A tip on how to use Apple’s built in Automator application get print to PDF functionality back in iPhoto ’11

My second generation Apple TV arrived this morning. I hope to talk about the experience more on the next episode, but in the meantime here’s an unboxing video and some images. You can find more photos on the Maccast Flickr page.

With the introduction of iTunes 10, Apple seems to have removed the direct links to the iTunes Store entries for podcasts in your library. Now when you select a podcast or podcast episode you will no longer see the iTunes Store linked little arrows like you do for music tracks. This Mac Snac offers some alternative methods for direct linking from your Podcasts to their related entries in the iTunes Store.

Today a bunch of reports started to surface raising concerns that the iPhone 4’s new antenna design may be affecting cellular reception when it’s held in your hand. If true, it would be a major flaw and shocking that Apple would let something like that slip through. I’m picking up my new iPhone 4 in the morning and the news of this issue was putting a major damper on my pre-iPhone 4 excitement. I continued to read report after report and kept hoping to find more info about the cause of the issue. I also hoped to find a possible solution or work around. Luckily I found a piece on MacRumors.com that indicated the issue might not be new and it also might not be as serious as is currently being reported. Check out the video.

So it looks like the “issue” can be replicated on not only the new iPhone 4, but also on a 3G or 3GS iPhone. What remains now is to determine if this is simply a visual issue or if reception is truly being affected. Early reports seem to indicate that calls continue even with the diminished bars on the display which is a good sign. Either way I’m sure these reports will grab Apple’s attention and shed some light on what seem to be a long standing issue. Hopefully we’ll also see an fix issued soon.

I finally received my iPad Keyboard Dock yesterday. Here’s a quick unboxing video and overview of the specialized function keys.

Unboxing images
You can also checkout my unboxing images on Flickr

In case you missed it on my YouTube or Facebook pages here’s my video unboxing the iPad WiFi 32 GB

Unboxing images
You can also checkout my unboxing images on Flickr

Well, here’s a cool little trick I ran across while trying to find a way to hide the menu and scrollbars in Mac OS X. This one is a Terminal hack that you can perform in Mac OS X Snow Leopard to get folders in Quicklook preview to show up with transparent covers. This gives you an “x-ray” style view of the icons of items inside that folder. Pretty neat. Here’s a little video on how to do it along with step by step instructions after the break:

Step-by-step
1) Launch Terminal (Applications–>Utilities–>Terminal)
2) Type in the following command:

defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableXRayFolders 1

3) Control+Option+Click the Finder icon in the dock and select ‘Relaunch’ to restart the Finder.
4) Select a folder in the Finder and press the spacebar to open it in Quicklook.
5) The folder icon should now have a transparent cover and you can see the icons of items inside the folder

Secrets – The GUI Method
1) Go to the Blacktree Site and download Secrets
2) Install Secrets. Double-click the .prefpane file and say OK when it asks if you want to install the Preference Pane.
3) Open System Preferences–>Secrets
4) In the ‘Top Secrets’ section check the box next to ‘Show X-ray folders in QuickLook’.
5) Click the ‘Quit This’ button to quit the Finder.
6) Click the Finder icon in the dock to relaunch the Finder.
7) Select a folder in the Finder and press the spacebar to open it in Quicklook.
8) The folder icon should now have a transparent cover and you can see the icons of items inside the folder

A Mac OS X Leopard visual display bug in the Dock triggered by hiding the Dock while using Spaces. Credit to listener Fred for alerting me to this bug.

Video from the opening of Apple’s first German Apple store in Munich. Thanks to listener Gregor for providing the video.

A quick video unboxing the new iPod nano.