Safari is the fast and lean default web browser bundled with every Mac and Mac OS X. You probably already know a keyboard shortcut or two, but there are tons of shortcuts in Safari worth remembering that can really improve your experience browsing the web. We’ll cover 31 different keystrokes for Safari on Mac, they … Read More

Signing up to use the App Store requires a credit card, right? Wrong. We showed you how to use iTunes without a credit card, and it turns out you can do the same thing with the iOS and Mac App Store too. A credit card-free account is a perfect solution for setting up an iPhone, … Read More

Developer John R. sent in this beautifully simple Mac setup, featuring a very clean desk area with some great Apple gear. The hardware is used primarily for iOS development and web development and design, and consists of the following: • MacBook Air 11″ 1.6Ghz i5 4GB RAM 64GB SSD  (2011) • Thunderbolt Display 27″ (2011) … Read More

With the help of a buried menu item, we can lock the Mac OS X screen right from the Terminal. This does not log a user out, it just brings up the standard Mac OS X lock screen and login window, requiring a valid user and password before the Mac can be used again. This … Read More

Web developers and website owners pay attention: you need to set a retina-ready iOS bookmark icon. The bookmark icons are called an Apple Touch Icon, and these custom images become the icon that is displayed on a users home screen when they bookmark a website on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch in iOS, or … Read More

If you’re worried about losing an iPad or iPhone, you can greatly assist the chances of getting the iOS device returned to you by setting a custom “If Found” message as the lock screens wallpaper. This only takes a minute or two to set up, and you can either use your camera or an app … Read More

Want to change a user name that appears at the login screen of Mac OS X? It’s very easy to do: Open System Preferences and click on “Users & Groups” Select the users name you wish to change from the left side Look for “Full Name” on the right side options and click in the … Read More

The iBooks app includes three different color themes that can be used at different times of day to improve the reading experience. Accessing the themes is easy: Launch iBooks and open a book Tap the “aA” button at the top of the screen and tap on “Theme” to show the three choices; Normal, Sepia, and … Read More

If you want to experiment with Linux without dual booting and potentially impacting your main operating system, the best way to do so is with virtualization. Virtualization allows you to run Linux directly atop your primary OS, whether it’s Mac OS X or Windows, in a separate virtual machine, with practically no potential for error. … Read More

It’s rare that app developers and web developers double as graphic designers, leaving some apps and websites to include fairly hideous iOS icons. As we’ve said before, icons matter, however superficial they may be, so instead of shipping an app or site with an ugly icon do yourself a favor and download this do-it-yourself retina … Read More

Have some ePub and mobi ebooks that you want transferred over from a Mac or PC to an iPad for easier mobile reading? The quickest way to transfer the ebooks is through email sent from the computer to iOS device, but you will discover that a few additional apps are necessary so that you can … Read More

XBMC is a powerful free app that turns any Mac or PC into a full fledged media center. The newest version has been updated with a slew of improvements, but most interesting for iPhone and iPad users is the addition of AirPlay video support. This means you’ll be able to wirelessly transmit video from an … Read More

This weeks great Mac setup comes to us from Eddie B who uses his Apple gear for web design and development. The MacBook Air serves as the primary work machine and the Mac Mini, resting below it, functions as a web server. Here’s the full hardware list: MacBook Air 11″ (2011) MacMini (Late 2009) used … Read More

If you need to quickly retrieve the IP address of the router you are connected to or through, you can find this information immediately in the Terminal of Mac OS X.

Knowing how much space you have used on an iOS device and, maybe even more useful and more relevant, knowing how much storage you have remaining, are two important things for any iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch owner. This guide will show you how to find out just how much storage space is available and … Read More

Using a little known folder buried within the iTunes directory, you can automatically add any compatible media to iTunes, be it songs, music, movies, just by placing files into the directory. This gets even better when you point downloads to that directory, because all downloaded media is then immediately synced to iTunes with no user … Read More

Tired of bash? Prefer zsh, ksh, tcsh, fish, or sh? You can quickly change the default shell in Terminal app, in addition to changing a users default login shell for when logging in remotely with SSH or otherwise. Here’s how to do both.

If your new iPad 3 has poor wi-fi reception, you’re not alone. After getting a shiny new iPad 3rd gen, I immediately noticed it wasn’t registering any bars of wireless reception, and wi-fi was strangely slow regardless of the network I joined or the distance to the router. It must be defective and I should … Read More