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Make Mac OS X look like iPad iOS

Mar 24, 2011 - 29 Comments

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

Reclaim Disk Space on a Mac by Periodically Clearing Out ~/Downloads

Mar 23, 2011 - 9 Comments

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

Angry Birds Rio for iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Mar 22, 2011 - 8 Comments

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

Change the Mac Startup Drive on Boot

Mar 22, 2011 - 14 Comments

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

Mac Market Share Around the World: USA 15%, Canada 14%, Australia 14%, and more

Mar 18, 2011 - 17 Comments

Mac OS X market share is growing nicely around the world with some pretty impressive numbers in North America, Oceania, and parts of Europe. As a continent, North America takes the cake at 14.09%, which isn’t too surprising considering it is the home of Apple. Next up is Oceania (Australia & New Zealand) at 13.71%. … Read More

How to Redeem an App Store Promo Code (Mac App Store & iOS App Store)

Mar 17, 2011 - 13 Comments

If you’ve been provided with an App Store promo code, here’s how to redeem it from the Mac App Store client and iOS App Store from iTunes: Redeem a Promo Code on the Mac App Store: Launch the Mac App Store From the Featured or Top Charts tab, look at the right side under “Quick … Read More

Increase the Size of Mac OS X Desktop Icons

Mar 16, 2011 - 5 Comments
Mac Finder

It’s really easy to increase the size of the icons that appear on the Mac OS X desktop or anywhere in Finder by using an adjustable slider. This lets you select icon sizes as small as 16×16 pixels and as large as 512 x 512 pixels, which is really quite big, and of course, you … Read More

Use a $2 Ikea Napkin Holder as a Vertical MacBook Stand

Mar 16, 2011 - 14 Comments

Want a super cheap vertical stand for your MacBook Pro? Try this $1.99 Ikea FANTASTIK napkin holder, apparently it’ll hold a MacBook Pro just fine (looks like a 13″ judging by the SuperDrive). Sure, it’s not the super sleak BookArc, but it’s also $48 cheaper.

Show Remaining Battery Life in the Mac OS X Menu Bar

Mar 14, 2011 - 10 Comments
MacBook AIr 2012 Battery Life

If you’ve ever wondered how much battery life is remaining on a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air, you should set the battery icon in the OS X status bar to display some additional details, like the percentage remaining. This gives you an immediate idea of how much longer you can use a Mac.

How to Setup & Use iTunes Home Sharing

Mar 9, 2011 - 35 Comments

iTunes Home Sharing is a great feature that lets you share your iTunes 10.2.1 library wirelessly with anyone on your local network. This means you can share any Mac or PC’s media library with any iOS 4.3 compatible iPhone, iPod, iPad, or Apple TV, in addition to any other Macs and PC on your network. … Read More

Disable the Spaces Animation in Mac OS X

Mar 9, 2011 - 9 Comments

Anytime you flip between Spaces in Mac OS X there’s a fancy animation, this is nice and all but it makes switching Spaces slower than it needs to be. You can disable the animation which speeds up Spaces transition a bit. Disable Spaces Animation Launch Terminal and type: defaults write com.apple.dock workspaces-swoosh-animation-off -bool YES Then … Read More

Remove an Agent from launchd

Mar 8, 2011 - 35 Comments

The vast majority of Mac users won’t need to manually tweak launchd and launchctl, but there are times when you uninstall or stop using an app in Mac OS X and a service agent continues to needlessly load in launchd. This is annoying, but these rogue agents are easy to remove via the command line, … Read More

How to Move the iPhone & iPad iTunes Backup folder to an External Hard Drive

Mar 5, 2011 - 98 Comments

If you have a Mac with an SSD or otherwise limited disk space (like the MacBook Air 11″ with a 64GB drive), you might consider moving your iPhone backup folder to another drive to save some of that precious SSD space. Before proceeding you might want to determine if this is necessary for you. Do … Read More

Minimal Date, Time, and Day Screen Saver

Mar 5, 2011 - 10 Comments

A few weeks ago my microwave broke, which you might think has nothing to do with clocks but I actually never use the microwave for anything except to check the time. With the giant clock aka microwave broken, I set about to find some clock screen savers for Mac OS X so my unused Mac … Read More

Activate Tab Overview in Chrome to get Expose for the web

Mar 4, 2011 - 20 Comments

If you’re a heavy tab user, pay attention. With Chrome 9 or later, you can activate a really cool hidden feature called “Tab Overview” that works great with Mac multi-touch devices. The name Tab Overview doesn’t really describe much of anything, but the behavior of Tab Overview is basically like Mac OS X’s Expose but … Read More

Drag & Drop Finder Items into the Terminal to Automatically Type their Full Path & Name

Mar 2, 2011 - 8 Comments

You can instantly print any Finder items full path and name into the Terminal by dragging and dropping an item from a Finder window and into a Terminal window. Once the Finder item has been dropped into the terminal, the entire path to the item is automatically typed out instantaneously, maintaining both proper capitalization as … Read More

Show Hidden Files in Mac OS X Dialog Boxes with Command+Shift+Period

Mar 1, 2011 - 7 Comments

Need to reveal hidden files and folders while opening or saving a file on the Mac? You can show them immediately with nothing but a quick keystroke. To instantly show hidden files and directories in the Mac OS X “Open” and “Save” dialog boxes, all you need to do is hit Command+Shift+Period together and those … Read More

Backup Time Machine to Non-Native Drives & Network Attached Storage

Feb 28, 2011 - 6 Comments

Using the command line in OS X, you can enable a hidden feature in Time Machine that allows you to backup your Mac to a non-native volume, including Networked Attached Storage devices, network volumes, or even a Windows PC. This is generally best for advanced Mac users, as it must be enabled through a defaults … Read More

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