What is sh in the accessibility permissions in Catalina? Not sure what this is, but I upgraded from High Sierra and it asked me to enable it.  This isn't on my Macbook Pro running Catalina.

How can I tell if this is needed?

You don’t need it so remove all things there you don’t positively trust and know you need. Then, wait for a dialog to pop up asking again for permissions so you can scrutinize what and why you’re giving up control of your Mac.
In this case, the sh process can run all sorts of scripts so it’s like putting a wedge in the door, anyone that uses the wedge can now get in. You’ll only know they used the wedge and not which script or program invoked the wedge.

Accessibility
Shows apps that run scripts and system commands to control your Mac. Deselect the app if you want to prevent it from controlling your Mac.

https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/mac-help/mh32356/10.14/mac/10.14.5
>>> which sh
/bin/sh

>>> man sh
...
 bash - GNU Bourne-Again SHell
...
Bash  is  an  sh-compatible  command language interpreter that executes
       commands read from the standard input or from a file.  Bash also incor-
       porates useful features from the Korn and C shells (ksh and csh).

       Bash  is  intended  to  be a conformant implementation of the Shell and
       Utilities portion  of  the  IEEE  POSIX  specification  (IEEE  Standard
       1003.1).  Bash can be configured to be POSIX-conformant by default.


Why can't I download apps on my iPhone 6s I just got an iPhone 6s and I'm having trouble downloading apps. It keeps asking me to set up three security questions and when I do it says that it's downloading but then it asks me to set up security questions again, and if I say cancel then it stops downloading the app. I just keep going in circles which is quiet annoying. What can I do about this?

Sounds like this may be an issue with your AppleID. You do have an AppleID already? If not create one, you don't have to use an iCloud.com email address you can use whatever you currently use as your AppleID.

I would log into iCloud.com and check your account settings, security and most importantly, the security questions. Maybe even change your password. Once that is done, sign out of iCloud on your iPhone and sign back in with your new credentials.

Once you have signed in again, try downloading an app. It will likely ask you for a password but should not prompt for anything else.


Is it possible to read iBooks without an iOS device? I no longer have an iPhone or iPad, but still have books in my iTunes account that I would like to read. Is there a program for OS X that will allow me to read iBooks without an iOS device?

I am familiar with calibre, but the main issue here is the DRM.

OS X 10.9 Mavericks includes an iBooks app that allows you to read any documents - including purchased books or your own pdfs - that you had in iBooks for iOS.

Mavericks is a free upgrade available for the following systems, and was released on 22 October, 2013 through the Mac App Store.

From OS X Mavericks : System Requirements

  To install Mavericks, you need one of these Macs:

  iMac (Mid-2007 or later) MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008),
  (13-inch, Early 2009 or later) MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or
  later), MacBook Pro (15-inch or 17-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later)
  MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later) Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later) Mac
  Pro (Early 2008 or later) Xserve (Early 2009)  Your Mac also needs:

  OS X Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard v10.6.8 already installed 2
  GB or more of memory 8 GB or more of available space


GCC 4.7 (via brew) keeps including from "/usr/include/c++/4.2.1" This one is driving me crazy:

I need to use lot of stuff which simply does not compile with the standard clang/llvm compilers which come with Xcode 5 (on Mac OS X 10.8), so I decided to install gcc47 via brew.

Everything went fine but when I try to compile things, I get several error messages and I discovered that some includes are still coming from "/usr/include/c++/4.2.1", which is really weird.

Can anyone explain me how to set it up in a clean way?

These are the step I was doing:

brew update
brew install gcc47
alias gcc='gcc-4.7'

brew warned me that I have to set up LDFLAGS and CPPFLAGS, quoting (summarised):

  This formulas are keg-only: so they were not symlinked into /usr/local.

    Conflicts with gmp, mpfr, libmpc, ppl in main repository.

    Generally there are no consequences of this for you. If you build your
    own software and it requires these formulas, you'll need to add to your
    build variables:
        LDFLAGS:  -L/usr/local/opt/gmp4/lib
        CPPFLAGS: -I/usr/local/opt/gmp4/include

        LDFLAGS:  -L/usr/local/opt/mpfr2/lib
        CPPFLAGS: -I/usr/local/opt/mpfr2/include

        LDFLAGS:  -L/usr/local/opt/libmpc08/lib
        CPPFLAGS: -I/usr/local/opt/libmpc08/include

        LDFLAGS:  -L/usr/local/opt/ppl011/lib
        CPPFLAGS: -I/usr/local/opt/ppl011/include

        LDFLAGS:  -L/usr/local/opt/cloog-ppl015/lib
        CPPFLAGS: -I/usr/local/opt/cloog-ppl015/include

So exporting LDFLAGS and CPPFLAGS via

        export LDFLAGS="${LDFLAGS} -L/usr/local/opt/gmp4/lib -L/usr/local/opt/mpfr2/lib -L/usr/local/opt/libmpc08/lib -L/usr/local/opt/ppl011/lib -L/usr/local/opt/cloog-ppl015/lib"

        export CPPFLAGS="${CPPFLAGS} -I/usr/local/opt/gmp4/include -I/usr/local/opt/mpfr2/include -I/usr/local/opt/libmpc08/include -I/usr/local/opt/ppl011/include -I/usr/local/opt/cloog-ppl015/include"

should do the trick (I thought).

But it doesn't. I keep getting messages like:

  /usr/include/c++/4.2.1/bits/stl_vector.h:600:7: note: must qualify
  identifier to find this declaration in dependent base class
        push_back(const value_type& __x)
        ^

and I simply don't understand why?

that note just refers to the 4 libraries gmp, mpfr, libmpc, ppl and I think means that if you use these they need to be before the standard search path.

Your issue is where is the compiler looking for standard library headers (and later libraries). gcc defaults to /usr/include which is installed for Apple's compilers and that gets redirected by version to the path you see.

You need to explicitly set the paths to look in the hombrew compilers path first


Installing Ubuntu via Boot Camp on 1st gen Macbook running Lion Does anyone know if it's possible to install Ubuntu via bootcamp on a first gen Macbook running Lion? I'd prefer not to use Parallels/VMware due to the fact that it's only got 1GB of RAM in it and I'd prefer not to upgrade it.

Boot Camp steps

Download Windows drivers for your Mac.
Partition your hard drive to make space for Windows.
Sets your Mac to default boot into Windows after installation.

None of these options will help you  with your Ubuntu installation except for the partitioning. But this can also be done using Disk Utility. Therefore, I recommend using Disk Utility to change your partition scheme. This will also take care moving your Recovery HD partition (which GParted on the LiveCD will not do that easily).
Easiest Ubuntu Install

Using Disk Utility, add a second "partition" and make that free space.
During the Ubuntu installation process choose to install Ubuntu next to the Mac OS. This will also automatically partition the free space for your needs.
Install rEFIt to sync the partition tables.

Further options

creating a file exchange partition for Ubuntu and MacOSX
manually formatting the free space using the LiveCD in order to create a separate /home directory


Repeat on iOS 8.4 music app? Where is the repeat button on a song for iOS 8.4 music app? Help!

When playing a song, tap on the Miniplayer (the bar above the Music app button selections, it shows your song title and artist, etc., it changes per song) to bring up the full song player. Once you are in the full song view, you will have access to the shuffle and repeat buttons.


External display only shows background When I plugged my MacBook Air running Lion into a projector today the projector only displayed the desktop background.  I could swipe between desktops, but it still only displayed the background (this was particularly weird for the dashboard where it showed the dashboard background but not the widgets).  When I opened system preferences that window displayed, but nothing else.  Any idea what happened or how I can fix it if it happens again?

Have you tried running the mouse over to the left/right corners of your MBA screen? It should jump onto the projector screen - I think Lion is default for ext. screen to be on the left.

You should be able to drag any app then over to the screen in the same way the mouse passed across.

Where the big screen is compared to the little screen can be configured in System Preferences > Display > Alignment.


Magic Mouse disconnects randomly Sometimes, my Magic Mouse suddenly disconnects. It has a strong battery level, so I know it isn't that. Anyone have any ideas what might be causing this?

As stated in the other answers there are numerous reasons to this. I have experienced 2.

Problems with the bluetooth antenna/signal

One of my Mac minis would drop the magic mouse, the keyboard and bluetooth headset regularly. I solved the problem by removing the antenna and putting it back (a few tries were necessary to get a stable connection).

On My macbook it seems the magic mouse and another bluetooth mouse seem to disconnect when the mouse is held in hand (hand covering the mouse) very close to the right side of the screen. It looks like there is a dark spot on the bluetooth antenna which prevents it from picking signal from devices positioned in particular places next to the computer.

My bluetooth headset loses the connection (drops some sound) when I stand next to the computer with my head and body between the computer and the right ear cup.

So you should check if you don't have a similar dark spot next to your computer. Or if the disconnections are not happening (more often) in particular situations which could impact the signal.

Batteries

Some batteries will start having problems with the contact, when oxidation occurs all you have to do is turn quickly the batteries in the mouse to remove the oxidation... If it's not enough you can try scratching the parts which are touching the mouse's contacts and the mouse's contacts with something metallic to remove any traces of oxidation.

Also tapping the mouse on the desk will increase the chances of batteries moving and shifting position just so slightly that they might be touching the connectors with a dirtier part.

Mismatched rechargeable batteries seem to create problems. Using two batteries both from the same brand but with different recharge cycles seems to trigger disconnections of my Razer mouse.

This answer also has a good explanation about how the battery level is calculated. It also states that some "cheap" batteries will discharge differently and will not be able to properly power the mouse after a short period of time:

  ...they can't supply the sudden bursts of power the radio in the mouse requires, so some transmissions are lost...

Other

One other major problem you might experience is interferences. You will want to have a look at this list of sources.


Hide page numbers of table of contents in Pages? Is it possible to hide page numbers in the Table of Contents, either for sub-headings or for the whole table?

Found the option under the "Text" tab, when the TOC section is selected:


User can't login to AD bound Mac I have several Macs bound to a Windows domain with AD. The users login to the Macs with their Windows credentials and so far it has worked fine. Last week we changed the password policy so that password lifetime is now reduced. Since then two users (out of 100-something) have problems logging in to the Macs. One user keeps getting keychain-messages about Keychain not being able to access this and that (have updated the keychain-login). The other user can't log in at all. She keeps getting refused as if she had typed a bad password or username. She uses the same credentials on the PCs as she is using on the Macs, but the Macs just won't let her in. Does anyone have any ideas to solve this problem?

My 5c from my AD experience long ago...

Let me guess: the user which can't get in at all has changed her password on Windows due to the new password policy. And she tries to login to the Mac with her new password and that doesn't work.

For me, this sounds to me that this is a problem of an authentication cache or AD replication problem. To verify this, could you ask her to try the login on the Mac with her old password? If that is the case, her changed PW has not been synched to the Mac bound AD.

How is the Mac configured? Did you attach it to a specific AD? Could you check this AD server in the event log for replication or quorum errors or for login errors of this particular user? Any hints from the Mac logfiles pointing to an authentication error?

Next idea would be to check her password, if she uses special chars which are on a Mac's forbidden character list (Colon etc.) But this is just a wild guess. You could try this by manually setting her PW as administrator on the AD server to some trivial stuff and let her try the login again.


What about the Apps that I bought on the App Store when I buy a new iPod? Will the App be synched when I connect my new iPod on my Mac ?
Do I have to do something special before selling my old iPod ?

At the very least, make sure you sync your old one to your Mac before you sell it. When you sync, it should copy purchased items from your iPod to your Mac.

If you have time, back up your iPod: Connect it to iTunes, then right-click (or control-click) and select Back Up. You can then restore your new iPod from that backup. This will restore your mail accounts, sync settings and app data to the new iPod. It will not restore the correct locations of your apps or home screen folder contents.


Change title given to Reading List article I often use Safari's Reading List functionality to save links to pdf documents from the arXiv.  The URL for the particular paper -- and hence the title given in the Reading List -- is not very informative:

Is there a way to change the title of the item in the Reading List?  Perhaps there is some file that stores metadata for this item?

As far as I know, there’s no way to do it directly through the GUI, but there is a file you can edit quite easily. The file ~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist contains all of the Safari bookmarks, including those saved to the Reading List. (For whatever reason, this file gets borked in TextMate, among others, but TextWrangler seems to cope just fine).

Anything beginning <key>ReadingList</key> is an item saved to the Reading List. There are two entries that control the title and the description. The first will be of the form:

<key>PreviewText</key>
<string>No preview available</key>

This occurs about six or seven lines in. Change this, and the description changes. The second entry is of the form:

<key>title</key>
<string>http://arxiv.org/pdf/1111.1763/arxiv.org</string>

and you can imagine what that does.

This procedure worked for me in Safari 5.1.1 in 10.7.2; I presume it should similarly work for you.

Two caveats: I have no idea what this might do to an iCloud-synced reading list. If the edit doesn’t get marked with the appropriate edit date, there could be some weird sync conflict brouhaha and Safari might explode. Also, I quit Safari while I messed around in Bookmarks.plist. No idea what might happen if you leave it open; probably nothing. But y’know. You can’t be too careful.

This is an example full entry for a Reading List item in Bookmarks.plist.

<dict>
    <key>ReadingList</key>
    <dict>
        <key>DateAdded</key>
        <date>2012-11-29T23:30:55Z</date>
        <key>DateLastFetched</key>
        <date>2012-11-29T23:30:55Z</date>
        <key>PreviewText</key>
        <string> **This is the short description** </string>
    </dict>
    <key>Sync</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Key</key>
        <string>”C=1234567890"</string>
        <key>ServerID</key>
        <string>https://example@example.com+ABCDEFG12345</string>
    </dict>
    <key>URIDictionary</key>
    <dict>
        <key>title</key>
        <string> **A web page that I’ve saved** </string>
    </dict>
    <key>URLString</key>
    <string>http://www.example.com/readinglist</string>
    <key>WebBookmarkType</key>
    <string>WebBookmarkTypeLeaf</string>
    <key>WebBookmarkUUID</key>
    <string> 1234567890 </string>
</dict>


iOS: it's not possible to share one photo to WhatsApp Why there is no way to share a photo to WhatsApp or Evernote?
Is this a WhatsApp and Evernote limitation?
Or an iOS limitation?

This is only possible if you give the app access to ALL of your photos. You apparently can't just share one. In Facebook this is possible. In android this is beautiful. Why iOS has to be like this?

Why there is no way to share a photo to whatsapp or evernote?

There is a way to share a picture to Evernote with an Extension which has to be turned on first. WhatsAppDevs haven't implementet that yet.

  This is only possible if you give the app access to ALL of your photos. You just want to share one.

Privacy is so constructed in iOS you can get Access to Photos or don't. All or nothing. It's much easier for Users and Developers.

  I just want to share one.

The Trick here for WhatsApp is, you can tap long on you Photo and you see a Copy mark. Copy the picture in your clipboard and the past it into your WhatsApp Chat, so you have only shared one Image


Will reseting my 2011 Macbook Pro bring it back to the old version? Hi will resetting my 2011 Macbook Pro bring it back to the old version? I'm asking because i wish to run my pro tools but El Captian is considered "too advanced" for my software. Trying to save money and possibly reset my Mac. Does anyone know the answer to this? Thanks!

If you Mac was shipped with OS X 10.6 or earlier, then the Mac came with an installation DVD. If your Mac was shipped with OS X 10.7 or later, then you can download that version from the internet. You will need to boot your Mac using Internet Recovery Mode and download the original shipped OS X version.

  Early 2011 MacBook Pro models shipped with OS X 10.6 and the late 2011 MacBook Pro models came with OS X 10.7 installed.

Snow Leopard OS 10.6 is now to old to be of any use for accessing the internet or running most current applications. OS X 10.7 is better, but not by much. Your best bet is to see what previous purchased versions of OS X are still available from the Apple Store. I believe, Yosemite OS X 10.10 can not be downloaded even if you previous purchased this version.

It is generally a good idea to backup any version of OS X you download, before installing or upgrading your operating system. What I mean by this is that you backup the .dmg file you downloaded. What people are learning is that you can not rely on Apple to allow you to download a previously purchased OS X version at a later date.

If you can download Mavericks OS X 10.9 or later, you can copy the installation files to a flash drive. You can boot from the flash drive and perform a clean install of OS X. The instruction are given at the web site Create a bootable installer for OS X.


What is an iPad app that will allow viewing AND editing/markup of PDF documents in multiple tab views? I need to find an ipad app that will allow users to do the following:

View PDFs
Edit PDFs (at least simple markups)
Open multiple PDF documents in tabbed views
Link with a DropBox account for cloud access

Anybody know of an app to do this?

Adobe Acrobat Reader is just fine except the markup tools are week and only one doc at a time.  BlueBeam allows great editing and multiple tabs, but is super buggy and slow.

Check out XODO.

It seems it will cover all your needs. I’m using it since the first version.


Dual screens and maximized video on Yosemite So when I maximize a video on Mac (Yosemite) it renders my other monitor useless.  It sucks when watching videos on Lynda.com and trying to work along with it. Is there a work around or an option to disable this "Feature"?

In short, no.

OS X has always behaved like this.
The only alternative is to use maximised rather than fullscreen, though that is app-dependent, especially when it comes to video playback…

For instance, VLC can do it, Youtube can't.

If the window has the traffic light buttons, top left, it can. If it doesn't - like a Youtube video where the main window has those but the video itself doesn't, you're stuck.


Unable to load https websites on safari I have an old iMac running OSX 10.7.5/Safari 6.1.6.

Due to some programs on that system & generally slow systems on similar iMacs with more recent OSX version I do not want to update to a newer OSX

I have several websites forcing https which I can no longer access as safari says "Safari can not open the page …, as safari can not establish a secure connection to …" (translated from german).

Chrome and Firefox on the same machine are able to open these pages, as are more recent Safaris on more recent machines.

I tried downloading/installing the root certificate in the keychain, but this did not help.

Are there some security updates I'm not getting via normal system updates which could fix this?

For example: www.biblio.lu

Safari 6/OS X doesn't support TLSv1.2. Sites only supporting the TLSv1.2 protocol like biblio.lu won't work in Safari 6.

You can cross-check/compare your browser's result at SSL Client Test
with the SSL Server Test (e.g. SSL Server Test testing biblio.lu).

No supported protocols overlap between Safari 6.1.6/Mac OS X 10.7.5:

and biblio.lu

so no https access! Google Chrome 49.0.2623.112 (64-bit) - the last Google Chrome version supporting 10.6/10.7/10.8 works though.


How to find specific IP address within LAN? With the setup I used to have I was able to control the home-domotica system via the wireless network of the time-capsule (app iPhone).

10.0.1.152

However today I had to move the time-capsule to it's permanent place.
This meant a change in the setup.

Where it used to be that the time-capsule and the domotica system were plugged-in in the same switch there is now a second switch involved.

Internet

|

Router

|

Switch - Domotica system

|

Switch - time-capsule

Now this has of course an influence on all. Yet I cannot find out the IP address the app should contact.

arp -a Gave me a list. Initially I got 9 hits. But none of them work.

A nasty side-effect is that I cannot access some of the lights anymore....
Need to find a way to access the correct address through 2 switches...

So the router is the only DHCP server, right? It is the only device giving out IP addresses, and the switches (including the time-capsule) just redirect the traffic (i.e. bridge mode), right?

If I am not mistaking, the client list in your router should provide you with the list of all connected devices with mac-addresses and ip-addresses (and sometimes device names). Try and see if the mac address of your device is in there.


What are some tips for replacing my MacBook Pro hard disk with SSD? I would like to replace my MacBook pro hard disk with an SSD, without reinstalling everything. I am looking for your experience on

good SSD drive models that have good performance at a fair price
the relocation strategy so that I get my old system migrated with no trouble or pain from the old hard drive to the new one (including additional hardware needed, I guess a usb-sata connector)

Allow me to recommend you the OWC ones. You have an “extreme RE” (which I believe you won’t need) and the Pro, which is arguably one of the fastest and most secure drives so far.

I’m sure you can google for comparisons with other drives but I’ve installed a various numbers of SSDs (albeit not only in Macbooks) and the OWC ones are what I’ve chosen for me.

Jeff Atwood himself made a comparison (but he didnt include the OWC at the time), which you can find in this blog post.

Don’t forget to read through the comments, as there’s value in there too.

I’d say that excluding the OWC (which I prefer), the Crucial C300 should be the next in line.


Mail shows 2 unread but there are no emails Recently my Mail app is giving me the 2 unread badge, but there are no mail messages in the inbox:

I do not remember when this started. I am on 9.3 beta but it started on 9.2 before I upgraded (using OTA).

Also, the hotmail I use does not sync trashing so my hotmail inbox includes all emails that I have deleted from my inbox.

Go to your Inbox, drag messages down slightly, Search field will appear. Start typing 'Unread' and filter will appear.
Use it. Probably it will help you locate those two unread messages.


How do I run a .sh or .command file in Terminal I've always wanted to be able to run a script I've downloaded online directly from the Finder but just double clicking the file does not work.

Open Terminal, type in sh /path/to/file and press enter.

Faster is to type sh and a space and then drag the file to the window and release the icon anywhere on the window.


applescript (osascript) for changing Terminal.app profile Is here a way to changing the Terminal.app profile from the command line?

Here is already couple of questions about changing colors, but I need change the whole profile from the "Basic" (what is my default) to "Homebrew" or "Pro" from the shell script.

Looking for only clean command-line solution (e.g. without clicks, global shotcuts etc.), so probably with osascript. Need it because want change the Terminal.app behavior when ssh-ing into another computer, e.g. font-size, encoding, colors, emulation - the whole profile - not only colors.

Like something next:

some_commands_here to change the CURRENT terminal profile into another
ssh user@example.com

And no, I don't want use iTerm2. :)

Ps: ok, as the last resort, shortcuts are acceptable, but no clicks. :) :)

$function setTerm() { PROFILE=${1}; echo "tell app \"Terminal\" to set current settings of first window to settings set \"${PROFILE}\""|osascript; };

Source: commandlinefu.com

When you connect to a remote computer using ssh, the terminal.app settings will set according to the remote bash profile. Therefore you need to define the preferred settings on the remote machine first.


How many Apple IDs should one household have? To date my wife and I share one Apple ID for all Apple purchases and devices. We currently own a first and third generation iPod, iPhone 4, and will own an iPad 2 in the morning. Thus far having the one account has not been an issue, but with more Apple purchases to follow at what point does it make sense to have more than one Apple ID? What are the advantages and disadvantages of having one or multiple accounts? If we each had an iPhone would multiple Apple IDs be required? What's the relation to iCloud?

There is no limit and having more is not necessarily better. Having all your devices registered under one Apple ID has the benefit of having all your purchases pushed to them without having to manage multiple accounts. So your wife can enjoy an app on her iPhone 4 just the same as you can enjoy the same app on your iPad 2, without needing to purchase the app a second time (once for each device), or constantly logging in and out of various Apple IDs to install and update.

I find it is always better to pool your purchases to one account and register your devices under that single account. Having multiple Apple IDs requires that one micro-manage each account (iTunes will only check for updates for the current Apple ID), which can be bothersome at the best of times and a nightmare at the worst of times.

One advantage of having separate Apple IDs, however, is that each account belongs to its respective owner and can be registered to their own payment methods. But if you share your finances, that is of little value to you.

iCloud is bound to its respective Apple ID, so if you have just the one, all the features of iCloud would permeate through any device registered to that account. That means if you downloaded an app on your iPad 2, it would appear on your wife's iPhone 4. You would also share documents, pictures, music, etc. (anything supported by iCloud and expressly enabled by you) across all your devices as well—email as well. iCloud would essentially unify them and their content.

Multiple Apple IDs are not required. You may also find this article on managing multiple devices (although somewhat dated when iCloud launches).


Some apps won't launch on Mavericks Since I've updated to Mavericks from Snow Leopard recently, I've noticed that some apps that I download (not from the App Store) won't launch. When I used chmod 775 on them, I could launch them. It seems some apps get wrong permissions upon downloading?

Why can't I open only certain apps, and how can I prevent it?

Mavericks has an extra security mechanism, Gatekeeper, in System Preferences->Security & Privacy->General you can allow apps downloaded from: Anywhere.


Is there a way to automatically forward text messages to email? Is there a way to automatically forward text messages (received on my iPhone) to email?

Not really ideal but I think that you can setup a Google Voice # that will auto forward to both sms and email - https://support.google.com/voice/answer/160203?hl=en


Resizing or expanding a CoreStorage volume I bought a new SSD with 750 GB and made two partitions: 600 GB and 150 GB. The smaller one was thought to be a Bootcamp partition one day, but to date it was just another unused partition. When I needed more space, I decided to merge these two partitions. The partition was created with Mavericks, the merge was done with Yosemite.

I opened Disk Utility and the "minus" button. Disk Utility told me both partitions would be merged then. However it miserably failed. My main hard disc suddenly had errors which couldn't be repaired and even two of my other external hard discs could not be mounted any longer.

I eventually restored the hard disc from Time Machine, which worked well.

My second partition is now listed as free:

Unfortunately I can't resize the 600 GB partition nor can I create a new partition using the free space.

Diskutil reveils the following:

~  diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *750.2 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         599.6 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *599.3 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 XXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX
                                 Unencrypted

Also diskutil brought up this:

~  diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 9D2BA4BA-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         599640592384 B (599.6 GB)
    Free Space:   6111232 B (6.1 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 29A9A02B-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     599640592384 B (599.6 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family 2FA7892F-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 7BF42B7B-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk1
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          599282155520 B (599.3 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            No
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

I have tried this:

Reclaim Delete freespace Partition after Yosemite removal
fsck -fy (The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK.)

but it wouldn't help. It said I couldn't recover because it wasn't created in a way it would support (sorry for missing the exact message).

I then have learned that Apple_CoreStorage might indicate my disk is encrypted, which might explain why I can't resize it. It doesn't explain why I can't create a new partition to me.

What are my options to make my hard disk available in a single partition with size 750 GB?

After gaining some experience with CoreStorage volumes, I reworked my first answer to generalize and facilitate it by adding some scenarios and deleting some dispensable steps.

Basically there is one undocumented command to resize or expand a CoreStorage volume group and an inherent logical volume:

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.

While shrinking it down to the size of the occupied space in the logical volume shouldn't be problem at all (but not recommended because at least 10% free space should be left), any blocking partition except the recovery partition has to be deleted or diminished before expanding the CoreStorage stack.

The command comes in handy in several scenarios:

expanding a CoreStorage volume after deleting a 2nd old-style JHFS+ volume on the same device (this may happen after splitting your disk in two partitions in Mavericks and then updating to Yosemite. The first partition - your system volume - might be converted to a CoreStorage volume, while the 2nd volume is left alone.)

expanding a CoreStorage volume after manually deleting a Boot Camp NTFS volume

resizing a CoreStorage volume to create 2nd old-style JHFS+ volume on the same device

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).

Modify CoreStorage stack:

Open in the menubar Utilities/Terminal

First you should get an overview of your disks and the partition layout:

Enter diskutil list
Example listing:

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *68.7 GB    disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                    209.7 MB    disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         53.7 GB    disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD            650.0 MB    disk0s3
   4:                        EFI No Name EFI            100.0 MB    disk0s4
/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 System                 *53.5 GB    disk2
/dev/disk3-disk12 ...belong to the OS X Base System (your recovery system you booted to previously)

Disk0 is your main internal disk device containing the EFI-partition (dis0s1), the CoreStorage partition (disk0s2) and the Recovery HD (disk0s3).
The No Name EFI (disk0s4) only exists if you had a Boot Camp partition previously and deleted it manually.

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 gpt -r -vv show /dev/disk0
Example listing:

gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=68719476736; sectorsize=512; blocks=134217728
gpt show: /dev/disk0: PMBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 134217727
      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  104974016      2  GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  105383656    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  106653192     204800      4  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
  106857992   27359703
  134217695         32         Sec GPT table
  134217727          1         Sec GPT header

The partition with the index number 1 is the regular EFI-partition, the partition with index number 2 is your CoreStorage partition and the partition with index number 3 is your Recovery HD.
The partition with index number 4 (=No Name EFI) only exists if you had a Boot Camp partition previously and deleted it manually.
All the rest is unallocated free space (in the example 27359703 blocks à 512 B).
Enter diskutil cs list
Example listing:

  CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group A629E051-D7B0-4B8C-A803-074F62704636
    =========================================================
    Name:         System
    Status:       Online
    Size:         53946696192 B (53.9 GB)
    Free Space:   16777216 B (16.8 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 90C09FC0-4215-4871-901B-70E2C9C7D464
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     53946696192 B (53.9 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family F6962E38-50E4-4458-BFE6-CF2E179352F5
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume BD36C73D-860D-4DC6-B125-AD624F448B88
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk2
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          53496696192 B (53.5 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            Yes (no decryption required)
            LV Name:               System
            Volume Name:           System
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

to resize the CoreStorage volume you have to delete any blocking partition first (the Recovery HD doesn't count because it usually will be moved with the resizeStack command).
First you have to unmount all mounted volumes on disk0 (first the CoreStorage volume, which has its own disk identifier disk2 but resides on disk0, then all other mounted volumes on disk0 - check this with df):

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2

then additional volumes (if you have any at all). Example:

diskutil unmount /dev/disk0s5

If you have a NoName EFI partition delete it by entering:

gpt remove -i 4 disk0

Remount any previously unmounted volume in the reverse order with

diskutil mount /dev/disk0s5
diskutil mount /dev/disk2

Since any blocking partition is deleted you may now 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 BD36C73D-860D-4DC6-B125-AD624F448B88 60g

to expand it to 60 GB

diskutil cs resizeStack BD36C73D-860D-4DC6-B125-AD624F448B88 40g

to shrink it to 40 GB

diskutil cs resizeStack BD36C73D-860D-4DC6-B125-AD624F448B88 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.
In case of shrinking the CoreStorage volume you may now create a 2nd partition with gpt.
Enter the following to get the new partition scheme:

gpt -r -vv show /dev/disk0

and

gpt add -b StartBlock -s NumberOfBlocks disk0

to create a new partition. StartBlock is the number of the first block in the unallocated space and NumberOfBlocks is the number of free blocks or smaller. NumberOfBlocks has to be dividable through 8!
Enter exit and quit Terminal.
Open Disk Utility (and format your newly created partition if you have created a new partition in the second last step).
Then check your expanded CoreStorage volume for errors.
Quit Disk Utility.
Reboot to your main volume.


Do the iPhone 7 and 7 plus cameras use the same sensor? I am looking to upgrade to the latest iPhone mainly for the camera.  I am wondering if the iPhone 7 and 7 plus use the same camera sensor.  Specifically, will they handle the same in low light conditions.  I shoot a lot of low light photos and am curious if they will perform the same.

SHORT ANSWER

If it was me and my main interest was in photography, I'd definitely opt for the iPhone 7 Plus over the iPhone 7. Don't get me wrong, both the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus have great camera systems, but the iPhone 7 Plus has a few features over the iPhone 7 because of its secondary 56mm-equivalent "telephoto" lens system. And, since you're main interest is in low light conditions, you should be aware that Apple markets the iPhone 7 Plus as being the one to use for low-light photography.

LONG ANSWER

Let's start with the specs - below is a summary of the camera specs of each:

iPhone 7 Plus

PRIMARY CAMERA: Dual 12 MP (28mm, f/1.8, OIS and 56mm, f/2.8), phase detection autofocus, 2x optical zoom, quad-LED (dual tone) flash. This features: 1/3" sensor size @ 28mm, 1/3.6" sensor size @ 56mm, geo-tagging, simultaneous 4K video and 8MP image recording, touch focus, face/smile detection, and HDR (photo/panorama). Video recording at:   2160p@30fps, 1080p@30/60/120fps, and 720p@240fps.
SECONDARY CAMERA: 7 MP (32mm, f/2.2), face detection, HDR, and panorama. Video recording at: 1080p@30fps and 720p@240fps.

iPhone 7

PRIMARY CAMERA: 12 MP (28mm, f/1.8, OIS), phase detection autofocus, and quad-LED (dual tone) flash. This features: 1/3" sensor size, geo-tagging, simultaneous 4K video and 8MP image recording, touch focus, face/smile detection, and HDR (photo/panorama). Video recording at: 2160p@30fps, 1080p@30/60/120fps, and 720p@240fps.
SECONDARY CAMERA: 7 MP (32mm, f/2.2), face detection, HDR, and panorama. Video recording at: 1080p@30fps and 720p@240fps.

As I mentioned earlier, Apple pushes the fact that the iPhone 7 Plus is ideally suited to low-light conditions. They even produced a video to highlight this. It's called Midnight and you'll see that the iPhone being used is an iPhone 7 Plus (this is obvious when the user picks his iPhone up at about 5 seconds in).

In summary, with an iPhone 7 Plus you can use the 28mm-equivalent wide-angle lens using Photo mode, zoom up to 10x (digitally), and take snaps with an added depth of field effect using Portrait mode.

If you do a Google search I'm sure you'll find lots of info about the advantages of an iPhone 7 Plus camera system compared to the iPhone 7. I'm sure if you read some reviews you'll find some that tested each in low-light conditions for you to compare.


Why do I lose my USB speakers after reconnecting with VMWare Fusion 3 running? Here's my setup:

I have a set of Altec Lansing FX5051 speakers that I run through the USB port. I also run VMWare Fusion (sometimes in Unity mode, sometimes single window, I don't think it matters) during the day for my work on a MacBook Pro.

At the end of the day, I unplug my speakers (and a few other things) and take the laptop home for the night. I leave VMWare running, since there's no performance hit.

In the morning, I go back to the office and plug the speakers back in. However, when I attempt to listen to my music or podcasts, the sound comes out of my internal speakers. If I press the ALT key while clicking on my speaker icon, the Altec Lansing speakers are not listed. I should note that the speakers are listed as a connectable USB device from within VMWare.

So far the only solution I've found has been to shut down VMWare, unplug the speakers, and then plug them back in. On a couple of occasions I've been able to use VMWare Fusion to attach the speakers to the virtual machine, then detach them, and then it will show up, but this is not consistent. I've also tried using the USB Probe and the device does show up there, just not as a valid sound output option.

Any idea why this is occurring and how to fix it?

When a USB device is hot-plugged while VMware is running, I often see a dialog from the VM instance asking if the device should be attached to the VM or to the host OS. It's quite easy to miss this dialog if you have other applications running or if the VM is in a separate workspace. And until the dialog gets its answer, the device isn't attached to either OS.

If you're not seeing this dialog, it's also possible that VMware has already been configured with a default answer for the device in question. For example, it might automatically be attaching the device to the guest OS running in your VM. Note that this is not normally what you'd want with USB speakers, as VMware already emulates a virtual audio output device for use by guest OS's that funnels audio output through the host OS.

Have a look at your VM settings under "Virtual Machine > USB & Bluetooth Settings…" where you should see a dialog similar to the following:

I expect you should see an entry corresponding to your USB speakers. If so, you should be able to configure how they're handled when hot-plugged from there.


Distribute macOS build of a SwiftUI app using Sign In with Apple I am working on an iOS app, written in SwiftUI. I am already sharing builds with external testers using TestFlight, and it all works pretty much without problems.

Today I enabled macOS support as well using the "magic checkbox" in Xcode.

I've tested the app on my Mac, and it's good enough that I'd like to distribute this to my testers as well. Of course there is no TestFlight for macOS apps, so how do I share my build?

I created an archive, but when I try to distribute using my Developer ID and sending it to Apple's notary service I get the following errors:

So.. because my app uses Sign In with Apple I can't distribute it using a Developer ID? Does that mean I am required to send it to the Mac App Store? But it's not ready to be published to the wide open world yet!

It seems like a rather silly situation that I can find very little information about.

Edit:

Some additional information. First of all, it all works fine on iOS. I have created a Key for Sign In with Apple. I have also created a "Developer ID Application" Profile, and it has all the needed bits:

But yet when I try to manually select this Profile during the distribution process (instead of letting Xcode do it automatically) I see the following:

Sadly it seems like it's an issue with Apple's tooling. See also https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/129263.

Nothing to do but remove Sign In with Apple (not an option for me), or simply wait for Apple to fix this :(


Microsoft Word notebook layout - insert equation? Since transitioning to OSX for my everyday use, I've been using Word in notebook layout for taking notes (previously used OneNote on Windows). This works great.

However, I need to insert, remove, and edit equations, and I don't want to hop in and out of print/notebook layout all the time..

N.B. If the equation already exists, you can edit and remove it inside notebook layout. But to get it in the first place, you have to be (as far as I can tell) in print layout. This is insane.

  How do you insert an equation in notebook layout?

Cannot figure this out at all. I really hope it's possible.. or if not that there is a good third-party plug-in.

I've seen this - not relevant since I am using Office 2011, but I just can't find this option in notebook layout. Also, please don't suggest I use OneNote for Mac now that it's available. I took the time to convert to Word, and I prefer it now, taking note's in notebook layout, and keeping a good print layout automatically.

One workaround is to assign a keyboard shortcut to inserting an equation.  This only gets you the ability to type an equation, not use the Equation Tools in the Ribbon.  You can also get the Equation Editor to open in a separate window via assigning a keyboard shortcut.  If this workaround is sufficient for you, it's fully documented here.

There is a third-party application called MathType for editing equations, and it works with many applications including Word:Mac.  If you know TeX/LaTeX, you can type that into MathType and it works magically.  However ... it doesn't work in the Notebook Layout View either.  I asked them about it via Twitter, and they said this:

  No, but only because of the types of items Word allows to be inserted
  in Notebook Layout View. No editable objects, only static.

Don't forget to tell Microsoft that you want the full power of the Equation Editor (or MathType) in Word:Mac.  In Word's Help menu, there's a "Send Feedback About Word" link.  Tell them what you're doing and why this matters to you.


Have a time machine drive automatically disconnect itself after backup Ive got a time machine hd (its actually a samsung external hd configured as a time machine) plugged into an external monitor at work, when i connect my laptop to the monitor via 1 usb and 1 thunderbolt i get connected to the time machine and it automatically backs up.

When i leave each day and want to take my laptop with me i used to just disconnect all the cable and go, but now because there is an HD attached i need to disconnect it first, before i remove the cable.

Is there a way to tell the time machine to auto disconnect itself after a daily backup or auto disconnect after each backup ?

I suppose you could put together a script which runs a diskutil eject command on the specific volume, then schedule it to run at 4:30 PM each day via cronx or another scheduling app.  When you go to leave at 5:00 PM, the disk has already been ejected.  The drive will always be something like /dev/disk2, so the script only needs to eject the specific volume name.

I would suggest ejecting it at the end of your day versus after a single backup.  This way, you're getting the benefit of multiple backups throughout the day.


Is Adobe illustrator GPU acceleration available on Mac mini with iris graphics card is Adobe illustrator GPU acceleration available with a Mac mini with i7, 16go ram and the  iris graphics card? Thanks.

The Mac Mini supports OpenGL 4.1, which is required, but may not have to enough Video RAM (VRAM). Low End Mac and Every Mac differ on how much VRAM the Mac Mini has.

If Every Mac is correct, GPU acceleration is supported.
If Low End Mac is correct, GPU acceleration may be disabled.

OpenGL 4.0+ Required - OK

See the Mac OS section of Illustrator Help  /
System requirements | Illustrator:

  Optional: To use GPU Performance: Your Mac should have a minimum of 512 MB of VRAM (2 GB recommended), and your computer must support OpenGL version 4.0 or greater.

  To check for VRAM values:

  Mac 10.9: Choose Mac > About This Mac > More Info (Graphics information).
  Mac 10.10, 10.11: Choose Mac > About This Mac (Graphics information).

  To find out if your computer supports the required OpenGL version (4.0 or later), see this Apple Support document.

The linked Apple Support document states the Mac Mini (Late 2014) with Intel Iris Graphics supports OpenGL 4.1. So the GPU acceleration is technically possible.

512MB VRAM Required - Maybe?

Low End End claims 288 MB is available to the graphics card; this is lower than Adobe's recommended 512 MB:

  GPU: Intel HD 5000 Graphics/Intel Iris Graphics
  VRAM: 288 MB DDR3 SDRAM (shared with main memory)

However, EveryMac report this Mac Mini has access to 1.5 GB of VRAM, shared from the Mac's RAM:

  This model has an Intel Iris 5100 graphics processor that shares memory with the system.

  Apple reports that this model uses "Intel Iris Graphics" and allocates up to 1.5 GB of system memory for video function.


Remove unwanted network fm iPhone I have to delete fm iPhone memory 2 network names and settings, not removed by “forget this network” how can I ?i

You can't. With iOS 10.x and iOS 11.0 it's possible to delete a Wi-Fi network

if you can see it (Settings > Wi-FI)
with all other saved Wi-Fi networks using Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings

You can't remove a specific Wi-Fi network otherwise.

If you have iCloud enabled you may want to sign in from another Mac and open Keychain Access.app. There you will see all Wi-Fi networks that were synced to iCloud. Delete it on the Mac with your iPhone still signed in to iCloud and restart your iPhone after about 5 minutes.


iPhone stuck "Removing iCloud Data..." after iCloud sign out I have an iPhone 5C and have logged out of iCloud (in order to test in App Purchasing on an App under development).

The 'phone indicated "Removing iCloud data...", which seems reasonable, but it has been stuck like that for around 30 minutes now, which does not. There is not that much iCloud data on the 'phone.

Pressing Home closes settings and other apps can be run. But the logout process does not appear to be complete as the In App Purchase test does not ask for an account name, just a password. Reopening Settings just brings back the "Removing iCloud data..." indication.

Any thoughts?

After an hour I decided there was something clearly wrong, so this is what I did to resolve it:

Powered down (long press on the top button, slide to power off),
Powered up and entered password,
Opened Settings (I appeared to still be still logged in to iCloud, but iCloud was off - it seems that things were just half completed in the original sign out),
Signed Out of iCloud again (this time it finished almost immediately).

The In-App-Purchase test then worked fine.


LG 31MU97-B monitor support on rMBP 15" I want to buy LG 31MU97-B as a new external monitor for my Macbook Pro Retina 15" late 2013 with Intel Iris Pro only. But this monitor has real 4k resolution of 4096 x 2160!

Can i get this resoluton at 60Hz on my rMBP?

I'm afraid not.

From Everymac

  *This model supports a simultaneous maximum resolution up to 2560x1600 on two external displays via Thunderbolt. Alternately, it can support a single display up to 2560x1600 via Thunderbolt and a single 1080p display at up to 60 Hz, 3840x2160 at 30 Hz, or 4096x2160 at 24 Hz via HDMI.

From Apple

  You can use 4K displays and Ultra HD TVs at the following resolutions and refresh rates via the built-in HDMI port.
  3840 x 2160 at 30 Hz refresh rate
  4096 x 2160 at 24 Hz refresh rate (mirroring is not supported at this resolution)


iOS 9.3 Offers Update to iOS 9.3 Last week I upgraded to iOS 9.3 on my iPhone 5S and my 2nd Gen iPad Mini. Last night both started offering me an upgrade to iOS 9.3 again, even going so far as to download the 1.5GB update file.

Is anyone else seeing this behavior? Any idea how to resolve the issue short of installing the update? I would venture a guess that it's a server-side issue at Apple that I can't do too much about, but I'm wondering if anyone else has any ideas.

Update (March 31, 2016): Apple has released iOS 9.3.1 (13E238***) to fix more issues. If you update to that, this issue will be resolved.

Original Answer

There were some issues in the original release of iOS 9.3 (13E233*) for older devices. A newer build (13E237**) was released on March 28, 2016.

You can check your installed build in Settings > General > About > Version. If your installed build is 13E233*, that may be the reason for your indication. Whether you choose to update is your choice. If you choose to not, then you may have to just deal with the notifications (until the next real update).

Note: Build numbers vary per device.
13E233*: all devices except iPhone 6s/6s Plus and iPad Pro (9.7 inch).
13E234*: iPhone 6s, iPhons 6s Plus, iPad Pro (9.7 inch).
13E236**: iPad 2 (3G, GSM).
13E237**: all iPads except iPad Air 2, iPad Pro (9.7 and 12.9), iPad mini 3 and iPad mini 4. all iPhones except iPhone 6/6 Plus, iPhone 6s/6s Plus, and iPhone SE. iPod touch (5th Generation).
13E238***: all devices currently supported by Apple.


How to restore the computer's username in Terminal? I would like to restore the previous name (default) in my terminal. How can I do that?

I changed to $ sign only by applying this code:

echo "export PS1='$ '" >> ~/.bash_profile
. ~/.bash_profile

but couldn't manage to restore it.

Simply enter

nano ~/.bash_profile

then go to the line

export PS1='$ '

and delete that line. Then save the file and exit nano. After then execute

. ~/.bash_profile

That will be load the settings from this file.


Directly input "duration" data type into Numbers formula I am trying to create a formula in Numbers which takes a duration and calculates what percentage this is of another duration.

For example, I have a duration of 1h 30m in cell A1. I want to calculate what this is as a percentage of 9h. I am trying to output 17%.

I tried diving the cell A1 by 9, but this (rightfully) outputs a duration as A1 is being divided by a number. I need to divide A1 by another duration (i.e. 9h) in order to get a fraction. Is it possible to do this directly in the formula? The only other way I can how to do it is by inputing a duration of 9h into cell B2, and then writing =A1/B2. However, I would prefer being able to avoid using the auxiliary cell B2 when performing this calculation.

Divide by text in quotes.

So if you want to divide A1 which contain "1h 30m" by "9m" then use the following function A1 ÷ "9m" (A1 contains "1h 30m"). This is the equivalent of putting "9m" in B1 and then in using the function "A1 ÷ B1" in C3: Both will give you 10 because 9 minutes goes into 1 hour 3 min 10 times.


Change Appstore user from MacBook? I bought a used MacBook Pro, and I need to update some software.  When I click the 'update all' button to proceed, it asks for the App Store password of the old user's account:

How do I remove the old user's account so that I can update my software?

You will need to go to Store->Sign Out, then sign in with your own account.

After that, delete the software that is asking for the old account password, and reinstall it under your account. If the software is not free, you will need to buy the software again.  You do not have a license to use the software, unfortunately.

In your case, there’s only keynote needing an update so you know keynote had that account tied to it.


Updating app that were downloaded with a different apple ID I got my dad's old phone and had previously downloaded certain apps. Redownloading these apps was not an issue but when the apps needed updates, it needed me to input my dad's Apple ID password for all the redownloaded apps. How do I transfer these apps to my AppleID?

If I can get advise for this or info that there is no real solution, that would be very helpful.

Not sure what advice you are looking for really.

To update apps downloaded with a particular Apple Id needs the password for that ID.

Perhaps you should have done a "factory reset" and established your own Apple Id from the start. Do not reset until you’re ready to walk away from all the apps you can’t update. You will need to repurchase them, go without or find a substitute app that is available in this case.


How can I wipe an encrypted volume when the password is forgotten? I have encrypted disk volume that is in the way and the passphrase is gone.

How can I erase the contents and reuse the disk space?

To delete encrypted volume disk (not your main boot disk)

Open Terminal.app
Unmount disk using

diskutil unmountDisk force /Volumes/disk2 (substitute /Volumes/disk2 with your disk)
Find disk UUID

diskutil coreStorage list
Delete disk/volume

diskutil coreStorage delete [UUID] (substitute [UUID] with your disk's UUID obtained from the previous command)


Where can I find a list of MAMPs? I'm looking for a MAMP packaging = Apache + MySQL + PHP bundled together for Mac OS X (which is my OS). Where can I find it? Is there an "official" site where I can download it from?

[ I know that there are Apache and PHP shipped with Mac OS X, but I don't want to use them, because it seems that if I do it, and later upgrade them, I may have trouble in the case Apple provides a system update which reverts or conflicts with my "manual" upgrade. Can you confirm that? Here is the link: 1]

There are a few, but my favourite is Zend's own, fully integrated hassle free controller

Zend Server Community Edition


Can't enable Gmail calendar syncing I'm trying to enable calendar syncing for my work Gmail account (in System Preferences > Internet Accounts). I already have Mail and Messages enabled on the account with no problems. When I try to enable Calendars, it spins for a while and then gives me an error:

  A secure connection couldn't be established.Click "Continue" to continue creating the account. You can edit the account later in
  Calendar preferences if necessary.

If I do click Continue, though, it just does the same thing again, so I can never actually enable it.

UPDATE: we recently transferred our email accounts to a new custom domain (we use Google Apps for business, so we don't use @gmail.com), and I'm having this exact issue again. Some additional details:

If I try to enable Calendar syncing via Calendar.app (rather than System Preferences > Internet Accounts), I get a different, very generic error:

  There was a problem setting up the account.An unknown error occurred.

Using the same exact account info and credentials, I can enable calendar syncing on my iPhone, but my account never appears in Calendar as a group (alongside iCloud, etc.) and therefore I don't see any of its events. So it's still failing, but not giving me an error message like it does on the Mac, for whatever reason.

After a ton of trial and error, I finally got this working. I don't know what the heck the issue was, but it was a total mess. At one point, I was somehow getting reminders for events in Notification Center even though they weren't appearing on my calendar.

Anyway, I had to:

Turn off ALL calendar syncing, including for other accounts (iCloud, Facebook, etc.)
Completely delete the problematic account from System Preferences > Internet Accounts
Completely delete the contents of ~/Library/Calendars**
Log out and back in

Then I set up the problematic account again from scratch (in System Preferences > Internet Accounts) and enabled calendar syncing. This time, it worked like normal, and then I was able to reenable calendar syncing for all my other accounts.

I didn't have to change any settings or anything on Google's end (google.com/calendar).

** Note: I was only able to do this because I don't store any calendars locally. If you have local calendars, deleting the contents of this folder will delete all those events. Just a warning!


Book manager - Mac + iPad I've been an Apple user for some years, but I never managed to find a good book manager.
As by now, I use a quite uncomfortable routine in order to read books (I should mention that most of the books I read are PDFs, I read a lot of open source books on computer science):

I download them on my Mac
I add them to iTunes, and I edit their properties by, for example, taking advantage of the composer field to store informations about the publishing house and the genre field to store the "topic" of the book (which is awful, I can't group books based on these details, just based on author/category)
I sync all of my books with my iPad, and I read them only from there (using iBooks), because I don't like the fact that on my Mac I haven't got a version of iBooks (what I need is a system that remembers the last read page, for instance)

What I'm searching for is an iTunes-like book manager that provides me with a desktop version which lets me organize my books properly (for example adding multiple authors, tags, categories, publishing house), sync them with my iPad (with last-read-page syncing at least) and read them in a proper way.
What I mean with proper way is that while both iBooks and Kindle app let me switch from white to sepia to black background on eBooks, they won't let me do that on PDFs. I know that changing text size in PDFs is quite an hard task, but I don't think changing the color is too.

If someone is wondering, I already tried Papers 2, but it's most suited for academic papers than for books (in my opinion). If nothing comes out from this question, maybe I'll try to stick with Papers for a while.

Calibre is one of the best open source eBook Management tools:

http://calibre-ebook.com/

Features include:

Library Management
E-book conversion
Syncing to e-book reader devices
Downloading news from the web and converting it into e-book form
Comprehensive e-book viewer
Content server for online access to your book collection


DNS resolution works for nslookup but fails in browser while using openconnect Trying to use openconnect to connect to Cisco Anyconnect VPN.

I just did brew install openconnect and use it from cmd line like this:

  sudo openconnect --authgroup=VPN-SSL-GROUP -u FIRST_LAST@domain.com vpn.domain.com

Then I try to access resource.domain.com name from private network and get:

in Chrome: DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN
in Network Utility -> Lookup: resource.domain.com -> The operation couldn’t be completed. (kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork error 2.)

BUT it gets resolved when I use nslookup from command line:

nslookup resource.domain.com
Server:         10.66.0.1
Address:        10.66.0.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    resource.domain.com
Address: 10.66.110.24

I decided to check the content of /ect/resolv.conf:

nameserver 10.66.0.1
nameserver 10.66.0.2
nameserver 192.168.100.1 # (this is the DNS address of my home router)

and see that required DNS addresses used by nslookup are in place. (If I use resolved address in browser, I successfully access private resource, so routing works fine)

I googled a bit and learned that DNS resolution works not the way I can expect from Linux. There is a scutil utility which can help to manage actual DNS settings.

Here is a list of my DNS settings which I can see in scutil:

> list .*DNS
  subKey [0] = Setup:/Network/Service/47AA11B0-4713-41EF-B532-FC580ACD3E75/DNS
  subKey [1] = State:/Network/Global/DNS
  subKey [2] = State:/Network/MulticastDNS
  subKey [3] = State:/Network/PrivateDNS
  subKey [4] = State:/Network/Service/47AA11B0-4713-41EF-B532-FC580ACD3E75/DNS
  subKey [5] = State:/Network/Service/utun1/DNS # (this one appears when I am connected using openconnect)

The content of State:/Network/Global/DNS and State:/Network/Service/47AA11B0-4713-41EF-B532-FC580ACD3E75/DNS keys match and is equal to:

<dictionary> {
  ServerAddresses : <array> {
    0 : 10.66.0.1
    1 : 10.66.0.2
    2 : 192.168.100.1
  }
}

The content of State:/Network/Service/utun1/DNS (which only exists after openconnect established connection) is:

<dictionary> {
  DomainName : location.domain.com
  SearchDomains : <array> {
    0 : location.domain.com
  }
  ServerAddresses : <array> {
    0 : 10.66.0.1
    1 : 10.66.0.2
  }
  SupplementalMatchDomains : <array> {
    0 : location.domain.com
  }
}

The other dns-related keys are empty.

I also tried to go Preferences -> Network -> my Wy-Fi connection -> Advanced and set DNS addresses manually. Still does not work.

And I also learned about vpnc-script for openconnect. I found it already existed on my machine and tried to specify it explicitly:
--script /usr/local/etc/vpnc-script but it did not help to resolve private domains.

From what I see in scutil it seems to be properly configured, but for some reasons DNS resolution does not work. Any ideas why? What else I can check and try?

Thanks to this answer: https://superuser.com/a/86245/356729

The command

  networksetup -setdnsservers Wi-Fi 10.66.0.1, 10.66.0.2

solved the problem. When I disconnect, I also have to manually restore settings using:

  networksetup -setdnsservers Wi-Fi 192.168.100.1


Access to ioreg using Python? Is there a way to access the values ioreg utility accesses via Python?

What i'm looking is to add monitoring of the battery status of my Magic Mouse. I know I can get it by using

ioreg -c AppleDeviceManagementHIDEventService -r -l | grep -E '"Product"|BatteryPercent'

So -- what's the magic to get the value of BatteryPercent into Python, without launching ioreg via subprocess?

The ioreg utility uses IOKit to get the values for for example the battery status of the Magic Mouse.

You can access IOKit from Python using ctypes - a foreign function library for Python. It allows you to call C/Objective C functions etc. from Python.

You can see an example of how to that with IOKit here:

https://github.com/pudquick/pypmset/blob/master/pypmset.py

In addition you'll find that someone already creeated a wrapper for IOKit to be accessible from Python here:

https://github.com/mosen/moobjc-framework-IOKit


How to factory reset a 2010 MacBook Air? I have the late 2010 MacBook Air and need a way to do a factory reset on it.  Maybe factory reset is the wrong phrase, but I would like to delete all of the information from it so that nobody could access any of my information.

Any idea on how this can be done?  (I do not have a Mac OS X disk.)

The Macbook Air should have shipped with a small USB drive that contains the installation software.

It won't be easy to do what you want to without booting from something other than the System disk in your Mac.

Assuming you have the USB drive that shipped with the Macbook Air (you should have unless there is a good reason why you don't have it), you should insert it and boot from it, by holding the option (alt) key just after you hear the chime when turning the machine on.

After holding the option key for a short while, you will be presented with a choice of boot volumes, one of which should be the OS X installer.

Run the installer and follow the instructions to reinstall the OS, at which point you should be given the option to wipe the current install and start fresh.

If you want extra security, you can use the Disk Utility while in the installation mode, by choosing it from the Utilities menu that is at the top of the screen.

From there you can erase the disk, choosing from a range of security options when doing so.

If you don't have the USB drive you will have to obtain one somehow - which may mean taking the Mac to an Apple Store.

Failing that, maybe you'll be able to acquire a install disk image from some place on the web and install it to an external drive that you can boot from. Not going to help with that though.


Why Does CalendarAgent Access Strange Domains? Okay so I have OS X's Calendar app setup using a Google calendar, and I have Little Snitch installed so I am warned when an application tries to make unrecognised outgoing requests.

What I'm seeing is that the CalendarAgent process occasionally tries to access Google domains that don't appear relevant, such as translate.google.com, feedburner.google.com or play.google.com, none of which seem necessary when I've already allow calendar.google.com.

Does anyone know why these domains are being accessed, and whether I should let allow them or just block/ignore them? When I temporarily block them it doesn't seem to affect anything, but it just seems weird for requests to go to these domains.

I would say because those links are on calendar.google.com and Calendar app is following the links for some reason. When I go to calendar.google.com in a browser it has links for play and feed burner and translate.


Parallels or VirtualBox to run Clampfit on a MacBook Pro running Yosemite 10.10.3? I'm completely new to Macs and always used PCs so far.

Said so, I'll try to be as much specific as I can.

I just bought a MacBook Pro running Yosemite 10.10.3 and am considering installing Parallels or VirtualBox (or?) to run Clampfit (a Windows-only compatible analysis software) on my Mac.
My Windows OS of choice would be XP or Windows 7 (unless otherwise suggested here).

My question is:
which between Parallels and VirtualBox would be affecting the least the performance of my machine?

Please note:

most likely I would not need to run softwares requiring large amounts of memory together with Clampfit
I already have Parallels

Thank you very much for your help.

Massi

I suppose the VMWare is also an option.

However, as you know with Parallels, you can restrict the resources that are available to Window, such as the number of CPUs available between Mac and Win, the memory, and the video card memory.

Whereas a typical configuration might be to share these resources equally between Mac and Win, in your case it makes sense to reduce the resources for Win (and consequently for Clampfit), and you can fine-tune this to your liking.

I'm not certain about how much you can limit the amount of hard drive space available for Windows. I always went with the suggested 64 GB, and I don't recall if you could reduce this.


AppleScript without showing what program it opened and edited I wrote an AppleScript that goes into System Preferences and clicks on some of the buttons. I does that by literally opening System Preferences and clicking UI Elements. I'm wondering, is it possible to not show what programs AppleScript opened and what it clicked and only show the result, (in my case it changes screen resolution)? That would result in faster script execution.

Not directly. You would have to figure out what underlying preferences the UI is changing, and whether there was a way to edit them directly using AppleScript or terminal commands (such as defaults write -- see man defaults for details.)

Unfortunately there is no canonical list of preferences that can be edited in this way, although you can find some here. There is also a website dedicated to hidden preference tweaks for OS X and Mac applications: defaults-write.com.

However, for your particular case, I'm pretty sure there is no built-in way to change resolutions from the command line. There is a screenresolution command that somebody wrote a few years ago, but it doesn't seem to work well with retina resolutions.


How can I trigger an Applecript or Automator app when a specific bluetooth device comes into range? I have an Applescript that connects a bluetooth speaker to my Mac and switches “Play sound effects through:” to “Internal Speakers”.

I want this script to run every time I turn on my bluetooth speaker. I am currently triggering the script manually with a keyboard shortcut every time I switch the speaker on, but it would be even more convenient if I could set the script to run automatically whenever the bluetooth speaker becomes available to the Mac, preferably without using third-party software.

Is there a way to do this?

This is a sort of tricky thing to do if you don't want to use 3rd party software. However, with some bash and plist scripting we can get it to work!

First, in your ~/Library/LaunchAgents folder create the following .plist file (in this case I have named it com.my.bluetoothdetector.plist; if you change the name, make sure to change line 4 in the file as well):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.my.bluetoothdetector</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/bin/sh</string>
        <string>/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Desktop/script.sh</string>
    </array>
        <key>WatchPaths</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist</string>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

The above file will call whatever script is located at /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Desktop/script.sh when there is a change in the Bluetooth environment. You can of course change the location of the file called from the Desktop to wherever you want (ensuring that it is a full path).

Now, we will make a bash script, which, when triggered by our com.my.bluetoothdetector.plist file, will check whether your device is connected. In this case, we will save this file to /Users/USERNAME/Desktop/script.sh:

#!/bin/bash

connectedyesorno="$(system_profiler SPBluetoothDataType | awk '/BLUETOOTHDEVICENAME/{f=1}/Connected:/ && f{print $2; exit}')"

if [ "$connectedyesorno" == "Yes" ]
then
  open /Applications/YOURAPPNAME.app
elif [ "$connectedyesorno" == "No" ]
then
  echo "Not connected..."
else
  echo "ERROR"
fi

Here, substitute BLUETOOTHDEVICENAME for the name of your device and the /Applications/YOURAPPNAME.app part of the open /Applications/YOURAPPNAME.app command for the location of the Automator/AppleScript app you want to run. You could also replace this line entirely to run any shell script you want when the device is connected which may negate the need for you to have a separate AppleScript/Automator app to be called.

Finally, use the command:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.my.bluetoothdetector.plist

This will start up the process which will check for the change in the Bluetooth environment and then call the script.bash when this is detected.

Now, hopefully, when you connect the Bluetooth device to your computer, after just a few seconds, your AppleScript/Automator file should run!

  I have an Applescript that connects a bluetooth speaker to my Mac...

Previously connected bluetooth devices should connect automatically to a Mac when they become available. If this isn't the case for you, maybe there is some sort of problem to do with your bluetooth settings. Have a look at this article if the problem persists.

P.S. In the future, if you want to delete this, run the following commands:

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.my.bluetoothdetector.plist
rm -r ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.my.bluetoothdetector.plist
rm -r ~/Desktop/script.sh


Notes data from external drive I recently replaced the HDD in my mid-2012 MacBook Pro with an SSD. After doing a clean install of OS X Sierra, I wanted to get my old notes from the backup copy of my old HDD. After some research I found that the data is stored in "/Library/Containers/com.apple.notes....". I've tried to copy this data to my current ssd, but notes doesn't recognise this data when I open the application.

I just want to access the text in the notes and transfer it. I'm not fussed about preserving the original structure of the notes.

Please someone help me! those notes are really important to me!

You should be able to recover your notes data from a Time Machine backup as follows:

Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine menu
Use the timeline (it's on the edge of the screen) to locate a version of the Notes storage folder from before your clean installation of macOS Sierra. (The location should be ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/ where the '~' indicates your user account home folder)
Select the folder and click on Restore to restore it

If you haven't got a TM backup or want to try recovering the data from your HDD, see below.

Extracting notes data from your HDD

If you haven't got a TM backup or can't get it to restore from one, you can manually extract the data using a web browser (e.g. Safari, Etc).

To do this:

Go to the location on your HDD that is equivalent to the following path: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/

Inside this folder you'll see files with names such as NotesV6.storedata
Copy these files to another location on your SSD
Add a .html extension to each of them. (Note: You will be prompted as to whether you're sure you want to use the .html extension - click on the Use .html button).
Use Safari or another web browser to open the NotesV6.storedata.html file first (it may not be 'V6' in your case, but it will be 'V' followed by a number)
You should now see your missing notes
Now go through the process of copying and pasting the data into new notes and saving them

If any of your notes are missing after going through the above steps, repeat Step 5 and open the other files you copied across at step 3 to see if your missing notes are there.

Let me know if you run into problems.


How to do Control+Backspace on standard USB Keyboard? At work we use Macbooks, so I am trying to adapt :)

I am using to many things, one of them is doing Ctrl+Delete in Mac OSX (In IntelliJ IDEA).

What I expect to happen, that works in Windows and on another external keyboard (Mac one!) is that when you press ctrl+delete, the left most word is deleted.

This does not happen on Mac, I could not find any other key combination to do this.
I need to functionality to quickly move around my code, please help.
My Mac version is 10.12.5

The keyboard shortcut to delete the word to the left of the insertion point is, on a Mac keyboard:

OptionDelete

On a Windows keyboard use:
AltBackspace

I use both Windows and macOS on a regular basis and noticed that some keyboard shortcuts that use Control in Windows work with Option in macOS, for example:

Delete the word to the left/right of the insertion point:

Windows: ControlBackspace / ControlDelete
macOS:  OptionDelete / Optiondelete⌦

[On keyboards that don't have delete⌦ (Forward Delete) use FnDelete instead.]

Move the insertion point to the beginning/end of the previous word:

Windows: ControlLeft Arrow / ControlRight Arrow
macOS:  OptionLeft Arrow / OptionRight Arrow

Extend text selection to the beginning/end of the current word:

Windows: ShiftControlLeft Arrow / ShiftControlRight Arrow
macOS:  ShiftOptionLeft Arrow / ShiftOptionRight Arrow

Please refer to https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236 for a complete list of keyboard shortcuts (scroll down to the Document shortcuts section for the juicy stuff).


How do I stop Mojave Dark Mode turning itself on I recently updated to macOS Mojave and, although I think the Dark Mode is cool and has its place, it frustrates me no end that it seems to be on some kind of schedule. It turns itself on every day at 19:30 and I have no idea why, or how to turn this feature off.

Why is this setting activated and how do I change or edit this?

There's no scheduling available for Dark Mode at all. Perhaps you're thinking of Night Shift, found in System Preferences > Displays, which changes the color of the monitor to display warmer colors, which are better at night to minimize the effect of blue light on the production of melatonin.


Mac shuts down after loading bar loads 50% I purchased a new Mac (Apple iMac MK142LL/A - Intel Core i5, 1.6Ghz, 21.5 Inch LED, 8GB, 1TB, Intel HD Graphics 6000, OS X El Capitan). It worked fine the first day.

Since today, when I try to start the iMac, it shuts down automatically after the loading bar loads 50% in the grey screen. After that it will not start until I unplug the power cable and plug again. Same thing again and again.

This is something that you should absolutely contact Apple about since it is a brand new Mac - it is under warranty and will be replaced, if it's in the first 14 days you can even return it to the Apple store & get a brand new one (or your money back) with absolutely no questions asked.

If you do want to troubleshoot this, try to boot in verbose mode by holding command+v during startup - take a picture & post it as a comment here.


FileVault: What exactly is the optimizing step about? After enabling FileVault on El Capitan the partition is encrypted in a first pass. After this phase is complete a second optimizing phase is starting which takes considerably longer than the first encryption phase. The optimizing step was not present on the first appearance of FileVault 2 (OS X Lion). The encryption phase took the same amount of time back then. So what is this optimizing all about ?

My system is a mid 2014 MBP with 1 TB SSD. 1st phase was done in about 12 hours. 2nd optimizing phase is now at 20 hours and counting.

FileVault 2 is optimizing data on your system drive before it gets full disk encryption (FDE) to speed up encryption/decryption process. Sometimes optimization stage can take a very long time to complete. It depends on a capacity of your disk and an amount of data it stores on.

You can use coreStorage command in Terminal to see the status of encryption:

diskutil cs list

or:

diskutil cs list | grep -e "Conversion" -e "Volume Name"

To see the other useful commands look at this page: Set a FileVault recovery key for Mac .


Ad banner with my ads I would like to make a banner that will display ads for my products only. Will it be ok with App Store or my app won't be approved (or cut later)?

The only thing I can find in the App store review guidelines is this:
2.25

Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion
in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be
rejected, unless designed for a specific approved need (e.g. health
management, aviation, accessibility, etc.) or which provide
significant added value for a specific group of customers.

But you can't make it look like the standard i-ad banner because that means you are replicating an existing apple product.
8.3

Apps that appear confusingly similar to an existing Apple product or
advertising theme will be rejected

And you must keep in mind that the ads can't be too annoying:
2.13

Apps that are primarily marketing materials or advertisements will be
rejected

If you follow these rules I would say go for it, it sounds to me like it is perfectly within apples rules what you are trying to do.

For the full apple app-store review guidelines go here


How to play iPhone music from within Catalina? iTunes was replaced with the Music application in Catalina.
I can no longer find the option to play music from my phone. Am I overlooking something or was this feature removed entirely?
From the Catalina Music application: Is it possible to play iPhone audio files through the lightning connection?

Your question is a bit unclear but if you want to use your iPhone as an audio input and play music from iPhone using the speaker of MBP then do the following steps:

Before following the instructions, make sure you’ve got a Lightning USB cable handy (the same one you use to charge your device). You’ll need it to complete the setup process. When you’re ready, follow the step-by-step guide below:

Connect your iPhone to your computer using the USB cable.
On your Mac, open Audio Midi Setup. You’ll find it in Applications > Utilities.
If you don’t see your iPhone listed in the left-hand panel, go to Window > Show iOS Device Browser.
Locate your iPhone in the list of devices and highlight it.
Click on Enable. Your phone will now appear as an input device.

No further steps are required. Any audio you play on your phone (again, except phone calls) will be reproduced on your Mac.

However, to justify my answer (if it doesn't suit your question), iTunes still exists in Mojave. You can sync all your music and can clearly play everything from MBP directly.


Why is Wine separately bundled with Winebottler for Mac OSX? I am trying to make use of registax software for astrophotography image stacking on my Macbook. I first installed Wine using Homebrew which hanged on startup due to a known Homebrew Core issue. This led me to directly install Wine from provided .pkg file. Now, I have registax running excellently within the Wine environment.

Before using registax, I also need to pre-process my Astro images using PIPP software. It is installed via Winebottler. When I downloaded WineBottlerCombo_1.8.6.dmg, it also includes Wine app and asks me to drag-and-drop both Wine and WineBottler within Applications folder. But I already have Wine stable installed as explained above.

My doubts includes:

Do I also need Wine app bundled with WineBottler?
Is the bundled Wine app only used for Mac app package creation by WineBottler?
Should I just use Wine app bundled with WineBottler and uninstalled Wine stable I previously installed directly from winehq?

Thank You!!!

For anyone stumbling onto this question:

Wine is bundled with Winebottler as it is needed to create standalone Mac app packages (this is how winebottler works, unsure why it cannot use vanilla Wine (stable) app).

So, both are needed:

Wine (stable) installed via winehq to run Wine applications
Wine installed via winebottler to create standalone Mac app packages


Connect to external TV without main screen I have a Macbook Pro 13 "(late 2009) with a screen that just stopped working.

In the technical assistance they told me that the problem would be the logic board or the display, any of them quite expensive to fix.

So, I bought an mini display port to HDMI adapter to connect to my TV until I buy a new laptop.

The problem is that it did not automatically detect the tv and as I cannot see the monitor, I cannot configure it.
Is there anyway for me to configure my laptop to show the screen on the TV just with the keyboard or by VoiceOver (not sure how that works)

thank you

sounds like you need to reset the PRAM/NVRAM which contains the resolution information.

Here is the apple page (instructions) on doing it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379


What happened to Apple made server racks? Simply the question is, what happened to the the Apple made server racks? It is very disappointing to see Apple doesn't support the back-end hardware since 2009. I know there is a Server Mini, and OSX server, but lets face it, we want a professional and fast hardware to backup OSX Server.

Simple answer:

Apple discontinued them in 2010.

According to other sources sales were poor, and Steve Jobs responded to their inquiry:

  Hardly anyone was buying them.

  Sent from my iPhone

source: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1045345


How can I make a homebrew application the default for opening certain file types? I just installed mpv with homebrew on MacOS Catalina. Since I spend equal amounts of time using the terminal and Finder, I would like to open all video files with mpv from Finder. Unfortunately, I don't know how to locate the homebrew app when setting the default application for video files. To be clear, I'd like to open all my video files with mpv from Finder.
I have also tried the solution found in this thread: Set macvim as default application after homebrew installation
But for mpv, there is no .app file. I tried moving and linking the /bin/mpv file but Finder wouldn't allow me to use that application as the default.

Read the FAQ @ https://mpv.io -> Reference -> FAQ

How can I make mpv the default application for opening movie files on macOS (OSX)?

Install mpv as an app with Homebrew:

$ brew cask install mpv

If you need an alias in Applications/Launchpad, open a Finder window at /usr/local/Caskroom/mpv/your_mpv_version/. In there the mpv.app bundle has been generated. While holding Cmd+Alt, drag this .app into the Applications folder.

Use duti to associate files with the application:

$ brew install duti
$ duti -s io.mpv avi all
$ duti -s io.mpv mkv all
$ duti -s io.mpv mp4 all

Or you can do it macOS Finder
Find a video file you want to play in mpv and CMD + I to Get Info on it and then change the default app to be mpv and click Change All button. Rinse and repeat for other file types.


How come Google Maps isn't available to App Store accounts from Israel? When I browse to Google Apps for iPhone with my iPhone and click on Google Maps, I'm redirected to the App Store but receive the following note:

  Your request could not be completed. The item you've requested is not
  currently available in the Israeli Store, but it is available in the
  U.S. Store. Tap Change Store to view this item.

When I click Change Store, I get:

  Cannot connect to iTunes Store

How come?

Your apple ID is registered in the Israeli Store. The application is not available in the Israeli Store, so you cannot switch to the U.S. store.

Two items need to happen for an App to be listed in a certain country:

The developer of the app (Google in this case) needs to register with Apple to fulfill all the legal and contractual requirements to sell in each country they choose to have a presence for any of their apps to be sold.
They need to submit and have Apple approve each specific app for each specific country. Most developers push all apps to all eligible stores, but they don't have to choose to do that even though they could opt to do that.

Let's leave the speculation on who / what / why to either company (Apple and Google) to address in particular, but we can certainly discuss the mechanics of how the app stores work without getting into opinion and conjecture.


How to create a text file and a folder from terminal? How, from a Terminal, do I make a plain text file and a folder?

A directory can be made using the mkdir command. To make a child directory of the current directory it's simply:
mkdir somechild

This will create a directory (shown as a folder in Finder) named somechild.
A text file can be created in a few different ways. The simplest being the echo'ing of text and redirecting it in to a file like so:
echo This is some text > myfile.txt

This will create myfile.txt and its contents will be the string This is some text.
You can also use a command line text editor such as vim or emacs or nano to start a new text file. The following start a new text file and open them in the editor for each of the aforementioned editors:
vim myfile.txt
emacs myfiles.txt
nano myfile.txt

The nano text editor is probably the most new-user-friendly of those three choices.


Keyboard, notification, or menubar shortcut to compose mail message? Im looking for a quick way to bring up a compose mail message dialogue.

Either a keyboard shortcut, or even a little tool within mountain lion's new notification center would be cool.

Anyone got anything?

The easiest way out-of-the box is to use the "services menu". Just select some text anywhere (a single character will do), right click to open the context menu and select the bottom-most item "Email Selection":

If it is not present (should be) you need to enable it under System settings -> Keyboard -> Keyboard commands -> Services -> Text


Location of Keyboard Icons? I probably should elaborate. I'm looking for the icons for the keyboards (the flags and the cutout-of-white icons used for Japanese/Chinese/that one used for custom inputs). I did some poking around and couldn't find them. If you find them please post an answer. I really need these for something.

The flag icons are located in the file /System/Library/Keyboard Layouts/AppleKeyboardLayouts.bundle/Contents/Resources/AppleKeyboardLayouts-L.dat. The .dat file can be opened/read with the GraphicConverter app.

The .dat file is a flag "database". To access the single flags in GraphicConverter use the pages drop-down menu at the bottom right of the main window.

Several input method icons (e.g. PNGs, TIFFs) can be found at /System/Library/Input Methods/Input_method.app/Contents/Resources/... with Input_method.app one of the various IM.apps in /System/Library/Input Methods.

The Custom Input icon may be this one: /System/Library/Input Methods/PluginIM.app/Contents/Resources/Custom.tiff.


Can I put a 1TB HDD in my optical Bay I have a 2011 17" Macbook pro with a 1TB HDD installed and running the latest OSX. I am looking at installing a SSD in the original HD bay for my OS and Programs and moving the 1TB drive to the optical bay. My current HDD location says it has a link speed of 6gb and negotiated link speed of 3gb and the optical drive says it has a link speed of 6 gb with a negotiated speed of 1.5gb. So my question is twofold. 1. Will my current drive work correctly in the optical drive space and 2. Can I put a 1TB in there? Most of the adapters specify up to 500gb.

Thanks

Yes.  You can put a 1TB drive in there.

The port that your optical drive connects to is a standard SATA III port.  This is why you are seeing that it supports 6Gb/s.  The "negotiated" speed is the speed at which the device will communicate.  A SATA I drive has a transfer rate of 1.5Gb/s.  So, even though SATA III can go 6Gb/s, a SATA I can't go any faster.

A SATA III port is backward compatible with SATA II and SATA I.  That being said, a SATA port is a SATA port - it doesn't care if you are attaching a spinning hard disk, an optical disk or an SSD.  SATA supports 48-bit LBA (Logical Block Addressing) which means your drive can be up to 128 PB (Peta Bytes) or 128,000 1TB drives.  So, there is no limitation from a hardware standpoint.

I have personally [used this model optical bay drive caddy][3] with a 1TB drive with no problems.  The specs say "up to 500GB" but I suspect that since this product has been out for such a long time, they just never bothered to update the marketing material.