Mac OS

Need to get around the boot level Mac firmware password? You can bypass a firmware password by doing a little bit of a hardware hack. There’s many reasons you’d want to get around firmware protection, but here’s why we got the instructions from an anonymous submitter:

The Operating System wars are still raging, and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard has bested the new Windows 7 operating system in several speed tests, and a crucial battery life test, according to CNet. Windows 7 did outperform Snow Leopard in some other tests, such as gaming, where Call of Duty 4 had five … Read More

I use my MacBook almost exclusively at home and so I frequently forget to discharge and recharge the battery, which is a recommended procedure to have your notebook battery last as long as possible. For people like me who often run with the powercharger attached to their Mac laptop, Apple.com offers a nice simple reminder … Read More

Ever heard of MD5 and not sure what it was or what that meant? You’re likely not alone, but MD5 is important, and, with a little explaining, easy to understand. Let’s explain a bit about MD5, MD5 checksums, what it is, and why you should know about it.

Have you ever wanted to make your MacBook or MacBook Pro’s keyboard lights dance to the music you are listening to? Has the thought never crossed your mind? Well me neither, but once I saw someone using this iTunes plugin on their MacBook Pro I was instantly hooked on the novelty. iSpazz is the name … Read More

Apple has released a list of software that has been deemed incompatible with 10.6 Snow Leopard. If you haven’t upgraded yet it’s possible you’re afraid of application incompatibilities, and rightly so. It’s worth taking a look to see if any version of the apps you are dependent on make the list. These apps will be … Read More

Is this the messiest desktop ever? I don’t know much about this photo, other than it shows a wildly chaotic Mac desktop with a few billion iChat conversations going on and that it’s taken by popular photographer Sam McGuire. If there was ever a need for Expose, I think this it it! [ Sam McGuire … Read More

This is a warning to all Snow Leopard users, be aware that a somewhat obscure Snow Leopard bug deletes ALL DATA from a user account, yikes! This will likely NOT effect you, but if you’re a Snow Leopard user you should understand the bug and the consequences. According to CNET: “when logging into the guest … Read More

The Polaroid film effect is a fun and retro look for digital images, and now you can make Polaroid style pictures without Photoshop! The nifty app called Poladroid is cross-platform compatible and works exactly as advertised: simply drag any image onto the Poladroid app and out comes a Polaroid style image. Poladroid allows you to … Read More

You can easily reveal the Finder location of any recently used item from the Apple “Recent Items” menu by holding down the Command key as you access the Apple menu of OS X.

There is now a Photoshop app for the iPhone / iPod Touch and it’s called… Photoshop.com Mobile. The best part? It’s free! Free Photoshop?? For the iPhone?? Well, don’t go expecting a full version of Photoshop on your iPhone, it’s a relatively limited and simple image editor, but for quick photo edits on the go, … Read More

Here’s a comprehensive list of budgeting software for Mac, I originally created this list for a family member who is a recent switcher and was looking for some personal budgeting software for their new Mac, and I figured it was useful enough to share with everyone else. Quicken – $69.99 – almost everyone has heard … Read More

A much anticipated feature of Mac OS X Snow Leopard for corporate users is Microsoft Exchange support being built-in, and a coworker just asked me how to setup Microsoft Exchange to work on their new iMac sporting 10.6. I was about to write up a how-to guide when I came across a nice and easy … Read More

iPhoney is a nice iPhone Simulator that works to replicate the web browsing experience of iPhone users. This is very helpful to web developers that need to test if a web site or application works on the iPhone, and also how the user experiences the site. It’s not a traditional iPhone Simulator in the sense … Read More

There are several different ways to rip dvd’s on your Mac, we’ll cover ripping DVD’s with HandBrake and with VLC here. HandBrake is probably the best choice for ripping a DVD in Mac OS, and it makes DVD rips very easy to create in a variety of file formats. Basically the steps are this easy: … Read More

You can see a visual preview of a folders contents by enabling a hidden Quick Look feature. This is a rather nice eye candy improvement but I’m not sure that it’s use goes much further beyond that, see the above screenshot and try it out yourself to judge. To enable the Quick Look X-Ray folders, … Read More

Looking for a PS2 Emulator for Mac OS X? Look no further then PCSX2, a full blown PS2 emulator for Mac OS X that works surprisingly well. I say surprising because it seems development work is a little infrequent and there are some features left to be desired, but it certainly works and the frame … Read More

OK this is a little random, but I came across one of those cute animals sites today that featured of all things… Dogs with Macs! If you don’t like dogs, well, just ignore this post, but dogs love Macs too!