Ask TUAW: Skype & webcams, TivoToGo, installing Leopard and more

In this Halloween round of Ask TUAW we have a a bunch of scary questions about USB webcams & Skype, Dashboard widgets, installing Leopard, Tivo & Mac, and more. Well okay, so the questions aren't scary, but the answers sure are.

As always your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. And now onward!

elizabeth asks

How do I permanently delete a widget from my hard-drive?

All you have to do is invoke the Dashboard then hit the little plus sign at the bottom left of the screen. When the Dashboard dock comes up you'll see a little button just above the plus sign that says "Manage Widgets..." When you hit the widget below will open. Just select the widget you want, hit the red button, and it will be sent forthwith to the trash. If you're in a more manual mood, your user installed widgets are located at ~/Library/Widgets. (You can't delete the default widgets this way, but they live at /Library/Widgets).

olivegreen asks

i got a question concerning leopard and the system language. the only reason why i am not celebrating the leopard day with the "shiny" disc is my hand is basically because i can't get my hands on an english install disc- i live in the netherlands and am currently in germany, and while i do understand both of those languages there, i'd much rather have and english os (those apple terms just don't translate well). so the big questions: does it even matter what version i buy? is it possible to install a dutch os x and simply choose english as system language? does anyone know?

Well, obviously I've never seen a Dutch OS X disc, but it is the case with the American discs that the first question you're asked when installing OS X is what language you want to use. Since the American discs contain localizations for an enormous number of languages it's hard to imagine that your Dutch retail disc would not also have them.

In fact, once it's installed you can easily change the default system language just by going into the International Preference Pane.

Sven asks

I am wondering which WebCams work for other applications on 10.4.9+ such as Skype. Will the USB Video Class ones work for this usage as well? Or the X-Box one? How about using inbetween drivers like macam? Where do they come in?

Peter asks

Any USB cameras that have a microphone built in, like the iSight? And which work with iChat AV and Skype?

Yes, the USB Video Class cameras should work natively with all OS X applications after the 10.4.9 update. Keep in mind that the new built-in iSight cameras are actually USB themselves (look in the System Profiler). The macam driver is for USB cameras that are not Video Class. You both would probably be best served by looking though two links on the Skype forums: a list of compatible USB webcams and an Important notice for Skype video users and a USB webcams.

damon asks

I am looking for help with a TIVO solution. I am interested in getting a HD Tivo, but I want to know how well does it play with macs? I have a home theater downstairs with an OTA antenna. I was using a G5 with eyeTV, but I had nothing but problems with the program, it wouldn't record things I wanted. I would pause in the middle of a show, and go back to watch it, only to discover it wouldn't record. So will an HD Tivo let me watch shows on any Mac in the house? How about making them available to iTunes to upload to my iPhone?

All official Tivo support on the Mac is provided by Roxio's Toast and will allow both Multi-Room viewing and iPhone transfers, but not with the Series 3 HD boxes. So the short answer to you question is no, it won't work with a HD Tivo, but I'm pretty sure that HD TivoToGo has only just appeared on the PC, so if past precedent holds, it may be a while before it's on the Mac.

Kevin asks

A friend has 12" Power Book 1.5 GHZ 80 GB HD 768 MB RAM. He backed up using CCC in preparation for Leopard, however, when he restarts holding "Option" the external drive with his copy is not found. Why? Is there another way he can do it?

That's not really enough information. First of all, did he back up to a FireWire external hard drive (PPC Macs generally won't boot off of USB)? Second, where there any error messages from CCC; to become bootable the external drive must be "blessed" in a certain way. Check the log to make sure everything is kosher. If all of that doesn't work, I'd suggest trying a different FireWire hard drive.

Luc asks

I plan on buying a new iMac with 10.5 installed. My old iMac has 10.4 Will I be able to keep my files ?

Yes, that's exactly what the Migration Assistant is for. Just start the Migration Assistant on the new Mac, then put the old Mac in target FireWire mode (hold down the 'T' key and re-start). The Migration Assistant should see the other Mac and offer you the option to important any of the users. Just be sure you back up before you do anything else (in fact, if you make a bootable backup of your old Mac to an external hard drive, you can actually import from that hard drive with the Migration Assistant).