This is the section dedicated to using the great little apps included with OS X. Maybe you know about them, maybe you don't, but this is where I show you how easy they are to use, and how convenient they are to access.
Take a look and enjoy.
OS X Apps - How to
Using iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD to make a Slideshow
This primarily focuses on the use of iPhoto to make the slideshow and customize your Ken Burn's Effects. I then show how to export it, and then import it to iMovie 06 to put music with it. Now, you can do this in iPhoto alone, but in iMovie I can add titles, split the iPhoto slideshow and insert video clips, and duck the music track when people are talking on the video.
If you want more on how to do all of this, just drop me a line, and I'll post a more specific video.
Best,
Brian
Get TV Shows to show up in Front Row TV Shows
Learn how to make your own TV Shows, whether recorded or downloaded, show up under the TV Shows main menu in Front Row. Take a look, and let me know what you think by using the 'Contact Me' form on the Home page.
Best,
Brian
Buying your First Mac?
I'm dedicating this article to buying a mac for the first time.
I do this because I was right where you are a couple of years ago when the first intel macs were getting ready to be released. I had never owned a Mac, I had barely used a mac, and I certainly didn't know how amazingly worth the money they were at that time.
Taking all of that into consideration I have a very strong suggestion for you when it comes to buying your first Mac.
1. Figure out what you want. There are a ton of models out now, and they are all amazing! If you are wanting to do Photo and Video editing, you may want something that has a large monitor. If you are a professional video editor or photographer, then the Mac Pro (pricey) and a 30" Monitor may be exactly what you need.
If you are just doing it part time as a hobby, then an iMac with a couple of gigs of RAM may be just right.
If you are more into the mobility side, and need to write a journal, article, or surg the web, or show detailed keynote or power point shos, then the Macbook or Macbook Pro is probably the way to go.
If you are looking for a home media server solution then I would definitely suggest a Mac Mini and a flat panel TV.
2. Find your item on the apple website, or at an Apple store, and price it.
3. Now goto the apple Refurbished site and see if they have something close or the same as what you want there, and price it there.
This is the Current Link to the Refurb Mac Store
So...don't freak out. Refurbished and Used are NOT the same.
Refurbished means that someone ordered a product, received it, opened it, hooked it up, and something major didn't work right. Maybe the screen wouldn't come on. They called apple, apple sent them a new product, and they sent the broken one back. Apple determines the screen is shot, so they replace it, and put it on the Refurbished site at a greatly discounted price.
This is where you can save a good chunk of money.
I have an iMac 24" Core 2 Duo with a 250 Gigabyte HDD and 1 Gig Ram (I upgraded the ram myself much cheaper), and I got it for $700 less than the new price for the same thing. You couldn't tell if it was refurbished if I hadn't told you...believe me it is magnificent.
I hope this helps you out, and I look forward to any questions or comments about buying your first Mac.
Enjoy,
Brian
How to Put iTunes Music on External Drive
ItunesonExternal
itunesonExternal2
So, i see this one a lot on the forums, and I figured, why not cover it here.
There are a couple of ways that this could happen.
1. You have music on an external drive already, that you want to use iTunes with, but don't want that huge amount of hard drive space to get taken up.
2. You have a huge iTunes collection already on your hard drive, but want to move it off the hard drive, and need to know how to get iTunes to point to it in it's new location.
Let's cover number 1 first. So the little video at the right, shows how to do it...it's not hard.
1. Open iTunes
2. Go to Preferences
3. Go to the Advanced Tab
4. Under 'General' on the sub-tabs, uncheck "Copy Files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to Library"
5. Done
Now you can add all that music from your other drives, without filling up your internal drive.
Addressing number 2...may take a little more doing. I don't really have that much music, but the idea is the same.
In this case the assumption is that you have a ton of music already on the internal drive, and you want to move it to an external, without iTunes getting all freaked out about where it went, and losing your tags, cover art, etc.
So, here's how it goes.
You want to go to /Users/<YourHomeFolder>/Music/iTunes folder.
Drag the 'iTunes Music' folder from there to the new drive that you want to store your music on.
I'm dragging mine to a drive I've called 'Podcast Drive Backup'.
Once there, right click (ctrl+click) the folder in it's new place on the external drive, and then left click the 'Make Alias' option in the pop-up menu.
I am attaching a video now of the steps to follow after copying the 'iTunes Music' folder to the external drive. See video 2 above.
The steps to follow now are:
NOTE: Make sure that iTunes is completely quit during these steps. If it is active, it will create issues in your 'Music Library.xml' file. Easy to change back, but not something most people want to deal with.
Drag the 'iTunes Music Alias' from the external drive to the Music folder of the internal hard drive.
WARNING: Make sure that the entire 'iTunes Music' folder has copied over from the internal drive to your external drive before continuing!
Delete the 'iTunes Music' folder from the 'Music' folder on your main drive.
Copy the 'iTunes Music Alias' file into the /Users/<YourHomeDirectory>/Music/iTunes folder.
Highlight the newly placed 'iTunes Music Alias' folder and hit enter, this will make the name editable. Delete the 'Alias' part of the filename, so that now you only have 'iTunes Music' as the filename in the /Users/<YourHomeDirectory>/Music/iTunes folder.
Start iTunes, and check that it can play your music.
If it can't drop me a line through the contact me link on the right. I'll see what we can figure out.
Enjoy,
Brian
How to Screen Capture in OS X with Grab
This short little video shows you how to use the built in, free, utility called Grab in OS X to do a static screen capture of either a segment that you select, or of the entire screen. You can then save it as a picture file, or copy and paste the image directly.
There's no audio on this one so don't freak out.
Hope it's helpful,
Brian