text:
I can't find a list of all apps I've ever purchased ( paid $ free). From my iPhone
I'm trying to find a certain few apps that I know I purchased but I can't remember the name of. I don't have access to my computer right now & there's an app that I really could use right now but I forgot the name of it so I can't just go to the app store and re-install it simply because I can't find it.
I don't, and won't have access to my computers iTunes for a few days. Otherwise I could just plug in my iPhone to my PC boot up iTunes and go through my list of thousands of apps that I've purchased and sync it to my iPhone. So if anyone knows ho I can get a list from my iPhone of every app I've purchased it would be very helpful.

It could also help to mention the type of app that you're looking, in case anyone can give you a hint there.

+1 for yet another such obvious feature that simply doesn't exist.

If you are running at least 4.3, you can use the iCloud beta to see every app you ever purchased. If you open the Updates tab of the app store, there should be a Purchased button at the top. Tapping on this will give you a list of every app you purchased on your current account. I would suggest choosing the "Not on this iPhone" tab so you don't have to look through as long of a list. Once you find the app, tap the cloud icon to download it.

Apple primarily provides billing information via iTunes on PC and Mac. The computer that syncs the iOS device also has logs on which apps were active on certain days as part of the diagnostic logs. Without that computer, your only recourse is to ask for billing support online and leave an email / phone number. You can eventually get a human with access to your purchase records and once they are sure you are who you say you are - they might be able to pinpoint a few purchased based on time. They also may not be able to or want to help if you can't answer the questions about your account or the purchases are too numerous.
Have you thought of the receipts apple emails you after each batch of purchases? Perhaps you can identify the seller or the app name that way. The iPhone will search messages on your mail server if your mail provider allows that so even messages in the past are easily located via mobile mail on the  iPhone or a webmail interface.

For some reason apple hides some of your purchases, to unhide them go to itunes on your computer, then Account, then Hidden Purchases.
You should then be able to download these purchases or choose to unhide them so that you can access them through the normal purchase tab.
Note: This worked for me on Mac Mountain Lion with iTunes 11

Welcome to Ask Different! I don't think it is obvious for everybody which option they have to select in iTunes for this. Can you elaborate a bit and maybe add a (link to a) screenshot?

Goto updates for apps and touch the purchased


text:
How can I encrypt photos on an iPhone 3GS/4?
How can I encrypt photo files on my iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 with a password and without any quality loss?
Is there an app for that?

hehe let me guess at why you need this :P

I'm now using CryptMyPic, as it's the simplest and most secure I've found so far.

Welcome to Ask Different! Thanks for your answer, Juan! Can you please add a link to the software you mention in your answer? It is always helpful to add a link to help the OP to find the right software. Thank you.

There are several apps for that. My Eyes Only™ Photo is one that gets good reviews.

Private Pal may do what you need, and more, with full encryption on text and large files, flexibility to create customized folders with own icons. Also supports preview for doc, xls, pdf, jpg, mp4, etc. Bulk import photos, search, fav and recent list, multi-account ...

Ben the Bodyguard is an app that buzzed for a while. It's now available and can encrypt photos, but also contacts, passwords, notes (and probably more).

This doesn't meet your criteria but it may be of interest to others searching on the topic:
SpyPix allows you disguise one photo within another using steganography. This is by definition a lossy process. It's not encryption as we generally define it, but it's a reasonably safe way to "hide" a private photo in your photo libary or to share a private picture (or secret message) with a confidante.
At the very least, it's fun to play with.

I have used iDiscrete for some time. It generally works well with regard to photo security although I could not find a specific call out as to whether is encrypts the photo's once secured. From their website:

For less than the price of a cup of coffee, iDiscrete is the most
    fully featured privacy application available for the iPhone. Rather
    than requiring a suspicious looking password, iDiscrete employs its
    patent-pending Touch Sequence Protection™. This works by bringing up a
    nondescript "Loading" screen upon entry to the application, which
    registers touch input in 8 discrete locations. The user has predefined
    their desired Touch Sequence, which can be as simple or as complicated
    as they wish. The Loading screen will only grant access to iDiscrete
    if the correct Touch Sequence is entered. Otherwise, when the Touch
    Sequence Timeout expires without receiving the correct sequence, the
    app will boot to a generic-looking text entry interface.

The security system is simple and straightforward to setup. A brief overview of the product can bee seen in this video. The compelling feature for me is that the application support multiple file times and is not just limited to pictures:

The application is priced reasonably at $2.99 in the Apple APP store: direct link

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

sort: votes


text:
iPad screen sharing
Consider this scenario: a mom and her kids are reading a single book using iPad. The mom is on a business trip and kids stay at home. Each of them has a iPad. The mom hopes that when she turns to next page the kids' iPad can do the same thing so they are always on the same page.
Any idea how to do that?

Teach the kid to turn the page when asked :)

@Pitto ROTFLOL!

Ok, I like this question..
In order to accomplish this we need the following components:

A VNC server running on the children's iPads. VNC basically shares screen over the network. A VNC for iOS is called Veency and it's available in Cydia once the iPad is jailbroken.
A VNC client. I recommend iTeleport - works and feels great.
Since Children's iPads are probably with a fake (NAT-ed) ip, we should somehow connect to the home network. A VPN server on the gateway should do the trick. Once connected to the vpn server, the mother's iPad should see all devices in the home network.

Once connected to the children's iPad via VNC, you'll be able to see everything the kid sees on the screen. This can be accomplished also from computer or iphone.

If the mom uses a computer rather than an iPad, you can easily do this with Google Plus:

The mom should initiate a hangout session with the child on the web version of Google Plus from her computer.
The child accepts the hangout invite using the Google Plus iPad app.
The mom can then choose to broadcast her screen's contents rather than what her video camera is recording.
She then opens up a reading application on her computer such as Amazon's Kindle reading app.

The child should be able to see exactly what the mom is seeing on her screen, while at the same time being able to hear her voice.

The problem with both parties using iPad's is that Apple's SDK prevents applications from capturing images of the screen outside of that application. If this is a necessity, then the only hope would be to jailbreak the iPad and find a solution that let's you do that.
The only other way is if you had an application which had both an e-book reader and screen sharing capabilities into it. The most popular e-book applications (iBooks, Amazon Kindle, etc.) don't have such a feature at this time.

There are several possible approaches, all of which require a central server.

quick and dirty: just poll an http server every 10 seconds to save/read the status (current page)
use apple push notifications (the device can recive and act upon them silenty if it's already running). This is a bit more complex but may put less charge on the server than a million users polling for changes
use socket connections: you'll need a dedicated server for that too but this will probably provide the most instantaneous effect (just like a realtime chat does)

Then there's the whole part where you link devices into the same reading session. You could send an email with a clickable link featuring a protocol handled solely by the app (eg. Myappbooklink:userid,sessionid)
In any case such a system would require a server system that is able to scale in case of success.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


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iTunes: long hangs when dragging files into app via File Sharing
On my Mac (OS X 10.6.7) using iTunes (10.2.2 (12)), if I drag a bunch of files into
my app via iTunes' File Sharing, the first dozen to four dozen files transfer
quickly ... then, sporadically, about one in five files hangs for a minute or two.
I'm dragging 209 files, with a total of about 35 MB (so, each file averages about 170 KB).
The hangs seem to occur more often on the "loaded" iPad (4.3.3, cellular/ATT, about 280 apps), and (IIRC) never on the unloaded iPad (which was on 3.2 until last week, and is now on 4.3.3).
Xcode is not active.
The app is NOT "active" (foreground or background) on the iPad.  (Indeed, no apps are active.)
When the hangs occur, the Mac's CPU usage does not increase...stays near zero.
After the last file allegedly transfers, iTunes sometimes beachballs for several minutes.
(Twice, I've had to hard reset the iPad.)
I've tried dragging several dozen files at a time, but still see sporadic hangs after the
first dozen to four dozen.
The files are binary files that have a suffix not otherwise recognized by any app other than ours (I.e., they're not named with a suffix like ".zip", in case there's any chance
that iOS would be opening them and scanning them :)

Can you replicate with dragging just one file at a time?

We've confirmed that the hang happens regardless of what app we're
dragging the files into. We've seen it on GoodReader and on iBooks
as well as on our app.


text:
Configure iPad 2 interface languages?
How can I configure my iPad 2 interface languages, to allow using English as system language and, when writing, be able to have Spanish word recognition auto-complete?

In the latest public release of iOS, you need to follow these steps:

Tap on the Settings icon.
Tap on General.
Tap on International.
Tap on Keyboards.
Tap on Add New Keyboard.
Select Spanish.

The Spanish keyboard is now added system-wide in addition to your default keyboard (let's say it was English for this example). Now whenever you see a keyboard layout on your screen, you will see a new button with a globe icon on it on the bottom-left corner of the screen, right next to the "123" button that switches to the numeric/symbolic keyboard.
The globe button works like the "123" button in that it alternates between your International keyboard layouts. In this example, it will alternate between English and Spanish layouts. The spell checking and the auto-complete only work for whichever language you have have selected. In other words, you won't get English auto-complete when the layout is Spanish, which makes sense.
I use this feature all the time when composing e-mail messages in Spanish. Here's another tip: Tap and hold on the "n" key to get access to the "ñ" character. Also, tap and hold on any vowel to get the "á", "é", "í", "ó", "ú" and "ü" characters.
Hope this helps.

hi thanks a lot!, that was it, now my ipad,iphone are ready for Spanish too!!!, I have upvoted your answer, I asked, but because it was moved I cannot accept it, so tnx again! gracias!


text:
How to write the names "iPhone", "iPad", etc. in all capital letters?
Just curious about whether it is iPHONE, IPHONE, or just never written in all capital letters. Is there a style guide or something on this issue?

As initially mentioned by Neil, the Apple Publications Style Guide is the place to look.
From page 34:

What to capitalize: Follow these rules when you use title-style capitalization.
  Capitalize every word except:

Articles (a, an, the), unless an article is the first word or follows a colon
Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, and so)
The word to in infinitives (How to Start Your Printer)
The word as, regardless of the part of speech
Words that always begin with a lowercase letter, such as iPod and iTunes
Prepositions of four letters or fewer (at, by, for, from, in, into, of, off, on, onto, out, over, to, up, and with), except when the word is part of a verb phrase or is used as another part of speech (such as an adverb, adjective, noun, or verb).
  Starting Up the Computer
  Logging In to the Server
  Getting Started with Your MacBook Pro

That is, the i in words like iPod and iTunes (and iMac, iPhone, iPad, etc.) are never capitalized.
I don't believe that, given a choice, Apple ever uses all caps, although the only specific rule I've found is on page 33:

Don’t use all caps for emphasis.

damn, page 33! did you read the other 32 pages?!

@Cawas - It's 224 pages in total; while I haven't read all of them, I do refer to the Guide enough that I keep a local copy around for quick searching.

There is an Apple Publications Style Guide, and it says to not use all caps for emphasis. (Apple Style Guide, PDF)
I can't recall ever seeing all-capital letters in an Apple publication. In the design world, all-capital letters are generally considered hard to read and, in most fonts, ugly, so it's my guess that Apple would avoid the use of all-caps.

I actually have an interesting example. Take a look at the bottom left hand side of http://www.apple.com/ipod/, and see also http://www.apple.com/ipod/red/. It's their only product name that is pure caps.

@VxJason - that's because Apple didn't name it; they're just licensees. Wikipedia has a good article about the (PRODUCT)RED brand if you want to know more.

Heh. Only on a Mac site would people be concerned with stuff like this... how awesome. :)

The only official name is "iPhone". If you are putting it in capitals, it is just a matter of choice whether the initial i is uppercase or lowercase. Personally, I think it looks better as "iPHONE".

I suppose it is ultimately a matter of choice, but since Apple gives you guidance on this sort of thing as noted above, it would seem strange not to follow it.


text:
Changing the resolution of the iPod Touch 4th generation
My son was playing with my iPod Touch 4th generation and changed the screen resolution.  I don't know how to fix this.
How do I change the screen resolution back to what it is supposed to be?
Everything on my iPod is way too big and I can't do anything.

I think you may have turned on the Zoom or Large Text feature. Head over to Settings > General > Accessibility. turn zoom off in there, or Large Text.

@Teresa Great! Glad to hear it

In case your son does it again: If you ever get stuck at a fully zoomed in view, double tap with three fingers to fully zoom in/out.


text:
installing python2.4 on osx10.6?
I prefer installing stuff from their source and dont use package managers generally. Has anyone here tried building python2.4 from source here? If so, had any luck with the same?

I use package managers which build from source to see where the issues are and how they were fixed - so I can just look at the patches from the package manager to see the issues - or for python just get it from python.org

Probably you have some troubles building it from a sources. My 0.02$:

check here https://trac.macports.org/browser/trunk/dports/lang/python24

In the files subdir you can see the needed patches to sources, but especially the patches needed to the Makefile and configure, for the successful build. Use the above as a learning material for your own build process.
Ps: only wondering, what is wrong with macports.org? Why does not use it directly? All things are builded/compiled on your machine from the sources and you can always check the patches and so on... (so, no binary installs).


text:
Can I change the icon of a mounted disk in Transmit?
I noticed these icons in the resources folder of Transmit:

I was wondering how I can change the standard cardboard mounted disk icon with the transmit logo to one of these. Is this possible and how?

I did the following and it worked.

Open the .icns file by double-clicking it.
Press Cmd-C to copy the image.
Mount the FTP volume.
Click the mounted volume's icon on the desktop or in a window viewing the computer (Shift-Cmd-C in the Finder).
Click the icon in the top left.
Cmd-V to paste the icon in.

This creates an file at the root level of the volume called .VolumeIcon.icns, which when Mac OS X sees, uses it as the volume's icon. I successfully ejected the drive and remounted it and the icon was still there.

Actually, all you have to do is change the disk's icon in Transmit. It will automatically assign the icon to the drive for you. When you are editing the favorite, just click the picture and choose a new one from the dropdown.


text:
Deleting orphaned files from iphone
Is there an easy way to remove all files NOT referenced by "iTunes Library.itlp" on my iphone? I need to free up some space and I know I have audio files saved on the iphone that are just orphaned..

How do you know that you have these orphaned files?

Backup the phone using itunes and then restore to defaults and reload the backup. That should delete any files not in the itunes database. If the files are used by other apps they might still hang around and you might need to tell itunes not to load that app any more.

Have you tried the free iPhone Explorer, or iPhone Disk (US$19.95) for Mac or Windows? They enable you to view your iPod or iPhone in the Finder, browse the file directory on the device, and copy or delete files on the device directly, without using iTunes.

yes, but the only way i know of requires mobil terminal, which requires jailbreaking and is unfortunately only available on software no later than iOS 2.0

This is not true. An alternative would be to jailbreak and SSH into your phone, allowing you to delete the files. Additionally, MobileTerminal works with iOS 3 and up: http://code.google.com/p/mobileterminal/


text:
iPad 2 cannot connect to a Microsoft Exchange server with Outlook Web Access (OWA)
I just bought an iPad 2 and wish to link to the Microsoft Exchange email server Outlook Web Access connection. Sadly even though all details are correct it still says that the details are unable to be verified and obviously can not load emails.
For the record i can successfully connect via OWA connection on browser.
Also I have been able to load calendar.
Also the Signature also seems to have been loaded.

iOS does not use Outlook Web Access for Exchange support, it uses ActiveSync. Summarized setup instructions from this Apple support article titled iOS: Setting up Exchange ActiveSync:

Tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account > Microsoft Exchange
Enter the information in the fields shown, then hit Next
Your iOS device will now try to locate your Exchange server. If necessary, you will need to enter your front-end Exchange server's complete address in the Server field.
Choose which content you would like to synchronize: Mail, Contacts, and Calendars. Tap Save when finished.

(See the linked support article for the screenshots provided by Apple.)

You should have the Microsoft Exchange Server administrator to enable Autodiscover in Outlook Web Access for the time it takes you to first authenticate your Mail program on your iPad. Afterwards the administrator can disable Auto-Discovery if it is deemed undesirable.
Apple's documentation for connecting to a Macintosh says the following. I'm assuming the same will apply to configuring the Mail app on an iPad.

Connecting to an Exchange Server
To connect a Mac to an Exchange server, you’ll need the following
  pieces of information from the server administrator:

The fully qualified domain name for the organization’s Client
  Access    Server (CAS), typically expressed in the format:
  exchange01.example.com.
The Exchange user name, which is generated by the administrator for
  each individual user.
The Exchange password, which is also generated for each user. Once
  you have the required information, you can either manually configure
  your Mac to use Exchange, or configure the Mac using the Exchange
  Autodiscover service, if it’s enabled.

Connect to an Exchange server with Autodiscover enabled:
The easiest way to set up Mail, Address Book, and iCal to access
  Exchange is the Exchange Autodiscover service. If this feature is
  enabled on the Exchange Server, simply open the Add Account pane in
  Mail on your Mac and enter your Exchange email address and password.
Mail uses the Autodiscover service in Exchange to obtain the relevant
  information and you can start using Exchange services immediately.


text:
Is it possible to export all my iPhone contacts to my iPad 2?
Does anyone know of a way to export all my contacts from my iPhone straight into my iPad 2 without having to re-type all of them in?

register for iCloud on source device (iPhone)
enable iCloud syncing for Contacts
wait about 10 minutes
login to iCloud on target device (iPad)
enable Contacts syncing
wait a few minutes

Info about iCloud

hmmm... aren't developers under the NDA which forbids them from releasing this sort of information?

Screenshot removed, but similar info is on the iCloud page on apple.com.

This answer should come with an actual time machine.

Sync from iPhone to your computer, then from the computer to the iPad.

When I got my iPhone I was also able to transfer all data and apps from an iPod touch backup to it. Maybe you can do something similar with the iPad and an iPhone backup.

I would advise to directly transfer iPhone contacts to your iPad without the using the iCloud or iTunes.
The last time I tried to transfer my old iPhone contacts to my new iPhone via iTunes sync, it wiped clean my old iPhone - not a pleasant experience.

In iTunes, click your phone's name > Information tab > tick the box to sync contacts and choose Windows Contacts, then do the same process for your iPad and sync.

You can always sync your contacts with iTunes to your computer and then to your iPad.

If you're looking for a PC/Mac-less experience of transferring your contacts over, try iDrive Lite (App Store link here). It can backup and restore your contacts between devices using a free account.

Download an app called Bump to both devices. It uses Bluetooth to transfer stuff, you can tell it to transfer all contacts.

Copy Trans Contacts is software that will give u full control over your iPhone contacts.
It will allow u to back up all your iPhone contacts to a PC & then transfer those contacts to your iPad.
http://www.copytrans.net/copytranscontacts.php

It's very simple.

Download any iPhone Contact App from the AppStore on your iPad with same apple ID , (I downloaded the App Groups on my Ipad)
import all your iPad contacts to that app
Download the same app on your iPhone (depending on your settings, this might happen automatically)
On your iPad contact app, there is an option to email your contacts. Send them via email from the iPad and open that mail on your iPhone.
The e-mail will have an attachment; open that attachment on iPhone and add it to the contact app on your iPhone.

Export all your contacts of the old Phone in iCloud as one vCard, including all Contacts and send it as an email to your new Device.
see: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/101656/31470


text:
Can I transfer my purchased apps from iPod Touch 2G to the new iPod Touch 4g?
I bought the iPod Touch 2g 8GB about 2 years ago and I now want the iPod Touch 4g 32GB. Is there a way that all the apps and music I bought on the iPod Touch 2g can be transferred to the new one I will buy?

Yes - I had to do this for the same devices: 2G to 4G.  I think I just synced the new iPod Touch (there is no such thing as an iTouch) with iTunes, and everything went over, but I might have had to restore a backup from the old to the new.

thanks, when i buy my new one I guess it will already be prepared.

With the new iCloud, once you download any app from the App Store, you can retrieve it from any device. The only requirement is that you're logged in as the same Apple user who downloaded the app.


text:
Record ipod gameplay
I want to record Plants VS Zombies and upload the gameplay video on YouTube. Is there any program can do this?
Much appreciated for any suggestion.

For an unjailbroken iPhone, it is not possible to do it directly on the device.
However, if you jailbreak, you can get Display Recorder from the Cydia Store. It costs $4.99. There are other alternatives, but Display Recorder is so far the best I hae tried.

On cydia there is display recorder, but you need to jailbreak your iphone. on virgin phones there is no way to do it... If you are running your own app you can run it in sumulator and use some mac screen capture tool...


text:
Using the iPad dock connector to connect cameras - airplane mode - no WiFi
At my work we need to connect to a few IP cameras but it can not be wireless as the iPad must be in airplane mode, we must use the 30 pin dock connector and a wired cable.
We are installing cameras in the cabin on an aircraft and need to view it on the iPads on the flight deck. But certification rules will not allow us to use WiFi for this.
We are open to becoming enterprise developers because the software will be on a couple of thousand iPads.
Is this possible?

Can you clarify some of your constraints:

If you're not using wireless, how are you connecting the iPads to the network? Are they allowed to be wireless, just not the IP cameras?
Are you trying to setup a front end to the IP cameras to control # of people who connect to them?

We are installing cameras in the cabin on an aircraft and need to view it on the iPads on the flight deck. But certification rules will not allow us to use WiFi for this.

We will have a couple of thousand iPads so I understand we can use the Enterprice opportunity Apple gives and that gives us grater possibilities with regards to the app calling private API:s. Am I right?

Cub71 - As an enterprise user you can make whatever apps you want, sign them and they run. You don't need approval to use private API because you don't enter them into the public App Store - just knowledge and a little money for the yearly certificates.

Using the iPad camera connector with the USB port seems to work with certain items (headsets, etc.) that aren't cameras, leading me to believe that there is a full USB hardware implementation in there but there simply aren't any drivers. If this is true, you could get a USB Ethernet dongle, write iPad drivers for it in your camera-viewing app, and use Ethernet to connect to your cameras. I doubt that would get on the App Store, but that's not a problem, given that you will be using the Enterprise distribution method. This might also preclude charging the iPad while it is connected, so you may have to design and manufacture your own power-and-ethernet dongle.

There are ethernet connectible cameras out there (DLink makes some, D-Link DCS-1000 for example), that will give you an ip address (and or port) to it's internal webserver that you will be able to hit (I do the same for my home security camera).
http://www.nextag.com/ethernet-camera/shop-html for an example list.

But how to connect the iPad to the network via the cable? Do you have an app that handles that? We can't use WiFi.

The iPad doesn't have any ethernet cable and only uses Wi-Fi or 3G network.

Are we talking about live video here? Then I'm pretty confident that you are out of luck (assuming that blutooth isn't an option either).

Factor one is the issue already mentioned: No hardware or drivers to connect to.
Factor two is the lack of Apple frameworks supporting such a setup, so development becomes quite expensive
Factor three - and IMO the final nail in the coffin - is the limited input bandwidth of the iPad connector.. It is good for some audio, but it's simply not enough for video input.

If you don't want to use Wi-Fi or 3G, then you have to use the camera connection kit. You can insert an SD-card or just use the USB port


text:
Deleting iTunes App Store purchases from my account
So... Over the period of 2 years owning my beloved iPhone 3GS, I have found many useful apps that I use very frequently. However, in the process of finding these apps, I have also downloaded much, much more crappy apps.
With the introduction of the "Purchased" section on the App Store, many of the hundreds of apps I downloaded (mostly crappy) have popped up again. The apps are an eyesore and clutter up the whole space. Is there a way for me to delete them (from my account) forever, or at least hide them?

Sorry but there is no way, at this time, to remove purchased (include free) apps on iTunes AppStore. Same problem with the Mac AppStore.
I've already asked for this feature at iTunes Feedbacks, and you can do the same to make Apple understand what we want.
The ability to hide purchases from the iOS app store should cover most real-life situations where you would normally delete a past purchase. It also protects those who have lost control of their accounts and someone maliciously deletes past purchases. The idea that the past is unchangeable, but we wish to hide some items from prominence works for many.

gah, the generic answer

@bckbck - Specific answer, just not what you were hoping for.

the last part is the generic part

You prefer : "find a job at Apple R&D and impose your idea" ?

iTunes 10.5 is now released and contains this feature.  Go to iTunes Store > Purchased > Apps and then you can click the X to Hide purchases.
Note that there is still a new section "Hidden Purchases" where you can view the ones you've hidden (and the ability to unhide them.)
There is no capability to actually delete a past purchase, just to hide them from view.

you can hide any purchased items. Instructions for OS X 10.01/iOS 8/iTunes 12 (though similar to the previous versions).
In the Mac App Store:

Click Purchases
Rclick on the app you want to hide
choose "Hide Purchase"

In the iTunes store on your iOS Device, slide from right to left and choose hide.
In the iTunes store in iTunes:

Go to the Apps section of iTunes
Click "App Store" (last item)
Click "Purchased" (on right, near account info)
Find app you want to hide and click the "x" in upper left of icon
When asked if you want to hide the purchase, click "Hide"

No, but customer feedback certainly drove this feature and more feedback might bring about the filtering you desire.
I would use recommendations more if I could select some downloads to ignore.
Control over filtering out purchased items from the re-download list would make that feature so much more useful.
Control is always nice, but once one has 300 apps on iTunes and have deleted 100 after never using them again, the list can have a large portion of duds as it stands.

According to http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5772 (How to delete content you've downloaded from the iTunes Store, App Store, iBooks Store, or Mac App Store, Last Modified: May 13, 2014)
Apps
iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Tap and hold the app you want to delete.
The apps will begin to jiggle.
Tap the X on the app.

Mac or PC

Open iTunes.
From the Library pop-up menu, choose Apps.
Click the app you want to delete.
Press Delete on your keyboard.

I don_t think this is what he was asking for...

@milcak - I guess the method posted answers to "Is there a way for me to delete them (from my account) forever"? by the OP. I did not test it, though. If you think or know otherwise, I welcome you clarifying what is the specific difference, and if you tested or not. That will help all of us. Thanks.

What you are suggesting does do some deleting indeed, but deleting of a different kind. What you suggested (and I think the OP made clear he knows this) is to delete an app from the local memory of a device. The OP wants apps deleted from his account - NOT his device. After deleting an app on a device there is still a vestige of it on the account and how this should be removed is what is asked.

@milcak - Following the procedure under "Mac or PC" appears to delete an app from iTunes (i.e., the account). Nothing to do with the device. I have just tested it, and it seems to work. Actually it warns that the app would not be deleted from the device (I guess you should also do that, separately). I wouldn't know if it will somehow reappear.


text:
Using Airport Express connected via Ethernet to extend Airport Extreme wireless lan?
I was wondering whether it's possible to use an Airport Express that is connected via Ethernet (using a powerlan/-line bridge-set inbetween) to extend an Airport Extreme network?
Basically the two places are a tad too far away from each other so connecting the Express to the Extreme via WLan hardly works reliably & I thought I read somewhere that the lan connected method should work, but after going through the Airport Utility Wizard that actually seems to offer this method & it restarted the Express, my Lan stops working.. for some reason.. heavy packet loss from my mac to the Extreme (via ethernet aswell) and all that... if I unplug the express from lan, it all of a sudden works again perfectly fine.
So basically the question is and if its doable, what do I have to do to make this work?

what you want to do is setup your express to be a "bridge" for your airport extreme network, you want to create a "new" wireless network (but if you use the same settings as your extreme, most macs should seamlessly work and switch as required)
make sure your airport express is configured not to do any NAT or give out IP's as that is maybe what is conflicting with your network currently, also make sure you give it an IP in the same subnet as your airport extreme and also that it does not conflict with any other machines

If I have two wifi's with the same settings (ssid, encryption-method & pw, channels and such..) won't the two interfere in one way or another?

i've setup 2 extremes in the same office block with all same settings and its worked perfectly to date, clients automatically select the strongest signal of the 2

@Jörg When you're using Ethernet (or powerline adaptors or whatever, anything but Wi-Fi) as your backhaul, channel is the one wireless setting you want to have different between the two APs. If you're using 2.4GHz, make sure the channels are 5 apart (like 1, 6, and 11).

The magic word is 'roaming'.  The Apple document with Anthony's answer is "Apple Airport Networks" which can be found here: http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/Apple_AirPort_Networks_Early2009.pdf

So apple says to just set the same network name (but different device name), and password for all devices, and put them all in bridge mode.
This seems to work, but it doesn't.
I have a 4th generation time capsule and an airport express 802.11g (2007 model), and although I can connect to both networks when I am in range, the connection is interrupted when I am listening to a radio stream, while walking from one to the other.
Note that the networks overlap, there is no gap with no reception from either, when I tried this.
Quite frustrating.

you're creating a network loop, that's why it starts freaking out.
stupid Airport Express can't extend wireless network by connecting to backbone network via Ethernet. If you choose "extend wireless network"... on Airport that you want as an extender, it takes the signal from nearest Airport, not from Ethernet. You can connect client PC to this Ethernet and it would get a connection from air.
Because you connect Ethernet to a backbone, instead of a client machine, it creates a loop (wire connection to backbone from other airpot - extending connection through air - putting it back through a wire)

In my experience the only reliable way to set up a combination of Airport Extreme + any number of Expresses to extend the network was not to use "let this Express extend Airport network" feature. Instead, configure each Express to create network of its own with the same SSID, only making sure that they are 5-6 channels apart and use the same security/password.

Was searching for this specific issue and the best answer is on the Apple Support site -- https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202056
I chose the roaming option.

I have successfully used an AirPort Express 802.11n (2nd Generation) to extend the network of an AirPort Time Capsule (4th generation) using Airport Utility 6.3. It didn't quite work the first time I tried it though: I had to do the configuration over wired Ethernet, from the Time Capsule.
Doing it this way, the Airport Utility will detect what's going on, and will suggest extending a network over ethernet.  You do not need to change or configure anything apart from the name of the Airport Express device itself.  (The device, not the network name--the network is shared with the Time Capsule.)
(In my particular configuration, the Airport Express and Time Capsule are connected via a Powerline device (devolo dLAN 500 AVmini), so I can report that this configuration works as well.)

If you're using Airport Utility 6.x, you'll need this answer here (it worked for me):
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5244532?tstart=0

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text:
How can virtual memory be greater than the total available space?
Why does my MBP sometimes report VM Size: 300+ GB in Activity Monitor under System Memory tab, when my hard disk size is only 250 GB (total) and RAM is 4GB? I know it can't magically get that extra space, but what is it trying to tell me?

In Activity Monitor, how can Swap Used be more than Page Outs? (2010-12-14)

It's all imaginary since virtual memory doesn’t need to exist until a program stores something specific. In this case, some combination of programs is saying to the OS they might some day use that much space. Don't worry unless:

the swap space grows past your ram size
active + wired ram is greater than 75% of physical RAM. (3GB in your
case)

Basically, this idea makes memory handling faster as the system is running. Since programs keep asking for more and more memory, the system lays out un-mapped chunks of virtual RAM with tons of space in between each process' allocation. This makes some very common memory calculations easier and faster and makes it very unlikely that the regions will ever overlap. When virtual memory regions overlap, it's more costly to pause things and re-map the memory under a running program.  All this mental olympics involving virtual memory makes your mac run faster.

Love the "All this mental olympics involving virtual memory makes your mac run faster." :) Also love your explanation though - it's easy enough for most people to understand how VM  basically works.

Shared libraries and frameworks are counted as part of the virtual memory for every application that uses them.
If you have 100 processes running on your computer, and a 5 MB library used by all those processes, then that library is counted as 500 MB of virtual memory.
You can also add up the numbers in the Virtual Memory column of the process list – a more accurate name for that column is "Virtual Private Memory". It does not include shared data.

100 processes is not as high a number as it sounds (I currently have 75 on my MBP, and I am running much less than usual).
Some libraries are used by almost every application on your system, even ones without interfaces. After adding up all of the shared libraries on your system, you have a large amount of data that actually takes very little memory.
As bmike mentioned, you should be more worried about the swap space, or active+wired ram. Right now, Activity Monitor tells me that I have 170 GB of virtual memory, but I'm only using 1.5 MB of swap space.


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Software/utility to completely erase cookies/cache
What software (or using any other in-built tools) can I use to clear (by clear, I mean scrub from the disk) the cache & cookies in browsers, without affecting the bookmarks etc. I use firefox 4.
Does deleting them from the browser and running disk util to write zeros on the free space do the trick? Also, this is a shared laptop, so not much chance of drastic steps.

The easiest way is to use a free (or paid) utility to do it for you.
Onyx is a free one that does the job, you have an option to clear your browser's different values:

Cocktail is a paid ($14.95) nice utility too, that does what Onyx does and the UI is a little bit more elegant and give you some more flexibility:

Of course, you will have to make sure that you securely empty your thrash if you really want to make sure nobody has access to deleted stuff.
Cocktail has a nice option that may interest you in this regard:

…which should cover your secure concerns :)
(if OnyX has a secure delete, I couldn't find it in the preferences).

Do these clean Firefox cookies which are not in ~/Library/Cookies ?

@Mark I cannot confirm that at the moment, but I'll test (I have Cocktail).

I have used Cocktail for many years and I am quite happy with it. It has many other useful features.


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How do I disable the "fn + F8" shortcut?
As I need to use the fn + F8 shortcut within my virtual machine, I'd like to disable it in my host.
How do I go about disabling this particular shortcut, so that it can be used within my VM?

Does fn-F8 mean the normal F8 key or a symbolic hotkey or media key under F8? In the latter case, see Documenting com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist - The macosxhints Forums.

Try installing KeyRemap4MacBook. It's a free and powerfull utility for keyboard customization for MacOS X.

that doesn't allow you to get completely away from binding your F8 key to the media controls.  The options in KeyRemap, all of them use F8 for something for media, there is no option that excludes F8

you can edit all your keyboard shortcuts. in system preferences->keyboard ->keyboard shortcuts.

Special keys (like brightnes, volume and playing controls) are not configurable via the Keyboard prefpane

fn f8 is available there on my laptop (spaces). I unchecked the use all f1,f2,f3 keys as standard functions under keyboard in system preferences, maybe that's the cause.

In addition to KeyRemap4MacBook, there is also DoubleCommand (free and open source).


text:
Iphone system log - recurring springboard warning
I used the Iphone configuration utility to help a developer troubleshoot an unrelated issue.  I noticed that console was being hammared with the same two warnings every few seconds.  I don't notice any performance issues, but it's making it impossible to debug anything else.
My phone is jailbroken, running IOS: 4.3.3
Any ideas on what could be causing this?  Here is a sample of the console output that repeats:
Jun 28 15:35:41 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 5
Jun 28 15:35:41 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 20
Jun 28 15:35:46 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 5
Jun 28 15:35:46 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 20
Jun 28 15:35:51 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 5
Jun 28 15:35:51 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 20
Jun 28 15:35:56 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 5
Jun 28 15:35:56 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 20
Jun 28 15:36:01 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 5
Jun 28 15:36:01 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 20
Jun 28 15:36:06 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 5
Jun 28 15:36:06 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 20
Jun 28 15:36:06 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 6
Jun 28 15:36:06 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 7
Jun 28 15:36:11 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 5
Jun 28 15:36:11 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 20
Jun 28 15:36:16 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 5
Jun 28 15:36:16 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 20
Jun 28 15:36:21 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 5
Jun 28 15:36:21 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 20
Jun 28 15:36:26 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 5
Jun 28 15:36:26 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 20
Jun 28 15:36:27 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 6
Jun 28 15:36:27 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 7
Jun 28 15:36:31 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 5
Jun 28 15:36:31 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4405] <Warning>: ITEM: 20

There's so much of that I won't paste it all in, but here are some of the other messages that might help:
Jun 28 15:08:06 Tylers-iPhone com.apple.SpringBoard[4257] <Notice>: Jun 28 15:08:06 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4257] <Error>: CGContextRestoreGState: invalid context 0x0

Jun 28 15:12:50 Tylers-iPhone com.apple.SpringBoard[4366] <Notice>: MS:Warning: nil class argument

And I'm not sure if this is related, but it the only time i found similiar springboard warnings in the log:
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: CleanStatus OS: 4.3.3
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: Boo. I'm loading CleanStatus now
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 0
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 1
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 2
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 3
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 4
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 5
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 6
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 7
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 8
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 9
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 10
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: BTM: attaching to BTServer
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 11
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 12
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 13
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 14
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 15
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 16
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 17
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 18
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 19
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 20
Jun 28 15:12:58 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: ITEM: 21
Jun 28 15:12:59 Tylers-iPhone SpringBoard[4366] <Warning>: LI: Debug Logging: 1

Jailbroken iOS devices can easily run into troubles like this. iOS is a closed platform to maintain security and stability and this is pretty solid evidence of the opposite.
Pro-Apple preach aside, the log message overload is caused by an instability in Springboard, caused by this plugin for jailbroken iOS devices:
http://www.iphonedownloadblog.com/2011/01/29/cleanstatus-sanitizes-your-iphones-status-bar/
This isn't really a programing question, so next time, post it to Ask Different.

FYI, [su] doesn't consider smartphones computers, so smartphone questions are off-topic there. [apple.se] accepts user questions about all Apple hardware, including jailbroken iPhones.


text:
Is it possible to be always connected to a VPN without prompting for credentials?
Is it possible to install a configuration profile on an iOS Device that will always have the user connected to VPN without prompting for username/password each time trying to connect?
In other words, our current setup has users connecting to a VPN via the "Settings" App on the iPad (using IPSec).  With this setup, our users are prompted for their password each time they try to connect to the VPN.
We are trying to avoid prompting for credentials and having our users go to the Settings app in the first place, so is there any way to force a VPN connection, and therefore always stay connected via the iPhone Configuration Utility?

May I ask why I got downvoted?

+1 This might be best for ServerFault, as this might be a server configuration related question.

Indeed the re-prompting seems to be a server side configuration issue.

You can configure the VPN setting on your ipad, iphone or ipod touch to save the User Name and Password for VPN. I don't know of a way to have it constantly connect the VPN whenever the is a connection. Given the time it takes to establish a VPN handshake, it would be kind of frustrating to wake the device then not be able to connect to any internet/network related Apps for 15+ seconds while it connects to the VPN.
Choose Settings > General > Network > VPN > then choose the VPN Configuration. Fill in in the username a password section and then you can just turn the VPN on when you need it and not have to fill out the User Name and Password.
more info:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1424
Alternative you could look at something like Apple's Mobile Access server, to give you that secured VPN like connection all the time without the hassle of starting a VPN connection:
http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/features/mobile-access.html

Mobile Access was removed in Lion Server.  The following document on Apple's support site has the details Migration & Updating to OS X Lion

This does not work for me.. Even when adding the password to the profile, iOS will keep asking for the password every time I connect...

If you’re using the IPSec VPN client in iOS, and connecting to a Cisco ASA for VPN, it’s a configuration option on the ASA whether to allow the password to be saved in the iOS VPN client.  By default, it does NOT allow password storage on the remote iOS client, so you need to enter the password each time.  I am an admin on my own personal ASA so I can set that option, even for specific users or groups.  But if you don’t administer the ASA, or if corporate policy does not allow password storage, then you’ll need to enter it manually each time you connect the VPN.

You can configure your server to only accept a certificate which you add to your iPad(s). That way, the user won't have to to anything special, he/she just attempts to make the connection (let's say check their email) and the connection will be made over SSL, using the certificate present on the ipad.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Connecting an iPod Touch 4th generation to a projector?
Is it possible to view all applications using a projector with an iPod Touch 4th gen?
This Apple support page indicates it is possible, but when I connect the projector to my iPod it did not receive any signal.

What cable did you use to connect?

From the "Video Mirroring" section:

You can use the Apple Digital AV Adapter or VGA Adapter to display the contents of your iPad 2 screen to a compatible TV, projector, or other external display.

Note that it explicitly says iPad 2. That is the only device which currently supports mirroring. While the 4th generation iPod touch supports the AV adapter, only applications with a video out mode will display anything through it. Most applications don't support video out, and won't display anything on the connected screen. If an application does support video out, it will usually mention it in the features list in the app store, so you can tell before you buy an app whether it will support it or not.


text:
TextMate not saving files in UTF-8
I set my prefs to save files in UTF-8 (the default). But I've noticed that my files are not UTF-8 but US-ASCII.
With my newly created file:
file -I myfile

=> myfile: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
What gives?

I'm not an expert in the field, but I believe the reason for this is you probably saved your test file only with ASCII characters. When using only ASCII characters UTF-8 is simply indistinguishable from it. It's when you start using characters that are outside ASCII scope (e.g. accents in other languages, like ąśćż in polish) the difference is noticable.
Try copy&paste the characters I used as an example, save your file again and test it.

You're right, once I included some non-ascii chars, TextMate saved it as UTF-8. Thanks!

@Plenilune: If @Michal M's answer worked for you, then please accept it so he gets the credit.

I'm having exactly the same issue. I think the main issue is that TextMate is saving the file in ASCII, but it should save the file in UTF-8 (even with just ASCII chars in it). And I'm sorry but what exactly is your answer here? Write none-ASCII chars in every file so that TextMate will write the file as UTF-8?

No, you don't have to put non-ASCII chars in order for the file to be saved in UTF-8. The answer is - if the file has no non-ASCII chars it is indistinguishable from ASCII, hence it can be recognised as an ASCII encoded file even though it was saved as UTF-8.

Thanks for the clarification. Few things more. I've done lately some coding with Ruby 1.9.2 and it's quite strict when it comes to encodings. So my files need to be exactly as UTF-8. I have set up TextMate to save my files in UTF-8. If I write only ASCII chars and save => "file myfile" will give me ASCII. And once I write none-ASCII chars and save => "file myfile" will give me UTF-8. So this is the problem. I need all my files to be saved as UTF-8, regardless of the content. I hope you understood me ;)

Yes, I'm with you. The fact that it reports ASCII in case of no non-ASCII chars in files is not a problem. The command you run to check file encoding is simply not able to recognise that it is UTF-8 as in this case both ASCII and UTF8 are identical. You'll be fine, trust me.


text:
How can I automatically log out the guest account after a period of inactivity?
As part of a kiosk system, I have set up a Guest account on a Mac OS X Snow Leopard computer. This account is cleared every time someone logs off the computer. However, plenty of people don't. Is there any way that I can automatically log out this guest account after a period of inactivity?
I tried using the security preferences pane, but that just causes the confirm logout dialog to show up.
I have hacked around the /System/Library/User Templates/ folder, so I can set the screensaver, desktop background, &c. If something like ScriptSaver can solve my problem, I will gladly use it.

Would there really be harm in just setting a daily shut down and power up at the end/beginning of the day?

@bmike I do want it to be after a period of inactivity, not on a scheduled basis. Users can't be trusted to log out when they're done...

Fair enough - I'll see if I can gin up a launchd login item to set the automatic timeout. It sure seems like it should be possible, i just will have to re-examine how the creation of the guest folder happens each log in.

@bmike I just want a simple script, or a few lines of code, that can force logout of a guest account. Timing is not an issue. There is scriptsaver, sleepwatcher, et al. for that. If you could whip up something, or point me in the right direction, it would be extremely helpful.

Maybe you could consider using SleepWatcher instead of the Security.prefPane; it´s a unix utility you could use to force a logout (or anything else via AppleScript) after a certain period of inactivity.

I could use ScriptSaver, too. The problem is I don't have a command to force the Guest account to logout. If you have one, it would be helpful...

It is almost a catch 22 - sudo killall loginwindow will force a log out no matter what, but you need to lock out terminal so that smart users will not try to sudo - I suppose adding killall loginwindow to the sudo whitelist isn't any worse than letting the user log out. You might also get Faronics deep freeze to ensure everything is perfectly frozen each reboot.

@Soumya92: You should maybe use AppleScript´s tell application "loginwindow" to «event aevtrlgo» instead, so it only logs out the guest user, not every user.

I don't see how this is the correct solution to this problem.  SleepWatcher is a third party tool and at this point is quite old.  The webpage references 10.5.  Seems like some script show allow the user (and me) to blow past that confirmation dialog and also delete the Guest folder in the Users dir.

@zeeple (1) As this question and my answer are nearly 8 years old, there may be better solutions around by now, feel free to post them as a separate answer! (2) the tool may be old, but the webpage says "running with Mac OS X 10.5 and higher" and it appears to run fine on 10.14.2 (e.g. ./sleepwatcher -t 20 -i ls ) (3) I don't quite understand the final sentence of your comment; please elaborate!

@Asmus thanks for the response!  Sadly, after all these years Apple has maintained its commitment to being a non-enterprise OS.  Infuriating how little regard they have for school environments.  Sorry for the rant... My last sentence was merely an expression of hopefulness that the primary obstacle (that pesky confirm dialog) could be overcome using commands native to the OS.  But hey, at this point I am quite use to being disappointed by Apple :) . Thanks for the accepted answer.  I will give SleepWatcher a try!

@zeeple I also just found (but haven't tried) IdleLogout which may be helpful to you.

You can use a commercial product called Power Manager to log out a user after a period of inactivity.
Power Manager will warn the user before starting the log out. During log out any open applications will be quit; applications attempting to block log out will be force quit after a short delay.

Disclosure: I work for the company who make Power Manager.

I could also write an app to do just that instead of the bevy of features that Power Manager provides. No doubt it is a powerful tool, but I can't justify purchasing it solely for this purpose. It is just a kiosk computer. I can't find a good command or code sample to log out the guest account

Great answer and disclosure. How is this different than the built in controls? Does it run at boot rather than at the user level?

Power Manager has a number of advantages. Power Manager will show a warning, it will ensure log out takes place even where an application would traditionally block log out. The event can be conditional based on running applications or the result of an external script. See the documentation for specifics: http://www.dssw.co.uk/powermanager/guide/v4/

Haven't tried this with a aGuest account, but no reason it shouldn't work there.
In

System Preferences > Security > General

is a checkbox labeled "Log out after XX minutes of inactivity"
Here set your desired minute amount and let it do the magic!

I did. As I mentioned, that just shows me the Confirm Logout box. The reason it won't work on a Guest account is because logging out of a guest account deletes the session data, so a confirmation is required.

Additionally, that setting applies to ALL users, not just the guest account.


text:
Windows 7 on 2011 MBP's internal HDD, OS X on FW800 one
I'm about to get my new 2011 MBP next week and it's coming with a 256gb internal SSD, but I was wondering if it's possible to use the disk entirely for Windows 7 (bootcamp'ed) & install Mac OS X on an external FW800 drive 'only'? Is this doable or are there any restrictions or limitations that require Mac OS X to be installed on the internal hdd? Basically my main work environment is Windows 7 but I need Mac OS X for other, fewer contracts aswell.

I don't see why not.

There is no reason why you can't do this up to and including Mac OS X 10.6.8 version of Boot Camp.
Do test command line booting control if you care about those things - but currently there is no restriction other than the Boot Camp volume must be on the internal drive. Mac OS X boots fine from other locations.


text:
How can I open port 443 in Mac OS X 10.6?
I have a local apache running on my macbook pro and I need to run a SSL website on the local host. I have everything configured in Apache, but can't open port 443 on mac. I tried to add ipfw rule to allow 443 but it doesn't work.

Have you simply disabled the firewall entirely and made sure the server is really listening on that port? I've been shocked how many times that's been my problem.

make sure 443 accessible from local and configured.
$ netstat -an|grep 443

allow 443 in ipfw
$ sudo ipfw add allow tcp from any to any 443

I did this, doesn't work. it shows me when I do ipfw list, but on nmap it doesn't show 443

@Stewie: Does it show up in the netstat output?  If not, the firewall doesn't matter, because nothing is listening for connections on port 443.

@Stewie nmap won't necessarily find all open ports, depending on how secure your system is.

Open file /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
Look for line with listen 80
Add line           listen 443
Save and restart apache using          apachectl graceful
Check for any error in http.conf using apachectl configtest
Thank Bob at https://bobcares.com/blog/apache-not-listening-on-port-443/

This doesn't answer the OP's question. It's not about getting Apache to listen on 443, but opening the port on the built in firewall.

However given Gordon's comment it might be the correct one but t he op did not respond and his now totally left. We will never know


text:
How do people who recently bought a Macbook Pro get the free upgrade to Lion?
When I bought my Macbook Pro I was told that when Lion came out I could get the upgrade for free.  How do I go about doing this?  I've searched the Apple.com website extensively and can't find information on this.

Call me crazy, but I think new versions of OSX are going to be Dirt Cheap from now on. I don't think Snow Leopard was inexpensive only to get users "over the hump". I think it's a "give away the razor, to sell the blades" situation all over again.

Sorry, but any idea where those eligible can get it free please?

google it, i think it was called the lion 'up to date' program

The Lion up to date program is public. It currently says the deadline to ask for a free copy is August 19, 2011 and macs purchased on or after June 6, 2011 are eligible.
Otherwise, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion will cost you $29.99, and is available on the Mac App Store (link). You can also go to an Apple store to download it (if you have a slow connection), and Apple will be making a version on a USB thumb drive available for $70. (More info here.)

I´d rather say no one knows yet, but since it´s a fair guess: +1

@Asmus This is based on prices for past OS updates.

I paid CAD$29 for the single seat, 10.5 -> 10.6 upgrade DVD at the Apple Store when it was released, not $60-$80. Wife got a CAD$7 upgrade to iLife '11 for her month-old MBPro back in November. Basically covered the costs of shipping the media.

@Nathan Sure, and it is - as I said - a fair guess. But it is pure speculation at this moment, isn´t it?

@Ian C: The Snow Leopard upgrade was much less than others because it was a small upgrade in terms of features. Other upgrades have historically cost more.

@Nathan - when you wrote, "based on prices for past OS updates"—can you give an example of an OS X version that cost more than $30 and less than $129? Also: Apple doesn't do update pricing, per se; it's always been free to go from 10.n to 10.n.xx, and everything else is the same full price for everyone.

I would be interested in what sources were used to establish these price guesses. Please link in the answer...

To answer the more general question as to what Apples policy is for software updates for Macs purchased in the run up to a major release: Historically, Apples 'Up-to-Date' programs for free or heavily discounted upgrades have been offered to those who have purchased a new Mac within 2 weeks (i.e. the duration of the standard return policy) of a major OS update. This is primarily done to prevent those users from simply returning and rebuying the machine on launch day. Additionally, at times, Apple has announced up to date availiability for everyone who has purchased a machine between the announcement of a specific release date and that release date. This is fairly uncommon however, and if they do so for Lion, you'll hear about it.

The program initially allowed for people that bought macs on or after June 6, 2011 had a filing deadline of August 19, 2011. A follow-on program for macs purchased after July 21, 2011 has a 30 day after purchase claim window.
Both programs were documented at http://www.apple.com/macosx/uptodate/ . It looks like there was an August 2011 deadline to ask for a refund / free copy of Lion.

Historically, Apple honors upgrade / price matching requests for the time of the new purchase return period (2 weeks in the US) and has occasionally offered fulfillment plans to lengthen that window to encourage sales once a firm release date is announced. If you buy a new mac the day of a new software release (and until the new software gets included in the build at the factory) the box has a "drop in kit" installed with the new software free of charge.
Of course you could always ask for a free upgrade, but since the window is 2 weeks, you might not convince someone to give you a free upgrade if the purchase was several months before the eventual release. If you have a good relationship with your seller - shoot them a mail or stop by the store to let them know to contact you if they can help with pricing when it releases.
Also, the price for 10.6 was $29 for 10.5 owners so depending on the release price details, that may affect how far back Apple chooses to offer gratis copies of the new Lion software.

Yes. See this for more information.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/


text:
How can I burn an OS X Lion install DVD once the installer has been auto-deleted?
I've just installed OS X Lion on my iMac, and I want to make an installation DVD, so that I can reinstall without having to first install Snow Leopard.
The way to create the DVD is answered elsewhere, but it seems that the installer gets auto deleted after the installation of Lion completes.
It looks like I'll have to re-download the 4Gb Lion installer again, but when I try to download it again via the App store, I'm told a newer version already exists, and I'll have to move it to the trash first.
I've double checked, and there isn't another version of the installer present.
How can I now create the install disk?

You can re-download Lion even though it has already been installed by holding down the option key before clicking Purchased.
Do not release the key until after the option to Install appears alongside OS X Lion.
The workaround may be more reliable if something other than Purchased is in foreground before alt/option-clicking Purchased.
Burn the installer to disc, then delete it when you're done with it.

Holding down option didn't work for me...any other ideas?

@Steve: hold Option key while clicking 'Purchased' tab.


text:
make, gcc and other developer tools unavailable after installing XCode on Lion
I installed XCode after I upgraded to OS X Lion, I downloaded XCode from the App Store. gcc, make and such are still not found and I cannot compile anything from source because of this. I did a find / -name make and it looks like it found something:
/Developer/Library/Xcode/Project Templates/Framework & Library/JNI Library/make
/Developer/usr/bin/make

What's going on here? Is this normal?

This is usually a bug in Xcode 4.1 only - especially for people with custom shells. Have you verified this still happens after running the latest Xcode 4.1.1?

Is /Developer/usr/bin in your PATH variable?
You could try ln -s /Developer/usr/bin/make /usr/bin/make

Damn, beat me by seconds. Upvoted for speed! lol

@Bryson Woo! Score!

i just had my WTF!? moment, too. thanks for clarifying things ...

Make sure that your system's $PATH has been updated. If you had a terminal window open before you installed, and are using the same one now that you have Xcode installed, open a new one and let it run through .bashrc/.bash_profile/etc again to update the path. If you know the specific file that the $PATH variable lives in on your system, you can also just run source on that file.
If that doesn't work, you can manually add the path that the find command finds these tools at (should be /Developer/usr/bin) to your $PATH inside ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile (depending on how your bash files are configured — mine has everything in ~/.bashrc but I've customized them heavily).

Yeah, looks like Apple has moved all the Developer Tools under /Developer. Why, beats me. Fixing the $PATH is easy, but the annoying part is that the includes have also moved under /Developer/usr/include etc.
I spent a good half a day trying to compile some PHP extensions, to no avail, running into all sorts of "blah.h not found" errors.

Finally figured this out. They're under /Developer because installing Xcode from App Store does not install Xcode, but an app named "Install Xcode". After running it, everything went back to normal. :)


text:
How to get rid of different mouse tracking speeds on dual screen setups
I am using a MacBook Air 11" 2011 Model with Mac OS X Lion hooked up with a Cinema Display 27" and I am getting two different mouse tracking speeds (I am using a Apple Magic Mouse) when I move between the two screens in a two screen setup.
I have to move the mouse 20cm to move the cursor from one end of the 27" screen to the other.
However, I have to move the mouse 40cm to move the cursor from one end of the 11" screen to the other!
I can only adjust the mouse tracking speed in the system preferences, increasing it does make it faster on the 11" screen, but makes it too fast on the 27" screen...
Anyway I can fix this? This issue did not occur when I was running a MacBook Pro 13" when Snow Leopard and the same 27" screen.

Noticed the same issue with my second monitor on osx lion when I upgraded my iMac.

My problem was related to the refresh rate on my second monitor changing after the update to OSx Lion.

I'm using a brand new MacBook Air 11" 2011 Model, didn't migrate, used the factory fresh installation, with a brand new Apple Cinema Display 27"... I'm pretty sure this is not a fault hardware or software issue... And considering its all apple (i.e. using Apple Magic Mouse), can't be compatibility issue... This must just be a gay new mouse tracking algo, is there a app to give more advanced options for mouse tracking... also to set different tracking speeds for screens.

I can see what is happening, they are making is so that the same hand movement results is the same 'proportional movement'... i.e. if it takes 20cm hand movement to move across the 27", it will take the same distance on a 11" screen, which makes no sense! it is impossible to move between screens since the tracking changes immediately on the cursor moving to the next screen! This never happened on Snow Leopard... possible to restore Snow Leopard tracking algo?

Would this be a problem if both screens were the same size?  If so you can buy 2 27" displays.

I don't think you can. Read this article on TUAW:

that's because the mouse speed option cannot be set on a per-monitor basis. Mouse tracking is controlled as part of system defaults, in the Universal Access preferences pane.
The actual preference is called mouseDriverMaxSpeed and can range as an integer between 1 (lethargic) and 32 (zippy). Here's how you'd read the current setting from the command line:
defaults read com.apple.universalaccess mouseDriverMaxSpeed
Whatever number you set to feel right on one monitor will either feel draggy or hyper on the other.

Unrelated to the original question, but I was trying to increase my mouse speed via this setting, but the defaults read command listed here gives the error 'The domain/default pair of (/Users/hp/Library/Preferences/com.apple.universalaccess, mouseDriverMaxSpeed) does not exist'
Would you know the name for this setting on El Capitan? Googling didn't help much.

Hello @HimanshuPokhariya , I found it on defaults read NSGlobalDomain com.apple.mouse.scaling

2023 update: linearmouse might be able to help. It can already change mouse speed and acceleration for different applications. This helps if for example, you have a full-screen application on your second monitor. But they're also working on per-screen settings. Per screen settings feature may be coming soon.


text:
How Do I enable ftp in Mac OX Lion
I recently updated my Snow Leopard installation to Lion, and I couldn't ftp into my localhost. I went into the system preferences pane > sharing > file sharing > options and looked for the FTP option. It's not there! Apple has removed the FTP option from the GUI, so you now have to enable it through terminal. I had to wait on tech support to get that answer, so I figure I'd help someone else out. Someone like me is bound to run into this issue. Here's the link to the article they sent me that fixed the issue: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4704?viewlocale=en_US.
Note: In step three, you need to add yourself again, even if you are the admin user that was put in step one.

It's perfectly OK to answer your own quesiton, but if you do so, please ask the question as if you didn't know the answer, and then post your solution as an answer so that others can find it in the future.


text:
Why is Git not found after installing OS X Lion?
I just upgraded to OS X Lion and now cannot initialize Git where it used to work fine:
$ git add .

-bash: git: command not found

I'm new to Git and to programming, so I'm sure it's a quick fix, any help is greatly appreciated.  Thanks guys!

do you have macports installed?

i do not...do you recommend installing?

personally I would install it using homebrew instead of macports - http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/

brew > ports, also maybe git just isn't in your $PATH any longer. Try sudo find / -name git and you might just find your binary.

hmm...not sure i fully understand.  i ran the proposed find command and got a lot of "Permission denied".

Why would you recommend Macports or Homebrew just for git? Just curious. I've been using http://code.google.com/p/git-osx-installer/

Lion (and Snow Leopard) didn't ship with git - so perhaps the way you installed git didn't survive the upgrade. You'll need to find your copy of git or just get a new copy. Using spotlight to search your Time Machine backups might be fruitful to find the files and know if it's a path issue or the binaries are truly gone after Lion migrated your data.
All of your repos stored in user space are fine. Do try to get the same or newer version of git.
The command line mdfind -name git will list all files that spotlight has seen with git in the name. Most installations of git should survive an upgrade to Lion and you only have to clean up your environment or link to the binary from somewhere in your $PATH.
Xcode 4(4.0-4.2) drops git into /Developer/usr/bin along with most of the other tools you need like make and gcc. It might be simplest to maintain git after getting the (currently) free Xcode from the App Store. Xcode 4.3 puts giy and other tools in Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin.
To avoid issues with different versions, you might want to make sure any old versions are gone from your hard drive. (and certainly from your $PATH)

AWESOME! I posted this question while downloading the new Xcode.  Just checked now and it works!  Thanks @Johan Nordberg

Where does XCode 4 for Lion put the git binary? It doesn't appear in PATH post installation.

Note XCode for Lion just installs the installer. You'll need to visits your apps folder and run a install app to have git.

Why would I have to install XCode to get git? Look at anler's answer for a solution that works without a 4 gb download

I have Git in /usr/bin/git. I installed Xcode 4 on a clean (reformat) install of Lion and I don’t remember ever running the Git installer.

I have Lion (10.7.3) and just installed XCode via the App store. It's in the Applications directory and not Developer. In fact I don't even have a /Developer directory.

Xcode -> Preferences -> Downloads -> Install Command Line Tools. See my answer below.

If /usr/local/git already exists, you'll need to either add it to your $PATH or make a symlink placing the symlink inside a directory that is in your existing PATH.
A common practice is to make /usr/local/bin if it doesn't exist and add a link:
sudo -s
mkdir -p /usr/local/bin
ln -s /usr/local/git/bin/git /usr/local/bin/git
exit

this is the proper answer

/usr/local/git exist but I get: "ln: /usr/local/bin/git: No such file or directory."

This is what we needed I guess. It does what it should do. Thanks!

This is exactly what fixes the problem; this should have been marked as the correct answer

Better answer than downloading 4 gigs of Xcode!

Even though the majority of people will have git installed in /usr/local/git perhaps the OP appreciated thhe general answer. Anyone who wants to re-ask this question stating the chosen answer here didn't work could then select this answer when it gets provided. No harm in two valid questions with two valid answers.

Worked great for me. FWIW, I installed Git in Snow Leopard using the Git Mac OS X installer (not XCode), before upgrading to Lion.

this worked for me, thank you very much. This is the correct answer.

this is the only solution that worked on my latest bleeding build of Yosemite. Thanks. This was what was needed. I installed the git from the github website one more time before this - if that helps anyone else.

If you have XCode installed, the best solution is Xcode -> Preferences -> Downloads -> Install Command Line Tools.
This put git (among other things) at /usr/bin/git.
If you don't have Xcode installed, then installing it just for git would definitely be overkill.

Thanks for this - definitely the easiest way to go if you already have XCode installed.

I think you will find that Git is still installed on your system.  It looks like the PATH is just messed up.  Check to see if /usr/local/git still exists on your system.
I just added the following to my ~/.bashrc file and everything is back to normal.
PATH=/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH

To be more specific, this site - http://www.joshstaiger.org/archives/2005/07/bash_profile_vs.html - details the difference between .bashrc and .bash_profile. If you use Mac's terminal with Git, then adding the above PATH specification to your .bash_profile will do the job. Of course, you'll have to close the Terminal window and open a new one because the .bash_profile file is loaded on a Terminal window's opening.
In summary, adding this to .bash_profile would work too.

That's exactly what I did too and git is working again.

This is the correct solution. It's only the PATH that is messed up. The other answers people have given here are workarounds, rather than the solution.

I tried doing this, but still get a command not found error when trying git add. Do I need to completely restart my computer to get the path to update?

Did you restart your terminal?  Or source your .bash_profile file?  Just type source .bash_profile in your terminal while in your home dir

yes, I restarted my terminal. I'm not sure what source means, but the answer by ing0 below (minus the reinstall of git) worked for me. Possibly my bashrc file was in the wrong place. In any case, it's working now.

Step 1: Reinstall git (I just installed the Snow Leopard version from here) if it's not in:

/usr/local

Step 2: Open Terminal and do the following:

cd /etc
sudo nano bashrc

Then in nano at the top of the file write (as aaron suggested)

PATH=/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH

Press Ctrl+X to quit nano and press Y to save. Then exit terminal and reopen and git should be working for you.

You shouldn't need to reinstall Git.  I believe you will find it is still installed.  Check /usr/local/git

Mine had gone completely. So I reinstalled. Like I said, if it's there then there's no need to do it!

This worked for me as well. Everything worked fine before the Lion upgrade--this was a quicker solution than downloading the 4+ GB XCode.

Possibly, you had installed git through MacPorts or Fink.
I think it will take some time to have a release of either for Lion... or possibly you should try and reinstall it...
Indeed, it seems that you need to install MacPorts from trunk to get Lion compatibility...
Fink has also got some hints about upgrading to Lion.

I had macports installed and working before my Lion upgrade. My port command still works fine (ex: port selfupdate) but now my installed ports (ex: git) do not. I can see the packages are still in /opt/local/var. I thought it may be a $PATH issue, but ~/.profile still has my previous (before upgrade) macports configurations.
Any suggestions?

@Adam Tootle: See the "install MacPorts from trunk" bit in my answer...

I wasn't sure if I needed that or not since it was working ;)
If I do that I shouldn't have to reinstall all of my packages should I?

@Adam Tootle: I do think so... the point is that with Lion all system frameworks and libraries have changed (as usual with a major release)...

ahh..gotcha. well there goes any productivity for the afternoon haha

From StackOverflow:
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/git/bin/

then run source ~/.bash_profile in Terminal
Link to the post there: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6810059/git-on-mac-os-x-lion/6810082#6810082

If you are using brew, just run this command from the terminal.
brew install git

This happened because git stop being part of the $PATH (for some migration reason).
There is a very simple way of fixing this in OS X:
In OS X, you can add variables to $PATH by changing the file
/etc/paths

so, you can put back git doing the following:
sudo vim /etc/paths

add /usr/local/git/bin to the end of the file, save, and exit. Restart shell. Git should work.

/etc, are you sure? Shouldn't this rather be /usr?

Just download the newest version from here: http://code.google.com/p/git-osx-installer/
Install it, open up a new terminal, and it works like before :D

Link to the package list: http://code.google.com/p/git-osx-installer/downloads/list?can=3&q=&sort=-uploaded&colspec=Filename+Summary+Uploaded+Size+DownloadCount

Same issue here, downloaded and installed the snow leopard version from google code and off I went. Needed to quit and re-open terminal though...
All is well again..

When there is git path already,
just add directory to your PATH variable.
echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.profile

I fixed it by downloading and reinstalling git from here.

I used the App Store to install Xcode and it just gives you an all in one app blob.  However it DOES have other apps and installers in it.  I just needed git so the path from that is
export PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin
Its a bit of a hack, but I don't use Xcode for a lot of stuff.  Add to your bash config as other posters described and your good to go

Instead of messing with $PATH it's actually easier to install the Command Line Utilities from within Xcode and use /usr/bin/git afterwards

You don't need to modify the path or install the Xcode command-line tools. Just use the "xcrun" utility from the Terminal:
http://www.cocoanetics.com/2012/07/you-dont-need-the-xcode-command-line-tools/

Welcome to Ask Different! It's okay to include a link, but please summarize or excerpt it in the answer. The idea is to make the answer stand alone. Please take a look at the FAQs for more info.

I solved it by following advice on this site:
http://blogger.forgottenskies.com/?p=740
It was just a pathing issue. To be honest, I expected a whole lot more issues. The upgrades are getting smoother. I remember when I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard, just about everything "open source" broke..


text:
Is there a problem with Thunderbolt to HDMI in Lion?
After upgrading to Lion on my recently purchased Macbook Pro 13" base model I'm having trouble connecting to an HDLCD TV.  My TV is connected to a receiver.  Sometimes when I connect I get 5.1 sound to play through my speakers.  Sometimes it's 2.1 sound. And other times no sound can be played.  Even just getting the laptop to display to the TV is hit or miss.
Is this a known issue?  Any suggestions on how to get things to work consistently?
UPDATE:  It appears that connecting the laptop to the TV is not problematic if there is nothing playing at the time the connection is made.  I get anomalous results if I make a connection while playing something.

I've seen several questions like this - there may be something that needs a patch. Have you filed a bug or reported it to Apple support?

The best chance of success (and Lion doesn't seem to affect this either way) is to have the cord connected when the TV is turned on. This lets the mac and the TV negotiate the formats that the TV supports. Sometimes hot plugging it, even though it's supposed to work causes interference (snow) or worse on the TV until you make the connection again.


text:
Can any settings reduce or eliminate the Mac OS X Lion Jumping Cursor Bug?
How do you stop the jumping cursor bug in Mac OS X Lion?
I am using the Magic Mouse and the cursor keeps jumping to the edge of the screen very often, every minute or two I say. The mouse seems to take off in whatever direction the mouse is moving, just going way too far leaving the cursor at the edge of the screen
After googling, it looks like it is a widespread issue and definately a Mac OS X Lion bug.
Are there any solutions besides waiting for Apple to fix this? Afterall, could take ages and I need to get work done!... Can't downgrade to Snow Leopard, new laptop with Lion.

This is really prevalent on one of my 24" iMacs. I use the apple wireless keyboard and magic mouse and the cursor jumping happens only in Lion. If I boot back to 10.6 - it's fine. 10.7 seems to be not processing the mouse movements in a timely manner and what should be a small motion is detected as a large acceleration causing the pointer to hit an edge of the screen. I'm hoping someone figures out a workaround - it is very disconcerting.

This blog post mentions turning off mouse acceleration as a solution:
http://incredimike.com/blog/2011/08/os-x-lion-causing-a-jumpy-mouse-movement/
He supplies links to a command line script and an app that'll do it.  I haven't tried it as I'm hoping Apple fixes this before I feel like I need to muck with hidden settings.

Thanks for this. It does indeed work. But without the acceleration, the mouse becomes John Moschitta Jr. on 3 lbs. of espresso. Really unusable. A real shame. It's either live with the skips or live with the insane speed. Sigh. If it's one thing Apple has never done well (software or hardware), it's the mouse. Never understood that.


text:
Setup proxy in Mac OS X Lion Installer
I have "restored" one usb stick with the BaseSystem.dmg of the InstallESD.dmg of my Lion installation and it boots. However it wants to connect to the internet to check the system requirements blablabla. Due to the fact, that i am currently at university where we use a proxy the network tool tells me that i have no connection. How can i set up the right proxy? Via the Terminal?
(Btw. the screen that opens is the Mac OS X Service Tools (don't know how to translate) which offers me to restore from Time Machine or to install Lion or to search online help. The Tools i can use are Firmware Password, Network tool and Terminal.)

Is your bootable OS 10.6 or 10.7? Either way, you'll need to enter the proxy settings there in the networking preference pane. Why not attach a screen shot or details of how you set up your proxy for a mac that runs? Someone might be able to help you with the terminal commands if you narrow down exactly the type of proxy in use.

@bmike: I am sorry, but i wanted to install a fresh system - not an upgrade - and therefore i formatted the HDD and have no system left on the MacBook. The reason why the installer wanted to connect to the App Store to check whether i have obtained the version legally. Being home now, i tried it again - where i do not need to enter proxy credentials! - and it worked fine. Nevertheless, thanks! (can be closed!)

This site is absolutely fine with anyone (even the asker) answering your own question. I would make an answer the best you can - you can then after two days accept it. Anyone can edit it later and you might help someone looking in the main Q/A and not in the comments.

Open the Terminal and enter your proxy configuration using "networksetup".
For example
networksetup -setautoproxyurl Ethernet http://your.proxy.url/proxy.pac

"Ethernet" is the name of the network service, use
networksetup -listallnetworkservices

to see which name to use. If you don't use automatic proxy configuration, see "man networksetup" to see how to set up a manual configuration.
Then quit the Terminal and start the installation.

On most new Macs you'll use "Wi-Fi" or "Thunderbolt Ethernet" as appropriate for your network service name (the latter needs to be in those quotes as it has a space in its name)

Also may be worth noting the Terminal is available from the Utilities menu in the OS X installer (aka booting off the Recovery partition), only in the first screen (if you've clicked install you'll need to go back to the main menu to access it, at least in Mavericks)


text:
How can I enable pinch to zoom in Finder on OS X Lion?
After upgrading to Lion the pinch-to-zoom seems to be gone in Finder.  Didn't even find an option for it in system preferences. Any ideas?

The preference for this used to be located in Finder>Preferences. It's no longer available and after some research online, it looks like no one has discovered a way to turn this on using a plist edit.
You might consider telling Apple about how much you miss this:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

that's what i thought, submitted a comment.  thanks.


text:
OS X Lion - Finder: Difference of "Sort by", "Clean Up By" and "Arrange by"
There is an option in the Finder.
Right click in the background of a finder window, the new toolbar icon or
cmd+j. To change the view of the sorting/arranging I can choose between
"Sort by"
"Clean Up By"
"Arrange by"
It seems they do the same.
Anyone knows the difference of them?

Clean Up By is only available in icon view. If Arrange By is not set to None, it doesn't seem to do anything until you change Arrange By to None. If Arrange By is set to None and Sort By is set to Snap to Grid, it arranges icons so that they are aligned on a grid. If Arrange By is set to None and Sort By is set to anything else, it sorts icons and changes Sort By to None.
The Arrange By modes were added in Lion. They group items under sections like this in different view modes:

List views cannot be sorted by clicking the headings when items are arranged by some attribute.
When items are arranged by some attribute, Sort By affects the way items are sorted inside the categories in some cases, but in other cases it's disabled.
Sort By doesn't group items under sections. The Sort by mode is changed when for example clicking the list headings in list view. The Arrange By menus change to Sort By when holding option:

And "Clean Up By" is only once. "Sort by" and "Arrange by" will sort every time you move/delete/add something.

This is so ridiculously complex.

If you select "clean by" the icons will be sorted into the order you choose, but you can still slide them around.
If you select "arrange by" the icons will always snap back to a sorted grid and you will no longer be able to slide them around.

And what is the difference between "Sort By" and "Arrange By"?

Ok the difference between "Sort By" and "Arrange By" is not given, when you "Arrange By Name", but with "Arrange by Kind" you will see lines to separate the categories and after that the "Sort By" will be applied.


text:
Lion deletes files after copying to shared folder on AFP
I have an iMac 27" (late 2009) running Lion OS X with all latest patches.
There is an external USB drive (Mac partition, journalled), on which I have created a network share using AFP.
Since yesterday, another Lion machine (the source) trying to save files to the share will copy the files, but at the end of the process the files are nowhere to be found on the target (i.e. my machine).
It was working yesterday because I have a folder there with yesterday's date.
I have stopped and started sharing, tried with different shares and permissions, turned off the Firewall, and various other things to try fixing this.
The only thing that I know has changed since yesterday afternoon is that I upgraded iLife to version 2011 (with associated updates from Software Update).
Behaviour: files can be seen copying (grayed out), and at the end of the process, have vanished. From the source machine, everything appears normal. In other words, the files are disappearing after they finish copying.
Side note: if a folder is copied, the folder itself is created, but the files inside are copied and then deleted but the folder remains.
Further note: AirDrop does work, but I don't want to use it because it's the 21st century and network shares should work by now.
Any thoughts are welcome.
EDIT: When I try to overwrite the folder that has already been created (see above), it tells me (at the source) that the folder is in use and cannot be changed.
SECOND EDIT: After repairing permissions on both iMacs, things appear to be working again, but I will monitor the situation and update this question in a day or two anyway.

As noted in my second edit, repairing permissions appears to have fixed the problem, though I don't see how.


text:
Will maintaining lot of files in trash affect Mac OS X performance?
I maintain more than 20 million files in my trash without cleaning.
Can it slow down my Mac OS X?

What's a crore file?

Wait. Do you seriously mean "more than 20,000,000 individual files"? As this is an English language website, most users will not understand the word 'crore'.

Why??? (I´m curious)

It's just a word that's not used outside of South Asia. We use short scale value names.

I was thinking about whether or not the Trash is just like any other folder from a file system's point of view. Let's assume that it is for a second, then another way to look at this would be "what's the worse that can happen to the performance of my Mac if I keep thousands of files in any folder? Mac OS X probably does some sort of memory swapping using the hard drive, so that would be the first problem of an increase in used hard drive space. But this may be the case of any folder, not only the Trash.
That reminded me of my Windows days and how running utilities to defragment a hard drive made my system feel faster after frequent defragmentation. However, unlike Windows, Apple claims that due to its design, their OS does not need defragmenting. Take a look at this interesting article. On it, Apple claims that it can handle thousands of files. However, Apple here is talking only about the file system itself.
John Siracusa, on his Ars Technica review of Lion mentions that performance does in fact decrease with thousands of files. However, the way I read his article is that the performance decrease is on the Finder UI itself rather than on the file system as a whole (i.e., the Finder is not the file system). It makes sense that if there is more information to prepare graphically and your computer was running multiple apps to the point of your system being very taxed for RAM; then the Finder will probably have a harder time rendering a simple Finder window to show thousands of files in the Trash.
Coming back to your original question, it seems to me that a user who never empties the Trash and only accesses its contents occasionally would not seen any noticeable performance decrease on the rest of his system--other than perhaps the Finder struggling to render the contents of the Trash every now and then. I would consider any performance hits on the system the same as with any other growing folder. Hope this helps.

You could take the "wooden stick" approach to weather reporting.
If the stick is wet, it's raining.
Do you see huge bursts of IO in Activity monitor related to trash icon browsing or drawing?
Your mac is storing hundreds of thousands of files in a modern file system. Unless some app has poor IO skills and is looking in that folder, you shouldn't notice a thing.
Finder is the only app that routinely checks on the various trash directories. As long as it's not using too much RAM for your comfort or using too much CPU - you've got your answer.

No, unless you're using up so much space on your hard drive that the system doesn't have any room left for VM swap space.

I once deleted some video files (i.e large files) after emptying the trash the amount of inactive memory decreased & the amount of free memory increased. It was a slight difference but apparently it does the trash does affect your system.

you mean , lot of file will affect system.

a small file won't affect your system even if it was in use lol >.<

lol >.<  means,pls tell clearly

It's not the amount its the size; if your trash is very large i.e. its contents amount to a couple of gb or more they will affect your system. If you want to keep a lot of files out of the way I do not recommend the trash can it's better to archive them & put them in an external drive