Everyone gets emails filled with links, but what do you do when an incoming message includes a potentially dubious URL that you aren’t quite so sure about? Rather than crossing your fingers and blindly clicking the link to open in the default web browser, try this tip out to get a preview of the URL … Read More

The Apple ][ is celebrating it’s 35th birthday. Originally demoed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak at a computer fair on April 16 and 17, 1977, the Apple II was the machine that put Apple on the map and then went on to catapult the personal computer revolution. What better way to celebrate one of … Read More

Whether you’re feeling the pinch as hard drive space runs low or you’re just wondering where all your disk space went, it’s easy to find large files in Mac OS X by using the built-in search tools. You don’t need to use any third party tools here, instead you’ll rely on search operators and the … Read More

Macs have pretty amazing battery life to begin with, but following a few simple tips will help you to get the absolute best battery performance out of a MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro. The primary goal here is to reduce overall power consumption on the Mac laptop and we’ll cover a few different techniques … Read More

Looking for some nice mellow wallpapers to add to your Mac, iPhone, or iPad? The DizzyUp collection features three beautifully subtle wallpapers in a wide variety of common screen resolutions and has also been updated to support the 3rd gen iPad retina 2048×2048 display. The wood paneling is my personal favorite of the group, but … Read More

Forwarding text messages from one sender to another is made very simple on the iPhone. The process is the same whether it’s a text, SMS, MMS, or even an iMessage: From the Messages app, open the text message you want to forward Tap the “Edit” button in the upper right corner Tap the message you … Read More

Tired of all the OS X default screen savers? Breathe a ton of new retro life into your screen saver collection with the XScreenSaver pack for Mac. The free bundle includes over 200 old school screen saver classics, including an Apple II emulator, Flying Toasters, The Matrix, Blue Screen of Death, Missile Command, Phosphor BBS … Read More

Apple has released a standalone removal tool that targets Flashback malware infections. The separate utility is recommended for Mac users who do not have Java installed on their OS X Lion machine, but it’s functionality is identical to that performed by the most recent Java update to remove Flashback. If your Mac does not have … Read More

This weeks Mac setup is loaded with great Apple gear and comes to us from husband and wife Cesare and Monica. Hardware from left to right is: iPad 1 iPhone 4 64GB iMac 20″ (early 2008) 4GB RAM 200GB HD iPad 3rd gen 64GB iPhone 4S 64GB MacBook Pro 17″ (mid 2007) 8GB RAM 500GB … Read More

Want to share a single keyboard and mouse between multiple Macs? How about using a keyboard and mouse attached to your Mac to control an additional PC running Windows or Linux, and even being able to share copy and paste data between the different operating systems? You can do that with the help of a … Read More

Modern versions of Mac OS X allow videos and movie files to be previewed and played directly in the Spotlight search results menu. This works with any supported movie or video file type that can be played in QuickTime. To try this out for yourself:

Apple was busy dreaming about the future of communications 29 years ago, long before the days of the iPhone, touch screens, cell phones, and even cordless phones.

Apple has released a new Java security update that automatically removes the most frequently occurring variations of the Flashback trojan malware. The software update is recommended for all Mac users to install, even if they have previously checked their systems for infection. To get the update and remove any malware that is potentially on a … Read More

Designers and developers will appreciate the newly released retina iPad GUI elements template available now as a free PSD download from Teehan+Lax. Based on iOS 5.1 and the new iPad’s retina UI elements, these PSD files are an excellent resource for quickly mocking up iPad apps, workflows, and general iOS concepts. You’ll need Adobe Photoshop … Read More

The “Other” capacity in iTunes is supposed to estimate the size of system software, contacts, Messages data, and things that are not listed elsewhere in the labeled capacities list of storage on an iOS device. Sometimes other data will become mislabeled or misappropriated to the “Other” category, and suddenly it’s reported as being much larger … Read More

A users .bash_history file keeps a running tab of command line history, logging every command that has been entered into the bash prompt. These command history files make it very easy to find and recall past commands that may have been forgotten, and they’re also extremely useful for system administration. We will cover how to … Read More

Assuming you have file extensions shown in the OS X Finder, attempting to change a file extension causes a warning dialog with a confirmation box to appear. The warning text says “Are you sure you want to change the extension from (this) to (that)?” then giving you two choices; keep the current file extension, or … Read More

If you saw our Air Display review you’ll know it’s a pretty awesome app that lets you turn an iPad into an external display for a Mac or PC ($10 on the App Store). If you bought it and haven’t figured out what to do with it yet, here are eight of our favorite ways … Read More