Last show of the year so I thought I'd go out with something special!

A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon a software package called Remote Buddy which allows you to use your Apple Remote to do all sorts of clever things with your Intel Mac. Included in the package is a very clever piece of software which is basically a fully featured Ajax web server that allows you full control over iTunes from a browser.

Add in an Airport Express to allow you to transmit your music from your Mac to a remote set of powered speakers or a HiFi over Wifi and you have an incredible system for creating multi room audio throughout the house.

But it gets even better when you add in an iPhone or iPod Touch which allows you to access the Remote Buddy Ajax Web server and control your audio system via WiFi. Not just control the playback, but control the volume, search your iTunes library, select your Airport Express and even view the album art of the currently selected track on your iPhone.

This weeks show covers all these elements in 20 minute including:

• Installing and Configuring the Airport Express
• Configuring iTunes
• Installing and Configuring Remote Buddy
• Using the Remote Buddy Ajax Web Server
• Controlling iTunes via your iPhone/iPod Touch

This weeks show is an Extra Members show and is available in Apple TV HD format (1280x720), Enhanced Desktop ED Format (960x540) and iPhone/iPod resolution (640x360). For full details on how easy it is to become an Extra! member and get this show along with the next six months worth of weekly shows PLUS access to over 130+ Mac based tutorials, just follow this link.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Time for a product update this week. It's been over 12 months since I covered 1Passwd (not a typo - it used to be called 1Passwd!), the brilliant password manager and web form filler from Agile Web Solutions.

This is one of the must have applications for the Mac and makes managing and using passwords and web identities a breeze. Since the last screencast ( SCO0078 ) , the product has been re-launched as 1Password and has had a significant re-write with lots of new features and is now even better!

In addition to the new features built in to 1Password, the guys have come up with a unique feature to enable to securely copy all your 1Password information in encrypted form to your iPhone or iPod touch. So now you can have all your data with you on the go!

This weeks show covers:

• 1Password Basics
• Using 1Password for Authentication
• New 1Password GUI
• New 1Password Identities
• New 1Password Wallet Items
• Sync to iPhone and iPod Touch

Unfortunately the ScreenCastsOnline discount has expired but if you can buy 1Password via this special link 1Password I'll get some commission!


Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Another Members show this week and it's part 2 of the iCal tutorial. In this weeks episode, I look at some of the more advanced capabilities of iCal that make it such a powerful planning and sharing tool. In addition, I also take a look at some third party tools that enable you to extend the capabilities of iCal and also integrate and syncronise with Google Calendar.

The show covers:

• Time Zone Support
• Sharing Calendars including
• Exporting
• Publishing
• Subscribing
• Syncronising Calendars including
• .Mac Sync
• iPhone Sync
• Third Party Integration
• BusySync for sharing iCal calendars
• Spanning Sync for integration with Google Calendar

Don't forget that the members version of the show has embedded chapters so you can go straight to the section that you want or easily skip sections.

LInks mentioned in this weeks show:

ScreenCastsOnline Forums
The MacBites Podcast
BusySync - See update below
Spanning Sync

Update 31/12/07 - In case you were not aware, BusySync has just been upgraded to sync across the WAN (ie via Macs connected across the Internet not just the local LAN). The press release can be found here. If you're interested in learning how to configure the new WAN features, see this section of the user's guide.

This weeks show is an Extra Members show and is available in Apple TV HD format (1280x720), Enhanced Desktop ED Format (960x540) and iPhone/iPod resolution (640x360). For full details on how easy it is to become an Extra! member and get this show along with the next six months worth of weekly shows PLUS access to over 120+ Mac based tutorials, just follow this link.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Featuring an excellent CD/DVD labelling utility this week, and that's DiscLabel 5 from SmileOnMyMac. As well as CD and DVDs, DiscLabel 5 also allows you to create stunning covers and inserts for all types of cases and boxes

As well as a whole library of templates and clip art, DiscLabel is fully integrated with iPhoto, iTunes, iDVD and other digital content packages to provide both artwork and automated track listings easily and quickly.

The show covers:

• Introduction to DiscLabel 5
• Creating Your Own Designs
• Inserting Tracks and Images from iPhoto
• Editing
• Applying Effects
• Installing and Using Clip Art
• Printing

This weeks show is sponsored by SmileOnMyMac and they've kindly provided a special ScreenCastsOnline discount code for 20% off the usual price of both the standard package plus the family pack. You can get the discount by using the coupon code: SCODISCLABEL The discount is available until 31st December 2007.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

I've been holding off doing a show on iCal for a while now, but I'm glad I did. Leopard and the iPhone has brought a new lease of life to iCal, the calendar application included with Mac OS X.

Under the hood, there's a ton of cool and really useful features that now make iCal a credible and reliable tool to help you plan, organise and share your busy schedule.

In fact, there's so much stuff to cram in, I've had to split the show into two parts! In this first part, I cover:

• iCal User Interface Basics
• Creating and Managing Calendars
• Calendar Groups
• Creating and Editing Events
• Setting up Mail for iCal invitations
• Using Invitations to Setup Meetings
• Mail Integration
• Using Data Detectors in Mail
• Setting up To Dos via Mail

Part 2 will be along shortly looking at some of the more advanced features of iCal.

This weeks show is an Extra Members show and is available in Apple TV HD format (1280x720), Enhanced Desktop ED Format (960x540) and iPhone/iPod resolution (640x360). For full details on how easy it is to become an Extra! member and get this show along with the next six months worth of weekly shows PLUS access to over 120+ Mac based tutorials, just follow this link.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

This week's sponsored show features OmniWeb, the featured packed web browser from the Omni Group.

OmniWeb is unusual in that it's one of the few browsers that you have to buy, it's not free! Consequently, it has to be something special to compete against exceptionally strong competition, but you'll be glad to know that it delivers a brilliant browsing experience.

The shows covers all of the advanced features of OmniWeb including:

• Using Tabs & Thumbnails
• OmniWeb Workspaces
• Web & Search Shortcuts
• Bookmarks
• Site Preferences
• RSS Support

A 30 day trial of OmniWeb can be downloaded from the Omni Group Web site

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

This weeks' show is the last Leopard related screencast for a couple of weeks, and it's all about a couple of the most controversial aspects of Leopard, and that's the Leopard Desktop and Stacks.

These two areas seem to have been the most contentious, what with the missing rounded corners, the translucent menu bar and the perception of the 3D dock as being just eye candy! Not to mention the dubious visual metaphor of Stacks using the foremost icon in the dock - very confusing!

Well in this weeks' show, we'll examine all these features and look at some resolutions using some free third party applications. So this weeks show covers:

• New Menu Bar
• Recreating Rounded Corners
• Turning off the Translucency
• Configuring New Screensavers
• Customising the 3D Dock
• Stacks Overview
• Fixing Stacks Visuals
• Creating a Recent Items Stack

As promised, here are the links to the various utilities used in this weeks show:

OpaqueMenuBar
Displaperture
Leopard Docks
Stack Overlay Icons
mac OSX Hints

This weeks show is an Extra Members show and is available in Apple TV HD format (1280x720), Enhanced Desktop ED Format (960x540) and iPhone/iPod resolution (640x360). For full details on how easy it is to become an Extra! member and get this show along with the next six months worth of weekly shows PLUS access to over 120+ Mac based tutorials, just follow this link.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

The first full show on one of Leopards most unique features - Time Machine!

We all know what Leopard is supposed to do but in this show I take you from the basics of using Time Machine with the Finder, through iPhoto integration and even take a peek at Time Machine support in OSX Leopard Server. This weeks show is a free show, but I've included a special Extra! members only section at the end of the full show covering some of the more advanced features.

This week's show covers:

• Time Machine Basics
• Using The Finder in Time Machine
• Spotlight Integration with Time Machine
• iPhoto Integration with Time Machine

The Extra! members section also includes:

• Using Storage on Other Macs for Time Machine
• Setting up Personal File Sharing on Leopard
• Sneak Peak at Screen Sharing
• Sneak Peak at Using Leopard Server for Time Machine

Look out for more Leopard related screencasts in the coming months.


Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Yes, it's finally here - this week is the Leopard install show! If you've been hanging on and haven't installed Leopard yet, now you can learn all about the final preparation, a cool way to create a backup of your Leopard DVD plus the different options and customisations available when you install the big cat!

This week's show covers:

• Considerations Before Install
• Creating a bootable image of your Leopard Install DVD (optional)
• Using iPartition to dynamically resize partitions (optional)
• Final preparations
• Removing APE to prevent installation hangups
• Leopard Installation - Upgrade
• Leopard Installation - Archive and Install
• Leopard Installation - Erase and Install
• Using Migration Assistant

LInks to this weeks Software:

Special Pre-Order Discounts for Leopard:

US
Mac OS X 10.5: $109 (Save $20)
5-License Family Pack: $189 (Save $10)

UK
Mac OS X 10.5: £79.98 (Save £5.02)
5-License Family Pack: £119.98 (Save £7.02)

Links to the software used in this weeks show:

SuperDuper
iPartition 3

This weeks show is an Extra Members show and is available in Apple TV HD format (1280x720), Enhanced Desktop ED Format (960x540) and iPhone/iPod resolution (640x360). For full details on how easy it is to become an Extra! member and get this show along with the next six months worth of weekly shows PLUS access to over 120+ Mac based tutorials, just follow this link.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

As a respite from the bombardment of Leopard news, reviews, hints and tips that are bound to be coming your way this week, I thought I'd slip in a handy utility to manage all those pesky duplicate tracks that invariably end up in your iTunes library.

The utility is called Dupin from Doug Adams over at Dougs Applescripts for iTunes.

Dupin is a standalone application that makes identifying and removing the duplicate tracks from your iTunes library a breeze. If I have to squeeze a Leopard reference in it's really useful for freeing up some disk space before you backup you drive prior to installing Leopard!!

A relatively short show this week, mainly to allow me some time on friday to play with Leopard as soon as it arrives!

ScreenCastsOnline Survey

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

At last! The launch date has been announced, the DVD printers are churning out copies of Leopard and all we have to do now is pre-order and wait for the big day!

Well we could sit and wait, but there's lots of things we can be doing in the meantime to ensure that our Macs are fit and ready to receive Leopard. More importantly, there are things we can do in advance to make sure that the installation or upgrade goes smoothly and that we are in a position to recover if things don't go as well as planned.

Yes, this week's show is all about preparing for the Leopard install and what sensible steps you need to do in advance.

One of the major things is ensuring that you have a good bootable backup of your Mac BEFORE you even think about upgrading. In this episode, I take you through some of the options for getting an external hard disk that can dual as both a bootable backup of your current system and also be configured to act as your Time Machine backup at the same time! I also cover some simple housekeeping steps to weed out the data and applications that clutter up your hard disk. The show covers:

• Selecting an External Hard Disk
• Partitioning your new disk
• Creating a Time Machine volume
• Creating a Bootable Backup using Superduper
• Testing your Bootable Backup
• Disk Housekeeping
• Identifying large files with Grandperspective
• Removing Applications with Appzapper
• Updating Applications with AppFresh

LInks to this weeks Software:

Special Pre-Order Discounts for Leopard:

US
Mac OS X 10.5: $109 (Save $20)
5-License Family Pack: $189 (Save $10)

UK
Mac OS X 10.5: £79.98 (Save £5.02)
5-License Family Pack: £119.98 (Save £7.02)

Links to the software used in this weeks show:

Carbon Copy Cloner
SuperDuper
GrandPerspective
AppZapper
AppFresh


This weeks show is an Extra Members show and is available in Apple TV HD format (1280x720), Enhanced Desktop ED Format (960x540) and iPhone/iPod resolution (640x360). For full details on how easy it is to become an Extra! member and get this show along with the next six months worth of weekly shows PLUS access to over 120+ Mac based tutorials, just follow this link.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Struggling with finding the optimum email solution to use with your iPhone? Do you have multiple email accounts that you'd like to process in a single universal inbox? Would you like to have all your email synchronised and available from any device and from any location?

If so this weeks show may be for you.

It's my personal journey from traditional POP based email clients through web based solutions to finally a scheme that gives me the flexibility and control to access all my email from anywhere. It's all about IMAP and harnessing the power of IMAP using .Mac Mail to give you the best of all worlds when accessing your mail. But IMAP is just part of the solution. You need to have a way of channelling all your mail into a single inbox.

Even if you're not an iPhone user, the recently expanded .Mac service gives you some huge benefits over more traditional POP or web based solutions.

This week show covers:

• Introduction to POP email
• Introduction to Web based email
• Utilising GMail Mail Fetcher
• Introduction to .Mac Mail
• Configuring POP, GMAIL and .Mac
• Creating a single universal Inbox

Update - As of today (24th October 2007 - a couple of weeks following this shows publication) Google are slowly introducing IMAP support into gmail accounts. This removes the need to forward GMail into .Mac for the IMAP capabilities of .Mac. Of course, if you still want the advanced facilities of .Mac under Leopard. This solution is still valid.

If you're an Extra! member and would like to download the presentations as mentioned in this weeks show, you can download them from this page.

As mentioned in the show, I'd really appreciate it if you could complete the ScreenCastsOnline survey form at:

ScreenCastsOnline Survey

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

More iWork 08 goodness this week as I take a look at some of the new features in Keynote 08, Apples fantastic presentation application.

Keynote 3 was great but Apple have added in some additional features that really take Keynote to the next level. It's one of those applications that make you thankful you're a Mac user and might even just make those business users sitting on the fence make the final leap!

There is already a full ScreenCastsOnline tutorial on Keynote 3 covering some of the basic functionality so this week's show focusses on the new and improved elements within Keynote 08. The show also takes a more advanced approach on how you can configure the new features to create even more sophisticated and impressive effects!

This weeks show includes:

• Introduction & New Effects
• Smart Builds
• Integrating Smart Builds with Bullet Points
• Instant Alpha
• Creating Animations
• Presenters Display Setup & Usage
• Adding an Audio Narration
• Exporting & Printing

This weeks show is an Extra Members show and is available in Apple TV HD format (1280x720), Enhanced Desktop ED Format (960x540) and iPhone/iPod resolution (640x360). For full details on how easy it is to become an Extra! member and get this show along with the next six months worth of weekly shows PLUS access to the entire back catalogue of Mac based tutorials, just follow this link.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

Back to other Apple tutorials

---

A special free show this week all about Pixelmator, the beautiful new image editing application. Pixelmator is a low cost, yet extremely powerful, image editor built especially for Mac OS X. It utilises many of its core technologies including Core Image, Open GL, Automator, ColorSync, Spotlight and many more!

UPDATE - Since this show was produced, Pixelmator has had several upgrades and a new show is available. If you’re new to Pixelmator, I’d strongly suggest watching this show first to get a good understanding of the basics, then take a look at SCO0168 to see some of the newer, more advanced features.

As well as being a fully featured, layer based image editor in its own right, it also fully supports the editing and saving of PhotoShop files, removing the financial barrier many of us have in achieving PhotoShop compatibility.

The show covers many of the functions available in Pixelmator including:

• Pixelmator User Interface
• Using Pixelmator Tools
• Using Layers in Pixelmator
• Using a Clipping Mask
• Applying Filters to Layers
• Using a Layer Mask
• Using Filters and Effects in Pixelmator.

The beauty of the application is that you don't have to be a graphics pro to access some very advanced features and at only $59, Pixelmator is ideal for anyone on a budget.

You can order Pixelmator for download from the Pixelmator website

Downloading and Viewing the Show
The easiest way to download this weeks show and receive all future shows is to subscribe to the weekly show in iTunes. Just click this link to subscribe to the free feed in iTunes. To get the HD versions each week plus the Members Only shows plus immediate access to the 140+ shows in the ScreenCastsOnline archive, read all about becoming a member here.

As a special treat, and to celebrate the launch of Pixelmator, I've included links to all three resolutions of the show on this page as well. Just click on the icons below to start the show streaming to your browser, or right or ctrl click the icons to download to your computer for local playback:

	Free Resolution (22MB)	This is the usual resolution for all free shows.
	Enhanced Definition (32MB)	Normally reserved for Extra! members and is great for viewing on the desktop. All shows (and the shows in the ScreenCastsOnline archive are available in this resolution for members).
	High Definition (62MB)	Again, usually reserved for Extra! members, this resolution is superb for viewing on your Mac desktop or on your Apple TV. All shows (and the shows in the ScreenCastsOnline archive are available in this resolution for members).

Discussing the Show
Along with the show, there's a very active ScreenCastsOnline forum which you're more than welcome to take part in. As well as threads and sections on all things Mac, you'll also find a separate thread for each published show allowing forum members to comment on that specific show, add extra hints and tips or to put me straight if I've made a mistake! You can find the discussion thread for the Pixelmator show here.

---

Rounding off the two part tutorial on Apples iMovie '08, this week's show looks at some of the more advanced aspects of movie creation using this unique software application.

The 30 minute show covers various topics including:

• Sound Adjustments to Project Clips
• Adding and Manipulating Background Music
• Pinned and Floating Music
• Adding Sound Effects
• Adding Voice Overs
• Adding Titles & Transitions
• Advanced Tools
• Keyword Management
• Sharing Your Video

Also in this weeks 30 minute show are some details about next weeks Podcast and New Media Expo which I'll be attending. If you're around, say hello!

This weeks show is an Extra Members show and is available in Apple TV HD format (1280x720), Enhanced Desktop ED Format (960x540) and iPhone/iPod resolution (640x360). For full details on how easy it is to become an Extra! member and get this show along with the next six months worth of weekly shows PLUS access to over 110+ Mac based tutorials, just follow this link.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

Back to other Apple tutorials

---

A break from iLife and iWork this week with a look at the spectacular additions to an already powerful RapidWeaver plugin.

This week I take a look at the latest release of the Blocks Plugin from Yourhead software. Blocks allows you to create free form pages within Rapidweaver turning it into a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web creation tool, limited only by your own creativity.

You can can check out the previous screencast on Blocks here (SCO0066) or check out all the Rapidweaver related screencasts via this page RapidWeaver Category

This new version of Blocks brings you:

• Blocks Library - Create your own library of Blocks and Blocks Pages to re-use and share
• Smart Blocks - Create and Install specially designed Blocks that prompt you for data.
• Master Pages - At last, a way to create dynamic master layout pages that are linked to child pages. Change the master page and all the linked child pages change automatically. This one you have to see!

YourHead have kindly extended a special discount to ScreenCastsOnline viewers of 25% off both the upgrade and full price of the Blocks plugin.

Visit the Yourhead store and use the code SCO25 to get your discount. The code is valid up to the 15th October 2007.

Rapidweaver Tutorial Part 1 is available here
Rapidweaver Tutorial Part 2 is available here
Rapidweaver Tutorial Part 3 is available here
All Rapidweaver related tutorials here

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

As promised, this week's show is an in-depth look at iMovie '08, the latest addition to the iLife '08 suite of applications from Apple.

Apple have re-written iMovie '08 from scratch and it shows! Ideal for new users or anyone who wants to edit video in record time.

But iMovie '08 is more than just a video editing package, it's a whole new way to organise, store and share video.

This week's show is Part 1 of what may turn out to be an extended series of tutorials on iMovie '08 and covers:

• iMovie '08 User Interface
• Understanding Clips & Storage
• Video Formats & Importing Video
• Basic Clip Organisation
• Creating & Assembling Projects
• Video Adjustments

This weeks show is an Extra Members show and is available in Apple TV HD format (1280x720), Enhanced Desktop ED Format (960x540) and iPhone/iPod resolution (640x360). For full details on how easy it is to become an Extra! member and get this show along with the next six months worth of weekly shows PLUS access to over 110+ Mac based tutorials, just follow this link.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

Back to other Apple tutorials

---

Time to take control of your messy folders and do a bit of Housekeeping! This weeks show features a great utility for managing your files, folders, trash and un-installs. All in one easy to use, yet exceptionally powerful package.

This week's show is sponsored by NoodleSoft and features their recently upgraded application - Hazel.

Hazel is a utility that resides in your preference pane (and optionally your Menu bar) and constantly monitors the folders that you instruct it to. By applying rules, you can make Hazel move, sort, colour, re-arrange, file... well pretty much anything with your files and folders. The really cool thing is it does it all automatically once you've created your rules.

For example, simply create a a rule for Hazel to monitor your desktop and automatically move completed downloads from your desktop to a sorted folder structure. Hazel does it for you automatically.

Add in some neat features to manage your Trash effectively and finish off with App Sweep to help you cleanly un-install applications.

App Sweep is built into Hazel and cleans your mac by sweeping up the miscellaneous files that a standard uninstall leaves behind, and you've got a pretty fully featured package that makes keeping your mac in tip top shape a pleasure.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Straight into the good stuff this week with an in-depth look at all the major features of Numbers, the spectacular new spreadsheet application included in Apples iWork '08 suite.

This weeks show covers all the bases including:

• Introduction to Numbers
• Data Entry and Formatting
• Charts, Text and Shapes
• Images, Masking & Instant Alpha
• Printing
• Exporting to iWeb

I'm really pleased how this weeks show turned out and judging by some of the comments on the ScreenCastsOnline forum, I'm not the only one....

"I just don't know how you do this; it is brilliant.  I probably got my iLife a day earlier than yours (I have a son who is a director in Apple!!) and I have spent a couple of hours with it but your skill in absorbing a brand new product and communicating its essence is really something special.  You have just saved me 'hours' of work!! .....
 
Again Don, just a wonderful show and an abolute eye-opener in Numbers.....
 
Great app, great show!! many thanks."

Ron - A ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member

This weeks show is an Extra Members show and is available in Apple TV HD format (1280x720), Enhanced Desktop ED Format (960x540) and iPhone/iPod resolution (640x360). For full details on how easy it is to become an Extra! member and get this show along with the next six months worth of weekly shows PLUS access to the entire back catalogue of Mac based tutorials, just follow this link.

Discussions: Forum
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

Back to other Apple tutorials

---

Well it's finally here, along with iWork 08, and surprise, surprise, you don't need Leopard!

Apple have released iLife 08 and I couldn't resist quickly running through some of the main changes to all the applications, even though I'd only had a few hours to play with it.

In this week's show, I take you through the installation with some extra tips for iWeb users. Once installed, there's a quick introduction to all of the apps with a little more in depth look at iMovie 08.

The good news is that there is tons of material here for new screencasts so expect to see more detailed screencasts on all the iLife 08 applications along with iWork 08 over the next few months!

This is a full free show (but only in 640x360 with no chapters for non members). As mentioned in the show, I'll try and do at least one show a month on one of the new versions of the iLife apps (and iWork) but they won't all be free shows. To get the full set, you'll need to be an Extra! member.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

Back to other Apple tutorials

---

Some significant updates have been released to applications I've previously covered on ScreenCastsOnline. Mix in a new website design on the ScreenCastsOnline website plus installing and configuring a cool Rapidweaver template to provide automated site maps and you have the basis of a pretty packed show this week! I'm pretty jazzed about the new website design so I thought I'd share it with you as I know the majority of ScreenCastsOnline viewers get all the shows via iTunes.

Objective Development have released a new version of one of my favourite Mac apps and that's Objective Development (actually 4.3.1 came out just after finishing recording). LaunchBar is much more than an application launcher as it enables you to search, switch and launch and gives you compete control over your mac with just a few simple keystrokes. LaunchBar has introduced some additional features in this release that extend its power considerably and without getting too much into the QuickSilver vs LaunchBar debate :-) I've found that LaunchBar is a killer app for the mac!

Yes, I know we only did the introduction of Rapidweaver 3.6 a short few weeks ago, but RealMac Software have just released RapidWeaver 3.6.2 which further extend the usefulness and ease of use of what already is an amazing product! A quick run through and demo of the new features in included in this week's show.

One of the new features I introduced with the new ScreenCastsOnline site is the introduction of some SiteMap pages. SiteMaps are great for allowing users to see the entire contents of your website on a single page and easily find and navigate to content. SiteMaps are also incredibly useful in ensuring that your SEO or "Search Engine Optimisation" is in good health. Google and other search engines use sitemaps to fully crawl through your website and ensure all your content is indexed and searchable. Rather than attempt to do this by hand, I stumbled on SiteMap by LogHound. This is an inexpensive RapidWeaver plugin that does it all for you with minimal configuration. It's also useful for finding pages that still have the default RapidWeaver settings. In this weeks show, I take you through an expalination on how to configure the product and demonstrate the results!

This week is also the start of the revised scheme for Extra! members in that there will now be an Extra! members show every two weeks instead of one a month, and this is the first such show. If you're not an Extra! member, you'll only get the first 5 minutes or so of this weeks show but as a consolation, it will be in HD. Back to a full free show next week but if you'd like to get all the shows in future plus get immediate access to a library over 100+ screencasts, just follow this link to get full details and instructions to sign up.


Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

So Macs don't crash that often (but let's face it they do sometimes!) but more often we may get a rogue application that decides to go AWOL and take up all of your precious CPU cycles. And let's not mention the "spinning wheel of doom" that occasionally appears if an application decides not to play nicely.

The good thing is that these occurrences don't happen that often but when they do, we need to be able to track down the culprit and stop the app so we can carry on working.

Step up to the mark, Activity Monitor.

Activity Monitor is a free Mac OS X application installed on every Mac and is just the job for seeking out misbehaving applications and some other really useful information. It even allows you to selectively quit individual processes that may be causing problems on you Mac.

This week's show gives you a run down on the major features of Activity Monitor and describes how you might use it to find out more about your Mac and to help sort out any process issues you may come across. Activity monitor also has a number of features and displays that enable you to continuously monitor the health of various aspects of your Mac via separate windows or even via the dock application.

If you want an alternative to Activity Monitor, this weeks show also has a quick demo of a super donationware package that lets you monitor many aspects of your macs health direct from the menubar. That's iStat Menus

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

You'll really need to concentrate for this weeks show! I covered this topic many moons ago and it was in fact, the very first pseudo members only show but before we had the Extra! membership scheme!

This week is all about searching, accessing and downloading from the amazing wealth of content that's available from the UseNet binary groups.

There's an awful lot packed into this week's show so you'll need your wits about you. The show covers:

Usenet - All about UseNet
GigaNews - A commercial UseNet host service
NewzBin - A Commercial UseNet Indexing service
MacPar Deluxe - A great par checker and unpacker
Split & ConCat - A concatenation utility

Update November 2008 - Since recording the show I’ve stopped using iGrabNews due to the lack of support for Leopard. I now use Unison from Panic software to use the NZB files to download from GigaNews. Unison is a commercial application but does the job brilliantly and is much more stable than iGrabNews.

By the end of the show you'll have a good idea on how to harness the power of the UseNet binary groups and fully understand how to access and download tons of content.

As promised, here are the links for the various services and software packages described in the show:

GigaNews
NewzBin
NB Since the original show was published, access to NewzBin is by invitation only. If you need an invitation, please email me at screencastsonline at gmail dot com with the subject heading of “NewzBin Invitation” I’ll try and deal with these on a first come first served basis,
MacPar Deluxe
Split & ConCat



Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Imagine being able to sign on to hundreds if not thousands of websites with a single username and password. Usually, this would be frowned upon as it could be a highly risky strategy with most standard websites. But there is a safe, secure and free solution to the holy grail of single sign on and thats OpenID OpenID .

Wikipedia describes OpenID as " ... a decentralized single sign-on system. Using OpenID-enabled sites, web users do not need to remember traditional authentication tokens such as username and password. Instead, they only need to be previously registered on a website with an OpenID "identity provider", sometimes called an i-broker. Since OpenID is decentralized, any website can employ OpenID software as a way for users to sign in; OpenID solves the problem without relying on any centralized website to confirm digital identity.
OpenID is increasingly gaining adoption among large sites, with organizations like AOL acting as a provider. In addition, integrated OpenID support has been made a high priority in Firefox 3 and Microsoft is working on implementing OpenID 2.0 in Windows Vista."

Don't worry, it's really easy to use as can be seen from this week's show!

I'll take you through signing up for a free OpenID identity and demonstrate just how easy it is to use various OpenID enabled sites!

Some useful links as mentioned in the show:

A simple explanation of how OpenID works
A List of OpenID Indentity Providers
The Nitty Gritty!
JanRain Website
MyOpenID Website

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

As Mac users, we're faced with a tremendous choice in the various browsers available to us! If you're like me, it's really hard to stick to one so we're constantly switching between browsers or trying new ones as they get updated.

Wouldn't it be great if you could manage all your browser bookmarks centrally and them have all browsers use the same set of bookmarks seamlessly!

If you've a number of macs, how about being able to syncronise not only between browsers on the same machine, but between multiple browsers plus your desktop and laptop?

And what about the iPhone? Sure iTunes will sync your Safari bookmarks but what if you're a Firefox or Camino user on your desktop machine?

Well this weeks show will provide you with the solution to all these problems with a single piece of software and that's Bookit from EveryDay Software. Bookit is a low cost application that allows you to do all these things.

The show explains in detail:

• Installation
• Initial Configuration
• Bookmark Syncing on a Single Mac
• Bookmark Syncing between Multiple Macs using .Mac
• Other Bookit Features

Also this week is a special Extra! members section only available in the Extra! members versions of the show. This special section covers a free utility designed to provide fully PC compatible zip files using drag and drop. Also included is a really neat way of configuring the Finder to accomodate drag and drop applications in a very cool way!

The special session is only available to Extra! members, full details on how to become an Extra! member and access the special versions of the shows including HD and Apple TV versions (1280x720) can be found on this page - ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Membership Special Offer

Membership also gives you access to over 100+ previous ScreenCastsOnline shows - over 24 hours of premium content!

Links for shows and information contained in this week's show:

SpeedDownload
1Passwd

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Back to basics this week and hopefully it'll relieve the pressure off the credit card for our US based friends who may have maxed out buying the iPhone!

This week I cover one of the most misunderstood, under appreciated and under utilised functions with OS X and that's OSX Services.

OSX Services are like mini utilities that help you manipulate, format and transfer text into all sorts of applications. I'll be looking atService Scrubber which is a donationware application which allows you to enable and disable services, restructure your services menu and assign keystrokes to service actions.

Also, I take a look at some of the more useful services and touch on how to use the TextExpander service. It's possible to download and install services and I take a look at WordService and TinyUrl , both extremely useful OSX services.

Finally, I take a look at configuring QuickSilver to access your OS X Services directly instead of via the menu.

All in all, a pretty packed (and hopefully informative) show!

This week's show is an Extra! members only show so subscribers to the free feed will only get a sampler of the full show. To get more information on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member, visit the Become a Member page.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Yes, it's only just been released, but I thought you might like a quick overview!

This week's show takes a look at the new YouTube integration delivered for free to your Apple TV. Instead of crouching over your Mac watching postage stamp sized, badly encoded video clips, you can now watch them in your living room on your HD TV in h.264 goodness.

OK, so it's not quite HD quality but it's a much improved user experience.

Take a look and see if it's enough to make you finally decide to get the Apple TV - This is the first of many upgrades and additions that are slated to occur over the next two years following Apples recent change in accounting practice. This means that can add functionality to existing devices without having to charge for it and still remain within the bounds of corporate governance (or something like that!).

Also this week, my good buddy Victor over at the Typical Mac User Podcast has asked me to co-host this weeks live podcast with him on Talkshoe - the interactive podcast. If you've not used Talkshoe before, it's a great service that allows you to host a fully interactive podcast to a live audience and includes a live chat room and the ability to telephone in and chat with the hosts. This weeks show is on Sunday 24th June at 5pm PST, 8pm EST and 1am for me over in the UK. I'll be staying up late with some strong coffee and I'd love for as many ScreenCastsOnline viewers to join in.

The screencast gives a quick overview of Talkshoe and shows you how to get setup for Sunday.

If you don't want to participate directly (or if it's too late for you!) you can listen live or download the podcast once it's finished.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Another premier league Mac application this week, it's the fantastic Comic Life from Plasq.

If you've recently bought a new mac, chances are you've already got this super application already installed on your hard disk!

Comic life is a really easy way to turn your boring old digital photos into mini works of art. It's great for turning your holiday or family snaps into funny comic books that you can print, email or publish to the web using iWeb or .Mac. As well as its entertainment value, Comic Life can have a serious purpose in creating informative, easy to follow how to guides as well as being a great desktop publishing package. You'll find kids will love its flexibility and because it's so easy to use, Comic Life has carved out a special niche in the education market as a super educational tool for all ages.

In this week's show, I'll take you through the basics of Comic Life including:

◦ The User Interface
◦ Creating a Simple Comic
◦ Styles and Attributes
◦ Publishing and Exporting
◦ Some Sample Uses of Comic Life

Thanks to Cris over at Plasq for supporting ScreenCastsOnline by sponsoring this weeks episode.

Some links mentioned in this weeks show:

Comic Life Website
Educational Resources

Don't forget to also check out the Education Forum

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Yes, as alluded to last week (thanks Cynthia!), this week's show is all about the new release of RapidWeaver - version 3.6.

It's the first paid upgrade for a while, so this show takes you through the enhancements and new features of the premier template based web creation tool from RealMac software, the sponsors of this weeks show.

The show covers:

• Changes to the UI
• New Site and Page Inspectors
• New Theme Styles and Colour Pickers
• New Categories and Tags within Blog pages
• New InLine Comments within Blog Pages
• Signing up to HaloScan
• Enhancements to the Photo Album Pages
• Displaying EXIF data
• New Photo Slideshow Visual Effects
• Adding Sound to SlideShows
• Snippets
• HTML List Formats
• RapidWeaver Add-Ons

A pretty comprehensive list of new features and pretty much well worth the $25 upgrade from fully paid previous versions!

RapidWeaver can be obtained from : RealMac Software

Rapidweaver Tutorial Part 1 is available here
Rapidweaver Tutorial Part 2 is available here
Rapidweaver Tutorial Part 3 is available here
All Rapidweaver related tutorials here

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Take control of your email inbox with this great free Mail plugin!

This week's screencast covers one of the utilities I use everyday to help me keep my email organised and at least feel as though I'm in control.

It's a simple mail plugin that allows you to create special rules which you can then assign to simple keystrokes. The rules can be as simple or as complex as you'd like allowing you to easily colour code your email, move email messages to folders or basically anything you can do with a standard email rule but under your control. The screencast even shows you how you can assign multiple rules to a single keystroke and build in a level of intelligence in how the messages are handled based on the content.

Mail Act-On Link

This weeks show is for Extra! members only but you can see a trailer for the show from the ScreenCastsOnline website.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Yes, the 100th show!

Thanks for all the support and good wishes from everyone which has made reaching this milestone possible!

This week is a double episode covering two very distinctly different product areas.

Elgato turbo.264 Video Encoder - The first is the new hardware based H.264 video encoder from Elgato. This innocuous and inexpensive piece of kit plugs into a spare USB 2 port on your Mac and turbocharges your H.264 video encoding with amazing results. If you do any amount of video encoding for your iPod or Apple TV you must watch this screencast!

You'll be amazed at how cheaply you can double, treble or even quadruple your video encoding speed, even on an older Mac!

Product Link

OmniPlan - The second part of the screencast is all about the Project Management application OnmniPlan from Omni Group. I don't usually cover business based applications in ScreenCastsOnline, so this is a bit of an experiment. If you like it, let me know and I'll cover some more business applications.

OmniPlan is another of those Omni Group applications that just works and make planning on the Mac a pleasure!

The screencast covers the basic UI and functions of OmniPlan and leads you through making a simple project plan. I also cover some of the exporting features on OmniPlan.

As mentioned in the screencast, you can get a 10% discount of the usual price of OmniPlan by using the coupon code SCREENCASTPLAN when buying via the online store (valid up to 15th July 2007.

Product Link

As mentioned in the show, as a celebration of the 100th episode, I'm releasing both the Hi Definition version (1280x720) and the Enhanced Definition (960x540) for freedownload together with a time limited offer of a discounted Extra! membership offer. Please follow this link to download the HD shows and check out the details of the discounted membership offer.

Discussions: Forum

---

To give you (and your wallet!) a rest from all the cool applications I've been featuring recently, I've gone back to basics and produced a primer for the OS X Terminal.

OS X Terminal gives you direct command line access to the Unix shell on which OS X is built on. While it may seem intimidating to some people, there are lots of really useful and immensely powerful tools available to you from Terminals command line interface.

This weeks show looks at:

Running Terminal
Customising the Terminal Window
Some Basic Terminal Commands
Man Pages
Navigating Your Directory Structure
Using Pipes
Network Diagnostics
Remote Login using SSH

The show barely scratches the surface of what you can accomplish with Terminal so please head over to the ScreenCastsOnline forum and leave your favourite Terminal hints and Tips here!.

If we get enough, perhaps I'll do a more advanced show to follow up.

Discussions: Forum

---

This week I review one of my favourite apps, one that makes life so much simpler for switchers and for anyone who still needs access to Windows applications. I was going to wax lyrical about it but I've taken the easy way out and "borrowed" some info from the Parallels website!

"Parallels Desktop for Mac is the first solution for Intel-Macs that gives you the flexibility of running Windows on a Mac simultaneously without rebooting.

It is fast and flexible by enabling you to run critical Windows-only applications like Internet Explorer, Outlook, Project, Access and Quicken at full speed. Because Windows is completely isolated from OS X, there is no chance of infecting your Mac with Windows viruses. What is more, running Windows through Parallels is more secure now than running it on a real PC.

The one-click installation is simple, intuitive, and automatically installs and configures your Windows hardware drivers. With Parallels Desktop for Mac you can now run all the applications you need without switching between Windows and Mac OS X!

Coherence shows Windows applications as if they were running natively on your Mac. Use Coherence to truly enjoy the best of both worlds at the same time!

Transporter is a powerful new built-in tool that quickly helps you to migrate your existing Windows PC to a Parallels Virtual Machine and to convert VMware and Virtual PC virtual hard disks to Parallels virtual machines. Also, Parallels Desktop for Mac now supports USB 2.0 devices at their full speed.

Better Boot Camp support is now available. Using your Boot Camp partition in Parallels Desktop for Mac is now easier than ever: no need to re-activate Windows each time you switch between Boot Camp and Parallels. Also, now available - easy offline configuration. Simply tell Parallels Desktop for Mac that you want to create a virtual machine from a Boot Camp Partition and click start.

True "Drag and Drop" functionality - a long awaited feature that lets you seamlessly drag and drop files and folders from Windows to Mac OS X and vice versa. Parallels Desktop for Mac now shares the entire Mac file structure between OS X and Windows - no more worrying about which copy of the file is the most recently updated."

All these new features are covered in the screencast.

If you'd like to purchase a copy of Parallels Desktop for Mac, I'd be really grateful if you'd support ScreenCastsOnline by using this special link:

Purchase Via ScreenCastsOnline

Discussions: Forum

---

Following on from an earlier show (a much earlier show - SCO0057), this week I take you through some of the common features and new functionality in Wordpress, the free blogging software. The previous episode covered installtion and configuration so this time we get to look at how to actually use Wordpress.

However, this weeks show is an Extra! members only show (there is one every month) so if you're not an Extra! member you'll only get edited highlights of the full 30 minute show. Extra! members get the full show in a choice of three super resolutions including HD (1280x70 - perfect for the Apple TV), Enhanced Definition (960x540) and iPod (640x360). Extra! members also get access to over 100+ screencasts on all sorts of subjects as soon as they sign up for a 6 month, low cost membership. Check out the details here to get immediate access to this and all the other shows.

This weeks full show includes sections on:

Installation Recap
Using the Administration Panel
Downloading and Installing Templates
Downloading and Installing Plugins
Wordpress Widgets
Installing and Configuring Wordpress Widgets
Tiger Administration Plugin for Wordpress
Wordpress Options

Once you've mastered Wordpress, you're on your way to creating your very own blog with this amazing free software.

Some links mentioned in this weeks show:

SCO0055 - Wordpress Part 1
SCO0071 - Using an Internet Hosting Provider - SiteGround
SiteGround Affiliate Link
SCO0085 - Speed Download - Part 1
SCO0086 - Speed Download - Part 2
Anaconda Theme
WordPress
WordPress Widgets Blog
MarsEdit
My Own Reality - My Personal WordPress Blog

Discussions: Forum

---

An application to allow you to organise your digital life this week! One of the most respected award winning Mac software packages is featured in this weeks sponsored edition of ScreenCastsOnline.

NoteBook 2.1 from Circus Ponies Software Inc. is a well established, powerful information manager that allows you collect, organise and search all those little bits of information that we all tend to pick up when using our Macs. Using a unique paper notebook style interface, NoteBook gives you the power and flexibility to organise and arrange your notes, clippings, photos and other digital snippets and then annotate them with keywords, highlighters and even voice annotation. As well as the great organisational functions of NoteBook, it's really easy to find anything instantly using NoteBooks patented indexing system.

Sharing your information is a cinch, with the ability to publish your notebooks as fully functional websites via .Mac or any other Internet Hosting Provider.

This screencast takes you step by step through all the major features of NoteBook 2.1 and shows you just why this application is one of the premier Mac applications.

Discussions: Forum

---

Did you know that your Mac comes with the power to be part of a multiprocessor supercomputer, straight out of the box!

Yes, included as part of OSX (Tiger 10.4) your Mac has access to Xgrid, software developed by Apple's Advanced Computation Group which allows you to group and access a network of Macs and share the under utilised processing power using Distributed Computing technology!

What's even better is it's pretty easy to setup (at least if you follow this screencast!).

But why would you want to do this?

Have you got an Apple TV?
Do you encode or convert lots of video?

Well Xgrid is fully supported by VisualHub, one of the video converters demonstrated in SCO0095 - How to Get Videos Onto Apple TV. So if you have a few spare Macs, you can create your own Xgrid network at no cost and speed up the encoding process significantly.

Check out the screencast for a brief explanation of the technology and a walk through guide on setting up your own Xgrid network.

Even if you don't want to set Xgrid up, it's pretty cool technology and yet another reason why we love the Mac so much!

Here are some of the links as mentioned in the show:

GeekMeetsGirl - VisualHub Xgrid Enabler
Xgrid Wikipedia Entry
Apple Server Admin Tools
Apple Xgrid Page
VisualHub Forums

Discussions: Forum

---

This week I take a look at one of the premier Mac diagram and drawing tool - OmniGraffle from The Omni Group. OmniGraffle is one of those Mac apps that just works and allows you to create stunning diagrams very simply and easily.

Focusing on OmniGraffle 4, the show takes you through the basic operation of OmniGraffle including the various tools and their usage. I also take a look at outlining and stencils.

As this weeks show is sponsored by The Omni Group, we have a special ScreenCastsOnline discount code for 10% off the usual price until May 15th. The code you need is:

SCREENCASTGRAFFLE



Discussions: Forum

---

It's the first week of the month so it must be an Extra! members only show!

This week I follow up with part 2 on the Apple TV. Last week I looked at a basic overview of its setup and operation, this week I look at getting content onto the Apple TV. This is incredibly important for those of us outside of the US with no access to video content from the iTunes store except for video podcasts.

So this week I look at:

* Moving your iTunes Library to Airport Extreme and External Drives
* When to sync and when to stream
* Configuring your Apple TV
* Using video "watched" status to automagically manage your Apple TV content
* Ripping and Converting DVDs to Movies
* Creating and Installing DVD cover art
* Using your Mac as a PVR and importing TV shows into Apple TV
* Using Bittorrent to find TV Shows on the Internet
* Converting TV Shows to play on Apple TV
* Accessing hidden MP4 metadata to organisise videos and add special tags

So as you can see, it's another pretty packed show running to over 40 minutes of content.

You'll need to be an Extra! member to get this weeks show (it's the usual monthly Extra! only show). Get yourself a membership to make sure you don't miss out - full details here And don't forget, Extra! members get access to this show (and over 70 other shows) in Apple TV compatible HD format - that's 720p or 1280x720 - to watch ScreenCastsOnline in HD on your Apple TV.

Here are some links mentioned in the show:

Handbrake/Mediafork
VisualHub
EyeTV
tvRSS
xTorrent
Lostify

Also in the show, I mention the new ScreenCastsOnline Affiliate scheme, a free way for you to promote ScreenCastsOnline and get rewarded in the process! If you're interested in taking part in this new scheme, checkout the details here

Discussions: Forum

---

Well at long last, the Apple TV has finally hit the UK! Following on from the anticipation, does the Apple TV match the hype? Find out by watching this weeks show which takes you through the basic setup and usage of Apple TV.

Using live video capture and screencaptures, I take you through the process of setting up an Apple TV, the basic menu structure, syncing with iTunes, streaming from other computers, basically everything you need to know about the Apple TV.

Next week, I'll be looking at some cool utilities and tools that help you get your own content on the Apple TV, especially useful if you're not in the US as we don't get TV shows or Movies from the iTunes store anyway! You'll need to be an Extra! member to get get next weeks show (it's the usual monthly Extra! only show). Get yourself a membership to make sure you don't miss out - full details here

Also in the show, I mention the new ScreenCastsOnline Affiliate scheme, a free way for you to promote ScreenCastsOnline and get rewarded in the process! If you're interested in taking part in this new scheme, checkout the details here

Discussions: Forum

---

An update to an already spectacular package! Yup, SpyMe has hit version 2 and now includes some really great new features to help you remotely access and monitor other Macs. I've previously covered SpyMe in a previous screencast (SCO0065) which was an Extra! members only screencast, but the new features make the package worthy of a re-visit.

The new features include such goodies as a brand new GUI, a new way of monitoring multiple macs from a single screen, setting up your own SpyMe help center and much more!

Whilst the main show is fully available to all, I've included a special Extra! members only section for members only (duh!). The Extra! section is nearly a full 20 minutes of additional content covering setting up using SpyMe across the Internet. Also covered are some geeky subjects such as:

Network Address Translation (NAT)
Port forwarding techniques
Configuring Linksys and Airport Extreme routers for SpyMe access
Managing a non-static external IP address using a free No-IP account

in fact, all the information you need to remotely access a Mac across the Internet.

This mega extra section is included in the versions of the shows made available to Extra! members only. To get more information on becoming an Extra! member and receiving the enhanced version of this show, plus HD versions or all shows, plus immediate access to over 90+ screencasts, plus the next 6 months worth of shows....... just click on this link to see how you can sign up for a six month membership.

Discussions: Forum

---

Spotlight - The search technology launched as part of OSX Tiger is great but..... well, really, it could be better! The simplistic user interface gives rise to immense frustration when trying to construct more complex queries to search through your hundreds if not thousands of files. Also, what is really going on "under the hood"? How do you know which volume is indexed, what about if you need to recreate a damaged or incomplete index?

Well this weeks show addresses some of the failings in Spotlight by introducing you to two applications to help you get the most out of Spotlight.


Spotless - By fixamac is a great utility for managing Spotlight and the indexes it creates. You can enable or disable spotlight for individual volumes, re-create indexes, re-create your spotlight index directories and even switch spotlight on or off.





HoudahSpot - By Houdahsoft Software extends Spotlight in ways you could only previously dream of! Houdahspot is the front end for Spotlight that takes creating search queries to the next level. A richly featured search form together with drag and drop functionality, templates, integral browsing and previewing make Houdahspot the interface that Spotlight should have had!

Extra! members can get this and other shows in High Definition. Membership also brings you such benefits as the next 6 months worth of shows in HD, access to Members only content plus immediate access to over 90+ screencasts from the ScreenCastsOnline archive. All for a ridiculously low one-off payment. Checkout this link for more details.

Discussions: Forum

---

This week I thought I'd bring you the third part of the iPhoto hints and tips series of shows. The two main areas left were surrounding Keyword Management and Library Management so this weeks show looks at a couple of free applications and takes you through some different options for sharing your iPhoto library. The show covers:

Using Keywords in iPhoto
Keyword Assistant
Using Multiple iPhoto Libraries
Sharing an iPhoto Library between multiple users on the same machine
Sharing an iPhoto Library between multiple users on different machines

This particular show is one of the monthly Extra! member only shows, so you need to be an Extra! member to access the full show. Extra! membership also brings you such benefits as the next 6 months worth of shows in HD, access to Members only content plus immediate access to over 90+ screencasts from the ScreenCastsOnline archive. All for a ridiculously low one-off payment. Checkout this link for more details.

Discussions: Forum

---

Something to get your creative juices flowing this week.

As an alternative to template based web creation tools, this weeks show takes your through the basics of Freeway 4 Express, the web creation tool by Softpress.

Freeway 4 Express allows you to build your website from scratch using your own designs and layouts to create a unique and spectacular website, all without coding. Once you've finished your design, Freeway 4 Express will generate all the HTML code required and upload your website to either .Mac or your standard hosting account.

ScreenCastsOnline recommends Siteground for a cheap and ultra reliable hosting account!

Not only can you create a web site from scratch, but you can also use the supplied, pre-defined templates to use as the basis for your own design, or for inspiration.

The show covers all you need to know to get started and runs through a "Getting Started with Freeway" tutorial available for download from this link. The zip file contains a PDF and all the media files used in the screencast so you can follow along at home!

As this weeks show is a sponsored screencast, you can get 10% off Freeway 4 Express directly from the Freeway Site, just use this link to the special offer page. There's also a 25% discount to upgrade to Freeway 4 Pro so check out the page for further details.

If you'd like more details on the differences between Express vs Pro, Softpress have put together a page with more details - Express vs Pro

Discussions: Forum

---

A 25 minute show on a wireless router! What started out as a possible small snippet within a show turned out to be worthy of a full show all of its own! Yes, it's all about Apples brilliant new Airport Extreme Wireless Base Station.

Due to the sheer size of the full show, I've had to remove or shorten certain sections in the free show. The full 35 minute version of the show is available to Extra Members. This weeks show covers:

Introduction
Installing the Airport Express
Installing the Airport Utility
Configuring using the Simple Setup - Extra! version only
Configuring using the Manual Setup - Extra! version only
Hack for UK and other Countries restricted to 2.5 speed - Extra! version only
Setting up Shared Disks
Setting up Shared Printers

The Extra! version of the show contains an additional 10 minutes of content explaining and demonstrating how to setup the basic functions of the Airport Express via the AirPort utility and includes some explanation of network terminology.

Add in some speculation of what Leopard may have in mind for the Airport Extreme and some news on the ScreenCastsOnline Affiliate Scheme and you have the basics of another packed show!

Discussions: Forum

---

Following on from last weeks show, this week finishes off the in-depth look at Speed Download 4 by examining some of its many other features. Yes, despite what the name says, it's so much more than just a download manager!

As well as the performance boosting download engine and the super resilient auto-resume features, Speed Download also has:

Full personal and public iDisk integration
A fully featured FTP client built right in
Support for integrating with WebDav servers

plus

A really smart built in capability to share files with other Speed Download users over a secure, resilient connection.

What's even better is that all these different types of connections are managed using the same application with a common interface and that's Speed Download. You can even automate the connection to your commonly used servers and services with a single click so all your common connections are auto mounted once Speed Download launches.

This weeks show takes you through these additional features and shows you how easy it is to configure and manage multiple connections.

Discussions: Forum

Click here to access Part 1 of the Speed Download Tutorial

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	960x540 - HD with overscan 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this show plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes




Watch the free show from this web page by clicking on the videos below

---

Would you like fast and reliable downloads together with a utility that provides a central application to manage all your downloads plus uploads? How about a download manager with a fully functional built in FTP client? Why not throw in seamless iDisk integration and control your uploads and downloads to .Mac from the same application? Even better, why not create a secure and reliable method of sharing files with friends and colleagues with full control over who has access to what? Add in the ability to use the application in most of the popular OSX browsers and you'd have a pretty killer application!

Well all this and more is available using "The Ultimate Download Manager for OSX!" and that's Speed Download 4 from Yazsoft.

It really is a fantastic utility that fulfils all these roles. In fact, There's so much to show you, that I've had to spread it over two shows!

So this weeks show is all about the download capabilities of Speed Download 4 and next week I'll look at the iDisk, FTP and File sharing aspects of the application.

Discussions: Forum

Click here to access Part 2 of the Speed Download Tutorial

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	960x540 - HD with overscan 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this show plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes




Watch the free show from this web page by clicking on the videos below

---

Phew! What a show! This week I've managed to pack in a Web service and three applications together with a summary of Bittorent!

All about online storage this week, as I take a look at the Amazon Simple Storage Service or S3 for short. This is a unique online storage service available to developers and end users alike with some pretty neat unique features. How does no start up costs, no minimum monthly fees and unlimited storage sound? It's a strictly pay as you go service which offers everyone a low cost option of enterprise class storage facilities. As an introduction, I cover signing up for an Amazon Web services account and getting access to an Amazon S3 account. If you want to check out 1Passwd as used in this weeks show, there is a special discount available to ScreenCastsOnline viewers which has just been extended until the end of February 2007. See this link

To use the Amazon S3 service you need some client tools and this weeks show looks at two of the most popular:

Jungle Disk - A free Mac, Windows and Linux client application that allows you to access your Amazon S3 account directly from your desktop. Intended for personal file storage, Jungle Disk allows you to mount your Amazon S3 storage directly into the finder just like iDisk. It also contains a built in backup tool to allow you to backup your important files directly to Amazon S3 either manually or using an automated schedule. This weeks show takes you through installation, configuration, mounting your online storage in the finder, using Jungle Disk to back up your important files and accessing your S3 usage account.

S3 Browser - This free, open source application also allows access to your Amazon S3 account and gives you access level controls to make some or all of your data available on the web directly from Amazon S3. The show covers installation, configuration and uploading and downloading files from your Amazon S3 account.

One of the super cool features of an Amazon S3 account is that it supports Bitorrent. This weeks show explains exactly what Bitorrrent is and describes the benefits of making your files available via Bitorrent technology. If that wasn't enough, I demonstrate just how easy it is to create a "torrent" file from your Amazon S3 hosted files and include a real time demo of Bitorrent in action.

xTorrent -This demo involves using a great new Bitorrent client called xTorrent. Checkout the show to see a Bitorrent transfer in action.

If you'd like to try downloading the demo.mov file mentioned in the show, here's the torrent file - demo.mov.torrent. Just download this to your computer (right or CTRL click on the link and save it to your computer) and open the file with xTorrent or any other Bitorrent client. NB - If you do download this torrent, please keep it seeded for as long as you can! Thanks - Don

The full 33 minute show is only available to ScreenCastsOnline Extra! members and details of how you can become a member and get immediate access to this show in High Definition is available here. For a single low cost membership fee you get access to the next six months worth of weekly shows in HD PLUS access to the last 80 screencasts including the 10 previous Extra only shows.

The free show this week will contain edited highlights of the full show but you'll need to be a Extra! member to get the full show.

Discussions: Forum

---

Part 2 in a short series on one of the most popular applications in the iLife '06 suite. I wanted to follow on from Part 1 published last year with a look at Slideshows and Books. So this weeks show looks at:

Configuring iPhoto for Quick Startup
Creating iPhoto Slideshows
Adding Music to Slideshows
Exporting to iDVD and Quicktime
iPhoto Books
Exporting to iDVD, Quicktime and PDF
Appearance Tips
Enhancing the Red Eye and Retouch Tools

Also this week is another first in that I asked for hints and tips from the ScreenCastsOnline viewers in advance of the show, so I could incorporate them into this weeks show and give out a few name checks.

The response was so good, I'll probably have to do a part 3, but I promise not to leave such a long gap this time!

Thanks to all those who responded and if your tip isn't in this show, you never know, it may be in the next!

Discussions: Forum

---

Something completely different this week. After watching the iPhone demo I remembered an application I tried out a while ago that uses an interface that would be well suited to the iPhone!

This week is a delve into Liquifile. Liquifile is a finder replacement that uses a groundbreaking user interface to browse and search for your files and folders in a unique and very clever way. By the way, it can be used as a Finder supplement not just a replacement! As described on the Liquifile website:

Liquifile is a new file management tool for Mac OS X. An alternative Finder, if you will. It is designed for visual thinkers who want to get a bigger picture of their files and feel them more directly. Did you ever wonder why searching and browsing is so separated in today's interfaces? Ever wished you had a bigger screen when finding or organizing your files? Ever lost files in deep hierarchical structures? Ever wondered what the next big thing in file browsing might be...? Well, maybe you should have a look at this:

It's one of those applications that really hard to explain and even more difficult just to pick up and use. There are certain key concepts you need to understand but once you've got it, it can be a very useful tool.

No special ScreenCastsOnline discount this week but it's a very low cost application anyway and besides, you can get a free 30 day evaluation copy.

One to watch for the future I think!

Discussions: Forum

---

Welcome to the first show of 2007! This week I cover something I never thought I would. Being a Launchbar user I never really felt the need to use Quicksilver as it seemed pretty alien to me and besides, Launchbar is great. It was only when I delved deeper into Quicksilver that I realised just how powerful it could be - and not only that, it's free!

So this week is an introduction in installing, configuring and basic usage of QuickSilver - the application launcher (and much more) from Blacktree Inc.

As it's also the first show of the month, this is an Extra! members only show, so you'll need to be an Extra! member to view the full version in high resolution. More details on the Extra! membership here.

Discussions: Forum

---