WozWas

I’m a bit of an iTunes junkie, I’ve got literally every form of media stored in there, especially movies and TV shows.  It’s just the best way to organize all my obscure BBC series and French action films, and stream them to my TV (via AppleTV).

However, the latest iteration, care of Lion, gave me some difficulty in terms of playback.  I prefer to watch videos in a separate window, so that I can have something playing while doing menial tasks.

Gone is the basic preference to have video playback appear in a separate window, the option for managing playback under the View menu is greyed out.  I searched and searched, through plist files, Resource folders, and couldn’t find anything.  A google search didn’t even turn up a single forum discussion on the features disappearing act.

Then, like a slap in the face, it hit me.  

You can adjust where the video is played, only during playback.  While playing a video is running, go to the top of the screen, and the menu bar will appear.  Then, you’ll notice that under the View menu, the Video Playback option is no longer greyed out!

You can also right click on the video during playback and switch the option.  Here’s to hidden default changes!

Just got ahold of a killer book (thanks to a fruit company employee friend of mine), with some amazing Lion tricks.  It’s amazing this stuff isn’t set by default, but thats what’s so fun about Apple cracking!

Pick up a copy of the book here.

1. Growl like iTunes notification above the Dock icon.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t been happy with Growl for years.  There always seems to be something on my system that interferes with it, or freaks it out and so it never works right.  The only thing I ever really used it for was email and iTunes notifications.  MailUnreadMenu has my email covered, and now the following Terminal command takes care of iTunes!

defaults write com.apple.dock itunes-notifications -bool yes; killall Dock

What’s interesting, is that it follows the Dock icon.  I’m a left side, hidden Docker, and it pops up just to the right of the icon, no matter what order it’s in.  Move it to the bottom, and same thing, pops up just above it, very cool.

Also, if your Dock is hidden, it shows the iTunes icon next to the song information, if it’s not, it just shows the song info (see pic above).  They think of everything.

2. Selectable Text in Quick Look preview.

This is, in my humble opinion, an absolutely essential feature. Quick Look is one of those OS features that really sets it apart from other systems, and the more functionality it can have the better.  Hats off Apple, well done on this one.

defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool true;killall Finder 

3. Create a list of files through Copy/Paste

I’m not sure exactly when I would use this one, but I love it.  Select any group of files in Finder, select Copy, then open any plain text editor (like TextEdit), click Paste, and voila!  You now have a file list of everything selected.

This is also fun to do as a drag and drop alternative.  Say you have a series of documents you need to email.  Just select them in Finder, select Copy, then paste them into a new email, and there they all are.  Sure you could have dragged them in, but that can be hazardous if you have a lot of other windows open.

4. Show the User Library folder

There a variety of ways to still reach the Library folder in Lion (via Terminal, the Finder Go menu while holding down option), but nothing beats it being where it always was.  To get it back, just type the following in terminal:

chflags nohidden ~/Library/    

That’s all for now, I’ll post any others I find particularly interesting.  Enjoy!

My wife’s 2009 Macbook Pro 17 stopped automatically reconnecting to to WiFi after waking from sleep. I did the basics, repaired Keychain, deleted and readded the network, etc. If you ran through Network Diagnostics, it would show up as connected, and then reconnect just fine.

Thanks to Apple forums, I found the following fix and it worked great:

1. Open System Preferences -> Network
1. Click the little gear drop down and choose “Set Service Order”
3. Make Wi-Fi be the top
4. Click Bluetooth PAN and then choose Make Service Inactive in the gear drop down button at the bottom of the column

The last step is what really worked for me. I already had WiFi at the top. Here’s the original link as well:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3190651?start=45&tstart=0

Okay, so my only real complaint at this point with Lion, is that I can’t adjust the order of the items in the Finder sidebar. I really just want my Devices up top like they used to be.

I’ve looked and looked to no avail. However, thanks to a tip from a friend (thanks +Tyler Krause ) I remembered that the less than visible Volumes folder shows me all my connected devices. So, by dragging this folder to my Sidebar, I at least have a quick workaround until something better comes along.

Don’t know how to bring up your Volumes folder in Finder to drag over? Just open Terminal from your Applications->Utilities folder, copy and paste the following to the prompt, and then hit Enter:

open /Volumes

After a long day of anticipation, I woke up this morning with Lion installed and up, waiting for me to login (which of course I did while giggling like a little girl).  What a glorious feeling a true OS upgrade is (no offense Snow Leopard).  New look, new feel, new apps, it’s all so magical!

I did encounter a few hiccups and a few surprises, nothing of huge significance, but I found them to be interesting:

1. You’re scrolling it wrong!

Turns our my Microsoft mouse (the Arc2, which I absolutely love), and built-in trackpad now scroll the opposite direction!  I kept looking for a “Switch Axis” setting, but found none, :).  However, if I disable the “Scroll Direction: natural” under System Preferences->Trackpad, everything works fine!  Suppose I can just pretend I’m flying a flight simulator…

UPDATE: This is a feature!

2. TextEdit updated!

Sure it’s a simple thing, but it’s  been so long since the ol’ girl has seen any revamping.  Way to go Apple, glad you didn’t forget about the little guys.

3. Visor no worky!

The only software I’ve come across that doesn’t work and doesn’t have an update is Visor, the little menu bar app that creates a drop down terminal window with the click of a hot key.  I use it constantly, but it’s a no go at this point.  However, taking Terminal full screen, and being able to swipe to the side to access is a little cooler, and almost as functional.

4. Devices come in last on the Finder sidebar

Not loving the fact that Devices is now the last section on the left sidebar.  I love the Finder look, but wish I could move that back to the top.