Mac

A look at all the hardware you can manage with Bushel. And use to monitor Bushel too! That's where JAMF Software comes in. JAMF has just launched a beta for Bushel, designed to bring MDM to the masses and make it easier for small organizations which might be in need of some sort of MDM…

_________________ Here's the problem. I and several other editors here at the Mac Observer compose our articles first in BBEdit. The file extension I use is “.txt,” but it could just as well be “.text” That's so when I double click one of my draft articles, it loads into BBEdit. Just as a reminder, the…

Dr. Mac’s Rants & Raves  Episode #98 I love managing my finances on my Mac, but I have never liked depending upon Intuit or its Quicken for Mac products. Intuit, as you probably know, has no love for Mac users. Way back in May of 1998, when Apple was at the depths of the death…

We'll start off the Week Of Tips with a fantastic one from Nathan Toups, currently the CTO of KEY, a startup in stealth mode that's offering personalized service to short-term renters (like, if your AirBnB had a concierge). He gave me a tip about screenshots and Dropbox that may well make your life dramatically easier.…

_________________ The applicable document here is: “Target Display Mode: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).” That Apple document goes into great detail, so I won't repeat it here. The Short Version Here's what TDM is all about. Let's say you have a MacBook Air with a small display that you use for travel. At home you have…

When iOS 8 was released and the feature wasn't there, we all waited for Yosemite. When Yosemite came out we realized we needed to wait for iOS 8.1. Now that you have those two installed (you must for this to work), there are just a few more steps to follow, but they are pretty simple: First,…

Yosemite was first unveiled during June's World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC). During the “It's Been Too Long” media event earlier on Thursday, Apple said Yosemite would be released later in the day, and now is apparently later. Yosemite is free. We have a handy list of Macs supporting Yosemite if you're looking to know whether…

OS X Yosemite promises to make it easier to share information with your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, can send and receive calls through your iPhone, more powerful Spotlight searches, iCloud Drive support, a redesigned interface that takes visual cues from iOS 7 and iOS 8, and more. The short answer to the question of…

Bash's Shellshock flaw poses big security threat for Macs and other Linux systems Shellshock is about a 25 year old security flaw in the Bash shell that lets code held in certain variables to be executed immediately and without the victim's knowledge. That code could give attackers deep level access to the system as well…

To take care of it, open iTunes, click on the “Store” menu at the top, and choose “Deauthorize This Computer.”  iTunes’ll want to know what Apple ID you’re deauthorizing, so enter that info. When you’re finished, repeat this process for every Apple ID you’ve authorized on your Mac. That’s all there is to it! But…but…what…

____________________ These techniques generally assume you are doing a configuration change that requires a benign relaunch (kill and restart) of the OS X Finder. If the Finder is really hosed, you may not be able to launch apps as in technique #3 below and you may have to resort to Unix trickery as in technique…

Apple's Retina MacBook Pro gets a speed bump and more RAM The 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro includes Intel's 2.6 GHz dual-core i5 processor with 8 GB RAM, up from 4 GB, and 128 GB SSD storage plus Intel Iris Graphics starting at US$1,299 or $1,499 with 256 GB storage. A 2.8 GHz model with 512…

Recently, Dr. Khanna and I were in a FaceTime session, and he was explaining how the 2013 Mac Pro in concert with OpenCL, has greatly assisted his scientific work. That conversation led to this interview which, we hope, provides substantial insights into using these Apple tools for scientific computing. TMO: First, give us a little…

_____________________ First, the sensible thing to do is see how much memory Apple specifies as required for Mavericks. Apple's OS X Mavericks specification page says that you need at least of 2 GB of RAM to run OS X 10.9. If course we all know that numbers like that are on the conservative side. The…

_______________________ Recently, I ran across an interesting situation with Parallels. As you know, I'm a regular user and reviewer of the Parallels Desktop. For example, “Parallels Desktop 9 for Mac: Faster, Better Windows Experience.” So when my wife told me that she couldn't log in (ssh) from her Windows 7 PC to her copy of…

I could go on and on about all this, but my face is already blue, so I won’t. There are tons of articles and tutorials—many right here on TMO—that cover this important matter quite adequately. A good number of my clients and students are certainly aware of the importance of data backups as well as…

This key is known generically as a “modifier” key, and shares this moniker with the Command (Apple) key, the Control Key, and the Shift key. The Option key is located on either side of the space bar for your convenience. The Option key is adjacent to other modifier keys Modifier keys are used in combination…

Apple hid the Users directory with its iTunes 11.2 update… The Users directory is where the Home folders live for every user on your Mac. You can show your own Home directory in the sidebar for Finder windows, which does give you quick access to your own files. If you need to see your complete…

Panic discussed this on the company blog in late 2012, outlining the steps taken to make Coda compliant with Sandboxing restrictions. The company pointed out that Apple had gone to great lengths to assist in getting Coda out the door. Unfortunately the need to get Coda in the hands of users eventually outweighed the time it…

A noise gate can easily solve this problem by only allowing sound through when the input volume reaches a certain level – i.e. when someone is talking and only then. My favorite audio swiss army knife for the Mac, Audio Hijack Pro, allows you to implement a noise gate very easily. Follow the simple steps in this…

I have been teaching courses in both Adobe Photoshop and iPhoto for several years. As for the powerhouse app, Photoshop, I see many eager students quickly become dispirited due to its many complex aspects. In fact, most students I see taking these courses are mostly interested in “quick-and-dirty” ways to edit and “fix” their digital…

9to5Mac's Seth Weintraub replied that I should also check my “twitter icon cache.” It was time to dig. Twitter operates inside OS X's Sandbox, which means all of its application data lives inside your [home] / Library / Containers folder. For Twitter specifically, that's: [home] / Library / Containers / com.twitter.twitter-mac Doing a quick “Get…

Occasionally, a Mac can become stubbornly uncooperative and refuse to accept inputs. It's time for a reboot. Here are some simple techniques to force a restart your Mac with escalating abruptness. _______________________ The first thing to know about Mavericks is that it changes the behavior of the Power button. In Mavericks, if you quickly tap…

When first setting up Hider 2, you are asked for a password that will be used to protect your data, and given guidance on if the password is considered strong enough to prevent someone from guessing it. You are also given the option to store this password in your Keychain.  You can then start adding files…