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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Stop Mac OS X from Automatically Downloading App and Mac OS X Updates

Jul 31, 2012 - 4 Comments
Stop automatic app downloads and updates in OS X Mountain Lion

Mac OS X has a handful of features that are dependent on a constant internet connection, and one of those is the new automatic update feature. Undeniably convenient, Mac OS X and all apps installed from the Mac App Store will automatically download and update themselves, but if you have metered internet or are using … Read More

Reset AutoCorrect on iPhone or iPad to Fix Improper Word Corrections

Jul 30, 2012 - 8 Comments
The iOS Keyboard

Autocorrect in iOS is pretty smart and usually gets things right, it also learns your habits and frequently typed words and will start autocorrecting what you type to the words you have used in the past. This can be a blessing and a curse, because if you accidentally corrected a word to a wrong one … Read More

Easily Edit Hosts File in Mac OS X from a Preference Pane

Jul 30, 2012 - 6 Comments
Edit hosts file easily from a preference panel in Mac OS X

The hosts file maps hostnames to IP addresses, it’s present in virtually every OS in some form or another and in Mac OS X it’s stored at /etc/hosts, which requires administrative privileges to modify and generally a jump to the command line. Editing the hosts file allows you to do a variety of things like … Read More

Get Old Exposé Back on the Mac with OS X Mountain Lion

Jul 30, 2012 - 10 Comments
Expose-style Window Management in OS X Mountain Lion

With OS X Lion, Exposé merged with Spaces and became Mission Control, as a result the behavior of one of many peoples favorite window management features changed; you could no longer see all windows from all apps in a single screen. Instead, app windows were grouped by application and stacked atop one another. That incredibly … Read More

How to Remove Dock Icons in OS X Mountain Lion & Mavericks

Jul 28, 2012 - 8 Comments
Remove Dock Icon from OS X Mountain Lion

Removing app icons from the Dock has been the same since the very beginning of Mac OS X: grab an icon and drag it off the Dock into a poof of dust, whereby the icon is no longer displayed in the Dock. That behavior has changed slightly with OS X Mountain Lion and carried through … Read More

Fix the “App can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer” Error in Mac OS X

Jul 27, 2012 - 80 Comments
App Can't be Opened from Unidentified Developer warning

Mac OS X defaults to preventing applications from unidentified developers or sources from being launched. You’ll discover the message in Mac OS when you try to launch a Mac app that didn’t come from a verified source or from the Mac App Store, and you’ll get an alert dialog that says “[App name] can’t be … Read More

How to Enable & Use Dictation on Mac OS

Jul 27, 2012 - 16 Comments
Turn on Dictation in OS X Mountain Lion

Dictation is available to the Mac with newer versions of system software, but despite being one of the major features of Mac OS you may find that it’s not enabled by default on some Macs. It’s easy to enable Dictation on a Mac though and it’s even easier to use, let’s get started to learn … Read More

Remove Leather UI from Contacts & Calendar in OS X Mountain Lion

Jul 27, 2012 - 9 Comments
Remove Leather UI from Mountain Lion apps

Skeumorphism seems to be here to stay, but if you’re bent on ridding OS X apps like Contacts (Address Book) and Calendar (iCal) of any traces of the stitched leather appearance, Mountain Tweaks makes it as easy as a couple of clicks for OS X Mountain Lion users. Get Mountain Tweaks free from TweaksApp Mountain … Read More

How to Re-Download OS X Mountain Lion Installer from the Mac App Store

Jul 26, 2012 - 31 Comments
Redownload the OS X Mountain Lion installer from the Mac App Store

After you’ve upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion on the primary Mac you bought it from, the installer app deletes itself from your /Applications/ folder. This makes sense for those who only own a single Mac, but if you plan on installing OS X Mountain Lion on multiple Macs or just want to create an … Read More

Get an RSS Subscribe Button in Safari 6 with the Subscribe to Feed Extension

Jul 26, 2012 - 2 Comments
RSS Subscribe button added to Safari 6 with an extension

Safari 6 is bundled with OS X Mountain Lion and it was just released for OS X Lion as well, and though it’s a very worthwhile update with some great features like the single search/url bar, one not-so-great change is the removal of the RSS subscribe button. The good news is a third party developer … Read More

Install & Upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion on Multiple Macs with a Single Purchase

Jul 26, 2012 - 27 Comments
Buy Mountain Lion once and install or upgrade all personal Macs

Multi-Mac households can buy OS X Mountain Lion once for $19.99 and use that single purchase to install and upgrade all of their other personal authorized Macs. This is allowed by Apple’s generous Mac App Store licensing agreement that began with Lion, and though most people don’t bother to read the fine print, here’s the … Read More

How to Clean Install OS X Mountain Lion

Jul 25, 2012 - 96 Comments
Clean Install OS X Mountain Lion

Though most users are best served by the easy upgrade process to OS X Mountain Lion through the Mac App Store, some people want to perform a clean install and start with a blank slate. A clean install means the drive is completely erased and Mac OS X 10.8 is installed fresh, nothing else is … Read More

Create an OS X Mountain Lion Installation Boot DVD or USB Drive with LionDiskMaker

Jul 25, 2012 - 15 Comments
Create a OS X Mountain Lion Boot Install DVD or USB Drive with LionDiskMaker

Mountain Lion is out! You can upgrade a Mac right out of the App Store, but some people prefer to make a boot disk. If you’re in that group, rather than making a bootable OS X Mountain Lion installer yourself the old fashioned way, you can do it all in a few clicks with the … Read More

3 Simple Things To Do Before Installing OS X Mountain Lion

Jul 24, 2012 - 38 Comments
Simple Things Before Installing OS X Mountain Lion

The release of OS X Mountain Lion is just around the corner (it’s official: July 25), but before jumping into the latest major Mac system update, you’ll want to do a few things. We’ve broken it down to a few simple essentials that are easy to follow:

Prioritize Wireless Networks in Mac OS X

Jul 24, 2012 - 6 Comments
Prioritize Wi-Fi Networks in Mac OS X

Open Wi-Fi networks are everywhere, if you’re stationed in an area with tons of them you’ll probably want to prioritize your own network to be the top wireless network to join so you don’t accidentally end up on someone elses unsecured network. Prioritizing is also a good idea if you use Personal Hotspot in public … Read More

Stop iPad Screen from Dimming or Locking Automatically

Jul 24, 2012 - 24 Comments
Stop iPad screen from dimming and locking itself

The iPad screen defaults to automatically dim itself and then turn itself off to black after a fairly short amount of time of inactivity. That’s great for preserving battery life of iOS devices, but if you’re like me you keep an iPad or iPhone alongside you full time while working as a control panel for … Read More

Rip the Audio Track from Video with QuickTime on Mac OS X

Jul 23, 2012 - 5 Comments
Rip Audio Tracks from Video using QuickTime

Though Mac OS X now includes built-in encoding tools to perform conversions of video to audio, you can also extract an audio track from a movie by using QuickTime Player. The great thing about ripping an audio track from a video this way is that mo downloads are necessary, and there is no enabling any … Read More

Prevent Apps from Being Deleted on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch

Jul 23, 2012 - 3 Comments
Prevent the Deletion of Apps in iOS

If you want to prevent someone from deleting apps on an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPhone, all you need to do is flick a Restrictions setting in iOS: Open “Settings” and tap on “General” Go to “Restrictions” and enter your pin code, locate “Deleting Apps” and switch to OFF Exit out of Settings You can … Read More

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