Tiger Killer Tips And Tricks No: 127 and No: 39.

Yes, there are too many Tiger tips and tricks and shortcuts to remember. That’s why there are books in bookstores. To help us remember. Here’s two of my favorites from the Tips and Tricks series.

So, you like iTunes, do you? You know everything there is to know about iTunes? Try this one.

iTunes album art can be used as your screen saver. I’ve got about 3,000 songs in iTunes and my screen saver has always been a blank screen. Until now.

Think of all the hundreds of music album artwork your Mac has probably saved some place on the hard drive. Wouldn’t it be cool to have a screen saver with that art?

Yes, yes, and more yes. There’s a way to get Screen Saver to look through all the album art stored on your Mac, make a tiled wall of albums, and then, one-by-one, they flip over revealing a new album artwork below. Cool.

Here’s how to get there.

First, open System Preferences. Second, click on Desktop & Screen Saver.

That gives you a bunch of choices for desktop backgrounds and Screen Saver images. Click on the Screen Saver tab.

That should bring up a list of all the Mac’s (we’re talking Tiger, now) screen saver options. Click on the one that says ‘iTunes Artwork.’

Immediately, Screen Saver sucks up all the iTunes album artwork images and creates a montage of tiles that flip over to a new album. Whoa! That’s No: 127.

From the placement of the option, you’d think that was there, like, you know, forever and all. It wasn’t, but it’s one of those things we tend to overlook because we often set up our Macs about the same way every time.

Are you an information junkie? Do you have three RSS readers and 100 sites in your RSS list? Do you have the radio and TV going while you’re working on your computer?

Me neither, but I found a nifty way to keep tabs on what’s new while I’m walking towards my Mac. You gotta learn to savor every moment of news feed fix time.

Make the screen save on Tiger become your RSS reader.

Granted, this one, No: 39 on my list, really belongs in the More Glitz Than Substance category, but you’ll see what your Mac can do to impress your Windows friends.

You’re still in the Screen Saver.  Just a few notches on the rung below iTunes Artwork is another selection. This one is called RSS Visualizer. First, it needs a better name.

Second, it’s a solution to a problem we hadn’t even thought of yet. How can we ever thank Apple for literally throwing the latest news at our eyeballs?

Select RSS Visualizer and click the Test button. Whooooosh.

Your Mac’s screen becomes a swimming, swirling, twisting, turning array of RSS feeds. Woo hoo! Now, to top off this obviously useless luxury, click the Options button.

That brings up the list of RSS feeds from Safari. Select the Mac360 RSS feed (it should be there; if not, stop, go back, get the feed into Tiger’s Safar, come back—I’ll wait).

Now, while you’re away from your Mac, it’s broadcasting Mac360’s RSS feed to everyone within walking, talking, or eyesight distance. Aren’t you glad you know this?

And you get all this knowledge without even opening up a single PDF. No trees were destroyed to bring you both these tips. Of course, there’s no guarantee that some gray matter wasn’t harmed in the process.

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