In case you didn’t catch the info in the podcast this last weekend, I will be out of town early tomorrow morning through the middle of next week. So, there won’t be a podcast review this weekend, and most likely there won’t be a video next week either.

Everyone take the time off and relax! Be sure to send me emails and comments if you have any ideas for future episodes, suggestions and the like. I always appreciate listener/reader response.

Don’t forget Rapidweaver 3.5 comes out this Friday, I’ll be on the beach enjoying myself, but I’ll give a thought to the great guys over at Realmac Software and this amazing piece of software I can’t wait to get my hands on.

I’m not sure how many people actually use Bootcamp, but I thought this would certainly be a welcome tip if you do use it. I’m very skeptical about installing Windows on my new Macbook, so I can’t vouch for this.

I do have to mention that if you have a new Macbook, you have a feature that is specific to your laptop, and one that I think most users will love at that. If you open up your Keyboard and Mouse settings in System Preferences and click on the Trackpad tab, you have an option now labeled “Tap trackpad with two fingers for secondary click”.

Enabling this little feature lets you tap on your trackpad with both fingers and get a crl-click. I love this feature!

Add right-click to XP on MacBook and MacBook Pro:
If you’ve used Bootcamp to install XP on your MacBook or MacBook Pro, you might have been frustrated by not being able to right-click. While shift + f10 will usually work, you might be looking for something more familiar. Apple Mouse Utility will let you use Control-click to right click. Simply place it in your Startup folder, and call it with /s, so that it launches silently on startup.

Also, KeyTweak will allow you to remap your Windows keyboard, useful for reassigning modifiers like Control-C to the Mac’s Command-C, etc.

Someone brought it to my attention a few days ago that last weeks video episode, “This is Hot” a Firefox Flick, wouldn’t work on his iPod. He tried converting it with no success. I tried converting it with several different programs, including iTunes, and haven’t had any success either.

I downloaded another clip just earlier today that I liked from the Firefox Flicks site, and this one wouldn’t convert either. If anyone has any suggestions about converting (QT won’t let me export, share, etc) maybe some type of saved/protected file, let me know. It’s just a regular .mp4 from what I can tell, but there’s something different about it.

This is an ad that always inspires me and makes me realize that Apple has done something right. Apple is the only company that makes me feel good about spending money, like I’m supporting a cause. This commercial just reinforces that.

“About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them, because they change things…..The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones that do”

That, my friends, is a phrase worth thinking about.

 

 Think Different Ad [1:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1596)

Technorati Tags: Apple

I discuss some of the stuff happening in the Apple community this week, talk about the joys of the site’s RSS reader widget and installation package for getting Intel Macs up and running with CPU temperatures.

Talk about using the new black Macbook for a little over a week, all the pros and cons to the system.

Music this week is “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers.

There is no podcast next week, I will be on vacation.

 

 Macbook Review [31:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2048)

It took quite awhile for a Mac version of DivX 6 to come to light, but now there is a 6.5 release of this awesome product.

I’m sure there are some people that would easily argue that the DivX codec is much better than Apple’s pushed H.264, but for all practical purposes, I don’t usually see that much of a difference. However, if you’re looking for a very cool alternative to Quicktime in some cases, then I urge you to download DivX and try out the all new player that is included, it’s truly amazing.

The new player has support for features like fullscreen (you don’t get this unless you hack QT or buy Pro), faded windows which is very, very cool, and some other interesting features.

Read more about DivX 6.5 for Mac here.

Technorati Tags: Apple

I created this installer to get all rid of the terminal stuff when setting up an Intel Mac for CPU temps. Created a simple AppleScript app that loads everything in the background for you.

Can grab the download at:

http://www.macfanatic.net/downloads/temp-loader-v10.dmg

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I mentioned a few posts back that I was having some issues getting a simple temperature reading from my CPU on my new Macbook.

After doing research and a few hours of tinkering before I realized what I needed to do, I was able to get the kernel extension working that allowed programs like Temperature Monitor to read the CPU temperature from my new Intel Mac.

However, this was really tedious to do every time I started my computer and I’d always thought about trying to learn some simple shell scripting and AppleScript, so I dove in for the past 8 hours or so and have created my scripts, images, installers, and disk image to get everyone else with an Intel Mac up and running in no time.

You can download the Temp Monitor Loader here. Basically, the installer that I included correctly installs the SpeedIt kernel extension and places the Temperature Monitor apps along with my custom AppleScript app in a folder in your Applications folder.

If you put the AppleScript application that I created in your startup items list, then it prompts you for an admin password, loads the extension in the background, and then starts up the Lite version of Temp Monitor for you. Only have to configure the Temp apps once and you’re all set. Instructions and pictures included in the disk image, along with my AppleScript source.

This is just my way of having a good time and giving back to the community. Let me know if you run into any problems with this. I’ve tested it on a few new Macbooks and it worked just fine on all of them. It should also work fine on PPC Macs if you use the custom install option and just install the Temperature Monitor applications themselves.

EDIT: I contacted the developers of both the SpeedIt Extension and Temperature Monitor. While I’m waiting to hear back from the developer of SpeedIt Extension, the developer of the Temperature Monitor apps has clearly expressed that he doesn’t want his producted distributed/associated with this application. So, in compliance with his requests, I have modified the installer and disk image. Now the installer doesn’t distribute/install the Temp Monitor apps and the disk image has a quick link so that you can download and use them yourselves. Sorry about the confusion, but laws are laws, even though I don’t quite understand the dramatic ramifications that were supposed to come from this one.

I’m happy to announce that after playing around with Dashcode from Apple pretty much all day today, honing my Javascript skills, and tinkering in Photoshop, I can proudly announce the Mac Fanatic RSS Reader Widget .9b

Yep, I like to keep it safe, so this is .9b. I’m not sure how much of a demand there is for this, since I would think that most people would subscribe in an aggregator, but heck, I learned a lot during the way and it was fun, so at least download it and give me some feedback on the design and implementation.

Features:
.9b Widget

Like I said, I’d love to hear some feedback!

You can grab the widget here