Articles by Matt Cone
Matt Cone is a technical writer at Fastly. He has experience creating documentation for organizations like Linode and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Matt’s first book, Master Your Mac, was published by No Starch Press. To get in touch with Matt, visit https://www.mattcone.com.
Moving Mail.app Rules to a Different Mac
June 15, 2012
So you use Mail.app for email. And you’ve created rules in Mail.app to perform automatic and complex actions on incoming messages. If you’re like most, you probably use rules to filer spam, move messages from certain senders to different folders, execute AppleScripts, and automatically respond to people when you’re out of the office. Which is great! But if you use multiple Macs, or if you purchase a new Mac, you’re faced with a perplexing problem: How do you backup and export Mail.
How to Benchmark Your Mac
June 13, 2012
There’s been a lot of talk recently about how the new MacBook Pros compare to existing Mac models. The new MacBooks are faster, of course. We know because the experts ran a series of tests to benchmark the computers and compare them to older models. But you don’t have to let the experts have all of the fun. With a free tool called Geekbench, you can benchmark your own Mac and compare its performance to other Macs and PCs.
How to Find the Best DNS Servers
June 12, 2012
We’ve previously discussed how to change the DNS servers on your Mac, iPad, and AirPort Extreme. But how do you know which DNS servers to use? There are dozens of free DNS providers, and all of them claim to offer the best service. Don’t worry. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to find the best DNS servers, no matter where you’re located or which device you’re using. Why Can’t Anyone Tell Me Which DNS Servers to Use?
How to Share Your iTunes Library
June 12, 2012
Did you know that you can share the music, movies, books, and podcasts on your Mac with the other users connected to your network? You can. All you have to do is enable a couple of settings in iTunes. It’s an ideal way to let others access your multimedia content, and it’s a solution that works in homes, dormitories, workplaces, and even schools. Here’s how to do it: Open the iTunes application.
Export Your AirPort Extreme Configuration
June 4, 2012
Setting up an AirPort Extreme is a painstaking process that can take hours or even days. But your work isn’t finished when you get the AirPort Extreme working the way you want it. The last step is exporting your AirPort Extreme’s configuration file to save all of those configuration settings and back them up. If you ever need to reset your AirPort Extreme to the default settings, or if it ever resets accidentally, you can restore your configuration settings by importing the configuration file with the AirPort Utility application.
Import Your AirPort Extreme Configuration
June 4, 2012
So you own an AirPort Extreme and the unthinkable happened: You had to reset the base station to the default settings. All of your network settings have been lost. Now what? If you thought to export your AirPort Extreme configuration before you reset the base station, you can import that configuration file and instantly restore all of your network settings. (If you didn’t export the configuration before the reset, you’ll have to start over and set up the AirPort Extreme again.
How to Upgrade Your MacBook Pro's RAM
June 2, 2012
Upgrading the RAM is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to boost your computer’s overall performance. RAM, or random access memory, stores the code and instructions for OS X and any applications open on your Mac. Installing larger RAM modules in your MacBook Pro will allow you have more applications open at once and perform more tasks simultaneously. For example, you could open a bunch of memory-hogging applications while ripping a CD, watching a DVD, and uploading photos to the Internet - all at the same time.
How to Upgrade Your MacBook's Hard Drive
June 2, 2012
Tip: Do you own a MacBook Pro? Check out two of our other articles: How to Upgrade Your MacBook Pro’s Hard Drive, and How to Upgrade Your MacBook Pro’s RAM. Upgrading your MacBook’s internal hard drive is a simple way to store more documents, music, movies, applications and other files on your new Apple portable. Hard drives (or hard disk drives) are large capacity storage devices which store all of your data - everything from Mac OS X to your latest iTunes music album.
Upgrade Your MacBook Pro's Hard Drive
June 2, 2012
Upgrading the hard drive is a cost-effective way to increase your storage space and speed up your MacBook Pro, especially if you purchase a solid-state drive. Hard drives are like processors and other electronic components - their capacity doubles approximately every two years. If you plan on keeping your MacBook Pro for longer than two years, you’ll want to consider upgrading your hard drive at least once. Finding a New Hard Drive There are two different types of drives available: Hard disk drives (HDD) and solid-state drives (SSD).
Create a Keyboard Shortcut for any Menu Item
June 1, 2012
Keyboard shortcuts are an integral part of Mac OS X, but you may have noticed that not every menu item has one. This can pose a real problem for those of us who like to work fast and efficiently. To access menu items that don’t have shortcuts, you’ll have to use the mouse - a big annoyance that’ll slow you down! Fortunately, Mac OS X allows you to assign a keyboard shortcut to a menu item that doesn’t have one.