MacSwitching.com > Windows-to-Mac Switch

The bundle that came for free

MacHeist did it again!
Usually their app bundles typically deliver a dozen Mac applications at a significant discount.
The latest bundle is even more affordable: it delivers you 6 Mac applications ($154 value) for Free!

* Mariner Write requires 500,000 total bundle participants to be “unlocked”.

My favorites?

I love WriteRoom (in fact I’m writing this very post with WR now) for its simplicity and ingenuity: it’s really “distraction-free” writing – with some pluses.
You get a Matrix-like editing screen that’s really good if you need to concentrate only on writing – and you ought to!

Since I’m an avid Twitter user, Twitterrific is a valuable tool!
Just like WriteRoom, you get a full-featured Twitter window that requires very little system resources, stays quietly in the background, allows you to perform all Twitter operations.
(regular price for this jewel is $ 14.95 – for free is a steal!)

I’m intrigued by ShoveBox and still have to fully exploit its features.
I love the idea of being able to stack up all tiny data (URLs, products, single news, snippets of code) that I get into all day.
Hope Shovebox does it in a neat way as it promises: more on this will follow!

Click there to download this free bundle offer from MacHeist but hurry up, offer end November 12th 2009!

(Each application offered represents full licenses.)

Remember that free is the perfect number!

I’ll leave the boring economic & stock details to those really interested into this [so click here to read more Apple stock news], but Apple’s shares got up to $ 205.04 – super-atmospheric price!

For us, geeks, Mac-users and -lovers, what’s more important?

New products, of course!

On Oct 20th Apple introduced so many new produts and updates I barely can name all of them here, so let’s get a list to begin.

new iMac, it’s that simple: 21.5 and 27 inches display, new CPUs up to Core i7 Quad processors, up to 16 GB Ram (from the 8 Gig previously allowed). Simply gorgeous!
Several built-to-order options for Graphics cards, CPU, hard disk units available.
new MacBook: white policarbonate chassis but with unibody construction style, multitouch trackpad, 13.3 Led display.
new Magic Mouse: almost an iPod touch or a multi-touch trackpad – in a mouse! All the mouse surface is smart enough to keep track of your gestures!
Mac Mini: despite all rumors (and death bell tolls) it’s still alive – and fine! The 2009 Mac Mini sports a faster processor, twice the RAM, energy-saving features and a lot more!

A product I’m really interested in is the Mac Mini with Snow Leopard.
A special edition Mac Mini fully loaded with 4 Gigs of RAM, two 500 GB hard disks and pre-installed Snow Leopard Server with special remote management features.
Right now it’s the best way (and the most affordable yet) to get a great Mac server for your Home/Office and to fully integrate PCs and Macs!

Most Apple product should be available by the time you read this or eligible for pre-order; here are some prices:
Apple iMac 21.5-Inch starts at US $ 1.199
Apple iMac 27-Inch starts at US $ 1.699
Apple MacBook available for US $ 999
Apple Magic Mouse available for US $ 69
Apple Mac mini goes starts from US $ 599
Mac Mini with Snow Leopard Server (unlimited license) is available for US $ 999.

The AdSense Notifier add-on for Firefox has always been one of my favourite extension for FF.

Starting from Firefox 3.0 although, it had several problems.

Now, with FireFox 3.5 release things have gone even worse; moreover its developer, a guy named Allen G. Holman AKA Mincus, has no longer supported its creations nor updated it blog: where are you Allen?

So, no more support from developer, Firefox 3.5 no longer installing it: what else? Living with no Adsense notifications?
No way!

So… I came up with a solution and a way to get it running like before with some help and workarounds both on Mac OS X and Windows.

First let’s get back to basics.

Here is where it all started: AdSense Notifier add-on for Firefox, and here’s the author’s web site Mincus Code.

The first help I got was LancelHoff’s blog which give some good instructions on how to operate on XPI add-on packages.
[thanks Doug Poire AKA dcphosting_services for posting it on Mozilla.org!]

Let’s open it: call Gil Grissom for Adsense.XPI!

Step #1: in first place, get yourself a copy of Adsense.xpi and save it on your desktop.

[Note all instructions from now onwards will be the same for Mac OS X and Windows]

Step #2: rename the downloaded Adsense.xpi file as Adsense.zip and unzip it as usual, preserving directory structure, in a directory called Adsense.

This is the directory structure that you should see:

Step #3: fire your favourite text Editor (on the Mac I’m in love with Smultron) and open the Install.rdf file within the Adsense directory;

Step #4: check line #33 and replace the Firefox version number according to the line below:

<em :maxVersion>3.5.*</em>

we need to fool Firefox into believing that this plug-in is compatible with any 3.5.x version.
[Note: if you aren’t willing to get into this when FF 3.6.x comes out, just put a 3.6.* version number and forget about it!]

Step #5: open nsAdsensenotifier.js under the Components directory with the text editor;

Step #6: look for line 103, replacing the following line of code:

var passwd = "";

with this code (replacing your actual password):

var passwd = "password";

This step will eliminate the annoyance of being asked again the Adsense account password;

Step #7: save all text files and close text editor;

Step #8: zip (or compress) the Adsense folder into Adsense35.xpi: beware not to include the Adsense path into the zip file! That is: no sub-folders or it will not work…

Check here the correct zip file directory structure:

Step #9: open Firefox and uninstall any previous Adsense notifier; restart Firefox;

Step #10: open the Adsense35.xpi directly from Firefox (CMD+O on the Mac or Open File – CTRL+O on Windows) and proceed as usual installing the plug-in.

There you are! Adsense notifier is up and running as usual!

Hope this helps you as much as it helps me!

Notes

I found this notable quotation:

“Anyone who uses Google ads on their blog and web site spends a lot of time checking in to see how they are doing. This has been called GAD or Google Adsense Disorder, and I definitely suffer from it.”

I definitely sign it!

Further readings: about GAD – Google Adsense Disorder and the notifier.

Please note: The following fix worked for me, however, I am offering no warranty for this information. Proceed at your own risk.

Long-tim friend and Mac-Guru Lux has just received his brand new MacBook Pro 17″ unibody and couldn’t stand booting anything but and 8 GB behemoth!

Here’s the complete upgrage process, taking the unibody MacBook Pro 17″ from the out-of-the-box 4 GB RAM up to full 8 GB!

[ for truth’s sake: Lux’s MBP 17 comes fully equipped with the top 2.93 GHz processor and top 320 GB @ 7200 RPM ]

First screw…

… putting them all together (tiny screws slip easily away)

Off we go! Three bigger screws and a bunch of little ones and you can finally see what’s inside.

And here we go… taking off the lid!

A full top view, from top left, clockwise: SuperDrive DL, twin fan, hard disk 320 GB @ 7200 RPM (!) and (last but not least) the huge non-user-replaceable battery!

… side view…

The battery seal.

Upper top, the RAM dual banks.

Again the RAM banks.

No RAM at all!

Again, no RAM at all!

two 4-Gigs RAM modules fitting!

Closing the cover and…

Here’s the result: “About this Mac” reveals amazing details!

Check all pictures here.

So far I read Rafe Needleman posts on Cnet News with much interest and somewhat agreed with his point of view.

This time I don’t.

His recent post Switcher’s lament: The case against Mac has several points that may ignite discussions from die-hard Mac lovers as well as from Mac-switchers.

An example: iTunes library moving from Windows to Mac OS X.
I’ve been either too lucky or dumb, but I’ve been moving music libraries back & forth since, say, iTunes 6.
Didn’t even relied on specific apps, just copy and wait for iTunes to rebuild its library on target PC/Mac.

The User interface part of the post is simple nonsense: it’s Mac OS X interface. Period. Sometimes Windows interface is not so consistent, isn’t it?

Skype on Mac auto-starting? Happy about running Vista under Boot Camp?

I’m thrilled.
As I wrote, previous posts by Mr. Needlman made sense to me, but this family tragedy tale about a couple of MacBooks mistreating a couple of grown-up professionals doesn’t compute.

I’d like to know your opinion about this.

Still have to sort out all stuff that’s been announced yesterday.
In a nutshell:

Apple MacBook Pro 17″ with unibody, 8-hour battery (even though non user-replaceable) and up to 8 GB RAM (!!!)

iLife ’09 which, along with all updates, introduces an interesting Garageband feature: music school lessons with the best artist around!

iWork ’09
that introduces iWork.com, right now a public-beta online service for document sharing

iTunes pricing changes:

(check our partner site iPodPalace.com about this iTunes-related topic)

Highly recommended: check these Garageband previews with music lessons from selected artists!

Don’t take it as a word from an anti-Microsoft geek.

This time is BusinessWeek reporting.

A recent upgrade to the Mac operating system moves Apple closer to challenging Microsoft for overall computing dominance, even in the corporate market

Not enough?

Windows users, in the very near future, will be free to switch to Apple computers and mobile devices, drawn by a widening array of Mac software, without suffering the pain of giving up critical Windows-based applications right away. The easy virtualization of two radically different operating systems on a single desktop paves a classic migration path. Business users will be tempted. Apple is positioning itself to challenge Microsoft for overall computing dominance—even in the corporate realm.

Full story here.

Just attended Apple’s presentation for MacBook Air and all other products coming from MacWorld Expo 2008.

Impressed by the MacBook Air: so thin, so usable!
Manage to get your hands on one of these and see for yourself.
It’s so easy to forget this is an ultra-portable computer: full size keyboard, 13,3″ screen (LED-driven, immediately bright and soooo much shiny).
2 Gigs of RAM and a 5-hours+ battery get you running & working for a long time!

Quite impressed by Time Capsule: a must for every serious Mac (and Windows) user.

Will put update all info pretty soon; for some picture, have a look at my Flickr page.

You may not know about Asus Eee PC: it’s an ultraportable PC (or UMPC), with tiny screen, no hard disk (it’s flash-disk based), a webcam and runs natively a Linux version under a Celeron-class processor or Win XP with some hacks.

Since when it has beeb first annouced, the Eee PC has raised mixed blessings.
From my point of view it’s an interesting approach to the portability issue: slimmer, lighter and power-savy.

Now Tuaw comes with this pretty suggestion: why not try to run Mac OS X (intel version) on the Asus Eee PC?

Quoting from Tuaw:

Naturally, this hack falls into a legally gray area, so you’ll want to proceed with extreme caution. You also have to bear in mind that the build of Mac OS X floating around on BitTorrent isn’t exactly legal either, although the PC-patched copy makes for a “moderately easy install.” Based on the specs on the Asus Eee PC, you’ll probably want to stick with Tiger rather than Leopard.

With all this hacking and modding, you’ve got to wonder why Apple hasn’t created a more compact version of the MacBook to compete against this beautiful UMPC. Call it the MacBook Nano and it’d sell like hotcakes.

Full story on Tuaw.

Just attended Apple’s presentation of Mac OS X Leopard: impressive.

Time Machine, Quicklook, new Finder, Shared computer access, improved iChat and some 300+ new features.

Will try all (at least the more important of them) and report to you all! Now, let’s install it!

By now, just one suggestion: for the first time ever, more RAM available is not enough.

Time Machine alone, requires an external drive to hourly backup all your valuable data.

VoIPstage.com reports:

Raketu is offering a Web-based VoIP calling service that works with Macs.

Calling other Raketu users is free, and the company offers low rates if you wish to call other landline or mobile phones. The technology works over any Internet connection, broadband or dial-up, and features free calling to locations in over 40 countries around the world. The service also offers the ability to connect two people using landlines or mobile phones.

Steve’s keynote is still going on but the title news are just these…
😉
Looking forward to try Leopard (and Safari 3.0).