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Make Incremental Brightness & Volume Adjustments in Mac OS and OS X

Jun 9, 2012 - 36 Comments
Incremental volume and brightness adjustments in Mac OS X

Do you remember how you could make small and precise 1/4 incremental changes to brightness and audio volume in Mac OS X Snow Leopard by holding down the Option key? Many thought this feature disappeared with OS X Lion, but it turns out you can still make those incremental adjustments in both OS X Lion, … Read More

Mac Screen Looking Blurry? Optimize & Troubleshoot Font Smoothing in Mac OS X

Jun 9, 2012 - 6 Comments
Incorrect screen resolution looks fuzzy

If you think a Mac display looks fuzzy or blurry there are a few common solutions to check into before assuming the screen itself has a problem. Likewise, if your screen text just doesn’t look right it may be due to a few settings within Mac OS X. With that in mind here are a … Read More

14 Must-Know Tips & Tricks for Mac OS X

Jun 8, 2012 - 32 Comments
Show hidden files in open and save dialog windows

We often get asked what the single most useful Mac tip is, or what a handful of the best tricks are. It’s impossible to answer such a question given the diversity of use cases of OS X, but here’s a collection of what are surely some of the absolute best tips for Mac OS X … Read More

Quickly Enter Clamshell Mode with an External Display in Mac OS X

Jun 8, 2012 - 15 Comments
Clamshell MacBook in a Book Arc

Keeping a portable Mac turned on while the lid remains closed is commonly referred to as clamshell mode. Clamshell mode basically docks the MacBook Air / Pro / etc and allows the GPU to power an external display only, which can help performance of some games and graphics intensive tasks. Additionally, some MacBook users just … Read More

Fish Shell for Mac OS X Makes the Command Line Smarter & Friendlier

Jun 7, 2012 - 6 Comments
Fish Shell for Mac OS X showing autosuggestions

Are you looking for a way to make the command line a bit more user friendly? If so, you may find Fish to be a pretty nice alternative shell whether you are completely new to the OS X Terminal or you just want some general assistance when at the command line.

Enable Closed Captioning on iPhone, iPad, and in iTunes

Jun 6, 2012 - 4 Comments
Enable Closed Captioning of videos in iOS

Closed Captioning places written text at the bottom of video content, allowing for anyone to read along with the video rather than listen to the audio. This is an essential feature for certain accessibility purposes and for individuals who are hard of hearing, but it’s also just a useful feature to enable if you want … Read More

Get 11 Great Mac Apps for $49.99 with the MacUpdate June 2012 Bundle

Jun 6, 2012 - 6 Comments
MacUpdate June 2012 Bundle for Mac Apps

The MacUpdate June 2012 Bundle is an absolute whopper of a deal with 11 killer Mac apps that would otherwise retail for $457 for just $49.99. Some particular highlights in the bundle are Parallels 7, ScreenFlow 3, Civilization 5, Jaksta, and My Living Desktop, but you’ll find every app in the bundle to be quite … Read More

Create a Sorted Applications Launcher & App Menu for the Mac OS X Dock

Jun 5, 2012 - 11 Comments
Group Applications by Category and use a sorted app launcher in the Mac OS X Dock

If you keep the Applications folder in the OS X Dock for quick app launching you’ve probably noticed it’s just a giant list of all the apps installed. Sure you can change the display to use a grid, list, or fan, but if you have a lot of apps you’ll still end up with a … Read More

Transfer Music from iPhone, iPod, or iPad to a Computer

Jun 4, 2012 - 78 Comments
Move Music from iPod or iPhone to computer

Everyone knows how easy it is to get music onto an iPod, iPhone, or iPad with the help of iTunes, but have you ever tried to get music off an iPod or iPhone and onto a new computer? As it turns out, transferring music from an iOS device and to a new or different computer … Read More

Add the Voice of Siri to Mac OS X

Jun 4, 2012 - 7 Comments
Add the voice of Siri to Mac OS X with Samantha

If you bought a new Mac with OS X Lion (or later) pre-installed you probably already have the voice of Siri enabled by default. Siri is actually called “Samantha”, but if you upgraded to OS X Lion manually from Snow Leopard you may have missed the addition of Siri’s voice completely, so here’s how to … Read More

MacMotorcycle: The Most Creative Recycling of PowerMac G4’s You’ll Ever See

Jun 2, 2012 - 14 Comments
Motorcycle with PowerMac G4 as Saddlebags

Ever wondered what to do with that dusty old bricked Mac hardware? Rick H. is a Mac consultant from New Jersey who seems to have found the perfect answer for some old PowerMac G4’s; recycle them into saddlebags for his motorcycle! As you can see, two PowerMac G4’s are mounted aside the seat to function … Read More

Retrieve a Files Original Direct Download Address from Safari in Mac OS X

Jun 2, 2012 - 1 Comment
Copy the Downloaded files origin address

Have you ever downloaded a file from the web, and then down the road wished you could retrieve the origin download address? Maybe you want to redownload the file or send the direct download link to a friend. Whatever the reason, you can get the downloaded files URL and copy it to your clipboard easily … Read More

Improve Diablo 3 Performance in Mac OS X

Jun 1, 2012 - 13 Comments
Improve Diablo 3 Performance in Mac OS X

Diablo 3 system requirements are fairly lenient but as many Mac users have discovered, performance on some computers just isn’t that great. Even some of the newest Macs with the best GPU’s are experiencing performance issues. The good news is that Blizzard is on the case and actively working on patches to address many of … Read More

Change Color Profiles Instantly from the Mac OS X Menu Bar with ProfileMenu

Jun 1, 2012 - Leave a Comment
Color Profile Menu for Mac OS X

Whether you’re a designer, gamer, or you just frequently switch color profiles to use different external displays, you’ll find ProfileMenu useful. As the name implies, ProfileMenu stores all color profiles in an OS X menu bar item that can be accessed from anywhere, allowing you to instantly switch from one profile to the next on … Read More

How to Completely Disable Audio & Sound in Mac OS X

May 30, 2012 - 11 Comments
Mute audio in Mac OS X

Whether you just like peace and quiet or you work in an environment that requires audio input and output to be disabled on a computer for security purposes, it’s fairly easy to accomplish in Mac OS X. We’ll cover how to handle turning off audio for both situations, the first uses mute for basic audio … Read More

Create & Extract bz2 Archives in Mac OS X

May 29, 2012 - 10 Comments
bzip2 archive in Mac OS X

The Bzip archive format is generally more effective at compressing than zip and gzip, and while the default Archive Utility or the excellent all-purpose Unarchiver tool will handle unarchiving bzip2 files with ease, you will have to venture to the command line if you want to create a bzip archive in Mac OS X. Creating … Read More

Move Windows Between Desktops in Mac OS X With a Click & Keyboard Shortcut

May 27, 2012 - 8 Comments
Enable fast Desktop Switching keyboard shortcuts

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 … Read More

Extract & Uncompress Any Archive File with Unarchiver for Mac OS X

May 26, 2012 - 9 Comments
Extract files in Mac OS X with Unarchiver

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 … Read More

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