Tag: osx

Parallels Version 11 – Important changes that you should be aware of

Prior to Parallels Version 11 you were able to use the Parallels software on any of the Macs you owned and used for non-commercial work. With Version 11 you are no longer allowed to do this. So you need to purchase a license key for each and every Mac.

VMWare Fusion has a completely different policy that states the following:

Can I use a single license on more than one Mac?

VMware Fusion for personal use:
You may install and use VMware Fusion for personal, non-commercial use on any Apple-branded products running Mac OS X (“Mac Computer”) that you own or control.

– See more at: https://www.vmware.com/support/fusion/faq/licensing.html#sthash.Y452Lrq1.dpuf

I’m going to ask Parallels for a refund and make the move to VMWare Fusion. Don’t get me started on Parallels annoying pop-up dialogs.

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Having Fun With Photobricks for iOS and OS X

Just a few minutes ago I discovered the Photobricks app for OS X and iOS which creates LEGO™ mosaics from photographs.

Photobricks is a completely free, ridiculously easy-to-use mosaic creation software specialized to work with LEGO® bricks. With Photobricks, you can make beautiful mosaics from your favorite images with the push of a button. For those of us who like to have more control, you can further customize the mosaic by cropping and changing the colors of individual bricks. You can then view what types of bricks you’ll need to build your mosaic and, when you’re finished with your masterpiece, you can share it in a variety of ways with others thanks to the built-in publishing options. Excited? You can start using Photobricks right now by visiting the Download page. Not convinced yet? You can check out Photobricks for Mac or Photobricks for iPhone, iPod touch to learn more about Photobricks.

Here is a mosaic of the mighty Domino Designer which will be our next LEGO™ project:

Photobricks screenshot of DominoOnce your mosaic is complete you can generate a list of the plate bricks that you need to build it:

Plate list for Photobricks

What a great app! This puts a whole new spin on LEGO™ obsession.

TUAW: This is the most important Mavericks keyboard shortcut you’ll discover all day

Mavericks’ new Control-Command-Space bar shortcut came up once again during conversation in the TUAW chat room this morning. Once again, I was surprised that this cool little trick isn’t universally known.

As a public service announcement, we’d like to continue to spread the word about this delightful shortcut. Get yourself over to any text entry field on your Mavericks Mac and give it a try by pressing Control and Command together and then tap the space bar. The resulting pop-up provides easy access to smilies and emoji that you can drag to your favorite app.

emojis

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Mac-cessibility Network: All Things Accessibility for Apple Products

On the October 13, 2013 episode of the legendary MacCast, Adam Christianson interviews  Josh de Lioncourt, a blind Apple products user. Josh is part of the Maccessibility Network which focusses on accessibility of Apple products:

Maccessibility is devoted to connecting, compiling, and providing easy access to the best resources for blind, visually impaired, and other disability groups using Apple products. It is maintained by a dedicated group of visually impaired volunteers, who are Apple enthusiasts themselves.

Maccessibility began in 2007 as a project on Lioncourt.com to provide news and informational materials to low and no vision users of the Mac platform. Additionally, it served as a resource to dispel false information regarding the accessibility of Apple products.

As somebody who relies on accessibility on both OS X and iOS I am surprised I didn’t know about the Maccessibility site sooner. Many thanks to Adam for a great interview with Josh and for his awesome MacCast podcast.

 

Camtasia 2 Update for Mac

TechSmith released version 2.5 of their Camtasia 2 for Mac software. Here are a list of the fixes and improvements:

Enhancements in Version 2.5.0

  • Added a share history window
  • Added Facebook and Twitter buttons in the share history window using the built-in social features of OS X 10.8 and later.
  • Improved capture frame rate by leveraging a new capture method on OS X 10.8 and later
  • Added an integrated color picker and a user preference for those who prefer the system color picker
  • Added a “Mix to mono” option which is useful when all the audio is in the left or right channel, and you’d like it in both
  • Added the ability to lock tracks to prevent edits from affecting the media on the track
  • Added the ability to turn tracks off, which hides the visuals and mutes the audio on the track
  • Added the option to use linear interpolation for key frame actions
  • Fixed an issue where the Media bin thumbnail was black for images larger than 5000×5000
  • Allow user to press Shift key after mouse down in order to make a range selection
  • Added the ability to use the Shift key with the comma and period keys to fine tune a timeline range selection
  • Limit the max width of an arrow to 100 to prevent rendering errors
  • Fixed an issue where the timeline didn’t auto-scroll when dragging the edge of a media clip to extend its duration
  • Disabled context menu items that will not work for offline source files in the media bin
  • Fixed an issue where keystrokes are not recorded correctly when the system is configured with JPN language settings
  • Fixed an issue where the canvas width could be selected but typing would not change the number in the edit box
  • Fixed an issue where a project could get into a corrupt state where it could not be saved or opened
  • Fixed an issue where thumbnails in the media bin could appear stretched
  • Fixed an issue where a freeze region effect is added to entire media rather than a set duration when added from the context menu
  • Fixed an issue where control + click did not bring up the contextual menu for an effect in the asset bin
  • Fixed an issue where repeated use of cut and undo could lead to a crash
  • Fixed an issue where the zoom slider could get stuck at a particular zoom level
  • Fixed performance problems when 2 stacked clips have a freeze region effect at the same time
  • Fixed a crash when exporting an annotation that has a device frame applied to it
  • Fixed an issue where dragging an action to the end of a media does not move it to the end unless you first zoom in on the timeline
  • Fixed a crash when exporting to Screencast.com using a project that contains markers
  • Fixed an issue where not all mask properties were red when in global edit mode
  • Fixed a crash when entering the captions view on systems where the “Arial” font is disabled
  • Fixed an issue where the lock aspect ratio in the Adjust Canvas dialog was not working correctly
  • Fixed an issue where you couldn’t tab between the input boxes in the Adjust Canvas dialog
  • Fixed a crash when trying to split media with multiple actions selected

I’m a big fan of this software and use it in my course development for Clark College and highly recommend it.

Quick Tip: Turn off OS X Notification Center

On a occasion when I am sharing my screen with others I seem to always forget to disable OS X’s Notification Center. Typically you would turn it off using System Preferences however, I just learned that you can simply Option-Click on the Notification Center icon in the upper right corner of the menu bar to toggle it on and off. No more unexpected screen interruptions.