Ask TUAW: Menubar output source, resizing a Boot Camp partition, Mac DVR and more

This time in Ask TUAW we'll be looking at questions about changing our sound output source in the menubar, changing file permissions, resizing a Boot Camp partition, tiling windows and more.

As always your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. And now, on to the questions!

vulgo asks.

Is there any way to add a "open sound system preferences" button to quickly switch between the sound output devices just by pressing the speaker icon in the menubar instead of going the longer way to system preferences? I often switch between my Soundsticks and headphones and wonder why this button for system prefs is missing in the pulldown menu of the speaker icon. In the menubar there are also the icons for screens and network and energy and there is always a button that brings up the preferences with one click.

There are a couple of different little programs that will help you do what you want. Your best bet is perhaps PTHVolume 2 which you can use to replace the default menubar icon (turn it off in the Sounds Pref Pane). It will allow to both switch outputs and adjust their volume. An alternative is SoundSource from Rogue Amoeba. but it does not offer volume adjustment.

Rainer asks

I recently moved all of my files from my old PC to my Mac Mini. For some reason, the majority of the folders I moved over are locked, even though they and their contents are accessible. The little lock symbols over the folder icons are bothering me. Is there some way to mass-unlock all of my folders, as opposed to individually command-i and unchecking the lock for each folder?

Well perhaps it will help if you use the "Apply to enclosed items" in the dropdown gear menu at the bottom of the Get Info inspector. If you do this to a folder containing all the files you've transferred over it should change them all.

jadedcritic asks

DVR-ish sort of question. Essentially, it's making less sense to me to wait for Cupertino to make the A-TV DVR capable, and more sense to just look at what's already out there. What reading/clicky-clicky I've been doing suggests that Elgato and EyeTV are really what I need to be looking at. As a precaution though, I like to ask around, solicit advice. Is EyeTV a good option? are there better ones out there?

While some other companies are starting to get into the market on the Mac, Elgato and their EyeTV application is far and away the most mature Mac solution. If you want to do DVR type stuff on the mac then that's probably where you want to turn.

Nassim asks

Can I increase the size of a BootCamp partition after I have everything already installed, without loosing my info?

I've never done this myself, but I found these instructions which seems right to me (same basic idea here and here). Basically what you want to do is image your Windows install with something like Winclone, then repartition your hard drive using the Boot Camp Assistant (which involves deleting your present Boot Camp partition then starting over). Finally, restore your Winclone image to the new, larger partition. Now before you do anything make sure you have up-to-date backups of everything on your disk that you can restore if something goes wrong.

Seamonkeas asks

I've switched from pc to mac about 4 years and there is one thing that macs don't do that p.c. s do. It has to do with windows managment. Is there any 3rd party application that will tile your open windows vertically, or horizontally. I do alot of draggin and dropping and i hate to have to resize the windows manually.

Well basically I think Exposé is supposed to deal with this problem on the Mac. I did find this AppleScript that will apparently tile all the windows in the front application, but frankly it seems a lot easier just to hit F9.

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brennan

Is there any way to keep folder aliases in the sidebar from disappearing if the external drive they are pointing to are unmounted? I work off of an external drive, and anytime I restart / move my laptop, I lose any aliases in the sidebar.
Thanks,
Brennan

February 27 2008 at 1:03 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

NeilS

Hi - I've got a question for next time!

I can burn DVDs of TV content from my standalone hard-disk-recorder, and I'd like to get that content onto my iPhone (and hopefully, soon, Apple TV.)

I'm aware of HandBrake, but the problem is that I record several shows to one DVD, and my DVD recorder will only stamp chapter breaks every 10 minutes - so they don't match up with the start of the shows. HandBrake only allows me to rip from chapter X to Y - which isn't fine enough control - and I'm doing it blind, because I don't know at which chapters the programs start/end ...

So, do you know of a solution that lets me rip a DVD to many MP4s (with, hopefully, a nice gui to allow me to rip from [there] to [there] and [there] to [there] etc.) - or alternatively, a solution to chop up the MP4 after I've created it with HandBrake?

Many thanks!
NeilS

February 26 2008 at 10:33 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ehm_jay29

Heres one for you (or anyone really)

I'm really glad that Super Duper has been updated for leopard, and am even more excited that the clones can be stored alongside my time machine backups...

...having said that: how the heck do I do it? there is no mention of how to do so on their site, nor in the documentation.

please help TUAW! I really would love to have a nice weekly clone stored alongside my time machine drive.

February 25 2008 at 1:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Nylon32

Something I've been trying to do for a while now is to find a way of only running certain applications when Connected to the mains power supply when using my MacBook (Running an up-to-date version of leopard), I know it sounds like an odd request but it would be nice to only have Bluetooth activated and BluePhoneElite running when I'm at home and battery life isn't such an issue. I've so far not come across an application offering this functionality and unfortunately I'm a novice when it comes to AppleScript. Any help, If its even possible to make applications running dependant on power status, would be greatly appreciated!

February 24 2008 at 6:42 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Is it possible to take a screen shot while in Front Row? I've tried Grab & Skitch with no success. An article from Macworld 2005 suggests using a second mac to execute a command line screencapture over a network. Bwah?!?

February 23 2008 at 4:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Phil

Question for next week:
I would like to know if it is possible to access my external hard drive from the internet. I have an AirPort extreme and can hook up the drive to it.

February 22 2008 at 9:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

hafiz

I've never used AppleScript before, but was wondering if there was one that would make my isight camera automatically take a picture (preferably with a couple seconds delay[to make sure the screen is properly adjusted] & without the shutter sound) every time the lid is opened.

Appreciate the help.

February 22 2008 at 5:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Drew Gandy

So I use mail.app in leopard 10.5.2. A person I receive emails from weekly was just upgraded to the latest version of outlook on the web (not sure of the official title). In each of these emails i receive several attachments. All of the attachments came through great, even after upgrading to leopard. However, all of a sudden instead of seeing 6 attachments I see winmail.dat which i understand is the Outlook file format. I thought the issue was w/ her outlook, but gmail is able to read her emails fine. Any suggestions? Could 10.5.2 have broken mail.app?

Thanks,
Drew

February 22 2008 at 3:03 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

leviar

Hi, I had a question regarding synchronizing bookmarks. I often use Safari for both my Mac partition and my Boot Camp partition. Are there any programs that can synchronize bookmarks between Safari 3.0 for the Mac and Safari for Windows?

I know there delicious has been a solution for synchronizing between Firefox 2.0 on the Mac and Windows, but I haven't quite found a solution for Safari. While I ordinarily wouldn't mind using Safari on the Mac and Firefox on Windows, I can't seen to synchronize the bookmarks there either. The only delicious plug in I found for Safari doesn't allow for the user to open all bookmarks in a tag as tabs in the browser. For me this is a must have feature.

Up until now, every so often I just have Safari save my bookmarks to my Boot Camp partition, and then I load Safari in Windows and import the bookmarks. Then I have to replace the bookmarks bar and menu. Is there any way to solve my bookmark syncing woes without resorting to this?

February 22 2008 at 6:02 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Daniel Johnsin

Ask TUAW:

Could you recommend a good (privacy issues & price) IP based Fax solution for Mac OS X?

I need to send faxes regularly and have the newer Intel-based iMac's that lack modems, and I need to find a good internet-based fax solution that's both confidential (not going to SPAM or sell my info) and at a reasonable price.

Thanks

February 21 2008 at 11:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply