Mac OS X Mountain Lion. Move your Mac even further ahead

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Okay so like I said earlier I can't stand any of the Twitter app icons out there (esp. the official app's). I'm using Tweetbot but there's no way i'd put that alpha egg icon in my dock, so I made this replacement;

v39Ec.png
(clean/no diagonal lines alt version)

Since (imo) the Messages app is that last quality new icon to come out of Apple's Mac team (notes/reminders are borderline lazy) in a while, I pretty much just ripped off that look.

Only did a 512x512 version so far but if anyone cares to use it, DL link here.
 
My main used apps are Dropbox, Bowtie, Textexpander, Flux, Tweetbot, BetterSnapTool, CCleaner, Skitch among others I can't think about right now. All works great for my workflow, and enjoyable to use for personal business too.

Sentry said:
Okay so like I said earlier I can't stand any of the Twitter app icons out there (esp. the official app's). I'm using Tweetbot but there's no way i'd put that alpha egg icon in my dock, so I made this replacement;
Click to expand...
Tweetbot only has the egg because it's in Alpha. It'll 'hatch' once it's officially released on the App Store. On a related note: I think Tweetbot is going to be Mountain Lion exclusive. Ballsy.
 
Are there any programs specifically made for looking at files on another computer on your network? I have the hardest time connecting to my Windows PC...
 
Just want to second the recommendation by Sentry for Pixelmator. I had a copy of photoshop I received free from a graphic design placement and I haven't even bothered installing it now that I upgraded to ML. Always loved the look of Pixelmator and bought a copy when I installed ML. I mainly made the switch due to how lightweight it is in comparison to photoshop. It looks amazing and is lightning fast. I don't know how it compares to photoshop for graphic designers who use this stuff daily but it works well for just casual design work that I do.
 
I owned Pixelmator 1.0 when it came out and was kind of mad at the time when 2.0 came out as a paid version with a high upgrade fee. But I'm thinking of going back to it as it's come a long way since then. I don't use most of the stuff Photoshop would offer anyway.
 
Sentry said:
Okay so like I said earlier I can't stand any of the Twitter app icons out there (esp. the official app's). I'm using Tweetbot but there's no way i'd put that alpha egg icon in my dock, so I made this replacement;

v39Ec.png
(clean/no diagonal lines alt version)

Since (imo) the Messages app is that last quality new icon to come out of Apple's Mac team (notes/reminders are borderline lazy) in a while, I pretty much just ripped off that look.

Only did a 512x512 version so far but if anyone cares to use it, DL link here.
Click to expand...

NICE. I'll keep it handy for future use, thanks!
 
The problem with Pixelmator is that they switched it over to using Lion's file saving system. To me, that one fact alone keeps it as an amateur-level app. (The other thing that makes the app useless to me it its non-tabbed interface.)
 
shidoshi said:
The problem with Pixelmator is that they switched it over to using Lion's file saving system. To me, that one fact alone keeps it as an amateur-level app. (The other thing that makes the app useless to me it its non-tabbed interface.)
Click to expand...

This. And I'm more often opening, closing and rearranging panels instead of actually working. It's probably no problem with bigger displays, but on the notebook display I prefer single windows with rectractable views.
 
shidoshi said:
The problem with Pixelmator is that they switched it over to using Lion's file saving system. To me, that one fact alone keeps it as an amateur-level app. (The other thing that makes the app useless to me it its non-tabbed interface.)
Click to expand...
It can be disabled via the Terminal.

My only problem is that it doesn't have layer effects. Shadows and bevels and outlines and all that jazz. It's like Photoshop circa version 7.0.
 
thewesker said:
Tweetbot only has the egg because it's in Alpha. It'll 'hatch' once it's officially released on the App Store. On a related note: I think Tweetbot is going to be Mountain Lion exclusive. Ballsy.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah I know, that's why I called it the alpha egg. Hopefully they'll use something more inventive than the standard Tweetbot app icon. And are they really doing that? What benefits could that possibly have?

criesofthepast said:
Just want to second the recommendation by Sentry for Pixelmator. I had a copy of photoshop I received free from a graphic design placement and I haven't even bothered installing it now that I upgraded to ML. Always loved the look of Pixelmator and bought a copy when I installed ML. I mainly made the switch due to how lightweight it is in comparison to photoshop. It looks amazing and is lightning fast. I don't know how it compares to photoshop for graphic designers who use this stuff daily but it works well for just casual design work that I do.
Click to expand...
For graphic design it's adequate, but you have to do so much more manually. Like if I wanted to make a drop shadow, or an internal shadow etc in Photoshop I have the simple layer options. In Pixelmator I need to duplicate the layer, darken it to pitch black, place it behind the image, then use the gaussian tool. It achieves the same effect, just with a bit more work. And Photoshop still rules for text manipulation and of course filters. But I agree, Pixelmator is awesome and gets the job done faster than PS. The learning curve is practically non-existent compared to PS, too.

The Real Abed said:
My only problem is that it doesn't have layer effects. Shadows and bevels and outlines and all that jazz. It's like Photoshop circa version 7.0.
Click to expand...
Like I said to cries, you can do almost all of that, but manually. It would be nice if all that was built-in, though.

shidoshi said:
The problem with Pixelmator is that they switched it over to using Lion's file saving system. To me, that one fact alone keeps it as an amateur-level app. (The other thing that makes the app useless to me it its non-tabbed interface.)
Click to expand...
No. It's a huge advantage having your shit being auto-saved. You can even never save or name a new file and Pixelmator will remember it. If you need to save a png, just use save as or export. There's nothing inherently wrong with that feature imo. But I agree on the tabs, that'd be a welcomed addition.

The Real Abed said:
I owned Pixelmator 1.0 when it came out and was kind of mad at the time when 2.0 came out as a paid version with a high upgrade fee. But I'm thinking of going back to it as it's come a long way since then. I don't use most of the stuff Photoshop would offer anyway.
Click to expand...
It's worth it imo. Thankfully I hand't actually bought Pixelmator 1 yet (but tried it a bit) so 2.0 was a logical entry point for me. Really can't wait to see what they upgrade into it next, though. Been a while.
 
Turned my Air on earlier today and neither the trackpad or the keyboard would work. Closing the lid didn't make any difference. I was about to freak out on the login screen but the power button eventually worked after I held it down and I was able to restart instead of having to wait for the battery to drain or something like that.

After the restart it all worked normally and as soon as I logged in I got the message that the XtraFinder beta had ended. I'm thinking it had something to do with that somehow since I have it as a login item, the message is the only change from when I used it yesterday and I can't think of anything else that could have caused it. Just updated to the new version and hopefully it won't happen again.
 
plasticpassion said:
It seems like my MBPr is much slower to wake up after installing Mountain Lion. What's up with that? Has anyone else noticed the same thing?
Click to expand...

Yeah, a lot of people are experiencing this, including me. Very un-Apple like, it wreaks of amateur shit I wouldn't expect out of Apple. Hope it gets fixed soon.
 
Question: why, when I skip ahead in videos in Quicktime, does the sound track not seem to keep up with the video? It's only started happening with Mountain Lion, and causes there to be a sort of stuttering sound whenever I scan forward.
 
blahblah...blah said:
Question: why, when I skip ahead in videos in Quicktime, does the sound track not seem to keep up with the video? It's only started happening with Mountain Lion, and causes there to be a sort of stuttering sound whenever I scan forward.
Click to expand...

I've noticed that in MPlayerX and QuickTime, dunno why it's happening but kind of annoying. It's like it plays a millisecond of audio from the moment you skip to.
 
Sentry said:
For graphic design it's adequate, but you have to do so much more manually. Like if I wanted to make a drop shadow, or an internal shadow etc in Photoshop I have the simple layer options. In Pixelmator I need to duplicate the layer, darken it to pitch black, place it behind the image, then use the gaussian tool. It achieves the same effect, just with a bit more work. And Photoshop still rules for text manipulation and of course filters. But I agree, Pixelmator is awesome and gets the job done faster than PS. The learning curve is practically non-existent compared to PS, too.
Click to expand...

I started using Photoshop at version 3.5, so doing everything by hand is not new. I have been thinking of getting Pixelmator for work, where I have Acorn on my Mini. If PS came with three licenses, I'd just use that, but it doesn't.
 
Sentry said:
Okay so like I said earlier I can't stand any of the Twitter app icons out there (esp. the official app's). I'm using Tweetbot but there's no way i'd put that alpha egg icon in my dock, so I made this replacement;

v39Ec.png
(clean/no diagonal lines alt version)

Since (imo) the Messages app is that last quality new icon to come out of Apple's Mac team (notes/reminders are borderline lazy) in a while, I pretty much just ripped off that look.

Only did a 512x512 version so far but if anyone cares to use it, DL link here.
Click to expand...
how do you change a dock icon?
 
CrudeDiatribe said:
I started using Photoshop at version 3.5, so doing everything by hand is not new. I have been thinking of getting Pixelmator for work, where I have Acorn on my Mini. If PS came with three licenses, I'd just use that, but it doesn't.
Click to expand...
Acorn's been on my list of software i've been meaning to look into for a while now. There's just so many though, Sketch, ZeusDraw, DrawBerry, ArtText, Inkscape and a few others are all image manip software i'm curious to try (most are expensive but have trials). A lot more stuff out there than I originally thought, but all around Pixelmator is the best middle-ground solution for getting stuff done while retaining simplicity.

Pixelmator may be a good Phtoshop alternative but i've yet to find a good Adobe Illustrator alternative tbh.

Mecha_Infantry said:
how do you change a dock icon?
Click to expand...
The post above yours is another solution. :p
 
Sentry said:
Acorn's been on my list of software i've been meaning to look into for a while now.
Click to expand...

It's very easy to crop and resize things that I'm sent by staff people for adjustment, as well as compositing things for web graphics. It feels very limited though when I need more; it doesn't have the tools to let me use it like an old version of Photoshop. I can't think of examples but there have been times when I couldn't figure out how to pull something off that I think I could've 15 years ago on a PowerMac 7200 in Photoshop 4.

Sentry said:
Pixelmator may be a good Photoshop alternative but i've yet to find a good Adobe Illustrator alternative tbh.
Click to expand...

Inkscape is OK, but limited; my biggest complaint is that it doesn't open .ai files. Certainly a better free/open-source contender with Illustrator than GIMP is to Photoshop. Fuck I hate GIMP.
 
CrudeDiatribe said:
It's very easy to crop and resize things that I'm sent by staff people for adjustment, as well as compositing things for web graphics. It feels very limited though when I need more; it doesn't have the tools to let me use it like an old version of Photoshop. I can't think of examples but there have been times when I couldn't figure out how to pull something off that I think I could've 15 years ago on a PowerMac 7200 in Photoshop 4.

Inkscape is OK, but limited; my biggest complaint is that it doesn't open .ai files. Certainly a better free/open-source contender with Illustrator than GIMP is to Photoshop. Fuck I hate GIMP.
Click to expand...
Jesus christ, thought I was the only one. Most people seem to love GIMP, though.

But yeah, Acorn is $35 more than Pixelmator but it doesn't seem like it actually does a lot more. Haven't tried it yet so who knows if Pixelmator would be a better fit for you than Acorn, but it's worth trying out.
 
Sentry said:
Most people seem to love GIMP, though.
Click to expand...

Actual humans? I can appreciate that it might be as powerful as PS, but I find the user interface dramatically worse than even PSE, which is saying a lot.

Sentry said:
But yeah, Acorn is $35 more than Pixelmator but it doesn't seem like it actually does a lot more.
Click to expand...

When they first came out they were both the same price. I got version 1 in a bundle and have just upgraded each release. I just noticed Acorn is at version 3.3, which I apparently have. Looking at the new features is jogging my memory— I think it might address some of my previously-alluded-to complaints which could easily be from v1 or v2.
 
Sentry said:
Okay so like I said earlier I can't stand any of the Twitter app icons out there (esp. the official app's). I'm using Tweetbot but there's no way i'd put that alpha egg icon in my dock, so I made this replacement;

v39Ec.png
(clean/no diagonal lines alt version)

Since (imo) the Messages app is that last quality new icon to come out of Apple's Mac team (notes/reminders are borderline lazy) in a while, I pretty much just ripped off that look.

Only did a 512x512 version so far but if anyone cares to use it, DL link here.
Click to expand...

Awesome!

I will use this, thanks for sharing.
 
Sentry said:
Okay so like I said earlier I can't stand any of the Twitter app icons out there (esp. the official app's). I'm using Tweetbot but there's no way i'd put that alpha egg icon in my dock, so I made this replacement;

v39Ec.png
(clean/no diagonal lines alt version)

Since (imo) the Messages app is that last quality new icon to come out of Apple's Mac team (notes/reminders are borderline lazy) in a while, I pretty much just ripped off that look.

Only did a 512x512 version so far but if anyone cares to use it, DL link here.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the Tweetbot replacement icon :D
 
Is there a way to make Mail have notifications without having the app open? Similar to the push function on the iPhone?
 
Sentry said:
Oh yeah I know, that's why I called it the alpha egg. Hopefully they'll use something more inventive than the standard Tweetbot app icon. And are they really doing that? What benefits could that possibly have?
Click to expand...
Push notifications. Non local.

Fuu said:
Turned my Air on earlier today and neither the trackpad or the keyboard would work. Closing the lid didn't make any difference. I was about to freak out on the login screen but the power button eventually worked after I held it down and I was able to restart instead of having to wait for the battery to drain or something like that.

After the restart it all worked normally and as soon as I logged in I got the message that the XtraFinder beta had ended. I'm thinking it had something to do with that somehow since I have it as a login item, the message is the only change from when I used it yesterday and I can't think of anything else that could have caused it. Just updated to the new version and hopefully it won't happen again.
Click to expand...

Happens from time to time. Hold the power button next time.
 
Melhisedek said:
What app do you guys use to watch *.avi files?
Qtime wont open them I found out a minute ago ;)
Click to expand...
Perian works for Quicktime. Speaking of avi's though, is Perian not working for quicklooking avi/wmv files for anyone else? It used to work fine, now I actually can't quicklook them and am forced to open it though an app.

Vire said:
Is there a way to make Mail have notifications without having the app open? Similar to the push function on the iPhone?
Click to expand...
What I do is just open it, then use Command-H to hide it as if it wasn't running.

Vire said:
Awesome!

I will use this, thanks for sharing.
Click to expand...
Mairu said:
Thanks for the Tweetbot replacement icon :D
Click to expand...
No problem! :)
 
Bboy AJ said:
Happens from time to time. Hold the power button next time.
Click to expand...
Thanks, first time it happened to me since I bought it last year so I wasn't sure. Knowing it's something that's not uncommon and not the thing dying on me makes me relax about it.
 
Hmm, so I got a better itunes and that amazing twitter icon for Osfoora (thanks btw), when I closed the apps and reopen them it reverts back to the original icon.
 
HenryGale said:
Hmm, so I got a better itunes and that amazing twitter icon for Osfoora (thanks btw), when I closed the apps and reopen them it reverts back to the original icon.
Click to expand...
What method are you using? I find it most reliable to just go into the app (right click>show package contents) and then dive into contents>resources. After which you locate the app's .icns file, copy its file name, then rename it (I just append 'OG' to it). Now move the custom .icns you want into this folder, and rename it to what the original file was once named. That'll make it the default icon now.

The effect won't register right away if it's an app that lives in your dock permanently. You can just drag it off then re-add it to see the updated custom default icon.

Ashhong said:
95% sure it still works for me. Try reinstalling flip?
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think i'm going to do this with Perian as well and see how it goes.
 
The real problem with Pixelmator is basic functionality that doesn't work correctly and seemingly will never be fixed. Like the flood fill tool.
 
Sentry said:
What method are you using? I find it most reliable to just go into the app (right click>show package contents) and then dive into contents>resources. After which you locate the app's .icns file, copy its file name, then rename it (I just append 'OG' to it). Now move the custom .icns you want into this folder, and rename it to what the original file was once named. That'll make it the default icon now.

The effect won't register right away if it's an app that lives in your dock permanently. You can just drag it off then re-add it to see the updated custom default icon.
Click to expand...

Yeah the app won't launch when I do that. So I've had to just do the get info option, then replace the icon. It works for every other app except this. The show package contents does not let me use the app anymore when I rename and add the new icon.

In any case I'm trying the tweetbot alpha instead right now and it's working gloriously. So it may not be an issue.

After seeing my iMessage, new twitter and sparrow icons next to one another I also had to replace my itunes and facetime icons. They looked like ass. Here's what I'm working with now.

3xH4m.png
 
Bukana said:
Is there an app where I could control my iMac through my MacBookPro remotely!?
Click to expand...

There are many ways. A simple one is to use iCloud's Back to My Mac feature. When you enable that on both Macs using the same Apple ID, you'll be able to use Screen Sharing.

Another is a free service called LogMeIn. I find LogMeIn the best as it's simple, cross platform and even has iOS clients.

Or, you could try using VNC which is very cross platform but more technical.
 
ckohler said:
Or, you could try using VNC which is very cross platform but more technical.
Click to expand...

You do have to set up the tunnelling/encryption/port forwarding (and probably dynamic DNS).

I tunnel VNC over SSH to my home Mac all the time from iOS running iTeleport or any Mac on the internet.

Easy as:
1. ssh -N -L 6000:localhost:5900 me@home.example.com
2. open vnc://localhost:6000
3. there is no step 3.

Simple, really ;)
 
Popstar said:
The real problem with Pixelmator is basic functionality that doesn't work correctly and seemingly will never be fixed. Like the flood fill tool.
Click to expand...
What's wrong with the flood fill? The screencast on the site shows it working pretty damn well and nicer than PhotoShop.
 
I switched from last years MacBook Pro 13" to a Retina Pro today, GOOD LORD!

Thing of beauty! Diablo 3 on Retina is amazing!
 
Popstar said:
This is the result of creating a blank white image and then applying the fill tool. (magnified 24x24 image so it's easy to see).

zLaE6.png
Click to expand...
What are you talking about, the corners? That's not a glitch. You can easily fill the entire thing by dragging out the fill tool all the way to 100% instead of just flicking it once.

[EDIT] Here's a screencast gif of how it works;

pfBi1.gif


That circular selection tool is one of the best features of Pixelmator. Very intuitive when using the wand, especially. Alternatively, you could just turn off smooth edges;

C1d3V.png
 
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