Mac OS

If you suspect someone is using your Mac while you’re away and getting into personal documents and files, the easiest way to quickly find out is by looking at the Recent Items list in OS X.

If you want to completely peg CPU to stress test a Mac, turn no further than the Terminal. Using the command line you can easily max out all CPU cores and induce huge load on a Mac, making it easy to determine things like what temperature the processor reaches under heavy load, if fans are … Read More

Now that Twitter is deeply integrated into OS X from Mountain Lion onward, you can easily add Twitter usernames and their accompanying profile pictures to your existing Contacts information automatically. This is done by crossmatching data in your Contacts list with Twitter email addresses and phone numbers, which basically guarantees accuracy.

Notes has been around in iOS for a while, but it’s new to the Mac with OS X Mountain Lion, and if you think it’s just a place to keep track of a few thoughts you’re greatly underestimating the usefulness of this app. In fact, Notes can function as a powerful cross-platform clipboard, because not … Read More

The Help menu in Mac OS X is an often underutilized feature that can quickly resolve a lot of questions about apps and the OS itself, making it an excellent resource to query any time you’re trying to find out about a particular feature, troubleshooting an issue, or you just want to learn more about … Read More

Ignoring specific software updates is a bit different now in modern versions of OS X now that updates are handled by the Mac App Store. From OS X El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion and onward, if you don’t want to install an update you will need to hide it from being visible within the … Read More

Time Machine backups can be encrypted right from your Mac. This means the backed up data is extremely safe from prying eyes and the very unlikely event of a cracking attempt, and it also means you’ll need a password to access the encrypted backups yourself. Enabling encrypted backups in Time Machine for Mac OS X … Read More

Facebook can now be integrated directly into Mac OS X, letting you easily post stuff to Facebook from just about anywhere on the Mac. To setup Facebook integration in OS X, all you need is OS X 10.8.2 or later (full support is in Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, etc) and a minute or so to … Read More

“Save As” is back in OS X Mountain Lion and Mavericks, but many users have complained of how it modifies the original file in addition to the newly saved file, thereby defeating the purpose of how many people use Save As. If this bothers you, you’ll be pleased to discover that from OS X 10.8.2 … Read More

OS X Mountain Lion may have removed the native ability to subscribe to RSS feeds from Safari in addition to the feed reader in Mail, but that doesn’t mean your RSS feed reading habits are toast on the Mac. Quite on the contrary, there’s a fantastic free RSS reader available to OS X users called … Read More

If you have run out of iCloud storage for backups of either your Mac or iOS stuff, you can now easily manage existing backups and data for all devices right on your Mac from OS X.

OS X Mountain Lion has been a fantastic update for Mac users, but some of us on portable Macs discovered an annoying side effect of reduced battery life, often accompanied by a Mac that felt warmer to the touch. Those issues have been largely fixed with the OS X 10.8.2 update, making it a must-have … Read More

OS X Lion 10.7.5 has been released alongside iOS 6 and OS X 10.8.2. For those still using OS X Lion, the update brings the Gatekeeper security feature to Lion, fixes a variety of common bugs, resolves a wifi issue with iMacs, and is said to generally improve the stability of OS X. OS X … Read More

OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 has been released alongside iOS 6. The update provides several new features and increased crossover compatibility with iOS, and also fixes a variety of bugs and complaints about previous versions of OS X 10.8. New features include Facebook integration, PowerNap support to 2010 MacBook Air models, iMessage improvements, shared Reminder … Read More

Teleport is a great free app that lets you share a single keyboard and mouse between multiple Macs, in addition to providing for a single clipboard and even the ability to drag and drop files between different Macs without using traditional file sharing. This is ideal solution for those of us who have a desk … Read More

Notification Center in Mac OS X is great but it can act up every once in a while and either stop updating completely, alerts may not comet through, widgets may not load, or the entire thing can freeze up and become inaccessible. If you encounter any such issue with Notifications in OS X, or modifications … Read More

Your Mac can verbally announce the time thanks to a little setting buried in the system preferences. Though at first glance this may seem unnecessary, or even like pointless flare, it’s actually a great way to help manage your time be it through a variation of the Pomodoro method or just to let you know … Read More

Mac OS X includes a powerful built-in spelling and grammar tool that runs automatically when you type in many apps, but a separate panel can be summoned from just about any text entry point or app that provides additional support for the feature.