SPECIALS | 12/19/2008 – 12/26/08

Mac Treats are meant to be quick and easy “how to” tips for getting more from your Mac on a daily basis. Many of these Treats elicit a “wow, I didn’t know you could do that!” reaction from readers. I find it oddly satisfying to discover, harness, and share the seemingly hidden features of Mac OS X. Occasionally, I stumble across an OS X feature that all my fellow Mac users seem to know – except for me.

For example: in Apple’s Mail program, did you know you can easily color code email messages in your inbox? This is useful if you want to flag certain messages for appropriate responses.

I just learned that you can manually do this by selecting an email, then pressing Command-Shift-C. The Apple color chooser window will pop up. You can use the color wheel to choose a color, but for this task I prefer the “crayon” view in the color chooser. In Mail, you can also get the color window to open by navigating to the menu bar at the top of the screen and choosing “Format > Choose Colors.”

It’s also easy to get Mail to automatically flag email by color as it enters your inbox. For example, lets say you’re married but have a boyfriend or mistress, and you don’t want their emails to get mixed up. Wait, no, don’t use that example.

Let’s say you want email from your boss to be flagged with green. In Mail’s menu at the top of the screen, click on Preferences, then in the window that opens, click Rules (note that sometimes the Rules button is hidden far to the right, and you have to drag the window larger to see it). Click “Add Rule”, choose the input criteria, and under “Perform the following actions” choose “Set Color of Message” in the drop-down menu. You may need to adjust the input critereia to make this work perfectly.

This is an easy way to make sure important emails stand out in your probably-swamped inbox. Feel free to flag Kibbles with red, meaning “read now!”

Back in October, when Apple introduced the new aluminum MacBooks, they also introduced a $999 MacBook with the classic white polycarbonate case, Superdrive, and 2.1 GHz processor. It’s the only current MacBook that still has a FireWire 400 port, which is essential for people with older MiniDV or HDV camcorders or FireWire400-equipped hard drives.

That’s a great machine, but right now we have something better at the same $999 price – namely, a previous-generation white MacBook with a 2.4GHz processor and 2GB or RAM (compared to the 2.1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM in the current white MacBook). Our 2.4GHz MacBook also has a 160GB hard drive (compared to the 120GB drive in the current model) and a DVD-burning Superdrive.

Again, this 2.4GHz MacBook is on sale for $999.99 and includes a FREE Isis case and free three-day express shipping until 12/31.

In a few days, many thousands of people will unwrap shiny new iPods. iTunes and the iPod are fairly easy to use, with fairly intuitive interfaces, but first-time iPod owners may still be confused about how to use them. This is espeacully true for people who rarely use a computer.

Also, even long-time iTunes/iPod owners might not be getting the most out their iPods. For example, many iTunes users don’t know they can manually manage songs and playlists on their iPods, rather than having iTunes automatically sync media (which sometimes results in media being improperly removed from the iPod). Following are a few links from Apple.com that will help new and experienced iPod owners to get the most out of their iPods.

* “New User’s Guide For iPod”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1345
* “iPod tutorials from Apple.”:http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/tutorials/
* “Apple’s iPod Support Page”:http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/
* “Syncing Content to iPod”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2209
* “Using iPod with multiple computers”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1202
* “Safely disconnect iPod”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1853
* “Adding and Deleting Songs and playlists from your iPod”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1855
* “How to use your iPod to move your music to a new computer”:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329

This is Kibbles & Bytes’ 600th issue, so it got me thinking about Kibbles past. I came across an article that Holly wrote back in ’05 about the silliness that goes on here during the holidays, and it struck me as amusing since much of it still rings true… an excerpt:

* “Don has a soft spot for the story of Frosty the Snowman. He cries every time he thinks of Frosty melting, and this is probably why he doesn’t like to hear Christmas songs playing in the office–it’s too upsetting!” __Don’s a softie.__

* “Rob has been walking around trying to see who has Christmas cookies.” __So that’s who’s been leaving all those cookie crumbs everywhere…__

* “We all know Hapy likes to wear his Scottish kilts, but who knew he enjoyed singing Christmas carols at the same time? We’ve found him several times in the Showroom belting out “Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas” with his kilt swaying to and fro!” __He *is* quite the warbler. Now if only his cold will get better, it’d be a little less nasally–think Fran Drescher in a kilt. Just kidding, Hapy!__

* “Tony has been trying to regift the same fruitcake for the past three years.” __Word of warning, all you new Small Doggers…__

* “It turns out that when Mark doesn’t like the piece of chocolate he gets, he’ll put the half-eaten piece back in the box!” __Yep, this seems to still be true.__

* “Artie got stuck in the chimney while playing Santa Claus for Dawn.” __I think he may have learned from that one.__

Well, we’ve been busy running around for the past several weeks and these last few days, especially, to make sure we have everything to you in time during this extremely busy time of year. It makes me smile to know that some things manage to stay the same, year after year!

Hope everyone out there has a wonderful holiday season, no matter what you celebrate, and we look forward to peace, joy and another 600!

I’m sure you’ve seen “PRODUCT RED”:http://www.joinred.com/Home.aspx special edition products that, when bought, the manufacturers donate a percentage of the profits to the Global Fund to help eliminate AIDS in Africa. (Apple’s red iPod nano and shuffle are good examples–if they would let us carry them, we would!)

*GREAT MUSIC, DELIVERED WEEKLY, SAVES LIVES*

Now, there’s more to (RED), and more ways to help! Their new weekly digital music magazine, (RED)WIRE, launches today. With each issue, you’ll receive exclusive music from artists around the world, and people living with HIV in Africa will receive the medicine they need.

“Sign up now and get two free issues.”:http://www.joinredwire.com/givegettry.html

How it works:
Every Wednesday, you’ll receive your new music via the (RED)WIRE player – which also places each song automatically in your iTunes. All music is yours forever, since they are unprotected digital files. You’ll be able to play them on your computer, iPod as well as burn them to CD or DVD.

It’s all only $5 per month (that’s about what you’d pay for iTunes music anyway in a month!) and half your membership fee goes to buy medicine to keep people living with HIV in Africa alive.

What you’ll receive:
* You get an exclusive song from a major artist.
* A song by a showcased artist.
* A fun or inspiring piece that’s not music–a short video of someone telling a story, a slideshow of great photography, someone reading something they love.
* And frequent updates from Africa–a window into the culture of the people getting the medicine.

“Check out (RED)WIRE here!”:http://www.joinredwire.com/
“Shop (PRODUCT) RED.”:http://www.joinred.com/Shop.aspx/

At Small Dog Electronics, it’s obvious we love animals. So when we discovered that there was a little girl who was committed to feeding hungry dogs and cats, we thought we could provide some support!

Mimi Ausland, a 12 year old girl from Bend, Oregon, was inspired by the website “freerice.com”:http://www.freekibble.com, which uses word games to help feed those in need. She figured the same could apply to animals, so she came up with an easy (and fun) way to provide food through playing trivia games on the website.

“Check it out!”:http://www.freekibble.com