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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Start an Apache Web Server in Mac OS X El Capitan, Mavericks, & Mountain Lion

Sep 2, 2012 - 65 Comments
Apache web server running in Mac OS X Mountain Lion

The Sharing preference panel options were changed a bit in OS X Mountain Lion and again in Mavericks, and while things like Internet Sharing remain, the Web Sharing preference panel was removed. The Apache web server remains bundled with Mac OS X though, but you’ll need to turn to the command line to enable the … Read More

Play Chess Online in Mac OS X Against Friends or Random Opponents

Sep 1, 2012 - 3 Comments
Start new internet Chess game in Mac OS X

You can play Chess over the internet with friends or random opponents with the help of GameCenter in Mac OS X. It’s entirely free, comes with every version of OS X on every Mac, and doesn’t require any downloads, which makes it particularly convenient. If you already have a GameCenter account from the iOS world … Read More

Control iTunes from the Menu Bar in Mac OS X with Significator

Sep 1, 2012 - 12 Comments
Control iTunes from Menu Bar in Mac OS X with Significator

Want to control iTunes without flipping to the app and disrupting your workflow? Maybe find a new song or skip the current one? The Mac menu bar is the perfect place for those kind of actions, so do yourself a favor and grab Significator. Significator is a great looking app that lets you control iTunes … Read More

How to Have iPhone or iPad Read Emails To You & Speak to Write Back

Aug 31, 2012 - 6 Comments
Speak emails to you in iOS

Want to have your emails read to you? How about talking to write out a reply rather than poking around on the touch screen? You can easily do both in iOS, so the next time you need to read and write emails while you’re on the go or driving, consider using the awesome text-to-speech and … Read More

How to Disable “Go To Folder” in Mac OS X

Aug 31, 2012 - 9 Comments
Disable Go To Folder in Mac OS X

The Go To Folder command is one of the most useful features in the OS X Finder, letting you quickly navigate deep into directory structures without having to click around. But it can also be used to access folders you may not want users to get to, be it /System/ directories or the Library folders. … Read More

How to Change the Software Update Frequency in MacOS X

Aug 30, 2012 - 7 Comments
Change Software Update check frequency in OS X Mountain Lion

Do you want to change how often Mac OS checks for available software updates? It’s possible to adjust the Mac software update frequency with a little effort. Mac OS X now automatically checks for software updates, and a notification pops up if you have updates available. But unlike older versions of Mac OS X, there … Read More

Change the Font Size of Messages in Mac OS X

Aug 30, 2012 - 3 Comments
Change Text Size in iMessages for Mac OS X

Messages app Preferences in OS X defaults to greying out the “Set Font…” option, a peculiar choice considering a fair amount of people like to change the font size of their instant messages to make it easier to read. That doesn’t mean you can’t change the text size though, and there’s a simple solution that … Read More

Live Stream an iPhone or iPad Screen & Broadcast to the Web or iMessages

Aug 30, 2012 - 5 Comments
Live Stream an iOS Screen to the World

Have you ever wanted to broadcast a live stream of your iPhone or iPad screen to a group of people? Or maybe you just want to demonstrate something on your iPhone to a single person? You can easily livestream iOS screens to the world either through the web or iMessages.

Java 7 Security Vulnerability Discovered, Here’s How To Protect Yourself

Aug 29, 2012 - 8 Comments
Java Security Problem

A new potentially dangerous Java security vulnerability has been discovered that could allow malicious code to run on a Java-enabled computer, be it a Mac or Windows PC. Most Mac users will be safe from the vulnerability because OS X Mountain Lion does not include Java by default, and OS X Lion includes an older … Read More

Disable the iTunes Store to Prevent Unwanted Purchases

Aug 29, 2012 - 3 Comments
Disable iTunes Store access and prevent purchases of apps and content

One of the best ways to kid-proof (and generally fool proof) an iPhone or iPad is to turn off in-app purchases. That’s great for the iOS world, but for the desktop you can do something similar by disabling access to the iTunes Store completely, this will prevent unintended purchases of apps, music, movies, books, or … Read More

Save Images as GIF & Other Image Formats in Preview for Mac OS X

Aug 29, 2012 - 6 Comments
Save Image as Other Image Formats with Preview in OS X

Preview is a great basic image editing app bundled with Mac OS X, but newer versions of Mac OS have simplified the available image Export Format options down to JPEG, JPEG 2000, OpenEXR, PDF, PNG, and TIFF. Or at least that’s what you see on first glance, but it turns out you can still access … Read More

Show Live Traffic in Google Maps on iPhone & iPad

Aug 28, 2012 - 11 Comments
Show Traffic on Maps for iPhone

The next time you’re using Maps on an iPhone or iPad to get directions to get from point A to point B, do yourself a huge favor and use the Live Traffic feature to help plan your route. From the Maps app here is see live traffic in any area: Tap the page curl icon … Read More

Put Dashboard Widgets into Folders in OS X

Aug 28, 2012 - Leave a Comment
Dashboard widgets in a Folder in OS X Mountain Lion

Dashboard got a user interface overhaul with new versions of OS X and it now more closely resembles – surprise surprise – iOS and OS X’s very own Launchpad. You’ll find the new look when you go to add a widget to the Dashboard, and just like iOS you can now arrange all those widgets … Read More

Move a File to iCloud from Mac OS

Aug 28, 2012 - 6 Comments
Move a File to iCloud from Mac OS X

The latest versions of Mac OS let you move files directly into iCloud from your Mac, these files can then be opened on any other Mac or iOS device set up with the same iCloud account. This is extremely convenient if you want to quickly move a file around but don’t want to copy it … Read More

How to Add & Merge Calls on iPhone to Create a Conference Call

Aug 27, 2012 - 4 Comments
Add and Merge Calls on iPhone to Make a Conference Call

You can easily start and create conference calls on the iPhone regardless of what cell provider, network, or iOS version yo use. In fact, the iPhone phone app itself has a great feature that lets you add additional callers to any existing conversation or phone call, joining the calls together to create a conference call, … Read More

Enable “Save As” in OS X El Capitan, Yosemite, Mountain Lion, & OS X Mavericks

Aug 27, 2012 - 52 Comments
Save As in OS X menu item

Mac users with Mac OS X Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan, and Mountain Lion finally have the option to bring back the much-loved “Save As” feature that was removed from Lion. It’s slightly hidden though, and there’s a few quirks with it, but we’ll show you how to access “Save As” and even better, how to … Read More

Get Battery Time Remaining Alerts in OS X Notification Center

Aug 27, 2012 - 8 Comments
Set battery percentages for alerts to Notification Center

If you have a Mac laptop you probably know by now that OS X Mountain Lion removed the Time Remaining option from the menubar battery indicator, opting instead to show an iOS-like percentage left. For many of us, knowing the remaining battery life is valuable information, and thanks to a great free app you can … Read More

Arrange Notification Center by Time in OS X

Aug 26, 2012 - Leave a Comment
Arrange Notification Center by Time of Alert in Mac OS X

The default setting for Notification Center in both Mac OS X and iOS is to sort alerts from apps manually, a setting which doesn’t make much sense if you use Notifications as a timeline of events and want the most recent always on top. Fortunately, changing Notification Center to arrange alerts by time is as … Read More

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