Macspiration 114 – To Applecare or Not To Applecare


I have never been a fan of extended warranties. They always seem to get you in the end. However, the one extended warranty that I do buy and I do believe in is Applecare. Applecare is more than worth the money for any Mac you buy, and for most iPods (for iPods you have to weigh the cost of Applecare vs. the cost of a new iPod). This Macspiration is about Applecare for your Mac and why I am a believer.

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Macspiration 112
Time for Some Downloads

Last time I did a download article I mentioned that good free downloads (for my use) had been few and far between. However, I’ve been downloading a bunch of new free apps and utilities lately. Here’s some of them (ALL FREE!).

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Macspiration 111
Uncle Joe



Last week my uncle made the switch from his Windows computer to a MacBook. Of course, I am his “guide” as he makes the switch and I made him a cheat sheet for some of the common questions he’ll have as he works. When I was done, I thought, “Why not make this a Macspiration article?” So here is the cheat sheet I made him in all of its simple glory.

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Macspiration 110
Video Chatting for iSightless Macs for Under $100


Most Macs Apple sells these days comes with a built-in iSight camera and microphone to allow for easy video chatting through iChat. However, if you get a Mac Mini or a tower, or you have an older Mac, you won’t have a built in iSight. Don’t give up, video chatting is still possible for you by following some (or all) of the tips after the jump.

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Macspiration 107: iPhoto 08 Printing Mysteries Solved


I don’t know why but with iPhoto 08 Apple made what was an easy printing process into something complicated. Straight forward printing is still easy, but doing something like fitting a large image into a size is a mystery-unless you have some help. This Macspiration will help solve some of those mysteries.

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Macspiration 106
Return of the Downloads


It has been a while since I’ve done a Macspiration recommending downloads. To be honest, I haven’t found to many worthwhile freebies for an article. With that said, I have scrounged around my hard drive and found a hand full of downloads for you.

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Macspiration 104
Dead Dock Icons


Have you ever had an icon in your dock stop working? You click the icon for a program (maybe Mail), and the program never launches? The icon never bounces? The odds are that the link to the actual program has been broken. How do you fix it? Read on!

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Macspiration 103
Quicktips for Quick Look


One of my favorite features of Leopard is Quick Look. Quick Look allows you to see the contents of a file without opening that file in its program. For example, a spreadsheet can be viewed through Quick Look without opening Charts or Excel. This article contain a few Quick Look tips that you might not know.

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Macspiration 102
iPhoto CD Automator Action


I recently blogged about a missing feature from iPhoto which lets you burn a CD of photos that is not in iPhoto format, but instead a CD of JPG images that any computer can read and that you could take to the store for developing in a photo machine. Right after I posted that blog, I discovered a way to create an Automator action to do this for you.

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Macspiration 101
DVD Bookmarking


Recently, I wanted to show one of my classes a few sections of a DVD. The DVD was not broken into chapters, so I could not count of skipping through the video with them. After searching the menus in Apple’s DVD Player, I discovered Bookmarks.

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Macspiration 100
100!


When I thought about what I should do for Macspiration 100 I though about making a list off 100 links, or 100 terms, or asking readers to pick your favorite articles from the past two years (WOW!). In the end I decided to pick ten of my favorite articles.

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Macspiration 99
Personal Domain in iWeb/.Mac


With the introduction of iLife 08 you can now have your iWeb sites use your own personal domain that you have registered rather than using web.mac.com/username. For example, my domain, hedgehogalley.com, now points to my web.mac.com site that I have made in iWeb. Previously, the way to have this work was with domain forwarding through your registrar, but you would need to turn on something called masking to hide the web.mac.com address once the web browser got to your site.

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Macspiration 97
Internet Basics


This installment of Macspiration is less on instruction and more on explaining. You see, recently, I have had to troubleshoot the internet for several family members. During the process the topic I am about to discuss came up over and over again. Based on those discussions, I figure there are others out there who could benefit from this Macspiration.

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Macspiration 96
Tweak Your .Mac Account


With the .Mac update announced on August 7 I imagine a lot more people will be joining the .Mac service. Hidden in the .Mac website is a page where you can change a lot of your .Mac settings. This includes controlling iDisk space, email preferences, and more. Even if you are an old .Mac member, you might find these tips useful.

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