Tips & Tricks

Tips and tricks for all things Apple! Whether you want to learn tips for a Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or much more, you will find many tricks, tips, tutorials, and excellent walkthroughs for Apple devices and software here.

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Record Audio Output from a Mac the Easy Way with WavTap

Nov 16, 2012 - 12 Comments
Capture Mac audio easily with WavTap

Recording audio playing out from a Mac isn’t the easiest thing in the world, but that’s exactly what WavTap aims to resolve with a remarkably simple menu bar item. It makes capturing a Macs audio output extremely simple, leaving you with an audio file that you can then. WavTap is also completely free, which makes … Read More

How to Run Firefox OS Simulator

Nov 16, 2012 - 7 Comments
Firefox OS Simulator

Mozilla, the makers of Firefox (yes, the web browser), are working on a mobile operating system called Firefox OS. It’s based entirely on HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and is currently at very early stages of development, with an appearance that’s kind of like iOS meets Android with a side of Ubuntu. Whether or not Firefox … Read More

Stop Software Update from Bugging You in Mac OS X

Nov 15, 2012 - 35 Comments
Swipe to Ignore a Software Update Notification

Keeping software up to date is one of the top maintenance tips for Macs, but sometimes those Software Update notifications can be just plain annoying. Whether you’re just trying to focus on work, or the update that’s bugging you is irrelevant to your needs, here is every possible way you can stop software updating from … Read More

How to Determine if iPhone is GSM or CDMA

Nov 15, 2012 - 39 Comments
Determine if iPhone is GSM or CDMA

Most of us geekier folks instantly know if our iPhones are CDMA or GSM models, but not everyone pays as much attention to the largely insignificant technical details of their phones. Not to worry, it’s extremely easy to find out if an iPhone is GSM or CDMA, all you need to do is look at … Read More

What Does That Emoji Icon Mean Anyway?

Nov 15, 2012 - 17 Comments
What does an emoji character mean

If you’re new to Emoji, you’ll be forgiven for not knowing just what some of these icons and characters are supposed to mean. Many are common sense, while others are a bit of a mystery, but there’s an easy way to find out what a specific Emoji character means just by looking at the icon … Read More

Track Down an Apps Preference File Easily By Watching Modifications

Nov 14, 2012 - 10 Comments
Track down plist files of apps easily

If you’ve ever had to track down a particular plist file for an app you know how frustrating the process can be. Though preference files are usually named in a logical manner, that’s not always the case, and regardless the prefix of com.(developer).(application) is not always the easiest to navigate through. One method is to … Read More

Change the Home Button Click Speed for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Nov 13, 2012 - 3 Comments
Change the Home Button click speed in iOS

If you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you probably know by now that double-clicking and triple-clicking the Home button is required to perform some actions in iOS, like bringing up lock screen music controls, showing the multitasking bar, inverting the screen, enabling zoom, summoning Assistive Touch, or even turning on Guided Access to … Read More

4 Useful Trash Keyboard Shortcuts Every Mac User Should Know (Plus, 7 Bonus Trash Tips)

Nov 13, 2012 - 13 Comments
Trash Shortcuts in Mac OS X

Trash is one of those overlooked aspects of Mac OS X that you probably don’t think much about, most of us just drag a file into it, empty the Trash to delete a document and free up disk space, and that’s about it. That’s fine, but there are also a handful of genuinely useful keyboard … Read More

iOS 6: Open & Manage Up To 24 Browser Tabs in Safari for iPad

Nov 13, 2012 - 3 Comments
Safari tabs on iPad

If you use a lot of tabs while browsing the web, you’ll appreciate a subtle change to Safari for iPad that came along with iOS 6. You can now have up to 24 concurrent browser tabs open, a huge increase from the 8 tab limit in prior versions of iOS. While that 8 tab limit … Read More

Google Search for iOS is an Excellent Siri Alternative

Nov 12, 2012 - 6 Comments
Google Search as a Siri Alternative

We really like Siri and it’s undoubtedly useful, but unfortunately not all devices can run Siri, and sometimes Siri is just plain slow or doesn’t work. If you’re looking for an excellent Siri alternative that will run on everything, yes even iPhone 4 & iPhone 3GS, look no further than the latest versions of Google … Read More

Free Up Disk Space in Mac OS X with 5 Quick Tips

Nov 11, 2012 - 20 Comments
Huge swap and sleep image files in Mac OS X

Mac running out of disk space? Maybe you don’t have room for installing a new app, backing up a device, copying some files, or much of anything? If you’re running low on disk space or have ever received that dreaded “disk full” message when using a Mac, you know it can be pretty frustrating to … Read More

How to Skip Ahead & Rewind Podcasts on iPhone

Nov 9, 2012 - 4 Comments
Skip ahead and rewind podcasts in iOS

You can easily skip ahead and rewind in large blocks while listening to podcasts on the iPhone. This is a helpful feature of the Podcasts app in iOS for many reasons, perhaps you missed a section and want to rewind and hear it again, or maybe you want to skip ahead through an uninteresting segment. … Read More

How to Generate & Change a MAC Address in OS X the Easy Way

Nov 9, 2012 - 18 Comments
Change a MAC Address easily in OS X with LinkLiar

If you need to change a computers MAC address (the unique ID attached to a physical network interface), but aren’t comfortable with the command line approaches that we’ve discussed before, an excellent free preference panel called LinkLiar makes it easy. Not only does LinkLiar make changing MAC addresses remarkably simple for any network interface on … Read More

Limit Application Usage in Mac OS X with Parental Controls

Nov 8, 2012 - 1 Comment
Restrict App Usage in Mac OS X

If you want to restrict app usage for a particular user on a Mac, there is no easier option than Parental Controls. This is a great solution for parents setting up a limited-access account for a kid, for public usage Macs, Macs in the enterprise, or even just for a restricted Guest account for when … Read More

Compare Contents of Two Directories from the Command Line

Nov 8, 2012 - 8 Comments
Compare directory contents from command line

To compare and list the different contents of two directories without the extra output you get through commands like diff, you can use the comm command instead. To get started, launch Terminal and type the following command, adjusting the directory paths as appropriate: comm -3 <(ls -1 folder1) <(ls -1 folder2) The output listed will … Read More

Shoot Vertical Panorama Photos on iPhone

Nov 8, 2012 - 1 Comment
Vertical panorama on iPhone

The iPhone’s excellent panorama mode allows for easy vertical panoramic shots as well. Shooting panorama mode in vertical orientation is perfect for taking pictures of tall trees, waterfalls, buildings, or anything else that is taller than the standard range provides. This guide will show you how to switch Panorama mode into vertical mode, to snap … Read More

Turn Any Website Into a Self-Contained Mac App with Fluid

Nov 7, 2012 - 16 Comments
A website turned app by Fluid in Mac OS X

Fluid is a great Mac app that converts any specified web site into it’s own self-contained application, allowing you to do things like turn Gmail, Facebook, Wikipedia, Soundcloud, and Pandora, into their own dedicated app. Other than being useful for creating apps exclusively for particular websites, Fluid is also great for those of us who … Read More

Share Pictures Easily with Photo Streams in iOS

Nov 7, 2012 - 7 Comments
Using Photo Streams in iOS

Photo Streams are a great addition to iOS, but thus far seem to be an underused feature. With Photo Stream, you can easily share a collection of images with a select group of people, without having to go through the usual avenues of social networks. Instead, you create an instant gallery right out of the … Read More

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