The Rant According to Deringer

Disable the accented character picker

1. Open up your terminal
2. Enter the following command: defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false
3. Restart your computer. Bummer, I know. The press-and-hold functionality is immediately disabled, but you can’t hold down a key until you fully reboot.

HTML Signature in Apple’s Mail.app

If you’re looking to jazz up you Mail signature, try this:

1. Ensure you have one signature setup in Mail
2. Quit Mail
3. Create a web page in your favorite editor
4. Open the page in Safari
5. Save the page as a web archive
6. Place the web archive in the ~/Library -> Mail -> Signatures directory, renaming it to match the signature you want to replace.

Note: You may have to open the plist file to determine which webarchive maps to your signature name, based on the number of signatures. Have fun!

iPhone 4 and iOS4

Having just watched the WWDC 2010 keynote, I must say I’m fairly impressed with what Apple have churned out in what will now be their fourth major revision of both the iPhone hardware and software.

I’ve always found my first generation iPhone to be the best of the phones I’ve owned over the years and I’m eagerly anticipating the next in the line. Having the iPad already, I know the hardware behind the iPhone will be top notch and offer significant I provements over it’s ancestor.

The new device will be faster, last longer between charges and probably do a whole lot more than what my current phone does; and better. What I’m parriculary impressed by is the incredibly short lead time between the announcement in the early hours of this morning and the pre order and shipping dates; just eight and 17 days respectively. Even more impressive is the role out in Australia commencing in July - just in time for my current contract with Vodafone to expire.

Having a decent camera will make up for my lack of a compact unit now and being my phone, I’m always likely to have it on me, regardless of where I happen to be and with the introduction of the LED flash to accompany the 5MP camera, I’m sure it won’t disappoint.

I also like that it will now (finally) support multiple exchange accounts, meaning I can have my work email and calendars synced to my iPhone, iPad and MacBook as well as my personal Google Apps accounts all at once without having to use one via IMAP.

It will also be nice to have a phone with enough power to not lock up occasionally with some of the newer and more demanding apps these days or randomly crashing when opening the iPod app.

There were some other nice features announced for the iPhone 4, though I’m not entirely sure how often I’ll choose to record and edit HD video on my phone. Time will tell. In the meantime, more waiting for another exciting Apple product will have to occur.

At least I’ll have something to tie me over until I can get my iMac :)

It was also good to see Steve Jobs both in good humor and what appeared to be in good health again, though I can see Scott Forstall taking over Apple’s reigns at some point in the future as their focus inevitably turns to iPhone and the mobile market.