How does Continuity and Handoff work and what are the differences? I am trying to understand how the continuity and handoff features work and what is the difference between them. I suppose handoff is for specifically transferring activities from one device to the other while continuity is being able to answer call from mac or reply to messages. Although the difference is quite small.

So how exactly do these work ? do they use the same multi peer connectivity framework ? And are these only available to devices with the wifi-direct chip ( 4s and above )?

I can't embellish on the technical aspects of Continuity and Handoff beyond the WWDC bullet points, but I'll do my best to answer.

"Continuity" is the name of the new feature-set included in OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) and iOS 8 to allow more seamless integration with devices.

"Handoff" is the name of a specific feature in which a task started on one device can be picked up - or handed off - to another device to finish or continue.

Continuity also includes features such as phone call and SMS relaying as well as Instant Hotspot.

And yes - these features will not only work between OS X and iOS devices, but two or more iOS devices as well; Just today I accepted a call on my iPad. All of this is done with Bluetooth, and only devices with Bluetooth 4.0 can utilize them.

And for your technical question (which is above my head at this point in time) can most likely be answered here:

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/Handoff/HandoffFundamentals/HandoffFundamentals.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40014338


Is it generally advisable to get anti-virus software for Mac OS X? Is it worth to buy an anti-virus software for Mac OS X?

I heard both opinions like "it's not possible to get a virus on Mac OS X" and "Mac OS X is also vulnerable against virus... "

Which is true? What is the accepted practice, if any? Under what circumstances would anti-virus be advisable?

There is anti-virus software available for Mac OS X:

Intego VirusBarrier
ClamXAV (Free)
Norton AnitVirus Mac Edition
McAfee VirusScan for Mac
Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac (Consumer Version is free)

Is it worth it? That's largely up to you. Personally I'd say unless required there's no reason to so long as you practice "safe computing" (eg. not opening files from just anywhere, being aware of what is installed on your computer, etc.). However there are some companies that require any computer (regardless of OS) to have up to date anti-virus software installed and operational.

There are no viruses available for Mac OS X but there are several pieces of malware and trojan horses that a user must manually download and install. The anti-virus products (and actually a feature in Mac OS X Snow Leopard) will help fight against these threats but the primary defence is actually user education as the attack vector is primarily social engineering and not using any security hole.


How can I keep my MBP's battery from charging without removing it? My battery has expanded and has to be replaced, but I am currently writing my thesis and intend to only keep using my MBP for a few more weeks before I buy a new one. I have heard that it is dangerous to charge the battery once it is in an expanded condition, but I cannot remove the battery myself. Is there a way I can use my Mac with the A/C chord without charging (and without using) the battery?

I do not know of any software solution, but there is a hardware solution.

Use a piece of tape and cover the middle pin on the Magsafe plug.


Top Left Corner of the display not rendered while using Final Cut Pro 10.0.8 I noticed this strange problem when when I was using Final Cut Pro. The top left corner of the display does not appear. The same can be seen on the image below.

I left it for a while and when checked, It seemed to have turned black.

This has happened over a few times to me in the past only when starting to use FCP.

Hardware and Software

MBP 13 inch, Late 2011 - OS X Mavericks 10.9.4
Final Cut Pro 10.0.8

Question

What was the reason this could have occurred?
Is there anyway to solve this without having to "reboot"?

Updating Final Cut Pro from 10.0.8 to 10.1.2 has solved this problem.


Trap closure of app when its closed in the Multi-Tasking view What event/selector/method is called, if any, when the user closes the app in the multi-tasking screen?  Xcode reports Message from debugger: Terminated due to signal 9 (i.e. SIGKILL, which cannot be trapped).
Is the use of AppDelegate.applicationWillResignActive,which is invoked when the user pressed the 'Home' button, the next best option?

It depends on the state your app is in:

If your app is suspended (i.e. it is in the background and not currently executing), there's no way of detecting the user closing the app.

If your app is backgrounded (i.e. it is in the background and executing), then your applicationWillTerminate method will be called.


Set Microsoft Remote Desktop 10 to view another users session Is it possible to use Microsoft Remote Desktop 10, to remotly view another users session, so i can talk them through an issue (Teamviewer style) instead of making the host computers screen go blank, which is what MRD is currently doing to the host machine ?

Unfortunately no.

Microsoft Remote Desktop is designed for the remote user to have their own desktop working environment and as such is not designed for screen sharing like LogMeIn or Teamviewer.

If you are looking for a free screen sharing solution or one that does not count on someone else's network infrastructure you might look into using VNC. It is common on Linux machines but as it is open source also available on Windows, Mac and a bunch of OSs you have possibly not even heard of. In fact macOS screen sharing/Remote Desktop is based on VNC.

There are a lot of versions of VNC out there I linked to the first one that came up in an internet search. There are many others.


Does "pmset schedule wake" work when the lid is closed at the designated time? I am using Air, which is in the sleep mode almost all day. I want to have it run a shell script every morning, so I set my Air to wake up at 7:00 using "pmset" command and run the script at 7:01 using another command. However, this does not work when the lid is closed and is unconnected to power at 7:00, and the script is not run until I wake it up by myself.

Does "pmset schedule wake" work when the lid is closed and connected to power?

My understanding is no, because the act of having the lid closed is designed to put the Air to sleep (this is done with magnets). The only exception is closed clamshell mode where you need:

power connected
display connected
external keyboard + mouse or trackpad (bluetooth or USB)

You can watch the power events with pmset -g pslog so if you were to set a wake and then have terminal.app or other command line to watch the log, you could look at things when you wake up the Mac via lid open or external display. Power Nap would be the only way you might get some events run with the lid closed and not in clamshell mode.

Also, while I haven't tried doing what you're trying to, I have noticed that allowing 5 minutes for a scheduled wake event is usually a better way to go.

So you could try running the script a little later (e.g. 7:05), or perhaps setting the Air to wake at 6:56. However, as I stated above, the lid being closed means the magnet will trigger a sleep event.


I can't shrink my OS X Yosemite partition I recently reformatted my machine and am trying to shrink my OS X partiton to make room for a linux partition, following instructions at http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-linux-macbook-pro/ . I am at the Resize Partitions step, and when I opened up Disk Utility, there was no way for me to drag the existing partition to shrink its size and create free space.

When looking at the GUI, the normal resize handle is missing, and the help text sounds much more restrictive than it has in the past.

Essentially you have a CoreStorage Volume Group instead of an old-style partition scheme. You shouldn't use Disk Utility to modify the CSVG.

To shrink your CoreStorage Volume Group to get some unallocated space to install Linux or EFI-Windows just use an undocumented diskutil command:

diskutil cs resizeStack LVUUID size

The command expands or shrinks the whole CoreStorage Volume Group including the physical volume(s), the logical volume family and the logical volume in one step to the desired size.

Beware: The command is vastly undocumented and as such potentially destructive.

Preparation:

Backup your data.
Detach any external drive (especially your external Time Machine backup drive).
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup.
The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot to a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an apple/akamai server.

I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.

Alternatively you may start from a bootable installer thumb drive (Mavericks or Yosemite) or a thumb drive containing a full system (Mavericks or Yosemite). The disk identifiers may differ then. So check the human readable names and sizes and change the commands below accordingly.

Get an overview:

Open in the menubar Utilities/Terminal

First you should get an overview of your disks and the partition layout:
Enter diskutil list
Example listing (but I took the list provided by you in your question and included the netboot device):

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *250.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD            249.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.1 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                         *1.3 GB    disk1
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         30.7 KB    disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS OS X Base System        *1.3 GB    disk1s2
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *249.1 GB   disk2

/dev/disk3-disk13 ...belong to the OS X Base System (your recovery system you booted to previously)

Disk0 is your main internal disk device (SSD) containing an EFI-partition (dis0s1), one CoreStorage partition (disk0s2) and Boot OS X (disk0s3).

Disk1 is a logical disk created by booting to the netboot image which contains a recovery system (OS X Base System = disk1s2) similar to the Recovery HD.

Disk2 is also a logical disk residing in disk0s2 and it contains the CoreStorage stack.
Enter diskutil cs list
Example listing:

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 57932797-4AC8-4475-9836-82394CEBF536
    =========================================================
    Name:         LogicalVolumeGroup
    Status:       Online
    Size:         249150200320 B (249.1 GB)
    Free Space:   353689600 B (353.7 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 68F90B2B-4004-4044-AFFB-9D3854006D2A
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     249183200320 B (249.1 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family 9B947A52-7496-46CA-BFA5-A87DD47249FE
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 86417B41-6400-4F81-8F7C-43AA243CDAEE
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk2
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          249001915136 B (249.0 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            No
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

Modify CoreStorage stack:

Resize the CoreStorage volume with

diskutil cs resizeStack LVUUID size

with LVUUID: UUID of the logical volume and size: the final size of your CoreStorage volume.

Examples:

diskutil cs resizeStack 86417B41-6400-4F81-8F7C-43AA243CDAEE 200g

to shrink it to 200 GB

diskutil cs resizeStack 86417B41-6400-4F81-8F7C-43AA243CDAEE 100000m

to shrink it to 100,000 MB (=100 GB)

diskutil cs resizeStack 86417B41-6400-4F81-8F7C-43AA243CDAEE 0g

to expand it to the full available size (0g is a magic number here).

Your Recovery HD should be moved automatically - regardless of whether shrinking or expanding the CS volume - to the very end of it (right after the CoreStorage volume).
Enter exit and quit Terminal.
Open Disk Utility and check your shrinked CoreStorage volume for errors.
Quit Disk Utility.
Reboot to your main volume.
Now you have ~(250 GB - size) GB of unallocated space and may install Linux.

P.S. I recommend to revert to the old-style partition scheme before installing Linux with Grub/rEFInd. You need a full Time Machine backup of your main volume though.

Delete CoreStorage stack:

To revert to the old-style volume delete the Logical Volume Group instead of modifying the CoreStorage stack:

Enter diskutil cs delete LVGUUID with LVGUUID = UUID of the Logical Volume Group found in one of the previous steps. Quit Terminal.
Open Disk Utility and partition the SSD. Quit Disk Utility.
Open Restore From Time Machine Backup and restore your data.


Possibility of getting HealthKit data from third-party sensors in real-time? I have heard that HealthKit can be used to gather health-related data using the iPhone’s sensors in real-time, and I know that there are several third-party wearable biometric sensors that can interface with iOS and are supposed to be compatible with HealthKit (but it’s not clear to me whether that means they’re compatible with HealthKit itself or just the Health app). What I want to know is: does the HealthKit API provide a (relatively simple) way to access data from these external sensors in real-time as they're coming in? Or is it really only designed to do that for sensors that are already in the iOS device itself?

From a user level - the health app consumes data that is stored in the HealthKit framework. From the developer and hardware manufacturer side, HealthKit framework is an API for them to do things reading and writing the data so that what you describe is clearly possible.

Even watch OS streams live data - so that's a core feature of bluetooth low energy. Once the data is on iOS, it's a matter of the developer placing it under health kit control. This is something Apple expects and allows with their code and SDK/API.

Now, not all data can be written to all areas - for instance, Apple's workout app doesn't allow third party contributions on Watch OS 1.0 and 2.0 but it does allow workout data to be stored in the database along with the Apple watch workout app data.


Language setting for spell-check in Pages I'm new to Pages (from iWork) and have troubles with the spell-check function. It's simply not working for me.

Almost everything is underlined red. No matter what language I write in. I did not write paragraphs with mixed languages when checking. I used one language per trial.

How can I check what dictionary I'm using? (I fear I might have none installed.)
Can I change the language for spell-check, without changing the system language?


Can I remote desktop into a Windows-based corporate network from my iPad? Possible duplicate:
          iPads in the corporate world

Has anyone remote desktop into a Windows-based corporate network with an iPad? What has been your experience? How do you address the issue of multiple domains? Is this even possible?

Currently, I just connect my laptop to a network cable and remote desktop from one domain into another domain to get to my desktop computer into a different location.

Is this possible with an iPad? How would my regular network cable connect to an iPad?

If you’re talking about accessing a Remote Desktop via a RDC Client, There are a lot of applications that work fine. I’m personally using iTap Mobile RDP and it’s fantastic.


Are there iphone apps or automation for taking photos and sharing low resolution versions? I need to take low resolution photos on iPhone5 like at 640*480, 320*240 etc. Low resolution photo is so that they can be uploaded easily. I don’t see a way to tell iOS to do this by default from the camera application.

Only requirement is to upload as easily as possible low resolution photos. * No photo editing capability is necessary.
If the photos can’t be processed in place, an automated way to reduce them and optionally delete the originals is ideal.
most important is an easy way to get low resolution versions of all the photos shared out and uploaded.

So, any free, light weight, iOS app suggestion for taking low resolution photos with rear cam ?

Did you look at Simple Resize which seems to do what you are looking for.

On iOS 12 - the app Shortcuts by Apple can automate all of this now for you.

take a picture (preview or not)
resize it
save it to an album / share it to a shared album / save it to files (google / Dropbox / box / iCloud) / send it to an app

The last step can do just about anything you might want with images just taken and basically modify the camera to take reduced photos and optionally share them out as well if you don’t want to just have them taken.


How can I prevent iTunes from automatically opening the downloaded audio files? When I download an audio file with Safari, it is automatically opened with iTunes.

How can I do to prevent this ?
I would like that nothing happens when an audio file is downloaded.

My configuration is MacOS 10.8, iTunes 11, and Safari 6.

Go to Safari preferences

Disable the Open safe files after downloading


How is it possible that my iPhone is using data when on airplane mode? All our phones are using data during the night when we are asleep.  I thought that apps were only supposed to update on WIFI.  But my phone is always on airplane mode at night unless I forget, so last night I put in on airplane mode, took a screenshot as evidence, and sure enough, a tiny bit of data was used at 6:00am this morning before I got up.  How is that possible?

@Tyson's comment provides some insight based on your checking the data usage with your carrier, AT&T.

The time that is posted by AT&T is the time that they added the usage to your account, not necessarily the time that the usage was done.

As an experiment, if you can spare one of your iPhones that long, is to set it in Airplane mode for a day or two and see what AT&T reports.  This thread on the AT&T forum explains some of the fine print.


How to record both screen and sound with Quicktime on El Capitan? I'm trying to record both what's happening on screen and the audio being played by the applications. To my surprise, QuickTime did not record the sound. I believe it worked before in previous OS X releases, but that is not something that I use often so I have not bothered to try earlier.

What is the current situation on El Capitan ? Have I messed with something that prevents QuickTime from capturing the sound, or has it never worked ?

Here is my view of Quick Time  / New Screen Recording on a Mac Mini:

On my Macbook Pro, I have the option select None or Internal Microphone. Internal microphone actually records the speakers of the Mac Book as heard from its own microphone, which obviously sounds terrible.

This is a MacMini 7,1 (late 2014) and there is nothing in Input Sources.

You  need to install Soundflower in order to run it on El Capitan. El Capitan requires kext to be signed in order to load them. This one gets its kext installed in /Library/Extensions/.

This is due to System Integrity Protection

Then, you have to create a multi-output device with: Audio MIDI Setup.app, which is found in /Applications/Utilities/ :

Finally, when you want to do the actual recording, make sure you use this multi-output device, and capture from the same Soundflower device used in this multi-output device. Otherwise, you can't both listen to and capture the sound, because it goes directly to soundflower without being copied to the built-in output.

alt/option + right clicking on volume gives you this menu:

and Quicktime now looks like this:


How to diagnose a crash from system logs? I know you can get to the system logs from the Console and/or from the command line.

That said, I don't know how to read them very well. How can I tell which events are related to a crash and which ones are not?

Here's good Apple site (Technical Note TN2123) describing Crash Logs.


If I reset my iPhone 6 what iOS will be installed? If I factory reset my iPhone 6 (currently running iOS 9.3.5), which version of iOS will be installed after the reset?

Erasing All Contents and Settings (what most people call “factory reset”) does not change/remove your operating system. Whatever OS you had installed prior to the reset will remain after your iPhone reboots.


How can I customize the Touch Bar interfaces for my tremor? I have an essential tremor. This means that the slightest unintentional graze on the Touch Bar or touchpad on my MacBook Pro can have extremely undesirable consequences.

So how can I change the sensitivity on those input devices and yet retain the key functionality of those devices? The key functions provided by the Touch Bar are the escape key (accidental grazes are easy and can have extreme consequences), and changing the sound volume or screen brightness. All other features of the Touch Bar are accessible by other means.

The touchpad also has key functionality, but not quite as critical as the escape key. But once again, slight grazes can result in highly undesirable effects.

How can I change the sensitivity on the Touch Bar and the touchpad and still retain the essential functionality provided by those input devices?

Many of us have difficulties with aspects of UI design, both in hardware and software. Look past the frustration and think around the problem.

A simple fix for me was to attach an external keyboard, wired at first, but then wireless using a Matias 101-key keyboard with the number pad on the right, a design I've been using since the DEC VT220 terminal keyboard came out a few decades ago. I also use Apple's wireless trackpad, which is larger, and sits where it should be - next to the keyboard.

I see Matias now has a backlit model! How cool!

Be well. Take a deep breath and center yourself.


How do I play or share a voice memo? I can't play this voice memo. It won't play. I also can't share it.

iOS 10.3.1

I hear this happens when the app crashes mid-recording. Does it pop up when you try to sync the voice recording with iTunes?

You could try extracting it with a program like iExplorer. Find it under the 'recordings' folder.


Applescript to kill open applications and log out user after 30 min. of inactivity I'm looking for a way to automatically log off a user after 30 minutes of inactivity, as well as close all open applications. As of now, there is really only one user to deal with. I'd prefer an easy (free) way of doing this, but am open to using a program that might accomplish the same thing. Thus far, I've come up with the following Applescript to close all programs and log out:

tell application "System Events"
    key down {command, shift, option}
    keystroke "Q"
    key up {command, shift, option}
end tell

I'm not sure how to go about finding the period of inactivity. I don't have much programming experience, so any detailed step-by-step would be appreciated.

Have you tried using the built in tools to force a log out upon reaching a certain idle time?

It is an Advanced Option (see the bottom button) in the Security & Privacy preference pane on Lion.

If you want one user to have a different timeout you can script things easily with Automator or AppleScript:

tell application "System Events"
    log out
end tell

The trick is making your custom app keep a timer for 30 minutes of inactivity which is why the system control panel is the best option for this request.


How to calculate Virtual Memory Size in Mavericks I would like to know if there is a command (or set of commands) that calculates each of (Virtual Memory, File Cache and App Memory) parameters listed in the screen shot above.

I believe between top and vm_stat you could get most of that output, though in a less legible form. (Why do you want to read it from the terminal, curiosity?)

top has most of the physical and virtual memory stats, but vm_stats has the amount of compressed, and they both have swapping, though thanks to compression that is low.

App Memory and Filecache specifics I could not find, they are included in virtual memory count.

vm_stats:

Mach Virtual Memory Statistics: (page size of 4096 bytes)
Pages free:                              262614.
Pages active:                            818894.
Pages inactive:                          287658.
Pages speculative:                        46300.
Pages throttled:                              0.
Pages wired down:                        411565.
Pages purgeable:                          56793.
"Translation faults":                 255617431.
Pages copy-on-write:                   10812762.
Pages zero filled:                    165910381.
Pages reactivated:                      3419113.
Pages purged:                           2058688.
File-backed pages:                       246635.
Anonymous pages:                         906217.
Pages stored in compressor:              396258.
Pages occupied by compressor:            269783.
Decompressions:                          625574.
Compressions:                           1816628.
Pageins:                                1693962.
Pageouts:                                223513.
Swapins:                                      0.
Swapouts:                                     0.

top:

Processes: 253 total, 2 running, 6 stuck, 245 sleeping, 1101 threads             14:53:50
Load Avg: 1.42, 1.43, 1.62  CPU usage: 8.52% user, 5.97% sys, 85.50% idle
SharedLibs: 120M resident, 0B data, 26M linkedit.
MemRegions: 70307 total, 2561M resident, 107M private, 577M shared.
PhysMem: 5919M used (1608M wired), 1218M unused.
VM: 631G vsize, 1312M framework vsize, 0(0) swapins, 0(0) swapouts.
Networks: packets: 7933197/5221M in, 5685549/2563M out.
Disks: 1748536/37G read, 1726987/42G written.

Edit: Ok I looked around for a tool that might find that value of virtual memory. I believe the virtual memory value shown in 'Activity Monitor' is how much memory is really being used. Whereas 'top' shows all virtual memory, and most of it has not been actually placed somewhere. Programs may request a lot more memory then they will use, and since it is virtual memory it doesn't cost anything to let them have a large vm space as long as they don't actually use it.
This link has a top replacement tool  If you run it with 'sudo' like 'sudo procexp -all' it gives out what virtual memory may be more along the lines of what 'Activity Monitor' shows.

-----------------
Process: 0  Name: kernel_task       Parent:     0   Status: runnable
Flags:   64-bit,system,session leader
UID:        0   RUID:     0 SVUID:     0
GID:        0   RGID:     0 SVGID:     0

Virtual size:       7167M (7515574272)  Resident size:         752M (789536768)
Time:     58.03   =   00.00 (User)    +    58.03 (System)
Syscalls:           0   Mach Traps:       0
Disk I/O: Read   9786K  Written:      88547K

#Threads:  96     (Process has no workqueues)


Does the iPad Air stay cooler whilst charging than the previous iPad? My iPad 4 gets quite hot whilst charging, even without a case. As I get this with every one of my iOS devices, as well as Macs, I always expect this from a device now.

However, the iPad Air is much thinner than the previous iPad, and consequently has this had any impact on the temperature of the iPad Air whilst charging?

Yes, the airs will be cooler than the 4th generation iPads when charging due to the laws of physics. How much cooler may be hard to estimate and simple to test empirically once we have shipping devices and a thermal imaging camera.

The specifications of the iPad Air show that the surface area of the back is 40,680 mm^2 (169.5 x 240 mm) and that it contains a 32.4 watt-hour battery.

The specifications of the 4th generation iPad show that the surface area of the back is 42,934 mm^2 (185.7 x 241.2 mm) and that it contains a 42.5 watt-hour battery.

So, to charge the Air you have far less energy (ratio of 1 : 0.76) going in to the device and only a slightly less (ration of 1 : 0.95) surface area with which to dissipate heat from the charging of the battery.

Since Apple almost always limits the charge rate of it's devices to get 80% of the full charge in 2 hours and the remaining 20% and top off in the next 2 hours we can safely expect that pattern to hold. Since the energy going into the older device isn't offset with enough extra surface area to dissipate that heat - the lesser energy going into the Air during an recharge cycle will let it's surface temperature run cooler to dissipate all the heat that the battery puts off while charging. I also see no reason to think there will be less or more airflow from speaker openings and such or that the glass of the Air will insulate more or less than the previous generation.

So I can confidently predict the iPad Air is going to be cooler than it's predecessor in more ways than one.


Which is more durable. CPU or FAN? i wonder which of the two components (CPU & FAN) is more durable in a Macbook Pro Retina 2015 (13 inch).

I am asking because i am doing a lot of compiling on my machine and it gets very hot (up to 100°C) frequently. The fan seems to kick in a bit late in my opinion. Sometimes i hit the 105°C and then the fan starts blowing at full power.

Now i was thinking of using a manual curve setup for the fan, like 100% power at 95°C.

But then i started asking myself if i would brake the FAN quite fast. Well, thats the point.

Which one is more durable. Should i live with high temps or high fan speed?

The MacBook Pro can get quite hot and the fan may often spin at high speed and this is considered normal operation. In addition to it's fan it also dispels heat via its unibody aluminum shell. This can make the surface very hot but this is often a good thing as it is moving heat away form the CPU and other components. As long as the ball bearing does not get clogged with dust then it should last a good long time even when running at high speeds. The MacBooks all include temp sensors which will power the MacBook off if it exceeds the heat tolerances.

I think the question is not phrased quite right because as long as the fan does not fail and it keeps the CPU cool, then it will last for many, many years. And as long as the ball bearing doesn't wear out or the blades become unbalanced you will get years of service from your fan. Does this help?


Apple Mail.app hides Archive folder - how to get it to show I use Mail.app with FastMail. Mostly, it just works.

However, when I start up Mail it never shows the Archive folder. The Archive button will move mail to it, but it's not there. The Goto mailbox menu item is greyed out for Archive in the Mailbox menu too. (cmd-2)

I can right-click on another folder, all of which show up, and choose "Get Account Info" then it scans all the folders, shows Archive which I double-click to open, and use that window, closing the original Mail window. All works fine and dandy. It's an annoying little dance I don't want to have to do.

Worth noting that once I've done the dance, then the cmd-2 short-cut works and the menu item above works fine.

In FastMail the Archive folder is configured to be displayed. It's set to Always Show.

This is on 10.9.2.

Using another mail client (Airmail, or Postbox) I didn't see this problem, but I like Mail.

I just had this problem on OS 10.10 (Yosemite). Here's how I solved it:

Select the inbox.
Right-click "Account Info"
Select "Messages on Server" tab.
Wait until the size of all of your mailboxes is calculated.
Select the Archive mailbox and click "Show Messages" button.

The archive now appears in the mailboxes bar.


Writing code on System 6? I have a Macintosh SE FD HD running Apple System 6. Is there a Terminal application? What programming language(s) can I run on System 6?

There is no terminal application for System 6, at least not out of the box.  There is Macintosh Programmers Workshop and a couple of other oddities around, as well as things like telnet clients for connecting to other computers.

While I don't know all possible programming languages, MPW will give you a command line, C, C++, and Pascal.  Other languages I've seen were Chipmunk BASIC, Perl, and other development environments that were common were Think C and Metrowerks CodeWarrior.  Here is a random webpage about it.


Is it possible to upgrade a Mac Mini to OS X Lion? I read that the upgrade to OS X Lion is not intended for Mac Minis, is this true?

Is there a way to upgrade a Mac Mini with an Intel CPU to OS X Lion?

Yes, you can update a Mac Mini to Mac OS Lion.

What you heard was incorrect, Mac Mini's are upgradable, just like any other Mac. Lion requires a Core 2 duo processor and 2 GB memory to run, so any Mac produced after circa 2007 will be fine.


Apple Music offline files still there if subscription stops after free trial? I am now using the 3-month free trial of Apple Music. Yesterday, I downloaded a few albums into my iPhone. If I do not join the subscription after the free trial period, will the songs still be in my iPhone?

No - as Apple says here

  *You can save music offline on up to 10 devices. These songs are accessible only during your Apple Music membership.

Note that you do not need to 'join the subscription after the free trial period', Apple will just start charging your credit card for the subscription.

The point of offline files is so that you can listen to Apple Music without using up your mobile data usage, not to download music to keep forever.


iMac secret feature or application? I found this presumably hidden feature by accident; my keyboard fell so I picked it up.  When I did, my background looked like it was in space, the Finder window was open and in the middle of the background there was the sun. On the side a new menu bar showed up; one option said "Today" and the other option, I think, said "Tomorrow." It just looked like my background was traveling through space, it was cool; kind of like when you reboot your computer and it gives you that Apple outerspace show.

My question is: how do i open that feature or application and what is it for?

If it looked like this:

you just entered Time Machine. From Apple:

  Time Machine is the built-in backup that works with your Mac and an external drive (sold separately) or Time Capsule. Connect the drive, assign it to Time Machine, and start enjoying some peace of mind. Time Machine automatically backs up your entire Mac, including system files, applications, accounts, preferences, music, photos, movies, and documents. But what makes Time Machine different from other backup applications is that it not only keeps a spare copy of every file, it remembers how your system looked on any given day—so you can revisit your Mac as it appeared in the past.

It's not a hidden feature but it does aim to stay unobtrusive and out-of-the-way until you need it.

You can get to Time Machine any time you want by clicking this icon in your menu bar and selecting Enter Time Machine.

If you don't see the Time Machine icon in your menu bar go to System Preferences -> Time Machine and make sure the Show Time Machine status in menu bar option is checked.


Microsoft true type fonts on mac How do I install the mainstream Microsoft Hebrew true-type fonts (David, Arial, Times New Roman Hebrew) in Mac? I would like to use these fonts both in MS-Office and Latex documents.

In the Linux\Debian world there is a package called msttcorefonts, that fetches these fonts from the Microsoft site. I'm not sure where I can download these fonts, is it legal to use them in Mac, and whether there are copyright issues with documents created with them.

Applications -> Font Book.

This controls fonts in OSX.

You can enable/disable, validate and check them, create custom groupings, etc.

From within Font Book you can open up new fonts: File -> Add Fonts, or just drag them into it. Even just double-clicking the font itself should prompt you to install it.


Deleting photos from Photos app once My Photo Stream is disabled So I recently set up Boot Camp on my MacBook, and I am in desperate need of space. I have disabled iCloud Photo Library, My Photo Stream and iCloud Photo Sharing. There are still photos on my MacBook in the Photos app, and I am wondering: if I delete these photos, will they be deleted from my other devices too?

Once all iCloud photo sync features are disabled (iCloud Photo Library and photo stream) pictures will only be deleted locally. Generally, unless you have disabled this prompt, Photos will warn you if you are deleting a picture from a Cloud location.

Bonus tip:
If you want to view your photo library online, you can always go to http://icloud.com/#photos to view them.


add a certain episode to Podcasts app I am using the Apple Podcasts app and I have setup iTunes to sync the last 10 unplayed episodes of each podcast feed to my iPhone 5.

Now I found an old episode that I want to listen to but that one is not among those last 10. How can I keep my iTunes sync settings and still get that one particular episode onto my iPhone (preferably but not necessarily into the Podcasts app) for offline listening?

(Assuming you have the latest iTunes version)

If you don't already have the desired episode in your computer's iTunes library, download it from the iTunes store.
Connect the iPhone (either via WiFi or USB cable) and go to the podcast in the iTunes library. Drag the episode toward the right side of the screen. A sidebar should pop up and your iPhone should be listed under Devices. Drop the episode onto your iPhone.
It'll begin syncing and the episode will be copied over.

Once you finish listening to it, it will be deleted from the iPhone the next time you sync because of your "10 most recent unplayed" settings. Depending on iTunes settings, it may or may not also be deleted from your computer's iTunes library.


Download a Free App published only to India AppStore while my primary iTunes account is US Appstore? Download a Free App published only to India AppStore while my primary iTunes account is US Appstore?

I have years (maybe a decade) with my iTunes account on US Appstore. I do not wish to switch permanently as I have Apps bought from it.

I just need a few 'Free' India AppStore apps now and then for when I visit.

Is there some temporary way to switch or buy them?

Some kind of workaround?
e.g. Maybe create an alternate user account and as a family member on India AppStore?

You can have multiple accounts, you just have to log in and out to switch between them.

After you created an India account, log out of your US account:

Settings -> App and iTunes Stores -> Apple ID -> Sign Out

Then sign in with your India account. Swipe close your AppStore app, then go into it again. Now you can download apps from your India account.


Unable to download WhatsApp I have been trying without success to re-download WhatsApp and every time it says "unable to download". I am not sure if it's a space issue, I would think it would tell me I do not have enough available storage. I am using an iPhone 5c with iOS 10.2.1.

1) If the download has started and then the alert pops up: I have experienced this due to lack of network connections. Sometimes you're connected to WiFi, but there is actually no connection (for example you're connecting to a public WiFi and confirmation is needed).

Go to Safari, type in Google.com and see if Google loads in the browser. If not, find a reliable network connection and try downloading again.

2) If the alert pops up at the AppStore after you hit the GET button, and the download cannot even be started: your iPhone might not have sufficient space. Go to Settings and check your storage. Delete the Apps, Photos and Podcasts you don't need.


Shared clipboard between multiple Macbooks I have a Macbook Air (2017) and Macbook Pro (early 2015). As a developer, I want to do my development on Pro and browsing, emails and other stuff on my Air at the same time. This requires some copy-paste between the machines.

I was looking at the Universal Clipboard feature. I have followed all the steps in this article but its not working. I am not sure if this is Mac to iOS only feature.

I am running macOS Mojave (10.14.4) on both machines. Please let me know if you require any additional information.

P.S. In the meantime I am using Notes as a shared clipboard.

If you are signed into the same iCloud account and have the Continuity features turned on you should be able to copy and paste between machines.

macOS Sierra: Copy and paste across devices

  With Universal Clipboard, you can copy text, images, photos, and videos on one Apple device and then paste the content on another Apple device.

  Note: To use Universal Clipboard, your devices must meet Continuity system requirements. They must also have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Handoff turned on in System Preferences (on your Mac) and in Settings (on your iOS devices). You must be signed in to iCloud using the same Apple ID on all your devices.


Upgrade from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion in non personal & large scaled development environment My company is still running Snow Leopard and we're thinking of upgrading to Mountain Lion soon. We are developing iOs and MacOsX applications and have a small break between the old projects and the new projects. What this means is, that we can start over with the new applications on the new version. But what happens to the old versions? They don't have ARC, Storyboards etc... I know you can switch off ARC but we want to make sure that we will still be able to commit updates to our old projects and we can't efford to put lots of time and effort in the conversion process.

I spent some time reading the user comments below the xCode update on the AppStore and read that the new Version deleted old projects. Of course we have a backup but this makes me uncertain if it's the right step.

Does anybody have experience how this works in a non personal environment? At home I'm running Mountain Lion and xCode converted small projects by itself. I'm just not sure about large scale projects...

Tipps what to consider when doing an upgrade:

Before you start

Take your time for a good backup! - You can regard data which is only
located on one harddrive as non existend.
Start with one system first and try out everything before doing the
major upgrade.

Installation

Consider it takes way more time than it does at home! The
MountainLion Download took >5 hours because of a symmetrical internet
connection. Installation time was ~1 hour (MacMini 2009 - 4Gigs Ram
1067). + xCode Downloadtime ~1hour
Before you install the new xCode make sure all your projects and your old xCode Dev Folder are
backupped.
When the installation routine asks you to delete your old xCode do so
(I didn't do it and now I have to manually assign each project to the
new xCode. I've to delete the old version manually too and it's a bit
more complicated if you have to do the research which files you are
allowed to delete and which not)
Then you have to download the different xCode
libraries. There goes at least 1 additional hour.

Time of the downloading- and installation process so far: ~8 hours. (Keep in mind we've a slow internet connection)

Projects

Copy your projects and don't run your conversion and tests on the
original.
When you open the project you'll probably receive lots of warnings.
Don't Panic!
When clicking on the "Validate Project Settings" warning xCode will suggest to convert your
project for you. I've done this for 3 iOs applications (Build Target:
4.3) now and it worked every single time. Let it create a snapshot for you. Just in case.
If your app has already been code signed you'll probably receive the
"Target Integrity" warning. In every single case it worked for me to
edit the path for the "entitlement.plist". (Just click the warning
and edit the path at "Code Signing Entitlements")

It may happen that you've to change the deployment-target. To do so
go to the Project Navigator (cmd + 1), click on your
project's name and then Summary. There you can edit your
Deployment Target.
If you get warnings on deprecated methods you should search
stackoverflow.com for your particular case. If it has to do with
NSURLConnection look here.

To be continued...


Macbook Pro 16 Thunderbolt ports dead/damaged twice after used with Samsung CJ89 43" monitor with USB-C I have a brand new 2019 MBP and I hooked it to a Samsung CJ89 43" monitor directly through USB-C. It worked for a while and then suddenly the built-in screen started flashing and then the connection to the monitor was lost. The laptop reboot itself and now all 4 of the thunderbolt ports are not charging anymore. What's worse is all above happened last week. So I took it to Apple store and got it repaired. Basically they replaced the logic board and Touch ID on the device.
Now, I plugged the replaired MBP to my monitor with the same USB-C cable which is the original one from Samsung come with the monitor. It worked for a while. But the nightmare happened again suddenly. I can hear the fan go wild and it alerted with message "USB ports disabled, unplug ...". All the 4 ports are not charging AGAIN!
I tried everything like reset SMC and NVRAM etc, none of them working. Very frustrated at the moment. I'm not sure where the problem is and how can I solve this? I booked in another Genius Bar appointment on Tuesday. However,  the thing is, even if it's replaced or repaired - again, I really can't tell what is causing the issue and I'm afraid of plugging it to the USB-C port on my Samsung monitor after that.
Need some help and advice please.

I know you’re frustration and you’re hoping against hope that it’s something simple, but the evidence is pointing to a defective monitor. Apple may decline warranty service for this second repair if plugging into the same monitor causes the same issue.
I answered a very related question regarding monitors and warranties.
Is it safe to connect external screen to MacBook via USB-C from the warranty perspective
In short, you should feel confident that plugging in your monitor, especially a known brand like Samsung is a safe procedure. However, if it’s found that the monitor is what is the cause, they may direct you to Samsung to cover the repair costs - and would legally be within their rights to do so. Samsung isn’t perfect, nor is Apple and it’s not unreasonable that Apple decline something that‘s not their fault.
I’m not a lawyer and this should not be construed as legal advice, just my opinion based on many years of this type of experience.
Bottom line is you may get it repaired or you may not.  But, if you do, before plugging it in for a 3rd time, it would be in your best interest to not plug you Mac into that monitor until you get it checked out.
In fact, as a DYI test, you can try a USB-C meter inline with another device (like a sacrificial Android tablet) and see what your power is being sent by the monitor. Anything cheap and you don’t mind losing. Anything but your Mac. If you see  more than 20V @ 5A and/or you fry the test device means  you’ve definitely got a problem with your monitor.
It’s highly unlikely Apple will fix this a third time


iPhone 6 and iPad picking up different location settings for search and ads iPad and iPhone think they're in a different country. All ads and searches default to Hong Kong.

I have checked my location setting on each device and they're set for Australia and I've cleared the history in Safari as suggested elsewhere but no change to the searches and ads. Help required.

Have you checked the DNS setting (in ios) for your wifi access point at home? Don't have access to my phone at the moment but I think it's Settings > WiFi > (your wifi) > advanced (look for the words DNS or URL somewhere)

Sometimes apps suggest putting in a custom url in there, and they essentially work as a proxy. Want to make sure to delete those if there's something in there. I suggest you try connecting at a coffee shop or a friend's wifi to see if the behavior changes. Make sure VPN is off/disabled too.

On a different tack, it could be how your router is configured, since you're saying the same thing is happening on two separate ios devices. Be good to get in the router and look around, or ask whoever manages the router.


Mission control el capitan desktop thumbnail I have recently moved from Snow Leopard to El Capitan, and there is something I'm missing currently and hope it is a gesture I don't know.

In Snow Leopard, when looking at all your desktop (Exposés and Spaces) it was possible to get what is actually Mission control, but on all the thumbnails of the other desktops.

In a quick view, it was then possible to expand all the windows of all the desktops. I don't know how to get that with El Capitan.

Thanks

You are looking for mission control by gestures ?

Settings -> Trackpad ->


How to prevent resetting a login password in single user mode or from a recovery partition? There are a few ways to reset the login password of an OS X user account:

Starting up in single user mode, running mount -uw /, launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist, and dscl . passwd /Users/username.
Starting up in single user mode, removing /var/db/.AppleSetupDone, restarting, creating a new admin account, and changing the password of another account from System Preferences.
Starting up from a recovery partition or installation media, opening Terminal, and running resetpassword.

Is there some way to prevent people with physical access to a Mac from using them?

It can be prevented. Boot up your mac with your Mac OS X install DVD, and after it has loaded, go to utilities and select Firmware Password Utility. Select the checkbox "Require Password to start this computer from another source" and type in a password.

This password will prevent people from:

Booting CD/DVDs
Booting into Single User Mode
Booting into another OS stored on another partition or disk

No. 2 is the one where people type commands in it to reset the setup data in which they can go through the setup procedure and set up a completely new administrator account.

However, the best way is to keep your mac with yourself. Anyone with root/administrator access can bypass this feature, by typing a few commands in the terminal. Keep your password secret and complex.

It is also worth mentioning that the EFI password is easily crackable. Some people had success with resetting the PRAM and gaining access, while others used exploits in the OS X system to gain root access and disabling the password using terminal commands. The way Apple encrypts is also very lax and you should make it very much different from your OS password.


Google enabled Chat on iPhone Does Google have an iPhone app that supports Googel Talk \ Gmail chat?

Google says:

  No need to download or install anything. Start chatting from your
  iPhone's browser at: http://www.google.com/talk

However for me that link doesn't give chat, but redirects to a help page...

Since this question was asked, Google released their Google Hangouts app which does exactly that.


What is the value of iCloud.com if 2FA requires your device? It would seem that the point of iCloud.com and its web apps is to provide access to your content on the go, when for whatever reason, you don’t have access to your device itself.

But if logging into the website requires you to first authenticate yourself with the device, then what is the point of the website?

Of course if you have your device handy — then you wouldn’t need the website...

How is this not a glaring oversight by Apple?

The first time you access a 2FA-protected iCloud account on any device you've chosen to use with 2FA, you must provide the correct credentials with that device to assure iCloud that it is indeed the device you've selected to receive 2FA authentication. You are then offered the choice of ignoring future requests for authentication on that device for some duration of time. Every so often, you must re-authenticate with the 2FA credentials to reassert your identity. Does this help?


Reliable shortcut for non-ASCII text insertion I occasionally use text strings such as ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Unfortunately, I don't have a ¯ or a ツ on my keyboard, so using such strings can be a bit of a pain, usually involving a web search and copy and paste. I'd prefer to have an easier way of typing these. Here's what I've tried so far:

Set up a text replacement in System Preferences.

Problem: It does nothing in several apps such as Discord and Firefox.

Set up an automator service running this AppleScript:
on run {input, parameters}

    tell application "System Events" to keystroke "¯\\_(ツ)_/¯"

end run

Problem: It outputs ¯\_(a)_/¯

Set up a different automator service which
1. Get Contents of Clipboard
2. Set Value of Variable "clipboard"
3. Get Specified Text "¯\_(ツ)_/¯"
4. Copy to Clipboard
5. Run AppleScript `tell application "System Events" to keystroke "v" using command down`
6. Get Value of Variable "clipboard"
7. Copy to Clipboard

Problem: Sometimes it does nothing, sometimes it pastes the original clipboard contents, sometimes it will actually paste ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Adding 0.2 second pauses both before and after step 5 did not fix the problem.

And with that, I've run out of straightforward, reasonably simple ideas that have a chance of having a return on investment somewhere in the vicinity of their cost. Web searches haven't really produced anything other than BetterTouchTool, which is a route I'd prefer not to take at this time.
Is there a reasonably simple, free, reliable, and legal method of doing what I want to do?
I'm running 10.14.6, on a Mac with a Touch Bar. Touch Bar only solutions are generally acceptable, though solutions that can work with or without the Touch Bar are preferable.

Use one of the several text shortcut apps that are out there in the world.
aText (https://www.trankynam.com/atext)
Typinator (https://www.ergonis.com/products/typinator/)
Just as a couple of examples.


Insert signature into threaded mail in mail.app When I get a threaded message in mail.app and want to insert my signature under my reply text, then the signature gets inserted at the bottom of the email content.

Is it possible to insert the mail signature just below the reply text I wrote?

Here's the setting you're looking for.  It will always put your sig above quoted text.

Mail -> Preferences, Signatures.


Math via Skype on a Mac? I find myself needing to explain math via Skype (to nephews, nieces in high-school or college, etc.) with increasing frequency, enough so that the clumsy approach of holding a pad of paper up to the camera is beginning to get irksome.

Typing out the math into the interface's text field, or anywhere else, I find even more irksome.

I would like to communicate the math, in real time, both by voice and by writing, sketching, etc.  Preferably I'd also like to be able to see the person I'm showing the math to.  With Skype I get the real-time voice and image communication.  I just need a way to add a handwritten channel somehow.

Can someone recommend a way to do it on a Mac?

Did you try the screen share?

It does require you typing, but not in the Skype field.

You could use excel or word to type, and then share your screen with others.

More details HOW to:

https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10022/how-do-i-share-my-screen-in-skype-for-mac-os-x

You will also need a digital sketch pad like the :

http://www.wacom.com/en/products/pen-tablets/bamboo/bamboo-connect#tabpane2


Macintosh HD can't be opened because the original file can't be found I'm getting the "Macintosh HD can't be opened because the original file can't be found" error when trying to open Macintosh HD from the sidebar of Finder.

Happening since I installed macOS High Sierra. (I'm using a 2010 MacBook Pro with 256GB SSD)

How do I fix that? How can I open that directory?

What happens when you click on the Macintosh HD icon on the Desktop?

Try dragging the Macintosh HD icon out from the sidebar, then drag the Macintosh HD icon from the Desktop into the sidebar to recreate it.


there used to be a full sized wireless keyboard? I am a programmer and find the small wireless keyboard hard to use (the small arrow keys and lack of home/end keys). From what I remember there used to be a full sized wireless keyboard, is this correct?

Yes, you can even still purchase it from vendors listed on this Google Shopping page. Unfortunately, that option will run you $120 plus whatever shipping they charge.

An alternative is purchasing it used off eBay, but I only found one listing for the full sized wireless Apple keyboard.


Disabling Schubert's PDF Browser plugin on Safari I use Safari and Firefox. To be able to view PDFs on Firefox on the fly, I use the Schubert's PDF viewer. But, I would like to block it from loading my PDFs on Safari. I like Safari's way of handling PDFs a bit more. How can I disable a particular plugin on Safari?

Thank you.

I found a workaround. Move Schubert's plugin file which is located in:

/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/PDF Browser Plugin.plugin

or

/Users/YOUR_NAME/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/PDF Browser Plugin.plugin

to

/Users/YOUR_NAME/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/YOUR_PROFILE_DIRECTORY/plugins/

If you don't have plugins directory - create it. That's all :)

For Opera users - they should move plugin file to:

Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Disabled Plug-Ins/

Firefox and Safari don't use plugins from this location, but Opera does :)


Do apps like GeekTool cause performance degradation? I started recently using GeekTool and I used some Geeklets for weather, date, and time, things that I had to let it refresh every two or three seconds.

Here is a screenshot of my desktop

I know (but I'm not sure) that this might cause the computer to run slower, but I would like to know if really does cause performance degradation on my Mac?

My experience is that Geektool can significantly affect performance on My Macbook Pro (early 2011 running Yosemite).

I've noticed that both Fans start to max out at 6000+ RPM and applications become sluggish. Geektool itself does not appear to be hogging CPU or memory but something related to it is. It's not the geeklets as they are only echoing out some text and running df -h every 5 seconds.

One thing I've noticed is that the WindowServer process seems to start eating a lot of cpu while Geektool is running. My hunch is that this is the problem - I use my Mac almost exclusively with a large external monitor attached.

So if you do experience performance lag, it may be the individual geeklets if they are doing anything intensive or some combination of Geektool + other applications which need to draw to the screen a lot. Try a search on this site for WindowServer too - there seem to be other people seeing issues with WindowServer causing performance problems on Yosemite.


How accurate are iOS apps that measure heart rate? There are apps like Instant Heart Rate and Cardiograph which claim to be able to measure heart rate by reading color changes on arterial pressure change. They generally require you to place your finger over the flash led and camera.

From my tests the values don't quite match rates measured traditionally (by feeling arterial pressure changes, counting them over 10 seconds and multiplying by 6) but I'm not a physician so I might be measuring incorrectly.

So, are these apps more precise than I can be or is it the other way around?

Very interesting question! I wasn't even aware that these kind of apps exist. In order to answer your question, I decided to put one of them to the test against a chest strap heart rate monitor. (I was using a Garmin brand chest monitor similar to this one.) I was using both heart rate monitors at the same time when I performed my tests and compared their values.

I tried out Instant Heart Rate Monitor, and it turns out that it is remarkably accurate... when it worked.

The main problem was that it only worked about 1 in 30 times. Every other time it would say it could either not detect a finger, or it started detecting the pulse, but then never finished the process.

When it did work, though, the results were surprisingly similar to my other heart rate monitor. After performing 5 (non-scientific) tests, it was off by an average of only 1.26%. Had it worked more consistently, I would have tried it out more than 5 times.

A few notes:

While it is beeping and gathering info, the heart rate it shows is usually way off from your actual heart rate. Sometimes it's almost exactly half your real heart rate.
The final heart rate it outputs is usually very close to your actual heart rate.

Therefore, you should only trust the last heart rate value it outputs (i.e. the average).


Finding files with square brackets in filename I have a ton of files - TOSEC ROM sets - on my Mac (El Capitan) that have filenames suffixed with a tag in square brackets - for example

Manic Miner (1983)(Bug-Byte Software)[a]
Manic Miner (1983)(Software Projects)[a]

I'd like to search for these files, with the aim of moving and/or deleting them.

If I try to search for the files using Spotlight:

... no files are found.

If I try searching for them via Terminal:

ls *[a]*.*

... I get a list of all the files in the directory.

What's the best way of finding all files with [a] in the filename, and moving and/or deleting them? Is there a way to encapsulate the [ and ] so a Spotlight search will work?

In Terminal, use \ to escape any character:

ls *\[a\]*


How do you remove fonts from the Favorite collection in the Fonts dialog? As titled. For example, if you bring up the Fonts dialog in Mail.app (⌘-T), and add a wrong font by accident to the Favorite collection (gear icon → Add to Favorites), how can you remove it?

Grab it in the list & drag it out to the desktop - like you would with an app in the dock, etc.

You should see the little puff of smoke & it's gone.


Where did the ~/Library folder go in Lion? I just installed Lion, and I can't find the Library folder in my user folder.

Does the folder no longer exist? If it doesn't, where are my preferences? If it does, how do I get to it?

The ~/Library folder still exists, but it is hidden. You can easily unhide it by running the following command in Terminal (/Applicatiions/Utilities):

chflags nohidden ~/Library

Note that you'll have to do this again after each 10.7.X update (credit to Vincent).

If you want to reveal it on a per-use basis, you can get in by holding down option and clicking on the Finder's Go menu.
Or, you can use Go-> Go to Folder and type in the path.
Or, you can open Terminal and type open ~/Library

The app Lion Tweaks gives you an easy GUI way to change this setting, as well as other hidden Lion preferences.


How do you start and stop the Spotlight server in Yosemite? There are many forums answering this question for previous versions of MAC OSX, but 10.10 doesn't seem to have the service 'com.apple.metadata.mds.plist' in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons. It has 3 others (com.apple.metadata.mds.index.plist, com.apple.metadata.mds.scan.plist and com.apple.metadata.mds.spindump.plist).

When I try any mdutil commands I get:

-07 08:55:25.673 mdutil[2360:239343] Metadata.framework [Error]: mdsCopyStorePaths failed: (268435459) (ipc/send) invalid destination port
Spotlight server is disabled.

I'm on 10.10, and I have this service.

$ ls -l /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata*
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   1.6K Jul 30 01:33 com.apple.metadata.mds.index.plist
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   1.6K Jul 30 01:33 com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   922B Jul 30 01:33 com.apple.metadata.mds.scan.plist
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   856B Jul 30 01:33 com.apple.metadata.mds.spindump.plist

The you can load/unload with this command:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist


Reverse sync PDF files from iPad I copied some PDF files from my Windows machine to my iPad via iTunes. I accidentally deleted one PDF from my PC and I would like to copy it back from my iPad. How to do it?

The problem is that the PDF is still listed in my iTunes "PDF" section although it is not physically in my hard drive anymore. It seems that the sync is done only from PC to iPad and not vice versa. If I try to sync the PDFs, I get an error saying that the PDF could not be copied because if was not found.

If I try to remove the PDF from my iTunes PDF collection, the iTunes will warn me that next time I sync, it is removed from my iPad as well.

I'd like to use the email approach from the answer from How to Transfer PDF from iPad to PC/Mac but I don't see any "share" button in my iBooks app.

Send the PDF by email in iBooks as following:

Open the PDF you want to transfer in iBooks app.
You will see in top of iBooks(left to right) 3 buttons:
Library, Index and Share Button.

Just click in Share Button(one of the buttons in the image below), and then "Email".

I hope this helps...


How can I tell if my friend is broadcasting their location from an iPad vers an iPhone? I wondered if there was a way to tell the device being used to broadcast a location in Find My Friends. As in, if someone switched over their location from iPhone to iPad to show that they were at one place and left their iPad there to broadcast the location but weren't actually there?

This is not possible to tell without physical access to one of the devices to look in the settings.


How do I enable/disable push notifications for an app on iOS 7? Apps will often ask to enable push notifications the first time they are run. However how do I change this setting after answering this? There doesn't seem to be a single thing in Settings about Push Notifications. The closest I can find is "Notification Center", but this just appears to customize how notifications appear, not whether push notifications are enabled or disabled for the app. This is a really confusing UI.

There is an "include" and a "do not include" section in Notification Center.

Tap "edit" at top right corner of the Notification Center. This allows you to drag apps around in the Notification Center.

Hold the app you want to stop push notifications from, by the lines on the right hand side to its name, and drag it into "do not include" section. It will automatically close all banner settings for the app, and voila! You are good to go.


Somebody with chinese username (hacker?) writes files into folder "users", what's going on? I'm the single user of my personal MacBook (macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 (17D102)), using it only inside my single apartment, not inside a network, not connected to anything beside my router, and a user called "Linchengzang" has created a user folder inside my filesystem and is writing Xcode files into it.

The user is not know to the system. I never used Xcode (but I am a developer), and I didn't install any software in the last few days, but these files and folders appered within the last few hours.

It's creepy that these files have suspicios names, all related to auth things.

Can somebody please give me a hint what is going on here ?

Big thanks!

I finally found the answer by myself and can reproduce the above scenario: The official wallet software of the cryptocurrency Bytecoin is creating this user and these files.

Not sure if this is legit or part of a scam :/


Why do apps in El Capitan open a new window when opening a file? Is this an El Capitan bug? I've noticed in more than one app, when I go to File --> Open, the app opens the file in a new window instead of in the existing window. For example, in TextEdit, if you open a new document, and then from that blank document open a saved document, TextEdit opens the saved document in a new window and leaves the original document open as a blank document. This happens in other apps too. I never saw this happen prior to El Capitan so I'm wondering if it's a bug or intentional for some unknown reason.

TextEdit has always operated this way.  Most applications do.


Listing order on App Store In App Store app, if I search for a word.  What does the returned listing order of apps base on?  Let's say, it returned app1, app2, app3, ..., app10.  What was the listing order based upon?

It is sorted by relevance by default, but you can change it in the upper right corner, by clicking relevance. The option are then

Relevance
Most popular
Release date
Customer rating


Black screen with cursor & black touchbar I have rebooted by MacBook Pro 2018 (with macOS Mojave installed). Everything went well: I was prompted for my account password and then the system started loading. Here start the bad things: control strip on the touchbar appeared and disappeared within a second, then I got a black screen with the arrow cursor on (NOTE during a few reboots I performed, I got to even see my wallpaper and the cursor). The touchbar has nothing on it (literally), the keyboard is still lit.

I've read a lot of things on line so here are the things I tried (without any luck):

Reset the SMC
Reset NVRAM
Boot into Recovery Mode:

run the First Aid from Disk Utility - no problems
reinstalled macOS Mojave (not a clean install, obviously); installation was successful but I still got the black screen

Boot into Safe Mode (here things start to get crazy - I explain below)
Boot into Single User Mode
I tried that thing found online with: when the screen is black, enter your password again and everything works miraculously - no luck

Safe Mode Boot

In the Safe Mode boot, I managed to get into the OS and even backup a few things to my iCloud drive. However the Touchbar was not displaying any of the system's control strip (no Escape, no brightness or volume controls on the right; when pressing Fn, the touchbar turns black), but application's touchbar buttons were there! (Google Chrome had its buttons, Finder as well etc.)

Single User Mode

I got to see the verbose boot output (really fast) but I was not taken to a Terminal; the OS asked for my account password in the graphical interface then got to the same black screen.

What can I do?

i was facing the same issue, added the root cause of my problem was system overload due to an application launching with every boot - for me the issue resolved with having to wait for about 30 minutes after black screen appears and letting the CPU takes it's time to load - then exiting the application.


How can I generate iOS/Flurry style icons in OS X? As some of you might know, the iOS treatment of app icons is ruthlessly strict. It forces a certain roundness of the corners and allows no transparency, hence enforcing a unified look. I think that's nice.

I recently fell in love with Iconfactory's Flurry icon set and making new icons in that style made me think; what's the easiest way of applying a mask and an overlay on a custom image, and generate all sizes needed for a complete OS X icon file (icns)?

As mentioned below I'm not looking for technical explainations of how iOS generates its icons, nor a system wide solution for generating icons on the fly. Just what's mentioned in bold above. I'm also aware of the IconBuilder approach and although it's a great tool, it's not what I'm asking for. I'd prefer a drag-and-drop interface of some sort.

Perhaps if someone wrote a hack (but I remain skeptical as all this could be easily done by getting the icon's template (PSD file) and doing it manually.

iOS has a framework in place to deal with SpringBoard icons. The files are as follows (naming convention taken from iOS 5. Previous iOS versions drop the ~iphone suffix):

AppIconMask@2x~iphone.png
AppIconOverlay@2x~iphone.png
AppIconShadow@2x~iphone.png

(1) is the clipping mask, that dictates the shape of the icon. (2) is the "gloss" effect that has somewhat fallen out of favor in the past couple of years and is optional. (3) is the base of the icon, the shadow that is applied under the final product.

I made a graphic and accompanying explanation of how they all work together on my website which should help better explain how iOS delivers icons on its respective device.

OS X has no such system in place. Each icon is simply constrained by the dimensions set in Finder. Apple never sought to control the way icons look on OS X, but wanted to have a uniform appearance on iOS (and I don't blame them), hence the reason why they developed such a framework.

You could try contacting a Cocoa developer on porting the MobileIcons.framework from iOS to OS X, but again, because Finder can adjust sizes (in Lion, anywhere from 1024x1024 on down), I remain skeptical that it at all possible.


What does a .dmg verify? Whenever I open a .dmg, my computer says that it is Verifying… for a moment.  I'm just curious as to what it is doing at this time.  Is it running a checksum, checking if it is the same as the online version, etc.?

In most cases, your computer is just doing a checksum, to make sure the Apple Disk Image, .dmg, hasn't been corrupted due to a flakey network connection or hard drive, or from bit-rot, etc. This can let you know about a problem early on, so you don't waste time troubleshooting a bad copy of an app.

Developers also have the ability to codesign .dmg's (thanks @graham-miln), in which case, this signature will also be verified.


How do I back up my iPhone contacts to iTunes over USB? How do I back up my iPhone contacts to iTunes over USB?

I followed the standard procedure and my contacts were wiped out on my iPhone so I am scared about backing them up.

Connect your iPhone to your computer. Open iTunes and select your iPhone in the sidebar on the left. Select the Info tab and choose from one of the available options based on your operating system.


Unattended installation of pkg file Is there any possibility to create a unattended installation of an pkg package?

E.g. creating a mpkg and running a script which installed the package via console and installer.

Background:
I had to deploy a package to many osx enduser. We have no apple desktop and no root access to these machines. these is an preconfigured pkg package, but if the user launch it in normal way, the pre configuration will be overwritten.
On windows I realize this with an selfexecutable archive which launches an msi with silent installation. On linux I build rpm/deb packages but on osx I didn't find any proper way :(

Short Answer: yes.

Long Answer: Yes, but…a full answer to this question includes a technical answer and a practical concern.

First, the technical answer

You can install a .pkg or .mpkg using this syntax:

sudo installer -verboseR -pkg "/path/to/pkg/foo.mpkg"

If the installer isn't 'signed' properly, you'll need to add -allowUntrusted

sudo installer -allowUntrusted -verboseR -pkg "/path/to/pkg/foo.mpkg"

You may also need to specify where you want it installed, using -target / (I'm not 100% certain this is required, but it's a good idea):

sudo installer -allowUntrusted -verboseR -pkg "/path/to/pkg/foo.mpkg" -target /

Now, the problem is that sudo is going to ask you for your administrator password when you try to run installer. If you want to automate this, you need to tell your Mac not to require your sudo password when running the installer. To do that, you can add this line to your /etc/sudoers file:

%admin ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/installer

See man visudo for instructions on editing that file.

Second, the practical concern

If you are the only person who uses your Mac, adding the above line to /etc/sudoers is not a big deal.

However, if this is a shared Mac, then other people who are in the 'admin' group will be able to run /usr/sbin/installer without being prompted for their password.

Also, obviously if someone gets into your 'admin' account, they too could, theoretically, cause mischief with /usr/sbin/installer. Although I am at a loss to think of exactly what they would do, it's a trade-off of security versus convenience.

Third, a github script

I wrote pkginstall.sh to do some nice things like log the process, as well as tell you whether or not you are supposed to reboot after installing the package.

Last but not least: Automate "how?"

As far as how you want to automate the installation, that depends on more specifics of what you are trying to do. You could, for example, make a folder such as ~/Action/AutoInstallPKG/ and tell launchd to install any .pkg or .mpkg files that are added to that folder, and then move it aside afterwards.

I have been meaning to do something like this for a long time, and so I finally put it together. You can find it at https://github.com/tjluoma/autopkginstall. Installation instructions are included at Github, so I won't repeat them here.


Do a consumable iOS product REQUIRE restore functionality? I am developing a game, and I want to submit it to the AppStore, but I don't know if this will be a cause for rejection:

Say a player can buy 100x arrows for 0.99$. Do I have to provide the user the ability to restore the unused arrows in order to not be rejected by the AppStore?

I really don't want to use a server to store the number of arrows the player has, as that would be off the budget.

No.

In the requirements and guidelines for App Store Review (shown below) it does not say anything about a return mechanism. It does however say "you should make sure you have a restore mechanism for any restorable in-app purchases." What this means is explained here.

App Store In App Purchases guidelines:

  3.1.1 In-App Purchase:

  If you want to unlock features or functionality within your app, (by way of example: subscriptions, in-game currencies, game levels, access
  to premium content, or unlocking a full version), you must use in-app
  purchase. Apps may not use their own mechanisms to unlock content or
  functionality, such as license keys, augmented reality markers, QR
  codes, etc. Apps and their metadata may not include buttons, external
  links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing
  mechanisms other than in-app purchase.
  Apps may use in-app purchase currencies to enable customers to “tip” digital content providers in the app.
  Any credits or in-game currencies purchased via in-app purchase may not expire, and you should make sure you have a restore mechanism
  for any restorable in-app purchases.
  Remember to assign the correct purchasability type or your app will be rejected.
  Apps should not directly or indirectly enable gifting of in-app purchase content, features, or consumable items to others.
  Apps distributed via the Mac App Store may host plug-ins or extensions that are enabled with mechanisms other than the App Store.
  Apps offering “loot boxes” or other mechanisms that provide randomized
  virtual items for purchase must disclose the odds of receiving each
  type of item to customers prior to purchase.
  Non-subscription apps may offer a free time-based trial period before presenting a full unlock option by setting up a Non-Consumable
  IAP item at Price Tier 0 that follows the naming convention: “XX-day
  Trial.” Prior to the start of the trial, your app must clearly
  identify its duration, the content or services that will no longer be
  accessible when the trial ends, and any downstream charges the user
  would need to pay for full functionality. Learn more about managing
  content access and the duration of the trial period using Receipts and
  Device Check.

This line basically means

  if you delete the app, move to a new phone, whatever, your purchases
  will no longer be available on that device. Restore Purchases asks
  iTunes what of the available in-app purchases you've paid for.

It does say "should" which you could imply to mean that it is not forced but highly suggested.


Is There a Wired Mouse or Track Ball That Supports Gestures in OSX? I wanted to find out if there was a wired alternative to Apple's Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad that also supports the gestures built into OS-X Yosemite, at the very least the ones supported by a Magic Mouse.
I realize that one alternative is just stick with the wireless Magic Mouse and go with a Mobee Magic Charger for Apple Magic Mouse, but the reviews on the Apple Store have been mixed and I was wondering if anyone is using a wired device that gives them the ability to use OS-X gestures?
Update
Well searches of all the major sites, Apple, Amazon, B&H, MacLife, MacWorld, etc. has not yielded an answer on a wired mouse or trackball that support OS-X gestures. I figured I would bump this once to see if maybe I missed something, or if there is a designer out there who wants to go in on the deal to make one. ☺
Thank you.

Okay, so I found out that there is one option that kind of supports Apple's Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad gestures.

The Wacom Bamboo Pad allows you to control your Mac with touch gestures and comes in a wired, USB model.

If anyone finds another solution, please post it, because I was really looking for a wired mouse that can do this and would appreciate the input.

Thanks again,


iPad 2 3G plan cost (att & Verizon) Is there any website comparing 3G plan for both carriers? Like application fee, monthly fee (including different data usage limit), termination fee.

Macworld has a chart with a lot of that info here http://www.macworld.com/article/158361/2011/03/compare_ipad_data_plans.html

They also note (for your pre/post paid question):

  That means that you can sign up for a month, cancel the plan afterwards, and then sign up for a separate month at some point in the future. However, while AT&T now offers both prepaid and postpaid options for data plans, Verizon only allows you to pay for data upfront.

As far as termination fee, neither are charging activation it looks like either (in the US). So you don't have to terminate it like a normal phone/data plan, you just pay for it the months you use it.


Whole system backup boot-camp included I have access to a 1TB drive.
I need to backup the MacBook which I have access to, which has a version of Windows on it via Bootcamp.

I have learned that Time Machine does not keep track of windows partitions.

How can I do a whole-systems backup of the device, bootcamp partitions included?

I would use winclone to back up the windows separate from the Mac.

Backing up a Boot Camp partition

The reasons are for file system differences and the simple fact that you have to back up the entire terabyte each time if you just image the drive using disk utility.

But you can also image the whole drive with disk utility - block by block - and have an image of it.  That’s free and included with macOS.


Retina compatible Word Processor? Microsoft Office for Mac does not have Retina support, which is a pain to look at while working on documents.
Is there a similar application that delivers the same efficiency and experience as Microsoft Word that has Retina support ?

Just use Pages from Apple instead.

It can also work with .doc(x) files and does even have a better experience. Your can get it through the Mac AppStore. There is also an Excel replacement called Numbers and a Powerpoint replacement called Keynote, all toghether called iWork.

By the way: Microsoft Office for Mac won't become retina ready. At least not the current version.


Problem updating iPod Touch to iOS 5 Using iTunes to upgrade the OS on a 4th generation iPod Touch, the update downloads but when it attempts to install it the process fails with the following message:

  The iPod "iPod Touch (4G)" could not be restored. An internal error occurred.

Any ideas what might cause this and how to avoid it?

It is server overload. Either keep trying or wait till the traffic dies down a little.

You can read more about it in this post.


Unlock MacOs with fingertips doesn't work on Big Sur I'm trying to unlock my Mac with Touch ID. During the initialisation process, I configured my fingertip correctly but when I try to unlock my Mac it doesn't detect it.
If I go in "System Preferences" under the menu "Touch ID" this is what I see:

Then I decided to check the "Unlocking your Mac" option, I fill the password but if I open "Touch ID" for the second time "Unlocking your Mac" is still unchecked.
Why? What can I do?

This has recently happened to my sister's Macbook Air 2019. The solution for me was resetting the SMC. To do so in a T2 equipped Mac device:

Shutdown your Macbook.
Press and hold the power button for 10 seconds.
Wait a few seconds and power on your macbook again.

Reference: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201295


Touch ID Unavailable After Sleep MacBook Pro I am using a 2016 MacBook Pro 15" (Model A1707). Whenever I put my computer on sleep, then wake it up, I find that I cannot use Touch ID to unlock my computer. The screenshot below shows the screen when I wake up the computer. How can I enable Touch ID after my computer is asleep? Thanks!


What's the meanings of the Routing tables' data in the Mac OS? I use netstat to check the routing tables:

$ netstat -rn
Routing tables

Internet:
Destination        Gateway            Flags        Refs      Use   Netif Expire
default            10.10.10.1         UGSc           20       16     en0
10.10.10/24        link#4             UCS             1        0     en0
10.10.10.1/32      link#4             UCS             1        0     en0
10.10.10.1         bc:67:1c:40:3:f6   UHLWIir        21       14     en0   1193
10.10.10.104/32    link#4             UCS             0        0     en0
10.10.10.107       a8:6b:ad:6b:c4:a5  UHLWI           0        0     en0    820
127                127.0.0.1          UCS             0        0     lo0
127.0.0.1          127.0.0.1          UH             54  2734893     lo0
169.254            link#4             UCS             0        0     en0
172.16.111/24      link#11            UC              1        0  vmnet1
192.168.220        link#12            UC              1        0  vmnet8
224.0.0/4          link#4             UmCS            2        0     en0
224.0.0.251        1:0:5e:0:0:fb      UHmLWI          0        0     en0
239.255.255.250    1:0:5e:7f:ff:fa    UHmLWI          0      784     en0
255.255.255.255/32 link#4             UCS             0        0     en0

But I have several questions about this:

I do not understand the Flags, Refs, Use and Expire's meaning.
You see the 10.10.10.1         bc:67:1c:40:3:f6, so does this mean the IPv4 can divert to IPv6 address directly?
Whats the link#4 and link#12 meaning in the Gateway field?
What's the Expire field meaning?

This answer is a quick summary of what the fields mean in the routing table display of netstat.  You can find all this information directly from the netstat  man page (man netstat) or for an excellent primer, see FreeBSD's Handbook Chapter 31.2 - Gateways and Routes. (Apple's netstat is derived from the BSD version).
Flags
The flags field shows a collection of information about the route stored as binary choices. Following is extracted directly from the man page.
 1       RTF_PROTO1       Protocol specific routing flag #1
 2       RTF_PROTO2       Protocol specific routing flag #2
 3       RTF_PROTO3       Protocol specific routing flag #3
 B       RTF_BLACKHOLE    Just discard packets (during updates)
 b       RTF_BROADCAST    The route represents a broadcast address
 C       RTF_CLONING      Generate new routes on use
 c       RTF_PRCLONING    Protocol-specified generate new routes on use
 D       RTF_DYNAMIC      Created dynamically (by redirect)
 G       RTF_GATEWAY      Destination requires forwarding by intermediary
 H       RTF_HOST         Host entry (net otherwise)
 I       RTF_IFSCOPE      Route is associated with an interface scope
 i       RTF_IFREF        Route is holding a reference to the interface
 L       RTF_LLINFO       Valid protocol to link address translation
 M       RTF_MODIFIED     Modified dynamically (by redirect)
 m       RTF_MULTICAST    The route represents a multicast address
 R       RTF_REJECT       Host or net unreachable
 r       RTF_ROUTER       Host is a default router
 S       RTF_STATIC       Manually added
 U       RTF_UP           Route usable
 W       RTF_WASCLONED    Route was generated as a result of cloning
 X       RTF_XRESOLVE     External daemon translates proto to link address
 Y       RTF_PROXY        Proxying; cloned routes will not be scoped

So, looking at the first entry, the flags are UGSc meaning

U:  RTF_UP - Route usable
G:  RTF_GATEWAY - Destination requires forwarding by intermediary
S:  RTF_STATIC - Route added manually
c:  RTF_PRCLONING - Protocol-specified generate new routes on use

Refs, Use, & Expire
The refcnt field gives the current number of active uses of the route.  Connection oriented protocols normally hold on to a single route for the duration of a connection while connectionless protocols obtain a route while sending to the same destination.  The use field provides a count of the number of packets sent using that route.
Expire is a timeout - a period in which the host doesn't respond to that route.
MAC Address and Hardware Devices
The HEX address that you're seeing for the 10.1.0.10.1/32 network (bc:67:1c:40:3:f6) is a MAC address, not a IPV6 address.

A MAC address is a 48-bit identifier specific to  the hardware written in MM:MM:MM:SS:SS:SS  The first three bytes (MM:MM:MM) identifies (assigned to) the hardware manufacturer and the second three bytes (SS:SS:SS) is assigned to the device by the manufacturer.

An IPV6 address is a 106-bit hexadecimal identifier written as 8 hexidecimal numbers separated by colons:  Example:  2001:0000:3238:DFE1:0063:0000:0000:FEFB

The link#4 and link#12 refer to the network device (i.e. Ethernet Adapter, WiFi Adapter, VPN adapter, etc.).


Lion: background of the login screen I just updated to Lion and I'm wondering why the background of the locked screen (login screen) seem to be different everytime I look at it: it is either the grey texture, the default desktop background or a plain black background.

Why isn't it the same background all the time ?

If you are logging in fresh, it is grey linen.

If you are waking from sleep or display sleep without a screen saver enabled, it is the desktop background.

If you are waking from a screen saver, it is the screen saver itself.

Finally, if you are waking from display sleep or sleep after a screen saver has been ended by display sleep or sleep, it is a black background.

There does not appear to be a way to change this, but keep your eye on apps like Secrets.  If anyone's going to figure it out, it's them.


How can I copy data from an external HDD that is about to fail? I have an external HDD that is about to fail. I want to copy as much as I can to a new external HDD before it completely dies. I've been able to start copying files for a few minutes before the drive starts turning off and on repeatedly and clicking.

Is there a (preferably free) Mac application that can copy files off an about-to-fail hard drive, handle the drive suddenly disappearing, and continue where it left off when the drive is reconnected?

Or do you have any other tips that might help? I've heard rumours about putting a drive in the freezer. Do you think that might help, or is it more likely to kill the drive?

I would try using rsync from the command line.

rsync -av --ignore-errors /Volumes/failingDrive/ /Volumes/brandNewDrive

should do the trick. Mind the trailing / at the end of the source. Rsync will not copy files it finds on the destination, so if you call it a second time it will continue where it left off.


How do I turn off OS X function key usage? When I'm remote desktopped into other machines or using web browsers that have apps requiring function key usage, my Mac steals the keys instead...  I'll hit shift F1 to try to perform an app function, but instead my speakers turn off.  How can I disable OS X stealing function key presses meant for applications?

One thing I did not think of, this is a Razer keyboard, so their software may interfere with normal usage.  In this case though, if I put the keyboard into "Game" mode, function keys turn into normal function keys again.  I can then also map my volume controls to the macro keys and not lose that function either!


Seemingly random apps have a slash through their icons My Mac hung overnight and was in a bad enough place that I had to power cycle it this morning. When it came back up, I logged in and found that a number of the apps in my dock had a slash through their icons. When I tried to launch them, a dialog came up informing me that they could not be run on my Mac.

I logged in as a different user, and these same apps worked fine. I also tried deleting and reinstalling some of them, and those apps were fine thereafter. However, some of the affected apps are stock applications that come with the OS (e.g. Terminal.app), so that's not a great solution.

Launching the apps from the command line works fine. I also found that zipping up the app package, deleting the original, and unzipping the copy seemed to get things working again.

My suspicion is that the Finder or another component has cached information about these apps, and that the cache has been corrupted. This would explain why things are fine for other users on the system. However, I don't know where that information might be stored. I've tried deleting the Finder preferences and the entire contents of ~/Library/Application Support/Caches to no avail.

Is there an easy way to get my account back to a good state, or am I stuck with manually fixing each app one at a time?

Update: Further testing has revealed that zipping and unzipping affected applications is not 100% reliable.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  Furthermore, sometimes merely moving/renaming an application is sufficient to get it back to normal, but sometimes that has no effect, either.  This only makes me more interested in finding a real solution.

If it is a cache problem then I would suggest running AppleJack to clear caches and fix permissions.

It's a wonder of a tool. It would be my first step.


Disable iCloud Backup without deleting existing backup? I want to disable further iCloud backups from one of my devices, but I don't want to delete the existing backup files already in iCloud. I couldn't find any way to archive iCloud backups the way you can do with iTunes backups, so the only way to prevent an existing backup from being deleted seems to be to not make a new one.

Some context [Taken from comments]

I recently updated to iOS 10, but don't much care for it. I do have a full iTunes backup of the device, but it's rather old. I also have an iCloud backup from immediately before the upgrade (I wasn't thinking straight). I plan to make an iOS 10 iTunes backup, then restore the iOS 9 iTunes backup, restore the iCloud backup to get my up-to-date data, then make a new iOS 9 backup. Then I'm in a better position to play around with iOS 10 if I decide to. I don't have time to do that right now, though, and I don't want my iOS 9 iCloud data to be overwritten in the meantime, since you can't restore iCloud backup data onto an older OS version.

My device is currently running iOS 10.2.1. Is what I want to do actually possible?

If you turn off iCloud Backup on your iPhone, the iCloud Backup isn't deleted from your account immediately.

The Backup does get "abandoned" some time after it stops receiving updates, I think it's like 6 months... but you should call up a AppleCare rep to confirm what time frame it is, I never found out how long, just that it is months afterward the backups stop from that device


Not enough storage space to update iPad mini I don't have enough storage space to update my iPad mini  from iOS 7 to iOS 9. As advised I have linked to MacBook Pro through Bluetooth but cannot see what the next step should be. I have little IT knowledge so answers need to be idiot proof.

Since iOS 9 is smaller in file size than iOS 7, you can just delete a few songs or podcasts or apps, whatever is taking up space, then install iOS 9, then re-download whatever you deleted. This can be a bit faster than restoring from backup, although it is still a good idea to back up your iPad!


I want to change the country on my app store account and I am having some problems? Possible Duplicate:
  Do I need to repurchase apps if I moved countries?

So I wanted to change the country on my app store account but I was told that all of the purchases made in that region will be blocked and won't work so I wanted to make a new app store account but I need to know if I won't get all of my other apps blocked when I log into this account or when I create it. So lets call my current country on the account A and what I want to change it to is B. If I made a new account and logged into the account for country B, will it be the appstore of that country? And if so then when I want to log back to my account on country A will I be able to do it just by signing out and then in again?

First you create an account for country B (the easiest way to do this is to create the account in the iTunes Store on your computer). Then when you log in to the account for country B, you will be redirected to the App Store of country B. While you're logged in to the account for country B you will still be able to use apps, music, books, etc. you purchased with the account for country A. When you want to go back to the App Store or iTunes Store of country A, you just need to log out en log in again with your account for country A.

So the short answers to you questions are:

Yes.
Yes.