funds to build new cloud services. I hope there will be more surprise services available for MobileMe users. I enjoy using MobileMe as I just have this subscription service in less than two weeks. I have seen that in the past Apple had announcement on improving this service and adding new features such as Find My iPhone for mobile devices. For example, I really want to add iMac as a new FindMe.

Availability. First, I don't think products or services, except iOS4 for iPad, will be available right on this date. This is just a announcement of new or updated products and services. Most likely they will be available on September 7, 2010 or later.

Am I Right and What are Surprises?

Today Apple finally announced following new releases:

Yes. New iPod Touch is within the whole line of renewed iPod products, but no 3G.
No. Apple TV is renewed but not as expected as Daniel's list of iSight TV or iOS. However, it is much smaller than the previous version. The product is very simple. I think Apple is in the right direction. Instead of making another big and complicated product with storage and system, Apple TV is well integrated with other Apple products, such as iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad and Mac. I love the simplicity.
No. No new services for MobileMe.
Mostly but wrong with iPad's iOS. Very disappointed with the availability of iSO for iPad. I have to wait more than two months. I have to accept the fact that Apple is not ready for the release.

I just watched Steve's keynote speech at today's Music event. As I did before, I enjoyed watching his speech and was very happy to hear news about the updated products and iTunes 10. I think that Apple is on its right track to progress.

By the way, I just checked iTunes 10 from my iMac's software update. It was not there. However, iTunes 10 is available on Apple's web page. Not sure why it is not in the update. I'll wait to see if it will be in the regular update.

Tick and Tip: Adjust Audio/Video Position by Touch

2010-08-27T20:47:00.001-07:00

I have trouble to adjust audio or video progress when I listen or watch a podcast. It is very hard to adjust the slide bar to a desired position. My touch finger is too big so that it blocks my view of the slide bar or its surrounding area. Today I found a tip to resolve this issue and it applies for iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone.

First, just touch the round button on the slide bar. Then move your figure down to an appropriate position. Move the finger left or right to adjust the play position. The slide bar now is clear in my view and it is much easy to adjust to a desired position. Here is my snapshot of my iPod Touch while I was watching CNN daily news. I added a yellow circle for my finger position:

One interesting thing I found is that the more your finger is far away from the side bar like down to the bottom, the less sensitive the movement adjustment will be. The same behaviour applies to the bottom volume control side bar. You just move our finger up.

Further I found that this behaviour applies not only to audio/video side bars, but it also works for side bars in other places. For example, in Settings->Brightness & Wallpaper->Auto-Brightness (iPad), you can also move your finger off the slide bar to adjust the brightness.

If you find your finger blocks your view, you may try to move it off the target and then move side ways. You may find it works well.

How Did I Find This Trick?

I have a free iPhone game: Boxed-in. I like to play it. One day I found out that I don't need to push or move the figure player directly. I can move the box-pusher easily when I move my finger any place on the screen, off the player. It is much easy to view when my finger is off my view of the player. This may not related to the default behaviour of side bar. It may be an application feature.

The trouble I have with adjusting audio/video position has been for so long and often I need to do it. A few seconds ago I thought that there must be a way to do it easily. Instead of reading menu of iPad(never read it even I have it in my iBooks) or googling a solution, the game's trick reminded me if I could move my touched finger off the bar. When I gave it a try, it worked beautifully! The same behaviour applies to iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone.

iWork Update 4

2010-08-26T20:41:00.000-07:00

Today I read a news about this update from AppleInsider: iWork Update. A new feature to support ePub in Pages is included in the update.

I tried to drag a pdf file to my iTunes book area a few days ago. After sync to my iPod Touch, I can read the pdf file from iBooks; however, it is really hard to read. I think that the reason is that the layout of pdf is in 8 1/2 x 11 size, which is too big for iPod Touch to display. Then I realized that I need a tool to publish or convert doc to ePub format. I am not sure if this feature is good for my iPod Touch reading books or not. I'll give it a try it some time soon.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...74,664
After	...83,460
Difference (A-B)	8,796

Security Update 2010 005

2010-08-25T22:02:00.000-07:00

This update is a critical fix on security issue reported recently about PDF security hole, which is described about the update by Apple Insider. The update was install during the restart process.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...161,000
After	...80,580
Difference (A-B)	-80,420

Apple's MobileMe Cloud Service

2010-08-22T18:48:00.000-07:00

On August 19, 2010, I activated my MobileMe account. I knew MobileMe when I got my Mac. However, I have been not sure if I need MobileMe or not. For email, I have several free emails such as Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Gmail and AOL Mail. For cloud space or disk, I have Dropbox free account. I have also heard a lot about asking Apple to provide MobileMe for fee for Mac users from my subscribed podcasts. I have been expecting Apple to give this free offer for a while.

Finally I decided to get this subscription services and give it a try after I have done some research on web and watching some YouTube shows. The attractions are mainly MobileMe's integration with iLife and iWork, and FindMe for my iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices. With MobileMe, I can create my personal Galleries and share my photo albums with my friends and family members. I can also create my personal web pages and blogs. MobileMe single person account has following features:

Mail. In mail, you can create five aliases. I think it is good time right now to create aliases otherwise those aliases may be taken by other people.

Contact and Calendar. It is good way to access to my contacts and calendar and I'll use them more with this clouding service.

Gallery. The default gallery web URL is www.gallery.com/[accountName]. I tried to upload photos to my account from Windows. It works fine, but you cannot set security settings from Windows. From my iLife on my iMac, I can submit my albums to MobileMe. You can add multiple user/password settings from iPhoto.<.li>
iDisk. From iMac, you can set up iDisk to back up some files from Mac's system preference. From Finder, you can also move or copy files to the iDisk as a way to save files on cloud

FindMe. You can add multiple mobile devices to FindMe. All have the same interface: from Settings | Mail, Contacts, Calenders. Just add MobileMe account and enable FindMe. With this cool feature, you can locate the device, send messages, lock device and remove data on the device

Web Personal Site Hosting. To create personal web sites, it is recommended to use iWorks' iWeb. From there, you just select a template to create a web page or blog. I tried to create two web sites: one for web page and another for blog. I can add security settings, however, it seems that only one user/password can be set. I tried to set difference ones but only the last one takes effect. I also notice that I can see my web files from iDisk on my Mac. I think that I may be able add additional css to my blog or web pages from there.

This is my first impression of MobileMe. It is very good. I think it is worth to try. With $109.00CAN annual subscription fee, I think it is actually much cost competitive to other web cloud services. For example, with 50GB space in Dropbox, the monthly cost is $9.99US. Personally, I don't think that Apple would offer this service for free. I don't think that Apple makes money on this service neither. I am expecting Apple will add more features to MobileMe. For the time being, I really enjoy the service.

Share Music in iTunes

2010-08-18T21:07:00.000-07:00

Recently, I encountered one issue about sharing music between user accounts in one iMac or between iMacs. I have two iMacs and created several accounts. I would like to share some music songs between accounts.

As far I know so far, I found three ways to move music songs to another account.

Using Migration Assistant Application

What I did before for sharing music between iMac computers is the run the Migration Assistant to copy one user account to another Mac computer. Then I had to remove all the user documents, mail settings, iPhoto, iMovie files if I don't want them in another new account. It works fine to duplicate iTunes libraries. However, it is just too much to do afterwards I don't want other things migrated.

Moving iTunes Media Folder to a Public Accessible Folder

Yesterday I found some information from Apple web site about sharing music between accounts in one Mac computer. Under the section of On Max OS X. There are two ways to share. First to move "iTunes Media" folder to a public accessible folder. To find out the "iTunes Media" folder, you go to iTunes preference from iTunes menu, and then go to Advanced tab:

In above window, I moved the folder "iTunes Music" to my public folder. The original one is the same folder name under ~/Music/iTunes.

After that, I went to other accounts and opened iTunes. It seems that they can see my shared iTunes library, but I did the same thing for other accounts, I cannot see their music in my account. Not sure what prevented me from seeing their music.

Adding Another User iTunes Media Folder to Your iTunes Library

Then I followed the second option from Apple web information to add their music media folder from their public accessible folder to my iTunes library. See the instructions in the above link (under the section of "To listen to another account's music files". After I finished the steps, I was able to add their library into my library. Actually, all the music in another account are imported. I think I can do the same thing for an account on another Mac. If I want to move the files into my library, I may need to check my preference to Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library.

This option is actually adding the whole library of music items into my library. There seems that there is no way to select specific music files. Fortunately, I found a way to view library files by Artists in list view. This way can be used as filter to view songs by artists.

Snow Leopard Graphics Update 1.0

2010-08-17T20:41:00.000-07:00

Today I a news about this update: Snow Leopard Graphics Update 1.0, from AppleInsider. This update requires a reboot. The following is the snap-shot of the update information.

and the following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...27,320
After	...58,368
Difference (A-B)	29,048

Kill Application or Service

2010-08-15T11:10:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I get some applications or services hanging there with no response. One way to restart them is to quit or kill them first and then start them again.

To kill an application is very simple. Mac has a menu item from Apple icon (top left).

From there a dialog displays a list of applications and you can kill the application you want. This window also provides a way to relaunch Finder, which cannot be killed. However, if you have some services such as Growl, Evernote or Dropbox, they do not show in this dialog window.

They are services running. To kill them, you have to use Activity Monitor tool. I use my favourite Spot Light (press command + space), and type in Activity... You will see the application:

Select the application or service first. Then press the Quit button on the tool bar:

Apple New Devices: Magic Trackpad and Battery Charger

2010-08-08T15:16:00.001-07:00

I purchased two new Mac devices: Magic Trappad and Battery Charger. The later one is really I want. I have used Magic mouse and wire less keyboard since I got my iMac 27. The only painful experience is the battery, especially the one for mouse. I don't like to use normal batteries, not environmental friendly and too costly. I have used alkaline battery and Sanyo's rechargeable battery. They all would not last long. I hope this new Apple charger will be as good as it says: 10 year life time.

The trackpad has been in Macbook and Macbook Pro for long time. This is a migration version for iMac. Basically it provides gestures for iMac. When I first tried this device, my iMac did not recognize it. I followed the instruction as in its menu: software update from Apple's menu. I did not get the update. I tried on both of iMac 24 and iMac 27, the same issue. Then I turned to web to google the update software. I found this update from Apple's web page and it works fine after the installation.

I seems the trackpad has all the features of mouse. However, it does not work as the way as mouse works. It is so sensitive, and very easily I get lost if I put too many fingers on the pad. The pad supports single, two, three and four fingers. I may have to take time to master its usages.

The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...672,076
After	...793,504
Difference (A-B)	121,428

Camera Raw Compatibility Update 3.3

2010-08-03T19:34:00.000-07:00

Today I one new software update: Camera Raw Compatibility Update 3.3.

and the following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...360,620
After	...762,300
Difference (A-B)	401,680

Safari 5.0.1 Update

2010-07-28T21:56:00.000-07:00

Today I found this update: Safari 5.0.1. This update requires a reboot. The following is the snap-shot of the update information.

and the following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...98,608
After	...132,728
Difference (A-B)	34,120

iTunes Update 9.2.1

2010-07-19T21:53:00.000-07:00

iTunes has a new update version 9.2.1 today. The following is the space difference between before and after the update in my iMac 27.

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...0,508
After	...3,272
Difference (A-B)	2,764

Podcast Capture 2 and Producer 2

2010-07-17T15:00:00.000-07:00

In past weeks, I have been watching WWDC10 videos. At the end of each show, I see the end with "Made with Podcast Producer":

I did not understand what it is. Then I google it. Hah hah!, I found it. It is a Mac application, actually a server application. Apple web page has detail information about the new version of Podcast Producer 2, and YouTube has show on this one as well, several videos by MacBookPirate.

However, Podcast Producer 2 is a Server application. I don't have Mac Server yet. Mac Mini Sever is a very attractive box I want. That may be my excuse to get one. Just I don't have time to get it yet. Interesting finding is that I also found there is a counter part application for client. It is called as Podcast Capture 2. It is available in my Mac as I found it from my spotlight:

And here are some screenshots I have about it, first is the launch:

and the next for log in:

since I don't have a Mac Server, so I am stuck here. Here is the help information:

When I get my Mac Mini server, I'll give it a try for sure. It looks like that this tool is an end-to-end application to make, process and distribute podcast. Not only you may host podcast server, you can also submit podcasts to iTunes. That will be great.

Epson Printer Update 2.4

2010-07-06T22:39:00.000-07:00

It has been for quite while not seeing any new updates. Today's update is only for the printer I have: Epson printer update 2.4.

The following is the summary of space difference between before and after the update:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...5,268
After	...8,480
Difference (A-B)	3,212

iPad Tips

2010-07-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

I found two very useful tips. Actually they also apply to iPhone and iPod Touch. First one is to take a snap-shot of the current screen. Press the power button first, and then tap the home button. Then you will see a camera splash sound. The screen snap shot is right into your iPhoto.

Then you can sync your iPad and all the snapshots will be in your iPhoto devices. The following is one of my locked screen:

note: the original photo is 1024x768, 1.2MB. I saved it as 50% smaller.

The second tip is to play sound only for videos. I have a lots of video podcasts. When I play a video, the sound will be cut off if I press power button to close my screen. However, for audio podcasts, the sound will keep on with screen off. The tip is to quickly tab the home button twice, then you will see audio controller. You can continue to play, or skip to previous or next one. This is very nice tip if you only want to listen to the audio sound:

The above is a WWDC 2010 video playing in screen off mode. This tip also works if you only want to quickly access the audio control, for example, to stop audio or to skip to the next.

iTunes 9.2 Update

2010-06-16T19:08:00.000-07:00

Quickly Apple released another release update for iTunes 9.2 after the WWDC 2010. This is closely related to the iOS4 support with sync features of iBooks, folders and more. I am very excited waiting for the iOS 4.0 for iPad, which will be released in the Fall.

This time the iTunes 9.2 update for iMac 24 has the same size as that for my iMac 27, as you can see in the progress snap-shot.

The following is the summary of space difference between before and after the update:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...84,932
After	...206,280
Difference (A-B)	121,348

Mac OSX 10.6.4 Update

2010-06-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

Today Apple released a major OS X update: 10.6.4. The update package for my iMac 27 is over 600MB. I noticed that the same update for my iMac 24 is 315.5MB. Not sure why there is so big difference in terms of hardware.

The following is the summary of space difference between before and after the update:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...2,292
After	...4,240
Difference (A-B)	1,948

Safari 5.0 Update

2010-06-08T20:11:00.000-07:00

Apple silently updated Safari to 5.0 today, or maybe yesterday. Steve Jobs did not mention it at all in the yesterday's WWDC keynote speech. I watched the whole speech and it was about iPhone 4 and iOS4, and was very exciting. Anyway, it is time to update the browser to 5.0. Here is the long list of the update:

The following is the summary of space difference between before and after the update:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...669,808
After	...700,312
Difference (A-B)	30,504

iPad with Bell Carrier

2010-06-02T21:40:00.000-07:00

I read some news about iPad activation with Bell and many people complain about difficulty to activate it. Basically you have to make a call to activate. Many people say that Rogers is like AT&T in US, easy to set up directly from the device.

I got the Bell SIM card from Apple store. So I decided to give it a try at 1-800-667-0123. It does not take too long to talk to a person in late evening about 10:00pm. The activation staff actually is off. However, the internet staff, James, helped me to set it up.

I have a Bell phone so it is easy to tell my personal information to setup an account. I got an account and a phone number. The phone number is for iPad to connect to Bell network, and it is not a real phone. It is just used for the SIM card to communicate with Bell.

There are two plans: $15 for 250MB 30 days or $35 for 5B 30 days. The plan can be activated from the device with no WiFi available because WiFi has priority connection. When the limit is reached for 30 days or 30 days is reach with some limit left, the plan will terminated. In order to continue to use, a new 30 day plan has to be purchased. In Rogers term, it is called as "top it up".

By the way, my SIM card is pre-registered already. During the phone call I talked to James, I saw Bell (3G) and Bell on Settings->Carrier. James told me that I can chose a plan anytime now from the device. It is a prepaid plan on device. When I pay it, the usage is available right away. It is very cool and it is not so bad to set up. It looks like a very simple way to use it. Just like to shopping in mall or store, when you pay it, you get the product.

I got my iPad on the date when it was released in Canada, May 28, 2010, at the local Apple store (Market mall). I just could not wait for it. Actually, I did not have time to play it in the last weekend. Then my Apple web order arrived yesterday. I picked up at the Federal depot office. This evening I returned one I got from the store. To my surprise, there is 10% restocking charge. I was not informed about the charge for the open product when I purchased it. It was opened at the store by the staff (they provided free setup and show on that day) and I told them I had an order on the way. Without the disclosure of the charge, I felt not happy and really not happy about it. The fight will go on. I'll update its progress.

Java for Mac 10.6 V1.0 Update

2010-05-20T21:20:00.000-07:00

Todya's update is Java for Mac 10.6 version 1.0 update.

The following is the summary of space difference between before and after the update:

Command: df -lk	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...472,216
After	...392,168
Difference (A-B)	-80,048

How to Kill an Application

2010-05-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

Some Mac applications are running like background services. For example Growl, EverNote and Dropbox. The only interface is at top right menu bar. The problem is that sometimes their interface or context menu are not available; as a result, there is no way to quit the application. My Dropbox has this problem after a while.

I tried to use Mac Force Quit... from Apple menu, but I could not find them. Fortunately, there is an alternative way to do it. Here are the steps to do:

Open Terminal
Type command: ps -A |grep Drop. You will see Dropbox application process id(pid), time and application location.
Type the command to kill the Dropbox: kill [pid].

All those ps and kill commands are most commonly used UNIX commands.

Epson Printer Update 2.3.1

2010-05-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

Todya's update is for Epson Printer, which is specific for the printer I have purchased and installed. The link in the update description does point to Apple's support web site with generic description and long list of printers.

Starting today, I'll do clean update. That means I'll clean my trash first, then restart my OS. Record the space I have before the update. Run the update, clean trash again. Finally restart Mac OS, and record the space after the update. Before I run several applications or browsers during my updates. I think that my calculations in those cases may not accurate. Some cache or files unrelated to the updates may be cleaned during the update. By doing the clean update, I think the disk space before and after should be more accurate.

The following is the summary of space difference between before and after the update:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...3,328
After	...6,976
Difference (A-B)	-3,648

6 New Updates

2010-04-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

After I got my iMac 27 HD replaced and my TM restored back, I checked Software update from my iMac. I found 6 new updates. Actually some of them I think I did before(see my previews update blogs). Maybe my TM did not include them? I don't know. Anyway, I went straight to get them installed.

The following is the summary of space difference between before and after the update:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...705,108
After	...637,580
Difference (A-B)	-67,528

Here are updates:

Yes, Time Machine is a Must-Have

2010-04-29T19:22:00.000-07:00

My iMac 27 was ready for pick up yesterday. I got the message when I got back from work. I did not leave my work phone number when I drop the iMac, but I phoned back last Monday and told the store to phone me at work. The store did not phone me at work and left a message at my home number. It was late and I did not have car. Today this morning there was heavy snow and wind, so I decided to work from home. At the lunch time, I went to the local Apple retail store to get my iMac 27" back.

I checked the iMac at the store. The hard drive was replaced and set back at initial setting. When it was turned on, a welcome screen and music were up. The first thing I did when I was back home was to migrate my time machine back. The job took about 3 hours. All my original settings, applications, movies, photos and data files are back! The only thing I did not backup was my dropbox folder, which I use DropBox cloud service to sync my files up to internet. When I logged in and started the DropBox.app, I was asked to re-connect and set up my local folder as DropBox, just as same way as I set it up. After that, all the files from my internet DropBox account were back to my HD. That's all, very smooth and easy.

I remembered that when I was at the store I saw two senior couple at the genius help desk with their iMac 24. It looked that they knew very little about Mac. The screen was white, the same way as I had before. I hoped that they had time machine to back up everything, files, photos and movies. What a nightmare if they did not.

Yes, time machine is a must-harve for Mac users.

Caution When You Turn TM on!

While I was writing this blog, I got a warning message from my time machine backup:

After I got my TM back to my iMac, I did not give it a thought about the content on TM. I turned TM on from system preference. It looks like that it was just doing a whole new backup appending to the TM. Since it is a TM backup, all the original content are gone, and only the last date one (restored) was kept. The new backup then starts a whole back again. As a result, double spaces are required and my external HD does not have enough space. Here is what I have now on the TM's external HD:

and here is the my TM failure (in system preference):

Therefore, my advise is that when you have your iMac HD replaced and then restored the TM's content, don't rush to turn on TM on the same external HD if you want to keep all the history files. Keep the TM in a safe place, and get another external HD as your new TM.

Time Machine is a Must-Have

2010-04-24T16:21:00.000-07:00

iMac 27 dead. Last night I had some friends over my place. To watch some YouTube shows, I moved my iMac 27" to my kitchen. We had some drinks and enjoyed shows. When I moved the iMac back to my computer room afterward, my iMac was dead. It stayed in the initial white screen with spinning wheel running for ever. I turned it off and on again, nothing help. tried this morning again, the same screen. I actually realized something wrong last night and I booked only one spot the next morning at the local Apple retail store.

The genius person was very nice and had British accent. I told him the story. He turned on the iMac, and it was the same result. He told me that it was the symptom of hard drive failure. "I'll replace the hard drive for you", he said. "Did you back up your hard drive", he asked. I told him that I have an USB external hard drive as a Time machine. "That's good.", he smiled.

"OK. I have no choice." I accepted that, "I also have an iMac 24, from my experience, I did not get Time machine migrated to this machine (27) from my 24 when I purchased this one (27)."

"I can give you step by step instructions of how to do that if you want." he said, "it should be very simple and straightforward, and I don't think there should any problem since your time machine was running against to this one."

"I think I can do it. I'll give it a try", My voice showed a little sign of hesitate.

After he checked status on his computer, he said, "We don't have hard drive in stock right now." He offered one option, "I am sorry we have to keep it in store. I have placed an order. The earliest date from the system may be next Wednesday. Is that OK?"

"OK", I was reluctant, but I had no choice. That's my story of my dead iMac 27. I am expecting to get it back next week.

I don't worry about any applications on 27, but I have many important data files and an iPhone project I have been working on. If I cannot get my time machine back to the new hard drive, that would be disaster for me. Fortunately I have had my iMac 27 connected with my time machine all the time, till the last moment when it was dead. "This would provide me one experience to see how the time machine works", I thought.

This afternoon, I had an idea: can I try my time machine on my iMac 24"? if I can get files and the source codes of my iPhone project back to iMac 24? The iMac 24 was the only one computer I had for the time. If I could get the files back, I could continue to work on my project. That's really good idea. I plugged the time machine to my 24's USB port. The drive appeared on the desktop. My Time Machine.app was not running. I don't think it is good idea to get it running. The content of the USB drive is for my iMac 27.

However, I can browse the content of the drive in Finder. To my surprise, I see all the folders by time in chronic order:

Here is what I have in the latest date folder: my 27's hard drive:

and all the folders and files under the users/[myuser]:

What a life saving feature! I dragged some files and folders back to my iMac 24"s HD, and my iPhone project was back. Even without directly restoring all the content back to an iMac, I can still browse files directly and restore files manually. That's already good enough for me. Time Machine is a must-have item for Mac users!

It would be nice if I can restore the time machine back to my iMac 27 when it is back. Wait and see.

27 iMac Firmware 1.0 Update

2010-04-19T21:04:00.000-07:00

Today I got a update: 27" iMac firmware 1.0 update. I think I got 27" iMac firmware update not long time ago. So quickly Apple released another one. This one is very interesting. Based on its description, during the update, the fan runs at full speed and I did hear the strong noise. Here is snap-shot of the update:

and here is the description:

: This update fixes Target Display Mode compatibility issues on 27-inch iMac computers.

When your computer restarts a gray screen will appear with a status bar to indicate the progress of the update. Your Computer's fans will run at full speed during the update but will return to normal speed once the update completes. Do not disturb or shut off the power on your iMac during this update.

The following is the summary of space difference between before and after the update:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...567,064
After	...288,356
Difference (A-B)	-278,708

iMac EFI and Security Update

2010-04-14T19:53:00.000-07:00

I found two new updates today. Here is the information about those updates:

27-inch iMac EFI Fireware Update

The update is recommended for all quad-core Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors 27-inch iMacs.

This update addresses the following:

Resolves an issue that sometimes caused high processor utilization while playing audio through the headphone output mini-jack.
Resolves an issue that prevented the display backlight from turning on after powering on the iMac.

When your computer restarts a gray screen will appear with a status bar to indicate the progress of the update. Do not disturb or shut off the power on your iMac during this update.

Security Update 2010-003

Security Update 2010-003 is recommended for all users and improves the security of Mac OS X.

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...632,488
After	...198,880
Difference (A-B)	-433,608

QuickView: Folders in X-Ray View

2010-04-05T14:29:00.000-07:00

I found a way to change QuickView for folders: X-Ray view. I got this when I was on the way to my work listening to Mac Cast podcast on March 24, 2010. The podcast notes provides detail information and a video (YouTube) on how this is set and what's the result.

This is done through the settings in com.apple.finder. You may need to check the current settings before update it:

defaults read com.apple.finder QLEnableXRayFolders

The default value is 0. To enable the X-Ray view, set it to 1:

defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableXRayFolders 1

Another tip I found is a Terminal command to copy the piped result to OS's clipboard. For example, I copy the content of air.html to clipboard by using this command:

cat air.html | pbcopy

Update: Airport Base Station 5.5.1

2010-04-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

Today I found a new update from Apple: Airport Base Station 5.5.1. I went to the update right away and missed recording the space before the update. So I would not be able to provide information of comparing the space difference between before and after.

Here is the description of the update:

AirPort Utility 5.5.1 includes general bug fixes and addresses the following issues:

Not importing all settings when importing a configuration.
Not propagating MAC address control lists when using an extended network.

iTunes 9.1 and iPhoto 8.1.2 Updates

2010-03-30T18:48:00.000-07:00

Another two new updates came today after yesterdays OS X 10.6.1 update. The iTunes update is for iPad sync feature mainly. iPad will be released in US on April 3, 2010, this coming Saturday. Based on Apple.ca web page, it'll be in Canada in late April. It is an exiting product which has already caused a lot of buzz. Here is the copy of the update details.

iTunes 9.1 comes with several new features and improvements, including:

Sync with iPad to enjoy your favorite music, movies, TV shows, books and more on the go
Organize and sync books you've downloaded from iBooks on iPad or added to your iTunes library
Rename, rearrange, or remove Genius Mixes

For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

The following is the space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...263,904
After	...377,420
Difference (A-B)	113,516

OS X 10.6.3 Update

2010-03-29T20:20:00.000-07:00

Finally the Mac OS X 10.6.3 is released today. I did the update right away when I got home.

The 10.6.3 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:

improve the reliability and compatibility of QuickTime X
address compatibility issues with OpenGL-based applications
address an issue that causes background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail
resolve an issue that prevented files with the # or & characters in their names from opening in Rosetta applications
resolve an issue that prevented files from copying to Windows file servers
improve performance of Logic Pro 9 and Main Stage 2 when running in 64-bit mode
improve sleep and wake reliability when using Bonjour wake on demand
address a color issue in iMovie with HD content
improve printing reliability
resolve issues with recurring events in iCal when connected to an Exchange server
improve the reliability of 3rd party USB input devices
fix glowing, stuck, or dark pixels when viewing video from the iMac (Late 2009) built-in iSight camera

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4014.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

The following is the space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...73,312
After	...24,680
Difference (A-B)	-48,632

iMove 8.0.6 Update

2010-03-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

Today I got a update: iMovie 8.0.6. The following is the description:

This update improves reliability when working with videos from Aperture.
This update is recommended for all users of iMovie '09.

The following is the space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...314,388
After	...278,736
Difference (A-B)	-35,652