Appletell

In what is perhaps the coolest thing I have ever seen, Troika has created a “virus” for Mac, though its status as a virus is debatable. It lives on a USB key, and you have to have physical access to the computer to install it. The virus was created in an attempt to get back to the tme when viruses were just amusing little programs run to make the user chuckle. Nowadays, viruses are used for malicious intent, but back in the advent of the personal computer, “viruses [were] born out of the wit of early computer adopters, viruses whose sole purpose was to surprise and amuse.”

Troika says that they “chose to do it for mac as the platform is still a virgin territory.” If this is what Mac viruses will look like, I will download and install every suspicious looking thing that comes my way. The “virus” causes the menu bar to crack in half and fall, along with all desktop icons, to the bottom of the screen. Then, by turning the computer around, the icons and menu bar halves respond just as they would if they were really in a box.

The only problem? You can’t actually get it. If anyone can figure out how to get this, please comment. I want it really badly. Now, to see it in action, look after the break.

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Macworld has posted a great tip for users of the latest Safari 3.1 in Leopard. If you double-click in an empty space in the tab bar, Safari will create a new empty tab - it’s that simple. Prior to 3.1, you would have to use a third-party plugin like Saft for this to work - but in 3.1 it is included. This is a very useful trick that will save you time creating new tabs. I personally like using the keyboard shortcut: Command+T for creating new tabs, as it works in Firefox too, and is very similar on Windows (Control+T). Of course, for this trick to work, you’ll need to have the tab bar visible; you can do this by going to View>Show Tab Bar. Safari will now remember that you have the tab bar visible, even after you quit Safari. To hide it, just go to View>Hide Tab Bar.

Via [Macworld]

A common problem with the iPhone keyboard is that the main screen that consists of all the alphabetical letters has no period. Instead you have to click a separate button to access a separate keyboard which has the period and other punctuation keys on it. Then when you are finished clicking the period button you can click back to the regular keyboard, or hit the space key.

This process is less than ideal for people typing lots of sentences on the iPhone. David Pogue from the New York Times has discovered an easier way to hit the period key. What you must do is hold down your finger on the “.?123” key and the keyboards will change. Then, with your finger still down, slide your finger over to the period key, and then release your finger. A period will be inserted in your text and you will be back to the regular keyboard. Simple, yet powerful!

Though this all would’ve been prevented if apple had added one in the first place, I guess we’ll have to wait and see when/if Apple releases a firmware update for the iPhone.

Read [TUAW]