Mac OS

Setting and changing file type associations – that is, the application that launches by default when a file icon is double-clicked or otherwise opened – is extraordinarily simple in Mac OS X. All you need to do is follow a few quick steps, starting off in the OS X Finder:

FlashToHTML5 is a great Safari extension that will attempt to load all YouTube Flash videos as HTML5 at the highest possible resolution, helping you to maintain a Flash-free Mac OS X installation and thus giving portable Macs more battery life by reducing CPU usage. FlashToHTML5 plugin is a free download from the developers site The … Read More

Mac OS X has rearranged the “Don’t Save” keyboard shortcut that shows up in the save dialog windows, moving from the longstanding Command+D to Command+Delete instead. Presumably this was done because Command+Delete (backspace) makes more sense and it’s harder to make a mistake, but some habits die hard. This change was first introduced in Lion, … Read More

Navigating elements on web pages with the Tab key is a useful feature in most web browsers, but since the release of Mac OS X Lion the new default behavior in Safari seems to limit what the tab key selects on a page. Here’s how to enable tab key navigation across all actionable elements on … Read More

Want to learn a new programming language? Python is one of the hippest languages in use these days, but why pay for books and coursework when you can do this all on your own, for free, on your Mac? You can do exactly that with some free online resources to learn Python, including a free … Read More

Since the launch of Mac OS X Lion, all keyboards on new Mac products have replaced F4 with a ‘LaunchPad’ button instead of the old Dashboard button. If you have pre-Lion Mac, you can remap that F4 Dashboard button to open LaunchPad instead though, here’s how:

It’s time to customize the appearance of Mac OS X 10.7 again. We recently showed you how to change Dashboards wallpaper image from that Lego-like pattern to anything else, and then we showed you how to change Launchpads folder background pattern to your choice. Next up is Mission Control’s background image, say goodbye to Linen … Read More

Future versions of Mac OS X and iOS may be even more gesture based, as a new Apple patent shows off a variety of complex multi-touch gestures to perform various system tasks. A few of the patented gestures and behaviors and their potential functions include: Digging a hole – presumably to move, copy, or save … Read More

Think Full Screen app mode wastes an external displays screen real estate in Mac OS X Lion? Think again. Despite various reports to the contrary, and even early experience with the Developer Preview, some Full Screen apps in Mac OS X Lion work just fine with multiple monitor Mac setups. In fact, the secondary display … Read More

Aside from the keyboard shortcuts, Grab, and other screen shot apps, you can also take screenshots of your Mac OS X desktop directly from the Terminal with the ‘screencapture’ command. Here is a detailed overview of this utility and how to use it, which allows capturing screenshots from the command line with ease.

If you use multiple Desktops (aka Spaces aka Virtual Desktops) in OS X Lion’s Mission Control, you can set apps to specific Desktops, all Desktops, or no specific Desktop at all. Right-click on the apps icon in the Dock Navigate to Options, and then from the “Assign To” sub-menu select one of the three choices: … Read More

Want to get the most out of Mac OS X native Full Screen app mode? Assign a keyboard shortcut to toggle Full Screen mode with a simple keystroke. This will work to flip in and out of full screen mode of Mac OS in any app that supports the feature, and it only takes a … Read More

FileVault 2 is the all new disk encryption method that comes with Lion, and it’s more secure than ever, using XTS-AES 128 encryption on your entire disk, as opposed to just the user directory as in past versions. The other huge change that came with FileVault 2 is the significant performance boost, where using full … Read More

A recent addition to Mac OS X and modern versions of Xcode development tools is a utility called Network Link Conditioner, a highly customizable tool that lets you simulate a variety of common internet connectivity speeds. The utility is aimed at Mac and iOS developers so they can test their apps response times on a … Read More

Ever wish you could access an applications menubar immediately, from anywhere? MenuPop fulfills this desire, activating an apps menu from anywhere with the click of a hot key or mouse cursor, by creating a contextual menu out of the main menu. This means you can access the Apple  menu, File, Edit, everything, instantly from … Read More

A fair amount of MacBook Pro 2010 (and some 2011) users are reporting stability issues with their NVIDIA 330M equipped Macs and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, with problems including kernel panics, random system crashes, blank or black screens, inability to wake from sleep, external displays not working, and assorted other headaches. The Macs most … Read More

Apple has released Lion Recovery Disk Assistant, a small utility that provides the ability to create an external bootable recovery drive for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. This should quell some of the complaints from users who didn’t want to make a Lion USB install drive or boot DVD, or who were otherwise unsatisfied with … Read More

Many users who upgraded to Mac OS X Lion discovered that their Wi-Fi connections were dropping periodically for no apparent reason. We published a reasonably thorough walkthrough with tips on fixing OS X Lion’s wireless dropping issues and that’s a recommended starting point because most tips are easy and less complicated, but among those was … Read More