This is a basic tip but a feature many of you may not know about.

Inside System Preferences -> Desktop & Screensaver you can set your desktop background to automatically change at a set interval.

This interval can be as short as 5 seconds or as long as 24 hours. It can even be set for when your computer wakes up or at login.

Check “Change picture” and select the interval you’d like:

Personally I’ve come to love my “Grass Blades” background, but this is a great feature for rotating through photos of family, friends or landscapes.

This tip was submitted by Landon Johnson. Submit a tip and get some traffic to your Web site!

MacTips reader Bret wrote in and asked how to modify the folder icons in OS X. The default icons look great, but change is always nice.

There are two basic ways to modify your icons, the long hard manual way and the super easy way.

Hard Way: Manually Changing Your Icons

Manually changing your icons is as simple as copying and pasting icons from one Get Info window to another.

1. Press Command+I while selecting an application/folder you’d like to duplicate an icon for
2. In the top left corner, click the icon so the edges become blue
3. Press Command+C to copy the icon
4. Now press Command+I while selecting an application/folder you’d like to change
5. Press Command+V to paste the new icon
6. You should see the icon appear quickly in both the icon and preview spots

This method has a couple problems. First I found issues copying a plain icon file, so using a new icon can be tricky.

If you want to customize a single folder or application, this is a great method.

However, if you wanted to modify all of your icons system-wide, this would be extremely slow.

Thankfully, there is a better way.

Easy Icon Replacement with LiteIcon

LiteIcon is from the creator of AppCleaner, an application for cleaning up abandoned application files.

LiteIcon has two methods of changing icons–manually with drag-and-drop and automatically with iContainers.

Drag-and-drop makes it possible to replace individual icons as you see fit. This method is much easier than the method listed above and works nearly every time.

Simply drag an icon onto the icon you wish to replace. That’s it!

The other method is using iContainers. These are icon sets that can be applied to all system icons. This makes updating all system icons much easier.

iContainers are a little more difficult to find than straight icons. There are however, a couple of sites that offer these: IconFactory, DeviantART, Pixelgirl or Google.

To make your icons live click Apply changes and enter your password when prompted.

The last step is clicking Relaunch Finder. You may have to log-out and back in to see the effects.

A side note is by Control+Clicking an icon or using File -> Restore all icons you can restore your icons back to default–so don’t be afraid of messing anything up.

Modifying my icons wasn’t high on my list of things to-do, but it’s extremely refreshing having a new set of icons. Especially a gorgeous set like Float by Corey Marion (a few shown below).

The best part is LiteIcon is free. There is both a Tiger and Leopard version available–enjoy!

On my never ending quest to discover cool OS X applications I ran across Hear which claims to greatly improve your audio from any application.

It does this with various tools and effects that are easy enough to get the hang of for a beginner.

The interface was very intriguing, so I decided to give it a try.

I’m no audiophile, so many of Hears advanced features were over my head–but some things are easy enough for anyone to use.

For example, the pre-defined list of effects is great for experimenting with different sounds.

Instantly I noticed an increase in the quality of audio coming from my computer. Playing around with different genres of music I was able to select something that dramatically increased the audio quality playing through iTunes.

The only downside to this was I listen to a lot of different genres. Some genres sound terrible with certain presets–they almost sound “tinny.” This made setting 1 preset impractical.

I found a better solution by selecting a general “In the Room” preset.

Hear has a full equalizer which you can customize to your liking.

One of the coolest features I found was a per-application setting. Basically you can turn Hear off for certain applications if you don’t want any effects, like voice chat in iChat or Skype.

If you’re serious about audio and how it sounds, Hear is a must download.

Unfortunately it requires a restart to use–so keep that in mind while testing.

Hear is $49.99 but has a demo version available for 30 days.

If you’ve never even messed with your iTunes equilizer, you can safely pass on Hear.

In celebration of reaching 10,000 subscribers–we’re giving away 2 iTunes gift certificates, $50 and $100. To win a certificate enter a suggestion for MacTips in the comments. Any suggestion at all. The two best suggestions win.

Today MacTips reached 10,000 subscribers for the first time, and it’s such an important milestone I wanted to take a moment and thank you–the readers.

But before I do that, I’d like to thank the writers here at MacTips. They’re the heart and soul behind the website and without them the site would not be where it is today.

So, in no particular order thanks to Omer Zach, Michael Zhao, Travis Jeffery and most recently Brandon Hopkins.

The past couple of months we’ve seen some spectacular growth here at MacTips. Below is a graph of subscribers to MacTips for all time:

As you can see things were steady for a long time. As we updated more frequently with unique content–more of you subscribed.

Another reason for this is the success of the MacTips Widget which has been hovering in Apple’s Top 50 Widgets since its release:

So from me, to you–thank you. Thanks if you’ve ever read a story. Thanks if you’ve ever linked back. Thanks if you’ve ever submitted a tip. Thanks if you’ve ever commented on a tip. Thanks if you’re reading this now.

Thank You!

I think I speak for all the writers when I say we love writing Mac tips–but it’s much more enjoyable to have an audience you can engage in conversations.

As my way of saying thank you, I’m giving away 2 iTunes gift cards, $50 and $100. I realize this isn’t a ton of money, but it’s the best I can do on a student’s salary.

To win the gift card you have to make a suggestion in the comments and leave your e-mail in the e-mail field.

The suggestion can be anything you want–anything at all.

Here are some examples (and feel free to use and expand upon these):

• I want to see more Mac tips, 1 or 2 per day is not enough!
• I want less Mac tips, a couple long tips are better than a lot of short tips
• Write less about OS X applications and more about tweaks, hacks
• The Mac Switchers page sucks, redo it.
• The forum is dead, you should find a way to make it more active
• Write more tips on X
• More advanced or beginner tips

By anything I mean anything. I really want to hear what you guys (and gals) have to say.

Anything from topics to write about to changes with the widget to a re-design of the website.

The two best suggestions win the $100 and $50 certificates.

Here’s a tip, the more constructive your suggestion the better your chance of winning.

So if you say “x sucks” I will definitely accept your criticism. But if you say “x sucks because a, b, c” you have a much better chance of winning.

Contest ends Saturday April 26th at 12PM CST. Winners are chosen by me.

And once again, thank you. We’re at the stage where things start getting really exciting. You’ve noticed we’ve started doing giveaways recently. This isn’t possible without an audience.

We’ll have many more giveaways and things like it in the future, stay tuned!

Update: Thanks everyone for the awesome suggestions. We had dozens of great ideas–many of which I’m already trying to incorporate into MacTips. I changed the rules of the contest half way through, and without telling anyone.

Because there were so many great entries, I decided to give away 5 $30 gift certificates instead of 2 larger ones. I think this is a little more fair to everyone who made suggestions.

The winners of the contest are Concetta, Daniel, PleanBean, Hayley and Carl. Everyone should have received their certificate with the exception of Carl. Unfortunately iTunes only lets you purchase 4 certificates per day–so I’ll send Carl’s out tomorrow.

Again, thanks to everyone who made suggestions–I’m very happy with the turnout.

Here’s to 20,000!

Let’s face it, sometimes we all need a little help focusing. Surfing the Internet is too tempting and we just can’t seem to get something done.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve focused on something only to be distracted by a link, IM, Tweet, e-mail etc…

Once I’m off my train of thought it’s hard to jump back on. Freedom is your solution to this problem:

Freedom is an application that disables wireless and ethernet networking on an Apple computer for up to three hours at a time. Freedom will free you from the distractions of the internet, allowing you time to code, write, or create. At the end of your selected offline period, Freedom re-enables your network, restoring everything as normal.

I tried this out recently and it’s surprising how focused I remain with no option of Internet at all. Freedom is extremely simple, there are only two dialogs.

A place to enter your password:

And a place to enter the amount of time to disable your Internet:

While Freedom is enabled, you have zero Internet connectivity. Killing the application doesn’t enable your connection, though interestingly your connection still unfreezes after your time allotment–even if Freedom is closed.

While some Terminal hacks could re-enable your network, the only way for most users to circumvent Freedom is a restart. The hope is restarting is annoying enough to keep you focused on your task.

If you chronically get side tracked, Freedom may be the solution for you.

On the other hand, a little self discipline never hurt anyone. Remove the temptation by just closing unneeded programs.

Except for MacTips–always leave MacTips up.

Freedom is donation-ware. It’s free to use–but if you find it useful a donation of $10 helps the coder.

Jaxtr is a website that allows you to send free SMS texts to any number in the US as well as a handful of other countries, such as Sweden, and the UK.

While you may be thinking “ho hum, it’s been done” keep in mind that iPhone data plans are limited to 200 texts per month. Furthermore, you can add your phone number to your account. This means that all replies to your texts will be sent directly to your phone.

Jaxtr can also receive voice mails from anywhere in the world. You just need to find the user you wish to contact, and click “Call Me”. You then enter your phone number; and Jaxtr will then spawn a phone number in your local area code for you to dial. My page is AqueousBeef. Feel free to contact me, I probably won’t respond though.

I believe there is a way to turn these voice mails into real phone calls by confirming your telephone number and adjusting some settings, but so far, I haven’t gotten it to work. I do know that if you do get this function working, it costs 1 “Jax” per minute of talk time. I started with 100 Jax. I have no clue how often this resource replenishes.

If you’re a person who likes texting, and/or have relatives or acquaintances in one of the supported countries, this should be worth a try.

[Jaxtr via Gizmodo via Gear Diary via JkOnTheRun via Into Mobile]

What Is Fluid?

Fluid is an awesome relatively new app that is leading the way for SSBs (Site Specific Browsers.) Site Specific Browsers are (name makes it obvious) web browsers that are designed to interact exclusively with a single web site. When you do this you can also build in more functionality for that site than a general browser can.

Who/When Is Fluid Useful For?

Fluid (and other SSBs) is absolutely wonderful for the ever increasing number of web apps, sites like Digg, Base Camp, Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader, GMail and so forth. That does leave a big chunk out of our typical web browsing sessions (after all it is called web browsing/surfing), however when you click onto a link that leaves that specific site (whatever it may be) Fluid knows to leave it to your default web browser. For example if you had a specific Fluid browser for Digg and while in it you clicked a link to a YouTube video, Safari (or whatever default browser you have) would open to that site. One example of what a SSBs like Fluid can provide that a typical browser can’t is when used with Google Reader it shows how many unread articles you have (similar to what NetNewsWire does), or when used with Facebook it will show you how many unread messages you have.

Plug-ins

Through Plug-ins Fluid can utilize the tools OS X provides, there are two Plug-ins installed by default; the Thumbnail and Clipboard. To use them either click on the top right button to open up the menu bar and click on which one you’d like to use or press Command-Option-Command-C for the Clipboard, and Command-Option-Command-T for the Thumbnail Plug-in. The Thumbnail Plug-in is without a doubt one of the coolest and most functional implementations of Coverflow. Let’s say I have an app for Digg and I open the Thumbnail Plug-in up, it goes through each link and image and lines them up for me to view and navigate through. Or if Coverflow isn’t your cup of tea you can use the included grid format. The Clipboard Plug-in does exactly what you’d think it would do, open it up and then you simply drag links, text, or video and so forth onto it for future use.

This is what I’m talking about (click for bigger version.)

How Do I Use Fluid?

Here’s a screencast on how Fluid works. Basically you use the actual Fluid.app as a hub/generator for all your other SSBs. So fire up Fluid.app and input the URL of the site you want the app to be for, the name of it, the location and whether you want the icon to be the Website’s Favicon or your own. And that’s it! Now you have made your own Browser for that Specific Site.

I recommend using your own picture for the icon as the Favicon tends to be a small image and gets pixalated when it tries to get to the regular application icon size. Thankfully, there is a Flickr group dedicated to Fluid icons that look great.

Developers, Developers, Developers!

Fluid is also very developer friendly, it features a Cocoa Plug-in API, Bookmarklet support, GreaseKit scripting built-in, JavaScript Drag and Drop API like all WebKit browsers, and also Fluid’s own JavaScript API with some additional functionality.

Where Can I Get It?

Todd Ditchendorf is working on Fluid like crazy and it is updated very frequently, check it out at it’s own site, here.

Other Resources and Articles on Fluid

• TechCrunch in December, March, and April.
• Lifehacker
• 37Signals
• 43 Folders
• Daring Fireball
• Wired
• The Unofficial Apple Weblog
• ReadWriteWeb
• Lifestreaming webapp Socialthing!
• Community Q&A site Fluther

Note: 1Password also has Fluid support. To use it you need to be running at least 1Password version 2.6.BETA-2 and then run this command: sudo rm -R /Library/InputManagers/1PasswdIM and then restart 1Password.

I have 10 free invites for Evernote. If you’re interested please leave your e-mail address in the comments.

Evernote is a cool new service that allows you to clip information and save it for a later date. This is a simple concept, but it’s executed beautifully.

With Evernote you can keep track of little bits of information from anywhere in the world (including Mobile).

Evernote acts as your second brain.

How’s Evernote Work?

For starters, Evernote has many different ways to “clip” information. They have a beautiful OS X application, but they also support the iPhone and other Java enabled mobile devices. This makes keeping clips in one place extremely simple.

To get started you download the Mac version of Evernote and you’ll see the following interface:

These different images are different clips. They scale much like pictures in iPhoto and it’s fairly fast.

The coolest feature I found in Evernote is its text recognition. When you perform a search, not only does it search your text clips, keywords and tags–but it searches your image for words contained in the image.

At first I wasn’t convinced this would actually work well. I was wrong, so so wrong. Evernote performs this beautifully. The only issue is you need to sync to the server before the recognition works.

Below you can see it highlighting the words “think grow rich” which I was searching for in the toolbar:

Even cooler Evernote can recognize handwriting. I had to put this to the test. I have notoriously bad handwriting and if Evernote could read mine I was sold on the product.

As you can see above Evernote correctly recognized the words Ever and note. Unfortunately it didn’t realize it was one word, but this is still good enough for me.

Clipping Information

There are two ways to clip information, pasting and screenshots.

By pasting information into Evernote, you send whatever information is currently in your clipboard as a clip. This is a nice feature, but it seems redundant in many cases.

My workflow for adding clips is to select the text, copy it, then paste it into Evernote. It would remove an entire keystroke if I could paste selected text directly into Evernote.

This was a small annoyance, however, and not big enough to keep me from using the application.

The other method is via screenshots. This it an easy way to clip any image+text into Evernote. Also remember Evernote recognizes text in images (amazingly well) so you don’t have to tag any of this–just clip and go.

Below is a quick video introduction to Evernote from their website:

(Note: E-mail and some RSS subscribers will have to click through to see the video)

There are some other interesting features like new clips directly from iSight and different notebooks for organizing clips.

Real World Experiment

You may have noticed a lack of updates here at MacTips the past couple of days. For me and a couple other writers, it’s nearing the end of the semester–so finals and papers are all due at the same time.

I was slightly behind on the research part of my paper, and thought Evernote would be a great way to make up some time while storing the information I was researching.

It turns out Evernote is great for this task, but I ran into some problems I think need to be addressed:

Organizing information is nearly impossible

I really wanted to organize the information I had clipped in a way that made sense to me. The best way I could find to do this was with tags, and even that was limiting.

I could only sort by Title/Creation Data/Updated Date so sub-grouping ideas was extremely painful using only tags.

It seems to me with all this information being processed there should be better ways to categorize and organize it.

Tags is a start, but there needs to be more control.

Can’t print multiple notes on one page

Often the notes I clipped were only a few hundred characters. This meant I could easily fit 5 or 6 clips on one page. Unfortunately there’s no way to do this.

Clips are printed on separate pages, which wastes a lot of paper.

Can’t export clips

I was sure I was missing this feature somewhere. Surely with all this information being stored in Evernote there was a way to export it.

CSV, Txt, Doc–I didn’t care. Any way!

I couldn’t find any good way to export information short of manually copying/pasting it which was a little frustrating.

Conclusion

If you want a great way to store and reference information, Evernote is your tool. It’s extremely simple to use and stays out of your way. For the most part it’s pretty quick and the text recognition features are amazing.

Currently Evernote is free but still in beta testing. I’m giving away 10 free invitations to the first 10 MacTips users that add their e-mail address in the comments.

Please note you don’t have to enter your e-mail as the comment, but enter it into the e-mail field. This way it’s not publicly visible but I still have a method of reaching you.

Also note if you’re viewing this from an E-mail, RSS Reader or the Widget, you’ll need to click through to the post to add your e-mail.

Update: All invites given away. If I receive more I’ll send more out. You can apply for an invite here.

The iPhone’s video sub-application (it is technically part of the iPod application) contains everything you’d expect from a solid video player. By tapping on the screen, you get a pop-up on the bottom and top of the screen that allows you to pause, play, fast-forward, or rewind the video, to adjust the volume, to change how far into the video you are, to adjust the aspect ratio, and to close the video. These are really the standard features that just about every video player has (except maybe the the aspect ratio), but there are some more lesser known tricks hidden within the video player.

One of these features is the ability to play a video forward in slow motion. To do this, pause the video and then press down on and hold onto the fast-forward button. This will play the video in slow motion, and even includes the slowed down sound. Oddly, I could not find any way to play a video in slow motion in reverse.

Like most non-phone-related iPhone features, I assume this works on the iPod Touch, but if anyone could confirm that, it would be great.

This is just awesome. I was stumbling around Google Code looking for something interesting to write about when I came across blacktree-visor–innocently tagged as a Quake-style terminal.

That line grabbed my intention and I decided to see what Visor was all about.

Visor is an application that attaches the Terminal to the top of your screen for easy access. If you’ve ever played a game with a console (Like Quake) this should be very familiar to you. You can perform any command as usual. The only difference is the way the terminal is presented.

This project is from blacktree, the same person who developed other amazing applications such as Quicksilver, Telekinesis and Secrets.

Installing Visor

To install Visor you must have SIMBL installed.

Once you’ve done this copy Visor.bundle into /Users/<username>/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/

Be sure to replace <username> with your username.

Start Terminal.app (Applications -> Terminal.app) or re-start if it’s already open.

In your menu, click Terminal -> Visor Preferences…

This brings up a simple configuration window for Visor.

Configuring Visor

First set the HotKey. Press Edit and enter the key combination you’d like to use. I’m using Control+` (Control+Tilde).

You can also adjust the Slide/Fade Window settings to change the transition effects.

That’s all you need to get started. Close the window and press your HotKey.

You should get a nice Quake-like Terminal window at the top of your screen.

I’ve edited my Terminal settings to be skinnier so it doesn’t take up as much room.

(Note: If you’re having problems making your changes stick, click Shell -> Use Settings as Default.)

If you use your terminal at all this is extremely handy as a quick way to access it from any application.

I’ve already used this a couple times while writing this tip!

What I found even cooler was that you could add Quartz Animations to your background.

Re-open the Visor Preferences–you’ll notice a Use Quartz Animation setting.

Head over to QuartzCompositions and download any of the listed animations (I like this one). Load this file as your background in Visor and you’ve got a cool animation running while you work in Terminal.app.

I found this a little distracting while using a transparent background. However, if you enable the “Fade Window” setting–the animation only shows up while showing/hiding the terminal window.

This adds an extremely cool effect that looks great during the transition of your console. Make sure your window is opaque (Terminal -> Preferences -> Settings -> Background).

Here is a quick video demonstrating Visor and the Quartz Animation transition.

(Note: E-mail subscribers will have to click through to see this video)

Visor is Awesome

I’m already in love with Visor. I don’t use my terminal a ton but I use it enough for this to increase my productivity.

Not only does it work well, but it looks amazing.

I’ve noticed we’ve used the word awesome quite a bit when describing blacktree software. This is because the ideas are somewhat simple, but executed beautifully.

If you use your terminal at least once a day, I highly recommend Visor.

There is a version for Tiger, however I haven’t tested it.