AirFoil Adds Features

Murphy uses AirFoil to send audio from a web browser to an Airport Express or an Apple TV.   It’s great for listening to Pandora throughout the house, with various speakers all in sync.  There’s an Apple TV connected to the stereo and an Airport Express connected to a Tivoli radio in the kitchen.  AirFoil can also send audio to another Mac, like the G5 upstairs that has decent speakers connected.  Three sets of speakers all playing one stream throughout the house.

Airfoil keeps getting better.  Recently it gained the ability to ‘hijack’ audio from an application that’s already running.  Previously, you had to start AirFoil, and then launch the application from AirFoil to send its audio to another device.  Not anymore - AirFoil can access already-running applications now.  And they’ve added an iPhone app.  So Murphy can bring a portable radio out on the porch - connect an iPod touch - and listen to the same stream that’s playing in the house.  In a nutshell, it turns an iPhone or touch into a battery powered Airport Express in terms of music streaming.

The software is rock solid, no drop-outs.  The interface is simple and unobtrusive.

Using Quicktime Murphy could listen to the aapl quarterly conference call over AirFoil.  Sending the stream into the kitchen beats lugging a laptop in there.  It’s great for Songza, Pandora, YouTube - or whatever audio you want to transmit.  You can even transmit an iTunes stream to your iPhone or touch - enhancing its multi-speaker functionality.

The iPhone / touch application is free.   The desktop software is $25.  AirFoil for Mac / Windows.  There’s a bundle with both for $40.

Smarter Smart Folders

When you set criteria using the Finder GUI for Smart Folders each condition is set as an “and”, meaning all the criteria must be met by a file to be returned in the results.  There’s no obvious way to change this in the GUI, but it’s there.   Sometimes you want to return files that meet “any” condition of a given criteria set.  For example, you might want to see files that end in .dng OR .jpg.

When you add a new criteria to a Smart Folder, hold the option key before clicking the plus sign and you’ll get a drop-down for Any or All.  Select ANY when you want to create a less restrictive query.  Select ALL to form a restrictive Smart Folder.  You can drag the rows up and down to change their order.

I didn’t see this in the help anywhere and wonder how anyone was supposed to know about it.  I guess I’m not alone, it was mentioned in MacRumors and credited to Macworld.

I messed around a little with adding an Any and an All at the same time but I’m not sure how OS X is interpreting that logic.  Try it and see for yourself.

Quick Tip - Quick View Shortcut for Grid Layout

In Tiger I used to select multiple images in Finder and then invoke the Slideshow function.  One of my favorite features was hitting the i key to quickly invoke the grid mode.  I love grid mode.

In Leopard I expected the same thing to happen in Quick View, but my i key was rendered useless.  Then I read somewhere that Command+Enter invokes the grid in Leopard Quick View.  Nice.  I’d give credit to whoever posted the comment, but I forget who it was.

So - select some images in Finder.  Tap the space bar.  Then hit Command+Enter.  Done.

Preview JPG Rotation

I never noticed that images I rotated in Preview weren’t really rotated. Then I happened to notice a rotated jpg in my Gmail sent items.  It wasn’t rotated.

If you rotate a jpg in Preview and you want it to appear rotated for people you might send it to, clear the checkbox labeled Use Exif Orientation Tag.  The box will appear when you’ve rotated a jpg in Preview.

What’s this all about? Leaving the box checked adds information to the Exif data for the image. That information can be read by some software products that will then display the photo rotated the way you’ve set it.  And your image won’t be altered in the rotation.  If a user opens the image with software that doesn’t read the tag the photo won’t appear rotated correctly.

For example, I saved a rotated jpg with the box checked. Lightroom displays the image rotated. Opening the image directly with Firefox does not rotate it.

The downside of not checking the box is lossy rotation. Pixels are rearranged to create your rotated image, and data is lost in the process. For certain photos you might not be concerned with this, but it’s always good to know how certain software rotates your jpg files. Especially if you don’t have a backup.

More on lossy rotation at Apple Support.

WakeUp for iPhone and iPod touch

Maybe you’ve got an Airport Express hooked up to your stereo - and it pulls from iTunes on your computer upstairs. You want to listen to some music - but you’re comfy on the sofa and you don’t want to go upstairs and wake up the Mac. Or the PC for that matter. If you can muster the strength to retrieve your trusty iPhone from the coffee table you don’t have to get up.

WakeUp is from the same people who make this handy Wake-on-Lan Widget that Murphy posted about long ago. (so long ago that Apple TV was called iTV.)  It’s 99 cents in the App Store.  Link to WakeUp in iTunes.

With WakeUp you can send a magic packet to sleeping computers, as long as they’re wired into your Ethernet network - and have their Wake-On-Lan ability activated.  See this post for more details.

Now your computer is awake, and you can use your iPhone or iPod to remote control iTunes.

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