Bowtie, iTunes Controller On Your Desktop

Bowtie is a free application that allows you to control iTunes with shortcuts, submits your songs to Last.fm, and sports a very simple, yet very powerful, xhtml + css + javascript based theming system

Alright then ! Bowtie is basically an iTunes controller that sits neatly on your desktop, allowing you to not open iTunes to play/switch tracks. It has some beautiful themes to begin with ! As it says above, the app has Last.fm integration. Last.fm is a online service which tracks the songs you're playing, provided you're using a media player that supports Last.fm feed, Bowtie in this case.

The theming system in Bowtie is the ultimate level for a developer as well as the end user. There are endless possibilities with the kind of coding you can do with xhtml + css + javascript.

You can also search for music that you have on iTunes using this simple search box:

As is with every other OS X app, you have a bunch of preferences too !

Here's what it will look like when using the MinimalMod theme by Jerome Verzier !

There are a bunch of lovely themes around, all of which you can find archived at one single location: iconpaper. If you're a fan of "iDecorateMyDesk" and "iListenToMusicAllTheTime" then, this one's definitely for you !

Have fun trying this out ! Any queries/suggestions, leave a comment and I'll get back to you or hit me up at ashrith at a5hr1th dot com

PS: Bluetech

Organize Your Movies/TV Shows With Ease

If you're the kinda guy who collects DVDs or TV Shows, rips them onto your Mac and you like things to be organized, here's just the thing for you ! Here's what you can achieve with some basic tools:

What You Need:
-DVDs ripped onto your Mac
-SlipCover
-img2icns or CandyBar
-Google Image Search

This is how you need to proceed:

• Google for the cover of the Movie/TV Show you want
• Save it to your Mac
• Open SlipCover
• Drag the cover of the movie onto the SlipCover window
  

Now for the folder part ! Here's how:

• Open img2icns
• Drag the cover you just saved from SlipCover to the img2icns window
• Click on "Folder" and save the folder where you want to

Copy the movie to the folder you just made, and voila !

BONUS !

Google unveils Chrome OS

Today, Google shocks/stuns/keeps-in-awe everyone by introducing Chrome OS ! This was long rumored, but now the giants have themselves given us a sneek peek on it. Its poised to release somewhere around mid 2010. The OS is based on Linux and incorporates the Chrome interface, which was quite evident in the browser Google released last year.

Here's an official screenshot of the OS:

Its set to rock x86 and ARM CPUs for now. Its a netbook solution for now, which is quite evident. As is with other Google products, Chrome OS itself is an open source project, which basically means anyone can do anything with it, like HTC customized the open source Android OS with Sense UI.

The content of the OS is wholly web-based, which means you'll just need a Google account (of course everyone has one) to sign in, which also means, you're gonna be connected through the interwebs if you're using a Google account capable device, which further means all your info is stored on one account, so that you don't have to backup and restore any of your settings/files/preferences everytime you change your computer ! Simple ain't it ?

Automator - Snow Leopard

Automation as you know in Leopard was pretty much efficient. Its been tweaked further to satisfy users in Snow Leopard. Its now called Services. Its only active when you select relevant files in Finder. First you'll have to create a Service, for it to be displayed in relevant context menus. I'm gonna create a Scale Images Service. Here's how to do it:

Open Automator
Select Service when choosing a template
Add to it the following items from Library in the same order mentioned below:

• Get Specified Finder Items
• Ask For Text (Optional)
• Scale Images

Save the template as Scale Images

If you successfully create that Service, you should see it in context menus when you alternate click on a bunch of images as below:

You should also see these service here, when you have already selected some images:

The above context menu is dependent on the type of file you've selected. An example of what that menu will bring up if you select text in TextEdit:

Well, that's it for today. Hit me up with Automations/Workflows/Services of your own at ashrith@a5hr1th.com !

Visit http://macosxautomation.com/ for more on Automator, Services and AppleScript !
Bonus ! Third Party Photoshop CS1/CS2/CS3 Automator actions
You can buy other third party Automations here

Harmolymn - An Experiment

I've really had bouts of experimentation running all over the track, thus the name ! A lot of effort has gone into this one, making it a personal favorite ! Listen in, leave feedback/comments/critique, either here or on SoundCloud !

Cheers !
Harmolymn

10.6.2 Update For Snow Leopard On The Prowl

What's included? 

General operating system fixes provided for:

• an issue that caused data to be deleted when using a guest account 
• an issue that might cause your system to logout unexpectedly 
• Spotlight search results not showing Exchange contacts 
• the reliability of menu extras
• an issue in Dictionary when using Hebrew as the primary language
• shutter-click sound effect when taking a screenshot
• an issue with the four-finger swipe gesture
• an issue adding images to contacts in Address Book
• an issue in Front Row that could cause sluggish or slow frame rates while watching videos
• creation of mobile accounts for Active Directory users
• reliability and duration of VPN connections
• general reliability improvements for iWork, iLife, Aperture, Final Cut Studio, MobileMe, and iDisk
• overall improvements to VoiceOver performance
• this update addresses video playback and performance issues for iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009) and iMac (27-inch, Late 2009) computers that may occur in some situations while AirPort is turned on
  

Font fixes provided for:

• an issue with font spacing 
• an issue in which some Fonts are missing 
• font duplication issues
• an issue with some PostScript Type 1 fonts not working properly 

Graphics fixes provided for:

• an issue when connecting monitors to DVI and Mini DisplayPort adapters
• an issue in which the brightness setting may not be remembered on restart 
• addresses functionality with specific display models
• general reliability and performance improvements when using some applications

Mail fixes provided for:

• a situation in which Mail's unread count may not update properly as messages are read on another computer
• an issue in which deleted RSS feeds may return
• an issue in which Mail cannot preview or Quick Look attachments when composing a new message
• an issue that can cause Address Book and/or Mail to stop responding when opened
• an issue in which email messages received from an Exchange Server are not formatted correctly
• an issue in which Mail reports "Account exceeded bandwidth limits" for some Gmail accounts

MobileMe fixes provided for:

• performance when accessing files from iDisk via the Finder and syncing iDisk files
• an issue in which syncing iDisk files does not proceed beyond "checking items"
• reliability and performance when syncing contacts, calendars, and bookmarks with MobileMe (syncing with iTunes and iSync are also improved)
• an issue that prevents some users from logging into MobileMe via the MobileMe System Preference pane

Network file systems fixes provided for:

• compatibility with third-party AFP servers
• file synchronization for portable home directories

Printing and faxing fixes provided for:

• automatic printer updates improvements
• Print dialog allowing you to enter and send to more than one fax recipient

Safari fixes provided for:

• a graphics distortion issue in Safari Top Sites
• Safari plug-in reliability

Apart from the list above, Apple has thrown a rock at the Intel Atom Hackintosh community. Intel Atom processors are no longer supported in this update, so, peeps with an Atom Hackintosh, don't try your luck with this one, although #Netkas has promised support for the Atom, when Apple lets out the kernel sources for Snow Leopard ! All other Hackintosh users can safely upgrade without any worries, either by running Software Update or by downloading and installing the Combo Update

Snow Leopard 10.6.2 Combo Update
Netkas' Promise Post

Time Machine, Backup App Built Into OS X

The Time Machine app on OS X lets you travel back in time, literally ! Today I'm gonna be showing you how to configure the same on your Mac ! No love for Windows users on this one, this is exclusively Apple !

What You'll Need:
A Mac, with Leopard or Snow Leopard
External Hard Drive ~ 500 GB

What You'll Achieve:
Backup from the past few months, depending on the size of the HDD you're using
Restoration from a crash to perfectly normal state

In order to set up Time Machine for the first time, you need to go to System Preferences, then click on the Time Machine icon

This is what it will look like after you configure Time Machine properly:

You've deleted a file by accident, and if you wanna restore that file from one of your backups, here's what you'll need to do:

Run the Time Machine app from Applications >> Time Machine

You'll get to see something like this depending on the Mac you're using:

You can go back in time depending on since when you've configured Time Machine on your Mac !
Just select whatever files you wanna restore from back in time, and hit that Restore button on the bottom right, voila ! Time Machine brings those files from back in time to the present !

There are a few letdowns though ! You can't take backups of any hard disks that are formatted in formats other than the Mac OS Journaled format. Other than that everything else if just fine !

If you have any queries or have something to say, just leave a comment or email me at ashrith@a5hr1th.com