To see the hidden MP3 files on your iPod, you can use the Terminal or the Finder. To do this using the Terminal, open a new Terminal window and then type cd and a space, and then drag the icon of your iPod into the Terminal window. Type ls to see the directories present within your iPod. Note the one titled "iPod_Control" -- this is where you're going next. Type cd iPod_Control to switch to this directory. Take a look at the directories present in the iPod_Control directory. You want to switch to the directory titled "Music" with cd Music.

You should now see a number of directories, probably with a letter and numbers naming each folder. You can navigate to any of the directories using the "cd" command in the Terminal. Once in a directory, to open a new window showing that directory's contents in the Finder, simply type open . -- note the trailing period!

Read the rest of the article for isntructions on using the Finder directly to view these files...

I just noticed when I press Command + F1, my PowerBook G4 goes into Mirror Display mode. When I press Command + F2, the PowerBook checks for an external monitor connection. I hadn't come across this before the 10.1.5 update.

I just noticed that if you open a document then delete it, it automatically disappears from the Recent Items menu in the Apple menu. This is on 10.1.5, but I don't know how long it's been around.

[Editor's note: In testing this simple tip, I noticed a "Clear Menu" option at the bottom of the Recent Items menu. I don't use Recent Items very often (hardly ever, actually), but don't recall seeing that option in earlier versions of OS X. Is this a relatively recent addition, or has it been there since the beginning and I've just missed it?]

I just discovered that the new version (1.0 b23) of the Logitech Control Center has been released. It lets you configure Logitech keyboards and mice and works quite nicely! It swaps the command and option keys on the Logitech USB keyboards automatically!

Here's the link where you can find it: Logitech Control Center Download

A small contextual menu addition (known as ittec, and currently free) has been made available today which allows you to display the contents of a folder by control-clicking it. You can find it on the ittec home page.

What is really neat about this utility is the PrefPane that comes with it (downloadable from the same page), which allows to customize it in all possible ways (display hidden or invisible files, treat archives or packages as folders, etc.).

One great option is the possibility to treat files with resources in them as folders, too, and display (even copy in the clipboard) these resources (for instance, the TEXT in a text clipping), directly from the Finder.

[Editor's note: Make sure you download both the program and the settings file. One of the options I like in the settings panel is "Show package contents". With this selected, you can drill down into any application bundle through the contextual menu item. The download page mentions that the program will expire at the end of June, but does not mention whether there will be a new version or not.]

Nov 2003 Update: The new URL is http://www.balance-software.com/.

I remember somebody posting here are about using the F3, F4, and F5 keys as shortcuts for System Preferences, and I think it's been expanded in 10.1.5. I used to get the system beep showing sound levels *and* System Prefs. Now, option plus F3, F4, or F5 takes you directly to the Sound PrefPane (with no System Beep, and on PowerBook keyboards, without the Fn key), and option plus F1 or F2 brings you to the Displays PrefPane.

[Editor's note: These key combos do nothing on my G4/733, so I'm not sure if this is hint is valid or not ... if it works for you, let us know!]

I found out by accident that you can close utility windows (e.g. Mail's Activity window, or the Force Quit window) by pressing Esc. I have a PowerBook, and "mousing" over these little buttons can be quite pesky.

This only works if the utility window is the frontmost window, I think.

The following was submitted to me via email, and it's an interesting tidbit. I'm sure everyone knows that you can play MP3's in the Finder's column view mode, but did you know that the volume was keyboard controllable and has a "super loud" mode? Here's the email...

I was listening to an MP3 in column preview mode and wanted to select it and some others using the keyboard. So I hit the shift and up arrow keys and the volume started to change! Playing around with it, the up and down arrows adjust the volume, but the shift and up arrow can make the volume even louder (think Spinal Tap's "11"). It appears that the quality starts to suffer using the shift key. Using the up or down arrow alone will return things to the normal scale.

I knew that the arrow keys would control the volume, but I had never thought to try a shifted arrow key. Since this is QuickTime at work, the same trick should work for movies or any other files that QuickTime controls.

Here's a trick I discovered a few weeks ago. It basically wraps a shell command into AppleScript to ease disk image mounting. Here's the translation of what I published on my French website...

Under Mac OS X, disk image processing is provided by a private framework: DiskImages.framework (in /System -> Library -> PrivateFrameworks -> DiskImages.framework). Thanks to this framework, you can burn a CD directly from the Finder. In the Terminal, hdiutil is used to communicate with it. You can, for example, mount a disk image typing:

hdiutil mount disk_image_name.dmg

What's the point? Just try it. Instead of having Disk Copy launch, mount the image, and then quit, hdiutil provides you with a seamless integration of disk image mounting without any app-launching.

Now, sure, it isn't great to go to the Terminal each time you need to mount a disk image. So let's make an AppleScript wrapper for this command:

tell application "Finder" to set filelist to selection as list

repeat with aFile in filelist
  if ((aFile as string) ends with ".dmg") then
    do shell script ("hdiutil mount \"" & ¬
    POSIX path of (aFile as string) & "\"")
  end if
end repeat

Just save the script as a compiled script, and put it in ~/Library/Scripts if you use Apple's ScriptMenu (and want to use it from the menubar), or in ~/Library/Big Cat Scripts/Files if you use Big Cat (and want it to appear in the Finder's contextual menu), or wherever you wish if you use Key Xing (and want to launch it from the keyboard). You'll just have to select any number of disk images in the Finder and launch the script. You'll be done very fast.

(For those who prefer to use SNAX, there is currently no way to use this script. SNAX doesn't load Big Cat's contextual menu, and version 1.2.8 is unable to provide a list of selected items anyways. Steve Gehrman, SNAX's author, is aware of the problem and will try to fix it in the next version.)

Today I selected a disc image of an audio CD (created with Toast). Much to my surprise, the Finder displayed the QuickTime play bar that is shown when audio files are selected. You can play the entire CD without burning or mounting it!

Here's a screenshot of an audio disk image being played in the Finder.