Anyone who has used Flash on a Mac can say that it’s more than just a nuisance. On top of the loading time Flash takes to play a video, for instance, it’s the leading source of application crashes on Mac OS X. In fact, Apple had to engineer a new plugin mechanism for Safari in Snow Leopard that would run plugins as a separate process, so if they crash, they wouldn’t crash Safari itself. In addition to that, while Safari runs as a 64-bit process, Flash still runs in 32-bit. It’s no wonder why Apple doesn’t want Flash on the iPhone and iPad.
Thankfully, the YouTube team has added an option to opt-in to viewing videos in HTML5 in lieu of Flash. (And here’s an interesting tidbit: The HTML5 editors are Ian Hickson of Google and David Hyatt of Apple—clearly someone’s not invited to the party.) You must have a modern browser to support these changes.
To enable HTML5, you must:
- Visit this link: http://www.youtube.com/html5
- Click on the link that says “Join the HTML5 Beta”
HTML5 in Vimeo is just as simple. Whenever you are viewing a video, click on the link at the bottom right hand corner of the screen that says, “Switch to HTML5 player” as seen in the image below. Enjoy your crisp, no wait-time video that doesn’t bog down your computer.
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Shortly after the release of Snow Leopard, some users have reported a problem where the keyboard stops working after switching spaces. While the mouse remains responsive, the keyboard becomes dysfunctional for any key input, possibly except for the keyboard shortcut to switch spaces again. In many instances, the space selection “window” seen to right refuses to disappear and stays on top of other windows, though this is not always the case. Cnet has documented this issue before:
This problem seems to happen only when people use keyboard shortcuts to select a specific Space, rather than when activating the Spaces grid view. The Spaces indicator will activate and then seem to remain as the foremost process, not quitting or allowing other applications to use the keyboard.
Spaces is integrated into the Dock; therefore, if this problem occurs, you can regain control of your keyboard by force-quitting the Dock. Since the mouse should be working, you can navigate to the Utilities folder and open “Activity Monitor.” From here, highlight the Dock process and click the “Quit” button, which should make the dock disappear and reappear, releasing the hold on the keyboard.
In case you didn’t click on the article link, that article was posted over three months ago; the lack of attention to this problem from Apple is getting somewhat annoying. Some users have reported that if you use an external keyboard, unplugging it and plugging it back in will fix the problem. But for us MacBook owners, force-quitting the Dock is the only workaround.
Instead of navigating to the Activity Monitor, I’ve compiled an Automator script to force-quit the Dock for you. Just keep it on your desktop (or in your Dock) to relaunch the Dock and fix the Spaces issue whenever you need it.
Click here to download.
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Still haven’t upgraded to Snow Leopard? What about trying the next best thing and making it look like you’ve upgraded? While there’s no reason not to upgrade given Snow Leopard’s low price, if you’ve still haven’t gotten around to upgrading yet, you can experience what it’s like to at least pretend you’re on a Snow Leopard machine by using its wallpaper. Download link after the bump.
To save an image in full resolution (2560×1600):
- Click on the image,
- Right click,
- Save image as…
Read the rest of this entry »
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Also compatible with Snow Leopard!
SmackBook was originally a name given to the method used to switch between virtual desktops in Richard Wareham’s Desktop Manager using the MacBook’s built-in motion sensor. You would “smack” the MacBook on the side, and the sensor would read the movement and trigger the program to go to the desktop corresponding to the direction of the smack. Leopard’s spaces has made Desktop Manager nearly obsolete, but thanks to Jason Shen we can once again use it for SmackBook thanks to a script he’s written.
First you will need to download a few files:
- smackleopard.command, the file that contains the sensitivity information and calls for the system event to switch spaces, and
- AMSTracker, the command-line program that retrieves acceleration data from the Sudden Motion Sensor
Read the rest of this entry »
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Rather than having a single Print Screen key to copy the entire desktop to the clipboard like in Windows, OS X has a series of key combinations that you can use to perform various screenshotting tasks.
- Command + Shift + 3: Takes a screenshot and saves it on the desktop
- Command + Shift + 4: Allows you to select a portion of the screen and saves it on the desktop
- Command + Shift + 4, then space bar: Allows you to select a window and saves it on the desktop
- Command + Control + Shift + 3: Takes a screenshot and saves it on the clipboard
- Command + Control + Shift + 4: Select a portion of the screen and saves it on the clipboard
- Command + Control + Shift + 4, then space bar: Select a window and saves it on the clipboard
Aside from using those key combinations, OS X has its own utility for taking screenshots called Grab. It supports several features like timed capture and the ability to change the pointer type when taking the screenshot. The application is located at /Applications/Utilities/Grab.
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After purchasing your Mac you may notice some components of the OS missing, as did I. This may be because of a faulty Leopard installation on the Mac that didn’t install all the applications or utilities. The easiest way to restore them is to do an Archive and Install. This is similar to doing a repair installation on Windows; it installs a new copy of Mac OS X whilst giving you the option to preserve your settings.
The following explains how to do an Archive and Install:
- Insert Disc 1 of your Mac OS X install disc into your computer (it should have come with your Mac).
- Restart your Mac (Apple menu > Restart…).
- As your Mac is booting, hold down the C key on your keyboard. This forces OS X to boot from the disc.
- Once the disc has booted, select your language of preference and continue.
- After accepting the license agreement, select the destination disk OS X is installed on and click on the Options button.
- Make sure the Archive and Install radio button is selected, and preferably the Preserve Users and Network Settings checkbox as well. This will import existing user accounts, their home folders, and your network settings into the new system.
- Accept the settings and click on continue to complete the installation.
Once the installation is complete, there will be a new folder on the Macintosh HD entitled Previous Systems, which contains existing system files before the Archive and install. This folder can be deleted if unneeded as it just takes disk space.
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Being a long time Windows user, I was quite unfamiliar with the new interface and so read the Switch 101 guide on Apple’s support page. Once I had orientated myself with the UI, the next step I thought of doing was acquiring all the programs I used on Windows, or at least their Mac counterparts.
A short list of commonly used programs on Windows followed by their Mac substitutes and a brief explanation: Read the rest of this entry »
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