items posts

Terminal Tips: Make the Dock spring loaded

by Cory Bohon (RSS feed) on Sep 24th, 2008

Spring-loaded Dock items, just like spring-loaded Finder items, are supposed to save you time by allowing you to drag a file over the folder/icon, hover for a few seconds, and have the application/folder open. Some people like these spring loaded items, while others don't -- with this Terminal "hack," you can either enable or disable this Dock feature. To enable it, open Terminal.app (located in /Applications/Utilities/) and type the following command, pressing enter:

defaults write com.apple.dock enable-spring-load-actions-on-all-items -boolean YES

To disable spring loaded items, replace the "YES" in the command above with a "NO."

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

Tags: Dock, items, spring loaded, SpringLoaded, Terminal, tips

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Freeware

Wowhead Warcraft database releases OS X client

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Jun 3rd, 2008

Our friends at WoW Insider (disclaimer: I'm a lead blogger over there) have good news for Mac World of Warcraft players who want to support one of their favorite sites. Wowhead, which is one of the premium online databases of all the items, quests, and NPCs there are to find in the game, has released a Mac client for their info-gathering spiders. Basically, you start up their app while you play the game, and it automatically pulls info to populate the database.

To answer your question, no, you don't get anything from gathering information for them, save for the pleasure of knowing that you're helping to support and fill a popular database (that most WoW players have probably used for free before).

But if you're a Mac player who's used Wowhead in the past and wouldn't mind helping them out, here's your chance. The client is a quick free download from their site.

Tags: items, mac, npc, os-x, quests, world-of-warcraft, wow-insider, wowhead

Filed under: Software, Productivity, Internet Tools

PackRat 1.2: Backpack client adds better list management and a new trial period

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Jul 14th, 2007

Going on vacation to see your just-born nephew and family will do funny things to you, like missing a handy update to a dear, dear application. Rod Schmidt's PackRat, the killer desktop client for the online PIM Backpack that we've mentioned once or twice, has been updated to v1.2 with some great new list management features. First up is yet another feature even Backpack itself doesn't have: a new 'Delete all completed items' option that appears below lists with items you've checked off. Second is another PackRat-only feature: condensing of your completed items. Instead of allowing checked items to take up more room than they should below a list, PackRat will automatically hide them and only reveal the top 5, with the option to reveal all just in case you need to double-check or recover a few.

In addition, Rod has also switched to a 30 day trial period (instead of limiting to only 4 usable PackRat pages), after which PackRat will restrict access to 5 pages until the user purchases a license. At $24.95, PackRat is an easy purchase for anyone who needs a powerful, feature-packed offline and synching client for 37signal's exception Backpack service.

Tags: backpack, GTD, items, lists, management, packrat, productivity, tasks

Filed under: Hardware, Retail, Software

Apple's special deals section filled to brim, hemmoraging iPods

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Apr 11th, 2006

While I was pondering whether the introduction of Remote Desktop 3 was worthy of shutting down the Apple Store this morning, C.K. pointed out that Apple also updated their Special Deals section. A lot. I can't remember the last time I've had to scroll this much on a page in the Apple Store. It looks like they have refurbished items from almost every one of their products except the MacBook Pro, but they're highlighting the iPod mini with their Special Deals graphic (pictured) almost as if to say "go on iPod mini. 'Git!"

I'd try linking Apple's Special Deals section, but I know that always gets wonky. Plus, the tips I've found like Ars Technica's don't cover linking a section, so all you get is a link to the Apple Store. You're on your own for the rest of the way.

Tags: AirPort, Apple, click wheel, ClickWheel, discounts, eMac, iMac, iPod, items, mini, PowerBook, refurbished, Special Deals, SpecialDeals, Store

Filed under: Cool tools, How-tos, Productivity, Tips and tricks

Quicksilver's "Comma Trick"

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Mar 7th, 2006

Today I fall even more deeply in love with Quicksilver, as I have discovered yet another incredibly useful and productive trick from a 43 Folders tutorial. This easy tip, loosely called "the comma trick," allows you first to find more than one item with Quicksilver, then apply an action to all of those items. If you're wondering why or how this could be useful, consider a couple scenarios:

You can find multiple bookmarks (as many as you want, as far as I can tell) and open them all in tabs (as long as your browser does the tabs thing).
You could find a file, chose Quicksilver's "send immediately" action and then find multiple people from your address book to send that same file to - all without ever touching an actual email compose window.

This trick's usefulness boggles my mind, and all you really have to do is hit the comma key in order to chose multiple items. Check out the 43 Folders tutorial for the full deets on how this trick works, then feel free to take a break from being amazed.

Tags: action, comma, items, Quicksilver, selection, tip, trick, tutorial

Tip of the Day

F11 moves all your windows off the screen so you can quickly glance at your desktop. F10 shows you every open window in an application. F9 shows every open window for every application that isn't hidden or in the dock.

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