With all the power iTunes offers, it can become overwhelming. iTunes desires to be your default player for near all media types. An amusing audio clip from Family Guy or The Simpsons ends up getting imported into iTunes. This audio clip then relentlessly follows you around and makes its way to your iPod and iPhone on your next synchronization.

Let’s see what we can do to keep iTunes clear of cruft, and only contain the data you want imported into it.

iTunes auto import and hijack of all media files
Every file has a default application that will open it when you double click on it. In the case of audio files, that default application is iTunes. Let’s take an example case, and step through how the process will work.

A friend emails you an mp3 to check out. You download it, and double click on it. Immediately, iTunes is launched, and the file is imported into iTunes. iTunes has now become the method by which you listen to this mp3 file.

If you have not made any changes to the default settings in iTunes, you now have a copy of the mp3 in your downloads folder. In addition, a copy of the file has been carried into iTunes as well. What most people do not know, is it is more than safe to delete the file from your downloads folder, as iTunes has made a copy of the file.

The trouble is, in many cases, users will not want to keep the file at all. They delete the file from the downloads folder, and a copy still remains in iTunes. You now have to delete the file from iTunes to get rid of it. This is an awful lot of work to just sample an mp3 a friend thought you would be interested in.

For me, this is even worse, as iTunes was launched, which takes time, and now I am burdened with cleaning up iTunes as well as the local copy in my downloads folder.

A much better default media player
OS X comes with a second media player, you know it as QuickTime. The good news is, if iTunes can play the file, so can QuickTime. What would be nice, is a method that allows you to open your media files in QuickTime, and bypass iTunes. QuickTime can provide this feature, and act as a small, simple, and fast player for you to sample you audio and video files.

If you decide you like the file, then you can take the steps to drop the file into iTunes and import it. 99% of the time, I do not want that 10 second clip of Homer Simpson saying “mmmmmmm donuts” ending up in my iTunes music library.

Forcing a new default media player
The solution is simple. The next time you download an mp3, or any audio or video file that would otherwise get opened in iTunes, hold off on the usual double click you are used to performing.

Instead, select the file and press command-I on your keyboard, or select the file and go to the File menu, and navigate down to Get Info.

This will bring up an information window as seen below:

If you look at this information window, you can see, the “Open with” section is set to iTunes.app. This means, that any time you double click on the file, it will open in that application by default.

We want to change that, from iTunes.app to QuickTime Player.app. Once you change the menu, click “Change All”. Now, any time you download a file of the same type, and double click on it, it will open in QuickTime.

QuickTime is a slim and fast player, which will allow you to evaluate your file before making the decision of wanting to keep it, or toss it.

You will only have to perform this change in the get info window once per file type. So, if someone sends you an mp3, you will need to make the change, and the next time, if someone sends you an aiff file, you will want to make the change for that file type as well.

There really are only about four or five types of files, once you set them, you will no longer need to worry about it, as QuickTime will now be the default player for testing files you download.

Saving your files back into iTunes
If you decide you do in fact want to keep the file and manage it within iTunes, it is a simple matter of dragging and dropping the file right into the iTunes window. You can also drop the file onto the iTunes icon in your dock and it will be imported.

If you have not changed your iTunes preferences, your files will be copied into iTunes. Since the file is copied, you are now safe to delete the original file you downloaded, as iTunes has stored it’s own internal copy of the file.

I find this method of managing audio files very useful. iTunes tends to get a good deal of junk imported into it, much of which cannot even be played on an iPod or iPhone. If you want to just use iTunes as a media player for data you want to save over the long term, this method of changing a files default launching should alleviate most of your organization issues.

First I will start with the basics, customizing the clock, what you can change, and why you may want to. After a small history lesson in how OS 9 was not as smartly multi-threaded as OS X, I can then explain just how you can use your clock as a visual aid to tell you if your computer is stuck.

System clock customization
Unless you have moved your clock elsewhere, it should still be sitting in the upper right corner of your screen. If you click on it, you can select the last item in the list: Open Date & Time.

Once the Date & Time preference pane is open, you should see there are three “tabs” at the top. The first one, Date & Time, allows you to select if you want the clock to set itself automatically. You can also set the date here as well. As long as you have an Internet connection, OS X will poll what is called a time server every now and then. In most cases, you should never have to worry about your date or time being off by more than a few seconds.

The second tab in the Date & Time preference pane allows you to choose your time zone. This is important to do, as we all live in different time zones. Daylight Saving Time has been moved around a bit over the years; the time zone you pick, ensures you never have to think about setting your clock to do the “fall back” or “spring forward” routine.

And finally, the last tab is the Clock tab. And it is this area I will explain how to set in a certain way to help you determine system lock ups. The options here are pretty self-explanatory.

If you use the Analog clock, this tip is not going to be of much help to you.

The key here is to set it to “display the time with seconds”, or at the very least, “Flash the time separators”. Personally, I use both. At this point, just humor me and set your clock to show the seconds and the time separators, which will blink once a second.

A Brief History of Time
Long ago, before OS X, there was Apple OS 9 and earlier. OS 9 supported something called multi-threading. I can say the methods they used to support it were rather crafty, in the end though, less than ideal.

What this meant to a user was that you could do more than one thing at the same time. In real world use, multi-threading on OS 9 worked pretty good, but not perfectly. Using OS 9, you could forget about watching a movie while ripping an mp3. Some applications were written so poorly in this regard, just clicking and holding your mouse would freeze the entire system until you released the mouse.

Those days are long gone, but one of the side effects still remains. On OS 9, your clock would constantly lose time. Because the clock is an application of sorts, if another application got stuck in some way, the clock would get stuck. Over time, day-to-day use, you could lose a few minutes here and there. Not a big deal, because even OS 9 had the ability to reset the clock automatically by asking what the correct time is from a network time server.

Using a stalled clock to your advantage
While not nearly as often, nor as bad, OS X still suffers from the same stalling issues as OS 9. Certain applications can and will stall out your computer. Most of the time, it is for such a short period of time you will never notice. Further, the clock will again get auto reset to a network time server on a schedule.

A perfect example, one of my web servers, has been running for 134 days, in a logged out state; the clock is now 10 full minutes out of sync. Apparently network time servers are not polled on OS X when you are logged out.

Every now and then, my computer will lock up in some way. It could be a single application, or the entire system will freeze. Near all the time, I have mouse control, but I cannot seem to do anything else. Most of the time, I wait it out, and all returns to normal. It is just a badly written application that is stealing all the cycles from my computer, making it appear to be locked up.

And that is the key here, your machine only appears to be locked up, but you have no way of telling. Some of these stalls can last longer than I have patience. Most would reboot. Rebooting is bad because we all forget to save our data, and losing hours of work is no fun at all.

The trick here, if you can call it that, is to glance at your newly customized clock. If you see the seconds ticking by, or the time separator pulsing, more than likely, your machine is not locked up. Wait it out, and things should come back to normal.

If you look at your clock, and the seconds are not moving at all, your machine is locked up hard. You are, in 99% of the cases, going to need to reboot.

I know this seems rather trivial, but I have been using this tactic for years now. Mail.app is a known culprit, and will stall out for thirty seconds or more at times. I cannot switch from mail to another app, or force quit the application, as I am locked into this stall. I just look at the clock, notice the time is still ticking by, and know to at least wait it out.

It is sort of a last resort, but takes nothing more than a glance. At times, you may think your computer is frozen; the system clock is generally a very good indicator that your computer is still able to perform actions. The truth is any application that has constant animation to it is a good candidate to use as a tool like this. I find the system clock is always there, is one of Apple’s single most reliable system applications that provides, and has served me as a lock up detection tool for many years.

We had a few rounds of email, over the course of a few days, in the end, I was unable to help. A solution was found, but not by myself, rather the user figured it out on their own. The solution was simple, and one I usually try as a first step, as should everyone. This time, it never crossed my mind, as I wrongfully assumed the user would also try this method as a first step.

The short story, his software was out of date, and simply needed to be updated. Never crossed my mind to even ask. Sometimes I get stuck in a troubleshooting bubble, this happened to be one of those times.

My first step was to have him try a hard coded DNS server. Second was to use OpenDNS servers. Third was to try to load websites by IP address, ruling out DNS issues entirely. Finally, we plugged his computer directly into the DSL modem, thereby ruling out any wireless or networking issues.

None of those methods worked. At the least, we narrowed it down to software issues, and not hardware or network related.

A few days later, I received an email from the reader telling me he got it working. A simple software update to Virtual PC and he was good to go.

If your software is not working as advertised. Look at their website, and see if they have an update that addresses your issues. I should express caution to the idea of running wild and updating all your software; often is the case a software update will fix one thing and break others.

Read the website, or email their support department, asking them about your specific issues. If all else fails, and you still can not get it working, update your software and see if that does the trick.

In the case above, the reader was using Virtual PC. I doubt any emails to Microsoft would have even been replied to, so his only chance was to run a software update. The good news is it worked, the bad news is we wasted three days because I did not think to ask if his software was up to date. The best news is the reader ended up working it out on his own, and learned something about the troubleshooting process along the way.

In talking this over with a friend, he suggested the “cube” idea that we are now using. Currently, we have most of the icons we need for future tutorials. We lack a few for broad topics like “hardware” and are in brainstorming mode to figure out how to fill those holes.

If you are interested in icons, or have a need to hire out an excellent icon designer, look no further than md3d.com. Mark Dhand has been at this for a long time, and really came through for us.

One of the more interesting parts of the procedure is how much iteration we had to go through to get where we are now. If you would like to check out the process, head over to Mark’s development area, and take a look at where we started, and where we ended up.

Again, a huge thanks to Mark for helping the site out with these icons. I think they look great.

You can download just the interview portion, or you can listen to the entire InsideMac Radio podcast. The OS X Help interview is short; if you have a spare 10 minutes, give it a listen.

This is my first ever experience talking to a few hundred thousand people, and it probably shows. We did not have a ton of time to cover everything, but I do feel the major points where covered.

One thing I do like about the interview, is I managed to get the main focus of the site out. I wanted to get the point across that both Caroline and I are just average every day people. We try hard to make a site that is helpful. We try even harder to respect all of our readers by communicating with them.

Our goal is to build a strong community that new Macintosh users are not afraid to jump right into. The interview seemed to get that point across rather well in my opinion.

Give it a listen, feedback is appreciated.

If your email address also ends in aol.com, more than likely, you are being taken advantage of. Paying for something that is otherwise free is never a good feeling. Spare five minutes of your day; when done, at the very least, I think we can save you $120.00 a year.

Background on internet service providers
Your computer can get a connection to the internet one of several ways. Most of us use a cable modem, or a DSL modem, and in some rare cases, dial-up or satellite. This is a 100% normal way to get internet access. You will be able to browse websites, check email; everything even the most advanced internet users do, you too will have that capacity.

Many years back, when the internet was relatively new, dial-up modems were the standard method of getting online. AOL came onto the scene and offered a system that you could dial into. They gave you an email address, chat features, and an application you would install on your computer.

This application allowed you AOL specific entry points to the internet. You could find chat rooms, support for software, software updates, and many other useful tools. AOL also has their own web browser that was used to get to websites outside of the AOL system.

With the explosion of the web, and the internet in general, AOL’s custom services have all been replaced. You no longer need AOL for email, since there are free providers like Gmail. You no longer need AOL for software support and updates, as you can just visit the software companies website directly. In most cases, you no longer need AOL for anything at all.

Is it safe for you to cancel AOL?
AOL has been around a long time, and some of you do in fact need to continue using their service. Most of you probably do not.

If you receive two bills per month, one from AOL, and one from your internet service provider, you are in the camp that can cancel your service with AOL.

You need a service to connect to the internet. If you are connecting to the internet through an ISP such as Comcast, or your local telephone company, also using AOL is pointless. You can safely cancel, as long as you understand the repercussions.

Some of you cannot cancel just yet
There will be a small handful of people who get only one bill. This means they use AOL not only for their “services” but also for their connectivity.

AOL is now a reseller of connectivity. They will happily broker the deal, and get you connected to the internet. You are charged for internet connectivity, as well as the use of their services. They put it all on one bill, making it seem like they are providing all services.

This is one case where you can simply skip the middleman. Go direct to your telephone company, or your cable provider and sign up for internet access with them.

What to do before you cancel
Before you cancel, make 100% certain you are not going to disrupt your service. If you are a dial-up user, AOL may not be a bad choice. They have a large amount of local dial-up numbers to call into. While there are much cheaper dial-up internet service providers, they may not have a local number to dial into.

Well before you cancel, you will need to get a new email address. This advice applies to not only AOL users, but cable and DSL users as well. Even you .Mac users may want to pay attention to this.

So many of the people I communicate with have email addresses that end in mac.com, comcast.com, cox.com, sbc.com, etc. I also see a good deal of email addresses that are obviously connected to their place of employment.

I have had the same email address going on sixteen years now. Everyone needs to have a free email address that will never change. It is time to put an end to accidentally emailing friends at their old work email address.

As soon as you are done reading this, go out and get a free Gmail email address. If you have a preference for another free provider, by all means use that one. It is my recommendation to avoid hotmail.com or yahoo.com for technical reasons.

Once you have this set up, start the painful process of telling all your contacts your email address has changed. I know this is a rough procedure to go through, but it will be the last time.

Those of you holding onto your old email addresses will one day move. With that move you will get a new internet service provider. And yes, they will give you another new and free email address. By making this change now, you at least do it on your own terms and can take your time.

Keep the AOL account open for as long as you think is needed for everyone to get your new email address and update their address books. Once you feel the word is sufficiently out, call AOL and tell them to shut down the account.

I hate to see anyone taken advantage of. Even if only $10.00 a month, that is still $120.00 a year. If you are willing to throw money away, please, cancel AOL and throw it into our donations box.

From time to time, I plan on posting articles such as this. Just the other day I heard a friend had bought a very expensive piece of software. For his needs, there was an equally good competing software, which is offering it for free. There are a many great applications out there that are free, and just as good as the pricey competition. Over time, I would like to share these with all of you.

The items you have as a default will largely depend on your computer. Laptop users will almost all have an Airport icon, and sometimes a Bluetooth icon.

What many people have not learned is that those menulets can be repositioned, deleted, and customized.

Moving a menulet
To move a menulet, just press and hold the command key and drag the menulet from left to right. The other menulets will scurry out of the way. Once you have it where you want, release the mouse and the command key.

I find myself frequently adjusting the volume, so I move the volume control off to the right. With it at the right, I find it easier to target quickly.

Removing menulets
Of course, what good would moving a menulet around be if you couldn’t also completely banish it from your menu bar. Removing is the same process as moving, with the exception of you drag downward and release the mouse. On release, a poof of smoke animation will appear, to let you know you have removed the item.

Adding menulets back
Now that you know how to arrange and remove icons from your menu bar, it is time to add a few back. Most, such as Airport and Bluetooth are controlled in your System Preferences. If for example, you removed the Bluetooth menulet, and you want it back, a quick trip to your Bluetooth preferences will bring it back.

Each menulet is different, but you should find an option that states “Show (item) in menu bar”, where “item” is the name of the item you are trying to bring back.

Menulet customization in action

Hidden menulets
Some menulets seem to evade all attempts at bringing them back. For example, the “Eject Disc” item has no known preference for adding it back in.

If you navigate to your main hard drive, and open the following folders:
System -> Library -> CoreServices -> Menu Extras
Double clicking on any of them will add that item back to your menu bar. Many will be non applicable to your system, but they are all there for your future needs.

Everyone buys hardware to hook up to his or her computer; many times that hardware comes with software. This software, at times, can cause more trouble than it is worth.

If you are coming from Windows, it is near mandatory to install some software for any hardware you purchase. Whether it be a simple USB thumb-drive, a digital camera, or a printer, it is not going to work without software.

On OS X, this is sometimes the case, usually it is rare. In most cases, things just work. Installing software tends to make things work less well. There are always deviations from the norm, trying to keep your system clean is never going to cause you more trouble than haphazardly installing poorly written software.

Printers and their software
Let’s start with printers, as those are the biggest culprits. If you buy a plain printer, whether it is color, or a black and white laser, most of the time, the software it comes with is not needed. Even in the case of it being needed, it will already be out of date by the time you get it.

Will it work out of the box
Apple does a superb job of making sure your Macintosh comes with a boatload of printer drivers. Printer drivers are what explains to your computer, how a page should be printed for your specific printer.

In general, before you buy a printer, do some research, and see how others have reported it to work with the Macintosh. I find Amazon.com to be a great place to read reviews; there will always be a few Macintosh users in the reviews section that will post their experiences.

I just bought a Brother HL-2070N from Amazon. It is a simple, inexpensive, fast, black and white office printer. I plugged it in, clicked print, did a little printer setup built right into OS X, and have not had to think about it since.

This includes the printer being allowed to accept print jobs from anyone on my network, telling it to print manual feed or automatically, and even defining how long before it goes into power save mode. All this is configurable with no additional software from Brother installed.

Using the most current software possible
I would suggest, try it with no software installed, if it works, you are good. You know you will not have any strange problems caused by the introduction of new software. If it does not work, pull out the installer CD it came with, and note what version it is. Go to the manufacturers site, and make certain that it is the most current version.

By the time the manufacturer ships the printer, they usually have updated their software. In the case of printers, it is always a good idea to be current. Rather than using outdated software, go to the source, and download their most current offering.

All in one printers
I should offer where this scenario falls short. All in one printers. A printer that has a fax, scanner, and printer built into one device.

I am of the opinion, you could not pay me enough to install the software needed to make these printers work. If you absolutely need this all in one functionality, please, read reviews, and read as many as possible. You will absolutely need to install software to make an all in one printer work. Given the horror stories I have heard about how poorly the all in one printers work, at this time, I cannot personally recommend a single one.

Digital cameras and external hard drives
By now, you either are about to, or already have bought digital camera. The same holds true for these devices. I am yet to use a digital camera that I could not just plug right into my Macintosh and work.

Usually, iPhoto will automatically open, and ask me what to do. I can import all my images, or part of a group. In the case where you do not have iPhoto, Apple has a separate Image Capture application that will help you to copy the images to your computer.

Sure, the camera will come with photo album software, importing software, retouching software, and much more. To be honest, I am yet to see any software, whether it is Fuji, Nikon, Canon etc., which for a basic user, is not poorly made. Apple makes great creative tools. If you outgrow those tools, there are other options. In near all cases, the software that comes with digital cameras is going to cause you more of headache than just ignoring it.

External hard drives will almost all come with some driver installing tools, as well as back up software. Again, these tools are built right into Mac OS X. We will get into Time Machine in a future post, which does backups better than anything else I have used to date.

Formatting your drive is as simple as a quick trip to Disk Utility. Again, the point to take home here is that in many cases, less is indeed more. The only time more is better, is if you happen to like frustration.

Keyboards, mice and other misc peripherals
Speakers generally do not come with software, so you should be pretty safe to plug and play with those.

Keyboards amaze me. I have seen software install CD’s that come with Microsoft keyboards that put hundreds of megabytes of data on your computer.

What a few hundred megabytes of data can do to make a keyboard any better is beyond me. Plug it in, start typing, you should be just fine.

Mice are a small exception. As mice get more and more sophisticated, they get harder and harder for Apple to keep working without third party software.

If you get one with three or four buttons, the built in mouse preference pane in OS X should cover you just fine. If you have specific needs, you are going to need additional software.

Mouse software is the worst, as it installs what are called kernel extensions. These kernel extensions are one type of software that can cause your system harm.

There are numerous reports of brand name mouse manufacturers software causing severe issues with people’s computers.

Fear not, there are indeed great workarounds. SteerMouse and USB Overdrive are the two most popular third party drivers for mice out there. Read up on each; see which one supports the mouse you want to buy.

These are not steadfast rules, but small ounces of prevention. Certainly, not installing software is going to be safer than installing software, as you have not changed anything. There will be cases where you need to install software to make something work.

Please do not leave this article afraid to install software; that, by all means, is not the point. Software at times, can be highly valuable, well written, and beneficial to your experience. Doing a small bit of research and trial before popping that CD into your perfectly running machine is always great advice.

All versions of OS X come with Safari, which in my opinion is a great browser for OS X. You are free to install any number of other browsers, such as Firefox, OmniWeb, or even some of the lesser-known alternative browsers.

Windows PC’s have Internet Explorer as their default browser. Over the years, Internet Explorer has gotten a bad reputation, and most people have moved to Firefox. Many Windows users, who do not know or understand the Macintosh, will tell you to use Firefox. The trouble with this advice is they are assuming the default browser, Safari, is as poor an experience as Internet Explorer.

You do not need to use Firefox. I would not go as far to say it is an inferior piece of software compared to Safari, but it is not a necessity to safe browsing. Apple makes Safari for both Macintosh and Windows, while I cannot comment on how good or bad it works on Windows, I can say for most browsing needs, it is a great application on OS X.

One area where it really shines is in aesthetics. It fits in with the rest of the applications on your Macintosh. It looks like a Macintosh application and works in many of the same ways as other Macintosh applications.

As a new user, Safari will have all the features you could ever want. Feel free to download Firefox and try it out, I do not think you will notice any real difference, aside from its appearance. Cosmetic issues such as appearance are hard to gauge, my opinion being Safari wins aesthetically by a large margin.

Last time I looked, Safari is, and has been, significantly more standards compliant than Firefox. This means, as long as a website is built to standards, you will not have any problems.

Some websites will specifically look to see what browser you are using. In those cases, you have to decide if you want to use that website bad enough to take extra steps to accommodate their terms. Banking sites, certain video sites, and other specialty sites will some times block Safari.

In all the cases I know of, Safari will work just fine, the developers are merely ignorant and want to take the easy road. The easy road being to develop a website that they must only test against one browser, rather than many.

My suggestion, use Safari as your main browser. If you run into a website that gives you trouble, keep Firefox as a backup, for those just in case times.

With that out of the way, our next tutorial will dive in, and deep, on how to become a master of browsing with Safari. We will not cover Firefox, as it is not part of the default application set Apple gives to you. Don’t listen to those users who tell you Safari is inferior to Firefox.

Stop by tomorrow and learn some handy Safari time saving tips.

All to often, I walk up to a clients Macintosh and see the dock, looking just as it did when Apple set it up at the factory. The one that really kills me is seeing the little spring icon on the right of the dock that takes you to Apples registration pages. I have seen this icon on computers several years old.

I can take only one thing away from these experiences. Users are afraid of messing something up, so they just leave it well enough alone.

Your computer is infinitely customizable. Anything you can imagine can probably be done. Whether it is functional tweaks, or a purely cosmetic change, your computer can be safely altered to do just about anything you would ever want.

The point I want to stress here is, do not be afraid. Click around. Drag around. Move things around. Change settings. Do whatever you feel like doing, it is the only way you will ever learn.

Of course, there are a few areas of the system that need a little special care, but for the most part, you can play to your hearts content and not harm anything. As long as your memory can hold a thought for 20 seconds, you can always revert your changes back to how they were. Aside from tossing random files into the trashcan, have at it.

Making changes to your computer is the only way you will ever learn what it can do. It will also teach you certain concepts that apply to similar tasks you may want to test out in the future.

Now before you run off and close this article to start making a million tweaks to your computer, I ask one day of patience. The next post will start running you through some very basic concepts of what is safe to change, and what is not. Concepts will be outlined that will set a framework for how you think about customizing your computer.

In the end, you will learn to make your computer work for you, rather than working hard to have your computer frustrate the hell out of you.

Sit tight, tomorrow will have specifics and details on simple yet valuable customizations to get your started.

The site is exclusively targeted to the Macintosh user who just unpacked their new computer. This does not mean if you are more advanced, you cannot learn a few new tricks. We certainly hope to learn some new ways of doing things from those of you veterans out there.

If you are reading this, we can assume you have a working internet connection, and are somewhat up and running. Over time we will delve into the nuances of connectivity and basic set up. For now, those posts will be reserved for a time when you have read OS X help more thoroughly.

For starters, if you know what RSS feeds are, please click the RSS link to the right. This will allow you to be updated every time a new post goes up.

If you have no idea what RSS is, simply pop your email address into the form at the right, you can get site updates via email instead. You may even choose to subscribe via RSS and email, as email will offer exclusive information to users not available in the RSS feeds.

At the bottom of every post is an area where you can post a comment. We encourage all users to posts comments. There is no question too simple, no need to be timid. If you have specific article/post suggestions, you can send those by way of email.

Since we are starting this site new, all posts will be specific to OS X System 10.5 Leopard. Many times there will be overlap. Some suggestions and tutorials will still work on earlier operating systems. That being said, the goal is to get you up to speed with the most current operating system, always moving forward.

Finally, we would appreciate it if you pass along a link to this site to your friends. If you know others who struggle with OS X, or would just like to one day master OS X, please pass along the address to OS X help. If you are far enough along, and have your own website, adding a link back to us certainly will not hurt our feelings.

We look forward to creating the best place for new Macintosh users to start learning.