Month: January 2006

OS X Reinstalled… a followup

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As a followup to my last post, I wanted to mention that the new versions of Apple’s Mail (2.0.5). iTunes (6.0.2), and iPhoto (6.0) seem to be much more portable than previous versions. After reinstalling my OS, and updating the three apps to the latest versions, I was able to grab my mailboxes, libraries, preferences, and other associated files from my previous system (because I had a backup), and drag them to the corresponding locations in my new system. My mail, music, and photos were all restored to the exact state they were in on my old system.

This procedure works with a lot of applications, and can be a big time saver when you are forced to reinstall your OS.

OS X… Reinstalled

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OS X Welcome

I’ve been absent the last couple of days because I was busy reinstalling OS X, and all my apps… oh joy of joys!

My system has been a bit flakey for a while now, and I knew this was coming, but I just didn’t want to do it. The other day it became painfully clear it was time, when my system became very unstable… apps continuously crashing, etc…

I started with an “Archive and Install”. The procedure actually worked exactly as advertised. The system was reinstalled, my previous system was backed up, and my files and settings from my Home folder were imported in to the new system. Unfortunately, this meant the corrupted files were brought over too. After the reinstall, I still had many of the same problems. I came to the conclusion that the Archive and Install feature is really only useful if you are updating a system that is in good shape. It may not be the best option when trying to correct system problems. I ended up starting over with a complete erase and clean install.

If you are planning on reinstalling any time soon, I highly recommend making a bootable clone of your system on an external Firewire drive first, using an app like SuperDuper!. It will allow you to roll back to point just prior to reinstalling, if necessary. It has also saved me a huge amount of time in reconstructing my system, by having a point of reference.

On a side note, if you want to watch that nifty movie that gets played after a fresh install of Tiger, without actually reinstalling… MacTV has a copy.

Apple Pro apps sold as bundle only

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Apple Final Cut Studio

If you haven’t heard, Apple’s Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Soundtrack, and Motion will no longer be sold as individual products. If you want one, you’ll need to shell out $1299 for the entire Final Cut Studio Suite.

In all fairness to Apple, the $1299 price tag is significantly less then buying all the apps individually. But it still sucks if you only wanted Motion (formerly $299).

This article over at AppleInsider says Apple will be offering owners of current copies of Final Cut Pro or DVD Studio Pro an upgrade price of $199, for the entire $1299 suite. That’s a great deal… if you own current versions of the software.

I bought DVD Studio Pro 3 about a year and a half ago directly from Apple. If the AppleInsider article is correct, then I don’t qualify for the upgrade price. If the only way I can upgrade my DVD Studio Pro is to drop $1299 on the full suite, I am going to be very pissed off! Are you listening Apple? Please don’t leaving me hanging with no way to upgrade after only a year and a half!

OSX zip files have extra junk

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OSX Zip files on a PC

I’m thrilled that OSX has the built in ability to create .zip archives. But, have you ever opened an OSX archive on a PC? It has extra junk in it. The extra files are invisible on OSX, but if you are sending the archive to a not-so-computer-literate friend (or client) using a PC, the extra junk will only confuse them. You’ll have to say something like… oh, that’s just something my operating system does, you can ignore those files. It’s a little embarrassing.

If you use Stuffit Deluxe to create your archive, you don’t get the added junk. But Stuffit costs $80, and in my opinion, has become a bit of a tired old, buggy, dog of a program.

Luckily, there is a freeware alternative out there. It’s called CleanArchiver. The name pretty much says it all… it creates clean archives. I’ve used it for a while now and think it’s great!

DropSend: Send large files over the internet

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DropSend

I’ve seen several online file transfer services out there over the years. Some good, some not so good. I recently came across DropSend, and it appears to be one of the good ones.

I gave it a quick test and it seemed to work pretty well. You have your choice of using their desktop client or their web interface for sending files. They also offer online storage for files you want to access or send to others from anywhere.

They have several plans available, ranging from free to $19/mo. They’re worth a look if you have a need to send large files to clients and such.

Found via colly logic

After Effects 7.0!!!

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Adobe After Effects 7

Wahooooo!!! Adobe just announced After Effects 7.0, something I have been waiting for, for quite a while now. After Effects is one of my favorite apps.

Just last week I was hassling the guys in the Adobe booth at Macworld about when they would be releasing an update to After Effects (It’s overdue). I’m actually surprised they didn’t use Macworld to make the announcement. A lot of people there would have been very excited.

Adobe has published a Flash movie that highlights the changes in 7.0.

After Effects 7.0 requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher. It’s available today! The full version costs $699 for standard and $999 for Pro. Upgrade pricing is $199, and standard users can pay $499 to upgrade to the Pro edition.

Found via Macworld

QuickImage Contextual Menu Plugin

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QuickImage

I’m a big fan of using contextual menus. One of my favorite tools is FruitMenu, the mother of all contextual menu editors. It allows you to totally customize contextual menus and the apple menu in OSX.

There are a few specialized menu plugins that I really like too. QuickImage is one of those…

“Contextual menu plugin that makes it possible to view/edit/print image files without launching any applications. Also it has various other functions like add/remove thumbnail icons, batch rename image files, convert images files to a different format, etc.”

The site says it’s compatible with Jaguar and Panther, but I haven’t had any problem with it under Tiger either. The maker of QuickImage also offers several other useful plugins.