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. While one free thing ...more
If you've been testing out the Mac OS X Yosemite preview, you already know that Mac OS X 10.10 has a ton of cool under-the-hood tweaks and optimizations. One of the most noticeable changes for me has to be the new flatter look and "Dark Mode," which changes most UI elements fr ...more
For those of you who've already gotten Beta Preview or Developer Preview access to Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite, I highly recommend installing it on a separate partition on your hard drive. There have been many reported bugs and even blank gray screens that prevent access to the s ...more
Mac OS X has finally added a way to use two apps side by side in full screen mode, à la Microsoft's Windows Snap. But since it's only available in 10.11 El Capitan right now, those of us with older systems will have to wait until the El Capitan Public Preview or final build is ...more
Apple may have made Mavericks more accessible to Mac users everywhere at the fair price of zero dollars, but unfortunately, they made it trickier to create a bootable install drive of the Mac OS X 10.9 operating system. Don't Miss: How to Create a Bootable Install Drive of 10 ...more
While change is good, it isn't always welcomed. All software updates with radical redesigns and brand-new features bring at least a few complaints from those accustomed to previous versions. iOS 7 got a lot of flak from iOS 6 users, as did iOS 8 from iOS 7 users. When it come ...more
Don't hit that button yet! I know that everyone is eager to update to iOS 8 as soon as humanly possible, but when it comes to enabling iCloud Drive, you need to wait. All the hype with the new OS has caused many to overlook the fact that not everything talked about during the ...more
If you're marginally inclined towards computers, you've probably been approached at some point by a family member who wants you to "fix" their system during a visit home. With the holidays coming up, these opportunities (or ambushes) are even more likely. Even if nothing is w ...more
Apple has announced the release of their OS X Beta Seed Program today, which allows anyone with an Apple ID and a Mac to download and run the latest developer build of Mac OS X 10.9.3—the most updated beta version of Mavericks. The OS X Beta Seed Program allows us to run softw ...more
Apple released the new Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite in the Mac App Store for everyone to download and install for free on October 16th, 2014, but downloading a 5+ GB file for each of your computers will take some serious time. The best thing to do is download it once and create a b ...more
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. ...more
As I've said before, slowing down is not an option for me. At one point, I realized that there were plenty of files on my Mac that I didn't need any more, but too many to delete individually. In other cases, your Mac can be experiencing some major malfunctions: constant crashi ...more
Apple announced the successor to Mac OS X Mavericks at their Worldwide Developer's Conference 2014, and it's called Yosemite. Named after California's Yosemite National Park, it will be available as a free upgrade from the Mac App Store for everyone this fall. If you want to ...more
Straight out of the box, the Nexus 5 is an awesome device, but even it can be faster with better battery life. Luckily, one of the things that makes it so awesome is that there are tons of developers creating mods for it, since it runs stock Android by default. When it comes t ...more
Continuity is a new feature for iOS 8 and Mac OS X Yosemite which allows users to connect their Apple devices to their Mac in order to access applications, send text messages, receive phone calls, and more while seamlessly switching between devices. Inside Continuity exists a ...more
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 Maveric ...more
Heartbleed, move over. There's a new bug in town, and this time it's also affecting Mac and Linux computers. It's called Shellshock (its original official title is CVE-2014-6271), and it's currently got a 10 out of 10 severity rating over at the National Cyber Awareness System ...more
Like a car, your Mac needs to be monitored and cared for to keep it running as smoothly as possible. While your vehicle comes with a ton of gauges to keep track of your oil, temperature, and in some cases, even tire pressure, your Mac has no easy way to watch for low memory or ...more
Hello all! In this tutorial, I'd like to show you one way of getting root on OS X. Check out this GitHub page for a recent privilege escalation exploit that was recently discovered. I've tested it and it works on both OS X 10.9 Mavericks and OS X 10.10 Yosemite, but appears to ...more
Yosemite is definitely an improvement over Mavericks, but there are still some painfully obvious and annoying bugs that occur within certain apps. One such example is the elongated "Open" and "Save" dialog boxes, which sometimes stretch all the way down so that the "Open," "S ...more
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, ...more
Apple has a built-in way to protect you from opening up potentially malicious apps on your computer in Mac OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan, and macOS Sierra. This setting, named Gatekeeper, will never stop you from installing apps from the Mac App Sto ...more
Back in the day when computers relied on CRT monitors, having a static image displayed for too long actually resulted in the image being burned into the screen. For this reason, screensavers were developed, which display animated images in constant motion to prevent burning in ...more
Admit it, you wish Siri was on your Mac, and so do I. She stole my heart on iOS, and now every time I open up my MacBook, I feel something missing. Wouldn't it be great if we could, I dunno, hack Siri onto our Macs? Yeah, it would! This is not an Apple-verified version of Sir ...more
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 aestheti ...more
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. To get the most out of ...more
During a power outage at my apartment this year, I watched movies on my MacBook Pro instead of on my television. While I had no complaints about the screen size, I did have an issue with how low the audio coming from my speakers was. External speakers would help, but I don't w ...more
This is the very first article in my series on setting up a Mac for hacking. In this series, I will be operating under the assumption that you have a clean install of macOS (previously OS X). If you aren't starting with a clean installation, there may be a few differences, but ...more
When you think of Terminal, you probably imagine some hacker sitting in front of their computer in a dimly lit room trying to break into an FBI database. In reality, it's just a simple tool that can make using your Mac much easier. Now, I'm not saying that learning Terminal c ...more
Need to clear you cache? This guide details how on any web browser (Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Internet, and Dolphin) for any platform (Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, and Android). What Is the Cache Exactly? The web cache stores certain information (HTML page ...more
Loaded with a gorgeous display and a powerful processor, the Kindle Fire HDX is an impressive all-around tablet, especially when it's used for what Amazon Kindles were built for—reading electronic versions of novels, textbooks, and other printed works. While the Kindle Store ...more
OS X is built upon a UNIX foundation, which grants you access to the benefits that UNIX offers, including the standard toolkit (make, gcc, clang, git, perl, svn, size, strings, id, and a lot more) via the command line developer tools, which are an essential if you're a develop ...more