From time to time we have shared hidden settings in applications which can be used to "tweak" an app's behavior, such as forcing Snow Leopard's dictionary to reuse the same window or make the print dialog expanded by default. These settings are normally changed using the Terminal.app which can be daunting to some.

Secrets is a (free!) preference panel which has collected a bunch of these settings and made changing them as simple as checking a box or choosing from a drop-down panel of possible choices. It includes settings for about 40 different applications, from Apple applications such as Mail, iCal, iChat, Finder, Front Row, Keynote, DVD Player (and more) to third-party applications including Adium, Audio Hijack Pro, BBedit, EyeTV, VMware Fusion, and TextMate (just to name a few). Some applications have a lot of hidden settings, and some have only one or two.

If you see a setting but don't know what it does, click it and Secrets will show a brief explanation (these are also available on the Secrets website, but they are easier to read in the preference panel). If you change a setting which requires you to restart the application, Secrets will tell you, and even give you a "Quit This" button. (It's usually best to make these changes when the app isn't running.)

Unfortunately at least one of the secret settings from 10.5 doesn't seem to work in 10.6. That is, the setting to turn HelpViewer into a regular (instead of floating) window. There may be others.

I'm off to explore and see what new goodies Alcor (the developer of Secrets, who you may also know as the creator of Quicksilver) has uncovered.

Thanks to the recently-revived Hawk Wings site for bringing this to my attention. If you use Apple's Mail.app, Hawk Wings is a great site for tips and information.

Update: We seem to have taken down the Secrets website (oops!) but you can download the preference panel from a mirror (zip) (166kb).

There was a report this week that Mac OS X 10.6.2 will block Atom support, leaving Hackintosh owners stuck at 10.6.1. Intel's Atom processors have been used in netbooks by MSI, Dell and ASUS for their low cost and modest energy consumption. Hackintosh owners were disappointed.

Shortly after that report was published, Electronista noted that a newly-released build of 10.6.2 (10C535) brought it back. Of course, we're talking about "support" for hackintoshes in a developer build of the OS, so keep that in mind.

The moral of the story: Apple can kill this when ever they please, so have fun while you can.

[Via Engadget]

Update: Cnet reports that Apple is acknowledging the problem, while calling it "extremely rare."

There's a few threads on Apple's Discussion Boards describing a problem that's affecting some Snow Leopard users. An issue with the Guest account feature in SL appears to be chomping down on user data with extreme prejudice. Cnet/MacFixIt first took notice of the issue back in early September, but a 2nd report & a link from 9to5Mac have raised the threat level quite a bit.

According to affected users, the guest account's logout wipe -- a standard feature intended to prevent guests from leaving files on the machine -- is inadvertently clobbering the home directories of the non-guest accounts, with catastrophic results. One user writes, "I hadn't used my Guest Account since upgrading to snow leopard, and I accidentally clicked it instead of my user account this morning, to find that when I logged into my normal account ALL my files, settings, mail etc had been reset."

Worse of all is that he's not the only one.

MacFixIt reports that it isn't an epidemic, but readers have described the same issue in the comments to their post. For now, we offer this simple advice. First, make sure your backups are current. Secondly, turn off the Guest account feature if you're not using it (simple instructions here); some suspect that the issue is triggered by having it turned on prior to the SL upgrade. If and when the culprit is identified and squashed, we'll let you know.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

[Via Engadget]

The more we use Snow Leopard the more niceties we uncover. This week I found a simple little check box that has made my life infinitely more awesome. Yes, my entire life.

First, a bit of background. When Mac OS 10.0 was released in September of 2001, we all went crazy with the genie effect, watching windows slip in and out of the newly-introduced Dock with silky smoothness.* Window after window slid into place.

The problem was this: minimized windows moved neighboring icons aside, making everything a bit smaller and harder to identify. Eventually the whole mess became unusable. Sure, you could mouse over or check the identifying icon but ancient eyes like mine aren't meant for such strain.

Snow Leopard has come to the rescue. Now you can minimize windows "behind" their parent app's icon. Here's how. First. launch System Preferences and click "Dock." Then, select "Minimize windows into application icon." As Jeff Goldblum said, "There's no step three." Now, minimized windows scoot behind your Dock icons and there's no more crowding.

*OK, jaggy, halting smoothness. Still, it was cool. Mostly.

Appearing alongside the Mac OS X 10.6.1 update, Apple released another update today: Security Update 2009-004 is out for users of Leopard and Tiger. This update patches several vulnerabilities, including the security issue with Flash that was also part of Mac OS 10.6.1.

It's available now through Software Update and is applicable for Mac OS X Leopard, Tiger (PPC and Intel) and Tiger Server (PPC and Universal).

I got to the Walt Whitman Mall on Long Island yesterday and they were doing land-office business, according to the blue (not orange) shirt I was speaking with. He told me that he lost count, but they must have moved over 150 copies of Snow Leopard per hour.

Two minutes later (they really do have their system down), I left the store in a foreshadowing downpour. After looking at the startup, shutdown and disk capacity notes I've been collecting for a few days, I removed the shrink wrap and got down to business with the hopes of upgrading four computers today. Yes, I did buy the family pack. Five hours later, I'd only upgraded two machines. This is not because the upgrades didn't move along speedily, it was because I had some real head scratching problems to deal with.

The first: my 8GB 17" Unibody Macbook Pro running at 2.93 Ghz, took about 34 minutes to upgrade. As I thought, Apple hadn't gotten any better about realistic install times with the last 'under a minute' taking 7 minutes. No news there. Additionally, I gained only 2 GB of usable storage; I did do a Rosetta install. Damn you Quicken!

If you haven't installed Rosetta, and find that you need it, a very helpful box is displayed asking if you want to. It really didn't take a lot of storage at all.

I'd suspected that much of the reclamation of storage is due to clearing out caches and other garbage. What led me to believe this was that I ran Onyx beforehand, and that gave me back about about 8GB of storage right there from maintenance and cleanup. The truth about SL's space savings, however, according to David Pogue: most of the excess storage given back is saved in compressed code and not installing gigabytes of printer drivers that most users will never need.

What follows are a few initial notes from an installation that didn't go quite as smoothly as I had hoped.

With Snow Leopard in users' hands for less than 24 hours, reports of software incompatibilities are coming in (as well as what's been updated). Apple has posted a list of its own to the knowledge base. The article notes that, when Snow Leopard is installed, known-incompatible software is moved to a folder aptly named Incompatible Software. Additionally, known-incompatible software is prevented from opening (you'll see an "Incompatible software" message).

As of this writing, there are 21 pieces of software on Apple's official list, including Parallels Desktop v. 2.5 (and earlier) and AirPort Admin Utility for Graphite and Snow v. 4.2.5. A few of our readers shared their experiences in our liveblog earlier tonight, including installation troubles. We're sure that all vendors are working to update their products. If something continues to give you trouble, hold tight. Help is (probably) on the way.

Amid the leaks and speculation, the online Apple Store went down this morning, only to return with Snow Leopard release information -- August 28th. It also turns out that the box photo that was leaked last weekend was legit, showing the Snow Leopard on the front.

The pricing remains at $29US for a single user upgrade, or $49 for a Family Pack upgrade. You can only install the upgrade edition if you're using Leopard. If you're not, you'll need to buy the Mac Box Set, available for $169 for a single user or $229 for a Family Pack.

Before you install, check out our upgrade guide. Also, note that If you purchased a qualifying Mac on or after June 8, 2009, that does not include Mac OS X Snow Leopard, you can upgrade for $9.95.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Amidst the Safari and AirPort updates yesterday, Apple has released yet another update today, Security Update 2009-004. This update patches a single vulnerability affecting the BIND DNS server. It's available now through Software Update or Apple's support downloads page, and is available to download for Mac OS X Leopard, Tiger (PPC and Intel) and Tiger Server (PPC and Universal).

This could be the saddest thing I've seen all week (and I've watched a few Cubs games): a Florida school is declaring itself PC-only, and apparently was planning to toss almost 200 Macs in the trash to get new Windows computers for the kids and teachers. Hearing that kids will have to use Windows is sad enough, but tossing out working Macs, even if they're old G3 models? Not cool at all. The teachers were apparently also told originally that they couldn't buy them or give them away to kids either -- it was the trash bin for these machines.

Cult of Mac also updates with pictures of the Macs, and we warn you, if all of those machines really are headed for the landfill, it's a little scary to look at. Fortunately, the outcry has caused school officials to reconsider (or at least state their position more clearly), and it looks like what they'll be doing is assessing the machines to see if they can be refurbished and then given away or sent off to a recycling center. The other problem apparently lies in the software -- giving away the machines is no problem, but the school has to make sure all the software is cleaned off of the computers, as they don't have licenses to distribute software that way. And as the school administrator says, the computers aren't much good without an OS on them.

But surely we can save these guys. Apple, want to step in here and grant this school some licenses to keep these computers (208 in total, many of which are likely workable, even at "five to ten years old") in the hands of people who can use them? It would be a shame if the school had to toss working computers because their hands were tied by OS X software licenses.

Amidst the release of Mac OS X 10.5.8 for Leopard users, Apple has also released Security Update 2009-003 for users of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. This update fixes 7 of the same security vulnerabilities that were patched as part of the 10.5.8 update. There are updates available for PowerPC and Intel versions of Tiger, in addition to PowerPC and Universal editions of Tiger Server.

These updates range in size from 76MB to 204MB, and can be downloaded from Apple's support downloads page.

We're eagerly awaiting Snow Leopard at the TUAW offices, and we're not alone. It's currently the number 1 pre-order item at Amazon. While there's no official release date available, Amazon notes that Snow Leopard can be expected "...sometime in September."

What's interesting is that Apple's $29US release will be issued only a month before Microsoft's Windows 7 (in fact, reader Chris Tebb points out that many Amazon users checking out Snow Leopard go on to buy Win 7). Microsoft hopes to dig itself out of the hole created by public reaction to Vista, while Apple is giving Mac OS X Leopard a shine. For more on Snow Leopard, check out the official page and our own continuing coverage.

[Via MacDailyNews]

Google just announced they are indeed developing the long-rumored Chrome OS.

Expected to be web-focused with a minimal user interface, the lightweight open source operating system will appear initially on netbooks running either x86 or ARM processors. Expansion to the desktop and full-powered laptops will most likely follow. According the Official Google Blog, Chrome OS will be available to consumers in the second half of next year.

"Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS," wrote Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director. "We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds."

Not surprisingly, the OS will be based on a Linux kernel and should run all current and future web-based applications.

Google admits that there may be some overlap between its operating system for mobile devices, Android, and the newly introduced Chrome OS. The blog announcement explains, "Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems."

What does this mean for the Mac community? Sound off in the comments!

Mac Magazine has posted (English translation) what they're claiming to be several screenshots and videos of Snow Leopard, the forthcoming major update to OS X. Some of the goodies on display include a slider that allows you to adjust the size of icons in a Finder window (much like iPhoto does), new Stacks behavior and a peek at Quicktime X, which has a black border in this build.

In the video above, we see some cool smart quotes, smart dashes, smart dates (add to iCal; view date in iCal) and auto-correction of spelling errors.

We first saw screenshots last year, and Apple issued a code freeze on the APIs last week. I, for one, am looking forward to this tidied up version of Leopard.

For more, check out this video.