Mac OS

Air Display is a great iOS app that turns an iPad into an external display for just about any Mac or Windows PC. It’s been around a while, but now there’s a new free version available that lets you try out a full featured ad-supported version before buying the regular version, offering an excellent way … Read More

Listening to music in iTunes can be improved significantly by taking a moment to make three quick adjustments to preferences. Enabling these options takes a few seconds and will be valid for both Mac OS X and Windows: Open iTunes preferences from the iTunes menu Choose the “Playback” tab and check the box to enable … Read More

The first beta of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3 has been released to registered Mac developers. OS X 10.8.3 beta 1 is identified as build 12D32 and focuses on AirPlay, AirPort (wireless), Game Center, and graphics drivers, though it’s not yet clear if the intention is for bug fixing, feature enhancements, or a bit of … Read More

Though most Mac users will likely prefer to use Preview to batch resize images because of the ease of use, advanced users often like to go with the command line for repetitive tasks. We’ve discussed sips before as a way to resize, rotate, and flip images, but if sips is combined with wildcards it can … Read More

The quickest way to add a file extension to a group of files that don’t currently have one is by using the command line in Mac OS X. In the example below, we’ll add a “.txt” extension to all files in a single directory, but subbing .txt in the command string will add a different … Read More

Now that Mac Mini, iMac, MacBook Air, and Retina MacBook Pro have moved away from carrying internal SuperDrives, owners of these newer Macs will possibly get more usage out of the Remote Disc feature than ever before. For those unfamiliar, Remote Disc does pretty much what it sounds like, allowing one Mac to share and … Read More

Owners of 2012 model year Macs have a minor update available for OS X Mountain Lion. Labeled “OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 Supplemental Update 2.0”, the small system update resolves issues with Keychain that were specific to Macs released this year. No other issues are mentioned, and the update is unavailable to other Mac users. … Read More

The MacLegion Holiday 2012 Bundle is a whopper of a deal for anyone looking to add a collection of great apps to their Mac repertoire. The bundle includes the following $540 worth of apps for just $49.99: TechTool Pro ($99.99) – Ultimate disk maintenance and hardware diagnostic tool Freeway Pro ($229.00) – Easy and powerful … Read More

Recording audio playing out from a Mac isn’t the easiest thing in the world, but that’s exactly what WavTap aims to resolve with a remarkably simple menu bar item. It makes capturing a Macs audio output extremely simple, leaving you with an audio file that you can then. WavTap is also completely free, which makes … Read More

Keeping software up to date is one of the top maintenance tips for Macs, but sometimes those Software Update notifications can be just plain annoying. Whether you’re just trying to focus on work, or the update that’s bugging you is irrelevant to your needs, here is every possible way you can stop software updating from … Read More

If you’re new to Emoji, you’ll be forgiven for not knowing just what some of these icons and characters are supposed to mean. Many are common sense, while others are a bit of a mystery, but there’s an easy way to find out what a specific Emoji character means just by looking at the icon … Read More

If you’ve ever had to track down a particular plist file for an app you know how frustrating the process can be. Though preference files are usually named in a logical manner, that’s not always the case, and regardless the prefix of com.(developer).(application) is not always the easiest to navigate through. One method is to … Read More

Trash is one of those overlooked aspects of Mac OS X that you probably don’t think much about, most of us just drag a file into it, empty the Trash to delete a document and free up disk space, and that’s about it. That’s fine, but there are also a handful of genuinely useful keyboard … Read More

Mac running out of disk space? Maybe you don’t have room for installing a new app, backing up a device, copying some files, or much of anything? If you’re running low on disk space or have ever received that dreaded “disk full” message when using a Mac, you know it can be pretty frustrating to … Read More

If you need to change a computers MAC address (the unique ID attached to a physical network interface), but aren’t comfortable with the command line approaches that we’ve discussed before, an excellent free preference panel called LinkLiar makes it easy. Not only does LinkLiar make changing MAC addresses remarkably simple for any network interface on … Read More

If you want to restrict app usage for a particular user on a Mac, there is no easier option than Parental Controls. This is a great solution for parents setting up a limited-access account for a kid, for public usage Macs, Macs in the enterprise, or even just for a restricted Guest account for when … Read More

To compare and list the different contents of two directories without the extra output you get through commands like diff, you can use the comm command instead. To get started, launch Terminal and type the following command, adjusting the directory paths as appropriate: comm -3 <(ls -1 folder1) <(ls -1 folder2) The output listed will … Read More

Fluid is a great Mac app that converts any specified web site into it’s own self-contained application, allowing you to do things like turn Gmail, Facebook, Wikipedia, Soundcloud, and Pandora, into their own dedicated app. Other than being useful for creating apps exclusively for particular websites, Fluid is also great for those of us who … Read More