News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
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There are a few spots in OS X applications where you have the ability to choose a photo to use as a representation of you—Address Book and iChat are two that come to mind. In Address Book, click on your entry, click on Edit, then double-click on the picture box next to your name.
This brings up the picture selection window, where you can take a picture with a connected camera, insert an image from a file, or paste an image from the clipboard. While these features may be well known, this one may not be: you can also rotate any image, once it appears in this box.
To do so, just hold down the Option key and then click-and-drag with your mouse or trackpad. As you drag with the Option key held down, you’ll see the image rotate, along with an overlaid clock face of sorts (see picture at left) to help you align the rotated image.
Twist your image
You can’t use your multitouch trackpad’s twist gesture, though—only the Option key with click-and-drag will work. This trick, pointed out by an anonymous Mac OS X Hints contributor, should work in any program that uses this standard picture-choosing interface.
The Dictionary application received a number of improvements with the release of OS X 10.5. First of all, there’s a new technical jargon dictionary from Apple, and direct access to Wikipedia entries as well. There’s also a huge resource known as “front and back matter,” which you can reach by selecting Go > Front/Back Matter > New Oxford American Dictionary from Dictionary’s menu. In the front/back matter, you’ll find things such as a list of all US presidents, a chemical elements chart, standard weights and measures, countries of the world, and much more. If you haven’t checked it out yet, it’s quite impressive in its breadth (but disappointingly non-Australian in its content -- why aren't the Macquarie people onto this?).
Rob Griffiths | Jan 25, 2008
Apple has released an 876KB firmware update for the keyboards of its MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops. MacBook, MacBook Pro Keyboard Firmware Update 1.0 fixes a bug where the laptop may ignore your first key press if the machine has been sitting idle. Release notes for the firmware update say it addresses other, unspecified issues and list the MacBook and MacBook Pro models supported by the update.
Phillip Michaels | Feb 20, 2008
The first thing a Mac user is presented with each time they start up their Mac is the Finder, Apple's venerable file browser and application launcher which has seen several revamps since its earliest days. A Finder window basically shows you the files and folders within -- for example, folders, disks, search results, servers, or anything else which can contain files and folders. We're going to have a look at some features of Finder windows which can make them more productive, and one or two which make them more fun.
Sean McNamara | Feb 27, 2008
If you're new to Macs, it can be a bit daunting as you begin the exploration of your new OS. There are some great resources out there for getting used to the Mac and for when things go wrong — or when you just want to do some cool stuff. While I can't hope to detail every single useful Mac web site "out there", I did want to cover some of the most useful sites I visit pretty well every day as a Mac user and troubleshooter. If you have a favourite not mentioned here, tell us about it in the forums.
Sean McNamara | Mar 27, 2008
As I type these words, I am waiting for Apple's Developer Connection web site to ease up sufficiently for me to download the long-awaited Software Developer Kit for the iPhone (and iPod touch, just by the by). In a way, I hate developer-oriented announcements — "here's a really cool thing we're working on, and it's available now, and hoi polloi can have it in about six months". Actually, it's the six months I hate.
