When you think of sending out text messages you probably think of the iPhone or an Android, and the command line doesn’t cross your mind, but thanks to the ever-useful curl command, you can send out a SMS text message to any phone number right from the Terminal. Yes, curl, the same command line tool … Read More

The Mac can now make outbound voice calls to other Apple users that have an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or another Mac, using nothing but the native FaceTime Audio service. Built into OS X, FaceTime Audio can be used to call any other FaceTime user, free, anywhere in the world, and it provides excellent audio … Read More

Tagging files and folders in OS X can be a handy way to help manage and organize the contents of the Finder, even if only used on a limited basis for specific projects. To get the most out of file tags though, you’ll want to get quick access to the feature. One way to do … Read More

Once a wi-fi network has been joined in OS X, the Mac will default to joining that network if it’s within range and available again. This is undeniably convenient for joining our home, work, and regular wireless networks, but it can be a nuisance when the Mac rejoins a network that you no longer want … Read More

The Macs default boot login screen is fairly boring by default, and though it can be spruced up with custom wallpaper, another option is to set a screen saver to run at the login window of OS X. This requires using a defaults command string entered at the command line, which then makes the screen … Read More

Most command line users rely heavily on Terminal keyboard navigation to move about within text files and get around within the Terminal, but OS X has a super simple trick up its sleeve that lets you instantly position the mouse cursor anywhere in the Terminal. Yup, no more tabbing around or repeatedly tapping on the … Read More

OS X includes many smaller details that can make digital life much easier, but because they’re fairly minor features, they can often go overlooked by Mac users. An excellent example of such a feature are the transfer progress indicators that are native throughout OS X, these make it extremely easy to keep an eye on … Read More

With so many holidays scattered throughout the year, it’s easy to lose track of when is what, and on which day the next falls. Fortunately, the Mac Calendar app makes it simple to toggle the display of all holidays directly in the Calendar app, so you’ll never lose track over what date Palm Sunday, Earth … Read More

Two hugely important software security updates have been released for many Apple devices recently, and if you haven’t updated your software to the latest versions yet, you really should do it while you have some free time this weekend. Do this for all of your own Apple hardware, do this for your parents Macs, grandparents … Read More

The systemstats process is used to retrieve information about system statistics and power usage, and though it usually runs unnoticed in the background, the systemstatsd and systemstats processes have been known to randomly go haywire in OS X, eating up 100%-300% or more CPU while slowing down a Mac.

The Messages app is the native instant messaging client for OS X which supports everything from iMessage, Facebook chat, to AIM. Though users have long been able to block senders from AIM and Facebook, the iMessage protocol was notably void of a block feature on the Mac until the OS X 10.9.2 update. Now changed, … Read More

Apple has released OS X 10.9.2, a fairly major update to OS X Mavericks that includes resolutions to many problems and bugs encountered by Mac users. Critically, the OS X 10.9.2 update patches the SSL / TSL vulnerability for Macs that was fixed earlier for mobile devices with the iOS 7.0.6 update. The SSL fix … Read More