Do you have a Mac that supports full RAM upgrades, and are you considering replacing your Apple-supplied RAM? If so, then there are many reputable third-party companies that offer quality RAM upgrades for your Mac; however, be sure to keep your old Apple-supplied RAM modules. In addition, be sure to keep all receipts for your new RAM. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: August 2014
How to reduce the size of a PNG while retaining transparency
Many images that you create or otherwise handle in OS X will be in the PNG format. These can be screenshots, or built-in images that are part of programs or other system resources. PNG supports an alpha channel so you can have transparent regions of an image (great for displaying on different backgrounds); however, the PNG format was intended to be a lossless format, so its inherent compression abilities are limited. Continue reading
Zap adware in OS X with The Safe Mac’s Adware Removal Tool
Does your Mac have adware installed on it? Chances are that it does not, but if you are seeing odd redirections to ads that have you suspecting something is up, then how do you know? While there is relatively little adware for OS X, it does exist and can be stumbled upon inadvertently when installing software packages (even legitimate ones including some security tools).
Adware is any program on your system that attempts to Continue reading
How to hide a hard drive partition on your Mac
Generally when you either partition your Mac’s boot drive, or attach a secondary drive to your Mac, then provided the partition’s formatting is compatible with OS X, you should see it mount and be available in the Finder. However, there may be times when you might wish to keep a partition hidden, either because you do not use it, or because it is not intended to be shown in the first place. Continue reading
Fix iPhone not connecting to AirPort Wi-Fi networks
While there are many reasons why an iPhone will not connect to an AirPort base station or other Wi-Fi network, one may simply be an odd configuration of the AirPort’s password in the iPhone’s settings, but sometimes you might check or re-check your password and even though it is entered correctly, it may still give you errors and not connect.
If you find that one of your iOS devices is not connecting, then you can try to fix the situation in one of two ways. Continue reading
How to share files between user accounts in OS X
OS X is designed to isolate users’ files from each other, so while you can have multiple user accounts on your Mac, out of convenience you might end up using services like e-mail, Dropbox, sending files through iMessage, or using other online options as a means of transferring files to other user accounts.
Even though these options can be convenient, they do use third-party solutions that are entirely unnecessary, Continue reading
Change and manage Mail’s New Mail sound
If you use OS X Mail, as with most e-mail clients you will hear a small new mail notification sound when you receive new messages. If you do not like the default sound that is configured for Mail, then you can change it. Not only can you change to use one of Apple’s built-in sounds, but you can use any sound bite you want.
To change the default sound, you simply go to the General section of Mail’s preferences, where you will see Continue reading
Testing the Yosemite Public Beta? Install the updates!
Today Apple has released the second public beta build of OS X Yosemite, which will be available by running Software Update in the Apple menu for those who are part of Apple’s Yosemite public beta program.
While the update only states it is recommended for all users, this is the case for all of Apple’s pre-release software. The latest update will address a number of bugs Continue reading
What apps are killing your battery life?
While Apple touts 7-9 hour battery lives for its various portable products, MacBook owners will know that sometimes this simply is not the case. Even though you might not be doing any active work in power-hungry programs, you might see your battery life plummet and only last a couple of hours at most.
If this happens, then there are several things you can do, with one quick option being to Continue reading
Tip: Quickly zoom and open images with QuickLook
When browsing files in the Finder, you have the option for previewing them using Apple’s QuickLook feature. This allows you to either see some general information about files such as file size and last modification date, but for supported files you should see a preview of their contents, simply by pressing the Space bar with a file selected. While convenient, for previewing a file or two, you can use QuickLook to zoom in on images, as well as open files you are previewing. Continue reading