Ever had to rename a bunch of files one by one? It’s tedious, time-draining, and soul-sucking. Next time, use Renamer4Mac.

This powerful utility lets you rename any number of files or folders at once. Features include all sorts of naming voodoo: search & replace, insert & overwrite, enumeration, and capitalization. Advanced geeks can rejoice, because it also supports regular expressions. All this and an elegant live filename preview of make this freeware app a necessity in every designer’s arsenal.

Windows users, I haven’t forgotten you. Check out Rename-It!

I just saw something about Apple releasing new versions of the iPod this year… got any details on that? I’m still a little irritated that the folks at the Apple store didn’t tell me that the 80gig was coming out when I purchased my 60gig last year (the 80 came out 3 weeks after I bought mine). Thanks! and I love all the tips, especially the resume tips.

Unfortunately, I don’t know when Apple releases new products or updates. Even if I did, Mr. Jobs would bury me in cement and throw me in the San Francisco Bay once he finds I leaked it. All is not lost.

To get a prediction of when you should buy a new Apple product, check out my favorite buying resource, the MacRumors Buyer’s Guide. Based on a combination of historical releases, current age of the product, and reasoned speculation, the guide tells you if you should buy now or hold off.

Sure, it’s still speculation, but the compilation of historical data will certainly help you make an educated guess.

His tip is specific to MacBook Pro users with Skype, but it can be easily adapted to just about any laptop and audio conferencing service. The trick is to simply change the speaker balance so that the audio comes out as far away from the mic as possible:

To all you mac book pro users who use skype (and soon, Messenger) to make calls…

The microphone is located under the left speaker grille, and can contribute to horrible feedback during a call (the person on the other side hears himself coming out of the speaker on your machine, fedback into your mic).

I changed my speaker balance so that output was all to the right speaker, and the effect was fantastic. Conversations are in mono, but you can have a perfect conversation without requiring a headset.

Here’s how to change the speaker balance on both Mac and Windows:

Mac

1. In your Apple Menu, go to System Preferences and choose Sound.

2. Select the Output tab.

3. For Balance, move the slider all the way to the right if your mic is on the left. If your mic is on the right, move the slider to the left.

Windows

1. Double-click the speak icon on the bottom-right of the Windows Start Bar.

2. In the window that appears, move the Master Volume slider all the way to the right if your mic is on the left. If your mic is on the right, move the slider to the left.

Once you’ve adjusted your speaker output, just start an audio chat with your favorite buddy and enjoy.

Thanks goes to Matt Rolandson at MetaDesign, for sending this my way.

Thankfully, Mac OS X has a built-in cure via its Universal Access zooming feature. Here’s how to use it:

Setup

1. Go to the Apple Menu, and choose System Preferences.

2. Select Universal Access.

3. Under Zoom, select On.

4. Quit System Preferences.

Usage

1. Visit your favorite network’s website, for example ABC, NBC, and [CBS].

2. Find your favorite show, and choose an episode to view.

3. Use the keyboard shortcuts Command + Option + Plus Sign (+) and Command + Option + Minus Sign (-) to zoom in and out.

4. Move the mouse around to position the screen.

5. Hit the Esc key to hide the mouse.

6. Sit back and enjoy.

Apple does a decent job of scaling via its Quartz technology. Of course, the quality won’t be as great as a show purchased from iTunes – but, hey, it’s free.

AppFresh is an utility that keeps all applications on your Mac up to date by checking the internet for new releases and makes downloading and installing them a breeze.

Here are my first thoughts:

What I like

Unlike Apple’s Software Update utility, AppFresh checks your for updates from third-party developers as well as Apple.

If you’ve used Mail.app or iTunes, the interface should be quite familiar and intuitive. In the left column are groups organized by update status and application status. To right, are your applications. A handy preview pane in the lower-left shows release notes for each app, helping you decide to update now or skip a version.

AppFresh sports shine and gradients, but doesn’t overdo it like other apps.

Best of all, AppFresh is free. Since it’s a beta, this might change in the final release. But it still beats the gouging $40/year for MacUpdate Desktop and $50/year for VersionTracker Pro.

What I don’t like

For “safety reasons,” AppFresh won’t automatically launch and run installers, so you’ll still have to manually install software updates on your own. The programmers could have allayed security concerns by simply prompting for your system password before installation, but they chose not to go this route. Or perhaps, they’re planning this for the final release.

While the user interface is familiar and easy-to-use, its use of screen real estate could be more efficient. Each listing shows a large icon and two lines of text. On my MacBook Pro, that’s only about 18 rows visible at once.

Giant icons and white space are pretty, but I’d rather see more information than superfluous eye candy.

My final word

For a every early beta, AppFresh is smooth, stable, and easy-to-use. The final release will need automatic installations, a few interface tweaks, and keep a reasonable price tag for it to truly squash the competition.

A super duper web search tool that lets you:

• Search 10,500+ sites and tools including Google, Wikipedia, IMDB, eBay, and Craigslist through one common interface

• Instantly call up this interface from anywhere in the system with a single keyboard shortcut–without even being in a browser.

Here’s what it looks like in action:

What the hell is YubNub?

Like Quicksilver, YubNub is hard to explain. I’ll try anyway.

Yubnub lets you use shortcuts to access thousands of websites and web-based tools. You can use the 10,500+ existing shortcuts, or create your own.

Some examples will make this more clear. Here are some YubNub commands and a description of what each does:

• imdb The Godfather
  Find movies on IMDB titled “The Godfather”

• g How to start a blog
  Search Google for “How to Start a Blog”

• wp Life hack
  Go to the “Life hack” page on Wikipedia

• d typography
  Get the definition of “typography” on dictionary.com

• deli productivity
  Find bookmarks tagged “productivity” on del.icio.us

The beauty of YubNub is that it gives you a single common interface to query your favorite sites and tools.

So how do I use it with Quicksilver?

The disadvantage of YubNub is that it’s a website. To use it, you must first open a browser, go to http://www.yubnub.org, then type in a command. For Quicksilver enthusiasts, this is way too many steps and clicks.

With Quicksilver’s WebSearch plug-in and Triggers, you can instantly bring up a YubNub search window no matter where you are in the system. Here’s how:

1. Install the WebSearch module

If you don’t have it yet, install Quicksilver. Then, in Quicksilver’s settings window:

• Press the Plugins button at the top of the window

• Select All Plug-ins in the left column. In the right column, scroll down to find Web Search Module. Check the box to install.

• Restart Quicksilver to activate the plug-in.

2. Create a Trigger for YubNub

In Quicksilver’s settings window:

• Press the Triggers button at the top of the window.

• Click the Plus icon at the bottom of the window, and select HotKey.

In the pop-up that appears:

• Paste this exact URL in Select an Item field:
  qss-http://www.yubnub.org/parser/parse?command=***

• After pasting the URL, the Action field will automatically change to “Search For…”

The next step must be followed exactly:

• Press the Tab key until the Target field is selected.
• Press Command+X to clear the field. Note: You must use Command+X and not the Delete key.

The result must look like this (or it won’t work):

After pressing Save, we can now assign a Hot Key:

• Select the command you just created in the Triggers list and press the Info Icon on the bottom-right of the window. A drawer will appear.

• Next to the Hot Key field, click Edit and assign a keyboard shortcut. I like to use Command+Shift+Y

3. Now use it

To enjoy the rapid search power of YubNub and Quicksilver from anywhere:

• Check out the most-used YubNub commands. Or for the complete list, go here.

• Call up the YubNub search window by pressing the Hot Key you just created (Command+Shift+Y in our example).

• Type in any YubNub shortcut and it will automatically launch your browser with the results.

Bonus Tip

Jonathan Aquino just pointed out another awesome trick. To run multiple YubNub commands at once, use the mash command. For example:

• mash sanjaya-malakar wp gim imdb gn

The result looks like this in your browser:

All done. Now, go show your friends and amaze them with your nimble search prowess.

Drag files into a folder or desktop, and Hazel processes and organizes them automatically. Hazel is like Mac OS X’s Folder Actions but on steroids and with an easier-to-use interface.

Setting up rules is simple and straightforward, very much like creating rules in Mail.app. For example, you can create rules to automagically:

• Empty the trash at set intervals
• Move stray files cluttering your desktop to an Inbox folder for processing
• Creates archives of any files placed into a specific folder
• Organize images, disk images, text files into separate folders

If you’re feeling advanced, you can also set up rules to launch Automator workflows and Applescripts to create even more complex actions.

Thanks Paul for sending this over. Sorry it took me so long to write it up.

The new webmail system will sport the look of Mac OS X’s Mail.app, and features fancy user interface enhancements such as drag-and-drop, smart refreshes, message previews, and keyboard shortcuts. It’s certainly a welcomed improvement and I will likely use it more. But is this too little, too late?

The hatred for .Mac is not new in the Mac community. For me, .Mac is slowly becoming less and less valuable‖certainly less interesting‖as free services from Google, Flickr, and Delicious duplicate or nullify many of .Mac’s offerings. Of course, some things to like include .Mac’s ability to sync certain system preferences between computers. Still, it doesn’t seem quite worth the hundred bucks a year.

Here are some areas Apple might look at to improve, perhaps innovate, .Mac’s services:

Social networking

Given the passion (obsession) of Mac users, it’s a mystery why Apple hasn’t entered the social networking space in an emotional, compelling way. Apple could infuse it’s suite of software and web services with social-networking features, connecting users in the dedicated Mac community to each other. Imagine being able to easily find other iChat AV users or the ability to share and trade Garage Band samples. It seems ripe for it.

Tiered membership

Apple’s current membership model for .Mac is a closed gated community. You pay for exclusivity and supposed premium services. With competition from explosion of free services, reasons for joining the .Mac country club will be fewer and fewer. Even AOL, perhaps the largest internet gated-community, are opening up their doors and offering free services.

To compete Apple might offer some .Mac services for free in addition to truly premium features that are worth paying for.

Apple + Google collaboration

A more open .Mac could happen with an Apple + Google collaboration. Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt just joined Apple’s board of directors, so this seems almost too obvious. For example, a .Mac version of Google spreadsheets could have interoperability with Apple software, allowing users to collaborate and publish directly to Google spreadsheets from a robust version of iWork. The possibilities are very interesting indeed.

What do you think? How can Apple improve or overhaul .Mac? What alternatives do you use now?

I love Apple’s latest television ads in which Justin Long is the cool and casual personification of the Mac. His look can easily be summarized as:

• Smart, but approachable
• Informal and casual but not slovenly
• A simple color palette of cool blues and greys
• Minimal, with no visible logos or slogans

If you want to truly show your devotion (obsession) to your beloved Macintosh, here’s how and where to get the look:

The basic outfit

Justin most often wears an unassuming outfit that consists of a solid colored hoodie, plain t-shirt, slightly-distressed jeans, and simple slip-on shoes:

1. Zip Front Navy Hoodie
   BDG at Urban Outfitters
   $39.99

2. Jersey Slate T-Shirt
   American Apparel
   $15.00

3. Distressed Blue Jeans
   Levi’s at Urban Outfitters
   $89.99

4. Classic Blue Slip-on Shoes
   Vans at Hot Topic
   $12.99

Variations

T-Shirt Colors

• Sports Blue
  BDG at Urban Outfitters
  $15.00

• Navy
  American Apparel
  $15.00

• Black
  American Apparel
  $15.00

Shirts & Sweaters

• Jersey Long Sleeve Leisure Shirt
  American Apparel
  $38.00

• V-neck Sweater
  American Apparel
  $38.00

Shoes

• Black Slip-ons
  Converse at Zappos
  $45.00

• Chocolate Monochrome Lace-ups
  Converse at Zappos
  $47.00

Tips to complete the look

To finish your Mac makeover, there’s a few more things to do:

• Stand with your hands in your pockets a lot, but keep the thumbs out

• Avoid jewelry and extra decoration. Minimal and simple is the Apple way

• If you’re a guy, facial hair is okay, but keep it trimmed and neat

• Paint your walls white

• Smirk

Ladies?

I apologize, I don’t know a whole lot about women’s clothing, and it seems like Apple doesn’t either. Any suggestions?

Add LifeClever to your Technorati favorites.

I have been using another system, Kinkless GTD, for a little while. I like it and many people swear by it, but the setup is not user-friendly. It took me long time to even understand conceptually how it worked.

Midnight Beep’s interface, on the other hand, makes the most sense out of anything I’ve seen so far. I love how the major buckets on the left are called “Collect, Process, Organize, Daily Review, Work, Reference, and Trash”‖very clear to a person who might be just getting familiar with GTD. Even the organization of the help menu offers a concise introduction and overview of GTD.

Midnight Inbox is also a traditional application unlike KGTD (which is really an OmniOutliner document on steroids.) For people who aren’t power-users, Midnight Inbox might be the most promising new addition to the GTD space.

Download it here:

• Midnight Inbox

This is a pre-release beta, so beware of bugs. Make the application better by sending feedback to Midnight Beep.

[via Daring Fireball]

Update Aug. 30: After testing out the beta some more, here’s a longer review:

What I like

• The ability to collect files and emails as well as notes
  Although it’s unclear how to get files and emails into a Collection box, Midnight Inbox has “Recent Emails” and “Desktop Files” as default Collection groups. This is perhaps the most compelling part of the program, because it can consolidates all of your inboxes into one program. Right now, I have separate Inboxes for e-mail, computer files, and notes. Not by choice, but because there’s nothing out yet that can combine them together. Perhaps, Midnight Inbox can fully address this in it’s next release.

• Structure of left navigation
  I mentioned earlier that “Collect”, “Process”, “Organize”, “Daily review”, “Work”, and “Reference” and “Trash” are clear labels. I still like them, although the “Daily review” should be just be named “Review”, since you can have reviews of different intervals.

What I don’t like (bugs)

• Can’t do anything to items in the Collection boxes.
  Once you put an item into a collection box, you can’t do anything to it. This is an upcoming feature that will be implemented, but I wish they had released it with it working.

• Delete doesn’t work
  Can’t delete items in “Collect” or “Organize”. Normal key commands such as Delete and Command-Delete don’t work.

• Can’t drag and drop items
  Dragging and dropping between different buckets doesn’t work.

• Adding an item to the collection is hard
  It’s difficult to add notes. You have to press the Plus icon to make a new note, instead of just clicking in the window or use a key command.

• Crashes and hangs
  Even with “Automatic Collection” turned off, the application hangs and has many redrawing issues. Sometimes it won’t even let me select the window of the program.

• Misleading “Beta” title
  This feels more like an alpha or proof of concept than a working application.

Features I want

• Integration with other apps
  Quicksilver, iCal, Mail, AppleScript, and Growl integration

• Smaller footprint
  Currently some of the icons are too big, and the chrome of the window takes up too much space.

• Typographic customization
  The ability to choose your own fonts and sizes would be nice.

Conclusion

Conceptually, the application is off to a good start. It’s a decent proof of concept for what could be an amazing program. Midnight Inbox has my endorsement in that regard. The current implementation, however, has too many bugs to make it useful as a real day-to-day system. The term “beta” is used very loosely since all the major features are not implemented.

If you love checking out pre-release software like I do, then this program will certainly entertain your curiosity. If you want to replace kGTD or your existing GTD system, now’s not the time.