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customization posts

Filed under: Mods, Macbook Pro, MacBook

Hey! Lego my Apple!!

No, I'm not talking about any of these Lego Mac mods, A relatively new startup called MacSlaps brings us some personalization goodness in the form of custom vinyl stickers for your MacBook and MacBook Pro.

Using stickers (or even laser engraving) to customize your MacBook is nothing new, but what I think sets MacSlaps apart from some of the others I have seen is the designs are simple and creative. In addition to the Lego design pictured here, their site showcases a few other interesting designs, such as Mario, PacMacMan, and my favorite, Tic-Mac-Toe.

The stickers come on a square sheet of vinyl, ranging from about 4 to 8 inches, so most of them will even fit on the 13-inch MacBook. I know they say these are custom made for MacBooks, but I'm tempted to order one and try it on the back of my 24-inch aluminum iMac, since I'm guessing the effect would be about the same. They also offer custom designs, so if you've got a crazy idea in mind, they can probably help you get it onto your Mac.

Although the selection is pretty sparse, their designs are original and interesting. Plus, it looks like they've just recently started up, as their Etsy store opened in October, and some of their designs haven't shown up on the store yet, so I hope this means we will be seeing more from them in the near future.

All in all, these stickers would make a great stocking stuffer for your favorite Mac geek. Not to mention, if you're picking up a new MacBook for the Holidays, they are a great way to add a personal touch, especially with the custom design offer.

[via iPhoneSavior]

Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Odds and ends, Freeware

Cool tool: Change your Mac's boot image with BootXChanger

Every once in a while, I get reminded about a cool tool that I've used and then totally forgotten about. In today's example, the reminder came in the form of a post on UNEASYsilence about how to change your Mac's boot image.

The boot image, in case you're new to the Mac world, is that gray Apple logo that you see after the startup chime when booting up your machine. It's surprisingly boring, so back in December of 2007 Jésus Álvarez wrote a small tool to replace that drab gray Apple with something more exciting.

BootXChanger is free, and it changes the Mac's boot image. There are limitations to what you can replace the gray Apple with -- the background must remain the boring #BFBFBF gray, the image can't be too complex, and the image should be sized at 128 x 128 pixels -- but you can do a lot within those borders. BootXChanger comes with a dozen sample images (below), and instructions are provided on how to create your own.

I was torn between "Colour Apple Logo" and "Radioactive", so I ended up trying both. You simply drag and drop an icon file to the application window, or you can click "Default Image" if you decide to go back to the current Apple icon. Here are a couple of photos of my MacBook Air starting up with the new boot images for your entertainment:

Filed under: Odds and ends

We [heart] Icons really does [heart] icons

One of the most common ways to customize your tried-and-true desktop is by changing the wallpaper. While easy and effective, the wallpaper switcheroo is not the only trick up the sleeves of the customizers among us. For some, the most rewarding customization results from replacing icons.

There are many reasons to do this, including replacing system and application icons to create an overall aesthetic, easing the identification of a particular external hard drive by using its product image as an icon, or even replacing poorly-designed icons entirely (we're looking at you, Adobe).

We Love Icons aims to make it easy for icon lovers to discover new icons from around the web that are free for personal use. In their own words, designers Dan Wiersema and Nando Albuquerque started We Love Icons because, well... they love icons! The site itself is very well designed and easy to navigate; there is even an easy-to-spot option for filtering icons based on type: Mac-compatible, PNG file format, or Windows-compatible.

Further adding to the greatness of this site, the How-To page is a great resource for those new to the icon-customization game. There are links to external content on the history of icons, tutorials on changing icons, and even design-related icon articles. The How-To area also features an Apps section which lists several useful programs for replacing and creating icons. Each application list item includes a one-sentence summary, the application's platform (web, Mac, or Windows), and also the application's price.

Overall, I am impressed with the content of the site and the quality of its presentation. We Love Icons has secured a bookmark in my "Icons" folder right next to the link to InterfaceLIFT's icon section. Dear readers, I present this question to you: in my never-ending search for the best icons, do you have any favorites that you have either designed or found? Hit up the comments and share the love.

Filed under: Software, Freeware, Holidays

Get into the Halloween spirit with a screen saver

With Halloween only a couple weeks away, it's time to get your Mac into the holiday spirit ... with a screen saver! The free Jack-o-Lantern screen saver from Killer Robots does just that -- without the mess of carving a pumpkin. It has over 25 pre-made designs, but you can also create your own pumpkin designs in Photoshop using the carving template provided by the developer.

The screen saver features a very realistic pumpkin that rotates against a black background. You can control many settings including: seconds between pumpkin design changes, camera rotation, quality, and screen glow. In addition, you can select which designs you want shown. Check out our gallery of screenshots to get a feel for the quality of this awesome screen saver. You can download the screen saver from the developer's website.

If you want even more customization, check out the Icon Factory's Halloween section for free icons (compatible with Candybar from Panic). Do you have another favorite holiday screen saver or icon set you like to use? Let us know in the comments!


Filed under: Mods, iPhone

ColorWare does their thing for the iPhone 3G


If black and white aren't enough for you, ColorWare is now offering their gadget coloring service for the iPhone 3G. Their iPhone site allows you to customize parts of your phone with 35 different colors on an à la carte basis. Obviously you have to send in your iPhone and the service takes about two weeks.

Unfortunately, it's not cheap. Just to color the back of the phone is $150 (all prices are US dollars), with additional color options for the frame, home button, SIM tray, earbuds, and dock running $10-$20 each. In fact, if you went wild and purchased full customization, your bill would be $230 -- more than the iPhone 3G. On the other hand, can you really put a price on being the only guy whose lilac-colored iPhone has a Candy Apple button?

[via Gizmodo]

Filed under: iPhone

Custom "Stealth iPhone" from ColorWare

If you're willing to go the extra mile (and paycheck) to customize your gadgets, but you're not a big fan of the flashy ColorWare colors that we've covered before, the new custom edition matte black iPhone (Stealth iPhone) may be the ticket.

ColorWare has been making drastic hue adjustments on iPhones for a while and recently announced that their color-customizing services were available for the MacBook Air. While they've offered a gloss black before, the new "stealth" iPhone's matte black finish is a departure from their usual eye-catching pigments. I imagine it's also more appealing to a good number of people.

The customization is only available on new phones purchased from ColorWare, and with the matte black customization your new iPhone will run you $675 for the 8GB iPhone, $775 for the 16 GB. A 1-year warranty is standard, but you can extend that to two years for an additional $149. You can find more details on the ColorWare site.


Filed under: Mods, MacBook Air

ColorWare does the Air

Macs, in general, have always been works of art compared to their rivals, and the MacBook Air is a pinnacle achievement in the line of lust-worthy Apple computers. There's just never been a lot of color choice in the Apple's lineup. For the audacious souls who choose to express their personality through their hardware, ColorWare has been making Macs (et al) into vibrant articulations of individuality for 8 years. And now they'll deck out your Air, too.

ColorWare recently announced the inclusion of the MacBook Air in its line of color-modded machines. Starting with a sleek black, the pigmentation possibilities branch out exponentially when you consider there are 34 other colors that can be mixed and matched in whatever combination best describes your individual taste. You can choose a metallic or solid type of color for the high-gloss, scratch-resistant, polymer-based coating.

For a lot of us – well, me anyway – I'm pretty happy with titanium and white as I've never needed my computer to be a distraction in and of itself. I have enough applications designed for that purpose. But I know there are more than a few people excited about a black MacBook Air, probably even a few tickled about the pink option and many more in the spectrum between.

You can send in your current machine ($500+) or buy one ready to go ($2568+). You can even play with the possibilities before you make the leap.

Filed under: OS, Hacks, How-tos, Tips and tricks, Odds and ends, Leopard

How to tweak the Leopard Dock's color

Earlier, I posted about how you can revert those new lights in Leopard's Dock back to Tiger's old triangles (and I can't say I was too surprised to find out that most of you didn't want to revert anything-- do what feels right, man), and I said that the next thing to go would be Leopard's shiny Dock-top.

And now, here we go-- Something Awful's echobucket has apparently found the files that need to be changed to edit the look of the dock. As with the triangles, the Dock elements have a few sizes to them, so replace the "scruve-x.png" files (where x is "l," "m," "sm," or "xl") in the Dock package's /Contents/Resources folder (make sure to back up the original files just in case, too), and then type "killall Dock" in the Terminal to restart it, and bingo, a slightly less bright dock.

In fact, just by changing the color of those pictures, you can change the color of the Dock itself (here's an orange dock on a black background for Halloween, via Digg commenter HacKing). It can't be too long before some enterprising programmer figures out how to put all of this inside an easy-to-use app, but here's the real question: if it's all this easy, why didn't Apple offer us this kind of customization ourselves? Sure, when you hand the paintbrushes to the people, things can get ugly, but they can also get much more beautiful, too.

[via Digg]

Filed under: Software, Odds and ends

Shades: application color customization

You know those paint color sample strips that you typically see in home improvement stores? They usually have different shades of the same color on individual strips so that you can easily compare and fine-tune your color choices. Shades 1.0 applies this same methodology of color selection to the standard Apple Color Picker within OS X. With this little utility installed, any application that uses the Apple Color Picker will be transformed to display a color grid once you select a center color, step size, and a constant color coordinate (of H, S, or B). And with this handy grid, you can tweak your color choice even further for precise customization. Ok, so this utility probably best serves only the truly obsessive among us, but the concept is still pretty nifty, I think.

Shades is shareware, and will set you back $14.95 for a full license.

Filed under: iPod Family

Color your iPod

ColorwarePC offers a distinct way to create a personalized iPod. They'll color it for you. For $74, they'll tint your iPod from their palette of 28 colors. Pick one color for the click wheel, one for the front housing, one for the back. Some of their colors are flat. Others have embedded metallic flakes that shimmer under bright lights.

Don't have an iPod? They'll sell you a nano or a video model with custom coloring from their in-house stock of new iPods.

Unfortunately, it's already too late to order one of these by Christmas. If you placed an order today, it would arrive early-to-mid January, meaning that you'd have to stick an IOU into someone's stocking.

The coloring service, where you supply the iPod, is US-only. However, new purchases can be made from around the world. Contact the company to see whether they ship to your area.

Filed under: OS, Software, How-tos

Tutorial: Customize your disk images

MurphyMac has posted a video tutorial showing how to customize your dmg containers to make them look more professional. The tutorial walks you through the steps of creating a disk image, adding a background graphic, and saving the result for production and distribution. A fully customized dmg file offers a polished presentation so you can really impress the people you're distributing your material to.

Filed under: OS, Software, Hacks, Odds and ends

Visage Login - customize Mac OS X's login screen

If the design of Apple's Mac OS X login screen just isn't floatin' yer boat, Visage Login might be worth a look. With two separate versions - one for 10.4 and another for 10.1-10.3 - this is one of the few apps I remember where 10.3 users have some features to brag about over Tiger users. As an app for 10.4 Tiger, Visage Login allows you to alter the login screen's logo and desktop image, while a preference pane for 10.1-10.3 has the ability to run screen savers as your desktop background, personalize system alerts, randomize the login screen background, and more.

Visage Login is shareware with a fully-functioning 3 day demo. A single license costs a mere $4.95, while a 50+ machine license for businesses and corporations is $29.95.

[via digg]

Tip of the Day

Use Spotlight as a reference tool. Type any word in the Spotlight box and one of the top entries will be a definition. Click on it, and it will bring up the dictionary application to check the word in either the dictionary, thesaurus, Apple database, or Wikipedia.


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