We all know the familiar Mac OS X Software Update and App Store Updates panel, it pops up weekly to give us a nice GUI interface to install all the latest updates to our Apple software. But did you know that you can get the same list, query the available updates list, and even install updates from the command line?

Installing software updates from the command line is incredibly useful for remote management of machines, just SSH into a Mac and run the appropriate commands. Read on for more…

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It has long been speculated that Apple would change the brushed metal interface in Mac OS X to more closely resemble the iTunes appearance. The latest Mac OS X 10.5 build 9A410 shows us exactly that, a unified appearance that rids the operating system of the brushed metal look. The appearance change is relatively subtle, and looks almost identical to what the freeware utility UNO provides. With the release of Leopard pushed back until October, will the Mac OS X interface undergo more changes? Time will tell. Read on for screenshots of the latest build.

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Everyone hates backing up files, and often the annoyance turns into delaying the process, which is fine until you actually have a problem and need a backup. If you don’t want to do a complete system backup, at least save the essential files that define your user experience. BackityMac makes this task a whole lot easier, with easy options to backup your mail, bookmarks, system preferences, and your entire home folder. The program outputs the backup in the form of an image file that can then easily be restored. Good stuff, check it out!

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Apple has delayed the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard several months from it’s originally scheduled date of June 2007 to October 2007. The statement released by Apple says that the iPhone has distracted the operating system development team, and that the original deadline is no longer obtainable. Rumors are already circulating in the Mac web with some suggesting that Apple has delayed the release to include new features that have yet to be announced. We’re disappointed by the delay, but excited for whatever Apple is working on. Read the press release from Apple below:

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When you click the yellow minimize button in Mac OS X, the snazzy Genie effect pulls the window into the Dock. Although you can change between the Genie and Scale effect from within the Dock preference pane, there is a third hidden effect that Apple has chosen to keep out of the preference pane. The hidden effect is named ‘Suck’, it’s more attractive than the Scale effect, and speedier than the Genie effect.

We’ll show you how to activate any of these minimize effects from the command line of OS X by using defaults strings, and remind you that you can change between the standard effects through the preference panels too.

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By default, the Mac OS X Dock has a semitransparent white background that holsters the Dock’s icons. ClearDock is a nice little utility that allows you to customize the Dock background to be completely transparent, or if you’d prefer, you can select a different semitransparent color. It’s super easy to use, and best of all, it’s completely free. Check out the screenshot below to see the transparent effect in action.

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Hate it when a web site resizes your browser window? In Firefox, you can stop that.

While development etiquette has generally made web browsing a more pleasant experience over the years, removing such horrors as blinking text and the background midi. Unfortunately, there are a few annoyances still left on web sites, and one of the worst is the forced resizing of your web browser. Nothing peeves me more than having my browser window be resized to full screen without my permission, but if you’re a Firefox user, you can do something about it.

Here is how to disable the resizing of your browser window in Firefox.

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Any Mac user that has shared files from a Windows PC has surely found the always annoying and completely useless Thumbs.db files scattered around their directories. We’ve been asked about deleting Thumbs.db files a few times before, and typically we run a simple script from the command line, but there’s another even easier way of removing all Thumbs.db files from Mac OS X by using only Spotlight.

This quick little tutorial will show how to delete all Thumbs.db files from your Mac in one fell swoop.

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Updated: 11/27/2021 Ever wondered how to change the default web browser app on your Mac? Maybe you prefer Chrome to Safari, or maybe you want to use Firefox instead of Safari, or vice versa? Whatever your choice, it’s easy to do in macOS Monterey, macOS Big Sur, macOS Catalina, macOS Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, OS X Yosemite and new versions, and older versions of Mac OS X too. This is not an unusual question, in fact, one of our readers Sarah R. writes in wondering about her Macs default web browser set in Mac OS:

“I downloaded Firefox and accidentally clicked the button for it to be set as my default web browser. Now every time I open a link it goes into Firefox instead of Safari. How do I get back to Safari as my default? Help!”

Don’t worry Sarah (and everyone else!), this isn’t the first time we’ve been asked about changing the default web browser on the Mac, so allow us to explain the remarkably simple answer – you’ll be changed back to whatever web browser you want in no time at all, whether it’s Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or any other.

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Mac rumor site AppleInsider is reporting that Apple has filed a patent for a finder feature that would allow different sized icons to be within the same window, with the size of the icon being representative of that items importance. This feature would make a lot of sense for many directories that are crowded with loads of folders and files needed for the application to run, but largely useless for the user to see or interact with. Read on for a mock-up illustration of how this feature would appear within Mac OS X.

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Tim Russell, the man behind the disabling favicon tip for Firefox, sent us another good Firefox tidbit today:

“The worst thing about Firefox is undoubtedly that any image larger than your browser size is automatically resized, which has the effect of distorting pictures and generally being annoying. For some reason, Firefox didn’t include the ability to turn this on and off in the standard preferences, but you can do it easily with the about:config dialog, as follows…”

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One of the essential functions of the command line of Mac OS X, Linux, or any Unix, is understanding some basics about how to use pipes. Essentially, pipes allow you to direct the output of one command into the input of another command, allowing the following command to manipulate, adjust, or work with the prior commands return. Knowing how and when to use pipes is vital to effective command line usage, and it’s a core piece of knowledge for Terminal users.

Without further introduction, here’s some information on command line pipes, what they do, and most importantly, how to use the pipes to control command line output, effectively ‘piping’ it to elsewhere:

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Don’t like favicons in Firefox? You can disable the showing of Favicons in Firefox with a settings adjustment.

Tim Russell writes in with this tip: “If there’s one thing I hate about websites out there it’s the accompanying favicon’s that litter my browser tabs and bookmarks menu. Surely I’m not the only one that dislikes this so called feature, so if you want to turn off favicons this is all you have to do…”

We generally like favicon’s but to each their own, continue on for the simple instructions on how to disable them in Firefox.

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Many schools, employers, and countries restrict access to certain websites for any number of reasons. The easiest way to get around the restrictions is by browsing the web through anonymous proxies, and the web is littered with thousands of proxy sites that are capable of fulfilling this duty for you. But why use a third party site if you can setup a proxy server right on your own Mac? DressToSurvive walks you through the install and configuration process so you can do just that:

DressToSurvive: Anonymizing Proxy for OS X

If the above link isn’t working for you, try another walkthrough, like this one that made the news recently:
Setup an Anonymous Proxy for Iranians Using Squid in OS X

When it comes to increasing productivity within Mac OS X you can never know too many keyboard shortcuts. Found on the Mac developer blog, Theocacao, we’ve covered over half of these shortcuts before, but those that we haven’t are worth knowing, and those that we have are worth a reminder. Shortcut #6 is probably my favorite on the list, Option-Command-H, which hides all applications other than the frontmost one, immediately reducing distractions and clearing clutter. Repeated below are the rest from Theocacao.com:

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If you have ever looked at your Mac root directory and wondered what some of those other directories are for, you’re probably not alone. Mac OS got a whole lot more complex with the advent of Mac OS X, adapting a unix file structure that is largely unfamiliar to Mac OS 9 and Windows users. So just what is /System, /Library, /usr, and all the others for anyway?

Here you will find a brief overview of these directories, as well as an explanation of each system level directory as found in Mac OS X and macOS system software.

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Most of us use iTunes to transfer files to and from our iPod, but apparently you can also use the command line. Sasha Ingbram writes in with this tip: “I realize this is a controversial position to take, but I’m not always thrilled with iTunes and how long it takes to get things done. For me, going through the command this is much faster and more efficient rather than launching iTunes and waiting for the store to load and everything else. I found that you can transfer data to your iPod through the terminal though by using the following command:
cp -R /Volumes/YourIpod/iPod_Control/Music /Users/YourUserName/Music
of course you have to fill in your iPod name rather than YourIpod and your username rather than YourUserName.”

Thanks Sasha! We haven’t been able to test this one right now because we don’t have an iPod laying around at the moment, perhaps someone else can try it out.

Ever wished you could send the output of a command to a file or append that output to an existing file? That’s what redirects do. To put it simply, command line redirects allow you to take the output of certain commands and create new files or add to existing ones with this data, this is incredibly useful indeed, and the knowledge expands to OS X, Linux, and any other variant of Unix.

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