One of the biggest features Lion introduces is the addition of several multi-touch gestures that will allow Mac users to control their applications and software in a more intuitive way. For individuals who already use Apple iOS devices, such as the iPad and the iPhone, many of the new gestures will likely seem like second nature. Just like the mobile devices, Lion will allow computer users to pinch to zoom and swipe to navigate through pages. Additional gestures include tap to zoom, a feature that quickly zooms in on whatever you are viewing with the simple tap of your fingers.

Another exciting innovation Lion will be incorporating is full-screen applications. This allows users to easily use every single pixel on their screens, without wasting a single centimeter of screen space on cumbersome menus or icons. Multi-touch gestures will allow you to easily switch from full-screen mode to standard mode, making it simple to change applications.

Mission Control is perhaps one of the most exciting features of the new operating system. By swiping three fingers down on your keypad, you will be given a bird’s eye view of your entire system. All of your open windows and applications will be visible in this space, and specially designed spaces at the top of the control center allow you to place shortcuts to frequently used programs and applications. Accessing any part of your system requires nothing more than a click of your keypad.

Beyond Mission Control, Apple is also introducing a new feature known as Launchpad. This screen will display all of your computer’s applications, all of which can be arranged as you see fit. Furthermore, new applications will automatically appear in this area of your computer, making it easy to keep track of everything on your system.

Resume is another incredible feature Lion is bringing to the Mac. This great option allows you to easily jump back into your work after restarting your computer. Furthermore, applications open to whatever you were working on previously. Auto Save and Versions further solidify the new concept of continuing wherever you last left off without an user input required.

In addition to all of the great features available in the latest release of the Mac OS, Apple has changed the delivery method for users who choose to upgrade to Lion. Instead of the traditional CDs that contain the necessary data for your computer, Lion can be downloaded through the Mac App Store. As soon as it becomes available, existing Mac users can download Lion immediately and begin experiencing all of these great features for themselves.

Just go to the ‘Date & Time’ pane of the system preferences. On that page you can click ‘Show Date’ to start displaying the date. It’s a really simple tweak but one that can be extremely useful in everyday use of OS X.

With simple terminal commands, you can modify certain aspects of your Dock like enable highlighting in Stacks, disable 3d effects or pin the Dock to either side of your screen. You may also change certain menu titles of the Dock by modifying your system’s language files.

Changing the visual appearance of Mac OS is not only fun but also quite simple. Usually replacing a few images in the /System directory is all it takes as is the case with this mod. Before you do any modifying however, I recommend that you back up all files you overwrite. I find a good habit is to make a zip of the original files and leave it in the same directory. Check out leoparddocks.com for a great selection of PNG sprites Dock designs.

Check out Using Mac for this great post on tweeking your Mac OS Dock.

It turns out that Apple first though up the tablet concept in the late 80’s; a device then known as the Knowledge Navigator. This revolutionary device, as shown in this promotional video was nothing short of amazing for the era. Voice recognition, a human-like personal assistant able to search and retrieve data as well as manage scheduals and tasks. It even took video calls and had Maps!

I find it amazing that even in 1987, Apple was already thinking of the fundamental technologies that would later be widely used in the twenty-first century.

Changing or “spoofing” your MAC address can be desired for multiple reasons and is quite simple to do in Snow Leopard.

In this tutorial, we’ll assume you want to change your wireless adapter’s physical address.

To find out what is your AirPort card’s current MAC address, type this in the Terminal.

ifconfig en1 | grep ether

Step 1 : disassociate from all wireless networks

This means to disconnect all current wireless network connections while leaving AirPort enabled.

Open the Terminal and paste this command :

sudo /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport -z

You will be asked for your password to execute this command.

The airport command is part or Apple’s Apple80211 framework. Essentially, it’s what connects you to Wifi networks. The -z option disassociates from any network.

Next time, you will simply need to type ariport -z to disassociate. You may also use airport -I to get information on your current connection.

Step 2: Change your MAC address

Once disassociated from the wireless network. You can change the MAC address with:

sudo ifconfig en1 ether 00:00:00:00:00:00

You can of course enter what ever you want as long as it is in the correct format. You can verify with ifconfig en1 | grep ether that your address is changed.

To revert your MAC address back to its default, simply reboot your machine.

David Kocher has released an update to his popular open-source FTP client for the Mac, Cyberduck 3.3. This latest version adds much anticipated Snow Leopard support in 64-bits. Built on the Rococoa framework, other changes include a freshly redesigned icon, restored Power PC support, an Octal input field for permissions and new protocols such as Rackspace Cloud Files and Amazon CloudFront. Various bug fixes have also been issued.

Existing Cyberduck users will be notified of this update or can download it from the website. Cyberduck 3.3 requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later.

So if your Mac starts acting strange, these are some steps you can take to help properly recover it.

1. Log out of your current session

Try to restart your session. You can log out of your current session from the Apple menu or with the Cmd+Shift+Q keyboard shortcut.

2. Reboot

Attempting to restart your system may resolve more important issues such as improper hardware recognition. From the Apple menu, select Restart.

3. Disconnect all peripherals

If problems persist, you may want to unplug all peripherals before rebooting. They may be responsible for certain system crashes.

4. Reset the PMU

If you use a laptop, resetting the Power Management Unit may resolve some common problems. To reset the PMU, shut down your Mac, unplug the power adapter and remove the battery. Next, hold the power button for at least 5 seconds. You may now reinstall your battery, reconnect the unit to a power source and restart it.

Keep in mind that resetting the PMU puts certain settings such as sleep time and backlight parameters back to default.

5. Reset the PRAM

If you’re still experiencing problems, resetting the Parameter RAM or PRAM is recommended. Start your Mac and immediately hold down Option+P+R. The computer will restart. After you’ve heard the chimes twice, release the key combination and let your system start normally.

6. Repair disk permissions

Although repairing permissions seems to be less useful in Leopard than in previous versions, it never hurts run it and repaid any eventual problems.

From the Disk Utility, select your Startup disk and from the First Aid tab, click Repair Disk Permissions.

7. Repair your Startup disk

Also in the Disk Utility are the Verify Disk and Repair Disk functions. This will correct issues with the disk directory (road map to where the data is stored on a disk or volume). Please note that you cannot repair your Startup Disk while it is booted. To repair your primary Mac OS installation disk you will have to run the Disk Utility from your installation DVD.

8. Run Software Update

Installing Apple Software Updates may resolve bugs that are causing your system to crash. To check that you have the most current version of Mac OS, select Software Update from the Apple menu.

9. Reinstall Mac OS or seek further support

If you have done all of these things and are still experiencing problems, you may want to consider completely reinstalling Mac OS or contact an Apple Care Center.

There exists an alternative to Safari AdBlock which will allow you to run Safari 4 in 64-bits while blocking those pesky ads. GlimmerBlocker is a powerful open source ad blocker that runs as a proxy on your system instead of a Safari plugin. In other words, it works independently from the browser blocking ads as they pass through your computers internet connection. Since it works differently from Safari hacks, there are some minimal disadvantages:

Because GlimmerBlocker doesn’t hack Safari, there is a few things it isn’t able to do: adding a block by right-clicking an image, stopping pop-unders, and filtering cookies from 3rd party sites. But you win a lot in stability, and GlimmerBlocker provides much easier methods for adding your own modifications to pages by adding css rules, pieces of Javascript or by transforming the html before Safari receives it. So I’ll hope you’re happy with the tradeoff.

GlimmerBlocker comes with a simple installer and requires no configuration. Once installed, you will be able to administer it form System Preferences. Apart from blocking ads, it is also has a powerful set of features. Included is a basic set of very useful filters. For example, the Site enhancements filter will put a download link on YouTube video pages. Additionally, keyword expansions allow you to type search queries like “wiki Berlin Wall” or “yt Ballon Boy” directly in the address bar. You may also create and submit your own filters. The possibilities are endless.

GlimmerBlocker can also work on your iPhone when it is connected to Wifi.

You can download the latest version of GlimmerBlocker at glimmerblocker.org.

If you’ve ever called Apple Support, that’s probably the first question you were asked before the person could help you. Well getting your serial number is pretty easy, in fact it just takes 4 clicks.

1. From the menu bar, click the Apple logo at the top left of your screen
2. Select About this Mac
3. Double-click the version number
4. Your serial number is revealed!

Here are some specific fixes this release covers:

• Runs on 64-bit
• Two times faster music search
• Music search menu no longer displays podcasts, movies and TV shows
• Updated artwork for iTunes 9
• No longer displays now playing notifications if iTunes is the frontmost application

If you don’t already know about this little gem, CoverSutra is a handy and attractive way to control iTunes without having to leave your current application. Music search from the menu bar, control iTunes from a slick translucent controller that can be trigged with a key-combination and even scrobble to last.fm. CoverSutra is a fantastic app that makes listening to music on your Mac a much more pleasing experience.

Source: Sophiestication Software Blog