via TUAW

In order to adjust the brightness our your Mac to total darkness (0%), you’d have to press and hold down a function key F1. There is however a shortcut to get your Mac to total darkness simply by pressing Ctrl-Shift-Eject. This will only sleep the display saving battery power when you take a quick break. Press any key to bring the brightness back to its original state.

Got a tip? Let us know

We hear them on the radios, see them on out television sets, but they are people just like you and I. So what do they use when it comes to technology? What cellphone to make calls, car to drive or computers do they use? One such celebrity, Chris Gibbons from Talk Radio 702, calls himself the “Mac Evangelist.” Chris uses a Mac from 1984 and loves it.

Do you know of any South African celebrities who use a Mac? Let us know.

If you are a Mac user then you will notice how little you have to spring clean your Mac. Apart from the daily dusting or finger print screen cleaning, mac Paw has released CleanMyMac. I have tried it out and works really good. Here’s what they say.

CleanMyMac represents sophisticated all-in-one-suite utility that helps keep your Mac clean and healthy. With just two simple clicks you can delete useless files that basically pile up and waste your valuable disk space. CleanMyMac allows enjoying smooth system performance combining such vital features as Slim Universal Binaries, Clean Unneeded Languages, Logs Rotation, Clean Caches, Quick and Secure Erase, Application Uninstallation, and Killing Trash Left From Buried Applications. CleanMyMac can save gigabytes of disk space and enhance your computer speed. Go ahead and give it a shot! Your Mac will definitely be grateful!

Any application running on your Mac leaves numerous support files, which won’t just get to Trash once you remove the app. CleanMyMac will locate and erase all “leftovers” from your system files to enable you to easily install and uninstall new programs whenever you need.

The more junk files are stored on your Mac the slower it will work. Processes of saving and storing unnecessary files take your priceless time. Using CleanMyMac will professionally help your Mac reduce the amount of operations required for your online and offline activities.

Grab your copy now.

A french guy has apparently found a hidden feature in his MacBook. He has however not revealed this feature and says that he has been “sworn to secrecy.” Is this some sort of technology for the future or a conspiracy to take over the world. Some say that Apple may be working with Extra Terrestrials. Well whatever it is, I just hope that my MacBook Pro can do the same. Only thing is that I want to be able to control the spaceship. Is all this true —- of course it is, wink wink. Checkout the video.

Im betting its done with Final Cut and 3D Studio MAX. What do you think?

I’ve always loved the Apple wallpapers that came with every release of the OS. This year we all await the new 64bit Snow Leopard due to be released in September. Apple has previewed Snow Leopard at the WWDC earlier this year but for now all we can get out of it is the new default wallpaper. I have managed to get hold of the wallpaper and decided to share it with you if you are like me, will have it displayed for all to see.

Tell us what you think of the new wallpaper.

If you are like me and use MobileMe, you would have noticed that the has been a slight UI update. Well for starters the first thing I noticed was the iDisk icon had been changed, Kinda looks like one of the apps that come from the iPhone. Other icons are Mail, Settings and Address Book. Other changes include :

The Help menu is now accessible from the toolbar.
Mail forwarding and replies now retain original formatting.
All messages on MobileMe can now be searched from the iPhone or iPod Touch.
Automatic album creation from the iPhone or iPod Touch with version 3.0 software.
iPhone 3GS users can publish video to MobileMe.
iPhone contacts maintain ringtone associations after syncing with MobileMe.
Option to merge contacts and calendars on first sync.
Turning off sync will enable users to still keep a copy of their data on their device rather than wiping it.

Do you use MobileMe as well?

Initially, we can only download free YouTube videos in FLV format. Until not long ago, YouTube has released high quality MP4 video as an additional feature for its users. It will be really satisfying if those MP4s can be downloaded.

The good news is, we know two tricks that can be used to download HD YouTube Video. And we feel that it’s such a great honor to share these.

Download with Activity Monitor
Everything that is visible to eyes are downloadable and for Safari web browser, all files can be spotted inside Activity Monitor. Amongst all of files listed inside, there exists a file linking to the HD Video. To spot and download it, follow these steps.

1. Open YouTube URL to video. Append URL with &fmt=18 to view HD video
2. Show up Activity Monitor (Command-Option-A)
3. Seek for file with largest size and Option-Click it
4. The download should be started with default name video.mp4

For Firefox users, HD YouTube video is downloadable using bookmarklet. Just drop the bookmarklet on Bookmark Bar and click on it when you are opening YouTube page. New link will appear afterwards.


Bookmarklet to Download YouTube HD
Here is the bookmarklet: YouTube HD
Drag it to your Bookmarks Bar and it will look like screenshot below.

Apple has released a new version of iPhoto to improve overall stability and make a few corrections.

This update addresses a rarely encountered issue involving photos imported into a previous version that could affect overall stability, and corrects references to a few points of interest and location names that were labelled incorrectly.

The update is recommended for all users of iPhoto ’09.

For detailed information on this update, please visit this web page: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2797

You can install the update by selecting Software Update from the Apple menu at the top left of your desktop.

As promised, Steve’s medical leave ended with the month of June. Last January, Apple announced that CEO Steve Jobs would take a leave of absense to deal with medical issues for approximately six months. Since then, we’ve learned that Steve had a liver transplant and today Apple confirmed his return.

“Steve Jobs is back to work. He is at Apple a few days a week and working from home the other days,” Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said. “We’re glad to have him back.”

That’s great news for the company and, more importantly, for Steve himself. There has been much noise about Steve during the past six months, including Apple’s future without him, who might take over and the company’s obligation to keep investors informed about the health of their CEO. Here’s hoping the din dies down and that Steve continues to enjoy a long and productive career at Apple.