If you have tried to repair the boot volume before in Mac OS X before, you’ll undoubtedly have found the “Repair Disk” option is grey and unavailable within the Disk Utility tool. While this is still the case while booted in most versions of Mac OS X, you can repair the Mac OS X boot … Read More
Apple has released firmware updates for 2010 model year MacBook Air, iMac, and MacBook Pro. The EFI update brings OS X Lion Internet Recovery, which is accessible by booting into Recovery mode and allows a user to reinstall OS X Lion, to each Mac from 2010. The EFI Firmware updates are available to download from … Read More
By combining the Hide All windows shortcut with the minimize keyboard shortcut in Mac OS X, you can use a third ‘Minimize and Hide All’ shortcut that both hides and minimizes all windows open on a Mac. This hide and minimize all trick is accomplished by hitting the Command+Option+H+M keys together.
We recently showed you how to delete Safari, Mail, and other default apps installed with Mac OS X, and procedurally iTunes is not much different. Unlike uninstalling applications from third parties, if you attempt to drag the iTunes app into the Trash can, you’ll see a dialog box warning that ‘“iTunes.app” can’t be modified or … Read More
It’s easy to be distracted by other open applications and windows while using a computer, and sometimes even the best of us need a bit of help to focus. Lion’s full screen mode can be helpful, but when that’s not enough or when you need access to other windows and apps, then Isolator is your … Read More
If you have tried to delete Safari, Mail, FaceTime, Chess, Photo Booth, Stickies, QuickTime, or any of the other default Mac OS X apps before, you’ll know the Finder prevents you from doing so. Try to move one of these apps to the trash to uninstall it and you’ll get a message saying: ‘”Safari.app” can’t … Read More
Apple looks to have quietly updated the troubled Mac OS X 10.7.3 Updater, first noticed by several of our readers and confirmed by OSXDaily. No official change was announced and there is no revised version number provided by Apple’s Support page, but presumably the new build addresses any potential installation problems or CUI errors that … Read More
All Macs with OS X Mavericks, Yosemite, Lion, Mountain Lion, have a bootable Recovery partition that can be accessed in case of system problems, allowing you to troubleshoot, restore from Time Machine backups, and even reinstall Mac OS X. There are two ways to reach Recovery mode on a Mac: Hold down the OPTION key … Read More
If you need to delete sensitive information and have it completely inaccessible, you’ll want to use the “Secure Empty Trash” feature. This works by writing random patterns of data over a trashed file immediately after it has been emptied, or removed from the filesystem, such a process which otherwise takes place over time throughout normal … Read More
Spotlight is generally very good at keeping a valid index of a drives contents up to date, but if you’ve recently restored a drive or had to delete the Spotlight index for one reason or another, you may need to reindex the drive manually. This is easy from the Spotlight control panel, and can also … Read More
Every Mac owner should be using Time Machine, it’s by far the easiest and most painless backup solution, running in the background and allowing for easy recovery of files or the entire operating system should something go wrong during an OS X update or otherwise. There’s no way around it, having backups of your Mac … Read More
The Absinthe Greenpoison jailbreak utility for A5 based iOS hardware has been updated to version 0.4, fixing several bugs and adding support for PPC Mac users and those running Mac OS X 10.5 on either Intel or PPC platforms. This version is aimed at new users, and if you already have the jailbreak installed on … Read More
Apple has released Mac OS X 10.7.3 to the public, the third minor update to OS X Lion. The update includes bug fixes including a Wi-Fi stability update, and also fixes a handful of other issues that have effected OS X 10.7. The update also includes support for several new languages, and updates Safari to … Read More
Mac OS X has a secondary Cut and Paste function that provides the ability to cut and paste additional information without overwriting existing clipboard contents. This alternative clipboard is completely separate from the normal clipboard accessible with Command+C and Command+V, and instead you’ll use different keystrokes to access the secondary cut and paste feature and … Read More
Apple has released an all new version of AirPort Utility for OS X Lion with a redesigned user interface. The revised appearance makes it simpler to use, with the first screen showing a graphical overview of the network and all connected devices. Interestingly, the new Mac version looks practically identical to the current iOS version, … Read More
Need to quickly encrypt a file from the command line? With OpenSSL, you can encrypt and decrypt files very easily. For the purpose of this walkthrough, we’ll use des3 encryption, which in simple terms means a complex encryption algorithm is applied three times to each data block, making it difficult to crack through brute force … Read More
If you haven’t set up iCloud and Find My iPhone yet, now is a good time to do so. Follow our guide below on how to get this configured on an iPad, iPhone, iPod, and a Mac, then read on for a story about how a police officer used the application to locate an iPhone … Read More
Pacifist is a powerful Mac OS X utility that gives you full access to package and installer files and their contents, without running the installer itself. Using Pacifist, you can open installers and disk images, find out what is in them, discover what is going to be installed and where, and best of all, extract … Read More
