The Mac includes a variety of powerful wireless network tools that offer many features which are helpful for administration and IT purposes, including the ability to sniff packets. Here we will demonstrate how to perform a packet trace in OS X easily by using the built-in Wi-Fi Diagnostics app. Using Wi-Fi Diagnostics Sniffer function is simple, and it requires no additional downloads nor does it require the usage of the command line.

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For some iMac users running OS X 10.10.3 (even post Supplemental Update 1), a software update is available that aims to resolve a peculiar bug that caused many iMacs to stall or crash when viewing JPEG image files in the Mac Finder or Preview app.

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The ability to quickly jump to a photo in the Finder file system of Mac OS has changed in the new Photos app. For now, the traditional “Reveal In Finder” option in Photos app for Mac OS X is missing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t show the original file in the Finder or access the photos from the Mac file system.

There are actually a few ways to access the original image file in the Finder from Photos app, and one method works almost exactly to the “Show In Finder” option that used to exist in iPhoto and Aperture. Read on to learn three different ways to reveal an original image file in the Mac Finder from Photos app for Mac.

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Led by CEO Tim Cook, Apple has been making notable efforts toward being a more environmentally responsible corporate citizen, investing in solar farms, hydropower efforts, renewable forests, recycling programs, and other projects which are generally considered positive given that humans currently live on planet Earth and lack a backup planet (sorry, there’s no Time Machine app for Earth – but if there was… dinosaurs!).

Apple even now has a nice subsection of their website devoted to covering their environmental efforts, and like many other sections of the Apple site, it’s filled with beautiful high resolution images that can be extracted and used as some lovely background wallpaper for the Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or heck, even a Windows PC or Android.

To celebrate Earth Day, here are nine absolutely lovely HD wallpapers of various environmental related projects that Apple is participating in, directly from the Apple website.

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Photos app is a great app to manage and browse large collections of pictures on a Mac, but some users prefer to manually sort their pictures using the file system of OS X, which means that if you add those pictures into Photos app they will be copied into the Photos library. That’s the intended behavior, but essentially that means Photos app defaults to creating duplicates of pictures that are manually added through the Finder or Import function, as the original picture stays in it’s origin location, but then a copy of the image is duplicated into the Photos Library.photoslibrary package in the user Pictures/ directory. By disabling the Importing feature, you will be able to use Photos app as a front-end photo browser to an existing folder hierarchy of images.

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By default, the Mac OS X Console app view is quite simple, displaying events and logs in nothing but plain text, which makes it not very different from viewing system logs from the command line on a Mac. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if you’re a Mac user who spends a fair amount of time with Console app for troubleshooting, administrative, or development purposes, you can improve your Console experience by making the app much easier to scan and read by adjusting some handy view options.

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Mac users can quickly disconnect from a wi-fi network by using the wireless menu in Mac OS X. This simple task is incredibly useful for managing and juggling multiple networks, whether for something as simple as using iPhone Wi-Fi Hotspot or even a more advanced task like packet sniffing.

It’s important to note disconnecting is not the same as turning off wi-fi entirely, as disconnecting keeps the Mac wi-fi card active and on and instead disassociates and disconnects from the currently connected wireless network.

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New versions of iOS offer an interesting featured called Suggested Apps, which uses your current location to recommend or suggest an app to use or download based on where you are and what you may be doing. For example, if you walk into a Starbucks, the Starbucks app could be recommended on the lock screen of your iPhone, or in the app switcher screen. The suggested apps are fairly subtle and many users probably won’t even notice them, displaying as a little faint icon in the bottom left corner of the iOS lock screen, across from the camera icon, basically in the same placement as Handoff icons appear on an iOS screen. Despite being very understated, not all users want suggested apps appearing unsolicited on the screens of their iPhone and iPad.

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This weeks featured Mac setup is the awesome workstation of Spiros P., the owner of a production company who has a really great pro setup.

Let’s jump in and learn a little bit more and see some more great setup pictures.

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Mac users coming from iPhoto may wish to move an iPhoto Library to the new Photos app. While importing is an option when first setting up the Photos app in OS X, many users many have skipped the initial setup screens and missed that opportunity to import pictures and images into Photos from apps like Aperture and iPhoto. Fortunately, it’s very easy to add an iPhoto library into the Mac Photos app at any time.

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Some Mac users have experienced a variety of performance issues with OS X El Capitan and Yosemite, ranging from a sluggish and problematic Finder, to WindowServer going crazy pegging the processor, to assorted wi-fi difficulties. While OS X 10.10.3 has helped address some of the trouble, another issue appears to have popped up for a select group of users, where opening a folder is incredibly slow, taking multiple seconds before the contents of a folder populate. The very slow folder opening experience can happen in any Open or Save dialog box or the Finder of OS X, or just about anywhere else you may be working with the file system on the Mac.

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Apple has released the first beta version of OS X 10.10.4 to those registered with the Mac Developer program.

Few specifics are offered in the release notes for build 14E7f, simply stating that 10.10.4 “improves the stability, compatibility, and security” of a Mac.

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Apple has released a supplemental update to OS X 10.10.3, aimed at resolving startup problems encountered by users who happen to be running some apps that capture video.

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When you connect a power source to an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or MacBook, a familiar charging chime sound will trigger from the device, indicating that a cable is attached and the device is getting power. If you like hearing that auditory confirmation that a device is getting power, you can add the exact same audio playback feature to any MacBook Pro or MacBook Air by turning to the command line of MacOS and Mac OS X. You’ll even get an onscreen visual cue on the Mac indicating where the battery charge is, which looks straight out of iOS as well.

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Apple Pay will default to using the first credit card or credit card added to an iPhone for purchases, even if you have added multiple cards. Your first card may not be the account you want to default charges to however, thus some users may wish to change the default card in Apple Pay.

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Now that many of our Emoji characters have various skin tones in iOS and OS X, you may want to access and use the new diverse emoji icon set on the Mac. This is quite simple, but do note that not all Emoji have the diverse skin and hair color options.

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Apple has announced their annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will take place June 8 through June 12 in San Francisco, California.

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Apple has released the first beta version of iOS 8.4 to those registered with the iOS Developer program. The first iOS 8.4 build arrives as 12H407d and looks to prominently feature a freshly redesigned Music app with several new features.

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