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 full 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 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

For a limited time, you can get 17% off the usual price of 1Password by accessing this special ScreenCastsOnline offer page at the 1Password store - 17% Discount for ScreenCastsOnline viewers - This offer has been extended up to 31st January 2008.

The show covers:

Time Zone Support
Sharing Calendars incl.
Exporting
Publishing
Subscribing
Syncronising Calendars incl.
.Mac Sync
iPhone Sync
Third Party Integration
BusySync
Spanning Sync

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.

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.

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. Check out the screencast for full details.

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. 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
Setting up To Dos

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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's 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

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 my email from anywhere. It's all about IMAP and harnessing the power of IMAP to give you the best of all worlds when accessing your mail.

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

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

For more details on becoming an Extra! member to get this show plus over 110+ other screencasts all in HD plus the next six months worth of shows, just visit http://www.screencastsonline.com/extra

A special free show this week all about Pixelmator, the beautiful new image editing application. Pixelmator is a low cost yet but extremely powerful image editor built especially for Mac OS X which utilises many of its core technologies.

As well as being a fully featured, layer based image editor in its own right, it also supports 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 from Tuesday, 25th September 2007.

The full 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 show are some details about next weeks Podcast and New Media Expo I'll be attending next week. If you're going to be attending, say hello!

For more details on becoming an Extra! member to get this show plus over 110+ other screencasts all in HD plus the next six months worth of shows, just visit http://www.screencastsonline.com/extra

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.

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

ScreenCastsOnline Survey

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 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.

Also this week, we have a special ScreenCastsOnline Discount code to get 10% off the usual price of Hazel. Just use the code:

SCO2007

when making a purchase from the online store.

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

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.

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 weeks 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!

>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 weeks 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.

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 weeks 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.

If you're an existing member, there is nothing to do and no changes to the costs, etc., but you may get a nice surprise!

If you're sitting on the fence about joining up as an Extra! member, there has never been a better time to sign up!

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 packet into this weeks show so you'll need your wits about you. I cover:

Usenet - All about UseNet
GigaNews - A commercial UseNet host service
NewzBin - A Commercial UseNet Indexing service
iGrabNews - A brilliant newsgroup reader with support for NZB files
MacPar Deluxe - A great par checker and unpacker
Split & ConCat - A concatenation utility

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
iGrabNews
MacPar Deluxe
Split & ConCat

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 weeks 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

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 weeks show:

SpeedDownload
1Passwd