Apple continues to tweak the upcoming version of its Mac desktop operating system, OS X Mountain Lion. The changes made recently to the developer preview are good indications of what we’ll see when the final version goes live this summer. Here’s an overview of those changes. Read More »
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Alex Layne
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Don’t have enough space to download your favorite app’s update? For those of us that fill our phones to the brim with apps and media, it’s a familiar scenario. However, there’s a neat trick to easily and temporarily reclaim space on your iOS device. Read More »
This summer Apple continues the strategy begun with OS X Lion of integrating some iOS features into OS X. iMessage, system-level Twitter integration and notifications were great additions, but there are still features not in Mountain Lion that I’d like to see migrate from iOS. Read More »
The major new features in Apple’s OS X Mountain Lion are what everyone is talking about, but with every release of OS X, the company makes some smaller changes that escape the notice of most. We take a look at some of those changes. Read More »
iTunes may be great for syncing your iOS devices, or buying songs, movies, apps and books, but it’s not exactly the most nimble music player anymore. Here are five great Mac-compatible alternatives that focus on the music, without the bloat that iTunes brings. Read More »
Amazon’s first foray into the tablet market, the Kindle Fire, is widely perceived as the first real competitor to the iPad. Here’s an outline of how the two compare, and which is better suited to which kind of gift recipient this holiday season. Read More »
As someone who regularly blogs about Apple, it’s a bit surprising that the iPhone 4S is the first iPhone I’ve owned. Until now, I’ve been an Android user, so here are my thoughts about the good and bad that come with going all-in on Apple devices. Read More »
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Apple on Tuesday announced some slight changes to two of its iPod models, the iPod touch and the iPod nano. The iPod shuffle remains exactly the same, as does the iPod classic. The nano features a redesigned interface, and there is now a white touch. Read More »
Sleipnir, for those not versed in Norse mythology, was the eight-legged horse of the god Odin. It’s also the name of an iOS browser that has a reputation for doing things a little differently. A new Mac beta version could change your desktop browsing habits, too. Read More »
With every OS upgrade, there’s always some new annoyances that pop up, and since Lion is such a big update to OS X, it stands to reason that it has more annoyances than usual. Here’s how to remedy seven of them quickly and easily. Read More »
The latest update to our favorite OS code-named after felids, Lion, is due out sometime this month. To celebrate, we’re going to take a look at how Lion’s new features evolved from its predecessors, its little brother (iOS) and other sources. Read More »
If you can’t wait to try out some of Lion’s new features, but don’t have access to the developer preview, I’ve got good news: You can get many of Lion’s new features in Snow Leopard using these third-party apps, tweaks and downloads. Read More »
For all the talk of social media replacing RSS, I still find it to be the best way to get news efficiently. A quick look at the Mac App Store shows quite a few RSS reader options, so here’s a look at three of the best. Read More »
At the WWDC keynote this week, Steve Jobs remarked that the file system is the trickiest part of adjusting to a new OS. Apple seems intent on a future where the file system is invisible to the user. Is that a good or a bad thing? Read More »
Apple has come a long way since it first introduced OS X at WWDC 1998. Lion arguably represents the biggest shift for the Mac operating system we’ve ever seen. Here’s a look back at how OS X has grown over time to put it in context. Read More »
iA Writer for iPad has been popular as a distraction-free writing app, and I’ve been looking forward to the Mac version. Now that it’s finally here, I take it out for a test drive and let you know whether it’s worth the money or not. Read More »
The Lion developer preview was released about two weeks ago, and while the marquee features such as Launchpad and Mission Control are getting most of the Mac blogosphere’s attention, there are some smaller changes in Lion that I think are worth pointing out. Read More »
Reactions to the design of Twitter for Mac have been mixed; some love it, and some hate it. Luckily, the official client isn’t the only game in town, with a number of third-party clients available. Here are three good alternate choices. Read More »
Much of the discussion surrounding the Mac App Store has been around the repercussions it will have on Mac application development, but I think it could finally signal a significant change in the role iTunes plays in media management on the Mac. Read More »
The new MacBook Air is guaranteed to be on many a Christmas list this year, and I’ve been dead set on getting one ever since it was announced. So how did I end up typing this on a four-year-old black MacBook that I bought on eBay? Read More »
The update to iOS 4.2 that rolled out last Monday went pretty smoothly, but there were many cases of people who updated to 4.2, then seemingly lost all their music. My own iPod touch was affected, but luckily there’s a quick fix available. Read More »
Among the minimalist writing apps for iPad, two have come out on top: Hog Bay Software’s PlainText and Information Architects’ simply-named Writer. Here’s a look at some of the differences and major features of both apps so you can decide which one better fits your needs. Read More »
In my coverage of OS X Lion, I wondered how the app resume feature would work. I noticed that in the preview, the activity indicators in the Dock (those white dots) were all gone. Then I realized: There are no activity indicators in iOS. Read More »
Yes, the name for Mac OS X 10.7 is Lion. Steve Jobs introduced the OS today by going into the philosophy behind it. Lion takes what Apple learned from iOS and applies it to OS X. As Jobs puts it, “Mac OS X meets the iPad.” Read More »
OmmWriter is a full-screen writing application for the Mac designed to block out distractions, similar to WriteRoom. The developers behind OmmWriter recently released a new free version, which you can customize with a little elbow-grease and some image and sound files of your own. Read More »
I’ve used Safari as my default browser since 2008, but lately I’ve decided to give Google Chrome a shot at becoming my new standby. I made the switch owing to Chrome’s reported performance advantages. Would they prove convincing enough to make the change permanent? Read More »
I stumbled upon this trick a while ago when I was moving a background Safari window by holding down the command key while dragging. I hit the title of a Safari window, and a popup sprung up showing me a directory list. Read More »
Almost every year, Apple releases a new version of iTunes with some new feature. Last year it was Home Sharing. This year, it’s Ping. Apple also usually tweaks the UI, many times creating a backlash. This year Apple has outdone itself. Read More »
I wasn’t a huge fan of the third-generation iPod shuffle. The lack of proper controls was just not my thing. Today, with the release of the fourth-generation shuffle, Apple seems to have seen the light and gone back on itself (something it doesn’t do often). Read More »
Today, while most of the U.S. was sleeping, Apple approved the Netflix update which brings universal support for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. On the iPad, it doesn’t do much beyond adding a new icon, but I couldn’t access Netflix until I updated. Read More »
Kyle Dreger responded to a Lifehacker article comparing Windows browsers based on pixel-usage by making his own version with Mac browsers. What struck me was how few browsers he used: only four, and all of them were cross-platform. Read More »
If you want to eject a disc from your Mac, there are currently two ways of doing this in OS X that most users know of, but there’s actually a hidden app that you may not know about that resides in the menu bar. Read More »
A prediction has been going around the blogosphere for a few months saying that Apple will eventually replace OS X with iOS, and a lot of people seem to agree. I don’t. That prediction has never sounded to me like something Apple would do. Read More »
If you’re a movie and/or television buff, then the iPad may be your new best friend. We’ve got a round up of six different apps to help you consume your favorite televisions shows and movies, from watching them on the iPad to researching them. Enjoy! Read More »
With the newly released Safari 5.0.1, extensions have now gone public. Here’s a list of seven extensions you should install right away. Have you been playing around with Safari extensions? What are your favorites so far? Read More »
The Mac Pro was the product on Apple’s line that most needed a refresh, and it’s finally here. It features the latest quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors, giving you up to 12 cores and offering 50 percent greater performance over its aging predecessor. Read More »
The Apple Store went down this morning. When it came back up, what should we find but a new 27-inch Cinema Display? The last time Apple refreshed the Cinema Display was 2008 when it unveiled the 24-inch LED model, so it’s been a long time coming. Read More »
Finding a useful application or utility for your Mac is a bit like searching for a needle in a haystack. It’s a lot of work to find them (at least good ones) but when you do find one, it’s a great thing. Read More »
So, you want to enable multitasking and other iOS 4 features on your iPhone 3G or iPod touch 2G? We’ll walk you through how to enable many of the new iOS 4 features that got left out on some of the older devices. Read More »
On June 7, I embarked on a trip to Europe. I debated whether I wanted to take my iPad or my hackintosh’d Dell Mini 9. In the end, I went with the iPad. Read More »
Steve Jobs yesterday appeared onstage at the D8: All Things Digital conference, hosted by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. Jobs talked about Apple’s rivalry with other companies, Flash on the iPad, the infamous iPhone 4G debacle and the Foxconn suicides. Read More »
Hazel is a preference pane from Noodlesoft that lets you perform actions on your folders based on certain criteria. Here’s a list of several things you can do with it and how to set them up. Read More »
While Apple haters are surely whining that Apple is gouging customers with its iPad prices while getting away with huge margins, the reality is actually quite different. Read More »
iPhone OS 4 has over 100 new features. However, some of those features (or all of them) won’t be available on older versions of the iPhone/iPod touch. Wonder how you’ll fare? Read on. Read More »
So, you got your shiny new iPad on Saturday and you’ve done all the basic stuff on it: web, email, video. But now that the awesomeness of that has worn off, it’s time to get some new apps. Here are the ones you should buy first. Read More »
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