We’re big fans of attractive wallpapers around here, and this time around we have 9 6 more gorgeous high resolution images to beautify your desktop background. All images are very high res, ranging from 2500×1400 up to 5000×4000 pixels, so regardless of the screen resolution of your Mac, iPhone, iPad, you will find each of them to fit and look great.
From surreal nebula pictures from NASA, satellite shots of sand dunes on Mars, open roads in the American west, a nice subtle wood pattern, or various beach scenes in the South Pacific, we’ve got a wide range for all tastes. Click each image below for the full sized version. Enjoy!
With Desktop switching keyboard shortcuts set, you can instantly move windows between different desktops without going through Mission Control of Mac OS X at all.
The only requirement is to configure the control keys for switching desktops on the Mac, and you must have multiple desktops or else you won’t have anything to switch the windows between.
The Unarchiver is a one stop shop for extracting and uncompressing virtually any archive file that you’ll come across on a Mac. Easily managing the usual archive formats of zip, sit, gzip, bin, tar, hqx, it’ll also easily tear through less common archive types including rar files, 7z, bzip2, cab, sea, exe, rpm, cpgz, and many other obscure compression formats that OS X’s built-in Archive Utility can’t handle.
We’ve shown you how to disable the internal display of a Mac laptop running OS X Lion or later with sleep or with the help of a command line trick, those are the recommended approaches but not everyone has gotten them to work on their Macs. An alternate and peculiar option left in our comments shows us how to turn off an internal MacBook Pro screen by using a magnet. Yes, like a refrigerator magnet. The result is basically the opposite of clamshell mode, where the MacBook is left open but the internal display is disabled, allowing an external display to become the only screen. Generally speaking you should exhaust all other possible methods of turning off the internal screen before resulting to rubbing magnets on a computer, but this is an interesting enough hardwarehack to mention.
Before we relay the instructions, here’s a valid warning: magnets can cause damage to electronic components and hard disks, it’s generally not a good idea to use magnets around computer hardware of any sort. We don’t recommend this method and are relaying instructions for informational purposes only so proceed at your own risk. If you screw something up we are not responsible.
OK with the risk? Then you’ll need an external keyboard and mouse attached for this to work.
Find a small flat refrigerator magnet, the type that frequently comes in junk mail and with pizza orders- do not use a strong magnet for this task
Connect an external display to the MacBook
Carefully slide the magnet around the outside rim of the MacBook to find the sleep inducing spot, you’ll know you have found it because the MacBook immediately goes to sleep
After sleep, press a key on the external keyboard to wake the Mac up
The external display should now be active as the primary screen while the internal display stays off, allowing you to use the Mac only with the secondary display
This presumably works the same way as the sleep method, though quite a few commenters on Apple’s Discussion Boards claim the traditional sleep approach doesn’t work for them and, believe it or not, many are swearing by this magnet technique.
Thanks to Richard for the interesting tip left in our comments.
Despite it’s tiny size, the MacBook Air 11″ is more than capable of serving as a primary workstation, and this weeks Mac setup continues to prove that point. Hardware shown includes:
Macbook Air 11″ (2011), 4GB RAM, 256GB SSD
iPad 2 Wi-Fi 64GB
iPhone 4S
Blue Snowball USB Microphone
Mophie Powerstand iPad stand
The iPad is running Air Display to function as an auxiliary screen to the MacBook Air, in this case for managing Aperture adjustments. Other hardware not shown is an Airport Express, 2TB NAS drive, Apple TV, and a 500GB Time Machine backup.
One of the great things about these portable-centric setups is everything could be packed up and taken elsewhere with minimal effort and carrying weight, in most cases an iPad and a MacBook Air adds up to less weight than a MacBook Pro, not bad for a dual screen and dual OS setup.
Great Mac setup Thomas S, thanks for sending it in!
Want your Apple gear setup featured on OSXDaily? Send a good picture with a list of hardware and a brief description of what you use it for to osxdailycom@gmail.com
Setting up passwordless SSH logins is a great way to speed up connections to regularly accessed remote Macs and unix boxes. Because not all versions of Mac OS X include the ssh-copy-id command, you may have to use cat or scp to copy over your ssh key. This is how to set everything up, it only takes a minute or so.
First, on the local machine you will want to generate a secure SSH key:
ssh-keygen
Walk through the key generator and set a password, the key file by default goes into ~/.ssh/id_rsa
Next, you need to copy the generated key to the remote server you want to setup passwordless logins with, this is easily done with the following command string but you can use ssh-copy-id or scp if you’d prefer:
(Remember to replace “user@remotehost” with the appropriate username and remote IP address or domain of the server)
This command takes the generated SSH key from the local machine, connects to the remote host via SSH, and then uses cat to append the key file to the remote users authorized key list. Because this connects with SSH to the remote machine you will need to enter the regular ssh login password to use this command.
Finally, confirm that you can now login to the remote SSH server without a password:
ssh user@remotehost.com
Assuming initial setup went as intended, you will connect to the remote machine without having to log in. You can shorten the connection steps even further by creating an alias in bash_profile so that you are only required to type a short command to immediately connect to the specified remote server.
The newly released Absinthe 2.0 jailbreak app may be one of the easiest to use jailbreaking tools of all time. If you’re interested in exploring the jailbreak world or running third party tweaks on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, here is how to jailbreak any such device that is running iOS 5.1.1, yes that includes the new iPad 3 and iPhone 4S.
If you are already jailbroken on iOS 5.1.1 but stuck with a tether, just launch Cydia and search for “Rocky Racoon” to untether your existing device. You do not need to run Absinthe. For everyone else, here is how to jailbreak iOS 5.1.1 untethered:
Connect your iOS device to the computer via USB and do a quick manual local backup by right-clicking on the device name in iTunes and choosing “Back Up”. You will need this in the odd event something goes wrong.
Click on the Jailbreak button and let Absinthe perform its magic, this may take a minute or two
Absinthe will inform you when the jailbreak is finished, when done look for the Cydia icon on the iOS home screen
Launch Cydia and enjoy
That’s about it. Because Absinthe 2 is untethered, you are free to reboot at any time without being attached to a computer. If you want to undo the jailbreak at any point you can restore from the iTunes backup you made and be back to normal.
The much anticipated Absinthe 2.0 jailbreak has been released by the JailbreakDreamTeam. The utility allows for an untethered jailbreak of iOS 5.1.1 on virtually all idevices, including iPad, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and iPod touch 3rd and 4th gen.
iPhone rumor season is in full bloom and there’s a lot of crazy speculation going on out there. We’ve weeded through all the iPhone 5 rumors and picked nine that are most likely to be true, though it’s important to remember that until Apple officially announces something it’s all speculation:
4″ Display – A larger screened iPhone has been rumored for a long time, but now Reuters, WSJ, and Bloomberg have all piled in with reports that appear to confirm the 4″ display is a reality.
Redesigned Case – To accommodate a larger screen the iPhone enclosure is bound to get a redesign. Nobody knows what it will look like or if it will be made of glass, aluminum, liquid metal, or a combination of all three, but with longstanding rumors that Steve Jobs worked on the design before he passed away, you can rest assured it will be beautiful.
4G LTE – True mobile broadband is bound for the iPhone according to a handful of rumors, and with the 3rd gen iPad receiving the 4G treatment it’s a pretty safe bet the iPhone will follow suit.
10 Megapixel Camera – The smartphone is killing the point-and-shoot camera market, and the next iPhone is probably going to include a camera so good that it will drive a final nail into the consumer digital camera coffin. Why 10MP? The iPhone 4S has an 8MP camera, so it’s a logical step.
A5X CPU & Quad Core Graphics – It’s very likely Apple will borrow the iPad 3 A5X CPU with it’s quad-core GPU and jam all of its power right into the next iPhone. Apple regularly shares core hardware components between iOS devices, so this isn’t particularly outlandish.
1GB RAM – If they borrow the A5X from the iPad 3, it’s very likely the next iPhone will have 1GB of RAM like the iPad too. Apple generally finds specs meaningless, but geeks love this stuff, and 1GB of RAM means faster apps, improved multitasking, and an all-around boost.
iOS 6 – Not much is known about iOS 6, but everyone is expecting a big preview at WWDC in just a few weeks. Rumored features include all new Maps app with advanced abilities like turn-by-turn directions, further iCloud integration, third party widgets for Notification Center, third party Siri support, and much more.
“The new iPhone” – Taking another page from the book of iPad, the next iPhone probably won’t be called iPhone 5 at all, it’ll be named simply “The new iPhone”. People will still call it the wrong name anyway though.
September or October Release Date – The release timeline for new iPhones appears to have shifted from earlier in the year to fall, assuming the next iPhone is released on the same schedule as iPhone 4S was that is. Expect a launch and release sometime in September or October of this year.
Those are looking like the most likely features and specs of the next iPhone, but there are also a few other vague possibilities. There is really nothing to support these rumors except analyst claims or web conjecture, so we’ll file these safely under “wishful thinking” while we all cross our fingers hoping they end up true.
32GB Base Model – My iPhone fills up much faster than my iPad, it stores tons of photos and tons of music, and frankly 16GB is just too small to be standard anymore. 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB storage options would be fantastic.
Magsafe Dock Connector – MagSafe power adapters are one of the greatest little Apple inventions, it would be a huge improvement to bring to the iPhone and iOS lineup, so let’s hope it happens
T-Mobile – Plenty of T-Mobile customers are using unlocked devices on their network anyway, so hopefully Apple and TMO USA can finally work out a deal to bring the iPhone to their network.
China Mobile – The largest cellular carrier in the world with 655 million subscribers, China Mobile has a paying customer base that is two times the entire population of the USA. If Apple wants to continue it’s explosive growth in China, landing a deal with CHL is vital, and this could be the year, and the device, to finally do it.
What do you think the next iPhone will have? What should it have? Let us know your thoughts and speculate away.
It’s a good idea to check the hard drive health of a Mac as part of a periodic maintenance routine. Doing this is extremely easy with Disk Utility, and we’ll cover exactly how to verify hard disks, how to repair them, and what to do if you encounter any issues or errors in the process. This works for all hard drives, whether it’s an internal drive, an external drive, or a boot disk, though the process is slightly different for boot drives. Let’s begin. Read more »
What do you get when you combine two Apple fans on wedding day? A wedding picture featuring husband and wife using their MacBook Pro’s, of course.
We typically post interesting Mac setups on Saturdays, but Gabor P sent in this cute picture of he and his wife using their Macs on that special day, and we had to put it up.
For those wondering, the Macs are:
Wife: MacBook Pro 13″ Mid 2010 , 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo , 4GB RAM , 320GB HDD
Husband: MacBook Pro 13″ Early 2011 , 2.3GHz i5 , 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 750GB HDD
If you want to use an iPhone or iPad during a plane flight, you’re supposed to turn Airplane mode on to disable the built-in wireless communication aspects of the device. Airplane mode disables cellular and 3G/4g connectivity, GPS, wi-fi, and Bluetooth capabilities, but how are you supposed to use inflight wi-fi service if everything is turned off? The solution is to enable Airplane mode as usual, but then manually turn on Wi-Fi or Bluetooth separately on the iOS device:
Launch Settings and flip “Airplane Mode” to “ON”
Tap on “Wi-Fi” and flip the switch to “ON”, join the wireless network as usual
For Bluetooth use, within Settings tap on “General” and then tap “Bluetooth” to enable separately
Either choice will not reenable the cellular modem or connection, typically keeping you within the realm of acceptable behavior for most flights. You’ll probably want to check with the specific airline before doing this, but chances are if they offer inflight wireless service then it’s acceptable behavior.
Outside of flying, using Airplane mode but turning on wi-fi is an easy way to temporarily turn an iPhone into an iPod touch, letting you use wifi networks but avoid any potentially expensive voice or data roaming charges.
Apple has started to air two new iPhone 4S commercials, this time featuring actor John Malkovich speaking with Siri. The first ad, shown below, is titled “Life” and features Siri getting philosophical in response to a simple inquiry about life, replying with:
“Try and be nice to people. Avoid eating fat. Read a good book every now and then. Get some walking in. And try to live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
The second commercial, also embedded below, is titled “Joke” and features a more typical Siri interaction, covering weather, appointments, restaurant searches, and a bad joke about two iPhones walking into a bar.
Both commercials are roughly in the same theme as the other recent celebrity spots featuring Samuel L Jackson and Zooey Deschanel, but have otherwise veered away from Apple’s more traditional commercials.
There are so many keyboard shortcuts throughout Mac OS X and it’s myriad of third party apps that it’s easy to forget them or get lost trying to memorize the sea of keystrokes for each app.
This is where CheatSheet will make your life easier, it’s a tiny free application that sits in the background waiting to be summoned from any Mac app to instantly show all keyboard shortcuts for that application.
The iPhone has the Compass app to help show you which direction you are facing, but if you’re in an area with cellular reception a much more practical and useful approach is to use the Maps app. This lets you see which direction you are facing on a map of the area, so you can quickly see landmarks or whatever else you are looking for.
This will work on any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with internet connectivity, though it’s likely most useful in the 3G/4G enabled models for obvious reasons.
Launch Maps app and tap the Arrow icon to locate where you are
When Maps has centered on your location, tap the Arrow icon again
The arrow icon will switch to show what looks like a flashlight beam coming out of the point, this orientates the Maps app based on which way you are facing. Use this feature to either quickly find North, South, East, and West, or if you’re in the middle of the nowhere you can use it to find your way to the nearest road or familiar landmark that you find on Google Maps.
The primary weakness with this method is that iOS and Google Maps does not store or cache maps data locally on the device. This means if you’re out of cell range and you use the compass feature of Maps, you’ll just have a direction pointed out on a blank grid, unable to find any meaningful landmarks or points on the Map. This prevents an iOS device from serving as a true GPS replacement for serious outdoor uses, but if you’re in a bind it can be better than nothing.
You can create an image of a Mac hard drive with the help of a free third party utility called Carbon Copy Cloner. The resulting disk image will be saved as the familiar .dmg format, which has a number of potential uses ranging from creating a drive clone for backup purposes, restoring the image elsewhere as a bootable backup, or even for deploying the same Mac OS X installation on multiple machines. Another great usage for making a disk image of an entire hard drive is for upgrading a hard drive, or replacing a hard drive, since you can clone the current drive to the new one.
Carbon Copy Cloner makes this entire process simple, whatever the reason you need to clone a drive, for both creating and restoring a disk image of an entire Mac hard disk. This tutorial will detail how you can create a disk image of an entire hard drive on a Mac, and then how to restore that cloned disk image to a drive on the Mac as well.
If you want color icons back in your OS X Finder window sidebar but don’t want to deal with the existing procedures of manually installing SIMBL and the other components, grab SideEffects instead. SideEffects is a simple package that includes the three necessary components to add color back to Finder sidebar icons; SIMBL, ColorfulSidebar, and RelaunchFinder, all wrapped into a single easy to use installer to shorten the process considerably. Gone will be the drab grayscale icons, welcome back the color.
Want to have wget on Mac without Homebrew or MacPorts for whatever reason? You can do that by building wget from source at the command line.
The command line tool wget lets you retrieve a group of files from FTP and HTTP protocols, it’s a very useful utility for web developers and powerusers to have around because it lets you do things like perform quick and dirty site backups and even mirror websites locally.
It’s a good idea to check the hard drive health of a Mac as 
