TidBITS#703/27-Oct-03
=====================
Panther rules this issue! Jeff Carlson leads off with a look at
some of the major features with an eye toward helping you decide
to upgrade. Then Adam delves into smaller details that can make
or break an OS upgrade. We also formally announce our first Take
Control ebooks, which have already helped thousands of readers.
In the news, we cover new iBook G4s, iSync 1.3, cheaper eMacs, and
essential upgrades for Default Folder X and QuicKeys X in Panther.
Topics:
MailBITS/27-Oct-03
First Two Take Control Ebooks Take Off!
Mac OS X 10.3 Panther Unleashed
Interesting Bits of Panther
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/27-Oct-03
<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-703.html>
<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/issues/2003/TidBITS#703_27-Oct-03.etx>
Copyright 2003 TidBITS: Reuse governed by Creative Commons license
<http://www.tidbits.com/terms/> Contact: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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MailBITS/27-Oct-03
------------------
**Apple Unveils G4 iBooks** -- Apple Computer announced major
revisions to the iBook line last week, upgrading all models to
G4 processors and adding USB 2.0, Combo CD-R/DVD-ROM drives, and
a minimum of 256 MB of RAM. The new iBook G4s also offer optional
support for AirPort Extreme 802.11g wireless networking and
ship with Mac OS X 10.3 Panther pre-installed. Three iBook G4
configurations are available: at the low end, the $1,100 model
offers a 12.1-inch screen (1,024 by 768 resolution), an 800 MHz
G4 processor, a 30 GB hard drive, and a scant weight of 4.9 pounds
(2.2 kg). The $1,400 model sports a 14.1-inch screen (still 1,024
by 768 pixels), a 933 MHz G4 processor, a 40 GB drive, and a
weight of 5.9 pounds (2.7 kg). Finally, the high-end $1,600
configuration offers the same 14.1-inch screen, a 1 GHz G4
processor, and 60 GB drive at the same 5.9 pound weight. All
models offer two USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 400 port, VGA video
output, support for S-video and composite video out, a 56 Kbps
V.92 modem, 10/100Base-T Ethernet, and up to six hours of battery
life. Optional capabilities include AirPort Extreme 802.11g
wireless networking support; an internal Bluetooth module for
peripherals such as some cell phones, PDAs, and Apple's new
wireless keyboard and mouse; and support for up to 640 MB of
RAM. All three models should be available now. [GD]
<http://www.apple.com/ibook/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2091>
**Apple Reduces eMac Prices** -- Apple also reduced the price of
the all-in-one eMac last week. The entry-level configuration,
which includes 128 MB of RAM, a 40 GB hard drive, and a Combo
drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW), now costs $200 less, at $800. The higher-
end model, which includes a SuperDrive, 256 MB of RAM, and an 80
GB drive, has also been reduced $200, to $1,100. Both models come
with a 1 GHz PowerPC processor, an ATI Radeon 7500 graphics card
with 32 MB of video memory, and a 17-inch CRT monitor, and are
capable of including a separate AirPort Extreme Card. The eMacs
also come with Mac OS X 10.3 preinstalled, and will not boot into
Mac OS 9. [JLC]
<http://www.apple.com/emac/>
**Apple Releases iSync 1.3** -- Hot on the heels of iSync 1.2.1's
debut earlier this month, Apple has released iSync 1.3 for Mac OS
X 10.2.5 and higher, adding the capability to synchronize data
with new phones such as the Bluetooth-enabled Sony Ericsson P900
and T630, as well as the Nokia 3650 and N-Gage smart phones. The
5.5 MB update is available via Software Update or Apple's iSync
Web page. Palm OS handheld device users must install the iSync 1.2
Palm Conduit separately (which hasn't changed since the release of
iSync 1.21). It's an 892K download available via a link on the
iSync download page. [GD]
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07390>
<http://www.apple.com/isync/download/>
**Default Folder X & QuicKeys X: Upgrade Before Panther!** St.
Clair Software has published version 1.9.1 of their popular
Open/Save dialog enhancement utility, Default Folder X. In
addition to being compatible with both Mac OS X 10.3 Panther and
Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar, Default Folder X 1.9.1 now tracks files
opened directly from the Finder (not just through the Open dialog)
and lists recent and favorite folders in a system-wide menu, in
the Dock or menu bar. Furthermore, Default Folder's menus are now
hierarchical. Version 1.9.1 is a free upgrade for existing users.
<http://www.stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolderX/release.html>
St. Clair warns that older versions of Default Folder X are _not_
compatible with Panther. Existing Default Folder X users who
upgrade to Panther (even using Archive and Install) won't be able
to launch any applications! If this happens to you, log out, log
in with the Shift key held down, disable the older version (remove
it from the Startup Items tab of the Accounts preference pane),
and then log back in. Panther will then operate normally, and you
can upgrade Default Folder X at leisure. Default Folder X 1.9.1
is a 3.7 MB download.
CE Software has released a beta of QuicKeys X 2.0.2b3 to work
around a similar-sounding problem; launching any other version
of QuicKeys X in Panther causes every active application to
quit. QuicKeys X 2.0.2b3 is an 11 MB download and comes with
a registration number that's good until 19-Nov-03 if you don't
already own QuicKeys X. In both cases, following Joe Kissell's
advice in "Take Control of Upgrading to Panther" to delete
everything from the Login Items preference pane in Jaguar
before upgrading to Panther would avoid the problem. [MAN]
<http://www.cesoft.com/downloads/qkx2/panther.html>
<http://www.tidbits.com/takecontrol/panther/upgrading.html>
**DealBITS Drawing: BeLight Software Winner** -- Congratulations
to Barbara Roy of dplanet.ch, Eric Houghton of fmr.com, and Seth
Anderson of b12partners.net, whose entries were chosen randomly
in our second DealBITS drawing. Barbara, Eric, and Seth will each
be receiving a copy of BeLight Software's Business Card Composer,
worth $40. If you aren't among the winners (and even if you didn't
enter the drawing), you can still get a 25 percent discount on
Business Card Composer through 03-Nov-03. Use the first of the
two swreg.org URLs below for the downloadable version ($30) or
the second URL for a copy on CD-ROM ($40). BeLight Software tells
us that the just-released Business Card Composer 1.1.3 is fully
compatible with Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. Thanks to the 785 people
who entered, and keep an eye out for future DealBITS drawings.
[ACE]
<http://www.belightsoft.com/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/belight.html>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07403>
<https://usd.swreg.org/cgi-bin/s.cgi?s=31176&p=311765252&v=2&d=0&q=1&t=>
<https://usd.swreg.org/cgi-bin/s.cgi?s=31176&p=311765252&v=2&d=1&q=1&t=>
First Two Take Control Ebooks Take Off!
---------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Perhaps we can't quite compete with the sales volume of the
iTunes Music Store's first few days, but the sales of our first
two Take Control ebooks have still utterly exceeded our initial
expectations, with nearly 3,000 copies sold so far. The last week
has been tiring and stressful, but in the end, we were able to put
all the pieces together just in time.
<http://www.tidbits.com/takecontrol/>
**Take Control of Upgrading to Panther** -- We published Joe
Kissell's "Take Control of Upgrading to Panther" at exactly 8 PM
on Friday, October 24th, matching Panther's release in our time
zone to the minute. As soon as the Web pages went live, the orders
started flooding in, some coming even from people who were waiting
in line at Apple Stores that hadn't yet opened; taking advantage
of the free AirPort network at the stores, they managed to order
and read Joe's advice on iBooks and PowerBooks before going inside
and buying Panther.
So what ground does Joe cover? He starts at the beginning, walking
you through seven steps you should take before you even think
about inserting the first Panther CD into your Mac, things like
backing up your hard disk and repairing permissions. Then he looks
in depth at which installation option is right for your situation,
discussing exactly what each does. The actual installation process
is easy, but what do you do if you can't get it started, or if
your Mac won't start up after it's complete? Joe provides answers
to five common problems in a troubleshooting section, and for
those unlucky souls for whom Panther proves problematic (hey,
we're realistic - it happens), Joe provides a number of ways you
can downgrade to your previous version of the Mac OS. For those
upgrading from Mac OS 9, and for those who want the cleanest
possible installation, Joe gives special steps, and he throws
in a bonus section that lists URLs for downloading updates to
some common bits of hardware and software.
<http://www.tidbits.com/takecontrol/panther/upgrading.html>
Worth $5? We've already heard from a number of people that Joe's
52-page ebook is worth several times more, but personally I think
Joe's ebook is worth it for the peace of mind alone. I've done
plenty of installations, but I wouldn't have thought to disable
all my Login items before installing, and given that the previous
versions of both QuicKeys X and Default Folder cause instantaneous
and distressing problems, the advice was extremely welcome.
**Take Control of Customizing Panther** -- With barely a breather,
Tonya and I kept working through Saturday to put the finishing
touches on our second title, Matt Neuburg's "Take Control of
Customizing Panther." It went live just over a day later, and as
with Joe's book, no sooner had we updated the Web site than orders
started to arrive.
Where Joe's book leaves off after making sure your installation
has been as smooth as possible, Matt steps up next to help you
customize Panther so it works exactly the way you want it to. If
you haven't read Joe's book, or if you're experiencing installer's
remorse, Matt explains how you can install some of the optional
pieces of Panther after the fact, along with why you'd want to.
He then looks at four of the aspects of Panther that you can
customize to the best effect, Finder windows, keyboard shortcuts
for menu items (globally, or in a specific application), Panther's
new Expose feature, and your font menu through the almost
devilishly confusing Font Book application. He finishes off
with a look at a miscellany of smaller customizations you can
(and probably will want to) perform.
<http://www.tidbits.com/takecontrol/panther/customizing.html>
If Matt's 29-page book saves you from trying to figure out how
Font Book is (or isn't) enabling your fonts, I think that alone
would be worth $5, and his warnings about customizing Expose are
equally valuable.
**Early Lessons Learned** -- It's impossible to foresee
everything, and we fielded a number of questions and comments
in the hours after our initial release.
* Sometimes you just have to have fun. On a lark, Joe volunteered
to bake a batch of his famous (well, at least he tells us they're
famous) cherry chocolate chip cookies for a randomly chosen person
from the first 1,000 orders. Little did he realize that it would
take less than 13 hours to reach that point, and he hit 2,000
orders by mid-Monday. Joe's out getting ingredients now for two
batches of cookies, since we decided to extend the offer to
someone from every 1,000 orders, and we're doing the same thing
with pumpkin muffins for Matt's book.
* Entering passwords in StuffIt Expander proved surprisingly
troublesome for users. We password-protect the StuffIt archive
containing the PDF to prevent the direct download URL from being
posted somewhere out of context, but it turns out that copying
the password from the email receipt from Kagi and pasting it into
StuffIt Expander's dialog box often fails (particularly with
StuffIt Expander 6.0) when typing it in doesn't, and we've seen
crashes even in the latest version when pasting. To address this
problem, we simplified the password for Matt's book, and added
more-detailed instructions to the Kagi email receipt.
* Kagi normally adds VAT (value added tax) to purchases made by
customers in 12 European Union member countries. I'm currently
trying to figure out what's necessary here, since it seems that
under current E.U. regulations, someone has to pay the VAT in at
least some of these E.U. countries. At this point, I simply can't
say how we'll end up handling the VAT issue, but it's a good
example of how Internet taxation adds significant costs and
overhead.
* Part of the way we've managed to charge so little is that Kagi
is actually sending orders through our own merchant account. It
turns out that our merchant account currently accepts only Visa
and MasterCard, and not American Express, Discover, or other
credit cards that Kagi normally handles. I think we can add
support for American Express and Discover fairly easily, but
until then, I hope the limitation of Visa and MasterCard isn't
too onerous. For those who prefer the physical world, Kagi does
accept checks, cash, and money orders, though using them will be
slower.
**Stay Tuned** -- We won't have any more titles for a week or two,
thanks to travel and needing to incorporate everything we've
learned so far into our systems. So read Joe's and Matt's books,
and rest assured that the rest of our authors are utterly jazzed
by Joe's and Matt's success and are hard at work on additional
titles. Thanks for believing in us on this one.
Mac OS X 10.3 Panther Unleashed
-------------------------------
by Jeff Carlson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Mac OS X 10.3 Panther bounded out of its lair over the weekend,
giving us the opportunity to start using the shipping version and
see how it compares to what was promised by Apple at the Worldwide
Developer Conference in June (see "Mac OS X 10.3 Panther Springs
at WWDC" in TidBITS-685_). Apple has packed numerous improvements
into this release, both on the surface and under the hood, and has
also finally implemented some old favorites. Is it worth the $130
upgrade price? Read on for some of the highlights, and decide for
yourself.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07242>
**New Finder** -- The first obvious changes appear in the Finder,
which gains the same brushed metal sheen as iTunes and adds the
Sidebar, a pane on the left side of every window that provides
quick access to volumes and your home directory. If you don't want
the Sidebar to occupy as much space, you can drag the separator
bar to view as little of the contents as you want, down to just
icons. If you drag the bar all the way to the left, or double-
click it, the Sidebar disappears. Open and Save dialogs also
include the Sidebar, simplifying navigation.
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/finder/>
The Sidebar replaces, in theory, the Favorites window: drag a
folder to the Sidebar to add it to the list, or drag items out
of the Sidebar to remove them with the same "poof" animation
used when removing items from the Dock. However, Favorites isn't
completely gone, even if there's no keyboard shortcut or menu item
for it. Open the Library folder in your Home directory and drag
the Favorites folder to the Sidebar to reclaim your favorites.
Other improvements in the Finder include on-the-fly searching,
which displays matching items as you type, the reappearance of
Finder labels, and a Windows-inspired interface for switching
between open applications: press Command-Tab to select the
applications' icons in a row onscreen (Proteron's LiteSwitch X
performs the same functionality, and the company posted an
"open memo" to Apple this week, drawing attention to Apple's
controversial appropriation of third-party technologies
in the Mac OS).
<http://www.proteron.com/liteswitchx/openmemo.php>
**Expose** -- One surprise at WWDC was the introduction of Expose
(accented at the end and pronounced "ex-po-zay"), an innovative
method of unraveling the inevitable tangle of application and
Finder windows. When activated by a user-configurable shortcut
key, mouse button, or dragging the pointer to a screen corner,
Expose temporarily shrinks and rearranges the windows to make
them more visible. Pressing F9 resizes every window so there
is no overlap; you can then click the one you want to bring to
the front. F10 exposes the front-most application's windows in
a similar way and dims the rest of the screen for better contrast.
F11 works in the opposite fashion, zipping every window offscreen
to reveal the Desktop.
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/expose/>
We were slightly skeptical of Expose at first, but the simple and
elegant implementation is starting to win us over. You can either
press and release one of the shortcut keys to keep the Expose
display on screen, while you choose a window, but if you keep the
shortcut key pressed, you need only mouse over your desired window
and release the key to activate that window. One annoyance: Expose
doesn't display Classic windows in its thumbnail view.
**Fast User Switching** -- Previous versions of Mac OS X required
you to completely log out if you wanted to activate another user
on the same machine, which meant quitting open applications and
essentially restarting your Mac, but without the startup chime.
In Panther, you can have multiple users logged in simultaneously,
preserving the state at which you switched to a different user.
You switch among different users by choosing the desired user name
from a new menu on the right side of the menu bar. For homes that
share a Mac among multiple family members, Fast User Switching is
a godsend, and it has already made the cost of the Panther upgrade
worthwhile for me: I needed to help someone configure an
application from scratch, so I was able to quickly go through the
steps using a brand new user, switching from testing to the email
I was writing.
For pure eye-candy tastiness, Fast User Switching is likely to be
a feature that many people will try out, even if they don't end up
using it frequently. Instead of just displaying another user's
Desktop, the environment graphically rotates as if each user
belongs to one side of a cube, at least on my 15-inch PowerBook
G4; it just switches on my Titanium PowerBook G4 and Adam's iBook.
I haven't had a chance to see how the 3D metaphor works with more
than six users; it would be swell to have a new cube fly in from a
point in space, but I doubt Apple has extended the visual metaphor
that far.
I have noticed that some applications behave differently when you
switch between users. iChat automatically goes offline, but logs
back into the AIM network when you return. Similarly, iTunes stops
playing music, but unfortunately it doesn't start playing again
when you're back. Also, be careful restarting when other users
are active; if they have unsaved work and you can't access their
accounts, they'll lose their changes (you need an administrator
password to do this).
**FileVault** -- Responding to the security needs of corporations
and privacy-minded individuals, Panther introduces FileVault, a
feature that encrypts the contents of your Home folder using
AES-128 (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption. After FileVault
is enabled, you can still use items in your Home folder as you
normally would, but they're encrypted and decrypted on the fly
as you open and close them. This makes it extremely difficult
for someone to access your data, such as if your laptop is lost
or stolen.
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/filevault/>
<http://csrc.nist.gov/CryptoToolkit/aes/>
However, even ignoring the fact that several of the Take Control
authors experienced data loss with FileVault while testing beta
releases of Panther, FileVault has a serious architectural
limitation in that it creates one large file to house your Home
items. For many of us, that file will be humongous (as in many
gigabytes), since the Home folder by default contains files such
as digital photos, iMovie media files, and the iTunes library.
This is a problem for two main reasons.
* Even a small amount of data corruption due to a failing hard
drive or other problem could render everything in your Home folder
inaccessible. Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket...
* The smallest change to any file in your Home folder will cause
the modification date of the entire FileVault file to change, and
backup utilities such as Retrospect will copy the whole thing.
(Dantz has listed some known issues with Panther and FileVault
on their Web site.)
<http://www.dantz.com/index.php3?SCREEN=kbase&ACTION=KBASE&id=28093>
FileVault isn't a bad idea, but it scares me (and everyone else
at TidBITS) silly; I can't imagine entrusting all my data to
that single file, much less screwing up my backup strategy to
accommodate it. Apple should modify FileVault so you can encrypt
only specific folders, thus letting users protect only sensitive
data, rather than wasting time and effort on other mostly
innocuous files.
**Font Book** -- The Mac has always been on top of typography, but
managing fonts has been persistently cumbersome. Font Book is a
good step in the right direction, giving most users more control
over fonts without having to wonder if they're copying font files
to the correct Fonts folder. You can enable or disable fonts,
group typefaces into categories, and search for fonts in the same
manner as in the Finder or iTunes. Graphics professionals will
likely choose to stick with a font management utility such as
Suitcase X or Font Reserve, but for most people Font Book provides
enough control.
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/fontbook/>
The tricky part of using Font Book is figuring out its rules for
enabling and disabling fonts, since you'll see different results
depending on whether you disable a font when it's selected in All
Fonts or in a particular collection. Matt Neuburg devotes several
pages to this topic in "Take Control of Customizing Panther."
<http://www.tidbits.com/takecontrol/panther/customizing.html>
**Virtual Private Network (VPN) Connections** -- Apple has been
toiling behind the scenes on technologies that don't necessarily
include splashy graphics or an improved user interface. Case
in point: built-in VPN support, which many companies use to
communicate safely with employees who travel or telecommute.
VPN connections essentially capture all of the ports on a machine
and bundle them up into an encrypted tunnel to another computer
somewhere on a local network or elsewhere on the Internet.
Because all data entering and leaving the machine is encrypted,
and there's only a single point of entry or departure - the VPN
connection - you've simultaneously reduced the potential of
machines being attacked or compromised while eliminating
networking snooping whether on a wired or wireless connection.
Using the Internet Connect application, you can configure
either L2TP-over-IPSec or PPTP connections.
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/newfeatures/systemadministrators.html>
On the other side of the data pipe, Mac OS X 10.3 Server has both
kinds of VPN services built in, making it relatively simple and
inexpensive for a small office to hook up a Panther server machine
and use the Panther VPN clients to secure their wireless
connection.
**Should You Upgrade?** A major release of any operating system
brings with it a number of impressive new features as well as
the certainty of glitches that need to be worked out, and Panther
is no different.
For example, TidBITS Contributing Editor Glenn Fleishman and I,
both recent purchasers of new 15-inch PowerBook G4s, discovered
that Panther seems to be persnickety about RAM. The third-party
generic RAM we installed seems to be the cause of problems (in my
case, Panther would not even run on a completely new installation
on a separate partition, and I got repeated system freezes on my
main partition installed with the Archive and Install option).
Swapping in the original 512 MB of RAM that came with my PowerBook
seemed to solve the problem. (Upgrade tip: don't immediately sell
your original RAM on eBay.)
Also, a number of users are reporting that external FireWire
drives that are connected when Panther is restarted can become
irrevocably corrupted, so make sure you have offline backups
of data on external drives before (and while) using them with
Panther. And, as with every Mac OS update, some third-party
applications and utilities will require updating before they
work properly under Panther - be sure to check the Web sites of
those products to see if any essential program is Panther-ready.
That said, Panther has a lot to offer. I've been impressed not
only by the number of new features, but by the sense that Mac OS X
is becoming more refined as it matures (perhaps because I remember
when it was an awkward toddler). Even as extra bullet points
are added to the feature list, I get the sense that just as
much effort is being applied to making this Unix-driven system
user-friendly.
Plus, Panther just feels faster and more responsive than Jaguar.
Granted, I'm now using one of Apple's fastest laptops, so I'll be
curious to see how my previous 400 MHz Titanium PowerBook G4 runs
after upgrading. But I'm starting to see reports that indicate
Apple's engineers continue to optimize Mac OS X's code to squeeze
out better performance.
In the end, the upgrade question comes down to what sort of a user
you are. Adventurous early adopters should of course upgrade to
Panther immediately; it's too much fun to explore and play with
the new features. More cautious users might want to hold off a
bit, not necessarily for a 10.3.1 release, but just until more
of the glitches have been identified and can thus be avoided.
And unlike the upgrade from 10.1 to 10.2, which we considered
essential, we can see some non-demanding users sticking with
Jaguar from inertia alone.
PayBITS: Did Jeff's overview help you decide whether or not
you should upgrade to Panther? Say thanks via PayBITS!
<http://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=jeff%40necoffee.com>
Read more about PayBITS: <http://www.tidbits.com/paybits/>
Interesting Bits of Panther
---------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Jeff Carlson has walked you through the marquee features of
Apple's new Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, but my experience with the
previous version, Jaguar, was that the changes that made the
difference for me were more subtle. So let's take a look at
some of these subtle changes in Panther and how they work.
**Timed Startup/Sleep/Shutdown Returns** -- Yet one more feature
of Mac OS 9 has reappeared in Mac OS X. The Energy Saver
preference pane now contains a Schedule tab in which you can set
schedules for the Mac to start up, sleep, or shut down. Now you
can have your Mac ready and waiting for you in the morning without
having to wait for it to start up manually. Initial testing and
reports show slightly sporadic success (my iBook refused to sleep
at the specified time, but did wake up appropriately, and a reader
on TidBITS Talk reported that his Mac didn't shut down when it
should have).
As an aside, if you find the new organization of the icons
in System Preferences confusing, consider using the View menu
to choose a specific preference pane or choose Organize
Alphabetically to hide Apple's categories. These viewing options
aren't new to Panther, but I hadn't wanted them until I found
myself confused by some of the new organization. Annoyingly
for those of us on slower Macs, Panther's System Preferences
application now quits when you close its window, making it
slower to start up if you need it again later.
**Network Browser Done Right** -- Despite excellent support
for file sharing and networking, Apple has long had terrible
interfaces for finding and connecting to network volumes. First
the Chooser, then the Network Browser in Mac OS 9 (did anyone
really bother with that?), and then the lousy Connect to Server
dialog in Mac OS X. Panther finally moves in the right direction,
using the previously superfluous Network icon at the top level of
Finder windows as the starting point for network browsing for both
Mac and Windows shared volumes (quite a number of which seem to be
available in the hotel for the O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference, where
I currently am). Select one and click the Connect button that
appears to bring up a login dialog and from then on, that volume
shows the full file hierarchy underneath.
**Keyboard Shortcut Quirks** -- In the Keyboard & Mouse preference
pane, Panther now enables you to change the keyboard shortcuts for
many global actions, such as taking a screenshot. That's great,
but what's even better is that you can also add keyboard shortcuts
to menu items in at least some applications. I couldn't get them
to work in Eudora or iTunes in my initial testing, although they
did work in Safari and System Preferences. Interestingly, when I
made an All Applications shortcut that I intended to choose Eudora
from the Recent Items submenu of the Apple menu, it didn't work,
but it did attach properly a bookmark I had in Safari for the
Eudora Web site; having keyboard shortcuts for Safari bookmarks
will be helpful. Also, as I learned in Matt Neuburg's "Take
Control of Customizing Panther," if the menu item in question has
an ellipsis, you must use trial-and-error to determine if it's a
true ellipsis (Option-;) or three periods. The moral of the story?
Useful and welcome as this new feature is, don't give up on macro
utilities like QuicKeys X and Keyboard Maestro (since they can
string sequences together, run AppleScript scripts, type text,
click buttons, and so much more.
<http://www.cesoft.com/products/qkx.html>
<http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/>
**Disk Utility Engulfs Others** -- Who knew that Disk Utility had
imperialistic leanings? Previously, Disk Utility was essential for
repairing damaged disks, fixing permissions, and initializing and
partitioning disks. In Panther, however, Disk Utility has taken
over the disk image functions of Disk Copy, so you can use it to
make and burn disk images. Not stopping there, Disk Copy has also
overrun the territory of the free Carbon Copy Cloner, since you
can now use the controls in the Restore tab to make an exact
duplicate of a disk, or restore a disk from an existing disk
image. For the many people disappointed that it was impossible to
duplicate a Mac OS X volume by merely dragging it, as was possible
in Mac OS 9, this feature should be quite welcome. While you're in
Disk Utility, note that you can click the Enable Journaling button
for disks that don't currently have journaling turned on. Without
going into details, with journaling on, your Mac can start up more
quickly after a crash.
**Force Quit This!** Much as I like being able to force quit a
recalcitrant application, I hate going through the Force Quit
dialog because of the extra steps of opening and closing it. I
often Option-click the misbehaving application's Dock icon and
choose Force Quit from there, but in Panther, you can now force
quit just the frontmost application - without even seeing the
Force Quit dialog - by pressing Command-Shift-Option-Escape. That
shortcut may also help in situations where the Force Quit dialog
doesn't draw in front of the dead application.
**Classic Interface Tweaks** -- Apple isn't likely to change
Classic, even though it might be nice to have a saved state
option, much like Virtual PC offers. But Panther does offer some
improvements in how you interact with Classic. In the Classic
preference pane's Start/Stop tab, there's now a checkbox for Show
Classic Status in Menu Bar. The Classic menu that appears in your
menu bar provides a quick way to start and stop Classic, but more
important, it also offers an Apple Menu Items submenu that
contains the contents of your Classic environment's Apple menu.
Since that also includes control panels by default, it means
you no longer must launch a Classic application just to access
a control panel. Also in the Classic preference pane is a new
Memory/Versions tab that shows the names, versions, and memory
usage of Classic applications that could be handy if you're stuck
using a RAM-hungry Classic application.
**iPhoto Integration Tips** -- It sometimes seems as though Apple
isn't paying much attention to iPhoto, though I hope we'll see
an iPhoto 3.0 at Macworld Expo in January that will address the
significant performance and scalability problems of the current
version. My hopes for improvement have been raised by the new
integration of iPhoto and the operating system in Panther. In the
Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane, you can select any iPhoto
album to use photos in it for your Desktop and your screen saver,
which may be easier than setting up the same thing through iPhoto.
However, if you make a new album in iPhoto, the Desktop & Screen
Saver preference pane won't see it until you quit System
Preferences and relaunch. Also, one tip: when selecting a new
photo for your Desktop, use the Expose Desktop-revealing shortcut
for a quick preview.
**Submit Bug Report** -- Kudos to Apple on this one. When an
application crashes in Panther, a dialog appears with a Submit Bug
Report button. You can add more information to the report and then
send it to Apple over the Internet. Though I haven't tried to
watch the network traffic, Apple states clearly in Mac Help that
no personal information is included in the report. User-submitted
bug reports (such as those that come from Safari's bug button)
have a lower priority than developer-submitted bug reports that go
directly into Apple's bug database, but multiple Apple employees
have assured me that the user reports are processed and evaluated.
In the future, I hope to see a way that independent developers can
also receive these automatically generated bug reports when their
applications crash.
**Network Status Display** -- Those of us who have somewhat
complicated networks with multiple connections (built-in Ethernet,
AirPort, modem) and even potentially multiple Internet connections
(okay, I admit that's weird), will appreciate the new Network
Status display in the Network preference pane. It shows all your
connections and provides a plain English description of the status
of each connection. You can also double-click one to edit its
settings.
**More Bits and Pieces** -- I'm sure we'll all be discovering more
useful details about Panther in the coming weeks, so post any
interesting things you learn to TidBITS Talk. I'll try to keep
up with posts, but I'm at the O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference all
week, so I may not be able to keep posts flowing as regularly
as I'd like.
PayBITS: Did Adam's tips help you get started with Panther?
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Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/27-Oct-03
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
**New Power Mac G5 keyboard** -- Readers weigh in on the new
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<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2088>
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as readers give their opinions (most highly positive, thank
goodness!) about our new Take Control electronic books.
(31 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2089>
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<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2092>
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