[Update] I’d like to be clear right now what this article is about. It’s about Apple’s choice to get frameworks such as Core Image and OpenGL to direct which graphics card the Mac should use, and how by doing this, there have been some unusual cases whereby some applications cause the dedicated graphics card to be enabled, and continue to be enabled. This leads to a detrimental effect on battery life which is the exact opposite for putting this in place. With this in mind… read on.

I recently purchased on of the new MacBook Pro i5 models, one big reason was the lovely battery life of 8(ish) hours with the seamless graphics card switching from built-in to discrete. Apple’s theory being that you use the lower grade, lower power Intel graphics when you’re doing low graphics work on your Mac, like browsing, then switching to the full blow nVidia 330M card when you need to it to ratch out 3D graphics etc.

This all seemed like a massively great idea, and you can clearly see the benefits of it. However, it’s not perfect. As MacRumors and Engadget readers have reported, OS X’s decision on which graphics card to use in your new i5 or i7 MacBook Pro is far from ideal right now – and to back this up I have some rather alarming evidence.

OS X System Profiler Showing Integrated Graphics Running

Engadget gave some examples of where the OS seems to make poor choices around which graphics card to use, and showed some clear problems with it not switching back when that application was finished. The most unnerving observation of theirs was the use of discreet “power sucking” graphics for tiny desktop Twitter app, Tweetie.

Well friends, things are just about to get even worse.

When I read the Engadget article I though, hmmm lemme check out what the current active graphics card is, expecting the integrated on board chip to be the the graphics of choice. It wasn’t.

This lead me to confusion. I had literally just rebooted, and was browsing a couple of tabs with Chrome. I killed Chrome, but no change to the discrete graphics allocation. So I rebooted.

Cloud App

What I found when I rebooted my machine was really scary. I run this tiny status bar app called “CloudApp“, it’s a file sharing droplet. A brilliant little app, that only has a preference pane and a menu from the status bar. That’s gotta be integrated graphics right? No – OS X uses discrete graphics for this status bar application.

CloudApp's full interface

This isn’t the worst part I’m afraid. Because CloudApp is running all the time, discrete graphics are selected all the time. And because I run CloudApp from boot, I have discrete graphics selected pretty much 100% of the time.

OS X System Profiler after CloudApp is Launched

I cannot understand why Apple have made OS X choose discrete when this application

• A – Is hardly doing anything graphically intensive
• B – When it’s not doing anything, the discrete card is still selected.

Sure, it animates the cloud when I drag a file onto it (a two color silly animation), and also shows some progress indicators and delete icons within the menu itself, but that is it. I can hardly see where this app is using mucho Core Image or OpenGL to warrant the nVidia card and it’s full power!

So that’s where my 8 hours of battery life went, leaving the discrete graphics turned on, whilst my computer doesn’t need it. Come on Apple – you need to figure this one out!

[Update]

Interestingly, this is what @getcloudapp had to say on the matter:

CloudApp Twitter Response

Last Friday I pushed live an article around 23 tweaks in Snow Leopard. It was a pretty hectic weekend – stats being through the roof which wasn’t expected – but nice anyway. Hello all my new subscribers and followers!!

Anyway, using the excellent Clicky, I’ve drilled down into the numbers and it came back with some surprising insight. Of all the people hitting the article, one third were Windows users!

Web Stats from Reynoldsftw.com

Whilst we can assume that a percentage of those Windows users are actually OS X users, but accessing at work (me being one of them), it’s still a large chunk of interest! It just goes to show that despite the blathering about how Snow Leopard is a service pack and should be free etc – there is still some significant allure and curiosity as to what this new cat can do.

Additionally, I’m seeing alot of Google referrals coming through from Windows users for search terms such as “Snow Leopard Tweaks”. Not that that’s anything huge to go buy, it’s still intriguing.

Gotta say, I love the whole silly arguments between the 2 OS camps, pointless but fun!

Oh, and if you’re interested – most of those Windows users were on XP

So the awesome Snow Leopard is now out and available to buy – Apple do a great job of telling you what significant changes they’ve made under the hood (and there are a few, Grand Central being one of the main ones!), but what about the minor things? I’ve put together 23 tweaks I’ve noticed since using Snow Leopard – here’s a list:

• Automator workflows within the Finder are now run as Services.
• Spotlight search Finder windows now remember the state you left them in, so thumbnail size of icon etc
• Preview.app now displays the width and height in pixels when making a crop selection in an image
• Preview.app cropping an image now auto-zooms it to the window size after adjustment:

• Preview.app annotations have more flexibility and options:

• When dragging a file/folder to a Finder window that is slightly off-screen, it will animate back onto the screen.
• 4 finger trackpad gestures are now available to some macbook/pro/air models:

• Airport status bar menu now displays signal strength in the menu:

• Upgrading Leopard to Snow Leopard will overwrite any wallpaper you had in place with the default “Space” one.
• When taking screenshots with CMD+SHIFT 3 or 4 the filename is saved as “Screen shot YYYY-MM-DD at HH.MM.SS”
• The Finder icon resize slider is available in ALL Finder windows, including Spotlight and Trash:

• When revealing the desktop via a hot corner for example, any tooltips currently active also animate away to the edges of the screen in the same way application windows do – but separately.

• Software Update now checks for updates with a minimal window, rather than the full on application:

• Spaces – when moving between spaces, the screen animation has slightly changed, and no longer displays a white arrow as to which direction you came from to get to that space:

• Spaces and Exposé are both now available in the Applications -> Utilities folder:

• Exposé and Spaces can now be called directly from Spotlight.
• Quicktime 7 is still available in the Utilities folder in addition to Quicktime X which is available in Applications:

• Exposé shortcut – Click and hold over an app icon to expose just that apps windows, plus options:

• Dock: Click, hold and drag quickly to move app icons in the dock, otherwise the aforementioned Exposé shortcut will occur.
• Single user login window has been simplified. Incorrect username/password feedback has also slightly altered.
• Airport System Preferences have been updated to give more flexibility and control to administrators:

• Software firewall settings have been simplified. The system also asks for permission to allow an application if it tries to accept incoming connections, rather than you setting it yourself beforehand:

• 64-bit isn’t enabled by default at the kernel level. Holding down 6 and 4 on startup will enable the 64-bit kernel if your processor supports it.

Feel free to leave your tips in the comments – I’ll append them to this list.

With the introduction of Snow Leopard – Apple’s new operating system, many significant changes have arrived, but also some tweaks to existing functionality. In this article I’m going to give a rundown of a new and interesting ways that Automator workflows can now run within the Finder and other applications.

OS X 10.5 – Leopard

In 10.4 and 10.5 Leopard,  Automator workflows could be run within the Finder on selected files or folders. Creating them was a simple enough task – drag and drop in the familiar Automator way, and saving them as Finder workflows. To run them, you simply highlighted the files or folders you wanted to interact with, and select the sub-menu item of your custom workflow:

Automator Workflows in Finder - OS X 10.5

This worked great – if a little bit long winded when drilling down through the menu’s to take an action. What I also found was that it took a bit of time for any workflow to run, basically because OS X needed to load that workflow and its supporting code. You did get a nice bit of visual feedback though in the menu bar telling you that the workflow was running.

This has pretty much all gone in Snow Leopard 10.6.

OS X 10.6 – Snow Leopard – Services

So with Snow Leopard you now have a new choice, to build a Service. Services are contextual workflows available throughout Mac OS X. They accept text or files from the current application or the Finder. Services appear in the Services menu available from the Apple icon in the top left.

This isn’t new – but what is new is the way that Finder services become part of the contextual menu:

“Set Folder View” being the name of my Automator Workflow. Even better, this is on the first contextual menu, not the 3rd like in 10.5 – it’s right there with Open, Copy etc…

Putting it together

Actually, this isn’t that hard, first up – select the “Service” option from the Automator template window:

Once selected, create your workflow, on the assumption that you will be receiving file or folder selections form the Finder:

Edit this section at the top of your workflow

Once your workflow is complete, simply save it:

Once saved, your new Service now appears in the Finder contextual menu, or under the Apple -> Service menu.

Your saved services can be found in “Macintosh HD -> Users -> YourUsername -> Library -> Services”

Performance

So I mentioned performance previously, in 10.5 workflows took upto 30 seconds to begin running. Not with 10.6! Finder has been rebuilt from scratch – firstly it’s now all Cocoa code, and secondly – it’s 64-bit! Finder on its own is now a pretty slick beast – but with these new added Services running within it, rather than outside of it – they run pretty much instantly.

Even highlighting multiple folders to run a workflow against is instant – whereas before it would cycle through each folder and take upto a minute to complete.

This is an awesome minor enhancement on Apple’s part for Snow Leopard 10.6. Automator workflows are now truly integrated with the Finder, and not only that – you can integrate the Services with any application – as long as the Service receives files, folders or text to handle. Excellent!

Snow Leopard is just about to fly off the shelves, a couple of things:

• It’s available at Amazon.com for $25, cheaper than Apple.com at $29.
• Reynoldsftw has two interesting articles on the new operating system which go live tomorrow – be there! Very interesting for people looking for more features that aren’t common knowledge!

I’m also interested to hear how many of you have already pre-ordered, who is going to wait, and who frankly doesn’t care?

Until tomorrow friends…