In what may be the boldest claim ever to hit iTunes users, what is said to be the best iTunes equalizer settings have surfaced on the internet. Now that is quite a proclamation obviously, but after seeing the bold statement, I gave the suggested settings a try with the iTunes equalizer, played some music, and … Read More

Stacks are what list items and folders turn into when pulled into the Dock of OS X. There are several views for Stacks, like a grid, or a fan, or a list in modern OS X versions. But with a little secret defaults string, a list view can be enabled in prior releases of OS … Read More

Recently the LAN at my office had been running slower than usual, and I couldn’t pinpoint what was using up all the extra bandwidth. I had a suspicion that P2P traffic was to blame but I just couldn’t see anything obvious on the offending machine. So the question of course, is how do you see … Read More

There’s several ways to send free SMS text messages, here’s the best ways I know of to send free texts from the computer, using either the AIM protocol (with iChat or Adium), Google’s GTalk within Gmail, and finally a free website known as GizmoSMS. When using any of these methods, keep in mind the SMS … Read More

After reading all the bad press for iPhone OS 3.1, I decided to hold out on upgrading, which means that I also can’t get MMS working, right? Wrong! The only thing you need to enable MMS on iPhone 3.0 (or 3.01) is the updated carrier file, which you can download from here. After you download … Read More

The Google Chrome for Mac is still very much in Beta, but the latest Dev Channel build is actually pretty decent for web browsing, while other features are still lacking, but overall it’s a great start and a cool new web browser. One of the biggest advantages to Google Chrome is that each Browser Window … Read More

There are two ways to enable the root super user account in Snow Leopard, the first is probably the quickest. Launch the Terminal and type the following command: sudo passwd root You’ll be asked for the admin password, then you’ll have to set a password for the root account. When you’re finished, the root account … Read More

If you want to quickly change your sound input device on a Mac, by far the fastest and simplest way to do so is to Option-Click the Sound menu icon at the top of your screen. Option-clicking the sound icon menu bar item enables an alternate pull-down menu including a list of clearly labeled and … Read More

Backing up your iPhone text messages is made extremely easy thanks to a freeware utility called Syphone. Since the iPhone has a limited number of text messages it can store at any one time, Syphone allows you to backup all the text messages and read through the archived text messages yourself on your Mac in … Read More

In a move that has surprised many, Apple has decided to open source their multiprocessor task management technology known as Grand Central Dispatch. This comes as a surprise because the technology has barely gotten into the hands of customers through 10.6 Snow Leopard, and it’s widely considered to be a competitive advantage. So why would … Read More

iTunes 9.0 removed the ability to click the green ‘minimize/maximize’ button to get into iTunes Mini Player mode, you had to hold down Option to get the Mini Player. iTunes 9.0.1 Update fixed this problem (as if it was a bug, but I imagine it was changed back due to user confusion and complaints), but … Read More

AT&T iPhone users of 2009 can now officially join the cellular world of 2002, with the ability to finally send and receive MMS messages. You have to upgrade to iPhone 3.1 and download a new carrier file to enable MMS on your AT&T iPhone. After reading so many negative reviews about the iPhone 3.1 update, … Read More

Want to almost instantaneously put a Mac to sleep from your external keyboard? It’s much easier than you’d think, and you don’t need to pull down the  Apple menu to accomplish this task. Instead, to quickly sleep your Mac just hold down Command + Option + Eject for about two seconds, and the computer … Read More

That’s one fancy Cupertino Coffee or Cappuccino! I came across this Apple themed coffee drink on Twitter, not sure where the original source or coffee house is but it sure looks nice. Has anyone ever seen one of these in person? Maybe it’s at the Cafe Macs restaurant on the Cupertino campus of Apple? Who … Read More

I had to develop an iPhone specific website recently and working with the iPhone resolution was a key aspect in this development process. The actual pixel density differs on the iPhone models as well, which will effect the appearance of interface elements and graphics for websites and iPhone applications. Of course knowing the resolution and … Read More

“This was a very typical time. I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that’s what I had.” – Steve Jobs This is rather iconic, isn’t it? Something about that picture captures the minimalist aesthetic that Apple successfully translated to the digital age, with … Read More

Someone recently sent me a Nero Image File and I had no idea what to do with it, but after some looking around I discovered you can easily convert a Nero image File to ISO format. Apparently the only difference between a Nero Image File and a typical ISO is that Nero adds a 300k … Read More

Ever wondered what shell you are using at the command line? It’s not unusual to want or need to know which shell is running, and though you may hear this question many times, the answer could be different for every user, thus the easiest thing to do is to issue a terminal command which determines … Read More