Latest Posts in Macworld Video
Upgrade the Mac mini in six minutes
I’ve upgraded quite a few Mac minis over the past several years, from the original 2005 model to the latest version, released last week, and some in between. We’ve also covered the topic of Mac mini surgery on the Macworld Podcast. But we still regularly receive questions from readers about whether or not performing such upgrades yourself is a good idea—many have heard that it’s quite difficult to open the Mini, or that doing so voids your warranty.
Apple’s official policy is that you can upgrade the mini yourself as long as you don’t break anything in the process; if you do, that damage isn’t covered under warranty. But how much risk is there of actually doing such damage? (It can certainly feel like you’re breaking something when you pry off the Mac mini’s top case.) And once you get inside, how hairy is the disassembly procedure? It’s difficult to judge by looking at photos on a Web site.
To satisfy your curiosity, in this week’s video, I show you the entire process of upgrading the Mac mini’s RAM and hard drive, from cracking the case to snapping it back together again, pointing out some of the tricky steps along the way. Believe it or not, the entire process took me under six minutes—and that’s including several places where I got slowed down by a tiny screw or spring that didn’t want to cooperate.
(Note that the Mac mini in the video is actually an Early 2009 model, but that model is identical to the just-released Late 2009 minis when it comes to internal design and the upgrade procedure.)
Hands On: iPhone and iPod touch remote controls
Despite the release of the 3.0 software, the Apple TV is not Apple’s most capable media player. In my opinion, the Mac mini remains Apple’s best AV device.
But one of the major difficulties of using any Mac connected to a TV is controlling it from the couch. If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, that job gets a whole lot easier. In this video I take you on a tour of four inexpensive applications for doing the job.
- Format: MPEG-4/H.264
- Resolution: 480 x 272 (iPhone & iPod compatible)
- Size: 8.7MB
- Length: 4 minutes and 48 seconds
Or you can look below for the full-quality video embedded from YouTube. (Please note our videos are now available in HD on YouTube as well!)
Show Notes
The specific application I discuss are:
- Evan Schoenberg’s $5 Rowmote Pro
- R.P.A Tech’s $3 Air Mouse Pro
- Hoofien’s $4 Snatch
- RoboHippo’s $5 HippoRemote
You can read about those utilities in my iPhone and iPod touch Remote Controls. If you’re interested in hardware remotes, take a look at Hardware Remotes for Your Media Center Mac.
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[Christopher Breen is a Macworld senior editor.]
Multiple-Clipboard utilities (and why you should use one)
As someone who works with text for a living, I’m a huge fan of utilities that provide multiple Clipboards. These programs store multiple recent contents of the Clipboard, letting you paste any of them quickly and easily. There are many such utilities out there; in this week’s video, I give you a closer look at three of my favorites, Jumpcut, PTHPasteboard Pro, and LaunchBar.
If you’ve never used a multiple-Clipboard utility, seeing how these three utilities work—each provides a different set of features and takes a slightly different approach to working with cut and copied content—may convince you that you need to give one a try. Doing so could improve your productivity dramatically.
- Format: MPEG-4/H.264
- Resolution: 480 by 272
- Size: 12MB
- Length: 6 minutes, 9 seconds
Or you can look below for the full-quality video embedded from YouTube. (Please note our videos are now available in HD on YouTube as well!)
Mac writing tools
November is National Novel Writing Month, an event in which thousands of people attempt to write 50,000 words of a novel in the course of 30 days. As a once and future participant in the event, I’m a big proponent of it as a way to unlock one’s creativity and give those of us who are not inclined to run marathons or climb tall mountains a massive accomplishment to shoot for.
Last year, we published a bunch of stories about NaNoWriMo, and I encourage you to check them out—they’re as relevant today as they were in 2008. We offered tips on how to succeed at NaNoWriMo from two experts, including our own Dan Moren and contributor Nathan Alderman, both of whom are multi-time winners. We’ve also reviewed most of the Mac writing software out there.
In this video, I give you a quick tour of the tools that I’ve used during NaNoWriMo, as well as a few other novel-writing tools. There’s also a peek at a fantastic (if brutal) productivity enhancer that blocks off your Mac’s Internet connection and forces you to get some work done.
First Look: Samsung DualView TL225 camera
There’s probably a study taken by some institution that shows that self-portraits are the most common type of picture taken with a digital camera. Everyone has done it-point the camera at yourself, hold it at arm’s length, try to aim the shutter at your face, and click. Aiming the shutter is the hard part, and it gets even trickier if there are two people in the shot.
With Samsung’s DualView TL225 digital camera, it’s a lot easier to take self-portaits. The TL225 features a 1.5-inch LCD on the front of the camera, so you can properly frame your self-portraits. It also has a touchscreen interface and gesture-based controls. In this video, see how the TL225 works.
- Format: MPEG-4/H.264
- Resolution: 480x272 (iPhone & iPod compatible)
- Size: 5MB
- Length: 2 minutes, 8 seconds
Or you can look below for the full-quality video embedded from YouTube. (Please note our videos are now available in HD on YouTube as well!)
Show notes
The TL225 is in our lab for testing. We’ll have a full review of the camera soon. In the meantime, you can visit the TL225 product page for more information.
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You can also see a complete archive of all our videos on Macworld’s YouTube channel. Subscribe to that channels and you will be notified whenever we post a new video.
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Six more Snow Leopard tips
In this week’s video, I delve into six more Snow Leopard tips that you may or may not be familiar with (some have been covered here in blog entries). Note that this is my second video of six Snow Leopard tips; here’s the first video. Why six? Consider it a tribute to the “.6” in Snow Leopard’s version number, though yes, we’re technically now up to 12 total.
- Format: MPEG-4/H.264
- Resolution: 480 x 270 (iPhone & iPod compatible)
- Size: 14.5MB
- Length: 6 minutes, 44 seconds
Or you can look below for the full-quality video embedded from YouTube. (Please note our videos are now available in HD on YouTube as well!)
Show notes
During the video, I cover these six tips:
- Enable Quick Look’s special X-Ray mode, which works in both 10.5 and 10.6 (this is the only one of these tips that works in 10.5). The secret to this tip is to run this command in Terminal: defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableXRayFolders 1
- Select Exposé windows by name using the keyboard.
- Use new math formulas in Spotlight.
- Limit the Dock’s pop-up menus to just those provided by the system, suppressing application-provided menus.
- Force Dictionary to open definitions from Spotlight and Services in just one window. By default, each definition opens in its own window in 10.6. The secret to this tip is to use this command in Terminal: defaults write com.apple.Dictionary ProhibitNewWindowForRequest -bool TRUE
- Gain fine control over QuickTime X Player’s fast forward and rewind speeds.
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You can also see a complete archive of all our videos on Macworld’s YouTube channel. Subscribe to that channels and you will be notified whenever we post a new video.
Or just point your favorite podcast-savvy RSS reader to:
http://feeds.macworld.com/macworld/video/
Torture tests with the ioSafe Solo hard drive
Disasters like fires or floods are hard to imagine happening to your home, but it unfortunately does happen in real life. Normally, a hard drive (among the other items in your home) would be ruined by fire or water. That’s where the ioSafe Solo comes in. The ioSafe Solo is the black box of storage options, providing disaster protection and peace of mind by surviving situations other drives can’t.
To withstand moisture, the ioSafe is sealed in a HydroSafe waterproof package that can handle up to 10 feet of water. The ioSafe Solo also has a ceramic block for fire insulation.
In this video, I test the ioSafe Solo’s ability to withstand water and fire. I submerged the drive in some water, and then I took the drive to a place called The Crucible and turned a flame cannon on to the drive.
Up close with the new iPod nano
At a recent Apple music event, the company announced a new crop of iPods. Nice as it is to have a faster iPod touch, I find the 5G nano the most compelling new iPod.
And what makes it compelling are the new video camera and buffered radio features. And it’s exactly these features that I show off in this video.
Download Macworld Video #126
- Format: MPEG-4/H.264
- Resolution: 480 x 272 (iPhone & iPod compatible)
- Size: 10MB
- Length: 4 minutes, 21 seconds
Or you can look below for the full-quality video embedded from YouTube. (Please note our videos are now available in HD on YouTube as well!)
Six Snow Leopard tips
In this week’s video, I delve into six Leopard tips that you may (some have been covered here in blog entries) or may not be familiar with. Why six? Consider it a tribute to the “.6” in Snow Leopard’s version number.
- Format: MPEG-4/H.264
- Resolution: 480 x 270 (iPhone & iPod compatible)
- Size: 14.1MB
- Length: 6 minutes, 27 seconds
Or you can look below for the full-quality video embedded from YouTube. (Please note our videos are now available in HD on YouTube as well!)
Show notes
During the video, I cover these six tips:
- Dragging images from PDFs in Preview
- Using iCal's new Inspector to manage calendar entries
- Collecting open windows spread across multiple Spaces
- Seeing more options for the AirPort, Bluetooth, and Sync menu bar icons
- Taking advantage of clippings' new capabilities
- Revealing hidden files in Open and Save dialogs
To subscribe to the Macworld Video Podcast using iTunes 5 or later, click here.
You can also see a complete archive of all our videos on Macworld’s YouTube channel. Subscribe to that channels and you will be notified whenever we post a new video.
Or just point your favorite podcast-savvy RSS reader to: http://feeds.macworld.com/macworld/video/
Small USB flash drives
USB flash drives are handy storage devices, and there are a wide ranges of choices, from practical to fashionable. I like flash drives that are small and easy to carry with me at all times.
In this video, I’ll take a quick look at two USB flash drives that are very easy to carry. First, I’ll look at LaCie’s iamaKey, and then I’ll talk about Verbatim’s Tuff-’n’-Tiny.
- Download Macworld Video #124
- Format: MPEG-4/H.264
- Resolution: 480 x 272 (iPhone & iPod compatible)
- Size: 5MB
- Length: 1 minute, 54 seconds
Or you can look below for the full-quality video embedded from YouTube. (Please note our videos are now available in HD on YouTube as well!)
Show notes
Product pages:
New Storage Reviews
Best Prices on DVD-ROM/DVD Writers
GH22NP20 Black Dual Layer DVDRW WriterPrice: $29.50
DVDirect 16x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD RW Drive NewPrice: $199.97
BDC-205 Black Blu-Ray WriterPrice: $214.99
ThinkPlus DVD/CD-RW WriterPrice: $41.99
LITE-ON 4X BLU RAY READER RETAILPrice: $69.99
WH08LS20K Black Blu-ray WriterPrice: $179.99
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