Mac OS X: Users coming from Windows PCs are accustomed to desktop shortcuts, but it's not something that's seen often on a Mac. Fact is, you can make a shortcut for just about anything in OS X with just a couple of mouse clicks. They're just not called shortcuts, they're called aliases.
To make an alias, just right-click on the app, file, or folder that you want to have a shortcut. When the menu shows up, just click on the option to "Make Alias." A new file will show up that looks just like the old one, except it has the word "alias" at the end of its name. If you look closely enough, you'll also see a tiny little arrow in the lower left of the file's icon, letting you know it's a shortcut and not the real thing.
Making aliases can be a real help if your Dock is getting too wide to fit on your screen. It's also a great way to regularly edit a resume or note file, while still keeping all your documents in one location. Aliases don't have much to limit them, either, so you can even create one for a folder that's on another drive—a trick that's particularly useful for photos and video files.
Whitson Gordon
—
Whether you've just switched to Mac or you're secretly a little jealous of Windows 7 features, there are some things Mac OS X just doesn't do that Windows handles beautifully. Here's how to get Windows' best features on your Mac.
People talk about "Mac Envy" a lot, but you hear a lot less about Windows jealousy—even though Windows has some pretty drool-worthy features. Whether it's the productivity-boosting Aero Snap or the ability to fully maximize windows with the click of a button, here's how to get some of our favorite Windows features on OS X. (If you're a Windows user, too, be sure to check out how to get Mac OS X's best features on your Windows PC, too).
A lot of the apps mentioned in this post are, unfortunately, shareware. I looked for free options and found a few where noted, but almost everything here is a pay app. As such, you may not want to rush off and buy all of these, but check out their free trials and see which ones actually make your life easier. And remember: $7 may seem like a lot for an app, but if it's something you'll use every day and makes your life easier, it might not be so bad.
True Window Maximization
One of Mac OS X's most annoying features is the lack of true window maximization. That is, when you click the maximization button—the little green one in the corner of your windows—only some applications actually maximize to fill up your monitor. Instead, many just stretch to fit the contents of the window. This can be nice, but if you want to focus on just one thing, or if you just need more space for whatever you're working on, you have to resize the window manually.
Previously mentionedRightZoom is a simple tool that changes the behavior of the green button, causing it to always maximize the window. It isn't perfect (since it then gets rid of the old behavior, which is sometimes good), but it's the best free option we've found. You can alternatively grab Flexiglass, will maximize only when you right-click on the button, but it's $10. It also has a few other window management features though, which we'll talk about in a moment. Of course, most of the Aero Snap programs detailed below will also maximize windows, but using a keyboard shortcut or dragging motion rather than the green plus sign.
When you hover over a taskbar icon in Windows 7, it shows a tiny preview of all the windows open in that program, which is great for quickly bringing one into focus (or un-minimizing it). In OS X, you can right click on a dock icon to see the open windows, but the lack of thumbnails makes it hard to distinguish between them. (You can also click and hold on an app to get an Exposé of its windows, but that isn't quite the same). If you'd prefer a more Windows-like behavior, the previously mentioned $10 Hyperdock will give it to you. You can hover over dock icons, close windows right from there, and get a ton of other window management features (which we'll talk about in a moment) right from its preference pane. This is one of my favorite OS X enhancers—easily some of the best $10 I've spent in the Mac App Store.
Aero Snap's Window Snapping (and Then Some)
Windows 7's Aero Snap feature is a godsend for anyone who needs to work in multiple windows at once. By clicking and dragging a window to the edge of the screen, you could "snap" them to fit half the screen and use them side-by-side. You can also drag a window to the top of the screen to maximize it. There are a number of different tools that do this for OS X, but they all have a different mix of features, so you'll want to pick the one that works best for you. Here are our favorites:
Hyperdock: This brings window snapping to OS X by both clicking and dragging windows and keyboard shortcuts. In addition, it has the window preview feature mentioned above, as well as the ability to move and resize windows from anywhere—not just the titlebar or window corner (another feature we miss from Windows).
Flexiglass: Flexiglass is also $10, but has a slightly different feature set than Hyperdock. It too can snap windows, as well as move and resize them from anywhere. However, it also adds the ability to fully maximize windows by right-clicking the green plus button, as well as quit apps by right-clicking the red x button, two features that Windows users on OS X will probably miss. It doesn't, sadly, have the window previews in the dock, so you'll either have to buy both apps or decide which features are more important to you. Again, both should have free trials available.
Cinch: If you'd rather not buy an app, you can grab Cinch. Cinch is technically $7, but it's nagware, meaning you can run it forever for free as long as you don't mind a request to buy every time you launch it. Cinch adds the drag-and-snap feature to OS X, but doesn't include keyboard shortcuts. For that you'd need...
SizeUp: From the same developers as Cinch, SizeUp is a program that lets you snap windows, maximize them, move them to different monitors, and otherwize manage them with keyboard shortcuts. It doesn't include the drag-and-snap features of Cinch and the others, but if you're only going to use keyboard shortcuts anyways, it's perfect. Again, it's $7, but runs free as nagware if you prefer.
ShiftIt: ShiftIt is a free tool that lets you maximize and snap windows using keyboard shortcuts. It's similar to SizeUp but doesn't have quite as many options. It is, however, completely free (and nag-free).
Cut and Paste in the Finder
In Windows Explorer, you can cut and paste files all you want, but for some reason Mac OS X's Finder only lets you copy and paste files—no cutting allowed. There's a very easy way to get this functionality on OS X, though: previously mentionedMoveAddict will add keyboard shortcuts for cut and paste to the Finder, and as long as you only want to move one file at a time, you can do it for free. If you want to cut and paste large batches of files, though, you'll need to shell out $8 for the program.
Get a Better Window Switcher
Cmd Tab is a fine app switcher for something that's built-in, but if you're more used to how Windows does it, you'll probably get frustrated pretty quickly. It only switches between apps, not windows, and if you have any windows that are minimized or hidden, Cmd Tab won't open them up unless you learn some hand-cramping new shortcuts. If you'd like a more powerful window switcher, Witch is a pretty good choice—although not exactly cheap at $14. However, it does give you a more Windows-like switcher, with a full list of open windows, thumbnails of each one, and some serious shortcuts (not to mention configurability). If you use Cmd Tab a lot but aren't satisfied with the built-in offering, you'll probably find Witch is a very powerful program well worth the cash.
Get Windows-Style Keyboard Shortcuts
If you just feel that your hand is too cramped reaching for Command instead of Control, or your Windows muscle memory is too great, you can use previously mentionedDoubleCommand to remap some of your keys in OS X. It can remap a whole host of things, some of the most useful being Ctrl, Cmd, and Alt. So, switching Cmd and Ctrl, for example, means that you'll go back to the Windows-style Ctrl C shortcut for copy, Ctrl V for paste, etc. They're small tweaks, but if you're used to Windows (or if you're forced to use Windows at work), it's nice to get back to the keyboard shortcuts that you're used to.
You'll never be able to get Mac OS X working exactly like windows, though I don't expect most Mac users would want to. Thankfully, with just a few simple tools and tweaks, you can get the Windows features that do matter on your Mac. Got any of your own favorite features we skipped over? Let us know how you brought them over to OS X in the comments.
You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
Matthew Rogers — One of the biggest pet peeves for users who switch to Mac from Windows is the Delete key, because it feels backwards. To make matters worse, the vast majority of Mac users don't use the full-size keyboard (which has Delete keys for both directions). Here are a few quick shortcuts to set the matter straight for everyone, but especially for those macbook users out there. Photo by Matt McGee.
Deleting text in front of the cursor with the regular Delete key can be done by holding down the Function, or fn key while pressing it.
You can also do this by pressing Control + D.
You can delete the entire word behind the cursor by pressing Control + Delete orOption + Delete.
You can delete the entire line of text or paragraph behind the cursor by pressingCommand + Delete.
How to Set Up a Fully Automated App and Settings Backup on Your Jailbroken iDevice
Adam Dachis — Wouldn't it be great if iOS fully backed up your data, and did so wirelessly and automatically, without requiring you to plug in and sync? As with many features iOS is lacking by default, you can achieve this goal by jailbreaking. Here's how to set up a fully automated, wireless backup on your jailbroken iDevice.
If you're not familiar with iOS' backup process, you're probably wondering why you'd bother with all of this when iTunes seemingly takes care of backup for you. Here are a few good reasons:
iTunes isn't really backing up everything when you sync your device, but pretty much just the settings on your phone. It doesn't back up your camera roll, your calendars, your address book, and a bunch of other personal data. If you're not syncing any of these things, you're not backing them up.
You're required to sync in order to back up most of your data, and you can't do it wirelessly—you have to plug in your phone to the computer you sync it to every time.
You can't schedule backups.
Finally, if you've jailbroken your iDevice before, and subsequently updated iOS to a newer version, you know that you lose your jailbreak during that update. Jailbreaking again only takes a few minutes, but restoring all your jailbreak apps and extensions can be tedious and time consuming.
The backup system we're going to put into place today solves all of these problems.
What You'll Need
Interested? Before we get started, you're going to need to do a couple of things:
Get a Dropbox account. You get 2GB for free, and you can get more free space through referrals. The 2GB should be just fine for most backup plans, though.
Purchase and download PKGBackup from the Cydia store on your jailbroken iDevice. Currently it's $8. If that seems like a lot, consider the time it takes to get all your app settings back in place one-by-one. The time-saving aspect is easily worth $8 to this writer.
Setting Up PKGBackup
Once you've got everything ready to go we can start setting up PKGBackup the way you want. Start by opening the app. You should see a bunch of options, but to start off we need to go into the Settings panel. You can reach that by tapping the gear icon in the top left corner.
Here's the quick version:
Click the "Dropbox" tab and link you Dropbox account.
In the settings panel, turn on they scan packages at startup setting and do not turn on the automatically backup on startup setting. When you're done, press "OK" to accept the settings you've chosen and PKGBackup will automatically scan your phone for things it can back up.
From the list, choose the category you want by tapping it and then selecting any packages, settings, or data you want to back up.
Tap backup in the bottom right corner of the main screen to initiate backup. It may take awhile so be sure you're on Wi-Fi and can be without your phone for an hour or so (depending on how much you've chose to back up).
That's all there is to it. However, if you need a little more hand-holding through the process, you can find much more detail about each step below.
Step 1: Link Your Dropbox Account The Settings panel is a little intimidating. It's filled with buttons and switches all crammed onto your tiny little screen. Before you mess with any other settings, the first thing you're going to want to do is log in to your Dropbox account. Your second option in the Settings panel is called Primary Storage. Next to that you'll be able to choose between Addressbook and Dropbox. PKGBackup lets you choose between backing up your data to a file in your iDevice's address book, but we're not going to use that as it limits you to only backing up small bits of data. It also requires you to sync your iDevice to actually perform the backup. These reasons make Dropbox a much better option, so tap the Dropbox tab and you'll be presented with a screen that'll let you log in and link your Dropbox account.
Once you've logged in and your account has been linked, the Drobox tab will change its name to DB Logout. If you click that, the link to your Dropbox account will be severed and you'll have to relink it again. This isn't a big deal, but it's easy to accidentally tap that button and not realize it, so just make sure it reads "DB Logout" if you're ever wondering why things aren't working.
Step 2: Scan Packages at Startup and Other Toggle Settings Once you've linked your Dropbox account you technically do not need to do anything else. Once you press OK at the bottom of the screen, PKGBackup will scan your iDevice for what you can back up.
You can always initiate this scan manually by opening the Settings panel and tapping the OK button, but if you want it to manually scan your packages at startup there's a switch for that called Scan packages at startup. Turn that on if you want an automatic scan every time you launch PKGBackup. You can also tell it to automatically backup on startup, but I'd recommend against this because 1) backup takes some time and it's not a process you can easily cancel, and 2) it's pretty easy to manual initiate a backup by pressing the backup button at the bottom right of the main screen when you start up PKGBackup. So if I were you, I'd leave that option turned off.
You'll find a couple of other options you can turn on and off if you want, but those aren't really that important. You'll also see backup scheduling options on the bottom half of the Settings panel, but we're not going to look at those just yet. First, let's set up your first backup.
Step 3: Select What You Want to Back Up If you haven't already, press OK on the Settings panel to return to the main PKGBackup screen. Here you'll find a single rounded rectangle beneath a header of "Installed packages" and it'll list the number of packages you have installed. If you have, say, 15 package installed, it'll probably read "Selected 0 of 15" because you have yet to select any packages.
Before we look at the other settings below, tap the rounded rectangle to select the packages you want to back up. These packages are apps, extensions, and other things you installed when jailbreaking. Some of them you may recognize and others you won't because they were installed by default during the jailbreaking process. In most cases, you're going to want to back up everything. To do that, tap the All Packages on the bottom right side of the screen to list every package. You'll see a square with an arrow pointing to the right up on the top right side of your screen. Tap that, then tap the All button that appears on your screen. This will select all packages. If you want to deselect any selected package, you can always tap the green arrow next to its name. You can also select packages individually in this way.
Once you're finished, click the back button that reads "PKGBackup" in the top left corner of your screen to return to the main PKGBackup screen. That's all you need to do to set up your package backup!
We're not quite done yet if you want to backup more than just your jailbreak packages. You'll also noticed a bunch of options under the Option header on the PKGBackup main screen. These are things like Apple Default Apps, user sources, preferences files, etc. If you want to back up any of these other items, just tap them and select what you want. They'll work pretty much the same way as backing up your packages with one exception: Apple Default Apps. Apple Default Apps just has a series of on and off toggles for your iDevice's built-in app data. Just switch these on or off to enable or disable them for backup and head back to the main screen when you're done.
Step 4: Start Your Backup Once you've chosen all your backup options, you're ready to go. Before you initiate your first backup, be prepared to leave your device alone for awhile as it is going to have to upload all of this data to Dropbox. You're also going to want to make sure you're on a Wi-Fi network because this backup process could easily eat up the allotment on your monthly data plan. When you're ready, tap the Backup button in the bottom right corner of your screen and PKGBackup will perform all the necessary steps.
Scheduling Backups
Scheduling backups is very, very easy, but be sure to schedule a time when you won't be using your device so you're not interrupted. To set your schedule, tap the gear in the top left corner of the main PKGBackup screen to open the Settings panel. On the bottom half of the screen you'll find your backup options. Under repeat schedule you can tap 0 for just once, or choose to back up daily, weekly, or monthly. Below that, set the time of day (in 24 hour time) that you want to back up. If you select weekly or monthly backups, you'll also need to select a day in addition to entering a time. All you need to do is choose one of the day letter tabs at the bottom of the screen to choose your day. If you choose weekly, your back up will occur on that day every week. If you choose monthly, your backup will occur on the first chosen day of that month (e.g. if you chose Monday, backup will occur on the first Monday of every month).
Once you've made your choices, just press okay and your backup will be scheduled. You can feel free to quit PKGBackup if you like as it will initiate backups all on its own.
Performing a Restore
Restoring a backup is very simple and about the same as the backup process. To perform a restore, tap the View Restore tab at the bottom of the screen. You'll then be able to select what you want to restore in the exact same way you were able to select what you wanted to back up. Make your selections, then tap the Restore button in the bottom right corner of the main PKGBackup screen. Restoration may take some time depending on what data you're restoring, so make sure you have enough time to wait as it's a process you definitely do not want to interrupt.
Once PKGBackup has completed the restore, you're all set. You may be asked to reboot your device, depending on what you restored, so make sure you do it if you're asked.
Adam Pash —
If you have two or more computers at one desk, you don't want two or more sets of keyboards and mice cluttering up your workspace, too. You can buy a hardware gadget that lets you share a single keyboard and mouse with several computers (which involves a mess of tangled wires), or you could use a free software solution called Synergy. The Synergy application runs on all the computers you're using—the one that has the keyboard and mouse connected and the one(s) that do not—and lets you control all of them from that keyboard and mouse. That means you can move your mouse off one computer's screen and it will appear on the other, where you can type and work as well. Synergy also lets you share Clipboard contents between computers. If you copy information to the Clipboard on one computer and move your mouse to the other, you can paste it there, even though they're two different systems.
Note: We've covered Synergy in the past, but a recent update to the Synergy application has made setting up and using Synergy even easier, so we thought it was a good time to update the post and highlight this incredible app again.
Synergy works between any number of PC, Mac, and Linux desktops. Below, we're going to explain how to set up both Windows and Mac sharing or Windows-to-Windows to share a single keyboard and mouse using Synergy.
Before you get started, you need to know two terms—server PC and client PC. When you set up Synergy, you'll have one "server": this is the computer that has the keyboard and mouse physically connected to it. The rest of the computers will be "clients." First, set up the server.
What You'll Need:
Two or more computers on the same local network.
Synergy for Windows: If you'll be running one or more Windows PC's in your setup, download and install the Synergy Installer for Windows on each PC. (As of this writing, the current version is labeled 1.4.2 beta.)
SynergyKM for Mac: If you want to run one or more Macs on your setup, download and install SynergyKM on each Mac you want to use.
Note for Linux users: I haven't tried it, but quicksynergy looks like it could be a good graphical interface for Synergy. If you know of a better option, let's hear it in the comments.
Before you get started, you need to know two terms: server PC and client PC. When you set up Synergy, you'll have one "server": this is the computer that has the keyboard and mouse physically connected to it. The rest of the computers will be "clients." First, set up the server.
Download Synergy for Windows and install it on your PC. As of this writing, the most current version is Synergy 1.4.2. Install and run Synergy, then select Server (Share This Computer's Mouse and Keyboard).
Then click the Configure Server button to open a Server Configuration dialog, where you'll add all the computers that will be controlled by the server's keyboard and mouse and their position in relation to each other.
If you want to use a Mac as the server, the process is very similar using SynergyKM; launch the preference pane, select Share my keyboard and mouse, and move to the Server Configuration tab to set up your screens.
In the Screens And Links tab of the server configuration, you should already see your host computer in the graphical layout screen. My server computer name is Windows, so that's what the first Synergy screen name is.
Now, to add the other computer (your client) to Synergy, you need to know its name as well. By default, the client uses the same name as your computer on the network (for example, my server is Windows; my client is Hack).
To find the name of your computer in Windows, open your Start menu, right-click Computer, and select Properties. Your computer name is listed under Computer name, domain, and workgroup settings. On a Mac, open the Sharing preference pane; your computer name is listed in the top text input.
Once you know your computer's names, drag and drop the monitor icon from the top right of the Screens and Links dialog onto the layout (we're still working on your server PC); drop the new monitor icon next to your server in the same layout as your monitors are on your desk. For example, my Mac's monitor is to the left of my Windows monitor. Double-click the Unnamed screen you just added, then enter the client's screen name.
When you're done, you should see two computers on the Screens and Links grid that mirror the monitor setup on your workspace. If you have a particularly wild screen position (a checkerboard of flatscreens, perhaps?), you can even set up screens on top of and below each other here.
Set Up the Synergy Client
Download and install Synergy on the client computer (the one without the keyboard and mouse connected).
On Windows
If you're Synergy client is going to be a Windows computer, download the same Synergy installer for Windows. After you've installed your Synergy client, launch Synergy exactly the same way as you did on the server, except choose Client (Use Another Computer's Keyboard And Mouse). Enter the name of the server computer. To try the connection, click the Start button: first on the server and then on the client PC. Try moving the mouse off the server screen. If all goes well, it will land on the client screen safely!
On Mac OS X
If the second computer is a Mac, download SynergyKM. After you've installed SynergyKM, launch the SynergyKM preference pane, then choose Connect to a shared keyboard and mouse. Enter the name of the server computer in the Client Configuration tab and click the Apply Now button. To try the connection, click Turn Synergy On in the General tab.: first on the server and then on the client PC. Try moving the mouse off the server screen. If all goes well, it will transport seamlessly to your client PC.
Note: If you have any problems during this step on your Mac, I've found that entering the server's local IP address seems to work.
When you're satisfied with the results, close the Synergy window. Synergy will continue running in your system tray, from which you can start or stop the application as needed. Now you're sharing the mouse and keyboard between two computers simultaneously. Piece of cake.
This story begins in the year 1999. I was 17 at the time and was very bored. I've always had a passion to machines, although I am not in any way supportive of SkyNet and not affiliated with it in any way. I just enjoyed exploring what all these techie devices had in store for me and I loved exploring all the possibilities they held.
Back then, I had no idea what a Mac was, except for very small encounters at a friend's house. His father used a Mac for design back then. The obvious choice for me was windows and thus I lept into the world of networks, windows NT based networks. I took a course near home and was the youngest one there, but I did not mind. All I could think of, is how exciting it was to find out how this whole thing goes, how a computer can talk to another computer over a wire.
In retrospect, I can say I remember three main things about that course, well, four actually, but the last one is a little depressing so I'll make my best to avoid it. The first thing is learning how to build a computer from scratch. Although this wasn't really an integral part of the course, our instructor decided it was important to let us take apart a computer, rebuilt it and get it working along with all the rest in a network. We each worked with a partner. It was the first time I had ever built a computer from scratch, although I did enjoy disassembling things at home - a computer was never one of these things until that point. It was fun and very helpful later in life when I encountered hardware problems, both at home and in my role as a network admin in the army.
The second thing I remember, and this is a key point, that is still with me and probably will be for the rest of my life, is that one day, our beloved instructor decided to show us how to remotely hackaccess a computer over a network. I don't know if he was just bored, or he really wanted us to learn how to rightly set our network security, but that took me on a ride that still lasts through this day. Basically, all he showed us was that you can access a remote computer through it's IP address by double slashing (i.e. \\). When I came back home and tried running random IP scans, I found that people were mostly unaware that not putting a password on their administrator accounts was bad judgement, but since I did not intend to snoop, or be malicious in any way, I never actually done anything to those poor unprotected people. This whole, let's call it, incident, led me to start inquiring more about network security, which led me to examining security over the internet, a very interesting subject by the way, but not why I'm here today. This does, however, lead me to the third thing I remember about that course.
But before I go on, I have to get it off my chest, the fourth point, the one I was trying to avoid was basically that I never got to actually officially finish that course, or rather, just never got to taking those MCSE exams so I could be officially awarded an MCSE title from Microsoft. That was due to my enlistment in the army a few months too early that was intended, but I don't regret it, I do have my degree in Computer Sciences eventually, but that is a whole different story.
On to my third lesson.
Now that I think about it, I always remember seeing those people on american TV talk shows praising and thanking their teachers for giving them some sort of a lesson at one point, one that helped them, or guided them, and I never got it. I do remember teachers at school that I liked more, or liked less, but I never felt like one of them them really affected me in an integral way in my life, that is, until I started writing these words that made me realize that this one instructor in an actual course outside school has affected me in a very meaningful way, so I'd like to dedicate this paragraph to him, although his name escapes me. Thank you.
Now really on the the third thing, as promised.
At one of his lessons, our instructor came out to us with a worried face. He was about to break to us that Microsoft has come out with Windows 2000 (after the ME debacle) and that our NT experience might be outdated within a few years. This led him to start giving us crash courses in everything Windows 2000 and to tell us something even more importnat - "Never stop learning, because if you don't keep at it, you'll stay lost".
Those words made much sense to me, those are the words that led me to study about internet security, anonymity, and much more about the web over the years, it made me inquire about my loss when I first started investing in the stock markets, which eventually led me to my carrier shift into the stock markets, instead of the machine world I still love so much.
All through this, and over the past 12 years, I've always read and read and read. I admit, it wasn't books as much as I wanted it to be, it was articles, lessons and posts on the web. I've collected thousands of bookmarks to all sorts of topics over the years and just kept adding and adding to a point when I realized that I was in a complete mess and couldn't find anything if I wanted to.
At one point, and I don't remember exactly when it was, I discovered RSS feeds. It was a pretty amazing find since finally I was able to channel all those knowledge feeds into a single place, categorize them and read them pretty much all the time, without having to remember which bookmark led to which article. Although it wasn't perfect, RSS feeds really helped me sort up my readings over the web and I use them to this day, reading posts and articles from over 60 different sources of websites and blogs on my computer and on my iPhone.
Over the past year, I've been using feedly, which helps you organize your RSS feeds by using a magnificent layout and my Google Reader account. I have to admit, I probably wouldn't have been exposed to so many feeds if it wasn't for feedly and I probably wouldn't be able to go over, find and read all the posts and articles that interest me, or are needed for doing my job. much like my instructor said about the computer world, I found that staying updated with news is true about the startup world on one end and the financial world as well, which was great news for me, since I was already well organized with feedly and loved reading over the web anyway. One more point in my praise for feedly is that they came out with an amazing app for the iPhone, which allows me to stay updated on the move as well. I must say that I've tried many apps for my RSS feeds on my phone and none came to the comfort of feedly, it just felt at home right away and was definitely worth the long wait (I think about a year), the money spend on other, no as good RSS apps, until they finally came out with that great app. so thank you feedly for organizing my life.
לאחר שהמון אנשים שאלו שאלות והביעו תמיהה לגבי תכנון ותפקוד המולטי טסקינג המובנה במערכת ההפעלה iOS בגרסה 4 ומעלה ולאחר שכבר עברו כמה חודשים מאז שיצאה לאור גירסת מערכת ההפעלה המדוברת ומתכנתים רבים הספיקו כבר ליצור בעבורה כמה תוספים מצוינים שעלו ל- Cydia ומאפשרים ניהול פשוט, קל ונוח יותר מזה שאפל מציעים בצורה אינטגרלית וכמובן לאחר שהתנסיתי בהם והגעתי למיטוב אופטימלי בעבורי החלטתי לשתף גם אתכם על ידי יצירת המדריך הבא.
במדריך הבא אסביר כיצד לנצל מכשירים שעברו פריצת JailBreak למיטוב אופטימלי של המולטי טסקינג המובנה ב- iOS 4.X באמצעות התקנה של מספר תוספים מ- Cydia כך שבסיום התהליך נוכל להנות ממולטי טסקינג יעיל והרבה יותר נוח מזה שאפל מציעים בצורה אינטגרלית.
דרישות מקדימות
מכשיר שעבר JailBreak מסוג אייפון 3GS, אייפון 4 או אייפוד טאץ 4.
התקנת MultiCleaner מ- Cydia.
התקנת MultiFl0w מ- Cydia.
התקנת Activator מ- Cydia.
משחק קטן בהגדרות והסתגלות קטנה
הערה:
ארצה להוסיף ולציין שחלק מהתוספים עליהם אסביר כאן עולים כסף. אנא מכם לא לבקש פה, בפורום או בהודעות פרטיות בקשות למקורות או דרכים להתקנת התוספים האלו בצורה בלתי חוקית ובחינם. יש לכבד את חוקי האתר!
בנוסף ארצה לציין שאני החלטתי להגדיר את כל הפעולות בצורה הנוחה לי באופן אישי אך אין זה מחייב וכל אחד רשאי לבחור לעצמו את ההגדרות המתאימות והנוחות לו באופן אישי.
שלב 1
היכנסו ל- Cydia וחפשו את התוסף MultiCleaner, רכשו והתקינו אותו.
שלב 2
חפשו את התוסף MultiFl0w, רכשו והתקינו אותו.
שלב 3
בדקו האם מותקן במכשיר שלכם התוסף Activator, אם הוא לא מותקן התקינו גם אותו (הוא לא בתשלום).
הערה
מומלץ לבצע כיבוי והדלקה למכשיר לאחר סיום ההתקנות ולפני המעבר לשלב הבא.
שלב 4
לאחר שכל שלושת התוספים מותקנים היכנסו להגדרות, גללו כלפי מטה עד ל- Activator ולחצו עליו.
בחרו ב- In Application.
רדו ל- Home Button ובחרו ב- Short Hold.
בחרו ב- MultiCleaner Quit.
שלב 5
חזרו לדף הראשי של Activator ובחרו ב- At Home Screen.
רדו ל- Home Button ובחרו ב- Short Hold.
בחרו ב- MultiFl0w.
שלב 6
חזורו לדף הראשי של Activator ובחרו ב- Anywhere.
גללו עד ל- Status Bar ובחרו ב- Hold.
בחרו ב- MultiCleaner Quit All.
תוצאה
לאחר שביצעתם את כל השלבים שבמדריך, המכשיר שלכם אמור להיות מוגדר בצורה הבאה:
לחיצה רגילה (קצרה) על כפתור הבית כאשר אתם נמצאים בתוך אפליקציה גורמת למיזעור האפליקציה והכנסת האפליקציה למצב של עבודה ברקע באפליקציות שתומכות בכך, בדיוק כמו שאפל תכננו את זה במקור. שאר האפליקציות שלא תומכות בעבודה ברקע פשוט מתמזערות ונכנסות למצב השהייה -- Stand By.אפליקציה ממוזערת
לחיצה רצופה על כפתור הבית כאשר אתם נמצאים בתוך אפליקציה גורמת לסגירת האפליקציה בצורה סופית ומופיעה הודעה קצרה על המסך למשך כחצי שנייה המיידעת על כך.
לחיצה כפולה על כפתור הבית כאשר אתם נמצאים בתוך אפליקציה גורמת לפתיחה של ניהול המולטי טסקיג המובנה של אפל.
לחיצה כפולה על כפתור הבית כאשר אתם נמצאים במסך הבית מפעילה את תוכנת ניהול המולטי טסקינג המובנה של אפל.
לחיצה רצופה על כפתור הבית כאשר אתם נמצאים במסך הבית מפעילה את תוכנת ניהול המולטי טסקינג MultiFl0w.
לחיצה ארוכה על ה- Status Bar כאשר אתם נמצאים במסך הבית ו\או בתוך אפליקציה גורמת לסגירת כל היישומים שעובדים ברקע למעט האפליקציה הנוכחית בה אתה נמצא.
הערה
אם פעלתם על פי המדריך ועדיין אינכם מצליחים לבצע את הפעולות המוזכרות היכנסו שוב להגדרות, בחרו ב- Activator, בחרו ב- Anywhere, רדו ל- Home Button, בחרו ב- Short Hold ולחצו על X בדיוק כמו בתמונה שלפניכם:
לאחר מכן חזרו על שלבים 4 ו- 5 שמופיעים במדריך פעם נוספת. בסיום ביצוע הפעולות בפעם הנוספת הכל יעבוד כמו שצריך.
Kevin Purdy — Plug-ins can open vulnerabilities in even relatively secure browsers like Chrome. Even coders, like Jeff Atwood, can fall victim. Here's how to reign in plug-ins like Java, or disable them entirely, in Google Chrome.
At question-and-answer site Super User, Atwood explains how a Java plug-in left him vulnerable to fake antivirus software installing without permission—even after he tried to shut down an installation request. Users pointed out Chrome's ability to either set plug-ins as "click to play," or having certain plug-ins disabled entirely.
First off, enter about:flags into Chrome's address bar, then look for the option for "Click to play." Click the link below it to enable the feature. You'll need to click the "Restart now" button at the bottom of this page before moving forward. So, go ahead, and your tabs should come back, too.
Back? Hit the wrench button in your Chrome toolbar, click Options, then head to the Under the Hood section. Click the Content settings button, move over to Plug-ins, and set the "When I encounter plug-ins ..." option to "Click to play." Now you'll need to expressly click on a Java-powered section of a web site to allow Java to do anything on a page.
Super User has other sound suggestions on what one can do to minimize or eliminate plug-in vulnerabilities, like disabling Java entirely (done from the chrome://plugins page), or installing a 64-bit plug-in that your system doesn't actually know is available. What have you seen as a proper level of security when it comes to browser plug-ins?
From the files of "I can't believe I didn't think of this", Reddit user keydemographic discovers just how much space those iPhone, iPod, and iPad backups can take up on your computer. If you're running low on space and your favorite maintenance tool isn't helping, you may find that iTunes is hogging a few gigs of your system in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes (or ~/Library/iTunes on a Mac). Just head in there, delete the backup folders, and watch your hard drive free up tons of space. [via Reddit]
iOS: Sign-N-Send is a helpful app that lets you sign documents (whether a PDF or an image) directly on the screen of your iOS device, allowing you to send it off by email or print it when you're finished.
You open a file in Sign-N-Send primarily through other applications. Say you get a PDF file in Mail, you tap and hold down until you're given an option to open it in another application. Choose Sign-N-Send and you'll have the PDF open in a few seconds. From there, touching the document with a single finger will draw all over it. To zoom and pan, you need to use two fingers. This is a little finicky, but it works well enough once you get the hang of it. All you need to do is zoom in on the area you need to sign and then use a single finger (or a capacitive stylus, like the Pogo Sketch), to sign the document. When you're done, tap the green Send button up top and Sign-N-Send will generate a signed PDF for either emailing or printing. The only real downside I found with Sign-N-Send was that it wasn't optimized for the retina display. Not a problem for non-iPhone 4 users, but it seems like an app that would benefit from operating at a higher resolution.
Sign-N-Send is available now in the iTunes App Store for $2 or for free. Both versions have no restrictions, but the free version inserts an advertisement on the first page of every generated PDF. Both versions are hybrid apps and will work natively on your iPhone/iPod touch and iPad.
Whether you've just switched to Mac or you're secretly a little jealous of Windows 7 features, there are some things Mac OS X just doesn't do that Windows handles beautifully. Here's how to get Windows' best features on your Mac. 
One of Mac OS X's most annoying features is the lack of true window maximization. That is, when you click the maximization button—the little green one in the corner of your windows—only some applications actually maximize to fill up your monitor. Instead, many just stretch to fit the contents of the window. This can be nice, but if you want to focus on just one thing, or if you just need more space for whatever you're working on, you have to resize the window manually.
In Windows Explorer, you can cut and paste files all you want, but for some reason Mac OS X's Finder only lets you copy and paste files—no cutting allowed. There's a very easy way to get this functionality on OS X, though: 
Cmd Tab is a fine app switcher for something that's built-in, but if you're more used to how Windows does it, you'll probably get frustrated pretty quickly. It only switches between apps, not windows, and if you have any windows that are minimized or hidden, Cmd Tab won't open them up unless you learn some 
The Settings panel is a little intimidating. It's filled with buttons and switches all crammed onto your tiny little screen. Before you mess with any other settings, the first thing you're going to want to do is log in to your Dropbox account. Your second option in the Settings panel is called Primary Storage. Next to that you'll be able to choose between Addressbook and Dropbox. PKGBackup lets you choose between backing up your data to a file in your iDevice's address book, but we're not going to use that as it limits you to only backing up small bits of data. It also requires you to sync your iDevice to actually perform the backup. These reasons make Dropbox a much better option, so tap the Dropbox tab and you'll be presented with a screen that'll let you log in and link your Dropbox account.
Once you've linked your Dropbox account you technically do not need to do anything else. Once you press OK at the bottom of the screen, PKGBackup will scan your iDevice for what you can back up.
If you haven't already, press OK on the Settings panel to return to the main PKGBackup screen. Here you'll find a single rounded rectangle beneath a header of "Installed packages" and it'll list the number of packages you have installed. If you have, say, 15 package installed, it'll probably read "Selected 0 of 15" because you have yet to select any packages.
We're not quite done yet if you want to backup more than just your jailbreak packages. You'll also noticed a bunch of options under the Option header on the PKGBackup main screen. These are things like Apple Default Apps, user sources, preferences files, etc. If you want to back up any of these other items, just tap them and select what you want. They'll work pretty much the same way as backing up your packages with one exception: Apple Default Apps. Apple Default Apps just has a series of on and off toggles for your iDevice's built-in app data. Just switch these on or off to enable or disable them for backup and head back to the main screen when you're done.
Scheduling backups is very, very easy, but be sure to schedule a time when you won't be using your device so you're not interrupted. To set your schedule, tap the gear in the top left corner of the main PKGBackup screen to open the Settings panel. On the bottom half of the screen you'll find your backup options. Under repeat schedule you can tap 0 for just once, or choose to back up daily, weekly, or monthly. Below that, set the time of day (in 24 hour time) that you want to back up. If you select weekly or monthly backups, you'll also need to select a day in addition to entering a time. All you need to do is choose one of the day letter tabs at the bottom of the screen to choose your day. If you choose weekly, your back up will occur on that day every week. If you choose monthly, your backup will occur on the first chosen day of that month (e.g. if you chose Monday, backup will occur on the first Monday of every month).
Restoring a backup is very simple and about the same as the backup process. To perform a restore, tap the View Restore tab at the bottom of the screen. You'll then be able to select what you want to restore in the exact same way you were able to select what you wanted to back up. Make your selections, then tap the Restore button in the bottom right corner of the main PKGBackup screen. Restoration may take some time depending on what data you're restoring, so make sure you have enough time to wait as it's a process you definitely do not want to interrupt.
If you have two or more computers at one desk, you don't want two or more sets of keyboards and mice cluttering up your workspace, too. You can buy a hardware gadget that lets you share a single keyboard and mouse with several computers (which involves a mess of tangled wires), or you could use a free software solution called Synergy. The 
If you're Synergy client is going to be a Windows computer, download the same 
If the second computer is a Mac, download 
Plug-ins can open vulnerabilities in even relatively secure browsers like Chrome. Even coders, like Jeff Atwood, can 
First off, enter 
Back? Hit the wrench button in your Chrome toolbar, click Options, then head to the Under the Hood section. Click the Content settings button, move over to Plug-ins, and set the "When I encounter plug-ins ..." option to "Click to play." Now you'll need to expressly click on a Java-powered section of a web site to allow Java to do anything on a page.
iOS: Sign-N-Send is a helpful app that lets you sign documents (whether a PDF or an image) directly on the screen of your iOS device, allowing you to send it off by email or print it when you're finished.
