Dear Apple,

I think the system-wide to-do service is quite wonderful. ThatÂ?s good news for data integrity (and, thus, for user sanity), and it will provide third-party developers with an opportunity to transparently tie their own task management software into this system. It really does a lot to mainatain our sanity.

The addition of to-doÂ?s and notes to Mail may indicate that Apple has some useful ideas for enhancing a Â?non-glamourousÂ? application like Mail beyond just beautiful eye candy.

Hopefully, you'll continue going further on this direction by adding real workflows to Mail. I'm glad some functions that save the user a lot of effort (not to mention countless mouse clicks) are present on Rules, AppleScript, Automator, and third-party plug-ins like Scott MorrisonÂ?s superb Mail Act-On. However, they are still in need of improvements and I am hoping you'll work on them.

My wishlist?

• First, build (many) more Mail-related Automator actions, including very basic functionality like moving messages to a mailbox folder, or replying to a message;
• Second, use some of their UI design voodoo to come up with an elegant and effective way of triggering these workflows within Mail
  

These are just my opinions and I would be most grateful if you could act on them. I know other users have various ideas of their own for software improvements and it would be great if they could share them too. As for me, thanks a lot for taking time to take note of my requests.

Yours Truly,
Jochen Wolters

NOTE: This is just an imaginary letter inspired by Jochen Wolters' actual requests (snippets of it are used in this "imaginary letter", which are highlighted in italics)

The wireless mighty mouse may have been lost but hopefully not gone forever, but still you gotta admit Apple's mighty mouse is one nifty contraption! And that's why you really should know how to properly take care of your Apple thingamajig. So with that, here's the correct way of cleaning the Mighty Mouse.

If your Mighty Mouse is covered in fingerprints or its surface has become soiled, it can be gently wiped off with a clean lint-free cloth. If necessary, moisten the cloth using only water, just make sure not to oversaturate it since the mouse contains electronic components. These parts may be damaged if water drips from the cloth into the mouse via the seam around the scroll ball or around its underside.

You can do the same to clean the scroll ball if it has become dirty or discolored. Wipe the ball and the surrounding area, making sure to rotate the ball itself to ensure complete coverage. If the scrolling feels rough or if the scroll ball isn't scrolling up, down, or side-to-side, hold the mouse upside-down and roll the ball vigorously while cleaning it to help dislodge any particles that may have collected on the internal hardware. The video below might be a great help for you.

It was pretty cool of Apple to include a remote control in the latest Macs. This remote allows you to control Front Row and other Apple applications, but unfortunately, apart from that, it can't do much of anything else. But Remote Buddy from IOSpirit, squeezes every last ounce of juice from your remote.

It basically emulates functions of a keyboard and mouse, eject CDs, terminate applications and much more. It also compensates for Front Row's current lack of support for anything related to television, because it allows you to activate or deactivate Front Row and then launch EyeTV 2. Now you can watch live or recorded video.

Every one of these features are made possible because of behaviours or specialized plugins for the Remote Buddy. Already included with Remote Buddy are Behaviours for iTunes, Keynote 3, PowerPoint, Photo Booth, QuickTime Player, EyeTV 2, DVD Player, VLC Media Player and Real Player. Since they provide source code for developers and also continue to work on new Behaviours themselves, expect a lot more to come.

It was recently priced at Â?14.99 but it is now down to Â?9.99 ($ 12.55). All purchasers of version 1.0 will receive all V1.x updates for free!

It won't be surprising if the Apple Mighty Mouse becomes an iconic Apple accessory in the coming months or years. Eversince its release last August of 2005, it has been reaping praises from Apple consumers everywhere...well, until recently. The mighty mouse is fine, but there are some people who are wondering, where in the world is the wireless Apple mighty mouse?

People have been asking that question since they thought all along that the wireless version would come out a few weeks or months after the release of the mighty mouse. Well, maybe Apple is waiting for a one year anniversary of the mouse's release before they ship the wireless variant. We don't know, your guess is as good as mine.

One of the many reasons why they are itching to get their palms on this one is because the Apple Mighty Mouse Wireless would be the only right hand / left hand interchangeable wireless bluetooth mouse distributed on a large scale (when and if it comes out). Apparently, the consumers are clamoring for a mouse that won't make them worry about which side of their laptop is free to plug it in, or to have some knots protruding out of their USB slot. Whatever happens, we will keep you posted in the coming weeks.

Mac notebooks' accelerometer was designed to protect your laptops from damage in case of droppage. However, smart minds have put this ingenious innovation to other fun use. A certain Raul was even able to come up with a list of entertaining hacks based on the accelerometer. One of these was AMS2HID, which converts the sudden motion sensor into a human interface device. With this application, the orientation data retrieved from the accelerometer are translated into input data for the keyboard or mouse. Now, AMS2HID can also provide us a fun way of playing games on a Mac notebook.

Matt Haughey has downloaded the AMS2HID app and used it to play with the marble tilt game NeverBall (the OS X binary package of which was done by Luc Fabresse). Click on the video and see the marbles move with your laptop's motion. If your eyes suddenly turn green with envy, the download for AMS2HID is below and NeverBall can be downloaded via Icculus. Go and try your hand at a Wii-style playing on your Mac. Enjoy! To learn more about AMS2HID, visit the developer's site here.

Download: [AMS2HID]

You've had a go at Omni Group's OmniDazzle, a set of fun and useful enhancements that lets you highlight certain parts of the screen, create special effects, and track the location of the cursor. If you haven't and you're interested in the magic that is the OmniDazzle, just click here. To convince you further, here's a list of the plug-ins that the OmniDazzle has:

Pixie Dust
You'll never lose sight of your mouse pointer again as this plug-in turns it into a virtual magic wand.

Flashlight
When triggered, the Flashlight dims the background and illuminates the area where your pointer goes. Take control of the size, the color, and the background of the virtual flashlight.

More dazzling effects await after the jump!

We've written a few days ago that previous reports hinted at Mac OS X 10.4.7 Tiger update. Now Apple Insider delivers news saying that the Mac OS X Tiger operating system will be getting that (minor) facelift we've all been hearing about in a matter of days.

The update will result to audio enhancements for several of the company's applications. Fixes for audio playback in iTunes, Soundtrack, Final Cut Pro and QuickTime will included. You should also expect improvement in mobile phone syncing, Bluetooth file transfers and mouse pairings, according to people who claim to have tested these pre-release builds of the  Mac OS X 10.4.7 update.

Apple is said to have implemented fixes into this update for saving Quark and Adobe documents to AFP mounted volumes, syncing files and date to .Mac, using iChat to create chatrooms over AIM protocol. Other enhancements will be targeting PDF workflows in apps like iPhoto and iCal, ensuring correctly-spaced icons on the desktop, importing files into Keynote 3, and removing and importing fonts in Apple's Font Book application.

The Delta update form for the Mac OS X 10.4.7 build 8J2133 (Intel) and for the Mac OS X 10.4.7 build 8J133 (Power PC) requiring at least a Mac OS X 10.4.6 will weigh in at 130MB and 64MB. According to sources, Apple has already completed the documentation for the Mac OS X 10.4.7 so we should expect it to be released in a few days.

If you're feeling nostalgic for the "good 'old days" of your youth misspend in front of a Mac Plus or Mac II running System 6, why not start by giving new life to your first mouse?

The old rectangular ADB mouse (frequently available at thrift and second-hand stores, these days) are easily modified to work like Apple's latest, the Mighty Mouse. In fact, its as simple as doing a complete transplant of the latter's inner workings to the former.

Best of all, you'll have a very cool-looking mouse with 'vintage' style and cutting-edge functionality...rather like a putting a fuel injected  V-6 into your '32 Chevy Rumble seat Roadster...

Check out the full article for more details!