Mac OS

If you’re in IT, or just fixing Grandmas Mac, it’s not too uncommon to get a machine where you don’t have the admin users password. If you find yourself in this situation, you can easily change the Admin password, or any other users, simply by booting into Mac OS X‘s command line Single User Mode. … Read More

The DVD may not be dead yet after all. It looks like Mac OS X 10.7 Lion may be offered on traditional DVD installation disks in addition to the more modern and fancy App Store download distribution and USB installer keys. The possible leak comes from a German Amazon page for the upcoming release of … Read More

You can quickly retrieve any Macs serial number via the command line by using the ioreg or system_profiler command and grep for the serial string. Getting the serial number from the command line like this can be helpful for troubleshooting, Single User Mode, remote management with SSH, or for many other reasons, though most users … Read More

Several applications in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion include unusually high resolution icons, providing another hint that Apple may be laying the groundwork to support retina displays on the Mac platform. The icons measure in at 1024×1024, which are double the current maximum Mac OS X icon resolution of 512×512. The doubling of pixels and … Read More

The most common way to access a network share is through the Finder, using the Connect to Server function. But there’s a faster way for quick server connection access: you can summon the Mac OS X server connection window from any app by right-clicking on the Finder icon in the Dock and selecting “Connect to … Read More

If Macs get a retina display, what would the resolutions be? 3200×2000 like the default Lion wallpaper suggests? There is no definitive answer, but the above chart shows what may be the best guesses yet. The resolutions are based on a simple idea from a great post on The Elaborated (via DaringFireball), double the existing … Read More

The opensnoop utility is an amazing tool for tracking down specifics like what files specific applications are accessing, but you can also use opensnoop to monitor all filesystem access in Mac OS X. To do this, run the utility with no flags attached: sudo opensnoop You’ll be asked for your root password, and then you’ll … Read More

I use Google Calendar for a myriad of reasons but since it picks up dates easily from Gmail it’s especially useful for me. Yet, somehow I never thought to sync it with iCal. If you use Google Calendar, why not sync it to your Mac? Setting this up is very simple: Launch iCal Open iCal … Read More

In many Mac OS X apps, you can activate a little-known word completion feature by using a simple keystroke. This is incredibly helpful for word recall and for diversifying the vocabulary while typing, and has so many uses. It’s quite powerful and easy to use.

Want to see where an iPhone has been? How about a detailed map of an iPhones movements, tracking hotspots of where it is physically located most often? Check out iPhoneTracker, a free app that does exactly that. iPhoneTracker works by parsing through locally stored iPhone backup files and placing stored location data on a map. … Read More

If you’re troubleshooting some of the more difficult problems that you can have on a Mac, a good place to look are the System & Kernel Logs contained within Console app. But you can access the same OS X logs from the Terminal too.

Increasing the size of the Mac mouse and trackpad pointer is an important ability for those with visual impairments, but it’s also a great way to make a Mac more friendly for newcomers to computers in general, like kids and grandparents. This tutorial will detail how to increase the size of the cursor on a … Read More

Portal 2 for Mac is out, the game is a unique puzzle-shooter blend that is unlike nearly any other game on the market. The game includes single player and a new multiplayer cooperative mode that requires two players to work together in unique ways. Valve describes Portal 2 as follows: Portal 2 draws from the … Read More

Customizing the Mac Finder window toolbars can be a good way to gain quicker access to features you use often, and to help navigate around the file system of OS X , but what if you overdo it and the toolbar becomes cluttered with way too many buttons and doo-dads, resulting in a toolbar that … Read More

If you’re coming to Mac OS X from elsewhere in the unix & x11 world, you might be used to the focus of Terminal windows following your mouse cursor. With a little command line magic, we can enable this hidden feature in the Mac OS X Terminal.app too.

Note: This feature is currently only in Lion Dev Previews, but it will likely come to a Safari update for existing versions of Mac OS X in the near future. Safari 5.1 in Mac OS X Lion Developer Preview 2 has added a new feature that blocks cookie tracking used by online marketers. Cookie tracking … Read More

Update: Updated with direct download links for the DP2 Update 1 packages – these files are only relevant for developers with DP2 installed. An update to Mac OS X Lion Developer Preview 2 has been pushed out via Software Update. The download comes in at around 1GB and changes aren’t specific other than being “recommended … Read More

Are you bored with your iPhone ringtones? You probably know by now that you can make iPhone ringtones yourself with iTunes, but instead of chopping up a song, why not get some ringtones that actually sound like they belong to a phone? You’re in luck because there are 932 free iPhone ringtones on your Mac … Read More