Do you know a Mac friend you’ve always wanted to play that ultimate April Fools Day Prank on? Here’s one that should absolutely stump them?

Follow these steps to make their Mac Desktop including all their Desktop Icons and mounted Drives and Disks seem completely unresponsive to anything they do.
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If you missed Part 1-2 of the Van Gogh Diaries make sure to read them first to keep everything in context:

Okay, so I bought this really cool computer. The pictures looked really nice. The words on the website looked really nice. When I ordered, I ordered by phone, because I was getting a Built to Order, (or a BTO as Jay called it – in my time BTO was a rock band.) Sweet. Things got a little out of hand. I just couldn’t help myself. Every page of the website was a thing I wanted. A thing I must have. A thing I coveted. I wasn’t going to settle for less than the best, and I’m sure which is way more than I actually need.
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Wraith2021 has been ripping it up with yet even more Tips and Trick…

MAKE YOUR MAC ANNOUNCE THE TIME

OS X comes with build in ‘text to speech’ functions which are really cool.

One thing you can do is make your computer tell the time every hour, every half hour, or every quarter of the hour.

To make your computer speak the time in a sexy voice, all you have to do is Control-Click/Right Click on the time in the top right corner of the menu bar. This will bring up a menu, select ‘Open Date & Time..’ from the menu, this will open up the date and time preference settings.

You can also access the Date and Time preferences by clicking on ‘System Preferences’ in the Dock and selecting ‘Date & Time’.

In the preferences click on the ‘Announce the time’ checkbox, and select when you want it to announce. You can even customize the voice to suit your needs.
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WoW Insider is reporting today that hackers have gotten World of Warcraft installed on the Apple TV. While it doesn’t sound like it’s actually playable in it’s current form (no keyboard or mouse support yet via the USB port on the Apple TV) and will probably get broken when Apple updates the Apple TV software, it brings up some interesting things you can do with a Mac….not to mention the gaming potential of the Apple TV if it gets supported directly by Apple.

The Nintendo Wii has shown that a simple white box can be very compelling when connected to your TV with the right software support. I’m sure it won’t be long before someone hacks the Apple TV to work with the Wiimote from the Wii.

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I almost hate having to write this article, but I am obliged to do so, in fact I promised I would write it and so here we are. First off I want to make it clear that I think Parallels Desktop for Mac is an amazing product, Parallels pumps out updates and new features constantly, making your Windows experience as seamless and transparent as possible. So what could be so wrong?

Lets start from the beginning. Here at Switching to Mac, on the main site and in our Forum we are constantly being asked about Windows on the Mac Solutions, so of course top on the list of our suggestions have always been Apple’s Boot Camp and Parallels Desktop for Mac. Our site to date receives moderate traffic, with about 65% Windows users on the verge of Switching, for the most part the rest are new Switchers. This ergonomic is a perfect fit for a product like Parallels Desktop for Mac. Hence all the questions about it.
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I was just mentioning in the forums about a minor issue I’ve been having with my Airport Extreme base station and then I see that Apple has posted an update for the software you use to connect/configure it with. Unfortunately there isn’t a firmware update but the problem may actually be with the Airdisk software on my Macs that has been updated.

What’s New in this Version
The AirPort Base Station Update 2007-001 includes general fixes and compatibility updates for the following applications:

- AirPort Utility
- AirPort Admin Utility for Graphite and Snow Base Stations
- AirPort Disk Utility
- AirPort Disk Agent

Note: Only previously installed software from the list above will be updated. AirPort Utility v5.1 for Mac OS X 10.4.x or later software supports the AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n, AirPort Extreme Base Station and AirPort Express Base Station.

You can grab the update via Software Update or on Apple’s site.

I just installed it so I’ll have to wait and see if it there are any hiccups. You can read my full review here.

Apple just released Boot Camp version 1.2. The big kicker is it now supports Vista!

Boot Camp version 1.2 also includes these improvements:

• Support for Windows Vista (32-bit)
• Updated drivers, including but not limited to trackpad, AppleTime (synch), audio, graphics, modem, iSight camera
• Support the Apple Remote (works with iTunes and Windows Media Player)
• A Windows system tray icon for easy access to Boot Camp information and actions
• Improved keyboard support for Korean, Chinese, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Russian, and French Canadian
• Improved Windows driver installation experience
• Updated documentation and Boot Camp on-line help in Windows
• Apple Software Update (for Windows XP and Vista)

So if you want to run Vista or should I say Windows version of OS X, go get your copy of Boot Camp 1.2 from Apple today.

Wraith2021 has been busy again putting together some more great Mac Tips and Tricks…

CONTROLLING WHATS IN YOUR SIDEBAR

By default, a whole bunch of “stuff” can shows up in your sidebar, like your hard disks and partitions, your iDisk, network, CDs, DVDs, USB and FireWire devices etc.

Also in the lower section, your Desktop, Home, and Applications folders are there. You can decide what appears in the sidebar and what doesn’t by going under the Finder menu and choose Preferences.

When the dialog appears, click on the Sidebar icon (up top) and a list of the default sidebar items appears. Uncheck any items you don’t want cluttering up your sidebar.
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Firstly, for those unaware of what Joost is…

“Joost is a new way of watching TV on the Internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping.”

Joost is very cool and is coming to the Mac (Satellite and Cable companies trembling in fear), apparently Joost will also work on hacked Apple TV’s. This combined with the other Apple TV hacks to support DivX and Windows Media Player files on your Apple TV really turn that $299 Apple TV into a must have Living-room gadget.

More on Joost and the Apple TV

Today I decided to head down to my local WiFi enabled coffee shop in an attempt to get away from the distractions a new baby brings to a previously calm household.

While I was checking my email and various Forum posts I noticed a maiden in distress, she was fully equipped, proudly showcasing her brand new HP laptop loaded with its pre-installed version of Vista. Unfortunately she was having difficulty getting her email, actually getting any kind of an Internet connection?
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