This week on Ask TUAW: We're a (holi)day late and a blogger short, so I'm filling in this week while Mat's on vacation; next week Chris Ullrich takes the hot seat. We welcome all your questions, even though we can't respond to all of them directly... but the good news is that the submission process offers an opportunity for help from the community: just submit questions for next week as comments to this week's post, and perhaps one of your fellow readers will help solve your problem in short order.This week, we're talking iPhones and USB, clean OS installs, tab shortcuts for dialog boxes, and more. Click ahead for the Qs and the As.Brian asks:
I have a Mac powerbook G4 12" 800mhz. It has Firewire and USB 1.0. How can I sync a iPhone to this computer?
Apparently you can sync it just fine, albeit more slowly than you might like. iTunes will throw a warning to tell you that the iPhone sync will go faster on a USB 2.0 port, but everything should get there eventually. I believe this behavior has been mentioned on a TUAW comment thread but I can't track it down at the moment. Check out this AppleInsider thread for more details. In your case, since the official specs for the iPhone do require a USB 2.0 port, I'd strongly suggest hauling your laptop down to the Apple or AT&T store and verifying that you can sync with a demo unit before shelling out your $500. Also, don't forget to update to 10.4.10 and iTunes 7.3 first.
Alan wonders:
When I buy my new copy of Leopard, will I have to do a clean install? Or will the disk be able to do an upgrade on my existing Leopard install? I'd hate to have to backup all of my stuff (and most likely lose something).
If you're currently running a Leopard beta, that means you're a registered developer, right? And as a registered developer, you would certainly know better than to run beta software on your production system, right? And if you were living dangerously, you'd have a solid backup solution in place, right? RIGHT?
For anyone running a prerelease Leopard build, I would at least consider doing a clean installation when the golden master version is available in October, to clean out any unmanaged beta cruft and stray bits. If you meant to say "my existing Tiger install" then you should be fine installing Leopard over Tiger; however, we always recommend backing up your machine before you do major OS replacement surgery. As a workaround to a backup and restore, you can also try Apple's Migration Assistant tool to move from you old configuration to your new.
Travis wants to know:
I have a bad habit from the years I was a Windows user. [Isn't Windows use, itself, a bad habit? -Ed.] I assume programs like Mail will automatically capitalize the begining of sentences and the word "i" as well. Is there a way to get Mail to do this automatically?
Travis, I'll confess that I'm an Entourage user and that Mail.app has languished on my machine -- and, for all its drawbacks, Entourage does have pretty flexible autocomplete tools. For your purposes in Mail, the functionality would probably be best achieved by a third-party text munging tool such as Textexpander, Typeit4Me or Spellcatcher. If you try any of these let us know if they work out for you.
Matt is curious:
When you save or close a document and that dialog box comes up asking if you want to Save, Don't Save, or Cancel...Is there a way to tab over to Don't Save or Cancel so that you can hit enter on those...or does enter only work on Save?
There surely is a way to hit those non-default buttons, but it doesn't involve using Enter or Return. To switch between the buttons, hit the Tab key (you'll see which button is highlighted via a light blue halo like the one around "Don't Save" on the right) and then hit the Space bar to select the button. Don't feel bad for not realizing that Space triggers the button, I had to look it up myself. If you want to directly choose Don't Save or Cancel, you can also use the handy one-step commands: ⌘-D for Don't Save, and ⌘-C (or ⌘-.) for Cancel.Aaron wonders:
I have a long ongoing quest I've had trying to find a good mp3 (id3 really) tagging program. I used The Godfather back on windows and it was *really* powerful with a somewhat steep learning curve. I played around with MusicBrainz on OS X but it didn't really do it for me. And forget about tagging stuff in iTunes; That's not where I keep my library so import/tag/export is just a pain. What tagging programs do people here in Macland use?
Back in the day, I was a big fan of MP3 Rage for tagging music files; it could straighten out my artist mismatches and funky tags with ease. The product has since evolved into Media Rage, which is available for $30 and can tackle most tag editing challenges. There are plenty of other tools you could check out as well.
That's it for this holiday edition of Ask TUAW! Keep those questions coming and we'll see you in seven. Well, in six.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
7-05-2007 @ 10:47AM
aashish13 said...
He didn't even answer Allan's question. Did he even understand it? WTH.
Thanks for the tip of the save dialog though. Didn't know about the spacebar.
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7-05-2007 @ 11:07AM
artifex said...
How can he know beyond what he said? Seemed like a good answer to me. Unless you think he has a hardware time machine, not just software? :)
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7-05-2007 @ 11:16AM
John Hopper said...
For Matt's Question, you need Full Keyboard Access set to "All Controls" in the keyboard prefpane for that to work.
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7-05-2007 @ 11:41AM
bibi-pov said...
Hey, I know that sounds like a silly question, but how do you ask questions to the mighty tuaw? The comments? a secret, hidden, email address? telepathy?
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7-05-2007 @ 11:44AM
Brent said...
Anyone know if there's a way to get the iPhone to keep alerting you that you have a new voicemail/text msg? The thing I don't like is since the screen goes blank, if you are away from your phone for a little bit and miss a call and the initial voice mail alert, the only way to know that you have a new voice mail waiting for you is to turn on the phone and look. It would be nice if it sent out an alert every couple minutes. It's pretty annoying to have to turn it on after I walk away from it every time.
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7-05-2007 @ 12:05PM
Danny said...
@4 - for this thread Michael explicitly invited questions to be posted to the comments. But in general, use the links for this purpose. They are hidden away a bit. If you search the page for 'Send us new tips' you'll find a little cluster of links, under the head RESOURCES that are the gateway to reaching the TUAW directly. Or use the URL: www.tuaw.com/contact/comments/
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7-05-2007 @ 12:40PM
Aaron Davies said...
get id3v2 and write shell scripts. can't get much more flexible than that.
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7-05-2007 @ 1:57PM
babbington said...
I'm not a big fan of Media Rage. It's clunky interface will be a disappointment to most users who are used to the PC alternatives, like "The Godfather" and "Tag & Rename". There's really no Mac alternative that's in the same league as these progs - but check out my blog - http://mactags.blogspot.com/ to see other programs that are available.
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7-05-2007 @ 2:21PM
Andrew said...
Here's a question for next week. I've been puzzling over it for a while.
I have a PowerBook G4 hooked up to a stereo system that has no remote control. Is there some product that will allow the PowerBook to control the power to the stereo's preamplifier and two amplifiers? This would be something like a USB-controlled power strip that I could use to switch on and off power to the stereo components.
I have looked at the Insteon "PowerLinc," but it is expensive, not well supported on Mac (or so it seems), and would require an $80 piece of software in addition. There's got to be something else, right?
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7-05-2007 @ 2:26PM
Maggie said...
Here's a question for next week. I have a macbook and I accidentially downloaded an firmware update that I don't need (the superdrive update 2.1 to be exact). Now every time I turn on my computer I get a message saying that no updatable divices were found, and when I close it my dvd player opens. It's not the end of the world, but it is a bit annoying. Do you know how to delete the update? I searched the apple support page with no luck.
Maggie
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7-05-2007 @ 3:11PM
macman said...
I too have a Powerbook G4 (500mhz) and bought the iPhone without even thinking about not having USB 2.0. However, it does sync and charge from the old USB 1.0 ports. It's not the fastest option, but it does work.
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7-05-2007 @ 3:15PM
Noel said...
Am I missing something here? What did Alan's question have to do with Leopard Beta? Was part of his question not included?
-N
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7-05-2007 @ 3:30PM
Michael Rose said...
#4 -- bibi, for all the Ask TUAW series of posts, we scan the comments from the previous week to come up with the list of questions for the following week. This is the ONLY way we take questions for Ask TUAW -- sending notes via our tip or comment pages will not work. (For reference, those URLs are below)
#13 -- Noel, Alan's question was a little unclear and I thought about contacting him before answering it, but I ran short on time. He implied that he is actually running Leopard *now* which would mean he has the developer beta. Under those conditions, a clean reinstall (or, in a pinch, a Migration Assistant transfer) is the best plan for when the release version comes along.
http://www.tuaw.com/contact/comments/
http://www.tuaw.com/tips/
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7-05-2007 @ 3:57PM
Pete said...
I also have a question for next week. My iTunes library (about 200 Gb) is on my iMac which is not always switched on. As this is my main computer I would like to keep it here. However, my Mac Mini *is* always on and sometimes it would be more convenient to stream music from there. Is there any way of keeping an exact mirror on the Mini that automatically updates when I change the library on the iMac? All my music (bar one track) is DRM-free as it has been ripped from my CD collection, and I have a large enough external drive attached to the Mini to store it, so neither of those points are obstacles.
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7-05-2007 @ 5:01PM
Smivey said...
I would just add that although I don't have an iPhone, I would assume that iPhone won't charge using just the USB 1.0 port. I'd make sure the power adapter is attached to the dock. No?
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7-05-2007 @ 5:35PM
Diddle said...
@babbington: Great collection on your site! Thanks for sharing! I'm a Windows convert and I use Tag&Rename and LOVE IT but I've yet to find anything which does it for me on Mac. I'll have to peruse your list.
Currently I'm trying MusOrg (because it's simple and free), I still do most of my music management on my PC in T&R.
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7-05-2007 @ 6:54PM
josh said...
hi i have a potentially obvious question. Can you use Migration Assitant from a backup on an external HDD? Or does the migration have to come from a "real" computer? I am thinking that migration assistant requires firewire target mode on the mac, is this the same as using an actual firewire HDD? I just thought about this after reading Alan's upgrade question above, and was considering the possibility of doing a clean install of leopard (once its released) and then migrating my old account from a backup so that i can still get at all my apps from tiger... thanks/cheers
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7-05-2007 @ 10:58PM
Michael Rose said...
#10 -- Maggie, check your login items under System Preferences --> Accounts. The updater is probably there and can be removed from the list.
#17 -- Josh, as long as the backup is a bootable clone (like those produced by Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper) then you may use Migration Assistant to pull data from it. A backup made via a Finder copy or other file-at-a-time method will not work.
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7-06-2007 @ 8:27AM
frank said...
Contrary to what has been reported, my iPhone does not work with my 12-inch PowerBook G4's USB port. It charges but cannot be detected by the iTunes. I'm forced to sync it with my PC. :(
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7-06-2007 @ 11:09AM
Jeffrey Bergier said...
Here is a question for Tuaw. I am having the darndest time finding any benchmarks for Windows Vista gaming in Boot Camp on any Mac. Specifically I am looking for a Core2 iMac. Is there someone that has one of those? Can they run 3d Mark 05 or later and see what kind of score it is pumping out. And what kind of frame rates does it get with Half Life 2 and Doom 3 and C&C Tiberium Wars? Anyone's input is appreciated.
Jeff
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