10 Useful Mac Tips you might not have thought of

Here are some of my top tips for additional OS X functions, most have come from my experience at home and work.

1. Plugging in a TV or Second Monitor

Most Mac models come with an external connector for attaching additional screens (normally a mini DVI connector). From this you need a mini DVI to DVI connector then another cable to plug into your screen, this can be a DVI to VGA cable, DVI to DVI cable or as I have a DVI to HDMI cable. All the cables are very cheap and can normally be picked up from Ebay.

OS X should automatically detect the second screen plugged in and you can open system preferences to adjust the resolution. You may have to play around with the settings, my 26" LG HD TV looks best on 1280 x 720 rather than its native resolution.

I've had my iMac plugged into my TV for the past 6 months and people still think its cool how I can move my mouse from one screen to another.

2. Sharing your Internet over Wireless.

While I was at University our local cable supplier didn't give out free wireless routers so to save buying one I shared the Internet out through my iMac's wireless. In Leopard the Internet can be shared from the Sharing section in System Preferences.

3. Bluetooth Internet Through Your Phone

It usually takes ISP's about two weeks to put ADSL on a phone line. Clearly I couldn't be without Internet for two weeks so I turned to my mobile phone provider (T-Mobile) to hook me up to the net. Now that 3G signal is well established (and I have a 3G phone) I got speeds of around 3mb for £12.50/month.

First you need to sync your phone via Bluetooth in iSync. If your phone isn't supported then check the manufactures website or Google to see if someone has written a plugin. My Sony Ericsson K850i isn't natively supported in iSync however fortunately someone had written what was needed.

Once you have paired the devices click on the Bluetooth icon on the menu bar, select your phone and click connect to network. With 3G you shouldn't need to enter any dialing information and as long as you have good signal you should be online within no time.

4. Watching TV through USB Stick

I was in PC World a couple of months ago and I wanted to buy something, I wasn't really bothered what I just wanted to buy something new to play with at the weekend. I've looked at USB digital TV adapters before but was never convinced to buy one. I ended up with a £25 Hauppauge USB stick for my PC, I brought it and installed it on my PC.

The Hauppauge software was useless and I was considering taking it back until I stumbled upon EyeTV and most importantly that it supported my Hauppauge USB stick. EyeTV works flawlessly and its PVR functions have completely changed how I watch TV. It has everything apart from an automatic advert skipper.

5. Running Windows Applications

There are a couple of different options for running Windows applications on an Intel Mac. If its just the case of needing Internet Explorer 7 for certain websites or for testing purposes then ie4osx is a great application.

Otherwise you have the options of Parallels or VMWare.

6. Using Mail to access your Email Through IMAP

Being able to use IMAP in Mail is nothing new but its still under used. I use Mail to organise my two Google Mail accounts, the main benefit to using IMAP over POP3 is that is can syncronise between the mail on Googles server and on my computer meaning I can view the same emails from at home in Mail and from a Web Browser at work.

7. Recording Internet radio with Audio Hijack Pro

A lot of Internet Radio sites make it very hard to record, fortunately Audio Hijack Pro makes it easy (as easy as using your PVR or tape recorder).

First find the radio show you want to record.

Next open Audio Hijack Pro and drag Firefox/Safari into Audio Hijack (you may have to restart Firefox/Safari) click the hijack button and then hit record. When recording from services such as the BBC you may have to boost the volume because of the poor audio quality (in the Effects bab).

8. Keeping an eye on memory usage with Activity Monitor.

If you find your Mac running slow it might be because you're low on memory. The usual suspects on my Mac are Firefox or Parallels, even with 4gig of memory a lot still gets used.

One easy way to keep an eye on what you're using is to open the activity monitor program and to set the dock icon to show memory usage.

Then just set activity monitor to open at login.

9. Saving You Tube videos with Get Tube.

Occasionally there might be a need to save a YouTube video. There are various programs for OS X but the best one I've found is Get Tube.

First find your favourite video on YouTube.

Next open Get Tube and select which browser you're using. The video will then download. You can use Tube Cart for multiple videos.

10. Take a screen shot

You maybe wondering how I've taken all these pictures for this article. The basic way to take a screen shot on your Mac is by Command+Shift+3, this takes a screen shot of the screen and save it as a file on the desktop, alternatively Command+Shift+4, then drag around the area - takes a screen shot of an area and save it as a file on the desktop.

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