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See Free Stuff in iTunes 7's Store

Wed, 9 Jan 2008 16:19:00 -0600

One of the things that apparently disappeared with the iTunes 7 upgrade was the one-page view of all the free stuff in the iTunes Store. At least, if you have an account on the store and you're usually logged in, it seemingly vanished. In its place is the "beta" Just For You section, listing items you may find of interest, based on prior purchases. To find the free stuff, you apparently have to keep an eyeball on the individual promotional tile graphics, looking for the Free tag.

Well, it turns out that the free stuff page isn't missing -- as anyone who browses the store while not logged in will attest. Right at the bottom of the store page, non-logged-in users will see a FREE ON iTunes section, complete with a See All link, showing all the free stuff on one page. If you're an active buyer, however, logging out to see the free stuff and then back in to purchase anything is a bit of a pain, to say the least. Thankfully, there are at least two solutions to this problem.

The first solution, assuming you're logged in, is to click the Turn Just For You Off button, which you'll find at the very bottom of the store's main page. With that section disabled, the FREE ON iTunes area will show up in its place.

But what if you want to keep Just For You, but would still like to access the free stuff page? You'll want to copy and paste the See All link from the FREE ON iTunes section to a useful location -- like the dock. Start by logging out (or disabling Just For You), so that the FREE ON iTunes section shows up. You could then simply drag the See All link to the right side of your Dock--it will turn into a URL placeholder (the "@-spring" icon), which will then load the free stuff page when clicked. Well, almost. Since the URL starts with http://, it will actually load your browser first, which will then transfer you to the free stuff page in the iTunes Store. Not exactly ideal.

So instead of dragging and dropping the URL, control-click on it and choose Copy iTunes Store URL from the pop-up menu. Now switch to TextEdit, and paste the URL into a new document. You should see this line: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewRoom?fcId=188575544

Edit that line, replacing http with itms, so that the line now looks like this: itms://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewRoom?fcId=188575544

Finally, select that entire line, click and hold the mouse button over the selection, wait a second or so with the button pressed, and then drag the selection to a spot on your hard drive -- your Desktop is the easiest spot (for now). Then release the mouse button. You've just created a text clipping, a little snippet of text that looks like most any other file on your Desktop. This one will be named phobos.apple.com/, though you can rename it as you would any other file. (I named mine "Free iTunes Stuff.") Now move the file to a safe location on your drive, just so you don't have to look at it on your Desktop all day. After renaming and moving the file, drag and drop it from that location to the right side of your dock -- the file is just a document, so it will drop there just like any other document or folder. Now whenever you want to see the latest free stuff on the Store, just click once on that icon in the dock, and you'll jump right to the free stuff page in the Store.

How to Make Safari Smarter and Faster

Thu, 3 Jan 2008 19:50:12 -0600

Here are some of my tips on how to make Safari smarter and faster.

Bookmarks:

First, many people have noticed that Safari has no way of sorting bookmarks alphabetically. Here is a neat way to do it if you are using Tiger or Leopard.

Sort Safari’s Bookmarks

If you are running OS X prior to Tiger, you can download the freeware SafariSorter.

SafariSorter

Plugins:

Download and install the latest versions of Adobe Flash and Shockwave. (It doesn’t say so, but Flash 9 only will work in Safari after a restart of your Mac.)

Adobe Flash and Shockwave

To be able to see more news videos within your Safari browser get the free Flip4Mac Player. The Pro version costs $29 but the free version works great.
Flip4Mac

SafariPlus is a plug-in for Safari that lets you manage cookies as well as block Flash ads and stop GIF animations. Deleting all the cookies deletes some that are handy when revisiting a site that requires log in info that is worthwhile saving. Sorting through all the cookies and selecting which ones to delete after a month of heavy surfing can be a drag. The handy freeware app SafariPlus is very good and allows you to quickly manage your Safari cookies.
Unlike other plugins, SafariPlus lets you take control of your web browsing experience without having to worry about complicated filtering rules and esoteric settings. SafariPlus is small and simple. Best of all, it's free.
SafariPlus

Searching? Search a lot more! Acid Search is another freeware install for Safari. Acid Search converts the Google search window in Safari to a host of other search engine choices. The cool feature of Acid Search is that you can create site specific additional search engines that can be added to the drop down menu.
Acid Search

Now for the BIG one: SafariSpeed. SafariSpeed is the only one of my suggestions that is Shareware but for the low price of $8, users gain a big time difference with speed alone. The other features are just the icing on the Safari cake.
SafariSpeed

Don’t Know What a Word Means? Tiger & Leopard Do!

Thu, 3 Jan 2008 19:43:00 -0600

Let's say you're on a web page and you run across a word you don't understand (for example, let's say you're on a website and you see a word like "original" or "general"). Just double-click to highlight the word in question and then press Command-Control-D (or Control-click on it and choose Look Up in Dictionary). A tiny panel will appear showing the definition (or Control-click and it will launch an electronic version of the Oxford Dictionary, which comes with Mac OS X Tiger or Leopard). Either way, within seconds the definition will appear onscreen

What the Heck is RSS?

Thu, 3 Jan 2008 19:35:14 -0600

Once you have subscribed to an RSS feed, here's what happens (in hopefully plain English with analogies :) )

Think of the 'net like a bunch of newspapers. You have your favorites. Some papers you even subscribe to. But MAN, ain't that a lot of reading every morning? All that news, all them sports, the entertainment stuff, local and national info etc etc etc. I mean really, there's only some things that interest you, right? And some writers that you really like. So, you subscribe to your favorite newspaper, it gets delivered with an extra 'cover page'. This cover page is personally designed by you and for you. You have instructed your local paper that you want a quick summary of the following, each item being 20 words or less, a a setting you also have determined. I, your neighbor, have picked different topics and have asked for a 100 word summary:
• New movies playing at the nearby theatre with a review by your favorite movie reviewer
• A summary of Glenn Beck's most recent CNN show
• A summary of the weekly automotive review of whatever car is new
• The local 'hot head journalist's' latest rant
• and whatever else interests YOU specifically.

The idea being that this 'cover page' gives you a quick, at a glance summary of those topics/people/news items of interest to YOU specifically. If one or more catches your eye, the whole article is at your fingertips. In the case of the RSS feed, simply by clicking for 'More'

Make sense? Maybe?

David Pogue Reviews iPhone

Thu, 3 Jan 2008 19:22:19 -0600

David Pogue of the New York Times and editor of the Missing manual series gets his hands on and reviews the iPhone. See the video at:

some-hands-on-time-with-the-iphone

Find The Ultimate iPhone Frequently Asked Questions at:

the-ultimate-iphone-frequently-asked-questions

Apple Product Tutorials

Thu, 3 Jan 2008 19:19:14 -0600

From here, jump right into Apple product tutorials for both new users or old pros!

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304971

OBERIN Free “Mac Only” Online Game

Tue, 1 Jan 2008 21:56:40 -0600

Want to try online gaming and not ready to spend $20-30 a month? How about free? Oberin is an online fantasy role-playing game and virtual community, available exclusively for Macintosh. Oberin takes place in a persistent, ever evolving world -- your character may come and go, but the world continuously runs.

While there are many separate quests that can be completed in Oberin, there is no ultimate goal when playing. The journey is the reward. It's an online fantasy world where the fun comes from interacting with other real players. You can join a group of fellow players to hunt for dragons, spend a quiet day fishing, meet a friend at the pub for a game of chess, or spend some time refining your chosen skills.

Check it out at:

http://www.oberin.com

My character is “Gandalfo”. Look me up and say hi!

Apple Inc. Reinvents the Phone with the New iPhone

Tue, 1 Jan 2008 21:28:29 -0600

Steve Jobs introduced Apple’s new iPhone at the keynote speech for MacWorld Expo in San Francisco — combining three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, searching, and maps — into one small and lightweight handheld device. Cingular, the largest wireless carrier in the U.S., will be Apple’s exclusive U.S. carrier partner for Apple’s revolutionary iPhone.

Get the details here:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/

Watch the keynote address and iPhone introduction here:
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/j47d52oo/event/

Austin Mac Repair

Tue, 1 Jan 2008 16:36:02 -0600

Looking for a friendly, efficient and dependable Apple Macintosh repair shop in the Austin, Texas area? For many years I have recommended “Austin Mac Repair” to all my clients. You can visit their web site here:

http://www.austinmacrepair.com

(I designed their web site)