I used to use an Automator action for this, but Mac OS X Hints unearthed a sweet Snow Leopard shortcut for geeks: the ability to show or hide hidden "dot" files in any Open or Save As dialog. The magic combination to start imprinting into your fingers' muscle memory is Cmd+Shift+Period. Press it again to toggle the visibility. Hit the play button above to see what it does in my Mac's home directory.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks for Mac users who try out my Todo.txt CLI is finding and opening hidden "dot" configuration file (which is the standard Linux naming convention), so this will help me help them. Sadly this shortcut does not work when you're just browsing in Finder. [via DF]
On each new episode of This Week in Google (details) I’ll highlight a tip for using cloud/Google apps smarter, faster, and better. I’ll document those tips here.
If you've upgraded your Mac to Snow Leopard (10.6), it's now dead simple to synchronize iCal with your Google Calendar. While in Leopard you had to either know detailed CalDAV settings or install a helper application, in 10.6's iCal you can just open up the Preferences pane. Under Accounts, click the + button to add an account. Enter your full gmail address (you@gmail.com) and your Google Account password, and iCal will detect and configure the CalDAV settings for you. This is full two-way sync, so changes you make to events in iCal show up in GCal and vice versa.
Pro tip: Google Apps account users, iCal won't automatically detect you're using a Google Account. From the Account type drop-down, choose "Google" and then enter your full email address and password to get your GCal in iCal. This also works for Yahoo Calendar, Exchange 2007, and any other CalDAV server as well.
My positive take on Snow Leopard published over at Lifehacker this morning, where I tackle what all the non-developer-specific improvements 10.6 offers to upgraders. In a nutshell, it's speed, a better Dock and menu bar, Microsoft Exchange support, QuickTime X and helpful Finder tweaks. Here's the full article: Snow Leopard's Four Best Improvements (for Civilians)
ZDNet reports that Snow Leopard has changed the way it calculates disk capacity from earlier versions of OS X: now it matches the advertised size of the drive you purchased it's actually accurate. When it's running Snow Leopard, your Mac shows you the same gigabyte count on your drives as appear on the manufacturer's box, calculated in base 10, and not in base 2, which is what Leopard, all earlier versions of OS X and all current and earlier versions of Windows uses. This Apple knowledge base article explains:
A 200 GB drive shows 200 GB capacity (for example, if you select the hard drive's icon and choose Get Info from the Finder's File menu, then look at the Capacity line). This means that, for example, if you upgrade from an earlier version of Mac OS X, your drive may show more capacity than in the earlier Mac OS X version.
My own tests confirm: a 4GB Cruzer thumb drive in my Snow Leopard Mac shows up with a capacity of 4.01GB. Leopard reports the same drive's capacity as 3.74GB. (Click to enlarge the screenshot on the right.)
Merlin Mann's tweet about Snow Leopard hits the nail on the head. Even though David Pogue says this is an "uninformed wisecrack," I'm still calling Snow Leopard a service pack. "Snow Leopard Fixes Leopard's Bugs" is not the headline you're going to see in the NYT or WSJ. Instead the tech press told just the story Apple served them on a silver platter: that they did something noble and interesting and efficient by making their operating system smaller, faster, leaner, and even improved in a couple of "subtle" ways (a word I used). And for only $30!
It's not a very original story. In the wake of a bloated Windows Vista, with netbooks and smartphones offering smaller but less powerful hardware, the "smaller/faster/leaner" sell is the marketing tact of the year, and everyone's trotting it out. Look at Google Chrome (which is taking a piece of Firefox's bloated pie) and Google Chrome OS and Windows 7.
Don't get me wrong, "smaller/faster/leaner" is exactly what Snow Leopard is, but it doesn't deserve a +.1 version number increment. To end users, it's just a faster Leopard. While we all swooned over Apple's cheap-cheap pricing, on further thought, this is an upgrade I'd expect to see come down for free via Software Update.
Major tech pubs put out their Snow Leopard reviews last night, and they're all predictably positive. Snow Leopard offers lots of small and subtle improvements to your Mac plus gets speed boosts out of even older hardware for an affordable $30. This jibes with my experience of the developer build the last few months. Here's the rundown of reviews I've seen so far:
Best way to see how much faster Snow Leopard is than Leopard doing a simple task like opening a few high-res photos in Preview? This video clip, courtesy of Gizmodo.
Even though Apple suggests Mac users without Leopard buy the $169 Mac box set to get Snow Leopard, anyone can purchase the $29 Snow Leopard disc and install it. This means the Snow Leopard DVD isn't an "upgrade" at all, it's the full-on Mac OS X operating system for 30 bucks, $100 cheaper than Leopard was. I suspected this was the case, since it is with the developer build I'm running, but The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg confirms it's true for the final release as well:
For owners of Intel-based Macs who are still using the older Tiger version of the Mac OS, Apple is officially making Snow Leopard available only in a “boxed set” that includes other software and costs $169. The reasoning is that these folks never paid the $129 back in 2007 to upgrade to Leopard. But here’s a tip: Apple concedes that the $29 Snow Leopard upgrade will work properly on these Tiger-equipped Macs, so you can save the extra $140.
So if you're jumping from Tiger to Snow Leopard, you saved $129 bucks never purchasing Leopard and you can save $140 skipping the box set. Guess being a late adopter does pay off.
An operating system update like this Friday's release of Mac OS X Snow Leopard is a perfect time to clean up your computer and start fresh. Let's prepare your Mac for this weekend's 10.6 upgrade.
* I happen to use an abandoned beta of Synergy KM to share my mouse and keyboard between my PC and Mac, and its System Preferences pane requires a restart every once in awhile to get it to connect. Overall, a minor annoyance for other worthy updates.
Notable non-compatible apps to look out for from the list: Adobe CS2 Suite, Adobe Photoshop Elements, CoverSutra, Cyberduck, (maybe) Disk Inventory X, Disk Warrior, and (maybe) Google Gears. (Google Gears occasionally does this weird thing where it launches a virtual disk and then closes it again; otherwise it has worked for me. Disk Inventory X also works for me, albeit slowly, in build 10A421a of Snow Leopard.)
Among other things,* Apple announced the release of the next version of Mac OS X dubbed Snow Leopard today. Mac owners can get the 10.6 version hike this fall and it will cost a modest $29, a full $100 less than previous OS X updates.
Why is that? Well, while Snow Leopard has had much work done under the hood, there aren't a whole lot of user-facing new features--and that's what sells operating systems at a $129 price point. Instead, this time for 30 bucks you get "enhancements and refinements" (Apple's words).
Still, even though you might have to dig for them, it looks like a few nice tweaks are on the way with Snow Leopard. Here are the ones I'm most looking forward to.
Major tech pubs put out their Snow Leopard reviews last night, and they're all predictably positive. Snow Leopard offers lots of small and subtle improvements to your Mac plus gets speed boosts out of even older hardware for an affordable $30. This jibes with my experience of the developer build the last few months. Here's the rundown of reviews I've seen so far:
Even though Apple suggests Mac users without Leopard buy the 
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Among other things,* Apple announced the release of the next version of Mac OS X dubbed Snow Leopard today. Mac owners can get the 10.6 version hike this fall and it will cost a modest $29, a full $100 less than previous OS X updates. 
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