Many of us manage Mac labs, whether for a school or a community agency, that require users to acknowledge an Acceptable Use policy, or agree to terms about using the computer. Wouldn’t it be great if there was some way to get this to show up on the Mac before a user logged in? Turns out, there is.
A good pair of calipers can measure a small object much more accurately than a ruler or tape measure. Buying one, however, could cost around $100 or so, according to RealCaliper developer Pocketdemo e.u.r.l. Here’s how to use this $1.99 app to measure something small.
It used to be that clicking on the computer name in the login window would give various bits of system information. Sadly, Mac OS X Lion has done away with this useful little feature. Lucky for us, though, there is a Terminal command that can bring back some of the same feature to Lion.
One of the best things about iOS is the search function. Whether you have too many apps like I do, use it as an app launcher in its own right, or just need to find a specific email or contact, Spotlight is the way to go. However, you might not ever need to search your devices calendar app, or you might not have any podcasts, audiobooks, or voice memos to search, either. If so, today’s tip is for you.
Images and their various types are a funny thing. There are a ton of them out there, including jpg, png, psd, tiff, gif, and the like. They all have their uses and pros and cons. But what happens when you have a bunch of, say, png files and need them all converted to jpg? You COULD open them one by one in Preview and duplicate, then save each one as a jpg, but you don’t have that kind of time. Or patience. Lucky for you, today’s tip should help.
There are lots of hidden features in the iPad keyboard, but here’s one that will help you shave off a millisecond or two, raising your typing speed and productivity in one fell swoop. Or swipe. Here’s how.
This tip comes via OS X Daily, one of Cult of Mac’s favorite tips sites. Check them out for more great tips!
Ever wish your dull, boring first/last name combination username was just a bit more awesome? Yeah, so do we. Here’s a quick tip on how to change it, Captain Awesomepants.
Ever try to do a quick bit of math on your iPad when it was fresh out of the box? What’s up with that, Apple? Where’s the app that comes with every iPhone and iPod touch, the calculator? Well, today, we’ll point you in the direction of a good free one, so you can add the functionality that should have been on your iPad to begin with.
Deleting apps on the Mac has always been an easy affair, with a drag and a drop and a whistle on the wind. Compared to Window’s uninstaller process, Mac users have had it pretty darn easy. These days, however, some apps like to clutter your hard drive up with a bunch of wacky preference and configuration files. What’s an OCD mac user to do? We’ve got one potential answer in today’s tip.
Sure, it’s easy to delete apps from the iPhone or iPad. Simply tap and hold on any icon, see the wiggle dance, and tap the red X button. But sometimes you’ll want to make a choice about which apps to delete based on more objective criteria than, “meh. I dont’ want this game anymore.” Like when you run out of room on your iPhone, for example. How do you know which ones to dump? Today’s tip should help.
In Mac OS X Lion, it’s finally possible to customize your System Preferences, removing unwanted preference panes as well as sorting them in different ways. Here’s how.
As a Mac user, I’ve always been a fan of Activity Monitor. It keeps track of RAM and hard disk memory, CPU and Disk usage, and Network activity. It’s a handy app to have, on my Mac.
But what about the iPhone? Doesn’t it deserve some sort of activity monitor of it’s own? Well, todays’ tip offers one such app, called Activity Monitor Touch.
Keeping track of vital Mac stats is both important and fun. Not only does today’s tip app show you a ton of useful information about your computer, it promises to do so in a super stylish way. From what we’ve seen of it (not a review!), we agree.
Tired of using USB and Bluetooth dongles to power your presentations? Sick of dealing with device drivers for remote mice and remote controls that never seem to be there when you need them? How about an app for controlling presentations from anywhere in the room? Here’s a tip for you, then.
Dragging media files to iTunes after you’ve downloaded them is so last year. All the hip kids get their downloaded files into iTunes without any intermediate steps. Here’s how to be one of the auto-adding-to-itunes elite.
Ever spend hours chained to your desktop computer, painstakingly creating the perfect playlist for your workout, a party you’re planning, or that special someone? If so, you know how creative and rewarding the process can be. What if you could do that very same thing while on the go? Without dragging your entire computer along with you? Well, it turns out that you can, and we’re here to help!
Disk images are the way most software came packaged before the Mac App Store, allowing developers to pack entire folders full of installers and files into a single compressed image, ready to send acros the internet at a moment’s notice (and the payment of a shareware fee, hopefully). DropDMG makes this process super simple.
Look, I know some folks like the auto-expand of omw to “On My Way!,” but honestly? I’m rarely that enthusiastic when sending a text about my plans to head over to a buddy’s house. Just sayin’. If this bugs you as well, here’s the way to fix it, as well as add others to your texting repertoire.
Every once in a while, you might wonder what’s happening on your home network. It’s at those times you might wish you’d have known about today’s tip, a dead-simple way to access the network activity on your network via OS X Lion’s Terminal app.
Apple may be the largest company known to man, well-known for its industrial design and “lifestyle” branding, but it sure could use some help in the naming department. My computer has been named Macintosh HD for as long as I can remember, and Back To My Mac is a branding opportunity gone wrong. Let’s not even get started on Mobile “Me.”
Ever wanted to change the name of your iPhone, then? What if you come up with the perfect name to change to while on a commute, nowhere near an iTunes install, and want to do just that? Well, here’s how.
In Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Apple set things up so that the user Library folder isn’t available to the casual user. This is probably to keep less savvy folks from getting in there and messing about with files they shouldn’t be. For the rest of us, however, today’s tip is all about freedom of information, power-user style.
Who doesn’t like YouTube? Well, besides Vimeo. No one, that’s who. If you’re a true YouTube user, however, chances are you have your own account, channel and merchandising deal. For the rest of us with only an account to track, having it synced up to our iOS devices makes a lot of sense. Here’s how.
Audiophiles love their audio files. Many Mac users swear by the AIFF format (Audio Interchange File Format), which was jointly developed by Apple and Electronic Arts back in the late 80s, according to Wikipedia. This uncompressed audio format sounds great, but the resulting file sizes are huge. To change it to a smaller format like MP4 used to require a trip into an audio editing program like GarageBand, Audacity, or even iTunes. For those among us who want an even simpler way, here’s today’s tip.
Reminders is a pretty slick to-do app, made by Apple for OS 5, that uses location and calendar data to help us remember the milk, our laundry, and any other important task we might need reminding for. Here’s a tip for the Reminders app that may be old news to some of you, but we’re betting that if we just found out about it, chances are there are other folks who haven’t noticed it, either.
Mac OS X hides files in many ways. One way, a holdover from its Unix legacy, is with dot-files. In other words, if a file is named with a period before the file name (.Hiddenfile), that file will not show up in the Finder. One way to show these files is with a Terminal command like this:
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
This works all well and fine, but requires a second trip to the Terminal to reverse it (by changing the YES to NO, natch). Today, we’re going to tip you off to an app that does something similar, yet without the need to hop into Terminal.