Mac OS

Mac users may find that a system update, installer, or package (pkg) can get completely stuck in a verification sequence, with a pop-up alert that says “Verifying ‘name.pkg’…” while showing the Gatekeeper icon and a progress bar that never updates. The effect is the package or installer won’t run as it never completes verification, making … Read More

Ever wondered where all the downloaded files go on your Mac? By default, most apps will transfer downloaded files into the user Downloads folder. This applies to all downloads to a Mac made from the web with Safari, Chrome, through AirDrop, or from the many file transfer apps out there. There are many different ways … Read More

Beta testers of macOS Sierra can send feedback and bug reports directly to Apple, offering a chance to help shape the future of the Mac operating system. Reporting bugs and offering feature feedback is part of the fun of beta testing (and part of the purpose of the public betas), so if you are running … Read More

Little is dreaded more in the Mac world than the kernel panic, the Mac OS X equivalent of the Windows Blue Screen of Death of yesteryear. While modern versions of Mac OS X don’t display the kernel panic screen like they used to, that doesn’t mean you still can’t have some mischievous fun with a … Read More

Custom email signatures are commonplace, whether they include simple contact details or a complete HTML signature on Mac Mail. A frequent further customization to email signatures is to include an image or logo, which is what we will show you how to create in the Mac Mail app for Mac OS X.

Some Mac users may wish to downgrade from MacOS Sierra Beta and revert back to OS X El Capitan, this is particularly common if you have found things to be less than stable or otherwise problematic and would like to return to a more stable operating system experience – a fairly common scenario for beta … Read More

Apple has released OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 for Mac users. The minor point release system software update includes small bug fixes and security updates. Additionally, Mac users running prior versions of Mac OS X system software including Yosemite and Mavericks will find a separate “Security Update 2016-004” release available for their machines.

Apple has released updated beta builds to the various operating systems currently under development, including iOS 10 beta 3, macOS Sierra 10.12 beta 3, watchOS beta 3, and tvOS 10 beta 3.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where Bluetooth needs to be enabled on a Mac, but you don’t have a mouse or keyboard handy? This can pose a conundrum; in order to re-enable Bluetooth, you must use a Bluetooth mouse or keyboard… That may sound a little silly, but it’s a situation which … Read More

If you spend a lot of time at the command line, you undoubtedly find yourself adjusting and editing text and commands, and you likely often need to move the cursor to a further position in the Terminal from where it’s actively located. Sure you can use the arrow keys to move left and right on … Read More

Many of the most modern Macs have processors which include a feature called Turbo Boost, this feature allows a processor to temporarily run above its standard clock rate when requested by the operating system. Turbo Boost can accelerate the performance of a Mac (or a PC for that matter) but it can also lead to … Read More

Some Mac users may encounter a stranger wi-fi issue where the wireless menu icon has an “X” in it, and the wi-fi dropdown menu says “Wi-Fi: No Hardware Installed”. Since we’re all dependent on wireless networking these days, having no functioning wi-fi connection can be very frustrating, but fortunately this is usually a really simple … Read More

A nice way to quickly visit your favorite website(s) is to add a website shortcut for that site to the Dock on Mac OS X. Once a website shortcut has been added to the Dock, simply clicking on it will both launch the browser and immediately load that site.

MacOS Sierra Public Beta is now available to download and install for any Mac user interested in testing the upcoming operating system. Remember that beta system software is less stable and notoriously buggy, so this experience is recommended for more advanced users or those with a secondary computer they don’t mind running beta system software … Read More

Mac administrators may find themselves in a situation where they need to display a list of all user accounts on a particular Mac by way of the command line. We’ll review a few methods for advanced individuals to list all accounts, both user and system, on any Mac with any version of Mac OS X … Read More

The Recovery partition in Mac OS X is an important component of a system install in that it allows you to troubleshoot a computer, repair drives, restore from backups, and even reinstall Mac OS if need be. Nonetheless, in some specific situations you may find that a Mac does not have a Recovery partition, usually … Read More

Polyglots, learners, and the bilingual often want to change their Mac system language for obvious reasons, but another less obvious situation can occur if you’re troubleshooting a Mac that either originates in another country, had the language changed at some point, or is just set to a different language. Since it can be pretty challenging … Read More

Mac Safari users may occasionally experience an issue where the web browser becomes unresponsive for an extended period of time, usually accompanied by the appearance of the spinning multi-color beach ball cursor. With a little digging under the hood, this almost always corresponds with the appearance of “Safari Web Process (Not Responding)” showing up in … Read More