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
You can turn off the internal MacBook Pro screen and still use the computer as long as it’s hooked up to an external display, and no you don’t have to use it in clamshell mode to achieve this. Here are two ways to keep your Mac laptop with the lid open but the internal display … Read More
Apple was recently awarded a patent for solar powered portable devices, which could pave the way for Macs, iPhones, and iPads running on a solar supplemented power source. The patent, which is Apple’s first to relate to solar powered portable devices, shows an unspecified “Portable Device” that has a standard battery which is augmented by … Read More
Want to update Mac OS software from the Terminal? You can check for available updates, ignore packages, and install any or all Mac OS X Software Updates directly from the command line. To see what updates are available for a Mac, or to install a software update from the Terminal of Mac OS X, amongst … Read More
Angry Birds for Mac has just been updated to include support for older MacBooks, iMacs, and Mac Minis with the Intel GMA 950 graphics card. Users who already bought Angry Birds from the Mac App Store will find the new version in your Updates list, otherwise new users can buy the game from the App … Read More
The Mac App Store includes a hidden Debug menu that can be enabled with a simple defaults write command. The menu includes a variety of interesting options and tweaks that are clearly intended for internal development purposes.
If you’ve ever accidentally used cat on a binary file, you’ll have seen the gibberish that results and how it can totally screw up your Terminal window with loads of weird characters. Of course there are many other ways to bork up your command line prompt which seems to become unrecoverable through the typical clear … Read More
Want to remove and uninstall Flash Player from a Mac? Some users install Flash but later decide they do not want the app and plugin on their Mac, thus will want to remove it. Adobe Flash Player is known to cause a slew of issues, slowdowns, battery drain, crashes, and other problems for Mac OS … Read More
Try not to get too excited, but you can get Minesweeper for Mac OS X now. That’s right, your favorite Windows game that has been following you around since Windows 3.1 and undoubtedly wasted tons of your PC time is now here to keep your company on the Mac. The graphics are as amazing as … Read More
