It has been a little while since we’ve posted a featured Mac setup, but we’re back at it again with this weeks featured workstation. This time we’re going to share the desk setup of Richard R., who uses OS X, iOS, and Ubuntu Linux to run and operate his own IT consulting company out of Dallas Texas. Let’s jump right in and learn a bit more:
Some time ago, many Mac users signed up to participate in the OS X Public Beta program to try out and beta test OS X Yosemite before it was released to the wider public. Since then, being included in that public beta program makes those Macs also receive beta software builds for other updates to OS X as well, including smaller software point release beta builds and beta system software. If you’re not interested in seeing and receiving those beta software builds on your Mac any longer, you can opt out of receiving the pre-release software updates.
A notable number of iPhone users have experienced a truly peculiar happening with their iPhone and Siri after updating to the latest versions of iOS; the iPhone may start talking seemingly out of the blue.
If you’ve experienced this yourself, you know how jarring, weird, funny, and sometimes outright creepy it can be to have our favorite digital assistant start chiming in with various comments or commands apparently activating entirely on their own and unprovoked.
Naturally, the first thought is that Professor Stephen Hawking was prophetically right and that robots are taking over the world starting with our iPhones, right??! Ahhhhhh!
Apple has released another beta of OS X 10.10.2 Yosemite to those registered with the Mac Developer program. Officially labeled as “Pre-release: OS X Update Seed 10.10.2”, the second beta build arrives as 14C78c and is said to focus specifically on Wi-Fi. No other bugs or issues are mentioned in the brief download notes accompanying the release.
When you tap on the URL bar in Safari on your iPhone or iPad and enter a phrase or term to search for, that search gets carried over to a search engine to find results, and on you go (unless you’re opting for on-page search). Many users don’t realize this, but you can actually customize and change the default search engine used by Safari in iOS if you want to, which can be helpful for some users in locations where access to particular websites is controlled, or even if you just have a personal preference for one web search tool over another.
The Mac Preview app has long included the ability to digitally sign documents with a signature, but up until the most recent versions of Mac OS X, users had to basically sign a piece of paper and then use the Macs front-facing camera to ‘scan’ and digitize the signature. That has changed with modern releases of Mac OS, and if your Mac is running Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, or newer, you can now sign documents using just a trackpad.
Apple has released a series of small updates to the Safari web browser for users of OS X Yosemite, OS X Mavericks, and earlier versions of OS X including Mountain Lion. The contents of the updates vary per release, but include bug fixes and resolutions to some issues that users were experiencing with specific versions of the Mac web browser and the autofill feature.
The updates are versioned as Safari 8.0.1 for OS X 10.10, Safari 7.1.1 for OS X 10.9.5, and Safari 6.2.1 for OS X 10.8.5.
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When you send or receive a picture, audio message, gif, video, or file in the Messages app of Mac OS X, it obviously appears within the conversation window of that particular message, but those attachment files are also stored locally in a caches directory that can be accessed through the traditional file system of your Mac.
Many command line users are familiar with the ‘man’ command that will open a manual page for a specific command, but what if rather than a specific commands man page, you’re looking for a string match within all man pages? That’s what this tricks is for, so whether you’re trying to learn more about a specific process, daemon, configuration file, or whatever else, the Terminal app of OS X includes a really nifty quick search feature that allows users to instantly search the man page index for all matches.
The Messages app in the newest versions of Mac OS X and iOS support audio messaging, meaning you can quickly record and send an audio message or verbal note to someone right from the messages app on the Mac. Perhaps even better, the recipient of the audio message does not need to be on the latest and greatest release of Mac OS or iOS to be able to play and listen to the audio message.
If you’re the type of iPhone or iPad user who prefers to strictly control what alerts and notifications get pushed to their iOS device, you may be bothered by an unsolicited notification coming to your lock screen or the Notifications panel of iOS. Many apps will try to send you notifications by default, and even some of the Apple bundled apps will opt into that default as well. If those alerts bother you and quickly clearing them isn’t sufficient, the best thing you can do is to simply disable a specific apps ability to post a notification to your device.
Many Mac users go with the full sized Apple wired keyboard rather than a wireless keyboard so that they can have a dedicated number keypad on their keyboard. Sometimes that numeric pad seems to randomly stop working though, and suddenly numbers don’t type at all, which can be frustrating to say the least. To further complicate the matter, the Apple Wired Keyboard does not include a traditional “Num Lock” key like you’d find on most PC keyboards, so it can be difficult for switchers to easily identify if that’s related to the issue or not. Fortunately, for almost every occurrence where the number keypad has stopped working with a Mac keyboard, the resolution is easy.
Apple Maps in iOS includes a fun feature that allows you to take a 3D tour of major cities around the world, complete with rendered landmarks, buildings, and terrain. Called 3D Flyover, you can also choose to navigate around in the three dimensional view, to zoom, rotate, and tilt the viewing angle as desired.
A group of Chinese developers have released a new jailbreak called TaiG for iOS 8.1.1 and iOS 8.2 beta. The tool will apparently jailbreak any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that can run iOS 8.1.1 and existing iOS 8.2 beta versions, as well as earlier releases of iOS 8 software. Apple strongly advises against jailbreaking, and reserves the right to void warranty service to any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that has been modified with such a tool, making this a procedure that is best avoided by average iPhone users.
The Safari web browser has always included an ability to delete all web history, site data, searches, and cookies on a Mac, but the latest versions of Safari for Mac OS make this task even easier and offer a bit more control with four possible options, allowing users to perform removal of web browsing history at multiple levels, including any of the following; remove website data from only the prior hour of browsing, delete website history data from today, delete browser data from today and yesterday, or, go all out and remove all data from all time periods.
This article will show you how to clear web history in Safari on the Mac.
Many of us explored the array of new keyboard options available now that iOS supports third party keyboards, but if you’re anything like me you probably settled on one that worked for your typing needs (if not the iOS default and QuickType) and now your iPhone or iPad has multiple unused keyboards laying about. While there isn’t much harm to letting the unused keyboards sit idle on your iOS device, you may want to clean house and remove the unwanted options that were downloaded and installed onto your phone.
Apple has started to run another new iPhone 6 ad, titled “Voice Text”. The commercial features Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake discussing the ability to send voice clips through the messages app of iPhones.
Many of us use our iPhones and iPads in the kitchen to assist with recipes or even entertainment while cooking, and they work wonderfully for this purpose. But electronics and turkey gravy don’t mix well, and to have a hassle free experience you’ll want to follow a few simple tips to help prevent frustrations, a mess, or worse. So, keep your iPhone free of pumpkin pie mix, adjust a display setting, protect it from splashes, and work with a disposable stand, and you’ll be good to go.
