Drobo was a bit of a life-saver for me. Before Drobo I had about 13 different hard drives storing different kinds of data (music on one, video on another, pictures on another, etc). My Drobo let me bring those all together in a very cool way.

I just stumbled across a new-to-me feature of the Drobo Dashboard (the Mac application used to control your Drobo) which allows me to do two things I enjoy:

1. Free up space on my menu bar
2. Utilize space on my Dock better

While I was looking for something else, I clicked on the Drobo Dashboard menu, and saw the options shown in the picture. Actually when I saw it the line which reads "Show Menu Bar Icon" said "Hide Menu Bar Icon."

So I clicked on it, because I love getting things off my menu bar, and I rarely looked at the Drobo menu bar icon. What I did not realize was that when you hide the menu bar icon, the Dock icon for Drobo changes from a static Drobo logo a pie chart you see in the image here (4th from the bottom, in case that isn't clear).

As you can see, I have about 22% of my Drobo available. (I assume at that color will turn yellow when I get below 15% available space, or red if I get below 5% free space, as those are the colors and thresholds that I believe Drobo uses for "low" and "critical" levels, respectively.)

I haven't used the Drobo Dashboard for awhile so I am not sure how "new" this feature is, but it is a welcome option. The Dock icon is much easier to read than the menu bar version, and it frees up valuable real estate in the menu bar. I could not find a way to turn off both the menu bar and the dock display -- you have to choose one or the other.

Also, if you have not looked at "DroboCopy" it's worth checking out as well. It is a simple backup system to dupe a folder from your hard drive to the Drobo. It is fairly rudimentary, but rudimentary backups are better than none. Personally I use Apple's own Backup.app to automatically backup my iCal and Address Book information to my Drobo every day, in case it gets corrupted using MobileMe syncing. You can use Apple's Backup app even if you don't use Mobile Me.

Every "point-oh" version of Mac OS X usually brings some small bit of pain, as I find some little utility no longer works. Snow Leopard has been no exception. I had been using the version of Screen Sharing from 10.5.4 because it had some "hidden" features which I liked. Unfortunately those "hidden" features were also "unsupported" features. When 10.5.5 came out, they were gone, but I continued to use the version of Screen Sharing from 10.5.4 which worked until 10.5.8. Sadly for me, it does not work at all in 10.6.

The biggest drawback of Screen Sharing was the removal of the Bonjour Browser, which showed a list of computers available for Screen Sharing (both locally and via Back to My Mac). Now I had to type them in manually, which isn't such a big deal when you are trying to connect to a machine on a local network. If you are trying to connect over the Internet, however, you need to use the full hostname, which may look something like this: macbook.yourname.members.mac.com. Plus, it just seems like one of those things that the computer ought to do for me. [Side note, if you are looking for a handy way to see all the Bonjour services on your local network, check out Tildesoft's free Bonjour Browser utility.]

While looking through a bunch of old files in my ~/Downloads/ folder, I found a version of ScreenSharingMenulet. I checked its webpage and saw what I was looking for: "ScreenSharingMenulet 1.7.1 and higher is compatible to Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard." ScreenSharingMenulet sits in the menu bar along with your other menu extras. Simply click on its icon (shown above) and choose which computer you wish to connect to via a dropdown list. In my testing it worked very well over a LAN although it did not seem to pre-populate with the machines over the Internet. Given the flakiness of Back To My Mac over ther Internet, I can hardly fault this program for that shortcoming.

ScreenSharingMenulet is free (donations accepted) from Stefan Klieme who has several other handy-looking utilities at his website. If you use Screen Sharing a lot, it's definitely a handy tool to have around.

More Mac 101, our ongoing series of tips for those new to Mac OS X. One of my favorite things to do when I see someone else's Mac is to see what "Menu Extras" they use.

Menu Extras live in the menu bar at the top of your screen, over on the far right-hand side. As you add more third-party software to your Mac, you will probably notice more and more items showing up there.

If you open System Preferences and type "menu bar" you can find 12 different Menu Extras you can "show" in the menu bar, but one of the most popular and useful is the AirPort Menu Extra. In Snow Leopard, the-already-quite-handy AirPort status icon became a lot more powerful and informative. Apple has posted a page explaining the various meanings behind AirPort status icons.

Generally speaking you ought to see only a few of these: an empty icon (AirPort is turned off), grey curved lines (AirPort is on but not connected), or 1-4 black lines indicating signal strength of the Wi-Fi connection. New in Snow Leopard is the "animated" AirPort icon which appears when AirPort is searching for wireless access points or waiting to be assigned an IP address. (If you are seeing a different icon, check out the page from Apple.)

Since we're looking at the menu bar, here's another tip: option-click everything. Several menu extras, especially ones from Apple, have additional features/information which you can access if you hold down the alt/option key while clicking on the icon. Here's what happens when you click vs option-click several menu extras from Apple (several of these are new and/or improved in Snow Leopard):

Volume: a regular click will reveal a slider to adjust the volume but an option-click will show a list of input and output devices to choose from (similar in function to Rogue Amoeba's SoundSource, which was recently updated for 10.6 compatibility).

MobileMe: a regular click shows time of last sync, option to sync now, and option to open the System Preferences panel for MobileMe. However option-click shows a wonderfully detailed list of every item MobileMe knows about, as well as when it last synchronized succesfully. It also offers Sync Diagnostics, Reset Sync Services (something I still have to use far too often, but less frequently than in the past) and a few other options.

Bluetooth: a regular click reveals basic settings and "paired" devices. An option-click adds a "Bluetooth Explorer" and "PacketLogger" (two "pro" options that you may never need, but are helpful for troubleshooting) as well as showing the version number.

AirPort: a regular click will show available networks and a few basic options, but an option-click shows several bits of information about your current Wi-Fi connection; however, most people will probably just be interested in the Channel and Security.

The basic point is this: feel free to option-click around. If the particular menu extra does not have any "hidden features" to show, it will still show the regular options even when you option-click. You won't hurt anything.

Final menu extra tip: if you want to remove a menu extra from the dock, you can try dragging it while holding down the command key. If that doesn't work, look in the application's preferences for an option to show or hide its menu bar item.

Once you have mastered the basics, you may want to explore some more powerful third-party menu bar items.

I, like many people, am constantly checking my email. No matter where I am, I'm either getting messages pushed to my iPhone or Mail is checking for new ones every minute. A new app is promising to make using Gmail and checking for messages much, much easier.

Notify, a new free application by Vibealicious Apps, puts a small button in your menubar of your Mac that keeps track of unread messages. The app, which was released less than 24 hours ago has already received over 3200 downloads and is quickly making a name for itself. Notify's developers consider it "like a menubar app, but better" explaining that the application boasts a much better user interface and much more functionality than traditionally found in menubar apps and buttons.

The application has a lot of cool features including:

• Support for multiple accounts
• Tabbed interface
• Growl integration
• Sleek, simple UI

The developer promises that Notify will continue to evolve, adding that the next major release of the app will support any IMAP email client as opposed to just Gmail. They're also working on support for Google Apps, in-app replies and the ability to create and send new messages directly from your menubar.

The app is also promised to be "freeware forever", according to the developer's twitter.

Some shots of Notify in action:

Welcome back to Mac 101, our series of tips for new and novice Mac users.

In the Mac operating system, the term "menu bar" refers to the the horizontal bar at the top of the screen that generally has a little picture of an apple on the left end, the time of day on the right and words like "File", "Edit", "Format" and so on in-between. Found it? Good, because understanding how this bar works is essential to getting the best out of your Mac.

In this bar, there are two constants: one is the apple, on the far left, and the other is Spotlight on the far right. Clicking the Apple logo on the left gives you access to all the vital functions of your computer, like Sleep, Restart, and Shut Down, as well as the "About This Mac" window and the option to check for software updates.

Save for the apple, the left side of this bar will change depending on which application you have selected. For you switchers, it's similar to the bar that is found at the top of each window in Windows, but cuts down on the space each window occupies by having all applications use the same menu bar. The drop down menus perform the same functions as Windows' menus, but like Windows, will be different depending on which application you currently have selected.

Are you tired of accidentally opening spotlight by pressing command + space? With this simple Terminal "hack," you can rid your precious menu bar of Spotlight for once and all. Just open Terminal.app (located in /Applications/Utilities/) and type the following command:

sudo chmod 0 /System/Library/CoreServices/Spotlight.app

You will be required to authenticate as an administrator, then the command will run. While you are still in the Terminal, type "killall Spotlight" to turn off the spotlight service right then. Spotlight will suddenly dissappear from your menu bar. To get Spotlight back, just type the following command back into Terminal:

sudo chmod 775 /System/Library/CoreServices/Spotlight.app

After a few seconds, Spotlight will reappear in your menu bar. Note that this does not remove Spotlight from Finder windows, only from the menu bar.


Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 and Terminal Tips sections.

Have you ever wanted to quickly verify today's date, but didn't want to open iCal? Well, you could click on the clock in the menu to get the month/day/year. However, you can also change the layout of the clock to include the extra information such as month/day/year.

To do this, open System Preferences and go to the "International" system preference pane. Once there, click on the "Formats" tab and then click the customize button in the dates section. Select "Medium" from the drop-down menu. You should see the data change in the text box below the drop-down menu. Click inside the box, select all the text (Command + A), and then copy the text (Command + C). Once you've copied the text, click cancel.

Click on the customize button in the times section. Select "Medium" from the drop-down menu. Then place the cursor just before the time and paste (Command + V) the date that you just copied. You might want to add several spaces (or some sort of separator) between the date and time. Once you are finished, click OK. The changes will now show up in the menu bar.

Update: To remove the custom formatting from the menu bar, go to System Preferences > International > Formats. Click the "Customize" button in the times section and select "Medium" from the drop-down menu. Delete the additional text that you add and click "OK." Now click the customize button under the "Times" section again and select "Short" from the drop-down menu. Click "OK," and your system should return to normal.


More tips and tricks like these can be found at the TUAW Tips and Mac 101 sections of TUAW.

I often find myself in need of a the digital equivalent of a scratch pad: just an open text-field to jot down a phone number, save some text for a blog comment, etc. These are not really things I want to save, so I don't want to open a word processor or even use the snippet manager of my choice (Yojimbo). So Scribblet appeals to me in its focus on one basic task. (I've never been a fan of Stickies.)

It's a menubar application that does one simple thing: pop up a small notepad; that's it. It doesn't allow for multiple notes or snippet management. It's simply a scratch pad that pops up with a simple click on the menubar or by hitting a user-definable hotkey. Despite, or rather because of, its simplicity I find it quite handy and it has earned a spot on my menubar.

Scribblet is a free download from not salad.

If you're using a keyboard without an eject key, say a non-Apple keyboard, an older Apple keyboard or (in my case) a really old Apple keyboard, you're probably missing that eject button. Sure, you can launch iTunes and select "Eject Disk" from the Controls menu, but there's a much easier way.

Navigate to the CoreServices folder, which lives in your system's Library. There, you'll find "Eject.menu" in the Menu Extras folder. Simply double-click that sucker and presto! An eject button is now in your menu bar.

To remove it, simply click it and drag it onto the desktop while holding down the Command key. You can also re-arrange menu bar items by dragging with the Command key depressed.

[Via MacSupport]

Over at Mac OS X Hints I recently ran into this doozy of a hint that I somehow missed on its first go around. Basically the idea is to capitalize on a great new feature in Leopard's help. You can get to any menu item without your mouse by activating the help menu with the keyboard shortcut ? + ? (i.e. ? + shift + /). Then type the name of the menu command you want and scroll down to it with the arrow keys. That command's menu will automatically drop down with the item highlighted, hit enter and you're done! If you're a keyboard maven this is a really easy way to get to your menu items (though you can also activate the menubar from the keyboard with ?F2).

Thanks Brandon!

Spotlight is great for searching your computer and networked Macs from the menu bar, but what if you want to search the internet also? Well, here comes Google Buddy, which allows you to search Google using the menu bar. There are multiple ways to search using Google Buddy:

1. Simple Search - this presents a spotlight-esque menu item that allows you to search for any web page using Google
   
2. Advanced Search - this allows you to use the advanced features that Google offers, such as searching using modifiers (all, exactly, any, none) or searching a specific site
   
3. Image Search - just as the name hints, it allows you to search Google images
4. Advanced Video Search - this allows you to search Google Video (however, since Google now owns YouTube, they should have included a YouTube search feature as well)
5. Advanced News Search - allows you to search Google's News archive
6. Special Searches - this feature allows you to search for movies, weather, links, and phone numbers

While using this application, the one disadvantage that I found was the auto-completion. While auto-completion is good, Google Buddy's auto-complete seemed to be "too-fast," so fast in fact that I ended up searching for wrong items. Luckily, there is an option in the preferences to turn this off ("Show search suggestions" check box). This looks like an excellent piece of software for the Mac, and it now has a permanent home in my menu bar! Google Buddy is available from Recurring Dream for the small price of $11.95; there is also a demo available.

The famed annoyance of the translucent Leopard menubar has finally been solved. Steve Miner has posted a tip that involves changing an environment variable by editing a plist to make Leopard think it's running on an older Mac that doesn't support the translucency. Once done, it will make your menubar solid white. The guys at Many Tricks (of Butler fame) take this to the next level with Menu Bar Tint, which places a pleasing tint gradient over your now blindingly white menubar, and thus returning your Leopard desktop to harmony. So there you go, if you just what an opaque menubar, run Miner's trick; if then want it to look better, have a look at Menu Bar Tint.

Update: Gruber points out that commenters on Mac OSX Hints have discovered that Miner's original tip includes a kind of scaling factor. Apparently a setting of 0.63 gives you a greyish menubar "like the opaque menu bar Leopard shows on systems with older video cards." Doing it this way does not require you to have Menu Bar Tint running all the time, and yet apparently still gives a gradient (see below).

Over at the Rogue Amoeba blog there's a post announcing the release of SoundSource 1.3, an update to the handy menubar sound settings utility. I didn't know this, but the new Mac Pros apparently do not automatically switch to the headphone port when you plug in a pair of cans. SoundSource 1.3 brings this feature to the Mac Pro. For those of us not lucky enough to be running a Pro there's not a lot new (besides the icon), but SoundSource remains an essential tool for anyone with a number of different audio inputs and/or outputs.

SoundSource remains a free download from Rogue Amoeba.

We last discussed iStat menus back in June and now the Australian company iSlayer has pushed out version 1.1, adding a variety of new features. Most important perhaps is the re-designed preference pane interface and calendar. There are also a variety of new graphs and breakdowns, as well as some a new sources and some Leopard-only features and improvements. While I've always been a fan of MenuMeters and MenuCalendarClock for similar functionality, iStat menus looks very intriguing, especially given the large number of possible data sources it can monitor.

iStat menus remains a free download from iSlayer.

[via Macworld UK]

If you don't like or don't use the Spotlight icon in your menubar, there are a couple of tips at Mac OS X Hints that describe how to hide or simply get rid of it. This first hint that caught my eye while browsing RSS feeds describes a way to 'paint over' the icon. While that sounds like a good idea and all, you still end up with a blank area in the menubar simply taking up space where the Spotlight icon used to be. Fortunately, Rob Griffiths, Macworld Senior Editor and Mac OS X Hints purveyor extraordinare, linked an older tip in the footnotes of this first one that describes how to properly remove the item from your menubar so others can take its place. It isn't a difficult process - you simply remove Search.bundle from /System/Library/CoreServices and restart the SystemUIServer process in Activity Monitor. Instead of deleting that item, however, I would definitely echo Mac OS X Hints in recommending either backing it up or renaming it just in case you change your mind in the future.

Also, this only knocks Spotlight out of the menubar, cutting off your use of the quick 'n easy menu and the more powerful Spotlight window for searching. However, this in no way disables Spotlight across Mac OS X or your applications; you should still be able to run Spotlight searches from the search box in Finder windows and make use of Spotlight in any apps that use it (NetNewsWire, Mail, etc.). I tried this myself and the process went just fine, but I found that I needed to copy the bundle to my Desktop, then delete it from the CoreServices folder. Also, I needed to force quit the SystemUIServer in order for the change to actually take effect. The process restarted itself just fine, and Spotlight disappeared from my menubar. Replacing the bundle (requiring me to authenticate as Administrator) and force quitting the process yet again (oh that poor process) returned Spotlight to its throne in the absolute right of my menubar.