my2cents

On Windows machines I’m used to using FinePrint to pre-process every document before it’s actually sent to the printer (2 on 1 page, 4 on 1, booklet, watermark, template, etc). From that suite of features what I miss the most on OS X is the ability to print booklets. Turns out there are at least two tools for OS X that provide that:

1. Create Booklet
2. CocoaBooklet

I tried Create Booklet and was quite impressed – it does what it says it does and it does that well. The documentation, however, is quite poor. In fact there’s none at all one the developer’s site. The DMG file contains a Quick Introduction.pdf that serves as a good documentation – if you don’t overlook it. The developer should have put the document’s content online. Then people could get a glimpse of what the tool does before they download (and install) it.

I was recently invited by Apple to take part in one of their customer support surveys. Besides the somewhat strange URL I noticed an all too familiar favicon: yes, Apple runs JBoss (Web).

Of course I played around with the URL a little…here comes the confirmation, it’s JBoss Web 2.2.1:

Looking for a way to modify the default printer presets i.e. the presets called “Standard” in OS X I came across a Mac OS X Hints article that talks about the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.custompresets.plist file.

However, what I found way more interesting is that apparently OS X provides a web interface for CUPS at http://localhost:631/ for the locally installed printers.

Through that interface you can nicely modify the default printer presets. Just go to http://localhost:631/printers/ -> choose your printer -> select Set Default Options in the second drop-down. You’ll be asked for an administrator’s username/password to save the changes. No surprise there.

On a new OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard the Huwei E220 USB modem (from Swisscom in my case) didn’t work anymore. The USB dongle mounts and the files on the mounted drive were visible but the Unlimited Connection Manager (UCM) installer contained in the mounted drive crashed always. It’s obviously not compatible with 10.6.

To fix this you need to download the latest version from http://www.swisscom.ch/res/hilfe/downloads/mobile/unlimited/index.htm. It still says on that page that only 10.4 and 10.5 are supported but it works just fine with 10.6, too.

By default if a folder in Apple iPhoto contains albums and you delete the folder, the photos in its contained albums will be deleted with it. There’s a warning dialog about this but there’s no option for you to tell iPhoto to get rid off the folder but keep the albums.

To achieve this you need to drag the album from the folder you want to delete to the top level ‘Photos’ folder. iPhoto will move the album from your folder to the top level ‘Albums’ section. Repeat this for each album in the folder. Once it’s empty you can safely get rid of it.

In contrast, if you delete an album that is not inside a custom folder the warning dialog tells you that the album will be removed but not the photos.

After upgrading my Mac mini from Leopard to Snow Leopard it did no longer wake from sleep when I sent the magic wake-on-lan package. So, I checked the network and energy settings and noticed that Snow Leopard’s new Wake-On-Demand (WOD ?) feature was disabled. I didn’t change that and started to wonder why WOL didn’t work.

Internet search lead to http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3774 in which Apple explains that “for some earlier Macs this option must be enabled [manually]“. What I didn’t immediately grasp is that WOD is a full replacement for WOL. I was initially reluctant to enable this option because I don’t want WOD (don’t have the necessary AirPort Extreme anyway) but only WOL. However, even after going through the article this didn’t become apparent. One must guess or assume…

What further clarified the situation was an ars technica article about “The sleeping Mac dilemma”.

So, to cut a long story short. Snow Leopard’s WOD falls back to WOL mode if it can’t find the necessary infrastructure (AirPort Extreme or Time Capsule) and therefore you need to enable WOD if you want WOL. Logical, isn’t it?

Just discovered a wonderful tutorial over at iClarified how to sync my iPhone with multiple computers. I was quite surprised to learn that I get a “An iPhone can be synced with only one iTunes Library at a time” warning message when I attempted that. I was surprised because this works just fine with the iPod touch.

I’ve spent hours searching for an in-ear headset for the iPhone 3G S that suits my needs. I just might have reached the light at the end of the tunnel…

The initial priorities were good sound quality and noise cancelling.

I first looked into the V-MODA Vibe  Duo and Vibe II models, but the reviews I found at Amazon and on apple.com made me take them off my list. What one reads very often: bass with these models is overly prominent, the weight may be a problem (metal instead of plastic), might break quickly due to low production quality. The have a stunningly cool design, though.

Then I looked into the Etymotic hf2. All the reviews rate this headset as top notch. They come at a price that makes you swallow  hard but apparently the outstanding sound quality makes it well worth it. However, what irritates me a bit is that the mic and music control device (also to start/end a call) dangles freely somewhere below your mouth on the side. I doesn’t look comfortable and since the control device is quite big it doesn’t “feel” natural. I would intuitively expect that one controls the device somewhere around your chest or belly.

At the same time I also had the Sennheiser MM50 and the Ultimate Ears super.fi 4vi as hot candidates on my list. The UEs are pretty cool because the mic and the music control device are placed separately from each other on the cable. The mic is next to your mouth and the other “box” is a lot further down. That’s very logical. Its benefits seem so obvious that I ask myself why other models are not like that.

With the hf2 still being my top candiate I suddenly realized that neither of the models I had evaluated so far supported volume control, voice control and VoiceOver. While voice control and VoiceOver are no real requirements for me, volume control certainly is – it’s a must. Mind you, these features are only supported by the iPhone 3G S and the newer iPods: Nano 4th generation, touch 2nd gen, shuffle 3rd gen.

So far, I only found two in-ear headset that support the new features, the Apple buds at $80 and the Klipsch Image S4i at $100. Klipsch what? At least here in Switzerland this brand is a no-name, never heard of it. The reviews and ratings, however, praise them through the roof wherever you look. Close to 100% all the time. Impressive.

Instead of just buying them, I sent out an email to Sennheiser, Ultimate Ears and Etymotic asking about their plans to release a headset that supports volume control. Stay tuned.

Update

Both Sennheiser and Etymotic replied telling me that they didn’t know about plans to release a headset with volume control.

Update II

I learned that a friend of mine actually knows Klipsch (yes. he lives in Switzerland, too ). So, I guess it was foolish to claim that Klipsch was a no-name here. On the other hand, that friend is an audiophile and very much into Hi-Fi…

When I came back from vacation I noticed the Apple remote was not working anymore with my Mac mini. Pressing the “menu” button did not trigger Front Row anymore.

I checked the remote itself against the Macbook to rule out low battery or the like – it worked. Hence, the problem had to be the mini. An article in the Apple support forum suggested resetting PRAM and NVRAM as described in article HT1379. I did and it helped.

A brother printer hooked up to my AirPort Express base station was not recognized by the AirPort – so it seemed.  The respective dialog in the AirPort Utility said: “USB Printer: None”.

I spent quite some time trying to find out what the problem was. It turned out that the dialog simply didn’t tell the truth. The “AirPort” dialog (left most in the menu) did indeed list the printer correctly:

After I found that bug setting up the printer both in OS X and Windows XP was a breeze. In OS X you go to System Preferences -> Printer / Fax -> + sign -> choose “Default” in the top connection-type menu. OS X will then try to locate the printer with Bonjour and populate the add-dialog with proper values. For Windows you need to install Bonjour from the CD that came with your AirPort Express base station.