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Maximize Screen Space with the Tiny iTunes Micro Player

Jun 13, 2011 - 4 Comments
iTunes Micro Player

If you want iTunes to take up the absolute least amount of screen space, yet still be able to control music and volume, use the iTunes Micro Player (Yea I just named it that, I don’t know what the official name is). First minimize iTunes so that it’s in the standard mini-player mode, but then … Read More

Create a New Terminal Window from a Tab

Jun 11, 2011 - 2 Comments
New Terminal Window from Tab

Want to create a new Terminal window from a tab on the Mac? It can be done, but how it works may depend on what Mac OS system software version you are using and therefore what version of the Terminal app is in play. In Mac OS X, the Terminal app reacts differently than Safari … Read More

Find an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad UDID

Jun 10, 2011 - 10 Comments
iPhone UDID

All iOS devices come with a Unique Device Identifier number, known as a UDID. The UDID is kind of like a serial number for that device, except that it’s even longer at 40 characters. By far the most simple way to retrieve your iPhone, iPad, or iPod‘s identifier number is through iTunes itself.

How to Create & Burn a Bootable Mac OS X Lion Install DVD

Jun 8, 2011 - 120 Comments
Make your own OS X Lion Bootable Installation DVD

Apple announced that Lion would be released exclusively through the Mac App Store for $30. This is great because the App Store policy allows a single purchase to install on all your Macs, but what if you don’t have broadband access on all your Macs, or what if you just want a bootable installation disc? … Read More

Enable “Click to Play” for Plug-ins & Flash in Google Chrome Web Browser

Jun 3, 2011 - 6 Comments
Click to Play plugins like Flash in Google Chrome browser

Rather than disabling Flash completely in Chrome, an excellent option is to enable a hidden “Click to Play” feature that prevents that plugin and all others from automatically loading. With Click To Play turned on, if you want Flash or another browse plug-in to run and load, you simply click on it to play or … Read More

Get DNS Server IP Addresses from the Command Line in Mac OS X

Jun 3, 2011 - 6 Comments

You can quickly retrieve active DNS server IP addresses on any Mac by using the networksetup utility. This is done from the command line, so launch the Terminal app and type one of the following command strings, dependent on the version of OS X that is running on the Mac.

How to Check if your Mac Malware Definitions List is Updated

Jun 2, 2011 - 10 Comments
Check if your Macs Malware Definition List is Updated

The malware protecting Mac OS X Security Update will automatically download and update it’s malware definitions list from Apple, but if you’re like me you probably want to know how to manually check if the malware list is updated or not. We’ll show you where the malware list is located on Mac, and how to … Read More

Disable Automatic Downloading of Malware Definitions List in Mac OS X

Jun 1, 2011 - 3 Comments

A recent anti-malware Mac OS X security update was released that defaults to automatically downloading and maintaining an active definitions list of known Mac OS X malware threats. This list comes from Apple and is likely a very small file that is transmitted to your Mac, imposing minimal bandwidth usage. For 99.99% of users, you … Read More

Use Chrome to Quickly Show Invisible Files on your Hard Drive in Mac OS X

May 29, 2011 - 4 Comments
Chrome can see Invisible Files on a hard drive

If you don’t want to bother with defaults write commands or the terminal, an alternate method to show hidden files in Mac OS X is to simply use the Chrome web browser. Just hit Command+L and enter / into the address bar (alternatively, you can enter file:/// as the address), and you’ll be presented with … Read More

How to Change the Name of an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch with iTunes

May 28, 2011 - 18 Comments
Change the name of an iPhone

You can give your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch a custom name easily, or change it from its current name to something else if someone else happened to give it a name that you don’t like. This is helpful for when an iOS device transfers ownership, or if the name is perhaps just no longer … Read More

Show Analog Clock in the Mac Menu Bar

May 27, 2011 - 3 Comments
Show the Analog Clock in the Mac OS X Menu Bar

Tired of the lengthy digital clock showing in the Mac OS X menu bar? You can go for a minimalist approach by setting the clock to display as an analog (that is, the old fashioned clocks with a face and hands), which will take up much less space and helps to clean up an otherwise … Read More

How to Take a Screen Shot Without the Shadow in Mac OS X

May 26, 2011 - 2 Comments
Take a Screen Shot without a Shadow in Mac OS X

Instead of disabling the screen shot shadow completely you can take a one-time screen capture minus the shadow by using either the Grab app or by using the command line screencapture utility.

Get a Black iOS Style Menu Bar in Mac OS X

May 25, 2011 - 17 Comments
Get a Black Menu Bar in Mac OS X

Distracted by your menu bar? If you want a stylish iOS-like black menu bar in Mac OS X but don’t want to go all out with an iOS / Mac desktop, you should grab Nocturne, it’s free and adds some pizazz to your Mac desktop. Nocturne actually serves several other purposes intended to make the … Read More

The Window Titlebar in Mac OS X Tells You When You Have Unsaved File Changes

May 25, 2011 - 3 Comments
Look for unsaved changes in the Mac windowbar

Not sure if you have unsaved changes when editing a file in Mac OS X? Just look at the window titlebars close button, if the red close button has a darker red dot inside of it then you have unsaved changes.

Get a Full Screen Mac OS X Terminal Now with iTerm2

May 25, 2011 - 9 Comments

Don’t want to wait for the full screen Terminal in Mac OS X Lion? Me neither, and we don’t have to thanks to iTerm2. The latest build of iTerm2 features the ability to enter into a true full screen terminal mode. Just launch iTerm2 and hit Command+Return to enter into full screen. One of our … Read More

Turn Off the Flash Plugin in Google Chrome

May 24, 2011 - 6 Comments
Disable Flash plugin in Google Chrome

If you use Google Chrome as a web browser you have probably noticed that the Adobe Flash plugin is contained within the app by default, even if you have uninstalled Flash on your Mac. This is good because the plugin is sandboxed, but some users may wish to disable the Flash Player plugin within Chrome … Read More

Enable “Right-Click” on a Mac Laptop

May 24, 2011 - 29 Comments
Right-Click Mac Trackpad

If you or someone you know is coming to the Mac from the world of Windows and are accustomed to the concept of right-clicking, as in literally clicking on the right hand side of a trackpad or mouse, you’ll be relieved to find out this feature can be enabled in Mac OS X. This will … Read More

Disable the Window Shadow on Screen Shots in Mac OS X

May 23, 2011 - 4 Comments
Screen shot without the window shadows in Mac OS X

Have you ever noticed that there’s a shadow on every screen shot of a window you take in Mac OS X? If you don’t want those shadows to appear on your screen shots, you can disable the shadow effect by turning to defaults commands at the Terminal.

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