Mac OS

Hard drive failures are never fun but they are a fact of computing life whether you use a Mac or PC. Sometimes drives can truck along for many years before going bad, and other times you wind up with a drive that goes kaput after just a few months of normal use. Regardless of when … Read More

The Mac command key, sitting alongside the spacebar and containing that funky looking icon logo, is commonly used for initiating keyboard shortcuts throughout OS X. But that command key also has some nice usability tricks up its sleeve that are lesser known and underutilized, many of which can help with your general workflow throughout OS … Read More

Looking for some new great apps for your Mac? MacUpdate packages together some great software bundles for OS X, and the MacUpdate Fall 2013 bundle is no different. Containing 9 Mac apps that would typically retail for a combined total of $460, you can pick them all up as a single pack for just $50. … Read More

iTunes 11.1 brought with it support for iOS 7 and the excellent iTunes Radio feature, but another small feature lets you see song changes in the OS X Notification Center. Though it’s a fairly minor feature, there have been a variety of third party tweaks and apps to provide similar services over the years, making … Read More

Apple has released the eighth beta build of OS X Mavericks to those registered with the Mac Developer program. The new build includes bug fixes and updates and pushes the the developer version closer to a wider public release. Individuals running OS X Mavericks can find Developer Preview 8 within the Mac App Store, accessible … Read More

Just about every Mac user knows how to select a single file in the Mac OS X Finder, but I’ve encountered many users who are perplexed by multiple file selection. Most of the confusion comes down to not knowing the primary methods of choosing groups of files, and that’s what we’ll aim to clear up … Read More

Apple has released OS X 10.8.5 system update for all Mac users running OS X 10.8. The update focuses entirely on bug fixes, many of which pertain to various network bugs and quirks that have bothered Mac users since the release of Mountain Lion. The most notable resolution appears to fix the frustrating bug that … Read More

QuickTime is usually thought of as a movie viewing app, but it also has a few simple editing features that are extremely easy to use, and that don’t require the launching of a more complete video editing suite like iMovie. We’ll focus on the Trim function of QuickTime here, which lets you lets you shorten … Read More

OS X has a handful of typing tools that can help Mac users of just about any skill level improve their writing skills and typing abilities. Whether someone is just learning how to type and needs a few pointers for common errors, to help recalling words, or even diversifying word choice and language a bit, … Read More

Each new version of OS X and iOS tends to come with some gorgeous new wallpapers, and it looks as if OS X Mavericks will be no different. Found in the latest Developer Preview 7 build of OS X Mavericks by a member of iClarified, this collection of 8 beautiful wallpapers are offered at an … Read More

Apple has released OS X Mavericks Developer Preview 7 to individuals registered with the Mac Developer program. The update includes bug fixes and inches Mavericks ever closer to the final Golden Master (GM) build. Developers running Mavericks DP6 will find the update available now in the Mac App Store, accessible through Software Update, and weighs … Read More

If you need to know the disk performance of an external drive, you can easily go about testing the read and write speed of any such drive by using several third party apps. We’ll cover two, the first is aptly named Disk Speed Test, and the second is called Xbench. Either will work to determine … Read More

Wondering how to refresh a Finder window in Mac OS? There is no refresh button or keyboard shortcut for the Mac OS X Finder, something which can become a nuisance when a folder window or directory does not refresh contents after something has changed. That may be a fairly rare occurrence with a Mac built-in … Read More

The Mac OS X Firewall provides an optional ability to block all incoming network connections , offering a significant security boost to Macs that are located in untrusted networks or hostile network environments.

Removing attachments from an email or everything in Mail app can be useful for a variety of reasons, from ditching a file that is no longer relevant to an email thread, to lowering the file transfer size when sending/replying to a message, or for more extreme cases for individuals with smaller hard drives, for reducing … Read More

We’ve covered a handful of the best MKV player apps for the Mac before, but what if you have a Blu-Ray disc, DVD, or ISO that you want to make your own MKV file out of? Creating a watchable MKV file on your computer from a Blu-Ray or DVD is commonly called ‘ripping’, and that’s … Read More

LICEcap is a screen recording app that captures a portion of the Mac OS X (or Windows) desktop and saves it directly as an animated GIF. Incredibly simple to use, the apps functionality should be familiar enough to anyone who has used screen recording with QuickTime before, except that rather than a movie being exported, … Read More

Apple has released the 6th developer preview of OS X Mavericks to Mac developers. No new features are expected in the new build, as typically these updates focus on bug fixes and minor refinements. The latest version weighs in between 1GB-3GB, depending on hardware, and is recommended to install for all users running OS X … Read More