Want to change what the default app is that launches when you double-click or otherwise open a file from the OS X Finder? It’s easy to do, and you can change any individual files default application by doing the following from the Mac Finder: Select the file (or file type) that you want to adjust … Read More
If you use Twitter to keep an eye on things or to livestream news and events, this feature in the Twitter for Mac desktop app is a must use. It allows the Twitter app to automatically update and scroll to the most recent tweets, giving you a live and constantly updated feed of what’s going … Read More
How about a bit of everything with an Apple logo? Here’s a full range of portable Macs and iProducts; an iPhone, iPad, MacBook 13″ (maybe Pro?), and a MacBook Pro 15″. Perhaps the coolest thing about this setup is that you can sync the bluetooth keyboard and mouse to any of the devices. This pictures … Read More
Todolicious is a nice and simple to-do list manager for Mac OS X. I generally just use Stickies for to-do lists on my Mac, but Todolicious has a couple features that are handy that Stickies doesn’t. One is obvious, you can check items off and they disappear from the task list. The other you have … Read More
You can get desktop Growl notifications in Twitter for Mac, here’s how: From Twitter for Mac, go to the Twitter menu and open Preferences Click on the Notifications tab From the drop down menu, select ‘Growl notification’ for either Tweets, Mentions, or Messages Close out Preferences and changes are immediate Now just a word of … Read More
Microsoft has released a 30 day demo of Office 2011 for Mac, the trial is free to download and includes the entire Office suite for use. The other nice feature about the trial is that you can enter a product key at any point directly into the app, this lets you download Office 2011 for … Read More
By default, anytime you take a screen capture in Mac OS X, the resulting screenshot file will save to the current users desktop. This makes retrieval very easy and is very appropriate for the average Mac user, but for those who take a lot of screen shots in Mac OS, they may find their desktop … Read More
If you’ve ever accidentally shut down your Mac, you’re not alone. That dreaded feeling when everything starts closing when you didn’t mean to reboot, ahh! But don’t freak out, there’s an incredibly simple way to stop the shut down process in OS X! All you need to do to stop a Mac shutdown is immediately … Read More
Happy Birthday to the Mac! Apple introduced the very first Macintosh on January 24, 1984, beginning an era that is still going strong 27 years later. Here are some fun facts about the first ever Mac, known as the Macintosh 128k: It ran Mac OS System 1.0 (if you’re already nostalgic you can run classic … Read More
Using a Terminal command, you can turn any screensaver into your background wallpaper on the Mac. In the screenshot above I have the iTunes Album Art screensaver running as the Mac OS X desktop, but you can choose any screensaver you want. Here’s how to do this: Launch System Preferences Click on Desktop & Screen … Read More
There are several steps to password protect a Mac, we’ll cover the essentials so that if someone is to turn on your Mac, wake it from a screensaver, or wake from sleep, they will be required to enter a password in order to use the computer.
Two new patents have surfaced that may provide a look into the future of Mac input devices. The first is for a Magic Mouse that has an integrated touch screen, which could adjust to display things like virtual buttons, keys, menus, text, and video. The patent application shows a diagram of the Magic Mouse displaying … Read More
You can check your entire print history in Mac OS X by accessing the browser based CUPS utility. This is a very helpful tool for managing printing as well as tracking down origins of printed items, and it works on all versions of Mac with all printers.
I recently published a guide on how to disable the Apple Remote Control, and one of our readers wrote in with a good prank that demonstrates why you’d want to turn off the remote or at least pair one to your specific Mac: Want to know why you should turn off the Apple Remote? Try … Read More
Any time that you are away from your computer, it’s a good idea to lock the screen. This provides a level of privacy and security to the Mac that is very easy to use and implement and it should be considered a must-use trick, particularly for anyone working in public spaces, offices, schools, or anywhere … Read More
FaceTime is the video chat protocol available to Mac users in OS X as well as iOS for iPhone and iPad, and it works great to beam images from one camera to another device over the internet. One lesser known feature that is hidden from the general usage of the Mac FaceTime app however is … Read More
The Apple Remote Control used to be bundled with all new Macs, but unless the remote is paired specifically to your Mac a single remote can control multiple Macs at the same time. This is annoying if you’re trying to control a single Mac with the remote and suddenly FrontRow is activated on all other … Read More
The Twitter for Mac client has a great feature that lets you send tweets from just about anywhere in Mac OS X, including the Finder. I’ve tested this out in the Mac OS X Finder, iTunes, Chrome, Safari, iChat, TextEdit, Terminal, and can confirm that this works all over the place. To access the ‘Tweet’ … Read More
