By default, since Mac OS 10.4 all screen shots are saved as PNG files, before that they were saved as PDF files. However there are many folks that still would like to save their files as a different format such as JPG or GIF. This is an easy change to make, but it requires you to fire up the Terminal to make the change.

1. Locate the Terminal App. /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app
2. Type the following:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type "file type"

Replace “file type” with the extension of the file type you wish to save as such as PDF, JPG, GIF, etc.

Screenshot Commands

Had Sun really supported these efforts they would have stopped selling a commercial version of Solaris and embraced a highly optimized, user friendly, custom version of Linux as their OS of choice that could run on any device they made. Furthermore, they would have limited their Sparc SKUs to the extremely high-end systems with everything else running x64. Finally, they would have embraced the consumer with gateway products to build their brand and suck new customers in, while building a hedge against market fluctuations. Does this strategy sound familiar? It should, its exactly what Apple did to not only maintain relevancy, but steal significant market share from Dell, HP, IBM, and Microsoft.

In Many ways Sun could have been bigger than Apple because they already had enterprise products, they just needed a consumer strategy, which albeit is much more difficult to create than an enterprise strategy. They could have accomplished this through an acquisition several years ago of a company like Suse, HTC, Creative Labs, or Macromedia. Anyone of these companies or any number of others could have vaulted Sun into the consumer space or have given them the tools to build really innovative consumer and enterprise level products.

Cisco, another dotcom high-flyer saw the writing on the wall about a dwindling enterprise market. This prompted them to make some strategic acquisitions to enter the consumer and small business space with Linksys and WebEx, among others. While not exactly the same, since Cisco does not make Workstations or Servers (at least until this week they did not), it is similar, they continued to serve their core market while bolstering their consumer offerings as a hedge against the separate market fluctuations.

But alas, they did not and in today’s news is that Sun is in talks to be acquired by IBM for nearly $7 Billion. However, I do not view this as bad news for either company because there are great synergies in products between the two companies. It is also not too late for IBM to still embrace a consumer strategy and get back into the workstation and laptop market that they should have never left.

Today Google launched their new Google Sync Product that allows you to sync your Google Calendar and Gmail Contacts to your Windows Mobile and iPhone devices. To do this they have licensed Microsoft’s Activesync protocol, just as Apple did to allow the iPhone to sync to a Microsoft Exchange server.
This is significant because it immediately opens up the majority of existing smart phone owners to functionality previously only offered to corporate users of Exchange servers, at no cost. Which makes the service ideal for smaller companies and Independent Consultant/Freelancer types. What is even more ideal about the service for these types of people is that it also works with Google Apps for your Domain. Can you say free Exchange Server?

The second reason that this is significant is that it virtually negates the need for Apple’s MobileMe service, as it provides virtually the same functionality at no cost. I am sure Apple is not pleased about this.

As great as this service is, there are some downsides:

-The Activesync protocol only allows you to setup one Activesync account per mobile device. So if you have a Smartphone that is already syncing to your corporate Exchange server, you cannot setup another to sync to Google. This is not Google’s fault, nor is it the device manufacturer’s fault, this is the way Microsoft designed Activesync. In many of the comments on Google’s blog posting about this new service people are laying blame at Google and Apple’s door, when it does not belong there.

-It does not use Activesync to deliver email. At this time Google is still using IMAP or POP to deliver mail to devices. This is a downside because it makes the process of getting all of your data to your device more convoluted, possibly more problem prone and bandwidth intensive.

-By using Activesync there is no way to sync Google Docs. While this may not sound significant it would be helpful to be able to sync documents and files over to your mobile device. This is functionality that Microsoft will be making available shortly through their Live Mesh service that is currently in beta.

-It does not sync Tasks. One of the core functions of any personal information management system is the ability to create and organize tasks. Activesync already has functionality to sync tasks from an Exchange-based account natively, but Google has not implemented functionality to sync your Gmail tasks as of yet.

-It does not work on Google’s own G1 Android phone. While it appears that Google has licensed Activesync for pushing data to mobile devices from its services, it has not implemented Activesync on the Android platform, which means that Android users are out in the cold on this one.

None of the downsides listed are deal breakers in my mind for the average user, and following in the grand Google tradition of release then iterate, I am sure that they will be able to work through many of these issues in short order.

The new Mac should arrive in a day or three, at which time I will give a review. Look for future updates.

1. Give the account setup a useful name.

2. Enter the name and email address of the User for which you are configuring Entourage.

3. Enter of username of the user, enter the FQDN of the Active Directory domain name, and the password for the user.

4. Enter the public URL of your Outlook Web Access server. If you are using SSL to secure your OWA server as you should be make sure you specify that.

5. Enter the public URL of your Outlook Web Access server, with “/public” on the end. If you are using SSL to secure your OWA server as you should be make sure you specify that. This will allow your users to access your Public Folders.

6. Enter the internal FQDN of a domain controller in your Active Directory domain. This will be used to look up users from the Global Address Book.

7. Enter the Search Base for your Active Directory domain. This usually is just the internal DNS name for your NetBIOS domain name broken out into LDAP-centric format as displayed in the example.

These instructions will allow your Mac users to make full use of your Exchange Server. The one important note, is that your LDAP settings will be inaccessible outside of your LAN, as I do not recommend opening up port 389 on your firewal to allow LDAP traffic outside your LAN. This may prevent your Macs from making Global Address Book lookups when not connected to your LAN. What you may consider instead is setting up a VPN connection on the Mac to allow this to function fully.

Without getting into a battle of which device is better, because I feel that they both have their merits and downsides, I think that Google and TMobile really blew an opportunity here to launch a world-class device. Had they built up the suspense and anticipation of the device, maybe they could have pushed a few more units, picked up some new subscribers, and come out of the gate swinging. However what I saw from Google was just another low-key launch much like their famed and much maligned “beta” services. What I fear is that Google is going to treat Android like Apple treats the Apple TV, as a hobby.

Apple has a reputation of making premium, high-quality products, not on par with products from likes of Dell. If Apple were to release a lesser-priced model it would take away from their reputation as a premium brand, which in turn would lead people (including myself) to question why they are paying that premium. The question would go something like the following: “If I can buy a significantly less-expensive Mac that will be about 80% equivalent to the more expensive model is it worth it to me to spend the extra money?” This question alone would drive Apple prices down, in turn reducing Apple’s profits, which in turn would force them to cut some of the higher-end features of their products to sell more units to keep their revenue up. It is the same reason that Ferrari does not make an inexpensive model.

Additionally Apple users tend to have an emotional connection to their computers, it is not just a utility that they use, as is the case with Windows-based computers (despite what the commercials depict). These people also tend not to replace their computer as frequently as a Dell owner. This is again like someone that owns a premium car like the Ferrari, they are not going to replace it as often as some that drives a Ford Taurus.

Now, I am not a Mac FanBoy, as I actually think that they both have their place and uses, and I actually do own and use both, but you have to be kidding me, you should have at least provided your ad agency with some Windows Vista computers to create your ads on to prevent snafus such as this one. To top everything off Microsoft tried to cover their tracks by scrubbing all of the creative work of the offending metadata.

I

1- Amazon.com – Through the deployment and monetization of their Services they have singlehandedly popularized the cloud-computing industry.

2- Google — Big Surprise here. Google is designing products/services that are giving Microsoft a run for their money, too bad they are not as polished and as capable as Microsoft’s products. However, Microsoft has a 20 year jump on Google.

3- Sun Microsystems — Sun is taking on power consumption in data centers with some of the most unique designs in the server hardware segment that I have seen years.

4- Microsoft — Vista in all of its glory, or lack there of have in a way lit a fire under Microsoft. The new versions of some of it’s products are looking promising. Pair this with the fear of God that Google has struck into them, Microsoft is finally making a whole-hearted effort into moving some of their applications online.

5- Revision 3 — Kevin Rose and Company have taken on the network studios by producing full-length high-quality shows that are free. The networks should be very afraid of these guys.

6- Apple — They made my list simply for the iPhone SDK and Enterprise support. These will transform the mobile phone industry.

7- Zimbra (A Yahoo! Company) — These guys have been working hard to produce a viable, complete alternative to Exchange. They have succeeded, after using their collaboration suite over the last 6 months I do not miss Exchange at all.

8- VMWare — Using their Virtualization patents to throw their weight around these guys rule the Virtualization market. One such product that has made them a household name is VMWare Fusion for the Mac. Also, by giving away their VMWare Server product they have firmly cemented their place at the top of this market for the foreseeable future.

9- Intel — They make my list for simply making CPU’s smaller and more power efficient, such as the one used in the MacBook Air

10- OpenOffice.org — Another example of a feature complete Microsoft alternative that is making a active effort to make their as ubiquitous as possible on as many platforms as possible.