The release of OS X Mountain Lion is still months away, but it’s never too early to save some money.
OS X Mountain Lion is going to be the first major OS X update sold and distributed exclusively through the App Store. This means that if you want to upgrade you must purchase and download it from the App Store. For savvy buyers out there, this might be a good opportunity to get a discount on your upgrade by taking advantage of special deals on iTunes Gift Cards.
Can’t find that file you just downloaded?
Keyboard shortcuts are for power users, right? Well, not ONLY them. Even relative newcomers to OS X tend to know about Command-C (Copy), Command-X (Cut), and Command-V (Paste). They might even know how to open the Applications Folder (Command-Shift-A) or the Utilities Folder (Command-Shift-U). But This one was new, even to me, a relatively seasoned user of Mac OS X. Popping open the Downloads folder from the Finder is simple, with a Command-Option-L. Be sure to thank us later. (Update: Or thank the ever vigilant folks in the comments for their good catch – we’re nothing if not responsive.)
The most secure way of password protecting your online life is to create a random strong password, one now one can ever guess. The problem, of course, is that you won’t be able to guess it, either. Or remember it. Luckily, we’ve found a nice solution to this problem: Password Gorilla, freeware that will help us all keep track of our passwords.
Here’s another OS X Lion feature: the Launchpad. It fades in and out when being shown and hidden. You’d think this was just the way things are, but there’s actually a way to disable it. Why would you want to? Older computers that still support OS X Lion might need a little less to worry about, and turning off animations like this (or the “move to dock” window function) can help things feel a bit snappier. Or, maybe you just don’t like the fade in and fade out. Have it your way.
Dock Spaces allows users to have up to ten different customized docks, each with its own set of applications, documents and stacks. This simple shareware app will also let users set the preferences for each instance of Dock that they set up, including the size, position of the screen, and magnification.
While there are many features in OS X Lion that excite me, one that does not is the Resume feature. Clearly, Apple thought that opening windows from the last time an App was open would be a time saving feature, but I just find it annoying. Are you with me?
If so, we’ve got three separate ways to get rid of this behavior.
Yeah, that gray linen login screen looked cool when it first appeared in OS X Lion, but honestly? It’s gotten a bit bland. As is typical of Apple, of course, there’s no built in way to change it. We’ve found two ways, one that messes with the system files (you’ve been warned!) and one that uses a third party app to allow us all to have even more pictures of LOLcats on our computers. Or, you know, our kids or pets or something.
As we all age, chances are our senses will age along with us. As someone with great vision most of my life, I was aghast a couple of months ago when I couldn’t read the writing on a watch battery, no matter how close or far I held it from my eyes. So sad!
Luckily for us, and for thousands of users with visual impairments, OS X has a plethora of ways to interact with the Mac, all built right into the operating system. In this tip, we’ll focus on the vision side of things.
The first thing I disliked about Mac OS X Lion was the way it changed the Dashboard display. It’s nice to be able to see behind the widgets to the stuff I’m working on in the background. Especially if I’m using a widget like the Calculator, or the Weather, or the Conversion widget to see how much that import from Europe might cost me in US dollars.
Mac OS X Lion, however, puts the Dashboard into it’s own separate space, complete with opaque background that looks like an odd mix of linen theme and bubble wrap. Or maybe a non-skid floor tile from a spaceship? I dunno. Regardless, not being able to see through the background was an issue, until now. I no longer have to launch the stand alone Calculator app to do a quick sum, and can go back to enabling the Dashboard, using the Calculator widget, and dismissing it just as quickly.
iCal brings out the love/hate side of the Mac fan base, with folks either praising the built-in Mac calendaring app or spreading vitriol thickly all over it. Regardless of your own specific opinion, however, todays tip will allow users to have just a bit more control over their iCal app.
With a quick thumbing of Command+Tab, the built-in OS X Application Switcher is a great way to navigate apps for when your hands are just too busy to leave the keyboard.
One annoyance, though, is that no matter what, Finder is always listed in the Application Swticher, which you may not want to constantly have to be navigating against to go from, say, your e-mail and iTunes. Luckily, for advanced users, removing it from the Application Switcher for good is only a terminal command away.
OS X Lion’s new Launchpad feature isn’t exactly known for its customizability. The whole point is to give Mac noobs more familiar with iOS than OS X a way to effortlessly interact with their Mac, with little drama or tweaking. One of the few things in Launchpad you can tweak, however, is the way your desktop background is displayed on it. By default, Launchpad defaults to blurring it, but if you want to deblur it (or even turn it into a nearly black-and-wite), it’s just a short keystroke combo away.
The iPad’s split-keyboard feature — gained in iOS 5 — sure makes it a lot easier to type while standing up. But it also seems a lot clunkier than setting the iPad on a table, propped up by its Smart Cover and tapping away at its large, inviting keys.
But what if you could be just as slapdash with your keystrokes when pecking at the tiny split keyboard. Armed with one little tip, and nothing else, you can.
Steve Jobs was obsessed with making the Mac run silently, even going so far as to tell Mac hardware designers to make the internal fans kick-in at a much higher temperature than contemporary PCs. It seems strange, then, that in this zen quest for quietness, the first thing that happens when you turn a Mac on is here a loud bootup chime. If you’d like to get rid of that chime and boot-up as silently as a submarine running deep, it’s easy, thanks to this cute little app.
Apple’s decision to shun Flash Player for its iOS devices has been well documented over the years. But with the iPhone nearly five years old now, it’s no surprise third-party developers are offering up their own solutions for accessing Flash on our iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads.
One of those developers is Skyfire Labs, which is behind Skyfire for iOS — a web browser that allows you to watch Flash videos without unauthorized jailbreak tweaks. Here’s how to get started with Skyfire.
It’s time for me to sign off my tipster post here at Cult of Mac. For my final tip, here’s one of my absolute favorites from my book. It describes how to turn any USB memory stick or storage device into an ultra-secure filestore. When inserted into any Mac, a password prompt will appear, just like with expensive ‘government grade secure’ memory sticks, and the contents will be as equally inaccessible to anybody else.
Did you know that it’s incredibly easy to turn almost any document into a PDF directly on your iOS device, with a simple third-party app? That app is called PDF Converter from Readdle, the developers of a number of popular productivity apps for iOS. If you’re looking for a free PDF converter for iPhone, you can find all the essential tools in this guide. Here’s how to do it.
Here’s how to access a secret setting to make your Mac’s volume very quiet indeed—ideal if you’re trying to listen to something in a very quiet room where somebody else is working or sleeping, for example. As a tip this can be filed under the category, “Cool! I never knew that!”.
Here’s a basic but essential trick that Windows users take for granted—making the mouse cursor bigger, which can help on larger screens of if you simply prefer it that way.
Did you know you can move a window from one space to another by dragging and dropping it to the edge of the screen? If so you’ll know there’s a delay before the space will switch to the new one, but a simple tweak can speed that up. Read on for more info.
Sometimes within an OS X application you might want to search and replace all single tabs with two tabs, for example, or remove double carriage returns. However, if you type a Tab or hit Return in the search field of an app, it won’t have the desired effect. There’s a simple trick that can be used.
There might be certain situations where you need a snapshot of what your computer is doing. For example, if you spot a bug in a program, the developer might need to know what your computer is doing when the bug occurs. Here’s how to send the developer everything they could possibly need to know.
Spotlight is a love it/hate it experience. Don’t stop reading if you hate it, however, because here’s a tip that shows how useful Spotlight can be if used correctly. A simple trick lets you search for emails or documents by a particular author, which can be extremely useful when trying to track down that elusive file or message.
Ever wanted to quit every single open application? Perhaps you want to free up memory for the launch of another app. Here’s one way of doing it quickly and cleanly.
The first jailbreak for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 became available to the public last week, and many are jailbreaking their A5-based iOS devices and trying out new tweaks from Cydia, the jailbreak equivalent of the App Store.
Whether you’re new to jailbreaking or an experienced veteran, it’s easy to run into problems. We’ve collected some useful tips and tricks for jailbreaking your iPhone 4S and iPad 2.