Bypass startup drive and boot from external (or CD).... CMD-OPT-SHIFT-DELETE
Boot from CD (Most late model Apples) ................. C
Boot from a specific SCSI ID #.(#=SCSI ID number)...... CMD-OPT-SHIFT-DELETE-#
Zap PRAM .............................................. CMD-OPT-P-R
Disable Extensions .................................... SHIFT
Rebuild Desktop ....................................... CMD-OPT
Close finder windows.(hold just before finder starts).. OPT
Boot with Virtual Memory off........................... CMD
Trigger extension manager at boot-up................... SPACE
Force Quadra av machines to use TV as a monitor........ CMD-OPT-T-V
Boot from ROM (Mac Classic only)....................... CMD-OPT-X-O
Force PowerBooks to reset the screen................... R
Force an AV monitor to be recognized as one............ CMD-OPT-A-V
Eject Boot Floppy...................................... Hold Down Mouse Button
Select volume to start from............................ OPT
Start in Firewire drive mode........................... T
Startup in OSX if OS9 and OXS in boot partition........ X or CMD-X
Hold down until the 2nd chime, will boot into 9?....... CMD-OPT
OSX: Watch the status of the system load............... CMD-V
OSX: Enter single-user mode (shell-level mode)......... CMD-S

Bring up dialogue for shutdown/sleep/restart........... POWER
Eject a Floppy Disk.................................... CMD-SHIFT-1 or(2) or (0)
Force current app to quit.............................. CMD-OPT-ESC
Unconditionally reboot................................. CTRL-CMD-POWER
Fast Shutdown.......................................... CTRL-CMD-OPT-POWER
Goto the debugger (if MacsBug is installed)............ CMD-POWER
Reset Power Manager on PowerBooks...................... USE THIS LINK
Put late model PowerBooks & Desktops to sleep.......... CMD-OPT-POWER

Startup key combos to reset the resolution on video boards:
SuperMac (at least some models)press&hold.............. OPT
Imagine 128 Card (reset resolution).................... N
RasterOps (at least some models)press&hold............. CMD-OPT-SHIFT
Radius (Use cable sense pins to set resolution)........ U
Radius (Cycle through available resolutions)........... T

Conflict Catcher:
  Pause Boot........................................... P
  Launch CC at Startup................................. SPACE or CAPS LOCK
  Skip remaining extensions............................ CMD-PERIOD
  Reboot cleanly while loading extensions.............. CMD-R

RAM Doubler:
  Disable at Startup................................... ~ (Tilde) or ESC

Apple System Installer:
  Change custom install to clean install............... CMD-Shift-K

Claris Emailer:
  Bypass specified startup connections................. Hold CMD at launch
  Bring up rebuild options............................. Hold OPT at launch

* Shift causes the Mac to boot without extensions, which is useful for troubleshooting extension conflicts. If you hold down Shift after all the extensions have loaded but before the Finder launches, it also prevents any startup items from launching.

* Spacebar launches Apple’s Extensions Manager early in the startup process so you can enable or disable extensions before they load. Casady & Greene’s Conflict Catcher, if you’re using it instead of Extensions Manager, also launches if it sees you holding down the spacebar, or, optionally, if Caps Lock is activated. Conflict Catcher also adds the capability to configure additional startup keys as ways of specifying that a particular startup set should be used. Choose Edit Sets from the Sets menu, select a set in the resulting dialog and click Modify. In the sub-dialog that appears, you can specify a startup key and check the checkbox to make it effective.

* Option, if held down as the Finder launches, closes any previously open Finder windows. On stock older Macs, holding down Option does nothing at startup by default, although some extensions may deactivate if Option is held down when they attempt to load; see below for Option’s effect on new Macs and Macs with Zip drives.

* Control can cause the Location Manager to prompt you to select a location. Although Control is the default, you can redefine it in the Location Manager’s Preferences dialog, and since Control held down at startup also activates Apple’s MacsBug debugger (see below), you may wish to pick a different key combination.

* Command turns virtual memory off until the next restart.

* Shift-Option disables extensions other than Connectix’s RAM Doubler (and MacsBug – see below). To disable RAM Doubler but no other extensions, hold down the tilde (~) key at startup.

Choosing Startup DisksNot surprisingly, many of the startup modifiers affect the disk used to boot the Mac. A number of these are specific to certain models of the Macintosh.

* The mouse button causes the Mac to eject floppy disks and most other forms of removable media, though not CD-ROMs.

* The C key forces the Mac to start up from a bootable CD-ROM, if one is present, which is useful if something goes wrong with your startup hard disk. This key doesn’t work with some older Macs or clones that didn’t use Apple CD-ROM drives; they require Command- Shift-Option-Delete instead (see below).

* Option activates the new Startup Manager on the iBook, Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics), PowerBook (FireWire), and slot-loading iMacs. The Startup Manager displays a rather cryptic set of icons indicating available startup volumes, including any NetBoot volumes that are available. On some Macs with Iomega Zip drives, holding down Option at startup when there is a Zip startup disk inserted will cause the Mac to boot from the Zip disk.

* Command-Shift-Option-Delete bypasses the disk selected in the Startup Disk control panel in favor of an external device or from CD-ROM (on older Macs). This is also useful if your main hard disk is having problems and you need to start up from another device. (On some PowerBooks, however, this key combination merely ignores the internal drive, which isn’t as useful.)

* The D key forces the PowerBook (Bronze Keyboard and FireWire) to boot from the internal hard disk.

* The T key forces the PowerBook (FireWire) (and reportedly the Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics), though I was unable to verify that on my machine) to start up in FireWire Target Disk Mode, which is essentially the modern equivalent of SCSI Disk Mode and enables a PowerBook (FireWire) to act as a FireWire-accessible hard disk for another Macintosh.

Seriously Tweaky Startup ModifiersOnly programmers and the most geeky of users will find these startup modifiers useful.

* Control activates Apple’s MacsBug debugger as soon as it loads. If you rely on this frequently, you may want to redefine the default key for selecting the Location Manager location at startup from Control to something else.

* Shift-Option disables extensions and virtual memory but still loads MacsBug, which would otherwise be disabled by the Shift key.

* Command-Option-O-F puts you into Open Firmware mode on PCI-based Macs and clones. Open Firmware is a cross-platform firmware standard for controlling hardware that all PCI-based Macs use. It’s mostly of interest to hardware developers, but it can be a fun way to freak out a new user who’s not expecting to see a command line on the Mac. To exit Open Firmware and continue booting, type “mac-boot” or “bye” (depending on Macintosh model) and press Return. For a list of commands you can enter while in Open Firmware mode, see the Tech Info Library article.

Just for FunAlthough Apple has moved away from relatively frivolous “Easter Eggs” connected with startup modifiers, there are a few available for old Macintosh models.

* Command-X-O, when held down at startup on a Macintosh Classic boots the Classic from a built-in ROM disk.

* Command-Option-C-I, when held down at startup on a Macintosh IIci whose date has been set to 20-Sep-89 (the machine’s introduction date), produces some sort of graphical display that I can’t check for lack of a relevant machine. A different display appears if you hold down Command-Option-F-X at startup on a Macintosh IIfx with the date set to 19-Mar-90.

The new 13″ aluminum sub-notebook is described to be 50% lighter and “strikingly slimmer” than the existing 15″ MacBook Pros. To achieve this small form factor, Apple is said to have removed an optical drive from the design of the new laptop. As well, Apple will incorporate NAND flash-based storage as well as LED backlights to improve power efficiency.

Appleinsider posted their belief that a sub-notebook is coming from Apple back in February of 2007. Rumors of an ultra-portable Mac, however, have been ongoing for months with talk of a NAND-based ultra-portable Mac dating as far back as June 2006.

This new description of an aluminum case corresponds to a recent report by 9to5 indicating that slim aluminum MacBooks had been spotted with “something strange” about the touchpad.

Macworld Expo takes place from January 15-18th, 2008 in San Francisco, California.

For what its worth, Apple 2.0 Blog reports that Piper Jaffrey’s Gene Munster is 75% certain that an ultralight MacBook “or possibly an entirely new product” will be coming in January at Macworld. They also point to photos and video of Engadget editor, Ryan Block, successfully transplanting a pre-release Samsung 64GB solid-state drive into his MacBook Pro.

full article from the insider:

The 13-inch portable, which AppleInsider first detailed back in February, will mark the Cupertino-based Mac maker’s re-entry into the sub-notebook market — arriving in a form-factor that’s approximately 50 percent lighter and strikingly slimmer than the company’s current 15-inch professional MacBook Pro offering.

In achieving this smaller notebook footprint, Apple has reportedly adopted design cues that fall in line with the minimalist nature of its chief executive, including a bold move to omit a traditional optical disc drive from the aluminum-clad systems.

The thickness of today’s optical disc drive components are one of the primary factors limiting the ability of PC manufacturers to slim down their next-generation notebook designs. Although Apple had originally made attempts to build in a drive through unconventional means, it’s reported that the plan faced both obstacles and opposition, and upon last check appeared to have been scrapped.

At the same time, the new sub-notebook will mark the advent of features not yet available with Apple’s existing portable offerings, such as onboard NAND flash. The system will represent the first Mac to utilize the solid-state memory in order to improve power efficiency and facilitate near instantaneous boot times, among other advantages.

Also helping with power efficiency will be the adoption of a new breed of 13-inch LCD display panels, which, like those used in the current iteration of the 15-inch MacBook Pro, feature LED backlights rather than cold cathode fluorescent backlights (CCFLs).

While pricer than CCFLs, LED-backlit panels offer increased color saturation and are more efficient at distributing light evenly across the entire display surface. They also consume less power, run cooler, and last longer than CCFL-backlit displays. When combined with on-board NAND flash drives — which contain no moving parts and therefore also draw less power — the technology is expected to translate into significant improvements in battery performance as employed in the new notebook design.