With all the excitement around the preview of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard at this year's WWDC, everyone is just a little anxious to see what will come before Steve Jobs' keynote. In fact, creating fake screenshots is all the rage these days. Wouldn't it be cool to make your very own Leopard screenshots and be featured on all the rumor sites? You're damn right it would. Here's how to do it.

What you will need:

- Apple Developer Tools (knowledge in these tools is suggested)
- Adobe Photoshop
- Mac OS X Tiger
- Creativity!

Step 1: Think things through

The first thing to do when creating fake screenshots is to think about what the end result will look like. You'll definitely want to set up a new user account so people do not see your dock full of shareware apps or desktop picture from summer vacation last year. To do this, go into the System Preferences, select "Accounts" and click the "+" button in the lower left. If you plan on showing off the Finder, name this account "Leopard" or something generic. You'll want to make it an administrator account so you don't run into problems modifying the system. Finally, think of an app or two that you would like to see revamped. You may want to check the rumor sites for some ideas.



Step 2: Realize that Photoshop isn't good enough

While Photoshop is great, you'll only want to use it for mistakes you made composing your screenshots, not for creating the entire thing. This is why you must install Apple's Developer Tools. Not only will you get authentic Mac OS X font rendering, but your screenshots will look a lot more convincing too.

Step 3: Mark your territory

Once you've thought of some changes you'd like to see in a certain app, you will be creating a fake application to showcase this. You can take two routes to do this. Route 1 is to make a copy of the application and edit the resources and the .nib files. Route 2 is to actually create your own application and copy the graphical user interface (a bit more work). We're going to take Route 2.

Open Xcode and select "New Project..." from the File menu. Select a Cocoa Application and follow the steps in the Assistant. I'm not going to explain how to use Xcode, so you'll probably want to read some documentation first if you're not comfortable. Open MainMenu.nib in the new project and edit your nib accordingly using Interface Builder. Next, completely copy the graphical user interface of the app you are improving by dragging controls into the main window. Throw in a few new buttons if you'd like, and by all means, use NSImageViews with screenshots of controls or views placed in them. (we're lazy!). Don't forget to copy menus. In my screenshot, I'm going to make it easy for myself and create what appears to be VoIP in iChat. Finally, dig around for the .icns of the app you're copying in its Package Contents (this is the app icon). Copy it over to your new project and set it to the application icon.

If you want to make a video, you'll need some Cocoa experience to add functionality to show off.

Step 4: Log in and modify

Once you've made your changes, copy this application over to your new account and log in. Put it in the dock and replace the existing app, and launch it. If all goes well, it should work/look the way you expected. But wait, there's one thing missing...

Step 5: Use Themes

Themes were probably never carried on in Mac OS X for this very reason, but there are still some third party apps that can change the appearance of Mac OS X. The most common of these is ShapeShifter ($20, not Universal), but you'll want probably to use UNO 1.3 (free, Universal) to achieve that rumored iLife '06 look. If you want, also use Panic's CandyBar to change icons. Once applied, these hacks should make things look right.

Step 6: Modify the "About This Mac" panel

Finally, you'll want to show everyone that you are indeed running the real thing. The best way to do this is by changing the about box. Navigate to System ▸ Library ▸ CoreServices and edit the file named SystemVersion.plist. Edit the key named "ProductUserVisibleVersion" and change it to "10.5 Pre-release" or similar. Save it (you'll need to change the permissions of the file) and open the about box. Voila!



Step 7: Snap & Edit

Take your screenshot using CMD-Shift-3 (full desktop screenshots are more convincing for obvious reasons). Now it is time to open this picture in Photoshop and change it to your delight. Forgot to add a button? Want to add a menu icon? (the Boot Camp icon is popular up there) A transition? It's easy with Photoshop! Also, be sure to throw in the strangest things that no one has even thought of yet. This is sure to make your screenshot more authentic. I made the Photo Booth icon blue, and made some other minor tweaks.

Clearly this screenshot is straight from the latest Leopard build.

Step 8: Submit like crazy

Submit your screenshots to all the major rumor sites as well as places like Flickr and Digg. Get people talking about them.

Congratulations. If you've followed this guide directly, you've probably fooled all the rumor sites into thinking your screenshots are the real deal. That is, at least until WWDC.

And yes, I do believe that all screenshots/videos up to this point are 100% undeniably fake.

NeatLittleMacApps is a new podcast dedicated to neat Mac OS X apps. Each week they review a new great independent Mac app. This is something I have been wanting to see done for a while, so I am glad someone has finally filled the gap. Oh, and their first application episode is Wallet. :) Be sure to check it out!

What was Delicious Library before it became the massively popular book-cataloging behemoth it is today? Most people don't know the real story behind the roots of the app...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...actually, I was only around 13 years old. I'd just started developing simple shareware for the Mac. And around this time I also started up Waterfall Software, and had just gotten to know people like Drew Hamlin, as well as plenty of other young Mac developers. One of those developers was a kid named Andrew Kazmierski, who ran Chronopath, Inc. Although we directly competed with each other (we both had font viewer & password manager apps), we'd often show each other ideas and designs anyways, just for the heck of it.



One day, Kaz decided to show me his latest application, aptly named "Library." Library was an application to organize your bookshelf within a friendly Mac user interface. Although there were other similar programs, none were slick looking Mac OS X applications, and Library was swimming in aqua and Cocoa goodness. Although I didn't see the point, I thought it *looked* pretty cool at least. In true "developer wars" fashion, creators of competing programs got a tad bit defensive, too.




Library instantly became more popular than anything that Drew, I, or Kaz had done before. Soon, many people knew about Library, and similar applications popped out from everywhere. Nonetheless, it was a great app, and the guy from Intelliscanner noticed this immediately. He approached Andrew about an agreement to bundle Library with his line of barcode scanners, as well as add scanner support to Library. Andrew quickly agreed, and soon the book-scanning duo was off to a quick start. But somewhere down the line, something went wrong.

Intelli Software was becoming less interested in Library, ignoring Andrew at times. MacAddict magazine also posted a less than flattering review on the Intelliscanner bundle. Something really did go seriously wrong. Soon after, Intelli Software released Collector, an app that was strikingly similar to Library. Same layout, similar icons, similar functionality. You would have to be crazy to not see it as anything less than a direct ripoff. Although frustrated, Kaz knew Library still had potential. And he was just finishing up the touches on the next release.

Alas, Library 2.0 added support for Movies, Music, and Games, as well as the existing Books. It also sported a brand new brushed metal user interface, a trait that was less common in those days. Unfortunately, it really did not look quite as swift as Library 1.0 did, and some features were either missing or broken. People did not seem to appreciate Library 2.0. Andrew knew something had to be done.

And so he hired Mike Matas to design the user interface as well as icons for a new version of Library - version 3.0. Matas knew good UI design, after doing plenty of it over at Omni. The preliminary designs for Library 3 looked great, and definitely promising. Around that time, they decided to form a coalition shareware company. Drew Hamlin joined in with a promising new version of Typeset, and the new company was bound to be named MAD Softworks (MAD stood for Mike Andrew Drew). I was convinced that it was a dumb idea to have a "coalition company" like MAD, maybe I was right. Library 3 was going to need a lot of development work, and so Matas brought in a few friends from Omni. They decided to focus on one product, Library, and rename the company to Delicious Monster. And so began "Delicious Library"!

This weekend I had a chance to go check out the new MacBooks at MacStation (the closest thing to an Apple Store in Vancouver). First impressions? The original rumors weren't kidding when they said this laptop would be really thin. The bottom half (computer) is maybe only 2x as thick as the display. The MacBook is also fairly wide, more widescreen than I was expecting. This is a good thing, of course, as it has nearly the same resolution as my 15" PowerBook.

The glossy screen? To tell you the truth I hardly noticed it, until looking from the side. It does seem to bring out the color a bit more, though. Keyboard is great - it doesn't feel weird to type on at all.

Overall the MacBook looks like a very solid laptop. You really have to see it in person to fully appreciate it. Will I ever get one as a replacement for my PowerBook (instead of the more obvious choice of a MacBook Pro)? It's a pretty good possibility.

It is pretty safe to say that a lot of people use iTunes religiously. All Mac users use it, of course, but even a ton of Windows users love iTunes now, since it is freely available. However, our beloved iTunes is definitely not perfect. It suffers from serious UI issues, such as too many panels and unclear buttons. Notice how the MiniStore button looks identical to the artwork button.



But it's not even the UI that is the most annoying. As you may know, iTunes has video playback functionality. You can download TV Shows and Music Videos from the iTunes Music Store. Rumor says full length movies are coming as well. Unfortunately, loading videos in iTunes is painfully slow on even the fastest Macs. You also only get the choice of playing a video in the "Album Artwork" box, opening it in a new window, or full screen. Personally, I open purchased videos in QuickTime Player, or find the video in Front Row and play it from there. (No, DRM movies don't work in iVideo ;)) It's much faster and friendlier to do this, unfortunately. It's obvious that a major update is needed.

So when will we see a new iTunes? One that is ready for the movie-centered future? Will it have a new name? A new graphical user interface? iTunes is lagging behind the rest of the iLife suite due to its Windows counterpart, but that shouldn't have to make the rest of us suffer. I'm not questioning Apple's designers, I am simply saying that it might be time to update iTunes for the future.

Hey, I can wish, can't I?

The new store design that I mentioned in my previous post is now up and running. Go check it out. If you have been waiting to buy a Waterfall app, now is the time.