Yes, the iCloud is fine and most parts I do of course love. What I really hate is the lack of a keychain sync. Apple – what’s wrong with you?
I really do need this. Thus I’ve searched and searched and tried a lot and this is the only ‘working’ solution that will not cause (much) trouble.
WARNING! THIS WILL ONLY WORK IF YOU USE YOUR DIFFERENT MACS ON AT A TIME AND THOSE MACS ARE ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET. THE MOMENT YOU USE TWO OR MORE MACS AT THE SAME TIME YOU WILL RUN INTO TROUBLE AND MAY END UP MANUALLY FIXING YOUR KEYCHAINS FROM OLER VERSIONS.
Tutorial Keychain Sync with Dropbox (English)

Today: Restoring Color Picker Colors from another Mac
One of the best part about working with a Mac is the system-wide integration of so many useful tools and helpers. The Dictionary, the Address Book, the Font Panel and of course the Color Picker.
And in case you you have to restore a Mac or setup another – you will always end up without your often used colors.
But there is help – all you have to do its to restore following file from the old Mac or a Time Machine backup:
/Users/Your Account/Library/Colors/NSColorPanelSwatches.plist
I really don’t get it - are Apple engineers actually not working on new Macs? Since DP 1 it is simply impossible to install OS X Lion on the new MacBook Pro due to problems with Airport and some extensions.
Bug report filed and uncommented since March and the Dev Forum full with developers not able to test their Apps for months now. It is unbelievable …
If you own a second Mac with at least 10.6.7 installed - you can get you MacBook Pro from 2011 up and running 10.7:
· Start the MBP in Target Disk Mode (or attach its HDD via USB or FireWire directly to your second Mac
· Install 10.7 on that HDD
· Delete following extension from the 10.7 installation: IO80211Family.kext
· Replace it with the same extension from the 10.6.7 installation and DON’T forget to correct the previlegues!
· Boot once from your 10.6.7 machine and test it, shut it down correctly
· Boot your MBP from the 10.7 HDD - it should work, except Airport needs to be applied manually every time you restart
Please not - there actually is a fix for that:
OS X Lion Developer Preview and the MacBook Pro from 2011 - Part II
Even if a user will never see them (like on a Mac) - there are of course crash reports for iOS devices too. And in case a developer asks for such a crash report, one can find them very easily:
1. Connect your iOS device with your Mac and sync it with iTunes
2. Go to /Users/Your Account/Library/MobileDevice/
3. In case you’ve more than one iPhone/iPad open the correct folder
4. Select the file with the desired App name (and maybe correct time stamp)
And for the Windows user:
1. Connect your iOS device with your PC and sync it with iTunes
2a. Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\
\Application Data\Apple computer\Logs\CrashReporter\
2b. Windows Vista: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Apple computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDevice\
3. Select the file with the desired App name (and maybe correct time stamp)
Unbelievable - but it took me some time to figure out how to add an existing Framework to a Project/Target in Xcode 4. Here is how it works:
· Select the project
· Select the target
· Select the 'Build Phases' tab
· Open 'Link Binaries With Libraries'
· Click the '+' button
· Select the Framework
It’s been some weeks but I still do receive mails on a daily basis of people asking questions about the App Store. Besides the fact, that I wonder every time why people do not write to Apple and because I don’t want to answer the same questions all over again and again - I’ve finally decided to write a quick Mac App Store For Dummies (and no, it is no offense, I have and need Dummies Guides for almost everything and you better should not see my trying to dance Waltz or repair my Vespa on my own) Guide:
Mac App Store - hä?
The Basics
- Mac App Store is only available for Mac OS 10.6.6 and above
- You will find it on your Mac in the Dock or in the Apple Menu
- You open it like any other application (App) on your Mac by clicking the Dock icon or double-clicking it in Finder
- You need your iTunes Account to download and purchase Apps (yes - even for the free ones)
- It does make much sense to use the 5 Toolbar-buttons (yes, those at the top of the window) to see more Apps than those in the first view. Some of those Apps you may find there are of course no games - but long time before the iPhone and the iTunes App Store and now the Mac App Store people really used their Macs to actually create awesome stuff - not only to consume cheap content - unbelievable, but true!
Top Whatever
Yes, Charts are important. Charts do sell stuff and often they really are an indicator for good content. We developers love and hate those App Store Charts at the same time. Simply because if you are not in those charts no one will recognize your App. Period. But there is more to discover - trust me!
Categories
That’s why one can use the Categories to filter for Apps. It is not the best system and a really rough division - but better than nothing. And yes, there are more than those three Apps in a category as you can see in that overview…
Search
Well, the search sucks - sorry, but this had to be said. As long as you don’t know the name of the App or Developer it won’t get you far. You better use the categories directly and click for yourself and read some comments - often there you will find lots of hints - even to other Apps and developers.
Some Useful Facts about Purchases
- You purchase Apps from Apple (not the developer) thru the App Store with your iTunes Account (Password)
- We developer have nothing to do with your purchase!
- We even don’t know you
- We are not responsible for any error during your purchase
- If you have problems purchasing or downloading an App - you need to write to the iTunes/App Store support (here is a short tutorial on how to try to fix download/purchase errors)
Note to refunds: We developer simply can’t do that - again, you need to contact the iTunes/App Store support and some developers offer extra demo versions of their Apps on their Homepage. Apple only transfers 70 percent (US only/ less than 60 percent in Germany for example) to us developers after some weeks and keeps the 30(40) percent in case of a refund. So please - if possible download the demo version or contact the developer before a purchase. Saves you a lot of trouble and us a lot of trouble and money, too :-)
Some Useful Facts about Licenses and Updates
After you’ve purchased an App by clicking into the ‘Buy’ button and entering your iTunes Account password your new App will be automatically downloaded and installed. You will find after the download in your Dock and can directly start to use it.
- There is no need to license or register it
- You can use (install and re-install) it on any private Mac you own by re-downloading it thru the App Store at any time. Simply open the App Store, go to the Purchases tab, select the desired App and (re)download it.
- In case there is an update available the App Store App will inform you and you just need to click into Update
Some Useful Facts about Deinstalling Apps
In case you want to deinstall an App purchased thru the App Store, simply select it in Finder (probably in your Applications folder) and trash it (drag it onto the Trash bin) and that’s it. Yes, they may be some ‘rests’ left on your Mac. Rests like the Preferences file and its Application Support folder. If you really want to remove all files - just use an App like AppZapper. If you don’t remove those files and you re-install that App again it will remember its settings and content.
Some Useful Facts about Support
- If you have a problem after your purchase with an App - you need to write to the developer itself - Apple can’t help you
- You will find information regarding the developer’s website, support option on the App Store directly on the product (App) page in the upper right corner
- I can only recommend to write to the developer before you purchase an App!
Thoughts on Ratings
MOApp’s Law:
Morons, who are not even capable of handling the simplest App with one view and three buttons show an astonishing aiming accuracy for the one star rating.
Yes, ratings are useful and important and for you, the customer meant as an indicator wether you can purchase an App or not. So please treat them as such an indicator - not to show your non existing manners to the whole world. If an App does one thing not perfectly but the rest good or even very good - there really is no need to bash it! Way better is to write to the developer and telling him what you think would improve the App. Or write that in your rating/comment. We do read those reviews. And if they tell us what we can improve and it makes sense for all users - we love to do that for you!
Thoughts on Prices
13 Reasons Why Software Is Not Free
FAQ and Thoughts on the Mac App Store…
Have I forgotten something important? Let me know: Contact Form
In the last couples of days I’ve received lots of mails from people unable to purchase Apps one the App Store.
Well - first I have to state it out once again: we developer have nothing to do with the App Store itself - we even don’t know our customers…
So if you can’t purchase an App because of an App Store error - this has nothing to do with the App itself. If an App is available on the App Store it has passed the review and should install and work without any troubles (except the App is named THE DAILY, but that’s another story).
In most cases a simple restart of the App Store itself fixes errors during the purchase process. If this does not help you can do the following - but please note that you need your credentials at hand.
1. Quit App Store
2. Delete following files:
Your Account/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mobile.iTunes.store.plist
Your Account/Library/Preferences/com.apple.storeagent.plist
3. Delete following folder:
Your Account/Library/Application Support/AppStore
4. Open App Store
5. Log in
If this does not help at all - you need to write to the Apple Support and wait - and wait - and wait…
I think I should clarify a few points about some SSD, Trim and OS X myths before you all start to download Ubuntu and to enter the Terminal:
1. Mac OS X is not Windows 7!
> means OS X and an HFS+ file system don’t slow down a SSD like Windows 7…
2. If your SSD has a Garbage Collector you don’t need to trim it!
> simply use Disk Utility to erase the free space and zero out deleted files…
3. You don’t have to worry about write endurance!
> long time before this occurs you will own a new Mac.
> even if you overwrite your (newer) SSD completely 3 times a day it will last over 50 years…
All your efforts to ‘maintain’ your SSD under OS X are more for your mental well being (cock extension for the poor) than they actually improve the writing speed.
But hey, mental well being is very important :-)
Mac OS X does not support to trim sector ranges like Windows 7 or Linux does. But with an Ubuntu Live CD (USB Stick) you can even trim an HSF+ formatted file system without deleting it first:
1. Backup your system (Macintosh HD)
2. Burn an Ubuntu 10.10 Live CD (or create an USB Stick)
3. Boot Ubuntu
4. Open Terminal
5. Do the following steps:
sudo bash
add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick universe"
apt-get update
apt-get install gawk
apt-get install sleuthkit
wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/hdparm/files/hdparm/hdparm-9.36.tar.gz
tar -xvf hdparm-9.36.tar.gz
cd hdparm-9.36
make
make install
cd wiper
6. Run wiper.sh:
// test
./wiper.sh /dev/sda1
// real
./wiper.sh --commit /dev/sda1
(sda1 is the first partition of the first disk, you may need to change this - Disk Utillity will give you the answer)
7. Enjoy the regained speed :-)
Addendum to the SSD Trim Article
