Late last night, a reference to a “ix.Mac.MarketingName” mystery string appeared on the iOS App Stores under the required compatibility section of nearly all apps. Initially people thought it was just a bug, but the placement and wording of the text started a fury of speculation. Most unusual of course is that it’s seemingly a … Read More
The Finder window sidebar makes navigation in Mac OS X easier, with quick access points to various aspects of a users home directory, as well as throughout the file system. Users can choose to show the Finder sidebar, or to hide the Finder sidebar, depending on their individual preferences.
You can start a FaceTime call from any web browser in Mac OS X or iOS with a custom URL structure. Then, if a user or yourself clicks that defined URL, a new FaceTime chat will attempt to initiate automatically to the set Apple ID, email, or phone number. This is a fun little trick … Read More
After a bit of use, my MacBook Air 11.6″ started to exhibit a strange behavior, it refused to wake from sleep. I’d open the MacBook Air, hit every key imaginable, and the Mac just stayed asleep, nothing would get it to turn on. If you’re interested in this you’re probably affected too so before I … Read More
If you would like to see the folder sizes on the Mac, you can do so easily by enabling a folder size calculation when looking at directories in the List View of Finder in Mac OS X. What this trick does is show folder sizes on the Mac, calculated in megabytes, kilobytes, or gigabytes, depending … Read More
If you’re trying to access the Mac App Store and you are getting the “Cannot Connect to App Store” error, you can typically resolve the issue with a few simple troubleshooting steps. This article will walk through some simple solutions to reconnect to the Mac App Store.
If you get easily distracted by things sitting around in the background, HazeOver might be for you. It’s a free utility that casts a shadow on all inactive windows, in other words, any window that isn’t in the foreground will be “hazed over.” Windows actually phase in and out of the shadow so it’s a … Read More
Booting a Mac with Verbose Mode can be a helpful troubleshooting trick for some obscure situations where users are trying to determine what is going wrong with a Mac during the system boot process. Just as it sounds, verbose mode is verbose, meaning it lists everything going on behind the scenes, and you’ll watch as … Read More
Want to use a rotated display on a MacBook? You can do exactly that, and the same way that you rotate screen orientation on a display connected to a Mac can be done with the built-in display of a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air (pictured).
Apple has announced the dates of WWDC 2011 as June 6 to June 10, which is just a day later than the rumored iPhone 5 release date. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of marketing, says “At this year’s conference we are going to unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS,” with a note … Read More
You probably know that Mac OS X Lion will add TRIM support for SSD’s, but what can you do right now if you’re on 10.6? If you’re brave, you can use this unsupported hack that enables TRIM for most SSD devices under Mac OS X 10.6.7. The app is called TRIM Enabler and it works … Read More
Apple is looking to license AirPlay to TV manufacturers, according to a new report from Bloomberg. TV’s with built-in AirPlay support would allow users to stream media directly from their iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and other Apple hardware, directly to the TV without the need of an Apple TV box. The “devices that could … Read More
Now here’s a seemingly stupid Mac trick that is actually kind of useful: grab your iPhone or iPod earbuds (the white ones that ship with the devices), and place them about an inch inward on the corners of a MacBook Pro… they’ll stick! Seriously, the white Apple earbud headphones will stick to the corner of … Read More
Mac OS X turns 10 today and after seeing the above image on Twitter I got to thinking that this may be the last we see of the traditional Mac OS X installer disc. With better methods of installation in place, what’s the point of Apple printing more DVD’s, better known as plastic coasters? Choose … Read More
Have iPad envy? Do you prefer the ease of the iOS interface? Maybe you just like the way iOS looks and want your Mac to resemble that user interface. By combining a few tips, we can make the Mac OS X desktop look a lot like iPad’s iOS: 1) Add Spacers to the Mac OS … Read More
Mac users can often reclaim significant disk space by clearing out their Downloads folder. Just how significant depends on the user, what they download, and if they tend to that directory often, but… See that screenshot? That’s my Macs Downloads folder measuring in at a whopping 26.18GB and begging for deletion. I’m a pretty savvy … Read More
Prepare for a new addiction: Angry Birds Rio is available to download for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. The sequel to Angry Birds brings 60 new levels and is bound to be just as highly addictive and fun, so now is a good time to start setting aside some mandatory procrastination gaming time. Download Angry Birds … Read More
A Macs startup drive can be changed during system boot by holding down the OPTION key, start holding down Option the moment you hear the boot chime sound and while the screen is still black, this will bring up the boot drive manager. From this startup boot disk menu, you can use the mouse or … Read More
