Time Machine is one of my favorite Mac OS X features but Apple recently rolled out a “Time Capsule Backup Update”, and included it in Mac OS X 10.6.4, that is causing confusion and concern. In the name of improving “the reliability of your Time Capsule backup,” this update has the unfortunate side-effect of detecting errors in existing backup bundles and forcing users to start a new backup. It happened with two of my Macs so far, so I was keen to find out what’s going on.
Apple
How To Assign Keyboard Shortcuts To AppleScript and Automator Actions
Last week, I posted a piece about How To Automate “Get/Send Clipboard†in Mac OS X Screen Sharing. In that article, I advocated using the Mac’s Speech Recognition to launch the AppleScript commands from any application (except Screen Sharing itself). But what if you don’t want to talk to your computer? Here’s a method of launching AppleScript or any other Automator action using keyboard shortcuts regardless of what application you are currently in. And it uses no third-party software, a bit plus as far as I’m concerned!
How To Automate “Get/Send Clipboard” in Mac OS X Screen Sharing
I’m a heavy user of Screen Sharing in Mac OS X. When I’m in the office, I sit at a workstation with my trusty IBM Model M keyboard, 27″ iMac, Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical and Apple Magic Trackpad. Off to the side is my mobile environment, the MacBook Pro, open and running, with its display mirrored in a Screen Sharing window on the iMac. At the desk, I do most of my work on the iMac, with the MacBook limited to less-portable applications (Mail, iTunes, and iPhoto) and often displaying a full-screen TweetDeck board. But copying and pasting content between these two environments was a serious multi-click pain until I automated it with AppleScript and Speech. Here’s how I did it.
How Apple Will Get Their Mobile Phone Mojo Back From AT&T
Apple has taken a beating from the “in crowd” lately. In the mind of these technophiles, they’ve gone from hip to evil in just a few years. While Apple is lambasted for turning the iPhone “walled garden” into a jail, Google is applauded as the new bastion of openness and geek friendliness. This criticism focuses on the iPhone, especially with regard to the despised American mobile carrier, AT&T. But Apple is a long way from the evil empire it’s accused of being, and is showing signs that it will soon retake its mojo from the carriers.
Walled Gardens, Gilded Cages, and Right to Repair
Things are getting awfully complicated, aren’t they? The custom parallel CPUs, proprietary communications networks, and encrypted data ports require extensive training, special tools, and a computerized reference library to comprehend, much less debug. And the manufacturers, who derive much of their money and differentiation from warranties and authorized repair centers, are loathe to see independent shops get a piece of the action.
