Mac OS Hints writer drewthaler noticed that Parallels Desktop, as good as it is, has a glaring flaw: In his words, "It uses Mac OS X's default caching strategies for huge files such as the operating system images (hard disk [or HDD] files) and SAV files (session saves). Over time, almost all of your RAM will fill up with data from these files, leaving little room for your other applications. If you've ever converted a hard drive image with Image Tool while doing something else at the same time, you'll know exactly what I mean."

He contacted the Parallels team to tell them what was up, but they never responded. So he came up with PD Tweaker, a little plugin that runs on Unsanity's Application Enhancer and instructs OS X to either stick to the default plan and always save HDD files and SAV files, or not save them at all to improve computers' overall performance. drewthaler says to try and see how much faster your Macs feel after PD Tweaker is installed.

Just a note - you'll need to install Application Enhancer 2.0 first before you install PD Tweaker, if you don't already have it in your Mac. They're both freeware, though, so no problem.

Download: [PD Tweaker]
Download: [Application Enhancer 2.0]

It is not unknown to us that the MacBook has had some complaints from consumers because of some heating issues. Apple initially addressed these issues by releasing the SMC Firmware Update that will supposedly end your heating woes. Although a lot of consumers were a little bit confused because of the lack of information given by Apple, there have also been a lot of claims, that it indeed made the fans work as how they ought to work.

Now, Apple released another SMC Firmware Update, this time exclusive to the MacBook Pro 17-inch. Once you install this update in the /Applications/Utilities folder it will launch automatically after restart, and adjust fan behavior in your MacBook. This update requires Mac OS X 10.4.6.

Download: [SMC Firmware Update for the MacBook Pro 17-inch]

In 1995 I purchased a first-generation Apple Power PC 8100. At the time, I worked mostly with music and graphic files, and was certain that the 750 MB hard drive would serve me well for many years...

Today, I have a G4 Graphite model with two hard drives - the original 20 GB and an additional 80 GB. And they are fillin' up fast!

Now, a full hard drive isn't necessarily a bad thing... it means you've been happy and productive. You should be proud of yourself. On the other hand, files of all kinds are not getting any smaller, and frankly, its a pain offloading everything to zip drives and other media - or having to buy a new HD at a moment's notice.

We've rounded up eleven ways for you to give your hard drive a break, check them out in the Full Article!

I don't know about you but I like to keep tabs on my Mac. I try to keep it from burning up inside (which I usually don't have any luck with), and I like to restart my mac every 1000 hours or so. If you like to keeps tabs on your Mac then you should be using iStat.

iStat is a dashboard widget that keeps track of all your computer's important information like CPU temperature, memory usage, disk space, and run time. This new version supports CPU temp on new Intel macs (Now all I need to do is get one). And like all the greatest apps it's completely free.

Download: [iStat 1.5.1]

Improve your Mac's Bluetooth performance and reliability issues with this update from Apple. When you begin installation after downloading this firmware update, the Bluetooth Firmware Updater Application will automatically be launched. Just follow the directions on the screen needed to update your Bluetooth Firmware. But if you were able to successfully install Bluetooth Firmware Update version 1.2, this update is not needed.

Should any under circumstances, that this update will not install properly, just shut down your computer and run it again. Take note that you should shut it down instead of just giving your computer a restart.

Download: [Bluetooth Firmware Update 1.2.1]

Grab this full-featured HTML and PHP editor freeware for your Mac OS X that has everything a beginner or a pro would want:

Syntax Checking

• After a good few hours in front of your computer you're likely to have left some open tags in there. This feature ensures that there are no mistakes in your HTML documents.

Tag Coloring

• Customize your tag coloring settings to breeze through your syntax and markups.

Code Clips

• It allows you to easily store, manage, and access frequently used segments of markup with designated keyboard shortcuts.

Preview

• It supports preview for Camino, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, and Safari.

Live Preview

• Why wait to finish when you can edit your document in real time? It allows you to see changes in how your document renders while you are editing it.

Insert Wizards

• A neophyte's best bud. These wizards can be useful for a novice trying to learn HTML, or for an advanced user trying to save time. The Image Map wizard in particular is very advanced and enormously simplifies the process of creating image maps.
  

Download: [Taco HTML v1.7.2]

Connect360 is an application from Nullriver Software that allows Mac users to play back music or even view digital photos on an Xbox 360. The previous version of Connect360 allowed users to stream live Internet radio broadcasts and access to iPod libraries.

The latest version of Connect360 v2.4 requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later and the Xbox 360's network connection. New features and changes made to this new version are the following:

• fixed compatibility with Xbox's spring dashboard update
• fixed song sorting by track number in albums
• fixed networking issues in several configurations
• fixed AppleScript-related crash and several other crashes
  

You can download Connect360 v2.4 by following the link for a free trial, but if you want to register your copy of the application and own it for good, you'll have to buy it for $15 from Nullriver Software.

Download [Connect360 v2.4]

This is the newest application introduced for the iPod. The iWriter will allow students and teachers to create study tools for their iPods that they can share with other students or colleagues.

iWriter is accessible to both Windows and Mac users and on most versions of Apple's iPod. The iWriter-generated resources and study tools can also be accessed not only via iPods but also through the Web.

The iWriter can be used by almost anyone because this application was not designed for only highly skilled techies.

The iWriter Beta version has already been released at the iWriter site and can be downloaded for a 15-day trial. Head on over to the site for a look.

The Computer Hardware Understanding Development (CHUD) Tools version 4.3.3 has been released on the Apple development site.

CHUD Tools are applications and tools for optimization and measurement of software performance on Mac OS X. These tools are also for system benchmarking and hardware bringup.

This latest version of CHUD has an improved code analysis and an enhance support for Intel performance counters.

Download [CHUD Tools v4.3.3]

Monolingual is a freeware application that will remove the unnecessary language resources installed by default in Mac OS X. This program will help in freeing several hundred MBs of disk space. For this to run, it requires at least a Mac OS C 10.3.9 and will also work on Mac OS X 10.4.

This was written by J. Schrier and I. Stein and is released under the GNU General Public License.

When using this program though, make sure to uncheck all the "Architecture" options. With Monolingual's help, one can now store files without having to bother oneself with the available disk space in one's Mac.

Download [Monolingual 1.3.2]