InterNetWorkingSolutions Support Site

SPACES
Quickly switch between groups of windows to make your desktop much less cluttered.

I’m a fan of this, because I tend to work with certain groups of applications at the same time, while ignoring the others. It will be so nice to have separated sections such as a “design group,” which could consist of InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator, or a “web group” (Dreamweaver/Coda, Fireworks, Flash), without having to have all of my applications in the Dock at the same time. (Let’s face it, I don’t always have access to my wonderfully large display at work, so I would love to conserve screen space!)

Plus, Spaces allows for you to customize your workspace ‘til your heart’s content. You can add rows, rearrange windows, set different actions with function keys. You will be able to toggle back and forth between different work areas, so you’re only looking at what you want to see, and nothing more. It looks like Spaces will have the look and feel of all your favorite OS X features. Sure, it’s eye-candy, but when it’s functional, who could complain?

See more features here.

One of the great features of the iPod touch 8GB and 16GB models is the product’s ability to connect to an available and authorized wi-fi internet connection. This is great for Safari browsing and YouTubing, but it also makes it easy to buy music via the built-in iTunes Store. Talk about instant gratification—with only a few touches you can purchase any of the millions of songs available from the iTunes Store.

While demoing one of our beautiful iPod touch units recently at our flagship South Burlington retail store, I noticed that the iTunes Store on the unit was set up and ready to buy music. I was curious whose credit card would be charged if customers decided to test-drive a song purchase. I was surprised to see at the bottom of the screen that my personal account (and billing information) was registered to this unit. Obviously this concerned me from a fiscal and privacy standpoint, so I began researching how to log an iPod touch out of the iTunes Store.

The Apple Support pages only had information on how to switch iTunes Store accounts, not on how to disable or log out of an account. These documents noted that the iPod touch will automatically pull the account information from whichever account is logged into the iTunes Store on the computer at the time the iPod is synchronized with the Mac or PC. After some trial-and-error, I discovered that by simply logging out of the iTunes Store on the computer then syncing the iPod, I was able to disable the song purchases from the iPod touch. Only the purchasing option on the iPod will be disabled, so the iTunes Store can still be browsed. Perfect!

I love to use tabs in Safari. I find it much better then having 10 or 20 windows open for each website I am using. In Safari 2 there was a checkbox in the Safari Tab preferences, but it’s now missing from there. A quick Google lookup turned up a nice hint on MacOSXHints.com. According to the hint you have to find the Safari property list and hack around a few strings. Sounds like fun, huh?!

Fortunately someone left a comment with a much easier solution. Just go to the View menu and select ‘Show Tab Bar’. Now that sounds a lot easier!

Here’s Hapy carrying two rocks with a combined total of more than 650lbs! He got about 43 feet with those beasts… nice work!

He says, “Hey all – here is a good pic of me carrying over 650lb of stones at the Maine Games. The one on my right weighed 345 and the one on the left weighed 315. I think I got 43ft with them when I stepped in a divot and lost my grip.”

Mollie got a mention in today’s Burlington Free Press regarding their iTunes story. Yay Mollie!

To read the article, click here.

Windows/Mac/Linux (All platforms): Freeware Voice-over-IP (VoIP) application Gizmo Project makes phone calls from your PC similar to the popular Skype. Like when we first mentioned Gizmo Project, it still boasts several excellent features like voice integration with other Gizmo Project users as well as Google Talk, Windows Live and Yahoo Messenger users, support for AIM and MSN chat, and a free call-in number—making it sort of a kitchen sink version of Skype.

The latest version of Gizmo Project supports video chat (though it's not as high quality as Skype), an improved interface, and several worthwhile fixes. If you've tried Skype but you're looking for more functionality and integration with other communication standards, Gizmo Project is worth a go. If you've been using Gizmo Project since we first mentioned it, let us know how it's working for you in the comments. The current beta is Windows only, but will presumably support Mac and Linux soon.
Gizmo Project 4 Beta [Gizmo Project Forums]

Mac users, that file you're trying to copy might actually be a bundle of multiple files—which is why your copying isn't working. The Pain in the Tech weblog schools us on Mac OS X bundles, how to browse inside them and manipulate them, using GarageBand and Pages files as examples, but remember: applications like Firefox.app and Mail.app are bundles as well.
Mac OS X Bundles [Pain in the Tech]

Windows/Mac/Linux (All platforms): There are tons of great instant messaging applications available, but one nagging problem in the IM world is that there's no great, fully cross-platform chat app (unless you count Meebo). Free, open source application Instantbird aims to do for chat what Firefox does for the browser. Based on the same tools used to create Firefox and Thunderbird, Instantbird should ultimately be just as extensible as the former—which means IM customization will be as simple as installing a Firefox extension. Right now Instantbird connects to virtually any IM network and supports a tabbed chat interface. Beyond that, the application is still very barebones, but its upcoming features are very exciting.

Aside from the basics you'd expect from any chat app (like status notifications, contact management, and IM notifications), the ultimate roadmap for Instantbird includes video and voice support. What's most exciting, though, is the possibility that the chat application will be subject to the same community of creative extension developers that make Firefox such a killer browser—so that Instantbird can easily be customized to deliver exactly what you want from it. Instantbird is free, works with Windows, Mac, and Linux. It's still a very young app, so this one's for the early adopters.
Instantbird [via CyberNet]

Windows/Mac/Linux: Add clip art, advanced PDF functions, and in-editor Wikipedia searching to open source office suite OpenOffice.org with OxygenOffice Professional, a modified installation package and extension. Along with adding roughly 3,400 clip art files and templates, OxygenOffice's extensions also add support for Microsoft's Visual Basic for Applications in the Calc spreadsheet program and conversion tools for the Office Open XML format used in Office 2007. Combined with the Writer's Tools package, this gives OO.org a number of exclusive features.

To install, download the extension, open OO.org, go to Tools -> Extension Manager and click the "Add" button in the My Extensions section, or download a binary to make a fresh OO.org install. OxygenOffice is a free download that runs wherever OpenOffice.org does.OxygenOffice Professional [via Download Squad]

Mac OS X Only: Freeware Mail.app add-on Mail.appetizer lets you read and delete email on the fly without having to open Mail's main window every time a message arrives. What makes Mail.appetizer stand out from other notifiers is the customization—you tell it whether to show headers, icons, quoted reply text and determine its size. Mail.appetizer is freeware, available in a seemingly bug-free beta for OS X 10.4 Tiger and a stable version for 10.3 Panther. Thanks, dcharti!
Mail.appetizer [Bronson Beta]