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Prevent certain accounts from unlocking FileVault 2

FileVault 2 is a huge improvement over the original FileVault implementation, offering whole disk encryption with no noticeable performance penalty. The only downside is that every account on the computer (even "standard," non-administrator accounts) is given access to decrypt the drive. The good news is that you can control which accounts are allowed to decrypt the drive by removing the password to any account which should not be able to decrypt FileVault (Don't worry, it's only temporary.).

Temporary insecurity leads to increased security

My MacBook Air has 4 user accounts on it: for me, my wife, my son, and my mother-in-law (long story). My wife and I both use secure passwords, but my mother-in-law and son do not. If a chain is only as strong as the weakest link, I had 4 links, and 2 of them were pretty weak.

I could not find any way to control which accounts can decrypt FileVault, but I did learn that any account which does not have a password is automatically disqualified from decrypting FileVault. Even if you add a password back to that account, FileVault will be disabled for that account unless you specifically re-enable it.

I'll walk you through the steps. (Note: I recommend reading through all of the instructions before starting any of this.)

Step 1: Log in to the account that will not be able to unlock FileVault.

Step 2: Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app

Yes, I know. You hate Terminal. But you have to use it because you can't remove your password via the GUI.

But you can delete it in Terminal. Just type passwd at the prompt. You will be asked for your "Old Password" (that is, your current password), and then you will be asked for a new password, twice. Enter your current password, then just press the Enter/Return key when asked for a "New Password" and "Retype New Password."

Once you do that, you will have an account with no password. Now we are ready to go to FileVault.

Open FileVault

Go to System Preferences » Security & Privacy » FileVault and you will see a new warning "Some users are not able to unlock the disk."

Click "Enable Users" (above) and then "Set Password..." (below)

and then you will see this:

Do not click "Enable User..." or this whole trip will have been for nothing.

Once you leave this window, if you click on the "Enable Users..." button while logged into an account which is not setup to unlock FileVault (but which does have a password set), it may be automatically enabled. Moral? Don't open that window unless you want to enable the account, or be ready to repeat this process.

You may want to set "Require an administrator password to access system preferences with lock icons" in the "General" tab under System Preferences » Security & Privacy.

"So how do I use that account?"

You may wonder how you can use that account. After all, when the computer reboots, there will be no option to choose that account, and any account you do choose will be automatically logged into after the computer starts up.

Start by choosing one of the available accounts to decrypt/unlock FileVault. This will begin the booting process. From there, you have a choice: either let the automatic login process complete and then log out (which will let you log in to the other account), or hold down the Shift key when you see the grey Apple logo which will prevent auto-login and leave you at the main login window.

FileVault 2 locks or unlocks the entire drive, be careful gets the 'keys'

I consider FileVault 2 an essential feature for any portable Mac. I also recommend separate accounts for every member of your household old enough to press keys on the keyboard (or, at the very least, a separate account for your important data and one for other family members). But if you don't want to risk the possibility that someone in your household thinks that one two three four five is a great password, consider only letting some accounts decrypt FileVault.

Finally, remember that whichever account you use after FileVault is decrypted, the drive will be encrypted again when you reboot or shutdown.

Prevent certain accounts from unlocking FileVault 2 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

EA premieres a Daily Deals page for the holidays, and other ways to find cheap apps

So now that we're rolling into December, we're about to enter into the biggest season of the year for both app buying and app sales. Right before Christmas, Apple will "freeze" the App Store, which means listings won't get updated, and developers won't be able to change prices or release new apps, so iOS devs and publishers are working overtime right now to make sure everything is ready for the holiday. To that end, here's a few tools to help you find deals as quickly as possible. As always, we'll be reporting on as many deals as we can here on TUAW, and for up-to-the-moment discounts, you can also follow our Twitter account at @TUAW.

But there are other ways to find big app price drops. EA has made it easy for its apps -- the company has put together a "Daily Deals" page that will highlight free and discounted apps that show up in the company's catalog. Right now, for example, Shift 2 Unleashed and The Sims Medieval are both completely free, and there are a few other apps that are discounted in price.

Another nice tool for finding free apps is AppShopper's discounted apps page -- that will show you all apps that have seen a price drop recently. Unfortunately, that includes both apps worth your time and apps that aren't so much, so you can also check AppShopper's "popular" price drop page to thin the herd a bit. For example, I see there that Zen Bound 2 and Street Fighter 2 Collection are both on sale for 99 cents, both great apps at that price.

Again, if you want the complete story, you can stay tuned here to TUAW -- whenever there's a big wave of sales, we'll definitely find the hits and let you know when there's something good to buy for cheap. But if you want to do a little cheap app hunting yourself, there you go.

EA premieres a Daily Deals page for the holidays, and other ways to find cheap apps originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Split large movie files quickly on 10.6 with QuickTime Player 7

Updated to clarify that a split clip feature is in 10.7's version of QuickTime X.

Say what you will about the QuickTime X framework and player introduced in Mac OS X 10.6 -- it's crazy speedy on multicore machines, it provides the foundation for next-generation features, it lets you drag-and-drop to combine movie clips, all that good stuff.

The fact is, for sheer Swiss Army utility it can't (yet) hold a candle to the veteran QuickTime 7 Player with the QuickTime Pro upgrade. While you can use the v7 player on Snow Leopard and Lion, getting access to the Pro features still requires a $29.99 license code.

That's a shame, because it means many Mac users are missing out on most of the wonderful tricks QuickTime Player 7 can do to save you time and aggravation. Here's one example: splitting a long & large movie into segments for easier uploading or emailing. If you're running 10.7 Lion, you have access to QuickTime X's new Split Clip command; if you're running 10.6 as in the example below, you don't.

In QuickTime X on 10.6, we've got a visual and very fast Trim tool; it shows exactly where the video will be truncated with an easy, iMovie-esque scrubber bar, and it does indeed save wicked fast once you trim your clip. Nice and handy.

While you can trim quickly this way, you can't actually split the file into two and match up frames so you don't lose anything in the middle (which you can do on 10.7). You'd have to go back, open the original movie, and try to figure out exactly where you trimmed it -- QuickTime X doesn't have a way to do this gracefully.

Oh, well. Good thing there's QuickTime Player 7 (in the Utilities folder, by default, on Snow Leopard) with a Pro license key. In this case, you just open the movie and use the selector tools (below the timeline) to highlight the first half of the movie that you want to save as a separate file.

Then, before you do anything else, go to File -> Save As... and save the file with a new name (ending in 'part 1' perhaps) to avoid mucking up the source file by accident. You could save the movie self-contained (all the movie data in the file; you could copy or move it to another machine or drive and it would work) or save it as a reference movie, QuickTime's version of an alias. Reference movies track your tweaks and edits to the movie without modifying the underlying data stored in the original file; this makes them extremely fast to work with and save, but you can't move them around between computers without their 'parent' files. It depends what you intend to do with the pieces; if you just want to give the movie sections separate file names to organize a long clip, reference movies will do fine.

Now you're ready to make the split clip. Under the Edit menu, choose Trim to Selection. Boom: you've got the first chunk of my movie sitting there in the window by itself. Go to the file menu and choose Save (not Save As...) and your movie is half the clip it used to be.

Here's the magic bit: head back up to the Edit menu and choose Undo Trim to Selection. Your movie is now reverted back the way it was before, first and second half, including your selection marks. Don't Save it, though! Go to the Edit menu again and choose Cut (or Delete, if you prefer). The second half of your movie -- right down to the frame where you cropped it earlier -- is now sitting in your player window.

If you figured out that the next step is "Save As..." with a new name containing 'part 2,' well done. Now you've got two separate movie files that each contain half the original movie, exactly where you want them. Remember that you'll need to save as self-contained movies if you're planning to ship those half-size files around to other people. You can repeat the cycle as many times as you need to clip your movie into the appropriate number of smaller bits.

It's worth checking out Apple's QuickTime 7 User Guide (PDF) if you're interested in more tricks you can do with QuickTime 7 Pro. Got a favorite? Let us know and we'll write it up for all to enjoy.

Split large movie files quickly on 10.6 with QuickTime Player 7 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Split large movie files quickly on 10.6 with QuickTime Player 7

Updated to clarify that a split clip feature exists in 10.7's version of QuickTime X.

Say what you will about the QuickTime X framework and player introduced in Mac OS X 10.6 -- it's crazy speedy on multicore machines, it provides the foundation for next-generation features, it lets you drag-and-drop to combine movie clips, all that good stuff.

The fact is, for sheer Swiss Army utility it can't (yet) hold a candle to the veteran QuickTime 7 Player with the QuickTime Pro upgrade. While you can use the v7 player on Snow Leopard and Lion, getting access to the Pro features still requires a $29.99 license code.

That's a shame, because it means many Mac users are missing out on most of the wonderful tricks QuickTime Player 7 can do to save you time and aggravation. Here's one example: splitting a long & large movie into segments for easier uploading or emailing. If you're running 10.7 Lion, you have access to QuickTime X's new Split Clip command; if you're running 10.6 as in the example below, you don't. (I'll tackle the step-by-step of getting Lion's version of QT X to do this in a subsequent post.)

In QuickTime X on 10.6, we've got a visual and very fast Trim tool; it shows exactly where the video will be truncated with an easy, iMovie-esque scrubber bar, and it does indeed save wicked fast once you trim your clip. Nice and handy.

While you can trim quickly this way, you can't actually split the file into two and match up frames so you don't lose anything in the middle (which you can do on 10.7). You'd have to go back, open the original movie, and try to figure out exactly where you trimmed it -- QuickTime X for 10.6 doesn't have a way to do this gracefully.

Oh, well. Good thing there's QuickTime Player 7 (in the Utilities folder, by default, on Snow Leopard) with a Pro license key. In this case, you just open the movie and use the selector tools (below the timeline) to highlight the first half of the movie that you want to save as a separate file.

Then, before you do anything else, go to File -> Save As... and save the file with a new name (ending in 'part 1' perhaps) to avoid mucking up the source file by accident. You could save the movie self-contained (all the movie data in the file; you could copy or move it to another machine or drive and it would work) or save it as a reference movie, QuickTime's version of an alias. Reference movies track your tweaks and edits to the movie without modifying the underlying data stored in the original file; this makes them extremely fast to work with and save, but you can't move them around between computers without their 'parent' files. It depends what you intend to do with the pieces; if you just want to give the movie sections separate file names to organize a long clip, reference movies will do fine.

Now you're ready to make the split clip. Under the Edit menu, choose Trim to Selection. Boom: you've got the first chunk of my movie sitting there in the window by itself. Go to the file menu and choose Save (not Save As...) and your movie is half the clip it used to be.

Here's the magic bit: head back up to the Edit menu and choose Undo Trim to Selection. Your movie is now reverted back the way it was before, first and second half, including your selection marks. Don't Save it, though! Go to the Edit menu again and choose Cut (or Delete, if you prefer). The second half of your movie -- right down to the frame where you cropped it earlier -- is now sitting in your player window.

If you figured out that the next step is "Save As..." with a new name containing 'part 2,' well done. Now you've got two separate movie files that each contain half the original movie, exactly where you want them. Remember that you'll need to save as self-contained movies if you're planning to ship those half-size files around to other people. You can repeat the cycle as many times as you need to clip your movie into the appropriate number of smaller bits.

It's worth checking out Apple's QuickTime 7 User Guide (PDF) if you're interested in more tricks you can do with QuickTime 7 Pro. Got a favorite? Let us know and we'll write it up for all to enjoy.

Split large movie files quickly on 10.6 with QuickTime Player 7 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Disable that Mac OS X Internet download warning

Mac OS X 10.5 introduced a new feature that warned users when they first opened a file downloaded from the Internet. It's a protection mechanism to prevent users from opening potentially harmful files. It's also extremely annoying for users who download many files from known trustworthy. Thanks to a script from Creative Bits, disabling this feature just became a whole lot easier.

When this download warning first debuted, Macworld detailed a few terminal commands to disable this feature. You could either disable it permanently which removed all protection from accidentally downloaded files or disable it on a case-by-case basis. Running the command on demand lets you decide when you want to disable this protection, but you have to remember the command each time you wanted to turn it off. Having to look up the command was almost inconvenient as responding to the warning dialog in the first place.

To make it easier, Ivan from Creative Bits has created an Automator script that you can place in your Dock. Every time you need to download a bunch of files, you can simply click this script to disable the warning. You can download the script from Creative Bits website to try it yourself. It should work on Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.7 Lion.

Disable that Mac OS X Internet download warning originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me use punctuation with Siri

Dear Aunt TUAW,

I've had an iPhone 4S since Friday and I love how Siri is making my life easier, and hands-free. However, what's troubling me is that when I use Siri to send or reply to my friend using SMS, I can't figure out how to add commas and periods.

Is there a way to add punctuations while sending a message using Siri?

Thanks!

Your loving nephew,

William

Dear William,

Just dictate the punctuation you want to use. For example, you might say:

Message Aunt TUAW. Hey comma cap Auntie exclamation point. How are you doing question mark. I asterisk really asterisk love this whole punctuation thing full stop. Love comma William

Hope this helps!

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me use punctuation with Siri originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

That hide-the-Newsstand trick? It works

Yes, it works.

You can hide Newsstand and it works exactly like those hundreds of posts and tips and videos say it does. We don't know exactly who figured this out -- coverage of the trick is pretty widespread at this point and there aren't exact credits -- but kudos to who did. It wasn't us. (Update: Appears to be from here, and originally discovered by @AnataTenshi Well done.)

Basically, there's a tiny bug in iOS 5 that allows you to stick Newsstand into a folder if you catch it just as you're making another folder. It's a little tricky and takes about 5-10 tries on average to get it right.

Line up three apps: app 1, Newsstand, app 2. Drag app 1 onto app 2 to create a new folder and then as soon as iOS is getting ready to folder 'em, drag Newsstand into the same group. About 80% of the time, this fails. You get a folder with both apps and Newsstand left out in the cold. When you do, just drag both items back out and start again.

But about 20% of the time, Newsstand goes into the folder, and it is for all purposes hidden.

So yay.

Be aware that the Newsstand item will not be seen in the group icon (see the picture on this post) so if you ever intend to use it, you may have to hunt around in folders to find it.

And one more thing: The other tip? About spoofing the lock screen by going through the Camera roll? Doesn't work.

Thanks to everyone who tipped us about this

Update: Some commenters are warning that you should not attempt to run Newsstand from a folder.

That hide-the-Newsstand trick? It works originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Epic Games shares tips on playing Infinity Blade

Just in case you haven't mastered the great Infinity Blade game for iOS, Epic Games has posted some (spoilery, but the game's been out for quite a while now) tips over on its official blog. They start off with the best damage you can do for each kind of hit, and then move on to tips on specific enemies and how and when to block at just the right times. You may have figured some of this out in your normal playthroughs, but even if you're an amazing Infinity Blade player, there's probably something in here you'll find useful.

If you haven't picked up this Epic (literally) game yet, it's available in the App Store right now for $5.99 as a universal app. I would say you might as well keep waiting a bit longer, though -- it seems like there are sales on this one all the time, so odds are that if you're patient, you can get it for a little cheaper. That said, it's an excellent title that's well worth the money anyway, so if these tips intrigue you enough to want to play it, you might as well pick it up.

Epic Games shares tips on playing Infinity Blade originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Epic Games shares tips on playing Infinity Blade

Just in case you haven't mastered the great Infinity Blade game for iOS, Epic Games has posted some (spoilery, but the game's been out for quite a while now) tips over on its official blog. They start off with the best damage you can do for each kind of hit, and then move on to tips on specific enemies and how and when to block at just the right times. You may have figured some of this out in your normal playthroughs, but even if you're an amazing Infinity Blade player, there's probably something in here you'll find useful.

If you haven't picked up this Epic (literally) game yet, it's available in the App Store right now for $5.99 as a universal app. I would say you might as well keep waiting a bit longer, though -- it seems like there are sales on this one all the time, so odds are that if you're patient, you can get it for a little cheaper. That said, it's an excellent title that's well worth the money anyway, so if these tips intrigue you enough to want to play it, you might as well pick it up.

Epic Games shares tips on playing Infinity Blade originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Macworld’s tips to make OS X Lion’s iCal less annoying

The changes made to iCal in OS X Lion have definitely been polarizing, and even some of the novice Mac users I know have found some of them questionable. The word "fugly" has come up more than once when discussing iCal's new faux-leather trim, an interface choice that makes a little more sense on the iPad than it does on the Mac. Macworld came up with a few tips to dispatch some of the annoyances introduced in OS X Lion's version of iCal, including the new UI elements.

Rather than copy all Macworld's tips here wholesale, I'll recommend you head there and check their advice for yourself. I will highlight one of their tips: getting rid of that execrable leather trim is not only possible, it's quite easy via a third-party program called Lion Tweaks, recommended by Macworld. The application bundles together several of the Lion-related tweaks covered here and elsewhere in an interface that's about as simple as it gets. Reverting iCal's skin to a nice, bland aluminum took less than a minute, and my eyes thank me for it. It's a modestly "hacky" solution to a purely aesthetic problem, but it's preferable to that oddball skeuomorphic design.

Even after implementing all the recommended tweaks, it's worth noting that the article writer himself says that ultimately, "Use a better calendar program" is his top recommendation. For my part, the only reason I stick with iCal on the Mac is its integration with the Calendar apps on the iPhone and iPad via MobileMe (and soon iCloud).

Macworld's tips to make OS X Lion's iCal less annoying originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.