Well… Once again apple messed up letterbox with the update for mail. At this point it seems that the letterbox website is down and there is no snow leopard 10.6.5 update yet.

Thus, the next best option is to use Widemail plugin instead. Accomplishes the same goal with other bells and whistles. It seems to me that apple needs to add this as a feature for the next OS release, Lion.

Go Download the Letterbox Beta 5 by Aaron Harnly

To install, simply do the following:
1. Quit Mail
2. Copy Letterbox.mailbundle into ~/Library/Mail/Bundles
3. Restart Mail.

That’s it! Another quick fix. Thanks Aaron!

It’s a manual install, but for those of you who want the widescreen or vertical view for mail in snow leopard, the wait is finally over, and this time with no hacks. Go download Letterbox beta 4 for Snow Leopard, it works in 64bit mode and functions great as far as I can see. Thanks so much for your work Aaron!

UPDATE: OSX 10.6.1 Update Kills Letterbox for Apple Mail, No Worries… Here is the Fix.
This is in reference to an earlier post that gets letterbox working for Apple Mail on Snow Leopard.

Here is how you get letterbox working in 10.6.1:

1. Open the file called Info.plist found here: (user)/Library/Mail/Bundles (Disabled) /Letterbox.mailbundle/Contents/Info.plist
   
2. Inside this file at the bottom is a key with the 2 strings in it which looks like this:
   <array>
   <string>225E0A48-2CDB-44A6-8D99-A9BB8AF6BA04</string>
   <string>B3F3FC72-315D-4323-BE85-7AB76090224D</string>
   </array>
3. Erase those lines and replace it with this:
   <array>
   <string>225E0A48-2CDB-44A6-8D99-A9BB8AF6BA04</string>
   <string>B3F3FC72-315D-4323-BE85-7AB76090224D</string>
   <string>99BB3782-6C16-4C6F-B910-25ED1C1CB38B</string>
   <string>2610F061-32C6-4C6B-B90A-7A3102F9B9C8</string>
   </array>
4. Save and close that file, also close mail if it is open.
5. Move
   (user)/Library/Mail/Bundles (Disabled) /Letterbox.mailbundle
   to
   (user)/Library/Mail/Bundles/Letterbox.mailbundle
6. Open Mail back up. Then letterbox should be working again!

If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment.

Why in the world, since all macs now are delivered with wide screens, does apple’s mail app not have some type of setting to allow you to view mail in a widescreen, vertical, landscape, letterbox layout?

Before snow leopard there were a couple of options. But because of “Snow Leopard”, these mail pligins have all been KILLED!

Until a couple hours ago! There is a BETA version of Letterbox. You can go and download it from the letterbox website.

I just downloaded and installed it, make sure to follow all of the steps, and it works perfect for me! Thanks Aaron Harnly! You are officially the man!

Snow Leopard Box

Well, the upgrade has been easy, yet the snow leopard hurricane left devastation in its path. It seems that with every OS upgrade, there is a process that all the application developers have to follow in order to be compatible with the new OS. There are always some that are just behind the 8-ball. Thus, here are the latest casualties, applications that DO NOT work with snow leopard, and if you have not yet upgraded, and any of the following are important for you, then you may want to wait. I will also post fixes when they come out.

(Updated September 1st)
Applications that need Fixes to Work with Apple’s OSX 10.6 OS, Snow Leopard

Apple Mail – Wide Mail Plugin:
- Wide Mail Plugin (There are no updates yet, Snow Leopard is not compatible)

Remote Desktop Connection:
- Initially does not work. You have to install the new BETA version. Download “Remote Desktop Connection for Snow Leopard”
- I would also recommend repairing disk permissions:

1. Open “Disk Utility”
2. Select the disk that OSX is installed on
3. Select “First Aid” tab
4. Click “Repair Disk Permissions”
5. Restart your computer

Logitech Mouse Control Center:
Problem: If you find that your logitech mouse functions no longer work, your right! They don’t. Don’t fret. It is a simple problem. you just need to make the following links to the control center.

1. Open Terminal
2. Copy and Paste the following: ln -s /Applications/Utilities/Expose.app /Applications/Expose.app
3. Also copy and paste this: ln -s  /Applications/Utilities/Spaces.app /Applications/Spaces.app

If you need to install or wish to upgrade or re-install the Logitech Control Panel 3.0, you need to do the following in order for it to run on Snow Leopard:

1. Download the latest version of Logitech Control Center for Mac
2. Right-click (Option-click) the LCC Installer and select “Show Package Contents”
3. Navigate to Contents > Resources > Logitech Control Center.mpkg and run this file
4. The installer will run and then request a reboot

The truth is, when it’s all said and done, OSX 10.6 Snow leopard is great. Quick install, much quicker, only $29, and the best part, is that my 14.7 GB of free disk space has turned to 28.8 free GB. Wow! An OS upgrade that actually gives you MORE by giving you less! Thanks Apple!