Showing posts with label MAC Book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MAC Book. Show all posts
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How To Post To Facebook & Twitter From The Notification Center In Mountain Lion
If you’re a bit of a social enthusiast, simply posting regular status updates to social networks like Facebook and Twitter can turn out to be a bigger chore than you’d expect. Firing up a web browser and waiting for the website to load, only to post a quick status update is hardly an efficient way of doing things.
Normally, we’d solve this by employing a standalone application. A number of applications are up to the task. However, with Twitter making it ever harder for developers to develop a decent dedicated client, that can be difficult as well. Instead, we could opt to use a feature that’s already available on Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: the Notification Center.
Similar to its iOS counterpart, the Notification Center (which can be accessed using the right-most icon in your menu bar, or by using a hotkey) is designed to keep track of the multitude of information broadcasted by the assorted applications installed on your computer. Apart from the expected—news about incoming emails, calendar events, and the like—you can also use the Notification Center to interact with Facebook and Twitter. Not only to view status updates from your connections, but to interact with it as well.
Connecting to your Facebook Account
Fire up System Preferences, and head to the Mail, Contacts & Calendars pane. Here, you can integrate Mac OS X with a variety of different services. At the right side of the preferences pane, click the Facebook logo and fill in your account credentials.
You’ll be required to approve a miniature terms of service before proceeding, acknowledging you recognise what connecting with Facebook exactly entails. Among other things, Facebook will integrate with your Mac OS X Contacts and Calendar, updating contact pictures and adding friends’ birthdays to your calendar, and let’s other applications ask for your permission to interact with your Facebook account.
After adding your Facebook account to Mac OS X, you’ll notice that a small, unobtrusive button has appeared at the top of the Notification Center. Click it, and it will unfold to a recognisable Facebook widget that allows you to post simple status updates from the comfort of your desktop.
Connecting to your Twitter Account
There are two simple ways to connect your Twitter account to your Mac. One is to use Safari to log in to Twitter. Mac OS X will then ask you if you’ll allow other applications to request access to your Twitter account. This will add Twitter to the Notification Center as well.
The other way is very similar to how we connect with other accounts. Head to the Mail, Contacts & Calendars pane in the System Preferences application. At the right hand side of the screen, find the Twitter icon and click it.
Enter your Twitter account credentials (including the @-icon prefixing your user name) when prompted and press the sign in button to connect Mac OS X with your Twitter account. Optionally, you can use Twitter to update your Mac OS X contacts as well by pressing the adequately named “Update Contacts…” button in the next screen, but no further action is needed to add Twitter to the notification center.
As with the Facebook integration, the Notification Center now shows a small, unobtrusive button at its head. If you connect with Facebook as well, these two buttons will appear side to side. Clicking it gives you a text-field (with character count, of course) that allows you to post directly to Twitter.
How do you use the Notification Center in Mountain Lion? Let us know in the comments section below the article!
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How To Setup Messages + Facebook Chat In OS X Lion [Quicktip]
Messages is one of the features is offered in the recently announced OS X Mountain Lion, it allows you to integrate Facebook Chat so you can chat with your Facebook friends without using web browsers. But you might need to wait a while for Mountain Lion. Still, there is no reason why you cannot enjoy the fun Messages has to offer before the release.
You may wonder how to set up Facebook Chat on your Mac, which is quite a good idea so you don’t have to always log in to Facebook every time you want to chat with your friends. There is no installer available or provided by Facebook that will allow you to install only its chat on your computer.
That’s where Messages come into play. Messages Beta is a cool messaging client made for Mountain Lion, which will allow you to send messages accross many Apple products, for free. It also allows you to add Facebook Chat so you can directly chat with your Facebook friends. Messages Beta is now available for download, so why wait?
Install Messages Beta
Before you can set up Facebook Chat on your Mac, head over to Messages Beta page to download and then install. When installation is done, you will see the Messages icon on your Mac’s Dock.
Set Up Messages Beta
Now you already have Messages Beta installed on your Computer. Since this is your first time installing, you will be prompted to register with Messages Beta. Click ‘Continue’.
Now to complete the setup process, fill up your Apple ID and password, then click on the ‘Sign In’ button.
That’s it, click ‘Done’ and your Messages Beta is now ready for use.
Set Up Facebook Chat On Messages Beta
While Messages is still open, go to the main menu then ‘Preferences’.
The Preferences window will appear; click on ‘Account’ and then the plus (+) button to add new chat account.
Now there will be a form for you to fill up, use the following information;
- Account Type: Select ‘Jabber‘
- Account Name: Fill with username@chat.facebook.com (don’t forget to replace ‘username’ with your own Facebook username)
- Password: Enter your Facebook password
- Server: Use chat.facebook.com
- Port: 5222
- You can leave both ‘Use SSL’ and ‘Use Kerberos v5…’ unchecked.
Once completed, click ‘Done’ and you are now ready to chat with your Facebook friends. Open your Messanger Beta chat window and you will see your online friends on the list, and ready to chat with you.
Conclusion
With Messages Beta and Facebook Chat integration, you can now chat with your Facebook friends without even logging in to your Facebook account. You can also add Google Talk, Yahoo! and AIM chat, and handle everything using one simple messaging client from your Mac.
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The MacBook Air is one of the thinnest and lightest computers available today; thin as your finger, and so light every computer after will feel like you’re hauling a sack of potatoes. In fact, ever since Apple set the trend with its MacBook Air, the ultrabook genre has been gaining ground in the Windows scene.
But you don’t get a laptop as thin and light as the MacBook Air without making compromises. Instead of a regular hard drive disk, the MacBook Air has a (moderately more expensive) SSD drive, and the optical CD/DVD drive has been removed entirely.
Labeling the optical drive as redundant might be seen as a bold move from Apple. After all, CD’s and DVD’s has become the de-facto standard for software distribution, and although its importance is waning by the day, it’s still heavily used. Luckily, with Internet speeds and bandwidth ever increasing, and other portable media becoming more economical, it’s perfectly possible to live without a built-in optical drive these days.
Perhaps the easiest solution would be to get an external optical drive, which you can plug into your computer’s USB port whenever you’re handed one of those archaic silver discs.
The Apple Store provides you with a shiny contraption that looks like it belongs next to your MacBook Air, but you can find much cheaper models on eBay, Amazon, or even your local hardware store that provide exactly the same functionality. Just search for ‘external DVD drive‘ or ‘USB DVD drive‘ to see your options.
If you only use optical media once in a blue moon, buying an external DVD drive might be overdoing it a bit. If you have more than one Mac lying around, and one of them still has an optical drive, you can use Apple’s very own DVD or CD sharing functionality, which lets you use another Mac’s optical drive over a local network.
To enable DVD or CD sharing, open the Sharing preferences pane in System Preferencesusing the optical drive-equipped Mac computer and tick off the checkbox next to ‘DVD or CD Sharing‘.
Making sure your two computers reside on the same local network, open the Finder application on your MacBook Air. In the left sidebar, under Devices, you’ll see an entry calledRemote Disc which you can use to access the CD or DVD that’s inserted into the other computer’s drive.
Mind you, not all media will work this way. You won’t be able to play media or copy-protected discs, but you can use this option to copy (part of) a disc’s contents to a folder on your computer.
While this option doesn’t ensure compatiblity with older media, content producers are ever more using the Internet to distribute their content. You can download videos and music from Netflix or iTunes instead of buying that same content in a store. Likewise, you can use Steam, or the producer’s own services to download games to your computer.
Even if you’ve already bought software or games on physical media, the chances are you’ll be able to use the accompanying serial code to activate the products online, and download an installation file. In fact, a software trial downloaded from the website can often be registered and activated using your physically purchased serial code.
If you often have the need for a certain CD or DVD, and you’re reluctant to make any financial promises, you can always make a virtual copy of the disc using a computer that’s equipped with an optical drive.
To do this on another Mac OS X computer, insert the CD or DVD and open the Disk Utilityapplication from Applications -> Utilities. Select the optical media in the left hand sidebar and choose File -> New -> Disk Image From discname. From the Image Format dropdown menu select DVD/CD Master, select a location and press Save. Finally, copy the image file to your MacBook Air over the local network or using a portable drive, and double-click it to mount it on your computer.
Do you have a MacBook Air? What do you do to circumvent the need for an optical drive? Let us know in the comments section below the article!
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Why Your MacBook Air Has No Optical Drive & 4 Reasons Why This Isn’t a Problem
The MacBook Air is one of the thinnest and lightest computers available today; thin as your finger, and so light every computer after will feel like you’re hauling a sack of potatoes. In fact, ever since Apple set the trend with its MacBook Air, the ultrabook genre has been gaining ground in the Windows scene.
But you don’t get a laptop as thin and light as the MacBook Air without making compromises. Instead of a regular hard drive disk, the MacBook Air has a (moderately more expensive) SSD drive, and the optical CD/DVD drive has been removed entirely.
Labeling the optical drive as redundant might be seen as a bold move from Apple. After all, CD’s and DVD’s has become the de-facto standard for software distribution, and although its importance is waning by the day, it’s still heavily used. Luckily, with Internet speeds and bandwidth ever increasing, and other portable media becoming more economical, it’s perfectly possible to live without a built-in optical drive these days.
1. Use An External Disc Drive
Perhaps the easiest solution would be to get an external optical drive, which you can plug into your computer’s USB port whenever you’re handed one of those archaic silver discs.
The Apple Store provides you with a shiny contraption that looks like it belongs next to your MacBook Air, but you can find much cheaper models on eBay, Amazon, or even your local hardware store that provide exactly the same functionality. Just search for ‘external DVD drive‘ or ‘USB DVD drive‘ to see your options.
2. Use a Virtual DVD Drive
If you only use optical media once in a blue moon, buying an external DVD drive might be overdoing it a bit. If you have more than one Mac lying around, and one of them still has an optical drive, you can use Apple’s very own DVD or CD sharing functionality, which lets you use another Mac’s optical drive over a local network.
To enable DVD or CD sharing, open the Sharing preferences pane in System Preferencesusing the optical drive-equipped Mac computer and tick off the checkbox next to ‘DVD or CD Sharing‘.
Making sure your two computers reside on the same local network, open the Finder application on your MacBook Air. In the left sidebar, under Devices, you’ll see an entry calledRemote Disc which you can use to access the CD or DVD that’s inserted into the other computer’s drive.
Mind you, not all media will work this way. You won’t be able to play media or copy-protected discs, but you can use this option to copy (part of) a disc’s contents to a folder on your computer.
3. Download Media From The Internet
While this option doesn’t ensure compatiblity with older media, content producers are ever more using the Internet to distribute their content. You can download videos and music from Netflix or iTunes instead of buying that same content in a store. Likewise, you can use Steam, or the producer’s own services to download games to your computer.
Even if you’ve already bought software or games on physical media, the chances are you’ll be able to use the accompanying serial code to activate the products online, and download an installation file. In fact, a software trial downloaded from the website can often be registered and activated using your physically purchased serial code.
4. Make a Virtual Copy Of The Disc
If you often have the need for a certain CD or DVD, and you’re reluctant to make any financial promises, you can always make a virtual copy of the disc using a computer that’s equipped with an optical drive.
To do this on another Mac OS X computer, insert the CD or DVD and open the Disk Utilityapplication from Applications -> Utilities. Select the optical media in the left hand sidebar and choose File -> New -> Disk Image From discname. From the Image Format dropdown menu select DVD/CD Master, select a location and press Save. Finally, copy the image file to your MacBook Air over the local network or using a portable drive, and double-click it to mount it on your computer.
Do you have a MacBook Air? What do you do to circumvent the need for an optical drive? Let us know in the comments section below the article!
0
Unknown
If you’re a bit of a social enthusiast, simply posting regular status updates to social networks like Facebook and Twitter can turn out to be a bigger chore than you’d expect. Firing up a web browser and waiting for the website to load, only to post a quick status update is hardly an efficient way of doing things.
Continue Reading »
How To Post To Facebook & Twitter From The Notification Center In Mountain Lion
If you’re a bit of a social enthusiast, simply posting regular status updates to social networks like Facebook and Twitter can turn out to be a bigger chore than you’d expect. Firing up a web browser and waiting for the website to load, only to post a quick status update is hardly an efficient way of doing things.
Normally, we’d solve this by employing a standalone application. A number of applications are up to the task. However, with Twitter making it ever harder for developers to develop a decent dedicated client, that can be difficult as well. Instead, we could opt to use a feature that’s already available on Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: the Notification Center.
Similar to its iOS counterpart, the Notification Center (which can be accessed using the right-most icon in your menu bar, or by using a hotkey) is designed to keep track of the multitude of information broadcasted by the assorted applications installed on your computer. Apart from the expected—news about incoming emails, calendar events, and the like—you can also use the Notification Center to interact with Facebook and Twitter. Not only to view status updates from your connections, but to interact with it as well.
Connecting to your Facebook Account
Fire up System Preferences, and head to the Mail, Contacts & Calendars pane. Here, you can integrate Mac OS X with a variety of different services. At the right side of the preferences pane, click the Facebook logo and fill in your account credentials.
You’ll be required to approve a miniature terms of service before proceeding, acknowledging you recognise what connecting with Facebook exactly entails. Among other things, Facebook will integrate with your Mac OS X Contacts and Calendar, updating contact pictures and adding friends’ birthdays to your calendar, and let’s other applications ask for your permission to interact with your Facebook account.
After adding your Facebook account to Mac OS X, you’ll notice that a small, unobtrusive button has appeared at the top of the Notification Center. Click it, and it will unfold to a recognisable Facebook widget that allows you to post simple status updates from the comfort of your desktop.
Connecting to your Twitter Account
There are two simple ways to connect your Twitter account to your Mac. One is to use Safari to log in to Twitter. Mac OS X will then ask you if you’ll allow other applications to request access to your Twitter account. This will add Twitter to the Notification Center as well.
The other way is very similar to how we connect with other accounts. Head to the Mail, Contacts & Calendars pane in the System Preferences application. At the right hand side of the screen, find the Twitter icon and click it.
Enter your Twitter account credentials (including the @-icon prefixing your user name) when prompted and press the sign in button to connect Mac OS X with your Twitter account. Optionally, you can use Twitter to update your Mac OS X contacts as well by pressing the adequately named “Update Contacts…” button in the next screen, but no further action is needed to add Twitter to the notification center.
As with the Facebook integration, the Notification Center now shows a small, unobtrusive button at its head. If you connect with Facebook as well, these two buttons will appear side to side. Clicking it gives you a text-field (with character count, of course) that allows you to post directly to Twitter.
How do you use the Notification Center in Mountain Lion? Let us know in the comments section below the article!
0
Unknown
Continue Reading »
How To Setup Messages + Facebook Chat In OS X Lion [Quicktip]
Messages is one of the features is offered in the recently announced OS X Mountain Lion, it allows you to integrate Facebook Chat so you can chat with your Facebook friends without using web browsers. But you might need to wait a while for Mountain Lion. Still, there is no reason why you cannot enjoy the fun Messages has to offer before the release.
You may wonder how to set up Facebook Chat on your Mac, which is quite a good idea so you don’t have to always log in to Facebook every time you want to chat with your friends. There is no installer available or provided by Facebook that will allow you to install only its chat on your computer.
That’s where Messages come into play. Messages Beta is a cool messaging client made for Mountain Lion, which will allow you to send messages accross many Apple products, for free. It also allows you to add Facebook Chat so you can directly chat with your Facebook friends. Messages Beta is now available for download, so why wait?
Install Messages Beta
Before you can set up Facebook Chat on your Mac, head over to Messages Beta page to download and then install. When installation is done, you will see the Messages icon on your Mac’s Dock.
Set Up Messages Beta
Now you already have Messages Beta installed on your Computer. Since this is your first time installing, you will be prompted to register with Messages Beta. Click ‘Continue’.
Now to complete the setup process, fill up your Apple ID and password, then click on the ‘Sign In’ button.
That’s it, click ‘Done’ and your Messages Beta is now ready for use.
Set Up Facebook Chat On Messages Beta
While Messages is still open, go to the main menu then ‘Preferences’.
The Preferences window will appear; click on ‘Account’ and then the plus (+) button to add new chat account.
Now there will be a form for you to fill up, use the following information;
- Account Type: Select ‘Jabber‘
- Account Name: Fill with username@chat.facebook.com (don’t forget to replace ‘username’ with your own Facebook username)
- Password: Enter your Facebook password
- Server: Use chat.facebook.com
- Port: 5222
- You can leave both ‘Use SSL’ and ‘Use Kerberos v5…’ unchecked.
Once completed, click ‘Done’ and you are now ready to chat with your Facebook friends. Open your Messanger Beta chat window and you will see your online friends on the list, and ready to chat with you.
Conclusion
With Messages Beta and Facebook Chat integration, you can now chat with your Facebook friends without even logging in to your Facebook account. You can also add Google Talk, Yahoo! and AIM chat, and handle everything using one simple messaging client from your Mac.
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