Running out of disk space is no fun and Mac users with smaller drives need to be particularly aware of available disk space. The Mac OS X Finder Search feature can be used to find large files but if you’re really serious about managing disk space and tracking down unnecessary large files and folders, you should use a free tool called OmniDiskSweeper.

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Transferring photos from a computer to the iPad is very easy with the help of iTunes. To get started, you’ll need either a Mac or PC with iTunes, a USB connector cable for the iPad, and a folder containing the pictures you want to transfer over to the iPad.
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Apple has released OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview 3 to those registered with the Mac Developer program. The new build comes as 12A178q and includes many bug fixes, though it still includes a fairly lengthy list of known issues and bugs. This is the third beta release of OS X Mountain Lion, which currently has a rough public release date of “Summer” .

Developers can download OS X Mountain Lion DP3 from the App Store, though logging in through the developer center is necessary in order to receive a redemption code.

Due to stability issues and future upgrade problems, Mountain Lion Developer Preview should not be the primary operating system on a Mac. Follow a guide to set up a dual boot system between OS X 10.8 Beta and the more stable OS X 10.7 build for best results.

Like to learn new things, preferably from world class experts? Then you’ll like Coursera, a new organization from which several prominent universities aim to offer free high quality online courses to anyone, anywhere.

Princeton, Stanford, U Michigan, Penn, and UC Berkeley are among the schools currently participating in the program, and combined they offer a wide variety of classes on various topics. Whether you’re interested in Humanities, Social Sciences, Healthcare, Medicine, Biology, Math, Statistics, Economics, Finance, Business, Society, Networks, Information, or Computer Science, all classes are completely free and taught online.

The free Computer Science courses may be of particular interest to our readers, and those classes include: Algorithms I and Algorithms II, Automata, Compilers, Computer Architecture, Computer Science 101, Computer Vision: 3D Reconstruction to Visual Recognition, Computer Vision: Fundamentals, Cryptography, Design and Analysis of Algorithms I, Game Theory, Introduction to Logic, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Networked Life, Probabilistic Graphical Models, Securing Digital Democracy I, and Software Engineering for SaaS.

You can see the full list of free course offerings at Coursera.org

Course length varies from 4 weeks to 12 weeks. A handful of classes start this month, and many more begin in May, June, July, August, September, November, while others are still listed as To Be Announced.

Education is a great thing, and Coursera looks to have a strong future. Hopefully they come out with an iPad app similar to Khan Academy for easier self-paced learning and for those who wish to follow along more casually.

If you like the idea of learning without a gigantic university-sized price tag, iTunes is another great resource for free classes and lessons, with videos and podcasts offering free foreign language lessons, free iOS 5 development classes, general iPhone development courses, and much more.

You can use a zoom-in feature on the hardware cameras included on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The zoom trick is pretty easy to master but until someone shows you how to access it, zooming is hidden from the normal camera options. We’ll detail exactly how to zoom in and zoom out with the Camera on any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, running any version of iOS.

Here is how to activate and use zoom:

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Apple has released two notable iPhone 4S commercials that feature popular celebrities using Siri. The first TV ad shows Samuel L Jackson planning a special evening with his wife thanks to the help of Siri, and the second commercial shows Zooey Deschanel using Siri to manage a lazy rainy day. Both commercials can be viewed embedded below.

Samuel L Jackson “Date Night” iPhone ad:

Zooey Deschanel “Rainy Day” iPhone 4S ad:

Everyone gets emails filled with links, but what do you do when an incoming message includes a potentially dubious URL that you aren’t quite so sure about? Rather than crossing your fingers and blindly clicking the link to open in the default web browser, try this tip out to get a preview of the URL directly in the Mail app of Mac OS X.

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The Apple ][ is celebrating it’s 35th birthday.

Originally demoed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak at a computer fair on April 16 and 17, 1977, the Apple II was the machine that put Apple on the map and then went on to catapult the personal computer revolution.

What better way to celebrate one of the original PC’s monumental birthdays than to use an Apple II simulator in Mac OS X?

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Whether you’re feeling the pinch as hard drive space runs low or you’re just wondering where all your disk space went, it’s easy to find large files in Mac OS X by using the built-in search tools. You don’t need to use any third party tools here, instead you’ll rely on search operators and the excellent Spotlight locating functionality that is a core feature of all Macs.

If you’ve never used these specific features of the Mac search function before, you’ll find it’s simple to do, just follow these steps to locate files and items based on their size.
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Macs have pretty amazing battery life to begin with, but following a few simple tips will help you to get the absolute best battery performance out of a MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro.

The primary goal here is to reduce overall power consumption on the Mac laptop and we’ll cover a few different techniques to do this. For casual Mac users simply reducing screen brightness is typically more than adequate to get great battery life, so the tips below are intended for true road warriors who demand the absolute best battery life possible out of their portable Macs.

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Looking for some nice mellow wallpapers to add to your Mac, iPhone, or iPad? The DizzyUp collection features three beautifully subtle wallpapers in a wide variety of common screen resolutions and has also been updated to support the 3rd gen iPad retina 2048×2048 display. The wood paneling is my personal favorite of the group, but if you’re into minimalist wallpapers you won’t want to miss the other two dark & light wallpapers either, which feature unobtrusive gradients over a some gentle patterns.

• Grab each wallpaper from DizzyUp.co.uk

(BTW the light desktop background image looks great with a retro-fied Classic style Mac OS X desktop)

Heads up to 512pixels for the reminder these exist, and for pointing out the iPad retina update.

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Forwarding text messages from one sender to another is made very simple on the iPhone. The process is the same whether it’s a text, SMS, MMS, or even an iMessage:

1. From the Messages app, open the text message you want to forward
2. Tap the “Edit” button in the upper right corner
3. Tap the message you want to forward so that it shows a red checkbox next to it
4. Tap on the “Forward” button in the lower right corner
5. Enter the recipient in the new message screen and send as usual

The forwarded message sends to the recipient as any other message would, and an SMS or MMS can be forwarded as a mass text message as well. Group texting is useful for reducing text message fees with some providers and it’s also a great way to annoy your entire iPhone address book.

And yes, text messages can be forwarded from an iPhone to iPad, iPod touch, or Mac running Messages, and vice versa, though sending to a device other than an iPhone obviously won’t register as an SMS.

Tired of all the OS X default screen savers? Breathe a ton of new retro life into your screen saver collection with the XScreenSaver pack for Mac. The free bundle includes over 200 old school screen saver classics, including an Apple II emulator, Flying Toasters, The Matrix, Blue Screen of Death, Missile Command, Phosphor BBS emulator, Rubiks cube, bouncing cow, and tons of other once-upon-a-time-was-fancy and hilarious screen savers from computing days of yesteryear.

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Apple has released a standalone removal tool that targets Flashback malware infections. The separate utility is recommended for Mac users who do not have Java installed on their OS X Lion machine, but it’s functionality is identical to that performed by the most recent Java update to remove Flashback.

If your Mac does not have Java or you did not install the most recent Java for OS X updates, running this tool is a good idea. Here is what to do:

1. Download the tool directly from Apple
2. Mount the DMG file and launch FlashbackMalwareRemover.pkg
3. Click Continue, click “Install” and enter the administrative password

Everything beyond that is automated, if the Mac is infected it will be automatically repaired.

Users should always keep system software up to date as part of a general maintenance routine. Despite the recent media overhyping of Flashback, Mac OS X remains a very secure platform. If you are concerned about potential attacks, our recent guide on securing Mac OS X from potential trojans and malware may be helpful to you.

This weeks Mac setup is loaded with great Apple gear and comes to us from husband and wife Cesare and Monica. Hardware from left to right is:

• iPad 1
• iPhone 4 64GB
• iMac 20″ (early 2008) 4GB RAM 200GB HD
• iPad 3rd gen 64GB
• iPhone 4S 64GB
• MacBook Pro 17″ (mid 2007) 8GB RAM 500GB HD
• 1988 Apple HQ Mug
• MacBook Pro 15″ 8GB RAM 256GB SSD with external display

The printer is a Hewlett-Packard OfficeJet 6500 WiFi model (related, you can force other printers to be AirPrint compatible), and not pictured is a MacBook Air 11″ used for travel.

Want your Mac setup featured? Send pictures of Apple & Mac setups to osxdailycom@gmail.com and include some brief hardware details and what you use it for.

Want to share a single keyboard and mouse between multiple Macs? How about using a keyboard and mouse attached to your Mac to control an additional PC running Windows or Linux, and even being able to share copy and paste data between the different operating systems? You can do that with the help of a great free tool called Synergy, and setting it up is easier than you might think.
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Modern versions of Mac OS X allow videos and movie files to be previewed and played directly in the Spotlight search results menu.

This works with any supported movie or video file type that can be played in QuickTime. To try this out for yourself:

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Apple was busy dreaming about the future of communications 29 years ago, long before the days of the iPhone, touch screens, cell phones, and even cordless phones.

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