Apple has just released an update to the Airport Utility and a firmware update to the Airport Extreme base station. This update to the AEBS will enable Time Machine to use disks attached to your base station. In order for this to work you must have the latest version of OS X (10.5.2 as of this writing). Once you update the Airport Utility on your mac, you’ll need to start up the Airport Utility. Depending on how you’ve configured your AEBS, it will notify you that there is new firmware to download and install or you may have to select “check for updates” from the Airport Utility menu.

Once the firmware is installed, you can then plug in your external USB drive to the base station, find your base station in the shared sidebar of finder, then open Time Machine Preferences and Select the drive and you’re done!

In fact, I’m backing up this mac to my AEBS right now. Sometimes it pays to be an early adopter.

PS Remember that you have to have a disk that is formatted (or partitioned) with Apple’s File System (HFS+).

Update

Nine and a half hour later, the first backup from Time Machine completed. My Macbook Pro is a first generation with 802.11g wireless. Your mileage my vary.

With the update to the Safari browser yesterday Apple has improved its browser to give it more of a fighting chance in the web browsing market.

The addition of developer tools, increased speed, and some user interface improvements puts Safari in a position where it can help pull back the OS X Firefox users and catch a few additional Windows users.

But Safari was a great browser before the update. Safari, like most applications, requires a user to really become comfortable with software before you can full appreciate it. With that in mind, here are 10 ways to help you enhance your Safari web browsing experience.

1. Learn Safari’s keyboard shortcuts - The keyboard shortcuts in Safari will allow you to quickly move throughout the web without needing to navigate using the mouse. Switching tabs, opening new windows, and accessing your bookmarks are just a few keystrokes away.
2. Let Safari do the reading for you - If you often find yourself trying to do to much at once this feature is perfect for you. I often have Safari read back to me cooking recipes or some of the RSS feeds I subscribe to while I accomplish other tasks. Just be sure you can get use to the computer voice on your Mac.
3. Put the web on your dashboard - With the ability in Leopard to make dashboard widgets out of your favorite websites Safari adds a capability you can’t get from any other browser. Pull the web from the browser and stick it on your dashboard.
4. Add plugins! - While Firefox has become famous for the large number of plugins created for the browser, many forget that Safari supports plugins to… While it does lack a large developer community there are plugins to help make Safari all you want it to be. Pimpmysafari.com provides a number of safari plugins.
5. Add spotlight like features to your Safari searches - While this works through a plugin, the ability to get additional information on search terms while you’re still typing them out gives this Safari enhancement its own recognition.
6. Browse in Private - Often we have the need to keep our history, downloads, or any web activity private from others that may use the computer. Safari allows Private Browsing which is perfect for paying bills, looking at bank accounts, and any other web pages you might want to keep private
7. Customize The Toolbar - Many people love the how simple the user interface in Safari is but there are others (myself included) that want just a bit more on the toolbar. Add the home button, autofill, or other buttons and arrange them in the order you feel most comfortable with. A customized web browser is a happy web browser.
8. Use Tabs - Tabbed browsing is one of the greatest additions to all web browsers. It allows you to keep all of the different websites you’re surfing in one window so your desktop stays clear of window clutter. If you find yourself in old habits and are being over run by Safari browser windows, Safari lets you merge them all back into one window with multiple tabs. Stay organized for your own safety.
9. Learn the Track pad - It is true that Apple included additional track pad control for browsing Safari on their new Macbook Air and Macbook Pro computers, but two finger scrolling and “right” click with two fingers has made browsing without a mouse that much more tolerable. If you have a Macbook Air or a new Macbook Pro, three finger swipes moves you forward and back in Safari effortlessly… well, with just a bit of effort from your fingers.
10. Get the latest updates! - Apple often releases updates to all their software line. We saw yesterday how significant these updates can be. Don’t miss out on Safari’s updates or you could miss out on features like web developer tools, or the all might new tab double click. Even if an update just addresses a security issue, without the update your Safari Browsing experience could end very very badly.

What else do you do to make Safari more enjoyable? Leave a comment and let us know!

Apple released an update to Safari today and brought the system to version 3.1. While updates are often made to Apple software, this update to Safari was a significant one.

To help you take advantage of the updates to Safari we’ll walk you through them and how they may impact your browsing experience.

Improvements

Two improvements are listed in the details to the Safari update. While these improvements don’t add additional user options they will impact your browser experience.

1. Performance
2. Improved JavaScript performance

There were reports before this release that Apple would soon release an update to Safari that would double the browsers speed. Safari was already one of the fastest browsers so it may be difficult to notice the increase browser speed.

Web Standards

Safari’s upgrade included improvements in Web Standards compliance.

1. Adds support for CSS 3 web fonts
2. Adds support for CSS transforms and transitions
3. Adds support for HTML 5

This is great news for web developers but many of these additions won’t be seen on most websites and the majority of the market share (Internet Explorer, Firefox) still lag behind in this area. Apple will be ready when everyone catches up.

Compatibility and Stability

The release notice from Apple point to increased website compatibility and application stability. Now is your chance to to check out any websites that previously did not support Safari. Keep your fingers crossed.

Developer Support

Since Apple recently released Safari to both Windows and OSX users, they must have realized that they needed to increase the developer tools included in Safari. This should make website development and customization for Safari browsers easier. The updates include:

1. Adds option in Safari preferences to turn on the new Develop menu which contains various web development features
2. Allows access to Web Inspector
3. Allows access to Network Timeline
4. Allows editing CSS in the Web Inspector
5. Allows custom user agent string
6. Improves snippet editor

To enable the Developer Menu in Safari:

1. Open Preferences in Safari
2. Click the Advanced Tab
3. Check the box next to “Show Developer Menu in Menu Bar”

You should now see Develop on the menu bar. Some of the additional Developer options is to open the current page in another web browser, ability to disable images, and the ability to disable javascript on the current page. Check out the other options in the Developer Menu.

Other Additions

In addition to the increased speed, improved stability, and developer tools Apple added a few other features:

1. Double clicking on the Tab Bar opens new tab
2. Includes URL metadata when images are dragged or saved from browser
3. Opens Download and Activity window in current Space
4. Supports trackpad gestures for back, forward, and magnify on MacBook Air and compatible MacBook Pro computers
5. Shows Caps Lock icon in password fields

I personally enjoy the addition of the double click for a new tab (Thanks Firefox for the idea) and the Caps Lock icon in password feels… That caps lock button is always getting in the way.

Conclusion

Overall, the combined enhancements to Safari in version 3.1 make Safari even more competitive with the other browsers on the market. Additionally, Apple has seen the importance of web developers making websites that work well in multiple operating systems and on their mobile devices.

This software update has clearly positioned Safari in a competitive position amongst the leading web browsers. With additional support for plugin development, we may see Safari eat away at Internet Explorer and Firefox market share.

We recently described a new feature in OS X Leopard, Spaces. Spaces allows users to take advantage of multiple desktop areas to help them stay organized and to de-clutter their desktop. and move application windows between each of the different desktop Spaces.

Part 1 of this tutorial explained how to enable Spaces through System Preferences. Next we’ll show you how to assign an application its own Space. Doing so opens applications to their assigned Space on every launch.

Its a great way to keep your internet browsing and media management separate from your work tasks in Microsoft Office or iWork.

Assign An Application A Space

With Spaces enabled, assigning an application a space is quick and easy. The following steps will guide you through the process of assigning an application to a Space:

1. Click the Apple Icon and open System Preferences
2. Select Expose and Spaces and then the Spaces Tab
3. Click the + button Below the Application Assignments table
4. Select an Application on your computer and then select the Space you’d like to assign that Application to.

Now that you’ve assigned an application to a Space, open the application and switch to its assigned Space to verify that it opened in the correct location. Repeat the process for all the application organization you’d like.

To see all your Spaces and what applications are open in each simply click the function key (fn) + F8. Once you’re viewing all your spaces, click the expose shortcut (F3 on new Apple Computers) to display all open windows in each Space.

Be sure to check back here at Maciverse.com for Part 3 of Getting the most out of Spaces.

Apple noticed that despite their effort to continually increase the minimum monitor size of their iMac models to 20 inches that users were struggling to have enough desktop space to keep all of their running applications organized.

To help solve this problem, Apple has enhanced the desktop with OS X 10.5 Leopard by adding the technology they have titled Spaces.

The basic idea behind Spaces is to create a number of different desktops that users can switch between to help them focus on the application they’re currently working with.

But there is more to Spaces than just additional desktop area and over the next few days we’ll help show you what Spaces can do for you with 4 tutorials on how to get the most out of Spaces.

Enabling Spaces

To take advantage of Spaces you need to have the OS X Leopard installed on your Mac. From there, enabling spaces is just a few steps away:

1. Click the Apple icon on the menu bar
2. Select System Preferences…
3. Click Expose & Spaces under the Personal Section
4. Click the Spaces tab
5. Verify the Enable Spaces box is checked
6. OPTIONAL: Click Show Spaces in Menu Bar

Switching Spaces

Now that you’ve enabled Spaces you can get a quick feel for how it works by switching between the 4 default Spaces. There are two default keyboard shortcuts that allow you quick move from one Space to another:

1. control + 1,2,3,4 - Each number represent the 4 default spaces. To move to Space 2 click and hold control and press 2.
2. control + arrow keys - To move from one space to another hold down control and press the arrow keys to move from one space to another.

Once you’ve moved to a new space you can open applications and windows that will remain in that space and will help you stay organized. Play around and get comfortable with using spaces.

Don’t miss our future Spaces tutorials, subscribe to our RSS feed!