Mac OS

The Messages app in the newest versions of Mac OS X and iOS support audio messaging, meaning you can quickly record and send an audio message or verbal note to someone right from the messages app on the Mac. Perhaps even better, the recipient of the audio message does not need to be on the … Read More

Many Mac users go with the full sized Apple wired keyboard rather than a wireless keyboard so that they can have a dedicated number keypad on their keyboard. Sometimes that numeric pad seems to randomly stop working though, and suddenly numbers don’t type at all, which can be frustrating to say the least. To further … Read More

The Safari web browser has always included an ability to delete all web history, site data, searches, and cookies on a Mac, but the latest versions of Safari for Mac OS make this task even easier and offer a bit more control with four possible options, allowing users to perform removal of web browsing history … Read More

Many developers require MySQL on their Macs, but if you’ve tried to install MySQL in OS X El Capitan and Yosemite, you likely noticed that you’ll get an “installation failed” error during the process. That error sounds worse than it is, because you can avoid it entirely by choosing not to install the startup item … Read More

Messages app is generally associated with conversations, but new to Mac OS is a feature which allows Mac users to initiate screen sharing with another Mac user directly from an active iMessage window. This is great for remote collaboration, showing off something on your computer, a file transfer between remote Macs, or even for quick … Read More

The iPhone has long had the excellent Personal Wi-Fi Hotspot feature, which effectively turns an iPhone or cellular iPad into a wireless router that Macs and other devices can connect to. That iPhone Hotspot feature gets even better for Mac users running modern versions of Mac OS X, because you can now enable the iPhones … Read More

While many Mac users have updated to OS X Yosemite, a notable amount have chosen to stay on OS X Mavericks or Mountain Lion for a variety of reasons, and some have even had to downgrade due to frustrations or incompatibilities that were experienced with the new version of OS X. Whatever the reason, if … Read More

Rarely, a Mac may encounter some peculiar issue during system boot that can cause quite a bit of panic, like booting to a completely black screen. It would be easy to interpret that as a potential hardware problem, and in some particularly rare situations that may be the case, but it’s more often a software … Read More

Apple has released the first developer beta of OS X 10.10.2, arriving as build version 14C68K. The notes attached to the OS X Update Seed 10.10.2 download don’t specify any particular focus areas, but presumably the update aims to address bugs and issues that have gone unresolved after the recent OS X 10.10.1 update. Developers … Read More

Some Mac users may encounter situations where they need to flush DNS cache in OS X for a name server to resolve properly, or for some DNS address change to become noticed by their individual computer. This is particularly relevant for system administrators, network admins, and web developers, but there are certainly situations where other … Read More

A number of Mac users who were experiencing wi-fi connection difficulties with OS X Yosemite have found the problems continue to persist after updating to OS X 10.10.1. The reasons for this are not entirely clear given that OS X 10.10.1 has aimed specifically at improving wi-fi reliability, but some of the traditional troubleshooting steps … Read More

Apple has released the first major update to Macs running OS X Yosemite, versioned as OS X 10.10.1. OS X 10.10.1 includes several prominent bug fixes, including resolutions to issues with Wi-Fi reliability, Mail app problems, and a Time Machine backup bug. Other stability enhancements, security updates, and bug fixes are also included in the … Read More

Spotlight is the fantastic search engine built into OS X and iOS, and while most people associate Spotlight searches with finding documents on their Mac or launching applications, the feature set has expanded dramatically since OS X Yosemite. One of the more useful tricks found within the revised Spotlight search is the ability to search … Read More

The Mac Messages app has long had the ability to change the text size and font of your messages and conversations, but the adjustment functions have changed a bit in modern versions of MacOS system software, including Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, OS X El Capitan and Yosemite. In Messages under Mac OS X, you now … Read More

Nearly every email server has a file size limit, typically ranging between 10MB and 40MB, and any file attached to an email larger than that will typically bounce or not send. Apple has come up with an interesting solution to this problem, calling it Mail Drop. Essentially, MailDrop will automatically detect when a large file … Read More

Autofill is one of the more useful features of Safari that automatically fill online order forms and logins, whether it’s a name, shipping address, login and password, or even payment and credit card information. Of course, if you change any of that information like an address or payment details, that old autofill information filling up … Read More

Want to see a Preview panel in Mac Finder windows so that you can get a glance at what images and files look like before opening them? Modern versions of MacOS allow for this handy Preview feature in the Finder. Longtime Mac users may be aware that the Column view of the Mac OS X … Read More

Apple has released the second beta version of OS X 10.10.1 to those registered with the Mac Developer Program and the Yosemite Public Beta. The update arrives as build 14B23 and is a relatively small download, weighing in around 300MB.