Kibbles & Bytes Blog

Recently, I purchased a massive 2TB external hard drive so that I could create a media server with my Mac mini and free up space on that machine and my MacBook Pro. Some of you may not have even considered this an option but it is a great way to save space on your computer’s primary drive. At the same time it can make your photos a little safer and a little less safe as well.

Storing your photos on an external hard drive helps safety because typically you are not accessing your external as often as your primary drive which will increase the time before the drive fails, and before you ask, yes, every hard drive will fail at some point. It also makes them slightly less safe because Macs come standard with impact detection.

My layman’s understanding of how this works is that the Mac will quickly lock the drive’s components in place whenever an impact is imminent. Since your average external doesn’t have this feature, you run the risk of dropping the external while it is operating and damaging its internals. However, in the long run, I think this is a much better way to store all media including photos, music, docs, and movies.

Now onto the part you’ve been waiting for — how to do it!

*Step 1*
* Plug in and power up your external drive so that it mounts on your Mac. Also make sure that iPhoto is not running. If it is simply click on the icon to open it up and hit *command+Q* to quit the app.

*Step 2*
* Locate your iPhoto Library. This should be stored in your Pictures folder but if you can’t find that, open up a new Finder window and follow this path: *@Macintosh HD > Users > “your username” > Pictures@*

*Step 3*
* Move the *iPhoto Library* package to your external by using either cut and paste or by dragging the package to the external. If you are using the dragging method, I always find it much easier to have two finder windows open.

* You might have to wait some time for this action to finish. The time it will take can greatly vary depending on the amount of data being moved, the type/speed of both drives and the interface in which they are connected (USB 2.0, FireWire, Thunderbolt, etc.)

*Step 4*
* Once your iPhoto Library package has been moved, you need to tell the iPhoto app where to find the pictures. To do this hold down the *alt/option* key and launch iPhoto. This will open a new dialog window asking you to select the iPhoto Library you want to use. Select the option for the library we just moved. If you see multiple options and are unsure you can see the directory path for the currently selected library. Just make sure its path is going to your external hard drive and hit *Choose* to confirm the selection.

* If by chance you don’t see your existing library in the list simply click the *Other Library…* button and navigate to the iPhoto Library you moved to your external hard drive.

Whenever you open iPhoto, the app will automatically pull its data from the library on your external. Keep in mind that if you don’t have the external connected, you won’t be able to access the photos within iPhoto. That seems like a simple idea but I have been caught once or twice not powering up my external and wondering where the heck all my media is when I turn on iTunes.

If in the future you decide you want your iPhoto Library back on your Mac’s hard drive, all you have to do is follow these steps again with one exception. Make sure you drag the iPhoto Library from your external to the Pictures folder on Mac and make sure to select the library with the directory going to your Mac and not your external.

Voila! You just freed up some space on your Mac’s hard drive.

Next week is a big travel week for most Vermonters since it’s February break for the school kiddies. If you are one of those people headed someplace warm, sunny and tropical, I am very jealous. If you are able to, escaping the Vermont winters here is essential to your well-being. (Ok, maybe not for all, but for me — someone who loves the sun and warm weather — it’s crucial to get out of here and soak up some serious Vitamin D.) Because I got stuck in Florida during Hurricane Sandy seven days longer than scheduled, I was unable to take my beloved escape to warmer climates this winter. Oh well — I plan to crank the heat in my house and look through photos from trips past.

I have a treat for the rest of you jet-setters. There are some really great travel apps out there. Here are a few that might be worth downloading from the app store before leaving.

Check it out:

*Getting there — jetBlue* This will obviously only be beneficial to those of you actually flying jetBlue. I downloaded this app last year for my trip to Puerto Rico and being someone who judges things first by how they look, was instantly blown away. In this case however, it looks pretty (I’ve always thought jetBlue has done a great job with their identity) and works great! After downloading the app, sign in if you are already a TrueBlue member and it will automatically pull your upcoming flights and information. You can check into your flight, check flight status and view the in-flight guide. You’re able to use the app to book flights, make postcards to send to friends and download some cool jetBlue-themed wallpaper.

*During — Everplaces* This app might be better suited for the world traveler versus the quick vacationer, but I would still recommend it. If you are one of those people who cares about an authentic and urban experience when you travel, this is the app has your name all over it. Create beautiful collections of photos and tips from your favorite places and get recommendations from other locals or friends who already been to your destination. This app has been described as “the Pinterest of the real world.” The best part about it is that it works offline, so you won’t have any roaming fees!

*After — Trevi* Once you’ve returned from your super fun trip, get all those photos organized — all you’ll need is a few minutes — seriously. Ahhhh, technology! The days are over when you could spend all weekend organizing the prints from your last trip into photo boxes. Trevi will take your entire photo library from your phone and organize them into city albums, keep track of your travel timeline and gives you a world map marking where you’ve been. You can also send cool postcards to all your friends to make them jealous.

For all you folks who are lucky enough to escape the cold and travel someplace warm — or even if you are going from cold to cold — getting outta town for a bit really helps break up the time. Safe travels!

Have you ever wanted to open a file in a different application than usual? As a web designer, I often find myself opening HTML files in Safari (which is usually what I want), but every once in a while I want to open that same file in my text editor.

It is a relatively easy process to open a file in a different app. Simply use the secondary click command that you have set up — I right click my Magic Mouse (if you don’t know how to use secondary click I will explain that later). Doing so will open a menu of which the second option from the top is *Open With*. When you hover your mouse pointer over that menu option, another menu will pop out with a list of apps that can launch that file. Select the app you want to open the file with, and presto-change-o — you’re all set for this one time. If you don’t see the app you want, you can always click on *Other…* to browse your entire *Applications* folder for the desired app. You can also go straight to the *App Store* if you know you don’t have the program you want installed.

So what happens if you want that type of file to always open in that app? Well, you can set a specific file type to always open in a certain application. There are two ways that I know of to do this. The first is to select the file by clicking it once and getting its info with the shortcut *command+I*. A new window will open up and in the 4th drop down from the top labeled *Open with:* you can set the app this specific file uses to open. Once you have selected the app you want, hit the *Change All…* button and every file that has the same extension on your machine currently and in the future will open with that app.

Now, back to secondary clicking. If you don’t know what your secondary click is, go to *System Preferences > Mouse > Point & Click* and make sure the *Secondary Click* box is checked and underneath is set to the way you want to click. It is the same process if you use a trackpad, except that you go to the trackpad section instead of the mouse section in System Preferences.

I hope this week’s Mac Treat was of benefit to you. It certainly is something that I have to do multiple times a day. As always, if you have any questions about this Mac Treat, email me at “*michaelb@smalldog.com.*”:mailto:michaelb@smalldog.com

_Dear Friends,_

We got some fresh snow for President’s week here in ski country, which makes our ski areas happy and the roads crowded with slow-moving traffic. There are a lot of things I can do without in winter, but the one that really gets me is how driving on my dirt road makes snow, mud and ice accumulate on my wheels and throw it out of balance. The shaking on the highway usually gets me to go to the car wash, which sometimes works, and sometimes just makes it worse. I always thought the north country should have some special type of wheel washing system that dips each wheel into cleansing warm water.

We are under construction for our new store in Rutland, Vermont, which will be open this spring. It is a smaller store and while it is in Vermont’s second-largest city, some Apple Specialists asked me when I was in California why we would open a store in a city of 20,000. Well, distances can be confusing in a rural state like Vermont and we expect to serve a much larger area. There are a couple of other considerations as well — we have a partnership with Green Mountain Power and we want to prove to ourselves that a small store model will work so that we can replicate that in other communities, too. What makes the GMP partnership great is that they are currently building an Energy Innovation Center and are working to mark Rutland as the “Solar City” of New England.

We just got in some of the new 128GB iPads, so if you are looking for the ultimate iPad, come on over to any one of our stores. In fact, we have just about all of the iPad and iPad mini models in stock, including some refurbished and discontinued models, too.