OS X Mountain Lion

Apple recently released a developer preview of OS X Mountain Lion. It is the ninth major release of OS X. Apple have brought over some of the popular apps and features from iPad to the Mac in Mountain Lion. The new OS X introduces Messages, Notes, Reminders and Game Center to Mac as well as Notification Center, Share Sheets, Twitter integration, and AirPlay Mirroring. The preview release of Mountain Lion is available to Mac Developer Program members. Mac users will be able to upgrade to Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store in late summer 2012. Check out a preview here. Let us know what you think?

MobileMe Transition Steps to iCloud

I just successfully updated from MobileMe to iCloud without a hitch. It definitely took a while and there are a number of steps you should follow. Here is a list of steps I used to successfully transition over:

Upgrade your iPhone and iPad to iOS 5 by connecting each device to your Mac and using iTunes to upgrade to iOS 5. This will take a while, budget an hour per device depending on the amount of data you have as each device is backed up, upgraded to iOS 5 and then the Apps, data and settings restored.
Next backup your data on your Mac stored by MobileMe, see previous post. This is in case the transition to iCloud does not go smoothly. Also delete any data you from your iDisk as once you transition to iCloud your access to your iDisk is removed.
Upgrade your Mac to the latest version of OS X Lion 10.7.2 by clicking on Apple > Software Update. This will provide the iCloud service in System Preferences.
After the OS X Lion software update, the iCloud login from System Preferences will automatically be displayed. If not go to your System Preference and click on iCloud.
Enter your existing MobileMe username and password. You will be taken to Safari to login to the MobileMe move page.
Login to the MobileMe move page and you will be directed through a serious of pages to acknowledge the transition of your email, contacts, calendar and bookmarks to iCloud.
Once you have transitioned to iCloud your iPhone and iPad will have automatically been updated to transition from MobileMe to iCloud, provided they have been upgraded to iOS 5.
If you have an older iPhone that cannot be upgraded to iOS 5, your email will still work as the mail servers for iCloud are the same as for MobileMe. Unfortunately, your calendar items will have been removed as they no longer can sync with iCloud. Your contacts and bookmarks will remain but also will no longer be updated.

Hope your transition from MobileMe to iCloud goes smoothly. Let us know if you have any issues.

MobileMe Transition to iCloud

Apple is due to release the much anticipated iCloud service today. If you are already a MobileMe subscriber and have a me.com email address you will need to transition it to iCloud. However, an iCloud me.com email address is only free for OS X Lion and iOS 5 users so you will need to upgrade your iPhone, iPad and Mac first. You will need to transition from MobileMe to iCloud by June 30, 2012. We recommend that you do the following before transitioning over.

Save and delete all your photo albums from the Photo Gallery as the gallery is no longer supported. Go to iPhoto and copy the photos from your albums in the gallery and then delete each album.
Save and delete all your documents from your iDisk as iDisk is no longer supported. Go to your Documents, Music, Pictures, Public and Shared folders on your iDisk and copy the documents to a folder on your Mac.
Save and delete all your iWeb sites as iWeb is no longer being supported going forward. Go to your Web folder on your iDisk and copy the files to a folder on your Mac.
Backup each Mailbox in the Mail application. Go to each mailbox, including the folders you store email and right click to bring up the Export Mailbox menu item, then export each mailbox to a folder on your Mac. In the event that your MobileMe email account does not transition correctly to iCloud you can re-import your saved mailboxes back into the Mail application and iCloud.
Backup your Contacts from the Address Book application. Go to the File > Export > Address Book Archive menu item, then export your contacts to a folder on your Mac.
Backup your Calendar events from the iCal application. Go to the File > Export > iCal Archive menu item, then export your all your events to a folder on your Mac.
Backup your Bookmarks from Safari. Go to the File > Export Bookmarks menu item, then export your bookmarks to a folder on your Mac.

For additional information about the transition from MobileMe to iCloud see the MobileMe Transition FAQ.

OS X Lion Free of Charge

I recently bought a new iMac 27" as the two 20" iMacs I have both contain 32 bit Intel Single Core Duo processors which do not support the latest 64 bit operating system OS X Lion. To find out if your current Mac has at least an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7 or Xeon processor, click on the Apple icon at the top left of your screen, then choose About This Mac. The single core iMacs were the first Macs to be switched over to the Intel processor and came out in late September 2006. It's amazing but my two iMacs run just great, a little slower than I'd like after five maintenance free years. Never had to re-install OS X or have any type of blue screen of death and never had to turn it off, it just worked. It's sad I am sunsetting a perfectly useable machine.

When I was setting up the new iMac, I was surprised to find that it was installed with OS X Snow Leopard and not the latest OS X Lion, the reason I bought the new iMac in the first place. Feeling annoyed, panicked and shocked I checked my invoice and the Apple Online Store but did not see any mention of the version of OS X the iMac came with. I called the 1-800 number on the invoice and spoke to Apple Support. It turns out if you bought an iMac after July 21, 2011 you are eligible for a free upgrade to OS X Lion but you must complete the order within 30 days. I happened to be heading out on vacation for three weeks just when the iMac arrived and did not have time to set it up until almost a month later. I was lucky to be just within the 30 days! I guess Apple has inventory still installed with OS X Snow Leopard but it would not be obvious to a new Mac user that Lion is not installed. In fact I would not have known immediately but the day before I upgraded my MacBook Pro to OS X Lion so I could tell the differences. Here is the link to the free OS X Lion Up to Date Program. Hopefully, you did not miss out on the free upgrade.

Mac OS X 7 Lion to have iPad Features

Recently, Apple previewed the upcoming Mac OS X 7 dubbed Lion. Apple are calling this new release of Mac OS X, "The Power of the Mac OS X. The Magic of iPad". Mac OS X 7 Lion has been inspired by software innovations in the iPhone and iPad. Lion will have multi-touch gestures, a Mac App Store, a new Launchpad for apps, support for Full Screen apps and a new Mission Control view of all your apps running. With Lion apps auto save and resume when launched.

"Lion brings many of the best ideas from iPad back to the Mac, plus some fresh new ones like Mission Control that Mac users will really like,” Jobs said in a press release. So are you ready for Mac OS X 7 Lion? We at iCrazee can't wait!

Mac App Store
Although there are many Mac Apps that you can already download from Apple's third party software website, the Mac App Store will now be a new way to discover, install and automatically update desktop apps. Just like the App Store on iPad or iPhone, the Mac App Store offers an easier way to browse and purchase apps. It will also simplify the way apps are installed on the Mac. You will be able to just click once and a new app will be downloaded, installed and ready to go. Sounds pretty cool, way to go Apple!

Launchpad
In Mac OS X Lion, Apple has created LaunchPad which makes the Mac OS X desktop like an iPad. You now will have instant access to all your the Mac apps. You just click the Launchpad icon in the Dock, the open windows fade away and are replaced by an elegant, full-screen display of all the apps on your Mac. Also with just a swipe of your mouse you can see multiple pages of apps and you can arrange the apps in any way you like by dragging an app icon to a new location or by grouping apps in folders just like the iPad or iPhone.

Full-Screen Apps
Using the inspiration from the iPad, Apple has made every app full screen enabled. You can bring an app to full screen with one click or switch to another full-screen app with a swipe of your mouse. You will also be able to swipe back to the desktop to access multi-window apps. There will be system wide support for full-screen apps. This is very cool!

Mission Control
In Mac OS X Lion, Apple has created a powerful and handy new feature called Mission Control that will provide you with a comprehensive view of what’s running on your Mac. It gives you a bird’s-eye view of everything including Exposé, Spaces, Dashboard, and full-screen apps all in one place. With a simple swipe gesture, your desktop zooms out to Mission Control. There you can see your open windows grouped by app, thumbnails of your full-screen apps, Dashboard, and even other Spaces, arranged in a unified view. And you can get to anything you see on Mission Control with just one click. Making you the master of all you survey.

Mac OS X v10.6.5 Update

Apple just released a new point release v10.6.5. This Mac OS X Update is a welcome addition to an already stable release of Snow Leopard. The 10.6.5 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:

improve reliability with Microsoft Exchange servers
address performance of some image-processing operations in iPhoto and Aperture

address stability and performance of graphics applications and games
resolve a delay between print jobs
address a printing issue for some HP printers connected to an AirPort Extreme
resolve an issue when dragging contacts from Address Book to iCal
address an issue where dragging an item from a stack causes the Dock to not automatically hide
resolve an issue with Wikipedia information not displaying correctly in Dictionary
improve performance of MainStage on certain Mac systems
resolve spacing issues with OpenType fonts
improve reliability with some Bluetooth braille displays
resolve a VoiceOver issue when browsing some web sites with Safari 5

For detailed information on this update, visit:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4250.

For information on the security content of this update, visit:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

How-To: Email a PDF Instantly

In my last two posts I mentioned how to send a URL and photos instantly. Well you can also do the same for PDFs. You can create and send a PDF in any application in Mac OS X as it's a built in function. Just choose Print from the File menu in any application. Then click the drop-down PDF menu and choose Mail PDF. Mac OS X will instantly open Mail and create a new Mail message with the PDF file in the body. Enter a subject, recipients and click Send.

Just think on a PC, Adobe Acrobat Writer costs $299 US and this feature is built right into Mac OS X. So when you comparing the price of a Mac to a PC the price of a Mac is lowered substantially by the cost of this one feature alone. In the coming weeks I'll be posting other cool functionality also built right into Mac OS X.

How-To: Email a Photo Instantly

In yesterdays post I mentioned how you can instantly send a URL. Well you can also do the same for photos or any file. You can instantly email a photo by selecting a photo, dragging it to the Dock and dropping it on the icon of the Mail application. Mac OS X will immediately open Mail and create a new Mail message with your photo in the body. You simply have to add a subject line, recipients and click Send. If you select multiple photos, Mac OS X will put them all into a single mail file.

How-To: Email a URL Instantly

There are so many cool shortcuts in Mac OS X that just want me to call out to PC users to let them know what they are missing. But then that would let the cat out of the bag. Let us Mac users be more efficient so we have time to do other things. One of the coolest shortcuts is sending a URL instantly. While browsing a site in Safari, you can press the Command-Shift-I keys, instantly a new email message is created with the title of the site as the subject and the URL in the body. Alternatively from the File Menu select Mail Link to this Page.

Mac OS X v10.6.3 Update

If you currently using Snow Leopard, the current version is Mac OS X v10.6.2. Apple just released a new point release v10.6.3. This Mac OS X Update is a welcome addition to an already stable release of Snow Leopard. I have been using it since December last year and have not come across any issues. This point release is large and contains many fixes. Ensure you backup your Mac before installing it. Apple also recommends backing up your Mac, see my Snow Leopard install notes about backing up your Mac.

For those of you already using Snow Leopard here is a summary of the changes in this point release. The 10.6.3 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac, including fixes that:

improve the reliability and compatibility of QuickTime X
address compatibility issues with OpenGL-based applications
address an issue that causes background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail
resolve an issue that prevented files with the # or & characters in their names from opening in Rosetta applications
resolve an issue that prevented files from copying to Windows file servers
improve performance of Logic Pro 9 and Main Stage 2 when running in 64-bit mode
improve sleep and wake reliability when using Bonjour wake on demand
address a color issue in iMovie with HD content
improve printing reliability
resolve issues with recurring events in iCal when connected to an Exchange server
improve the reliability of 3rd party USB input devices
fix glowing, stuck, or dark pixels when viewing video from the iMac (Late 2009) built-in iSight camera

For detailed information on this update, you can visit the Apple Support KB article HT4014 and the security content KB article HT1222. Let me know if you are experiencing any issues with this update.

How-To: Take Screenshots on Your Mac

Cool thing about Mac is that unlike PC you can take snapshots of windows, portions of windows and just about anything on your screen without the need for a third party application like SnagIt. Mac OS X comes built in with the ability to take screenshots which is automatically saved to a .jpg file, which you can then view and manipulate in the Preview application. Preview also comes standard with your Mac.

You can take a screenshot of your entire screen by holding down the Command and Shift keys and pressing the number 3 key. If you hold down the Command and Shift keys and press the number 4 key, your cursor turns into crosshairs which allows you to select whatever portion of your display you’d like to capture in a screenshot. If you immediately hit the Spacebar after typing Command-Shift-4, the crosshairs are replaced with a little a camera. Using the camera, you can then take clean screen shots of the Dock, the entire menu bar, a single open menu, the desktop, or any open window without the need to trim the edges of the screenshot in Preview. I hope you'll be more productive on your Mac creating screenshots for your documents and your blog.

Quickly Viewing a File Using Quick Look

One of the coolest features in Mac OS X that came out with Leopard is the ability to quickly view a file without opening the application that is associated with the file. This feature is called Quick Look and it can help you to quickly find a photo without opening each one of them at a time. It also resides in Apple Mail and you can view attachments without opening the application for files like Pages or Word docs, Keynote or Powerpoint presentations, QuickTime movies, Excel files and Preview images. To the left is a Quick Look of a picture I took recently of the Apps in the window of the Apple Store in my area.

You can initiate Quick Look by selecting a file then right clicking to bring up the context sensitive menu and selecting Quick Look. You can also press Command-Y while selecting the file. In Finder, Quick Look can also be selected from the File Menu. Great thing about Quick Look is it keeps the preview window open, letting you click on another file until you find the one you want. Quick Look increases your productivity and there is almost no reason to open an application unless you want to do editing. I hope you're using this cool feature, let me know what you think of it?

Opening Your Home Folder Quickly

Each Mac OS X user has a home folder that contains their documents, downloads, music, movies and pictures. This home folder is created when you create an account. If you open Finder, the home folder is the icon of the house in the menu under Places. It is named after your account name. You can place your home folder in the Dock which will open it quickly without having to open any folders.

Here’s how can add your home folder to the Dock. In Finder, click on the icon for your hard drive. Unless you’ve renamed it, it’s called Macintosh HD. Then open the Users folder. Drag your home folder from the Users folder into the Dock and release the mouse button. Now, whenever you need anything in your home folder, you can access it quickly from the Dock. If you store your documents in another folder or on an external drive, you can also place this folder in the Dock to quickly open the folder. Anything to save some time!

Looking Up a Word in Mac's Dictionary

Did you know if you place or hover your mouse cursor on any word then right click and select 'Look Up in Dictionary' from the menu, you can lookup the word in Mac OS X's built in Dictionary. You should try it, it's pretty cool. Mac OS X will immediately open its Dictionary and find the meaning of the word for you. The Dictionary has five tabs:

Dictionary - this tab provides a detailed description, phrases and origin of the word you highlighted.
Thesaurus - this tab provides a list of synonyms for the word you highlighted.
Apple - this tab provides a description of the word you highlighted in the context of Apple and it's products.
Wikipedia - this tab provides the description of the word you highlighted from Wikipedia.
All - this tab shows all the information from the four tabs above on a single page.

You can lookup any word in the Dictionary while you working in any application in Mac OS X. This is such a great feature to have at your finger tips and it will improve your English as well as your vocabulary.

Quickly Switch Between Mac Applications

If you want to switch quickly between multiple applications like Finder, Mail, Safari, iTunes and iPhoto you can do this by using the Mini-Dock of Mac OS X.

Just hold down the Command key and the Tab key(Command-Tab) at the same time. Mac OS X will then display the Mini-Dock with icons for each of your open applications. The icon on the left side of the Mini-Dock is your current application. Next to this icon is the icon of the application you last used. This icon will also be highlighted. Each time you press the Tab key, without releasing the Command key, you can cycle through your open applications. You can also use the Left Arrow and Right Arrow keys to navigate to through your open applications.

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