Most of the time, you can simply drag the App to the trash. That’s it. The secret is the app you just trashed is not one file but actually a special kind of folder[1] with a collection of files inside. This collection of files make up an application.

Almost all apps keep track of your preferences settings in a .plist file. The .plist file is tiny in size (usually less than 4KB). If you want to reclaim every single bit of disc space, you can either go to ~/Library/Preferences to look for and delete it, or use AppZapper, AppDelete, CleanApp etc to automate the process. Most of the time we leave the .plist alone.

If an app comes with an Uninstaller, use it! An Uninstaller usually accompanies complex apps such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite that spew support files, additional fonts, add-ons, custom extensions etc all over your harddisk.

So as you can see, uninstalling OS X’s apps is as simple as installing them! Yep, there’s no Registery nor DLL to get mad about.

[1] You can peek inside the special folder by right-clicking the app and select “Show Package Contents” from the pop-up menu.

Do you need that download manager without requiring to install additional softwares that just eat into your precious hard disk space?

All versions of OSX actually come with a copy of a download manager known popularly as ‘curl’ built into the Command Line Interface. To use it, there is nothing more needed other than a very small segment of your brain’s memory power, or this guide.

1) Fire up Terminal. You can find Terminal under: “Applications - Utilities” Folder.

2) Next fire up Terminal and you should be confronted with an intimidating screen that appears something like this:

3) For old timers familiar with the MS-DOS interface of C:\> most will smile readily but for new timers to the world of Command Line Interface, they will get pretty intimidated. But no worries. Simply type the following line to download your file:

The line is: curl -C - -O “http://www.xxx.com/123.dmg”
[That is a capital letter 'C' and a capital letter 'O' for 'Orange']

4) You should be downloading the file into your main user folder at this point after you hit Return.

5) In any case the connection breaks for some reason, you should be able to resume the download by typing this command: curl -C - -O -R “http://www.xxx.com/123.dmg”
[That is a capital 'C' for Cat, capital 'O' for 'Orange' with a capital 'R' for 'Resume']

6) To exit from the Terminal program after you had finished downloading everything, simply close the program.

NOTE ABOUT USING CURL: The link required must be a direct pointer to the file in the web or ftp server and not a redirect link as curl doesn’t work very well on redirect links.

This is what I do to prepare my Mac for a minor OS upgrade.

Go to Apple Downloads to download the update package. You’ll find two variants of updates, Combo and Delta, available for both Intel and PowerPC Macs (in addition to versions for Mac OS X Server). Be sure to pick the right one:

• Combo Update - Always larger in filesize then the “delta” update. If you read its requirements, you’ll see it’s for upgrading from any minor version. Example: from 10.5 (or 10.5.1, or 10.5.2) to 10.5.3
• Delta Update - The smaller update for one revision update, ie, from 10.5.2 (only) to 10.5.3. It’s the defacto copy when Software Update prompts you to download and install.

I always pick the larger Combo update simply because it contains every files needed to keep my OS running smoothly. By applying the Combo update, it will replace/overwrite existing files that were erroneously altered (by third party apps) or corrupted due to hardware errors. Updating via the Combo Update is, some say, as good as doing a “clean install” and refreshes your OS to factory condition! So be patient and spend a little more time to download it.

Prep the Mac with Onyx

While downloading is taking place, you’ll disconnect all external hardware such as harddisks, sound card, iPod etc. The only devices that should remain connected are your mouse and the keyboard.

After downloading the Combo Update, I’d run ONYX (download) to prepare the system for the update. The first thing Onyx wants to do is verify your harddisk. Let it do so and fix any problem before you go any further. Next go to its “Automation” tab and select the options as shown below:

Click on “Execute” to start the process.

Getting Ready to Update

When ONYX has done its job, you *must* reboot your Mac into Safe Mode. To enter Safe Mode, press and hold the SHIFT key after you hear the boot up gong, and keep holding on until you see the Desktop.

Immediately right after that, double-click on the downloaded Combo Update to begin installation. Do not surf the web! Do not fiddle with your files! Do not do anything at all except pray that power supply will not be interrupted!

If you follow this lengthy procedure your OS update will be perfect. If you don’t, you’ll probably have to spend even more time reinstall your OS and apps from scratch!

The Whys

Starting up in Safe Mode means unnecessary extensions and especially third party apps are not loaded. This ensure your Mac is in the best possible condition for accepting changes to its core, wherein 3rd party apps may lock some essential files for access, for instance. Fixing file permissions essentially does the same. Clearing caches lets OS X forgets and uses only updated data instead of mixing old with new to produce strange results.

Executive Summary

1. Download Combo Update
2. Disconnect external devices
3. Run Onyx’s Automation
4. Re-boot into Safe Mode
5. Install Update

Well, i can tell you what you should NOT do, and that is to run the app from the .dmg file. I’ll tell you why later, but first, let’s get to the topic at hand.

I’m assuming that you are fresh from the Windows world, where downloading applications or programs simply meant downloading a .zip file with an .exe inside the archive.

.dmg files also work in a similar principle: after downloading the .dmg file, double click on it. OS X will verify the disk image and then mount it onto the system as what i would call a ‘virtual drive’. Inside this virtual drive contains one or more of the following:

1) The application, all self-contained inside its package.

2) An installer for your application.

3) An uninstaller.

It is quite easy to differentiate a self-contained application from an installer: the former is represented by its application icon, while the latter is usually represented by an installer icon, which looks like an open box with a huge cube inside of it.

To install a self-contained application into OS X, simple drag and drop the application into your ‘Applications’ folder (or anywhere else of your liking), and you’re done. Easy as pie.

To install an application that has its own installer, double click on the installer icon in the .dmg and follow the instructions. This one is similar to the Windows installation style you are familiar with, except that by default, the installer will dump your application into the ‘Application’ folder by default.

Either way, after you are done, you can unmount or eject the .dmg and trash it away: you won’t need it anymore. Of course, unless the .dmg file came with a bundled uninstaller. In that case, you should hold on to the .dmg file. Should you ever need to uninstall the application, you can make use of the bundled uninstaller to do so. I won’t recommend dragging out the uninstaller package from the .dmg file for a very simple reason: imagine having 5 or more uninstaller packages lying around your ‘Applications’ folder; hunting for the correct uninstaller will take considerable effort.

Now, you’re probably wondering: why shouldn’t i run my applications from within the .dmg file itself? Simply put: anything you work from within a .dmg will not be saved. So let’s say, if you just had a very nice conversation with your buddy on Adium and you want to save the conversation, but you are running Adium off the .dmg instead. Well, say goodbye to your precious log, because the next time you open Adium up from the .dmg, all your settings will have reverted to their defaults.

You’d probably be thinking: “But this is standard OS X operations! How can anyone NOT know?” Unfortunately, just because you and i know about it does not mean the next person does. And after seeing so many of my friends running their Firefox from their .dmg and complaining why all their important bookmarks are lost after the .dmg is ejected, i think a little basic Mac ‘how-to’ is in order.

The short answer: Yes, definitely. Open Firmware (for PowerPC Macs) and EFI (for Intel Macs) support external booting.

Now for the longer answer: when we say yes, we mean, yes, you can boot off external devices but under certain conditions, especially for PPC Macs. There is a guaranteed way to successfully boot up both Intel and PPC Macs from an external device, and that is if your external device is connected to the Mac via FireWire.

However, if your external device does not support FireWire, things will get a little tricky.

For Intel Macs:

You won’t really have to lose much sleep over it: EFI in Intel Macs (usually) supports USB device booting. To do so, make sure your Mac is turned off, insert your USB device, power the Mac and hold down the ‘option’ key to bring up the Boot Manager. Next to your Startup disk you should see a picture of a CD or a USB device, depending on what device you have connected to the Mac. Select the desired boot device, and you’re good to go.

In the event the Boot Manager throws up nothing but a white screen, give it a little time for it to detect your hardware. If the white screen persists, restart the Mac by holding down the power button until it turns off, and try again: it usually works after 1 or 2 tries.

For PowerPC Macs

It’s essentially the same as doing it for an Intel Mac. The only difference is whether your PPC Mac supports booting off USB devices. Results for this are varied, at best: there are many who claimed that PPC Macs do not support USB booting, while some have disputed that certain PPC Macs have newer firmware that allows for it. In that case, your best bet will be to purchase a USB-to-Firewire adaptor and try it again. That usually works for most people.

The good news is it’s very easy. The bad news is you’ll need a PowerPC Mac. A big thank you to Bluemint for pointing out an Universal Binaries version of the Real Codec is actually available, making the conversion possible on both PowerPC and Intel Mac. The instructions below are herewith updated.

What you’ll need:

1. ffmpegX - It’s a Mac OS X graphic user interface designed to easily operate more than 20 powerful Unix open-source video and audio processing tools
2. mpeg2enc - Download to your Downloads folder.
3. mencoder & mplayer - Download and decompress the zip file.

Setup:

The first time you launch ffmpegX it’ll ask you to locate three components (items 2 & 3 above). Click on the respective “Locate” buttons to tell ffmpegX where they are. After that, enter your Mac OS X login password (ffmpegX won’t work if your login password is empty) and click the “Install” button.

Download and Install the Real Codec (Universal Binaries)

1. Download the “Mac OS X x86″ binary codec package from one of these links on this page.
2. Unzip the downloaded zip file and install the codec package.
3. Select “Go to folder …” from Finder’s “Go” menu.
4. Type “/usr/local/lib/” in the input text field and click “Go”
5. You should see a “codecs” folder in the new window.
6. Drag the “codecs” folder to your Desktop, and rename it to “reallib”.
7. Move the “reallib” folder to “/Library/Applications Support/ffmpegx/”.

Performing the conversion to .avi

First and foremost, ffmpegX chokes on non-english path/filename, so rename your “小美媚.rmvb” to “xmm.rmvb” first. UB Rockz on any valid unicode Path/Filename.

Drag and drop your rmvb file into the “From” well and just click the “Encode” button to start encoding. Unless you’re an expert user, do not be tempted to change any settings when converting a .rmvb file.

In other words, for a successful run, just drag, drop, and click Encode. What more can you ask for?

Footnotes:

• Re-launch ffmpegX if you messed up the default settings.
• You can close ffmpegX’s main window after clicking Encode; a new stand-alone Progress window shows you the progress.
• Repeat the process to convert more files.
• The “Play” button plays the .rmvb.
• The “Preview” button plays the (partially) converted .avi file.
• Press the Return key to stop playback.
• You can download and install MPlayer to play your .rmvb files. However, it has a bug whereby it only plays video and totally ignores embedded links and other wonderful added features Real is famous for.

Actually, not just .wmv but any video files that the VLC Player can play it can convert to .mp4! The list includes popular video format such as VCD’s .dat/.mpg, DVD Video’s .vob, etc. The process is technically call Transcoding, and it’s simple, fast and best of all, free-of-charge.

1. Launch VLC Player and select the “Streaming/Exporting Wizard…” from its File menu.
2. Select the “Transcode/Save to file” option.
3. Click the “Choose…” button and select your .wmv file.
4. Tick “Transcode video” and select the “H.264″ codec and 1024 kb/s.
5. Tick “Transcode audio” and select the “MPEG 4 Audio” codec and 192 kb/s.
6. Select “MPEG 4/ MP4″ as the Encapsulation format.
7. Click the “Choose…” button and Save As “NewFileName.mp4″ to your Desktop.
8. Click “Finish” to begin transcoding.

In Step 7, tick the “Local playback” option if you want to watch and transcode your .wmv in real-time. Needless to say, do not tick it for speedier transcoding.

You can further use MPEG Streamclip to process the .mp4 to an iPod compliant copy.

With your Apple product’s serial number, you can easily check your warranty information online using this link: https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do

To find your Mac’s serial number, use the System Profiler Utility (Application -> Utilities -> System Profiler)

Alternatively, go to “About This Mac” and click twice on the Version Number.

The Serial Number will be blank if you have replaced the logic board. When in doubt, always check the printed serial number on the machine itself. Where can I find it?

Of course it does! In fact, the function is built-in - there is no need to purchase any additional software.

To enable Chinese text (both 简体字 and 繁體字 are supported) input, go to System Preferences -> International: Input Menu, and tick on your choices. For the Hanyu Pinyin method, select ITABC for Simplified Chinese, Zhuyin for Traditional Chinese.

After enabling Chinese text input, you should find a new menulet on the top-right corner of your screen. Select your input method, and type away. It’s easy to assign keyboard shortcuts to switch between your default and alternate languages. The default is +SPACE.

Is there a Chinese version of Mac OS X?

Mac OS X operates in many languages including Chinese. To switch to Simplified Chinese, go to System Preferences -> International -> Languages, and drag “简体中文” to the top of the list. After rebooting, you will find Mac OS X’s interface is now in Simplified Chinese. Most apps operate in your new language of choice. Some apps, notably Firefox and Adobe’s products, do not support multi-languages. You will have to download or purchase a language-specific version from the publisher.

This tutorial is obsolete; click here for the updated version.

The good news is it’s very easy. The bad news is you’ll need a PowerPC Mac.

What you’ll need:

1. ffmpegX - It’s a Mac OS X graphic user interface designed to easily operate more than 20 powerful Unix open-source video and audio processing tools
2. mpeg2enc - Download to your Downloads folder.
3. mencoder & mplayer - Download and decompress the zip file.
4. reallibs - Download, decompress the zip, rename the folder as “reallib”, and copy it into /Library/Application Support/ffmpegX. You’ll create the “ffmpegX” folder (cAsE sensitive) if it doesn’t exists.

Setup:

The first time you launch ffmpegX it’ll ask you to locate three components (items 2 & 3 above). Click on the respective “Locate” buttons to tell ffmpegX where they are. After that, enter your Mac OS X login password (ffmpegX won’t work if your login password is empty.)

Performing the conversion to .avi

First and foremost, the conversion process chokes on non-english path/filename, so rename your 小美媚.rmvb to xmm.rmvb first.

Drag and drop your rmvb file into the “From” well and just click the “Encode” button to start encoding. Do not be tempted to change any settings when converting a .rmvb file. If you want a different output format (iPod’s mp4, mpeg1 VCD, DivX 6 etc), then do so after ffmpegX has converted it to .avi first. Re-launch ffmpegX if you messed up its default settings.

In other words, for a successful run, just drag, drop, and click Encode.

BTW, you can close ffmpegX’s main window after clicking Encode; a new and stand-alone Progress window shows you the progress.

With the release of Windows™ Media Components for QuickTime™, you can play Windows™ Media audio and video files (WMA, WMV) directly in the QuickTime™ Player and also view Windows Media content on the Internet using a Web browser (eg: Firefox/Safari)

Flip4Mac WMV is comprised of a collection of QuickTime™ components that enables Mac OS X users to play, import and export Windows™ Media files using QuickTime™-based applications. Both the PowerPC and Intel-based Macintosh systems are supported, on Mac OS X version 10.3.9 and QuickTime™ version 6.5 or later.

You can download Flip4Mac WMV free of charge, and if you purchase an upgrade, you can import Windows Media files for editing, create Windows Media files for distribution, and export to other formats. Note that this product does not support files that are protected with Windows Media digital rights management (DRM).

Download flip4mac

If you like, here’s Microsoft’s own Windows Media Player 9 for Mac OS X. It’s an obsolete app (it was last updated on Nov 8, 2003) but the PowerPC app does play some DRM files and still runs fine in an Intel Mac Leopard. You’ll need Stuffit Expander to decompress the .sitx download.

In Leopard:

• “Get Info” (Command+I) on the file with an icon you want to change.
• Drag and drop the file with the replacement icon directly onto the Get Info icon well .

In Tiger:

• “Get Info” (Command+I) on the file with the icon you want to use. Then click on the little icon near the top-left corner of the Get Info window. You’ll noticed the icon has a faint blue outline after you click on it. Now copy the icon by pressing Command+C.
• Repeat the above for the file with its icon you want to replace, but Paste (Command+V) the copied icon instead.

Restore Default Icon

To remove a custom icon, just click the Get Info’s icon well and press the Delete button on your keyboard.

You can’t change an icon if you do not have write permission to the file.

There are many apps out there that can convert .avi video to mp4 video for playback on iPod. My favorite is the excellent freeware, MPEG Streamclip.

MPEG Streamclip was originally developed for Mac OS X, and has been ported to the Windows platform. The instructions here is based on the Mac OS X version.

• Launch MPEG Streamclip.
• Drag and drop the .avi file into its window.
  

  Mac OS X: Please install the Perian codec first if MPEG Streamclip cannot load your .avi file.
  Windows: Please install K-Lite codec first if MPEG Streamclip cannot load your .avi file.

• Select “Export to MPEG-4…” from the File menu.
• Click on the “iTunes…” button.
• Select your iPod device from the list, and click on OK.
  

  Choose iPhone for iPod touch.

• Now click on the “Make MPEG-4″ button to start the conversion.
  

  Please leave all the settings alone unless you know what you are doing.

You can convert a batch of .avi files by selecting “Batch List” from the “List” menu.

Explore around the app; you can also use it to convert DVD Video Disc, VideoCD, and in fact, any video file that QuickTime can playback. I’m not sure about the Windows version but MPEG Streamclip for Mac OS X cannot handle Real Video, but you can use ffmpegX to do it (instructions.)

It’s probably because you didn’t install the correct codec.

Windows users probably knows about the K-Lite Codec Pack? In the simple and elegant world of Mac OS X, we have The Perian! It’s “The Swiss Army Knife for QuickTime(tm)”. I don’t know what that means, but I do know that ever since it was created I have dumped every codecs (except for the Apple mpeg2 codec) I have in my Mac OS X.

Just install it.

Alternatively, you can also use the VLC Media Player to play most video files, and especially those that aren’t standard compliant.

In the PC world, you would use HJSplit to join and recombine them.

For Mac OS X, you’ll use Split&Concat to do it instead.

You can also use Split&Concat to split a large file. The resulting files are 100% HJSplit compatible.

We recommend you install The Unarchiver. It decompresses practically every file archive formats except .sitx and password protected .rar files.

The .sitx and .sit are argubly obsolete archive formats. You must use Stuffit Expander to decompress a .sitx file, but you can just use The Unarchiver to decompress a .sit file. Therefore you do not need to download and install Stuffit Expander (much less Stuffit Deluxe) at all unless someone, typically a Mac OS 9 user, give you a .sitx file.

You can use UnRar to decompress a password protected .rar file.

To create a .rar archive, we recommend you use RarMe.

To create a .zip archive, just select the file(s) and/or folder(s) in Finder, then right-click and select “Compress …” from the pop-up menu. The .zip created is 100% PC compatible.

System Related

AppleJack - User friendly troubleshooting assistant for Mac OS X
CandyBar ($$) - App for customising and organizing icons
coconutBattery - Battery monitor
Growl - Multi app notification system for Mac OS X
iStat menus - Monitors your CPU, memory, disk, network, fans etc. in a fancy GUI on your menu bar
Mac Pilot ($$) - All-in-one system app
MainMenu - Menu bar based utility app
MenuMeters - CPU, memory, disk usage meter
Monolingual - Removes unnecessary languages from your Mac OS X installation
Onyx - All-in-one system app
Quicksilver - A simple yet complex launch app that does much more
smcFanControl - Controls fan speed
Teleport - Remotely control multiple Macs
TinkerTool - All-in-one system app
Trimmit - Removes unnecessary languages from your Mac OS X installation
Unarchiver - Replacement for “BOMArchiveHelper.app”, the built-in archive unpacker program in Mac OS X
UnRarX - Mac OS X RAR extraction utility
Witch - Replacement list view for Command tab (⌘-Tab)
Xslimmer ($$) - Removes unwanted binaries, languages and code from your apps to free up disk space

Productivity

Genius - Memory based learning app
iProcrastinate ($$) - Homework and task management
Notebook 2.1($$) - Organiser
OmniFocus ($$) - Professional personal task management
SchoolHouse - Homework manager
Scrivener ($$) - Word processor and project management tool for writers
Skitch - Fast and fun screen capture and image sharing

Audio

Audacity - Open source software for recording and editing sounds
Audio Hijack Pro - Record ANY audio and output it in many different formats
Soundflower - Inter-application audio routing utility for Mac OS X
Switch - Audio conversion software

Video

Camtwist - Add special effects to your video chats
iShowU ($$) - Screen recorder
ScreenFlow - Screen recorder & video camera (vid + audio) capture
Tooble - YouTube convertor for iPods
VLC - Media player that plays almost everything

Instant Messenging

Adium - Instant Messenger (AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, etc)
Mercury Messenger - Java based messenger (feature filled but still a bit buggy)

Browsers & FTP

Camino - Native “Firefox” for Mac OS X
Transmit ($$) - FTP client

DVD Software

Burn - Burning app
Handbrake - DVD convertor

BitTorrent

Azureus - Java based BitTorrent Client
Clutch - WebUI for remotely controlling Transmission
Transmission - Lightweight BitTorrent client

Security

ClamXav - Anti-virus
Little Snitch - Outgoing connection monitor/blocker
TrueCrypt - Encryption app

Widgets

GuitarChords - Guitar chord reference
iStat pro, nano - Monitors your CPU, memory, disk, network, fans etc. in a fancy GUI on your Dashboard
This Day In History - Self explanatory

Finder Add-ons

Finder Refresh button - Refreshes Finder windows

Screensavers

Fenêtres Volantes
Fliqlo
PolarClock

($$) free trial but purchase is required thereafter

Credits:
http://opensourcemac.org
http://www.coolosxapps.net
http://www.google.com (Google is your BEST friend)

A big thank-you to Rippet for compiling the list, and n0d3 for cleaning it up.

I use Max, a freeware.

Setting up Max

• Go to Max’s Preferences.
• Click on the “Format” tab, and select “MP3″ from the list of Available Output Format. Now click on the “+” button. Finally, make sure you tick the “MP3″ option. The Format screen should look like this.
• Click on the “Output” tab, and set “Same as source files” for the Output Files option.

Convert .flac to .mp3

• Launch Max, and you’ll see this File Conversion window (otherwise select “Convert Files” from the File menu.)
• Drag and drop or click on the “+” button to select your .flac files.
• Click on the “Convert” icon to start the conversion.

There are a few apps you can use but my favorite is xAct, a freeware.

Split the .ape file into individual audio tracks in .aiff format

1. Launch xACT, and go to the “shntool” tab.
2. Drag and drop your .ape file into the drop box (or click on the “add” button.)
3. Click the “split” and the “aiff” bullets.
4. Cick on the “Call Shntool” button, and when prompted, select your .cue file.

Sit back and relax; it’s a long process. The single .ape audio file will be splited into individual tracks in .aiff format.

Convert .aiff audio file to .mp3 format

1. Launch iTunes and import the newly created .aiff files.
2. Select the .aiff files and click on “Convert Selection to MP3*” from the “Advanced” menu.

You may delete the .aiff files after conversion.

* By default, iTunes converts songs you imported to .aac format. You can to change it to .mp3 format via iTunes’ Preferences setting.

This is a controversial subject often debated amongst the Mac users community. Half of the community feel it’s important to defrag regularly for optimal system performance. The other half laugh at the idea.

So please decide for yourself after you read Apple’s official documentation on this subject.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668

Executive Summary:
“You probably won’t need to optimize at all if you use Mac OS X… ”

It’s the word “probably” that divided us!

Therefore if you want to defrag your hard disk, go ahead and do it. On the other hand, many long-time Mac OS X users don’t even know what “defrag” is and their Mac are fine.

“Aiyah, got plenty of free time do it lah. No time I heck care lor.” - RupertGee