Many Mac applications and downloads arrive as a PKG package file, but have you ever wanted to open a PKG file to view exactly what is being installed and where it’s going from the source .pkg? Assuming you get a .pkg installer from a trusted source like Apple there is generally nothing to be concerned with about running a package installer file, but not all PKG installers are as trustworthy. Additionally, sometimes people are just curious about what exactly is going on behind the scenes, and what is going to be run by the package installer and where it intends to put files on a Mac.

This is where the amusingly named ‘Suspicious Package’ application comes in to play, it’s a free Mac app which allows the opening and inspection of PKG installer files before the installation is actually executed, giving you a look at what is going to happen when the PKG is run.

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Some Mac users may require the ability to erase a disk or erase a hard drive from the command line on Mac OS, a task which is typically performed through the Disk Utility application from the GUI. The command line approach to disk erasure in macOS is a bit different and it requires precise syntax to insure that you are erasing the proper disk, making this method of erasing any disk only appropriate for advanced Mac users.

This guide will walk through how to erase and format an entire target disk using exclusively the command line on any Mac using macOS or Mac OS X. You can choose any common file system format the disk to after it has been erased, including ExFAT, FAT32, HFS+, or JHFS+.

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Apple has released a new beta version of macOS Sierra for public beta and developer beta testers, versioned as Mac OS 10.12 developer beta 8 and Mac OS 10.12 public beta 7.

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Apple will be hosting a media event on September 7, according to invitations sent to select members of the press and a notification posted to apple.com. The event will be held at 10:00 am PST in San Francisco, California, and the event keynote will live streamed through the web.

It is widely assumed the upcoming next generation iPhone will be the primary focus of the event, perhaps labeled as “iPhone 7” though some rumors suggest it will be called “iPhone 6 SE” or some other naming variation. Additionally, rumors speculate that Apple Watch 2 will debut at the event.

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There may come a time when you need to save or convert a Microsoft Word Doc or DOCX file to PDF format from a Mac. The advantages to saving a Word DOC as PDF are notable in that the PDF file becomes universally readable by any operating system with a PDF reader, even without the Microsoft Office suite, and preserved in it’s original formatting.

There are several different methods of saving a Word doc as a PDF, and for converting an existing Word DOC/DOCX file to PDF, both of which use the Microsoft Office Word app on the Mac to get the job done. Let’s review how to perform this action.

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Back by popular demand, Mac setups are here again! Here we are featuring the stellar workstation of a pro audio engineer… let’s dive in and check out the setup.

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Command line users are undoubtedly familiar with man pages, or manual pages, that contain details, help, and documentation to specified commands and functions. Referencing a man page can be essential when trying to learn proper syntax or how a command works, but with how large some manual pages are it can be a real drag to scroll through the entire man page to try and find a relevant portion. Additionally sometimes you just don’t know exactly which manual page you should look for relevant data for. Fortunately there are two search tools to search man pages and quickly find and access exactly what you’re looking for, whether finding and matching a string or search term in a currently active man page or by searching all manual pages for a match.

Searching man pages works the same in just about any unix based command line, whether it’s Mac OS, Linux, BSD, or whatever else. Here’s how it works:

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Photos app for Mac can not only manage your photos, but also any of videos that have been copied into Photos app from an iPhone or camera as well. If you have a movie file in Photos on the Mac that you like but it’s just a bit too long, or perhaps the action scene is in the middle of the movie, you can use the Trim function in Photos to reduce the video and trim it down to the section you want to show in the movie.

Using Trim works with any movie or video that is stored within Photos for Mac, it’s pretty simple too, here’s how it works.

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Apple has released new beta builds of iOS 10 to users enrolled in the developer beta and public beta testing programs. The latest developer beta of iOS 10 is beta 8, with a simultaneous iOS 10 public beta 7 release also available.

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Apple has released iOS 9.3.5 for all compatible iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices. The small update appears to include important security fixes and is therefore recommended for all users to install.

Updating to iOS 9.3.5 is easy as we’ll walk through below, and advanced users can also choose to use the IPSW firmware files to update manually with iTunes if desired.

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If you’ve ever encountered a lengthy document or webpage that you want the gist of, but don’t have the time to read or scan through, you can use the excellent Summarize Service in Mac OS X to summarize the text for you.

Summarize is adjustable as well, meaning you can choose how dense or light you want the summary to be. You can pick paragraphs or sentences, and adjust the length of the summary, which can vary from a simple outline condensed from the document, to a nearly cliff-notes like version of the text in question, or anything in between.

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Safari Tabs let you maintain many different webpages and web sites on the iPhone, switching through them as necessary to review different sites and content. For those of us who open a ton of tabs in iOS Safari, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by huge numbers of tabs as you browse more sites and pages over time.

There are two ways to close open Safari Tabs on the iPhone and iPod touch, we’ll cover them both. And yes this applies to iPad too, but the iPad Safari app has a slightly different interface, thus the focus here is on the iPhone version.

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As many users know, using Two-Factor authentication for an Apple ID provides an additional layer of security for your Apple and iCloud login by requiring a pin code to be entered from an approved device before the Apple ID can be accessed. But the two factor auth feature is really built for modern iOS versions, and older iPhone and iPad models can have some difficulty with the feature, since there is no code prompt that appears on those older versions of iOS. So what do you do? How do you log in with two-factor authentication on an older iOS version where there is no code prompt?

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The Mail app for Mac will automatically check email accounts for new mail, and with a little customization you can even adjust how often it refreshes and checks for new emails as well.

Those settings work fine for many users, but another option is to manually refresh and force a check for new email by pressing a keyboard shortcut. This causes the Mail app in Mac OS X (or macOS) to contact the email servers and retrieve any new mail instantly.

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Apple has released the seventh beta version of macOS Sierra to users participating in the Mac developer beta testing program. The same build is also available to public beta release testers versioned as macOS Sierra public beta 6.

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If you have ever recorded a video or movie and found that some of the surrounding frame is unnecessary or irrelevant, you can use an editing function to crop down the video to focus on what should be the focus of the movie. This tutorial will show you how to quickly crop a video on the Mac by using iMovie.

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Cleaning the keyboard on a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air is a necessary chore from time to time, but it can also be more challenging than expected as anyone who has done so can attest. The moment you start wiping down the Mac keyboard, it’s inevitable for keys to be pressed, and as a result, things are typed, applications are accessed, messages are sent, improper code is written, gobbledegook is made, amongst other potential mishaps. Of course with a desktop Mac, you can simply disconnect the keyboard, but that isn’t possible on any laptop in the MacBook line. You can’t put the Mac to sleep because then hitting a key would wake it up, and you don’t want to shut down the Mac because aside from being inconvenient, you almost certainly want to clean the power key as well.

This is where a little app that has been around for ages called Keyboard Cleaner comes in to play, it locks down the Mac keyboard and rejects all input (aside from the quit command) so that you can press as many keys as needed as you wipe down and clean the keyboard. Once you’re finished, you leave the app. Easy. So, let’s walk through how to use Keyboard Cleaner in Mac OS X to properly clean the keyboard on a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air.

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Apple has released yet another beta release of iOS 10. The new build arrives as Developer Beta 7 and iOS 10 Public Beta 6, and as usual is compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices which support the iOS 10 release.

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