ashleyknowles

Category: Mac OS X

  • Lion-style Inverse Scrolling – On Windows XP

    My home computer is a Mac, now running OSX Lion. I’ve become quite accustomed to the backwards/reversed scrolling which seems to be the default in Lion – and matches the “natural” swipe up/down gestures you would use on an iPhone or other touch screen device. Today I was looking around on my work Windows XP…

  • Why you should upgrade to OS X Lion – sooner rather than later!

    Every 2nd Saturday and Sunday makes up what I call “F1 Weekend”. I run a Winfast USB HDTV tuner, which only runs in Windows, and so I have to run it virtually in Parallels Desktop on my Mac. It runs great on my now, old and continually ageing MacBook Pro – until I upgraded to…

  • iDefrag for OS X

    Just a quick post showing an iDefrag before and after (iDefrag is an OS X defrag app, basically Disk Keeper Pro for Mac, minus some of the more advanced functionality I guess). Ran an offline defrag, using the “Optimize” algorithm. I wanted to add a Bootcamp partition to my drive, so this shifted all my…

  • Office 2011 for Mac

    Plain and simple. Office 2008 on the Mac sucks. Yeah, I can edit my documents just fine, but it still sucks. Office 2007 in Windows introduced the “ribbon” bar, something I’ve accustomed to and grown to like, whereas Office 2008 for Mac, adds these panels on the right hand side of your screen, similar to…

  • I’ve caved, time for an iPad

    Okay, no, I lied. But it appears, after Steve Jobs keynote yesterday (or last night Australian time), that Mac OS X Lion is going to be very iPad-esque. From the “sneak peak” posted on Apple’s website (here – http://www.apple.com/macosx/lion/), all I can say is wow! I think this is really exciting. I’ve been a Mac-supporter for…

  • Mac OS X Mouse Acceleration

    I previously posted a while back that I had issues with the Mac OS X mouse acceleration with a Microsoft optical mouse, which I fixed by installing the IntelliPoint software. Well, recently I started using a Logitech bluetooth mouse, and the problem popped up again. This time, it wasn’t so easy to fix by just…

  • twistori – a live Twitter feed with a difference

    twistori is something really special… After rebuilding my OS, I went searching for a new Twitter client to manage my 3 or 4 accounts. I came across this page at MacLife listing “8 Essential Twitter Apps”, which pointed me to twistori which promised to be a little bit of fun. twistori displays a life feed directly from…

  • gfxCardStatus – Mac OS X GPU Switcher

    Mac OS X, on the right MacBook Pro, has the ability to change the current GPU in use to maximise battery life, or maximise performance. To change this, you have to open the Energy Saver pane in the System Settings, and change it between performance or battery life modes. Once you change it here, you…

  • MacBook Pro HDD Upgrade – Part 2

    This didn’t go quite to plan… Firstly, my MacBook’s Superdrive (aka DVD burner), decided to fry the laser assembly at some point in the past few weeks… Ouch… So took it down to Nextbyte and they (very promptly, I must say), sorted it out. In one day, out the next, I was impressed. Having gotten…

  • MacBook Pro HDD Upgrade – Part 1

    When I purchased my 15″ MacBook Pro last year, I optioned for a 250GB 7200RPM SATA drive, as it was not only cheaper, but faster spindle speed then the standard 500GB 5400RPM drive offered by Apple. I’ve since had numerous issues with space, I’m a huge consumer of (legitimate) television shows and my iTunes library…