Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
AppleInsider has a nice long preview of the new Leopard Dock, along with a short history going all the way back to a company called Acorn Computers, and the NeXT Dock (there's even some good, healthy Windows TaskBar bashing thrown in the mix).
There isn't really anything new here, but it is a nice wrap up of everything we've seen about the Dock so far, including the new perspective that folks are so worked up about, and the idea of "stacks," special icons that will expand into a number of different icons. AppleInsider even runs down the default stacks provided with Leopard-- Applications, Documents and Downloads. I'm not sure how long those will last on my Leopard install, however-- I'm much more eager to make my own stacks and reorganize everything myself.
Very exciting. Unfortunately there's no mention of an update to how the vertical Dock looks, but Leopard is right around the corner, so we'll find out for sure very soon if Apple's new Dock lives up to expectations.
There's a lot to love about the Mac's user-friendly desktop and one of my favorites is the Dock, otherwise known as "that spot at the bottom of the screen where all the application icons line up." Here are a handful of nifty tricks for the dock that new users might like to know about, and long-time users may have forgotten.
This is rather disappointing. According to iLounge, Apple has re-designed the TV out functionality of the new iPod classics and nanos so that they no longer work with older third-party TV out cables and docks. Apparently, the new classics and nanos require an Apple authentication chip in the dock/cable to unlock the TV out setting and these chips are only available to official third-party suppliers. At this point only official Apple products and a few select third-party offerings will unlock the TV out setting. The AV cables for the new iPods will reportedly sell for $49 when released.
Rogue Ameoba's got a legit complaint with the Dock in Leopard: it looks horrible sitting on the side. Personally, it's not really a concern for me, because I've never moved my Dock from the bottom of the screen (seems weird to have it on the side, like the workspace is off balance). But they're exactly right-- Leopard's "perspective Dock" just looks strange in the vertical. The icons seem to float in space, and the whole perspective looks weird.
Of course, they have other problems with the Dock as well-- the reflections of the Desktop and the Windows happen in Leopard no matter where the Dock is, right? But yeah the angles that normally look like a shelf for the icons to sit on when the Dock is on the bottom of the screen look literally "off the wall" when the Dock is on the side.
With something like Cleardock, this is easily fixed. And we're still looking at a dev build of Leopard, so maybe Apple has a trick up its sleeve to fix it before release. But would you put the Dock on the side of your screen if it looked like this?
The iPhone home screen doesn't scroll. This 16-application limit is just a reality most users have come to accept. Third party developers have turned to launcher apps that search for additional applications and let you choose one from a list. Today, Nate True introduced an iPhone mod that smashes these launchers into yesterday's news.
True's Dock package loads your entire application collection into a single usable list that appears directly on your homescreen. Just use a finger to scroll the bottom row of icons left or right and tap the application you want to launch.
This is still a relatively early release--so there are a few bugs here or there--but I've tested it out and it works fabulously. To install, download a copy of iBrickr (Windows) or Breezy (Macintosh Universal Binary) and use them to load the Dock package to your iPhone.
Parallels has dropped a new version of their beta release, and it looks good. In addition to a Coherence improvement that now lets any Windows window appear in full preview style on the Dock (as well as show up in Exposé), Windows and OS X can now share the contents of their home folders. That is really awesome-- now, your My Documents and Home folders can share exactly the same contents, so you don't have to worry about where things are being saved, or whether one OS can access the other's information. Finally, it really is like running two operating systems on the same computer, because you can access the same files in the same places in both OSes.
Very nice-- this is exactly the kind of stuff people were dreaming about when Apple switched to Intel. The new beta2 for Parallels 3.0 is available for free download with a 3.0 license, and you can get it right here.
We have a pretty wide array of choices when it comes to controlling our Mac, but Dockables adds even one more way to do things like shut down, start a screensaver or sleep the display. More of a collection of tiny apps than a full-blown utility, Dockables simply installs a folder in your Applications folder that contains 12 separate one-trick-pony apps (they're actually just packaged AppleScripts with pretty icons) that can perform the following actions: Shut Down, Start Default Screen Saver, Restart, Empty Trash, Eject Media, Sleep, Log Out, Close Applications, Hide Applications, Mute Sound, sleep display, and take a screenshot. The idea is that you drag just the Dockables that you want to your Dock, thus providing one-click access to the actions you use most. A few Dock dividers and alternately themed Dockables are even provided for yet more options for controlling your Mac with style and organizing everything just the way you need it.
Dockables is provided as donationware from COCOApps.
Yep, it's that time again boys and girls: Bartlomiej Bargiel has updated iGTD with yet another unassuming point release that heralds some great new features. While you can simply run the Check for Updates command from the application menu to see the big list o' changes, here are some of the highlights for those still on the fence or stuck at work reading this on a machine other than their own. iGTD 1.4.5.5 brings:
Opening the Quick Add window to easily edit tasks you've added from other apps
Multiple badges in the Dock icon for Inbox, due today and flagged item statuses
Flag and task mode (pending/waiting for/maybe) buttons in the Quick Add window, with keyboard shortcuts
Ability to completely disable iCal synching so users don't accidentally toggle it
Of course, there are a ton of other new options and tweaks, as well as a healthy dose of bug fixes. This version of iGTD amazingly still remains free, while those details on the iGTD Pro are all we know about the upcoming commercial branches of this arguable king of GTD apps.
We've mentioned Dockstar ($8) several times as a way to add extra badges to your Mail.app Dock icon for indicating unread message counts for mailboxes other than the inbox. Now Mail Badger appears on the scene to offer similar functionality in a nice piece of donationware. Mail Badger is a Mail.app plugin that allows you to display message counts "computed from the number of messages in a mailbox (unread, read, or total), from the number of messages that satisfy a set of conditions, or by the result of running AppleScript code." You can use custom fonts and badge images and place the badges wherever you like on the Mail.app icon.
Mail Badger is a free download from Tony Allevato, though donations are requested.
The new branding Adobe conceived for the new CS3 suite hasn't quite caught on with everyone just yet. Some say the icons are too bland and boring, while others like my friend John decided to take Adobe's 'periodic table of apps' concept to the next level. Via some icons found at sites like InterfaceLIFT and designing a few of his own, John has completely element-ized his entire Dock. In fact, I couldn't fit a decent picture that could display all the icons in this post, so head over to a TUAW gallery pic to take in the entire work of art - or monstrosity - depending on which side of the fence you sit on. Knock yourselves out if you feel like guessing each app - I have the entire list, but it won't be easy to nail 'em all.
[Update: For those that want a copy of most of these icons (some of them are home-made by my friend and not available publicly) as well as a few not shown here, TUAW reader David Mikula has quite a few available at his portfolio site, I Can't Fly. Thanks David!]
4. Disable slow-mo animations (seen when you press Shift during Exposé launches or window minimization) defaults write com.apple.finder FXEnableSlowAnimation -bool true
Issue any or all of these at the command line, and then restart Finder. (Enter killall "Finder" at the command line.) To reverse these effects, change from true to false or false to true and restart Finder again. So did this make my creaky 733 G4 Power PC Mac run faster? Perhaps a little. The biggest changes in speed I noticed were in accessing folders from the dock.
Here's a simple trick to help you locate items from your Dock in Finder. Sure, you can Control-click (or Right-click) and item and choose Show In Finder from the contextual pop-up menu, but it's a lot easier simply to hold down the Command key and click the Dock item. (That's a left click for dual-button mice.)
Command-clicking a Docked application or file automatically opens up a new Finder window showing the item in its folder. One TUAW reader suggested using this feature to make sure that Applications have been installed in the proper folder rather than being used from a disk image.
Camino is a great browser that exists somewhere in that place between Safari and Firefox. It's a spawn of Mozilla's darling browser, but it is decidedly far more Mac-like in its functionality and UI. Even cooler still is that Camino has plenty of tricks up its sleeve, such as the ability to add a folder of bookmarks to its Dock context menu, and turning folders into one-click tab groups.
First up: the Dock Menu option. Simply check this in the Get Info window (cmd-i) of any folder in Camino's bookmark manager and enjoy easy access to your 'marks from the comfort of a right-click.
Next is that Tab group: this is useful for creating a set of bookmarks that all open in their own tabs at a mere single click of your mouse. Do you consistently open webmail, Amazon and - of course - TUAW when you sit down for a stroll through the web? Camino's Tab group just might save you hours of clicking... after using this feature for, like, 20 years.
Mail.app junkies who demand more from that little red Dock badge - rejoice! Dockstar, the go-to app for adding up to 5 new notification badges to Mail.app's icon that we've mentioned before, has received some great new features for a version 2.0 upgrade. New in this version are features like counting messages in nested folders, counting flagged, junk or total messages, sound notifications for each badge and even a screensaver and Dashboard widget.
Check out the changelog for more details, or snag a new copy. A license costs a mere $8.
TUAW reader Chris Roberts was right: it's been far too long since our last post in The Little Things series, so I figured I'd pick up the slack with a really handy feature of Mac OS X: drag and drop. Sure, most OSes these days can drag and drop at least some things, but Apple has gone to great lengths to build this workflow-enhancing feature into so many facets of Mac OS X's experience, I don't really have time to cover them all (and there's no doubt that I don't even know about them all). Take my screenshot for example: I'm dragging an image of our puppy out of iPhoto on the left into iChat's icon well on the right. A simple gesture, sure, but a tiny example of how powerful this functionality can become. Try a few of these other drag and drop operations on for size:
Drag a file onto an app's icon in the Finder or Dock; its icon should darken, signifying that it can handle whatever you're throwing at it. Hold the Command key to force an app to open a file if it isn't initially cooperating.
Drag images from a browser (except Firefox and Camino) into a Mail message or iChat window to easily share them; no clunky 'right-click, Save, Open' workflows here.
Pause a QuickTime movie, click on the video and drag out to the desktop to create an instant snapshot of the frame you paused on (this might only work in QuickTime Pro - can anyone verify?).
Drag a file onto a Terminal window to instantly create a path.
Highlight text in most apps, then click and drag it to the desktop to create a text snippet, or into another window (Mail, iChat and Yojimbo are great examples) for a drag 'n drop take on copy/paste.
I'm sure there's a ton more where this came from, so try it on for size or stay tuned to the comments on this post where readers can share their own tricks and tips for dragging and dropping one's way to productive bliss.
AppleInsider has a nice long preview of the new Leopard Dock, along with a short history going all the way back to a company called Acorn Computers, and the NeXT Dock (there's even some good, healthy Windows TaskBar bashing thrown in the mix).
This is rather disappointing. According to 
Rogue Ameoba's got a legit complaint with the Dock in Leopard: 
Mac OS X Hints has posted 
Here's a simple trick to help you locate items from your Dock in Finder. Sure, you can Control-click (or Right-click) and item and choose Show In Finder from the contextual pop-up menu, but it's a lot easier simply to hold down the Command key and click the Dock item. (That's a left click for dual-button mice.) 
