Kaotic, Kreation, Design

So I recently upgraded to Mac OS X 10.5. So far I am very happy with it.

I was playing around with some of the various new tools and toys added in, and a few really stand out. I’m not so impressed with some others. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve yet to find anything I flat out do not like. But there are several that I think Apple brags way too much about.

For example, Coverflow is pretty neat, but it,s not that great. And does it really belong in the finder? Maybe, if you’re going through a folder of pictures, but all my pictures are in iPhoto.

For the most part, I really have no use for it outside iTunes, so I leave it off. I’ve used it once or twice when browsing photos over the network. So yeah, it serves a purpose, but I still believe Apple is way to proud of it.

If you read my post on Quicksilver you realize how much I like a clean desktop, so I was real happy about the new dock and desktop. The new Dock is beautiful. I love the reflective look of it. If you’re watching a movie, you can see the movie reflect off the dock (if the video is close enough to it).

Apple has always had rounded corners (please correct me if I am wrong) on the menu bar across the top of the screen. Leopard has changed this and squared off the corners. I have mixed feelings about this change, because I don’t think that most people will really notice the change. It was a nice touch before, giving your screen a nice look.

Overall I have to lean toward liking the change. Another change that I really do like, is the semi-transparency. The new menu bar in Leopard shows through to the wallpaper behind it. Depending on the wallpaper displayed behind the bar, this can add a nice touch to the look of your desktop.

Stacks is a new feature I was really looking forward to and I’m glad I have it. I like the ability to have multiple shortcuts 2 clicks away, yet only take up a single location on the Dock. I also like how downloads drop into their own stack, instead of right on the desktop. This really helps maintain that clean look I enjoy so much.

Another useful feature I have noticed is Quicklook. This application lets you take a peak inside files without launching the associated program. It burrows through Keynote slides or Pages documents, even PDF’s without firing up the native applications. Simply highlight the document and hit your space bar. Fast and sweet.

Another thing I noticed while in the finder, my Mac automatically located all the various computers on my network. Another useful feature is the screen sharing button available in the finder. And with a bit of tweaking, I can even share the desktop on my Linux server from this location. (more on that in my next post).

All in all, I’m very happy with my decision to upgrade to Leopard. And while I’m still a fairly new Mac user, this just helps reinforce my decision to switch to my newfound computing platform. Yes, if you would have asked me 3 months ago if I planned to upgrade to Leopard, I would have given you a crazy look and told you I’ll never even own an Apple computer. Now… I’m considering getting another.

written by Brandon Leon

As I promised in my last post, here’s a quick walk-through on creating your own Smart Playlists for iTunes.

This is handy if you have an iPhone, but your music library is larger than 8Gigs. It works just as well with a Nano or any iPod smaller than your collection.

Your first step is to select “New Smart Playlist…” from the File Menu.

This will bring you to a new window with several options. Next you’re going to want to make some selections.

For this example, I’m creating a playlist that contains the music I’ve listened to over the past 2 weeks. This playlist is real handy when you’re out and you want to listen to a song that came up in iTunes last night while you were home.

Assuming you sync’d your device before you left that is.

This Smart Playlist will contain that song, as well as everything else you’ve listened to over the past 2 weeks.

Another handy feature available allows you to limit the playlist to a fixed size, if you don’t want to fill up the entire device. Because I store movies and other goodies on my iPhone too, I have this list capped at 1Gig. (I’ll display my settings for this playlist later.)

For this next drop down option, you’re going to want to select “is in the last” and then enter 1 month, 2 weeks, or whatever time frame you want this list to go backwards.

In the example image I used 1 month.For my own playlist, I use 2 weeks.

Finally, be sure that you have the “Live Updating” box checked. This ensures the playlist updates in real time. If you leave this box unchecked, it builds a static playlist that meets the criteria.

However, when you listen to new music, it doesn’t update the playlist. Instead it stays exactly the same as when it was created.

Live updating allows it to constantly update based on the music you’ve listened to recently.

Thats it! You have just created a simple Smart Playlist using iTunes.Here are the settings for the playlist I use.

I have a few more options set in order to prevent the my audio books and podcasts from appearing in this playlist. I use separate playlists to sync that content over.

written by Brandon Leon \\ tags: Apple, Howto, iTunes, Media, Music, Software