This weeks featured Mac setup is used by audio producer Nathaniel T., this is a killer setup and there’s a lot of awesome hardware to cover, so let’s jump right to it and learn more…
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If you have music actively playing, or a song or iTunes Radio station is paused within the Music app, you can quickly jump to the Music app by going through the Control Center of iOS. In many cases, this lets you adjust songs or radio stations quicker than using the multitasked to switch apps. This is a fairly simple trick, and those who listen to a lot of music on their iPhones and iPads should appreciate the convenience.
Touch-based clicking is an alternate input form that uses trackpad (or Magic Mouse) taps as a click. For most Mac users, turning on tap-to-click is best done from Mac OS X System Preferences, but advanced users who require more control, automation, or remote enabling of the feature can also enable tap-to-click through the command line by using defaults strings. Using this advanced method also offers the benefit of allowing touch-clicking at the login screens of Mac OS X, something that isn’t available by default if enabled through the GUI controls.
Need to find a system file or several, but you aren’t entirely sure the directory path of where that system item is located on Mac OS? Maybe you’re looking for a plist file and you aren’t sure if it’s in the user Library folder, or the System Library folder? Rather than digging about in the variety of / root directories, use this excellent Finder based Spotlight search trick to include system files within your search results.
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The Control Center feature of iOS offers quick access to some of the more frequently used settings toggles on the iPad and iPhone, like wi-fi and orientation lock. This is undeniably convenient, but not every user wants these toggles to be readily available to anyone who picks up their device, and in some higher security situations these functions may be considered inappropriate to have easy access to. If security is more important than convenience, consider disabling access to Control Center from the lock screen.
Banner notifications pop up on the side of the screen in Mac OS X and disappear on their own within a few seconds. Some users may find that banner persistence time to be either too long or too short, and that is what we’re going to focus on changing here, giving you some control over how long the banner notification lingers over the desktop.
You can change how long the notification alert banners show on screen on the Mac, as this article will show.
Apple has released iOS 7.0.5 for select iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C models. The minor update includes bug fixes which are said to correct network provisioning for these two specific iPhone models that have been sold in China. In other words, if you don’t have an iPhone 5S or iPhone 5C that is compatible with Chinese cellular networks, you won’t see this update available.
Though the update release notes specifically mention devices sold in China, many other users throughout the world have found the iOS 7.0.5 update available for their compatible iPhone models. Initial reports suggest that users based in the USA will not find the update for their devices.
As of writing, iOS 7.0.4 remains the most recent publicly available iOS version for other iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch models. iOS 7.1 remains under development and is currently limited to users registered in the iOS developer program through Apple. Users can always check for the newest version of iOS available by opening the Settings app on their devices, heading to “General” and choosing “Software Update”.
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The tap-to-click ability is enabled by default on most PC laptops, while on the Mac side of things it’s usually disabled by default. For the unfamiliar, tap-to-click means that a single tap or touch on the MacBook trackpad or Magic Trackpad is registered as a click, thereby preventing the need to actually press down the trackpad to click on a screen item.
Many users really like the touch-tap feature for it’s ease and low intensity, but it’s certainly not everyones cup of tea and others users find it annoying. Because it’s turned off by default in Mac OS X, you’ll need to adjust the setting manually, which we’ll show you how to do easily through System Preferences. The feature works on most trackpads built into relatively new MacBook Pro and Air models, including any with multitouch support.
The menu bar of OS X has two default color choices, simple grey, or translucent, which varies a bit based upon the wallpaper used. Neither of these looks are really anything to write home about. That’s why the third party mod ObsidianMenuBar is a nice alternative, it gives your Mac a black menu bar. It’s not perfect, but it still looks absolutely fantastic, and really, this is the menu bar that OS X should have.
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The Disk Utility app bundled with Mac OS X has a command line equivalent which offers advanced users the ability to perform disk maintenance from the terminal, including disk verification and repairs. This allows for a variety of helpful troubleshooting abilities, including the possibility to remotely issue disk repairs though SSH, or through Single User Mode if the user accounts are inaccessible.
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While some writing and text apps have native word and character counters as part of their built-in feature set, not every app does. That can be changed easily though by creating a Mac OS X Service that will provide word counts and character counts from just about anywhere on a Mac that text is selectable. This means apps like TextEdit, the Quick Look preview panels, and even web browsers like Safari, Chrome, Firefox, all will gain the word/character counting feature that is easily accessible from a right-click. This is probably the best method of gaining a word counter into Mac apps that don’t support the feature natively.
Looking for some new wallpaper to decorate your Mac desktop, or the home screen of an iPad or iPhone with? How about some that are themed with the Apple logo, or maybe even the 30th Mac Anniversary logo from this past week? That’s what this wallpaper roundup is focused on.
We’ve got 16 20 of them for you to work with. Half of these fan-made desktop backgrounds are featuring the standard Apple logo, while the other half are using the fancy multi-colored 30th anniversary Macintosh rendition of the Apple logo that was used on the anniversary Mac website (where the Mac anniversary icon font came from) or a slight variation thereof which removed the 3 but left the Apple. There’s even an awesome retro ‘Think Different’ desktop picture in there. They’re all pretty snazzy, ranging from subtle gradients and colors, to some that are louder and brighter colors that will fit right into iOS, and even a few based on the familiar iOS nebula image and the big Mavericks wave from OS X. Check them all out below.
Most iPhone and iPad users know the iOS multitasking screen is where you can quit the apps you no longer want open, and it’s also where you go to switch between any of the open apps on the device. But if you have a lot of apps open, you may notice that switching from the frontmost app card to one of the last is not exactly expedient, at least not until you use this fancy alternate swipe tip. The trick is to change the location of where you swipe at the multitasker, from the app panels to the app icons:
You should immediately notice the speed difference. The quicker you swipe on the app icons, the faster the app previews fly by on the screen. This means a few quick swipes on the icons will send you all the way from the start to the end of tons of open apps at orders of magnitude faster than swiping directly on the app preview panels.
A video and animated gif will demonstrate the effect visually, but users should really try it out themselves on their own iOS devices to feel the substantial difference.
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The weekend is here, which means it’s time to share another OSXDaily reader desk setup! This week we’ll show you the great Mac configuration of Patrick M., who uses his gear for just about everything. Let’s find out more about this great setup and what apps are used most…
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The Mac menu bar clock isn’t particularly fancy nor is it meant to be, but if you’re a tinkerer and like to customize things, you might find some enjoyment in adding some time-changing emoji characters to the clock as an addition to the standard AM / PM indicators that show up alongside the time.
Adding Emoji into the Mac Menu clock is a subtle customization with no third party utility needed to accomplish, it’s just a simple change you can make yourself through the System Preferences of MacOS and Mac OS X.
If retro Macs built out out LEGO that double as iPad stands aren’t your thing, maybe you’ll enjoy this little Easter Egg of sorts that Apple seems to have left on their 30th Mac Anniversary website. It’s a free 62 character font of Mac icons, ranging from the original Macintosh 128k through the PowerBook lineup, 20th anniversary Mac, all the way to the modern iMac, Mac Pro, and MacBook Pro models.
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30 years ago today, Steve Jobs unveiled the very first Macintosh, and the rest, as they say, is history. If you’re looking for a unique way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the beloved Mac, why not grab a pile of LEGO bricks and build your very own Macintosh 128k that happens to double as totally usable iPad holder and stand?
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Apple is planning to launch two new iPhone models this year, both with substantially larger screen sizes than what is currently offered by the company. The news comes from the consistently reliable and well sourced Wall Street Journal.
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