Internet
Mac 101: Browser tab tricks
How did we ever get buy without tabbed browsing? Think back to the days of OS 9 and IE 4. Ugh.
JimD at creativebits has shared a cool trick (Firefox and Safari) for quickly returning to a previously visited website in a new tab, thus preserving the site you’re currently browsing.
This got us thinking of some of our favorite browser tricks, like this one. If you’ve got several tabs open, you can move from one to the other with keyboard shortcuts. In Firefox, it’s Command-Option plus the arrow keys. In Safari, it’s Command-Shift plus the arrow keys.
Quickly jump to the address field with Command-L (both Firefox and Safari). It selects the full text, so you can either just start typing or hit Command-C to copy the url. Of course, Safari 3 lets you grab Web Clips and turn them into Dashboard widgets.
Have you got a favorite browser trick to share with newcomers to the Mac?
Popularity: 6% [?]
Adobe Flash Player 10 beta brings major speed improvement
The slowness of Flash has long been a complaint on the fairer platform and it finally looks like somebody at Adobe was paying attention. Adobe Labs has released a beta for Flash Player 10 and among the changes is a major speed boost. Indeed commenting on his personal site, one Adobe Flash engineer has gone so far as to say that “this version of the player runs… [the GUIMark] benchmark substantially better on OSX than any previous Flash Player version. It should be up to 3 times faster” (more details here).
Adobe Flash Player 10 beta 2 is a free download from Adobe Labs. However, they warn that previous version should be uninstalled before updating.
[via MacNN]
Popularity: 6% [?]
Minefield offers custom builds of Firefox 3
If you think Firefox could run a little faster on your Mac, then you might want to download one of BeatnikPad’s custom builds of Firefox 3. “Minefield” (previously known as BonEcho for pre-3.0 releases) is Neil Lee’s custom build of Firefox. He is currently offering custom builds for:
- Minefield (Firefox) 3.0 for Intel
- Minefield (Firefox) 3.0 for PowerPC G5
- Minefield (Firefox) 3.0 for PowerPC G4
Neil Lee has been offering custom builds of Firefox for many years now. They can make Firefox run a bit faster and smoother on older Macs. You can download them for free (though donations are accepted) from the BeatnikPad website.
[via IGM]
Popularity: 7% [?]
Walt Mossberg on switching from Windows to Mac
“Some General Tips for Switch to Mac From Windows,” is Walt Mossberg’s new post in which he tells users, well, how to switch from Windows to a Mac with ease. He covers the menu bar, task bar, Start menu, control panel, keyboard shortcuts, quitting programs, minimizing windows, switching programs, right-clicking, and finally, dealing with the screen.
So, if you are a new Mac user, you might find these tips and tricks helpful. (Walt notes that you can also find tips similar to his on Apple’s Mac 101 website.) I’m personally grateful to Walt for writing this blog entry, which is part of a larger article in the Wall Street Journal. This shows that there are still true big media journalists who are open to other platforms besides Windows/PC.
Apple also invites you to check out our ever-growing Mac 101 section to find tips, tricks and more for getting around in Mac OS X. Thanks, Christine!
Popularity: 14% [?]
MobileMe and personal domains
According to Apple Support documents, personal domains will be kept intact with MobileMe. Blogger Sean Sperte noticed a “personal domain” option while watching the MobileMe quick tour. That prompted some investigation which led to this support document. Sure enough, it confirms that .Mac personal domains will remain untouched by the change:
“…If you have a personal domain setup for your iWeb site, it will continue to work without changing any settings at your registrar.”Thanks, Apple!
[Via Geek&Mild]
Popularity: 6% [?]
