Fixing Odd Mac Mouse or Trackpad Behaviors & Random Clicks

Aug 1, 2014 - 39 Comments

Apple Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad weird behavior resolutions

The mouse and trackpad are pretty essential to desktop Mac users, so if the input devices start acting up with mystery clicks, clicks not registering, erratic motions, and other weird behavior, you have good reason to be frustrated.

This article will troubleshoot unusual mouse and trackpad behavior that may be happening on a Mac. Things like random clicks, or ignored clicks, or strange cursor movements, and other unexpected mouse and trackpad activity can likely be remedied with the solutions provided here. First we’ll review some potential hardware issues, and then cover a software solution that can often remedy a problematic pointing device.

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By Paul Horowitz - Mac OS, Troubleshooting - 39 Comments

How to Completely Remove Apps & Software in Mac OS X by Manual Terminal Uninstall

Jul 31, 2014 - 29 Comments

Manually Remove Applications and Related Components from Mac OS X

Most apps in Mac OS X can be uninstalled easily by dragging them into the Trash from the /Applications/ folder, and many others come with accompanying uninstall applications that will clean house and completely remove the apps too. Additionally, there are third party utilities for Mac OS that can make total removal of apps as simple as drag and drop.

Another solution, which is best reserved for and intended for use by advanced Mac users only who are comfortable with the command line and have a deeper knowledge of Mac OS X, is the thorough manual removal of an app and all associated components, and that’s what we’ll cover here.

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Stuck in Yosemite with OS X Installer Drive and a Missing OS X Mavericks Partition? Here’s the Fix

Jul 31, 2014 - 8 Comments

OS X Yosemite and a Missing Mavericks partition

Some Mac users who partitioned their Macs to dual boot between the beta OS X Yosemite builds and stable OS X Mavericks releases have discovered a disconcerting issue; their Mavericks partition seems to have vanished and been replaced by an “OS X Installer” partition, forcing them to be stuck in OS X Yosemite. The obvious concern is that data loss occurred, but assuming you didn’t accidentally format the Mavericks drive, it has not, instead, the volume is just temporarily missing, having been taken over by the Yosemite Installer.

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By Paul Horowitz - Mac OS, Troubleshooting - 8 Comments

Translate Words & Phrases from Foreign Languages with iPhone & Word Lens

Jul 30, 2014 - 8 Comments

Word Lens app icon Have you ever been somewhere with something written in a foreign language and wondered what the heck it said in your own language? Or, have you ever looked at a sign, book, or printed text somewhere, and wished you could instantly translate that something into the language of your choice? With your iPhone and the free Word Lens app, you can, and it kind of works like magic. Yes I know that sounds like hyperbole, but Word Lens is genuinely impressive, and no amount of screen shots or video does the app justice, you really have to see it in action yourself.

Word Lens is incredibly simple to use and it works on any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with a camera, here’s what you’ll want to do to see how it works:

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By Paul Horowitz - iPad, iPhone, Tips & Tricks - 8 Comments

How to Install New Screen Savers in Mac OS X

Jul 30, 2014 - 13 Comments

Add Screen Savers in Mac OS X

Adding a new screen saver to Mac OS X that you’ve obtained from a third party source isn’t as easy as it used to be, but that doesn’t mean it’s particularly complicated. Though Gatekeeper has made things slightly more challenging to improve security, you’ll find that installing any screensaver to the Mac is still pretty simple.

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By Paul Horowitz - Customize, Mac OS, Tips & Tricks - 13 Comments

Advanced Mac OS X Diagnostics & Troubleshooting with sysdiagnose

Jul 29, 2014 - 8 Comments

Terminal Mac users who are dealing with particularly complex or troublesome issues with Mac OS can turn to an advanced diagnostics tool available from the command line in Mac OS X. The tool, called sysdiagnose, offers detailed technical analysis and reports of a huge variety of components of OS X and the Mac hardware, making it a potentially valuable tool for advanced troubleshooting and diagnostics needs.

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CNBC and FOX NOW Available to Watch on Apple TV

Jul 29, 2014 - 1 Comment

Apple TV

Apple TV users can now use their devices to watch CNBC, FOX NOW, TV 2 Sumo, and Esporte Interativo, though access to the new channels are limited by region and network.

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By Paul Horowitz - Apple TV, News - 1 Comment

Retina MacBook Pro Models Updated with Faster CPU and More RAM

Jul 29, 2014 - 6 Comments

Retina MacBook Pro models

Apple has updated the entire Retina MacBook Pro lineup with spec bumps, including faster processors and more RAM as standard options.

8GB of RAM is now standard for all 13″ Retina MacBook Pro models, which come with dual-core i5 CPU’s starting at 2.6 GHz, while 16GB of RAM is now standard for the Retina 15″ models, which include quad-core i7 CPU’s starting at 2.2 GHz. Prices for all MacBook Pros with Retina displays remain the same, with the 13″ model beginning at $1299 and the 15″ starting at $1999.

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By Paul Horowitz - News - 6 Comments

Don’t Like Something in OS X Yosemite? Let Apple Know with Feedback Assistant

Jul 28, 2014 - 59 Comments

Send Feedback to Apple about OS X Yosemite Now that OS X Yosemite is in open public beta and generating considerable interest from Mac users, a fair amount of complaints or frustrations have surfaced both in our comments and around the web on forums. Whether it’s a pestering bug, a beloved feature that has gone missing or that was tweaked in Yosemite, something that changed, the new font, the window restyling, transparencies, the loss of Dashboard, Dark Mode, or whatever else you want to offer feedback about, this is your chance.

The entire point of the public beta of OS X Yosemite is to gather feedback from a variety of end users with regard to features and functionality. Apple is even making it simple to offer your perspective, report bugs, or suggest improvements, with the bundled Feedback Assistant app.

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By Paul Horowitz - Mac OS, Troubleshooting - 59 Comments

Make Your Own iPhone Speakers with a Paper Towel Roll & Two Keg Cups

Jul 28, 2014 - 11 Comments

Build your own iPhone speakers with a roll and two beer cups

Don’t have any iPhone or iPod speakers handy, but really want to boost the volume of the music or audio coming from your iOS device? If you have a paper towel roll and two plastic cups, you’re good to go with this goofy and sort of effective DIY iPhone speaker solution.

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By Paul Horowitz - Fun, iPhone - 11 Comments

Where Mac System Icons & Default Icons Are Located in Mac OS X

Jul 27, 2014 - 24 Comments

The Mac System Icons in Mac OS X

The system icons of Mac OS X decorate nearly everything found within the Finder and desktop, ranging from default folder icons, to the default icons of hard disks, network machines, even the Finder sidebar items, and some toggles found throughout Mac OS X. If you’ve ever wanted to access the full size original resources for these system icons, you’ll find they are intentionally buried within the operating system, but that doesn’t mean you can’t access them, copy them, or even change them if you want to.

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By Paul Horowitz - Mac OS, Tips & Tricks - 24 Comments

Mac Setup: The Mac Mini Workstation of a Music Composer

Jul 26, 2014 - 11 Comments

Music composer Mac Mini desk setup

It’s time for another featured Mac setup! This week we’re sharing the workstation of James C., a professional music composer who uses a Mac Mini with an iPad to produce tracks and music scores for everything from commercials to video games. Let’s learn a bit more:

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By OSXDaily - Mac Setups - 11 Comments

How to Make a Bootable OS X Yosemite Beta USB Install Drive

Jul 25, 2014 - 22 Comments

How to make an OS X Yosemite Beta Bootable Install USB Drive

Now that the OS X Yosemite Beta is available to the public (you can still sign up and download it if you’re interested in running the beta release on your Mac), you might be wanting to make a bootable installer drive out of an external USB flash disk to make installation easier. Sure, you can always just copy the “Install OS X Yosemite Beta” application to other Macs and run it directly from the Applications folders of different machines, but the bootable installer option allows you multiple benefits; you can erase and partition drives directly from the bootable drive, you can perform clean Yosemite Beta installs, and you can make a single USB key to install Yosemite on multiple Macs. These aspects make installer drives preferable for many advanced users in particular, but it can be useful for everyone, even novices.

Quick side note: if you’ve been having problems downloading the Yosemite Beta, try these tips to resolve the download issues.

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By Paul Horowitz - Mac OS, Tips & Tricks - 22 Comments

Troubleshooting OS X Yosemite Beta 1 Download Errors & Problems

Jul 24, 2014 - 48 Comments

os-x-yosemite-wallpaper-3

With the OS X Yosemite public beta now available to download, some users are experiencing a handful of issues when trying to actually download and install the release.

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By Paul Horowitz - Mac OS, Troubleshooting - 48 Comments

OS X Yosemite Public Beta Now Available to Download

Jul 24, 2014 - 9 Comments

OS X Yosemite Public Beta now available to download

As expected, Apple has released the first version of OS X Yosemite Public Beta. Individuals who signed up to be a part of the public beta program for OS X 10.10 are now able to download the first Public Beta build, which is essentially the same version as the recently seeded OS X Yosemite Developer Preview 4 release.

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By Paul Horowitz - Mac OS, News - 9 Comments

Unlock the iPhone with a Fingerprint & Touch ID, Reliably

Jul 23, 2014 - 18 Comments

Unlock the iPhone with a fingerprint and Touch ID

Touch ID and the iPhone fingerprint reader has been around for a while now, but a great feature that seems to not get much use is the ability to unlock an iPhone with a touch and a fingerprint – that means not having to enter the passcode when you want to unlock the iPhone. Instead, you just rest your finger or a thumb against the Home button, and the screen unlocks automatically. Whether some users have this Touch ID feature turned off, have trouble with the feature working as intended, or simply don’t know it exists, who knows, but it’s easy to set up and it does work quite well if you use a particular trick to improve the fingerprint recognition.
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By Paul Horowitz - iPhone, Tips & Tricks - 18 Comments

OS X Yosemite Public Beta Release is Tomorrow, Here’s How to Prepare

Jul 23, 2014 - 5 Comments

OS X Yosemite Public Beta

Tomorrow, Apple will release the first Public Beta version of OS X Yosemite to Mac users who have registered with the open beta program. The first public beta build of OS X 10.10 will apparently be the same as Yosemite Developer Preview 4, and is aimed at soliciting feedback from non-developer Mac users, according to ReCode.

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By Paul Horowitz - Mac OS, News - 5 Comments

3 Tips to Prevent iPhone Overheating & Temperature Warnings

Jul 22, 2014 - 56 Comments

iPhone Temperature warning, needs to cool down

Have you ever seen the Temperature Warning on the iPhone before, saying “iPhone needs to cool down before you can use it”, appearing seemingly out of nowhere? If you’ve ever left your iPhone outdoors on a hot sunny day for too long, you probably have. And if you haven’t seen that warning, let’s try to keep it that way by heeding some simple advice.

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