If you’ve ever wanted to quickly browse your iPhoto library to drag and drop photos to another application but wanted to do so with out opening iPhoto itself… than this Automator tip is for you.

To create an iPhoto Library browser that can be accessed system wide:

1. Open Automator
2. Select Photos from your Action Library
3. Drag Action - Ask for Photos to your workflow

Now that you’ve created your automator workflow you need to setup your system so that you can quickly access the iPhoto Library Browser throughout OS X.

1. Save your workflow as plug-in (Save As Plugin-in) as a plugin for Script Menu
2. Open AppleScript Utility from your Applications folder
3. Check “Show Script Menu in Menu Bar” - This will add a Script icon to your menu bar that you can access saved scripts from

Now that you’ve created the iPhoto Library Browser script and added the Script Menu to your menu bar you can quickly and easily open your iPhoto library any time you need to access pictures but without having to open iPhoto itself.

From here you can find your pictures and drag and drop them to the location or application of your choice.

*Note - Selecting the pictures and clicking the Choose button will do nothing - you must drag and drop the photos to the location or Application of your choice. *

- Tip found @ macosxhints.com

The yearly World Wide Developer Conference for Apple is being held next week. It is always an exciting time of year as Apple often uses the event to announce updates in their product line, software services, and give additional details about the technical direction the company is heading.

This year the rumors have depicted the ever coveted update to the iPhone that will bring 3G support as well as software updates to the device. There are additional rumors swirling around the iPhone and the possibility of a $200 price point for an ‘iPhone’ device.

In addition to the rumors around the iPhone, the last week has brought us claims of OS X 10.6 code named ‘Snow Leopard’ being shown to developers. The current idea is that the release will be focused on performance and with the final steps of moving away from the PowerPC processor line. There is also some thought that Apple may start allowing their OS to be run on non-Apple computers. I’m a bit skeptic (although would enjoy the possibility) of this idea as the combination of the OS and hardware sales have been so strong for Apple over the last few years.

While I imagine the previously mentioned rumors will show up in some way or form during the WWDC I’m more skeptic of the possibilities of an iTablet or similar computing devices.

What would you like to see most from Apple at their WWDC?

If you’re looking for a way to add additional outside content to your iWeb pages than using Google Gadgets may just be what you’re looking for.

We’ve described previously how you can combine Google Docs with Sprout to create registration and comment forms on your iWeb sites and Now we’d like to build on those same principles to quickly show you how to Add Google Gadgets to your iWeb site.

Google Gadgets are filled with informative, fun, and unique pieces of information that you may find useful to your site and to your users.

For example, this Countdown Gadget allows you to set specific details about an event that you’re counting down to. Adding this to your site will allow individuals to see exactly how long it is until the next family reunion, the Hulk Movie, or any other event that you want your users to take note of.

Adding Gadgets

To add these types of Gadgets to your iWeb site navigate to iGoogle. Click the “Add Stuff” button and search for the gadget you’d like to show on your iWeb site.

Once you’ve found the perfect gadget, click to view more information about the gadget and then find the “Embed this Gadget” link to the right under Webmasters.

Now you should be able to customize the gadget to fit with your iWeb site. Click the “Get the Code” button and copy the code provided.

Next, open your iWeb site and find the page you’d like to add the gadget to. Add html snippet and past the code into the html field. Your Google Gadget should now appear on your iWeb site and be ready for your use when you publish your site.

What gadgets have you added to your iWeb site?

Although the school year may not yet have ended for many students, Apple has announced today their Back To School Specials for students and educators alike.

This year, Apple has up’d the incentive as they are now offering new buyers either an 8gb iPod nano or an 8gb iPod Touch for anyone purchasing a qualifying Mac.

Now, you may ask why anyone may want an iPod nano if they could get an iPod Touch, but it looks like Apple is counting on enough people purchasing iPhones that the iPod Nano may be more of an incentive for students.

But, if you’ve been waiting to purchase both a Mac and an iPod… its really hard to pass up on this offer.

iCal is a wonderful calendar application that allows you to create and manage multiple calendars at a time. One of its strongest features is its capabilities to both share calendars over the internet and subscribe to calendars in a similar fashion.

The latter feature also allows you to add Holidays to our calendars. To do this, navigate in Safari or the web browser of your choice to http://www.google.com/calendar/.

Create an account if needed and enter into the Search field ‘US Holidays’ or any group of national holidays that apply to you and click the Search Public Calendars button.

Now, add one of the calendars. Once the calendar has appeared under “My Calendars” and on your Google Calendars, click on the drop down arrow next to the calendar and select Calendar Settings.

Find the iCal button on the Calendar Address row and click it to find a link that iCal knows how to handle. Clicking the link will launch iCal and ask you which Calendar you’d like to include it in.

I personally created a new Holidays calendar but it should work seamlessly with any of the calendars you’ve already added. Congrats! Your newly added Holidays should now appear in iCal.