Mac OS Tips Features
How To: Control Spotify Music from an Easy-Access Notification Center Widget on Your Mac
After utilizing Spotify's My Year in Music tool, I came to realize that I listened to over 30,000 minutes of music in 2014. Most of that was played while working from my Mac using the desktop version of the service.
How To: Add Custom or Pre-Made HTML5 Widgets to Your Mac's Desktop
Apple hasn't been the most avid supporter of widgets over the years. Yes, they added them to the Notification Center in Yosemite, but that requires a drawer to be opened and closed whenever you want to check them. In my search for a better solution, I came across Ubersicht by developer Felix Hageloh.
How To: Record Your Mac's Screen for Free Using QuickTime
When a friend asks me what screen recording software is best to use, I always say the same thing—you don't need any! Even though it's been around since 2009, many Mac owners do not realize that they have a powerful screen recording software built right into OS X.
How To: The Ultimate Must-Know Guide to Securely Deleting Private Files & Folders from Your Mac Forever
I was kinda disappointed with last year's James Bond movie, Skyfall. Don't get me wrong, it was a solid flick, but only made me jealous with all its super spy hacker stuff.
News: The 5 Best iPhone/iPad Apps for Exporting and Importing Your Photos
With so many wireless iOS networking apps for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch available, there’s very little reason to connect any of these devices to iTunes, except to update the software. Besides, importing and exporting photos using iTunes has never been one of the best features of Apple‘s mobile device process. Let me introduce you to 5 useful apps for importing and exporting photos to and from your iOS device(s).
How To: Close All Open Apps on Your Mac with a Single Click
Normally, if you want to close all of the open apps on your Mac, you'd have to either quit them all one by one or restart, shut down, or log out while making sure to deselect “Reopen windows when logging back in." The latter option is great, but it doesn't always work in Mac OS X, and what if you don't want to restart, shut down, or log out?
How To: Know When Apple Batteries Need to Be Serviced or Replaced
Not all batteries are created equal, but one thing's for sure—they all lose capacity over time. Thankfully, the advanced lithium-ion batteries in your MacBook and iPhone are meant to last for several years before they begin to lose their overall charge capacity.
How To: Get the Dark Mode Boot Screen on Your Pre-2011 Mac Running Yosemite
When Yosemite was released, a more detailed boot screen came to your Mac. So now, just like on Apple's mobile devices, you will see a loading bar telling you how far into the startup process you are. Apple also decided to add a black version of this boot screen to newer Macs, leaving those of us who purchased a computer before 2011 out of the loop.
How To: Change OS X’s Annoying Default Settings Using Terminal
When setting up a new Mac, there can be a bunch of settings that need to be changed in order to get the system running the way you like it. That usually involves going through tons of System Preferences panes and app settings—but it doesn't have to.
News: Automatically Manage and Sort Files Using Hazel [Mac]
In many of my articles, I will refer to applications designed to empower Mac users to automate various tasks on their computer. One such application is called Hazel. Like smart folders, smart playlists, and smart albums found in Mac OS X and iPhoto, Hazel can automate the task of moving, copying, or deleting files in folders on your Mac. I recommend Hazel as one of the most essential applications for any Mac user. Let's explore how it works.
How To: Secretly Send Text Messages in Class or at Work Without Touching Your iPhone
Whether you're at work or in class, there are times when using your phone is unacceptable, regardless of that subtle yet sudden twitch in your arm that arises every time you hear the vibration of a text message.
News: Apple Evolution Timeline
Apple Evolution Timeline (click to magnify) by Edwin Tofslie.
How To: Add a Second Dock to Your Mac That Responds to Gestures & Keyboard Shortcuts
The dock has been a staple of Mac OS X since its creation and not much has been needed to improve its functionality, but when you add theming to the mix, you can run into some issues.
How To: 21 Must-Know Tips & Tricks for Mac OS X Yosemite
By now, you've probably already installed 10.10 Yosemite, the newest version of Mac OS X, on your computer. While you most certainly noticed the visual changes, you might have missed some of the really cool additions.
How To: Get the New iWork Apps for Free in Mac OS X Mavericks
If you didn't already know, Apple is giving away their newest operating system, Mavericks, for most of your computers. While the folks over at Microsoft surely despise this tactic, those of use Mac users still running Snow Leopard surely do appreciate it.
How To: Customize the Login Window Background on Your Mac
Macs, like pretty much all Apple products, are notorious for not having a highly customizable UI. They do this to keep a consistent look and feel across all of their devices, but I've grown bored of it over the years.
How To: Dual Boot Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan & 10.10 Yosemite
Since the new Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan is brand new, I recommend installing it on a separate partition on your hard drive. This will keep your current Yosemite system safe from harm, and will let you easily switch back to it should El Capitan become unusable for any reason.
How To: Disable Password Prompts When Downloading Free Apps in the Mac App Store
Whether you want to edit photos, compress files, play games, or DJ your next party, there's a free Mac app that can help you out. But things can get annoying real fast if you download a lot of free apps from the Mac App Store, since you have to type in your Apple ID password each time.
How To: Completely Trick Out Finder on Your Mac with XtraFinder
For the most part, Finder has had the same basic functionality through the various releases of OS X. But Apple's lack of interest in adding new bells and whistles to the backbone of their operating system simply means that 3rd-party developers get to shine, and Tran Ky Nam is one such developer. He created his own extension for Finder that adds tabbed browsing, dual pane mode, cut & paste functionality, and much, much more.
How To: Tweak System Settings & Activate Hidden Features in Yosemite with TinkerTool
Most diehard Mac users have used TinkerTool at some time or another, and if you haven't, it's time to start. Whether it's to change your system's font or to disable UI animations, it seems like anything you could ever think about tweaking in Mac OS X is doable through TinkerTool. And now, developer Marcel Bresink has updated his app to work with Yosemite, so let's see what it can do now.
How To: Resize Extremely Long "Open" & "Save" Dialog Boxes in Mac OS X Yosemite
Yosemite is definitely an improvement over Mavericks, but there are still some painfully obvious and annoying bugs that occur within certain apps.
How To: Control Music & Videos Using Hand Gestures on Your Mac
Looking back at my childhood in the '90s, I can't help but feel like I was deceived. Movies that took place in the "future," like in the year 2015, would showcase awesome technology. You know, self-driving or flying cars, hoverboards, and virtual displays controlled with hand gestures—so where are they?!
Energy Saver 101: How to Control When Your Mac Starts, Sleeps, & Shuts Down
Work, school, and everything in between keeps us pretty busy—so much so, that sometimes we run out of the house with our shirts on backwards, our headphones misplaced, and our computers running all day long.
How To: Quickly Paste Commonly Used Words or Phrases into Any Text Field on Your Mac
Your Mac's clipboard is great when you are just copying and pasting a phone number or address, but sometimes you end up having to re-copy the same thing over and over every day. To make those phrases a lot more easily accessible, the people over at Tiny Robot Software have released Pasteomatic. With this app, you will be able to use a hotkey to bring up a collection of your most commonly used text snippets and paste them into any text field or document.
How To: Access Hidden Mac OS X Settings in Lion and Mountain Lion Without Using Terminal
There are a lot of hidden settings in Mac OS X that you can change by using the Apple Terminal, but if you're not familiar with it, it can be tricky. Mountain Tweaks and Lion Tweaks are two apps created by Fredrik Wiker that cut out the extra step by letting you change those settings without having to use Terminal, therefore making it ridiculously simple. Since Mountain Lion is the latest version of OS X, we'll focus on Mountain Tweaks. There are three categories of tweaks. General Tweaks are...
How To: Connect an External Display to Your MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro
If you have no desire to get a separate Mac desktop computer, but want to either supersize your laptop's screen for gaming or need to get additional screen real estate while you work, then connecting your MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro to an external display is the right call.
How To: 9 Ways to Get by Without Photoshop on Your Mac
In 1987, two brothers, Thomas and John Kroll, began work on an image editing software, which was eventually acquired in 1988 and released to the world in 1990 by Adobe. That software was Photoshop 1.0, initially exclusive for the Macintosh platform. Over the years, Photoshop became a great wizard of image editing and gained application rockstar status.
How To: Make Your Mac's Dock & App Icons Look Like Yosemite's
The desktop layout in Mac OS X Yosemite is undeniably beautiful—it's sleek, simple, and easy to admire. Thing is, I do too much on my Mac to install a developer preview as my main OS (even though I can make a bootable install drive and dual-boot it), but I do want the aesthetics of the new build.
How To: 3 Free Alternatives to Apple's iPhoto
Firstly, I'd like to say that I have nothing against iPhoto; it's a great application that works wonderfully in Mac OS X. Unfortunately, when you no longer have iPhoto on your MacBook—and you don't want to pay for it—looking for an alternative is a necessary endeavor. I could sit here and try to explain to you how I updated to Lion and then inexplicably dragged the iPhoto application into the trash—and proceeded to empty said trash. I could tell you guys that story, but I fear you might judge...
Camera Plus Pro: The iPhone Camera App That Does it All
Even with Apple's forthcoming iOS 5 updates to its default camera application, those upcoming features can't match what already exists in Global Delight's Camera Plus Pro. For $1.99, Camera Plus Pro provides users with over 100 tools for every part of the picture taking process, including video recording. It works with all versions of the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad 2 with iOS 4.1 or the later update. Let's examine what it can do, and why you will want to replace Apple's default camera with ...
How To: Receive Notifications When Your Name Is Mentioned in Messages
Group chats can get annoying real quick if the people in them are sending rapid-fire texts without hesitation, especially if none of them are any interest to you specifically. Luckily, it's easy to mute notifications for specific message threads. You can even leave a group chat if everyone is using iMessages, but that could lead to you missing an important message.
How To: Permanently Silence Your Mac's Annoying Notification Center
When Apple wanted to bring their Notification Center to Mac OS X, I loved the idea. But after using it since its integration in Mountain Lion, it's been more annoying and distracting than anything. More and more apps incorporate notifications, so I'm constantly getting sound alerts and banners in the top right corner that I don't want.
How To: Hunt Down Space-Hogging Files on Your Mac with Disk Inventory X
I love my MacBook Air, but the fact that it runs on only 128 GB of flash storage causes me to move most of my files to the cloud. I don't mind having to be connected to the internet in order to access my files, but it's definitely a hassle trying to figure out which files I should move in order to save the most space. Usually, I don't even bother even trying until I see the dreaded "Your startup disk if almost full" warning. Currently, the only real way to find your biggest files in Mac OS X ...
How To: Customize Spotlight Search in Mac OS X Yosemite
Spotlight, Apple's selection-based search system, received a major facelift on Mac OS X Yosemite. Packed with dozens of new features, such as a central search window and increased app suggestions, the reworked Spotlight was a breath of fresh air.
How To: Silence Your Mac's Annoying Start-Up Chime
I love my Mac to pieces, but there have been times, so many times, that I wanted to silence that classic Apple start-up chime. I mean, the only thing the sound does is notify everyone around you that you have a Mac, and that you have turned said Mac on, right? Well it's not so vain.
How To: Get Apple TV's New Aerial Screen Saver on Your Mac
When an Apple TV remains idle, it will eventually trigger its majestic video screen saver that includes aerial views New York, San Francisco, China, Hawaii, and more. Now, thanks to developer John Coates, you can have the exact same screen saver on any Mac running OS X Mavericks and above.
How To: 6 Ways to Get More Out of Your Mac's Notification Center
You can check stock quotes, make quick calculations, see the weather forecast, get reminders, and view upcoming calendar events all from the Notification Center on your Mac. But if that's all your using it for, you're just barely scratching the surface.
How To: Stop iPhoto from Automatically Launching When You Plug in Your iPhone
By default, whenever you plug your iPhone into your Mac computer, iPhoto automatically launches alongside iTunes. While this can be useful for those who like syncing their photos with iPhoto, it's annoying to those who don't. Even if you do sync with iPhoto, chances are you don't want it popping up every time you want to charge your iPhone or sync with iTunes.
How To: Connect Your iPhone to Your Mac Like Never Before with Pushbullet
With Apple's Yosemite build of Mac OS X came Continuity, a feature that has allowed us to connect our mobile devices to our computers, letting us access apps, send text messages, answer phone calls, and more while seamlessly switching from one device to the other.
How To: Control Your Mac Apps with Custom Trackpad Gestures
Remembering keyboards shortcuts can prove difficult, especially when there are so many to remember, not to mention that they differ from app to app. While tools like CheatSheet can make them easier to use, today I'm going to show you how to enter them without using your keyboard at all.