While Front Row's integration with iTunes and iPhoto provides a nice, seamless experience, there are times when your needs demand a not-so-integrated approach -- say, for example, if you have an external hard drive full of videos that you'd like to watch on Front Row, but don't necessarily want to import into iTunes or copy into your Movies.

One solution to this is to create an alias that points to said external hard drive or any other folder on your computer or network. For new PC-to-Mac converts, an alias is the equivalent of a "shortcut" on Windows. To create an alias, right-click on the file or folder (in our case, folder) and select "Make Alias." Now, place said alias in the your Movies folder, which is located in /Users/username/Movies.

Now, you'll be able to browse and play movies of the folder that the alias points to. And if QuickTime can play the file, then so too can Front Row.

The Aurora Feint folks are at WWDC with the rest of the Mac development world this week, and while out there, not only are they having a party, but they sent out an announcement: OpenFeint 2.0 is out now, and it has some "social discovery" features now included. Their open platform already supported doing things like leaderboards and profiles from directly within iPhone applications and games, but now the new release will also allow users to bring their friends lists in from Facebook and Twitter, update profile pictures of themselves, and both find their friends and figure out what they're playing. The system is free to integrate into iPhone apps and games, and there's a user-based model that costs more at higher levels.

OpenFeint isn't the only system attempting to do something like this (be a sort of Xbox Live for iPhone games), but they are certainly the biggest, with more developers jumping into their boat every day. And as is the way with social networks, sometimes being the biggest is just as good as being the best. Look for their features in an iPhone game near you.

Scott Morrison's fantastic MailTags 2.0 is hands-down the best (and not because it is the only) plug-in that brings the wonders of tagging and iCal integration to Apple Mail. We've mentioned it plenty of times here on TUAW, and with good reason: Scott has put this new version of MailTags and its healthy dose of new features through a rigorous beta testing period, and tonight the plug-in makes that coveted leap from 'beta' to 'official release.' While Scott pops some well-deserved bubbly to celebrate his hard work, check out this list of tasty features designed for those who need more from an integrated desktop email client:

• IMAP support - sync your tags over IMAP servers and use them to keep your mail organized and synced across any Mac you have MailTags installed on
• A much-improved integrated interface for viewing and editing tags
• The ability to view tags in Mail's List view (an extra, optional column to let you know a message is tagged)
• Dynamic coloring of messages based on project, approaching due dates and priorities
• Integration with iCal, allowing you to create to dos and events right from Mail
• Including tags in your outbound messages for other MailTags users
• Better integration with Mail's search tools, allowing you to specify searching only for message tags, projects or even notes you've applied with MailTags (in addition to Mail's default criteria of Entire Message, From, To, etc.)
• Better integration with Mail's smart mailboxes
• Applescript compatibility

I've been a happy user of MailTags 2.0 since it the early days of the beta, and I tip my hat to Scott for releasing such a great product. You can grab your own demo that runs for 21 days, while a license costs $29.95, with educational and volume discounts available upon requests.

Since we last mentioned Mailplane, the Gmail client that integrates with Mac OS X, it's received a series of minor updates that have fixed bugs and added a few features. The most recent update, however, has added some significant new features such as a 'Mail PDF with Mailplane' print dialog plugin, customizable toolbar, clickable Growl notifications that take you to the specific message and - to my personal delight - simple instructions for enabling rich text editing when composing messages. This is big news because Mailplane uses WebKit - the same open source web rendering engine Safari is based on - to interact with Gmail, which means Mailplane is also limited by WebKit's inability to provide rich text editing features like bold, justification, colors, etc.

Fortunately, turning on rich text editing is as simple as downloading the latest nightly app build of WebKit and telling Mailplane where you put it. This won't overwrite Safari or interfere with it in any other way, so this process is pretty low-risk for gaining rich text editing, but seemingly only in Gmail (either in Mailplane or using WebKit itself as a browser). I tried surfing to a few other sites and couldn't get rich text widgets to appear in any of them.

Either way, this is great news for Mailplane users who want to join the rest of the internet in using some text formatting goodness when composing their messages. If you need a refresher on what Mailplane is all about, check our previous post and photo gallery for a brief tour, or head over to the Mailplane site to read more and sign up for the private beta.

I don't know how I missed this post at Hawk Wings a few weeks ago, but I am glad I found it at least sooner or later: Tim Gaden has been keeping a watchful eye on the Yojimbo mailing list, and he caught a set of scripts written by Dylan Damian that can take a link from either Safari or NetNewsWire, bookmark it on del.icio.us with Pukka (which I highly recommend as a paid user) and then archive the link in Yojimbo using the same tags you used on del.icio.us. I completely agree with Tim: after testing these scripts out with NetNewsWire, they work like a charm and have just been added to my toolbelt.

You can score the scripts by checking the Yojimbo mailing list archives (they're online here if you aren't subscribed), or simply by heading over to Tim's post at Hawk Wings, as he is hosting the files himself.

Playlist magazine reports that about half of all new 2007 automobiles support iPod integration. Telematics Research Group calls it "the most sought after feature" for customers. This number is way up from the 12% iPod support in 2006 model year cars. You can only imagine how our Internet-addicted lifestyle (aka our "crackberry-style living") will continue to grow and develop over the next few model years. I fully expect standard in-seat video integration and wireless Internet consoles to join iPod support as standard options.

A deal-breaker for many potential Thunderbird users is its lack of integration with Mac OS X's Address Book. While we found a web-based exporting tool back in January that worked for some users, plenty of others have their reasons for sticking with Apple's digital rolodex.

We've heard about unofficial Thunderbird builds and plugins that can allow it to use contacts from Address Book, but it seems their developmental progress has been stop and go over the past year. Enter Robert Coleman, a quintessential knight in coding armor who has released an updated build of Thunderbird that traverses the void between Mozilla's and Apple's address books - though it isn't without a little bit of fiddling and a catch. Robert had to post some vital instructions with the build which you must follow before you can get your hands on the goods, so read carefully. The catch? Address Book integration is read-only; you can't add new contacts from Thunderbird, but hey - it's a start.

[via Hawk Wings]

We don't know how wide-spread this problem is, but I figured if this frustrating complicatioin happened to one user, he probably isn't the only one: SecurityMonkey at the ITtoolbox Blogs posted a tragic story with a happy ending involving Apple's latest iPod software update and factory car interfaces. This dramatic tale of heart-wrenching loss and emotional reuniting with his iPod + car integration kit begins with the software update for is 5G iPod that iTunes 7 requires. Upon connecting his recently updated iPod to the factory Nissan adapter in his car, the display presented the 'No iPod' error message pictured above.

Ultimately, SecurityMonkey was able to recover his factory iPod connectivity with the daring attempt of using the Restore function now built into iTunes 7. Granted it's a time-consuming process since it requires re-syncing all the music back onto an iPod (it also erases any data/files on the iPod, so back those up), but upon reuniting his refreshed iPod with his Nissan - their techno-sexy love was once again in full bloom.

Again, this is the first report we've seen of issues like this, so we have no idea which iPod models this affects, or which decks and interfaces are experiencing these quirks. If any of y'all run into similar problems, give us the details in this post's comments, or submit a tip via our tips form.

Is that plain-jane Apple Keyboard starting to feel a little lax in the feature department? Do you find yourself wanting for, say, 10 programmable hotkeys and dedicated iTunes control keys? How does a built-in iPod dock sound, with an audio line out port for the ultimate in keyboard luxury and integration?

If your keyboard juices are 'a flowin, check out the new Pro|Type™ Multimedia Keyboard from Razer Pro|Solutions, a decked-out keyboard with all the fixins, except a cup holder. No pricing or availability has been announced, but we'll let you know as soon as we hear when you'll have yet another option for keeping your iPod front and center in your life.

[via iLounge]

Looks like I have to trade in my BMW M5 already (and by "BMW M5," I mean "Saturn VUE"). Earlier this week at the 2006 New York Auto Show, BMW revealed an update to their iPod integration kit. According to Left Lane News, you will be able to access your iPods' playlists, artists, albums, podcasts, and browse genres all from the car's built-in display. The kit will work with all iPods with a dock connector and will be available with the 3 Series, 5 Series, 6 Series, 7 Series and the M5, starting with the 2007 model year. This is really good news because, you know, owning a BMW isn't nice enough.

[Via MacNN]

Earlier this week at the 2006 Detroit Auto Show, The Chrysler Group announced that iPod integration will be made available in several of their vehicles in 2006. The optional $175US kit will be availabe for most Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler models (more than 3 million vehicles in total) later this year. Like other car kits we've seen, Chrysler's set up will allow you to control your iPod via the car's stereo or steering wheel controls, with the stereo displaying the name of the song and artist.

That thing got a hemi? Who cares? I want an iPod car kit.

[Via MacNN]

As we Mac fans and users must concede, we do still live in a Windows world. For those of who also work in a Windows world (including banging your heads against a wall), I've found a site that could help Windows and OS X shake hands and (dare I say it) work together better: MacWindows.com. Need to learn about using a Mac with Active Directory? How about using Mac OS X Server with Windows clients? Cross-platform file sharing, Exchange server and applescripts for converting file names - it's all here. This site gets pretty in-depth on a lot of these topics, and it looks like the best one-stop resource I've seen to help with all those OS X Windows-related headaches.

Woops, I take my "Macs aren't going anywhere" post back, as they're certainly going one place in a big way lately: cars. I  have a double dose of iPod/Mac in-car news coming at you from our sibling site, Autoblog. First up: they caught wind of a projection from the Telematics Research Group that by 2011, 73 million cars on the road could have iPod integration. I'm no professional, but I'll toss my own prediction into the hat: by 2011, a lot of un-burned blank CD's are going to be lying around.

Next on the list is probably the slickest "Mac mini in a car" setup I have seen to date. As if one Mac mini feeding two screens in a 2006 Infiniti M45 Sport isn't enough, the creator is also using a Palm Treo 650 and Salling Clicker to run the setup, as well as Rsync X and an AirPort network to keep the mini's library in tune with a PowerMac G5 in the house. Oh yea, how could I forget the Mac mini also seems to be running Front Row? Maybe that's why this setup wasn't featured on that new "Big Ideas" page Apple just put up.

Over the weekend, our sibling blog, Autoblog posted about a cool article from Technoride (part of PC Mag) covering six ways to pair your iPod with your car. FM Transmitters are nice, but you can also go the cassette adapter route, or even use a line in, if you have the proper connection in your car.

I personally prefer to just race around town with my noise-cancelling headphones on ignoring all sounds from the road. Is that wrong?