Apple has announced MacOS Sonoma as the next major version of MacOS. MacOS Sonoma, technically versioned as MacOS 14, features a new desktop widgets feature, new screen savers, new video conferencing features, a new Game Mode feature that optimizes performance when playing games, and more.
For users who are concerned about an unauthorized person physically tampering with a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or MacBook, nail polish (yes, that kind of nail polish) can offer a bit of security, or at least demonstrate potential evidence that hardware has been fiddled with. Now of course this does not apply to the vast … Read More
If you use git on the Mac platform, you likely have come across DS_Store files in a git repository. These can be annoying and clutter a git repo, and you may even run into unnecessary conflicts due to .DS_Store files being maintained in git repos, where you may see error messages like “The files .DS_Store … Read More
Many longtime Mac users continue to have old Macs laying around, and many of those old Macs continue to be used whether for specific use-cases, or simply outright nostalgia and retro computing fun. Whatever the case, if you’ve got an older Mac running Mac OS 9, and you wish it to have access to the … Read More
Mac OS 9 was the last version of classic Mac OS released before Apple transitioned entirely to Mac OS X and its underlying unix core, and if ever you’re feeling nostalgic for Mac OS 9 and all its goodness, you can now easily run the classic Mac operating system right in your web browser. Because … Read More
If you ever find yourself needing to know a history of a specific Macs assigned local IP addresses, you can find this potentially helpful networking information from the command line. This trick will report all local IP addresses which have been used by a Mac, and, very helpfully, it will also offer the specific date … Read More
If you have some frequently used applications on the Mac that you routinely launch from the Finder, you can customize the Finder toolbar to include those apps. This offers a helpful alternative to launch frequently used apps that is Finder specific, and can be particularly handy for apps that you only use for drag and … Read More
Knowing the number of CPU cores a particular Mac has can be useful for performance optimization, stress testing, compatibility, and to otherwise make informed decisions about system performance on a Mac. For example, maybe you want to make sure you have multiple cores available to run a virtual machine, or you want to spawn a … Read More
Apple has released MacOS Ventura 13.4 for all Mac users running the Ventura operating system. The software update focuses on bug fixes including resolutions to an issue with Screen Time, a fix for Apple Watch auto-unlock, a fix for a VoiceOver issue, and a resolution to a Bluetooth keyboard issue where the keyboard would reconnect … Read More
Occasionally you may find yourself in a situation where you are seeking to find what open TCP connections are in a listening state on a Mac. This can be useful whether you’re troubleshooting particular network issues, or simply looking to identify which processes are listening on specific ports on a Mac. We’ll be using the … Read More
Many advanced Chrome users may occasionally need to change the user agent associated with the browser, typically for testing purposes. Whether you’re a designer, developer, student, tinkerer, novice, or expert, changing the Chrome user agent isn’t particularly difficult, but it is hidden within a section of Chrome that most users never interact with; the developer … Read More
If you’re a Mac user running the latest versions of macOS system software, from Monterey 12, Ventura 13, or later, you can enable an optional Emoji quick-access feature that allows you to summon the Emoji picker instantly with the press of a single key on your Mac keyboard.
Many users choose to save login information and passwords into the Google Chrome browser’s built-in password manager. Sometimes you may need to manually access the passwords or login information that is stored within the password manager, so we’ll show you how you can access and view saved password and login information in the Chrome web … Read More
It’s not terribly uncommon to encounter flashing lights and strobing effects in videos, and while they can be annoying for most people, flashing light can be particularly problematic for people with epilepsy. Fortunately, the latest versions of MacOS offer a feature that will detect flashing lights and strobing lights in videos, and automatically dim them. … Read More
Some Mac users may wish to install GCC onto their MacOS computers. GCC, which stands for Gnu Compiler Collection, is a commonly used compiler with support for C, C++, Objective C, Go, Fortran, Ada, and more languages, and is frequently used for compiling command line programs, writing software, and more, whether for computer science classes … Read More
Some Mac command line users working with nodejs and npm may see an error message and command failure along the lines of “xcode-select: error: tool ‘xcodebuild’ requires Xcode, but active developer directory ‘/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools’ is a command line tools instance”. This error message sometimes appears after updating MacOS, migrating Macs, or If you experience this error … Read More
The latest versions of MacOS default to automatically installing what Apple calls ‘Rapid Security Response Updates’, which can patch security flaws and issues on the Mac without the standard process of installing software updates on the Mac. If you do not want these security response updates to install automatically on the Mac for whatever reason, … Read More
The Spotify app for Mac defaults to opening itself automatically every time the Mac restarts, boots, or a user logs in to the Mac. If you do not want Spotify to open automatically on the Mac, and you’re running MacOS Ventura or newer, read along to prevent this behavior and stop Spotify from opening itself.
