Dec 16
There’s a lot of hidden features in Leopard, today I’ll show you a hidden details trick for your airport menu.
If you click the airport menu you will see a menu with a list of nearby wireless networks and of course the one you are connected to (if your connected to one). If you “option+click” the menu instead, you’ll see the menu displays more information than usual, including the MAC address of the access point, the channel, signal strength and transmit rate (Eg 54Mbps).
If there are multiple networks within your range, you can mouse-over them and press “option” it will display more information for those non-connected networks, including what security the network has in place. Very handy if your on the go!
December 16th, 2007 at 10:27 am
I think you should credit Rob Griffiths at MacWorld for this one; it was posted there just a couple days ago. Or did you really discover it independently?
December 16th, 2007 at 10:30 am
I actually found this just then whilst playing with a new access point hahaha. I’ve always been crediting any sources where I find information.
I used to use widget to get this info, this way is way easier, bye bye widget!
December 16th, 2007 at 10:39 am
option+click the bluetooth menu icon (if you have it in your menu bar). Thats the one I actually found first. I was clicking through all my menu items. I noticed the BT menu showed me some version info (not much else)… I was surprised to find the extra info in the airport menu. It makes you wonder how many other things can be option clicked.
It’s nice to be able to see AP information without actually using some other app
December 16th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I think this is a pretty good idea… The iStat Pro widget tells you this info too, as well as a bunch of other things. (temp, memory, HD space, fan speeds, etc)
By the way…how many other things show up differently when you option+click them? (i’m new to Mac, and loving it)
December 17th, 2007 at 2:07 am
lucas there are a few cool things with the option key.
Here’s one example: Go to the Safari Menu > Private Browsing…
You’ll get a thing telling you all about this. If you don’t want to bother with this all the time, press Option, and if you click private browsing you won’t get the warning message. (By the way, is there any reason besides the quite nasty one for private browsing?)
Also, if you’re in finder, and you press Option, then go to quick look, you’ll automatically get the full screen display.
If you go to the Apple Menu, press Option, “About This Mac” turns to “System Profiler,” and “Restart/Shut Down/Log Out” lose their “…” so they don’t display a warning message anymore. There are a few more, but I’ll let you find those out.
December 18th, 2007 at 3:08 am
>By the way, is there any reason besides the quite nasty one for private browsing?
Many of us in other nations of the world use internet cafes because we can’t afford a personal computer or posssibly a laptop when traveling. I hear many public libraries also have computers for patrons in many countries. So private browsing is useful to keep your private things private when using a public computer.
December 19th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
It should be said that option-clicking on the menu only displays that info for the wireless network to which you’re currently connected. It does not show it for networks to which you are not connected (so if you’re looking for a network, you’re out of luck unless you try it for every one of them).
December 20th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
great little trick! i’m new to owning a mac and loving it more and more by the second and this site is amazing; helping us amatuerMacs around the world!!!
Good joob guys!