Apparently there have been some people who aren’t getting the toggle to have have the translucent menu bar or not when they update to 10.5.2. For those people all you need to do is run this command:


sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer 'EnvironmentVariables' -dict 'CI_NO_BACKGROUND_IMAGE' 0


then restart and the option should appear.

[Via: macosxhints.com]

If you’re a Firefox user you’re probably always on the lookout for great extensions. ExtremeTech has came up with probably the most useful and genuine list I’ve ever seen. Here’s the link, it is comprised up of four different lists:

1. 10 Best Firefox Web Developer Extensions (listed below)
2. 10 Ways for Better Surfing
3. 10 Useful Information and Reference Extensions
4. 10 Best Media Extensions

I just want to add three that I use constantly; those are the Del.icio.us and the TinyURL extensions, and for frequent forum posters or users of Wordpress and other Internet WYSIWYG editors then I really recommend It’s All Text!. Basically it opens up the current forum in your favorite text editor and then when you save the document it automatically refreshes the form and you’re good to go.

Just in case you can’t find where the new setting is to change the translucent setting in 10.5.2, it’s in System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver and uncheck “Translucent Menu Bar”.

This allows you to go from this:

to this:

“iusethis.com is a new way for you to organize your applications as well as discover new ones. You can also use it to check if your apps are up-to-date.” [Source: http://osx.iusethis.com/about]

i use this also uses a Digg-like voting system to add up the amount of people using an application. So you can go on and look at the most popular applications, you can be looking at an app and it will tell you of similar apps like it (for example: Safari and Firefox). It does this through tagging, so you look for some app that you need that fits in a certain context. Here are some popular tags on iusethis.com.

And again the social and storing aspect of putting all, or your favorite apps that you use. Here’s my list of my favorite apps that I either use or support.

Check out the site here.

Mac Tricks and Tips has posted a pretty thorough list of useful applications. Although some are definitely not essential (it has Photoshop and some other apps that you probably don’t need) but none the less it is a great list. This list is useful for both beginning and veteran Mac users to just to see a big variety of apps.

Here’s the full list. Also make sure to read the comments as some of the readers have posted some good suggestions.

Some that I can really say are essential are:

• Quicksilver (app launcher and more)
• AppZapper (or some other app remover)
• Adium (IM)
• Colloquy (IRC)
• Transmission (Torrent Client)
• NetNewsWire (RSS/Atom Reader)
• Transmit/Cyberduck (FTP)
• VLC and Flip4Mac (Video)
• Growl (Notifier)
• MacVim/TextMate (Text Editor, anything with more power than TextEdit)

This is the same computer I have and I must say, it is a phenomenal machine. At this price (exactly the same as the Stanford employee discount) I can safely say that you will not be dissatisfied. Keep in mind though, this is probably an indicator that Apple is about to come out with a new model. But for the people who don’t HAVE to have that multitouch trackpad, this is a killer deal. I recommend you jump on it ASAP.

Note: This site has mixed reviews on reseller’s ratings so proceed with caution

Product Page [Onsale.com ] [image via Apple.com]

Agile Web Solutions released an update to their great 1Password application (see here), the update does a few things but the coolest feature is adding support for easy autofilling of passwords on iPhones and iTouches.

1. Get 1Password here.
2. Go to the Preferences –> Updates
3. Check “Automatically check for updates” and “Include BETA versions when looking for updates”
4. Click on “Check Now”
5. Exit the Preferences and click on Sync to iPhone
6. Go to a site that you have a saved password with on your iPhone
7. Go to your Bookmarks and click on the “1Password Logins” bookmark

And it will automatically fill in your password. How awesome is that?

All Growl and/or iPhone users will like this new Growl style named iPhonesque. Obviously by the name you can tell that it tries to emulate some of the looks of the iPhone. Here’s a screenshot (it also comes in Black, and lighter colors as well):

[Source:http://macthemes2.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=16783761]

For people who haven’t heard of Growl (how it been under that rock?) then you should go download it here, it’s a great notifier application that simply has a little bubble pop up to notify you of things from new IM messages, song transitions, to-dos from Things and much, much more. It’s one of those apps that is really great and you won’t find something like it on another platform. You can download it here, and iPhonesque here (more photos as well).

Special characters, symbols or glyphs are especially good to save typing, and they look a lot nicer than plain text.

To use them, simply go to Edit –> Special Characters. Another way is to go to your System Preferences, then International –> Input Menu, and click on Character Palette. Make sure that you have the “Show input menu in menu bar” check box selected on, at this point you’ll see a new icon in your menu bar, it will either be the Character Palette icon or most likely the US flag (or any other keyboard layout). Click on that and you’ll see “Show Character Palette”, select that and it will pop up allowing you to pick whatever glyph you want and then simply click “Insert”.

Here’s a simple little hack that add the ability to separate items in your “Places” section of the Leopard Finder sidebar.

Here’s an example:

Image Source Typoet

To install, just drag the files to some static place and then drag them onto the Finder’s sidebar.

[Download: Typoet]