An alternative to checking a SHA1 hash with shasum is to use openssl. Yes, the same openssl utility used to encrypt files can be used to verify the validity of files.

The syntax is quite similar to the shasum command, but you do need to specify ‘sha1′ as the specific algorithm:

openssl sha1 /path/to/filename

To verify a file on the desktop, the command would look like this:

openssl sha1 ~/Desktop/DownloadedFile.dmg

The output isn’t quite as nice as shasum, but it remains easy to interpret:

$ openssl sha1 ~/Desktop/DownloadedFile.dmg
SHA1(/Users/OSXDaily/Desktop/DownloadedFile.dmg)= ba33b60954960b0836daac20b98abd25a21618da3

For the average user, there isn’t much advantage to use openssl over shasum when verifying checksums, so it’s mostly a matter of habit and whichever is most convenient.

Thanks to those readers who recommended this.

Restoring an iPhone or iPad to it’s default factory settings is easy whether you are restoring as a troubleshooting step or just preparing to transfer ownership of the hardware. You can reset the iPhone on the the device itself, but if the device is unresponsive, stuck on a boot loop, or otherwise needs to be restored directly, the next choice is to connect the iOS hardware to a computer and use iTunes.

Using iTunes is also typically faster than resetting through the iPhone or iPad itself, so keep this in mind if you tried the on-device method but it took forever.

How to Restore an iPhone or iPad with iTunes

If you want to restore to factory settings, do not restore from a backup during this process:

1. Launch iTunes
2. Connect the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to the computer and select it within iTunes, if it’s not visible check the “Show” button
3. Click on the “Summary” tab and click on the “Restore” button



4. iTunes will prompt you to back up the device, this is recommended but if you want factory settings only click “Don’t Back Up”
5. At the confirmation screen, click on “Restore” to begin restoring the device to factory settings

When finished, iTunes will alert you the device has been restored, but restoring may take a while. When the device is done, the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch will boot up and be reset completely to factory settings. This means that pre-iOS 5 will require the device to be connected to iTunes to finish, or after iOS 5 you will be presented with the familiar set up screens.

As mentioned before, to maintain the factory settings do not select to restore from a backup when this process is finished, otherwise you’ll simply be left with a device that has a freshly installed iOS but with the same data as when you started.

If you encounter error 3194 during this process, you probably jailbroke your device at some point and need to change the the hosts file.

Spectacle is a free utility for Mac OS X that helps you quickly and easily organize and resize windows, without using the mouse. Apps like this make it much easier to view multiple documents alongside one another and can help to boost productivity, particularly after you remember the keystrokes to throw windows around the screen.

Want a browser window to align to the left while a text editor is aligned on the right? Want to tile four windows into each corner of the screen? Easy. If you use multiple monitors, Spectacle will also let you push windows to the the other displays too.

• Download Spectacle free from the Mac App Store

Spectacle is open source and works with Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.7. Here’s the full list of keyboard shortcuts you can use:

Spectacle Keyboard Shortcuts:

• Center / Cmd + Alt + C
• Fullscreen / Cmd + Alt + F

• Left Half / Cmd + Alt + ←
• Right Half / Cmd + Alt + →
• Top Half / Cmd + Alt + ↑
• Bottom Half / Cmd + Alt + ↓

• Upper Left Corner / Cmd + Ctrl + ←
• Lower Left Corner / Cmd + Shift + Ctrl + ←
• Upper Right Corner / Cmd + Ctrl + →
• Lower Right Corner / Cmd + Shift + Ctrl + →

• Left Display / Cmd + Alt + Ctrl + ←
• Right Display / Cmd + Alt + Ctrl + →
• Top Display / Cmd + Alt + Ctrl + ↑
• Bottom Display / Cmd + Alt + Ctrl + ↓

The keystrokes are fully customizable, and the only other preference options are to show the Spectacle menu bar item and launch at login or not.

Even with OS X Lion’s new ways to resize windows, I find apps like Spectacle to be extremely useful, and once you get the hang of using them it’s hard to go back.

If you have tried to repair the boot volume before in Mac OS X before, you’ll undoubtedly have found the “Repair Disk” option is grey and unavailable within the Disk Utility tool. While this is still the case while booted in OS X Lion, you can repair the Mac OS X boot disk thanks to Lion’s Recovery Partition, preventing the need from using an external boot drive to repair the disk.

Once booted into Recovery mode you’ll find the limitations on Disk Utility’s repair function has been removed, here’s how to do that.

Repairing a Mac Boot Disk with Disk Utility & OS X Lion

• Reboot the Mac and hold down Command+R to boot into Recovery
• Select “Recovery HD” at the boot menu
• At the Mac OS X Utilities screen, select “Disk Utility”
• Select the boot volume or partition from the left menu and click on the “Repair” tab
• Repair Disk is now possible, click on “Repair Disk” to repair the boot volume

While you’re in Recovery mode, you may also want to verify disk permissions and repair them, repair user permissions, and verify and repair other disks as well.

Need to re-enable or disable Javascript in Safari, Chrome, or Firefox? Most modern web browsers make it very easy to toggle on or off, and while it’s almost always recommended to keep javascript enabled, there are cases where developers and other users need to turn it off.

Safari:

• Open Safari Preferences
• Click on “Advanced” and check the box next to “Show Develop menu in menu bar”
• Pull down the “Develop” menu and select “Disable Javascript”, a check signifies it’s disabled

Google Chrome:

• Open Google Chrome’s Preferences
• Click on “Under the Hood” and then “Content Settings”
• Find Javascript then click “Do not allow any site to run JavaScript” to disable, or “Allow all sites” to enable

Firefox:

• Open Preferences and click on “Content”
• Check or uncheck the box next to “Enable Javascript”

Mobile Safari for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch:

• Tap on Settings, then tap on “Safari”
• Switch Javascript to “ON” or “OFF” depending on your needs

Remember to reenable Javascript to have a full web experience if you have disabled it temporarily.

By combining the Hide All shortcut with the minimize keyboard shortcut in Mac OS X Lion, you can use a third ‘Minimize and Hide All’ shortcut by hitting the Command+Option+H+M keys.

As the title suggests, this keyboard shortcut will hide all other applications and windows, in addition to minimizing the currently active application or window, effectively clearing the entire screen and giving you a blank view of the desktop. If you have Dock icon translucency enabled as shown in the screenshot, the hidden apps will appear as translucent while the minimized windows from the foremost app will be in the Dock separately.

Heads up to @sambrowne for the tip.

The iPhone is connected to a computer with it’s USB cable, you launch iTunes and… the iPhone isn’t shown in iTunes. What gives? Fixing this problem is probably a lot easier than you think, and after fielding a call about this I found the simplest explanation was the solution as to why someones iPhone wasn’t appearing in iTunes:

• Ensure the iPhone is connected to the computer with a functioning USB cable
• Launch iTunes
• Hover over the “DEVICES” item in the sidebar until the “Show” button appears and click on it

The iPhone will now be visible, as technically it was always in iTunes it was just hidden. It seems like the “Hide” button can be clicked accidentally, which can lead users to believe they have a more serious problem than there is. Save yourself some work and try this first the next time the iPhone isn’t in iTunes devices list.

If you attempted this and the iPhone (or iPad or iPod touch) still isn’t showing up in iTunes, you may need to reinstall iTunes itself.

We recently showed you how to delete Safari, Mail, and other default apps installed with Mac OS X, and procedurally iTunes is not much different. Unlike uninstalling applications from third parties, if you attempt to drag the iTunes app into the Trash can, you’ll see a dialog box warning that ‘“iTunes.app” can’t be modified or deleted because it’s required by Mac OS X.’

Nonetheless iTunes can be deleted from the Mac, but without a very good reason it should not be done. iTunes is integral to supporting other Apple features and hardware, ranging from the App Store to the iTunes Store, and without iTunes installed you won’t be able to sync apps, music, books, movies, and anything else with an iPad, iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV. Assuming you understand that and you still want to remove iTunes from your Mac, we will show you how to do it.

Delete iTunes

Deleting iTunes is not recommended unless you know what you’re doing.

• Launch Terminal from the Utilities folder within Applications
• Type the following commands:

cd /Applications/
This brings you into the Applications directory, the next command deletes iTunes itself:
sudo rm -rf iTunes.app/

• Enter the Administrator password to confirm

There is no warning or confirmation other than entering the admin password, iTunes will immediately be deleted, effectively uninstalling it from the Mac.

Deleting the iTunes application will not delete the iTunes library or music, and any purchases bought through iTunes will still remain tied to the Apple ID used to originally buy them.

I Accidentally Deleted iTunes, Help!
If you find yourself somehow accidentally deleting iTunes, don’t fret too much because it’s always easy to reinstall. You can download the newest version directly from Apple, and running their installer will bring iTunes back to life on your computer.

It’s easy to be distracted by other open applications and windows while using a computer, and sometimes even the best of us need a bit of help to focus. Lion’s full screen mode can be helpful, but when that’s not enough or when you need access to other windows and apps, then Isolator is your friend.

Isolator is a free application that provides an easy way to focus on a single application at a time by applying various filters to everything in the background, these are fully customizable and even if you aren’t interested in the focus and productivity side of things, can make for a nice way to customize the appearance of Mac OS X.

• Download Isolator for free from willmore.eu

You can choose to tint the background, blur it, use a bloom effect, turn it into crystals, or make the background black and white while everything else is colorful. Both the tint opacity and filter strength are adjustable by a slider, leading to plenty of customization options. Screenshots and a video of some of these effects and filters are shown below.
Read more »

The OS X 10.7.3 update brought with it a variety of subtle changes, including a minor adjustment to how the Launchpad background image style is switched. In previous Mac OS X versions, Command+B would switch between the background effect styles, but this is now achieved with Control+Option+Command+B.

Try it yourself by opening Launchpad and then hitting the Control+Option+Command+B keys to alternate between backgrounds with blur, unblurred, black and white, and blurred black and white. You can see samples of these background style effects below.

Read more »