When a new Finder window is opened on the Mac desktop, the user defaults to seeing the new “All My Files” folder, rather than the users home directory. This is a change that arrived with the latest versions of OS X (began in Lion, but continues on through Mavericks), and while it can be useful … Read More

If you’re one of the many Mac users who uses multiple Macs, say an iMac at home or work, and a MacBook on the go, you should get DropboxAppSync. This free utility syncs your ~/Library/Application Support/ folder across multiple Macs via the free Dropbox service, allowing you to have the exact same app setups, like … Read More

I would be convinced this was an April Fools joke out of Redmond were it not August, but no, it’s the new Windows 8 Explorer default interface. While Apple is busy reducing clutter and creating minimalist interfaces, streamlining OS X and iOS, Microsoft is busy moving in the opposite direction. Believe it or not, these … Read More

The default OS X Lion galaxy wallpaper is gorgeous, but there’s something fun about this pixelated version of it that makes it a joy on a desktop too. This is quite literally the default Lion wallpaper for Mac OS X Lion but it’s run through a pixel tool so that it is very pixelated, looking … Read More

Motion FX is a very cool real-time video effects tool that uses your Macs built-in camera to detect movement and render a slew of special effects ranging from fire to smoke and any variation of colors or distortion in between. Using the apps Motion Detect or Effect Paint mode, you can literally paint with fire … Read More

The desktop in latter versions of Mac OS X has simplified the Finder window sidebars by showing just a few choices, with the emphasis on the ‘All My Files’ directory rather than individually pointing to your Pictures and Documents folders. If you prefer to see more options from the Finder and Desktop window sidebars, you … Read More

The very first Macs user manual is a fun look at the past, and despite being 27 years old, there are still some undeniably Apple aspects to the manuals imagery and text. The intro paragraph from the first page is classic: “You’re about to learn a new way to use a computer. If this is … Read More

Want to open the Finder and your standard desktop Mac OS X windows from LaunchPad? You can, but you have to drag the Finder application into LaunchPad. Here’s how to do this: From the Mac OS X desktop, hit Command+Shift+G to bring up “Go To Folder” and enter the following path: /System/Library/CoreServices/ Within /CoreServices/ locate … Read More

A common complaint about free app giveaways is that they’re often constrained to the USA based iOS App Store, in other words if you’re outside of the US you don’t get in on deals like the recent Rage HD giveaway and the ongoing myriad of other free app offers. This is a bummer for anyone … Read More

If you missed out on the $99 HP TouchPad deals that seem to have the entire tech web in a frenzy, don’t forget that you can experience WebOS for free right now on Mac OS X, just by using the SDK’s emulator. You’ll need to download VirtualBox and then the WebOS SDK which comes as … Read More

Wonder what differences between iOS vs Android users are? What about their personality traits and preferences in things like fashion, food, media consumption, technology, and politics? Or how about general life experience and spending habits? Stereotypes abound in this giant iOS vs Android user profile infographic, and it covers a wide variety of data that … Read More

Whether you made a Lion recovery drive with Apple’s Lion Recovery Disk Assistant Tool and you’re booting from that or you’re just relying on the Recovery HD partition, this technique works.

Is autocorrect in Mac OS X driving you nuts? We’ve received a fair amount of complaints regarding Mac OS X spelling autocorrect feature erroneously correcting things like British English words to American English words, and changing the spelling of some words like “colour” to “color” and so on. The reason for this is a language … Read More

Reading App Store reviews and opinions from a variety of websites only does so much, if you really want to know what an app is like, you have to use it yourself. Some apps offer light versions as free downloads on the App Store, but what about the others? What if you’re on the fence … Read More

Emoji are extremely popular picture characters and emoticons that are an integral part of Japanese tech culture and communication, and now that they are included in modern versions of OS X, the Emoji character set is available to everyone on a Mac regardless of your localization settings. Emoji are quickly taking the world by storm … Read More

Rage is a first person shooter for iOS where you blast your way through mutants in some post-apocalyptic disaster, it’s fairly similar to classics Doom and Quake, and that’s because ID Software created them all. Both versions of the game, Rage and Rage HD, are available free for a limited time, with the HD version … Read More

Tired of tweaking OS X Lion on your own with all the defaults write commands? Don’t want to manually change iCals leather look back to aluminum? What about older tips like turning the Dock into 2D? Lion Tweaks to the rescue! This little free app is an extremely easy GUI front-end to a ton of … Read More

If you disabled spelling auto-correct in Mac OS X but find yourself still being autocorrected as you type various words in Safari, that’s because the new versions of Safari has a separate spelling and grammar engine than the core OS. Admittedly, that’s a little confusing to have an app use it’s own unique spelling correction … Read More