Synopses & Reviews
Bigger in size, longer in length, broader in scope, and even more useful than our original Mac OS X Hacks, the new Big Book of Apple Hacks offers a grab bag of tips, tricks and hacks to get the most out of Mac OS X Leopard, as well as the new line of iPods, iPhone, and Apple TV.
With 125 entirely new hacks presented in step-by-step fashion, this practical book is for serious Apple computer and gadget users who really want to take control of these systems. Many of the hacks take you under the hood and show you how to tweak system preferences, alter or add keyboard shortcuts, mount drives and devices, and generally do things with your operating system and gadgets that Apple doesn't expect you to do. The Big Book of Apple Hacks gives you:
- Hacks for both Mac OS X Leopard and Tiger, their related applications, and the hardware they run on or connect to
- Expanded tutorials and lots of background material, including informative sidebars
- "Quick Hacks" for tweaking system and gadget settings in minutes
- Full-blown hacks for adjusting Mac OS X applications such as Mail, Safari, iCal, Front Row, or the iLife suite
- Plenty of hacks and tips for the Mac mini, the MacBook laptops, and new Intel desktops
- Tricks for running Windows on the Mac, under emulation in Parallels or as a standalone OS with Bootcamp
The Big Book of Apple Hacks is not only perfect for Mac fans and power users, but also for recent -- and aspiring -- "switchers" new to the Apple experience. Hacks are arranged by topic for quick and easy lookup, and each one stands on its own so you can jump around and tweak whatever system or gadget strikes your fancy. Pick up this book and take control of Mac OS X and your favorite Apple gadget today!
About the Author
Chris Seibold is an engineer, writer, and cartoonist residing in Knoxville, Tennessee. As an engineer, he has tackled such diverse processes as powder coating and hot dog casing manufacture. As a writer, he has focused on computing and written for a variety of online and traditional media, including serving as Senior Contributing Editor for the Apple Matters web site and contributing hacks to iPod and iTunes Hacks, with a talent for making the complex accessible to the interested but harried user. As a cartoonist, he has produced both cartoon strips and editorials. Chris also managed to spend some time working producing radio shows relating to sports. As soon as he hits television, the trifecta will be complete. Chris lives with his wife, young son, and what is quite possibly the world's dimmest canine. He has a degree in Physics from the University of Tennessee but has yet to find work involving frictionless inclined planes.
Table of Contents
Preface; How to Use This Book; How This Book Is Organized; Conventions Used in This Book; Acknowledgments; We'd Like to Hear from You; Chapter 1: Before You Hack; 1.1 HACK 01: Back Up Now with Disk Utility; 1.2 HACK 02: Create an Emergency Bootable Flash Drive; 1.3 HACK 03: Install Developer Tools; 1.4 HACK 04: Understand Your User Account; 1.5 HACK 05: Become an Administrator for a Moment; 1.6 HACK 06: Behold the Power of PLIST; Chapter 2: Hacks for the Net; 2.1 HACK 07: Change Your Browser; 2.2 HACK 08: Safari: More Than Meets the Eye; 2.3 HACK 09: Browser Agnosticism; 2.4 HACK 10: Enable Safari Debug Menu; 2.5 HACK 11: Roll Your Own Web Server; 2.6 HACK 12: Two Ways to Reset Safari; 2.7 HACK 13: Ditch That Hidden Data; 2.8 HACK 14: Scrape the Web for Images; 2.9 HACK 15: User-Initiated Privacy for Web Applications; Chapter 3: Hacking Mac OS X; 3.1 HACK 16: Know Your Cats; 3.2 HACK 17: Kill Dashboard; 3.3 HACK 18: Move a Widget to the Desktop; 3.4 HACK 19: Turn Your Desktop into a Font of Useful Information; 3.5 HACK 20: Tame the Finder; 3.6 HACK 21: Use That Software Restore Disk on (Almost) Any Mac; 3.7 HACK 22: Get Things Done with Automator; 3.8 HACK 23: A Context Menu for Moving Files; 3.9 HACK 24: Free Up Gigabytes of Space on Your Hard Drive (and Never Miss the Data); 3.10 HACK 25: Create an Encrypted USB Drive; 3.11 HACK 26: Capture That Screen; 3.12 HACK 27: Launch in a Different Way; 3.13 HACK 28: Meet the Dictionary: Your Hidden Wikipedia Browser; Chapter 4: Command-Line Fun; 4.1 HACK 29: Meet Unix; 4.2 HACK 30: Getting Things Done with the Command Line; 4.3 HACK 31: Get More Out of Your Mac with Fink and MacPorts; 4.4 HACK 32: Make Life Easy With Shell Scripts; 4.5 HACK 33: Fun with MacFUSE, or Mount Nearly Everything as a Virtual Hard Drive; 4.6 HACK 34: Starting and Stopping Unix Daemons; 4.7 HACK 35: Image Management with ImageMagick; 4.8 HACK 36: Tapping Into Mac OS X from the Command Line; Chapter 5: Customizing the OS X Look and Feel; 5.1 HACK 37: Customize the Login Window; 5.2 HACK 38: Change Safari's Error Page; 5.3 HACK 39: Convert Audio Files with iTunes; 5.4 HACK 40: Replace Mail Sounds; 5.5 HACK 41: Rename the Unrenameable; 5.6 HACK 42: Create Custom Screensavers; 5.7 HACK 43: Create Custom Icons; 5.8 HACK 44: Clean Up That Desktop with AppleScript; 5.9 HACK 45: Change the Boot Image; 5.10 HACK 46: Empower the Finder Window; Chapter 6: Network and Security Hacks; 6.1 HACK 47: Automate Your Download Folder; 6.2 HACK 48: Approximate a Static IP with NoIP for Mac; 6.3 HACK 49: Surf Anonymously; 6.4 HACK 50: Monitor the Data Leaving Your Mac; 6.5 HACK 51: Resurrecting the IPFW Firewall in Leopard; 6.6 HACK 52: Physical Security Measures for Your Mac; 6.7 HACK 53: Keep Your Traffic Private with Secure Shell; 6.8 HACK 54: Secure Your Wireless Network; 6.9 HACK 55: Share Your Wi-Fi; 6.10 HACK 56: Use Your Mac as an Access Point; 6.11 HACK 57: Hide Sensitive Files in OS X; Chapter 7: Hacking the iPod; 7.1 HACK 58: Home Folder to Go; 7.2 HACK 59: Boot from Your iPod; 7.3 HACK 60: Manage Your Shuffle Sans iTunes; 7.4 HACK 61: Uncap Your iPod's Volume; 7.5 HACK 62: The 2¢ iPod Case; 7.6 HACK 63: The Ultimate Zen Hack: iPod Video Cable; 7.7 HACK 64: Good as New: Clean Your iPod; 7.8 HACK 65: Read Wikipedia on an iPod; Chapter 8: Maximize your Mac with Multiple Operating Systems; 8.1 HACK 66: Nondestructively Partition Your Hard Drive; 8.2 HACK 67: Run Windows on Your Mac; 8.3 HACK 68: Suck Windows Onto Your Mac; 8.4 HACK 69: Move from Windows to Mac OS X Painlessly; 8.5 HACK 70: Panic Swap; 8.6 HACK 71: Using Windows Keyboards with OS X; 8.7 HACK 72: Boot Another OS Without Losing Uptime in Mac OS X; 8.8 HACK 73: Run Classic Mac Applications with SheepShaver and Basilisk II; 8.9 HACK 74: Build a Screaming Fast Darwin Machine for $935 (or Less)!; Chapter 9: Hacking the iLife; 9.1 HACK 75: Get More Out of iTunes; 9.2 HACK 76: Build a Custom Visualizer with Quartz Composer; 9.3 HACK 77: Get More Out of iChat; 9.4 HACK 78: Use a Chatbot with iChat; 9.5 HACK 79: Quick iPhoto Tips and Tricks; 9.6 HACK 80: Tips for Pics; 9.7 HACK 81: Get More Out of iWeb; 9.8 HACK 82: Fun with Photo Booth; 9.9 HACK 83: Optimize iMovie HD for YouTube; 9.10 HACK 84: Tips for Making Great Movies; Chapter 10: Hack the Apple TV; 10.1 HACK 85: Use Your Apple TV with Standard Definition Sets; 10.2 HACK 86: Upgrade Your Apple TV Hard Drive; 10.3 HACK 87: Configure the Apple TV for Remote Shell Access; 10.4 HACK 88: Gain Remote Shell Access to the Apple TV (Running Take 2) Without Opening the Case; 10.5 HACK 89: Browse from the Couch; Chapter 11: Hack the Latest and Greatest: Leopard; 11.1 HACK 90: Make Mail Templates Yours; 11.2 HACK 91: A Brighter Spotlight; 11.3 HACK 92: Time Machine: How to Back Up Different Folders to Different Disks; 11.4 HACK 93: Two Ways to Make a Widget; 11.5 HACK 94: Tweak an Existing Widget; 11.6 HACK 95: Beer Goggles for Leopard; 11.7 HACK 96: Install Leopard on Unsupported Hardware; 11.8 HACK 97: Burn Leopard to a Single Disk; Install Leopard from an Image; 11.9 HACK 98: Approximate .Mac with Free Tools; Chapter 12: Hack the iPhone; 12.1 HACK 99: Jailbreak Your iPhone; 12.2 HACK 100: After You Jailbreak; 12.3 HACK 101: Add a Hard Drive to Your iPhone (Kind of); 12.4 HACK 102: The iPhone as a Mobile Educational Tool; 12.5 HACK 103: The iPhone as a Mobile Blog Machine; 12.6 HACK 104: Going Mobile with PasswordWallet; Chapter 13: Hacks for Laps; 13.1 HACK 105: Three Ways to Disable a Built-in iSight; 13.2 HACK 106: Two Hacks for the iBook; 13.3 HACK 107: Demobilize Your iBook; 13.4 HACK 108: Build a Perfect Laptop Cooler for Your Machine; 13.5 HACK 109: Dual Drive MacBook Pro; 13.6 HACK 110: Upgrade a Macbook Pro Hard Drive; 13.7 HACK 111: SmackBook: The Most Fun You'll Ever Have Beating Your 'Book; Chapter 14: Multimedia Hacks; 14.1 HACK 112: Let Your TiVo Meet Your Mac; 14.2 HACK 113: View AVI Movies on Your Mac; 14.3 HACK 114: Master BitTorrent with Xtorrent; 14.4 HACK 115: Legal Online Sources for Music (Besides iTunes!); 14.5 HACK 116: Play Songs Sans iTunes; 14.6 HACK 117: Play Classic Games on Your Mac with MacMAME; 14.7 HACK 118: Connect Your Mac to an Xbox 360; 14.8 HACK 119: Grab and Convert Video from YouTube; 14.9 HACK 120: Keep Your iTunes Library on an External Hard Drive; 14.10 HACK 121: Building a Digital Movie Collection from Your DVD Collection; 14.11 HACK 122: Create a Screencast!; 14.12 HACK 123: Manipulate Audio From the Command Line; Chapter 15: Hack Some Hardware; 15.1 HACK 124: Awesome Mini in a Car Hack!; 15.2 HACK 125: Repair Scratched DVDs and CDs; 15.3 HACK 126: Use Your Mac as a Weather-Monitoring Station; 15.4 HACK 127: No Lights? No Power? Still Got the Net!; 15.5 HACK 128: Hacks for Smart Homes; 15.6 HACK 129: Twittering Your Home; 15.7 HACK 130: Create Custom Video Cables; 15.8 HACK 131: Clean the Mighty Mouse; Credits; About the Author; Contributors;