There are right now millions of you who are likely to be reading this post giving your humble blogger a screwfaced WTF through the waves of cyberland and saying curiously to yourself, “Why in the name of Steve the Apple Emperor is this guy daring to speak anything about a PC when this is clearly a freakin’ Mac blog?” Unfortunately, minions, there may be a fleeting few million people who have not known the self-actualizing epiphanic joys of Macdom but who have taken the first step by converting to a Safari browser on their PC. They love its ease of use and customizability but alas, Netflix is telling them that their new beloved is not compatible with the movie player they love like Garfield loves lasagna… gasp!

**Here’s a little trick to make your Windows Safari Browser work with Netflix’s Silverlight Player:

Go to the top right side of your address bar. You will see two small icons one that looks like a peice of paper and one that looks like gear wheel. Each has a drop menu. Left click the gear and scoll to “Show Menu Toolbar.”

2. When you see the toolbar, click the gear icon again an scroll to “Preferences” after which a pop-up menu will appear.

3. Click “Advanced” on the top far right of pop-up menu.

4. Next, the check box on the bottom of the pop-up screen that says, “Show Develop in menu bar.”

5. Finally, click “Develop” and scroll to “User Agent” and select “Mac – Safari 5.0.5.” (or whichever is the highest version available).

6. Go to http://netflix.com and enjoy movie magic!

Come back for my next post on iPad art aps!

This is a repost of an Apple Support thread. For more detailed information about cleaning a specific device. Please visit the thread.

Read recommendations and guidelines for cleaning your Apple computer, iPad, iPhone, iPod, display, or peripheral device.

Products Affected

Mice and Trackpad, Keyboards, Portable Computers, iMac, iPod, Apple Magic Mouse, Displays, iPhone, iPad, Desktop Computers

Note: For information about how to disinfect your keyboard, trackpad, or mouse, refer to How to disinfect the Apple internal or external keyboard, trackpad, and mouse.

The materials used to make Apple products vary; in some cases each product may have specific cleaning requirements, which may vary by the part you are cleaning. Here are some tips that apply to all products to get you started:

• Use only a soft, lint-free cloth. Abrasive cloths, towels, paper towels, and similar items may cause damage to the item.
• Disconnect your Apple product from any external power sources.
• Disconnect any external devices and other cabling from the product.
• Keep liquids away from the product.
• Don’t get moisture into any openings, and don’t use aerosol sprays, solvents, or abrasives.
• Do not spray cleaners directly onto the item.

Note: If liquid does make its way inside your Apple product, seek assistance from an Apple Authorized Service Provider or Apple Retail Store as soon as possible. Liquid damage is not covered under the Apple product warranty or AppleCare Protection Plans. If you plan to visit an Apple Retail store, make a reservation at the Genius Bar using http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/ (available in some countries only).

Like most of you out there, I upgraded my iPhone to iOS4 right when it came out. And like most, have hated the upgrade because my iPhone 3g ran like crap afterwords. It was so slow, I could hardly use it at all. Crashes, mega slow, and all sorts of crappy performance issues. Nothing seemed to work. After scouring the Internet, I finally found a couple posts and threads that addressed the issue. What I gathered was that the iOS4 update needs some loving from your iPhone hardware to work right. Basically, it seems it needs to “rebuild itself” on the software side. My first attempts were to turn the phone off and back on but this didn’t work. Turns out it needs a “hard reset”, not just a power off (one would think these were basically the same things, but nope). Here’s what I did and it fixed everything:

• Press and hold BOTH the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button
• You will see the shut off screen. KEEP HOLDING
• Wait for the Apple logo
• Release the buttons
• Wait a bit until it comes back up (mine took a couple minutes)

Bingo! It’s back to its old self with iOS4. Now I have my phone back and all is right in the world. Well… Except that I don’t have the iPhone 4 yet, but that’s another issue entirely. Hope this helps you out as well.

Edit: I guess there’s another way by doing a complete backup, reset to factory defaults and restore through iTunes, but who wants to do that? I guess if the previous method doesn’t work for you, give the old restore a try.

Have you experienced the same thing? How did you fix it? Please share!

I was just recently informed of the SymLinks function in assosiation with DropBox. I know, I should have probably known this already, but I didn’t. This is seriously cool. You can back up any folder on your computer to dropbox. Sweet!

And yes… I said “BOOM!”

Last night, I decided to replace my hard drive. I had recently done it on my wife’s 13″ MacBook and it was super simple so I figured that my 17″ (late 2006 model) would be easy as well. Boy, was I surprised when I downloaded the how-to guide. It was minor surgery and a bit unnerving to say the least. Nevertheless with extreme care and meticulous attention to detail, the deed was done and I now have a brand new 500gb hard drive in my machine. I wouldn’t recommend doing this yourself if your macbook is still in warranty because I have heard this will void it. Mine is just out of warranty and been operated on several times by the Apple care crew so I figured I would take the risk. If yours is as well and you have the intestinal fortitude to operate on your Mac, it’s not too bad. Just make sure you have the right tools, follow the guide and it doesn’t hurt to pray. Happy tinkering!

I also use this site a lot: CopyPasteCharacter

This has turned out to be a help post as well as a help me post. I’ll deal with the help part first since it’s the easiest.

Have you tried to update your OS X to the latest version (10.5.6) through system update and found yourself staring at a non-moving progress bar forever? Many have had the same issue, me being one of them. There’s an easy fix (for most). Just download the Combo Pack and run it locally. Works like a charm (again, like I said… for most).

This brings me to the second part of this post…

After performing the previously mentioned task (twice, in one attempt to fix the issue below), I find myself with a fully updated MBP that has convinced itself that I have seven (7) displays attached. Now, not only do I not have any connected nor did I have any at the time of upgrade, but I can’t even think of how I would attach 7 displays to this thing. As cool as this looks, it’s not the case and I want it to go away. My system is creepy slow now. There’s gotta be something I can do. Any help? Everyone I have connected with tonight says a resounding “wow, I’ve never even heard of that before” … Well, now you have. What do I do?

Thanks in advance,

Brent

Hi! I just bought an Imac and am having difficulty transferring my itunes
library from my pc to my mac. I am transferring from Itunes to an external
hard drive using the add to library link in itunes and dragging to
applications. I am copying the library using the export function from the
pc. I seem to only be copying empty folders so no music is being transferred
although the process takes a long time. HELP!!
Also can I use yahoo as the server for mail on my mac. I seem to be having
trouble with the outgoing mail server.

Thank you, Sarah

When transferrirng iTunes libraries, it’s much simpler to just transfer the iTunes folder itself. Exporting the library does not always transfer the media files, but the structure of the library.

As far as using any mail account with Mail.app, your email provider must enable POP or IMAP access. Yahoo only offers POP access to it’s premium customers. If you want a dedicated Yahoo Mail app for your mac, try using Fluid – It is a web browser made specifically for web apps. It enables dock badges, so you’ll be able to see your unread email count on your dock icon just as you would on Mail.app.

Special Thanks to Tyler Hurst for assistance in answering these questions.