Tutorials
Back to School Apps for Your Mac
Matt Cone July 20, 2007
It’s that time of the year again. Time to think about breaking out the books, looking sharp for all the attractive members of the opposite sex, making new friends, and hopefully learning something. We’re talking about school, of course. Let us tell you: There’s never been a better time to take your Mac into an educational environment. Free and low-cost programs can help you turn your Mac into the ultimate learning device, and prevent it from becoming another glorified MySpace machine!
Create a Web Development Environment With MAMP
Matt Cone July 18, 2007
Those of us who have websites know that we need a development environment to work on new features, make changes, and just experiment. If you’re creating static HTML pages, you don’t need much - you can create the pages on your Mac and preview them locally in your web browser or a with WYSIWYG application like iWeb. However, things are a bit more complicated if you’re working with web applications that use PHP and MySQL.
How to Create a Wireless Mac File Server
Matt Cone July 17, 2007
Everybody knows you can use Apple’s AirPort cards and base stations to wirelessly connect to the Internet. You can also use your built-in AirPort card to turn your Mac into a file server and wirelessly transfer files to your Mac from another Mac! This feature is extremely handy for those who need to transfer files from an old Mac to a new one. It’s also useful for individuals who need to transfer files in office buildings or tight living areas, such as dormitories and houses.
First Look: Safari 3 Public Beta
Justin Busch July 16, 2007
Apple recently announced a new version of its Safari web browser for Windows PCs. They also created a new version for Macs, too. You can try out the Safari 3 Beta by going to http://www.apple.com/safari. Download and mount the .DMG. Double-click the installer. After installation is complete, restart your Mac. (There is an uninstaller included in the .DMG that will allow you to revert back to the previous release of Safari if you run into problems.
Top Five Firefox Extensions
Matt Cone July 13, 2007
Mac users are extremely fortunate to have several web browsers to choose from. There’s Safari, Firefox, Camino, OmniWeb, SeaMonkey, Netscape, iCab, and many others. Safari is currently the winner when it comes to installed user base, and there’s nothing wrong with that - it’s a fine web browser! But you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t at least try another web browser like Camino or OmniWeb. Firefox is one web browser we strongly recommend you install.
How to Make a Movie With Your iSight Camera
John Farr July 12, 2007
If you’ve recently purchased a new MacBook, MacBook Pro, or iMac, your computer has a built-in iSight camera. Veteran Mac users might still have the external iSight web cameras that were sold for years before being discontinued on December 16, 2006. Thanks to applications like Photo Booth (which allows you to take crazy pictures of yourself and others) and iChat (which lets you video conference with friends and family), you can have hours of fun with your iSight camera.
How to Use Gmail With Apple's Mail
Stephen Korecky July 11, 2007
Do you have a Gmail account? Do you know that Google’s free email service works with Apple’s Mail client? It does, and it’s pretty nifty! Using Gmail with Mail.app means that you won’t have to use Google’s website to send and receive email messages, and you won’t have to look at those pesky text advertisements Google displays next to your messages. Here’s how to use Gmail with Apple’s Mail: If you don’t already have a Gmail account, you’ll need to get one.
Ten Indispensable iTunes Tips
Matt Cone July 10, 2007
A coworker recently told us that “iTunes is a pretty straightforward application.” He’s right, of course - it is pretty straightforward after you get the hang of it. And undoubtedly most people will be satisfied with merely purchasing and playing songs, creating playlists, and burning CDs. For those who want to go a little further, however, we offer these ten indispensable iTunes tips to make your Mac music-listening experience even better!
BBEdit’s Code Folding Cleans Your Work Space
Justin Busch July 9, 2007
If you haven’t noticed, we’re big fans of Bare Bones’ BBEdit around here. We use it for just about everything, and if you ask us, it’s about as close to text-editing perfection as you can get! New in BBEdit 8.6 is Code Folding. Code Folding literally collapses all of the text and/or data between two predefined entities in a specific computer language to reduce complexity of the content in the editor window.
Turn Your Mac Into a Telephone
Matt Cone July 6, 2007
So, there was this phone thing last week, right? And we weren’t lucky enough to get in on it, even though we really wanted to. The iPhone is just too friggin’ expensive for us. Maybe you’re in the same boat: You can’t quite bring yourself to pay more than $2,000 over a two-year period for a cell phone. Or maybe you live outside of the United States. Or maybe you own an iPhone, but still want to be able to take and receive phone calls on your Mac.