Did you know that bookmarks in your "Bookmarks Bar" can be executed via a keyboard shortcut?

cmd+1 will execute the first bookmark
cmd+2 will execute the second bookmark
cmd+3 will execute the third bookmark
etc...

This does not apply to bookmark folders. I haven't verified, but I believe it only goes from 1-9.

Apple plans to release an application that will allow you to control iTunes remotely. I'm sure it will be a great app, except for one feature: the ability to change AirTunes Speakers. How sad is Apple that they can't add this one feature? If I were a betting man, I'd wager they won't support it.

Update: I guess I lose. Perhaps they got tired of me submitting complaints about this issue. It's even listed as a feature in the AppStore. That license for Signal just went to waste, at least the author got paid for making a good app.

So the new Apple TV v2.0 was released yesterday. It's a long overdue update. And the only plus is the new interface and Rentals. Other than that, it's not much to brag about. The interface is a good deal slower. My Movies is still not browsable by Genre or any meta data. They can do it for Rentals, but not for my personal movies. I don't understand why. It's just so annoying to scroll through 200+ movies to look for anything.

I would give v2.0 a C-.

I saw this post on Daring Fireball and had to try it out. I've never used del.icio.us before, but I hear it's a great way to organize bookmarks. Unfortunately, aside from my normal list of links, I don't really go into my history to browse. Instapaper is a clever idea. It's a quick way to bookmark sites to read later. What's impressive is the way that it's implemented. To install, you just drag a button (scriptlet) into your tool bar. When you see a page you want to read later, just click the button (scriplet) and it gets saved to the Instapper server. To register, you just provide an email address, the password is optional.

scriptlet: javascript bookmarks.

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is out. I haven't had time to upgrade just yet, but I'm waiting for things to settle down and for developers to update their applications first. There are a few features I'm waiting to try out, like Spaces and Time Machine, although there are still some bugs and limitations.

The first step is to backup.

My first Google Gadget. Any Shopzilla Publisher content can be used as a Google Gadget. Google is amazing, they're building web applications the way web applications should be built. Web applications should look and feel like any other desktop application. If you find this Gadget useful, add it to your iGoogle page.



Or add it to your web page.

<script src="http://gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/111112737739082765987/shopzilla-459-dynamic-search.xml&synd=open&w=280&h=250&title=Search+at+Shopzilla&border=http%3A%2F%2Fgmodules.com%2Fig%2Fimages%2F&output=js"></script>

Top Utilities/Applications:
Quicksilver:   http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/
TextExpander:  http://www.smileonmymac.com/textexpander/index.html
PTHPasteboard: http://pth.com/products/pthpasteboard/
Synergy:       http://wincent.com/a/products/synergy-classic/
Path Finder:   http://www.cocoatech.com/pf4/
Renamer4Mac:   http://www.power4mac.com/renamer/
CUPS-PDF:      http://www.codepoetry.net/projects/cups-pdf-for-mosx
MenuMeters:    http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/
Visor:         http://docs.blacktree.com/visor/visor
SIMBL:         http://www.culater.net/software/SIMBL/SIMBL.php
Firebug:       Firefox Extension

Honorable Mentions:
MenuCalendarClock  http://www.objectpark.net/en/mcc.html
Growl              http://growl.info/
LittleSnitch       http://www.obdev.at/products/index.html
SafariStand        http://hetima.com/safari/stand-e.html
Teleport           http://abyssoft.com/software/teleport/
TinkerTool         http://www.bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html
WindowShadeX       http://unsanity.com/products
Mail.appetizer     http://www.bronsonbeta.com/mailappetizer/beta/
VirtueDesktops     http://virtuedesktops.info/

Update: iUseThis

I can't understand why Apple chose not to make the Speaker Menu scriptable. This is the last piece of the puzzle for having a real iTunes jukebox with Airtunes. It's been 2+ years since they introduced Airtunes and you still can't change speakers remotely.

Add to the thread.

Update: Please send feedback to Apple that they need to Script the Speaker Menu.

iTunes Feedback

Google is one of the most innovative companies today, next to Apple. I've just started using the Google Map API for fun and profit. It's just amazing what they've done with the browser. Ironically, all the functionality has been around for awhile.

Google My Map

Two good things that go great together, Andrew Grumet and Dave Winer thinks so too. "RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an XML-based protocol used to serve news headlines and weblog entries in a streamlined, organized format that lets users subscribe to "feeds" of their favorite content." "BitTorrent is a P2P protocol that distributes its load among the system's users, letting them draw upon one another's unused bandwidth to share files." Wired has more and LegalTorrents has stuff you can download.

A new virus is circulating through the internet that utilizes a P2P network to distribute itself and take control of infected computers to steal account information. The virus can be detected by anti-virus software but once the PC is infected the virus will disable the anti-virus and firewall software. The main objective of the virus is to send spam emails and flood websites in order to take them down. Now I'm no fan of virus software, but the technology is behind them is very high-tech. Though it trivializes the code by sending spam and taking down websites. That's just inane and only something script-kiddies would do.

You can read more at Yahoo! News.