Lion’s system information

Right in your computer’s Apple menu (under ), the first item in fact, is the “About This Mac” utility. Clicking on it will bring up a small window that prominently says which version of Mac OS X you’re running, which processor your system has, how much RAM, and the name of the startup disk (the drive the computer boots from). There are two clickable buttons in this window: one takes you to Software Update, and the other, which we’ll be using, is labelled “More Info…” and takes you to the System Information app.

The System Information app provides you with the type of Mac you’re using (iMac, MacBook Pro, etc.) and also the specific size and original release timeframe of the computer. In the screenshot below, you can see that I’m using a 27-inch iMac from mid-2011 here.

Other information provided on the “Overview” tab of the System Information app includes your processor speed and type, the amount of memory or RAM installed on your system, the graphics card your computer has, and the machine’s serial number and operating system version.

Listed along the top of the System Information window are different tabs where you can find out more. “Displays” shows you the number and type of screens currently being used by your Mac, including the built-in display and any external monitors you have connected.

“Storage” provides a breakdown of any drives either connected to or built-in to your Mac, including a visual breakdown of what type of content and how much of it can be found on each drive.

“Memory” tells you how much RAM you have installed, and lets you know if you have any free slots available for more. You can also access Memory Upgrade Instructions from this tab for your specific model of Mac, if the memory is user-upgradeable.

Also available from the System Information app are Mac OS X and Mac hardware support resources, under the “Support” tab listed in the far right upper corner of the window. These provide useful links to Apple’s online help database, support contact information, and user manuals and specifications.

You can also check whether your Mac is still eligible for service, and check your authorized repair options under the “Service” tab.

Back under the Overview tab, you can click “System Report…” to get a more detailed look at your system and the hardware installed, but for most users, what you need to find should be listed in one of the tabs mentioned above.

Mactracker and EveryMac.com

If you’re still curious about your Mac or any other Mac out there, then there are a couple useful resources you can check out. Mactracker is an app on the Mac App Store that’s available as a free download. You can use it to browse or search for any Mac model ever built, as well as Apple-made peripherals, iOS devices, servers and even discontinued product like the Newton. It’s like a virtual Apple museum that’s both searchable and customizable.

EveryMac.com offers similar information, but in a website instead of in an app. It’s a little bit harder to navigate, but once you find what you’re looking for, it provides much more detailed information, including lengthy contextual descriptions of the Macs themselves, as well as Geekbench performance comparisons, and links to helpful articles about specific components and their uses.

Knowledge is power

For a lot of people, the motivation for moving to Mac can be that users simply don’t want to think too much about the system they’re using — hence Steve Jobs’ affinity for the phrase, “it just works.” But knowing at least the basics about the system you’re using means you’re that much likely to be able to handle problems well when they do occur. For most people, all that means is opening System Information once in a while to refresh your memory. For others, though, the deeper dive provided by Mactracker and EveryMac.com will be a rewarding experience.

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Note that for Screen Sharing to work, you either need to be on the same network as the Mac you’re trying to access, use Back to My Mac with MobileMe, or use a VPN client like Hamachi.

Per-user and Apple ID login

You can now log into other Macs on your network not only with an authorized user account on that machine, but also with an Apple ID. Plus, you can also specify individuals manually, or add them from your Address Book, who are also allowed to login remotely on a per-user basis, and provide each with a unique password of your choosing. That eliminates the need to create a separate user account just for remote access, since you can just add your son or daughter from your Address Book and send them a password, allowing them to gain remote access if you need tech support, for example.

To add users, go to the Sharing pane in System Preferences, make sure Screen Sharing is turned on, and hit the “+” button to select people from your Address Book contacts. Hit the “New Person” button to authorize people manually.

Observe mode

In previous incarnations of Screen Sharing, you could take over control of another computer, but if you wanted to step back and watch what was happening on said computer, it was fairly tricky. Basically, you had to make another window active and just not touch anything. Now, you can switch to Observe mode, which is perfect for those times when you want to watch what a user is doing in order to provide them with accurate tech support help.

To switch to Observe mode, you can add an icon to the toolbar (pictures, via View > Customize Toolbar…), or go to View > Switch to Observe Mode in the menu bar.

Virtual Display mode

If you want to just change a setting or start a download without interrupting someone else currently using the computer you’re accessing via Screen Sharing, there’s a new Virtual Display mode designed to do just that. It will provide you with your own desktop that doesn’t interfere with what’s currently being shown on the Mac’s actual connected display. This is perfect for running application updates on your parents’ computer while they browse uninterrupted, for instance.

Virtual Display option greyed out here because Screen Sharing is in Observe mode.

If you’re logging into another Mac with per-user permissions, as described above, you’ll be asked whether you want to view the hardware or a virtual display. You can also access Virtual Display mode by going to View > Switch to Virtual Display in the menu bar, and change back to the hardware display by going to View > Switch to Hardware Display.

I find I’m already using these new features quite a bit. How are you finding Screen Sharing in OS X Lion?

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1. Full-screen apps. Especially on a notebook, the ability to quickly switch to full-screen mode and navigate between apps that are using it has absolutely changed how I use Macs for the better. It definitely helps you focus on one thing at a time, and it makes great use of Macs with limited screen real estate. It just feels like something we should have been doing all along.
2. Launchpad. Despite my complaints about aspects of it in my last post, Launchpad itself is a welcome addition to the Mac. I’m using it most on my iMac, where the large icons and full-screen navigation make it much easier to find that one seldom-used app I’m looking for. I also think Launchpad is the first stage of an evolutionary tale that will only see it improve dramatically with future iterations of Mac OS, with feature additions like greater control over app arrangement, and maybe even live icons that display dynamic info at-a-glance.
3. AirDrop. Before AirDrop, copying files from my Mac to a visiting friend’s machine was sometimes so much of a chore that we wouldn’t even bother. Now I never have to have that “Hey, you still haven’t given me that file” conversation again, at least so long as everyone involved is packing the right equipment.
4. Hold key for special characters. I’ve never been able to remember the character codes for Macs, and using the special character palette from the Menu bar still requires more steps than the classic Google, copy, paste method. Holding keys down to produce special characters, as you can do on iOS devices, actually makes my life a lot easier, even though I don’t use them all that often.
5. The price. I recently had to install Windows 7 on a Boot Camp partition for my sister’s Mac. Price of the OS (even after it’s been on the market for nearly two years)? $220. The price of OS X Lion (which I was able to install on all four of my Lion-compatible Macs)? $30. Pricing may be Lion’s most appealing asset.

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1. Dashboard as a Space. Dashboard is one of the most useless additions ever made to OS X in my opinion, and Apple didn’t make it any better by now making it a mandatory Space all its own. Swiping left from your primary desktop could do so many useful things (activate a better full-screen Spotlight search interface, for instance), but instead it presents you with a bunch of widgets that do things Menu bar apps can handle, but with far less efficiency.
2. No simple clean install option. Every six months or so, I like to completely wipe and reinstall OS X on my Macs. It’s great that Apple is doing away with physical media in many ways, but it’s also aggravating that there really isn’t an easy way to do a complete erase and reinstall of OS X. At least there are workaround options, like reinstalling from Apple’s servers or formatting a bootable Lion flash drive, but both require extra steps.
3. Managing Launchpad. Launchpad in Lion suffers from some of the same usability issues that home screens in iOS used to have. Specifically, it’s quite a chore to reorganize apps and folders in Launchpad. Just give us a utility that lets users make the same kind of macro-level changes you can make in iTunes and this problem goes away.
4. Multi-touch quirks. Apple introduced new multi-touch gestures in OS X Lion, which means a lot of the gestures third-party apps were using for basic navigation are now broken, like back and forward in Chrome. Also, I’ve had more trouble using gestures like two-finger back and forward in Safari than I ever had in Snow Leopard, because the gestures appear to be more sensitive.  I love swiping between full-screen apps, but why isn’t that a four-finger action by default, leaving three-finger gestures to manage back/forward actions system-wide (especially in Finder)?
5. App window restore everywhere. Restore and Resume features are useful in OS X — in some applications. In others, like Preview, they tend to be more annoying than helpful. I would have liked to see some more judicious decision-making about which native apps got window restore features and which didn’t, or at least a central Preference pane where you can manually pick and choose which apps make use of the behavior.

These are my gripes so far with Lion, but in another article to come shortly, I’ll talk about the things that keep me using Apple’s latest OS, despite these problems. What are your top five (or any number, really) problems with the king of the operating system jungle?

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Not every Lion is part of the AirDrop pride

Unfortunately, just because you have OS X Lion installed doesn’t necessarily mean you can use AirDrop. While AirDrop doesn’t require any Mac to be actively connected to a Wi-Fi network, it does require that each Mac have a wireless card turned on — and not just any wireless card –only certain models of Macs are equipped with the sort of hardware necessary to participate. You could check your hardware version and see if you have what it takes, or just look for AirDrop in your favorites list in the Finder. If it’s listed, then you have what it takes.

Identifying other AirDrop users

At first you’ll think AirDrop isn’t working, or that it’s really, really slow.  Even though you may be in the middle of a slew of Macs running OS X Lion that are all AirDrop-capable, your screen will still be blank. That’s because in order to use AirDrop, you must opt-in by selecting AirDrop from your favorites list in the Finder. Once another Mac does the same, you will see the user show up in the Finder. As soon as either of you navigate away from AirDrop in that Finder window, it will be turned off.

If you happen to be a MobileMe user, and you’re logged in to your MobileMe account on your Mac, and all of the AirDrop Macs near you have all done the same, AND you all happen to be in each other’s MobileMe contact list, then you’ll see each other’s real names instead of just the computer nicknames of your Macs.  That makes it sort of like sharing files peer-to-peer over IM networks. The major differences are that you don’t have to be friends, you don’t have to be using the same service, and you don’t have to be connected to a Wi-Fi network. You don’t even need to have Wi-Fi turned on. All you need is the right Mac with Wi-Fi powered on, and someone to share with.

AirDrop a file from one Mac to another

It’s very easy to share a file once you can see someone to share with in AirDrop. Simply drag your file and drop it on the AirDrop recipient in the Finder, confirm when asked “Do you want to send…” to the recipient, and wait for the user to accept the file.  Once the file transfer process has begun, you don’t have to keep AirDrop open in the Finder. AirDrop will continue the file transfer in the background, and notify you when the process is complete. To be clear, no one using AirDrop can see any files you have on your Mac via AirDrop. Only files you drag and drop on specific recipients will be transferred. There’s no setup, no configuration; it just works.

Alternatives to AirDrop for your Snow Leopard friends

The ability to transfer files in much the same way actually existed before AirDrop. Granted, it wasn’t as slick or polished, and there was some initial setup and configuration involved, but the ability to transfer files from one Mac to another in an almost identical peer-to-peer fashion has been in place for quite some time. In fact, if your Mac can’t participate in AirDrop, it’s all you’ve got.

Send file in iChat via Bonjour. Enabling the Bonjour account in iChat is one of the slickest features on the Mac many don’t realize they have. It’s like a private instant messaging service for all Macs on the same network. You can use this ad-hoc network of IM buddies to transfer files back and forth quickly. You don’t need an IM account, just the user account you use to log on to your Mac. Transferring files is about the same as with AirDrop. You must all be participating in iChat, and you must choose so transfer a specific file to a designated recipient. It’s not quite as easy as AirDrop, but it’s close. The one advantage here is that the range is greater.  You aren’t dependent on the Wi-Fi radio signal reaching directly between Macs; you just need to be on the same network.

Bluetooth file transfer. In theory, transferring files from Mac to Mac over Bluetooth is exactly the same as AirDrop.  The big difference is in the setup. You must first enable Bluetooth Sharing in the System Preferences; make sure that Bluetooth is turned on and that all Macs involved are discoverable. You even have to pair your Macs before the file transfer can begin. Once everything is set up and ready to go, you can use the Bluetooth File Transfer agent to send and receive files. I’ve used this technique in the past, but have found it to be unreliable and a pain to set up and configure, so I’d use this as a last resort.

AirDrop’s only flaw is its hardware dependency. Most households will have a mix of old and new Macs that are actively being used. That being said, when you do have the right hardware in place, nothing beats the simplicity of transferring a file from one Mac to another that comes with AirDrop.

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Switch spaces using the keyboard

It’s easy to switch spaces using a swipe or Mission Control, but that involves moving away from the keyboard. There is a shortcut you can turn on in System Preferences to enable switching spaces using the keyboard.

1. Open up System Preferences, either from the  menu or the Applications folder, and open the Keyboard pane by clicking its icon.
2. In the Keyboard pane, switch to the Keyboard Shortcuts tab to manage keyboard shortcuts.
3. Find Mission Control in the list on the left and click it to show the shortcuts available for Mission Control.
4. In the list on the right should be two entries, one labeled “Move left a space” and one labeled “Move right a space.” In order to enable these shortcuts, check the checkbox to the left of their names if it isn’t already checked. The default keyboard shortcuts are Control–left arrow and Control–right arrow, respectively. You can change these by double-clicking the symbol on the right of the row and typing a new shortcut.

You can now use the shortcut you selected to navigate between spaces and full-screen apps.

Switch back to a regular desktop from a full-screen app

If you want to switch between a full-screen app and a regular desktop space, you can switch left and right using a gesture or the above shortcut. But what about if you have seven or eight full-screen apps open and you don’t want to swipe through all of them?

In the same section of System Preferences as before, you should see more shortcuts labeled “Switch to Desktop 1,” “Switch to Desktop 2″ and so on, depending on the number of spaces you have enabled. You can use these shortcuts to jump straight to a normal space from any application, full-screen or otherwise. Just set them up however you would like (the default is Control and a number key), and then you’ll be able to avoid swiping across a bunch of screens.

Remap the Dashboard key to Launchpad

In Lion, Dashboard is given its own space, which is easily opened with a swipe. That means that the Dashboard key on the keyboard (F4) is not really necessary. Why not remap the Dashboard key to open Launchpad instead? That’s how new shipping keyboards and Macs work anyway. You’ll need to download a copy of FunctionFlip (free), which allows you to disable the special functions of the function keys (F1, F2, etc.) individually.

1. Once you have FunctionFlip installed, open its settings in System Preferences, which will be listed at the bottom, under Other.
2. In the drop-down list on the right, select the keyboard you’d like to change the setting for. You can always do this for every keyboard in turn.
3. Find the entry for Dashboard in the left-hand panel. It should be the fourth item from the top. Check the box to the left of it to disable the Dashboard function of the F4 key.
4. Now go back to the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard pane and find Launchpad & Dock in the list on the left.
5. In the list on the right, select Show Launchpad on the right-hand side. Double-click to the right of the selected row to edit the shortcut, then press F4 on your keyboard to set the shortcut to F4.

You should now be able to launch Launchpad using the Dashboard key, rather than a gesture or the mouse.

Do you have any other time-saving Lion tips? Share them in the comments.

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While this article uses iWork as an example, any app that supports Versions, like OmniGraffle, should work the same way.

What is Versions?

Every hour — if the program supports it — a Version will be created. If you’re at all familiar with Time Machine, the concept is the same: a version of a document you can revert back to is created within the “sandbox” of that app and data file. It’s like doing a save-as every hour, but all the versions are contained within a single data file. However, if you send the file to another person, that person won’t see the previous versions.

This is completely separate from the new Auto Save feature. Logic would dictate an auto-save would create a new version, but it doesn’t.

How do I view my Versions?

First, a bit of warning: If you open a document created before you upgraded your app, you are likely to see it say “Locked” in the title bar. Don’t fret. Just click on the arrow next to the title and choose Unlock. A document unedited for two weeks will automatically become locked. You can change this timer in the Time Machine preferences. You can also force a lock if you don’t want to version a document.

To access your past history, from that same pop-down, choose “Browse All Versions.” This will bring you to a Time Machine-inspired view. On the left you’ll see the current document. On the right, you’ll see all the old versions.

The great thing is, you can go back in time and restore pieces of your document; not just the whole thing. If you’re working on a presentation and delete a section, then decide you did want to include that, you can just go pull those slides from a previous version. Same holds true for sections of text.

The “Save As…” command is gone from iWork now as well. You can duplicate the document from the File menu which does pretty much the same thing. It’ll be treated a virgin document until you save it, however, so you won’t be able to see past versions of the duplicate’s original source.

Recommendations

I think Auto Save is a fantastic, long-needed addition. Even documents with no save history at all still get restored. Relying on the one-hour versioning is a fool’s game, though. My recommendation is to manually save early, and save often. The reason for this is because I found it very easy to have a Version not be created. If I opened a Pages document, added some text, quit the app, re-opened it, added more text and then quit the app, the next time I opened the only version I saw was from a while ago. I’d like to see a version get created every time I quit a document, too. So, if you think you’ll be going back to previous versions a lot, save on your own.

In my limited testing, sending Pages documents to another user stripped the version history. That’s how it should work. You don’t want the sordid history of a project to follow it along. That said, if the document contains some sensitive material you’ve redacted, it’s worth duplicating or exporting the document to create a fresh copy just to ensure all the info is scrubbed.

So that’s Versions in a nutshell. Even if you aren’t using it yet, you likely will be soon as more apps add the feature. Feel free to let us know in the comments which ones you think will benefit most from the addition.

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Luckily though, the good old ‘defaults write’ command for OS X’s Terminal.app is still around to help us pop open that hood and tweak all the stuff that can’t be configured with just a point and a click. Here’s a quick roundup of a few defaults write commands that might make your early days with the new big cat a bit easier.

A few words about ‘defaults write’

The ‘defaults’ command allows users to interact with their user defaults via the terminal (located in the Applications>Utilities folder). Users can read, write, and delete user preference values that often aren’t available for configuration within an application’s normal preference panel. These commands can all be executed via the Terminal, and reversed by simply repeating the command with the original value swapped in for the replacements below. In most cases you’ll have to restart the application you’re trying to tweak before you can see the command’s effect. If you don’t want to mess around with the terminal, I’m sure many of these commands will soon find their way into an updated version of Secrets, which is a GUI preference pane for configuring this type of behavior.

The roundup

• Animations. There are a lot of new animations in Lion. New windows will warp into existence from a single point on the screen; email replies will fold their way out of threaded conversations; and desktops will go swishing by as you move from space to space. There’s at least two of these you can put an end to right now if you want:
  • Disable Mail Reply animations: “defaults write com.apple.Mail DisableReplyAnimations -bool YES”
  • Disable New Window animations: “defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled -bool NO”
• Character picker. If you’ve ever been frustrated by hunting around in the character viewer for accented characters like the “è” or the “ë” then you probably want to just leave this setting alone. If however, if you’d rather be able to hold down a key and just have it automatically repeat, like it used to, then this defaults write is for you.
  • Disable the character picker: “defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool NO”
• Window restore. Want to keep applications like Preview or QuickTime from restoring old windows that happened to be hanging around the last time you quit? Just switch out the name “Preview” in the command below to target other applications.
  • Disable window restore: “defaults write com.apple.Preview NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool NO”
• Bookmarks bar. You can get rid of both the Reading List icon and the Top Sites icon with this quick defaults write command:
  • Clean out icons from Safari’s bookmarks bar: “defaults write com.apple.Safari ProxiesInBookmarksBar ‘()’”
• Save sheet shortcuts. Lion changes around the default save sheet shortcuts for a little added safety. If you’ve got a lot of muscle memory devoted to “Command-D” as the shortcut for “Don’t Save,” you can bring it back if you want — though to be honest, with “D” and “S” being so close together, I prefer the new settings.
  • Revert save sheet shortcut: “defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSSavePanelStandardDesktopShortcutOnly -bool YES”
• iOS spell check pop-up. Part of the overall “iOS-ification” effort in Lion was to bring over those helpful but sometimes annoying little spell correction pop-ups you get as you type. The autocorrect can be enabled on a document by document basis with a right-click in “Spelling and Grammar,” but if you just want to kill it off altogether, you can.
  • Disable the iOS-style spell correct: “defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticSpellingCorrectionEnabled -bool NO”
• ~/Library reveal. This last one isn’t technically a defaults command, but it’s too good to leave out. By default in Lion, user libraries are hidden. You can still navigate to the user library by holding down the “option key” while in the Go menu in the Finder, but if you want to restore ~/Library back to it’s proper place, just crack open the terminal and enter in the command below.
  • Restore ~/Library visibility: “chflags nohidden ~/Library”

I’m sure more hidden commands will surface as folks begin to settle into the new OS. I grabbed as many as I could find floating around, but if you’ve got some additional ones you’d like to share, please do so in the comments.

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Why Are Apple and Microsoft Keyboards So Different?

The disparity is a little deeper than a simple case of Apple and Microsoft just not being able to get along. It’s actually rooted in the core of Apple’s engineering principles of thinking things through and getting it right the first time. Apple started from a proven and well accepted principle, whereas Microsoft saw value in a ‘feature’, didn’t bother to understand it, and screwed it up. Human nature being what it is, since more people grew up PC than Mac, PC had it “right”, and Mac had it “wrong.”

Controlling Teletype Machines

The use of control key sequences date back to teletype systems, where certain commands were mapped into the American Standard Code for Information Interchange
(ASCII) character set. Teletype systems basically replaced the telegraph and were used to send typed messages over long distances. The ASCII was created in part to standardize the communication protocols between teletype machines. These teletype systems would send commands to control non-printing functions like movement of the printing cartridge.

This is where the “control” key originally got its name, since it controlled the mechanics of the machine it was sending instructions to. By holding down the control key when striking another character on the keyboard, you actually applied a sort of offset to the ASCII code, sending a different signal and producing an effect not related to actual typing.

Communicating to Unix Computers

Enter the age of computers. Early computer input worked in a very similar way as two teletype systems communicating with one another. In fact, the protocol that Unix uses to map keyboards as devices comes from teletype. Modern day Macs running OS X are based on Unix, and therefore, still support this paradigm. The Terminal application found in Utilities could actually be considered a software version of an old teletype system, sending commands to the computer to be executed.

The exact same control sequences used in early Unix-based systems are still supported on modern Macs.  The original Control+C keyboard sequence once used to stop teletype printing is being used today by the Terminal Application to instruct the computer to cancel or stop an operation. Apple has chosen to maintain the integrity of its systems by choosing not to change the way the control key works.

Open Apple on a Swedish Campground

The command key, on the other hand, is an Apple original. Given that Apple was into selling hardware, and not just licensing software, adding a key to the keyboard was just part of the engineering process when creating new products.

The existence of an additional command key on Apple hardware dates back to the original Apple IIe. The first Macintosh computers also had a need to create specialized command key sequences and kept the Apple key.

Mapping menu functions to keyboard shortcuts were emphasized in part because the graphical interface of the Macintosh could actually display complex images like the Apple Logo on screen.

Rather than devalue the brand image by littering the menu system with an orchard of Apple logos all over the place, the Apple Icon was replaced by a symbol used in Sweden to indicate an interesting feature at a campground.  Thus the Command Key as we know it today was born.

Disk-Based, not Terminal-Based Operating System

At the same time, Microsoft was growing up from its roots on DOS. Microsoft was not in the business of manufacturing and selling hardware, and had to deal with what was readily available on the market. Since early PC keyboards were born from older terminal based computer keyboards, and those keyboards have origins rooted in teletype systems, there was an extra control key just waiting for a disk-based OS to abuse.

Almost every MS-DOS application had a different mapping of keyboard sequences for common functions like open, close, cut, copy and paste.  And they all abused the control key. When Windows first came around, Microsoft also wanted to map the menu actions to keyboard shortcuts in exactly the same way that Apple did. Rather than add a new key as Apple did, the control key was adopted as Microsoft’s command key, and Windows strong-armed its software vendors to follow the new shortcut convention.

It wasn’t until Windows 95 that Microsoft decided that it really needed its own true command key, but by that time, it was too late, and users had already formed habits and burned their favorite shortcuts into their brains.

Online Keyboard Mapping Resources

Now that you know why the two operating systems look at keyboards differently, how do you adjust smoothly?  There are actually some great online resources from both Apple and Microsoft that map all of the keyboard shortcuts and even show some of the PC to Mac equivalents. It may take keeping a browser window open with these resources on hand for a while, but trust me, you’ll get there, and you’ll be glad you did.

• Apple Support Article ID: HT1343 - Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts
• Apple Support Article ID: HT2514 - Switch 101: On Windows, I used to…
• Mac OSX Reference Library – Apple Human Interface Guidelines - Keyboard Shortcuts Quick Reference
• Microsoft Support Article ID: 970299 - Keyboard mappings using a PC keyboard on a Macintosh

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So why would anybody need an app to do this when most apps have keyboard shortcuts already? Well the answer is simple if you consider the power of leveraging the large screen on the iPhone. When it launched sans a physical keyboard, Steve Jobs commented that it was a great idea to do away with it, because there are times when you don’t need a full size keyboard. If you are typing in numbers, it would be great to see large numbers instead of individual keys.

The same holds true for shortcuts. Why should I have to press “Shift+Command+Delete” to empty my trash when I could just use one button for that same purpose? Keymote addresses this usability blemish.

Keymote’s setup process is very simple and only requires that your iPhone and Mac share a Wi-Fi connection. Download the remote software on your Mac and it resides on the menu bar. Once you’ve paired the iPhone to your Mac from the app, you’re ready to roll.

Keymote comes with several keysets out of the box but also includes an in-app store that provides a larger wealth of free downloadable keysets for other popular apps, all contributed by users. Instantly download keysets for Aperture, Adobe Illustrator, Pages or any other app you use frequently. My favorite is the Numerical Keypad keyset which will help your stylish Apple keyboard feel a little more powerful.

If there’s not a keyset for an application you like to use, feel free to create your own and share it with others. If a particular keyset is not quite up to your standards, tap a key or spacer and hold. Then you can just drag it to a better location. If a shortcut is missing, just tap the plus and add it right alongside the rest.

The only thing to keep in mind is that you might find yourself using your phone more often than before. In case, my iPhone has become more of an auxiliary keypad and so I needed to adjust my sleep settings to keep my phone awake. Additionally, Keymote requires the software you’re using be the active application. This means if I call up Photoshop key commands and create a new document, it invokes “Command+N.” If Photoshop isn’t the active application, “Command+N” will apply to whichever app is active. The developers are aware of this limitation, and it’s something they are working to address.

With a stylish user interface that looks great not just on my iPhone, but as a “keypad” next to my Mac, Keymote is a great application for those whose regularly harness the power of shortcuts. Keymote is $3.99 and available for download on the App Store. If you’ve had the chance to try it out, please share your thoughts.

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