There's a 10.5 hints deluge coming, and I just wanted to get this note out there before it starts...
Some of the tips may somewhat break the "no obvious tips!" rule we usually follow here. For the most part, the rule is still in effect, so you shouldn't (unless I mess up) see anything about using Command-P to print or clicking the red close button.
On the other hand, 10.5 is brand new, and there are tons of features hidden in many nooks and crannies of the OS. So I may choose to run some hints that aren't about truly undocumented features, but just cover things you may not have thought about, may not have found at first glance, or didn't yet get to.
If you're reading a tip and it seems too obvious, save yourself the "hey, this is an obvious tip!" comment posting, and just skip ahead to the next -- no reason to waste the electrons on such a comment. Besides, I think you're going to have plenty of reading to do to stay busy...
Update: For a while, the site will be updated at least twice a day, typically at 7:30am Pacific and 11:30am Pacific; other updates may be posted as demand requires. And if you've submitted a hint, please be patient. We'll get to it, and either use it, or tell you why it's not being used.
There are a few 10.5 tips in this morning's update, with many more coming later today (and tomorrow, etc.). We've had over 200 submissions so far since the release, and I'm just now starting to work my way through them.
Update: Based on the comments to this story, I did some investigating, and we did indeed have some issues with the feeds. Unfortunately, to fix them I had to basically reset the feeds, which means you will probably want to re-subscribe to the ones you're interested in using. The links below are now correct for each feed.
Both feeds seem to work fine for me in 10.5 in Google Reader and NetNewsWire. Using Mail's RSS reader, the 'all tips' feed only shows one tip, while the 'System only' feed shows what it's supposed to show. I do not know why this is happening, but we're looking into it.
We have two new RSS feeds available, specifically for OS X 10.5 tips:
All 10.5 tips: This feed includes all tips that are coded with the 10.5: title prefix. This is probably the more useful of the two feeds, as you'll see everything about 10.5.
And starting Monday, you'll see quite a jump in the 10.5 tip activity -- there have been over 140 submissions since Thursday morning, and I've got another 20 or tips that I'm ready to write up (if they haven't been submitted -- better for all of you relative to the contest if I write as few of the hints as possible, right?).
Overall, I'm really enjoying the new OS X release, aside from a few irritating things that I hope are resolved by Apple or creative third parties. But more on that in the future...for now, on with the tips!
I thought it might be interesting to see where the readers' opinions fall on the new 2D and 3D docks in OS X 10.5 -- hence our newest poll. I've also created a full-size comparison shot so you can easily see the differences between the two. I set the dock to its largest size on my machine, then switched the dock style and took the two shots. Trimmed to just fit the height and width, the pixel dimensions of the 3D dock are 1217x105, while the 2D version comes in at 1165x97.
So which do you prefer -- i.e. which will you be using, courtesy of this hint -- when you make the move to 10.5?
Spread the word; I think it would be interesting to get a large number of votes prior to the release (no registration required to vote) to get a sense of the community's plans. My plans? Well, I think I need to be running it ASAP (to test the hints, natch), and I typically always do clean installs of major OS releases.
Some of you may recall last summer, when we ran our first-ever Best Hint contest. Now that Leopard is upon us, we thought it'd be fun to roll it out again, taking into account some of the feedback from the first contest, and giving away more cool stuff.
The Mac OS X Hints Best Leopard Hints Contest
How it works: From Friday, October 26th through Friday, December 21st, any hint published here that is specific to OS X 10.5 (including its bundled applications) is eligible for this contest. Tips that are related to third-party applications will be considered eligible if the hint itself is specific to OS X 10.5. Keep in mind that to be published, a hint must pass some level of review -- it can't be a duplicate, it can't be for something obvious such as a menu shortcut, and to be eligible for the contest, it must be your original work (in other words, pointers to things you found on other sites may be published, but they will not be eligible for the contest.)
During the holiday break, I and the Macworld editors will narrow the field down to 20 finalists. On or around Wednesday, January 2nd, we'll open the voting on those 20 finalists to everyone. One of the complaints about the first contest was that the final winners were chosen solely by Macworld editors. This time, both the editors and you the readers will be voting, and we'll average the results to find the winners.
Voting will continue through Friday, January 11th, and winners will be announced on or around Monday, January 14th (we can't announce the winners until we've been in contact with them, so that may take a day or two). Coincidentally, that's the same week that Macworld Expo starts.
This being a contest with real prizes and all, we do have a set of official rules that I recommend you read if you want more details on how this will all work. For now, keep reading to find out what, exactly, you might be walking away with in mid-January...
It's back to Rob for next week's hints. He's been keeping me up to date on his vacation activities, with fun in the sun, drinks with umbrellas, pool-side massages, and much more. Ah, the joys of Caribbean vacations...
If you've paid attention to the ruckus about this week's poll, in which I was ardently flamed, you might want to check out my thoughts on the issue. Or you might not.
Discussing this hint with Rob yesterday, I asked him if he really left his Internet connection, and a Mac, on when he's on vacation, or even overnight? I feel that this is a huge waste of electricity, hence a cause of pollution. I turn my router and DSL box off every night before I go to bed; I don't need it on at night, and it would be a waste of money to leave it on.
Initial reactions to this poll suggest that I'm in a minority, but we need more opinions to have a valid sample. For those who don't turn these devices off, do you think about the power you waste, both in terms of cost of electricity and pollution? Do you turn off other devices that suck up power on stand-by? (I turn off my TV, satellite box and hard disk recorder as well.)
...Kirk McElhearn, who will be sitting in for me at the editor's desk as I take the week off (to rest my fingers in anticipation of the upcoming Leopard release).
As you've probably noticed by now, with Tiger getting a bit long in the tooth, it's getting tougher and tougher to find little nuggets about what is now Apple's oldest-ever version of OS X. I fully expect things will pick back up again with Leoaprd's release, as not only are there hundreds of new OS features to dig into and figure out, but there are many brand-new applications (Finder, Spaces, Time Machine), as well as changes to existing applications (iChat, Mail, iCal, Safari) that I'm sure have hidden features to be revealed. In addition, I expect a spate of hints about how to modify the dockshelf in Leopard, as that seems to be (based on feedback on various sites based on the images on Apple's site) one of the more contentious modified features in 10.5.
In any event, Kirk will be handling the posting duties next week while I relax on a Caribbean beachhandle a bunch of household tasks that I've long put off doing. I'll be back at the desk on Monday October 8th, and perhaps by then, we'll have an actual 10.5 release date...or perhaps not. Either way, I'll be here posting the hints that come in, and doing my best to keep things moving along until Leopard comes out.
Today is Labor Day in the United States, so no new hints. I'd tell you I'll be off enjoying the day with friends and family, but the reality is that I'm still trying to get over a nasty little cold/flu bug that our kids seem to have brought home on Friday. :(