Macgasm » Quick Tips

Resize Video Podcasts for AppleTV in iTunes.

Joshua Schnell — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:46:08 +0000

I’m not sure if this is something new, or if it has been around for quite some time, but I just stumbled on it today so I thought I would pass the information along to you guys. Did you know that you can click on the podcast episode and convert the format in iTunes? Did you know that you can do it for video? Essentially, you just have to click on the video you want to convert, and right click create AppleTV version, and then you let it do its magic. iTunes then converts the file and puts it into your “Movies” section. I’m not sure why they stick it in there, and not beside your other episodes from the podcast, but it’s better then nothing I guess. It converts the movie to an MPEG-4 instead of a Quicktime movie which was a little surprising. It also cuts the size of the file in half, and changes the resolution from 720p to 934×540.

It’s super handy, but I wish it would keep the file with the rest of them. It would make various resolutions of videocasts available for the iPod alot simpler, and syncing to your iPhone or iPod a breeze if you wanted to watch some HD content on the go.

Note: if you click on the Advanced menu option in iTunes you have the ability to create an iPhone/iPod version as well.

Google Releases Calaboration: Tool to import Google Calendars to iCal

Joshua Schnell — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:55:12 +0000

We’ve messed with some “early, in dev stuff,” and have shown you guys how to save a quick buck and use Google’s method for syncing your calendars. The process wasn’t easy, but it worked like a charm (I’ve been using if for the last 4 months). Well, Google has officially released a utility to configure Google Calendar as CalDav calendars in iCal. If you don’t know what that means, no worries, you now just have to click some check boxes and hit Add to iCal.

Make Your Desktop Cheerier

Grant Brunner — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:16:41 +0000

Ho ho ho! As Christmas draws closer, I start looking for more ways to deck my halls with boughs of holly. As I spend a large portion of my day working on my Mac, it only makes sense that I would want to expand my decorations to my desktop too. Well, I looked around, and I found two really great apps that’ll spruce up my Mac.

The first app that I’d like to point out is called X-MasTree. As the name suggests, it offers up a very nice little Christmas tree that sits on your desktop. I dig this app a lot because it offers a surprising amount of customization. You can change everything from the size of the tree to what decorations are on the tree to how fast the lights blink. On top of providing 120% of your daily evergreen requirements, it also offers an optional countdown badge that sits next to your tree and reminds you how many days until Santa visits. All of this and so much more for the low, low price of free.

The other application that I’d like to showcase in this post is called MacLampsX. Not to be outdone, this great application puts Christmas lights all around the sides of your screen. Again, I was blown away at the customization capabilities in this rather small application. Layering, transparency, blinking rate, and style of lights/trimming are all user customizable. A fantastic application for fans of shiny blinking lights. If you like free, you’ll love this app.

If you want to see what these two apps look like in the real world, click on the thumbnail below.

Applications that fit on a thumbdrive for your Mac

Joshua Schnell — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:00:56 +0000

With the price of thumbdrives being so cheap these days, you could almost carry around your entire operating system on one. Back in the day I had a nice thumbdrive full of Windows tools to help me troubleshoot problems and clean systems. It saved me a boat load of time, and helped me get machines back up and running in no time at all.

The good people over at Techie Souls has put together a list of 15 portable applications that you can’t live without. Now the list isn’t completely comprised of Mac software, but most of it is.

Is there any applications and programs that you use, or keep on a portable device? I know World of Warcraft would theoretically count, but you would need one huge portable device.

I’m curious what else out there has portible versions of their software on the Mac. Sound off in the comments!

Speed Up Load Times with Automator

Joshua Schnell — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 01:00:06 +0000

The absolute worst moment in my daily computing experience is waiting for my machine to boot. Getting from the boot screen to the desktop happens pretty quickly, but from finder loading to usable state is another story.

Part of the problem is all my menu bar items. They’re all being loaded at the exact same moment, and I’m pretty sure that I’m going to need another machine just to run last.fm, wakoopa, twitterific, and evernote.

A sweet little automator script (or applescript) can clear this little problem up by delaying the load times of each item so that they load one at a time. You can check out the directions here.

iTunes Tip: Manually Manage your iPod/iPhone playlist.
WHAT? Return doesn’t open files?
HandBrake and given the fact that it’s free, I’m sure most of you guys are as well. It can be a bit daunting to figure out how to configure all those settings, then being able to tweak them so that your video will be optimized for the devices and scenarios that you’re looking for.

Like most great websites, there is a nice community to help you with your questions, and the HandBrake website is not different. Their forums (much like ours) have a very cool thread that has been kicking around for over a year. It is a user listing of scenarios and settings to ensure that you’re getting the best quality video rips for your setup.

It’s a very cool idea. So, if you need to get your videos to a pristine state and on your iPod, there is a really good chance that you’ll find what you’re looking for there.

Related Posts

PSA regarding Backups

Wayne Dixon — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 03:56:35 +0000

PSA About Using Super Duper for Backups.

I thought I’d give everyone a Public Service Announcement in regard to backups and making sure you know what you’re doing.

I managed to delete a Virtual Machine I had created using Virtual Box. I did this by setting up Super Duper to do a smart update of my Full Backup hard drive.

What I failed to do, beforehand, is realize that my Windows Server 2008 Virtual Machine was sitting on my that drive. Granted, it was just an evaluation copy of Server 2008, so it’s not the end of the world. There wasn’t much on the VM itself. It won’t take me too long to rebuild it, but it’s just the idea that I managed to delete the thing that bothers me.

But I want to let everybody know to verify that all of your important data is off of any hard drive before you decide to wipe it, or use it as a backup hard drive.

Also, are you backups up to date, and if you make a bootable backup, have you tested them to verify that they do indeed work? If not, I’d recommend doing so within the next 10 minutes, if possible.

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iTunes Tip: Manually Manage your iPod/iPhone playlist.

Joshua Schnell — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 19:00:57 +0000

Earlier today I realized that something had happened with my iPhone that wouldn’t let me drag and drop certain tracks to the device. I was perplexed, but couldn’t for the life of me figure out what I did. Apparently you can turn off this ability by clicking on the check box to the right. I guess if you’re taking advantage of the syncing playlist option you wouldn’t really need to manually manage your iPod playlists. I thought I would pass this along just in case you’re having the same issue that I was. I’m not sure if this turned off by itself or if I managed to accidentally turn it off. My iTunes has been acting up lately. Just last week I had to reimport all of my albums because random albums were disappearing from the iTunes library. They would still be in my filesystem, just nowhere in the itunes listing. I should probably reinstall leopard. It’s about that time again!

WHAT? Return doesn’t open files?

Joshua Schnell — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 02:00:48 +0000

As a windows convert I had one major problem that took me probably about six months to overcome during my “switch” process. Opening files with the return key was a crucial part of my daily routine. It took me a long time to realize that there were alternative key combinations to get the same results on my sexy new mac. If you want to open a file with the keyboard navigate to it with your keys and hit the command key(⌘) and the down arrow at the same time. Alternatively, you can also hit the command key and the letter “o” key at the same time.

So that’s:

⌘ + down arrow

⌘ + O (oh, not zero)

Apple Event Room on Friendfeed

Joshua Schnell — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:30:54 +0000

If you’re looking to get in on some conversations about the Apple events, there’s a pretty cool room that just spawned over on Friendfeed. So, while you’re refreshing your favourite blog like crazed zombies, you can also get in some of your opinions or thoughts on the release with people who actually care. You can join the room here, and add me on friendfeed here

Macgasm » Quick Tips

Resize Video Podcasts for AppleTV in iTunes.

Related Posts

Google Releases Calaboration: Tool to import Google Calendars to iCal

Related Posts

Make Your Desktop Cheerier

Related Posts

Applications that fit on a thumbdrive for your Mac

Related Posts

Speed Up Load Times with Automator

Related Posts

Related Posts

PSA regarding Backups

Random Posts

iTunes Tip: Manually Manage your iPod/iPhone playlist.

Related Posts

WHAT? Return doesn’t open files?

Related Posts

Apple Event Room on Friendfeed

Random Posts