Fixing Mac OS X Install Errors “can’t be verified” and “error occurred while preparing the installation”

Jan 19, 2015 - 253 Comments
Set the date and time manually in OS X to circumvent error messages during Mac OS X install

Two unusual error messages that can occur during the attempted installation of Mac OS X El Capitan or Mac OS X Yosemite are the “This copy of the Install OS X El Capitan application can’t be verified. It may have been corrupted or tampered with during downloading” error, or a “This copy of the Install … Read More

Troubleshoot Safari Freezes & Crashing in Mac OS X

Jan 18, 2015 - 87 Comments
Safari icon

Some Mac users have discovered the Safari web browser has become significantly less stable after updating to some versions of Mac OS X system software including OS X El Capitan, OS X Yosemite, and MacOS Sierra. This can range from periodic crashes of Safari that never happened before, to Safari freezing up entirely, to Safari … Read More

iPhone Won’t Stop Vibrating? Here’s How to Resolve the Endless Buzzing

Jan 17, 2015 - 53 Comments
iPhone won't stop vibrating? Fix it

Most problems with iPhone are fairly simple to explain and resolve, but a somewhat rare outlier is the case of the spontaneous continuously vibrating iPhone. You’ll know it if you encounter it, the iPhone will basically seize up and do nothing but vibrate with a black screen, and the vibrations aren’t even pulsed like a … Read More

Get Exchange Rates & Convert Currency with Spotlight in Mac OS X

Jan 16, 2015 - 17 Comments
Convert Currency with Spotlight in OS X Yosemite, Dark Mode bug

The Mac has long had currency conversion tools available through Calculator app and Dashboard with the Converter widget, but the latest versions of OS X have an even faster option available with Spotlight, which can provide current exchange rates and conversions on the fly. You will need to be running at least OS X 10.10 … Read More

What is “Other” Storage Space on Mac & How to Clear It Up

Jan 15, 2015 - 51 Comments
Other Storage in Mac OS X

Many Mac users check the About This Mac Storage tab to get a quick overview of their disk space usage, and many will see a rather large “Other” storage space taking up disk capacity on their drives. If this sounds familiar, it’s probably because iOS often has a rather large Other storage space, but that’s … Read More

OS X 10.10.2 Beta 5 Released for Developer Testing

Jan 14, 2015 - 41 Comments

Apple has released the fifth beta version of OS X 10.10.2 for users registered with the Mac Developer program. The new Yosemite build is 14C99D and continues to emphasize a focus on addressing bugs and remaining issues with wireless networking, Mail, and VoiceOver.

How to Save Pictures from Shared Photo Streams to iPhone & iPad

Jan 14, 2015 - 16 Comments
Photos iOS icon

The iOS Photo Stream feature is a really great way to share photos between friends and family who also have an iPad or iPhone. Each shared Photo Stream and the associated images are kept in iCloud, viewable through the “Shared” tab in the Photos app, where they are cached temporarily as you look at them. … Read More

How to Erase & Reset Android to Factory Settings

Jan 14, 2015 - 23 Comments
Reset Android to Factory Default Settings and Erase All Data from Android

If you have an Android phone or tablet that is no longer in use and gathering dust, selling it or giving it to a new owner is often a good idea. Before you do that though, you’ll almost certainly want to erase all personal data on the phone by resetting the Android to the factory … Read More

How & Why to Repair Disk Permissions in OS X with Disk Utility

Jan 13, 2015 - 30 Comments
Repairing Disk Permissions on a Mac with Disk Utility in OS X

Repairing Disk Permissions is a simple procedure that Mac users can run with the Disk Utility app or through the command line, and, as the name suggests, it repairs the permissions of various files on the target drive. Repairing permissions can be helpful when troubleshooting some fairly specific issues, or after installing or uninstalling a … Read More

Create a Ringtone Directly on iPhone with Garageband

Jan 12, 2015 - 10 Comments

While you can turn a song into a ringtone using iTunes, another option to make custom ringtones is to create one yourself, directly on your iPhone using the Garageband app. This is a nice solution since it does not involve a computer or iTunes, and the entire ringtone or text tone creation process can be … Read More

iOS 8.2 Beta 4 Available for Developers

Jan 12, 2015 - 4 Comments

Apple has released the fourth beta version of iOS 8.2 to those individuals registered with the iOS Developer program. The release carries build 12D5461b and likely includes bug fixes and feature enhancements.

Increase Font Size in Terminal for Mac OS X Quickly with Keystrokes

Jan 11, 2015 - 6 Comments

The default text size used by Terminal app in OS X can be quite small if you’re using a large resolution display. While you can change the font to be better suit your preferences, and increasing the line spacing helps reading too, another simple solution to boost readability is to simply increase the text size … Read More

Play Over 2000 Retro DOS Games for Free in Your Web Browser

Jan 10, 2015 - 4 Comments
DOS Games are free to play online through the web

Retro gaming has made a healthy comeback, so what better way to relive the games of yesteryear than through a massive archive of over 2400 retro free-to-play DOS games, and that play in your very own web browser? That’s right, you don’t need an emulator app or to download anything, your web browser will emulate … Read More

How to Reset the Printing System in Mac OS X to Fix Annoying Printer Problems

Jan 9, 2015 - 13 Comments
How to Reset the Printing System in Mac OS X

Need to reset the entire printing system on a Mac? You can do that if you need to. Printer problems are notoriously frustrating for any computer user, and while Macs get off a bit easier than the alternatives out there, there can still be some pretty annoying issues that pop up with printing in Mac … Read More

Clear Font Caches & Font Databases in Mac OS X to Resolve Unusual Font Problems

Jan 8, 2015 - 20 Comments
Fonts displaying erroneously in Mac OS X

In some unusual and admittedly rare situations, fonts in OS X and various Mac apps may display erroneously, or outright fail to display. Typically this happens after a font has been modified or a font has been installed outside of the standard ~/Library/Fonts directory, but it can happen out of the blue in some situations … Read More

Change the Slow Motion Video Recording Speed on iPhone by Adjusting FPS

Jan 8, 2015 - 18 Comments
iOS Camera icon

All new iPhone models can capture and record high quality slow-motion video by flipping to the ‘slo-mo’ setting in Camera app. Perhaps lesser known is that you can change the Frames Per Second (FPS) capture speed for slow motion video, which basically determines just how smooth and slow the video playback is, but also has … Read More

OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 Beta 4 Released for Testing

Jan 7, 2015 - 57 Comments
OS X Yosemite

Apple has released the fourth beta build of OS X 10.10.2, arriving as build 14C94b, to those registered with the Mac Developer program. The latest release continues to focus on improving bugs, including problems with Wi-Fi, Mail, and VoiceOver, some of which are issues that have persistently bothered a number of Mac users even after … Read More

How to Change the Selection Highlight Color in Mac OS X

Jan 7, 2015 - 14 Comments
Highlight color options in Mac OS X

Many Mac users probably don’t think twice about the color that shows up when they select and highlight text or some app elements in Mac OS X, which defaults to being blue. But if you’re the type of user who likes to customize things a bit, you may appreciate knowing that you can choose nearly … Read More

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