Tips & Tricks

Did you know that multimedia file icons can serve double purpose as media playback? Yes indeed, you can actually play any mp3 or audio file directly in the Mac OS X Finder by using this little known icon playback trick.

This is a handy Finder tip for those who like to use the Column View of the OS X file manager: you can zoom into the Mac OS X Finder Column View Preview panes. Here’s how this works using either a key modifier or multitouch trackpad:

Your Mac includes a pretty good video player called QuickTime Player, but by default QuickTime won’t play some of the more unique codecs like DivX. You can enable full DivX support by downloading a free QuickTime Player plugin called Perian. Using QuickTime as a Free DiVX Player on the Mac Here’s how to get QuickTime … Read More

Along with the release of the newer iOS updates and new versions of redsn0w, came the return of the so called “tethered jailbreak” which has caused some confusion as to it’s definition. I’ll explain what a tethered jailbreak is versus an untethered jailbreak, and why one is better than the other. If you want the … Read More

Bored with how your iPhone and iPad folders are looking? Well you can really stylize things by using wingdings and emoji icons to customize iOS folder labels. This gives each folder a much more interesting appearance, complete with little icons alongside the name. The first thing you’ll want to do is be sure you have … Read More

IPSW stands rather simply for iOS Software, and IPSW files are basically just individual firmware downloads for specific iOS devices. These files can be used to update iOS devices manually with the help of iTunes or Finder. If you’ve recently downloaded an iOS IPSW file, you might be curious how to use it to update … Read More

This is a really cool trick that is not well known; many documents are a bit interactive in the Finder of Mac OS X, without ever having to open the file in another application, or even having to use Quick Look. In this case, a PDF file that is multiple pages long can be flipped … Read More

Facebook is a great way to stay connected to people and has plenty of benefits, but that’s not why we’re here, we’re here to block access to Facebook. Why? Well, there are many reasons to block the site, companies often block the site to prevent employees from accessing it on company time, and parents may … Read More

Knowing your Mac’s IP address is important for setting up a network or sharing files, here’s two different ways to find your IP address in Mac OS X; an easy way through the GUI and a more technical approach with the command line. These methods will be the same whether you are connected via ethernet … Read More

Want to time stamp a conversation or a message in the iChat messaging client? You can do that quickly with a keystroke on the iChat app in Mac OS X.

You can block all the Facebook ads and reskin the site into a more simplistic interface (similar to Twitter really) by installing a third party browser extension called Facebook Neue. Along with blocking the sites ads, it moves the UI into a two column layout, hides a few of the sidebar options, removes application links … Read More

If you need to record screen activity on a Mac, you don’t need to download any additional software because the functionality is built directly into Mac OS X with the QuickTime app. Yes, the same QuickTime video player app that lets you watch videos also lets you record the screen of the Mac, and it’s … Read More

I use TextEdit often for simple text editing and note taking, but you can also use TextEdit as an outliner and avoid downloading another application. Yes seriously, the TextEdit that comes on all versions of Mac OS X can function quite well as a basic outline app.

You can fast forward or quickly rewind any video playing in QuickTime Player in Mac OS X (or Windows if you go that direction) by using a trackpad or magic mouse. This is really easy to use but it’s best followed along and tried out yourself than just reading a tutorial, so launch QuickTime Player … Read More

Resetting your PRAM (or NVRAM) is a common troubleshooting technique when a Mac is misbehaving. We’ll cover how to reset PRAM on any Mac, as well as providing some additional information about PRAM and what it is to better help you understand when and why you’d want to reset it.

If you bought an iPhone app and it didn’t work on your device due to technical failures or limitations, or perhaps the app purchase was made in error by a child or someone else using your device, you may be eligible for a refund from Apple. Apple will selectively refund app purchases, though it’s not … Read More

You can mute the quack sound that your Mac makes when adjusting audio levels by adjusting a system preference setting. Yes, that means you can completely turn it off and stop the little quack / pop sound from happening anytime the volume changes. Here is what you will want to do in OS X:

I know you’ve always thought to yourself, wouldn’t it be great if my Mac could see me songs? Or wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could make someone elses Mac sing songs? Well, you’re going to be thrilled to discover that, yes, your Mac can actually sing, thanks to the text-to-speech engine and the intonation … Read More