The Mac Newbie

Google Wave Invitations

2009-11-27T12:57:00.002Z

I've been using Google Wave for a while now and they were kind enough to send some invitations for me to distribute around. So, I have 3 left. If you want one, just leave a comment here or send a reply/DM on Twitter with your e-mail address.

Geek alert: I'll be using FIFO as the sorting protocol in case there are more candidates than the number of invitations. Good luck :-)

How to recover emails from .emlx files in Mail

2009-10-29T14:54:00.003Z

The other day I was transferring some emails from one IMAP account to another (in Mail) and suddenly when a error occurred I noticed that, not only the emails did not transferred to the destination IMAP account, the original emails disappeared from the original source IMAP account.

My first thought was (right after the cursing): "well, I can use Time Machine to recover the emails by restoring the corresponding folder in the Mail archive folder". And so I did. But for my surprise, that only restored a bunch of .emlx files (one for each email) and when I opened Mail again, the folder was still empty. I guess it tries to consult the server version first and since it is now empty, it won't show you any emails.

So I'm stuck with these .emlx and have no idea how to put the emails back on Mail. However, using some Google-fu, I was again able to find this very useful blog post that perfectly explains how one can use .emlx files to import emails back to Mail. Enjoy

My new Macbook

2009-10-26T11:08:00.002Z

So my old Macbook Pro decided to check out to the notebooks' heaven a bit earlier than I was expecting. A faulty logic board forced me into buying a new computer since the repair cost was larger than just buying a new Macbook. And since Apple decided to revamp the Macbook just last week, I saw this as an opportunity to get me a Unibody White Macbook 13'', 2,26 GHz CPU and 2GB RAM.

The new Macbook is really good value for the current price ($999 US dollars; around 899€ but I got it cheaper than that) and since I didn't want to spend much money right now, it seemed like the right choice.

The initial setup was exactly like when I first booted my MBP, more than 2 years ago, simple and easy. And with the beauty of the Time Machine simplicity, I had my data running on my new notebook in less than an hour.

I don't regret changing to a smaller screen display, since my work doesn't really require me to have a large display. And since the netbook wave started, I craved for a smaller computer to carry around and even though the MBP was slim enough, it was still a large computer.

The new trackpad takes a bit of time to get used to but I'm loving the new multi-touch features. The glossy screen is not bad at all and that was something that I was afraid of not liking. But for working in normal light conditions, it is absolutely stunning.

One thing that I absolutely love and that is completely different from the MBP is the fact that this Macbook doesn't get hot to the point of burning my fingers if I decided to touch the area just above the Function Keys, when the CPU was running at 100%. This is obviously related to not being made of aluminum (which means it is not as light as the MBP 13'') but it is definitely more comfortable.

Unfortunately, the 4GB RAM I had on the MBP are not compatible with this Macbook, which is a shame because I just bought it (a few months ago) and now I can't use it. If anyone's interested, contact me and we might be able to make business :-)

Well, this is just embarassing

2009-09-28T09:54:00.002+01:00

Really, it is. I just noticed that my iTunes was no longer allowing me to use half-star ratings and then I remembered that the upgrade to Snow Leopard must have screwed that up. So, I did a quick Google search for "activate half-star ratings" to try to fix it again.

And guess what was the first result. That's right: this one.

Installing Snow Leopard (on a Mac OS X Tiger machine)

2009-09-02T13:56:00.009+01:00

So, as you may know (and probably getting tired of knowing by now) I upgraded to Snow Leopard. The process was very simple and there's really no point in doing a thorough analysis of it, so I'll just leave some photos that I took while waiting.

Just before that, a few tips for those of you that want to upgrade as well:

Backup your old data before upgrading
Have you backup everything? No, go ahead... I'll wait
And when you think you've backup everything just make a final check :-)
Then insert the disc and install Mac OS X 10.6 a.k.a. Snow Leopard

Chances are that everything will go smoothly and no problems will arise from installing the new operating system. But since uncle Murphy is always looking waiting for the right moment to appear, you might as well be prepared with all your data safe somewhere.

Another quick note: this post is about my experience which consisted on upgrading from Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) to 10.6. So, this post is not really helpful to those of you upgrading from Leopard.

I bought the Mac Box Set (which includes Mac OS X 10.6, iLife'09 and iWork'09). Yeah, I know I could have just bought the $29 update package that can also do the upgrade from Tiger, but didn't so for two reasons:

I would be in violation of Apple's license agreement
I wouldn't have iLife'09 and iWork'09

So, with the package on my desk, it was quite easy to see what I should do:

(I like these little messages that Apple pust on the packages with "slight" hints of what to do)

After inserting the DVD, one clear difference from the Leopard upgrading process was that installing it from Tiger, requires restarting the machine right from the beginning of the installation process:

After a quick restart, the installation process asks which language you want to use:

And then, you're ready to start the installation. In my case, I decided to wipe clean the hard disk with the Disk Utility to make sure that all the accumulated garbage I had on the previous version of Mac OS X (yes, I backup everything before. Did you?)

After cleaning up the hard disk, it was time to start the real installation:

Obviously, the "time remaining" part of the installation process is never accurate and it more or less bounced from 30 minutes to 28, back to 29 and then to 26 (for a really long time), then 23 and then going on normally until 11 minutes and then suddenly it finishes. So, in total it took about 26 minutes to finish this part. At this point, I decided to read the manual that comes with the disc and get myself acquainted with the novelties in 10.6.

After copying all the files and restarting "again", the new OS boots with the usual flying "welcome" messages in several different languages:

And then after just setting up the usual stuff (language and keyboard preferences, user accounts, etc...)...

... I was ready to use my new Mac OS X:

So, from start to finish, I took exactly 48 minutes to upgrade. Not bad for a clean install.
After that, I just inserted the iLife'09 DVD, installed it and then the same for the iWork'09. More or less 10 minutes for each.

Loving the new Operating System

Yes, it's fast... and I mean really fast. Clicking on folders and files seems to open these a lot faster and navigation is usually more fluid. The new features (remember that I was coming from Tiger) like Spaces, Time Machine and Stacks are really cool.

Recovering my data was quite straightforward and I didn't face any major problems (except one that I'll mention bellow) so in a couple of hours I had my machine up and running almost like the previous version.

Now for the boring part

The boring part was in fact checking compatibilities for applications. I backup my previously installed applications so that I could use them now. Most of them worked without any problems, but some of them required installing new versions. And not so amusing, some of them are only available for Snow Leopard in beta versions. Which means that bugs may surface. But so far, it has been quite peaceful.

The only app that I'm having a hard time is QuickSilver. Because I use it all the time and some of its plugins are not yet available in the 10.6 version, in some ways it is more or less useless for me right now.

I also had some problems with a few of my calendars. I have 5 calendars that I used in the previous version of iCal (in Tiger). I backed up everything but when it was time to import them to the new iCal, only 2 of them imported successfully. I don't know why, but for some reason those other 3 calendars were being very stubborn.

Since I heard that Snow Leopard now had built-in support for Google Calendar integration with iCal, I decided to try the following:

Create new calendars on Google Calendar
Import the information of the 3 non-working calendars to Google Calendar
Synchronize with iCal

Guess what? It worked perfectly. Now, I have GCalendar <-> iCal dual integration working perfectly.
Why didn't the calendars import on iCal and did so on Google Calendar, I'll never know. But it's good to know that Google is always here to help :-) By the way, the same built-in integration between Google Contacts (and Yahoo Contacts) and Address Book is also available, provided that you use iSync for the synchronization process.

So, in the end I'm quite pleased with this process and it was a lot less painful than I thought it would be. I fully recommend upgrading to Snow Leopard but bare in mind that some of the applications may not work in Snow Leopard. So, do your homework, and check the compatibilities beforehand.

Snow Leopard has arrived

2009-09-01T19:08:00.003+01:00

So, as I told you a few days ago, I pre-ordered the Mac Box Set, since (as you may know if you are an avid reader of this blog) I was still running Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) on my Macbook Pro.

And it arrived yesterday. I immediately started the installation and everything went quite smoothly. I still haven't had the time to really experiment everything so I still won't be able to write a complete tutorial on this for now (maybe tomorrow). But rest assure that, in any way, I regret being an early-adopter. I encountered a few minor setbacks but everything had an easy fix.

So, until my next post. Bye bye.

Snow Leopard, here we go!

2009-08-27T08:37:00.002+01:00

Yep, I've pre-ordered Mac OS X 10.6, a.k.a. Snow Leopard. Now, it's just a matter of waiting for the package to arrive. More news to come...bye for now!

Retro-blogging: best Mac posts of August 2008

2009-08-03T12:19:00.002+01:00

Previously, on "The Mac Newbie":

The iCal day

2009-07-17T08:00:00.000+01:00

Did you notice that today is the only day of the year in which the iCal icon on the Dock doesn't change once you open it? :-)

Retro-blogging: Best posts of July 2008

2009-07-06T09:23:00.002+01:00

Previously, on "The Mac Newbie":

Google Quick Search Box vs Quicksilver

2009-06-15T13:03:00.001+01:00

Sure, Google Quick Search Box looks cool, but can it do this?

Retro-blogging: best posts of June 2008

2009-06-05T08:57:00.002+01:00

Previously, on "The Mac Newbie":

How I (kinda) turned my iPod Touch into an iPhone with just $29

2009-05-27T14:00:00.002+01:00

With these Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic, and using Skype for iPhone/iPod Touch, I just got myself a nice pseudo-iPhone.

Of course, it requires some WiFi available somewhere near my location, but what the hell? It's still great.

Photobooth tips

2009-02-11T07:00:00.002Z

I didn't know how to disable the "pseudo-flash" setting in Photobooth (and there's no setting that you can change directly to override this) and so, to this day, I used the reversed contrast setting trick: in my case I have to press Command+Option+CTRL+8 to activate it and then the "pseudo-flash" will be black instead of white. But then again, using this trick doesn't allow me to fully control the quality of the photo because I still have to see it with that x-ray look.

Lucky enough, Mac Tricks and Tips has posted these useful tips to use with Photobooth:

Disable Flash in Photo Booth

Disable Countdown in Photo Booth

You can also combine the keystrokes by holding down Option-Shift and you’ll immediately take a picture without the flash.

Tweeting from Terminal

2009-02-09T11:01:00.002Z

I still prefer the Twitter+Quicksilver integration tip, but if you're a Terminal geek addict, then this tip is for you.

Retro-blogging: best posts of February 2008

2009-02-02T10:11:00.002Z

Previously, on the "Mac Newbie":

Strange problem with Quicksilver (to this day I still haven't found a solution for this)
How to open PDFs in Firefox in Mac OS X
How to turn off the startup sound on your Mac
A few interesting applications for your Mac
iMovie and iDVD: the apps that could be great, but aren't
Avoid Apple Remote's evil twins
How to burn MP3s to a CD with folders on iTunes

The consequences of being a popular OS

2009-01-27T09:11:00.003Z

If you're one of those that think there are no viruses or other malware for Mac OS X, then you're mistaken. The only reason why viruses haven proliferate to Mac OS X is only because viruses' creators are busy devising new nasty malware programs for Windows and because the market share of Mac users is still too small to justify the time spent creating them.

But now that Apple has been cutting a larger and larger piece of the market's pie, the attention of these "evil-doers" has turned to Mac OS X and other Apple-related software.

The latest news on this issue are related to torrent-based downloads. People downloading the latest version of iWork'09 or Photoshop CS4 through the popular file-sharing network are likely to also be downloading a trojan that gives access to your computer to a mal-intentioned user.

So, you might want to consider installing an anti-virus, specially if you're downloading this software from these "not-so-legal" networks.

How to make Command-Left Arrow 'go to the start of the current line' rather than 'go back one page' on Firefox

2009-01-26T09:49:00.003Z

As you may have noticed, this blog is hosted on Blogger under the Blogspot.com domain. One thing that really annoys me with the Post Editor in Blogger is that, when using Firefox, if I try to use the Home key shortcut (Command-Left Arrow), instead of going to the beginning of the line on the text box where I'm editing a post as expected, the browser goes back one page.

This problem occurs because that specific combination of keys (Command-Left Arrow) is configured in Firefox to behave as Going Back one page instead of the usual Mac OS X-like behaviour of Home key.

Luckly, and for every problem that exists in Firefox, there's an extension that is ready to save the day: Keyconfig. It adds the ability to create new or modify existing shortcuts defined by a element. Basically, all you have to do is install the extension and then navigate to the Tools --> Keyconfig, click on the "Back : Command-Left Arrow" entry, then click the Disable button.

In case you're having problems installing the extension, leave a comment here and I'll try to give some help. Enjoy!

Source: Mac OS X Hints

No serial for iWork'09

2009-01-22T11:15:00.003Z

Now isn't that interesting? Apple suddenly decided to remove all anti-piracy measures from the new version of iWork. It basically means that iWork ‘09 retail boxes no longer come with a serial number. You just have to install iWork ‘09 from the enclosed disc and you’re ready to go.

Now the interesting part is to discover why Apple did this. Here's some possible explanations:

It doesn't work - In this era of online forums and piracy websites, what's the point of keeping up with a technique that doesn't work? Requiring a serial number to install iWork'09 is like requiring a post-it with your name on it to enter a Barack Obama's press conference. It's just not effective.
Bundled with a Mac - why put a serial number if you're planning to include it with every Mac that is produced? Kind of like what happens with iLife, iWork should be included with every Mac if they're planning to at least get a byte at Microsoft Office's market.
Because it's that good - Apple may think iWork is good enough for people to actually buy it. And this is just a bold (and arrogant) move to say something like that: "Our product is so good that people will feel like they want to pay for it". Hence, the no-privacy move.
To focus on what matters - Instead of wasting time (and a lot of money) finding new ways for stopping software piracy, like Microsoft does (and with very little return), Apple will probably focus on making their product a lot better. And they really should. iWork is still the only Apple software I don't use because it's not a suitable alternative to Microsoft Office (yet). Well, except for Keynote that makes my presentations and classes look really cool :-)
Just for fun - Because the guys at Cupertino enjoy seeing bloggers come up with a theory for every move and decision that comes from Apple HQ. Yes, myself included.

How to fix converted QuickTime movies that have no sound

2009-01-14T07:00:00.003Z

I've been making some short videos of my son with my new digital camera, a Sony CyberShot DSC-H50, with the goal of syncing them to my iPod Touch so that I have them around to show to family, friends and colleagues.

However, when I use QuickTime to convert the video to the iPhone/iPod Touch format, I get stuck with a video with no sound. And why is that? It's because my digital camera (and as most digital cameras) records the video and audio on the same stream within the movie file. And QuickTime is only able to convert movies that have separate video and audio streams.

In search for a solution to this problem, I found this neat program that takes care of that conversion real easily: MPEG Streamclip.

So if you're having similar problems, make sure you give this program a try.

Why wait for the Apple Keynote Remote App?

2009-01-13T07:00:00.002Z

One of the interesting things presented at MacWorld'09 was the new feature on iWork: the possibility to remote-control a Keynote presentation using your iPod Touch or iPhone. This is done by using this app (iTunes link).

However, if you browse the iTunes App Store a little bit you'll see that this is no innovation at all as many of these applications already exist (most of them require installing an extra app on your Mac to allow the controlling process):

Keymote - free (Donationware)
Pointer Remote - $0,99 (allows working with PowerPoint)
iPresenter - $2,99 (works with PowerPoint only)
jfControl - $3,99
AirMote - $4,99 (doesn't require installing an app on your Mac)
StageHand - $7,99 (more complete with some interesting features)
RemoteBuddy - $19,99 (allows controlling much more than just presentations)

Source: TUAW

For iPhone aficionados and chocolate addicts

2009-01-12T10:11:00.003Z

Found here

Isn't this ironic?

2009-01-12T07:00:00.001Z

While checking out this blog's feed I noticed the following interesting Google Ad on a recent post:

Why in the world would a blog that is dedicated to all things Mac/Apple have an ad on how to correctly migrate to Windows Vista?

As previously shown, the Google ad selection criteria remains a mistery to me... Anyone care to enlight me as to how these things happen?

How to activate half-star ratings on iTunes

2009-01-09T07:00:00.000Z

Since my iPod Touch 16GB doesn't have enough storage to hold my entire music library (along with some videos, photos and apps) I have to be selective regarding what songs I should sync to it. To do that I use the star rating system built-in on iTunes. For example, only 4 or 5 star-rated musics are chosen to get synced to the iPod.

However, sometimes using a 5 star rating might not be enough to differentiate the musics the way we would like. Lucky enough, there's a way of activating half-star rating on iTunes, thus turning, in theory, the 5 star rating system into a 10 star rating system.

Just open up Terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes allow-half-stars -bool TRUE

That's it. When you initiate iTunes the next time, you'll notice that the rating stars have a new symbol (as pictured above).

Mac Highlights of 2008

2009-01-08T07:00:00.003Z

The UsingMac blog has made an impressive post with the highlights of the Mac world of 2008. From apps to tips, tricks, tweaks, plugins, wallpapers and tutorials, you'll find everything there. Have a look.