Back in December 2008, I came up with an "interesting" solution to iOS's annoying habit of "correcting" the word that I wanted with the word that it thought I wanted. The problem was colloquially known as the "Ducking iPhone" for reasons you are probably smart enough to figure out on your own. (If you're confused, here's the PG-13 version, or, for the more sensitive types, TUAW also has a PG-rated version.)

The solution was simple: Create a new contact in your iOS address book, using the word you want iOS to learn as the first or last name. The good news is iOS is much better about learning words (tap the 'x' which appears when the auto-correct option appears), but a Twitter search of 'ducking iPhone' shows that many people are still running into this problem.

If you would rather not add contacts to your address book, there is another option now which did not exist in 2008. On your iOS device, go to Settings » General » Keyboard » Shortcuts. Tap the + on the top right to create a new shortcut, and then enter the word that you want iOS to learn in the "Phrase" field. You can leave the "Shortcut" field blank. Tap 'Save' and enjoy your freedom to use whichever words you want.

However, having done (admittedly limited) tests using both systems of adding words to iOS, I still think the Contacts solution is the better one. I have noticed that when words are entered into my iOS Contacts list, iOS will use them as autocorrect suggestions when I start typing. Sometimes iOS will even suggest autocorrections based on "names" from the Contacts list, but does not seem to do that for the Shortcuts. Siri and iOS' dictation will also use your Contacts for matching spoken words.

So if you have a favorite word that iOS doesn't recognize, whether it's one of the 7 words you can't say on television or some obscure idiom of your own choosing, you can keep iOS out of your ducking way.

"Ducking iPhone" Revisited: two ways to improve iOS auto-correct feature originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I consider myself fairly savvy when it comes to Dropbox, but I learned a new tip from Mac OS X Hints.

If you get "Permission Denied" errors, you can try to "Fix Permissions" in Dropbox. This is not repairing disk permissions in Disk Utility, it's within the Dropbox app itself.

To get to it, open Dropbox preferences, then click "Account" and you'll see this:

Make sure that "Unlink This Computer" is highlighted (if it isn't, press Tab until it is).

Hold down the alt/option key and it will change to this:

I assume this is a new feature in Dropbox version 2.

If you're not reading Mac OS X Hints already, you really should start.

Dropbox has a new "Fix Permissions" feature originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

One of my favorite features of Dropbox is 'versioning,' which keeps a copy of every change that you make. Every time you press 'save' on a document that's in your Dropbox, a new version is saved.

There are two things I have been wondering about versioning:

1. What happens to changes that you make while offline?

2. What happens to changes when the file is renamed or overwritten?

I finally did some quick tests of this, and the answers are pretty straight-forward:

Offline changes will not be versioned. Any changes made to a file while the computer is offline are not versioned on Dropbox.com. The only version that will be saved is the one which is active when you reconnect. So avoid making changes offline if you want to be able to use Dropbox versioning to "undo" a change (or use something like ForeverSave or version control system like git).

n.b. The ForeverSave app has not been updated since 2011, so decide for yourself whether that is an investment you want to make. I haven't tried it or contacted the developer to see if it is still under active development.

Versions are saved by path + file not by the actual file itself. To explain what this means, let's look at an example.

Imagine you have a folder called "/Dropbox/Working" where you store things that you are currently working on, and another folder called "/Dropbox/Done/" where you put them when you are finished with them.

Next, create a file called "favorites.txt" in "/Dropbox/Working/" and put a list of your favorite colors in it, saving after each line. So it might look like this:

1. Red {press save}

2. Yellow {press save}

3. Blue {press save}

If you go to https://www.dropbox.com/home/Working and select "favorites.txt" and "Previous Versions" you will see three versions. But then you decide that really you like Green instead of Yellow, and Blue more than Red, so you change the file to look this this:

1. Blue

2. Green

3. Red

and save it again. Then you decide to move 'favorites.txt' to "/Dropbox/Done/" because you are satisfied with your choices. If you go to https://www.dropbox.com/home/Done, select the file 'favorites.txt' and select 'Previous Versions' you will find there aren't any.

If you want to see your previous versions, you have to go to https://www.dropbox.com/home/Working and select "Show deleted files" (or go to https://www.dropbox.com/home/Working?d=1 which will show the deleted files automatically). Then you can select the 'favorites.txt' file and see previous versions.

Now imagine that you decide to create a new file called "Favorite Days.txt":

1. December 25th

2. June 17th

3. May 28th

and you save it after the 3rd entry.

As you look at the list, you decide that you really want it to be chronological, so you change it:

1. May 28th

2. June 17th

3. December 25th

and save it again. Then you decide that you no longer need the list of your favorite colors, so you delete "favorites.txt" and rename "Favorite Days.txt" to "Favorites.txt"

If you go to Dropbox.com and look at the "Previous versions" for "Favorites.txt" what you will see is your current "Favorites.txt" version, but if you click on one of the older versions, you will see a list of favorite colors not favorite days.

(Note that while Dropbox preserves UPPERCASE and lowercase letters in filenames, Dropbox is not case sensitive. As far as Dropbox is concerned, "Favorites.txt" and "favorites.txt" and "FAVORITES.txt" are all the same file if they were all in the same directory.)

Lastly, if you move or rename a folder, such as changing "/Dropbox/Done/" to "/Dropbox/Completed/" all of the files in that folder will lose their version history. As far as Dropbox is concerned you have deleted the folder /Done/ and created a new folder /Completed/ with new files in it.

Knowing is half the battle.

Personally, I wish that Dropbox was smart enough to keep version history with a file regardless of name changes or being moved to different folders. That being said, I realize that it would add a level of complexity to the service that would not be easy to implement. The important thing is understanding how Dropbox works, and how to get back to previous versions if you want them.

I have been in the habit of saving files that I am currently working on to one folder, and then moving them to another folder when I am done with them. That makes it easier to find everything that is "in process" because I only have to look in one place. However, if I want to keep my Dropbox version history connected with the files, I am going to have to change that habit. (I'm probably going to start putting "@WORKING" in any file that I'm actively working on, and create a Spotlight saved search in Finder.)

One last word on versions: by default, Dropbox will save changes for 30 days, if you want more, you'll have to sign up for the Packrat feature.

A Quick Guide to Dropbox Versioning originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When you're in the middle of recording a podcast, chances are you'd like your Mac to be focused on that job -- not other network-hungry activities like syncing Dropbox, or CPU- and disk-intensive tasks like saving a Time Machine backup.

Gabe at Macdrifter wrote about his Pause TimeMachine Macro, which he uses when he starts using Skype. He adds that he knows there are other (potentially "better") ways to do this, but that his was just a fast-and-dirty solution.

Seeing Gabe's macros reminded me that I wanted something like this for when I am recording the Impolite Company podcast. Gabe's macro enables and disables Time Machine, but I also want to enable and disable CrashPlan and Dropbox.

Like Gabe, I have a tendency to forget to turn things back on, so I wanted to automate this as much as possible. Since I tend to only run Skype when I am actively recording a podcast, I decided to trigger my macros around the Skype.app either launching or quitting.

So I wrote two Keyboard Maestro macros: one for when Skype starts and one for when Skype quits.

Prepare For A Podcast

My first new Keyboard Maestro macro is called (wait for it) "Prepare For A Podcast". This is what it looks like in Keyboard Maestro:

Translation: In Keyboard Maestro's language, this is what the above means:

Whenever Skype launches, Keyboard Maestro will automatically do the following:

1) If a file exists at /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.crashplan.engine.plist (which is where CrashPlan's launchd file is stored) unload that file (which will disable CrashPlan) via AppleScript:

        do shell script "launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.crashplan.engine.plist" with administrator privileges 

n.b. "with administrator privileges" will prompt the user for their password. Also note that I am using Growl notifications to tell the user what is happening, especially when a password is being requested.

2) Likewise, disable Time Machine with another bit of AppleScript:

        do shell script "tmutil disable" with administrator privileges 

3) If Dropbox is running, quit it.

4) Open the "Sound" preference pane (which I want so I can make sure that my USB mic is configured properly for Skype).

Resume After A Podcast

What happens after a podcast is pretty much exactly the opposite:

Translation: This macro will be triggered automatically whenever Skype quits, and this is what it will do:

1) If the plist is found, load it into launchd:

        do shell script "launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.crashplan.engine.plist" with administrator privileges 

2) Resume Time Machine:

        do shell script "tmutil enable" with administrator privileges 

3) If Dropbox is not running, launch it via shell script:

        open -a Dropbox 

Download

As with Gabe's macros, I am sure that there are other (potentially better) ways to do this, but I hope that this might be useful to others. These macros assume that you don't generally leave Skype running for general use, but that you only launch it when it's podcast time.

To download my Keyboard Maestro macros, you can either check them out at Github or right (control) click on the links below:

• prepare-for-a-podcast.kmmacros
• resume-after-a-podcast.kmmacros

Use Keyboard Maestro to get ready for podcast recording originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Update 2013-04-11: Thanks to Felix Paul Kühne, lead developer of VLC for Mac, this feature has been added to VLC 2.0.6 without the need for the user to make any changes to the app. If you use that version, or later, you do not need to take the steps below.

The article below remains only for reference. -- TjL

Lately I have been ripping a bunch of DVDs using RipIt which has an option to save the rips as ".dvdmedia" files. For those who aren't familiar with ".dvdmedia" files, they are a special kind of folder, similar to ".app" or some ".pkg" files which aren't "files" but look and act like them. Inside of a .dvdmedia file is a VIDEO_TS folder as you'd expect from a DVD rip.

The good thing about .dvdmedia files is that you can double-click on them and have them open. The bad thing about them is that the only app that I had which recognized the .dvdmedia file extension was Apple's DVD Player.app. In particular, VLC does not recognize it as a valid format.

If you are a Mac "power user" you might think, "No problem, I'll just use the 'Open With...' menu and tell Finder to open .dvdmedia files with VLC. That will work." However, if you choose "Change All" to set all .dvdmedia files to open with VLC, not only will it not work, but it will make it so that .dvdmedia files are no longer shown as files at all! (If that happened to you, Tantek Çelik has the solution: use SetFile -a B /path/to/file.dvdmedia and it will undo the change.)

The good news is that you can very easily add .dvdmedia as a recognized extension to VLC. You just have to add the appropriate information to the file VLC.app/Contents/Info.plist. Specifically, you have to add this:

after the CFBundleDocumentTypes section. (Note: I found that via the VLC forums and tested that it worked for me in VLC version 2.0.5.)

If you'd rather not try to edit the file yourself, you can download my Info.plist file and replace the existing file in the app. To do so, download the file to your Desktop (or wherever you will easily be able to find it) and then locate the VLC.app. Make sure the app is not running, and then Control-Click on the app and choose "Show Package Contents" from the context menu.

Inside you will find a "Contents" folder. Open it and you will see a file named "Info.plist" which you can delete (rename to something like "Info.plist.original") and then drag the Info.plist file which you downloaded into the "Contents" folder.

After that you will need to log out and then log back in to see VLC offered as an option to open .dvdmedia files. Once it is set as a recognized app for .dvdmedia you can set it to "Change All" so that other .dvdmedia files you have or create in the future will also open with VLC. If you ever decide you don't want to use .dvdmedia anymore, simply rename the files and remove the extension, and it will immediately appear as a folder once again.

Caveat: Because you are replacing an app inside the VLC app wrapper, you may need to fix the Info.plist file again when VLC.app is updated. Hopefully VLC will eventually include this feature by default.

Alternative fix via Terminal.app

If you are comfortable with the command line, you can do all of the above much more easily. Again, be sure that VLC.app is not running before making this change.

(Note: I assume VLC.app is installed in /Applications/. If you have installed it somewhere else, change the "cd" line below.)

These four lines will: a) change directory to the correct folder, b) rename the existing "Info.plist" file to "Info.plist.original," c) download the new "Info.plist" file and d) register VLC as an application capable of opening .dvdmedia files:

Make sure that last command (which starts with /System/Library/) is all one long line. If you use that command, you don't have to log out and back in to open .dvdmedia files with VLC.

(Hat tip to Mac OSX Hints for that one!)

Play .dvdmedia files with VLC originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 26 Feb 2013 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Warning: command line geekiness ahead.

When writing shell scripts, I often send interactive output to the user via echo to give feedback or information. But if the shell script is called on a schedule via OS X's behind-the-scenes process launcher launchd, rather than from a Terminal session, chances are that I won't ever see that message.

Fortunately, it's relatively easy to figure out if a shell script has been called from launchd or not, simply by checking the $PPID variable. (Note: this works in zsh and may work in bash as well. If it doesn't work in your shell, this is a good time to upgrade to zsh.)

But how can I make sure my messages are seen if a shell script has been called via launchd? For that I use the Swiss Army Knife of notification tools, Growl. Specifically, I use the growlnotify optional package, which allows me to send Growl notifications from shell scripts.

For example, imagine that I wrote a script where I wanted to tell the user that a certain process had succeeded or failed. Normally I might just use

echo 'SUCCESS!'

or

echo 'FAILED!'

But now, instead of 'echo' I use a function called msg (short for 'message'). If the script was called from launchd then msg will use growlnotify, but if the script was called from the command line, it will just use echo. Here's how that works:

This method is not foolproof. For example, if you call a shell script from launchd and that shell script calls another shell script, it might not realize that it was originally executed from launchd. In practice, I have not run into that problem, but it did seem worth mentioning.

Terminally Geeky: How to tell if a script is being called from launchd originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I often find myself wishing that I could retrieve something that I had cut or copied earlier in the day, or maybe even longer ago than that. So I decided to make an archive of my pasteboard, and store it on Dropbox so I can easily retrieve something later.

There are lots of programs out there which will offer to save your pasteboard or do all sorts of complicated things with it. I was looking for something simple, and I found just what I wanted in Flycut, a free program based on an older app called Jumpcut which hasn't been updated since January 2009.

Configure Flycut

Flycut is available for free from the Mac App Store and requires OS X 10.6.6 or later. After downloading it, launch it and set the preferences as shown here:

You can set it to "Remember" anywhere from 10 to 99 entries, and display five to 99. Set those to whatever you like.

The most important part is to make sure that you choose "After each clip" for the "save" frequency. Everything else relies on that setting being correct.

Download and install a shell script

flycutmonitor.sh is a shell script which automatically saves your pasteboard to a file anytime the pasteboard changes.

Download it, make sure it is executable (chmod 755 flycutmonitor.sh) and move it to /usr/local/bin/flycutmonitor.sh.

By default, your clipboard will be saved to ~/Dropbox/TEMP/flycutmonitor.sh/. If you want to change that, edit the DIR= line in flycutmonitor.sh. The folder will be created if needed.

Also, if growlnotify is installed, the script will show the current clipboard via Growl whenever it changes. If you do not want Growl notifications, set GROWL=no in flycutmonitor.sh (look in the file, you'll see where to make the change).

Last but not least: launchd

1. Download com.tjluoma.flycutmonitor.plist and copy it to ~/Library/LaunchAgents/.

2. Edit the line which begins with /Users/luomat/Library/ and change luomat to whatever your username is on your Mac. (If you do not do this, nothing will work.)

3. run launchctl load com.tjluoma.flycutmonitor.plist or log out and then back in.

To test it, simply cut or copy some text

You should see a new file created in the folder that you specified, and a Growl notification should appear, unless Growl is not installed or disabled.

One final note: I do not recommend having Flycut save its settings to Dropbox, but if you do change that, be sure to change the appropriate line in the com.tjluoma.flycutmonitor.plist file from:

~/Library/Application Support/Flycut/com.generalarcade.flycut.plist

to

~/Dropbox/Preferences/com.generalarcade.flycut.plist

where ~ is the full path to your home directory. (Do not use a literal ~ in this case, it will not work.)

Archive your pasteboard using Flycut originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 21 Feb 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dropbox is a great tool, but if you use it on more than one computer, you are bound to find conflicted copies eventually. A conflicted copy is created when the same file is edited on two different computers at the same time, or close enough that Dropbox cannot tell which one is the newest.

The good news is that Dropbox creates these conflicted copies instead of trying to guess which file is the one that you want. The bad news is that if you don't notice that Dropbox has created a "conflicted copy, you might start using the wrong file. Unfortunately Dropbox does not alert you when a conflicted copy is created, you have to search for it yourself.

Here is an example of a conflicted file: Settings (TJ Luoma's conflicted copy 2013-01-09).textexpander As you can probably guess, the original filename is Settings.textexpander and Dropbox has added the words "conflicted copy" and the date in parentheses, as well as the username. (The username can be helpful if you find a conflict in a shared folder.)

Doing it is easy, remembering to do it is hard.

I've known that Dropbox creates these files for years, but do I ever remember to look for them? Nope. In fact, I don't even try to remember to look for them. Instead, I have a shell script which does that for me.

The shell script runs every five minutes via launchd, and if it finds any conflicts, it alerts me using Growl and growlnotify. It uses a "sticky" notification in Growl, which means that it will not go away until I click on it (but the notification also has a unique ID so only one notification will ever appear on-screen at any given time).

Installation

1. Download dropbox-launchd-conflicted-copy.sh to /usr/local/bin/ and make sure it's executable (chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/dropbox-launchd-conflicted-copy.sh).

2. Move com.tjluoma.check-for-dropbox-conflicted-copies.plist to ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ and then either 1) run this line in Terminal:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.tjluoma.check-for-dropbox-conflicted-copies.plist

or 2) log out and back in.

How do you find the conflicts once you know that they exist?

There are two options that you can use once you are alerted that there are conflicts in your Dropbox. The first is Spotlight, the second is dropbox-launchd-conflicted-copy.sh.

Option A) Use Spotlight. Create a search which looks for filenames that match "'s conflicted copy". Actually, you don't even have to make one; you can just download this one DropboxConflicted.savedSearch and move it to ~/Library/Saved Searches/. You might even want to add that to the Finder's sidebar.

Note: Once the Saved Search is there, you can even use it with mdfind in Terminal:

mdfind -s 'DropboxConflicted' -onlyin "$HOME/Dropbox"

Or, if you don't have a saved search, you can use Spotlight on the command line like this:

mdfind -name "'s conflicted copy" -onlyin ~/Dropbox

Option B) Use find. Call me an old crotchety Unix nerd (pause), but I still prefer the Unix find command instead of Spotlight. Asking Spotlight to look for something is like asking my 10 year old: if he comes back and says that he couldn't find it, I always wonder how hard he really looked. On the other hand:

find ~/Dropbox/ -path "*(*'s conflicted copy [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]*" -print

This always gives me reliable results, and it only takes a few seconds.

But wait, there's more! The dropbox-launchd-conflicted-copy.sh script is "context aware." When it runs via launchd it gives you the Growl notification shown above, but if it on the command line, it will present you with a list of all of the conflicted files that it found. Just launch Terminal.app, type dropbox-launchd-conflicted-copy.sh and press enter. If you don't have any conflicted files, it will say "No conflicts found" and you can rely on launchd to keep an eye on it in the future.

Finding Dropbox 'conflicted copy' files automatically originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 20 Feb 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There are so, so many things that annoy me about Google:

1. Google can remember everything about me except that I want my search results to open in a new window.

2. Google crappifies search results, so that instead of giving me a link to the site that it shows me, it actually gives me a link to Google itself which will redirect to the site. This makes copying the link a giant PITA as well as being slow.[1]

3. Google insists on showing me all of this "other stuff" that it thinks I want to see, when, in fact, all I really want to see is the search results for what I looked for.

4. Because it is loading all of this other crap, it's slower than it needs to be, and my home satellite connection is slow enough.

5. Google tracks everything you search. Now, my searches are pretty mundane, but I don't necessarily want every search tied to my Google / Gmail account. Sure, I could logout of Google / Gmail but that's annoying too.

Then there are two problems which aren't Google's fault, but still annoy me:

1. Safari 6 insists on using SSL to do searches, which often fails on my home Internet connection which is satellite. I cannot find any way to disable that.

2. Safari 6 makes it impossible to see the actual URL for Google searches made from the "Unified Smart Search Field."

What I want is a really fast, efficient, anonymous search, where the results will be direct links to the sites in question. And then I want those search results to open in a new window.

I realized that I could build exactly what I wanted, using tools that I already own:

1. Keyboard Maestro
2. Choosy
3. Fluid

(Spoiler alert: If you want to use a search engine such as DuckDuckGo instead of Google, you can use the same process I am going to describe below.)

Fluid

Fluid is one of my favorite apps in my "toolbelt" for making a better experience on the web. Fluid describes itself as a way to 'turn your favorite web apps into real Mac apps.' Fluid is best-known for making "site-specific" browsers, but it is also great for making a browser with specific settings, including turning Java/JavaScript/Plugins/Cookies on or off.

If you spend US$5 you can create site-specific browsers with separate cookies which is not-essential-but-nice for what I'm going to do here. (There are other features you get for your $5. See the site for more details. It's easily worth $5 even without these bonus features.)

Here's what I did in Fluid.app:

1) I created a new browser called 'Google Search' and set the homepage to http://www.google.com. A few seconds later, Fluid told me my new browser was ready, and I launched it.

Note: for some reason Fluid.app doesn't find a good icon for Google, so I searched for Google Logo icon 512 and found this one that I like and selected it in the 'Icon' field, shown above. You can change this at any time later, so if you don't want to do it now, or if you forget, don't worry.

2) As soon as my "Google Search" app launched, I changed the "User Agent" to report itself as an iPhone.

(Aside: the "user agent" tells the website you are visiting which browser you are using. If you've ever gone to a website on your iPhone and found yourself automatically redirected to a 'mobile friendly' page, it's probably because that site saw your 'User Agent' said that you were using an iPhone. If you want to see what your user agent shows, you can check your browser user-agent here.)

I want Google to think that I'm using an iPhone, because Google's search results are much 'cleaner' for iPhones than for regular browsers.

In the 'Google Search' menu, I selected "User Agent" and then the iPhone option, as shown here:

You might occasionally find that your search results direct you to a mobile version of a website, but that's a minor issue. Often times if you actually click on the link it will redirect you automatically to the 'full' version once it sees the user agent of your regular browser.

3) Under "Whitelist Preferences" I made sure that the only allowed URLs were for www.google.com not any other Google domains:

This means that any link I click on will not open in this new browser, but will be fed to my usual browser. Clicking on Google results will finally open in a new tab. In fact, they will open in another browser.

4) Under "Security Preferences" I turned off plugins, Java, JavaScript. Why? Because I don't need any of them, and disabling JavaScript will also disable Google "instant" which I don't like either. I set "Accept Cookies" to "Never" and set "Cookie Storage" to "Separate from Safari" (so I don't have to log out of Google to not have Google associate my searches with my Google account).

Changing the 'cookie storage' setting requires restarting my "Google Search" app, which I did.

Choosy

Choosy lets you create 'rules' for which browser should be used in different circumstances. I've written about Choosy before so I won't go into more detail here. The app hasn't been updated for a few years, but it still works just fine under Mountain Lion.

Under Choosy's 'Advanced' tab, I created a simple 'rule' to send all links which contain 'google.com' to my 'Google Search' browser. You can see the rule here:

Make sure that Choosy is set as your default browser. The easiest way to do that is in Safari's preferences. You can easily set Choosy's preferences to use your regular browser unless a specific rule is matched, so you'll never even notice that it is installed.

(I would just like to mention that I have written about Choosy twice now and not made any Jif-related jokes about how "Choosy Mac users choose Choosy." Wait! Oops. Too late.)

Keyboard Maestro

My admiration of Keyboard Maestro continues to grow the more I use it. I recently wrote about the automation mindset but this time I wanted something much simpler: a quick way to bring up a Google search window.

Previously, when I had wanted to search for something in Google, I would switch to Safari, create a new tab, and then start typing in the "Unified Smart Search Field" which was really only convenient if I was already in Safari. I wanted something better: anytime, anywhere, in any app, I want to be able to press a keyboard shortcut, get a prompt, type, press enter, and have the Google search results come front and center.

Keyboard Maestro makes this so easy I can't believe it has taken me this long to do it.

1) Create a new macro in Keyboard Maestro and name it whatever you want. I recommend "Google Search" because I'm extremely creative.

2) Click "New Action"

Type 'web' into the 'Action' search area (top left of image, above) and select 'Search the Web.'

Notice that the option is not called 'Search Google' - it's Search the Web. It defaults to Google, but you can change that simply by changing the URL. For example if you wanted to use DuckDuckGo you would use http://duckduckgo.com/?q=%Search%. However, make sure that your Fluid.app browser and your Choosy rule are using that domain too.

You might also notice the 'color picker' which is used for the background color of the window that Keyboard Maestro will create:

I like the default but it's a nice touch to be able to change it.

OK, this is my favorite part of this entire tip:

I never (intentionally) use the Caps Lock (aka CHOCKLOCK) key. In fact, I only ever hit it my accident. One of my favorite features of OS X was when Apple decided to let us kill the Caps Lock key by going to System Preferences.app » Keyboard and then choosing "Modifier Keys...":

Google, Inc. made some headlines when it decided not to include a Caps Lock key in its CR-48 netbook, instead using that key for a 'Search' function. I thought it was a great idea, and so I decided to replicate it on my Mac.

The first step is to set to the Caps Lock key to "No Action" as shown above. Then go back to Keyboard Maestro, and click the plus sign (+) next to "New Trigger" and choose "Device Trigger" as shown here:

Here's where you have to be a little careful: as soon as you select "Device Trigger" you should press the Caps Lock key, because if you press anything else including the trackpad or mouse button Keyboard Maestro is going to think you want to use that as the trigger. After pressing the Caps Lock key it should look something like this:

Note that if you use another keyboard (such as a Bluetooth keyboard connected to your Mac laptop) you should add a second 'trigger' for Keyboard Maestro using the Caps Lock key on that keyboard as well as the "internal" keyboard.

Putting It All Together

Now whenever I want to do a Google search, I press the Caps Lock key and type into the window. The results open in my Google Browser, and when I click on a link, it opens in my regular browser. If I want to go back to my search results, I just switch back to that app.

Although this takes a bit of initial setup, the payoff is well worth it for a better experience in the end. I have not done this yet, but you could also repeat this process for different search engines and add modifier keys (shift, option, control, command) to have Keyboard Maestro bring up different search prompts. I plan to make one of those for Google Images and Google News, both of which I search frequently.

Google icon at the top of this article courtesy of YOOtheme.

A better Google search experience with Choosy, Keyboard Maestro and Fluid originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who have no problems with iCloud sync, and people who use iCloud sync. Well, OK, maybe that's an exaggeration, but I have had plenty of problems with iCloud sync well back into the MobileMe days.

Most of the problems relate to syncing contact data. For some reason, iCloud periodically stops working in some non-obvious way. The way I usually discover this is when I realize that some device does not have some piece of information which was either added or changed on another device.

Having dealt with this problem for several years, I am now accustomed to performing "The Nuclear Option" when it comes to fixing my contact database. The Nuclear Option is a backup of my contacts from every single device and from the iCloud web client, followed by a complete purge, reimportation and de-duplication pass. I cannot guarantee that it will work for you, but it has worked for me.

Apple's Address Book / Contacts app creates backup files in its own format, but I prefer to export my contacts in the industry-standard vCard format to purge them of any lingering iCloud metadata.

To export all of your contacts as a single vCard archive, you need to select them all before choosing File » Export » Export vCard... -- otherwise you will only export the currently selected contact. vCard exports should be very "portable"; you should be able to use them for importing into Google or other places if needed.

On iCloud.com, the export menu item is found under the small gear icon at the lower-left corner of the page. Select all your contacts (you can use the Command-A shortcut for this purpose), then Export vCard.

Please note: If you need to preserve group information, be sure to use the Contacts app's native format instead of vCard; export as "Contacts Archive..." instead.

My step-by-step process does not preserve group information. I only use Smart Groups which I can easily recreate, so this is not an issue for me, but if you have extensive groups, this may not work for you. Here's the rundown:

1. Export contacts from each Mac, iOS device and iCloud.com.

2. Verify each export. (Tip: if you use QuickLook on a vCard file, it will show you how many contacts are in it.)

3. Move of all those exported contacts somewhere really, really safe.

4. Delete all contacts from iCloud.com. (Seriously, you verified those exports before, right?)

5. Sync each device and make sure each Mac and iOS device has zero contacts.

6. Disconnect your iMac from the network (unplug the Ethernet adapter and turn off Wi-Fi).

7. Import all of the contact information gathered in step 1. (This won't produce as many duplicates as you'd expect.)

8. Run Contacts Cleaner until it fixes all problems (which may require running the app several times).

9. Export a copy of the cleaned-up data for safe-keeping.

10. Look through all contacts to spot any obvious problems.

11. Export all contacts from Contacts.app to a vCard named something like "All-Contacts-2012-02-18.vcf" and keep it somewhere safe.

12. Re-connect iMac to the network and let it sync back to iCloud and related devices.

I have only two complaints, both of them relatively minor. The first is that the app gets confused by SMS "short codes" and a few non-USA phone numbers that I have in my address book. It's easy enough to ignore them, but after a while it would be nice to be able to say "No, really, this number is OK, forever." Secondly, iCloud managed to replicate the "Spouse" field in my vCard about 100 times and Contacts Cleaner doesn't look for duplicate data in those fields. It would be nice to be able to turn on some sort of a "deep-cleaning" mode which would tell Contacts Cleaner to search all fields for duplicate data.

By the way, if you need an app for exporting your contacts from an iOS device, I recommend My Contacts Backup Pro which I reviewed earlier.

Contact sync problems, Contacts Cleaner and The Nuclear Option originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There are scads of apps on the App Store which will offer to backup your contacts. I tried four: a free app, a $1 app, a $2 app, and a $3 app (all prices listed are USD). One was great, two were pretty good, and one was downright atrocious.

(Note: all of the apps I reviewed are "universal" - that is, designed for both iPad or iPhone/iPod touch. All are optimized for the iPhone 5, with one exception which I have noted below.)

Easy Backup ($0)

The trouble with finding a free app to backup your contacts is finding a free app which is really free, as opposed to several which are limited versions of non-free apps. Eventually I found Easy Backup which is actually free and does not seem to have any limitations.

When it first launches, it asks to connect to your Facebook account "to get better profile information." (Uh huh. You can see where this is going, right?) Sure enough, when I connected to my Facebook account, there was a "Who can see posts from this app on Facebook?" selector. Hrm, apparently in order to access my Facebook contacts, they häve to post to my Facebook account. I set the selector to "Only Me." Then Facebook told me "Easy Backup is requesting optional permissions" to post on my behalf. Under the "Why is Easy Backup asking for these permissions?" it says "Backup all contacts from Facebook." Well that's just a bald-faced lie, is what that is. I selected "Allow None."

(Aside: I have to admit that I'm confused by this 'business model' - you make a free app that you then want to let me post to my Facebook account. Why? So more people can find out about your free app? Also featured prominently throughout the app in the top-left corner is something I presume to be a "Like this app on Facebook" icon of a thumbs up. I tapped it once to see what it would do, and it appeared to try to automatically post a message to my Facebook account, but timed out, presumably because I had not granted it that permission earlier. To be fair, maybe it would have given me the option to edit the message before posting it. To be honest, I doubt it.)

Despite the name, I found using this app to be a little confusing. At first I found various 'sharing' options in the app, but they all seemed to be related to sharing the app not (for example) letting me email myself a copy of them. Eventually I realized that my going to the 'Contacts' tab and choosing 'All Contacts' and then tapping the "Check Mark" icon on the next screen then choosing the "Forward Arrow" it give me five options: Copy, Move, Share, New Group, Cancel. Selecting "Share" brought up a new email message with a vCard attached.

(Side note to new developers: if you have five options, don't label four of them with verbs and one of them with a noun. For example, in the above list of options, "Create Group" would have been a better choice than "New Group." Also, if pressing the button will result in something being emailed, label it "Email" not "Share." It will make things easier on your users.)

The vCard which was created by Easy Backup lacked the '.vcf' extension, so it was not recognized as a vCard file until I added it. Yet another little detail.

Summary: In the end, Easy Backup does work, and it's free. It even has a few extra features thrown in. But I didn't like it.

Backup Contacts - Easy Backup ($1)

Backup Contacts - Easy Backup was the first app I tried. (Yes, that's the real name of the app. The whole category is flooded with keyword loaded keyword search optimization keywords. Keyword.) For only $US1, it does all that you'd expect, and perhaps even a little more. Not only will it backup your local address book, but also your iCloud or Facebook address book, or "all of the above." Once you select the address book(s) it will show you which contacts are found, and offer to let you de-select some contacts (by default, all matching contacts are selected). Tap 'Backup' and it will ask you if you want to save the backup on the device, or export it via email. If you select email, a 'Contacts.vcf' file will be created and added to a new email message, ready for you to fill in the To: and Subject: lines of the email message.

The only thing missing is the ability to backup directly to Dropbox, although that can be done by using SendToDropbox, a free service which allows you to email files and have them added to your Dropbox account. I also wish that it added the current date and time to the "Contacts.vcf" file. If I save that file from my email to my computer, I will have no reliable way of knowing when it was created. But those are both minor complaints to an otherwise excellent app.

Summary: If you are looking for a straight-forward way to backup your contacts, Backup Contacts - Easy Backup is certainly worth a look.

Contacts Backup Over Dropbox ($3, not iPhone 5 optimized)

Contacts Backup Over Dropbox was the next app that I tried. Its $3 price tag ranks it as "expensive" in the realm of the App Store, but you'd be mistaken if you think that means that you are going to get a high quality app with a rich set of features.

The app does backup to Dropbox, but probably not as you would expect. It creates a file at "/Dropbox/sunvy/abbackup/backup.ab" instead of the more standard "/Dropbox/Apps/{Name Of App}/" path that you might expect. But it gets much worse than that. The "backup.ab" file appears to be some sort of proprietary and/or encrypted format. You can use that file to restore your contacts from Dropbox to your iPhone by using this app, but if you were expecting that this app would export a copy of your contacts in the industry standard vCard format to Dropbox, you would be sorely disappointed. At least, I was.

You might also note that there is an option to "Edit backup file" from the app, via a large and prominent button in the app. I was curious what that would do, so I tapped it, and was greeted by this:

Um. What?

Because this is a "family-friendly" website, I cannot accurately describe my disdain for this. In-App Purchases should never, ever, ever masquerade as basic features. But wait, it gets worse. The "Service Code Generator" does not actually allow you to edit your contacts, at least, not on the iPhone. Instead, that code allows you to log in to their website...which appears to be written in Japanese.

Investigating further, I came across another app by this same company: Contacts Editor. Buried at the bottom of the app description are notes which tell you that you have 5 minutes to login to their website after uploading your data, or your data will be deleted from their servers. It also says: "When editing with support site (http://www.abeditor.com), if within 2 hours without any operation, all data will be deleted." I'm not sure if that means "two hours idle" or "two hours and you're still not done" and I'm certainly not about to spend $2 to check. Oh, and after your data is deleted from their servers, that "service code" will no longer work. So if you didn't realize that the 'Edit backup file' meant that you were going to spend $2 to generate a code to let you log in to a website written in Japanese within 5 minutes and finish editing within 2 hours, well, sorry!

Summary: I would avoid Contacts Backup Over Dropbox as if it were a bowl of pus which had been sitting out in the summer sun.

My Contacts Backup Pro ($2)

I have saved the best for last: My Contacts Backup Pro. The app is feature-rich and very simple to use, with the exception of the Dropbox uploading, which works very well but is a little confusing at first.

Launch the app (which is abbreviated "MCBackup" on your iOS device) and it will present you will with a screen showing you how many contacts it found, and a prominent 'Backup' button. Tap the button, it will show you its progress, and then offer to email the resulting file. Boom, done. If it stopped right here, this would have been my favorite app because it works quickly and easily.

But there is actually a lot more hiding just underneath the surface. On the launch screen are also two smaller buttons for settings and help.

vCard (VCF) or CSV Tap the familiar 'Gear' icon to open settings and you will find an option to set the 'Type' of export: either vCard or 'CSV (Excel)' format. CSV is a nice option for those who need it, or who want to use their import their contacts into another app that does not support VCF.

Multiple VCF: create separate vCards for each contact. In the settings, under 'Configure' you can choose 'Multiple VCF' which will create a separate vCard for each of your contacts and then create a .zip file of all of them. However I recommend that you do not use that option unless you have a specific need for it. Multiple VCF files are not stored on the device, nor can they be uploaded to Dropbox through the app. When saving to Multiple VCF, your only option will be to email the resulting zip file. That said, I can think of times when it would be useful to have your contacts in separate vCards, so I'm glad to have this option.

Direct upload to Dropbox. My favorite feature is direct support for saving to Dropbox. The process is a bit confusing, probably because this feature was recently added to the app, instead of being part of the original design. The key is understanding how the app works: when you create a backup, it will prompt you to email it, but it also saves a copy of the backup within the app itself. You can find this by going to the settings and pressing the "In App vCard Restore" option. There you will find all of your previous backups. You can delete them using the 'Edit' button, or tap on them and bring up a prompt to choose from 4 options: Email, Dropbox, Restore, Cancel. (Again I'll note that "Dropbox" isn't a verb. "Upload to Dropbox" would have been a more accurate label, although it might not have fit in the available space.)

If you choose "Dropbox" it will be stored to "/Dropbox/Apps/MCBackup/" with unique filenames such as "MyContacts-2013-02-17-172220-1961.vcf" which makes it easy to tell when a backup was created: the '172220' refers to the hour/minute/second when the file was created, using the 24-hour clock.

So if you want to upload to Dropbox but not via email, simply press the Backup button when you enter the app, then tap the Settings gear icon. In settings, choose "In App vCard Restore" and select the backup you want to upload. Tap it, choose "Dropbox" and voilà. Ok, I'll admit that it's a little more convoluted than necessary, but it works. If you want a simple "save to Dropbox" feature, I suggest signing up for SendToDropbox.

Local Reminders: One feature that I really liked with MCBackup is that it can use local reminders to remind you to backup your contacts. Reminders can be set for every week or every month.

Wi-Fi Access: Another unexpected bonus feature is the ability to download your vCard file over Wi-Fi. Because some email providers limit the size of outgoing email messages, a large contact database might not be able to be sent via email. In that case you can enable a web server from within MCBackup which will allow you to download your vCard backup (nice!), or upload a vCard backup to your iOS device (cool!), or edit contacts on your iPhone (what?). Yup, you read that right, you can actually edit your iOS contacts through your web browser on your Mac or PC. In fact, you can even create a new contact.

Summary: If this had been the first app I had tested, I would have stopped looking. It's a steal for $2 and does everything I wanted, and then some. It generates unique file names, uploads to Dropbox in the preferred location, and allows me to email the backup if I prefer.

Conclusion

If you write an app which works well, it is easier to overlook minor problems. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have 3 apps to delete off my iPhone.

Roundup review of iOS apps to backup your contacts originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 19 Feb 2013 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MultiMarkdown Composer 2 has just been released and is currently available for US$5. Long story short: if you like to write in Markdown, you should get this app.

Why MultiMarkdown?

Markdown has been around for almost a decade, and has not changed much since its initial release. It gives people a simple way to make readable documents which are easily converted into HTML.

MultiMarkdown was created to add some frequently-requested features such as table support and footnotes, as well as working around some difficulties in Markdown itself, such as 'underscores in URLs' (or what I like to call "How do you solve a problem like Wikipedia links?")

I find MultiMarkdown's footnote support to be hugely beneficial, and consider it fairly essential to any significant writing that I do.

Why MultiMarkdown Composer?

The biggest challenge facing people who write in Markdown these days is that there are a whole host of different variations of Markdown out there. Most of them either add some feature to Markdown or fix some problem. Some of them might say that they are using 'Markdown' but are actually using a variant. For example, Tumblr says that it supports Markdown, but it also automatically links URLs (which isn't what strict Markdown down) and adds support for MultiMarkdown-style footnotes.

Now, I happen to think that MultiMarkdown is the most useful variant of Markdown because the changes and additions bring features that I like, but if you want strict Markdown syntax enforcement, MultiMarkdown Composer can help you too. Just choose Format > Markdown instead of Format > MultiMarkdown.

However, I think a better option is to write locally in MultiMarkdown using MultiMarkdown Composer, and then have it generate the HTML that you will use to post into whatever blog or CMS that you are using. That way you will not be relying on someone else's interpretation or implementation of Markdown, and can still use all of the additions that MultiMarkdown has to offer.

New Features in MultiMarkdown Composer version 2

Live Preview: One of my favorite features in MultiMarkdown Composer version 2 is the live-preview. While version 1 integrated very well with Marked, I often found it frustrating to have to switch to another app to see my document previewed. Actually I find it annoying to have to switch to another window.

There are several 'Markdown editors' available, and several of them have offered a 'split screen' mode where the window is divided into two halves: left side for editing, right side for preview.[1] MultiMarkdown Composer version 2 supports this feature and lets you choose which side you want to use for preview. MultiMarkdown Composer comes with several 'CSS-like' stylesheets to customize how the preview and editor is displayed, and it is very easy to adapt them if you want to make your own.

If you still want to use MultiMarkdown Composer with Marked, you can do that too, or you can just turn off the preview window altogether if you want to focus on writing.

There are three 'modes' which you can use:

1. Typewriter Mode, which keeps the current line centered on the screen as you type
2. Focus Mode which blurs the top and bottom of the current document. There is also a preference setting to allow you to control the 'Focus Mask Height' which determines how much of the document will be shown or hidden when in Focus Mode.
3. Auto Zoom which will automatically resize the editor as you resize the window. Auto-zoom is a bit hard to explain, but very cool to see in practice. If you are writing on a small screen and want to simply focus on what you are writing, I suggest turning off the preview, turn on Auto Zoom, and make the MultiMarkdown Composer window full-screen.

Inspectors: MultiMarkdown Composer now also has three floating inspectors: Info, References, and Table Of Contents (TOC). Each of the inspectors can be toggled using a keyboard shortcut for easy access when you need them, or to hide them when you don't.

1. The Info panel contains a running count for words, characters, and lines.

2. The Reference panel keeps a handy list of your reference links, and makes it easy to insert them again if you need to use them in more than once place.

3. The Table Of Contents panel not only lets you see the entire outline of your document, but it allows you to drag and drop different sections and rearrange your Markdown document. That's incredibly cool and useful, especially if you are writing a longer document and need to reorganize it.

Built in Cheat Sheet: I wrote a quick primer for Markdown, but MultiMarkdown Composer now has something even better: a built-in syntax guide which you can open (and close) using the keyboard shortcut ⌘ + / (or use the "Help" menu). This will give you fast access not only to the basics of Markdown, but also the special syntax additions available in MultiMarkdown.

Elastic Tabstops: I have to admit that I had never heard of Elastic Tabstops before, but for those of you who don't write everything in 12pt Inconsolata-g with real tabs, I could see how this would be useful. (MultiMarkdown Composer also has a feature to change tabs to spaces or vice versa.)

'Old' features in MultiMarkdown Composer which are very handy: MultiMarkdown Composer has features to clean up metadata, lists, and tables which is very handy. It also does a very good job of determining when you are creating a list and continuing it automatically. There's also a 'Toggle List Type' option (which may be new or maybe I just missed it before) which will change an ordered (numbered) list into an unordered (bulleted) list.

Pricing

You probably know the drill by now: Apple doesn't give developers any way to offer 'upgrade pricing' so when new versions of apps are released, developers generally offer the app for a reduced price for a limited time. That allows existing users to buy the new version for a reduced price, but also allows new users to get it for that price too. While I think this is sort of a raw deal for developers who are losing a significant amount of profit for new users, it doesn't appear that Apple is going to change this policy any time soon.

If you are reading this after the introductory price has expired, don't worry, you will still be buying a great app which is well worth the asking price.

Use Markdown? Use MultiMarkdown Composer.

I have been writing in Markdown for as long as I can remember, and have been writing in MultiMarkdown since I learned of it. For me it's a simple decision, I've tried several different 'markdown text editors' and I keep coming back to MultiMarkdown Composer. If you have been thinking about learning Markdown or MultiMarkdown, MultiMarkdown Composer makes it very easy to do.

You can find out more about MultiMarkdown Composer at http://multimarkdown.com or learn more about MultiMarkdown Syntax to see why it's a better alternative.

MultiMarkdown Composer 2 is a powerful, flexible Markdown-based text editor originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 05 Feb 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A reader contacted us the other day with an interesting problem: he wanted to use the latest Java update, but it requires an "Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.7.3 (Lion) or later" and his MacBook was running Snow Leopard.

Here's the twist: his MacBook cannot run Mountain Lion (10.8), and Lion (10.7) is no longer available for sale on the Mac App Store. It's also not available on Apple's website, or Amazon.com, or anywhere else (with very few exceptions which all looked extremely unreliable).

The good news is that Lion is still available from Apple... but you have to call Apple to get it. It will cost you US$20 and will come to you as a redeemable code that you will use in the Mac App Store, which means that you will need a Mac running at least 10.6.8 to use the code.

The only weird part is that the Apple Support salesman said that it may take "up to a couple of days" to get the redemption code. I'm not sure why that is, but my guess is that if you haven't upgraded to Lion yet, waiting another day or two won't be a huge deal.

In the USA, the number for Apple Sales Support is 1-800-692-7753. When I called their automated call routing system I said "Sales" at the first prompt (what department I wanted), "Lion" at the second prompt (what I was calling about) and "Personal" at the third prompt (personal, business or education). That connected me to the right person.

Folks who aren't in the US should check the Contacting Apple for support and service page, and may have different voice prompts.

"But I already paid for Lion!"

If you bought Lion when it was available, you might be disappointed to learn that it no longer appears in your "Purchases" list in the App Store. I was surprised to learn that if I wanted to download Lion again, I would be expected to pay for it again. That seems like something Apple should be able to easily confirm that I have already purchased and allow me to download for free.

I also assume that if I needed to reinstall Lion from a recovery partition which is already set up on a computer running Lion, then I would be able to do that, but I have not tested that theory. Fortunately I saved a copy of the 4 GB "Install Mac OS X Lion.app" before it was removed from the Mac App Store in case I ever need to do a clean installation.

"Can I use someone else's Lion installer?"

Probably.

If you purchased Lion from the Mac App Store but no longer have a copy of the installer app, you should be able to use someone else's Lion installer, i.e., from a USB thumb drive. I seem to recall that the installer connects to some computer at Apple.com to verify that you are "eligible" to install Lion, but it has been a long time since I installed Lion and have not tried using someone else's installer.

Past is prologue, make a USB installer today

Apple's behavior with Lion is a good indication of how things will likely proceed with Mountain Lion once the next version of Mac OS X is released. The Mountain Lion installer will eventually be removed from the Mac App Store, and users who cannot or prefer not to upgrade will not be able to download it again without contacting Apple, and possibly having to pay for it again.

If you don't already have the installer downloaded, I recommend getting it now and saving it somewhere safe. In fact, it would be a good idea to save a copy of it on your hard drive, and make a USB installer as well. This is extremely easy to do using Lion DiskMaker which (despite the name) works with Snow Leopard, Lion or Mountain Lion.

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is still available for purchase from Apple originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 24 Jan 2013 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Messages recently stopped working on my iMac. Suddenly it said that it could not connect. More specifically, I could not use Apple's iMessage service. I could use AIM or Google Talk, but iMessage was the service that I wanted to use.

(Note: When I refer to 'Messages' I mean the actual application on my Mac. When I refer to 'iMessage' I mean the service which Apple provides which lets you send instant messages to Macs and iOS devices.)

I tried a few things that I could think of: I checked to make sure that my proxy wasn't blocking anything that could be relevant; I made sure there was nothing in /etc/hosts that could be interfering; I created a new user account on my iMac. Nothing made any difference.

At the same time, other iCloud services were working just fine, including calendar and contact syncing, so I assumed that it wasn't iCloud related. I could use the same Wi-Fi network to connect to iMessage using my MacBook Air. It seemed like it had to be something connected to my iMac specifically...but what?

I decided to reinstall OS X on my iMac for other reasons not related to this problem, and the first thing I tried was connecting to iMessage. No joy. So if it wasn't related to my Wi-Fi network and it wasn't related to my installation of OS X... what else was left?

Hardware?

The idea that the problem could be hardware-related seemed odd to me, but I had done my best to eliminate all other factors, so the one which remained must be the truth.

It was then that I remembered an odd little detail about my iMac: it has no serial number. No, my iMac didn't "fall off the back of a truck." I bought it directly from Apple, and even bought AppleCare for it, which was a good thing because I had to have the hard drive and the logic board replaced.

Some time after the logic board was replaced, I realized that the serial number was listed as 'Not Available' in the System Information (which used to be called 'System Profiler' in earlier versions of OS X.) I did some checking and found that this was something which was supposed to be done by the guy who installed the new logic board, but he had apparently forgotten to do it. I was also told that there was nothing that I could do to fix it.

It never caused any problems, so I had never worried about it before. In fact, I had been able to use iMessage through the Messages on my iMac until recently. It seemed improbable, but I was out of guesses as to what else might be the cause. I asked on Twitter and got a few suggestions, but none of them panned out. Someone else even said that they had been able to use Messages on a Mac without a serial number, but it had been awhile since they had done it.

With no other options available, I had no other choice but to check with an Apple Authorized Service Provider. Fortunately, since I still have my original box, he was able to find the original serial number. After running some sort of "Apple Authorized Service Provider"-only software on it, my iMac had its old serial number back.

Neither one of us had much hope that this would make a difference, but after rebooting the iMac and logging in, Messages was immediately able to connect to the iMessage service, and it works perfectly.

Don't ask me why.

The facts are these: My iMac was able to use iMessages, and then it wasn't. I tried everything I could over several weeks to fix it, and nothing did. When the serial number was restored, iMessages immediately started working again.

I can think of some possible reasons why this happened, but none of them are anything more than guessing.

• Is this a new 'feature' of the iMessage protocol or the Messages.app that it will only work on Macs with serial numbers?
• If so, is this Apple's way of cracking down on OS X installations on non-Apple hardware?
• Is it possible that iMessage was never supposed to work on Macs without a valid number and they've just started enforcing it now?

All of those seem unlikely to me. After all, why would Apple allow me use the rest of iCloud except for iMessage?

If they were making such a check, I would hope that they would have made it more clear, showing an error message that was more descriptive than "Couldn't connect."

• Is this a bug? Did I hit some sort of an edge-case that Apple had not tested for?

That seems possible. I would not be surprised if Apple made some change on the server side of the iMessage service which triggered this, or Apple fixed an unrelated bug and had this side effect.

In any case, iMessage did not work, and now it does. It seems clear that the fix was getting the serial number restored.

I share this information because while there may not be many Mac users out there who found themselves with Macs without serial numbers, we are out there. Even just mentioning this on Twitter led me to discover someone in the same situation. If you're one of them, getting this fixed will mean finding an Apple Authorized Service Provider or Apple Store who can fix it for you. Be sure to bring whatever paperwork to show ownership, and any repair receipts you might have. (Apple Stores should be able to pull up your service record for repairs done under AppleCare.)

If Messages on OS X 'can't connect,' check your serial number originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 14 Jan 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

1Password on iOS is the best way I've found to manage secure passwords, but the 4.0 version did not make it easy to search for passwords straight from Safari, iCab or another browser (well, not Chrome, which doesn't support bookmarklets).

The recent 4.1 release added several bug-fixes and added two URL schemes:

• Added support for ophttp:// and ophttps:// URLs. To open 1Password from Mobile Safari, simply type "op" in front of the address.

• Added support for onepassword://search/search_text to open 1Password and perform search.

Unfortunately, opening 1Password's browser from Safari (or iCab) isn't really what I want. I want to be able to use iCab and retrieve login information from 1Password. Generally what I want to do is search 1Password for the current domain, but it's not an exact science. For example, if I'm at "www.instapaper.com" I might want to search for "instapaper.com" or just "instapaper".

I could have just thrown up an empty prompt, but I didn't want to type any more than I had to, and I still think it's easier to delete what is not necessary than type what is necessary.

What I needed was a compromise.

Instead of an empty prompt or just automatically searching for current domain, I decided to combine them, and put up a prompt showing the current domain information pre-filled, but editable.

It works like this:

1) Tap the bookmarklet and JavaScript prompt will appear with the current domain name pre-filled in the editable area:

2) If you're happy with what's in the prompt area, just tap 'OK'

(But in my example I'm going to assume I want to search for 'instapaper' instead of 'www.instapaper.com')

3) Once you have the search term you want, tap 'OK' and Safari will ask you to confirm if you want to open this in 1Password:

After you tap 'Open', 1Password will open (prompting for your Master Password if necessary), and then search for the term.

Voilà!

You can find my bookmarklet at Github. (Again, please note that I don't know JavaScript very well, so I've pieced this together from other examples. If you can make suggestions on how to improve it, please do, either here or at Github.)

Update 2013-02-11: Thanks to Duane Toler for suggesting an improvement in the comments below. I have updated the Gist so you will get his corrected version, which will search for the root domain (i.e. 'google.com' rather than 'www.google.com'). Note that the version in the comments has a mismatched quote, but the Github version does not.

Remember, you'll need version 4.1 of 1Password on iOS for this to work.

Other 1Password for iOS articles you might be interested in:

1) ios-browser-pw-integration:

This is proof of concept code that shows how an iOS password management app (like 1Password) could use URL schemes and JavaScript bookmarklets to communicate with mobile Safari and Chrome to make it easier for users to fill in login forms on websites.

2) MacStories has some more information on using the new search terms, including a bookmarklet to open the current page from Safari in 1Password's internal browser.

Safari-to-1Password search bookmarklet for iOS originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Update: According to The Mac Observer, Apple has acted proactively to block the Java browser plug-in on Mac machines with OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or higher. If you are running an earlier version of OS X, then you should disable Java as noted below.

Update 2: In a remarkably speedy turnaround, Oracle has released a patched Java VM (release 11, listed as b21 internally) that closes this particular hole. Users who need Java installed are urged to update ASAP. You may have to update manually; Mike Rose reports that the auto-update feature on his machine ended up crashing the Java control panel.

A Java security flaw has been reported by CERT (the Computer Emergency Readiness Team). TheNextWeb has a good write-up of the background of the exploit's discovery.

Here's the bad news: there is no "fix" for the bug yet. Here's the worse news: it is believed that malicious sites on the web are already aware of this security hole, and are trying to exploit it.

Is your Mac at risk? Maybe. It is possible that your Mac does not even have Java installed. Apple stopped including Java by default with Lion. However, if you have run into any websites or software that needs Java, it may have prompted you to install it.

So what should you do? Well, here are some options:

1. Stop using the Internet and go live in a yurt.
2. Disable Java
3. Uninstall Java
4. Ignore it and hope that everything will be OK.

Hopefully you guessed that options 1 & 4 are the "Not Good" options, so that leaves us with two choices: Disable or Uninstall?

Here's my suggestion: if you are on Mac OS X 10.7 or 10.8 (Lion or Mountain Lion) have Java installed and you're not just one of those people who goes around installing things willy-nilly, my guess is that you have (or had) some software program that relies on Java. If you uninstall it, something might break and you might not be able to figure out why.

However, if you disable Java in whichever browser(s) you use regularly, you can continue to use your web browser without worrying about this exploit. If you find a website that uses Java, you can turn it on, do what you need to do, and then turn it off again.

Safari Users: you can easily disable Java by going to Safari's Preferences, then choose the Security tab, and uncheck the appropriate box:

Google Chrome users need to go to chrome://plugins

Firefox users: Go to the "Tools" menu, then "Add-ons" (or ⌘ + Shift + A) and choose the "Plugins" tab. Then click the 'disable' button next to Java Applet Plug-in.

"But I need Java for these sites I use every day!"

OK, so that's the reasonable response that I think will work for most people, but if you happen to be one of the people who needs to use Java every day for a specific set of websites all is not lost.

In fact, there's a very easy solution called Fluid.app. This one might seem a little nerdy, but once you set it up, it's quite easy.

We've mentioned Fluid.app on TUAW in the past and it's one of my favorite tools. With Fluid.app you can make a "standalone" web browser with its own set of preferences, including Java. You can find these settings in your Fluid.app browser under 'Settings':

But wait! he said in his best made-for-TV voice There's more!

Fluid.app will also let you say exactly which websites (domains, URLs, etc) that you want to use with that browser. Go to the "Whitelist" preferences and enter the domains, like this:

Now that the rule that I have will allow me to visit any URL that includes www.google.com. You can add more sites using the + at the bottom of the window.

Add all of your known and trusted sites which use Java. If you come across a link to a different site, it will automatically send you over to your regular browser (where you have disabled Java). Using this system you can have the security of having Java disabled, but still have the convenience of being able to use it on sites that you trust.

A reasonable response to Java security problems (Updated) originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I have used Accordance Bible Study software for several years, but version 10 (which was released a few months ago) caught me completely by surprise.

I knew that there was a new version coming out, but I had not been a part of the beta process and I had not read anything about it before it was released. So when I read that it was available, I just downloaded it and installed it, without thinking much about it, until I launched it for the first time, and was quite literally speechless. I just stared at the screen for a moment.

"They did it," was the sentence that finally formed in my mind.

Why I'm not writing a feature recap.

If you want to see a good summary of Accordance's features, there is a list of them available on their website, there is also a series of videos, a YouTube channel, and a podcast.

If you are a beginner, there is even a getting started series for you, or checkout the free seminars offered around the USA.

I'm purposefully not going to recap all of that for you. Instead I'm going to focus on why Accordance 10 is such a significant step forward.

Insight into hindsight.

When I launched Accordance 10, I was shocked because it had been completely overhauled. It no longer looked like a Mac app hanging on to an old, familiar user interface. But then I began to worry that features might have been lost, or functionality removed. We've all seen redesigns where what we have is simpler, but a lot less powerful and flexible than what we had before. Usually this seems to happen when development goes at such a pace that features are added and added but finally everything has gotten too complicated to hold together, so the developer scraps everything and starts over.

Massive redesigns are almost always a functionality disaster.

As I looked through Accordance, however, I realized that all of the tools I wanted to use where still there, even if they looked a little different.

I reached out to David Lang, VP of Development for Accordance, and buried him in an avalanche of questions about the redesign process. To his credit he actually took to the time to respond, and gave me a great deal of insight into the process. The first key insight was realizing that the changes in Accordance 10 actually started in Accordance 9, which made a lot of "under the hood" changes which paved the way for the more visible changes.

He wrote, "When it came to planning for Accordance 10, we resolved to take a hard look at every aspect of the interface-even things that had been around since the very beginning. In every design decision, we tried to simplify, declutter, and beautify, while being careful not to fix what wasn't broken or to lose Accordance's distinct advantages. We especially focused on the areas where new users would get confused or make common mistakes."

That's a challenge for any software company, but especially difficult for a company with customers who have been using your software for almost two decades. Think about the changes that Microsoft tried to make with Office and "the ribbon" and you'll realize how difficult it is to really make improvements in this area.

One of my former complaints about Accordance was that it was difficult for me to even find and use the resources that I had as part of the software package. The redesign puts my library only a few clicks away, and much easier to navigate.

Wait, What? Windows?

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Accordance 10 was learning that there is a version of Accordance for Microsoft Windows planned for 2013. Accordance has been Mac-only since the beginning. The idea that Accordance would be a Windows app might be anathema to some, especially those who fear that it will morph into some sort of unholy "hybrid UI" application like those made by companies who use such abominations as (shudder) Adobe Air.

David assures me that Windows development is not the driving force behind the UI changes, and that the development cycle for Accordance will continue unimpeded by the addition of a Windows version. He even said that I could stake him through the heart if things go awry. (Ok, he didn't actually say that, but I think it was implied.)

As strange and scary as it might initially seem for a Mac-only company to branch out into Windows, there's no denying that Accordance will be able to reach a much broader group of users with a Windows version. I know plenty of pastors whose "office computer" is a Windows PC even though they have a Mac at home, and the ability to use the same software on both computers will be a huge benefit.

Likewise, development of Accordance for iOS continues to improve. While it is primarily a tool for reading and searching, you can sync your notes and highlights across both platforms, which is extremely handy.

A few of my favorite things

While I won't recap the feature-list of Accordance, I do want to point out a few of my favorites.

Instant Details gives me information about words in the text as I hover over them with my mouse. While these details sometimes suffer from being overly abbreviated if you aren't familiar with the terminology, it's a quick and powerful way to learn more about words, terms, people, etc. as you read. There is also a new preference to show full words instead of abbreviations in the Instant Details pane, which is helpful if you (like me) have trouble remembering what the abbreviations mean. (Check out the preferences for "Instant Details" to set this.)

Speed and stability are consistent throughout the app. Search results are instantaneous. Cross-references work immediately. New resource windows open instantly. I never have to wait for Accordance to catch up.

Toolbar Customization is not an unusual feature, lots of apps have it, but it's not something I usually use. Accordance's toolbar is different, perhaps because there are so many different aspects of the app. Toolbar icons can provide quick access to the library, daily reading, atlas, parsing tools, word chart, and more. They won't replicate all the former functionality that was in floating palettes in earlier versions, but they're a lot easier to manage and a lot cleaner.

Simple Upgrade Options, Even for Mac App Store Purchases

New customers can purchase Accordance directly from their store or from the Mac App Store. I highly recommend that you buy direct, for reasons I will explain below.

If you bought version 9 on or after May 1, 2012 directly from OakTree Software, the developers of Accordance, you can get version 10 for free. See the upgrade page for more details. Note: That offer expires at the end of December, 2012. So don't delay if you are eligible for an upgrade.

Other users can upgrade for $50 and keep all of their existing content. However, if you would like to upgrade to version 10 and increase your library of resources, you can do that here. Prices will vary based on what you already own and what you want to upgrade to, but if you have trouble deciding you can contact Oak Tree directly for assistance.

Why Buy Direct?

I'll start off by admitting that I am not a fan of the Mac App Store. I don't like that Apple is keeping some features, such as iCloud, only for Mac App Store apps. I'll skip my rant about the sandboxing debacle and just say that I think they could have handled it a lot better. Some apps had to be removed from the Mac App Store, and others lost useful features because Apple didn't include ways for them to continue to be offered. I don't like that Apple seems to have no interest in upgrades or trial versions, which I believe hurts customers as well as developers. If I ever have the choice between buying directly from the developer or from the Mac App Store, I'll choose direct every time. It gives developers 30% more money and more flexibility.

For an app like Accordance, which sells for $50 on the Mac App Store, the lack of upgrade options is a significant problem. OakTree gets around this pretty much the only way they can, by offering an equal credit on their store. You can find out more about those details on their Accordance 10 upgrade page.

Accordance is available on the Mac App Store because it helps provide increased visibility to reach new customers. Purchasing Accordance directly gives you the opportunity to purchase a collection which will make Accordance a lot more useful, plus you will be able to easily upgrade in the future.

Accordance really is better than ever.

Accordance has been well-known and well-regarded for almost 20 years, but version 10 seems like an important milestone in its history. The work that went into the last few versions changed a lot 'under the hood' and now the user interface has been updated as well, creating a tool that doesn't just look different, but looks better and (more importantly) works better. For existing users, it's a terrific upgrade easily worth the price. For users who have been considering Accordance, wait no longer, this new version is a great place to start.

Accordance 10 changes everything for the better originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 20 Dec 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Transmit by Panic is one of my favorite apps. If you ever move files from one computer to another, you owe it to yourself to test this one out.

Today I want to highlight a feature called "Save To Droplet" which is not new, but is very handy. However, it's not immediately obvious how to use it.

The first step is to open a new window:

A dual-pane window will open, showing your local files on the left, and server settings on the right. Be sure to change the server type at the top to SFTP. You do not want to use FTP across the Internet, as it will send your password in plain text. Bad bad, very bad!

This image just shows the right pane.

Fill in your information, including the hostname of the server you want to connect to (shown as "nightwing.dreamhost.com" in this example), your username on the remote server ("tjluoma" in this example), password and "Initial Path" which is the folder on the remote server.

Note that "Initial Path" is relative to your Home directory when using SFTP.

Port 22 is the default port for SFTP and should be used unless you know that the server does not use it:

Once you have have the information filled out, click the Plus Sign (+) just to the left of the "Port" field, and the pane will flip around and show this pane:

This image just shows the right pane.

You should not need to change any settings here, but you can change the visible ones, or click "More Options" to see, well, more options.

Click "Save As Droplet..." and you will see this prompt:

I recommend changing the "Where" to "Applications" and change the "Save As" to whatever you want your app / droplet to be called.

If the "Save Password in Droplet" button is checked, anyone who can launch this application will be able to connect to the server. Use with caution.

When you are done, select "Save" and a new application will appear in your /Applications/ folder with an icon like the one shown here.

"Ok, but now how do I use this?"

This droplet is meant to do one thing: quickly upload files to the server. Simply drag and drop files onto the app icon (I recommend dragging the app to the dock) and Transmit will launch, upload, your files and then quit.

Whammo, presto, done!

You can make as many of these as you want, for different servers and different folders.

Unfortunately, I can't find any way to edit these droplet apps and change the settings once you have created one, but since they're so easy to create, it's not difficult to make a new one.

Use Transmit to create 'quick upload' droplets originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

"How do I protect my Mac online? Should I run any 'security' applications on my Mac?"

That question arrived several weeks ago via the contact form here at TUAW, and I have been trying to come up with a reasonable answer to it ever since.

That question, or a variation of it, comes fairly regularly. Usually the person asking it has switched from Windows to Mac, and has brought with them an expectation that they should run some sort of anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-malware programs.

It's easy to be glib and say that the only really safe computer is one that is turned off and locked away.

Conventional wisdom would have you believe that Mac users don't care about security, or think they are immune to security problems. That is a myth for everyone except Artie MacStrawman.

On the other side, you have tech pundits who have been predicting the "downfall" of Mac security since 2004, and every time there is even the slightest bit of security news, there are plenty who want to jump and point and say "See! We told you Macs were no better than Windows!" Many of those articles and much of the hype about protecting your Mac comes from companies which also happen to sell you protection against these potential harms.

The argument generally goes like this: "It is inevitable that Mac OS X will eventually have problems like Windows has, so you should buy one of our programs to protect yourself for when that inevitable day arrives."

Ironically, one of the biggest security problems that Mac OS X has faced was the Flashback Trojan in April 2012, and none of the Mac anti-virus companies made much of a big deal about it at the time because none of them caught it before it was already identified as a problem.

So What Is a Reasonable Person Supposed to Do?

I have spent some time gathering information on what I believe are reasonable steps which will allow you to continue to use your Mac on a regular basis, and which will also protect you in case something does happen of any sort of "malware" whether that is a trojan horse, a virus, spyware, or any such thing.

This advice comes to you from a neutral party. I do not have any financial stake in selling you software or services, nor do I believe the myth of the impenetrable computer, no matter what operating system you use.

You will notice that many of the suggestions that I make are not specifically about protecting yourself from malware, in fact, a lot of it would apply if all you were worried about was what might happen if your computer was ever lost, stolen, or destroyed in a fire or other disaster.

(Oh, and one last bit of prologue: while I did decide to number these so they could be easily referred to, I did not try to come up with a certain number of steps that you should take.)

Step 1) Make Backups: Use Time Machine.

Telling people to make backups is like telling people to eat better and get more exercise. Almost everyone knows that they should do it, almost everyone believes that they should do it, but far too many people still don't do it.

But if you ignore everything else I say, please listen to this: Make backups.

There's really no excuse not to make backups on your Mac. Every Mac comes with Time Machine, a built-in backup solution which is as easy as buying a second hard drive and plugging it into your Mac. Time Machine will prompt you to start using it, and will automatically keep things backed up.

Using Time Machine is like wearing your seat belt in a car. Just do it, no excuses.

Step 2) Make Backups: A Bootable Clone.

Time Machine is great, but don't stop there. If you really want to be safe, you should have a clone if your hard drive. A clone is an exact copy of your drive which you can use to boot your computer in case the hard drive dies. You can make one of these using Disk Utility, but I suggest SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner.

Using Time Machine and bootable clone is like wearing your seat belt and having insurance. It's just a good idea.

Extra Credit: If your house or apartment burned down tomorrow while you were away, would it take out your computer and your backup? What if someone broke it and stole your computer and backup drive? For these reasons, people often suggest having an off-site backup. There are several ways you can do this.

The simplest path to offsite backup is making two clones of your drive, and bringing one somewhere like your office or a friend's house. OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion also makes it easier to alternate drives for Time Machine, allowing you to rotate drives in and out at will. Either way, you'd have a copy of your data locally and one someplace else.

But both of those approaches require you to update those backups periodically and physically move the drives around. A more hands-off solution would be something like BackBlaze or CrashPlan or Mozy or Carbonite or JungleDisk or another app that does real-time, off-site backups. CrashPlan actually allows you to "buddy up" with a friend or family member who has a high-speed Internet connection; you back up to a spare drive at their house, and they can do the same at your place.

Step 3) Use Dropbox for your most important files.

Dropbox isn't a backup system per se, but it does have a few things to offer that can be quite helpful when dealing with computer security.

The first is that as soon as you save a document to your Dropbox folder (or any of its sub-folders) it is immediately copied to the Dropbox website. That means that in a matter of seconds, there is an off-site backup copy. If you are working on a file at 10:15 a.m. and spill your coffee on your laptop at 10:20 a.m. Dropbox is the best chance you have of getting an up-to-date copy of that file.

Likewise, if some sort of a security breach affected your computer and corrupted or deleted your files, Dropbox can help here too. First of all, Dropbox keeps all revisions of a file going back 30 days. Using the Dropbox web interface, you can go back and compare versions, and find the last safe, clean copy of an infected file. Dropbox will also let you restore files which have been deleted in the past 30 days as well. (There's an add-on service called pack-rat which will let you recover files beyond 30 days -- indefinitely, in fact.)

File corruption can be a much more difficult problem to solve than file deletion. Being able to easily compare versions is a significant feature. Apple's Time Machine can do that as well, but by default it only runs once per hour, and a file you are actively working on may have been changed many times during that hour.

Dropbox and Security: Some people might object to recommending Dropbox as a security feature because what you are doing is copying a file to a 3rd party where it could (theoretically) be compromised by a security leak at Dropbox. To me, it comes down to a matter of trade-offs. First of all, I don't have anything that would quality as "state secrets" in my Dropbox. My most important confidential information is stored in 1Password, which is encrypted on disk before being sent to Dropbox and is protected by what I consider to be a very secure master password (based on the information I learned by reading Toward Better Master Passwords and Better Master Passwords: The geek edition).

Secondly, I consider accidental deletion or data corruption (or a hard drive crash) as much more likely than someone breaking into Dropbox to get at my files. Dropbox works for me because I don't have to think about it, it just runs, automatically, all of the time, on all of my computers.

A reasonable person might decide to encrypt sensitive files locally before saving them to Dropbox. (You can do this for free with Disk Utility and an encrypted disk image, or use something like Knox.) You can also achieve similar sync-to-the-cloud results with Google Drive, SkyDrive, SugarSync or Dolly Drive.

Step 4) Be Careful Where You Get Your Software.

Now we are moving beyond the realm of backups and multiple copies of files and getting into computer security from malware.

The most likely way that some sort of malware will get installed on your computer is by someone (or you) installing it, thinking that they are installing something else. If I can write a program and convince you to run it and enter your password when prompted, I can do pretty much anything to your computer.

If you find a program through BitTorrent which claims to be some high-end software for OS X that you want but don't want to buy (or can't afford), you might be tempted to download and install it. You might tell yourself that you aren't going to use it often enough to justify buying it, or maybe you want to try it out before you decide to buy it. Whatever the reason, the problem is that you don't really know what you're installing. It might be a "safe" version of a cracked program, or it might be a program that will also install some other kind of malware on your computer alongside of the program that you think you are getting.

Once you start installing software from an untrustworthy source, you're setting yourself up for trouble. So what is a reasonable person to do?

Use the Mac App Store Apple promotes the Mac App Store as a safe place to buy and install software. Many applications are available for free, and overall the price of software these days is incredibly low for what you get. While no system is 100% foolproof, the odds of downloading some sort of malware from the Mac App Store are extremely remote.

Use trusted third-party software. The downside to the Mac App Store is that Apple has placed so many restrictions on what apps can do, that many excellent, useful, trustworthy applications just are not available on the Mac App Store. I download and install third-party software all of the time, and I do so with confidence because I take what I consider to be reasonable precautions.

Starting in OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion), Apple introduced Gatekeeper which is designed to be another layer of protection against malware. By default, Gatekeeper will only allow you to run applications from the Mac App Store or from "identified developers" who have paid US$100 for a developer license and cryptographically signed their software to make sure that it hasn't been tampered with. Macworld has a good article explaining what Gatekeeper is and isn't. It is possible for a malicious developer to develop a malicious program, sign up for Apple's developer program and distribute that program on their website. However, the chances of that seem relatively slim.

What is much more likely is that you might find a piece of software that you want to run, and see a warning that it is from an unknown developer. You might choose to open it anyway. This is where things start to get more difficult because there are legitimate apps out there which are made by legitimate developers who have not cryptographically signed their software. It may be that the software is a few years old and was developed before Gatekeeper was introduced. It may be that the developer made the app in his/her spare time and didn't feel like paying Apple for a developer certificate.

A reasonable person has to weigh the potential consequences and likelihood of this application being some sort of malware. Has the app been reviewed by a reputable Mac-related website? Is it a well-known app? Be careful of any software which arrives via email or on some random tucked-away page on a web forum, etc.

Step 5) Read first, install last.

Perhaps the most important thing you can do to protect yourself is to stay up-to-date on Mac news. A story about an actual Mac malware problem is going to be very widely-reported.

This does not mean that you need to refresh your browser or RSS feeds every 15 minutes, or that you need to read every Mac-related site out there. But take a quick glance through the headlines each day to stay informed. This goes along with checking for reviews of software that you are considering installing. Or try a simple search for the application and look for reviews from sites you've heard of before, like TUAW.

As a corollary to that point: don't be the first one to try every new app that comes out. Let tech writers risk their computers. If you find something brand new, bookmark it and make yourself some reminder to check it out in a day or two. 999,999 times out of 1,000,000 it's going to be just fine, but Not Being First might be your best chance of not being that unlucky "one in the million."

Do You Need Anti-Malware Software for Mac today?

My answer is no. Is it possible that at some point in the future, Mac OS X users will need to run real-time anti-virus and/or anti-spyware software? Yes. It is likely? No. Mac security software has not shown itself capable of catching new attacks in real-time, and there are not many attacks to be protected against.

If you insist on running anti-malware software for Mac, try either ClamXav or Sophos. Pick one but not both. Running two of these kinds of programs will cause far more problems than either one will solve.

Just remember, whenever you read a claim that Mac malware is either an unavoidable inevitability (or a current reality), check to see if the person who wrote the article sells Mac security software.

Use the tools Apple provides.

Apple gained a reputation for not being overly concerned with security, but that seems to be slowly changing. They have published a page of security features in Mac OS X 10.8 called Safety. Built right in.

There are several built-in features that you can control as well:

• Mac OS X has a firewall built-in. Go to System Preferences » Security & Privacy and see if it is enabled. (Your router may also have a firewall built-in.)

• While you are in System Preferences, look under "Sharing" and turn off anything that doesn't need to be on.

Safer Safari

There are several changes that you can make to Safari to make it safer.

First, go to Preferences » General and uncheck the box next to "Open 'Safe' files after downloading."

You may remember that browser security has most often been compromised through Adobe Flash, such that a security contest winner gave this advice: "The main thing is not to install Flash!".

Java was also a recent security hole on OS X. It is possible to disable both Plugins and Java by going into the Safari Security Preferences, and unchecking the boxes shown here:

I don't find myself needing Java in Safari all that often, so I find it simple to disable that altogether. I also regularly disable plugins, but I'm not sure I would go so far as to say that is a reasonable step for most people. Many would probably find it frustrating and annoying.

Instead, I would encourage you to consider using the ClickToPlugin & ClickToFlash Safari extensions which will prevent plugins from running automatically but which let you run them when you want. That seems to be a much more reasonable and balanced approach.

A Reasonable Protection

If you made it to the end, I have a bonus suggestion which I think offers the best balance between practicality and security in protecting yourself from future malware threats.

To understand how this tool works, you have to understand the system that Apple uses to launch programs (either visible apps or background daemons) whenever you reboot your computer and/or log into your computer.

For example, when I log in, several applications start right away. I can see some of these by going to System Preferences » Users & Groups and then selecting my user account and 'Login Items' as shown here:

But those are only some of the applications and daemons that run automatically. OS X has several different folders which can be used to auto-launch programs via the launchd system:

1. ~/Library/LaunchAgents
2. /Library/StartupItems
3. /Library/LaunchAgents
4. /Library/LaunchDaemons
5. /System/Library/LaunchAgents
6. /System/Library/LaunchDaemons
7. /System/Library/StartupItems

I checked those folders on my computer and found there were over 400 entries. That does not concern me at all, because not all of those programs are running, and the ones that are running provide some kind of service or benefit.

However, this is also the most likely place that a piece of malware would try to hide.

What do most people do if their computer starts acting strangely? Chances are good that they will reboot it. So if you were trying to get some kind of malicious software on someone's computer, the first thing you would try to do is make sure that if someone reboots their computer, your software will start up again. In fact, to avoid detection you might not want your program to do anything at first except make sure that it will start up when the computer is rebooted.

Therefore, a good way to protect yourself is to keep an eye on these various auto-launch tools, and be notified whenever something is added to them.

The tricky part is making sure that you don't overreact just because something happens in one of those folders. Chances are good that you had no idea those 400+ things existed, and none of them were malicious. Computers do a lot of good things in the background that we don't want to be constantly bothered with knowing about. Think about this sort of like you think about your basement or storage area in your house: you might have a lot of stuff in there, and you might not even need to care about most of it, but you would want to know if someone put something in your basement without your knowledge.

The folks at CIRCL (Computer Incident Response Center Luxembourg) created a free tool to detect when something has been added to the automatic launch settings for OS X. You can download it at http://www.circl.lu/pub/tr-08/ and it will give you an alert whenever something is added to one of those folders. More detailed information about using that tool is available at MacFixIt.

As long as you remember that this system is detecting all activity not just malicious activity then this could be a very powerful "early warning" tool. Because it is only checking a few, very specific places, it should not add any noticeable performance drain on your computer, unlike many other anti-malware tools. It is not a 100% guarantee of protection, but it is a very good reasonable precaution to make.

Don't Panic, Do Plan

Despite warnings of the "inevitability" of malware on the Mac, the reality has been a very limited sphere of trouble. That doesn't mean that you should ignore the possibility of there ever being problems, but right now there just is not much that I can recommend for proactive protection beyond backups, caution, and common sense.

I have labeled this guide "Version 1.0" because it may need to be updated in the future, but this represent the most reasonable balance, in my opinion, for the reality of today's Mac user.

Version history:
2012/12/01 -- Minor typographical edits. Amended backup section to note multi-volume Time Machine, CrashPlan buddy backup. Amended sync section (Dropbox) to cite other sync vendors.

Securing Your Mac: A Guide for Reasonable People, Version 1.0 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 30 Nov 2012 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We've all been there: sitting in front of your Mac when the screen suddenly dims, or goes to sleep right when you were reading something. If you have the screensaver set to require your password to unlock it, this can be a bit of an annoyance. But until recently the only other option was to set a longer delay before the screensaver kicks in, which could mean leaving your computer unattended and unlocked for longer than you want.

That's where "Should I Sleep?" comes in.

I have to admit, when I first read about this, I was skeptical. Using my web cam to see if I was in front of my computer? Wouldn't it be annoying to have that LED glowing all the time?

Fortunately, the app is smarter than I had expected. During normal use, your Mac's camera stays off until Should I Sleep? detects that the computer is getting ready to sleep. Then the webcam comes on for a few seconds to check to see if you are in front of the computer. If you are, it won't sleep. If you aren't, it will.

Having used it for the past month, I have to admit that it works very well, and it's very handy. I can keep my energy settings low for the screen to turn off when not in use, but I no longer have to keep tapping on the "Shift" key to tell my Mac not to sleep if I am idle for a few moments longer than expected.

The app comes with one free sensor for facial recognition, and has other sensors that you can buy for an additional US$1 each. Right now you can get all four current sensors for $2, which is what I did. That gives you additional sensors for sound, downloads, external monitors and motion detection. The latter is especially handy if you are in front of your computer but not facing it directly.

Should I Sleep? may not be an essential tool, but it's a very useful one, and one of my recent favorite "little things" that makes my computer use a little better.

"Should I Sleep?" keeps your Mac awake while in use originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW has had an iPhone/iPod touch compatible app for a long time. The development of the app is handled by our parent company AOL, not TUAW, so we don't have control over when the app is updated for things like the new iPhone 5 screen. Even more frustratingly, there is no iPad version of the TUAW app, and we don't know when one will be available. That's the bad news.

The good news is that we have a mobile version of our website. Actually, we have two: http://m.tuaw.com and http://i.tuaw.com, both of which work extremely well on both the iPhone 5 and the iPad. However the full site has also been optimized to work quite well on the iPad, and m.tuaw.com will allow you to quickly jump to the full version of the site at any time. Our older site, i.tuaw is a more stripped-down experience.

The easiest way to read TUAW on those devices is to add a shortcut to your home screen, which you can do with either of those two sites. I would recommend checking both of them out and seeing which one you prefer. They both offer exactly the same content as is found on our main site.

While these instructions may seem obvious to those of you who are familiar with iOS, we continue to get a lot of questions about it, so I decided to make a quick "how to" guide to illustrate the process.

Step One: Go to http://m.tuaw.com in your browser. It is important that you are on the main page of the site and not on any specific article.

Step Two: Tap on the "Share Button" next to the address bar, shown here:

That brings up a new menu. Look in the center where you see the TUAW logo over the words "Add to Home Screen":

Step Three: Tap the TUAW logo and you get an "Add to Home" prompt like this.

Step Four: Tap the "Add" button, and Safari hides itself to show your iPad or iPhone home screen:

Now, whenever you want to read TUAW, just tap that button and it launches Safari to load the mobile version of our website.

Here's one last feature of our mobile sites that you might like. Any time you are looking at a URL at TUAW.com, you can switch to the other version by tapping on the address bar and changing the "www.tuaw.com" to "m.tuaw.com" or "i.tuaw.com". So, for example:

I'm going to use my previous article, "Lingon and launchd can keep crucial apps always running" as an example:

• www.tuaw.com/2012/10/30/lingon-and-launchd-can-keep-crucial-apps-always-running/ is the "full" version.

• m.tuaw.com/2012/10/30/lingon-and-launchd-can-keep-crucial-apps-always-running/ is the "mobile" version.

• i.tuaw.com/2012/10/30/lingon-and-launchd-can-keep-crucial-apps-always-running/ is the "iPhone/iPad" version.

That makes it easy to switch between versions. In fact, if I am going to save an article from TUAW to Pinboard or Instapaper, I will usually switch to the iPad-friendly version of the page first. I even made a very simple bookmarklet to help.

Bookmark this link -- iTUAW -- and use it anytime you are on a "www.tuaw.com" page and want to go to the "i.tuaw.com" version of the same page. (I don't actually know JavaScript; I pieced that together using Google, so there may be a better way to do this. It works for me in Safari.)

Native apps do have many benefits, but for reading websites, these kinds of shortcuts are a good solution.

Reading TUAW on your iPhone 5 or iPad (or, yes, even another tablet!) originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 01 Nov 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Two years ago I wrote about a shell script that I used with cron to keep 'critical' applications running. Some of the commenters suggested that I "should" be using launchd. There are times when I still prefer cron over launchd but there are two reasons why I have started using launchd more often. The first is Lingon, and the second is learning more about what launchd can do.

Lingon & the Mac App Store: A Mini-Rant

Lingon 3 is a US$3 app which makes writing and managing launchd plists easy. Lingon has been a 'nerd tool' for a long time. A long time ago there was a version available for free. When the Mac App Store opened, Lingon 2 was released for $US5. This naturally enraged some people who believe that software developers have the ability to feed themselves on sandwiches made from air and good feelings.

To make matters worse, Lingon ran into the new "sandboxing" restrictions for the Mac App Store.

Briefly stated, sandboxing rules now limit what any Mac App Store application can do. These restrictions are imposed by Apple for other developers, even though Apple allows its own software to do many things which aren't possible with sandboxing restrictions. If you have noticed apps leaving the Mac App Store recently, there's a good chance sandboxing is the reason. Sandboxing is a good idea, but right now it is so restrictive that it is causing more problems than it solves. Hopefully this situation will get better as Apple increases what sandboxed apps can do, but for now developers are left with little choice.

Peter Borg, Lingon's developer, was faced with a choice: either neuter Lingon 2 to fit sandboxing requirements, or release a new version of Lingon. This was a bit of a "no-win" situation that many developers are facing. Updating Lingon 2 to comply with sandboxing requirements would mean that users who had purchased Lingon 2 and then updated to the newer version would lose features they had paid for. Creating a new version of Lingon would allow the developer to make sure that it complied with sandboxing requirements, but customers who bought Lingon 2 would have to pay for Lingon 3 because the Mac App Store does not have any way for developers to offer upgrade pricing to existing customers.

He chose to make a new version of Lingon (version 3) priced at $3 instead of $5, which makes sense because it could do less than Lingon 2. For those who still want Lingon 2, it is still available as a separate app. Despite having made a reasonable choice between two less-than-ideal options, the Mac App Store reviews call it "horrible" and "useless" for not having the features that Apple won't let the developer include. All of which is fairly ridiculous, especially when you realize that you're talking about two versions of an app which, together, cost $8.

launchd, KeepAlive, and SuccessfulExit

Apple released launchd as part of Mac OS X 10.4 ("Tiger") in 2005, and has steadily improved it ever since. There is no shortage of documentation for it, including Creating Launch Daemons and Agents and the launchd.plist Manual Page, but it's easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of information available.

Personally, I find it a lot easier to look at working examples, and see how and why they work. Here's a fairly generic template that I created for you to use:

If you want to use that, click/tap on the 'raw' link and it will load in your browser, then save it to your computer.

To modify it, just change the two parts written in ALL CAPS. Replace "YOUR.NAME.HERE" with anything you want. It just has to be unique on your system.

The "KeepAlive" key tells launchd to restart the process if it stops for any reason. This ensures that the program will be available all the time, but there's a problem: what happens when there's a new version of the app and you want to install the update? You can quit the app, but launchd is just going to restart it. That's where SuccessfulExit comes in. By setting that to 'false' we are telling launchd to only restart this program if the app does not exit successfully. So if you quit the app yourself for some reason, launchd assumes that you want to keep it off until you restart the application, reboot your Mac, or log out and then back in.

Then replace "/PATH/TO/PROGRAM/YOU/WANT/TO/KEEP/RUNNING" to the path on your system. Note that if you want to keep an app running, you have to include the path all the way to the executable file, not just the ".app" so if you wanted to keep Dropbox running all the time, the path would be /Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox and not just /Applications/Dropbox.app!

There are two other potential problems:

1. Spaces in path names
2. Sometimes what you want to keep running isn't obvious at first.

I'm going to address both of those using a plist that I use to keep Keyboard Maestro's helper engine running:

You'll notice that I don't want to keep Keyboard Maestro running. I want to keep "Keyboard Maestro Engine" running. If you aren't sure what the correct path is, you can go into Terminal.app and type:

ps auxww | fgrep -i 'WORD' | fgrep -v fgrep

Replace "WORD" with whatever word you want to search for: iTunes, Evernote, Hazel, etc. Look for words such as "Watcher" or "Helper" -- those are often the ones that you might want to keep running.

If the path you find has spaces it in (like Keyboard Maestro Engine does), try it without using either quotes or back-slashes () first, and see if it works. If it doesn't work, try adding backslashes before each space or before any punctuation that isn't a period or a slash.

Once you have your plist created, save it to ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ and then load it using launchctl load like this:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/your.name.here.plist

or just log out/reboot.

Note: it is a good idea to use the same name for the filename as you chose for the label (YOUR.NAME.HERE) but make sure to add the ".plist" in the filename.

Lingon makes it easier

Now you know how to plists by hand, but I suspect most people would prefer an easier way. Enter Lingon.

Launch Lingon and it will show you all of your existing launchd plists in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/:

Don't be surprised if there several already in there. Click the plus (+) at the top-left and Lingon will prompt you to save:

Now, I know it might seem counter-intuitive to have "save" be your first step, but you'll see why in a moment. Once you choose a name, Lingon will expand to show you this:

Let's take a closer look at that front panel:

Lingon has already filled in the "Name" field based on the filename you chose for the "Save As" command. Smart! Now you just have to choose what app or program you want to keep running. I'm going to choose Dropbox.

Notice that I have only selected the Dropbox.app itself.

"But wait!" you cry, "Didn't you say before that you need to select the app binary, not just the app wrapper?" Yes, I did. But Lingon is smart enough to add the "Contents/MacOS/Dropbox" even though I just selected Dropbox.app.

See?

Now that you have chosen a program, you need to tell Lingon when you want to run it. Note that I have chosen both "Keep Running" and "At login and at load." Now in my experience, I have not needed to to specify "At login and at load" but the launchd.plist Manual Page says that '[SuccessfulExit] implies that "RunAtLoad" is set to true, since the job needs to run at least once before we can get an exit status.' So I select both. Fortunately launchd is smart enough not to launch two of them.

When you're finished, click 'Save & Load' and Lingon will show you your new plist in the list:

Voilà! Point and click, with no editing of plist files, no need to drop into Terminal.app, and no need to come back to this page to copy that template that I showed you. Lingon 3 is smart enough to add the SuccessfulExit key and everything else you need.

If you use KeepAlive, turn off 'auto-launch'

If you do decide to set up a "KeepAlive" for an app such as Dropbox, be sure to go into that app's preferences and turn off the setting to auto-launch the app when you log in.

For example, this is Dropbox's preference for that:

The reason to turn that off is that otherwise launchd might start the app and it might auto-start on its own, and generally speaking it is not a good idea to run two versions of the same app at the same time.

If you decide that you no longer want to use KeepAlive, either go to ~/Library/LaunchAgents and remove the file (and then log out/reboot), or launch Lingon 3, select the plist you want to remove, and select File » Delete Job.

Lingon and launchd can keep crucial apps always running originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Keyboard Maestro always sounded like a useful app, but I wasn't sure how I would ever use it. Now that I have it, I keep finding new ways to use it.

I think Keyboard Maestro is perhaps one of the more difficult apps to explain, because how I use it might vary greatly from how you use it, but once you get to know how it works and some of the things it can do, maybe you'll see how you might use it.

Some simple use cases for Keyboard Maestro

At its simplest, Keyboard Maestro can do things like TextExpander where you type a few letters and have it expand to a much larger message, but that's really a narrow view of what it does. In fact, I prefer to use TextExpander for those sorts of uses. I use Keyboard Maestro for more complicate situations.

For example, have you ever tried to add a bunch of iOS apps to an iTunes library, only to have iTunes warn you that some of the apps already exist? If you have, you know what follows. Each time iTunes finds a duplicate application, it will stop everything and ask if you want to replace the app until you press "OK" and then it will continue. Keyboard Maestro can wait until iTunes asks and then answer for you. I once left iTunes running like that and went to lunch, letting Keyboard Maestro do the menial work for me.

Keyboard Maestro can trigger events to happen when an app quits or when it launches. For example, when SuperDuper launches, Keyboard Maestro automatically unmounts my Time Machine backup (because I don't want Time Machine to interfere with SuperDuper). When SuperDuper quits, Keyboard Maestro unmounts the SuperDuper clone (otherwise Spotlight tends to find apps and files on both drives) and remounts my Time Machine drive.

When I am using Microsoft Word and have an open document, Keyboard Maestro automatically saves the file for me every 3 minutes, so I never have to worry about losing work.

Mac OS X supports customizable keyboard shortcuts for menu items, but they have to include the Command key (⌘). With Keyboard Maestro, I can assign any keyboard combination I want, and if I accidentally use the same keyboard combination twice, Keyboard Maestro will pop up a menu and let me choose between the two of them.

Putting several steps together

As I mentioned, the key (no pun intended) to using Keyboard Maestro is to start getting into the mindset of thinking "Could I automate this?" whenever you find yourself doing something repeatedly.

For example, I access a database of journal articles that are available to download as PDFs. I recently discovered that if I email those articles to myself, the database will include all of the citation information necessary. But emailing them is a bit of a pain. Each time I find an article I have to click on the 'email' button, which triggers some JavaScript which reveals a place where I can enter my email address. I have to type my email address, then I have to copy the title of the article into the Subject: line, then I have to check the box to say that I want the email to be "plain text plus the attachment", then I have to hit the 'Send' button. Once it is sent, I have to click 'Continue' to dismiss the alert that tells me the email was sent, and then I have to go back to the previous page in my browser history.

All told there were twelve steps involved for each article, and some of those steps had multiple keystrokes involved, such as 'type my email address.' (Actually I was typing my Send To Dropbox email address, so the PDF and the email body with the citation would also get saved.)

With Keyboard Maestro, once I decide that I want to save an article, I simply press one keyboard combination, and it does all of the necessary steps. It even brings me back to the previous page so I can continue searching. Not only does Keyboard Maestro do these s steps approximately 100 times faster than I could, it never accidentally misspells my email address, or hits the 'tab' key three times instead of two times, or forgets to check the box that says 'Yes, include the PDF in the email.'

The end result is that I have more time to spend doing what I want to do (looking for interesting articles) and don't have to spend any time or mental energy on the boring, repetitive, easy-to-make-a-mistake parts.

Do you install a lot of applications?

As someone who tests a lot of software, I find myself running Installer.app a lot. Anyone who does this a lot knows that there are usually about 5-6 different screens that you have to go through from start to finish.

1. Click install
2. Click Continue
3. Click Agree (to the EULA)
4. Click Continue Installation
5. Wait for it to finish
6. Click Close

If you've done that often enough, you know that you can press 'Enter' and 'Tab' (or Shift + Tab) to get through those, but it's a lot faster to have Keyboard Maestro do it for you. (You'll still have to enter your password manually, so don't worry about accidentally opening an installer and having something bad happen.)

Do you make backups?

I make backups of my calendar and contacts information every week. Well, at least I always intend to. But, well, if it relies on me remembering to do it, I probably won't do it.

With Keyboard Maestro I can schedule this backup to happen automatically. So now, every Monday at 9:00 a.m. I get a Growl alert which says "Backing up Contacts" (which alerts me that it's about to happen so I don't accidentally interfere with it), then the Contacts app opens, and Keyboard Maestro selects File » Export » Contacts Archive... presses 'Save' when prompted, and then quits Contacts app.

Then the entire process repeats with BusyCal.

The whole process takes a few seconds, and all I have to do is wait.

(Speaking of automation, I won't even mention that those backups are automatically saved to a particular folder using Default Folder X, and that once they are saved, Hazel automatically zips them and moves them to Dropbox. Oops. Well, maybe I'll mention it just a little.)

Automation reduces annoyance

Computers are great, but sometimes we have to do things that are repetitive and boring. Computers should be doing those repetitive and boring things for us. Keyboard Maestro makes it easy to get your computer to do some of those annoying things for you. All you have to do is figure out the parts that can be automated, and then sit back and watch as your computer works for you. OK, so Keyboard Maestro isn't exactly a robot butler, but it's still a step in the right direction.

A demo is available from the Keyboard Maestro website, a full license is US$36. While that may seem like a lot to the "Apps should be $1! Or free!" crowd, those of us who value our time and satisfaction will see it as money well spent. Download the trial and spend some time with it. Don't dismiss it because there's a learning curve. Start small and figure out some little ways to use it, and then watch as you develop the automation mindset. Once you get used to thinking this way, you'll wonder why it took you so long.

Keyboard Maestro and the automation mindset originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW reader Glenn Thorpe wrote about Apple ID problems:

"I recently upgraded to iOS 6 as recommended and I am now faced with some challenges when using FaceTime and Messages.

"My Apple ID account which I use to download apps cannot be used for FaceTime nor Messages. I had to create new AppleIDs for both of these applications. The frustrating issue is that I now have three AppleIDs to manage and I am not sure of what impact this will have when I buy apps or try to perform other transactions.

"Please advise me if I can somehow consolidate these IDs or will I be able to use my original ID again for all of my apps."

This has been a long-standing problem, made worse by the advent of iCloud.

A year ago there were rumors that Apple was working on a way to merge Apple IDs, and Tim Cook was reported to have called someone who had complained about the problem and said "we are aware of this issue and are working on it."

Well, as the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words. When I wrote about this a year ago, I noted that Apple's AppleID FAQ said "At this time, Apple IDs cannot be consolidated." This led some people to speculate that Apple would be announcing a way to consolidate Apple IDs.

Today that page says "Apple IDs cannot be merged."

Maybe Apple is still working on this, but a year has passed, a new version of iOS has been released, this problem has still not been addressed, and the only official word we have from Apple has changed from "This can't be done yet" to "This can't be done." I think it is a much safer assumption to make that Apple either tried to figure out a way to do this and couldn't make it work, or that Apple has simply given up because it had bigger things to worry about. Either way, don't hold your breath.

My Apple ID history

I created my first Apple ID back when the iTunes Music Store first opened. It was just a username, not an email address, and even though I had an email address associated with it, the email address was completely unrelated to my Apple ID username.

With the advent of MobileMe, Apple started moving people towards using their email address as their Apple ID, but it was not required. Eventually it was no longer possible to create an Apple ID that was just a username, and finally we arrived at the point where an Apple ID which is not an email address cannot be used for some features such as iCloud or Messages.

Somewhere along the line I managed to create a second Apple ID which was username@mac.com and I thought that meant they were interchageable. Unfortunately I was wrong, these were considered completely separate Apple IDs and caused no small amount of frustration and confusion. I continued to use my username for iTunes/App Store purchases and used username@mac.com for those services which required an email address.

However, in light of my recent iCloud debacle (which was never solved and the AppleCare rep I was working with stopped returning my calls and emails), I decided that it was time to stop fighting Apple and just stick to one Apple ID. Fortunately I have never used iCloud for email, so dropping that email address was not that big of a deal. Not everyone will be so lucky. However, if you still need to use that Apple ID for email you can add it under "Mail, Contacts, Calendars."

Your 'username' Apple ID can be updated to an email address

I liked having an Apple ID that wasn't an email address, and I wanted to keep it that way. I kept hoping that Apple would make it easier to use, but they have made absolutely no movement in that direction.

In fact, if you have an Apple ID which is not an email address, Apple will strongly suggest that you change it. I resisted this for a long time, but finally gave in.

Here is how to change your "username" Apple ID to be an email address:

1. Go to http://appleid.apple.com.

2. Select "Manage Your Apple ID."

3. Log in with your Apple ID and password.

4. If your "Apple ID and Primary Email Address" are not the same, there will be a prominent box prompting you to change that.

5. Make sure that your Primary Email Address is the one that you want to use as your Apple ID. (If not, add it and verify it to your Apple ID account.)

   Note that this email address cannot be the same as your "Rescue Email Address" so if you want to use that email address, you will have to change the "Rescue Email Address" in the "Password and Security" section of the "My Apple ID" at http://appleid.apple.com.

6. Once your Primary Email Address is correct, select the option to make your Apple ID and Primary Email Address the same.

7. On your Mac(s):

   • Log out of iCloud in System Preferences and then log back in with your new Apple ID.
   • In the Messages app, delete your Apple ID and then re-add it using your email address.
   • Log out of iTunes and the App Store app, then log back in.

8. On your iOS device(s):

   • Log out of iCloud and then back in.
   • Log out of FaceTime and then back in (tap the 'Use your Apple ID for FaceTime).
   • Check Messages to make sure that your Apple ID is listed there.
   • Log out of iTunes & App Stores in Settings.

Also, if you use Find My iPhone or Find My Friends you may need to reconfigure those on iOS and Mac OS X.

Note that after you make this change you may be asked to confirm your billing information for iTunes. Usually that just means re-entering the credit card security number (that three- or four-digit code on the back of the card).

Temporary frustration versus on-going frustration

Making this switch isn't very difficult, although it is a bit annoying and can be time-consuming, depending on how many Macs and iOS devices you have. It's a decision between the temporary frustration of changing everything to be the way that Apple now wants it to be versus the ongoing frustration of trying to fight against the way Apple wants it to be.

Apple doesn't seem to be making any movement towards making this easier for those of us with more than one Apple ID, so it's up to us to decide which frustration we prefer.

Merging Apple IDs still not possible. Now what? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A friend who values her privacy asked: "How do you delete Google search history on an iPhone?" There are two ways to do this, the first of which is to go to the Settings app, scroll down to 'Safari' and then click the 'Clear History' button as shown above.

The second can be done from inside Safari itself. Tap the 'bookmarks' icon on the toolbar, then select History (note: if you don't see 'History' tap on whatever button is shown at the top-left until you see 'Bookmarks' at the top of the screen), then tap 'Clear.' This might be easier to understand visually, so here are some screenshots:

Private Browsing in Safari

Mobile Safari now has a 'Private Browsing' option to prevent history items, searches, cookies, and form data from being stored.

Private Browsing is great for short web browsing sessions, but what if you want to be able to keep your history and cookies and bookmarks but not allow anyone who uses your iPhone or iPad to be able to access them?

You can't do that with Safari, but you can do it with iCab.

iCab Mobile: Everything Safari does, and much more

iCab Mobile (AKA iCab) is a US$1.99 app that continues to be my browser of choice on my iPad and iPhone. I reviewed iCab last year, but let me focus on some of iCab's privacy features here.

iCab offers Private Browsing, of course, but it also offers many more privacy controls than Safari, such as the ability to delete history, cookies, saved form data, HTTP Auth credentials, databases, and local storage. You can also set it to automatically delete history, cookies, databases, and/or local storage when quitting the app.

As if that wasn't enough, you can password protect the entire application, so anyone else who launches the app is unable to see your bookmarks, history, or anything else. Once password protected, it's possible to enable a 'Guest Mode' to let someone use iCab but still keep your information protected.

In my opinion, iCab is also better at everything else you use a browser for.

iCab sync bookmarks, filters, search engines, and/or settings using iCloud. It lets you change the Browser ID (User Agent) which can be handy for sites that restrict access to certain kinds of browsers or automatically redirect mobile browsers to a stripped-down version of the site. You can download files right to iCab, and then either store them in iCab or open them in other apps. You can even upload those files to Dropbox. Images can be saved from websites directly to Dropbox.

The only downside to using iCab is that Apple does not allow any browser except Safari to be set as the default browser, so any web links clicked in other applications like Mail will continue to open in Safari. In practice that doesn't bother me too much, because Safari is a very good mobile browser. If I want to open a page from Safari in iCab, I can do one of two things: I can tap on the URL and change the "http://" or "https://" to "web://" or "webs://" -- which opens the current page in iCab -- or I can install the Open in iCab bookmark.

iCab Mobile also supports x-callback-url which helps iCab interact with other iOS applications. If you don't know what x-callback-url is, don't worry about it, but if you do know what it is, you'll be glad to know iCab supports it.

To some people, spending two bucks on a browser when Safari is free sounds like wasting money. To me, spending two bucks for a much better browser is a complete bargain. iCab is the 3rd-party app that I use most often on my iOS devices, and it continues to be improved at a much faster rate than Safari.

Secure browsing on iOS in Safari or iCab Mobile originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 30 Sep 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I knew that when Evernote purchased Skitch they were destined to screw it up.

Sure enough, it didn't take long.

First they started pushing people to use Evernote accounts. Skitch had done this too, insisting that you keep a Skitch.com account in your "sharing" options, even if you had no interest in actually using Skitch.com.

For a while, Skitch.app would actually create an Evernote and a Skitch entry in the Share preferences, and every time you deleted them, Skitch would come right back and re-create them. Because why should users get to decide what to do with software they install on their own computers?

*Clearly* Evernote knows best.

First they shut down Skitch.com...

Well, that wasn't enough for the fine folks at Evernote. One of the things I liked best about Skitch was the ability to share images though my own server. Why? Because companies like Skitch have a habit of going bankrupt, either financially or morally.

Sure enough, Evernote decided once again that they know what's best for you, and so they announced (in an email to customers):

Sharing in Skitch will go through the Evernote Service, which means that you will be able to access your Skitch notes on any computer, phone, or tablet you use.

What Evernote wants to sell you is the idea that it's better to use Evernote for sharing your images because then you can access them anywhere.

Of course, "that's a bunch of horse hooey," as we say out here in farm country.

You could access your images from your computer, phone or tablet if they were on an SFTP/FTP site. Evernote just doesn't want you doing it that way. They want you to do it through Evernote, which will give them more control and (one assumes) the ability to display ads around your content. Because who wouldn't want that?

As of October 10, 2012, the Skitch.com website will be archived. You will no longer be able to sign into Skitch.com as of that date.

OK, fine, I understand that they have their own web service and they don't want to manage two of them. I guess we all should have seen the writing on the wall there.

How This Affects You

Your public and secret images will remain accessible and the links to these will not change.

Wow, that's decent of them.

If you have private images, then you will no longer be able to access them after October 10, 2012. You can easily download all of your private images to your computer using the link below. Once downloaded, we recommend adding them to your Evernote account so that they're easy for you to access any time.

Wow, that's not decent of them.

Look, I understand not wanting to let people add content to Skitch.com. If they want to upload content to a server that isn't in their control, well, hey, these are the chances that you take.

But if they are keeping the "public" and "secret" images, why not keep the private images too?

Well, the answer is that they don't want to, and they don't have to. After all, it's a free service -- even though there are people, like myself, who paid Skitch to be able to use all of the features of the software back when they used a "freemium" (gross) model.

OK, well, at least I can still save my own images to my own server.

Oh wait, no I can't.

Earlier today Evernote pushed Skitch version 2.0. They're getting heavy rotation in the Mac App Store, even being featured as an "Editors' Choice" app. (Gee, why would you release a new version of your app the same day as a new version of iOS and right before the new iPhones come out? Could it be that you knew these changes were going to go over like a leaky-leaky-bean-burrito-with-extra-chili-fart in church? I'm probably being cynical. It was probably just a coincidence.)

Whatever the reason, users aren't nearly as excited as the Mac App Store's Editors. Reviews are overwhelmingly negative, and not just in the usual "CHANGE BAD!" reaction you might expect, but an entire list of features which have been simply removed and changes which make the app more difficult to use.

Here are some highly rated comments on the new version:

"I can't run it in the background anymore. There's no icon in the menu bar. There's no global shortcut key. There's no automatic copy link to clipboard. Why do I want to use this thing again? You've taken away all the features that made me a Skitch user."

"I loved Skitch and used it all the time. I downloaded this new version today and it's a huge step backwards. Now I'm forced to have Skitch in my dock? You took away the ability to have it run in the menu bar? No FTP options? No thanks. What's really sad is that I actually paid for Skitch back when the app store was selling it. It's a sad day indeed."

"Downloader beware! This changes Skitch substantially. No more menu bar functionality. Forced use of dock icon. New clunky interface. I Time Machine'd this back to the better (older) version. Make sure you have a back-up, or better yet, skip this [version] all together."

There are 145 reviews for this version; 105 of them are one star.

Ouch.

My "favorite" new "feature" of Skitch 2.0: good news! Now you won't have to worry about setting up your own S/FTP accounts on Skitch. Because you can't.

See, when Evernote said "Sharing in Skitch will go through the Evernote Service" it might have sounded like they were just saying that they are closing down Skitch.com, but what they apparently what they meant was "Sharing will go through Evernote because all of your other options are being taken away."

Version 1.0.12 available for download. (UPDATE)

Update 2012-09-21: When this article was originally written, it included instructions for removing the /Applications/Skitch.app/Contents/_MASReceipt directory from the Mac App Store version of Skitch version 1.0.12 (the last version of SKitch 1 which had been released), or downloading version 1.0.7 from http://update.skitch.com/skitch.html. This morning several readers alerted me that Evernote has made Skitch-1.0.12 available for download. (6,534,992 bytes/shasum 256 = b2f4181f5eb40a570547054e8ec22ca9bbe490eca02a28e2389fc5d83fdc6e97). This should be welcome news for those who "upgraded" to 2.0 before realizing what a disaster it is. (As of this writing, 257 out of 325 reviews on the Mac App Store are 1-star reviews, with another 26 reviews giving it 2-stars.)

The original instructions, for those who still want to see them, can be found at https://gist.github.com/3761368.

The future of Skitch

I certainly hope that the folks at Evernote reconsider their decision to remove every method of sharing that isn't based through Evernote.com.

But I'm not counting on it.

In fact, I think this is their vision for the app: it will be a way to push content directly at their service.

I'm sure that sounds great if you work for Evernote, but it's pretty terrible for users.

I guess it's time to start looking for a new quick image/screenshot editor. I liked Skitch not because it was a great app, but it was sufficient for what I needed most of the time. Hopefully somewhere out there is a developer who understands and will take advantage of this opportunity to give users back what they have lost with Skitch 2.

Skitch 2.0 is like Skitch 1.0 without all those pesky "features" originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW reader Adam wrote in with the following question:

Today, I am in the process of upgrading our iMac for another product, likely a MacBook Pro with external display this time. I am wrestling with the idea of putting the old iMac in my daughter's study area for use.

My question is this: Is there a way for me to select the websites that she 'can' access? This is different to using a 'net nanny' filter where I can choose sites to block. I wish to ideally, set up two user accounts for her. One account with access to all the educational information and learning sites only, with a second account (for outside of study hours) where she can web-cam with friends/family and other social or fun site access.

Can this be done somehow/somewhere? I'm OK if it requires purchase of separate (reasonably priced) software, but cannot locate a solution for this dilemma.

I, and my gorgeous daughter, would love a reply on this one!

Dear Adam:

Good news! Not only is this possible, but it is free and built right into Mac OS X. I'll walk you through the steps.

First, launch System Preferences.app either by going to the Apple menu or by finding the /Applications/ folder in Finder.

Open the "Users & Groups" preference pane and you'll see something like this:

Click that + button at the bottom left (make sure that the "padlock" icon is unlocked first.)

Now you will see a "New Account" window. Choose "Managed with Parental Controls" as shown here:

(Since I don't know your daughter, I chose a familiar "little sister" name for her.)

Once you click "Create User" that window will go away, and you will see one like this:

Click the button for "Open Parental Controls" as shown, and you will see

Select the radio button next to "Allow access to only these websites" and then use the "+" and "-" buttons to add or remove sites.

Mac OS X manages access to these sites by setting up a local proxy and sending all traffic through it, which means that the same restrictions are in place regardless of which app is used, even the Terminal. While I wouldn't assume that any system is foolproof, this should prevent any accidental viewing of undesirable websites.

You can manage other settings using the Parental Controls pane in System Preferences.app.

Apple has video tutorials on this an other subjects available at https://www.apple.com/findouthow/.

Mac 101: Restricting Web Access originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Sep 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Numerous readers have written in to tell us that AT&T is not offering them upgrade pricing for the iPhone 4S to the iPhone 5. The iPhone 4S went on sale in mid-October of 2011, so even those in the first round of buyers are only midway through a two-year contract.

Domestically, you can check your individual account status via Apple's iPhone 5 eligibility page, covering all three US carriers. In other countries, there should be similar carrier check-in links on the local version of store.apple.com.

Customers who bought the 4S from AT&T signed on for a 24-month contract in exchange for a lower, subsidized purchase price for the phone (actual retail price $400 higher than what you paid, made up for over the life of the contract in service charges). It shouldn't be a big surprise that most aren't eligible for an upgrade barely a year later.

What is causing the frustration is not policy but precedent: AT&T has offered upgrading pricing to many customers when the "new" iPhone came out, even to those who had purchased last year's model and signed a two-year contract. However, this year AT&T seems to have decided not to make such an offer.

At least one reader has been told by an AT&T representative that this policy change was dictated to the carrier by Apple, insisting that AT&T wait at least 18 months before offering users upgrade pricing. Consider me highly dubious of that claim.

Oh, I believe that it's something that someone at AT&T might say but I don't believe that it's true that Apple is dictating AT&T policy. First of all, I can't see any reason why Apple wouldn't want as many people as possible to have the newest iPhone. Secondly, if Apple was capable of dictating AT&T's business decisions, I doubt that AT&T would be artificially restricting FaceTime over cellular.

That being said, one reader wrote in to say that while he was told that his AT&T iPhone is not eligible for an upgrade, his AT&T iPad was, and so he could get upgrade pricing through his "iPad phone number." That's a little bit wacky -- the iPad's data connection may technically have a phone number, but it's not a voice contract and in fact is only a month-to-month plan.

It sounds like while some AT&T customer service reps are trying to blame Apple for AT&T's policies, others might be trying to find ways to help their customers "work the system." Obviously your mileage may vary, but if you have an AT&T iPhone and an AT&T iPad and are anxious for the iPhone 5, it might be worth a call to see if that option is available to you. Users with multiple lines or family plans may find that an older phone is upgrade-eligible even if the 4S is not.

Personally I have been on an "every other model" plan with the iPhone since the original. I had the original, skipped the 3G and upgraded to the 3GS. The 3GS was much better than the 3G, and a much better "leap forward" than the 3G was over the original iPhone. Likewise, when the iPhone 4 came out, I resisted the call of the Retina display and waited for the 4S. Again this year I'll watch the iPhone 5 pass me by and look forward to the "whatever they call the one after the iPhone 5" in a year.

AT&T: iPhone 4S users won't get discounted pricing for the iPhone 5 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

"As if it were a swarm of bees, you should stay away from the SyncServices folder.' -- Apple

The moral of the story that I am about to tell is that Apple's advice about the SyncServices folder also applies to your iCloud documents. Here is the summary:

"Do not move your iCloud folder. Do not touch your iCloud folder. Consider it the digital equivalent of a hand-grenade which has had the pin pulled and which is resting safely on its handle." -- Me

This is a cautionary tale for the geeks and the tinkerers in the audience. I'm going to share my story of something I did, so that others might avoid this same situation. Learn from my mistake.

Before I begin, I want to make a few things very clear: 1) This is not something which could have happened accidentally. It happened because of something I did, not realizing the consequences. 2) This is not Apple's fault, it's mine. You should not read this story as an indictment of Apple and/or iCloud (nor Dropbox). This was my fault.

How I Got Into This Mess

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions." -- Unknown

A few months ago when I first started using iCloud for documents, I didn't trust it. Unlike Dropbox, there is no way to access my files from the web, nor is there a 30-day revision history. However, more and more apps were starting to use iCloud, so I decided that I would start using it.

"But," I thought, "I'm going to be clever about it."

Now, in my defense, the method that I was attempting is one which many geeks/nerds/tinkerers have used with Dropbox. It goes like this:

"Well, I want to have [some folder] on Dropbox, but it's over here, and my Dropbox folder is over there, so I'll just move the folder and then link it back to its original spot.

If you somehow started reading this article in the middle, let me repeat: Do not move your iCloud folder.

Your iCloud documents are saved in ~/Library/Mobile Documents. I am telling you this for several reasons. First, it's not a well-kept secret. Second, it is important to be able to discuss specifics.

I went into Terminal.app and moved ~/Library/Mobile Documents/ to ~/Dropbox/Library/Mobile Documents/ and then created a link from ~/Dropbox/Library/Mobile Documents/ to ~/Library/Mobile Documents/. Then I launched some iCloud-enabled app on my Mac and saved a document to iCloud. The file saved, so I assumed that everything was fine, and went on my merry way.

What Happened Next

One important thing to realize is that when this whole story started (back in June) there were some iCloud-enabled apps, but there were not a lot of them, at least not a lot of them that I was using. I used (and continue to use) Dropbox whenever possible, so I was only using iCloud if Dropbox wasn't available.

Looking at this all in hindsight, the problem seems obvious, but as I experienced it, the following things seemed like a series of seemingly unrelated events.

1. I launched an iCloud-enabled 3rd party app on my iPhone, and all of the data was gone. Fortunately it wasn't all that crucial, so its loss wasn't that big of a deal. Unfortunately, because the loss wasn't that big of a deal, I didn't stop to think about it, or try to figure out what had happened. Instead I brushed it off as "proof" that iCloud wasn't to be trusted. (Note: I believe the technical term for this is Confirmation Bias.)

2. Other iCloud-enabled apps on my iPad or iPhone occasionally complained about not being able to save or retrieve data from iCloud. Here again, the good news and bad news is that most of these apps are designed to do as much as they can in the background, as transparently as possible. They are also designed to deal with the reality that sometimes you may not have a network connection, or that network connect may not be very good. Most of the error warnings said little more than there was a "Connection Error" or a "Timeout". Unfortunately, my home Internet connection is through satellite, so I see these sorts of errors all the time and so I largely ignored them.

3. My iCloud contacts, calendars, reminders, bookmarks, notes, and Photo Stream all continued to work just fine. I took this to mean that iCloud as a whole was working fine. What I failed to understand is that "Documents & Data" on iCloud are completely different than those "built-in" features from Apple. In fact, I didn't really start to pay attention to the problem until Pages on my iPad stopped connecting to iCloud.

I don't use Pages all that often. Like many geeks, I tend to prefer text files, which manage with nvALT on my Mac and Simplenote. But one day I was trying to make a Pages document on my iPad and couldn't. Every time I tapped "New Document" and then chose a template, a progress indicator would spin briefly, and then leave me at the Template Chooser screen. On my Mac, I went to Pages and was able to open documents from "iCloud" just fine, but my iPad couldn't. More "evidence" that iCloud was flaky and not to be trusted. (See "Confirmation Bias" link above.)

I tried many things to try to fix the problem. I went to iCloud.com, downloaded my Pages files, and then deleted them from "the cloud" before trying Pages on my iPad again. I disabled iCloud on my iPad, created a new document in Pages (which worked fine) and then turned iCloud back on. Pages on my iPad asked if I wanted to use iCloud. I said yes. The test document I had created while iCloud was disabled disappeared. Then Pages crashed. I relaunched it, and it crashed again. I deleted Pages from my iPad, re-downloaded it, launched it again, and it crashed again. I disabled iCloud, and Pages worked.

By this time it was well over a month after I had moved my iCloud documents folder, and quite frankly I had forgotten that I had even done anything to it. Because iCloud had (seemed to) work fine when I first made the change, I had never stopped to think about it again after that. Again, the "move a folder to Dropbox and then link it back to its original location" technique has been used for a long time. I had no reason to think it wouldn't work here too, but it didn't.

When I realized I was in trouble

After having these little annoyances with iCloud documents for awhile, I finally decided to try to dig in and fix it this past week. I tried every solution that I could think of or that I found via web searches. I disabled iCloud documents on my Mac, and on my iOS devices. I disabled and re-enabled iCloud support in all of the various applications that I use, on the Mac as well as on my iPad and iPhone. I deleted iOS applications and re-downloaded/re-installed them. Nothing worked.

Finally I launched Day One on my iPhone, which gave me the most detailed error message I had seen:

I'll admit that most of that message is completely lost on me, but I did recognize one thing: the NSFilePath included "Dropbox" in the path, and that should not be there.

I'm not sure exactly what happened, but my theory is that either one of two things happened: 1) I did not turn off iCloud document syncing when I moved the ~/Library/Mobile Documents folder, which meant that as I was moving it it was trying to sync to iCloud, and/or 2) some or all of the iCloud apps determined that the "real path" was ~/Dropbox/Library/Mobile Documents (that is, they recognized that ~/Library/Mobile Documents was a Unix-style link in the path, and saved the actual path instead of the linked path.

It appears that from there, the path information was sent from from my Mac up to iCloud, where it was stored. From there, iCloud sent the path information back to my iOS devices and said "OK, you need to put this in /private/var/mobile/Dropbox/Library/Documents/." However, the iOS apps -- which are "sandboxed" to prevent them from creating files or folders anywhere except where they are very strictly allowed to -- either tried to create that path and failed, or never assumed that they would ever have to deal with a different path.

Again, those two paragraphs are my guesses as to what happened, based on what I have seen. Several smart people have looked at this and said "Wait, that's... not supposed to happen. How did that happen?"

All I know is that I can't fix the problem from my Mac, and nothing, even as far as restoring my iPad to factory conditions, will fix it on the iOS side.

Finally, in a fit of frustration, I created a brand new Apple ID and used that with all of my iCloud apps. Result: Everything worked fine.

Time to call AppleCare

My primary Apple ID is a former Mobile Me account which is paid through the end of September, and it already has my photostream, contacts, calendars, reminders, and everything else on it, so the idea of throwing it away and starting with a new Apple ID for iCloud was not all that appealing.

My iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air are all covered by AppleCare, so I figured it was time to try to see if Apple could fix this. I called yesterday and spent over three hours on the phone with 3 different levels of Mac, iOS, and iCloud support. Everyone was extremely knowledgeable and helpful. They had me try several different things to try to fix it, but in the end, nothing worked. My case has been escalated to some sort of "iCloud Technical Support Grand Master." (Note: that may not be his/her actual title, but by the tone of voice used by the 3rd-tier AppleCare support person I was talking to, that's how I'm going to think of them.

As I imagine it, this is a guy in a room full of Mac Pros and Xserves. He's surrounded by boxes, papers, computers, connectors, and a coffee pot. The office has an adjoining bathroom. It is located at the far end of a building that no one ever goes to, and where few people even know it exists. There is no phone. There are no windows. He's never seen coming or going. People wonder what he eats). I am supposed to hear back from Apple in the next 3-5 days, after the Grand Master calls the guy I was working with, who will then call me. (The Grand Master does not deal directly with end users, obviously. Would you?)

Conclusion

A 3+ hour phone call with tech support which ends with "Well, we'll see what he can do. You don't have any files you need in there, right?" might seem like a bad tech support experience. But the good news is that because this happened at the very beginning of my iCloud use, I don't have any files I need in there. I can't get angry at Apple for this, because this really isn't a situation that they could have foreseen. And, as one of the AppleCare folks said to me yesterday (in a very friendly and kind-hearted way): "Yeah, that Library folder is hidden for a reason." There are lots of things that you shouldn't touch in there, but of all of them, I suspect the most "dangerous" one of them may be the Mobile Documents folder, because *once that syncs to iCloud, you can't access the "official" version. The "official" version lives somewhere on Apple's iCloud servers.

My biggest frustration with iCloud documents is that there is no way to access the "canonical" version of these files, like there is with Dropbox. If I have a problem with my calendars or contacts, I can go to iCloud.com and access them directly. I can edit them, export copies of them, or delete them. But I can't do that with my files. (While iTunes Match is a completely separate service from iCloud, the problem remains the same: no direct access to my files.)

My distrust of iCloud is what made me try to tinker with it in the first place. By trying to make it "more reliable" (that is, by having my iCloud documents in my Dropbox, so I would have immediate backups and 30 days of revision history), I ended up making iCloud entirely non-functional. Apple took reasonable precautions to protect me from myself by making the Library folder "invisible". The "Mobile Documents" folder isn't protected by an Access Control List against moving or deletion, but if it had been, I would have simply overridden it anyway.

I didn't have any reason to distrust iCloud, other than my previous experience with iDisk, which was a completely different product. In my (admittedly limited) testing with a separate iCloud account, iCloud sync seems to work very well, even when I tried to fool it by editing the same document on my iPad and Mac at the same time.

Be that as it may, whenever I am given the choice between syncing with Dropbox or iCloud, I will choose Dropbox every time, because my experience with Dropbox shows that it works reliably and I know that if Something Bad happens, I can access my files on their Web site. I do worry, however, that Mac/iOS app developers will decide that supporting one method of sync is challenging enough, and will opt for iCloud instead of Dropbox. Only time will tell.

However, if you learn nothing else today, learn this: the Mobile Documents folder is not to be trifled with. Leave it alone. Don't move or rename any files or folders you find in there. You can probably safely copy files from there, but I wouldn't do anything more than that.

A Cautionary Tale: Do not move or rename your iCloud folder originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If your MacBook (any model) is not charging to 100%, it may need to be recalibrated. Apple explains how to do this, but basically it comes down to three steps:

1. Fully charge your MacBook (and leave it charged for about 2 hours)
2. Fully drain your MacBook (by using it on battery until it turns off)
3. Fully recharge your MacBook again.

That should help the battery indicator recalibrate so that it shows the correct information. If it doesn't, you might need to reset the System Management Controller (SMC), but in most case I've found that a simple recalibration will work.

When I recalibrate, I prefer to make sure that my MacBook will not be interrupted at all either during the drain or the recharge period, so I will leave it on overnight while running Caffeine set to "Indefinitely" and let it really, fully discharge. Then, the next day, I will plug it in and let it charge through the workday, again running Caffeine to keep it awake. (Note: Caffeine will also keep your screensaver from running. You might prefer to go to System Preferences » Energy Saver and set "Computer Sleep" to "Never". I use an external monitor at my office with the MacBook closed, and simply turn off the power to the external monitor if I'm not going to be using it for awhile.)

Determining the health of your MacBook's battery

If recalibrating doesn't seem to help, you might need to check your battery's overall health. The easiest way to do that is to run the "System Information.app" found in /Applications/Utilities/. Note: "System Information.app" is the name of the app in Lion and Mountain Lion. Previous versions of Mac OS X called it "System Profiler.app."

You can also launch "System Information" (or "System Profiler") by going to the Apple Menu, look for "About This Mac" and then hold down the Option/Alt key and it will change (see image below).

Or, for maximum geek points, paste this into Terminal.app, which will run the "system_profiler" tool at the command line, but limit it to just the information relevant to the battery status.

Whichever method you use, look for the Cycle Count and the Condition as shown in the image at the top of this article.

Further Reading

Like religion, politics, and text editors, battery calibration is a topic which lends itself to vigorous debate and arguments across the Internet. Some of it is based on outdated information, some of it is just incorrect, and some of it may simply not be applicable to your situation. I would encourage you to read Apple's official information and guidance on the subject as your starting point to understand how to best care for and maintain your laptop's battery.

• Lithium-ion polymer batteries

• Calibrating your computer's battery for best performance

• Determining Battery Cycle Count

• Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

Finally, a reminder that if you don't like Apple's "menu extra" for monitoring your battery status, you might want to try SlimBatteryMonitor, a free alternative which I recently reviewed.

Mac 101: Battery not charging? Recalibration may be the answer originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 20 Aug 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

One of the annoyances of Mountain Lion has been the loss of the option to have the remaining battery time shown in the menu bar. Fortunately I can offer you not only a solution, but a better option, all for the low, low price of $0.

I have used SlimBatteryMonitor instead of Apple's menu bar battery monitor for several years, because it is much more flexible than what Apple has ever offered.

For example, I have never liked using "Time Remaining" while I'm on battery power, because I find that the estimate has always been unpredictable. So when I am using the battery, I prefer to have the "Percentage Remaining" displayed. However, when charging the battery, I like to have the "Time Remaining" shown, because I want to know about how long it will take before the battery is fully charged. If the battery is fully charged and I am using AC power, I don't really need to see the battery status in the menu bar at all.

Even before Mountain Lion, those various options would have been hard to maintain using Apple's battery menu bar item. Sure, I suppose I could have gone into the settings and changed the preferences each time I went from battery to AC to fully charged, but we all know that was never going to happen.

SlimBatteryMonitor has separate preferences for each of the three states I mentioned above: on battery, charging, and charged. Here's how I have mine configured:

You can have it show the time or the percentage (either with or without a battery icon), or just have it show the battery icon (which you can assign different colors for each state). When the battery is charged, SlimBatteryMonitor can even "hide" itself, meaning that it will not show any menu bar icon at all. (Because it is still running, it does stay in the menu bar, there's just nothing shown and the width is reduced to a few pixels. You probably won't even notice it unless you look for it.) The developer has a very detailed page explaining configuration options.

The app is free. Donations are accepted but there's no limitations or nag screen. The current version (1.5) hasn't been updated for a few years, but I've used it on Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion with no problem. Those of you still hanging on to Mac OS X 10.3 or 10.4 can even use the 1.4 version of SlimBatteryMonitor.

Download from Orange-Carb.org.

Continue reading SlimBatteryMonitor a better menu bar battery monitor

SlimBatteryMonitor a better menu bar battery monitor originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 13 Aug 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For fans of the Terminal, Mountain Lion brought some new command-line utilities. Perhaps the most notable is fdesetup, which Apple explains briefly: "fdesetup allows third-party management tools to enable FileVault, determine encryption status, capture and manage recovery keys, and add users to a FileVault-encrypted system as well as synchronize directory-based user authentication credentials with the local credentials for FileVault access."

Apple provides a 'man' page for fdsetup, but if you want more information about it, Rich Trouton at Der Flounder has a very thorough walk-through with a bunch of screenshots and excellent explanations. I'm definitely keeping this one in Pinboard for the inevitable day when I want or need to use fdsetup. I'm also glad to have a more low-level tool for working with FileVault.

I had written previously about the "hoops" which were necessary to disable certain users from being able to unlock the computer with FileVault. That process is now a lot easier.

But wait, there's more!

Patrix over at the Ask Different blog discovered several other new command-line utilities. Some of them are generic Unix utilities (pgrep and pkill) but there are also some OS X specific ones, including:

• caffeinate - prevent the system from sleeping on behalf of a utility
• serverinfo - determine server status (is this OS X Server, and, if so, are these things enabled)
• sharing - create share points for AFP, FTP and SMB services
• tccutil - manage the privacy database

See the original article for more details. Of these, caffeinate seems like the most interesting. I have used Caffeine, the free app from Lighthead Software, to keep my Mac awake at times, but being able to do it in shell scripts could definitely come in handy.

Still missing your favorite Unix utility?

If Mountain Lion still doesn't have your favorite utility, don't forget you have other options. I have used Rudix when I wanted precompiled binaries, and Homebrew when I want to make my own. Mostly these days I stick with Homebrew, which is regularly updated by a bunch of people, versus Rudix which has a smaller library and seems to be mostly the labor of love of one developer.

Others may prefer Fink or MacPorts; I have used both in the past but haven't kept up with them recently. Both of them appear to have been updated for Mountain Lion.

New command line tools in Mountain Lion manage encryption, sleep and sharing originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

You can make the "Save As..." menu item more visible and easier to use simply by giving it a different keyboard shortcut.

In 10.7 (Lion), Apple removed the 'Save As' menu item and replaced it with "Duplicate" which did not work the same way. Apple relented in 10.8 (Mountain Lion) by returning "Save As..." but they hid it as an optional menu item which would only be shown when you held down the Option key while looking at the "File" menu. (There is also a keyboard shortcut for "Save As..." in 10.8, but it is not very convenient: Command + Shift + Option + S.)

Apple did such a good job hiding "Save As..." that many smart and knowledgeable Mac users still don't know that 'Save As...' exists in Mountain Lion.

Fortunately for us, there is a very easy way to make "Save As..." more visible: just change its keyboard shortcut. I'm going to show you two different ways that you can do that (you only need to choose one).

Option 1. Terminal.app If you are comfortable using Terminal.app, you can add a different keyboard shortcut this with one simple line. First, quit all your apps except Finder and Terminal. Then paste this command (as one line) into Terminal.app (and press Return):

That's it!

Launch TextEdit and open the 'File' menu and you should see "Save As..." back in its rightful spot with its original Command + Shift + S shortcut, as shown in the image above.

Aside: After you enter the 'defaults write' command, you will not see any confirmation that it was entered correctly. Terminal.app is a little terse sometimes. If you want to verify it from the command-line, enter this:

defaults read -globalDomain NSUserKeyEquivalents

and look for "Save As..." = "@$s"; in the output.

Option 2. System Preferences.app If you would rather not use Terminal, it's still very easy to add the keyboard shortcut.

Launch the System Preferences.app, then open the "Keyboard" preference pane.

At the top you will see "Keyboard" and "Keyboard Shortcuts" - click "Keyboard Shortcuts" (labeled '1' below). Then in the list on the left side, click "Application Shortcuts" (labeled '2' below). Then click the "+" button (labeled '3' below):

Once you press that "+" button, a small window will appear asking you to enter the title of the menu item and the keyboard shortcut that you want to use.

Enter "Save As..." in the "Menu Title:" field, and then press the keyboard shortcut that you want to use. In the example below I pressed Command + Shift + S:

Note: It used to be true that you had to enter an actual ellipsis (which you can get by pressing Option + ; on a US-English keyboard). However, when I tested this in Mac OS X 10.8.2, it worked with three consecutive periods.

Bonus Tip: Hide the "Duplicate" menu item.

In my original article I suggested that you also enter a keyboard shortcut for "Duplicate" and while you can do that if you wish, you do not need to do that.

However, if you would like to hide the Duplicate menu item, you can do that. There are two steps: first, remap "Save As..." to Command + Shift + S (as shown above). Then the 'trick' is to remap "Duplicate" to Command + Shift + Option + S.

What you will have done is swap the keyboard shortcuts for "Duplicate" and "Save As..." which means that OS X will make "Duplicate" the optional command. If you open the "File" menu and hold down "Option" the "Save As..." command will change to "Duplicate"

(Thanks to TUAW reader 'rbascuas' for pointing this out in response to the original article!)

Important Addendum: "Keep changes in original document"

As we reported in August 2012, the "Save As..." command in early versions of 10.8 had an unexpected and likely unwanted side effect in Mountain Lion: it would save the changes in the new document (created by "Save As...") but would also save the changes to the original document.

However, Apple realized that users might not want that behavior, so in Mac OS X 10.8.2 they added an option "Keep changes in original document" which you can see here:

Option A: If you want to save the changes you've made in the document and then save the document with a different name, then make sure that the box is checked.

Option B: If you want your original document to stay as it was when you last saved it and create a new document based on the modified content of that document, then make sure that box is not checked.

If you do not see the 'Keep changes in original document' box, then the application is probably going to give you the "Option B" behavior, but if you are not sure, I would suggest choosing Cancel in the "Save" dialog, then copy and paste the contents of the document into a new file, and save the new file. I know that's several extra-and-less-convenient steps, but if you are worried about preserving the original document, better safe than sorry.

You could also save the file, duplicate it in Finder, and rename the new instance. Open old file and revert to previous save using 'Versions'.

Frankly,I wish that Apple had just left the "Save As..." command alone, but for some reason they didn't ask my opinion. That said, I'm glad that they brought it back in Mountain Lion. I would have paid $20 for that feature alone.

Note: This article was re-written and republished on 2013-02-21. The original process still works, but I wanted to update it to reflect some additional information. Read the previous version at web.archive.org.

Get Save As back on Mountain Lion's File menu easily and without hacks originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 29 Jul 2012 23:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In five short years, the iPhone has managed to go from being a complete failure with no chance of making a significant impact on the cell phone market to literally ruining our lives.

That final conclusion comes via Kevin Roose in a New York Magazine story with the completely un-linkbaitish headline Happy Birthday, iPhone: You're Ruining Everything. Now, I'm usually good at word puzzles, but no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to rearrange the letters "KEVIN ROOSE" to spell "Andy Rooney."

Kevin seems to be channeling the late, legendarily curmudgeonly 60 Minutes correspondent. His article amounts to little more than the same arguments that have been made about the Internet, television, the telephone, airline travel, and these darn kids with the baggy pants and their rock & roll music. Roose seems to want the iPhone to get off his lawn.

Roose claims that people in his social circle used to read books and had long, meaningful conversations, but now they are "a bunch of panicky, overstimulated, screen-fixated automatons." This is definitely good news to anyone who considers Roose a friend. It's not often you get to know the full, unvarnished truth about what someone thinks of you, but Roose thinks his friends are idiots. So that's nice.

Roose asks, "Has [the iPhone] made us happier, more productive, and more creative, like Steve Jobs seemed to promise back in 2007?"

You'll notice that Roose said "seemed to promise" rather than "promised" -- probably because he knows that Steve Jobs never promised those things, but he wants to hold Steve Jobs accountable for his own inferences. Apparently Roose has never been exposed to marketing before, so this has taken him completely by surprise. But let's assume that Steve Jobs had made such a promise, either explicitly or implicitly.

Has the iPhone made me happier? No. Has the iPhone made me sadder? No. Has the iPhone made me more productive? No. Has the iPhone made me less productive? No. Has the iPhone made me more creative? No. Has the iPhone made me less creative? No.

Know why? Because the iPhone is made of glass and plastic and electronics.

Am I happier because of my iPhone? Actually, yes. Because I had the iPhone, I joined Twitter. Because I was on Twitter, I met some incredibly cool people, some of whom became really good friends. When I got my 3GS, my wife got my original iPhone, and she started on Twitter too, and she met them too. In fact, at a gathering of Twitter friends in 2009, my wife met someone who worked as a veterinary technician, and decided that she wanted to go back to school.

For the past two years, she's been away from home 4-5 days a week for her studies. We kept in contact on our iPhones (thank you, iMessage). She wrote papers on her iPhone. She has apps for looking up drug combinations and treatment guides. She just graduated, with honors. We iMessaged during the ceremony. I took a video of her getting her diploma on my iPhone. I posted pictures to Tumblr to share with our friends. I emailed them to her mom, who viewed them on her iPad. (Her mom, by the way, has always felt intimidated and overwhelmed by computers, but loves her iPad.)

This weekend I officiated at a wedding of two friends who met through Tumblr. The wedding was held in the backyard of other friends they had met through Twitter and Tumblr. 99% of those in attendance first knew each other through Twitter or Tumblr. There were a few Droid users (including the bride and groom!) but the rest of us were primarily iPhone users.

I put the entire service together on my iPad, and read it off my iPad. The wedding was live-streamed over the Internet via another iPad, which meant that people across the country and indeed the world could watch in real time as their friends got married. Some friends watched on their phones in the car, another watched from an airplane. One watched from her bed because she came down with a fever and didn't want to risk getting anyone sick, but she didn't have to miss the ceremony.

Afterwards we had cake, we talked, we danced, we laughed, and yes, sometimes we checked Tumblr and Twitter too. There was a hashtag for wedding related posts. During the reception, I received a text from a friend back in Ohio who told me he had been admitted to the hospital, and was able to exchange a few messages with him. I also heard from some other friends who told us about some weather-related storm damage. I sent off a quick message to my mom (who read it on her iPad) to remind her we were out of town for the weekend so she wouldn't worry about us being without electricity.

The iPhone is a tool, like a hammer or a car or a paintbrush or a pen and paper. It won't make you creative. But if you decide that you want to be creative, there are plenty of opportunities be creative with an iPhone. It won't make you happy, but it can help keep you connected to family and friends. It might even help you meet new ones.

That's not marketing; that's reporting, because that's exactly what it has done for me. Has it made me "more productive"? Well, let's assume for a minute that we could actually come up with some way to measure that. In the 5 years since I've had an iPhone, there have been countless times when I found myself suddenly "waiting" with unexpected minutes to fill.

With my iPhone, I could decide what to do with that time. When talking about the wonderfully awesome Instapaper, Merlin Mann once wrote that when you find yourself with an iPhone and free time, you can "decide to throw birds at pigs" or check Facebook or whatever other fad app is popular. But then he added "Thing is, you could also decide to read. Just for a couple minutes. Maybe more. Maybe less. Who knows. It's your decision."

Sometimes when I have those free minutes, I decide to kill zombies with plants. Sometimes I check my email. Sometimes I check Tumblr or Twitter. And sometimes I read Instapaper, or a Kindle book. Each of those options makes me happier than just sitting there waiting for whatever I'm waiting for.

Due.app reminds me to take medication every day. I know for a fact that without that reminder, I'll forget to take it. Before I started using Due.app, I was taking both my medications at the same time, because I was afraid I'd forget. Turns out that taking them both at the same time caused some bad side effects which are completely mitigated if I take them at least two hours apart. Now I have two reminders which go off each day, and which keep going off until I take my medication. So my iPhone is helping make me healthier as well. (Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of people who have used it to track weight loss and food intake.)

Roose's argument basically boils down to not liking the way his friends use their iPhones. The problem is that Roose blames this on the iPhone, rather than on his friends. Even worse, he considers his experience and his friends' behavior as normative. So if his friends are mindless drones, then everyone with an iPhone is a mindless drone, and the problem is the iPhone.

The end result is pretty much a pile of ridiculous linkbait, which misses the fact that the iPhone has just as much potential to make life better as it does potential to make it worse. The telephone didn't ruin society, nor did recorded music, or the airplane, or any of the other technological advances that have been made.

I imagine that if Roose had been friends with the first primitive Homo sapiens who tamed fire, he would have complained that "back before we had fire, everyone used to sleep in a giant pile to keep warm at night. Fire is tearing us apart!" Once you stop blaming technology for people's actions and decisions, you'll probably be able to see a lot more of the positive possibilities.

Photo by Alex Proimos | flickr cc

The iPhone doesn't have the power to ruin (or rescue) everything originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 01 Jul 2012 20:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Five years ago I accidentally became an iPhone user.

I had watched the iPhone announcement several months earlier, and thought it looked like an incredible phone. But I wasn't planning to get one because I was a Palm user, and had been a Palm user since my Palm IIIxe. I had a ton of software, and I was heavily into the whole Palm "experience."

At the time I was carrying a Treo 650 (which has replaced my Treo 600, which had replaced my Treo 300) and I was fairly happy with it. Sure, it locked up a couple times a day and I had to remove the battery pack to reboot it, but so what? Yes, occasionally (and by "occasionally" I mean "regularly" as in "almost daily") I had to unscrew the top of my stylus to get to the little piece of plastic that I could use to press the reset button. Sure, I carried 2 extra batteries around with me because if it was a busy day I knew I'd need them.

But the Treo had all that software...

When the iPhone first came out, it had no third-party software. I couldn't imagine giving up all of my software. I had a lot of money invested in Palm software, how could I even consider throwing it all away?

Then something unexpected happened: my Treo stopped working.

Actually, I shouldn't say that it was unexpected. While it was frustrating, it certainly shouldn't have been unexpected. My Treo 300 had worn out because it wasn't made very well, which is why I bought the Treo 600. I think I went through 2 or 3 Treo 600s before I finally convinced Sprint to replace it with a 650. And now the 650 was starting to act up. The 'e' and the 'w' keys were starting not to respond unless they were pressed really hard, and the touchscreen had to be "recalibrated" every day, or else stylus taps were inaccurate.

I finally got fed up and asked Sprint when my contract was going to expire. Answer: July 3rd.

I was very excited, not because I could get an iPhone, but because I thought I would be able to get a good price on a new Treo 755p. Sprint was advertising it all over their website for "only" $280 with a 2 year contract. There was just one flaw in my plan: because I was existing customer, I couldn't get the Treo 755p for $280. I could get it for $429. I went around and around with them, trying to get them to see that it was insane to suggest that after 4 years of being a smartphone customer, I was worth less than a new customer. But they refused to budge.

I decided to leave Sprint and switch to AT&T/Cingular, but I still wasn't planning to get the iPhone. I was planning to get a "free" Treo 680, but before I did that I did my homework and asked one question which ended up changing everything: Which is more expensive: a free Treo 680 or an iPhone?

If it sounds like a trick question, that's because it is. The first trick was that the Treo was only free "after rebate." Still, "free after rebate" sounds a lot cheaper than cheapest iPhone, which sold for $500. But there's another trick: the contract. Both the Treo and the iPhone required a two-year contract. The Treo rebate stipulated that you had to sign up for a contract with unlimited data which cost $40/month for Treo users. However, due to what must have been some amazing negotiations between Apple and AT&T before the deal was announced, unlimited data for the iPhone was only $20/month (the Treo didn't do 3G either, so these were comparable plans).

I don't remember that detail getting a lot of attention at the time, but I've always thought that the data plan was one of Apple's greatest accomplishments in bringing the iPhone to the market. It needed unlimited data so you weren't thinking about data usage. And $20 was literally half of what it cost if you were using a different smartphone on the same network (AT&T increased the cost to $30/month when 3G arrived a year later, and took away the 200 included text messages).

Now armed with the facts for both the initial cost and the contract costs, it was easy to make a comparison between the iPhone and the Treo. AT&T's lowest voice plan was $40/month for 450 minutes, and that was the same for Treo or iPhone. Add another $40/month for data and the "free after rebate" Treo would have cost a total of $80 per month for 24 months = $1,920. A iPhone would cost $60 per month for 24 months = $1,440. Add $500 for the iPhone itself: $1,940.

Not to mention that the iPhone had onboard storage (which, at the time, was really only useful for music, but still, you were also getting a great iPod as part of the iPhone), and the Treo had almost none, so you would need an SD card, which cost about $60 at the time. Over the course of two years, the 8 GB iPhone would cost about $2,040 versus about $2,000 for the Treo.

For an extra $1.67 per month, I could get an 8GB iPhone.

So I bought an iPhone.

I actually bought the iPhone right after launch but then had to leave it in the box for about a week while I waited for my contract to expire with Sprint!

Apple dropped the price of the iPhone shortly after launch and gave $100 Apple Store gift cards to early adopters, which made it an even better deal. A friend of mine sent me his $100 Apple Store gift card and said "I'm a Windows guy, I'll never shop at the Apple Store, so I thought you might be able to use this." So I paid $400 for my 8 GB iPhone.

Sprint lost me as a customer due to their terrible customer retention policies, but Palm also lost me because my experience with the Treo hardware had also been terrible. They were poorly made of cheap plastic, and did not stand up to use over time. When Apple showed the iPhone without a hardware keyboard, my first reaction was "No keys to stop working!" but the real difference could be felt just by holding the two devices. The Treo felt like a fragile piece of electronics wrapped in plastic. The iPhone felt like something NASA would have built.

How long did it take me to realize I had made the right decision?

The first time I loaded a web page in "Mobile Safari" and saw how much better it was than the awful web browser on the Treo, I never looked back. Even with no third-party software and extremely limited multitasking, the iPhone was always on a different level than the Treo.

Palm CEO Ed Colligan's infamous comment:

"We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone," he said. "PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in."

While Palm struggled to figure out how to make a "decent" phone, Apple had no interest in making anything less than a revolutionary phone. I'm guessing Apple could have released a decent iPhone in 2006, maybe even 2005. But a "decent" phone wasn't enough. So they kept working at it. While Palm released the "decent" Treo 300 and then annual "decent" upgrades, Apple kept working on making the iPhone better and better, until it was ready.

Colligan was right, of course, when he said that Apple would not "just walk in."

Apple didn't walk in.

They stepped over.

iPhone 5th anniversary: How I accidentally became an iPhone user originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Mac and iOS users are going to be increasingly pushed to choose between storing their documents in iCloud or Dropbox. I expect that Apple will continue to push more and more features to iCloud that will make people want to use it, and I expect that Apple will continue to make iCloud easier and easier for iOS and Mac developers to use, so developers will want to support it.

I like the idea behind iCloud, but I don't really trust iCloud yet. Apple's previous attempts at online services have left me suspicious about iCloud's performance, reliability, and long-term future. I hope I'm wrong and that iCloud turns out to be great, but in the meantime, I know Dropbox, and I trust Dropbox.

One of my favorite features of Dropbox is the ability to go back and see revisions from the previous 30 days. It's my safety net.

The good news is that you can sync iCloud to Dropbox. The bad news is that it's a one-way sync from iCloud to Dropbox. But if all you want to do is backup iCloud files and be able to retrieve previous versions from Dropbox, it's pretty simple to do.

I'm going to use Byword as an example because it's fairly straight-forward, but the process should work roughly the same for any iCloud enabled Mac app.

Step One: Make sure iCloud is enabled. Go to System Preferences » iCloud and make sure that you have "Documents & Data" set to sync.

Step Two: Create an iCloud-based file. The exact process for this differs from app to app. Byword has a File » Move to iCloud menu item.

Step Three: Find the local iCloud folder. Here's where things get a little bit tricky. You have to get into the "Library" folder in your Home directory, but that folder has been hidden in Lion. Fortunately for you there are at least 18 ways to view that folder. My recommendation is to go to the Finder, select the "Go" menu, and press the Option/Alt key. When you do that, you'll see the Library folder appear. Or use ⌘ + Shift + G and type in "~/Library/" if you prefer keyboard shortcuts. Once you are in, look for a folder called Mobile Documents

You'll find something like the list of directories shown here. Inside each one is a "Documents" sub-directory. I bet you can guess what is stored in there.

Step Four: Sync changes via Hazel. Hazel was recently updated to version 3, and one of the new features is a 'sync' option. For those who don't know Hazel, you should, it's one of my irreplaceable apps. It allows you to create rules for all sorts of actions to happen in specific folders if different criteria are met. For example, Hazel can tell if a file has been modified since the last time Hazel checked a specific folder. If it has been modified, you can tell Hazel to do specific things, including "sync" from that folder, so another one.

Click on image for a larger size

I created a 'Byword' folder in my ~/Dropbox/ and then created a Hazel rule which says "If any files have been modified since we last checked (matched) this folder, then sync the 'Documents' folder (located inside ~/Library/Mobile Documents/) with the Byword folder in Dropbox.

Step Five: (Optional) While I was checking around inside ~/Library/Mobile Documents/ I used Default Folder X to set the Byword iCloud folder to be the default folder for all new Byword documents. Now whenever I create new document on my Mac using Byword, I know that it will automatically be saved to iCloud and Dropbox.

This isn't something that I will do for all of my iCloud-enabled apps, but I've been using Byword more and more lately for all sorts of writing projects, and I want to do everything I can to make sure that I am "covered" when it comes to saving my files. Two local copies (one in Mobile Documents, one in Dropbox folder) and two copies in the "cloud" (iCloud and Dropbox sync), plus 30 days worth of "undo"? (Not to mention that each of my Macs will have local copies as well, as iCloud and Dropbox sync across my network.) That's a system I can create and then forget about.

Sync iCloud to Dropbox originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 03 Apr 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive is only officially supported on the MacBook Air or Mac Mini, but what if you have another Mac that you want to use it with? Turns out you can make it work by editing one text file and then rebooting your Mac.

The MacBook Pro shown above is mine. The story behind that damage is fairly long and emotionally painful, involving airline travel, delays, and an unexpected layover in Vegas. The only good part of the story is that the SuperDrive did not work before it happened. When I purchased my MacBook Air, I bought the SuperDrive because there are still times when I need it. I knew that it was restricted to the MacBook Air (later expanded to the Mac Mini), and I assumed that there was a good reason. Maybe the USB port on the Air and Mac Mini sent more power than other USB ports. Maybe there was some other reason.

Thanks to the magic of the Internet, I learned about Lukas Zeller and his instructions on How to make the MacBook Air SuperDrive work with any Mac.

When I first read them, this involved getting editing a binary with a hex editor. Now, I'm a nerd, but I'm not a über-nerd. I'm also really extremely very much opposed to hacking system binaries, kexts, etc. because it could cause all sorts of problems and whenever there is a new version of Mac OS X, your change is either going to get blown away or may cause problems or it may work. That is only a one-in-three chance of success. Those aren't very good odds. So I didn't do it.

Then Lukas also found an easier way which only requires editing one line in one text file.

The file is /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

You need to add/edit two lines: the first is Kernel Flags and the second is mbasd=1.

Here's how it looks for me:

You can view mine at Github or view the raw plist.

I couldn't believe that it could be that easy, but I edited that file, hooked up my "MacBook Air SuperDrive" to my MacBook Pro, rebooted, and voilà! It worked. I did the same thing with my Black MacBook, and it worked perfectly too.

(For those who like specifics, my MacBook Pro is a MacBookPro2,2 running Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549), and the MacBook is a MacBook4,1 running Mac OS X 10.7.3 (11D50).)

Now it's possible that there is some good reason that Apple has restricted the use of the Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive to just the MacBook Air and the Mac Mini. It's also possible that they're worried that people might be confused if they have more than one SuperDrive connected to their computers. Or it's possible that it works just fine and Apple will eventually lift the restriction once the SuperDrive is removed from the rest of the MacBook line.

Use the MacBook Air SuperDrive with (almost) any Mac originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 02 Apr 2012 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

My wife is thrilled with the "new" iPad 2 she inherited when my new iPad arrived. I wanted to configure it for her so she could get up and running, so I thought I would just change a few settings here or there and give it to her using my settings. After about 30 minutes of tweaking, I decided to start over from scratch.

The reason is simple: there are just so many settings underlying the personalization of the iPad that un-doing them all was nearly impossible. It was much easier to add the things that I knew she would want rather than remove the things that she might not. Even the things that I knew I wanted to change, like Messages, left residual effects behind. For example, Spotlight had cached my iMessages, and continued to show them even after I had logged out of my iCloud account and into my wife's.

Long story short: start clean, sync back the apps and media you want to keep, and work from there. Here's how.

Backup your iPad and transfer purchases from iPad (optional)

Before you reset the iPad, you probably want to back it up and transfer all of your app and media purchases to iTunes. You can do this by connecting your iPad to iTunes and Control + clicking (or right-clicking, or two-finger-clicking on a trackpad) on the iPad in the devices list in iTunes. You'll get a contextual menu that lets you sync, back up or transfer purchases.

Of course you can always re-download apps and music from the App Store/iTunes Store, but if you have large applications it will be faster to sync them from iTunes.

You may also want to backup your iPad, just in case. Chances are you already backed it up before transferring yourself over to the new iPad, but it doesn't hurt to do it again.

Full Reset

All of your data from the iPad can be deleted very simply either from iTunes (by clicking the Restore button on the device summary screen, and then choosing "Set up as a new device" once it's wiped) or right on the iPad. On the device, go to Settings » General » Reset and choose Erase All Content and Settings. You will be asked to enter your passcode lock (if you have one set) and then confirm your choice.

As one of our commenters points out below, you can also issue a Wipe command using Find My iPad, if you're so inclined.

(Aside: you may have set the option to delete your data if you enter the wrong password 10 times. However, the iPad will start to introduce a delay after a certain number of mistaken entries, so that isn't a good way to reset your iPad on purpose.)

Once you reset, the iPad will reboot, and after a few moments you will see the initial configuration settings. One of these is the setup detail for an iCloud account. Even if you are planning to share App Store purchases, each person should have their own iCloud account/Apple ID. The reason is that Messages, FaceTime, and many other setting are specific to particular users. Also, more and more applications will start to be able to sync documents through iCloud, and you will most likely want those to be personalized.

The good news is that Apple provides you several places to enter different Apple IDs. For the initial setup, make sure to enter the Apple ID of the primary user of the iPad. If you need to create one, you can do it right on the iPad.

Sharing App Store Purchases

One Apple ID can be used on up to 10 "devices and computers" ("devices" here refers to iOS devices). It is very important to note that "[o]nce a device or computer is associated with your Apple ID, you cannot associate that device or computer with another Apple ID for 90 days." So you'll want to get this right the first time.

In most circumstances, the only thing you'll want to share an Apple ID for is App Store purchases. To change that Apple ID, go to Settings » Store and tap on the Apple ID. Then tap "Sign Out" to logout the current Apple ID from the App Store. Then log in with the Apple ID you have used for purchases in the past.

Sharing Calendars and Contacts

Sharing calendars is very easy. Just go to iCloud.com, log in with your Apple ID, and click on the calendar you want to share. Then enter the email address of the Apple ID you want to share your calendar with, and decide if you want to give them "View & Edit" access (so they can add, delete, and change events on your calendar), or just "View Only" access. (Unlike Google Calendar, iCloud calendars do not have an option for only sharing "Busy/Free" information without specific details.)

You don't need to do anything at all to enable that sharing on the iPad itself; that's done at iCloud.com.

My wife and I share our calendars that way, but we also want to share our contacts too. As you'd expect, we have not only family members in common, but also friends. If we are planning to meet at a restaurant, I'll enter the information into my iPhone, and it will sync to her iPhone (and iPad) too.

On my wife's iPad, I went to Settings » iCloud and turned off Contact syncing, since that connects to her account and is empty. Then I went to Settings » Mail, Contacts, Calendars, chose "Add Account..." and then select iCloud from the list of account types. I entered my iCloud information, and then only enabled Contact syncing.

Pro tip: When setting up contact sharing on my wife's iPhone 4S, I waited for the contacts to sync and then went to Settings » General » Siri » My Info and chose my wife's contact information.

Other Apple IDs

Here are some other places you'll need to enter your Apple ID:

• Home Sharing: Settings » Video » Home Sharing

• FaceTime: Settings » FaceTime

• Messages: Settings » Messages

• Game Center: For some reason, Game Center settings aren't in the Settings app, but if you launch the app, it will prompt you for your Apple ID.

(Note: iTunes Match under Settings » Music appears to default to the same Apple ID as in the App Store, which makes sense since it's linked to music purchasing)

You may also want to download and install Find My Friends and iBooks as the first two must-have apps, since Apple does not include them with iOS by default.

Apple even suggests using one Apple ID for iCloud and one for the App Store as an alternate setup. Whether you choose to do this for your config is up to you, but if you want to avoid buying essential apps separately for your family's two devices (or more) then you probably want to use the same Apple ID for the App Store on all of them; you might want to turn off automatic download of app purchases to the hand-me-down device, though -- and the same with Photo Stream.

Another important decision is which Apple ID you want to use for Find My iPad. I associate all of our iOS devices and Macs with our main Apple ID (the same one used for making App Store and Mac App Store purchases). That way, we can have a single "console" for tracking down anything that goes missing, rather than having to remember a list of Apple IDs and their associations with specific devices.

Worth the effort

Resetting the iPad might seem like extra work, but I believe that it's well worth it. You may find that you and your spouse (or whoever receives your hand-me-down iPad) have very different preferences. Fortunately my wife and I both agree that Keyboard Clicks (Settings » General » Sounds » Keyboard Clicks) are awful, and the side switch (Settings » General » Use Side Switch To) on the iPad should be used for Lock Rotation, not Mute.

If you passed your previous iPad along to a family member, let me know what other settings you customized for them. We discussed sharing an iPad between spouses back in 2010.

Thanks to PJ and David C. for suggesting this post.

Giving your former iPad to a spouse or family member: the quick guide originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 17 Mar 2012 22:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Are you getting an earful from parents or grandparents about which iPad they should buy? Read on for our guide to buying the right iPad for Mom, Dad, Grandma or Grandpa.

Two bits of anecdotal evidence that there's a digital revolution in progress: In the past year, both my mother and my mother-in-law have purchased iPads.

My mother uses a Windows PC at work, and has had a Windows-based laptop for the past few years. It was starting to get old and slow, however, and the battery doesn't hold a charge anymore. She was thinking about getting a new laptop or an e-reader, and asked me for guidance.

My mother-in-law has had a Windows PC in her house, but never really felt comfortable using it. She had a Nook which she enjoyed, and saw my iPad and liked the fact that it was a "one thing at a time" device.

Recently, my mother-in-law was visiting her father and stepmother, my wife's grandparents. She showed the iPad to them, and her stepmother became very interested in it. One stumbling block: she didn't know anything about which one to get, or how much it would cost. My mother-in-law (who, by the way, never sent an SMS text message in her life) immediately sent me an iMessage from her iPad, asking me to help figure out which iPad her stepmother should get.

Given the publicity thunderclap of last week's iPad announcements, I know there are thousands of similar conversations playing out this week across the generations (Mike Rose tells me he had the exact same chat with his father-in-law this weekend). For those of you in the digital natives cadre -- the ones on the receiving end of these inquiries from friends and family -- if you've got questions of your own, I'd like to help.

I hope this guide will be useful to you and to your family members, regardless of age. There may also be other technologically-inclined daughters and sons (or granddaughters and grandsons) who are being asked similar questions, so feel free to pass the guide along.

"Which iPad should I get?" (Long Answer)

This is a straightforward question, and fortunately Apple's straightforward product lineup makes it relatively easy to answer (as several guides, including Marco Arment's excellent rundown, have done over the past few days). I'll go into the details behind each iPad feature, so that when you're discussing it with your friends and family you have all the background you need -- but if you just want to know what I think you should buy without all the how and why, skip on down to the end.

There are three core choices to make when purchasing an iPad:

1) "Which color: white or black?" For iPads, the color choice refers to the border (also called the bezel) around the front of the iPad. You can see both models illustrated in the image above. Unlike the white and black iPhone models, this color effects only the front of the iPad; the back is always brushed aluminium.

In my experience, people have an almost immediate preference when they see both the white and black models. Having used them both, I prefer the black border; I find that it is less noticeable, especially when using the iPad at night.

What's important to know: This is only a cosmetic difference/personal preference; the models are technically identical. Choose whichever color you like.

2) "What size (capacity)?" The iPad currently ships with three different levels of storage: 16, 32, or 64 gigabytes (GB). The number of gigabytes tells you how much storage space is available for apps (programs that you can download), pictures, movies, and music.

Video takes up the most storage space, followed by music; some applications such as games can also chew up quite a bit of storage, and the new iPad's Retina Display means that graphically intensive apps will take up more room. Very large collections of pictures can also take up a lot of space.

How much space you need depends on how you plan to use your iPad. Unfortunately, you can't change this after the fact, so you have to decide before you buy. The 16 GB version starts at $499, the 32 GB is $599, and the 64 GB version is $699. Generally I think the 32 GB is the best balance of price versus space, but both my mother and mother-in-law chose the 16 GB version and have not run into any problems. Unless you plan to do a lot with video, music, or games, the 16 GB version will probably be enough.

One exception to the storage equation: the iPad's camera, now vastly improved from the iPad 2's hardware, will shoot really lovely video at 1080p (the highest resolution for HD television and consumer video cameras). This really lovely video will really take up a lot of room, and if the iPad owner intends to edit or play with captured video on the device... well, take whatever storage level sounds reasonable and go up one notch.

If you can live with the 16 GB size, you now also have a choice of buying the iPad 2 starting at $399. That is the cheapest iPad ever, and is a great deal. We'll tackle "iPad 2 vs. new iPad" in section 4, below.

What's important to know: Unlike some other tablet computers, the iPad has no memory card slot and cannot be upgraded with additional storage (at least, not in the conventional sense). Get what you think you will need, not the bare minimum you can live with.

3) "Do I want Wi-Fi only, or Wi-Fi + 4G/3G?" For data connectivity, every iPad can use Wi-Fi, the wireless networking technology that laptop and other computers have used for years. There are also a lot of places which now offer free or inexpensive Wi-Fi connections: restaurants, libraries, offices, coffee shops, etc.

Free or cheap Wi-Fi isn't guaranteed everywhere, however. If you want to be able to get online (almost) anywhere, you will need an iPad which is capable of using either 3G or 4G (also called "4G LTE") networking. That is the technology which allows digital cellphones to get online (almost) anywhere there is cell phone service. (If you live somewhere where there is no cell phone service, you will not be able to use 3G or 4G service either.)

4G LTE service is relatively new and only covers some big cities in the USA; it is the faster replacement for the much more common 3G service. If you have a new iPad capable of 4G it will fall back to 3G if 4G is not available. The iPad 2 only uses 3G for cellular networking; it cannot take advantage of the faster 4G service. Both devices will prefer Wi-Fi coverage over cellular 3G or 4G since it's presumptively faster and more stable; that may not always be the case, though, if you do get 4G coverage, as it can be faster than conventional DSL or cable modem connections.

Unless you live in a big city or next to an airport, you are probably not in an area where you can get 4G yet, but (hopefully) both Verizon and AT&T will continue to improve their coverage. Verizon's 3G coverage is much more thorough in the USA, although there are some places where AT&T's coverage works better. Maps are available showing AT&T coverage and Verizon coverage, so you can compare the density in your area. If you know others who use AT&T or Verizon in your neighborhood, talk to them about their experience.

You have to decide when you buy if you want an iPad with 4G/3G, and if you want service from AT&T or Verizon. You can't switch after the fact. Getting a 4G-capable new iPad will add about $130 to the price (so the 16 GB version with 4G will cost $629, the 32 GB version is $729 and the 64GB is $829).

You have a to pay a fee to use the 3G/4G service. There's good news and bad news here. The bad news is that after you pay $129 to get 3G/4G on to your iPad, you have to pay a fee to use it. The good news is that there is no contract, unlike traditional cellphone service. iPad data is a month-to-month arrangement, similar to a pay-as-you-go cellphone plan.

Having no contract means that (for example) if you need wireless data in April you can pay for it in April, but if you don't need it in May, you don't have to pay for it in May. This is a great arrangement for people who don't have consistent or predictable travel schedules, but who sometimes find themselves on the road for a chunk of time (or in the RV, or at the lake, or visiting the grandkids). Even better, you can start your month of service or cancel it right from your iPad. You don't have to call anyone and have them try to talk you out of canceling the plan.

AT&T and Verizon each have different rate plans for their 3G/4G data. These rate plans are based on how much data you're allowed to download during each month, before additional charges kick in.

At first glance, AT&T seems to "win" for having the cheapest price; however, 250 MB is only going to get you a limited amount of traffic -- low volumes of email, some web browsing, but not all that much more; certainly not enough to support playing music over iCloud, for instance. AT&T also gives you 3 GB of data for $30 whereas Verizon only gives you 2 GB for the same price, but I suspect that most people who use more than 1 GB will use less than 2 GB.

What you need to know: You should probably get an iPad with 3G/4G, and you should probably choose Verizon. Individual circumstances will vary, but I believe that most people will find that Verizon's network works better, and they are more likely to live in an area where Verizon has data coverage.

Unless you are certain that you (or your parent/grandparent) are only going to use the iPad where you know Wi-Fi is available, having the option for 3G/4G is worth the extra cost. The price difference between $15 for 250 MB on AT&T and $20 for 1GB on Verizon is fairly minimal, but the practical difference between 250 MB and 1 GB is significant.

Note: You can use the iPad without a network connection for reading books, playing games, and more. However you cannot use the Internet, email, etc. without a network connection (either Wi-Fi or 3G/4G).

That takes care of the three most important concerns when you're figuring out what you want. Now, let's discuss some of the additional options.

4) "Do I want an iPad 2 or the new iPad?" The 3rd generation iPad (referred to by Apple as "the iPad" or "the new iPad") will be available starting on March 16; if you haven't ordered one already, and you're not interested in waiting on a long line on Friday, you probably will be waiting a few weeks before you can get one.

Budget shoppers who aren't hung up on having the newest, shiniest and fastest device now have a great option: the 2nd generation iPad (more commonly referred to as the "iPad 2") will still be available, but only in the 16 GB capacity. You can get the iPad 2 with 3G from either AT&T or Verizon. It does not support 4G but as I mentioned above, for many people, 4G may not even be available.

What's "new" about the new iPad versus the iPad 2? The new iPad has a faster processor, a much better camera, 4G support, voice dictation and the heavily touted Retina display (which means that words and images on the screen will look much sharper and clearer). The iPad 2 is still an excellent choice, but the price difference between the 16GB iPad 2 and the 16 GB new iPad is "only" $100. I say only because if you take the price of the iPad and average it out over the next 2-3 years, that extra $100 comes out to only a few dollars per month.

What you need to know: For day to day use, the iPad 2 is still a great device with a lot of life left in it. Most parents or grandparents would be perfectly happy with the iPad 2, and it will be readily available during the rest of March when the new iPad is likely to be very scarce.

If the iPad's camera is going to be used to any degree, however, don't bother with the iPad 2; just get the new iPad -- the improvement is pretty dramatic. Also, if the $100 price difference doesn't cause any hardship, get the new one.

5) "How do I get the lowest price on an iPad? Should I wait for it to go on sale?" The iPad does not go on sale. If you want to save money, I suggest looking at the iPad 2, or consider a refurbished iPad. These are used iPads which have been returned to Apple for repair, then they're fixed and put up for resale. Each comes with a a 1-year warranty, a brand new battery and outer shell. For all practical purposes, they are "as good as new."

Refurbished iPads also can be had for a significant savings. For example, a refurbished 16 GB iPad 2 with Verizon 3G can be purchased for $480 instead of $530 new. If you are looking for the lowest price on an iPad, this is definitely the way to go.

What you need to know: Offers for discounted iPads that sound too good to be true almost certainly are exactly that. Beware of online scams or dirt-cheap sales that require you to participate in a panel of offers or invite you to meet the seller in a dark deserted alley -- just get your iPad from a reputable reseller like Target, Radio Shack or Best Buy. Also, mentioning the iPad on Twitter or other social services may invoke a wave of spam replies with "get cheap iPad here" links that are usually virus-infected; don't click them, and report the Twitterers for abusive behavior.

6) "What happens if I drop my iPad or it stops working?" All iPads come with 90 days of telephone support and a 1-year warranty, but it does not cover accidental damage (drops, liquid spills, pet attacks). Apple does offer AppleCare+ for iPad which costs $100 and extends the warranty an additional year (for a total of 2 years of coverage).

During those two years you will also get telephone support for your iPad from Apple. Most importantly, AppleCare+ does cover accidental damage, so if your iPad gets wet or dropped and stops working, they will repair/replace it for $49. Apple will cover up to two incidents of accidental damage, for $49 each.

In the "learn from my experience" department: I dropped my iPad 2 and found out that Apple charges over $300 to repair a broken iPad screen. I highly recommend getting AppleCare+.

What you need to know: You can purchase AppleCare+ anytime within 30 days of purchasing your iPad, but I recommend buying it at the same time as your iPad so you don't forget.

7) "I saw a tablet in an ad in the Sunday paper that was cheaper, should I buy that instead?" No. No! No, no no no. Really, no. There are plenty of other companies which are making tablet computers, but the iPad has many more applications available, and is much better than the other options that are out there. Even the Kindle Fire from Amazon is nowhere near as good as an iPad. (I bought one and sent it back.)

What you need to know: If you ignore everything else I say here, please trust me on this. if you are going to spend money on a tablet, get an iPad.

8) "Should I buy a Kindle or a Nook or some other 'ereader'?" If all you want to do is read ebooks, then a Kindle or a Nook is just fine. The models with e-ink screens are easier to read in direct sunlight, but how often are you going to sit in direct sunlight and read? The e-ink based devices also don't have a "backlight," which means that when you are inside, you will need another light to read by, just like a regular book. The Kindle Fire and the color/tablet Nook models do have backlights, but their screens have the same characteristics as the iPad screen in terms of bright-light readability.

Many people do find that e-ink screens are easier to read for a long period of time, but you have to weigh that against the fact that the classic Kindle and Nook are really only suited for reading books or magazines/blogs, whereas the iPad can do many, many more things. In fact, if you already own a Kindle or Nook, you can read your ebook collection on your iPad using apps from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

What you need to know: The Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's Nook tablet both can run Android-based apps from their own app stores, but the selection of apps is a tiny fraction of what's available for the iPad. You might consider them "tablets with training wheels," but now that the iPad 2 is at the $399 price point there's little reason to consider them as general-use tablets.

9) "Do I need to worry about spyware or anti-virus software on the iPad?" No. While the iPad isn't absolutely, completely, 100% immune to any security problems for all time, in practical, real-world terms, you don't need to worry about anything like that.

In fact, one of the best parts of the iPad is that when you install new apps/software, each program is segregated into its own part of the iPad so that one program cannot interfere with another program. You may have learned to be very cautious about installing software on your Windows computer for fear that it might cause some sort of problem. With the iPad you can install any software you want from the App Store and not worry about "Program A" causing problems for "Program B." And if you decide you don't want to use some program, you can remove it simply: hold down your finger on the app's icon until it wiggles, then tap the "X" and it will be completely uninstalled.

What you need to know: Your iPad may be largely resistant to malicious software, but that doesn't make you 100% safe. Use common sense regarding emails asking for personal/financial information (ignore them, or check with the business directly); don't share your passwords; set a device passcode to protect your data; turn on Find my iPad so you can track your device if it's lost or stolen.

10) "Can I read or edit Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint files on my iPad?" Yes! The iPad should be able to read any Microsoft Office file; if you get one in email, just tap the icon to preview it.

If you need to edit or create Office files on the iPad, you can do that too using three applications from Apple:

• Pages for editing Microsoft Word documents
• Numbers for editing Microsoft Excel documents
• Keynote for editing Microsoft PowerPoint documents

Those applications only cost $10 each. And, remember, you only need to buy those if you need to edit those documents. If you just need to read them, you can do that for free. Pages, Numbers, and Keynote may not be 100% identical to the applications from Microsoft, but they should work for most people in most circumstances. You may even find that you like them more than Microsoft Office! Many people consider them easier to use.

There are other options for editing Office files, including QuickOffice, Documents To Go and Office2HD. If your new iPad buyer works with a company or volunteer organization that's expecting them to edit files, check with their IT folks to see if there's a recommended/supported solution.

What you need to know: As capable as it is, the iPad isn't necessarily the right computing environment for dealing with long/structured documents or desktop publishing files. Be sure to manage expectations about what will and won't work smoothly by finding out a bit about your new iPad owner's work habits and regular tasks.

"Which iPad should I get?" (Short Answer)

Was that confusing and/or overwhelming? Want me to tell you which iPad to buy, leaving out all the extraneous details? Here are my suggestions:

1. iPad with Wi-Fi + 4G LTE for Verizon 32GB - Black (3rd generation) for $729 plus AppleCare+ for $99.
2. You can save $100 by going to 16 GB instead of 32. [This is a good alternative if you want to save $100.]
3. You can save $129 by getting a Wi-Fi only iPad, if you plan to use use the iPad largely where Wi-Fi is available. [Not recommended]
4. If you want the cheapest alternative, see if Apple has the Refurbished iPad 2 with Wi-Fi+3G 16GB - Black - Verizon (second generation) available for $479.00. [A very good alternative at a great price.]

You can still choose whatever color you like, as long as it's white or black.

Michael Rose contributed to this buyer's guide.

Grandma wants an iPad: the multigenerational buyer's guide originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW reader Dave Miller sent in this little oddity. If you ask Siri when daylight savings time (or "daylight saving time" if you want to be precise) begins, it gives you the wrong answer.

(To those of you rushing to Apple's defense to mention that Siri is in "beta" let me save you the trouble: Yes, I know Siri is in beta. I also know that Apple is using Siri as a major selling point of the iPhone 4S, and is running commercials showing its flawless use.)

March 7th, 2012 is a Wednesday, and DST actually begins on March 11th, 2012 at 2 a.m. local time (except for Arizona and Hawaii).

TUAW writer Chris Rawson adds: "It's clearly not location dependent, because it says the same thing down here in [New Zealand], even suggesting I set my clock forward one hour. Wrong on both counts; Daylight Saving Time ends in NZ on April 1, and we set our clocks back an hour due to the whole alternate hemisphere/seasons thing." Of course, that's not too surprising given that Siri is very USA-centric right now.

There are two ways to get the correct information from Siri. The first is to ask Wolfram|Alpha. The problem is that Siri is extremely fussy about how you pronounce "Wolfram" (try "WolfRum" said very quickly so it doesn't think it is two words). Doing so pulled up the information for DST, albeit for Pacific Time, USA.

The second (and preferable) alternative is ask Siri to do a web search:

which will give you much more helpful information, and easily viewable on your iPhone:

I doubt that Siri is in charge of actually changing the clock on your iPhone, so I don't expect that the iPhone will "spring forward" on March 7th. That said, Apple has a history of problems with the iPhone/iOS and issues related to time zone changes. While I wish that the answer would be "Let's stop futzing with the clocks twice a year," I don't suspect that is going to happen. Until then, when it comes to your iPhone and time changes, be sure to set a backup alarm!

Siri thinks Daylight Saving Time starts 4 days early originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.