Macgasm

Are you tired of your videos opening in QuickTime, or your photos opening in Preview? Well, there is a setting right in the Finder that will solve your problem.

Firstly, pick out the type of media you want to set the default application for. In this example, I picked Flash Video (.flv). Select a file of that media type, right-click, and select Get Info. Under the Open With section, select the application you want to open this media type in the drop down menu. Now, press the Change All button.

Now every time I double-click on a .flv file, it will automatically open in VLC. If you have a suggestion for what application displays certain media files the best, feel free to comment on this post.

Photo Credit: adam*b

Apple will be spending $4-million dollars to renovate a triangle in a run-down area in Chicago. This area is next to its future Halsted Street retail store. The agreement was signed on 19 August with the Chicago Transit Authority to use that money to add subway access to that area.

“In the agreement approved at an August 19th Chicago Transit Board meeting, in exchange for the improvements the CTA will lease the bus turnaround to Apple at no cost for 10 years, with options on four, five-year extensions. The CTA will also give Apple “first rights of refusal” for naming the station and placing advertising within the station, if the CTA later decides to offer those rights.”

Chicago officials hope that this will bring developersand other shops to this run-down part of the city.  I wonder what Apple will call the renovated subway station: iTrain, iMode, or iLuvApple.  Regardless of the name, it’s great that Apple is doing this because they are helping Chicago and creating new jobs.

Via ifoAppleStore

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In this episode, we talk about ways to install multiple copies of the same application on the same Mac.

[01.7 MB] [00:05:00] [Hosted by: Josh Schnell & Grant Brunner] [Subscribe]

To-Do List ($2.99) is a simple easy to use organizer for any possible task you need to get done. You can create categories (Work, Personal are in the system by default) and then assign tasks to do for each. Tasks are assigned to “to do,” “to call,” or “to email,” but if you wish, you can set a priority, recategorize it, and assign it a due date. Tasks assigned certain priorities get a background color; red is urgent. Completed tasks are also listed below your current tasks, though if this list gets too long, you can hit “Delete” to get it removed immediately.

To Do List also lets you sort your tasks based on a variety of factors, including category, priority, due date, and title. Lists can be emailed or imported as a CSV (you can also export a CSV to the app). And you can even turn your device into a server so that you can easily access your tasks without worrying about extra files.

I like To Do List because it is a simple task manager without the bells and whistles. It lets you get things done, easily, and doesn’t let anything get in your way.

Have you ever wanted to get the file size of a group of files in a Finder window but have no freaking clue how to do it? You’d think it would be as simple as selecting a bunch of files, right clicking, then clicking get info, but to no avail. Instead you get a ton of Get Info windows that are a pain in the ass to close, but still no summation of the file sizes.

Well, you can do it, but you need to use a keyboard shortcut to do it. This is where that trusty option key comes in handy, yet again. Highlight the files you want to add up, push these three keys, and you’re off to the races, option+command+i.

Now you can get the file size of a bunch of files in a group instead of the file size of thirty different files. Seems like something that should come default in an operating system, no?

If you’re not big on keyboard shortcuts you can also right click, then hit the option key. You’ll see that “Get Info” turns into “Get Summary.”

Sometimes DRM is a big pain in the ass. Luckily, there are ways around that nonsense. I’m going to show you a way to automatically decrypt a DVD every time you insert it into your Mac.

First of all, you’re going to need to install VLC and Fairmount. These are both free, open source applications.

Now, launch System Preferences, and go to the CDs and DVDs pane. Select the “When you insert a video DVD” drop down menu, and then select “Open other Application”. Now choose Fairmount as the application you want to run automatically.

You’re done! Now every time you insert a DVD, Fairmount will launch, and automatically decrypt your DVD. It will replace the DVD icon, and instead display the disc as a mounted disk image. Everything should still function the same otherwise.

Photo Credit: Megyarsh

Earlier, we reviewed the excellent protein-tracking app, Muscle Gainer. From the people who brought you that excellent app, nanobitsoftware.com, we’ll now take a look at Tap & Track ($2.99), an app that’s similar in function but perhaps more useful for those looking to diet or keep track of his/her general food intake.

This application is a great at-a-glance food intake tracker, as pictured. It predominantly focuses on fat and carb intake, whereas the secondary app, Muscle Gainer, focuses on protein and calories. (An application that would combine all of this would be extremely ideal.) Like its sister application, you can input food details or search for foods via a database with more than 80,000 food items. It also has a detailed restaurant search.

But if you eat, you better be exercising too. Tap & Track lets you input your exercise, be it skating and biking or some sort of gym fitness. Once you get to the specific workout you performed, it will tell you how many calories were burned in a specific time period. For example, did you know that playing Ping Pong for 7 hours straight under normal intensity burns 2308 calories? Neither did I – but that’s the kind of information you can get from Tap & Track, and it’s pretty useful.

Detailed statistics can be viewed via the Log option, which gives you a nice “Nutrition Info” label associated with each day, which does show you the total number of calories consumed, among everything else you’d expect of a nutrition label. (Again, having “calories” on the main screen would make this app stellar.) You can also see a breakdown of foods consumed in any day, or the exercise done that day. And if you want to generate reports, the app can do that too, be it a single day’s report (Today’s), a report for the last 7 days, or a custom report (any desired start/end day). And of course, no weight tracking application would be complete without a daily weight chart, and this app’s got that too.

All in all, Tap & Track is a comprehensive solution for those looking to discipline themselves and chart their carb and fat intake. There’s more potential for this app, but it’s pretty darn exhaustive as-is, and that’s important.

Google has released an official developer preview of their Chrome Browser for Mac OS X. Chrome, like Apple’s Safari, is based on the open source webkit platform.

Google Chrome claims to be faster than any other web browser. I honestly cannot tell the difference. However, I do know it’s faster than Firefox when it starts up.

Chrome is a very slim with not too many frills web-browser. It’s very minimalistic, much like Google’s website and other google products. On the Mac Chrome uses the same webkit base components that are used by Safari. So when you go to install it, if you get a ‘cannot copy’ error, close Safari and Chrome will install without a hitch.

Chrome offers a few things that Safari doesn’t have. The first is themes. You are able to skin Chrome using whatever scheme you would like. There are some themes created by google, like the folders theme or the glow theme. All of the available themes can be found here.

There are some user generated themes as well. A couple examples include infected mushroom and super monkey ball. Here is a link to all of the artist themes.

Chrome is Google’s first foray into web-browsers. And for being their first try it’s pretty good. If you’re looking for an alternative to Apple’s Safari or Mozilla’s Firefox. You can obtain Google Chrome from here.