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Average Joe's Tips

Add Some Extra ‘Magic’ to Your Trackpad with BTT

Apple finally got the trackpad right when they made it glass, multi-touch, and entirely clickable; but it gets even magic-er with a little customization courtesy of Better Touch Tool.

Apple natively offers some (limited) customization of trackpad gestures, but the free application BetterTouchTool deserves credit for making the hardware as useful as it is. BTT allows you to assign commands to 50+ gestures – from ‘5 finger swipe down’ to ‘3 finger tip-tap left’ – and better yet, assign unique gestures to unique applications. BTT also implements the pretty useful ‘Snap’ feature found in Windows 7, used to view two windows side by side (which I find very useful when comparing or transcribing data).

My favorite implementation of BTT is in Chrome; where four finger swipes left and right move me between tabs and three finger swipes up and down create and close tabs. I also  use it to control Spaces (five finger tap to view all, ‘tip finger swipe’ to switch between) which allowed me to actually enjoy the benefits spaces without having to wait for OSX Lion. Other cool features are ‘Live View’; a window that shows you’re finger motions on a virtual trackpad and the command that is recognized (so you can practice your ‘tip-taps’ and ‘tip swipes’), and you can easily toggle BTT on and off from the taskbar in case you have to share your mac with your clumsy fingered roomate.

The trackpad has come quite a long way (and has definitely destroyed its portable-input-device competition) and while it may not yet be ideal for gaming, graphic design, and other involved processes, it adds significant value over the mouse in everyday tasks; like web, editing documents, and viewing media, and may even beat out the mouse and become the input method of choice for the everyday user. I mean IBM definitely never created a desktop version of their ThinkPad’s little red dot…

For more details head to the Better Touch Tool site, or if you’ve heard enough download it now.

Categories
News

Top 10 Mac OS X 10.7 Rumors

Ever since the announcement about the “Back to Mac” event, there have been rumors all around. Below are the top ten Mac OS X 10.7 rumors to date.
  1. FaceTime is not only for the iPhone 4, but also for the newest iPod touch. There are rumors that since the iPhone 4 and the iPod touch both have FaceTime, they will incorporate FaceTime into iChat in the new Mac OS X 10.7 Server. iChat is a built-in IM client that already has video calling, so FaceTime would make a great addition.
  2. Another rumor is that they will redesign the user interface. The new iTunes 10 has new graphical changes such as lack of color in the sidebar. Typically, the user interface of iTunes changes and the user interface of OS X also changes.
  3. One of the most common rumors is that the newest server will be named Mac OS X 10. 7 Lion. Apple sent out invites that read, “Back to Mac.” The invite also had a picture of Apple’s logo cut out of a sheet of metal and behind the cracks, there is a lion. The Lion most likely represents the big cat names they included with the OS X, such as Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
  4. Will Mac OS X 10.7 be spectacular? We will not know yet, but rumors out there say that Mac OS X 10.7 will include big changes because of the suspected “Lion” nickname. The Lion is the king of the jungle and can symbolize big changes coming to Mac OS X.
  5. Some might say that the new Mac OS X 10.7 will make it so there is multi-touch. Does that mean a touch screen like the iPhone 4, iPod touch, and iPad?
  6. The iOS App Store is such a great success. Will there be a Mac OS X App Store?
  7. Apple has already filed patents to incorporate iOS into Mac OS X in an iMac Touch and MacBook Touch. There are rumors that Dashboard will be replaced by an iOS layer.
  8. The upcoming Mac OS X may also have cloud computing and storage.
  9. The new Mac OS X 10.7 is likely to include NTFS support. The current Mac OS X can not support NTFS and relies on third party developers and the open source community to support NTFS.
  10. Last but not least, the Dock and Finder will probably be updated. There will probably be improvements and new features.

That concludes the top ten rumors. What do you think?

[Image Source]

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Average Joe's Tips

How to: Download Free YouTube Videos in Safari

Don’t you want to watch your favorite YouTube videos on the go without having to wait for it to load the whole way? With a couple of easy steps and a few minutes you’ll have them on your iPhone in no time. The first step to this is launching Safari and opening up the YoutTube video that you want to download. Then (even if it is still loading) you go up to “Window” and scroll down to “Activity” and click on it. You will see a list of stuff that is helping to load the video, but the only one that you will need to click on is the largest file that should probably be in megabits you can select the file even if it is still loading, and to select the file press “alt” and left click. The video then will download into your “Downloads” and the last step is to drag bring it into iTunes. To do this you will need to download an application to convert the file to allow it to play on your iPhone or iPod. The application you will download is HandBrake. After you finish downloading HandBrake open it and select the “videoplayback” and click start. When the video is done converting name it and drag it into iTunes. The video should then be under “Movies” in iTunes and then after that just sync it up with your iPhone of iPod.

Categories
News

Verizon Wireless Offers iPad at Stores Nationwide on October 28

BASKING RIDGE, New Jersey and CUPERTINO, California — On October 14, 2010, Verizon Wireless and Apple announced that the iPad will be available at Verizon Wireless Stores nationwide beginning on October 28. Verizon Wireless will offer three bundles of the iPad. The three bundles, $629.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 16GB + MiFi, $729.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 32GB + MiFi and $829.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 64GB + MiFi are offered. Verizon Wireless also offers monthly access plan of up to 1 GB of data for just $20 a month. Verizon Wireless will also offer all three iPad models by itself.

AT&T will offer all three 3G iPad models in stores nationwide. AT&T will offer 16GB for $629, 32GB for $729, and 64GB for $829. AT&T offers data plans that are $14.99 for 250 MB and $25 for 2 GB.

Verizon’s announcement to start selling iPad is very significant. Verizon has been competing with AT&T with the phones like the Motorola Droid X and the HTC Droid Incredible. AT&T has been the only service provider that has sold the iPhone, but there has been rumors that Verizon will finally start selling the iPhone. AT&T has been known for selling the iPhone while Verizon has been known to sell the popular Android-powered phones. If Verizon begins to sell the iPhone, AT&T will lose its competitive advantage that it has by being the only service provider to sell the iPhone.

The fact that Apple is allowing Verizon to sell the iPad shows that there is growing relationship between the two companies. It appears as if there is a nice partnership forming between Verizon and Apple.

What do you think? Opinions? Comments?

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Average Joe's Tips

How to Jailbreak via Limera1n

Here is a quick tutorial on installing LimeRa1n.

Disclaimer: The Real Mac Genius.com is not liable for any loss or data or breaking of your device. Backup your data prior towards the process. The evolution of jailbreaking has become very user friendly, but still has minor consequences.