Customize Icons in Mac OS X [SwitchTip of the Day]

     

Sick of those stock icons in Mac OS X?  Here's a quick tip to re-badge and customize any drive or folder in OS X.  I have a few familiar custom icons that I use, and have gotten very used to.  My OS X experience just isn't complete without em! 

1. Highlight the icon or folder you want to use for your custom icon.
2. Type command-C or right-click and choose Copy.
3. Right-click on any hard drive or folder, and choose Get Info.
4. Navigate to the upper left corner, and highlight the icon.
5. Type command-V or choose Paste from the file menu. 

That's it!  There are a ton of great free open-source icons available at InterfaceLIFT.  Check them out!  Here's a snapshot of my finder's sidebar- easier on the eyes in my opinion than a lot of blue folders. 

XLD: Multi-Codec Audio Conversion [Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers]

XLD (X Lossless Decoder) is one of my favorite apps for Mac. As we know, iTunes/iPod only supports Apple Lossless. I have a large collection of FLAC files and this allows me to quickly convert them.  This app allows me to rip my FLAC files directly to Apple Lossless or LAME V0 mp3 with one click.  And best of all, it transfers all of the ID3 tags and artwork.

Download XLD Here

Additional features include accurate CD ripping with cue and log sheet, WAVE, AIFF, Raw PCM, Ogg Vorbis (aoTuV), MPEG-4 AAC (QuickTime/CoreAudio), MP3 (LAME), Apple Lossless, FLAC, HE-AAC (aacPlus v1/v2), Wave64 and WavPack.  In addition, you can expand XLD with any codecs not included from Libsndfile.

A well rounded and easy to use interface that only improves with constant updates, XLD is a real winner- and FREE.

More: Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers

Maintenance: System Maintenance and Cleaning Utility [Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers]

So you got your OS X machine built and it's been running for a while. You start wondering is there anything I should be doing to make it run better.

OS X has scripts that need to run on a periodic schedule. If you don't have your machine on all the time, you need to run them, but how? That's where Maintenance from Titanium's Software comes in.

Download Maintenance Here

 

Maintenance allows you to run; miscellaneous tasks of system maintenance, repair permissions, periodic scripts, reset Spotlight's Index, rebuild the LaunchServices database, delete Application, Font and System cache and more. What would you pay for a tool that does this? Well you don't have to as it's available for free.  

They also offer an enhanced version called Onyx that does everything Maintenance does plus allows you to configure parameters in the Finder, Dock and some of Apple's applications. And it's also free.

Check it out and If like it as much as I do, make a donation to support continued development.

More: Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers

Perian: The Swiss-Army Knife For QuickTime [Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers]

Ok, so you just loaded up your hack, double click an .avi file, and lo and behold QuickTime doesn't support the codec.  What to do?  Well, you could search Apple.com for add-ons, and individually download each one for QuickTime.  But smart users just get Perian.

Perian is an open-source FREE multi-codec component add-on for Mac OS X's built in multimedia player QuickTime which enables playback of multiple unsupported audio and video formats.

Download Perian Here

This application really broadens the scope of QuickTime, enabling video playback of MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivx, H.264, Sorenson H.263, FLV/Sorenson Spark, FSV1, VP6, H263i, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Snow, NuppelVideo, Techsmith Screen Capture, DosBox Capture.  In addition, it opens up audio playback to Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), and MPEG Layer I & II Audio, True Audio, DTS Coherent Acoustics, Nellymoser ASA.

Download and install, then forget that QuickTime doesn't naturally include all of this by default.

More: Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers

TextWrangler: More Than Just a Text Editor [Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers]

TextWrangler is a free general-purpose text editor from Bare Bones Software. You may ask why do you need this, since OS X includes TextEdit? Well, TextEdit is a nice tool but I find it limited with a few annoying "features". The first being that it always opens in a small window. The other is that it's default is to save everything as rich text. Yes, I know that you can change this, but why should I have to. I guess you could say that TextEdit is Apple's answer to WordPad on Windows. 

What make TextWrangler unique is that besides being a general-purpose text editor it's a programmers friend supporting syntax coloring and function navigation. It's also fully integrated into OS X and supports FTP/SFTP for opening and saving files on servers.  The full feature list is too long to list here, so click here for more details. 

Download TextWrangler Here

I would also like to mention two great low cost alternatives, TextMate and TextWrangler's big brother BBEdit . Check them out if you are looking for more in an editor. 

More: Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers

VLC: Multimedia Player, Server and Framework [Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers]

VLC, (Video Lan Client) is an open source audio/video client for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.  It's probably the most handy piece of software that you can get, as it has built-in support for pretty much any file you throw at it.  Here's a list of supported codecs.

Download VLC Here

Advanced features of this app include playback of damaged files, DVD, and  TV card,.  It will also encode audio/video, and act as a streaming server. 

For such an outstanding piece of software, you'd expect a hefty price, but this app is 100% Open Source, and FREE.  This project is in need of Mac OS X developers to continue supporting OS X.  If you are a dev, and would like to improve VLC, check out their site for sources and information.

More: Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers

Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers

So you've just transitioned from Windows to Mac. Thought it would be a good idea to review a few of our favorite apps for Mac so that you can still get the functionality you enjoy on Windows. From audio editing and converting to video playback for all codecs, these 10 apps will hopefully get you on the road to increased productivity on the Mac side.

1. VLC: Multimedia Player, Server and Framework
2. TextWrangler: More Than Just a Text Editor
3. Perian: The Swiss-Army Knife For QuickTime
4. Maintenance: System Maintenance and Cleaning Utility
5. XLD: Multi-Codec Audio Conversion

The rest of the list will be posted soon!   Enjoy!