Whether you’re new to the Mac or just can’t figure out where a specific preference option is buried, you’ll love the convenience of the built-in search function in OS X System Preferences. This is an often overlooked feature that can prevent a lot of frustration when looking for some less-than-obvious settings panels, and it’s very simple to use:
Open System Preferences from the  Apple menu [Read More...]
Listening to music in iTunes can be improved significantly by taking a moment to make three quick adjustments to preferences. Enabling these options takes a few seconds and will be valid for both Mac OS X and Windows:
Open iTunes preferences from the iTunes menu Choose the “Playback” tab and check the box to enable “Crossfade Songs”, “Sound Enhancer”, and “Sound Check”
The names are fairly description [Read More...]
If you’ve ever had to track down a particular plist file for an app you know how frustrating the process can be. Though preference files are usually named in a logical manner, that’s not always the case, and regardless the prefix of com.(developer).(application) is not always the easiest to navigate through. One method is to just use the Finder search function to look for an apps [Read More...]
Want to add more wallpapers to the Desktops preference panel in Mac OS X? It’s as easy as drag and drop. All you need to do is:
Open System Preferences and click on “Desktops & Screen Saver” Select any folder(s) in the OS X Finder Drag the folder(s) into the Desktop preference panel to add the folder to the list [Read More...]
Many people have noticed the simple web sharing option was pulled from System Preferences in OS X Mountain Lion. The server software still exists and you can start Apache server on your Mac yourself within a minute or two of mucking about in the Terminal, but for some people the command line is just too much of a hassle. If you’d rather have an easier [Read More...]
The hosts file maps hostnames to IP addresses, it’s present in virtually every OS in some form or another and in Mac OS X it’s stored at /etc/hosts, which requires administrative privileges to modify and generally a jump to the command line. Editing the hosts file allows you to do a variety of things like set local test domains, block websites [Read More...]
Jailbreak Stuff holds all of my jailbreak settings. You can make a folder for any of the settings though. This jailbreak tweak is dubbed Preference Folders and it’s really neat! When you are an avid jailbreaker, chances are that you have a lot of jailbreak tweaks installed and that means that the settings for all of them can add up astoundingly quick. The more that you have, obviously the longer you will need to scroll to [Read More...]
You can hide unwanted System Preferences from appearing in the control panel without actually removing them. This is a helpful distinction for setting up other user accounts or just for hiding System Prefs you never access and no longer need: Open “System Preferences” from the ? Apple menu and pull down the “View” menu, selecting “Customize” Uncheck each preference panel you want hidden, then click “Done” [Read More...]
So iCloud is finally here, and MobileMe is going away. This is generally a good thing, but remnants of the old remain with the new. One reader is wondering how he can make a clean break: I’ve successfully upgraded to Lion, to iOS 5 on my iPhone 4, and migrated from MobileMe to iCloud. BUT, I still see the MobileMe icon in my system preferences, [Read More...]
