The Problem

I’ve had a problem using Apple Magic Mouse on a 64-bit Windows 7 on my new iMac‘s Bootcamp partition. It was that I couldn’t use the Magic Mouse in Windows installed on iMac. As a matter of fact the magic mouse was not even showing up in Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers in the beginning. In my case I’m using Mac OS X Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) and Windows 7 (x64) Ultimate on the Bootcamp partition.

In Windows 7, to add a Bluetooth device, you simply click Add a Device  and then Windows should automatically recognize the device and show an icon representing it in the Devices window then allowing you to select it to be installed (i.e. its drivers).

I also have an Apple Wireless Keyboard which functions just fine on Windows 7, but the Magic Mouse used not to until I figured out the following:

Somehow when the Apple Magic Mouse is paired with your Mac first, it may become impossible to make it usable with Windows 7 on the same machine when started up from the Bootcamp partition. Even if you manage to locate it in devices and select it for installation, you may see a message like “Connecting to the device…” forever, but no progress.

The Solution

If you are suffering the same problem of not being able to use your Apple Magic Mouse in Windows (Bootcamp) on your Mac follow these steps:

1. Boot up your Mac from Mac OS X
2. Open System Preferences > Bluetooth
3. Remove the Apple  Magic Mouse (or whatever you had named it)  from the list (you can click the small button with a minus (-) sign to do this)
4. Boot your Mac from the Windows (Bootcamp) partition
5. Right-click the tiny Bluetooth icon in the System tray and select “Add a device…” from the pop-up menu.
6. If your magic mouse does not show up in the windows showcasing the devices, use the little switch under it to turn it off and on.
7. Select it as soon as it appears and click Next
8. Allow Windows to take its time to install its drivers (possibly in the background)

In my case I had to go over steps 5-8 three times to make it finally work (probably because I interrupted Windows automatic driver installation process somehow by accident in the first place)

But now my Apple magic mouse works just fine on Windows, so I can now remove the back-up PC mouse from the USB port (until needed again

Any comments as well as sharing of your own experiences is appreciated.

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Dropbox comes to the rescue. Thanks to Dropbox, once you put any file in it whether you are on your computer, or your mobile device, it will store them in the cloud and sync it to all of your devices such as your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch even devices running on Android, Windows Phone 7, Blackberry and  Linux. What’s more, you can use Dropbox not only for personal synchronization needs, but also for sharing files with others and collaboration in real-time. Dropbox offers both free and paid services.

Why DropBox?

There are dozens of other applications either as SaaS or PaaS and all claiming to get the same job done. Among all, Dropbox was and still the best and painless (even Apple attempted to buy Dropbox before their iCloud venture – an argument for another post) I’ve ever used. It’s fast, easy-to-use, practical – the only downside of it is on mobile devices where it doesn’t push the content unlike iCloud, you need to be connected to Internet to access all your files except for the one or two which once you access it on your mobile device is/are cached for offline viewing.

Dropbox replaces

• Emailing file attachments to yourself and other people
• Using USB drives to move files between computers
• Renaming files to keep a history of previous versions
• Complicated backup software and hardware

How Dropbox works

Here’s a short video explaining how it works:

How do I get Dropbox for free?

For a starter you can sign up for a free 2 GB account (if you use my referral code, you will get an additional 250 MB)

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4. How I resolved my Apple Magic Mouse problem on Bootcamp Windows 7
5. All the mysteries of Apple’s Tablet Unlocked: Ladies & Gentlemen, the iPad

Apple, the world’s now most valuable company, will hold a product event on March 7 in San Francisco, where it’s said to be releasing the third generation of its best-selling iPad tablet computer.

“We have something you really have to see. And touch,”

Apple said today in an invitation, which features a picture of an iPad 3 HD screen.

- "Moses, meet Steve. He's gonna upgrade your tablets"

After pioneering the tablet market two years ago, Apple is counting on the new model to beat back competition from newer devices running Google Inc.’s Android software. The company has sold more than 55 million iPads, generating at least $US34.5 billion in revenue. Amazon.’s Kindle Fire, which uses Android, emerged as the iPad’s biggest rival over the holiday shopping season last year.

What to expect from iPad HD / iPad3

The iPad 3 comes with the long-awaited Retina display with an increased resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, a better (8-megapixel) camera, 4G LTE and an A6 or A5X chip. My personal opinion is that Siri will be among the highlighted features of the new iPad HD although there are also rumors that Siri could be made available to all iOS devices capable of running iOS 5.

Apple has something we really have to see... and touch!

Although people have an idea of what to expect in the iPad HD (iPad3)  already, and there have been rumors floating around for quite some time now, it is always nice to see design concepts from creative developers around the globe. One such design concept has been showcased by Aatma Studio, and many are saying it is one of the best ever seen.

iPad 3 concept design

The new iPad 3 / iPad HD – What not to expect from it

Despite all the concept designs and raves, the overall size, shape and dimensions of the iPad HD  are not likely to change. There is a very sizable ecosystem of accessories (covers, cases, docks, stands and so on) that will all become incompatible if the size and shape changes drastically.

The operating system is definitely iOS 5 – at least for the time being it will start shipping with iOS5 , so it will have access to the thousands of iPad-specific apps on the App Store. What’s not clear, however, is how the existing apps will handle the increased resolution, although Apple always forewarns developers in advance to upgrade their apps to comply with the unreleased specs through early-access SDKs (software development kits).

iPad 3 (HD) Infographic

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There’s a trick to making things faster, one that never fails to work. Open Terminal and run the following command:

sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum

This command basically cleans old and discarded crud out of the database that Mail
uses to keep track of messages. When old messages are deleted, Mail unfortunately
keeps some information about them around, and that’s what you’re nuking from orbit.
Here’s an example on my machine that shows the before and after

$ cd ~/Library/Mail
$ ls -l
-rw-r--r-- 1 maclord staff 61M Feb 15 23:14 Envelope Index
$ sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum
$ ls -l
-rw-r--r-- 1 maclord staff 33M Feb 16 18:35 Envelope Index

If you would run it often on the Terminal, make an alias for it, either in .bashrc or
.bash_aliases

alias vacuummail=‘sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum’

If you’re really feeling ambitious, you could create an Automator action that would shut
down Mail, run the command, and start Mail back up. You could even make it an iCal Alarm and set it to
run once a week, and you will guarantee that Mail runs lean and mean. Or, if you don’t
like Automator, use a tool like Lingon to run the command for you at a set time.

P.S. These methods have been tested with Mac OS X (10.6) Snow Leopard – untested with Lion (OS X 10.7)

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With MacOS X Lion, however, Java does not come out-of-the-box and you have to download and install it manually (or via the Apple Software Update) – except in rare cases where you upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion.

The first package of Java 6 for Mac OS X Lion for download & manual installation can be found on the following link: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1421
The download size is about 62.5 MB and gets you Java SE version 1.6.0_26 (64-bit of course). Although this one is not be the most up-to-date version, once you have it on your system, you would be prompted to upgrade automatically next time Apple Software Update is run.

As for JDK 7 for Mac, it will be available directly from Oracle, maybe even through the App Store – no official announcement on the latter, though, so far, but stay tuned for good news!

If you are a Java developer who wants to do Java development on Mac OS X 10.7, here are a few not-so-tricky steps to follow to get going:

1. Go to http://connect.apple.com and sign in with your Apple ID (developer account may be required – it’s free).
2. From the list titled “Downloads for Apple Developers”, select the item labeled “Java for Mac OS X 10.7 Update 1 Developer Package” (release date Nov 8, 2011) then download and install the package.
3. The JDK will be installed into a different location then previous. This will result in IDEs (such as Eclipse) being unable to locate source code and java docs.
4. At the time of writing the JDK ended up here:
   /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0_26-b03-383.jdk/Contents/Home
5. Open up Eclipse preferences and go to Java > Installed JREs page
6. Rather than use the “JVM Contents (MacOS X Default) we will need to use the JDK location
7. At the time of writing Search is not aware of the new JDK location; we we will need to click on the Add button
8. From the Add JRE wizard choose “MacOS X VM” for the JRE Type
9. For the JRE Definition Page we need to fill in the following:
   JRE Home: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0_26-b03-383.jdk/Contents/Home
10. The other fields will now auto fill, with the default JRE name being “Home”. You can quickly correct this to something more meaningful such as:
    JRE name: System JDK
11. Finish the wizard and return to the Installed JREs page
12. Choose “System JDK” from the list
13. You can now develop normally with:

• javadocs correctly shown for base classes
• source code correctly shown when debugging

Why Java no longer pre-installed on Macs?

What has happened is Apple has quit mangling their own JDK into the OS and delegating responsibility to Oracle to supply a JDK for OSX going forward. It isn’t installed by default, but after the fact just like on every other platform other than Solaris. Arguably this will be a good thing, as the Apple JDK usually lagged like 6 months behind the official Sun/Oracle one.

Original Press Release

As of the release of Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3, the version of Java that is ported by Apple, and that ships with Mac OS X, is deprecated. This means that the Apple-produced runtime will not be maintained at the same level, and may be removed from future versions of Mac OS X. The Java runtime shipping in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, will continue to be supported and maintained through the standard support cycles of those products.

Mac OS X Lion For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))

Mac OS X Lion: The Missing Manual

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There are ongoing debates whether this feature was useful (so as to help fight spam) or not – even totally unnecessary (since many spammers do not use real or valid e-mail addresses, there’s no address to bounce back the junk mail) – the latter probably being Apple’s motive to remove the feature.

For those of you, who need to restore this functionality, there’s good news for intermediate to advanced Mac OS X users who can manage to create an Automator service that will feature an AppleScript to run — at least by following a short simple series of instructions. (See also the screen recording video tutorial below)

Here are the step by step instructions to do so:

1. Launch Automator from your Applications folder
2. Create a new service.
3. At the top of the editing (workflow) pane, select “no input” pull-down menu item just following the label “Service receives”, and select “Mail.app” from the second pull-down menu. The setting should appear like “Service receives no input in Mail.app”
4. Locate “Get Selected Mail items” from the actions list on the left, and then drag it to the editing pane (that is the Workflow)
5. Locate “Run AppleScript” from the actions, and drag it to the workflow.
6. Edit the script so as to look as the following:
   on run {input, parameters}
   tell application "Mail"
      repeat with eachMessage in input
         bounce eachMessage
         delete eachMessage
      end repeat
   end tell
end run
7.  Save your Automator workflow with a name like “Bounce Mail”
8. In Mail(.app) select the message(s) you want to bounce, then under the “Mail” application menu, select “Services > Bounce Mail (or whatever you named when saving the service) menu item

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Manomio is in the course of some legal procedures to license the required intellectual property and is also working with individual developers to bring popular Amiga titles to Apple’s App Store.
The following demonstration video shows a collection of 10 classic Amiga games such as Defender of the Crown, Battle Squadron, International Karate Plus, R-Type, R-Type II, Speedball, Stunt Car Racer, Shadow of the Beast, Virus, and Xenon 2: Megablast:

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iPhone uses the Exchange ActiveSync protocol to sync email, calendars, and contacts with the following versions of Microsoft Exchange:

• Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2
• Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1

For many popular email accounts, iPhone automatically enters most of the settings for you.

If you don’t already have an email account, you can get a free account online at www.yahoo.com, www.google.com, or www.aol.com. You can also try MobileMe, free for 60 days. Go to www.me.com.

Set up an account on iPhone:

1. From the iPhone Home screen, tap Settings.
2. Tap “Mail, Contacts, Calendars,” then tap Add Account.
3. Tap an account type:
   • Microsoft Exchange
   • MobileMe
   • Google email
   • Yahoo! Mail
   • AOL
   • Other
4. Enter your account information and tap Save.

Your service provider or system administrator can provide the account settings you need.

Microsoft Exchange accounts: Enter your complete email address, domain (optional), user name, password, and a description. The description can be whatever you like.

iPhone supports Microsoft’s Autodiscovery service, which uses your user name and password to determine the address of the Exchange server. If the server’s address can’t be determined, you’re asked to enter it. (Enter the complete address in the Server field.) Once you connect to the Exchange server, you may be prompted to change your passcode to match the policies set on the server.

If you’re setting up a MobileMe or Microsoft Exchange account, tap the items you want to use on iPhone—mail, contacts, calendars, and bookmarks (MobileMe only).

MobileMe includes the Find My iPhone feature that helps you locate iPhone if it’s been lost or stolen, and remotely lock, set a passcode, or erase the information on iPhone if necessary. See Security Features.

If you enable Find My iPhone for your MobileMe account, make sure that Push is turned on for Fetch New Data. In Settings, choose “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” > Fetch New Data, and if Push is off, tap to turn it on.

For Microsoft Exchange accounts, you can set how many days of email you want to sync to iPhone.

If you already have contact or calendar information on iPhone when you enable the account, iPhone asks what you want to do with existing information on iPhone. You can choose to merge the existing data into your MobileMe or Exchange account. If you don’t merge the data, you can choose to keep it in a separate account on iPhone (the account is labeled “On My iPhone”), or delete it. Existing bookmarks can only be merged or deleted.

Similarly, when you disable contacts or calendars in an MobileMe or Exchange account, or if you delete an account, iPhone asks if you want to keep information or delete it.

You can add contacts using an LDAP account if your company or organization supports it. See Adding Contacts.

You can subscribe to CalDAV or iCal (.ics) calendars. See Subscribing to and Sharing Calendars.

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DAA Converter for Mac OS X is a free utility for converting DAA & GBI disk images to ISO format so they can be accessed on your Mac.

DAA Converter is a native GUI application which wraps the command-line tool, DAA2ISO / GBI 2 ISO, by Luigi Auriemma.
It runs on Mac OS X 10.3 Panther or later. I have tested it on Mac OS X Leopard which works just fine on 10.5, too.

Just drag the icon of any .daa or .gib disk image onto the application’s icon, and the conversion process will instantly take place – an .iso version of the disk image will be instantly created on the same directory as the source image file.

You can download DAA Converter for Mac OS X (155) here or visit the downloads page.

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1. How to easily open UIF disk images on the Mac and convert to .iso format

You can open and convert UIF disk images on Mac OS X using one of the following disk image utilities:

1. Uif2iso which is a cross-platform command-line tool developed by Luigi Auriemma.
2. Uif2iso4mac a GUI application by Torsten Curdt . Uif2iso4mac is built upon  Luigi Auriemma’s uif2iso command line utility with a Mac graphic user interface adding basic functionalities of a real Mac app like drag-and-drop and a menu bar i.e. choosing an image using the File > Open menu.

With both utilities, conversion of UIF to ISO format is pretty much straight-forward.

How to use UIF 2 ISO on the Mac

The easy way

• Download UIF2ISO 4 Mac (424).
• Open the zip file and decompress UIF2ISO for Mac to your Applications folder (and then maybe even to the Utilities folder therein).

Quick Tip: Drag the Uif2iso4mac icon to your dock, once you have decided the appropriate location for this utility app.

• Drag the UIF image you want to convert onto the Uif2iso4mac icon and that’s it – conversion to the .iso format is automatic. You can then either double-click the converted iso disk image to get it mounted on the Mac or open it with Disk Utility or a 3rd party app like Roxio Toast to burn the image to a CD-R or DVD-R disk.

The geeky way

If you are one of those command line wizs, you may want to use Luigi Auriemma’s Uif2iso command-line tool.

• Download uif2iso (108)
• Follow the instructions in the Read Me file (uif2iso.txt)

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