By appending the say command to the end of another command, Mac OS X will vocally announce when the initial task has finished running successfully. For example, to have OS X announce that a particular script has finished running the command could be: python backup.py && say “jobs done” The important part is the “&& … Read More

For the power users out there who prefer to leave their hands on the keyboard as much as possible, you’ll be pleased to know that the Dock in Mac OS X can be used exclusively from the keyboard with full functionality. With just the right keys pressed and keystroke combinations, you can navigate around Dock … Read More

Rich text format doesn’t always translate well to the web and it often gets garbled through emails sent across platforms. The simplest solution is to convert the RTF to plain text and then either transfer the resulting txt file or paste the content it into an email or otherwise. Here is how you can do … Read More

Though almost everyone likes a nice photo screen saver and some of the funkier options out there, I’m also big fan of minimalist screensavers that do something simple like displaying just the time. That’s exactly what we have courtesy of Apple UI designer Robert Padbury, two beautifully simple clocks, either in 12 hour or 24 … Read More

iOS 5.1.1 was just released by Apple and believe it or not has already been jailbroken for some A4 devices. The jailbreak remains tethered, for the uninitiated that means each time the iOS device is rebooted it will need to connect to a computer and boot with the assistance of redsn0w. Compatibility for this jailbreak … Read More

iOS 5.1.1 has been released for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, the software update comes as build 9B206 and includes a variety of bug fixes including an HDR photo issue, improved AirPlay, iPad network switching, an iTunes store fix, and improvements to Safari reading list syncing. The official changelog is listed below, and the software … Read More

For those of us who will probably never work at Apple, this little inspirational new-hire note gives some insight into the company culture and philosophy. Apparently this greets all new employees upon their first day with the company, it reads: There’s work and there’s your life’s work. The kind of work that has your fingerprints … Read More

If you’re working at the command line and need to quickly empty the contents of a file, you can do so by throwing a greater than symbol and a space in front of the filename in question.

Safari for iOS includes an optional debug console to help web developers track down and resolve issues with webpages on iPhone and iPad. Even better, with the latest versions of iOS it actually uses the same Web Inspector that Safari on desktop does too, meaning if you connect the iPhone or iPad to the computer … Read More

If you’re at all concerned about the file size of images you should grab ImageOptim, a free image compression tool that is so ridiculously simple it’s basically foolproof, while still being extremely effective. The app works to compress images without reducing image quality, which is achieved by bundling several compression tools, including the popular PNGCrush, … Read More

The OS X task management tool Activity Monitor includes an excellent and little known feature that lets you see precisely what files, ports, and IP’s are being interacted with by any single process or application. Here is how to use it: Launch Activity Monitor, found in /Applications/Utilities/ Double-click on the process or application name you … Read More

Anytime I schedule anything particularly important I use iCal alerts to remind me of the event. But I really only want to receive the alarm on my iPhone which is the device I have with me all the time, rather than coming home and opening my MacBook screen to an outdated alert from earlier in … Read More

This awesome Mac setup shot was sent in all on its lonesome with very little information, but as you can see it’s a great looking setup so it’s worth a post anyway. Here’s what I can identify in the picture: MacBook Air 13″ running the iTunes Screensaver White iPad White iPhone 4 Apple Cinema 27″ … Read More

The iPhone, iPad, and iPod backups made with iTunes can take up a lot of local disk space on a computer. If you’ve moved the iPhone or iPad to sync with a new computer, sold an iOS device, or just want to potentially free up some disk space, you can easily delete these backups directly … Read More

It can be helpful to configure Mac OS X to automatically mount shared network drives, this is particularly true for those of us who regularly connect to a network drive for file sharing or backups.

Dictation on the iPad and iPhone converts your words into text, it can make typing in iOS easier but it’s also easy to accidentally activate with an inadvertent touch. It works quite well, you just press the microphone button on the iOS keyboard and it listens to what you say, and then converts your speech … Read More

If you’ve ever wished you could check up on your house while you’re away, wish no more because we have a simple solution. We are going to configure a Mac as a home security camera that will open a live video stream on demand which can be watched remotely from anywhere via an iPhone, iPad, … Read More

Ever noticed that when you copy an email address from OS X Mail app and paste it elsewhere that you get the addressees full name as well as their email address? Try it yourself by right-clicking on someones email address like someonesname@domain.com and copy it, then paste it elsewhere and it will show up as … Read More