This weeks Automator Tip of the Week is small but useful: Convert Movie to iPod Format.

While there are a number of different movie file formats that work great on your Apple computer not all formats work well with your new iPods. This Automator task makes converting all your movie files to an iPod friendly format easy.

To convert your Movie files to an iPod ready format add these two automator steps:

1. Find Finder Times - Do a search to select your movie files that are not yet in iPod friendly formats
2. Export Movies - This allows you to export your movies an iPod format

Once Automator has found the movie files, it will open them one at a time and convert them to an iPod format that you can quickly sync with your iPod and take them on the go.

Need some help with Automating a task? Let us know!

A number of websites posted about this information a few months ago, but in case you’re a new Mac users and haven’t yet heard the news… You can get even more iMovie than what comes with your new computer.

The best part is, its FREE!

All new Macs come with iLife 08. The main movie making tool in iLife is iMovie, but with iMovie 08 a lot changed from previous versions of the software.

Some of the strengths of iMovie 08 is that it made making home movies quick, easy, and shareable… But in its efforts to do just that iMovie 08 lost many of the customizable features and tools that made previous versions of iMovie so great.

In what appears to be Apple’s way of accounting for those lost features is to allow all owners of iLife 08 the ability to download iMovie HD for free.

So, if you want to gain some additional movie making tools for Free, head over to this Apple web page and download iMovie HD.

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovieHD6.html

Use both tools to make great home movies that you can quickly share with the world!

As you’ve noticed, we’ve updated Maciverse.com! Despite how much we enjoyed the last theme on Maciverse.com we decided it was time for a new look and feel.

We hope you enjoy the new theme as much as we do. Let us know what you think and if you have any problems!

Over the past few weeks a number of software bundles for the Mac have been announced that brings a significant number of Mac applications to users at incredible prices. Of course, the deals become much more incredible once a certain number of people have purchased the bundle and thus unlock the best apps included.

MacUpdate recently announced their “Parallels Promotion” which includes a number of applications that make creating word art, writing that book you’ve always dreamed of authoring, and keeping backup copies of your DVDs quick and easy.

A solid deal as once all applications are unlocked purchasers will receive $469 worth of software for just $69. If a large number of people purchase the bundle additional software including Parallels virtualization machines that allow you to run Windows on your Mac will be part of the bundle.

Additionally, after recent success on previous bundles, Macheist has announced a new bundle for $49. This includes some software from previous bundles as well as ways to make managing your clipboard easier and providing a solid writing environment for all the would be authors.

But, if you’re not sure you’d like to put down any money for some of these software options… There is plenty of powerful free software available.

Lifehacker.com recently described a number of free alternatives to the available software included in bundles. Check out some of their suggested apps and let us know how they work.

Like all web browsers, Safari keeps track of the websites you’ve visited and when you went to them. This can be very helpful if you’re trying to track down websites you’ve been to but can’t seem to find again.

Clearing Safari History

Although seeing where you’ve been and what sites you’ve looked at can be helpful, it also takes away from some of your privacy. To clear your history you can select History from your menu bar and then click Clear History. Additionally, you can clear your Safari browsing history by selecting Safari on the menu bar and then clicking Reset Safari (This method also allows you to clear all personal data Safari may have stored on your system).

Restoring Safari History

If for some reason after you’ve cleared your Safari history you discover you can’t find a website you know you visited 3 weeks ago, Time Machine is there to help.

To Restore your Safari Browsing History:

1. Close Safari and Open Finder
2. Select your user account under Places (There will be a Home icon next to it)
3. Open the Library folder, and then Safari folder
4. Open Time Machine - Time Machine will open displaying the Safari folder in Safari you’ve navigated to
5. Select the date you’d like to restore your browsing history from
6. Select the History.plist file and click restore - A dialog box will open asking you if you want to proceed - Click REPLACE
7. Open Safari and click History on the menu bar

If the restore was successful, you should see today’s history plus the date you restored from below it. Navigate down to the Date and the history of sites you visited on that date will be displayed.

Exclude Safari History From Time Machine Backups

Now that we’ve showed how easy it is to restore your browsing history… you may want to keep that information as private as possible.

To keep Time Machine from backing up Safari History:

1. Command Click (right click) on Time Machine in the Dock and select Time Machine Preferences…
2. Click Options
3. Click the + button
4. Navigate to your User folder, Library, and then Safari
5. Select History.plist and click the Exclude Button (To keep everything in Safari Private, select the Safari Folder and click exclude)

This should add history.plist or all your Browsing personal information out of Time Machine backups. This, combined with Safari’s Private Browsing feature will allow you to browse the web without anyone being able to trace your steps.