Photography by Bas Bettenhaussen » Mac tips & tricks

Enhanced icon view not working?

Bas — Mon, 24 May 2010 20:01:38 +0000

Working in the Finder and and this feature is not present. Is this a hardware issue? Nope, Increase the thumbnail size a bit. If the thumbnail is too small then it won’t work.

Rotating movies in Quicktime

Bas — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 12:00:49 +0000

You recognize this situation? Shooting a vid with your point an shoot or iPhone, and instead of holding it in landscape you capture the vid in portrait. No worries!!, here is how to simply correct this.

First of all, open Quicktime 7 on your Mac, then:

open your movie
goto the ‘movie’ menu and down to ‘get movie properties’
select ‘video track’ on the left side of the pop up menu that appears
then on select ’size’ on the right hand side of that menu
you can then rotate, adjust size etc. with the buttons on the bottom of that menu and preview in the main window
in the ‘file’ menu select ‘export’ and choose the file format, codec etc that you want.
or just save!

Simple enough for you?

Random Apple newsbits

Bas — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:38:13 +0000

Another article on Intel’s Core i3, i5, and i7 processors: and when is it implemented in the MBP?

iPad Can’t Play Flash Video, but It May Not Matter, in this NYT article

So, what the hell is HTML5

27-Inch iMac Production Halted Pending Fix For Display Issues? yeez that’s why mine was delayed, got so tired that I canceled out, waiting for new MBP.

and last, Steven Colbert has an iPad… (video)

Startup key combinations for Intel-based Macs

Bas — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 08:17:08 +0000

Today I needed to dump my Macintosh HD to an external HD using Carbon Copy Cloner. For backup issues I needed to boot from the external HD afterwards. These handy boot options helped me pick the right one. Note these options are for Intel Macs only!

Run your Lightroom 2 in 64 bit mode

Bas — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:58:43 +0000

If you are using Lightroom on a 64 bit capable Mac you will be glad to know the latest update to Snow Leopard (10.6.2) fixes the bug that crippled the sending of multiple photos from Lightroom to Photoshop for editing. Previously, if you selected 3 or more photos in Lightroom and tried to send them to Photoshop for panorama stitching, HDR merging or opening as layers Photoshop would open but no photos would appear. The short term fix for this was to run Lightroom in 32 bit mode and all functionality for sending to Photoshop was restored. The downside being that you couldn’t run Lightroom in 64 bit mode.

So, install the 10.6.2 update from Apple, then right-click on the Lightroom icon in your Applications folder and uncheck the Open in 32 bit mode box, then launch Lightroom and give it a test drive. You should be back in business!

Courtesy from Lightroomers

When was your Mac born?

Bas — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:04:02 +0000

Today I asked myself the question, when did I get my iMac? (yes I am considered a normal person) Normally on a Macbook (Pro) I would use Coconut Battery, but on an iMac, there is no such thing as a battery. So I went online an did a search. I found out that you can determine a lot about your Mac from it’s serial number.

So here is the deal….

You might think those numbers and letters are random, but each one actually contains vital info about your computer. Deciphering the code reasonably simple. The alphabetic prefix consists of one or two letters designating a factory code, such as:

F: Fremont, California, USA
CK: Cork, Ireland
SG or E: Singapore
UV: Taiwan
QT: Taiwan (Quanta Factory)
W8: Shanghai China
PT: Korea
there are others, but I don’t have a complete list. Perhaps I will when the comments pour in!

For Example, one of my Macs, has a serial number of SG7331FSK59, so I know it was manufactured in Singapore. The first numerical character indicates the last digit of the year of production. Common sense should tell you which decade your Mac was made in. Using the above serial number, it’s safe to assume my Mac was made in the year 2007.

The next two digits indicate the week of the year it was produced. So my Mac was made the 33rd week of the year 2007.

According to Macfaq.org, the next three characters are a three-digit base-34 unique identifier. (The letters ‘O’ and ‘I’ are not used, apparently to avoid confusion with the numbers zero and one.) My Mac appears to have been number 1692 within production week 33 of the year 2007. The remainder of the serial number tells the model number.

To find out more about your own computer, you can save yourself the trouble of having to decode the serial number yourself by using Chipmunk’s online Mac Serial Decoder.

You can find your Mac’s serial number by going to your Apple Menu and choose ‘About this Mac’. Then on the Hardware Overview you will find your serial number.

Courtesy of Laurie A. Duncan of Tuaw

Unboxing video of Apple’s new Magic Mouse

Bas — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:25:00 +0000

A short unboxing video by Adam Christianson of Apple’s new Magic Mouse. Also shared some of the early thoughts and impressions on Apple’s latest attempt at this input device. Gotta love this little gem! Thanx Adam for Sharing this video with the rest of us!!

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Thanks to Adam Christianson & Maccast

iPhone – Google Sync: Now with push Gmail support

Bas — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:54:31 +0000

Just now Google announced that they support Push Gmail Support for iPhone, Woohoo great news.

From Google’s website ‘………… Using Google Sync, you can now get your Gmail messages pushed directly to your phone. Having an over-the-air, always-on connection means that your inbox is up to date, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. Sync works with your phone’s native email application so there’s no additional software needed. Only interested in syncing your Gmail, but not your Calendar? Google Sync allows you to sync just your Contacts, Calendar, or Gmail, or any combination of the three……..”

Mac OS X v10.6: About Wake on Demand

Bas — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:32:36 +0000

A short post about my experiences with the new Snow Leopard feature Wake on Demand. I found out that my 2007 MacBook Pro and Macbook were not visible when they were in Sleep Mode. According to Apple, Laptop Computers should also be visible in Finder, even if they are in Sleep Mode. So what is the deal here, after some research I found out that these MacBooks do not support the new feature, when they are connected to the local LAN wirelessly. They should be connected by ethernet, which isn’t very useful for Laptops with 802,11N onboard. So how can you check if your MacBook is able the use this new feature. Do the following:

Open System Profiler (located in /Applications/Utilities).
In the Network section, select AirPort.

If you see “Wake On Wireless: Supported”, your Mac supports Wake on Demand when connected to a wireless network and registered with the Sleep Proxy Server. If you do not see this entry, the Mac will only Wake on Demand when connected to your network with an Ethernet cable.

Tip: Reset Type Settings

Bas — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:57:12 +0000

After you make changes in the character’s palette, you don’t need to re-enter the default values to return to the default status. Instead click on the little arrow in the top right corner of your character palette; a new window will open in which you can select at the bottom Reset Character.