With Lion on the loose for just over a week now, I wanted to give my initial thoughts, as well as speculate to some degree as to what Lion will look like in the weeks ahead.

The Dashboard

I would like to be the first (or at least the first person in my circles) to say that Apple has given the widget dashboard its own space in an attempt to further unify iOS and OS X.  I am willing to bet that Apple has reserved the widget dashboard to be a place to run iOS apps and games like Angry Birds.  It’s only a matter of time before the new OS X App Store starts releasing iOS versions that run in the background on your widget dashboard ready to be used. Until then the widget space seems like a clunky addition to the very streamlined Mission Control.

Insane Scrolling

I really tried to like it, but Lion’s new scrolling has got me all confused and uncomfortable. I can understand why Apple wants to get people to switch over, given their push to unify iOS and OS X.  However, when it comes to scrolling, it is most intuitive to keep it the way it always has been. The last week has been rather difficult for me to switch between multiple computers that have different methods of scrolling. My windows machine has traditional scrolling while my newly updated iMac has the new inverted scrolling, this doesn’t make my life any easier. I will pass.

To disable inverted scrolling:
System Preferences> Mouse> Uncheck Scroll direction: natural

Other than that I am very pleased with Lion.  There are some great touches and fine-tunings that really make it feel like a much quicker and leaner OS. I am excited and ready to see some of these bigger changes, what about you? What are your thoughts on Lion, and where do you think it will head in the future?

With Google+ rolled out and more invites flowing, I am seeing a lot more action on my Page. My friends are emerging and I can tell they are still getting their +1 legs. Despite the learning curve, I really like Google+, it’s lean, mean and already making Facebook look clunky and bland. Below is the best introduction to Google+ I have seen, all the subtle things that aren’t immediately apparent when new products launch are here and ready for you to get your learn on. Enjoy!   Photo Credit: Simon Laustsen

Keyboard shortcuts allow us to work (and play) more efficiently.   I can remember the day when I was a youngster and I was taught the magic of keyboard shortcuts.  I also remember the glory of figuring out a shortcut none of my friends or family knew about.  Today, I stumbled across this article and to my amazement, it is full of shortcuts I had no idea were there!

I’ve always been a computer freak and these sorts of things make my life easier and feed my tech hungry brain.  Check these out.

Article Source: Mac|Life

~ Kazdyn

Keyboard shortcuts are the lifeblood of many productive Mac users. Not only can keyboard shortcuts make for a nicer user experience and cut down on the time needed to do a task, they can also just be plain cool. Mac OS X has many shortcuts ready and willing to do your bidding, but also has many hidden and unknown shortcuts. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of 10 of the coolest keyboard shortcuts you never knew about.

1.Control + Option + Command + Eject

Use the keyboard combination of Control + Option + Command + Eject to instantly shut down your Mac. This is a great time saver because it bypasses the shut down counter that you get when using Apple menu > Shut Down. As an alternative, you can also press Option + Command + Eject to sleep your Mac.

2. Command + Shift + A/U/D

These keyboard shortcuts are used to navigate around the Finder. To open the Applications folder on your Mac, press Command + Shift + A in an opened Finder window; press Command + Shift + U to open the Utilities folder; and, press Command + Shift + D to open your Desktop folder in the Finder. These keyboard shortcuts can also be used when in an opened save dialog to navigate to these folders.

3. Shift + Command + I

When used inside of Safari, this keyboard shortcut (Shift + Command + I) will automatically generate a new email message inside of Mail.app and paste the link of the web page you were browsing in the body text. This shortcut is great for quickly sharing a website address with a friend via email.

4. Control + D

To the bane of many Windows to Mac switchers, the Mac’s “Delete” key doesn’t actually function as the delete key does in Windows. The “Delete” key on the Mac instead functions as a backspace. To remedy this, you can instead use Command + D in any text area on your Mac to delete from the front of the cursor.

5. Control + Option + Command + 8

Use this keyboard shortcut to invert the colors on your Mac’s screen. This high contrast display is used by individuals with visual impairments needing high-contrast screens, but can also provide a cool effect. Warning: this keyboard shortcut may be useful when doing April fool’s pranks, butMac|Life will not be responsible for any damages resulting from the prank recipient trying to beat their Mac back into shape.

Read the rest of the Article HERE.

Article Credit: Cory Bohon

Are you in need of some HDMI Digital Video cables?  Here’s how NOT to get ripped off.

It is a hobby of mine to walk into Best Buy and pretend I have no idea what I am talking about, just to see what kind of BS some sales associate conjures up.  One scenario that never ceases to amaze me is the HDMI cord sales pitch. That lovely cord that keeps our HD world happy and sharp, has been at the mercy of fancy marketing and preying on the ignorant since its introduction at big box stores everywhere.

Essentially, it begins with a sales associate offering to explain the benefits of a $60  cable vs. a $12  cable.  He proceeds to tell me that the $60 cord has better performance and faster speeds. And most of it sounds good, the 24k gold plating, the composition of the wiring, and so on and so forth… This kind of rhetoric can be quite convincing. It all sounds logical. Buzz words like “24k gold” naturally carry that “wow factor.”

Despite the fancy language all HDMI cords are created equal.

Without going into the gritty details (but you can find them HERE via CNET) HDMI cords all send the same digital transmission called Transition Minimized Differential Signaling, or TMDS.  That’s essentially a fancy way of saying 1′s and 0′s alternating. When those packaged 1′s and 0′s make it to the other end, that’s that. There is no in-between, HDMI cords either work, or they don’t. That’s why when a company promises faster speeds or better performance, it’s BS.

So the next time you find yourself needing to buy a HDMI cord, we suggest you save yourself the trouble and simply shop online. Monoprice.com and Newegg.com are great places to find cheap cables that will deliver you great picture quality at the reasonable price it should be.

P.S. Now you can laugh with me when you see something like THIS.

Craigslist is a pretty ugly website, there is no doubt about that.

Functionally, however, Craigslist does exactly what it’s supposed to do.

So how can we go about improving our user experience while also stimulating performance?  Enter Craigslist Helper, a browser extension that does all of that with minimal effort on your part. Craigslist Helper is available for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

When I discovered Craigslist Helper on Mashable the other day I was really pleasantly surprised.  I found I was able to browse through Craigslist much more efficiently and was able to pinpoint relevant listings much quicker, all while enjoying a more aesthetic design.

Author Credit: Jolie O’Dell
This handy browser extension (available for Chrome, Firefox and Safari) lets you preview text and thumbnails from your Craigslist search results. You can also bookmark listings and even make your own notes on them.

For example, if you’re househunting, you might use the app to see images of your new pad options without having 30 tabs open; then, you’d be able to prioritize them and even keep track of conversations with potential landlords, all without leaving Craigslist.

Other features include:

• Alerts when new listings that match your search appear
• Multiple searches by geographical area, or even a whole-site search
• Hide ads
• Filter by keyword; for example, choose not to see listings with “freeway”
• Map popups to show locations
• Phone number highlighting

Read more

Are you a Craigslist regular?  Has Craigslist impacted your life in any way?  Let us know in the comments section.

Email email email, spam spam spam.  Every day, you, or someone you know, is receiving tons and tons of spam emails.  Especially around the holidays, at which time, we get holiday spam!

Some of that spam comes from your friends and family.  Some of it, even comes from YOU!  It’s true.  Worse than all of the emails, however,  is when your friends and family members don’t know how to behave when addressing the group email.

Which brings us to our next 10-Second Tech Tip.

Amanda writes:

“A stupid e-mail question. How do you send a mass email without EVERYONE’s email addresses being included????”

Well, you know what?  That’s actually not such a stupid question after all.  In fact, I wish that more people would ask this one.  I can’t tell you how many useless joke forwards I receive where my personal (and quite well-guarded) email address is visible in the Cc: field along with the 30 other poor victims, who until recently cherished their privacy.

Well, I happen to know that Amanda uses the Mac Mail program to send and receive her messages, so we’ll use that program as an example.  Other email programs (such as Outlook and Thunderbird) will have their own methods and controls, but the end goal is the same.

So, dear readers, what Amanda is looking for is the Bcc option.  Bcc is short for “Blind Carbon Copy.”  The Bcc option is very similar to the Cc (Carbon Copy) option, whereby you can add a group of email addresses to your message, but with Bcc, none of your recipients will see any of the other recipients’ names or email addresses.

Here’s how you do this in Mac’s Mail program:

1.  In Mail, Click on New Message to create new email message.

By default, Mail displays the To: line, the Cc: line, and the Subject: line in all new messages.

NOTE: If you have more than one email account setup in Mail, you will also see a From: line, which allows you to toggle back and forth between email accounts.

2.  You should see a little box on the left, just above the message body area.

Click on this box to reveal a drop-down menu, from which you can check the Bcc option.

3.  Once you’ve added Bcc Address Field to your “new mail template,” this Bcc field will be present whenever you create a new message.

Now you send emails to an entire group of friends without violating anybody’s privacy.  That’s a good neighbor!

I learned something rather interesting last night, while pushing up the new FoleyPod revisions.

The WordPress database that powers the site was starting to get a little bit funky, from being upgraded over the past 6 years, starting with WordPress 1.8.

I decided to create a brand new database for the site, and import only what the current site needs.  The result is a much faster load time, and a handful of conflicts have been resolved, meaning that I can now use some of the plugins that had been giving me issues.

I forgot, however, to PAUSE my Feedburner RSS profile during this revisions process.  All new WordPress installations, of course have a dummy-text “About” page, and a dummy-text “Hello World!” post already included.

This “Hello World!” post reported to the feed before I could even delete it, and so it went out to the 500+ feed subscribers.  Whoops.
The experts make mistakes too!  And I certainly won’t make this one again.

Thanks for reading.  Sorry for the bogus article post.

~ Chris

It’s inevitable.  Sooner or later, no matter how well you take care of your Mac, you’re going to experience some slow performance and be confronted with the dreaded, spinning pinwheel, also known as the spinning beach ball, sometimes known as the spinning pinwheel of death. No one wants a slow Mac, so here’s this week’s 10 Second Tip for a Happy Healthy Mac.

Let’s look at how to Repair Disk Permissions.

I do this on my own machine at least once a month, and you should too.

NOTE: be sure that you’ve got a recent Time Machine backup before you run this process.

How to Repair Permissions
1.  Launch Disk Utility.

This utility app lives in your Utilities folder, which is inside of your Applications Folder.  The fastest way to get to it is to click on the Spotlight icon at the top right of your screen, and start typing the words Disk Utility.

2.  Next, with the First Aid tab selected, locate and select your System Hard Drive in the list in the left-hand sidebar.

3.  Click on the Repair Disk Permissions button. (See illustration below.)

Just let it do it’s thing, it will take up to 10 – 15 minutes, if you’ve not done this before, or if it has been a long while.

You’ll see a something like this:

Wrapping up

Ideally, you should run this once per month.  And for best results, run it, restart your computer, run it a second time, and then restart your computer again.

You’d be shocked at how many problems this simple routine will fix for you.

For those who would like a more in-depth look at what Unix Permissions are all about, click HERE.

Cheers!

Chris

When Apple releases a product, they have to set the interface in such a way that it’s “fits” a broad range of user ability and experience.  Once you own the product, it’s time to make it “yours” by customizing the way it looks and works.

One cool place to do that is the Finder and Application Toolbars.

To customize the Finder Window Toolbar you either right-click on the toolbar and choose Customize Toolbar or go to the View menu in the Menu Bar (that’s at the top of your screen) and select Customize Toolbar from the drop down menu.

When you do this a drop-down window appears with your Toolbar options. This is from a Finder Window.

The items I think are missing from the Toolbar are New Folder, Delete and Get Info. (Separate Delete from the other Icons with a Space so you don’t click it accidentally.) I also use the Separator to group similar items. Even though the line is very subtle, the eye sees it — thought not consciously — and immediately goes to the right group where I can quickly select the proper Icon.

In Mail, I add Print, Flag, Read/Unread and for some people Smaller/Larger to adjust the Font size of a message from someone that is in a small unreadable font.

In Safari I add Print and Home.

Try this in all the apps you use regularly.  Select the Toolbar Icons for tasks you perform most often and would rather click on, than hunt for through a Menu. You’ll find the quality of your user experience increases as you make the computing environment look and feel however fits your own style best.

——————-

Wyn Matthews is new to the FoleyPod Digital-Life Coach Blog. He comes to us with decades of Mac and PC troubleshooting experience, and is an expert on both systems.

Here’s a great (and brief) article from MacWorld’s Christopher Breen covering what to do when your permissions issues go beyond what your Mac’s built-in Disk Utility software will repair.   While rare, this issue is one I’ve seen before, often when someone is moving from an older version of OSX (like 10.2 Jaguar or 10.3 Panther) to Leopard or Snow Leopard.

This issue is also likely to rear its ugly head when installing a fresh instance of OSX, and creating a new user profile with a different short name than your old one.  Whoops.

[MacWorld] Reader Paul Moortgat’s Mac appears to be unhappy with a new hard drive. He writes:

I replaced the 500GB internal with a 1TB drive in my Mac Pro. I used SuperDuper to copy the disk. Now each time I create a file or a folder on the Desktop and place it on the hard drive icon or trash an item, I’m asked to enter my password. I reset the PRAM and repaired permissions to no avail. How can I get rid of that authentication dialog box?

This is indeed a permissions issue, but it can’t be treated with Disk Utility. And the reason it can’t is because Disk Utility’s Repair Permissions feature repairs permissions only for files installed by OS X, Software Update, or an Apple software installer. It won’t touch your documents, the stuff in your Home folder, or third-party applications.

That said, something definitely got mucked up when you copied your files from your old drive to the new one. What I suggest you do is select one of these files, press Command-I, and in the Sharing & Permissions area of the resulting window, see who “owns” the file. If it’s not you but some other entity, there’s your problem. If you change the permissions so that you own the file, you won’t see the warning.

Continue reading this article HERE at MacWorld.com.