How to write an AppleScript that downloads Wi-Fi network status from router's web interface? Objectives:

I want to create an AppleScript .scpt file that does the following:

Accesses a router's webpage (i.e., its IP address).
From this webpage, gets the IP addresses that are currently connected to both networks. (By "both networks", I refer to the separate 2.4Ghz and 5.0Ghz wireless networks.)
From the webpage, gets the respective Dbm signal strengths of each connected device (i.e., each connected IP address).

Implementation:

I want one AppleScript list object to contain all of the IP addresses:

E.g.: theListOfIPs contains {"192.168.0.1", "192.168.0.", "192.168.0.3", "192.168.0.4", "192.168.0.5", "192.168.0.6.", "192.168.0.7"}.

(I do not have the need to differentiate between the IPs that are connected to the 2.4GHz network and the IPs that are connected to the 5.0GHz network. All IPs should simply be contained in theListOfIPs.)

And, one AppleScript list object to contain their corresponding signal strengths:

E.g.: theListOfTheirSignalStrengths contains {"0", "-75", "-40", "0", "0", "-63", "-72"}.

Notes:

I would like all of this to be completed "behind the scenes." Unobtrusiveness is really key, because the script will need to periodically check the router's website for network updates.
Ultimately, changes to the network status will be written to a .txt log file, and an alert notification will be displayed, when certain conditions are met. I know how to code these components; I need help actually importing the data into the script.
Browser of choice: Google Chrome

Background:

I have used the shell command , curl, before, in order to import the unabridged HTML source code of a given website into an AppleScript, as a text object. I understand that, sadly, one cannot similarly or conveniently get all JavaScript elements into an AppleScript as a single text object.

Instead, one must get each and every JavaScript element individually, by some identifier, like its id, class, tag, or name. This makes things more complicated (because you can't simply parse everything in AppleScript).

By using Chrome's Inspect feature, and the Elements pane of Chrome's JavaScript console, I've determined the relevant JavaScript identifiers. The two JavaScript element IDs that contain all IP addresses, as well as their signal strengths, are wifi-24 and wifi-5.

Can someone teach me how to write the necessary JavaScript code correctly, and then parse the resulting HTML text, to isolate the basic network data that I desire?

Based on the discussions had, this should handle the original scope of the question.

Note: This is example code and does not contain much, if any, error handling. I'll leave that to you since this is only a portion of the overall script, once you put all the other pieces together.

--  #
--  #   Get the target information from theTargetURL in Google Chrome.
--  #
--  #   Do this in the background, so get the 'tab id' and 'window id' of
--  #   the target URL ('theTargetURL') if it exists, and process accordingly.

set theTargetURL to "http://192.168.1.1/0.1/gui/#/"

tell application "Google Chrome"
    if running then
        set theWindowList to every window
        repeat with thisWindow in theWindowList
            set theTabList to every tab of thisWindow
            repeat with thisTab in theTabList
                if theTargetURL is equal to (URL of thisTab as string) then

                    --  #   Get the targeted content of the web page which contains the information.
                    --  #   Note that document.getElementById(elementID) can only query one
                    --  #   element at a time, therefore call it twice, once with each elementID.

                    set rawWiFi24HTML to thisTab execute javascript "document.getElementById('wifi-24').innerHTML;"
                    set rawWiFi5HTML to thisTab execute javascript "document.getElementById('wifi-5').innerHTML;"

                    tell current application

                        --  #   Process the 'rawWiFi24HTML' and 'rawWiFi5HTML' variables.
                        --  #   Setup some temporary files to handle the processing.

                        set rawHTML to "/tmp/rawHTML.tmp"
                        set rawIP to "/tmp/rawIP.tmp"
                        set rawDBM to "/tmp/rawDBM.tmp"

                        --  #   Combine the value of  the'rawWiFi24HTML' and 'rawWiFi5HTML' variables into the 'rawHTML' temporary file.

                        do shell script "echo " & quoted form of rawWiFi24HTML & " > " & rawHTML & "; echo " & quoted form of rawWiFi5HTML & " >> " & rawHTML

                        --  # Process the 'rawHTML' into the 'rawIP' and 'rawDBM' temporary files.
                        --  # These files will contain comma delimited content of the targeted info.

                        do shell script "grep 'IP:' " & rawHTML & " | sed -e 's:</span>.*$::g' -e 's:^.*>::g' | tr '\\12' ',' > " & rawIP & "; grep 'device.parsedSignalStrength' " & rawHTML & " | sed -e 's: dBM.*$::g' -e 's:^.*\"::g' | tr '\\12' ',' > " & rawDBM

                        -- Process 'rawIP' and 'rawDBM' temporary files into 'theIPAddressList' and 'theSignalStrengthList' lists.

                        set theIPAddressList to my makeListFromCSVFile(rawIP)
                        set theSignalStrengthList to my makeListFromCSVFile(rawDBM)

                        --  #   Clean up, remove temporary files.

                        do shell script "rm /tmp/raw*.tmp"

                    end tell

                end if
            end repeat
        end repeat
    end if
end tell

--  # Handler used to create a list from a CSV file.

on makeListFromCSVFile(thisFile)
    set thisFilesContents to (read thisFile)
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {","}
    set thisList to items 1 thru -2 of text items of thisFilesContents as list
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {}
    return thisList
end makeListFromCSVFile

--  #########################################
--  #
--  #   Checking the output of the code:
--  #
--  #   The following commands are here just to show the contents
--  #   of the two lists displayed in a default list box, and then a way
--  #   both lists might be combined, the output of which is logged.
--  #
--  #   This of course can be removed after testing is finished.
--  #
tell current application
    --  #
    choose from list theIPAddressList & theSignalStrengthList
    --  #
    repeat with i from 1 to (count of theIPAddressList)
        log "IP: " & item i of theIPAddressList & " @ " & item i of theSignalStrengthList & " Dbm"
    end repeat
    --  #
end tell
--  #
--  #########################################

I do have to say that generally speaking, one is not supposed to parse HTML with tools like grep and sed, however, for certain pages, like in this use case, it's pretty safe to do. Although, if it breaks, it's not hard to fix.


What is this card and what's its purpose? I've come across what appears to be a vintage PCI card for the Macintosh. I've searched everywhere to find out what it is, but so far it's been unsuccessful. It has what appears to be memory sims and at least two FPGAs, but has no external ports, making it unlikely to be a conventional graphics card. It's labeled as PowerShop Mezzanine and possibly made by Adaptive Solutions. The board was copyright back in 1995, placing it around the PPC era of Macintosh machines. Any information on this board?

Got it!
It's a Photoshop accelerator card.
Google books came up with this announcement from Computerworld magazine.
Screenshot from there -


mid-2011 MBA: sluggish wifi on WPA/WPA2 networks Machine specs: Mid-2011 MacBook Air with a 1.8 GHz Intel Core i7 processor, and 4 GB DDR ram, Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB, OS 10.9.2 (Mavericks).

Wifi connection is sluggish with multiple ISPs on various WPA/WPA2 networks (home, friend, family, etc.)  but works fine on large public networks (e.g. Starbucks) as well as the university network where I am a student. My other apple devices (iPhone and iPad mini) work fine on the same WPA networks which are giving my 2011 MBA trouble.

After and in-depth search of this site and a few others, I’ve tried the following trouble-shooting steps to no avail:

Hardware inspection of airport card by Apple technician revealed no damage
Fresh “erase and install” of the OS 10.9.2 (did not use time machine backup out of fear of cloning the problem back onto my machine)
verified and repaired permissions and disk from Disk Utility
verified and repaired Keychain
verified that the wifi was also sluggish in safe mode and restore mode
hard reset of WIFI by erasing the appropriate system preferences plists
created a “test” location in Apple network preferences; erased and created Wi-Fi in network preferences
flashed the PRAM/ NVRAM
changed DNS servers manually
checked the activity monitor and ran Sophos Anti-Virus to check for malware, viruses, etc.
turning off the bluetooth
dragging the appropriate network to the top of the list
renewed the DHCP lease from network preferences
reset the MTU manually to 1453 (default is 1500)
flushed the DNS cache in Terminal (dscacheutil -flushcache)
turned the Apple security firewall on and off again

At this point I'm thinking it actually may be a hardware problem that was overlooked by the Applecare technician.  Would it be worth buying a new airport card and installing it myself?

Thanks, all, for the help!

Turns out one of the internal antennae in the monitor was not properly connected to the airport card.  After properly securing the antennae the wifi problem was fixed immediately.  Evidently the problem affected the signal strength and reliability, even though it showed full bars on the menu bar.


Display macbook change possible i got macbook white A1342 (i think?) with broken screen.
and classified ad one man selling macbook's pro display.

i got a question it possible buy display from macbook pro and connect to macbook white?

Display of macbook pro is around 2009-2011 year's

Apparently yes, you can do it. iFixit is selling a compatible screen for ~99$ and this screen is compatible for the both (Pro / Unibody).

Screen :

https://www.ifixit.com/MacBook-Parts/13-Inch-Unibody-LCD-Panel/IF163-024

Fix tutorial :

https://fr.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Unibody+Model+A1342+LCD+Replacement/2988


Selecting rather than highlighting in iPad books On my iPad, when I read a book in the books app, a single word gets selected if I hold my finger on it. This allows several options and I prefer this extra tap if I want to look it up, highlight it or whatsoever.
However, if I move my finger to select multiple words, they get highlighted immediately.
Can I switch that gesture off?

On iOS 14 there is no preference you can set in the settings to disable highlight function in general or to change the gesture itself.

If your device gets bumped often or your touch this triggers highlights too fast, you can enable accessibility to increase the hold detection time and also keep swipe gestures fast to keep page swipes more responsive but the highlight touch time delayed. This is a system wide setting, so you may not like it elsewhere.
I recommend reading about all the gestures that change if you enable the top most gesture. It changes more than just the two toggles I show in non-default settings above in the screen image.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205269


netsh equivalent command in OSX How would I construct the bash equivalent of this command?

netsh -c interface ipv4 add neighbors "Wi-Fi" "10.0.1.1" "b8:8d:12:57:2d:50" store=persistent

Thanks!

I think I found the equivalent:

sudo arp -S 10.0.1.1 b8:8d:12:57:2d:50 ifscope en0


iPhone 5c Digitizer or logic board damage My wife dropped her phone on Sunday... I don't want to replace the screen if it's the logic board and nothing can be done to recover her data. A beautiful picture:

If this were the 1970's her phone would be so vogue... Who didn't love plaid back then?

Anyway... I have taken the screen off and checked the connections, put everything back together. No change.

The phone still rings when called
The phone vibrates when switched into silent mode
The digitizer is not working - the phone cannot be "unlocked" and calls cannot be answered
There was a screw that had detached from the retaining plate where the screen connects to the logic board

I tried hard reboots (power + home)

The home and power buttons are still recognized but this has no impact on the artifacting display
During the hard reboot the display goes blank and then lights up again after being restarted.

I tried disconnecting / reconnecting the battery from the logic board

This had no impact on the display. We've gone plaid.

Curious if anyone can tell whether this symptom is indicative of a bad logic board or if the display / digitizer cables have been damaged!

If your phone rings when called, that tells you a couple things that the phone is able to do:

The phone is able to turn on.
The phone is able to process the received call (and I'm guessing all of iOS's pretty effects with loading it as well).
The phone is able to process events from all of the phone's physical buttons (the Lock button, Volume Up/Down, and the Home button).

However, as it seems, the phone isn't able to send touch events to the UI, meaning the digitizer is broken.

Screw in the loose screw, replace the screen/digitizer unit, and reboot. All will be well. :)


OK so I've located the "silent'" button Can't hear ringtones. Volume is up with buttons on left. Silent button shows red line. Does this mean it's on or off?

Thanks, padres

If your "Silent" button is showing the red line, your ringer is off. Flick it upwards (towards the screen) and your ringer should be on.


How to open new Safari window on primary display I am using a monitor as my second display for my MacBook Air. I have Netflix fullscreen on my second display. Whenever I want a Safari window on my primary display, I have to go to the second display, create a new window, and drag it over to my primary display. this disrupts Netflix, as I have to click to leave full screen then put it back to fullscreen.

Is there an easier way to achieve this?

"active" the primary display and run this applescript

tell application "Safari"
    make new document at end of documents with properties {URL:"about:black"}
    activate
end tell


iPad Air aluminum scuffed badly. Should I worry about it? My 2 year old son managed to scuff the back of my iPad Air by pushing it on its back across a ceramic tile floor.  The worst of it is near the top by the mic.  Are these scratches merely cosmetic, or do I need to worry about the aluminum oxidizing?

I wouldn't worry - looks like you got off without a scratched lens cover and only light cosmetic damage.

In general, Aluminum oxidation is a good thing as it seals the metal and protects. However, despite not being able to pin down the exact alloy that Apple uses, I know from experience that the iPad cases are not prone to oxidation even when deeply scratched or gouged.

I have never seen an iPad with structural or even cosmetic issues due to corrosion due to the anodized coating being scuffed. I have seen many iPads used in a marine environment and saltwater spray and/or the highly saturated air usually kills the circuitry inside far before the case can wear or corrode.

I'd say, clean up any sharp scrapes or cover them with a case and don't worry about the effects of the scratches.


How can I create a Link of my Harddisk on the Desktop Once upon a time I had a Link to the Harddisk directly on my desktop. Since I set up Lion, the Link is not there anymore.

How can I make it appear again? Drag & Drop from Finder doesn't work.

The normal solution is to go to finder preferences, and select the things (including hard disks) you want to show on your desktop. If your hard disk is external, I think you can create an alias (Right Click > Make Alias) and put it on your desktop, to represent it even when the actual disk isn't connected, not that it would allow you access to the files on this hard disk.


How to make Time Machine Only Backup Emails? I know Time Machine is a great backup system on Mac, but I don't like it when it starts backing up everything on a mac.My work is completely done on emails and these emails now need to be backed up as the mailbox is filling up quickly. I am using Apple Mail as well as Outlook 2016 for Mac, both with different email ids. I need to backup both of them so that I don't lose any emails and also if I need to access those emails in future I can do that easily. Here Time machine is a great app to backup but I don't want to backup other stuff, I just need it to backup my email database. Is that possible, if yes then how can I do that and if no then what are other possible options I have as an email backup system?

The basics

First of all, I would highly suggest backing up your entire Mac with Time Machine. (It'll include all your emails that aren't on the server.) After the first backup it only saves what changed, so if you don't change anything outside of mail, it won't have to spend time re-backing it all up.

That said, you can back up just emails. I don't know how to do this with Time Machine (although it's probably possible), but it's relatively easy to do with a tool called rsync. Your emails are stored here (assuming you're using the built-in Mail.app):

~/Library/Mail

To back them up, you can just copy (not move!) this folder to an external drive. Unlike a Finder copy (as far as I know), rsync is smart enough to only copy the changes next time you back it up. To do one backup, run this command in the Terminal:

rsync -rlptgDEHP ~/Library/Mail /Volumes/"Some External Drive"/"Mail Backups"

This will copy the folder to a folder called "Mail Backups" on your external drive. (The quotes are required if you have spaces in the folder/drive name.)

Automating this with launchd

There's a program called launchd that, in addition to running basically the entire system (it's the Mac equivalent of init), can run other programs at specified times. To tell it what to run when, you use a plist file (short for "property list").

So how do you do this? You'll need to put this into a plain-text file somewhere, like ~/bin/backup-emails:

#!/bin/zsh

# lines starting with '#' are a comment and have no effect
# (except for the #! line above); you can leave them out

# this is the rsync command from the section above
rsync -rlptgDEHP ~/Library/Mail /Volumes/"Some External Drive"/"Mail Backups"

Then open a terminal, type chmod +x and a space, and drag in the file you just created. Hit Enter. This will make the file "executable" -- the system will be able to run it as a program.

You can run the file you just made instead of typing the rsync command when you want to back up manually.

Next, fire up TextEdit (or another plain-text editor of your choice) and paste in the following:

<?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.yourname.backup-emails</string>

        <key>Program</key>
        <string>/bin/zsh</string>

        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
            <string>-f</string>
            <string>-c</string>
            <!-- wherever you put the script you made before -->
            <string>~/bin/backup-emails</string>
        </array>

        <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
        <array>
            <dict>
                <!-- run every week at 7am -->
                <key>Hour</key>
                <integer>7</integer>
                <key>Weekday</key>
                <integer>0</integer>
            </dict>
        </array>

        <!-- replace your username appropriately -->
        <key>StandardOutPath</key>
        <string>/Users/username/tmp/backup-emails-stdout.log</string>
        <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
        <string>/Users/username/tmp/backup-emails-stderr.log</string>

        <key>Debug</key>
        <true />
    </dict>
</plist>

Everything between <!-- and --> is a comment and can be left out. (This includes the comment markers themselves, of course.) Replace yourname with your name (if you want to), and username with your username (the name of your home folder; this is required).

(You can run man launchd.plist in a terminal to learn more about what you can do with these plist files.)

Save this file as ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.yourname.backup-emails.plist (replacing the com.yourname.backup-emails with whatever you used in the Label key above).

This step isn't strictly required, but it'll load it without having to log out and back in:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.yourname.backup-emails.plist

Uninstalling the launch agent

Simply trash the ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.yourname.backup-emails file you made before. (To get to it, press ⇧⌘G in Finder and type/paste in ~/Library/LaunchAgents.)


When buying used macbook pro 2010 do I need the cd? It seems to me that I shouldn't need the boot cds when buying a used macbook pro if it is upgraded to Yosemite, is this correct?

Yep, as long as it's running Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" or later, that MacBook Pro won't require or even be able to make any use of the boot CDs. The reason being that Lion added the built-in Recovery partition, and many features in Recovery were previously only available on the boot disks.


Is it normal for 2018 Mac Mini to make screetchy noises? I have just purchased a new 2018 Mac Mini with a SSD drive.

Sometimes when reading or writing, it makes a quite screetchy noise. It's not loud, but however it's quite sharp which made me cautious.

I was under the impression that SSD's don't make any particular noises. I have a MacBook Pro Late-2017 with a SSD, and I never hear it make any noises when read/writing.

Please have a listen to the audio file below. Note that the microphone is close to the computer, so the fan and screetch noise is relatively loud in the clip. In reality, it's noticeable but quite muted. Most of the screetch noise is heard in the beginning.

https://vocaroo.com/i/s1piq8nQW12V

Perhaps it's not even the SSD making these noises?

If it's a "screechy" noise as you describe the it's very possible it could be either "capacitor squeal or coil whine."

In the audio recording, the fan itself was generating a good deal of (normal) noise so it was difficult to separate the two.  One way to determine if  it is the fan or not is to remove the back cover and stop the fan with your finger while listening for the noise.  If it goes away, it's the fan, if not, it's the logic board or power supply.

However, given that this is basically a brand new Mac mini, I would take it in for service even if it's just to get the problem logged.


Changing Mac Folder Icon I'm running the latest version of Mavericks and I can't seem to change the folder icons. I've gone to get info and pasted it in whilst being clicked on the folder image but nothing happens.

I've only had this iMac a few weeks. To set it up I used migration assistance, ever since doing that I've been unable to change the folder image. Everything I've tried so far has not worked.

What you want to do is get the image that you are wanting to change the icon of your image. right click on the folder icon, and click "Get Info," it will load the information, and at the top, it will show the folder icon as it does here.

What you do is drag the new icon to where the folder icon next to School is. It will appear with a + icon next to your image, and let go. It will then change the icon of your folder.


Fans activate after screen saver on MBP Every time after my Mac (MBP late 2013 with OS X 10.10.5) starts Screen Saver mode and then after some time turns off the screen (even if no program is running) the fan speed rises dramatically.
Is it normal, or does anyone know how to fix this?

Some native screen savers can cause this problem as well (don't ask me why).

Just pick a simple plain one and see if it still happens (try a few of them).

Hope it helps :)


Using rsync to sync between 2 Macs wirelessly I have two Macs, I would like to use rsync to sync the home folder, preferences (if it's possible) and Applications.

I want rsync to run automatically if any file in these two Macs are changed, I want it to be synced completely and wirelessly.

Is it possible to make a .command file after writing the codes?

I would like to have a full tutorial on this, I've finding a lot of softwares online and also asking it everywhere. I can't get a cheap or free option to sync my 2 Macs easily. Thanks a lot!

Even though I can tell, that this is a bad idea, here is my answer :

If you have a router in between, that should work, if not, you need to setup an Ad-Hoc network.

Set-Up a ssh-keypair :

  ssh-keygen -t rsa
  ssh-copy-id 'user@otherMac'

And write your rsync for each mac :

  rsync -e "ssh" -rc --delete ~/ user@otherMac

(-e "ssh" = use ssh for transfer
-r = recursive
-c = compressed
--delete = delete files that are not on the local device
~/ = Home-Folder )

U can, of course, adjust those.

If you don't have static IPs on the Macs, I guess you can call them by their DNS-Name, like "Toms-MacBook.local" or you can ping the DNS-Name and output the IP and give it to the rsync command.

And the delete option is the problem. If two macs are working at the same time, files are deleted when you are working. In such cases you would use a server.

In the end, you have to try it out and decide for yourself, if there is nothing to lose, I would also give it a try.


What happens when I reset the call statistics on an iPhone? I have an iPhone 4. Under Settings > General > Usage, there is a button to "Reset Statistics". After reading the manual, I'm not clear on one point: if I reset the statistics, will the entry under "Call Time: Lifetime" also be reset?

After a quick test, everything but "Call Time: Lifetime" and the statistics under "Time since last full charge" was reset.

It only makes sense that the field "Call Time: Lifetime" doesn't get reset since it shows the the total physical time the phone was being used to call.  If it was restored and set up as a new phone I believe that the setting will then be reset since it will be technically a new life for the phone.  Unless AT&T/Verizon keeps track of that data through your number.  Then you would change your number to reset that field.  Though I wouldn't be trying that anytime soon.


Upgrade from Mac OS X 10.6.8 "Snow Leopard" to OS X 10.10 "Yosemite"; App Store takes over 20 hours I have an old Mac, currently running Mac OS X 10.6.8 "Snow Leopard" that I must upgrade to OS X 10.10 "Yosemite". It has 8 GB RAM.

The "About this Mac" gives me the following information:

  Mac OS X Version 10.6.8
  Processor: 3.6 GHz Intel Core i5
  Memory: 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

The "more info" gives me (among others):

  Model name: iMac
  Model identifier iMac 11,3

I first did the "Software Updates" which was ready in a few minutes.

When I try the update to Yosemite, though, I get the spinning cursor and it stays that way. I thought that maybe it was just a huge download, so I left it on for the night. The next day, after more than 20 hours, I still saw the spinning cursor.

This Mac belongs to the workplace. An internet search told me to check the "Purchases" tab on the App Store, but for that I need my boss's password. I'd rather not need that.

I do have admin privileges on the machine.

I've found the Console Messages, but the only thing I see there is "This isn't a bitmap context. Forcing destination format to ARGB_8 for CG_Context".

I've looked at this answer but I find that the CRL is already set to "off".

Network connectivity seems OK. Regular browsing works fine.

So - without access to the purchase record of the machine, but with admin privileges, how can I see what is going on? Ideally, how can I upgrade this machine to Yosemite?

Edit:

The problem seems to be with the App Store. I'm trying to install a free utility (Caffeine) and I get the same problem: the spinning cursor, but no actual progress.

If the desired Mac is slow, you can always use another Mac to do the download of the OS X installer.

Make a guest account on that Mac and sign in with your AppleID since you'll want to shift off your boss's password and get everything under an ID you control.
Go to the App Store and download the installer - but don't run it.
Copy that installer application to a USB drive and take it to the slow mac.

The slow Mac probably needs a back up and possible Disk Utility to repair the catalog structure.

Worst case, you can order a USB media from Apple - call in to the sales number for your country and ask to purchase a media instead of a download. They often will help you enough to get your Mac upgraded for free.

Once you get the install running, you can look at /var/log/install.log to see the progress and where things get slow or hang.


How do I hover on the iPad? Is there a way to hover over content in a web page when viewing it in Safari in the iPad? Specifically, I was trying to hover over the individual avatars at Ask Different iPad Contest home page. On a Mac or PC, it shows when the individual completed their level on hovering, but I couldn't get to see that in the iPad.

If only master yoda had an account here, he might say "tap or tap not, only jedi can hover" since the implementation details quickly delve into where web technology meets human interaction design.

Going down that rabbit hole a bit, he might also point that good web developers know about the TouchEvent class in Safari that can discern a touchstart multitouch event from a touchend/touchcancel/touchmove interaction and perhaps be used to provide additional feedback based on the idea that touching a target would have a visible effect on the web page's contents.

It's generally bad design to expect touch to mirror a mouse centric model, but that doesn't mean this particular site's design is wrong. Just think hard before assuming there's a simple way to design for touch than depends on simulated mouseover events.


Perform an action when bluetooth keyboard is connected or disconnected I am trying to write a script that can detect when a bluetooth keyboard is connected or disconnected from my mac and perform an action. The keyboard is a Logitech MX but I don't want my script to be dependent of that.
I can use bash, applescript, C, or any other language that can be called/binded to node.js

The app Tooth Fairy ($5.99) should be able to do this. Although it's designed for AirPods, it works just as well with keyboards and other Bluetooth devices. After adding a device, you can set scripts to run upon connect and disconnect, so you can call your own scripts to perform whatever action you'd like to take.


iPhone heats up and uses lots of data once a day I've got a new iPhone SE with all settings transferred from iPhone 5.

I noticed that once a day, at around lunchtime, the phone heats up for around an hour or two, eats half of the battery and presumably also sends or receives a lot of data over 3G because every few days I get a SMS from my provider alerting me that I used 80% of my prepaid 1GB data. The phone is not on charger when this happens (I usually it recharge overnight).

This wasn't happening on the old iPhone 5 - there the 1GB of data lasted for a month or more and battery on light use easily for 2 days.

I doubt it's the iCloud backup - it should only run over WiFi and while the phone is in charges (or so it says at least). I also have the background refresh turned off, email on manual fetch, firmware 9.3.3 (latest as of now), etc. All I could think of that could trigger some background activity was disabled. Yet still it happens every day.

What's going on here? Thanks!

Go into your cellular setting and start turning off apps that you don't want using cellular data. You might be able to narrow down which one is doing it. Also, make sure your hotspot setting is turned off.


Mount sparse bundle with a WD My Cloud EX2 NAS I use Time Machine with a NAS. It works well and it mounts a disk image when doing backup or when I enter Time Machine.

When the disk image is mounted, I can access all the directories of my backups.

However, I can't mount the disk image from the sparse bundle. If I try to mount it, Finder shows an error after few minutes (I don't know what is the exact name of the error in English).

Is there a simple way to overcome this drawback?

I have a WD My Cloud EX2 NAS and a
MacBook Pro running Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

To mount your .sparsebundle (requires command line), try

hdiutil mount /path/to/sparsebundle

Ensure that your EX2 is mounted as a network share on your Mac. Usually, this will involve mounting your Time Machine share to reveal your .sparsebundle.

Be aware that this will take a substantial amount of time depending on the size of your .sparsebundle.

side note: I tried mounting my sparsebundle on the WD My Cloud I backup to, and it seems that there isn't really much of an issue except for the sluggishness of browsing. Could you post the issue you're facing in your native language?

By the way, to find files in the sparsebundle, navigate to

*.sparsebundle/Backups.backupdb/[name of your computer]/Latest


Continue screen recording even after screen turns off I was screen recording with my iPad Pro and in the middle of it, I accidentally turned off my screen. I finished what I was doing and wanted to stop the screen recording but to my surprise it was already off.
I checked the resulting video and I only recorded up to the time I accidentally turned off my screen.
Is there a way for me to instruct the screen recorder to continue recording even when the screen is off?

No
There are no options for screen recording in the settings app. You also get a little notification that the recording has been stopped after you set the device to sleep.

If you own a Mac you could use QuickTime player to record the screen. Connect your device to the Mac with a cable then open QuickTime Player, right click on the icon in dock, select new recording and set the input to your mobile device (small arrow next to the red record-button). Then click record. It will continue the recording even though you set the mobile device to sleep.


How do I fix "Bluetooth: Not available" I have a 2012 15" MacBook Pro and the Bluetooth is "unavailable". It has been like this for a while actually, probably about a year and a half. Sometimes it randomly becomes available and turns on only to become unavailable again only minutes later. Also a Bluetooth setup wizard app opens sometimes, usually after I turn the computer on after it had shut off from low battery, but when I click on it nothing happens. I haven't cared about this issue too much because I didn't have anything connected using Bluetooth, but now I actually do have something that I want to connect. I have tried resetting the SMC, deleting the .plist file and restarting, but neither of these worked. Does anyone know what might solve this issue?

Delete Bluetooth paired list
Close any Bluetooth associated file that may hinder the process
Copy/Paste following and Press the combination Command + Shift + G

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist

Rename it so to save a copy com.apple.Bluetooth-Old.plist

Now delete the original file and restart your Mac, it should create new Plist.

Alternative approach

Press ⌘ Space to activate Spotlight.

Type "bluetooth", choose the 'Bluetooth File Exchange' application, and press Return.

Bluetooth File Exchange will prompt to enable the bluetooth hardware, press Return.

Bluetooth is now enabled and you can quit Bluetooth File Exchange.

Here it is what it looks on my MBA


Some keys on Apple Wireless keyboard not working I noticed that these keys are not working on my Apple Wireless keyboard: q, w, e, r, t, y, u, i, & o. All the other keys work normally. The keyboard layout is set to US.

Is there a setting that I enabled accidentally or it is time to get a new keyboard?

There is no setting or keyboard layout that will render an entire row of keys disabled.

Consider checking the keyboard by pairing it with other device that you have access to such as another Mac, Windows PC equipped with Bluetooth, an iPhone/iPod or an iPad.

If the behaviour reoccurs, than most likely the keyboard is kaput. If the keyboard is still covered under original warranty or the accompanying Mac is covered under original warranty or Apple Care, you can get it inspected or replaced at an Apple Store or authorised Apple service centre.


Can any settings reduce or eliminate the Mac OS X Lion Jumping Cursor Bug? How do you stop the jumping cursor bug in Mac OS X Lion?

I am using the Magic Mouse and the cursor keeps jumping to the edge of the screen very often, every minute or two I say. The mouse seems to take off in whatever direction the mouse is moving, just going way too far leaving the cursor at the edge of the screen

After googling, it looks like it is a widespread issue and definately a Mac OS X Lion bug.

Are there any solutions besides waiting for Apple to fix this? Afterall, could take ages and I need to get work done!... Can't downgrade to Snow Leopard, new laptop with Lion.

This blog post mentions turning off mouse acceleration as a solution:

http://incredimike.com/blog/2011/08/os-x-lion-causing-a-jumpy-mouse-movement/

He supplies links to a command line script and an app that'll do it.  I haven't tried it as I'm hoping Apple fixes this before I feel like I need to muck with hidden settings.


I can't remember my iTunes password and the email it's tied to is no longer active I have been trying for months to log into my iTunes account on my iPad but my usual choices of passwords are not working. When choosing "forgot my password" it wants to email me at an old Verizon.net address that has been long disabled. Before arriving at the security questions it prompts me for my birthdate, of which it too says is invalid...I'm at a loss. I know my birthdate is correct but I am stuck. Is there any way to find out the password when the email it is tied to is long gone?
I even attempted to start over by creating an entirely new Apple account but I can't reset my iPad without the old password. Aargh! Please help

You can contact Apple via Apple Support. Select "More Products and Services" followed by "Apple ID". On the following page you asked to choose a topic, select "Other Apple ID Topics" followed by "Lost or Forgotten Apple ID Password". You will then be asked if you would like an Apple support specialist to contact you, or if you would like to schedule a call at a later date.

I suspect they are going to ask you a series of billing related questions to verify your identity. If they are able to verify your identity, you should be able to provide them an alternate email for the password reset link.

Good Luck :)


Can I connect my MacBook Pro DisplayPort to a Thunderbolt iMac to use as a display? I have a MacBook Pro with Mini DisplayPort and I want to use target display mode to use a Thunderbolt iMac as an external display. If this works, would I need a Mini DisplayPort cable or a Thunderbolt cable?

According to this source, you won't be able to do that. You have to have a Thunderbolt Mac and use a Thunderbolt cable to use a Thunderbolt iMac as an external display. This other source has a table that confirms it. Sorry!


I want to stop gmail messages appearing on my screen as soon as I log on When I put my password into my mac and log on I get my gmail screen with its messages appearing together with other items how do i stop this happening. I am using OSX version 10.8.5  Thank you IR.

Are these messages appearing via Notification Center, in the upper right of your display?


How do I sync my iPhone and 2015 MacBook I don't have a USB-C cable or USB-C adapter.

How do I sync my iPhone 5s with my 2015 MacBook? I thought I could do it over WiFi?

2015 MacBook's don't have USB ports

I also have a MacBook Pro but I don't want my iTunes library on this machine.

To Sync your iPhone via WiFi your iPhone needs to be connected with a cable to the MacBook once. Then in iTunes there will be an option on the main screen for the iPhone where you can select "WiFi Synchronization".

This will make it possible for the iPhone to be synced when on the same network and manually when navigating to Settings > General > Wi-Fi iTunes Synchronization.


Is it possible to selectively erase time-machine backups for a given period? I would like to know if I could selectively erase some backups, for example all backups of Folder X in the last 2 weeks, and still be assured the following (future) backups of this Folder X will be correct.
Could it be as simple as mounting the hard disk of the backup, go to the targeted folders and thrashing them ?
The objective is obviously to reclaim space.
I'm on an iMac 2019, Big Sur 11.3.1.
Edit: following some remarks, I looked again in the interface and I found a "delete backup" option, by right-clicking on a file or folder.
What is strange is that there are inconsistencies. Sometimes the option disappears. Then comes back. I am quite confused. Maybe, just a temporary bug while TM updates its indexes.
And I'm also a little embarrassed to ask such a stupid question if the option is right under my eye. I've been using TM since 2007 and did not notice this feature.
Did anyone use it successfully ? Currently, I can't test it as I disabled TM while I'm working on my 300 GB library

You can open Finder and select your backup disk. Find the backups in the time range and delete them (shown in the image below). This will delete those backups on disk. This will properly delete the backups - if you inspect system logs you will find it handling these as requests to delete a backup, rather than as requests to delete a folder.
I would recommend doing it one at a time to avoid overwhelming the backup disk.
Deleting a backup will not delete files that were added in that backup from other backups. Each backup can be viewed independently, as a snapshot of your disk at that time.


iOS app for toggling bluetooth when iPhone is plugged into dock Are there any apps that will toggle bluetooth on/off when the phone is plugged or unplugged from power?

I only use bluetooth in my car when it is plugged in the dock so that is the only time I would like it turned on. I've searched the App Market and haven't found anything. Thanks.

Not without Jailbraking. App-Store restrictions prevent any application developers from changing hardware settings. You can always suggest a feature to Apple by visiting http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html


Use of the requested audio unit(s) require lowering the security settings I just started getting this alert at seemingly random points in Finder:

Use of the requested audio unit(s) require lowering of the security settings for "Quick Look UI Helper". Are you sure you want to proceed?
[Lower Security Settings] [Cancel]

This appears even when the selected item in the Finder cannot be quick-looked (e.g. AVI files).
Does anyone have any idea what it means and what causes it? This hasn't appeared before the latest software update and no search results match the alert text, so I'm suspecting this is something new in the OS update.
OS: macOS Sierra 10.12.4
Hardware: Mid-2012 MacBook Pro

I have come across one (!) reply on the Apple boards.

I want anyone who reads this to take it with a grain of caution. This 'answer' does not seem to ring as '110%' accurate.

  You are using a Codec component that is not compatible with macOS Sierra. That Codec component was a part of a library that conflicts with macOS Sierra and in order for Quicktime to load would require to change the "Quick Look UI Helper" security settings. If you really need that Codec component you can proceed by clicking "Quick Look UI Helper" Lower Security Settings.

(Here's the link; https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7948198?start=0&tstart=0)


Can't enable iCloud Drive on OS X Sierra Can't enable iCloud Drive on OS X Sierra. Going to Sys. Preferences > iCloud , can enable every feature, but not iCloud Drive. Can't enable it and icon has a fade out effect. Tried to log out and login again - didn't worked.

What could be the problem? My Mac was issued me by my company - could they block that feature?

macOS Sierra 10.12.5 Beta (16F43c)

In case this is your company's computer, it could have been deactivated through a management software, like jamf:

https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/20997/disable-icloud-desktop-and-documents-in-sierra


Does backing up the single VMWare Fusion's virtual machine file to be suffecient to backup the entire virtual machine? Does backing up the single VMWare Fusion virtual machine file sufficient to backup the entire virtual machine? Meaning if I use that single file on other Mac or PC, will it run as it is?

On a Mac, when you copy the virtual machine file, it is actually a directory with all the files included that you will need to run it on another machine.

Shut down the VM before you copy it otherwise it can give issues on the other system. If you look at the folder you copied afterwards, you will see a bunch of files. The important ones are all grouped with VirtualMachineName.vm* and VirtualMachineName.plist and VirtualMachineName.nvram

You can remove all the other files.

The one with the .vmx extension is the config for the VM.


15 inch MacBook Pro A1226 (2009) died suddenly I have a 15inch MacBook Pro circa 2009 (model number A1226) Over the last week or so it has shut down unexpectedly when there is battery power and when its plugged in. It restarted fine and then worked for another few days before it did it again.

Today it shut down and will not turn back on. Once its shut down the battery no longer charges.

Any ideas what could have gone wrong?

If the LED does not illuminate, then you have a hardware failure that could be as simple as needing to take the battery out and run without.

All unibody Mac with built-in batteries have very delicate cells, so use great care to avoid puncturing them - even when discharged, you could start a fire.

You could take it in for service or try a DIY repair, and as long as you don't leave any small debris between the battery and the case (and ensure nothing is left inside the case that fits that description), the skilled DIYer can easily exchange the battery.

Depending on your budget, you might delay buying a battery and have it serviced to see if there isn't a different failure of the charging system or the computer itself that caused a dead battery or will prevent operation even with a good battery.

I'd take it in for service unless you have a high interest in learning or there really are no good options where you could mail or take it directly. Apple should be able to quote you a cost to repair the battery in a mail in service and you can decide from there whether to seek other quotes or have them work on it with the expectation that you'll pay for a battery or get a call if the repair costs more than quoted. At that point you can decide to go ahead or not, but if it's just a battery, you'll end up paying for the service and get a 90 day warranty on the machine and the work.


Can I install adobe Illustrator cs6 on 32-bit mac I have mac book pro, Processor: 2.16 Ghz intel Core Duo, Memory: 1 GB 667 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM, Model Identifier: MacBookPro1,2, Total Number Of Cores: 2, Boot ROM Version: MBP12.0061.B03.

I tried to install adobe illustrator cs6 on it but I got forbidden mark on the application.

Is there is any luck with that, or I have to buy new mac, I hope not

Thanks

After checking the system requirements on the Adobe web site I could say: No, you can´t use Adobe CS6 Illustrator with your Mac because of the lack of RAM (1GB instead of 2GB) and no 64bit processor as Apple said it on your support document.


Is there a way to make AirPods connect to AppleTV without having to go deep into AppleTV's menus? My AirPods have been paired to my AppleTV long time ago.  But typically, I use them with my iPhone or iPad.

Every once in a while, usually at night, I want to watch a show on AppleTV using my AirPods.  However, the process of having to go deep into AppleTV's menus just to get the AirPods connected is a cumbersome process.

I asked Siri for help, but she had no idea what I was talking about when I used the Siri Remote to say "Hey Siri, connect to my AirPods".  And I did this when the AirPods are in my ear and have already played me the "I am ON" DING sound.

So, the question becomes:

Can I use any automated way to get the AirPods to connect to my AppleTV as "lazily" as possible?

Usually (sometimes I do have to go deep into the menu’s) you should be able to swipe down from the top, using your Apple TV remote (works in most apps - not all), and then select your audio device by selecting the “Audio” tab, going down to “Speaker”, and selecting your Bluetooth device.

Alternatively, you can hold the “play/pause” button on your remote when in the “TV” or “Menu” views and select the audio output in a pop up menu.

Related answer (my own) about how to use AirPods easily with multiple devices.


Automatically cc myself when sending from 1 particular email account - OSX mail I've got multiple email accounts in OSX Mail, a mixture of gmail, google apps mail, and me.com ... all of which are connecting via imap / smtp.

With one of the accounts I want to automatically cc a copy of all outgoing emails to another email address.

What's the best way to do this? I can see there is a auto cc myself option under the composing tab in preferences, but this would seem to auto cc emails sent from every email account, rather than just 1 particular account.

System : OSX 10.10

Currently this isn't possible with the built-in  Mail rule set in Yosemite. As mentioned by user3439894, you have to rely on a third-party utility. Here’s a screenshot from Mail Act-on site.

You can build your own rule using the additional third-party rule set e.g. Add CC Recipient. So people we see that you have added them to Cc list.


Setting up environment variables for GUI apps? Transitioning from Windows to the Mac. In Windows, I had a lot of environmental variables set-up that I used to speed up my work. Thinks like

DEVDIR=C:\WORKDOCS\DOCS_jaravj\PROJ\dev
DOCDIR=C:\WORKDOCS\DOCS_jaravj
PERS=C:\WORKDOCS\DOCS_jaravj\Personal
PROD=C:\WORKDOCS\DOCS_jaravj\PROJ\PROD
SVN=C:\WORKDOCS\DOCS_jaravj\PROJ\SVN_CO_Tort

etc...

That, and the "magic" of autocompletion in the "Run" box and in the file save/open dialogs, allowed me to move around very quickly.

I've set up the equivalent env. variables in the shell, and I can cd and mv etc to the proper directories, but I haven't found a way to do something similar for the GUI apps, so that I can use the same shortcuts in the applications...

I've followed the tips in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/135688/setting-environment-variables-in-os-x to add the env vars to /etc/launchd.conf but when I am going to save a file (for example), I can't use $PROJ in the "directory selector" and have the file be saved there...

I don't believe variables set in the environment are going to work in the Open & Save dialog box (OSDB). It's a nice idea, but you'd have to admit, kinda neckbeardy.

The Macintosh way would be to use the Favorites list presented on the left of the OSDB. Drag your often used directories there and you have one-click access.

A much more powerful alternative is Default Folder X. This gives you an incredible degree of short-cutting and changes of default behaviors in the OSDB.


Cloud storage encryption Is it recommended to encrypt files stored via cloud. For example, although certain cloud repositories encrypt data in transit - should I still use a secondary encryption tool for cloud storage?

thanks :)

Depends on what your needs are.

Do you trust the cloud storage provider to have implemented encryption in transit and in rest correctly?

Do you trust that the cloud storage provider won't access the files themselves, or allow others to access them (on purpose or through hacking) - if that is possible with the security model chosen by the cloud storage provider?

If not, you could consider encrypting the files themselves before you place them in the cloud. Is it worth it for a copy of last year's birthday greetings card for Aunt Betty? Is it worth it for a copy of the book keepings of your company?

It really depends on what you need to store (how sensitive it is) and how much hassle you can live with to mitigate the risk of having the cloud storage provider's security (or lack of) broken.

If you do choose to encrypt, it will give you more hassle as you'll need to manually encrypt and decrypt files in order to access them - or rig some kind of automated system for doing the same, without sacrificing security.


Does the iPhone Mail app mark gmail messages as spam? If I move a message to the Spam folder using the native mail app on the iPhone, will it be marked as spam on the gmail server? Or will the message just be moved to that folder? I'm connected to gmail via Exchange.

Moving the message to the Spam folder will mark it as spam on the gmail server as well as moving it to the spam folder.


Downloading/Sending video from my iphone to some other device in different ways I have a very large video on my iphone that is pretty important to me, its over an hour long around 8 gigs big.

I usually use image capture or iphoto to download my videos from my phone to my mac. However, I am having an issue with this video today. When I try to download it through Image Capture it says:

  An error occured while importing. The item ‘IMG_1226.MOV” was not
  imported.

When I do it with iPhoto it says:

  iPhoto cannot import your photos because there was a problem
  downloading an image.

I was don't know what's wrong with the video because I can perfectly watch it on my iPhone, so I am not sure whats wrong with this.

To try to repair this the only thing I really tried was to update my iPhone's OS and hope it does the trick. I am using iOS 8.1 which is the newest and it did nothing.

I am not sure how else to transfer it somewhere else so that I can have a copy of it on some other device. How does the community suggest I solve this?

Some ideas I've had (but have not tried yet because I am not sure how to do them):

Send it to Dropbox somehow by internet... might be possible? Remember, its stuck on my iphone for the time being, so I need to send it through my phone.
Make it an mp4 or some video format as is smaller (in my phone), compress it and send it  to myself somehow, by mail or Dropbox (or see if the compressed video can be sent directly, remember, I can't do it on a computer for the time being, its stuck on my phone).
upload the WHOLE thing to youtube on my phone (though I can't right now cuz it gigantic so my iphone only lets me do it by parts...). but then i would have the problem that I can't download it back... right?
Go to the Genius Bar at an Apple Store...? But what could they do that I can't though...?
one potential solution I thought was "editing" the video on my phone with some app that saves it a copy of it and then downloading it. I just don't know what good apps to edit videos exist for iPhone. The only issue with this is that, saving a copy that is as big will be a problem because I am already running out of space on my phone and I don't want to delete the videos until they are saved somewhere!

Some further restrictions I have.

My phone has 32 Gigs and 24 Gigs are already used. 15.4 GB of them are because of the videos. The rest is information I am willing to erase if I can save those videos.

Try a peer-to-peer file transfer service to move the video directly from your phone to computer, like BitTorrent Sync. This would be faster then using a cloud solution like uploading to Dropbox or YouTube and then downloading it again. It's very simple to use too, just download the BitTorrent Sync app on your phone and Mac, turn on the Camera Roll backup feature from you phone, and then send the link to your Mac to begin the transfer. This is the probably the fastest way to transfer files with out a wired connection.


Changing the Logic Board on the Macbook, does it changes the serial number? I have changed the Logic Board from my Macbook, is there any chance that the serial number is another different one from the original Macbook?
I really need help.
Thanks!

Yes. Serial numbers are hard coded / written to Apple main board / logic boards. Unless you use a service tool, you would end up with a new serial after the swap.


Could my stolen Mac have been erased before I activated Find My Mac? My Mac was stolen on a train and I only noticed it shortly before arriving the final destination. The thief most likely left the train at one of the earlier stops.

I activated the Find My Mac feature when I finally got home after I went to the lost and found office at the train station. I also remotely locked my Mac and activated the Play Sound feature.

Since then, I keep getting the same message, that "the computer is not online". I am wondering if whoever took it was able to open it and erase the contents and operating system on it before I was able to activate the security features.

Would that disable the Find My Mac feature, or would it still be able to locate my computer? (It's a MacBook Pro.)

If you don't have configured a password to choose boot options the thief is able to delete all your content, without having your root password.
He can simply:

Do not connect your Mac in internet.
Turn on Mac pressing Cmd+S to enter in CLI mode.
Change your admin account password (I have intentionally omitted details on this step).
Logout.
Login using your account with his password.
Disable all services related to iCloud, so disable Find My Mac.

In this case you're unable to locate your Mac.


Safari preferences aren't being saved after a fresh Sierra installation I just reinstalled Mac OS Sierra on my iMac, but Safari doesn't save any Preferences.

When Safari starts it prompts me to "enable Microsoft Silverlight plugin" (because Netflix demands this plugin).  When I try to enable it (in Safari->Preferences->Security->Plugin Settings and check the Silverlight box and click Done), and then restart Safari, it hasn't saved, and the same prompt comes up and when I look, that setting I just checked is no longer checked.

This also happens when I try to change any other settings in Safari Preferences, as well.  Nothing gets saved after I restart Safari.

Also, any changes made to the top menu bar of Safari aren't saved (by right clicking on it and choosing "Customize Toolbar", then adding the Cloud Tabs button, and removing the "share" button, for example).

Plz help!

UPDATE:
I've tried this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7561960?start=0&tstart=0
which I thought was the problem, but this appears not to be the case.  My ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist file is unlocked and I "can read and write" to it, at least according to Finder.  Still trying to fix this whole issue...

Ok, I fixed it by deleting all files with "Safari" in the name in the ~/Library/Caches folder and then emptying the trash.  The bottom-most post on this page helped me: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7604923?start=0&tstart=0


How to Invert Color on Mac running Catalina? I just downloaded the new version of OS, and I found out the shortcut key Ctrl-Opt-Cmd-8 doesn't trigger invert colors anymore. I thought maybe they changed the shortcut, so I tried to search in System Preference but ended with no luck. Did Apple remove invert colors? If not, where can I find it? Is there any shortcut key for it? Thanks!

I can only use the keyboard shortcut if I go into System Preferences and explicitly unckeck and re-check the box for Invert Colors.  Once I am done with my session I enable screen saver by going to a designated not corner.  When I come back, the keyboard shortcut only produces the system sound for an alert without inverting the colors.  It is again only when I go back into System Preferences and uncheck/re-check Invert Colors will it work again.  This is highly annoying and frustrating as I rely on this for various apps that do not have a dark mode in my normal daily workflow.


Automator - Renaming it without any .html extension Can we able to rename the files without file extensions?

I did tried the following setup, But I get the filename ended with "." may be because the same folder name as file exists.

Here is my current workflow. You can see in the image that in the final step, filename "dc." That's a html file.

If a folder/directory of the same base name of the file name does not exist at the same level as the file then it can be done, otherwise you cannot remove .html from the file name at the same level.

To remove the extension and the . you need to use:

Find: .html in fullname

If the fully qualified pathname contains .html in other then the actual file name, then you'll have to use a Run Shell Script action instead of the Rename Finder Items action.

Run Shell Script action:

Shell: /bin/bash
Pass input: as arguments

for f in "$@"
do
    [ ! -d "${f%.*}" ] || continue
    mv -n "$f" "${f%.*}"
done

NOTE: As coded, if folder/directory of the same base name of the file name does exist at the same level as the file then nothing will happen and the file name will be unchanged.

If you need to clean up things, that is to remove trailing . in the file names from the previous renaming, do the following in Terminal:

cd /path/to/article
find . -type f -iregex '.*\.$' | for f in *; do [ ! -d "${f%.*}" ] || continue; mv -vn "$f" "${f%.*}"; done

Same note from above applies here as well.


MacBook Pro 13 inch 2,6GHz versus 15 inch 2.0Ghz. Which CPU is better? I need a new Macbook Pro and am comparing the 13 inch Retina 2.6GHz with the 15 inch Retina 2.0GHz.

I understand that 2.6GHz is faster than 2.0GHz but how does CPU performance compare between the two models with regards to Turbo Boost?

The 13 inch boosts up to 3.1GHz whereas the 15 inch boosts to 3.2Ghz.

My old MacBook didn't have Turbo boost and I use photo and video editing software.

I'd prefer the bigger screen but am mindful of cost.

It's quite simple from my perspective - The 15 inch CPU is superior in all respects over the 13 inch CPU:

2.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz) with 6MB shared L3 cache
2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz) with 3MB shared L3 cache

Turbo Boost engages for operations where only one core is active. Starting at a lower GHz saves energy and battery and as long as the CPU can boost to a faster top level than a competing CPU - you get the best of both worlds - fuel efficiency at idle and top speed when needed.

So, for a simple task where the computer is doing one thing only - you would expect the 13 inch to ramp one core up to 3.1 GHz whereas the 15 inch would ramp up to 3.2 GHz. Bigger is better for that task. Plus a larger L3 cache will make some switching between tasks more efficient on the 15 inch model.

Now, if you have video processing or a mixed workload where tons of compute is waiting for the CPU. You have two cores running at 2.66 or 5.32 GHz of theoretical throughput compared to 4 cores at 2.0 or 8.00 GHz of throughput. Again, no task scales perfectly, but even with 10% overhead, the quad core processor wins. It would have to be a bizarre benchmark to show the dual core i5 out perform the quad core i7 for any task that engages multiple cores.

If you want another opinion, I would recommend this nice article by Marco Arment on trying to calculate which Mac Pro CPU choice works for various budgets and tasks:

http://www.marco.org/2013/11/26/new-mac-pro-cpus

In it, he doesn't explain why he feels the 15 inch MacBook Pro is so far superior to the 13 inch MacBook Pro and simply states it as fact. I generally agree with that due experience and seeing benchmarks/reviews I trust. My feeling is the current 15 inch logic board and supporting components are faster and of better specifications than what is put into the 13 inch model. If you can swing the cost and live with (or prefer) the larger physical size, get the 15 inch model. It's an excellent workstation in a portable form factor. For many tasks it benchmarks as fast as an iMac and even the new Mac Pro.

Personal note: The base $1299 13 inch model is no slouch - I work from one almost exclusively the last year and I'm never really waiting for it in practice. If you need to pinch pennies on the CPU, I'd con side any of the retina 13 inch models if it means you can afford AppleCare, an external monitor plus backup drive(s) and whatever software you need to be productive. Rather than invest in tons of extra CPU cycles that you may not really use or need to work day in and day out.


Is it possible to "shut off" battery charging in OSX Is it possible to "shut off" battery charging in OSX with an application rather then physically. Could this be done with AppleScript (I doubt it) or will need to be obj-c cocoa application? Essentially my idea is an app that'll shut off the charger when requirements are met (like the computer is in sleep mode, or the battery hasn't been drained in a few days)

I don't know I you already tried looking on Google, but this a problem multiple persons have tried to do.

There doesn't seems to be a Public API (yet ?) also no "private" API has been found yet.

Also, as stated in this question, MacBooks have intelligent battery management. This means your laptop will stop charging once the battery is full.

Edit :

Results I found :

SO question : Is there a way to turn off battery charging programmatically in OSX?
Mac Rumors topic : Make battery stop charging at a certain level
Mac rumors topic : Program to disable charging
Ask Different question : How to disable battery charging?


Time Machine affects wrong external drive I have 2 external HD and everything is set up correctly as you'd expect. The one called "Time Machine" is set as the destination, and other drive, called "External HD", is in the exclusion list, and is not a target.

Yet TM continues to make Backups.backupdb folder appear on the other drive. This dir is very hard to delete. If you Trash it and try to empty the trash, it says it's in use, and every other error message you can think of, including that some files are protected by System Integrity Protection. The last time I had to turn off protection via csrutil and reboot just to finally empty the trash.

Additionally, "External HD" still shows the TM drive icon as well, just like the real TM drive. I know there're online workarounds for how to fix the icon, but my problem obviously goes beyond that.

For background, I'm on Sierra, 10.12.1. Also, as far as how this happened, I used to have a crappy USB hub, and drives would give out. When the TM drive wasn't available, TM would just take it upon itself to use the other external HD that was available at the time. So there're probably some system files that make it seem like a TM drive, although I'm not seeing anything obvious with ls -la.

Finally, reformatting is not an option for me, as I don't have enough space on the primary drive to move everything over from "External HD" just to wipe it.

To sum up, I think I need to 1) Remove any trace of TM from a drive and 2) fix its icon. Thanks in advance for any help.

The tmutil command should do the trick... in theory.

tmutil destinationinfo

should list the External HD and an associated ID string; feeding that string to

tmutil removedestination (destinationinfo_ID_string)

should stop Time Machine from backing up there; and

tmutil delete (path/to/the/wayward/"External HD"/backups)

should remove the backups from External HD--at least it did in 2012.


How can I prevent an SSH session from hanging in OS X Terminal? When I close my MacBook with an active SSH session in Terminal and then wake it up,  the prompt goes unresponsive.

In about five minutes it says

  Write failed: Broken pipe

and terminates.

This also happens when I don't type anything in the Terminal in about fifteen minutes.

Can I force OS X to:

Keep SSH connection alive for longest time possible
Kill it immediately once it becomes unresponsive

?

For keeping the connection alive, you can check in /etc/ssh/ssh_config the line where it says ServerAliveInterval, that tells you how often (in seconds) your computer is gonna send a null packet to keep the connection alive. If you have a 0 in there that indicates that your computer is not trying to keep the connection alive (it is disabled), otherwise it tells you how often (in seconds) it is sending the aforementioned packet. Try putting in 120 or 240, if it is still killing your connection, you can go lower, maybe to 5, if with that number it doesn't happen, maybe it is your router who is dumping the connection to free memory.

For killing it when it gets hang up, you can use the ssh escape character:

~.

That is, press the tilde and then the period, if it doesn't work, press Enter before you press that, that will kill the connection immediately.


Can’t Enable Apple Watch Auto-Unlock With macOS Sierra installed on a Mac from at least 2013 and an Apple Watch (the very first one), users should be able to unlock their Mac with their Apple Watch. I have an Early 2013 MacBook Pro and an Apple Watch, both of which have the most updated version of the OS installed. I followed these instructions to get it to work (checked 2 factor authentication is on, I have a password on my Watch), but I do not see the option to use my Watch to unlock under System Preferences. Any ides on why it does not work? Could it have something to do with me having 2 Apple IDs, one for iTunes and one for iCloud? Could it be my Mac is somehow not ready for this feature (although it is from 2013)?

Are you seeing the "Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac" checkbox?

You may need to enable Continuity.  Make sure both devices are on the same WiFi network, and Bluetooth is enabled.  The article also had an error, it says

  "[...] make sure that Disable Automatic Login is unchecked. If the
  option is grayed out, you might need to click the padlock icon at the
  bottom of the window to make the necessary changes."

I think they meant that the box is checked.

EDIT: Here's the Apple article you want to reference: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT206995


Adjust video playback color, contrast, and gamma on Mac? On Windows, the NVIDIA control panel provides some features that I use a lot when watching movies; you can adjust the gamma and other settings, such as dynamic contrast and color enhancement. I've been using these for a while as they make a big difference with Dark Movies. These settings, I assume are somehow magically "better" than directly adjusting settings in a video player software. The settings only affect video playback and not the Desktop colors or other applications. (This is not a critical feature for me to have but I'm just mentioning it so people know what I'm talking about)

What would be the equivalent to this on a mac?

Go to your system's display setting and navigate to the color tab.
Click Calibrate and follow the process to set the display up as desired. In the end, it asks you for a name for the new display profile and saves it so you can easily switch between profiles.


Switch Between Apps With Alt-Tab / Command-Tab on iPad or iPhone using Bluetooth Keyboard I have both iOS devices and with keyboards. I could be much more productive if I could do Alt-Tab / Command-Tab app switching using my keyboard. Is there any way to do this? Is there any way to switch between the two most recent apps or anything similar?

No, there isn't a way to do this. As an alternative, I would suggest enabling multitasking gestures (Settings > General > Multitasking Gestures). With them on, you can switch to the next/previous app with a four-finger swipe, instead of bringing up the multitasking bar. You can actually swipe through all of the apps in the multitasking bar, in the same order (order of last use). Note that getting to an app through this gesture does not change their order, so if you swipe left to get to an app, you will swipe right to go back.


Change PHP $PATH setting? How to change PHP $PATH setting?

I am using MAMP 2.x, my terminal for PHP command is already set to the MAMP PHP 5.3.x, but now I want to change to PHP 5.2.x

I have done this before, but i forget the location of the file.

I found it, it located at /etc/paths we can edit it from terminal with this code

sudo nano /etc/paths


How can I remove DRM from my iTunes music without transcoding? I have some iTunes files with the file type AAC audio (protected) on Windows 7. The problem is that these songs only work with Apple software, and I want to remove the DRM.

Apple offers a feature called iTunes Plus to upgrade most purchases to a DRM-free version for a small fee. This link will bring you directly to the appropriate section in iTunes to do this.


My MacBook Pro Mid 2012 screen is black and then just vertical stripes (like a glitch). Why and how do I solve this? It happened few hours ago - I tried to switch the MacBook Pro mid 2012 on from sleep. It doesnt switch on for some reason. I then shut the lid and suddenly the apple icon behind the screen lights up and I open the lid. But what I see is a screen of vertical stripes only in various colors, mainly different shades of gray. How do I fix this and why did this happen?

This is a common problem with 2012-2013 Macbook pro's, and is caused by the connection to the GPU card cracking. Apple is offering a repair program where they will fix this for free. If you have an Apple Store near you, I would suggest taking it in and having them fix it.


Why Handoff is not working after network reset? (iOS/iPadOS 13.2) I reset Network settings on my iPhone XS and on my iPad Pro (2018) two days ago. Since then, Handoff works only from iPhone to Mac (10.14.6) but it doesn’t in the other direction.

I have already turned off every option suggested by support and restarted devices before turning them back on.

What can I do now? Why is this happening?

Typically, resetting the network settings clears the network connection so that the keys Apple generates / matches to know which device is yours may be expired or need to be renewed / re-keyed.
Connect to WiFi on all devices and make sure iCloud is working would be my first triage step here.


How to stop macbook from playing youtube videos at login screen? When I opened my macbook this morning, a youtube video I had been watching earlier started playing at max volume.

Combine that with the touch keyboard, so there's no way to adjust the volume until I log in..

Basically a terrible user experience. Is there any way to not autoplay media when I open the laptop?

Option A: Simply hit the speaker icon (Mute key) on login.

Using the Apple Keyboard

Using a MacBoook with Touch Bar

Option B: Global setting to turn off websites that automatically play media.

Open Safari > Preferences > Websites > When visiting other websites > Stop Media with Sound


Can I airdrop an image from Chrome to my iPhone? I don't want to share the web page or the link. I know we can do that today.
I want to airdrop an image after right clicking on it or opening the image in new tab, airdrop directly to my iphone photo gallery.

there is no way as i know only you can do is to save that image and then airdrop it


How should I react to an email saying my Apple password has changed? Few weeks back I had a email from Apple telling me that my account was being tried to logon to from location they don’t recognise “China”. And they have locked down my account. Today I got email “Your password has successfully Reset” where as I never did changed. It had a link for me to go to “Resolution Centre” if it wasn’t me. I am bit confused on if it’s a phishing email or really from Apple?
And what does it mean “Password Successfully Reset”

We can't tell if it's a phishing email or not because you didn't supply any info about it. It's probably phishing because it often is.

To be safe, just go to Apple's ID Reset page on a device you trust and reset your password. This is especially urgent if you used your AppleID password at another service that was compromised, or it’s easy to guess - one of the 1,000 most common passwords like 123456.

If you're allowed to complete the reset then you know the emails, both of them, were fake.

If you can't do the reset, you'll have to contact Apple Support ASAP. In no circumstances should you click the links directly in the emails since if they're fake, the web sites you click on will harvest your actual password and you will have given up access to your account. If they are real, you will have the best chance to undo the change that was made by following Apple’s recovery from navigating to Apple pages directly:

https://appleid.apple.com/

Here’s an explanation how to trace a mail and find out if it’s legitimate with images in case that helps:

Is this a legitimate email address from Apple support?


Navigate to a folder called (0) VMWare AirWatch (an MDM managemt framework) locks my Desktop background picture (Override wallpaper with VMware AirWatch Agent)

I tried to find the existing picture with the following command in Sierra:

defaults write com.apple.dock desktop-picture-show-debug-text -bool TRUE;
killall Dock

and it showed me that the picture was in (0)/Library/Wallpaper.jpg

How can I access this folder with the intent to change this managed setting.

The (0) is not part of the path. I'm not sure what it is, to be honest

I tried that terminal command and for me it says:

Screen 1 (space 1):

(14)/Users/joonaspaakko/Documents/uDesktop NEXT Library/Catalog/uDNature7658.jpg

Screen 2 (space 1):

(19)/Users/joonaspaakko/Documents/uDesktop NEXT Library/Catalog/uDNature7658.jpg

Screen 1 (space 2):

(3)/Users/joonaspaakko/Documents/uDesktop NEXT Library/Catalog/uDNature7408.jpg

Screen 2 (space 2):

(9)/Users/joonaspaakko/Documents/uDesktop NEXT Library/Catalog/uDNature7408.jpg

etc....

When I navigate to the path ignoring the parenthesis and the number, I get to the folder with the wallpaper, which in my case is: /Users/joonaspaakko/Documents/uDesktop NEXT Library/Catalog/

So based on that I would say your wallpaper is in /Library/. You can get there easily with the Go to Folder..., but in case you are not aware, that is the global Library folder you can find, if you go to Machintosh HD


How do you get system diagnostic files from macOS? I am trying to debug a crashed (or hanging) app. How do I get the diagnostic files from the crash?

Individual crash reports are stored in ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter but there is a system wide log collection tool called sysdiagnose.

Once you start experiencing the issue, hold down the
4 modifier keys and then press the period "." key. shift+control+option+command+.

After about 15 seconds, a Finder window will open with a sysdiagnose file highlighted.

This keyboard shortcut simply executes the sysdiagnose command, so if you are familiar with Terminal and want to pass in a process ID, you can get enhanced debugging information about that specific program. The key shortcut calls the tool with no arguments and captures the basic report only.


How do I restrict internet access to specific hours in iOS 14? I want to disable Safari and Chrome after 11pm at night. I should be in bed sleeping at that point, and not on the internet, so I find that restriction very helpful to break my bad sleep hygiene habits.
However since the last iOS update I can’t seem to restrict Safari or Chrome anymore. The apps are just missing from the "Always Allowed" screen.
How can you limit access to the internet on an iOS device to certain hours? It feels like a bug to only be able to limit every other app on your phone! (And strangely Firefox DOES appear in the list -- just Safari and Chrome are missing.)

I have found a solution! It's not perfect, but I've been testing it and it just about works:

In Chrome, on the device in question, go to this address: chrome://flags/
Then search for "screentime" (all one word).
You should see: Enables ScreenTime Integration
Switch this to ENABLED.

It's a bit glitchy, but it works. It locks Chrome in the way you'd expect it to.
In the meantime, tell the developers how important this is to you here: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1162695
It seems the longterm plan might be for Chrome to fully support Screen Time (like Safari does), allowing users to manually allow access to specific websites during Downtime.
More information: https://www.chromestory.com/2020/09/chrome-ios-screen-time/
It's unclear when this feature will be added however.


Does using "rm" command cause journaling corruption? Some time ago I had some problems with my Mac drive, so I went to the recovery partition and used Disk Utility to check for problems. It reported a huge discrepancy between the journaled free blocks and the actual free blocks, in the case of gigabytes.

I was wondering what may have caused this problem, and I remembered deleting a huge hierarchy of folders using rm -rf, and since this command is almost instantaneous, I thought it may have caused this problem.

Does this make any sense? Should I avoid using this command on OS X with a Journaled drive?

NOTE FOR CASUAL READERS: rm -rf destroys data.  Use with caution.

rm -rf may appear to go fast, but it is actually recursively going depth-first into each directory and unlinking the files within—the same operation that is used for any file deletion on Unix systems.

You can see how rm -rf works by adding the -v flag, e.g. rm -rfv.

There's no reason to believe that rm itself is responsible for journaling failures.  It's a proven and safe command that does not have any low-level access to the disk.

It is possible that the access pattern created triggered some bug in HFS+, but that seems unlikely as well; I rm -rf sizable trees of files on my machine frequently and haven't seen a problem.


Can I set a password on an existing dmg? I am just wondering if it's possible to set a password to existing dmg image. There is no such option at Disk Utility.

You can change it by first selecting the DMG in Disk Utilty. Then go to Images>Change Password.

It will prompt you for the password.

Then, it'll ask you for a new password for the DMG.


How can I change OS X Double-Click on Title Bar to be like Windows? I love my Mac eternally but there is one thing I miss from my former Windows days. When I want to toggle between maximize and restore window, on Windows I would double-click the title bar, and that would invoke the toggle.

However with older versions of OS X, a double click on the title bar causes the window to minimize, forcing me to hit F10, then locate the minimized window, then click on it. Too many steps.

Is there any way to make OS X perform the toggle on double-click?

Update July 2020 - macOs Catalina 10.15:

Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Dock.
Select check box Double-click a window’s title bar to zoom

3. Double click on window's title bar to maximise the window.

zoom: Expands a window to fill the space between the Dock and >the menu bar.
If the Dock is along the side of the screen, the window >fills the >space below the menu bar and to the side of the Dock.

macOs versions upto High Siera:
Its old question , but still if it helps anyone.
You need following 2 in order to maximise your window when clicked on title bar:

Go to Apple icon > System Preferences > Dock >
Select "Double-click a window's title bar to" "Zoom"

Shift + Double click on title bar to maximise the window.

Cheers


Is it possible to read F2FS-formatted SSDs in macOS? The title says it. I have an external drive for use on a Linux system, and would like to read it on macOS (High Sierra).
The drive is encrypted (I have the password).
Is possible?

Natively?  Definitely not.  F2FS was developed by Samsung for use on Linux.  I don't know of any mainstream Linux distros that support this out of the box either.  From the cursory research I've done, it can be added to the kernel to support it at compile time.
To get this support on macOS, you'll need to add support using Fuse much like you add support for any of the 3rd party file systems.  Currently, it's not listed as supported by Fuse.
What you might want to try is to load up a VM running Linux with F2FS support enabled then create a USB Device Filter to immediately mount it on the VM and not mount it on the macOS host.  VirtualBox supports this.


Macbook Pro Retina 13,3" tingling/buzzing sensation Okay, so YESTERDAY i bought my (super very wow expensive) Macbook Pro Retina 13,3". Huge investment for me.
Yesterday night i tried charging i for the first time, and it started tingling against the palms of my hands whenever i like moved it across the under-keyboard area. I've read a lot about it, and i've read that it's normal, and that i have to use a three plug charger - the problem is that in Denmark we dont use three plug chargers, so i really dont know what to do! I just can't believe that i've saved so many money for so long, and that I experience problems after less than 12 hours.. ugh.
Hope you can help me.

In Denmark you have 2 types of wall plug.

Both have ground connection.

The left one is standard European type and it has two ground connection showing as springs. Your Apple plug should just fit in that one.

I am assuming the socket it is actually connected to the ground in your place.


Failed to make bootable USB drive and now I can't even format it I want to do a fresh install of Yosemite and I got a brand new 8GB flash drive and I followed this tutorial. I formatted the USB drive and was copying the Yosemite installer, however I got the following error

Copying installer files to disk...
The copy of the installer app failed.

Great. So I tried to reformat the drive again and start over. No. Disk utility says I can't format it because it "cannot unmount the drive". What does that suppose to mean? Then I plug the USB drive to a Windows computer and tried my luck there. No, you can't format the drive because it's "write protected" (there's no physical write protection switch on the drive or anything). Oh dear so now the drive is completely ruined? How can I force format the drive?

Now in the terminal I used sudo diskutil unmountDisk force disk1 to successfully unmount the drive, but still I can't format it! Disk utility gave me a new error "Unable to write to the last block of the device."

It happened to me also you simply need to paste this commands in your Terminal, these commands ignores these errors and formats the Disks successfully no need to go to Disk Utility these commands will also create the bootable drive

Note: These commands are for macOS Sierra/High Sierra do the changes as per your needs! (This also works for any Previous version of macOS)

First you would need to download macOS Sierra Installer(Whichever OS you want),

Then you would have to make a bootable disk containing the Install macOS Sierra.app (Whichever OS you want)

I am also providing you a link to a YouTube video which will help you in creating the bootable USB stick link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4H5hKuI7yg&t=130s

I am also adding the command required to create the bootable disk:

sudo (path to the create install media file under installer.app>Contents>Resources) --volume {path to the USB stick (You are trying to make bootable)} —applicationpath (path to your Install macOS sierra.app)

e.g:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app

Please make the necessary changes as per your files and volumes


Is there a C compiler for iPad? I would like to study C using iPad. Just simple programs. So, is there a C compiler for iPad?

A cursory look at the iTunes Store reveals CodeToGo (iTunes Store Link). Since you cannot compile on the iPad itself, this app leverages a web service (IDEOne) in order to run the program and return the results to your device. The app is USD$3 and a universal binary (iPhone+iPad). The web service appears to be free, if not just a little ugly :).


Hit a key to "move and resize active window" I'd like to bind a key to an action that "takes the active windows and moves it to screen S, coordinates X,Y resizes it W,H". The S,X,Y,W,H variables can be hard-coded.

I don't know where to look for, is this doable? Do I need to mess with ActionScript or create an app or what?

(I'm a programmer but I don't know anything about programming/scripting for OS X)

Update:

I found out SizeUp which happily does exactly that:

a single keystroke, to resize the active window to a pixel specified layout

Now, while I'm happy about that, I'd like to know if there was a program which allowed more than one layout (SizeUp allows only one if I'm not mistaken). It would still have to be single-keystroke and possible to insert pixel precise values.

I use a little app called Divvy to do this. You can set up a global hotkey to bring up Divvy. And then within Divvy you can set up hotkeys that will snap the current window to a specific location and a specific size. It's great for quickly doing 2-up Finder windows for copying things back and forth. Or a Finder window on the left and a CyberDuck window on the right for remote copies. One of those apps that, when it's not on a Mac, will make it feel a little bit broken.


How do I bypass "this connection is not private" warnings in safari? I am doing development work. We have some test equipment that uses a self-generated SSL certificate. When I try to browse to the equipment in our lab, I get an error that "this connection is not private". However, the only 2 options available are "Show details" and "Go Back".

Show details just lets me look at the info on the certificate, which shows all of the expected self-signed details.

There is no way to tell safari to acknowledge the error and continue onwards. At least not obviously. How do I bypass this error and continue onwards? I'm using safari 11, on OS X sierra.

Press "Show Details", then press "Visit this website" on the bottom, and the "Visit Website" from the pop up.
Note: if you're still getting this issue after installing the cert, try to edit in keychain access app: locate the cert that you just installed and double click to open the cert, expand "Trust" and change "When using this certificate" option to "Always Trust" close it and refresh the page again, it should work.


Mighty Mouse clones? Does anybody make a (preferably BT/wireless) Mighty Mouse knockoff? It's my favourite mouse design by a long margin, but Apple doesn't make them any more and the old ones all have bad scroll balls by now :-/

The Apple Mighty Mouse, is still available, it's often used by Schools, Colleges and Universities where they want to tie the mouse down from being pinched.

Apple now called it the Apple Mouse.

You can find it here: http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MB112ZM/C/apple-mouse


How can I control the default save location for PDFs in Microsoft Word for Mac? In Microsoft Word for Mac 2011, I often need to save a copy of a document as a PDF. To do this, I open the print dialog, and then choose "Save as PDF" from the dropdown menu at the bottom:

However, this seems to, by default, open the last location I've saved a PDF in. It would be far preferable for it to default to the location of the .docx file I'm working with. Is there a way to achieve this result?

The save as PDF option in the Print window is controlled by the system, not Word. It will default to the last place you saved a PDF because that's all it knows about. It is completely separate from (and unaware of) the Open and Save dialog boxes. That said, you can save a Word document as a PDF from File > Save As, and that will respect your last working directory related to the docx file.


Creating bootable USB from "Install OS X El Capitan.iso" I have "Install OS X El Capitan.iso" file. I have burned the image to a DVD and successfully installed El Capitan in the past. Now that my DVD drive is broken, I would like to create a bootable USB Drive out of it. Can this be achieved? If yes, I'd like to know how.

All I did was wrote the image to USB Drive with dd command from the terminal and it booted like a charm. The command I used was:

$ diskutil list
$ cd /path/to/Install_OS_X_10.11_El_Capitan.iso
$ sudo dd if=Install_OS_X_10.11_El_Capitan.iso of=/dev/disk2 bs=1m

Replace disk2 with the appropriate drive listed in the output of the first command. For example, disk3 or disk4.


Is it a way to offer subscription as In-App purchase but for service and not for content? I want to sell my app as a service where customers could pay for using it for a period of time. Is it possible? Where could I read more about it?

Apple developer site offers a summary called: In-App Purchase for Developer. It contains an In-App purchase category, where the subscription is time limited:

Non-Renewing Subscriptions
Non-Renewing Subscription allow the sale of services with a limited duration. Non-Renewing Subscriptions must be used for In-App Purchases that offer time-based access to static content and are only available for both iOS and OS X apps.
Examples of Non-Renewing Subscription purchase types are:

One week subscription to voice guidance feature within a navigation
app
Annual subscription to online catalog of archived video or audio

Services
In-App Purchase also gives you a way to sell digital services within your application.
Digital services are usually either Non-Consumable or should be a Non-Renewing Subscription. The differentiation would be whether access to the service is limited to a specific time period.


Subscribing to a Photo Stream in iPhoto 11 I've been struggling to view photos from a subscribed photostream in iPhoto 11.
I'm running OS X 10.7.5 and iPhoto 11 9.4.3 and I've been following this guide:

  To subscribe to a shared photo stream:
  To subscribe to a shared photo stream, all you have to do is accept the invitation. Invitations to a shared photo stream are sent by email and notifications.

  In the Source list, select Photo Stream.

  In the lower portion of Photo Stream view, move the pointer over the shared photo stream’s key photo, and then click the Accept button.

  If you don’t want to subscribe to the shared photo stream, click the Decline button.

  Photo Stream invitation buttons
  Shared photo streams that you subscribe to appear in the lower portion of Photo Stream view. A blue dot next to the shared photo stream’s name indicates that new photos have been added to the photo stream or new comments have been added to one of its photos. In addition, a number appears above the iPhoto icon in the Dock to indicate that new photos and comments have been shared with you.

I don't have a lower portion of the screen.

I've checked with multiple Photo Streams but nothing show's up. How do I regain my lower portion?

Edit: I failed to notice that the poster is on OS X 10.7.5, and Shared Photo Streams require OS X 10.8.2 or later. Therefore it will not work unless the OS is updated. I am leaving the below answer for others to reference.

The lower portion of the screen is the section under "Family and Friends' Photos". It's just lower than the "My Photos" section.

Assuming you're already subscribed to the other person's Photo Stream, you would just double-click on the shared stream to open it and view photos.

If nothing appears here for you, ensure that you have Photo Stream turned on in iCloud settings. Go to Applications > System Preferences and click on iCloud. Check the box for Photo Stream. Click the Options button and check box boxes on this screen.

To turn Photo Stream on, go to iPhoto menu > Preferences and click on the Photo Stream tab. Check all applicable boxes.


Change 'New folder' default name When we create 'new folder' in finder it will automatically named 'untitled folder'.

Is it possible to change that default folder name to current date name,
for example "20151223"?

With the assistance of AppleScript you can accomplish this.

Open AppleScript Editor, create a new document and paste the following stolen lines:

tell application "Finder"
    try
        if exists Finder window 1 then
            set thisPath to (the target of the front window) as alias
        else
            set thisPath to (path to desktop)
        end if
    on error
        return
    end try
end tell
set x to my the_perfect_datestring()
if x is not "-ERROR" then
    set fullPath to thisPath & x as text
    tell application "Finder"
        try
            --activate
            if not (exists fullPath) then
                set y to make new folder at thisPath with properties {name:x}
            end if
            activate
            open y
        end try
    end tell
end if
on the_perfect_datestring()
    try
        set cd to (the current date)
        set the_year to year of (cd) as number
        set the_month to month of (cd) as number
        set the_day to day of (cd) as number
        if the_month < 10 then set the_month to "0" & the_month
        if the_day < 10 then set the_day to "0" & the_day
        return ((the_year & the_month & the_day) as string)
    on error
        return "-ERROR"
    end try
end the_perfect_datestring

Save the file as AppleScript application (e.g. DateFolder.app) somewhere (e.g ~/Applications).

Open a folder and drop the DateFolder.app on the toolbar:

To create a folder in an open folder just hit the app's icon in the toolbar. The new folder will open automatically. Remove line 22 in the script (open y) if you don't want the new folder to be opened. If you add the app to the Dock and open it, it will create a new folder in the frontmost folder or on the desktop (if no folder is open).

Only tested in Mac OS X 10.7.5. Lion!

To add a hyphen and the current time add the following lines (replacing line 32-34 in the script above):

        set the_hour to hours of (cd) as number
        set the_minute to minutes of (cd) as number
        set the_second to seconds of (cd) as number
        if the_month < 10 then set the_month to "0" & the_month
        if the_day < 10 then set the_day to "0" & the_day
        if the_hour < 10 then set the_hour to "0" & the_hour
        if the_minute < 10 then set the_minute to "0" & the_minute
        if the_second < 10 then set the_second to "0" & the_second
        return ((the_year & the_month & the_day & "-" & the_hour & the_minute & the_second) as string)