Being your Mac’s default e-mail reader, Mail is likely the program you use to read messages on your various internet accounts (Google, Yahoo, iCloud, among other). However, for some who use Mail, after upgrading OS X you might find a problem where the text cursor behaves sporadically, and will move backward a few characters every now and then as you enter text, interrupting your ability to type continuously. In addition, you might see garbled output, either as you type or as you read messages sent to you. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: December 2014
How to determine when your Spotlight index needs to be rebuilt
The Spotlight index in OS X is the database used for quickly accessing file information on your Mac. While this is primarily used for finding files on your system, there are several other services that use Spotlight’s information, and if there is any damage to Spotlight then you might see odd problems and behaviors dotted throughout your system. Continue reading
Apple re-releases Safari updates
On December 3rd, Apple released an update for Safari that applies across all of its supported versions of OS X; however, soon after its release, undisclosed problems with the update had Apple pull it from its software update distribution services. This resulted in only a small percentage of downloads, followed by people not being able to apply the update. Today, Apple has rectified the still-unknown problems with the update, and has re-released them under new version numbers that are available to all users, even those who were able to install the prior updates. Continue reading
Bittorrent announces Project Maelstrom to decentralize Web browsing
BitTorrent, the company behind the popular and sometimes controversial Bittorrent decentralized peer to peer file sharing technology, has announced Project Maelstrom, a new Web browser that aims apply its file sharing technology to the way we browse the Web. Currently, when you load a Web site you get data from that site’s servers directly, which under heavy loads (ie, during product announcements), can result in slowdowns and service interruptions. Continue reading
Fix reverting screensaver settings in OS X
The screensaver in OS X is a convenient tool to have enabled, even if its conventional use to prevent phosphor burn-in on CRT monitors is a somewhat moot point in this age of flat-screen displays. While you can choose your desired screen saver and apply some customizations to its settings in your Mac’s Desktop & Screen Saver system preferences, sometimes you might find (especially after upgrading your OS) that the screen saver’s settings, or the selected screen saver itself, will revert from any changes you have made. Continue reading
Missing ringtones? iOS 8.1.2 should fix that!
If you have been using iOS 8 and have noticed that some of your additional ringtones purchased through the iTunes store are missing, then you should update to the latest version of iOS. A short while ago Apple released the latest iOS update, brining its latest mobile OS version to 8.1.2, which includes several minor patches, but which most prominently includes a fix for a bug that causes ringtones to be deleted. Continue reading
How to change your Mac’s text cursor blink rate
One of the details of OS X that you will always encounter, but which you might take for granted, is the blink rate of your text input cursor. As you enter text, your cursor will flash off and on at a rate of once per second, which informs you that your cursor is active and ready to display any characters you type. While one per second appears to be a command and accepted rate for this cursor, you might want to change this to have the cursor blink perhaps slightly faster, or slightly slower. Continue reading
How to manually restore your Mail folder from Time Machine
If you have recently lost a large number of messages in OS X Mail, then provided you have a Time Machine backup of your system, you will have three options for restoring your messages. The first approach, since you can access Time Machine backups from within Mail, is to go to your mailbox in Mail and then invoke Time Machine and attempt to find and restore your messages from within the Mail interface; however, this is only practical for recovering a few messages, and in some cases this approach may simply not work. Continue reading
Apple focusing on Wi-Fi stability with latest OS updates
One of the biggest challenges that Apple’s engineers seem to be up against in OS X is maintaining Wi-Fi stability, where quite often users will find their Macs unable to connect to Wi-Fi routers, or have an inability to maintain connections with these routers and other Wi-Fi devices.
This issue seems to especially happen after updates, where after applying new software patches Continue reading
Add shortcuts for the PDF menu items in Print dialogues
When you print any document in OS X, you can manage the print job as a PDF by accessing the small PDF menu at the bottom-left of the print panel, where you can open the PDF in Preview, save it as a PDF to disk, and embed it in an e-mail or chat message, among other options. While the PDF menu itself is not inconvenient, accessing it does require you use the mouse by default; however, you can also assign custom hotkey shortcuts to access these items even quicker. Continue reading