Mavericks

Microsoft can’t even give away Windows 10

By

Microsoft-Surface
Windows 10 is almost a year old, and Windows 7 still rules.
Photo: Microsoft

I like Windows 10. There, I said it. But unfortunately for Microsoft, millions of others have no interest in it.

Despite being free for almost a year, the company’s latest upgrade hasn’t been able to put any significant dent in Windows 7’s user base. It has only just overtaken the universally despised Windows 8.1 release.

iTunes 11.4 on OS X Mavericks adds support for iOS 8

By

iTunes114

Apple has some new software to go along with its new iPhone 6 and Apple Watch announcements from this morning.  iTunes version 11.4 is now available for Mavericks as free update.

iTunes 11.4 adds support for iOS 8 ahead of the public release on September 17th. The release notes state that update adds the ability for users to sync favorite music, movies and other content on iOS 8 devices.  The update is available now in the Mac App Store, or via direct download on the viTunes website.

Apple seeds fourth OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 beta to developers

By

osxmavericksbeta1

Yosemite beta testers got a new treat from Apple yesterday, but Cupertino is continuing to refine its next major release of Mavericks by seeding the fourth beta of OS X 10.9.5 to developers this morning.

OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 build 13F18 is light on new features but heavy on bug fixes. Apple asks developers to focus on Safari, USB, USB Smart Cards, Graphics, Thunderbolt and GateKeeper. Developers can grab the new beta from the Mac Dev Center.

Apple also released the sixth beta of OS X Yosemite yesterday that brought a bunch of new wallpapers to the Mac, new System Preference icons, and Do Not Disturb mode.

OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 fixes a super-annoying Wi-Fi bug

By

Mavericks logo

Right on the heels of iOS 7.1.2, Apple has released an update to OS X Mavericks in the Mac App Store. Version 10.9.4 of Mavericks features a fix for a bug many have been experiencing related to Wi-Fi connectivity.

There has been a known problem in OS X that keeps some Macs from automatically connecting to Wi-Fi after being woken up from sleep. Apple has addressed the issue in 10.9.4 along with general reliability improvements for waking from sleep. Safari 7.0.5 is also included.

Give your computer a Yosemite-style makeover (even if it runs Windows)

By

post-283705-image-fd00261f5b107b2dd9a25abf32d49b78-jpg

New icons in OS X Yosemite will bring the Mac operating system and iOS closer than ever visually. While Yosemite doesn’t come out until fall, you can get this cool, flat look now — without downloading Apple’s Developer Preview betas, which are buggy at best.

This short video will show you how to give your computer a Yosemite-style face-lift — even if you’re running Windows. Get the downloads mentioned in the video at the links below.

Map Street Addresses Right Inside Safari [OS X Tips]

By

Maps in Safari

When you want to look up a street address in Safari, you may still be using an old workflow: copy the address from the web page, paste it into the search bar, and then use Google Maps.

With OS X Mavericks, you might even have gone a step further and pasted the address into Apple’s Maps app, and then sending the directions to your iPhone.

There’s another way, though, which offers more immediate gratification: opening the address in Safari.

Apple Seeds OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 Beta 3 To Developers

By

OSXMAVERICKS

Apple is releasing new Mavericks betas like clockwork with the last three coming one week apart from each other. Developers can now download the latest Mavericks update, OS X 10.9.3 beta 3 from the Mac Dev Center or via Software Update.

The first OS X 10.9.3 beta added support for a full range of Retina scaling modes for 4k monitors. The other have mostly focused on bug fixes with the latest seed note asking devs to focus on graphics drivers, audio, Safari, and contacts & calendar sync over USB in iTunes.

An iTunes 11.1.6 beta was also released this afternoon to devs that restores the ability to sync contacts and calendars to USB after Apple removed the option in favor of an iCloud-only approach.

Source: Apple

 

Slow Down That Window Minimize Animation In Mavericks [OS X Tips]

By

Animate Dock Minimize

So, here’s a weird one–have you ever wanted to watch a window animate itself really slowly as you minimize it to the Dock? No?

Well, let’s assume you did for some reason. How would you go about it?

In Mavericks, anyway, it’s a trivial thing, and it produces a fun effect: your window will minimize to the Dock super slowly, even slower than in the animated image above.

Apple Seeds Second OS X 10.9.3 Beta To Developers

By

OSXmavericks1093

One week after seeding the first beta of OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 Apple has released a second beta build of the update to developers this afternoon.

The last beta added support for a full range of Retina scaling modes for 4K monitors, but release notes for the second beta are light on details of new features – if there are any at all. However, it does ask developers to focus on graphics drivers and audio.

OS X 10.9.3 build 13D17 is available for devs in the Mac Dev Center or via the Mac App Store.

Apple Releases First Beta Of OS X Mavericks’ Next Update, 10.9.3

By

apple-mavericks-desktop

It was only a week ago that Apple released OS X 10.9.2, a critical update that fixed a major SSL vulnerability that allowed anyone on the same WiFi network intercept your data.

In Apple World, though, things never stop moving. So here comes OS X 10.9.3’s first beta, which is now available to developers via Software Update or Apple’s developer portal.

There’s no explicit release notes, although Apple has asked developers to focus on graphics and audio. Thankfully missing is any mention of Mail, which has experienced a number of problems since OS X Mavericks was released last October. Perhaps the debacle is finally over.

Apple Releases OS X 10.9.2 With Fix For SSL Vulnerability And FaceTime Audio

By

osx1092

 

Apple has released an new update for Mavericks that fixes the goto fail SSL vulnerability that was patched up on iOS last week with the iOS 7.0.6 update.

Along with fixing SSL/TLS vulnerability, the update brings in a couple of new features such as FaceTime audio calls, call waiting for FaceTime, the ability to block incoming iMessages, not to mention numerous bug fixes.

The update is available by going to Apple menu () > Software Update to check for the latest Apple software using the Mac App Store.

Here are the release notes:

How To Take Screenshots On Your Mac The Right Way [OS X Tips]

By

IMG_1934

Here at Cult of Mac, we take quite a few screenshots. Our current favorite for taking and annotating them is Share Bucket, and of course you can always use Preview or Grab to take your screenshots, but what about the basics? Not everyone needs fancy screenshot capabilities. Aren’t the built-in tools in OS X good enough for most of us?

They sure are, and while we’ve covered a couple of them before, we haven’t just put them all in one tip to rule them all. Or something like that.

You Decide How Many Days In A Week Using Calendar In Mavericks [OS X Tips]

By

calendar 6 day

Except eight. You can’t do eight days a week, which is really a lost opportunity as far as I’m concerned.

If, however, you’d like a quick an easy way to get two, three, four, five, or six days in your Calendar “week” view, read on.

You’ll need to launch Calendar, and then hit Command-1 on your keyboard to place Calendar into Day view, first though. Trust me.

Quickly Re-Type Previous Text In Messages App [OS X Tips]

By

messages buffer

When you’re typing in Terminal, it’s easy to access the commands you’ve previously typed with the Up arrow on your keyboard. This can be handy when you have to re-type a long, complicated command. Simply hit the up-arrow and you’ll get the previously entered command.

Hit the up-arrow again, and you’ll get the command you entered before that, and so on, cycling through in reverse order until you get to the very first command entered in that particular Terminal window.

Turns out, you can do a similar thing in Messages, too.

Disable Web Page Push Notifications In Mavericks [OS X Tips]

By

nba push notification

There are quite a few web sites these days that will send you notifications when you visit them via Safari. Sites like NBA.com and the New York Times will drop you a dialog box when you visit them for the first time to ask you if you would like to receive the push notifications.

If you allow them, all hope is not lost should you reconsider your decision. You can drop right into System Preferences and disable them on a site by site basis.

Turn Off That Annoying Volume Popping Sound In Mavericks [OS X Tips]

By

system prefs

We’ve all been there, in a meeting or a quiet house and we just want to turn the volume down. The whole point is that we want to make things quieter.

We hit the F11 media “Volume Down” key on the keyboard to just keep quiet and all we hear is the Pop Pop Pop sound as the volume decreases.

Annoying.

Luckily, it’s super easy to fix in OS X Mavericks.

Make Your Mac Even More Secure With A Firmware Password [OS X Tips]

By

IMG_1544

You probably have a regular login password for your Mac, which you type in when installing software or maybe even when you deactivate the screensaver. It’s fairly secure, but there are indeed ways around it.

If a malicious person with physical access to your Mac wants to get at your data, they can simply boot into a different mode, like Recovery Mode, Single User Mode or Verbose Mode. Or, they can boot your Mac using a USB drive and get around the password that way.

Setting a firmware password will add another, lower level of security to your Mac, and will make it so anyone who wants to boot into an alternate mode will need your second password. It’s fairly easy to enable, too.

How To Rearrange The Order Of Accounts In Mavericks Mail App [OS X Tips]

By

Mail App Order

When you create a new email message in OS X Maverick’s Mail app, you can choose–assuming you have more than one email account in there–which account you’re sending the email from. For example, you might want to send an email from your work account rather than your personal one if it’s work related, and vice versa if it’s about a party you’ve recently attended.

The problem is, when you choose from the drop-down menu in the mail composition window, the account you want to send from may not be in the top spot. It might be a couple of slots down the list. If you want to rearrange the order of these accounts, you can search in the Mail preferences until the cows come home because the ability to do so just isn’t in there.

It is, however, possible to do.

CrossOver 13 Lets You Install Windows Apps On Your Mac Without Boot Camp [Review]

By

shot_mac_cxsetup

Thanks to the rise of the iPhone and iPad, Windows users are switching over the Mac in greater number than ever. If you’ve spent your entire computer life playing in Windows, you’ve probably accumulated quite a few apps in your toolkit that are Windows-only and letting them go during the switch ain’t easy.

For those Mac users that are having trouble letting go, but don’t want to throw down money on a new Windows-license just to use a couple apps, CrossOver 13 for Mac will let you install and run popular Windows software without having to reboot into a separate Windows partition.