Mac

Search Mac

How to Make a Bootable OS X Mavericks USB Install Drive

Jun 12, 2013 - 43 Comments
OS X Mavericks bootable install drive

Just like other recent major Mac updates, OS X Mavericks arrives as an app that wants to update the current OS X installation, and with a little work you can make a bootable USB installation drive. This allows you to easily perform partitioning for dual boot situations, clean installs, upgrades on multiple Macs, and more, … Read More

OS X 10.9 Mavericks System Requirements & List of Compatible Macs

Jun 11, 2013 - 2 Comments
OS X Mavericks System Requirements

Apple has yet to provide an official list of OS X 10.9 compatible Macs, but as we mentioned before regarding the first Mavericks Developer Preview, most Mac hardware that supports OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) should be able run OS X Mavericks (10.9) without any issue. This has been confirmed apparently by AppleInsider, who notes … Read More

OS X Mavericks Developer Preview 1 Now Available for Download

Jun 10, 2013 - Leave a Comment
OS X Mavericks on a MacBook

OS X 10.9 Mavericks Developer Preview 1 is now available to download directly from Apple. Registered developers can access the installation from Apple’s Developer Center. Much like prior OS X betas, installation of OS X Mavericks is done through the Mac App Store, and it is highly recommended to back up OS X with Time … Read More

Get the Default OS X Mavericks Wave Wallpaper

Jun 10, 2013 - Leave a Comment
OS X Mavericks default wallpaper

OS X Mavericks (10.9) will be out later this year, but you don’t have to wait that long to get the sweet new wave wallpaper that will be the default desktop background on future Macs and OS X releases.

Amazing New Mac Pro Announced, Due Later This Year

Jun 10, 2013 - Leave a Comment
New Mac Pro

Apple gave a sneak peak of the all new Mac Pro at WWDC 2013, setting very high expectations for the release later in the year. Professional users will be extremely excited with the new Mac Pro, which looks like something out of the future that has been somehow transported to our era, and the specs … Read More

OS X Mavericks is the Next Feature-Packed Mac OS: Release Date Set for Fall

Jun 10, 2013 - Leave a Comment
OS X Mavericks announced

The next version of the Mac operating system, OS X 10.9, is officially labeled as OS X Mavericks. Mavericks, named after an epic surfing spot in northern California, has a lot of new features, but also represents a change in naming conventions away from the familiar cat themes. In future versions of OS X will … Read More

Secure Remove Files & Directories from Mac OS X with the Command Line

Jun 9, 2013 - 5 Comments
Terminal logo

Need to securely delete a file, group of files, or an entire directory, insuring that it’s quite literally never recoverable by any known possible means? You can do this easily from the command line with the help of an incredibly powerful tool called srm. srm, as you may have guessed, stands for ‘secure removal’, and … Read More

Watch Network Traffic in Mac OS X via Command Line with nettop

Jun 7, 2013 - 8 Comments
Nettop network activity

Mac OS X includes an excellent command line network utility called “nettop” that allows users to monitor all network activity, traffic, and routes from a Mac to the outside world, both through local (LAN) and wide area (WAN) connections. If you’re unfamiliar with networking tools like this, you can think of nettop as a network … Read More

Use the Mac Finder Sidebar for Quick File Drag & Drop App Launches

Jun 6, 2013 - 1 Comment
Drag and drop files into sidebar apps

The Finder window sidebar can hold apps and function as an application launcher, making it an excellent place to keep apps that are almost exclusively used alongside the file system, or for apps that are reliant on general filesystem access, but that aren’t necessarily used enough to warrant a place in the Mac Dock when … Read More

OS X 10.8.4 Update Released for Mac: Wi-Fi Improvements, Fixes iMessages Displaying Out Of Order, Safari 6.0.5, etc

Jun 4, 2013 - Leave a Comment
OS X 10.8.4 Update

Mac users can now update to OS X 10.8.4. The software update includes a new version of Safari versioned as 6.0.5, but otherwise focuses primarily on bug fixes. The most notable bug resolution resolves the problem for when iMessages displayed some messages out of order of when they were sent and received, which has been … Read More

How to Change an Icon in Mac OS X

Jun 4, 2013 - 14 Comments
Change an Icon on the Mac

You can change the icon of just about any file, folder, volume, or application in Mac OS X. This is an easy way to customize the appearance of items in the file system, and it can be a fun way to add a customized look to the desktop and home folder on a Mac. It … Read More

8 of the Best Tricks for Mail App in Mac OS X

Jun 3, 2013 - Leave a Comment
Change how often Mail checks for new messages

Use Mail app in Mac OS X to handle your email? Then this collection of some of the best tips you’ll find for Mail app in OS X is for you. We’ll cover some of the greatest tricks out there, including how to get new mail faster, see more messages at once, send attachments faster, … Read More

Quit All Open Applications Instantly from Mac OS X Dock with a Simple Mac App

Jun 2, 2013 - 16 Comments
Quit all apps icon

If you’ve ever needed to quickly quit out of all open applications in Mac OS X, you’ve probably just resorted to flipping through every open application in the Dock, then hitting Command+Q, then repeating until everything is closed. But there’s a better way, and with an extraordinarily simple Automator app you can create a function … Read More

Create a Large File from the Command Line or Disk Utility for Testing Purposes

May 31, 2013 - 2 Comments
Large test file created at the command line

Large empty files are often used for testing purposes during disk access tests, development, QA, zeroing out data, and scripting. Though it’s certainly not applicable to most users, it’s easy enough to do that anyone can try it out even if you don’t have a specific need. We’ll cover three ways to quickly generate files … Read More

How to Pause & Resume an App or Process in Mac OS X

May 30, 2013 - 9 Comments
Pause a process in Mac OS X to save CPU

Need to quickly free up some processing power? You can do that easily by temporarily pausing and then later resuming any active process or application in Mac OS X. Technically, this is actually ‘stopping’ and ‘continuing’ a process, but a stop is not to be confused with the more aggressive killing or force quitting applications … Read More

How to Create a Password Protected PDF File in Mac OS X

May 29, 2013 - 15 Comments
Password protect a PDF

If you need to create an encrypted PDF with password protection, forget about buying Adobe Acrobat or other expensive software, because Mac OS X has you covered with built-in tools. Yes, the Mac can natively create secure password protected PDF documents, meaning it’s free, and it’s also impressively easy to do.

Force Spotlight to Ignore Folders & Files with a Naming Extension in OS X

May 28, 2013 - Leave a Comment
Force Spotlight to ignore files and directories with a name change

Spotlight is the core of Mac OS X’s Search functionality, and if you want Spotlight to ignore a file, folder, or drive, the traditionally recommended advice is to drag the items to exclude from indexation into the Spotlight system preference panel exclusion list. That’s the recommended approach because it’s simple to use and easy to … Read More

Manage Your Own iPhone Photos? Delete iLifeAssetManagement to Recover Lost Disk Space in Mac OS X

May 27, 2013 - 3 Comments
Move images from iLifeAssetManagement

While Photo Stream is a great feature of iCloud, if you self manage your iPhone photos, it can quickly end up eating tons of disk space on a Mac hard drive. How, might a reasonable individual ask? Well, it may be unintentionally adding duplicates of all the photos you’re already importing yourself. This happens because … Read More

Subscribe to OSXDaily

Subscribe to RSS Subscribe to Twitter Feed Follow on Facebook Subscribe to eMail Updates

Tips & Tricks

News

iPhone / iPad

Mac

Troubleshooting

Shop on Amazon to help support this site