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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How to Use Synergy to Share a Single Keyboard & Mouse Between Multiple Macs & Computers

Apr 13, 2012 - 40 Comments
Share Keyboard and Mouse in Synergy

Want to share a single keyboard and mouse between multiple Macs? How about using a keyboard and mouse attached to your Mac to control an additional PC running Windows or Linux, and even being able to share copy and paste data between the different operating systems? You can do that with the help of a … Read More

Preview & Watch Videos Directly in Spotlight for Mac

Apr 13, 2012 - Leave a Comment
Watch or Preview Video and Movies in Spotlight

Modern versions of Mac OS X allow videos and movie files to be previewed and played directly in the Spotlight search results menu. This works with any supported movie or video file type that can be played in QuickTime. To try this out for yourself:

Force iOS Devices to Recalculate “Other” Capacity in iTunes

Apr 12, 2012 - 35 Comments
iTunes Other Capacity

The “Other” capacity in iTunes is supposed to estimate the size of system software, contacts, Messages data, and things that are not listed elsewhere in the labeled capacities list of storage on an iOS device. Sometimes other data will become mislabeled or misappropriated to the “Other” category, and suddenly it’s reported as being much larger … Read More

Disable the File Extension Change Warning in Mac OS X

Apr 11, 2012 - 3 Comments
File Extension change warning in OS X

Assuming you have file extensions shown in the OS X Finder, attempting to change a file extension causes a warning dialog with a confirmation box to appear. The warning text says “Are you sure you want to change the extension from (this) to (that)?” then giving you two choices; keep the current file extension, or … Read More

8 Great Ways to Use Air Display & iPad

Apr 11, 2012 - 15 Comments
Mac with Air Display on iPad

If you saw our Air Display review you’ll know it’s a pretty awesome app that lets you turn an iPad into an external display for a Mac or PC ($10 on the App Store). If you bought it and haven’t figured out what to do with it yet, here are eight of our favorite ways … Read More

Is It Better to Shut Down, Sleep, or Leave a Mac Turned On When Not Being Used?

Apr 10, 2012 - 94 Comments
Should a Mac go to Sleep, Shutdown, or Stay On?

When it’s not in use, do you shut down your Mac, put it to sleep, or just keep it turned on? Is one choice better than the others? Why and why not? These are great questions, so let us review the choices and why you may want to choose one over the other. Sleeping a … Read More

Stop iPad Picture Frame from Zooming in on Faces

Apr 10, 2012 - Leave a Comment
Stop iPad from Zooming in on Faces in Picture Frame

The iPad picture frame app is a nice way to put a stale iPad to use as it sits on a desk. That resulting live picture frame is made even better when a custom album is created for the purpose, but if you use photos of people you’ll find that Picture Frame automatically zooms in … Read More

Detect FlashBack Malware in Mac OS X the Easy Way

Apr 9, 2012 - 18 Comments
Easy Flashback virus malware detection

Update: Apple has released an official update that removes Flashback with a Software Update. Download the latest Java updates from the OS X Software Update panel to automatically remove Flashback trojan malware. A new application has been released which makes checking a Mac for the Flashback malware infection as simple as clicking a button. This … Read More

Enable Half-Star Ratings in iTunes

Apr 9, 2012 - 7 Comments
Half Star Ratings in iTunes

iTunes allows users to rate songs on a 1 star to 5 star basis, song rating data can then be used for a variety of purposes, either for your own reference or for creating custom play lists that only include songs rated over a certain star value. But what if a song is somewhere in … Read More

How to Unlock an iPhone with AT&T

Apr 9, 2012 - 380 Comments
Unlock iPhone with AT&T

As expected, you can now unlock an iPhone that is out of contract with AT&T. The process is very straight forward and simple assuming you meet the basic requirements. Requirements: iPhone not in contract with AT&T, either having completed a contract or purchased without contract AT&T account in good standing iPhone IMEI number If you … Read More

8 Simple Tips to Secure a Mac from Malware, Viruses, & Trojans

Apr 7, 2012 - 80 Comments
Disable Java in Safari

The recent outbreak of the Flashback trojan (Apple released an update and fix, get it!) has brought a lot of attention to potential viruses and trojans hitting the Mac platform. Most of what you’ll read is overblown fear mongering hype, and practically all Mac malware has come through third party utilities and applications. What that … Read More

Stop iPhone Pop-Ups Asking to Join Wi-Fi Networks

Apr 7, 2012 - 21 Comments
Stop Wi-Fi Popup Alerts on iPhone

Annoyed by those persistent wi-fi network popups that show up on the iPhone or iPad screen every time a wireless network is in range? You can disable the wi-fi joining alerts completely by preventing the iPhone from searching for unknown networks. This works on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch the same way, and it … Read More

Disable Google Chrome Automatic Software Update on Mac

Apr 6, 2012 - 17 Comments
Google Chrome automatic update

Google Chrome automatically updates itself in the background when a new version is out, this takes responsibility out of user hands and makes it simple to keep up to date with the latest version of the Chrome app for Mac. Generally you should leave automatic update enabled for Chrome, if not for its ease than … Read More

3 Ways to Make Phone Calls from the iPad or iPod touch

Apr 6, 2012 - 25 Comments
iPad phone

Want to use the iPad or iPod touch as a phone? You can do that. With Skype or Google Voice you can turn your standard wi-fi iPad into a VOIP phone, and you’ll be able to make and receive phone calls and text messages directly from the iPad or iPod. These apps are free to … Read More

Drag & Drop from Spotlight in Mac OS X to Move & Open Files

Apr 6, 2012 - 7 Comments
Drag and drop from Spotlight

You can drag and drop files directly from Spotlight to elsewhere in the Mac OS X Finder. This allows Spotlight search to function as a sort of basic file manager, not quite like the Finder, but at least for quickly locating and moving a document of any type on the Mac to another location, or … Read More

How to Create a Tar GZip File from the Command Line

Apr 5, 2012 - 16 Comments
How to Create a Tar GZip Archive Bundle

You’re probably familiar with making your own zip files if you’ve ever needed to transfer a group of files or if you’re managing your own backups outside of Time Machine. Using the GUI zip tools are easy and user friendly, but if you want some more advanced options with better compression you can turn to … Read More

How to Check for the Flashback Trojan in Mac OS X

Apr 5, 2012 - 35 Comments
Check for Flashback Trojan

Update: Apple has released a Java software update that includes automatic detection and Flashback removal ability. Go to “Software Update” from the  Apple menu to download that update and automatically remove the trojan if you happen to have it on your Mac. Trojans and viruses are generally something Mac users don’t have to worry … Read More

Set Archives to Automatically Delete After Expansion in Mac OS X

Apr 5, 2012 - 2 Comments
Delete Archive After Expanding

Archives can be deleted automatically after expansion with the help of a hidden preference panel in Mac OS X. This little known ability is an option in Archive Utility, which is the engine and settings controls to the Mac decompression agent that launches anytime you open a zip, sit, tgz, or other archive file formats … Read More

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